States rush to get shots in arms as virus variants make headway

[link removed]
Catching a rerun of the TV series "Last Man Standing" over the weekend, I was only partially paying attention until a line delivered by Tim Allen, as series lead Mike Baxter, hit like a ton of bricks: "Capitalism only works in a functioning democracy." Ah-ha! It's rare to find such pearls of wisdom in a sitcom, but alas, here we are. I agree. I might even make the case that a capitalist economic order tempered by a high-functioning democratic system is precisely what led to much of our country's greatness. So how did so many of today's Republicans, the supposed last defenders of capitalism, miss that message? Why are some seeking to break down our democracy—to make it less accessible, less broad-minded, less...American? Some even deny we're a democracy at all. That's not just a threat to democracy; it's ultimately a threat to capitalism too. Even sitcom characters can see that. —Melissa Amour, Managing Editor

NEW TO THE TOPLINE? SUBSCRIBE NOW ([link removed])
Love THE TOPLINE? Help us spread the word and earn TOPLINE rewards here ([link removed]) .
[link removed] Share ([link removed])
[link removed]'s%20Daily%20Digest: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Fstanduprepublic.com%2Fthetopline032221 Tweet ([link removed]'s%20Daily%20Digest: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Fstanduprepublic.com%2Fthetopline032221)
[link removed] Forward ([link removed])


** A fourth vaccine?
------------------------------------------------------------

There may soon be another weapon against COVID-19 in the vaccine toolkit. AstraZeneca reported today that among all adults in its U.S. study, the vaccine was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19—including in older people—and no vaccinated volunteers were hospitalized or developed severe disease. The development moves the vaccine a step closer to authorization in the U.S., which is good news for Americans and also for AstraZeneca. The company hopes the new findings help rebuild public confidence after safety concerns emerged in Europe, where the vaccine is already in use, regarding an increased blood clot risk. —Associated Press ([link removed])
* — From New Jersey to Missouri. Despite all the good news lately—vaccines being distributed, restrictions being lifted, the promise of a "normal" summer ahead—cases and hospitalizations are ticking up again in some places. In other states, progress from earlier this year has flattened out, not budging from levels that would have once alarmed the public. —STAT ([link removed])
*
* — Keep an eye on Europe. Public health experts are nervously watching European nations, where a surge in cases is once again straining healthcare systems. The increase appears to be driven by spread among younger people, and by the emergence of the B.1.1.7 variant, which studies show is substantially more infectious, even among children. The same variant has been widely detected in the U.S. —The Hill ([link removed])
*
* — Speaking of young people... Officials in Miami Beach have decided to extend an emergency curfew for up to three weeks, following a skirmish on Saturday night between Spring Break revelers who ignored social-distancing and mask guidelines and police officers who used pepper balls to disperse a large crowd. The restrictions were a stunning concession to the city's inability to control unwieldy crowds that the state of Florida aggressively courted. —The New York Times ([link removed])

MORE: Reference to COVID-19 as 'Chinese virus' prompted increase in anti-Asian hashtags: study —The Hill ([link removed])


** 'Everything is being looked at'
------------------------------------------------------------

The federal prosecutor who had been overseeing the Justice Department's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol says evidence supports sedition charges against some of the rioters—and that doesn't bode well for Donald Trump. Michael Sherwin said yesterday that it's "unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to D.C." on Jan. 6, noting that many people said they came to D.C. because Trump told them to take back the House. "Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?" said Sherwin. "Maybe, the president is culpable for those actions." —NBC News ([link removed])

MORE: Top Senate Republican says Americans don't need 'alternative versions' of Jan. 6 Capitol attack —CNN ([link removed])


** Griffin: Voter suppression plan could backfire on GOP
------------------------------------------------------------

"The reality is that election laws are complicated and incentivize voter behavior in complex ways that are context-dependent. This makes it very difficult to predict precisely who would benefit from a given overhaul—if anyone at all. While the eventual fate of these Republican bills is uncertain, the evidence is fairly clear: There is no substantive justification for many of these efforts, and even the basic partisan logic behind them is tenuous." —Robert Griffin in ([link removed]) The Washington Post ([link removed])

Robert Griffin is a political scientist and research director of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group.

MORE: Trump endorses Jody Hice, a congressman, to run against Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger —The New York Times ([link removed])


** 'That's not who we are'
------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday, Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas defended the Biden Administration's decision not to expel minors arriving alone to the U.S. amid a surge of migration at the southern border. Mayorkas said, "The border is closed," and added that the U.S. is expelling families and adults, but will not turn away "young, vulnerable children." He said the administration is working instead to develop policies to address problems in Mexico and Central American countries where asylum-seekers originate. Republicans have accused President Biden of encouraging the spike in migration by abandoning the previous administration's approach. —Politico ([link removed])

MORE: Biden Administration considers flying migrants to states near the Canadian border for processing —The Washington Post ([link removed])
[link removed]'s%20amazing!%20Check%20it%20out: [link removed] EARN TOPLINE REWARDS ON TWITTER ([link removed]'s%20amazing!%20Check%20it%20out: [link removed])


