A big loss becomes a big fight

In Donald Trump's Washington, where all norms of basic human decency fell by the wayside a while ago, it didn't take long for Republicans to begin clamoring for a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after she passed away from cancer at the age of 87 on Friday evening. No matter that the same Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, refused to hold even a hearing for Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee, after conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016. Back then, they claimed the American voters should have a say as to whom their next justice should be. Now, just 43 days out, they're taking the opposite approach. Sounds pretty hypocritical to us. —The Hill

• — Where are they now? So far, only two GOP senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have publicly said they do not think the Senate should vote on a nominee before the election, due to the standard set when Garland was blocked. That's a far cry from 2016, when 17 still-active Republican senators claimed it was inappropriate to seat a new justice so close to an election. —Mother Jones
   
• — Nomination to be made at end of week. Trump said he will nominate a Supreme Court pick on Friday or Saturday and has five women under consideration. "We won the election, and elections have consequences," he said this morning on Fox News. Leading contenders for the role are reportedly federal appellate judges Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, and Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta. —The Wall Street Journal
   
• — "This fight has just begun." Republicans may be smiling now, but they're setting themselves up for retaliation. Senate Democrats, lacking the votes to stop Trump's pick, are already weighing an array of tactics to battle back—ranging from bringing the chamber to a screeching halt this year to pushing legislation to expand the court if they win the majority in the fall. —CNN

Rubin: Justice Ginsburg is gone. Democracy must survive

"The effort to shame [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and the legion of morally vacuous Republicans who dreamed up a rule to deny Merrick Garland a vote in 2016 is useless. They are beyond fairness; they scorn democratic norms. They care nothing for intellectual consistency or for the credibility of the Supreme Court. They have been willing to acquit a president obviously guilty of impeachable offenses; they will not be shamed into denying a lame-duck president another Supreme Court justice." —The Washington Post

MORE: McQuade: Ginsburg's example shows us how to save our democracy —New York Magazine

No regrets for Trump as US closes in on milestone

200,000. Sadly, that's how many deaths from COVID-19 the U.S. is set to log, possibly as early as today. Back in March, President Trump said if the U.S. could keep the death toll between 100,000 to 200,000 people, it would indicate that his administration had "done a very good job." Yet as deaths continue to mount, with certainly more to come once the fall and winter have set in, there has been no rethinking from the president about his handling of the pandemic. Instead, he has sought to reshape the significance of the death tally, trying to turn the loss of 200,000 Americans into a success story by contending the numbers could have been even higher without the actions of his administration. —Associated Press

• — It's airborne. Wait, no it's not. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has abruptly reverted to its previous guidance about how coronavirus is transmitted, removing references to airborne transmission via aerosols that the agency quietly posted on Friday. CNN reported the change yesterday. The CDC responded to the news organization this morning to say it was reverting to the previous guidance. —CNN
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• — We won't have a vaccine until 2021. Wait, yes we will. It all depends on whom you believe. While scientists predict an approved coronavirus vaccine won't be ready in sufficient doses for the entire American population until at least the summer of 2021, Trump says the U.S. will have 100 million doses of vaccine manufactured by the end of 2020. "As soon as a vaccine is approved, my administration will deliver it to the American people immediately. Distribution will begin 24 hours after notice," he said on Friday. —ABC News
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• — What we have here is a failure to communicate. It's been clear for some time that the White House hasn't been on the same page as scientists regarding the pandemic. But it's really bad when the scientists' spokespeople aren't on the same page. A prominent conservative blogger on the website RedState, who goes by the pseudonym "streiff," has spent months trashing U.S. officials tasked with combating COVID-19, dubbing White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci a "mask nazi." Turns out that "streiff," by day, is William B. Crews, a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. You can't make this stuff up. —The Daily Beast

Three US cities cut off from federal funding

Attorney General Bill Barr has actually followed through on a bizarre memo signed by President Trump earlier this month that announced his plans to cut off so-called "lawless zones" from federal funding. New York City; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle, Wash., were branded "anarchist jurisdictions" by the Justice Department yesterday.

