Live Updates: Ahead of Meeting With White House Team, Manchin Criticizes Billionaire Tax Plan  —  Here's what you need to know:  —  Manchin denounces the Democrats' plan to tax billionaires as divisive.  —  Senate Democrats' plan to extract hundreds of billions of dollars from the wealth …

An Open Letter in Defense of Democracy  —  The future of democracy in the United States is in danger.  —  (DESIGN BY HANNAH YOEST / PHOTOS: GETTYIMAGES / SHUTTERSTOCK)  —  [This open letter is being published simultaneously by The Bulwark and the New Republic.]

President Trump Responds on Pennsylvania's 2020 Election  —  Donald Trump writes a letter to the editor.  —  In your editorial “The Election for Pennsylvania's High Court” (Oct. 25), you state the fact that a court wrongly said mail-in ballots could be counted after Election Day.

Facebook tells employees to preserve all communications for legal reasons.  —  Facebook has told employees to “preserve internal documents and communications since 2016” that pertain to its businesses because governments and legislative bodies have started inquiries into its operations …

Marjorie Taylor Greene invested as much as $50,000 in the Trump SPAC before its stock plunged  —  New York (CNN Business)Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene bought as much as $50,000 worth of shares in a shell company that is merging with former President Donald Trump's new media venture, according to a financial disclosure form.

Why the Virginia Election Is Freaking Democrats Out  —  Ms. Cottle is a member of the editorial board.  —  With just under a week to go, the governor's race in Virginia has gotten tighter than Spanx on a hippo, prompting much agita in Democratic circles.  When the Democrats won full control …

Cotton tells Garland: 'Thank God you're not on the Supreme Court'  —  Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday clashed with Republican senators over the Justice Department's efforts to crack down on violent threats against school boards, with one GOP member telling the former judge, “Thank God you're not on the Supreme Court.”

Murphy Maintains Lead  —  Slight narrowing in governor race, but little change overall  —  West Long Branch, NJ - Phil Murphy maintains a sizable lead over Jack Ciattarelli, although the margin has narrowed over the past two months, according to the final Monmouth ("Mon-muth") University Poll of the New Jersey governor's race.

How did Florida end up with one of the best COVID-19 case and death rates in the US despite Gov Ron DeSantis refusing to implement mask or vaccine mandates?  — During the peak of the recent COVID-19 surge in Florida, the state was recording 101 cases per 100,000 people and 1.77 new deaths per 100,000

Bidenomics Is Working  —  Consumer prices are high and rising, and so is disapproval of Joe Biden.  In recent days, the president's net-favorability rating has hit new lows in FiveThirtyEight's aggregation of polls.  Meanwhile, America's headlines are full of testaments to economic discontent.

Trump-Backed QAnon Candidates Launch Group to ‘Control the Election System’  —  A coalition of right-wing MAGA candidates, including multiple Trump-backed candidates, are seeking to take control of elections in states across the U.S.—and one says they're formally working with a group of conspiracy theorists …

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema wore a denim vest to preside over the Senate.  Here's why that matters  —  We see you, Senator.  We really do.  —  But that's no surprise, is it?  After all, it's what you seem to want.  —  Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona's walking, talking headline — well …

David Perdue is considering a primary challenge against Brian Kemp  —  Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue is seriously considering mounting a Republican primary challenge against Gov. Brian Kemp, according to a number of GOP activists and operatives, which would set up a divisive showdown between …

Florida judge rules Trump can't skirt Twitter's terms just because he was president in latest legal setback  —  A Florida federal judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump's status as a former president does not exclude him from following Twitter's terms of service, the latest setback in his quest …

U.S. General Likens China's Hypersonic Weapon Test to ‘Sputnik Moment’  — Top U.S. general says suspected test is ‘very concerning’  — Afghan war a failure as the ‘regime that we supported lost’  —  The U.S.'s top uniformed military officer called China's suspected test …

Cybercriminals claim to have hacked the NRA  —  A notorious Russian cybercriminal group has posted what appear to be National Rifle Association files to the dark web.  —  The group, known as Grief, posted 13 files to its website Wednesday and claimed to have hacked the NRA.

The M25 is our Maginot Line  —  Anyone who believes there are biological differences between men and women is literally a Nazi  —  This article is taken from the October 2021 issue of The Critic.  To get the full magazine why not subscribe?  Right now we're offering five issue for just £10.

Warning: Joe Biden's ‘eat the rich’ pitch may come back to bite you  —  President Joe Biden has struggled to get the massive new spending bill through Congress with a pitch that would make Joe Isuzu blush: “We talk about price tags.  It is zero price tag” and “My Build Back Better agenda costs zero dollars.”

The Supreme Court case that could gut America's gun laws, explained  —  More than a century of gun laws are potentially on the chopping block.  —  For nearly all its history, the Supreme Court kept its distance from gun policy.  Now it's about to decide a case that could radically reduce the government's power to regulate guns.

Boston Medical Center surgeon fined for leaving operating room to eat in his car, then falling asleep and missing the procedure  —  The longtime head of spine surgery at Boston Medical Center has been reprimanded by state regulators and fined $5,000 for leaving an operating room before the start …

Some ‘very fine people’ walk into a courthouse  —  Dispatch from the big federal lawsuit in Charlottesville  —  Greetings from Charlottesville.  Today is the third day of Sines v. Kessler, the federal lawsuit brought against the organizers of the white supremacist rampage that turned …

All About the Bidens: Introducing RealClearInvestigations' Hunter Biden Reader  —  This is RealClearInvestigations' Hunter Biden Reader, a compendium of news reports aggregated across the political spectrum documenting the dubious dealings and apparent influence peddling of Joe Biden's errant son and other family members.

New cases down nearly 60 percent since delta variant surge … New coronavirus infections in the United States have dropped nearly 60 percent since a September spike brought on by the more contagious delta variant, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.

Vaccine eligibility for mood disorders underscores elevated covid risk  —  When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added mood disorders to the list of conditions that put people at high risk for severe covid-19 recently, clinicians were not surprised.  The mind-body connection, they say, is long-settled research.

Billionaire Tax Proposal Out of Biden Plan, Democrat Neal Says  —  The proposal to tax the unrealized gains of billionaires' assets is now out of President Joe Biden's economic agenda, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal says, Bloomberg News reports.  —  More information is available on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Prosecutor drops felony charge against central Pa. man for 43-cent ‘theft’  —  1,533  —  The Perry County district attorney's office dismissed a felony charge that Pennsylvania State Police had filed against a homeless man after he paid $2 for a Mountain Dew drink that cost $2.29.