CNN reports that Admiral Charles Ray, Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard, tested positive for coronavirus, creating a cascading effect on Pentagon leadership forcing some senior leadership to work from home.

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is working from home after contact Ray, as are Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown; Admiral Michael Gilday, the Chief of Naval Operations; and General John Raymond, Head of Space Operations for Space Force.

Unlike the White House, the Pentagon requires all personnel to wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines on campus when possible.

REPEAL SECTION 230!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

Section 230 of course is the federal law that says “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider” which means that social media networks cannot be held criminally liable for harm caused by information that users post on them, which is what the Republicans are trying to use as a lever to get social media companies to stop being “biased” against conservatives.

Trump is saying this because Twitter flagged his Tuesday tweet in which he said “we have learned to live with [the flu], just like we are learning to live with Covid”.

SurveyUSA: “During a tumultuous week that began with an acrimonious candidate debate on Tuesday, the President of the United States being diagnosed with COVID soon thereafter, though unclear when, followed by video of the President being flown to world-famous Walter Reed, followed by the President tweeting from and motorcading around the hospital, Democratic challenger Joe Biden appears to have gathered momentum, when interviews are analyzed by time-frame, according to up-to-the-minute SurveyUSA research conducted exclusively for Cheddar.”

“4 weeks till workers begin counting 150 million ballots, with millions of votes already cast, the contest is combustible and could flip, and then flip yet again, given scenarios both foreseeable and unimaginable. Of likely voters interviewed by SurveyUSA after Trump and Biden debated 09/29/2020 but before Trump had revealed his COVID diagnosis, Biden led Trump by 8 points, 51% to 43%. In the tiny window of time between when Trump acknowledged his illness but before he was hospitalized, Trump closed to within 4 points, Biden 50%, Trump 46. In interviews completed after Trump had been helicoptered to Bethesda, Biden appears to have consolidated support, leading by 16 points among likely voters interviewed most recently, 56% to 40%.”

Fox News: “A rapidly strengthening Hurricane Delta is taking aim at the resort hotspot of Mexico’s northeastern Yucatan Peninsula before targeting the U.S. Gulf Coast later this week. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday morning that Hurricane Delta is now a Category 4 storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 130 mph as it is located 315 miles east-southeast of Cozumel moving west-northwest at 16 mph. The storm was upped from a Category 3 to a 4 between 10:50 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. EDT, with forecasters labeling the storm as ‘dangerous.'”

“‘It rapidly intensified last night to a Category 2, we’re expecting it, unfortunately, to become a major hurricane and impact the Gulf Coast,’ Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said on ‘Fox & Friends.’ ‘We think Louisiana is in the crosshairs.’ The storm rapidly intensified overnight from having 80 mph winds into a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph gales and is expected to strengthen even further as it moves north into the Gulf of Mexico.”

If Donald Trump loses by double digits to a comatose 78-year-old career politician plagued by incoherence and logorrhea and pledging to enact the most radical Left-wing agenda in American political history, I'm sorry, but that's on Trump.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 6, 2020

“It is highly disturbing and quite disgusting that a group of so-called Republican strategists using the name Lincoln Project is planning to spend $1M in Texas against President Trump. It is equally despicable that these political traitors would call their endeavor Operation Sam Houston. It is unconscionable to me, as Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, that there are these useful idiots who would seek to undermine the hard work and efforts being put in by the RPT, Republican candidates, and grassroots supporters to re-elect President Trump.”

“Why would these individuals desire to support a progressive socialist agenda that embraces the rule of the mob, defunds our law enforcement, would decimate our oil and gas industry, advocates for open borders and taxpayer funding of illegal immigrants, murders unborn babies right up to birth, and eliminate our individual rights, namely the Second Amendment? There’s only one answer, they are dishonorable, characterless, and devoid of integrity only seeking their own personal interest, not that of America, certainly not that of Texas. The members of the Lincoln Project have duly made themselves my opposition, an adversary, and I am focused on defeating them along with the progressive socialist left, the Democrat Party, here in the Lone Star State” – Texas State GOP chairman Allen West statement via Texas Tribune reporter Patrick Svitek.

Despite his COVID diagnosis and his obvious lack of breath after walking up a flight of stair yesterday, Donald Trump’s campaign has said he plans on participating in the next scheduled presidential debate, the Wall Street Journal reports.

I am looking forward to the debate on the evening of Thursday, October 15th in Miami. It will be great!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

The debate, in a town hall format, is slated for Thursday, October 15 in Miami, Florida.  It will occur exactly two weeks after Trump reportedly first tested positive for the coronavirus.

The right to vote in a free and fair election is one of the foundations of American democracy. The leaders of the #FBI, @CISAgov, @NCSCgov, and @NSAgov want you to know how their organizations work together to protect your voice—no matter how you cast your vote. #Protect2020 pic.twitter.com/TaJBhWYwqL

— FBI (@FBI) October 6, 2020

And no, Chris Wray is not actually fired… yet. The headline is a joke.

