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With Russia increasingly cut off from the world following its 24 February invasion of Ukraine, the countrys remaining contemporary art market, facing evident economic and often unspoken ideological pressures, is increasingly looking inward. The tenth Cosmoscow International Art Fair, which runs from 14 to 17 September, was no exception.

Even before the event began, such ideological pressures had apparently been felt by some of the participating dealers. A Telegram channel called Courier of Culture, run by a contemporary art publicist, reported that three unnamed galleries had complained about censorship by the fair, at the application stage, preventing any political works or anything that could in any way be linked to the current state of affairsmeaning the warfrom being exhibited.

One anonymous dealer tells The Art Newspaper: "Cosmoscow asked that we change the design of the stand, the artists, their work and the hanging of it. There was nothingpolitical in the works, nor in the idea of the stand, but it was as if the board was trying to choose works where in the current context definitely no second hidden meanings would be sensed."

They add: "Every year [at Cosmoscow] we show young artists of roughly the same style, and this year there was a feeling that the objections were at the level of 'degenerate art'."

A law signed by President Vladimir Putin just days after the invasion makes it illegal to call the invasion a war and threatens those who spread fakes about the Russian military with up to 15 years in prison.

In April a criminal case was opened against the artist Oleg Kulik on charges of rehabilitation of Nazism for his sculptural installation Big Mother (2015), which was shown at the Art Moscow fair at the Gostiny Dvor centre, just yards from the Kremlin, which is also the venue for Cosmoscow. The work came under fire for allegedly mocking The Motherland Calls, a monument in Volgograd commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. Kulik, who grew up in Kyiv, has said it was meant to depict the pain of his divorce.

Margarita Pushkina, fair director

Photo: Alexander Murashkin

Censorship not allowed

Margarita Pushkina, Cosmoscows founder and director, says: We have never allowed and do not allow internal censorship. Meanwhile, the fairs expert committee is working as usual, selecting the best galleries to participate in the fair.

The most important thing right now, Pushkina adds, is not to multiply contradictions and conflicts, but instead to maintain human and professional relations, continue the dialogue and discuss ways to resolve complex issues. The fair and galleries, she points out, are all directly dependent on the state of the economy.

For a long time there was a question mark over whether the fair would go ahead at all. Simon Rees, the artistic director of the fairs previous edition, resigned immediately after the invasion. Pushkina says a successor has not been appointed because the fairs priorities have shifted.

One of the tasks of the artistic director of the fair has always been to develop international cultural dialogue and to attract galleries from other countries, Pushkina says. In the current situation, we understand that there is emotion involved for international galleries, as well as many difficulties and risks. First of all, there are logistical difficulties, so their participation does not seem simple and obvious.

Indeed, there are no longer any direct flights to Moscow from the US, UK and elsewhere in Europe, except for Turkey and Serbia, and leading shipping companies are boycotting Russia over the invasion.

The only solution, Pushkina says, is to now concentrate on working with Russian gallery owners in order to try to stabilise the situation and continue working on the development of the domestic art market.

The vast majority of the more-than 65 participating galleries at Cosmoscow are Russian, compared with 82 galleries in 2021, when the fair had the broadest geography in its history, and on par with the 62 participants in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ukrainian artists were always an organic and integral part of the Russian art scene, but understandably no Ukrainian galleries applied for stands this year, Pushkina says.

In recognition of the present situation, Cosmoscow is not marking its tenth anniversary with any special events, Pushkina says, though she did not directly mention the war.

All of us in one way or another are influenced by current events and react to what is happening in our country and in the world, she says. In the current situation, it is impossible to remain indifferent. Everyone determines for himself which path to follow, to remain silent or to continue the activity in a modified format.

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First Cosmoscow fair since Russian invasion of Ukraine to open with no foreign galleries and internal complaints of censorship - Art Newspaper

Facing violence in the real world and censorship in the virtual one, anti-abortion groups are asking state attorneys general to do more to keep them from being wiped off the mapGoogle map.

Tension over abortion rights began even before the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision on June 23 overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion that had made abortion a constitutionally protected right for nearly half a century.

