What we know about “Nur Omar Mohamed’s military career” in the Somali army makes it “very doubtful” that Rep. Ilhan Omar’s father “met the US legal definition of a ‘refugee’,” argues National Review’s Jim Geraghty.
asserted
Geraghty → know → refugee
One obituary noted that his “prestigious career in the military ended in 1991 after the Barre regime was ousted.”
asserted
regime → note → 1991
Notes Geraghty: “The Somali government was using its military to commit genocide for the better part of three decades, intensifying in the late 1980s.”
asserted
government → note → 1980s
Credible sources discredit the notion that her father could “rise to the rank of colonel with no role in that military’s massive-scale genocide.”
uncertain
father → discredit → genocide
How was a Somali colonel “qualified as a refugee” when he may have “ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution” of civilians?
uncertain
he → qualify → civilians
Midterm watch: Trump’s Sensible Appeal
President Trump “has been widely mocked for asking voters to ‘pretend I’m on the ballot,’ ” notes the Washington Examiner’s Byron York.
asserted
York → mock → ballot
Yet appealing to “low-propensity voters” — such one ones who won’t normally vote unless Trump’s on the ballot — “makes sense.”
asserted
Trump → appeal → sense
A 2025 Pew Research study found eligible voters nationwide who didn’t vote in 2020 and ’22 but did in ’24 backed Trump 55%-41%.
asserted
who → find → Trump
“This was not just a tiny group of people”: “2024-only voters made up 12% of the entire electorate in the presidential race that year.
asserted
voters → make → race
It made a big difference for Trump.”
asserted
It → make → Trump
So, “if Republicans are trying to turn out low-propensity voters” now, “it makes sense to ask them to pretend that Trump is on the ballot.”
asserted
Trump → try → ballot
“Democrats should think hard about” the “broad spectrum of sketchy fundraising behavior, from outright scams to bad ideas,” argues Slow Boring’s Matt Yglesias after getting a “rather absurd request” from Gov. Maura Healy (D-Mass.), who’s in zero danger of losing.
asserted
who → think → danger
People “acutely frightened about the state of our country” must “be smart with our resources, not throwing them at dumb stuff” like unwinnable or unlosable races, or ones without “large strategic implications.”
asserted
People → throw → implications
Never forget: “People make money off of political campaigns” — “vendors and consultants” who “benefit specifically from donations” to candidates who’ve hired them, “even if other candidates would be a better use of your money.”
asserted
candidates → forget → money
And “outright scams” include “PACs that say they’re supporting candidates but mostly just fund themselves.”
asserted
they → include → themselves
To keep “the small-donor engine running,” Democrats should be “giving donors some assurances that their money is being well spent.”
asserted
money → keep → assurances
Conservative: Say No to Toxic Candidates
The major political parties “keep force-feeding us s—t sandwiches and telling us to like them,” fumes Erick Erickson at The Free Press, and insisting that “we must debase ourselves a little further every cycle.”
asserted
we → say → ourselves
We’re told to “hold our noses” and “pull the lever” for “white nationalists, racists, and antisemites” and “crooks, frauds, charlatans, and those who’d attack the victim of molestation,” or else face “the end of America.”
asserted
who → tell → America
We “have heard that message every two years for 20 years,” but “America is still here” even as the “candidates keep getting worse.”
asserted
candidates → hear → years
Of every election requires us to swallow something rotten, we might as well starve.”
uncertain
we → require → something
America will never be made “great again” if we are “continually descending into the sewer to find candidates.”
asserted
we → make → candidates
Foreign desk: DC Must Protect Machado
María Corina Machado’s return to Venezuela “poses a challenge to the ruling regime of Delcy Rodríguez, but also to the Trump Administration,” frets The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board.
asserted
Board → protect → Administration
Machado had left “the country in fear for her life” but now as promised has returned “to participate in a transition back to democracy” following former President Nicolás Maduro’s arrest.
asserted
Machado → leave → arrest
But Rodríguez “refuses to set a date for new elections.”
asserted
Rodríguez → refuse → elections
Amid that stall, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Trump must ensure Machado’s safety:
asserted
Rubio → ensure → safety
“It’s all too easy to imagine her suddenly dying in a car ‘accident’ or from a mysterious illness” — and Trump’s Venezuelan oil deal “won’t be worth much unless Venezuela has a government with democratic legitimacy,” something “that should start with a date and a credible process for a free and fair democratic election.”
asserted
that → ’ → election
The Aporia
