Keep an eye on Europe

Is it springtime all over again? As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across Europe for a second round, France and Germany have imposed new pandemic controls almost as strict as the lockdowns of March and April, shutting bars and restaurants and restricting movement, while allowing schools and most businesses to remain open. Great Britain, the country with the largest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, is sticking with a system of local lockdowns for now, despite cases doubling there every nine days. Just like that, Europe has moved back to being an epicenter of the pandemic, facing the prospect of a prolonged economic slump alongside a public health crisis that has so far seen more than 44 million infections and 1.1 million deaths globally. —Reuters

• — "Unrelenting spread." Back in the States, officials in Colorado, Idaho, Massachusetts, and Texas are imposing new restrictions on schools, businesses, and social gatherings, in response to the fall surge in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations that threaten much of the country with a health emergency resembling what struck the Northeast in the spring. —The Washington Post
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• — Culling the herd. While the White House and pandemic adviser Scott Atlas have steered clear from using the phrase "herd immunity," sources say it's merely a game of semantics. The administration's actual policy pursuits have been crafted around the controversial herd immunity approach, which prioritizes protecting the vulnerable while allowing "everyone else to get infected." —The Daily Beast
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• — Help us help Trump. In September, then-Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo privately pitched one branch of the agency's $250 million coronavirus ad campaign with the theme "Helping the President will Help the Country," according to documents released today by the House Oversight Committee. These latest documents further suggest that the administration's coronavirus response is deeply policized. —Axios

SCOTUS sticks to the status quo

The Supreme Court let prior rulings stand in a pair of swing-state election cases yesterday, turning aside Republicans who aimed to block a ballot-receipt extension in North Carolina, and declining to expedite a Republican challenge to the Pennsylvania deadline, while leaving the option of weighing in on that case after Election Day.

• — In North Carolina, the court declined to block an extension of the state's ballot return deadline. Normally, ballots postmarked by Election Day there can be counted if they are received within three days of the election, but a pandemic-related change pushed that to nine days. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito all said they would have blocked the extension. 
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• — In Pennsylvania, the secretary of the commonwealth has issued guidance to local election officials to segregate ballots received after the close of polls but before the Nov. 6 deadline, seemingly preparing for the eventuality that the high court could hear arguments on—and potentially overturn—the ballot extension ordered by the state Supreme Court.
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• — Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court on Tuesday, did not take part in the deliberations. A statement from her office was careful to specify that she did not formally recuse from the cases, but did not participate "because of the need for a prompt resolution...and because she has not had time to fully review the parties' filings." —Politico

Jankowicz: Disinfo will outlast the election

"[D]isinformation has always existed. But today, while working in opposition to democracy, disinformation itself has been normalized. No longer is it a tool reserved for well-resourced campaigns and government apparatuses that can invest in a metaphorical Trojan Horse. Anyone with a social media account and a basic understanding of the online environment—from a troll in St. Petersburg, to 'Q,' whoever or wherever he may be, to an American political operative—can launch such a campaign. It's not the novelty of the tactics that should concern us, but the fact that they have become our democracy-altering norm." —Nina Jankowicz in The Washington Post

Ed. Note: Nina Jankowicz is the disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center and the author of "How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict."

MORE: Lisa Kaplan & Cindy Otis: We're disinformation researchers. Here's all the Election Day chaos we're expecting —Barron's

Preparing for a raucous Election Day

Police officers will be posted at all Election Day polling sites throughout New York City. The Texas National Guard is preparing to deploy troops to cities in the Lone Star State next week. What is going on? Officials around the country are concerned that tensions heightened by the coronavirus pandemic, economic and social instability, and the contentious election could lead to incidents of violence around Election Day on Nov. 3.

• — Five battleground states are at high risk. A new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project and MilitiaWatch warns that Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are particularly at risk for activity by armed groups of civilians in state capitals and surrounding towns, medium-sized cities, and suburban areas.
   
• — The organizations tracked more than 80 armed groups since the start of the summer, most of them right-wing groups, and identified the risks related to each, such as their propensity for violence. The report says the groups use "hybrid tactics," ranging from training for urban and rural combat, to using public relations and propaganda, to acting as "security operations" for events.


• — "Still, these risks do not mean that violence is inevitable," says Sam Jones, an ACLED spokesman. "Voters should not be intimidated. Rather, we hope people are able to use the data to evaluate their own threat environment and organize locally to stay safe, reduce polarization in their communities, and ultimately, mitigate the risk of violence." —Yahoo News

Mancuso: Saving social media from extremism

"[E]cho chambers on social media can affect users in different ways. Unchecked or unregulated social media poses a problem for society both on and offline. Congress and social media companies have been grappling with the question of regulation for a while. Partisan lines have been drawn as Democrats work to focus on extremism, hate, and violence, while their GOP counterparts argue that social media companies are biased and censor conservative voices. The issue of social media regulation is not easily solved, but it must be tackled immediately." —Mary Anna Mancuso on Stand Up Republic

Ed. Note: Mary Anna Mancuso is media manager at Stand Up Republic. She has served in various campaign communications roles for national- and state-level political campaigns.

MORE: Section 230 hearings: Twitter, Facebook, and Google CEOs testify before Congress —The Guardian

Another terror attack shakes France

Just weeks after an educator was beheaded outside of his French school after teaching a lesson on free speech, three people have died in a series of stabbings at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice, France, this morning. Several others are reported to have been injured as well, but it remains unclear how many and to what extent.