• — The move is intended to punish the cities for how they responded to this summer's protests over the police killing of George Floyd. It's not yet clear what federal funding is likely to be cut from the cities.
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• — "We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance," Barr said in a statement. "It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens."
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• — How the policy will play with Trump supporters living within these jurisdictions, just weeks before the presidential election, remains to be seen. —The Daily Beast

NYT Ed Board: A primer on international agreements

"[T]he Trump Administration has squandered the unity that the international community once had on Iran. It has also squandered the chance to fix the flaws in the Obama-era agreement by failing to pair its dramatic exit with meaningful diplomatic overtures that might have made renegotiation possible. At the time, American diplomats bragged to their European counterparts that the Iranians would soon be brought to their knees, and come begging to reopen talks. That hasn't happened." —The New York Times

ICYMI: Quick takes from the weekend

If you were too busy with early autumn activities this weekend to check on the news, good for you. Here's a roundup of stories you may have missed...

• — A preview of what's to come? Let's hope not. On Saturday, supporters of President Trump staged a rally on the second day of early voting at a polling station in Fairfax, Va. The group of supporters held up pro-Trump banners near the polling station entrance, in a stunt that an election official said intimidated voters and disrupted voting. —Business Insider
   
• — "I'm the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico." After neglecting Puerto Rico for three years and reportedly trying to sell or trade it in 2019, Trump gave himself a pat on the back Friday for finally releasing $12 billion in aid to the natural disaster-scarred island. Trump, who blocked the aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island in 2017, now touts the aid package from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a "tremendous" cash infusion that will "bring back" the island's economy. —New York Daily News
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• — No, it wasn't Walter White. An unidentified woman suspected of sending an envelope containing the poison ricin to the White House was arrested yesterday soon after crossing the Canadian border. The woman, who is expected to face criminal charges in Washington, D.C., was arrested in Buffalo, N.Y., and had a gun in her possession. No charges have yet been publicly filed. —The Wall Street Journal
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  — Ban on TikTok and WeChat. Although a ban by executive order on the two popular China-based apps was set to go into effect, Trump has approved a deal among Oracle Corp., Walmart Inc., and ByteDance Ltd. to create a new company called TikTok Global to run the video-sharing app. As part of the arrangement, the companies agreed to contribute $5 billion toward Trump's proposed "patriotic education" program for children. If you're thinking that sounds odd, that's because it is. Meanwhile, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the WeChat ban. —Bloomberg
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  — A huge trove of secret government documents known as the FinCEN Files—thousands of "suspicious activity reports" and other U.S. government documents—were released yesterday, offering an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it, and the government agencies that watch it flourish. Banks move trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, enriching themselves and their shareholders, while facilitating the work of terrorists, kleptocrats, and drug kingpins. This is likely to grow into a much bigger story. Stay tuned... —BuzzFeed News

Scarborough: A storm is coming. Are we ready?

"Americans should heed poet Maya Angelou's warning that when someone tells you who they are, you should believe them the first time. Over the past four years, Trump has told the world that he loathes constitutional limits and will do anything to maintain power—whether that means accepting political help from foreign countries or attacking America's democratic process as 'rigged.'" —The Washington Post

Ed. Note: Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, hosts the MSNBC show "Morning Joe."

MORE: The US is backsliding into autocracy under Trump, scholars warn —The Washington Post

On Eagle's wings

In celebration of his eighth birthday, a Richmond, Calif., third-grader, Eagle Jayagoda, built a place where his neighbors can safely get food during the coronavirus pandemic.

• — A few months ago, Eagle launched "Little Free Food Table," which was open on Sundays and stocked with items for people facing tough times. For his birthday, he wanted to do more. So, Eagle's food giveaway table was transformed into a 24-hour food pantry. He recycles bottles to raise money to buy the food.
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• — This isn't the first time Eagle has pitched in. He and his family teamed up with the Bay Area Sri Lankan community to send a food truck to first responders and a homeless shelter earlier this year. He also has sent backpacks to children in Sri Lanka, where his parents were born.
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• — "Eagle feels like doing his part in the community," said his mother, Achala Jayagoda. "You don't have to be rich. I want him to [understand] how you can help even if you don't have a lot." —ABC News

Q: How does one spell 'hypocrite'?
A: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Eight months is a long time to block a solid Supreme Court nominee, liked on both sides of the aisle, from even getting a Senate hearing in the hopes of turning the tide of what should be an apolitical court.

Less than eight weeks until Election Day, he wants to 'rush through' a nominee of President Trump's for political grandstanding because it now benefits him.

Shame. Shame. Shame. Our elected leaders should be better than this! Country over party. Constitution over politics.

I can only pray that better minds in the Republican Senate will prevail, be vocal about this hypocrisy, and deny McConnell (and Trump) his evil desire. —Keith R., Oregon

A moment of silence for the Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. —David M., Colorado

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.