President cleared to resume campaign schedule

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We humans have a tendency to normalize—to say "this is fine," even when it isn't, in order to adapt and keep going. Sometimes, that's a protective feature, such as when we're faced with challenges we cannot control, like natural disasters, for example. In those cases, we accept the reality, take care of the things we can, and do our best to carry on. But at other times, this tendency leads us to accept things we really should not, especially when we have the power to improve our situation. We face such a moment now. We cannot endorse the violations against responsible governance and common decency we've witnessed from the White House. To shrug our shoulders and normalize them would make us complicit. We cannot give into cynicism. Let's not assume "all politicians are corrupt," or "they all lie, so who cares?" Let's instead use the power of our votes and our voices to demand high standards from our leaders and hold them accountable when they miss the mark. —Evan McMullin

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** Basking in the 'protective glow'
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President Trump held his first public event at the White House on Saturday, a little over a week since testing positive for COVID-19. He spoke from the South Lawn balcony for 17 minutes about "law and order" to a few hundred of the 2,000 people invited to the event. Attendees were instructed to wear a mask, though not all adhered to the guidance. They also had to complete a COVID-19 screening, but there was no social distancing. Although the White House insisted it was not a campaign event, which would violate the Hatch Act, it sure looked and sounded like one—there was a sea of red MAGA hats, and the president spent much of his speech bashing his campaign opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. —CBS News ([link removed])
* — Good to go. Yesterday, a day after White House physician Sean Conley issued a memo declaring that Trump could safely return from isolation and resume normal activities, Trump said he is "COVID-free" and has "a protective glow," which is how he referred to immunity from the virus. He also said he had passed "the highest test" and "the highest standards" and feels "fantastically," though the White House never confirmed whether he tested negative for the virus. —Politico ([link removed])
*
* — It's not a cure. At least not yet. While Trump has called the antibody cocktail he received to fend off the coronavirus "a cure," the chief executive of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., which developed the therapeutic, said yesterday that Trump's case is merely "a case of one," and the treatment still needs more testing before its true efficacy is known. —MarketWatch ([link removed])
*
* — Fauci is displeased. White House Coronavirus Task Force member Anthony Fauci is pushing back against the president's latest coronavirus-themed campaign ad, in which the good doctor is featured. "In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials," Fauci said in a statement. —CNN ([link removed])

MORE: White House blocked CDC from requiring masks on public transportation —The New York Times ([link removed])


** Dueling rallies end in gunfire in Denver
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A "Patriot Rally" and "BLM-Antifa Soup Drive" held at the same time in the same city...what could go wrong? Sadly, Colorado found out on Saturday, when a demonstrator was shot dead near the site of the dueling rallies in Denver. ([link removed])
* — It's not exactly what you'd think. The man who was killed was associated with the "Patriot Rally," but the shooter was not a member of the opposing group, as was at first falsely reported. Instead, a private security guard contracted by a local TV station is in custody for the shooting. ([link removed])
*
* — How it all started. The incident occurred after the two men had a verbal altercation, and the demonstrator sprayed mace at the guard. The guard then shot him with a handgun near the courtyard outside the Denver Art Museum. ([link removed])
*
* — Mostly peaceful. Until the shooting, the protests mostly consisted of each group chanting and yelling at one another from across the Civic Center amphitheater. Police fired pepper balls at the crowd when protesters became unruly. Aside from the shooter, no other arrests were made. —The Denver Post ([link removed])

MORE: Portland protesters tear down statues of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt —NBC News ([link removed])


** Bjork-James: White nationalism threatens democracy
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"In studying online white nationalism for the last decade, I have tracked how antidemocratic beliefs have expanded from what has been a marginal racist movement into new arenas. Recently emerging groups such as Boogaloo, Proud Boys, and QAnon movements all focus on challenging the legitimacy of democratic institutions. The Boogaloo movement claims to be nonracist, with some members wearing Hawaiian shirts to march with Black Lives Matter protesters. Yet, their goal of overthrowing the U.S. government tracks exactly with white nationalists." —Los Angeles Times ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Sophie Bjork-James is an assistant professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University and the author of "The Divine Institution: White Evangelicalism's Politics of the Family."

