Evening Wrap

 Today I learned that the human skull is very close to the surface of the skin. (Technically I guess I already knew this, but I had never had to think about it before.) And that is why I have nothing else to say to you here!

A nonprofit organization that facilitates Bible-based lessons for students during school hours will be in more than a quarter of Ohio’s school districts by next year, prompting pushback from critics who say the classes amount to state-sanctioned indoctrination, the Ohio Capital Journal reported. 

The march continued toward its inevitable conclusion Tuesday in Michigan, where Trump notched a 42-point victory over Haley in the GOP primary, the Michigan Advance reported. President Joe Biden roughly doubled that in the Democratic primary, scoring 81% of the vote in a win over a protest campaignthat urged Democrats to mark “uncommitted” on their ballots to protest his unwillingness to call for a full cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. The dual blowouts were the clearest sign yet that we’re headed for a 2020 rematch. But the numbers offered other signs, too.

 The theme of today’s newsletter was obvious to me from the moment I opened my laptop this morning and laid eyes on the headlines.

“I’m sorry, they’re doing what?” I said. 

No one answered me, because I work from home and my pets can’t talk. But that's OK. Once you read it, you’ll understand.

 We are 252 days out from the 2024 election, but the election drama is already out in full force.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters on Thursday urged members of the public to refrain from “rushing to opinion” or “passing judgment” until police conclude an investigation into the death of a 16-year-old nonbinary student, the Oklahoma Voice reported. Until then, just thoughts and prayers, please.

The election matters, of course, but maybe not as definitively as you might expect. Trump could lose and disappear from public life forever, and we’d still spend the next decade grappling with the aftershocks of his ascent. There is no kill switch. There is only triage.

Six years and one week ago, 14 teenagers were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. On Tuesday, parents of two of the victims stood in Utah State Capitol with a warning: It could just as easily happen here.

K-12 education is, in general, the second largest expense for states, behind public welfare, according to the Urban Institute, averaging about 21% of the budget. Add in higher education, at almost 10%, and education becomes the single most expensive thing states do.

Speaking of presidents, perhaps you’ve heard that we’re picking one this year? Not like we’re picking a NEW president, of course. Mostly it’s shaping up to be a warmed-up leftovers election, choosing between one guy who is president now and the other guy who was president once before.

Since at least the Watergate Era, the main question politicians don’t like to have to answer is “What did you know?” Followed closely in unpopularity by “And when did you know it?”

In the same vein: Roe v. Wade was settled precedent, until it wasn’t. And returning the issue “to the states” did not end the abortion war — it just diffused it into a thousand smaller battles. (One in three women of reproductive age now reside in states where abortion is illegal. Fourteen states ban the procedure entirely, and seven more impose restrictions that would have been unconstitutional under Roe.) We’re still in the same trenches. There are just more of them now.