Once given up for dead, Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances in November's midterm elections. The race for the House is narrowing, although Republicans are still predicted to win control, while the race for the Senate is a toss-up. Formerly pessimistic Democrats now think November will not be an unmitigated disaster for their party.

There have been several new reports about the number and the sensitivity of documents seized in the Aug. 8 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, the winter home of former President Donald Trump. If true, the reports add to the body of knowledge about the matter.

There has been a surge of optimism among Democrats lately when it comes to November's midterm elections. The short version of the thinking is: Maybe we're not going to get clobbered after all! But much of their hope is still likely in vain. For one reason: President Joe Biden.

There have been dozens of headlines in recent months suggesting that radical supporters of former President Donald Trump hope to start a new civil war in the United States. The dangerous threats and rhetoric reached a new peak after the unprecedented Aug. 8 FBI raid on Trump's winter home at Mar-a-Lago, followed by revelations that the Biden Justice Department is pursuing an unprecedented criminal case against the former president, apparently over the alleged mishandling of classified information.

Beginning in the months before Donald Trump took office, and extending well into his presidency, the media and political world took a set of vague but serious accusations of wrongdoing involving the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia and created a 24/7 frenzy of talk about secret evidence, possible criminal charges, and allegedly grave damage to national security.

Republicans and conservatives have loudly protested the Democratic plan to expand the IRS vastly, and especially its enforcement arm, with an infusion of $80 billion included in the misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act. The $80 billion is, by many accounts, far more than the IRS needs, and Republicans are suspicious about how it will be spent.

In addition to reporting the nuts and bolts of the FBI's unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump's home in Palm Beach, Florida, much media coverage has also focused on angry Trump supporters, who are portrayed as being whipped up by Republican politicians and MAGA agitators.

here's a line at the end of an Axios newsletter that sums up everything that is wrong about media coverage and public discussion of the FBI's unprecedented raid on the home of former President Donald Trump. "These investigations are top secret," Axios's Mike Allen wrote. "So more likely than not, we won't get the full picture any time soon."

You've probably heard Republicans say the Inflation Reduction Act, the massive spending bill just passed by Senate Democrats, includes provisions to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. The number seems too big to believe. The IRS has just 93,654 employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

There are less than two weeks to go before Wyoming's Republican primary, pitting incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney, of Jan. 6 Committee fame, against challenger Harriet Hageman. There's never much polling in House races, but there was one big one in Wyoming three weeks ago, and it was terrible for Cheney.