Posted: 22 Aug 2020 09:01 AM PDT

Thumbs up: Nomination signals a turning point in history

By Toni Van Pelt

The nomination of Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for vice president is more than a political landmark. As the first Black and Asian woman to be nominated by a major party as a national candidate, she has made history. But she has also affirmed something that women have long known as a source of strength and inspiration. We are not alone. We are never alone.

Harris has often spoken of the late Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress who, in 1972, became the first Black major-party candidate to run for president.

"I stand, as so many of us do, on her shoulders," Harris told The Grio. "Because she understood that you just march to that podium, and you claim that podium as yours, you don't ask anybody permission.

"And she was supported in that venture, and that's really important to know and to hold on to. When each of us takes that step that requires courage, there will be a community there to support us, to receive us, and to applaud us when we make that step.

"I try to remind people, don't let anyone convince you that you are alone. You come with people, and there is a community of people that will always be in that room with you, even if you are the only one like you in that room at that moment. So never feel small or alone in a way that would make you feel marginalized — never."

Those of us who have been working for women's rights as long as Harris — or Chisholm, who was one of the original founders of the National Organization for Women and who received NOW's first presidential endorsement — have never wavered from our commitment to lift each other up, push our cause forward and stand together against the most powerful and entrenched opposition.

We know that we are never alone — and we've proved it time and again.

The day after Donald Trump was inaugurated, we made history with a massive Women's March on Washington, and scores of other demonstrations around the country and around the world. In 2018, the biggest turnout of women voters ever elected the most feminist Congress in history, and we are poised to shatter that record this November.

Women are excited about Harris not just because she represents a turning point in history but because of what she stands for and what she'll accomplish. She has long advocated for pay transparency in our workplaces so more women have the ability to negotiate their salaries and end pay discrimination, and she is a co-sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which requires employers to show that pay differences are not due to gender.

Harris has been a fierce advocate of women's access to reproductive health care, and she has made addressing the Black maternal health crisis a personal priority.

During her presidential campaign, she announced a plan to close the nationwide rape kit backlog, and she has pledged to close the so-called "boyfriend loophole" that allows dating partners convicted of domestic violence to buy guns.

And of course, Harris has been one of the sharpest, toughest and most relentless questioners of President Trump's appointees, henchmen and enablers like Brett Kavanaugh and William Barr. She will tear the bark off Trump and Mike Pence.

Harris will energize and motivate the electorate — and not just women. Her energy, optimism and vision stand in contrast to her opponents' cynical politics of division and fear.

This campaign is, as has been often said, about the soul of America — but it's also about its heart. The humanity, compassion and caring that Harris exhibits must prevail against the heartlessness of Trump and the robotic conformity of Pence. That's why women are once again "fired up and ready to go" to cast their votes in November.

If there's one thing that women know with certainty, it is that we are all standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. Harris has acknowledged the women who've influenced and inspired her, and now, future generations will be standing on her shoulders as they fulfill their own dreams and destiny.

And our country will be all the better for.

Toni Van Pelt is the president of the National Organization for Women. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.

Tribune Content Agency

Thumbs down: A historic ticket won't win over women, minorities

By Patrice Onwuka

Kamala Harris is the first Black woman and South Asian American named to a presidential ticket. We can recognize and applaud this historic candidacy. But making history alone will not boost enthusiasm for a lackluster Democratic ticket, especially among Blacks. We cannot gloss over the damage that her policy proposals would do to the advancement of minorities and women in America.

Joe Biden followed through on his promise to name a woman to the Democratic ticket and caved to pressure that she be Black. The Democratic Party's hyperfocus on race and gender reeks of tokenism, and minorities and women are not ignorant of this. Even worse, it undermines their accomplishments.

Sen. Harris is an accomplished woman and a modern example of the American dream. The daughter of immigrant parents, she was raised by a single mother but beat many odds. She names several firsts in her career including the first Black and female attorney general of California. She proves that ambition and hard work can help anyone achieve his or her dreams and break down barriers along the way.

However, opportunities for women and minorities to achieve their American dreams would all but disappear if her policy solutions were enacted nationally.

