For the Majority: The Senate last night confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, giving conservatives on the bench a 6-3 majority for many years to come. Barrett might go to work as soon as today on election cases and the upcoming decision on the fate of Obamacare.

  The only Republican to vote against Barrett was Maine’s Susan Collins, who’s trying to save herself from being voted out next week. It was the first time in 151 years that a justice was confirmed without any votes from the minority party.

  President Trump hosted about several hundred supporters in a celebration at the White House last night. Barrett was appointed in part because she’s considered a lock to vote down legal abortion. But she told the gathering, “The oath that I have solemnly taken tonight means at its core that I will do my job without any fear or favor and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences.”

  Notably, Chief Justice John Roberts was not at the White House last night. Barrett was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas. 

  The Republicans laid it all on the line with their drive to seat a Supreme Court justice just days before an election that might change the direction of the country. It could cost them dearly in the long run.  

Seven Days in October: With one week to election day, lines are long at early polling stations and 65 million Americans have already voted. Former Vice President Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by an average of  7.8 points in national polls. Biden also leads in the six battleground states, although by a hair in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio.

  Biden has healthy leads in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, the three states that put Trump over the top in 2016.

  Nonetheless, Trump tweeted yesterday that, “We are winning big on the voting numbers. Get out and Vote. Bigger than 2016!!!”

  Speaking in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Trump said, “It’s the only way we can lose, in my opinion, is massive fraud.”

  He’s waging a campaign of fear. Another tweet from yesterday; “If Joe Biden is elected he will delay the vaccine, delay the therapies, prolong the pandemic, close your schools, and shut down your country!

   The Senate chose in the past week to ram through the confirmation of now Justice Barrett rather than a second economic stimulus bill. As a result and combined with the growing pandemic, the stock market took a dive; the Dow Jones fell 650 points.

Viral News: President Trump made three campaign stops in Pennsylvania yesterday, the same day the state posted its highest number of new coronavirus cases.

  The US recorded 74,323 new cases yesterday; new cases are up 40 percent over the past two weeks.

   Trump told his crowd in Allentown, Joe Biden “wants to shut down the whole country and we’re rounding the turn. All they want to talk about is COVID. By the way, on November 4th, you won’t be hearing so much about it. COVID, COVID, COVID. COVID!”

  Despite Trump’s daily denials, Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s epidemiologist, told Business Insider, “Now we’re at the highest baseline we’ve ever been, which is really precarious.”

  This morning, 225,739 Americans are dead. 

White Benevolence: Speaking with Fox News yesterday, Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner said, “One thing we’ve seen in a lot of the black community, which is mostly Democrat, is that President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about. But he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.” 

The Bulletin Board: More than 30 people were detained and at least 30 police officers reported injured in unrest that erupted in West Philadelphia after police shot and killed a man they said was armed with a knife. — Hurricane Zeta has hit the Yucatan peninsula and is expected to curve up and east to hit the toe of Louisiana. — Several Fox News anchors and opinionators have been sent to quarantine after being on a charter flight with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. Fox won’t say who they are, but look for shows anchored from home; that’s if you look at Fox News at all. — The superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute has resigned, a week after state officials ordered an investigation into what they called a culture of “ongoing structural racism” at the college.

Moon River: Scientists have long wondered whether there is water on the moon and now they say there may be just enough to support human exploration. 

  Two papers in the journal Nature Astronomy  say there are water molecules in sunlit areas of the moon. One of the authors said in a virtual news conference, “The amount of water is roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water in a cubic meter of lunar soil.” If they ever want to put an exploration base on the moon, it’s going to have to be where the water is. Presumably they’ll bring their own cheese.

-30-