From the left: Midterms Too Close To Call
“Trump certainly deserves a shellacking — his presidency combines the unthinkable with the unnecessary with the unhinged,” growls Joe Klein at Sanity Clause, but he’s not making any predictions.
asserted
he → call → predictions
“Senate races across the country,” including red states, “are all within or near the margin of error.”
asserted
races → include → error
I’m “hoping that the Democrats will take one of the Houses,” but “I’m not willing to bet the farm on that.”
asserted
I → hop → that
One worry: Democrats this year “have accepted socialism in the same righteous, benighted way that they strutted trans activism in 2024.”
asserted
they → accept → 2024
Yet you can see Dem momentum in “the trend toward ship-jumping and modification by Republican candidates” distancing themselves “from Trump in close races.”
asserted
you → see → races
Beware: “Crazy things have been known to happen in October.”
asserted
things → beware → October
Plus, “journalists really suck at predictions,” so: “Don’t trust us.”
asserted
journalists → suck → us
From the right: GOP’s Missing Positive Message
asserted
GOP → miss → Message
“What should Republicans do about [Abdul] El-Sayed?” asks Washington Examiner’s Byron York.
asserted
York → do → Sayed
He’s a “radical” who “has some truly terrible ideas,” but “that doesn’t mean he’s wrong about everything.”
asserted
he → ’ → everything
When he “leads with the cost of living” and blames “recent increases on the war in Iran,” he’s “hitting Republicans in their weakest spot.”
asserted
he → lead → spot
Republicans can respond with “negative advertising targeting his positions, record, and associates,” but they must also show that he “does not have a plausible plan to stop the increase in the cost of living” — and that the GOP does, something they have “not done that well enough.”
asserted
they → respond → that
Republicans “need to raise their game,” or they’ll “spend the next six years with Sen. El-Sayed.”
asserted
they → need → Sayed
Educator: School Choice Requires Good Schools
Nikole Hannah-Jones casts “segregation and school choice as causing educational inequality,” but the real outrage “isn’t that some families can choose a good school, but that too many can’t,” argues Roland Fryer at The Wall Street Journal.
asserted
Fryer → require → Journal
“Too many must choose from a menu that presents the options dishonestly or offers no good ones” — “the fundamental problem is the scarcity of effective schools.”
asserted
problem → choose → schools
His experience shows that “effective schools are made.”
asserted
schools → show → ?
A competitive education marketplace can allow “new schools to enter,” “successful ones to expand” and “ineffective schools close if they fail to improve.”
asserted
they → allow → ?
Choice succeeds when we “make schools effective, tell parents the truth and trust them to choose.”
asserted
schools → succeed → them
Vladimir Putin’s only conventional path to victory in Ukraine may lie through the Baltic States,” warn Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet at The Hill.
uncertain
Toth → lie → Hill
His ailing Donbas ailing offensive has backed him “into a corner”; he “needs another way to get to Kyiv,” such as “an asymmetrical war against the European Union and NATO member states” — say, striking “the Baltics” in hopes the alliance is paralyzed into not responding and then rethinks its support for Ukraine.
asserted
alliance → ail → Ukraine
“A large drone and ballistic missile attack, precipitated by a Russian false-flag event, would suffice.”
asserted
attack → precipitate → event
To deter Putin, Europe should “go on the offensive”: Declare “an active defense” over Western Ukraine, and signal that “it has no intention of backing down in its support of Ukraine.”
asserted
it → deter → Ukraine
The Feds’ ‘Piggy Bank’ Mistake
Uncle Sam needs to stop serving as a “piggy bank” for the states, argues The Washington Post’s editorial board.
asserted
board → need → states
“State politicians have largely viewed federal largesse as free money that they would be foolish to refuse,” though it’s “convoluted and wasteful” for the feds to tax state residents and then send some of that cash back to state programs.
asserted
feds → view → programs
Then-Gov. Scott Walker balanced Wisconsin’s budget by cutting grants to local governments; Washington could try a similar move.
uncertain
Washington → balance → move
“A sudden increase in responsibility would be a shock to state governments, but smart governors and legislators would view it as a generational opportunity to improve the lives of their residents.”
asserted
governors → view → residents
The Aporia