In an unprecedented move, a preliminary draft of the decision was leaked, and published by Politico on May 2. It led not just to demonstrationsincluding some outside Supreme Court justices homesbut to acts of violence and vandalism against pregnancy centers that support pregnant women to encourage them to carry their babies to term. An investigation into the leak continues, Justice Neil Gorsuch said recently, adding he hoped it was finished soon.

CompassCare, an upstate New York group whose Buffalo-area center was firebombed on June 7, said it had documented a sustained pro-abortion effort successfully pressuring tech giants Google and Yelp into censoring and ostracizing them. And the effort has some law enforcement officers, notably New York State Attorney General Letitia James, plus the Biden White House, on their side.

Beginning on August 23, despite the threat of chief law enforcement (officers) in 17 different states, both Google and Yelp began the process of defaming and censoring pro-life pregnancy centers through misleading consumer warnings as well as wiping them off the map function so women who think abortion is their only choice could not find them. At the same time, Google raised Planned Parenthood to number 1 in all organic search results for keywords related to abortion, giving them millions of dollars worth of free advertising, CompassCare said in a public statement.

Big tech conspiring with the political elite to silence any who differ with their ideology is a classic fascist move, destroying anyone who gets in their way, CompassCare CEO Rev. Jim Harden said in the statement. Our only objective is to protect all people equally, both mother and child. If a benevolent goal like that is a threat to those in power, what kind of mania is driving them? This is truly the pro-abortion Kristallnacht.

To learn more about the AG antitrust legal strategy to protect a womans ability to choose the support of a pro-life pregnancy center and not just abortion, contact their offices, CompassCare said.

A lengthy timeline provided by CompassCare details when pressure was applied to the tech companies, when they complied, and how effectively anti-abortion groups were made invisible on maps and in searches. Google on Aug. 25 detailed extra layers of verification increasing the likelihood that pregnancy centers would be flagged for allegedly being misleading or inappropriate.

The attorneys general of 17 states warned Google in an open letter on July 21 that the company might, if it continued censoring anti-abortion groups, be held in violation of antitrust laws.

We, the undersigned Attorneys General, are extremely troubled by this gallingly un-American political pressure. We wish to make this very clear to Google and the other market participants that it dwarfs: if you fail to resist this political pressure, we will act swiftly to protect American consumers from this dangerous axis of corporate and government power, the letter said.

We cannot imagine a potential antitrust violation more odious to American ideals than the deployment of monopoly power to suppress the expression of a particular idea, done at the behest of government actors. Because of the fundamental American values at stake here, if you comply with this inappropriate demand to bias your search results against crisis pregnancy centers, our offices will (1) conduct thorough investigations to determine whether this suppression violates the antitrust laws of the United States and our states.

The letter, whose lead authors were Jason Miyares of Virginia and Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, was also signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

The timeline details how government and pro-abortion groups have joined forces to defame and suppress abortion opponents and those working to help women who choose not to have one. And the pressure has continued steadily since and despite the July 21 warning from the state attorneys general.

CompassCare spokesman Isaac Harden said the group and its allies had a team of 30 lawyers and legal experts with various projects in the works. But the attorneys general have the resources. It would be ideal if they pursued this cause.

Here are some excerpts:

On Nov. 4, 2021, Planned Parenthood posted on its website: Crisis pregnancy centers (also called CPCs or fake clinics) look like real health centers, but they have a shady, harmful agenda: to scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control, and sexual health. There are a lot of these CPCs in the U.S exposefakeclinics.com and The Fake Clinic Database can help you figure out which clinics in your area are crisis pregnancy centers. This statement constitutes defamation, CompassCare alleges.

On June 29, 2022, the president of NARAL, Mini Tammaraju, was quoted in a release by the New York attorney generals office: Google is the first place many people will turn to find out what care they have available to them We thank New York State Attorney General (Letitia) James for leading this effort to ensure everybody looking to access care can find that information without being misled by dangerous fake health centers. This constitutes defamation of a competitor, CompassCare alleges.

The government and the press picked up the gauntlet.

On June 13, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Pregnancy Center Investigation Bill to regulate the activities of pro-life pregnancy centers.

On June 22, the New York Times said in a story, For years, abortion rights advocates have called on Google to stop allowing crisis pregnancy centers to run misleading abortion-related ads on the search giants platform In an email, a Google spokesperson said that protecting users from harmful and misleading ads was a top priority.