Harris supported her home state's job-killing law that forces most independent contractors to become employees of the companies that contract them despite whether or not companies can afford to do so (or stop working altogether). The law (AB 5) was intended to force Uber and Lyft to reclassify their drivers as employees but has made thousands of other jobs disappear overnight. From translators to event planners, women and men lost contracts and vital income since the start of 2020, even before the pandemic.

Freelance work is more desirable to many workers than traditional 9-5 jobs whether out of preference or necessity for caregiving duties and health reasons. Two million Californians join 57 million American workers (a third of the workforce) as freelancers. Nearly half of independent contractors are women.

Harris supports eliminating these opportunities for Californians and setting AB 5 as the national standard. She co-sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which does just that. This is a recipe for increased unemployment for decades to come.

Women who prefer a 9-5 job might also find employment more difficult under a Biden-Harris presidency due to their well-intentioned efforts to close the gender pay gap.

The 20-cent pay gap is a misleading metric used to demonstrate gender discrimination. It is based on averages in pay between men and women, but when controlling for job-related choices including occupation, industry, experience, education and hours, the gap shrinks to a few cents.

Legislative efforts to close the gender pay gap have failed for this reason, but Harris and Biden are still advocating for greater control by Washington. They propose that the federal government collect more demographic and pay data from companies and punish those who have pay disparities. Harris would go even further. She assumes that corporations are guilty of pay discrimination and proposes that they certify they have no gender pay gaps or be fined 1% of their profits for every 1% difference in pay.

The result would be less flexibility and fewer jobs for women. Employers would increasingly decline to negotiate nonfinancial forms of compensation such as paid time off with female workers because that could distort salary figures. These efforts would also encourage litigation. As a result, women might be considered less desirable to hire because of increased legal exposure or fear of failing to obtain government certification.

We want more opportunities for women, not less. Equity in the workplace can be achieved through increased opportunity, better education, and greater knowledge of the tradeoffs between different career choices and individual pay.

Finally, women, and minority women, in particular, view entrepreneurship as a path to financial independence. Women started more than 1,800 businesses each day from 2017-2019. Entrepreneurship rates among minority women experienced triple-digit growth during the past few years. Instead of encouraging this entrepreneurial spirit by reducing taxes or working with states to scale back unnecessary work regulations such as occupational licenses, Harris would raise taxes, increase regulations through economy-damaging policies like the Green New Deal, and erode their livelihoods through so-called pro-worker policies.

Minorities and women want better than for their livelihoods and aspirations to be jeopardized by misguided Washington-centric policies. Just as Sen. Harris has achieved her American dream, they want a chance to pursue their own.

Patrice Onwuka is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women's Forum. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.

Tribune Content Agency

Republicans Rush to Finalize Convention (‘Apprentice’ Producers Are Helping) - The New York Times

Posted: 22 Aug 2020 06:30 PM PDT

Democrats set a high bar last week for the pandemic-era political convention, dispensing with cheering crowds in favor of a virtual pageant that encompassed passionate speeches, a charming cross-country roll call vote, vignettes from an Oscar-winning filmmaker and a low-fi fireworks display above a parking lot. A few hiccups aside, even jaded network executives conceded the party mostly pulled it off.

Now it's the Republicans' turn in the prime-time spotlight — and the party led by a former reality TV star is rushing to measure up.

After scrapping plans for a full-bore, in-person spectacle in Charlotte, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla., because of the coronavirus crisis, Republicans are working to finalize a week's worth of events that can match the production put on for the Democratic nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr., while meeting the exacting — and frequently shifting — standards of President Trump.

Two producers of "The Apprentice," where Mr. Trump rose to TV stardom, are involved in the planning. Sadoux Kim, a longtime deputy to the "Apprentice" creator Mark Burnett, is a lead consultant on the production. Mr. Kim once served as a Miss Universe judge when Mr. Trump owned the pageant. Chuck LaBella, a former NBC entertainment executive who helped produce "The Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump," is also on the payroll.

Party officials say their convention — during which Mr. Trump is expected to speak every night in the 10 p.m. hour — will ultimately surpass the Democrats' telethon-like show, which the president and his allies have repeatedly called "dark," depressing and thin on policy proposals. "We're going to have more of it live than what they did," Mr. Trump told Fox News on Thursday. "I think it's pretty boring when you do tapes."