MORE: Inside the plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer —CNN ([link removed])


** Voting lawsuits get mixed bag of results
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A federal judge in the key swing state of Pennsylvania handed the Trump campaign a loss on Saturday, rejecting a suit that sought to bar use of ballot drop boxes across the state. The boxes were first used in this year's primary and were deployed to keep up with demand for mail-in voting. But in June, the Trump campaign sued the commonwealth, arguing the decision by election officials had unconstitutionally taken power away from the legislature and would lead to an inconsistent election system wracked by fraud. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan asserted that the Trump campaign failed to present tangible evidence to support its claims of impending fraud. —WHYY ([link removed])
* — Ohio. A federal judge last Thursday temporarily blocked an order by Ohio's elections chief that limits the number of ballot drop boxes available in next month's election, calling the move "essential to vindicate a vital constitutional right." U.S. District Judge Dan Polster's decision marked the second time in recent weeks that a court has ruled against Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose's directive restricting ballot drop boxes to a single location in each county. LaRose is appealing the ruling. —CBS News ([link removed])
*
* — Texas. A limitation on the number of ballot drop-off locations in Texas will stay in place while a federal appeals court weighs a lower-court ruling that the decision by Gov. Greg Abbott violated voting rights. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled against the Republican governor on Friday in a decision that included an injunction barring the state from restricting each county in the state to a single drop-off location for ballots before Election Day. —The Washington Post ([link removed])
*
* — Wisconsin. Last Thursday, a federal appeals court blocked a decision to extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots by six days in the battleground state, in a win for Republicans who have fought attempts to expand voting across the country. If the ruling stands, absentee ballots will have to be delivered to election clerks by 8pm on Election Day if they are to be counted. Democrats are appealing the ruling. —Associated Press ([link removed])

MORE: Unofficial ballot drop boxes popping up throughout California worry elections officials —The Orange County Register ([link removed])
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** Morell & Kris: Why Trump's debt matters
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"As former national security officials of the government, we have no special insight into President Trump's financial condition, but if the recent news accounts are correct, his financial situation presents a significant counterintelligence risk—because the millions of dollars he owes over the next few years put his very financial solvency at risk. If he can't pay these debts, he may face severe business, political, and social consequences." — ([link removed]) The Washington Post ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Michael Morell has twice served as acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency. David Kris is a former assistant attorney general for national security.

MORE: The swamp that Trump built —The New York Times ([link removed])


** Russian police crack down on anti-Putin march
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Police in the far-eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk used force to break up anti-government demonstrations there on Saturday. Unrest in Khabarovsrk was originally sparked by the arrest of governor Sergei Furgal, with mass rallies reported for weeks last summer. ([link removed])
* — Furgal became Khabarovsk's governor in 2018, when he defeated a candidate from President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. He was detained on murder charges in July and taken to Moscow. Furgal denies the charges, and his supporters say the case is politically motivated. ([link removed])
*
* — Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is still recovering in Germany after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, condemned the Russian authorities' response to the protests. He shared footage online that showed protesters being beaten with batons and dragged into police vans. —BBC ([link removed])


** Goldberg: Support democracy, don't diminish it
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"[T]here is no alternative to democracy yet conceived that does a better job protecting freedom over the long term. ... If you're concerned with protecting future generations from the accumulated power of the few, you should be bolstering faith in democracy, not talking it down. Particularly at a moment when many intellectuals are flirting with reactionary alternatives to it, and the president is saying that any election result he doesn't like is proof that the system is rigged." —The Sentinel ([link removed])

MORE: Packer: Republicans are suddenly afraid of democracy —The Atlantic ([link removed])


** Climb every mountain
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University of Denver grad student Brittney Woodrum is working toward her Master's degree in humanitarian assistance and has a long history of working with nonprofits to help at-risk and marginalized populations. She's also an avid outdoorswoman and hiker. When she realized she had to temporarily shelve her globetrotting plans due to the pandemic, the Kentucky native decided to put the time to good use. ([link removed])
* — She decided to combine her two passions. First, she hooked up with ShelterBox, "a global organization made up of people who believe in shelter as a human right, [and] that shelter from the chaos of disaster and conflict is vital." ([link removed])
*
* — Then, she took on a challenge—climbing Colorado's "Fourteeners," a total of 58 peaks with elevations of 14,000 feet or more, with the goal of raising funding and awareness for families who'd lost everything as a result of the global pandemic. It took her 78 days, but in that time, she raised nearly $85,000 for ShelterBox. ([link removed])
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* — "I feel very privileged with everything I have ever had," Woodrum says. "The best thing I can do with my life is [to] pay some of that forward and help others who by no fault of their own have had the worst day or year of their life." —Good News Network ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Would you like to suggest "An American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . Thank you!

Bill T. usually has some great comments in "What's Your Take?", but I wanted to address his post from Friday, as I work in the travel industry for a destination marketing organization. Restaurants and bars did get payments from the original stimulus bill's Paycheck Protection Program. Airline employees have not been left unscathed. I have friends in the industry who took furloughs, early retirements, or reduced hours and pay. For restaurants and bars, especially for waitstaff and bartenders, the issue primarily has been that they are tipped employees. Without those tips, getting their regular employment wages does not really make up the difference. This can be addressed in the "new" normal by moving waitstaff from being tipped employees to regular employees. Consumers are already paying, just in the form of tips. Get rid of tips, and just include it in the bill already. —Kim D., Georgia
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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Got feedback about THE TOPLINE? Send it to Melissa Amour, Managing Editor, at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

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