On June 28 and 29, James office posted two statements pressuring Google to censor pro-life pregnancy centers, CompassCare documents:

CPCs exist solely to intercept and dissuade pregnant people from making fully informed decisions about their health care Including these organizations in a list for an individual seeking abortion services is dangerous and misleading This issue continues to persist in some New York regions, providing misleading information.

And, New Yorkers, and others traveling to the state, should trust that Google Maps will provide accurate information and direct them to real and safe care By relying on Googles search results in these cases, individuals are unknowingly directed towards dangerous situations and harmful experiences Attorney General James warned Google to immediately address the misinformation.

And censorship has taken place:

Beginning in June, pregnancy centers have had their speech rights curtailed by ordinances passed in numerous cities, beginning in June, CompassCare said. Cities including Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, Austin, and Columbus, Ohio, have deprioritized enforcement of abortion regulations, deregulating abortionists, CompassCare charges.

On July 8, the Biden administration posted an Executive Order Fact Sheet on the White House website which said, The Presidents Executive Order takes additional steps to protect people seeking reproductive health care from inaccurate information, fraudulent schemes or deceptive practices. Thats censorship, CompassCare charges.

On July 12, Senator Elizabeth Warren called for the shut down of pregnancy centers: In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination, she told a television reporter. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.

Pregnancy centers have faced more than wars of words or legal procedures. A shadowy group called Janes Revenge, which uses a website based in Italy, took credit in a communique posted June 15 for the Buffalo attack and numerous others on pregnancy centers across the country.

You have seen that we are real and that we are not merely pushing empty words. As we said, we are not one group but many. You have seen us in Madison, WI, Ft. Collins CO, Reisertown MA, Olympia WA, Des Moines IA, Lynwood WA, Washington DC, Asheville NC, Buffalo NY, Hollywood FL, Vancouver WA, Frederick MA, Denton TX, Gresham OR, Eugene OR, Portland OR among others, and we work in countless locations invisibly.

Your thirty days expired yesterday We promised increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures. Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti Eventually your insurance companies and your financial backers will realize you are a bad investment.

At least 67 pregnancy resource centers have been attacked since the Dobbs opinion leaked in May, according to CatholicVote.org.

Janes Revenge is emboldened by the inaction of our governor, our attorney general, and our majority Democrat legislature, said New York state Sen. George Borrello, a Republican, at the CompassCare centers defiant reopening on Aug. 1. Someone has to die before the progressives think its violence.

CompassCare detailed how slowly local and federal authorities are investigating the June 7 pregnancy center firebombing in Amherst, a Buffalo suburb. Amherst police that day confiscated the centers computers containing its security footage.

On July 13, more than a month later, they asked the center to sign a release allowing them to share a copy of the security footage with the FBI for forensic analysis. A center executive did so the same day. CompassCare CEO Jim Harden met with police on July 14 to view several printed screen grabs of the footage, but police refused to let him view the security footage itself.

Police didnt make their first public statement on the investigations progress until Aug. 1, nearly two months after the attack. Harden met with the FBI agent assigned to the case on Aug. 17. The agent told him the agency was considering but had not yet begun a height analysis on a suspect captured on video. On Aug. 19, Amherst police once more refused to return CompassCares security footage.

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Anti-Abortion Groups Ask State Attorneys General to Protect Them From Online Censorship - The Epoch Times

Kansas Republicans have spent the past two weeks trying to move on.

The landslide Aug. 2 vote preserving abortion rights in the state constitution was a stunning defeat for many anti-abortion Republicans. GOP candidates up and down the ballot quickly pivoted to the Nov. 8 general election.

Rather than continuing the fight over abortion, Republicans were hoping to shift the focus back to inflation and President Joe Biden as they seek to tie incumbent Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Rep. Sharice Davids to the president whose popularity has sagged in recent months.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the Republican nominee for governor, and former Cerner executive Amanda Adkins, the Republican nominee in the 3rd Congressional District, have both shown little desire to make abortion a central focus on their campaigns following the Aug. 2 amendment vote.

The recount wont dramatically move the needle on the more than 165,000 vote lead. But it will keep the issue top of mind for voters as Republicans seek to win back the governors office and the 3rd District in November.

