The Virginia gubernatorial election is way too close for comfort, but it hasn’t yet sparked the kind of mass Democratic panic and flurry of organizing that we saw in the California recall election last month. Consider this a friendly invitation to commence your productive freakout.
 

• Recent polls show Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe leading Republican Glenn Youngkin by just a few points, with a couple of flashing warning signs: Youngkin is leading among the independent voters he needs to win, and his supporters appear to be more enthusiastic about voting for him. President Biden won Virginia by 10 points in 2020, and if McAuliffe can turn out those voters, he’s golden—but he’ll have to do so while Biden’s approval rating is inconveniently underwater (or right at the water line, depending on the poll).
   
• Given Donald Trump’s proven toxicity among Virginia swing voters, McAuliffe has sought to boost his turnout by painting Youngkin as a far-right Trump stand-in, a strategy that worked out pretty well for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). Helpfully, Youngkin is an idiot who keeps letting his Bland Normal Conservative mask slip, opening the door to great ads like this one from the Lincoln Project (credit where it’s due) about his appearance on Sebastian Gorka’s radio show. 
   
• Youngkin, for his part, has tried to publicly steer clear of extreme MAGA conspiracy theories, instead centering his campaign around bread-and-butter Republican priorities like the economy the made-up war against critical race theory. At the same time, he’s repeatedly signaled to Virginia’s Trump supporters that as soon as he wins the election, he’s all theirs. At a recent rally, Youngkin himself made no reference to Trump’s election-fraud lies, but GOP state Sen. Amanda Chase threw the crowd some red meat moments before he spoke: “I know what the Democrats are trying to do. If things happen again like this past year, they will be caught.”

So what’s at stake here?
 

• For Virginians, a whole lot! McAuliffe’s defeat would mean the loss of Democrats’ trifecta in the state, and bring the Virginia GOP closer to passing new voter-suppression laws, banning abortion, sabotaging the pandemic recovery, and abandoning the state’s clean-energy plan, among other neat projects. For the rest of us, also a whole lot! The themes at the core of Virginia’s statewide races (vaccines, schools, the unshakeable ghost of Donald Trump) will also be central to the 2022 midterm elections. If those issues don’t send McAuliffe to the governor’s mansion, the Democratic Party has a serious problem.
   
• Speaking of the midterms, you’ll want to keep an eye on Virginia’s redistricting process, too. In 2020, Virginia voters approved a bipartisan redistricting commission that has so far failed to come to any agreement, meaning that it will likely turn over map-drawing duties to the conservative Virginia Supreme Court. Democrats hold seven seats on the state’s current map, while Republicans hold four. Depending on how gerrymander-y the state Supreme Court happens to feel, that distribution could shift dramatically next year. 

There are just three weeks left until voting concludes in the Virginia gubernatorial race, and it’s too tight to hang out on the sidelines. Text everyone you know in Virginia today to make sure they’re voting, and if you’ve got more GOTV in you, step right this way: votesaveamerica.com/virginia.

Listen to the latest episode of Keep It with Ira, Louis, and guest host Tre’vell Anderson who joins to discuss Dave Chappelle’s special “The Closer,” and the highs and lows of celebrity podcasts. Plus, Ira and Louis sit down with Carrie Brownstein to talk about her new film with St. Vincent, The Nowhere Inn. New episodes of Keep It drop every Wednesday. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Social Security payments will increase by nearly six percent next year, the biggest annual cost-of-living adjustment since 1982. (In 2021, the increase was just 1.3 percent.) Seniors and other beneficiaries will have inflation to thank: The increase is based on an inflation measure similar to the Labor Department’s consumer-price index, which surged 5.4 percent in September from the year before. Starting in January, the average monthly Social Security payments for retired workers will rise from $1,565 to $1,657, according to the Social Security Administration. Workers with disabilities will see an average increase from $1,282 to $1,358. Whether that increase makes a substantial difference for retirees will mostly depend on whether inflation eases next year, as Fed officials say they expect it to. Assuming they’re right, inflation...welcome to the resistance.

• House Democrats passed the short-term debt-limit increase in a party-line vote on Tuesday (after Republicans first tried to adjourn, so that the economy could explode), successfully averting an immediate crisis, but by kicking the can just a bit down the road.
   
• Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) reiterated a threat from other members of the January 6 committee to hold subpoenaed witnesses in criminal contempt of Congress if they don’t show up for their depositions. The committee issued a new subpoena on Wednesday to former Justice Department official/coup cheerleader Jeffrey Clark.
   
• The U.S. will allow vaccinated travelers to cross the Mexican and Canadian land borders starting next month.
   
• American and Southwest Airlines said they wouldn’t comply with an order from Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) seeking to ban private-sector vaccine mandates, which conflicts with President Biden’s executive order requiring them.
   
• The FDA has issued new guidance designed to make Americans eat less salt, because the sodium in processed foods is “giving all of us heart disease,” if you believe the “scientists” in the pocket of Big Bland.
   
• The archbishop for the military declared that Catholic troops can refuse to get a coronavirus vaccine regardless of whether it derived from fetal tissue, based on vibes alone.
   
• IATSE, the union representing film and TV production workers, announced that it will strike on Monday if it hasn’t reached a satisfying agreement with the studios. 
   
• South Dakota’s Republican Senate Majority Leader Gary Cammack was arrested last year but nobody knows why.
   
• A Mississippi auditor said former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre has yet to repay nearly $1 million to a fund for needy families for speeches he never gave. Favre will face a lawsuit if he doesn’t fork it over within 30 days.
   
• William Shatner, age 90, became the oldest person to fly to the edge of space and had a wonderful time: “In an instant you go, `Whoa, that’s death.′ That’s what I saw.”

President Biden announced new measures on Wednesday to get a handle on inflation and prevent a dreaded How The Supply Chain Stole Christmas scenario. The White House has finalized a deal to keep the Port of Los Angeles operational for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the hopes of reducing the logjam of container ships waiting to dock and easing shortages of the products they’re carrying. The Long Beach port has also been running 24 hours a day for the last few weeks; those two ports account for 40 percent of all shipping containers entering the U.S. Walmart, FedEX, and UPS have also committed to working during off-peak hours to address the backlog. Biden noted that setting ports to 1.5x speed alone won’t solve the problem: The country needs more truck drivers, and better infrastructure to make the supply chain resilient against pandemics and extreme weather.

In 2021 mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.  

Millions of people are trying and loving online therapy. It doesn’t have to be sitting around just talking about your feelings.

So, what is therapy, exactly? It’s whatever you want it to be.

You can privately talk to someone if your stress is too much to manage, you’re battling a temper, having relationship issues, anxiety, depression, etc… Whatever you need, there’s no more shame in these normal human struggles. We take care of our bodies, why not our minds, too? Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is HARD.

BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours.

It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.

The Biden administration has moved to end mass ICE raids at worksites that employ undocumented workers. 

Vaccine mandates work, city employee edition. 

The new perennial grain Kernza could transform farming to help fight climate change.

Dozens of volunteers were able to rescue an enormous leatherback sea turtle who got stranded on Cape Cod.