Exactly what that looks like remains an open question.

As Monday's kickoff looms, Republican officials were still deciding what segments to air live and what would be taped in advance. Typically, convention broadcasts require weeks of highly technical preparation. By the weekend, producers at the major TV networks had only a foggy idea of what to expect, although Republicans provided a more detailed rundown on Saturday evening. Still, broadcasters will head into the week with some unknowns.

"We're treating this as breaking news," Steve Scully, the political editor at C-SPAN, said in an interview. "Once we know who's speaking where and when, we'll send cameras."

Republicans involved in the planning admit that anxiety began to set in two weeks ago. But on Saturday, they said that they were now confident that a fully realized lineup was in place — and that in contrast to the Democrats' virtual event, voters could expect something more akin to a regular convention, with a focus on live onstage moments featuring Mr. Trump, whom aides described as the week's "talent in chief."

Typically, the nominee makes a mundane appearance early in the convention — waving or watching from the wings — before a major speech at the end. Mr. Trump has dismissed that model and now plans to directly address the nation in prime-time on each of the convention's four nights. The president wants the opportunity to rebut charges made against him throughout the Democratic program, aides said, particularly on his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

A stage has been built at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, a neo-Classical event space where most of the speakers will address a live audience. Current regulations in Washington prohibit gatherings of more than 50 people; Republican aides say they have hired "Covid experts" to determine how many onlookers can enter the auditorium and what audience participation could look like.

The list of speakers is heavy on the president's relatives and White House staff members, including Dan Scavino, Mr. Trump's former caddy who is now deputy chief of staff for communications, and Larry Kudlow, the national economic adviser. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, will also speak, according to a person involved in the planning.

The lineup also includes Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Missouri couple that toted weapons at Black protesters and have since become right-wing media stars, and Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky teenager who sued news outlets over coverage of his encounter last year with a Native American protester in Washington.

Each night's events are expected to begin at 8:30 p.m., a half-hour earlier than the Democrats' program, although the major broadcast networks do not start covering until 10 p.m.

A "Democrats For Trump" segment is planned, though the participants remain a closely guarded secret. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole Black Republican in the Senate, will speak, along with two future potential presidential candidates: Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations.

"The Democratic convention was a Hollywood-produced, Old Guard-laden convention, if you ask me," Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump's counselor, told reporters at the White House on Friday, adding that viewers "are going to see and hear from many Americans whose lives have been monumentally impacted by this administration's policies."

"We definitely want to improve on the dour and sour mood of the D.N.C.," added Ms. Conway, who is also scheduled to speak at the convention.

Shirlene Ostrov, the Republican state party chairman from Hawaii, said she expected the convention "will be much more positive" than the Democrats' offering.

"If the Democrats could articulate any reason to vote their way without mentioning the word 'Trump,' you can't hear it," she said in an interview on Saturday in Charlotte.

The president is set to accept his party's nomination on Thursday from the White House, with fireworks above the South Lawn. The first lady, Melania Trump, will speak on Tuesday from the Rose Garden, and Vice President Mike Pence will appear on Wednesday from Fort McHenry in Maryland, the site of a battle in the War of 1812 that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner."

All of the sites are controlled by the federal government, which some ethics experts say would violate the Hatch Act, a Depression-era law that bans the use of public spaces for political activities. Trump aides said that the White House venues being used are considered part of the residence, and therefore are authorized for political use. Some of Mr. Trump's aides privately scoff at the Hatch Act and say they take pride in violating its regulations.

The president's sensitivity to TV production values has also raised pressure on Republican aides to pull off a glitch-free affair.

The Democrats' relatively smooth experience belied the complexity of mounting a virtual event, from juggling dozens of remote video feeds to avoiding embarrassments like losing picture or sound. To ensure professionalism, the Democrats relied on Ricky Kirshner, the producer of the Super Bowl halftime show and the Tony Awards.

The Republicans' celebration is being coordinated by longtime Trump loyalists including Ms. Conway; Justin Clark, the deputy campaign manager; Hope Hicks, a senior White House adviser; and Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law. Tony Sayegh, a former Treasury Department official who was brought on as a consultant to help handle the convention, is overseeing plans with Max Miller, a former White House official who took charge of campaign events after Mr. Trump's sparsely-attended rally in Tulsa, Okla., and who has little experience in television production.