Neither Schmidts campaign, nor Adkins campaign, responded to questions about whether the GOP candidates supported the recount effort.

Whats ironic is the very people who I think it hurts are on the side of the people continuing to keep it in the spotlight, said Stephanie Sharp, a former moderate Republican state legislator who now operates a political consulting firm.

She added that she believes the recount hurts Amanda and Derek but the right cant let it go.

Schmidt and Adkins, Sharp said, already had support from voters on the right. Now they need to convince voters in the middle, many of whom voted no. The 3rd District is one of the most competitive congressional seats in the country and key to Republicans hopes of winning the U.S. House.

In a statement, Davids pointed out the 95,000-vote lead no had in Johnson County alone.

Im grateful to the election workers and officials who are doing their jobs here, but the recount is a waste of money and time from dangerously out-of-touch politicians who are unwilling to accept defeat, and should be called out as such, Davids said.

While Davids GOP opponent Adkins remained mum on the recount, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sought to tie the Johnson County Republican to the effort. The DCCC called it an attempt by radical election deniers and conspiracy theorists working to overthrow the will of voters in KS-03.

Recounts began Tuesday morning in Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee, Douglas, Crawford, Harvey, Jefferson, Lyon and Thomas counties. All but Thomas had a majority of voters reject the amendment. The counties combine to account for roughly 59% of votes cast in the August primary election.

Election workers in Johnson County began sorting ballots into piles by precincts on Tuesday. Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said at a news conference that he hopes the actual recounting of ballots begins on Wednesday. Counties have until Saturday to complete the recount.

At least 46% of the no votes in the counties would need to flip in order to change the results of the election.

The Kansas Republican Assembly is a hard-right group unaffiliated with the official Kansas Republican Party. Over the years, it has taken on a number of ultraconservative and anti-government positions, including opposition to fluoridated water among other issues.

In Sedgwick County, Republican officials are trying to distance themselves from the Value Them Both failure. David Thorne, chairman of the county party, said the party made no effort to sign up volunteers for the recount.

The partys not involved with that, at all, Thorne said. The race is over, by a large margin.

Thorne said many Sedgwick County Republicans signed up to help with the recount on their own. Sedgwick County officials confirmed, as of Tuesday afternoon, that they had an overabundance of Republican volunteers to help count ballots and a lack of interest from Democratic counters.

We do have a lot of volunteers, and some of them on their own are probably going to be involved and just become a counter, Thorne said. But, the fact is, weve moved on. Were focusing on growing the Wichita economy and setting the vision for that and winning in the general.

A distraction?

Schmidt attempted to reset the political conversation this week by attacking Kelly on education, a major emphasis in her first campaign for governor. Schmidt aimed to hit Kelly on student achievement and school shutdowns of early COVID-19.

The new front in the race came several days after Schmidt quietly posted a statement online in the wake of the amendment defeat that declared he had never supported a total abortion ban and preferred exceptions for instances of rape, incest and the life of the mother. He otherwise sidestepped the issue.

Going forward, I will continue to do what Ive done for years defend commonsense regulations supported by a majority of Kansans such as the existing restrictions on late-term abortion and on taxpayer funding for abortion, said the statement, issued six days after the vote.

In a statement following the vote Adkins proclaimed the Kansas vote as evidence of the U.S. Supreme Courts wisdom returning the issue to the states. Kansans had spoken, she said, and the federal government no longer had a role.

But the effort nonetheless may distract from the issues they want to be talking about - like the economy.

Im positive it has an impact. Now the question is, how much? Is it de minimis, is it small? Its a distraction, its a sour grapes, now how much, who knows? said Kansas Senate Vice President Rick Wilborn, a McPherson Republican.

But state Rep. William Sutton, a Gardner Republican, said he expected Republicans to stay on message despite the continuation of the abortion debate.

Weve got a job to do and were set about doing that. If theres a recount going on, thats not for me to deal with. Im just doing my job ahead, he said.

The recount will require an incredible amount of labor to complete on the tight timeline.

At the Johnson County Election Office on Tuesday afternoon, a couple dozen election workers were working on the recount process. Their numbers are expected to swell to roughly 150 over the next few days. Johnson County plans to temporarily reassign some county employees from other departments to assist in the effort.

