Washington Post: “Joe Biden’s team is making a special push in the closing days of the presidential campaign to find and motivate Democrats who voted in 2012 but stayed home in 2016, hoping he gets a crucial boost from this inconsistent group of supporters. ‘They’re being very strategic. More strategic than the Clinton campaign was in 2016,’ said Donna Brazile, a Biden ally and former head of the Democratic National Committee, who noted that the campaign has asked her to focus on these voters. The effort reflects a broader reality for Democrats: Many of the voters who were energized to come to the polls for Barack Obama did not turn out for Hillary Clinton, contributing heavily to her loss. Now the party wants to do all it can to ensure that this year’s election resembles those in earlier years more than the one in 2016.”

“‘You have to go back to those states and grab those people — they’re the easy catch,’ Brazile said. She noted that they already cast a ballot for Biden when he was Obama’s running mate. Relatively few undecided voters remain in the final stretch of an election that has electrified people on both sides. That is prompting both campaigns to redouble their efforts to find any remaining voters they can still mobilize. Biden’s effort includes digital targeting, phone calls and, in some places, in-person visits. Becca Siegel, the campaign’s chief analytics officer, said that because many reliable Biden voters have already cast their ballots early, the campaign is freer to focus on less likely voters, something it has been doing particularly in the past two weeks. ‘We can turn our attention to the lower-and-lower-propensity voters,’ Siegel said.”

This decision is CRAZY and so bad for our Country. Can you imagine what will happen during that nine day period. The Election should END on November 3rd. https://t.co/Hkftv9Jp56

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2020

FiveThirtyEight: “As we’ve written before, that ‘enthusiasm’ gap might not matter all that much for Biden. One source of voter enthusiasm is hatred of the other political party. And on that metric, Biden has the upper hand. While Trump may enjoy more enthusiastic support from his base, Biden’s voters are charged up to vote against Trump. In that YouGov poll, for example, 52 percent of Biden voters said they were mostly casting a ballot against Trump rather than for Biden, while only 17 percent of Trump’s supporters said they were casting a vote primarily against Biden. That said, when it comes to who will be sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office come January, it doesn’t much matter how enthusiastic someone was to vote, only that they did.”

New York Times: “A presidential election that has driven a nation to drink is being fought to the bitter end by two men who do not. For the first time in modern history, both major party candidates for the White House are teetotalers. President Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., have not had an alcoholic drink over the course of their lives, by their own accounts.”

“This Teetotaler Campaign, and the fact that this circumstance has drawn so little notice, is to some extent evidence of how the once hard-drinking culture of politics is changing. Candidates, campaign aides and reporters are drinking less, aware of the scrutiny that comes in the age of cellphones and Twitter, not to mention the nonstop demands of a round-the-clock campaign. But it also goes to the way Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, for all their stark differences, share some similarities in character and background, according to biographers and others who have observed them over the years. They each grew up in families shadowed by the specter of alcoholism — Mr. Trump’s brother died from it, and one of Mr. Biden’s favorite uncles, whom he lived with growing up, was a heavy drinker. Both have distanced themselves from the boozy social circuits in Washington and New York, Mr. Biden because he was commuting home to his family in Delaware every night and Mr. Trump because he tends to be more comfortable at home watching television.”

I now Know why my personal friends who walk around in SHEER TERROR of contracting Covid are simply CNN viewers! I decided to watch CNN myself to get a their viewpoint and oh my God DID I EVER!!!! IF YOU TOO WANT TO LIVE IN TERROR WATCH CNN!!
FEAR OF DYING IS THEIR MANTRA! OMG!

— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) October 30, 2020

“As a nation, we’ve lost our sense of altruistic and moral purpose, a collective will to do what is decent and right and, as sociologists like to say, ‘other-regarding.’ Instead, we’ve been living in a state benumbed and a benumbed state, in which nihilism prevails and corruption oozes from the very top. Another way to think about this might be to say that we’ve been living in a noir film. Or that we’re enacting the zero-sum values of reality television. What is it that contestants are so fond of saying? I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to win.”

