WHAT'S BREWING
REPUBLICANS WEAPONIZED WHITE MOTHERHOOD When Trump announced Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee on Sept. 26, he made sure to emphasize her role as a wife and a mother of seven. “Amy is more than a stellar scholar and judge,” he said. “She is also a profoundly devoted mother. Her family is a core part of who Amy is.” Barrett's confirmation poses huge concerns for LGBTQ rights, women's rights, immigration rights, and racial justice. But the prevailing right-wing logic seems to go: She’s a woman. She’s a wife. She’s a mother. How dangerous could she really be? [HuffPost]
LATINO TURNOUT COULD DECIDE PENNSYLVANIA Much has been made of the critical role that Latino voters could play in the battleground states of Florida, Nevada and Arizona. But Latino communities are pivotal in Pennsylvania as well, where their share of the population has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Sixty-nine percent of Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania say the federal government has not responded to Hurricane Maria well, suggesting an eagerness to cast out the Trump regime. [HuffPost]
MOON HOLDS MUCH MORE WATER THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED For the first time, the presence of water on the moon’s sunlit surface has been confirmed. The moon may hold frozen water in more places and in larger quantities than previously suspected, which is good news for astronauts at future lunar bases who could tap into these resources for drinking and making rocket fuel. While previous observations have indicated millions of tons of ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon’s poles, this latest research take the availability of lunar surface water to a new level. [AP]
CONSERVATIVE PAPER BREAKS 100 YEARS OF TRADITION TO BACK BIDEN The New Hampshire Union Leader formally rebuked Trump once again by backing Biden, its first Democratic presidential candidate in more than a century. The conservative-leaning publication's endorsement praised Biden as a “caring, compassionate and professional public servant” in a lengthy editorial. “Joe Biden may not be the president we want, but in 2020 he is the president we desperately need,” the Union Leader’s editorial board wrote. “He will be a president to bring people together and right the ship of state.” [HuffPost]
GOP SENATORS WEIGHING ACTION IF TRUMP WON'T STEP DOWN As many as 10 GOP senators are “talking with each other about how to restrain what they regard as an out-of-control” president who is “determined to do anything to hold on to office regardless of its legality,” Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN’s Ana Cabrera without naming anyone involved. Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses, and has repeatedly tried to undermine the integrity of the electoral process by claiming the only way he can lose is if the vote is rigged. [HuffPost]
OBAMA DETAILS FIGHT FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM In a new excerpt from Barack Obama’s forthcoming memoir, “A Promised Land,” the former president details his administration’s hard-fought battle for health care reform. “I was convinced that the logic of health-care reform was so obvious that even in the face of well-organized opposition I could rally the American people’s support,” Obama wrote of the Affordable Care Act. But he soon realized he was overconfident -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP lawmakers would do everything in their power to try to torpedo his vision for making health care more affordable. [HuffPost] | 