The recount will be conducted by numerous bipartisan teams, each having one Republican and one Democrat. County employees will be assigned to teams based on their party affiliation.

We will have a combination of county employees who will be reassigned to this location that will help us conclude or conduct this process, as well as election workers were working contacting to come in and help us finish the process, Sherman said.

In Sedgwick County, a lack of Democratic Party ballot counters and logistics issues are likely to delay a recount of the abortion rights vote in Wichita until Wednesday at the earliest, a Sedgwick County official said.

For the recount, the Sedgwick County Election Office is seeking 100 Republicans and 100 Democrats to count ballots and ensure bipartisan representation. At least 100 Republicans have agreed to help with the recount but the election office has not found enough Democrats, Libertarians and unaffiliated counters yet, Sedgwick County spokesperson Nicole Gibbs said.

The states leading anti-abortion groups and lawmakers have distanced themselves from the recount, which is expected to reaffirm the landslide defeat for the amendment.

In a statement about the recount the Value Them Both Coalition the primary vote yes campaign said they were focused on looking forward not back.

In a newsletter to supporters, Kansans for Life outlined possible steps forward for combating abortion in Kansas after the amendments failure, including additional resources for crisis pregnancy centers, laws protecting abortion survivors and support for candidates who would support anti-abortion judges.

The pro-life movement has faithfully fought battles on many fronts for 50 years and nothing not even a bad election night will weaken our resolve, the newsletter said.

State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican and chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said anti-abortion lawmakers had discussed increasing funding to Kansas existing pregnancy maintenance initiative fund and making adoptions easier in the state.

However, Landwehr said she couldnt see what could be gained from the recount.

Some people may want to make it a distraction but it shouldnt be. That race, that election happened, its over with, she said.

Ripe for the picking

But the recount will reinforce a Democratic talking point that the August vote was just one piece of a broader contest over abortion rights.

Potentially, this shows to the broader public that these are people who are bringing forward accusations and complaints that are not grounded in reality, without substantive evidence, said state Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat.

Holscher said she wasnt surprised to see a recount effort materialize Kansas lawmakers gave a platform for election deniers to spread unfounded claims of fraud during the 2022 session.

The recount, she said, would likely affirm the results. But it underscored Democrats task heading into November.

We have this whole extremist faction thats the supermajority thats pretty much detached from their constituents and what the people want. So we have to ensure that we keep sending the message that this is not the direction Kansans want to move into, Holscher said.

Sharp agreed. Candidates on the right needed to keep the abortion issue alive to energize their base, but it would push away the middle and the left.

Continuing this conversation just alienates the rest of the people that didnt vote that way, Sharp said.

However, she said, it would be incumbent on Democrats to make that point. While Davids has leaned into the abortion issue before and after the vote, Kelly has shied away from it.

Its right there. Its ripe for the picking, Sharp said.

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MDJOnline.com | Cobb's Local News Source Since 1866

Democrats were riding high this summer. The Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade energized the partys base, and the economic woes that had been plaguing the Biden administration began to subside as gas prices dropped. The party had finally scored several legislative wins with the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. Former President Donald Trump was under investigation by the Department of Justice for potentially violating the Espionage Act, and the generic congressional polls began to tilt in their favor. Suddenly, predictions of certain midterm disaster for the party gave way to cautious optimism.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, however, the pendulum never swings in one direction forever. Bidens soul of the nation speech, in which he declared "MAGA Republicans" to be semi-fascists who posed a threat to our democracy, didnt exactly help his partys candidates. And although gas prices have dipped below their peak, the rising costs of necessities such as groceries and housing have outpaced those reductions. Moreover, the Labor Departments report on Tuesday showing year-over-year inflation at 8.3%, higher than expected, almost certainly solidified a voter backlash against Democratic candidates who have voted for all the needless overspending that triggered it.

While its highly expected that Republicans will win back the House in November, control of the Senate remains far less certain. The GOP is optimistic, but so too are the Democrats. The night before the release of the inflation report that sent the stock market into a death plunge, for example, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was reportedly overheard in a Washington, D.C., restaurant telling colleagues Democrats have a 60% chance of holding the Senate, according to a Punchbowl News report.