“But the point is: Trump has normalized selfishness. This moral cynicism has not been healthy, and I don’t just mean this in the psychological or spiritual sense. Our lost generosity has cost American lives. A once-in-a-century pandemic strikes, our public health experts eventually tell us all to wear masks for the commonweal, but the president tells us that mask-wearing is one of those rules not to be followed (like paying taxes, like the emoluments clause, like campaign finance laws, like obstructing justice). And so we, an extravagantly wealthy nation, suffer from an extravagant number of deaths” – Jennifer Senior, writing on “Generosity” in the New York Times, as part of a series titled “What We’ve Lost” where each member of the op-ed team writes “on what the past four years have cost America and what’s at stake in this election”.

“A powerful earthquake has struck off Turkey’s Aegean coast, north of the Greek island of Samos, officials said. The 7.0 magnitude tremor, about 17km (11 miles) off the coast of western Izmir province, was felt as far away as Athens and Istanbul, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. There was no word on casualties but images from the Turkish city of Izmir showed buildings that had collapsed. Earthquakes are common in Turkey and Greece. Reports said Friday’s quake was also felt on the Greek island of Crete” – BBC.

“The number of voters who cast ballots in the Texas early voting period this year has now surpassed the total number of people who voted in all of 2016. Through Thursday, 9,009,850 have voted so far this year, with one day of early voting left. That amounts to 53% of registered voters. In 2016, 8,969,226 Texans cast a ballot in the presidential race. Texas has added 1.8 million registered voters since the 2016 election, and overall percentage turnout is still below 2016’s turnout of 59.4%”

“By the time all the Election Day votes and mail-in ballots are counted, Texas will likely hit record-breaking turnout levels this election, surpassing 60% of registered voters for the first time since the early 1990s. The surge in votes is in part due to high turnout during early voting and increases in registered voters in Texas’ growing urban and suburban counties. But other factors of timing are also at play. At Gov. Greg Abbott’s order, Texas voters received an extra six days of early voting in hopes that the polls will be less crowded during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The added time, coupled with a push from leaders in both parties for Texans to cast their ballots early, could be a reason for a boost in early turnout so far, experts say – Texas Tribune.”

Politico: “President Donald Trump still has a path to a second term. But it would take a polling debacle that would make 2016 look like a banner year. According to a series of battleground state polls conducted and released in the week following the last Trump-Biden debate, the president’s chances of winning a second term now require winning states where he still trails with only days to go until voting concludes.”

“In most of the core swing states, Joe Biden has maintained a stable — though not overwhelming — lead over Trump in polls over the past few months, continuing into the final week of the election. Some of the state polling averages have tightened slightly since the last debate, though Biden remains consistently ahead. In three live-interview polls of Florida all released on Thursday, Biden led Trump by between 3 and 5 points. In some of the potentially decisive states, like Pennsylvania, the polls would have to be wrong to a significant greater — greater than the errors in 2016 – for Trump to win. The latest polling averages show Biden with a 5-point lead. It’s not impossible, but you have to squint to see how Biden’s lead won’t hold up on Tuesday. Even signs that were more apparent four years ago – whether in real-time or in retrospect – are more ambiguous this year.”

“President Trump has called off plans to appear at the Trump International Hotel on election night, and is likely to be at the White House instead, according to a person familiar with the plans. Advisers had said privately that Mr. Trump was going to appear at his namesake hotel in Washington for an election night party that his campaign sent out multiple fund-raising solicitations for to his supporters. ‘November 3rd will go down in history as the night we won FOUR MORE YEARS. It will be absolutely EPIC, and the only thing that could make it better is having YOU there’ read one solicitation from the president that included an image of Mr. Trump and the first lady smiling under the words ‘join us on election night.’ It was unclear why the plans had changed.”

