COURT-PACKING COMING IF BIDEN WINS: And boy, Hans Bader explains, it’s not going to be good for America.

BATTLESWARM BLOG: Democrats Really Haven’t Thought Through This ‘Total War’ Thing. “If Democrats really want to contemplate total war, then what’s to prevent Republicans from implementing those same measures next year if they win?”

The plan is to lock in Democratic advantages to the point where there isn’t another GOP-led government.

SCIENCE IS REAL. BELIEVE IN SCIENCE. FOLLOW THE SCIENCE. CDC reverses new guidelines again on indoor COVID-19 spread.

DAVID HARSANYI: The Democrats’ Bogus Concern for SCOTUS ‘Norms.’

Norm #1: When Democrats are in charge of both the Senate and the White House, they are free to nominate and confirm any justice they please, as quickly as they please, as they did in the cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

Norm #2: When Democrats only run the White House, they are free to nominate any SCOTUS justice they please, and they also get to dictate whom Republicans are allowed to confirm, as they tried to do in the case of Merrick Garland — blessed be his memory.

Norm #3: When Democrats run neither the nomination process nor the confirmation process, they get to dictate who is confirmed to the Court, as they argue today in the case of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement.

Norm #4: If Republicans fail to adhere to all these rules, Democrats have license to burn everything down to the ground. (And, of course, I only mean that 90 percent metaphorically.)

Democrats will keep getting away with playing the “rules are for suckers” game until Republicans stop being suckers, and license for them to do just that is maybe Trump’s greatest gift to the GOP.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This is sadly true.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE:  2020 Emmys ratings: Viewership sinks to all-time low.

GOOD AND HARD: New Report Shows How Congress Has Screwed Over Young People. The skyrocketing national debt is a moral test—and right now, our leaders are failing. “The long-term outlook is incredibly bleak. CBO finds that by 2050, the size of the national debt will be nearly double the size of our economy.”

(Classical reference in  headline.)

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Free Market Can Deliver Free College: Remember paying your broker $200 a trade? Higher education is at that stage today.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced colleges to shift to online learning, often with disastrous results. Students are no fools and many of them are suing for a discount. They have realized what higher education is loath to admit: Instruction is not what they, their parents and the American taxpayer are paying full price for.

The most common discount on offer appears to be a 10% tuition reduction, but some students are pushing for far more. They claim that nonacademic activities, from school plays and concerts to networking and parties, represent a lot more than 10% of the price tag of college. Such discounts imply that students are still getting 90% of the value of higher education (about $45,000 worth, on average) from their Zoom lectures, but much of the educational content has become widely available for free. Students and parents can’t be faulted for suspecting that an online education should cost next to nothing.

At some institutions, it already does. Primarily online Southern New Hampshire University recently announced a free first year for incoming students in light of the pandemic. California-based National University—which offers an array of online classes—cut tuition by up to 25% for full-time students and says that new scholarships will make enrollment nearly free for Pell Grant-eligible students.

Insight into the future of higher education may come from an unlikely source: the brokerage industry. Like higher ed, stock trading is a highly regulated field with massive barriers to change. Recall the stereotypical stockbrokers of the 1980s: Tom Wolfe’s “Masters of the Universe” or Merrill Lynch’s “Thundering Herd.” For years, the traditional brokerage industry was considered too difficult to replicate with technology. How could the internet replace a white-shoe adviser who not only took trade orders but also answered the phone, offered personal advice and took part in estate planning and other higher-order wealth-management tasks?

The mighty were felled quicker than expected. Over 30 years, technology reduced the cost of trading a stock from hundreds of dollars to virtually zero. . . .

Higher ed is where the brokerage business was in the late 1990s: poised for transformation. Even before the pandemic, momentum was building in the education market away from high-cost operators and toward low-cost ones. Southern New Hampshire University and Western Governors University, nonprofits that charge less than $10,000 a year in tuition, have already become some of the largest and fastest-growing institutions in the country. They each serve more than 100,000 students by using online delivery and competency-based instruction to drive down costs dramatically without sacrificing quality.

