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Barnes Betting Report: August 1, 2023
August 01, 2023

News & Notes

  • Politics: The entire managerial class in control of American politics currently, in the military, financial and legal arenas, prove a level of ineptitude, decrepitude, and dangerousness that may exceed the empire-killing elites of pre-WWI that ended the centuries-old empires of Britain, the Hapsburgs, the Ottomans, and the Russians in less than a decade. The Fed, looking at worse data than the summer of 2019 when they cut rates out of concern, now raise rates instead. The Pentagon props up a disastrous war overseas, while losing power globally to the rise of the new global south, with Putin its figurehead. The DOJ indicts Trump again on the most trumped-up charges yet. America heads into the depths of the declining empire stage, and that tends to be ugly, and more variable, than most epochs. But, remember, variability itself can factor into profits on predictability markets. A mindset lesson: the unpredictable is, itself, predictable. 
  • Economy: Most Americans see the economy as bad, and that is likely to worsen according to global trade data, key manufacturing data, costly housing markets, declining savings, rising debt, freezing credit, and consumer uneasiness. Near impossible to imagine a Democratic reelection in 2024 with war abroad, recession at home, and scandal everywhere. 
  • Geopolitics: War in Ukraine backfires, as the counteroffensive fails, Russian strength grows, Niger coups succeed, China struggles with its own stagnation and managed decline, Germany sinks into recession along with the EuroZone, the neo-con Tories see likely demise in the UK, and the most popular pols are populists like Putin in Russia & the anti-crime Bitcoin-loving leader of El Salvador. Populism’s rise likely just begun. 

 

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🔥 August 7 Degenerate Special 🔥

Zack Wheeler Over 5.5 Ks (-164) is the clearest individual strikeout prop on the entire slate.

Elite Tier arm (10.8 K/9) projects ~7.1 strikeouts tonight. The 5.5 is pure floor — he clears it the overwhelming majority of the time even when limited. Highest projected strength gap vs any posted line today.

Safe. High-conviction. Locked.

#MLBProps #StrikeoutBets #DegenerateMode

Sports Morning Espresso Shot - 8/7/26

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OFFICIAL PICKS: Midterms, 2026
House Elections Projections
 
The House tends to be more responsive to midterm dynamics, but, like the Senate, swings hard in elections where some combination of the Four Factors are present -- cost of living crisis or recession; war; major scandal; betrayal or down-ballot realignment. A fun map to use is this simulator, which takes partisan averages from existing models, and plugs in the map based on your adjustment of the generic ballot edge for one party or another. https://globalelectionsimulator.com/#/usa-house
 
Historic Norms: When a combination of the Four Factors are present, this is the kind of swing you get:
1930: 52 seat swing
1946: 55 seat swing
1958: 49 seat swing
1974: 49 seat swing
1994: 54 seat swing
2006: 31 seat swing
 
2026 PROJECTIONS

 

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Barnes Betting Report: Senate 2026

First, four factors dictate whether there is major turnover in the Senate in a midterm election independent of the favorability of the Senate map (due to only one-third of seats being up in any given midterm). Often, as was the case in both 2018 and 2022, is that incumbents are not destined to lose seats, outside of realigning elections in unfavorable maps. This cycle's map favors the GOP, which is why the prediction markets and most forecasters expect a GOP majority in the 2027 Senate. The four factors that prove dangerous to the incumbent party are: first, a recession or cost of living crisis; second, a war; third, a major scandal; and fourth, a sense of betrayal in the voter group that backed the incumbent amongst some portion of their prior electoral coalition. Five midterms feature some combingation of those factors in some significant degree: 1930, 1946, 1958, 1974 and 2006.

Without those factors present in multiple forms, the incumbent party can expect to hold on to seats in states it previously won outside the national margin. When those factors are present, the landscape shifts dramatically. Examining those White House incumbent seats that showed a state-wide election decided by single digits in the prior decade produces the following probabilities: the incumbent White House party lost at least 67% of its incumbent held seats, as much as 85% of its incumbent held seats, and an average of 75% of its incumbent hold seats, rarely upsetting the opposition party in any seat and often losing a surprise or two in seats considered completely safe. 

 

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Barnes Betting Report: Massie Deep Dive
Based on historic turnout patterns in contested GOP primaries, early voting to date, and a range of polling sources, this is my updated set of forecasts for the Kentucky 4th Congressional District GOP primary. 
 

 

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