“But the prospect of the president appearing on the night of the election at the hotel was certain to reinforce concerns about Mr. Trump mingling the office with his business. It would also reinforce questions about whether the hotel would be in violation of Washington restrictions limiting gatherings to 50 people, to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. And a party would have to be paid for by the campaign, which is facing a cash crunch in the final weeks of the race. A spokesman for Mr. Trump declined to comment” – New York Times.

Anne Applebaum: “As one of the ugliest and most divisive American presidential campaigns in our history coasts to its finish, President Donald Trump’s defenders are making their closing arguments. Some of them assert that they like Trump’s policies; his ethical violations or his abuses of his office for personal gain don’t bother them. These views come from deep conviction, and at this point, they can’t be changed.”

“But another argument that appears over and over again in these closing statements demands a response. It is often made by educated conservatives, people who know that the Trump administration and its incompetence have allowed the coronavirus to devastate America. They also know that Trump has left America weaker and less influential around the world. They even dislike Trump’s vulgarity and his cruelty; they just wish he would stop tweeting. Nevertheless, they will vote for him because the alternative—the left, the Democrats, the socialists, the ‘woke warriors’, whatever epithet you want to use—is so much worse… Anyone who actually cares about academic freedom, or the future of objective reporting, or the ideas behind the statues built to honor American democrats in the country’s public squares, must hope that Trump loses. If he wins a second term, leftist extremism will not be stopped. It will not grow quieter. Instead, extremism will spread, mutate into new forms, and gradually become entrenched in more areas of American life.”

“The man who was attacked by a leopard is filing a lawsuit against the owners and operators of the animal sanctuary located behind a home in Davie. Dwight Turner, 50, was mauled just seconds after he ventured into the black leopard’s cage back on Aug. 31. ‘He went for the jugular, took [Turner’s] head in its mouth,’ said Steven Lander, Turner’s attorney. ‘The ear was pretty much removed.’ The victim paid $150 for a close contact experience with the leopard at the home on Earnest Boulevard. The fee was to play with and rub the animal’s belly.”

“Turner signed a release for the experience, but the Fish & Wildlife Conservation says such close contact is illegal, which voids that release. Officers have already cited Michael Poggi, who has a Facebook page detailing how he runs the sanctuary for rare and endangered animals. The victim’s attorney says the business let its insurance lapse. ‘He let a man into a cage, [with] no insurance,’ Lander said, noting that Turner will have ‘serious medical problems from here on out,’ including migraines and neurological damage” – WPLG.

Charlie Cook: “The Senate is increasingly less a case of whether Democrats will take a majority, but how large will it be. The chances of the GOP keeping its losses down to a seat or two are dropping; I am thinking that a five- or six-seat gain is becoming highly possible. The three most likely GOP incumbents to lose are Martha McSally in Arizona, Cory Gardner in Colorado, and Thom Tillis in North Carolina. Right on the bubble are Joni Ernst in Iowa, Susan Collins in Maine, and both Georgia seats. A touch back from that are Steve Daines in Montana and Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, as well as the open seat in Kansas. All three states are likely to be won by Trump, so look for a possible repeat of 2016, when every Senate race went to the same party that won the presidential race there—the first time that had happened since the start of direct Senate elections in 1914.”

“What I am wondering is if this will be one or the rarest species of national elections—a wave election in a presidential year ending in a zero, meaning it will reverberate for a decade thanks to the coming redistricting. There are not a dozen Republican Senate seats that could fall, as Democrats suffered in 1980, but Joe Biden may well replicate Ronald Reagan’s 10-point victory over President Carter. The odds are it will be a bit less, perhaps in the 53 to 44 percent range, with 3 percent going to independents and write-ins, half of the number from four years ago.”