The team is consulting with Mr. Kim, who served as Mr. Burnett's head of business development for about a decade, earning production credits on "The Celebrity Apprentice" and "The Voice."

Mr. Kim, whose production firm has received $54,274 in payments from the Republican Party's convention committee, has a relatively low profile in the TV industry. Several producers who worked on "The Apprentice" said last week they had never heard of him. In 2010, he served as a judge for the Miss Universe pageant, with an official bio saying he "negotiates, packages and manages deals with brands and agencies" for Mr. Burnett's programs.

Chuck LaBella, the other consultant, has a long relationship with Mr. Trump dating to his time as a talent wrangler on "The Apprentice"; he also worked on pageants for Miss Universe and Miss USA. He was linked to Mr. Trump's inner circle after Michael D. Cohen, the president's former lawyer, steered Mr. LaBella to Keith Davidson for legal work. Mr. Davidson was the Hollywood lawyer who negotiated payments on behalf of two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump.

A company owned by Mr. LaBella has received $81,603 in payments from the Republican convention committee, according to financial disclosure reports. (Republican aides declined to make Mr. Kim or Mr. LaBella available for interviews.)

For viewers at home, there is a chance that Mr. Trump's desire for in-person events could backfire.

The Democrats' virtual roll call, featuring YouTube-friendly dispatches from delegates in their home states and territories, won praise for its kookiness and made an internet star of a masked Rhode Island calamari chef. Republicans, in contrast, are planning an in-person roll call in Charlotte, but the event is scheduled to take place Monday morning, meaning fewer Americans will see it.

Privately, Republican aides admitted it was a mistake for the president and his campaign operatives to lower expectations for Mr. Biden's ability to deliver his acceptance speech, which ended up being well-received, including by analysts on Fox News.

Now, aides say, they feel confident that — for the same reason — skepticism about Mr. Trump's convention will play to their benefit this week.

What's in a Name? BurlCo Freeholders Now 'County Commissioners' - TAPinto.net

Posted: 22 Aug 2020 02:00 PM PDT

MOUNT HOLLY, NJ – Burlington County Board Director Felicia Hopson announced Friday that the County has immediately started implementing a new state law requiring counties to end the use of the old title of "Chosen Freeholder" in favor of a new one, "County Commissioner."

"Two years ago, on New Year's Day, I proudly swore an oath to serve the residents of Burlington County as their elected freeholder, becoming only the third person of color to hold the county office and just the second Black woman. Today I'm proud to permanently lose that title and take on a new one, County Commissioner," said Hopson, who was one of the first county leaders to endorse the name change this year after Governor Phil Murphy and legislative leaders announced their support for the change.

"The old title was confusing and leftover from an age when only white male property owners could hold elected office. As late as 1865, that property could include Black men, women and children," Director Hopson said. "Just because something is seen as tradition does not necessarily make it right, so I'm thankful for Gov. Murphy and our Legislature for finally making this change. It may seem like a small thing, but it sends a message that racism in any form or from any era is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated."

The full board voted unanimously to approve a resolution expressing its complete support of the legislation on August 12.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed the legislation requiring counties to make the change today. In response, Hopson directed all County departments to immediately begin implementation.

Updates to the County website, social media pages and other electronic communications are under way and the County has also started phasing out other materials, including letterhead, stationary and small displays.

Under the County's plans, signage and other materials will be updated over time under the county's normal replacement schedule so that the County does not incur any significant additional expense.

Freeholder is an Old English term dating back to before the American Revolution to denote a person who owns land and is free of debt, which was a requirement to hold public office. At the time, only white men could own property and serve.

Hopson and other leaders believe the title is rooted in an era of discrimination and inequality and was also confusing to many residents.

In addition to endorsing the name change, the County Board recently formed a new Minority and Equality Rights Task Force to devise ways the County can combat systemic racism and support equality. Hopson is among the first 15 members that were appointed to the group last week.

"We're committed to having the important conversations about race and discrimination and also to taking action to bring about racism's end," Hopson said. "Today's name change is a small but important step in our collective mission to bring about real equality for all."

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