• — The suspect was arrested after the attack and taken to a nearby hospital after being injured during the arrest. Authorities say he was believed to have been acting alone.
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• — French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Nice, said the country had been attacked "by Islamic terrorists ... because of our values, our values of freedom and our desires not to yield to terrorism." France's Interior Minister said he has opened a "crisis cell" following the events.
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• — "Our hearts are with the people of France. America stands with our oldest Ally in this fight. These Radical Islamic terrorist attacks must stop immediately. No country, France or otherwise can long put up with it," President Trump tweeted this morning in response to the attack. —ABC News

Ganesh: The biggest threat to democracy is incompetence

"[M]ost of the world has relatively shallow experience with democracy, if it has any at all. It is liable to change systems if an alternative proves itself a surer source of prosperity and order. China's rise from middle-income to rich status would do it, especially if it coincided with a malfunctioning U.S. And so an election that is often framed in terms of fundamental values is better understood as a practical matter. If Joe Biden defeats Trump, there will be much talk of 'healing' and the re-moralization of public life under the benign Democrat. But the most useful service he can perform on behalf of democracy is to govern well, starting with the crusade against COVID-19. Nothing would do more to shore up confidence in the system within and (crucially) outside the U.S." —Janan Ganesh in Financial Times

Ed. Note: Janan Ganesh is the chief U.S. political commentator at Financial Times.

'I want to offer you an opportunity'

The current unrest in Philadelphia, Pa., has left many building fronts boarded up, but the looting has not been exclusive to businesses. An organization that helps young people in the city was targeted by the very group it aims to help, which is why the teens have been offered an invitation to return. 

• — The site was previously an apparel store that was looted over the summer, so the teens who vandalized it probably didn't realize how much the new space, which was set to open in two weeks, has to offer them.
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• — NOMO, which stands for New Options More Opportunities, provides career development and life skills enhancement for young people throughout the city. At NOMO, kids aged 12-18 earn a salary of $100 a week and cultivate skills that will hold far more value than any looted goods. 
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• — "You don't have to bust through it, you can walk right through it. I'll open the door for you," says Executive Director Rickey Duncan, addressing the teens who were captured on surveillance footage throwing a brick through the door. "Come back, come in, and let us show you a better way." —CBS News

One can agree the founders intended political leaders to craft a national economic and industrial policy. The Trump tariff regime is certainly not that. At best the administration claims the tariffs are meant to win unfettered access to foreign markets like China and in the meantime are raising revenue for the treasury. In reality, they are tyrannical taxes placed on American consumers and producers alike at the whim of a questionable professor posing as a trade advisor. These tariffs/taxes are placed without legislation and the debate and deliberations envisioned by the founders to inform and grant legitimacy to the taxes. There is no rhyme nor reason for the tariffs other than preferred industrial cronies, and exemptions are granted based on lobbying and currying favor with the powers that be.

This is not an economic policy nor a national industrial policy. Certainly not one implemented through the thoughtful crafting of elected officials as envisioned by the Constitution. The facts are clear: America can't produce many of the products we import because we no longer possess the productive capacity to do so.

A proper industrial and economic policy would tariff all products (no exclusions) from designated economic competitors at the same rate and in an amount to lower the low wage-based comparative advantage of that competitor. It would also reward producers for buying American-made capital equipment used here in America. Investment tax credits for capital equipment made in America will increase productive capacity and accelerate the multiplier effect and velocity of exchange. All this can happen while keeping a lid on inflation by pushing the supply curve down and to the right. Tariffs on the other hand create a diminution in the multiplier effect, slow velocity, and increase prices. In addition they motivate retaliation and hence damage our exporters. The results are clear in the data: manufacturing started shrinking in America in 2018, and that trend continued in 2019, before the pandemic hit.

We can look at one industry to prove out the benefits of investment tax credits. The electric car industry is booming here in the U.S. Tesla is growing at a rapid rate, and its cars are selling. Why? Buyers receive a tax credit. Why don't buyers of American-made capital equipment used here in the U.S. receive the same type and amount of credit? American-made CNC machines, stamping machines, 3D printers, laser printers, lathes, drills, conveyor belts, sewing machines, hammers, trucks, train cars, buses, coffee makers, radiology equipment, etc., should all have the same tax credit for those who purchase them and use them here in the U.S.

Think about it, why couldn't we produce the PPE we needed here in the U.S. when needed? Why don't we produce medicine here in the U.S.? Name the product lost to offshore low-wage competitors? We no longer have the productive capacity to produce it here in the U.S. Think about the multiplier effect if American manufacturers are making capital equipment for American manufacturers and businesses.

In addition to investment tax credits for American-made capital equipment used in America, we need investment tax credits for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) training and education programs for Americans. We not only need to produce here, we need to create and program here. American companies should be given tax credits for setting up STEM training programs for the current work force and also partnering with inner-city schools and colleges for setting up STEM education programs for students. We do not need to import software engineers, programmers, mathematicians, etc, if we train them here in America. There is nothing that says inner-city children cannot grow up to be the next generation of American software and engineering professionals.

Arbitrary and capricious tariffs are not policy, won't solve our productive capacity deficit, and slow the overall economy. Investment tax credits for American-made CAP EX and STEM training and education is an American economic and industrial policy engineered through legislative tax policy and will move the needle positively on all economic and political fronts immediately. —Ken G., Colorado

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.