MORNING MESSAGE
Empathy Alone Won’t Stop Police Killings
In a way few can do, Obama called the country together to reach across the gaping divide that was exposed this week. He summed up the divided understanding many Blacks and whites have about policing and police violence. He suggested reality is more complex than the simple rhetoric we hear in the media and encourage all sides to empathize with the other ... But the president falls short; empathy alone will never end the regular and widespread killing of black people in disproportionate numbers. It’s a racist system, not a few individual racist police that devalues black lives and leaves us dead so easily.
GOP DIVISIONS MAY HIT CONVENTION
GOP convention could feature major floor fights. NYT:“Party officials were working in overdrive behind the scenes to beat back two challenges. One would force a vote that could theoretically open up the convention to any candidate who wants to seek the nomination. A second, organized by supporters of gay rights, would strike the entire Republican platform … scenes that would unfold on national television are ones that the party and the Trump campaign would find most unwelcome: hostile delegates seizing the microphone to voice their displeasure with the party and its presumptive nominee.”
“Progressives Plan ‘Anti-Trump Day Of Action’ For Last Day Of GOP Convention” reports HuffPost:“Four progressive groups plan an ‘anti-Trump day of action’ on July 21, with rallies at the offices of Republican politicians, party headquarters, and corporations sponsoring the GOP national convention … progressive organizations CREDO and People’s Action, the environmental group NextGen Climate, and the youth immigrant rights outfit United We Dream ― say the actions are meant to rally people against him…”
GOP platform a “strange and remarkable document” says The Atlantic’s Molly Ball:“[It] softens the party’s longtime stance in favor of free trade and calls in strong terms for a wall on the southern border … But attempts to soften the party’s harsh language on gay and transgender issues, on which Trump has sometimes taken a more moderate tone, were resoundingly defeated, as were attempts to tone down the document’s calls for military action, toward which Trump has been relatively skeptical. The result was a portrait of a party being pulled in competing and perhaps irreconcilable directions.”
Trump to name VP Friday. Reuters:“Sources familiar with campaign operations cautioned that while [Gov. Mike] Pence and [Newt] Gingrich were finalists, Trump could always have a last-minute change of heart and choose someone else from his short list.”
SUPERDELEGATE FIGHT ON TAP
Progressive coalition proposes end of superdelegates. Politico:“…MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, as well as the center-left NDN think tank, among others … want to keep the total number of delegates the same but convert the existing superdelegates to regular delegates … [Their] letter was also signed by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Cook County Commissioner Chuy Garcia, and former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi … The Rules Committee is set to hold a meeting ahead of the convention on July 23.”
Right-leaning Senate Dems resist push for public option. The Hill:“While a public option has no chance of passing so long as Republicans control the House and Senate, it’s far from certain that the idea could pass a Democratic Congress, given the skepticism or outright opposition among centrists like [Sen. Heidi] Heitkamp.”
House Dems to unveil policy agenda today. NYT:“[Rep. steve] Israel said that the Democratic themes of ‘securing our nation, securing our future, securing our democracy’ went beyond worries about terrorism in an unsettled world to include economic security as well as guaranteeing rights through campaign reforms, voting law improvements and an immigration overhaul.”
TPP ON ICE
Senators dump cold water on TPP. Politico:“‘I don’t see, with both major candidates for the presidency against it, how it’s going to come up. I think that’s a big issue,’ said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), a free trade supporter who wouldn’t say how she’d vote … Sen. Claire McCaskill [said,] ‘It may be that we have to wait and see if the new president … if she can negotiate an even better deal …’ … congressional leaders are barely entertaining even lame duck votes on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Chief vote counters in the Senate say they aren’t sure that TPP could win 50 votes.”
Worldwide economic stagnation. WSJ:“Across 25 of the world’s advanced economies, about two-thirds of the population—more than half a billion people—earn the same as or less than their peers did a decade ago … according to a new study by the Mckinsey Global Institute…”
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