** Cooper: Reaching the world in the disinfo age
------------------------------------------------------------

"Disinformation is not a new problem; it is a proliferating one. U.S. attempts to conduct more effective information operations, using its own propaganda to counter adversary propaganda, will just lead to a more opaque media landscape and a further decline in trust of the words of the U.S. government. A focused and empowered mission to understand the spread of information and improve the view of the United States abroad will make American and foreign publics more resilient in the face of disinformation campaigns that are to come." —Evan Cooper on ([link removed]) Inkstick ([link removed])

Evan Cooper is associate director of the New American Engagement Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

MORE: Anne Applebaum: The science of making Americans hurt their own country —The Atlantic ([link removed])


** Focus on global democracy
------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe the tide is turning in Europe? In the elections in the Netherlands last week, an anti-populist, pro-Europe party called Volt, made up of students and young professionals, snatched three seats in the Dutch Parliament—the party's first-ever national electoral success. Over the last two decades, populists and far-right parties have played the insurgent role in Dutch politics, promoting anti-immigrant, anti-establishment, and anti-European policies. The emergence of Volt suggests perhaps that trend is changing. —The New York Times ([link removed])
* — Brazil. Police in Brazil are starting to employ a dictatorship-era national security law against critics of President Jair Bolsonaro. On Friday, demonstrators challenged police in the capital by parading with anti-Bolsonaro signs a day after four protesters were detained. The protesters had called the president "genocidal" for his handling of the pandemic and displayed a cartoon depicting him next to a Nazi swastika. —ABC News ([link removed])
*
* — Israel. Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem over the weekend against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just three days before new parliamentary elections are set to decide his political survival. Netanyahu has been indicted for corruption and criticized for Israel's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. —Euronews ([link removed])
*
* — Turkey. Twitter has agreed to comply with Turkey's internet laws by establishing a legal entity, with an official company representative, in the country. The Turkish government says the legislation is necessary to protect the rights of social media users and fight criminal activity. Human rights organizations argue that the laws amount to censorship, threatening access to information in a country that has a history of restricting free speech. —The Verge ([link removed])

MORE: An illiberal bill to suppress protest in Britain —The Economist ([link removed])


** Dolan: The future is the center
------------------------------------------------------------

"[T]he place we most need a third party is at the neglected center of American politics. That is where the voters are. That is where the ideas are. The moderate wings of the existing Democratic and Republican parties both overlap that center, but neither party is really equipped, either philosophically or organizationally, to actually occupy the territory." —Edwin Dolan at the ([link removed]) Niskanen Center ([link removed])

Edwin Dolan holds a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University and has taught at universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is the co-founder of the American Institute of Business and Economics.

After years of listening to Trump and his sycophants, it baffles me that people in the media and Democrats still wonder why they say what they say and do what they do with regards to Russia. As though there's some secret strategy where they are really working on behalf of this country. Stop! The answer is in front of your face. That is who they are, and they show us every day. They are traitors who are selling out this country, and are just using the MAGA hatters as tools. Just as Trump and folks around him are useful idiots (a term used by the KGB in the Soviet Union days) for Putin, so are the MAGA folks for Trump. They are all being played, and Putin is the master puppeteer.

The Russo-publican Party is now filled with overt traitors to this country. They do not want people to be educated to their ways, so they blatantly lie and misinform for their own power and wealth. They are fascists. Could it be any more simple? And listen to Moscow Mitch warn the country about what will happen to the Senate if the filibuster is nixed. Really? What a joke. Everything he described is what he has done already for years. Like a typical bully who is also a coward, and has no ideas of his own, he issues a threat for people to back down.

This is not the time to back down but rather to stand up, in real time. As a veteran and an Independent, I implore folks in the media to put mics in faces while demanding answers/explanations, and for Democrats in Congress, and now the White House, to grow a spine. Stop letting the fascists lecture you while they kick sand in your face. Thinking these people will work with you if only you are nice to them hasn't worked out so well. The threat during WWII that we'd all be speaking German if Hitler and Nazism were not stopped now becomes that we'll all be speaking Russian if the likes of Trump and Trumpism are not stopped. —Bill T., Arizona

To Kimberly from Georgia on March 18: Absolutely, and two thumbs up to you. —J.B., Florida
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT TODAY'S STORIES ([link removed])


** 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.
------------------------------------------------------------
Got feedback about THE TOPLINE? Send it to Melissa Amour, Managing Editor, at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
CARE ABOUT DEMOCRACY? SHARE SOME DEMOCRACY.
If you love THE TOPLINE, share it with your friends and reap the rewards—from a shoutout in an issue of TL, to exclusive swag, to a call with Evan and Mindy.
[link removed]
Your Dashboard has everything you need to easily share THE TOPLINE
and track your progress.
VISIT YOUR DASHBOARD NOW TO GET STARTED ([link removed])

============================================================
** ([link removed])
The Topline is a project of the Stand Up Republic Foundation.

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.

700 Pennsylvania Ave SE · Washington, DC 20003-2493 · USA