Aaron Blake: “Not only has Trump this week been treated to two of his most brutal 2020 polls to date — an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows him trailing by 14 points, while the CNN poll (the first conducted after his diagnosis) shows him down 16 — but he’s resuming much the same behavior that made coronavirus a particular liability to begin with. Trump seems to believe what the moment calls for is a show of strength from him personally, a fearless leader defeating the virus and emerging even less cowed. But the polls repeatedly suggest people would prefer steady leadership, honesty and a real plan. And the new polls reinforce that this episode has cast a spotlight on what people view as Trump’s irresponsible handling of the pandemic.”

“The new CNN poll was conducted before the scenes of Monday night, but while Trump was taking his joyride to wave to supporters on Saturday. He and his team seem to believe that beating the virus and displaying something amounting to strength will prove to voters that he’s the one to handle the situation and could right the ship. But pretty much everything he’s done in the course of trying to project that strength rehashes all the things that made this a liability in the first place.”

Monmouth University: “Among all registered voters in Pennsylvania, the race for president stands at 54% for Biden and 42% for Trump. Another 1% support Libertarian Jo Jorgensen and 2% are undecided. Biden maintains a sizable lead when likely voter models are applied. A model based on a somewhat higher level of turnout than 2016 puts the race at 54% for Biden and 43% for Trump, while one reflecting lower turnout has it at 53% for Biden and 45% for Trump.”

In September, Monmouth had Pennsylvania at Biden 49 – Trump 45.

FEELING GREAT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

AP: “Several ‘suspicious devices’ were found on Trump-Pence campaign signs around a Maryland city, but when bomb squads arrived, they realized those devices were small alarm systems. Easton Police and the State Fire Marshal Bomb Squad said they were busy Sunday and Monday investigating the devices, which were found taped to the political lawn signs. The first sign was found in Idlewild Park Sunday morning. Later, four more signs in and around Easton were found with similar devices on them.”

“Officials said the devices posed no threat to the public: They’re just audible alarms that sound when a pull pin, attached to a string, is tugged away. The State Marshal’s office said their apparent purpose was to prevent the signs from being stolen or removed. The campaign signs were placed in public areas, which is illegal. Campaign signs aren’t allowed on ‘public rights-of-way,’ road shoulders, or on medians.”

Going forward we’ll try where we can to compare any change in a poll we report with the numbers from the last time a pollster reported it. Read the CNBC poll here.

Poll aggregator and analyst FiveThirtyEight continues to chart Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden’s increasing likelihood of winning the November elections, upping the odds of a victory to 82% in its latest estimate.

The site puts republican nominee Donald Trump’s chances at a second term at a new low of 17%.  In their modeling there’s a 1% chance that the race ends in an Electoral College tie.

As the nation approaches Election Day, the paths for victory for Trump narrow, with the opportunities of flipping states or stymieing the increasing leads of Biden in swing states evaporating.

“Three scientists have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for work to understand black holes. Sir Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez were announced as this year’s winners at a news conference in Stockholm. The winners will share the prize money of 10 million krona (£864,200). David Haviland, chair of the physics prize committee, said this year’s award ‘celebrates one of the most exotic objects in the Universe’. Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from them.”

“UK-born physicist Sir Roger, from the University of Oxford, demonstrated that black holes were an inevitable consequence of Albert’s Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Penrose receives half of this year’s prize, with the other half being shared by Genzel and Ghez. Prof Ghez is only the fourth woman to win the physics prize, out of more than 200 laureates since 1901. The other female recipients are Marie Curie, Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Donna Strickland – who won in 2018” – BBC.

Bloomberg: “Hungary’s crackdown on foreign-funded colleges, such as the George Soros-linked Central European University, was overturned by the European Union’s top court in a ruling that refocused attention on the erosion of the rule of law under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.”

“The judgment returns Hungary to the spotlight at a time when the EU is considering cutting funding to member states found to be flouting the rule of law. Orban, who is among the leaders trying to torpedo the effort, initially threatened to scupper the bloc’s 750 billion euro ($883 billion) coronavirus fund before offering last week to forgo billions of euros to escape further EU scrutiny. Of all of Orban’s measures to roll back democracy over the past decade, his drive to oust CEU has been among the most emblematic. Soros, the Budapest-born U.S. investor and philanthropist, founded CEU after the fall of the Iron Curtain to train a new generation of leaders committed to liberal democratic values and open societies, something Orban has come to oppose.”

Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

“It’s insane that he would return to the White House and jeopardize his staff’s health when we are still learning of new cases among senior staff. This place is a cesspool… He was so concerned with preventing embarrassing stories that he exposed thousands of his own staff and supporters to a deadly virus. He has kept us in the dark, and now our spouses and kids have to pay the price. It’s just selfish” – Trump Administration official quoted by Axios.