Taiwan expects Chinese invasion by 2025

Beijing’s deployment of warplanes in ominous demonstrations of its might, worryingly close to nearby Taiwan, seems to be having the intended effect: The island’s defense minister expects a full-scale invasion by 2025. He also says relations between Taiwan and Beijing are the worst they’ve been in more than four decades. But while Taiwan says its ready and willing to fight China in the face of such a calamity, can it count on backing from a US military fundamentally chastened by its failure in Afghanistan? Washington has already deployed a contingent of Special Forces and Marines to an increasingly anxious Taiwan, according to reports, while China has deployed 150 military aircraft in Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), in October alone. RT America’s John Huddy reports. Then former Naval intelligence officer John Jordan shares his insights.

Onlookers in the media rushed to offer their hasty reactions to Wednesday’s school shooting in Arlington, Texas without a single fact of the case having been yet settled to confirm or dispute their conclusions. Former Chief Deputy US Marshal Matthew Fogg joins Steve Malzberg (in for Scottie Nell Hughes) to weigh in on the reawakened public focus on the sad toll America’s staggering profusion of guns and omnipresent prospect of gun violence takes on the lives of everyday Americans, like the four people injured on Wednesday’s Texas incident.

Plus, President Biden's ambitious and controversial agenda is having an embarrassingly difficult journey through Congress. Its tremendous cost, confused messaging and turbo-charging of the IRS all seem unpalatable, even to many of his fellow Democrats. The unfortunate situation, coming on the heels of the haphazard withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, has exacerbated Biden's precipitous fall in popularity among voters and thus damaged his chances for reelection. Democratic commentator Jan Ronis and former Colorado state senator Ted Harvey weigh in.