All is proceeding as I have foreseen — with a boost from the pandemic.

RIPE FOR DISRUPTION: A German rocket startup seeks to disrupt the European launch industry.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE MEDIA IS BACK TO HATING MITT ROMNEY: Romney Supports Holding a Vote on Trump’s SCOTUS Nominee.

Related: “In case anyone missed it yesterday, [Colorado GOP Senator] Cory Gardner also threw his support to Mitch McConnell. That’s 51 and the ballgame, unless something changes.”

KEEPING UP THE PRESSURE: Kim Klacik’s New Ad Is So Good I Want to Move to Baltimore and Vote for Her. “Last week, Klacik was brave enough to be a virtual guest on The View. The Shrieking Harridan Squad treated her the way they do every Republican, which is shrilly and awful. Klacik held her ground so well that a flustered Joy Behar ended up cutting her off to finish the interview.”

Here’s the ad:

Tens of millions of you have shared the struggle of black people in Baltimore. You cared about our black lives more than our own leaders.

They have done nothing for us.
Now they can’t hide.
We are the change.

Please support our movement:https://t.co/8yLL5VmMSU pic.twitter.com/1sGyqXHpzt

— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) September 20, 2020

RULE OF LAW? THAT WAS LAST WEEK’S SLOGAN:

It’s amazing how fast these lefty tropes spread. And talk about a great reason to be sure there’s not a Democratic president and Congress.

But you know, I feel like they really don’t think these things through:

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Don’t Want to Wear an LGBT Pride Emblem? You’re Fired.

THE DEMOCRATS’ PITCH, IN A NUTSHELL:

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Joe Biden Is America’s Favorite Poor Little Rich Man.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: Are you being oppressed by the memory of Abe Lincoln and a very large rock?

Answer: Yes? Then you aren’t oppressed, Snowflake.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• What has been seen in a dress cannot be unseen.
• GoodFellas government comes to Colorado.
• Newsweek buries the correction, not the incorrect lede.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

ALSO: The Wuhan Virus Is Still Killing People and So Is Our Response.

I wrote that one last night for our VIP supporters, so if you’ve been thinking of becoming a member, you can do so here — and don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.

2020: California Bar Applicants Confront Pandemic, Fires, And Dubious Online Test.

LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES: Man accused of derailing NYC subway was freed without bail for similar incident.

NEW DEMOCRATIC STRATEGERY: If conservative justices dominate the Supreme Court, just ignore the Supreme Court. “All the president has to do is assert that Supreme Court rulings about constitutionality are merely advisory and non-binding, that Marbury (1803) was wrongly decided, and that the constitutional document says absolutely nothing about the Supreme Court having this power.”

So simple, you wonder why nobody’s done it before. . . .

VERY COOL, BUT OCCUPANCY MIGHT STILL BE A PROBLEM BY THE TIME IT’S COMPLETED: NYC’s Newest Proposed Building Would Be the City’s Tallest—And Will Act as a Carbon Emissions Filter. “The 2,400-foot-tall building would change New York’s skyline forever.”

TRAINING ITS STUDENTS FOR BIG MEDIA: ASU journalism school removes people, news items decried as too pro-police.

VIDEO: Portland Activists Block Truck, Demand Passenger Give Black Power Salute And Chant ‘Black Lives Matter.’

You will be made to care, or at least to conform.

PUBLIC HEALTH STANDARDS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Wingate praises ‘Black Lives Matter’ protest violating COVID restrictions.

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KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Amid All the ACB SCOTUS Talk, Barbara Lagoa May Be Trump’s Trump Card. “There is no way to keep the Democrats from being insane bottom-feeders during this process, but nominating Lagoa might throw them off for just a bit. Their slavish devotion to identity politics could trip them up.”

Nah. They only believe in that stuff when they believe it gains them the advantage.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): If Barbara Lagoa is Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, it will forefront a subject that roiled the presidential election in 2000 — Elian Gonzalez.