American streets are being patrolled by murderous secret police.
asserted
streets → patrol → police
The constitutional order and the division of powers have broken down.
asserted
order → break → powers
Some major media outlets have become sycophantic devotees of the ruling party, and others are following suit.
asserted
others → become → suit
A sitting U.S. president has amassed billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains from brazen and scuzzy quid pro quos.
asserted
president → sit → quos
Donald Trump has starved Cuba, effected a coup in Venezuela, forsaken Gaza, bullied Greenland and stumbled into a world-worsening quagmire in Iran.
On Tuesday, there was finally a bit of comeuppance.
asserted
Trump → starve → comeuppance
Voters turned out in staggering numbers to oust Trump’s Republican bootlickers.
asserted
Voters → turn → bootlickers
Just hours after Trump begged the public to “pretend I’m on the ballot,” he pleaded with them to recall “I wasn’t on the Ballot.”
asserted
I → beg → Ballot
If it had been Trump’s name, he wrote on Truth Social, “we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
asserted
we → write → LANDSLIDE
Instead, his party has gone down in a defeat of historic proportions.
asserted
party → go → proportions
Ottawa will be celebrating the GOP’s losses in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, even if it does not end the trade war.
asserted
it → celebrate → war
Ottawa will be celebrating the GOP’s losses in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, even if it does not end the trade war.
asserted
it → celebrate → war
In a rambling 23-minute call to Fox News on election night, Trump insisted that he need learn no lessons.
asserted
he → insist → lessons
“We’ve done a great job,” he said; it was the loser candidates (whom he endorsed and relentlessly campaigned for) who were the problem.
asserted
who → do → whom
But look closely at some of the races, and it becomes pretty clear that Americans don’t agree.
asserted
Americans → look → races
Start with Wichita, Kan., where Canadian aerospace company Bombardier has a major facility.
asserted
Bombardier → start → facility
Trump has, in recent months, taken credit for Bombardier’s expansion plans while simultaneously threatening to ban the company from the U.S. market entirely.
asserted
Trump → take → market
The plant is located in a county that normally votes Republican by double-digit margins: on Tuesday, voters there swung 21 points toward the Democrats, helping secure a massive upset for U.S. Senator-elect Adam Hamilton.
asserted
voters → locate → Hamilton
Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who has represented Maine since 1997, had successfully lobbied Trump to swap out some of his tariffs on Canada which had been hammering struggling businesses in her state.
asserted
which → represent → state
It didn’t work: she lost by a mile.
asserted
she → work → mile
Stories like this have cropped up across the country.
asserted
Stories → crop → country
In Michigan, Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed — the target of some truly unhinged Islamophobic attacks by Trump and his cronies — gleefully noted in his victory speech that he can go from wishing inshallah (“God willing”) to alhamdulillah (“Praise be to God”).
asserted
Praise → note → God
Or look at Cameron County, in Texas, where billionaire Elon Musk is building the Bond-villain-esque town of Starbase to house his SpaceX headquarters and employees.
asserted
Musk → look → headquarters
Voters there shifted 44 points toward Democrat James Talarico — whom Musk had targeted, as part of his half-billion-dollar campaign spend to help the GOP maintain its hold on power.
asserted
GOP → shift → power
In districts the Republicans gerrymandered at Trump’s urging, where pockets of Democrat-leaning voters were carved up to dilute their political power, things seem to have backfired spectacularly.
asserted
things → gerrymander → power
Their anti-democratic chicanery appears to have cost the Republicans a number of seats in the House of Representatives.
asserted
chicanery → appear → Representatives
Certainly, the origins of this blue typhoon can be found in the sky-high price of diesel, itself a consequence of Trump’s disastrous adventurism in Iran.
asserted
itself → find → Iran
But high prices alone can’t explain the extent of the rout.
asserted
prices → explain → rout
Americans are angry: about data centres they don’t want, corruption they can’t prevent and wars they can’t stop.
asserted
they → want → centres
Thus far, Trump has vowed to respect the results — they are so lopsided he will probably have no choice.
asserted
he → vow → choice
But in the past, he has tried to deny duly elected representatives their seats in the U.S. Congress (and was prosecuted for doing so).
asserted
he → try → Congress
It would take thick-skulled naïveté to think he wouldn’t do it again.
asserted
he → take → it
But even if Trump does face the music, that doesn’t mean his reign of error is over.
asserted
reign → face → error
“They’re in control,” Trump told Fox News as the results poured in, “but they’re really not in control.”
asserted
they → ’re → control
A post on his social media page summed up his reasoning: a red baseball cap with the word “VETO” written on it.
asserted
post → sum → it
Even with control of both the House and the Senate, the Democrats will have trouble repealing Trump’s powers to impose tariffs and wage war: to do so, they would need a supermajority to override the inevitable presidential veto.
asserted
they → have → veto
They don’t have the votes.
asserted
They → have → votes
And while they have already promised to launch investigations into Trump’s brazen self-enrichment, we know kleptocrats like Trump don’t subside easily.
asserted
kleptocrats → promise → Trump
He might have failed, to a cartoonish degree, to press his advantage in these midterms — but he won’t go down without a fight.
uncertain
he → fail → fight
History gives us a good clue as to what Trump will do next: salami tactics.
asserted
Trump → give → what
The phrase originated in postwar Hungary, as the country was trying to build itself a democracy.
asserted
country → originate → democracy
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
