Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Changing The Odds by Treva Harte Changing The Odds by Treva Harte. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. What can I do to prevent this in the future? If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. Cloudflare Ray ID: 660388afcc0b4e4a • Your IP : 116.202.236.252 • Performance & security by Cloudflare. Opinion: Donald Trump gets out the eraser. More than 500 years ago, Thomas More published a slim book in Latin that bequeathed us the word "Utopia." He conjured up a fictional island where people enjoy "life in happiness and peace, with all cares removed." Three centuries later, philosopher John Stuart Mill questioned the practicality of achieving a Utopia -- popularizing the term "dystopia" in a speech to the House of Commons. As they presented their case this past week for ousting the President, Democrats summoned a dystopian vision of Donald Trump's America: a rampaging virus, record unemployment and democracy in danger. Over four nights, convention speakers, including Barack and Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Jill Biden, invoked decency, empathy, democracy, diversity and unity to rally voters behind Joe Biden. Trump is clueless about the Covid-19 pandemic and completely out of his depth in his job, they said. "It is what it is," Michelle Obama concluded, echoing the President's own recent comment. Forced by the coronavirus to meet virtually, Democrats invented some new ways of convening, featuring a roll call that offered glimpses of all 57 states and territories -- including a cameo appearance by a platter of Rhode Island calamari. "Let's not go back to the old way of doing conventions," Jen Psaki wrote, "The third night of the Democratic National Convention was far more powerful and more moving. " © Win McNamee/Getty Images WILMINGTON, DELAWARE - AUGUST 20: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden delivers his acceptance speech on the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center on August 20, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. The convention, which was once expected to draw 50,000 people to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is now taking place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) But that was last week. Starting Monday Republicans will have a chance to strike back at their convention, to defend Trump's presidency and to warn Americans not to entrust the White House to Democrats. And the outlines of their own fearsome dystopia are not hard to imagine. On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence said on Fox News, "Joe Biden said last night that democracy was on the ballot, character's on the ballot. Well, the economy is on the ballot, law and order is on the ballot, and the American people know it." Looking ahead to the RNC, David Axelrod wrote, "What may seem like a humane, common sense agenda to most Americans this week will be cast by Trump and the Republicans as nothing more than job-crushing environmental regulations; amnesty for 'illegals' and open borders; an attack on police that invites urban violence and anarchy; onerous new taxation and a radical assault on the Second Amendment." "These are the jagged fault lines of American politics: a rising number of young people, racial minorities and college-educated White voters versus those who view the cultural and social changes proudly displayed at the Democratic National Convention this week as a threat," Axelrod noted. © Dave Whamond/Cagle Cartoons. Frida Ghitis noted that in his speech Thursday night, Biden "made it stark when he vowed to help the country 'overcome this season of darkness' . underpinning it all was the terrifying prospect that the devastation caused by the current President could lead the country to even darker places if Democrats cannot win in November." Praise for Biden. Biden's speech got positive reviews, jeopardizing Trump's effort to question the former vice president's mental ability. "The caricature of the bumbling old fool that Republicans were pushing went out the window tonight," wrote Van Jones . "They will have to go back to the drawing board for their convention next week." David Gergen , who has been an adviser to four presidents, argued that "Biden emphatically proved on Thursday that he is up to the job — and then some. He spoke movingly about pain and suffering but showed flashes of inner steel when describing his opponent." Republicans contended that the Democrats focused more on passion than policy, as Alice Stewart put it. "They are making a strong play for winning over the hearts of voters-- and largely relying on emotion to carry them over the finish line." Oren Cass said, "Barack Obama's legacy looms awkwardly over Joe Biden." He added that "Biden's agenda was, almost verbatim, a reiteration of Obama's . none of this tackles America's fundamental challenges or changes course from the policy mistakes of the past generation." Many Americans are concerned about casting their vote this fall, given the pandemic and Trump's continual attacks on mail-in ballots. Postal worker Sinikka Melvin , who heads the postal worker union local in Clarksburg, West Virginia, wrote that her co-workers are committed to their mission. "We're Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and everything in between. Regardless, we're still postal workers who, come snow, rain, heat or politics, will get the mail to our communities. We want our new postmaster general to give us the tools to do our job and do it well." © AP In this image from video, former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Aug. 17, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP) And it's not only about the election, Melvin wrote. "Delayed deliveries harm the public. It's the customer who comes first thing in the morning to get a medicine they urgently need and can't wait for. It's your paycheck you need to put food on the table. It's that new coat your child needs for winter. It's your passport you've eagerly waited on. Your reading list for the new semester. Your 12th birthday card. Your new face mask. The ways the Postal Service affects our lives are endless." © David Fitzsimmons/Cagle Cartoons. For more on the campaign: Steve Bannon indicted. The controversial former Trump campaign official and White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested Thursday and charged in what Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutors said was a conspiracy to defraud donors to a crowdfunding campaign that would become the non- profit "We Build the Wall." Despite promises that all of the money raised would go toward building a portion of the southern border wall, Elie Honig wrote, Bannon and his co-conspirators used some of it "to pay for their own lavish lifestyles and expenses including 'travel, hotels, consumer goods, and personal credit card debts,'" according to the indictment. If convicted, Bannon would likely face a sentence of at least seven to nine years, Honig said. Though the odds favor conviction in federal court, he can go to trial, "or Bannon can try to cooperate with the SDNY -- which could offer him his best chance at a significant sentencing reduction. But, to save himself, Bannon will very likely need to give the SDNY the ammunition it needs to take others down too." Michael D'Antonio wrote that Bannon's arrest aboard the yacht of an exiled Chinese dissident "has added one more big name to the list of Trump- adjacent figures who have found trouble with the law. For years it's seemed like a parade of conmen has trailed the President and that prosecutors have tried to pick them off one-by-one." Bannon called the charges a "political hit job" and promised to fight them. Trump said he "didn't like" the private fundraising project for the wall. Republican future. Whether or not the GOP wins in November, wrote Sarah Isgur , "it will be a party that will never have Donald Trump on the ballot again." We asked Isgur and 10 other Republicans for their take on the party's future as the convention begins. Clearly Trump has reshaped the party in his own image, dispensing with much of the conservative ideology that animated it since the Reagan presidency. "The 2024 nominee will be charting a new path for the Republican Party without the shibboleths of the conservative movement that used to comprise it," Isgur wrote. The party should "get back to standing for and focusing on a platform instead of personalities," wrote Scott Jennings . "I became a Republican, despite coming from a family of Democrats, for a handful of reasons. I am pro-life, because all life is precious and should be protected. I believe in lower taxes, because I don't support punishing people who work hard and create opportunity for others. "And I think the United States ought to have the most fearsome and lethal military in the world, to serve as a deterrent most of the time and as a force to be reckoned with when bad actors choose to test us." Red states are more fiscally prudent, wrote former US Rep.