Philadelphia freedom

And Pittsburgh...and Scranton...and Erie...and Harrisburg. The U.S. Supreme Court late yesterday refused to disturb a ruling by Pennsylvania's highest court that extended the battleground state’s deadline for accepting mail-in ballots. It’s a big win for voters in the Keystone State and for Democrats, who sought to give voters more time to navigate postal delays and avoid in-person voting. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's three liberal members to leave intact a previous decision to extend by three days the time for receipt of absentee ballots and to allow those with illegible postmarks to be counted if received by the deadline. —The Wall Street Journal

• — Alabama. Alabama broke its record for absentee ballots cast during an election three weeks before Election Day. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said that as of last Tuesday, 91,786 absentee ballots had been cast ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The previous record was 89,000 ballots cast over the entire course of the 2012 election cycle. —The Hill
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• — California. An unknown person dropped a flaming piece of newspaper into a ballot drop box outside a Los Angeles-area public library around 8 p.m. on Sunday, officials said. Los Angeles Co. firefighters cut open the box and put the flames out, but dozens of cast ballots had already been damaged, either by the fire or the attempts to put it out. The city’s mayor estimated as many as 100 ballots had been affected by the vandalism. —The Washington Post
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• — Florida. The Sunshine State shattered its turnout record for its first day of early voting yesterday. Turnout in the critical swing state was up nearly 17% compared to four years ago, according to the Florida Department of State. Republicans had a slight edge over Democrats, with 43% to 42% of early voters representing each party, respectively. —The Hill

BG Ed Board: The DOJ must defend the election

"As an open letter in support of current Justice Department attorneys and agents signed by a nonpartisan coalition of former prosecutors and judges, law professors, and practicing attorneys states, the American people need DOJ officials to 'stand by their oaths and the Department of Justice's duty to do justice for the public by not participating in partisan misuse of the DOJ.' Now more than ever, Justice Department officials must do all they can to protect democracy from those who threaten it, even—and perhaps especially—the attorney general of the United States." —The Boston Globe

Russians charged in cyberattacks

The U.S. unsealed criminal charges against six Russian intelligence officers yesterday in connection with some of the world’s most damaging cyberattacks, including disruption of Ukraine's power grid and the release of a mock ransomware virus that infected computers globally and caused billions of dollars in damage. The alleged hackers are members of the same military intelligence agency—the GRU—previously charged in connection with efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. One of those charged, Anatoliy Kovalev, was also indicted as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. —The Washington Post

• — Now that's low. Before the 2020 Olympics were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Russian military intelligence services were planning a cyberattack on the Japanese-hosted games in Tokyo this summer. The UK National Cyber Security Centre revealed Moscow's plan to disrupt the world's premier sporting event yesterday, while disclosing a joint operation with U.S. intelligence agencies. —The Guardian
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• — In other Russia news... U.S. intelligence experts are perplexed by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe's seemingly contradictory comments about the New York Post story regarding a laptop that purportedly belongs to former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter. He indicated yesterday that the FBI is working to determine whether the story is the fruit of a Russian disinformation campaign, but that didn't stop the DNI from denouncing the notion in an interview. "The intelligence community doesn't believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that," Ratcliffe said. Hmm. —Defense One
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• — When you've lost Fox News... Fox News was first approached by Rudy Giuliani to report on the tranche of files alleged to have come from Hunter Biden's unclaimed laptop, but the news division chose not to run the story unless or until the sourcing and veracity of the emails could be properly vetted. Giuliani ultimately brought the story to the New York Post, which shares the same owner, Rupert Murdoch. The tabloid has been exhaustively covering the contents of the laptop ever since. —Mediaite

A bad week for big tech

The Justice Department and 11 states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google yesterday, accusing the company of using anti-competitive tactics to illegally monopolize the online search and search advertising markets. Google maintains that its might in search is a natural result of developing a solid product and has denied engaging in anti-competitive tactics. Don't expect a ruling anytime soon. Antitrust lawsuits move slowly—the last time the DOJ sued a tech giant was when it went after Microsoft in 1997. That process took five years. —Axios

• — That's a lot of election disinfo. A total of 2.2 million ads on Facebook and Instagram have been rejected and 120,000 posts withdrawn for attempting to "obstruct voting" in the upcoming presidential election, according to Facebook's Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications Nick Clegg. In addition, warnings were posted on 150 million examples of false information posted online. —The Guardian
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• — TikTok vs. QAnon. TikTok is toughening its stance against the QAnon conspiracy theory, expanding its ban to all content or accounts that promote videos advancing ideas from the far-right online movement. The action hardens the video-sharing app's previous enforcement against QAnon that targeted specific hashtags on the app, which QAnon supporters have used to spread unfounded theories. —NPR
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• — Senate delays subpoena vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday postponed its plans to vote on subpoenas to compel the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook to testify on allegations of anti-conservative bias after some panel Republicans expressed reservation about the maneuver. The vote will likely take place on Thursday instead, along with the panel's vote regarding Supreme Court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett. —Politico

Cirincione: Avoiding presidential conflicts of interest

"Documenting the extent of the problem will be necessary for crafting prophylactic solutions for future presidents. These could include requirements that future candidates disclose their tax returns; adopting strict conflict-of-interest and anti-corruption measures for every senior official in the next and all future administrations; enforcing the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution to prevent a future president from profiting from his office; and implementing strict revolving door regulations." —Defense One

Ed. Note: Joe Cirincione is a Distinguished Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, D.C.