All else remaining the same, Republicans need to win five of the eight Senate races rated as toss-ups by RealClearPolitics: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

RCP projects the Republicans will hold onto Senate seats in Ohio, North Carolina, and Wisconsin and will pick up seats in Nevada and Georgia.

In Ohio, Trump-backed candidate J.D. Vance leads Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan by 2.7 percentage points for the open seat held by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who is retiring.

In North Carolina, Republican Rep. Ted Budd is ahead of his opponent, Cheri Beasley, a former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, by 1.3 points. They are vying for the open seat being vacated by the retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

In Wisconsin, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is in a tough fight against progressive challenger Mandela Barnes, who is ahead by 1.7 points. However, the race has tightened. A Marquette poll released this week shows Johnson ahead by 1 point. A Marquette poll conducted last month gave Barnes a 7-point advantage.

Its worth noting that right up until the 2016 election, Johnson trailed his opponent, longtime former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) by 2.7 points, but won the race by 3.4 points. Polling isnt all its cracked up to be, it seems.

In Nevada, Republican challenger Adam Laxalt could easily unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. Laxalt currently prevails by just 1 point, but he has momentum on his side.

And in Georgia, football legend and Republican Herschel Walker might just pull off an upset against Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. Trump-endorsed Walker got hammered in the polls this summer when revelations of his illegitimate children and history of mental health problems surfaced, but he has rebounded strongly over the past month. Though the RCP average of polls is currently tied, summer polls showed him trailing Warnock by as much as 10 points. Walker has made significant gains, and strong voter support for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp might be enough to pull Walker across the finish line.

The three remaining races in the toss-up column are ranked by RCP as Democratic holds. In Arizona, Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly remains stubbornly ahead of Republican Blake Masters by 4 points, although the polls have tightened in recent weeks. In New Hampshire, Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan leads Republican challenger Gen. Don Bolduc by 4 points. And in Pennsylvania, far-left John Fetterman, the states lieutenant governor, has held onto an early lead against the Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz. I wrote about this race earlier this week.

Recall the overly optimistic polls in the 2020 election. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was projected to lose her reelection bid by 6.5 points. Instead, she won by 8.6 points. Although less dramatic, the story was the same for Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Steve Daines (R-MT).

There is reason to believe that pollsters are once again overestimating Democrats' chances and underestimating those of the Republicans. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned as much this week when he predicted Masters would win over Kelly, arguing Kelly's small lead makes him vulnerable.

Even the New York Times appeared to agree in a piece published this week, which compared recent polling results with those from 2020 and 2016 and found that Democratic Senate candidates are outrunning expectations in the same places where the polls overestimated Mr. Biden in 2020 and Mrs. Clinton in 2016. He concluded there is a consistent link between Democratic strength today and polling error two years ago. The most glaring errors in 2020 occurred in Wisconsin, where polls overestimated Bidens strength by 9 points, and in Ohio, where polls underestimated Trumps strength by 8 points.

In other words, Republicans have good reason to be optimistic about taking back the Senate. As of right now, they have a very plausible path to victory.

Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor tothe Washington Examiner andthe Western Journal. Her articles have appeared on many websites, including MSN,RedState,Newsmax, theFederalist, andRealClearPolitics. Follow her onTwitterorLinkedIn.

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Despite the spin, Republicans do have a path to win the Senate - Washington Examiner

Carolyn Thomsons letter MAGA Republicans not extremists (Sept. 8, TribLIVE) implores readers not to portray MAGA Republicans as extremists, terrorists or neo-fascists. I find this hard to do given 1,000 or so MAGA Republicans stormed the Capitol in the hope of overturning a free and fair election, but OK if they arent extremists, what are they?

Thomson says she is anti-crime, but what about the messiah of her political cult? The FBI search of Mar-A-Lago proved President Donald Trump had documents belonging to the American people (regardless of how the Trump-appointed judge has seen fit to run interference for him). Thomson later invokes the ghosts of the Holocaust to defend her position. Strange, I seem to remember a group of privileged white men , marching through Charlottesville, Va., shouting Jews will not replace us. Trump later called them good people.

How about I call MAGA supporters hypocrites then? Is that politically correct enough for you?

Kris Weinschenker

Youngstown

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Letter to the editor: If not 'extremists,' what are MAGA Republicans? - TribLIVE