If Sleepy Joe Biden is actually elected President, the 4 Justices (plus1) that helped make such a ridiculous win possible would be relegated to sitting on not only a heavily PACKED COURT, but probably a REVOLVING COURT as well. At least the many new Justices will be Radical Left!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2020

Biden will destroy the United States Supreme Court. Don’t let this happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2020

Watch the Great Red Wave!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2020

AP: “When Joe Biden was last in Iowa, his presidential campaign was on the verge of collapse and he was soundly trounced in the caucuses by a former Indiana mayor nearly 40 years his junior. He returns Friday as the Democratic nominee, believing he’s just days away from becoming president-elect. Biden’s trip reflects the growing confidence among Democrats in the closing days of the campaign. Iowa, which Donald Trump won by 9 points in 2016, is among the clutch of GOP-leaning states that Biden is trying to bring back into the Democratic column. He’ll also swing through Wisconsin on Friday while his running mate, Kamala Harris, courts voters in Texas, a longtime GOP bastion that Democrats insist is in play this year.”

With 8.6 million people who have already voted early, in person or by mail, Texas is on pace to exceed the total number of people who voted in the state during the 2016 presidential election during the early voting period, the Texas Tribune reports.

In 2016, 8.9 million people voted in the presidential election, representing 59.4% of registered voters.  Currently, 51% of registered voters have cast ballots in the 2020 election.  Early voting ends in Texas on Friday, October 30th.

The tally, taken through Wednesday, shows voter enthusiasm in a state that is a surprising battleground in this year’s presidential election.  Most polls have put the race within the margin of error within the last week.

The state is also in the midst of an unexpectedly tight Senate race between incumbent republican Tom Cornyn and Democratic challenger MJ Hegar.  A typically safe republican seat has slid closer to Democrats’ grasp.

The United States set another record for new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus Thursday, with no fewer than 88,500 cases recorded, marking the fourth time in the last seven days more than 80,000 cases were reported.

According to worldometers.info, the US registered 91,330 new cases, which would be the first time the nation cracked the 90,000 mark in daily cases.  The COVID Tracking Project logged 88,500 new cases Thursday.

Both data trackers recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus-related fatalities for Thursday in the US, the second day in a row surpassing that milestone.

All 50 states showed an increase in the number of new cases over the last seven days, according to the COVID Tracking Project.  Texas led the nation in both new cases and fatalities for the last two days.

“Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick repeated unsubstantiated claims in a Thursday interview that the only way Republicans can lose on Election Day is if Democrats cheat. ‘The Democrats have just decided this election, Mark, we don’t have to pay attention to any laws. We’re gonna use COVID as an excuse to steal the election and that’s what they’re trying to do everywhere,’ Patrick, a Republican, said during a radio interview on The Mark Davis Show. ‘If the president loses Pennsylvania or North Carolina, Mark, or Florida they’ll lose it because they stole it.'”

“A spokesman for his office clarified after the interview that Patrick was referring to ‘reports of ballot irregularities’ and ‘other potential fraud’ being seen in Pennsylvania and other battleground states. There have been no credible reports of widespread fraud or irregularities in Pennsylvania. President Donald Trump’s campaign seized on an announcement by federal authorities that they were investigating why nine military ballots were found in a trash can there, but no arrests have been made and no evidence has been made public that any fraud was involved. Voter fraud in absentee voting, as with any type of voting, is rare. Many states, including many run by Republicans, have expanded mail-in voting options during the pandemic” – Texas Tribune.

Citing civil unrest in some areas across the country, Walmart has removed guns and ammunition from public display in its stores, the Associated Press reports.

Walmart sells guns and ammunition in about half of its 4,700 stores in the United States.  The items will remain on sale in the stores that carried them before, but they will not be in a visible display on the store floor.

“We have seen some isolated civil unrest and as we have done on several occasions over the last few years, we have moved our firearms and ammunition off the sales floor as a precaution for the safety of our associates and customers,” Walmart said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Thursday.