MORE: Trump will have $900 million of loans coming due in his second term if he's re-elected —Forbes

Global roundup

A major Taliban assault last week on the Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan, sparked days of intense fighting and prompted the U.S. to launch air attacks in support of government forces. Tens of thousands of people have fled the region to escape the violence. The Taliban is, of course, accusing the U.S. military of violating the February peace accord, despite international condemnation for the assault. Many Afghans are questioning why their government is holding peace talks with the Taliban in the first place, especially as the insurgents are hardening their negotiating position after President Trump said he wanted to withdraw all U.S. troops by year's end. —The Washington Post

• — Bolivia. Bolivia appears to be shifting sharply away from the conservative policies of the U.S.-backed interim government that took power last year after leftist President Evo Morales resigned, with the self-exiled leader’s party claiming victory in a weekend presidential election. Morales fled Bolivia last year after his attempt to win a fourth term ended in a contested election and deadly protests. Morales called it a coup, while others accused his government of trying to rig the vote. —NBC News
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• — China. Preparing for a possible invasion of Taiwan, Beijing has stepped up the militarization of its southeast coast, upgrading its missile bases and deploying its most advanced hypersonic missile to the area. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that it has vowed to take back, by force if necessary. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president of Taiwan in 2016 and refused to accept the One China principle. —South China Morning Post
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• — Guinea. Opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo has declared himself the winner of Guinea’s first round of the Oct. 18 presidential election, but his claim was quickly disputed by the electoral commission. The government said results are still being tallied. Diallo is the main challenger to incumbent President Alpha Conde, who is seeking a third mandate after a constitutional change in March that sparked deadly protests. —France 24

McRaven: Why I voted for Joe Biden

"This week I went to the polls in Texas. Truth be told, I am a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, small-government, strong-defense, and a national-anthem-standing conservative. But, I also believe that black lives matter, that the Dreamers deserve a path to citizenship, that diversity and inclusion are essential to our national success, that education is the great equalizer, that climate change is real, and that the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. Most important, I believe that America must lead in the world with courage, conviction, and a sense of honor and humility. If we remain indifferent to our role in the world, if we retreat from our obligation to our citizens and our allies, and if we fail to choose the right leader, then we will pay the highest price for our neglect and shortsightedness." —The Wall Street Journal

Ed. Note: William McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, 2011-14.

MORE: Steele: I'm a Republican voting for Joe Biden over Trump. Because I'm an American first —NBC News

No more pines in line

After the recent devastating fires in California, the Bureau of Land Management is rethinking how to restore the millions of acres of charred forest land. So it's teamed up with the nonprofit American Forests to re-engineer the typical Californian forest to be more fire-resistant, which means thinking beyond planting pine trees like rows of cabbages.

• — The "Pines in Line" theory was that sunlight would be especially limited on the forest floor, preventing a flood of grass, shrubs, and weeds from taking over the ground in between the trees. But it also created the perfect forest for fires, allowing the fires just enough fuel to reach the canopies, and places to spread in every direction.
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• — American Forests replant forests in a way that's much more like how many forests existed before the arrival of Europeans—namely clumps of different kinds of trees, not just pines, spaced far enough apart to prevent wildfires from spreading. This also protects from drought, as the small clumps have a greater monopoly on the supply of water.
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• — "It's very common to look at what was there before the fire and just say, let's replace that one for one—try and get the exact same seed, exact same trees, and replant them," Austin Rempel, senior manager of forest restoration at American Forests. "But that doesn't make sense when looking out 30, especially 60 years from now." Thinking ahead...what a concept. —Good News Network

I find it frustrating that many Republicans sincerely think that Trump is the sole politician fighting for children when his rhetoric actually caused an increase in bullying and hate crimes, his immigration policies split children from their parents, his pre-COVID anti-vaccine comments certainly didn't help with the record number of measles cases in 2019, and Trump has at least five accusers of him walking in on underage teen girls while they were changing at his beauty contests.

I’m also frustrated by Republicans stating that a vote for Trump is a vote to save the Constitution, yet Trump's executive orders have been found unconstitutional more than other presidents'; he has conflicts of interest with foreign countries and governments violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution; and his claims of "absolute immunity" from any judicial branch inquiry or investigation, "complete authority" over states, and open defiance of the legislative branch are all assaults on the balance of powers that the Founders tried so hard to establish (since such anti-accountability and power concentration is for despots, not presidents of a government by the people, for the people.)

And it is frustrating that he supports white supremacists, both in the past (Confederates and their statues) and today, with the refusal to condemn violent groups. It seems like the election today is a choice between "Stand back and stand by" or "E pluribus unum." Thank you, Stand Up Republic and THE TOPLINE producers, for standing for the latter! —Michael L., Arizona

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.