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catbyte

A Dangerous Moment for the Court

(The Atlantic) There are so many ways that the current moment could turn out very badly for the Court. First off, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems ready to test just how much damage the Court’s institutional integrity can take. In 2016, McConnell refused to hold hearings for Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland, because the next election was too close. Then, within hours of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, McConnell vowed to replace her before the next election.

This damage could be compounded by the fact that, regardless of who wins this year’s election, many expect Joe Biden to easily carry the popular vote. If he does, that will mean Democrats have won a popular majority in seven of the last eight presidential elections. And yet no Democrat has chosen a chief justice since 1953. Democrats have not nominated a Supreme Court majority since 1969. The Court is much more conservative than the electorate, and voters know it. The number of voters who think the Court is too conservative hit a new high just last year. Historically, the Supreme Court has rarely broken too radically with public opinion without some kind of backlash. Yet today, the Court reflects the will of a smaller and shrinking slice of the electorate.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

For Women, the Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Brings a Particular Grief

(New York Times) In Waco, Texas, Lily Coffman, 15, donned her handmade “R.B.G.” coronavirus mask and “dissent collar” earrings on Saturday night and joined a small crowd of mostly mothers and daughters in a candlelight vigil at the county courthouse. There, they held an 87-second moment of silence — a second for each year of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life. In Denver, Sheena Kadi, 38, who describes herself as a “queer Arab millennial woman,” was making chicken soup on Friday night when she learned of the justice’s death. “I walked over to my desk, lit my R.B.G. candle, opened a bottle of Barolo and cried,” she said.

Dr. Jack

Republicans likely handed the Dems an electoral landslide

Sure, there are a lot of people screaming online right now how Trump can now steal the election with impunity and the Supreme Court is just going to say "yup, you're a dictator now, congratulations". However I think those people are....talking out of their asses, to put it politely. The situation is bad with the supreme Court but it's not "the United States is dead and Trump is now Hitler" bad.

Regardless, the election is still coming up despite some people's fears that it somehow isn't, and it seems that the Republicans have handed the Democrats a landslide victory. Really though if you're McConnell or Trump you don't have any good options here when it comes to the election. Trump has been staring down a very likely defeat for months if not years now and the Senate is looking increasingly likely to end up Democratic. They could be honorable (obviously was never going to happen), likely lose the White House and Senate, and the Dems replace Ginsberg. Or they can shit all over everything, ram someone through, and lose anyway. Logically they are going to go with ramming someone through. Their days are numbered regardless.

kpete

New mural of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Rose Jaffe on 15th & U streets in Washington, DC

RandySF

Larry Sabato moves Maine Senate race to 'leans Democratic'

(The Hill) Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the election handicapper at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, has shifted Maine’s hotly contested Senate race toward Democrat Sara Gideon. The rating change from "toss-up" to "lean Democratic" is the latest sign of trouble for Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is among the most vulnerable GOP senators facing reelection this year. Recent polls show Gideon, the Maine state House speaker, leading in her bid to unseat Collins, including a New York Times/Siena College survey released last week that found the Maine senator trailing by 5 points.

In It to Win It

New details emerge about Jared Kushner's refusal to help battle COVID-19

(Salon) A bipartisan group of heavy hitters and business leaders met March 20 at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to discuss how to make and distribute personal protective equipment, and certain government officials urged them to return the next day to meet with President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser, reported Vanity Fair. "The federal government is not going to lead this response," Kushner told the group at the start of the meeting, seated in a chair taller than the others around the conference table. "It's up to the states to figure out what they want to do."

One attendee told Kushner that Americans were bidding against each other for the limited supply of PPE, and that person explained that businesses that wanted to help were looking for leadership from the federal government. "Free markets will solve this," Kushner replied. "That is not the role of government."

Nevilledog

Donald Trump Wanted to Keep This Video Deposition Secret. We Got a Copy.

(David Corn/Mother Jones) During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump was burdened with lawsuits that accused him and his Trump University of defrauding students who had paid thousands of dollars to learn the supposed secrets of Trump’s financial success. Though the Trump U controversy raised questions about Trump’s fitness for office, he managed to score two legal victories in the case as it proceeded. He won a postponement in the trial until after Election Day, and he managed to seal the video of a six-hour deposition he gave in the case. That meant voters would not see news reports of Trump on the stand in a federal civil fraud case or be able to watch this footage of Trump being questioned concerning allegations of fraud. But Mother Jones has now obtained the full video of Trump’s deposition, and though the written transcript of the session was released in June 2016, the video version includes several exchanges that likely would not have played well for Trump had they become public when he was chasing votes.

mia

'We're not gonna be manipulated.' Cracks form in Trump's Cuban-American base

(Miami Herald) From the passenger seat of a Mercedes-Benz idling in the heart of America’s Cuban exile community, George Marrero explained Saturday why he would not vote again for President Donald Trump. “This country has been abused for the last four years,” the retired Coral Gables police officer said while waiting for the start of a Cubanos con Biden caravan in the majority-Cuban city of Hialeah. “Joe Biden is going to bring back — like he’s said — the soul of America. It’s been lost.”

Amid evidence that Trump has significantly expanded his support among Miami-Dade’s traditionally conservative Cuban exile community, a counter-movement is afoot to show that there are thousands of Cuban-Americans in Florida who believe the president does not have their best interests at heart ... “I used to be middle class. Now I’m down at the bottom,” said Rosa Arias. “I was born in Cuba under Castro, so I know what a dictator looks like. Donald Trump is on his way, and we have to stop him.“

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article245830755.html

marmar

Revealed: evidence shows huge mail slowdowns after Trump ally took over

(The Guardian) The United States Postal Service (USPS) saw a severe decline in the rate of on-time delivery of first-class mail after Louis DeJoy took over as postmaster general, according to new data obtained by the Guardian that provides some of the most detailed insight yet into widespread mail delays this summer. Shortly after taking the helm, DeJoy - a major Republican donor with no prior USPS experience - implemented operational changes he said were intended to make the financially beleaguered agency more efficient. Those changes, which included an effort to get postal trucks to run on time, led to severe delays and widespread public outcry this summer.

Wicked Blue

Trump's campaign reveals just how very little money they have left

(Raw Story) Former Vice President Joe Biden announced that his campaign brought in a massive campaign haul during the Democratic convention last month ahead of the August campaign finance filing. President Donald Trump has attempted to keep his campaign numbers hidden with a late filing, and by Sunday evening it was clear why. Trump’s total haul for August, when he got a week’s worth of free media from the Republican convention, was just $61.7 million. The campaign spent almost all of it, $61.2 million. The campaign still has about $900,000 in debt. His cash on hand is just $121 million in the bank. Trump’s big donor support has dropped by 61 percent as he refuses to turnout for virtual events.