Harry Enten/CNN:
Why it could be a Biden blowout in November
What's the point: The Trump campaign has made a significant investment into
turning Minnesota red, after Trump lost it by 1.5 points in
2016. The polling shows his efforts are not working.
They are part of a larger sign suggesting that Trump still has a ways to go to win not just in Minnesota but over the electoral map at-large. If his campaign was truly competitive at this point, he'd likely be closer in Minnesota.
That’s a lot of campaign pizza. Senate candidates could still use something to wash it down.
Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
Justice Ginsburg is gone, but democracy must survive
As the Jewish community bids goodbye to the year 5780, we and the greater American community lost a “tzadik” — a righteous person, a hero to those who believe the “we” in “We the people” must expand in each generation. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away Friday night, delivering one more opinion: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” How like her to leave an admonition to respect the Constitution, to act fairly and to do justice — even if others might ignore or scorn her.
I would never have become a lawyer, millions of women would never have become lawyers — or judges or doctors or businesswomen or full members of American society — had she not had the sheer intellectual firepower and will to convince courts that “protections” for women were a cage, a violation of their humanity and of the equal protection under the law guaranteed by the Constitution.
But Joe ain’t falling for it.
Ryan Lizza/Politico:
How RBG's death could radicalize American politics
The battle over her replacement has the potential to spur far-reaching, long-term change
There’s some uncertainty about whether McConnell can cobble a majority of his 53 Republicans together to confirm a Ginsburg replacement. But his swift decision Friday night to reverse his 2016 position is likely to be met with two major reactions from Democrats, one short- and one long-term.
In the short term, the loss of the beloved Ginsburg, combined with McConnell’s hypocrisy, and the likelihood of the court shifting to the right, will enrage Democrats, both in the Senate and out in the country. In the Senate, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer will be under enormous pressure to respond to McConnell’s reversal with aggressive tactics.
“The question will be Chuck's fortitude,” a Democratic strategist said. “He could shut down the Senate. A government spending bill is due in a couple weeks.”
There is a fierce debate about whether a Supreme Court battle motivates liberals or conservatives more. One conservative who supports Biden argued that dynamic favors the Democrats.
Dan Balz/WaPo:
Ginsburg’s death crystallizes the choice in November as no other issue can
Nothing quite captures the national disquiet over the future of the country as the passing of one of the most iconic and best-known jurists in history and the vacuum that her death has now created. If there was hope that the November election might result in an outcome that could begin to settle the country, the odds of that lengthened with the first reports on Friday night of her death after a long battle with cancer.
For those on the left, the passing of the revered justice is a potentially cataclysmic event, opening up the possibility that her seat on the court could be filled by someone who would cement a conservative majority for years. For those on the right, the vacancy to be filled presents the rarest of opportunities to fulfill a decades-long drive to change the court for a generation or more.
The coming battle over Ginsburg’s successor will have all the drama, procedural maneuvering and bare politics to match any of the most controversial of court nominations. But the impact of this particular vacancy could ripple far beyond what takes place on Capitol Hill. The issues that surround the vacancy encompass the broader culture war that divides red and blue America, from abortion to marriage equality to health care to the very structure of government.
And the polling (pre-RBG’s death) in this steady race ...
David Frum/Atlantic:
4 Reasons to Doubt Mitch McConnell’s Power
For once, he may be on the wrong side of a power dynamic.
But of course, the real rule in 2016 was "the good old rule ... the simple plan, that they should take who have the power, and they should keep who can." What McConnell did in 2016 was an assertion of brute power, and what he proposes in 2020 is another assertion of brute power. And so the question arises: Does McConnell in fact have the power he asserts?
The answer may be no, for four reasons.
This is something:
Jill Lawrence/USA Today:
Will Democrats grow backbones amid Trump-Republican rush to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
Most Americans didn't vote for Trump or the GOP Senate. The time has come to consider new states, more justices and 18-year Supreme Court term limits.
I wish I were as optimistic as McCaskill and others about Republicans having qualms and Democrats having backbones. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said in 2018 that he would “wait to the next election” in a situation like this. But this year he has said he’d take up a nomination if a vacancy occurred, including after Trump tweeted Saturday that the Senate should vote on a Ginsburg successor "without delay." It’s hard for me to imagine four Republican senators sinking a Trump justice by joining Democrats in voting against his nominee on the Senate floor, or Democratic voters caring about the Supreme Court in a way they never have before, even after the Garland outrage in 2016.
ABC:
Majority of Americans report no confidence in Trump to confirm vaccine safety, effectiveness: POLL
The numbers come via an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday.
Fewer than 1 in 10 (9%) Americans have a great deal of confidence in Trump to confirm vaccine effectiveness with another 18% reporting only a "good amount" of confidence in the poll conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos' Knowledge Panel. In contrast, 69% don't have confidence in the president vouching for a vaccine, including 16% saying "not so much" and 53% saying "none at all."
Surprise! It won’t help you in October.
Jim Hightower on how unsafe the meat packing plants have been:
Pandemic in the Plants
In counties with few doctors and often no hospitals, bodies piled up; workers were refusing to show up; plants were forced to shut down; supermarkets and restaurants across the country rationed meat sales; and — worst of all in the corporate view — profits plummeted. What to do?
Do the old corporate shuffle, of course: Deny there’s any crisis; hide the numbers of ill and dead; blame immigrants; get Trump to order workers back on the job and grant blanket legal immunity to the corporations for any resulting harm to working families; and speed up the high-speed disassembly lines, known as The Chain, that snake through the factories.
Sure enough, when workers began testing positive and dying, major meatpackers responded by not reporting data, halting worker testing and scoffing at workers’ concerns. As the virus ran rampant in April and May, callous corporate bosses resorted to gimmicks. For example, JBS, the Brazilian conglomerate, tried to lure its low-wage, vulnerable workers back on The Chain with a cheap bribe: a 5-pound package of ground beef.