10-14: Videos show top conservative activists discussing election tactics, amplifying conspiracy theories; How can 42 percent of Americans still support the worst president in our history?; Democratic early-voting wave

Marie Prevost (1896-1937)

✅Orange County in the Midst of Unprecedented Election Mail-in Ballot Wave 

The “unheard of” early return trend comes amid new controversy over California Republicans’ self-proclaimed “ballot harvesting program” through the use of unofficial ballot collection boxes. 

—Voice of OC 

     “It’s one more indication of an increasingly motivated electorate,” reacted Fred Smoller, political science professor at Chapman University, in a Tuesday interview. “There’s a lot of interest in this election; people feel there’s a lot at stake and are expressing that by voting early.” 

. . . 

     “What’s really significant for me is we just mailed the ballots, and within a few days we had return rate figures of 100% above four years ago — that’s unheard of,” [Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal] Kelley said to Voice of OC on Tuesday. “You might see that a couple of weeks in, but a few days after sending them out? That’s historic. It’s never been done before.” 

✅Science on the Ballot 

Experts see a sharp contrast between Trump and Biden when it comes to investments in federal research funding and respect for science itself. 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     …Trump’s continued efforts to downplay the severity of the pandemic, seen most recently in the wake of his own COVID-19 diagnosis, his rejection of public health guidance -- including, perhaps most consequentially, his mockery and failure of role modeling when it comes to face masks -- and reported efforts by his administration to interfere in scientific decision making in the nation’s public health agencies and sideline experts have raised alarms among scientists and many others. Scientists have criticized the president for rejecting scientific and other forms of expertise, including by forcing out or muzzling government-employed scientists and by eliminating many advisory committees comprised of outside experts…. 

✅New Zoom Competitor Targets Higher Ed Users 

Ed-tech start-up Engageli has raised $14.5 million to build a videoconferencing platform. Unlike Zoom, the platform has been purposefully designed with college and university faculty members and students in mind. 

—Inside Higher Ed 

✅Higher Ed’s Shameful Silence on Diversity 

—CHE 

✅Covid-19 Live Updates: Europe and the U.S. Confront Spiking Cases as Temperatures Dip 

—NYT 

Bessie Love (1898-1986)

✅Videos show top conservative activists discussing election tactics, amplifying conspiracy theories 

Footage obtained by The Post, covering dozens of hours of closed-door meetings of the Council for National Policy in February and August, reveals the group’s obsessions, fears and plans at a pivotal moment for conservatives. 

—WashPo 

✅How can 42 percent of Americans still support the worst president in our history? 

Opinion by Max Boot 

—WashPo 

✅Proposal to hasten herd immunity grabs White House attention but appalls top scientists 

—WashPo 

✅At a glance: See the biggest spenders in California’s prop battles -- Californians are voting on 12 propositions, but not all are funded equally. Just take a look at that fat slab of lilac in the graphic below. Ben Christopher CalMatters -- 10/14/20  

No surprise for even the most dimly engaged Californians who have been bombarded with ads for weeks now: Funding for Proposition 22, a measure to exempt gig-economy companies from a new state labor law, dwarfs just about everything else. To date, its yes campaign has raised nearly $188 million. That’s $3 of every $10 that’s been spent for or against any proposition on the November 2020 ballot.

✅Newsom’s office recommends changes for policing protests --Police should avoid unnecessary enforcement that could provoke conflict among protesters, avoid looking too militaristic, and use rubber bullets and tear gas only as a last resort when handling demonstrations and protests, according to recommendations released Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. Teri Figueroa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/13/20 

✅Trump urges California GOP to 'fight on' with unofficial ballot boxes despite prosecution threat -- President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to urge the California Republican Party to “fight on” in its move to collect ballots in unofficial “drop boxes’’ around the state, in defiance of legal threats from state officials. Carla Marinucci Politico -- 10/13/20 

✅Across the country, Democratic enthusiasm is propelling an enormous wave of early voting 

Roughly 15 million Americans have already voted, setting a trajectory that could result in a majority of voters casting ballots before Election Day for the first time in U.S. history. 

—WashPo

✅Chapman University works to contain coronavirus outbreak among students -- The university reported that 17 students living in dormitories are infected with COVID-19, as well as 19 living in off-campus housing near the school and one more in an unknown type residence. No faculty or staff have been infected. The item is in the Orange County Register -- 10/13/20 

Louise Brooks (1906-1985)

✅Back from Covid, Trump pins hopes on a hectic comeback tour -- The president is trying to regain ground with the resumption of campaigning three weeks from the election, but so far isn’t changing his message. Meridith McGraw Politico -- 10/13/20 

✅California poised to reject affirmative action measure despite summer of activism -- Polls suggest the Legislature may have miscalculated when it placed a measure on the November ballot to reinstate affirmative action. Alexander Nieves Politico -- 10/13/20 

✅Arellano: Latino Republicans face a tough task: turning blue Orange County red again -- So Avila has taken on a mission that seems downright Sisyphean: Not only help take Orange County back for the Republicans, but also bring Latinos to a party that demonized them, in this very county, decades before Trump sauntered into the White House by calling Mexicans “rapists.” And you thought fighting the Bobcat fire was tough. Gustavo Arellano in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/13/20

✅OC Covid numbers: 19 new deaths reported