Month: December 2021

Today’s R&D is brought to you by Prepd (pronounced “prepped”). Prepd is building debate technology that helps extempers and congressional debaters research, practice, and compete. Visit www.prepd.in to learn more.

This week’s R&D covers abortion rights.  The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments for the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that questions the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi state law that bans most abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy.  In addition, the Supreme Court sent a lawsuit over Texas’ controversial abortion law, that bans most abortions after six weeks, back to the appellate level yesterday and has left the law intact at the moment.  Pro-choice advocates warn that the Supreme Court is on the verge of overturning the landmark 1973 case of Roe v. Wade that constitutionalized the right to abortion, and if that happens, more than twenty states would immediately ban the procedure.

What will happen if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade next year? Writers and scholars weigh in on what it could mean for the future of reproductive rights, the politics of abortion and the law’s treatment of other civil liberties. https://t.co/oPIyBFFWBj

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 16, 2021

FDA eliminates restriction on abortion pill as Supreme Court weighs case that challenges Roe v. Wade https://t.co/gV3pHkSASF

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 16, 2021

Perspective: Digital surveillance presents new threats to reproductive freedoms. Prosecutors already rely on searches, text messages and emails about abortion care as evidence. https://t.co/966ASdVtmB

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 15, 2021

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Laurel Holley competed for Riverside High School in Greenville, South Carolina. She was the 2021 NSDA U.S. Extemp National Champion, 2021 Ronald Reagan Great Communicator Debate Series National Champion, two-time South Carolina state champion in Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking, and a two-time NSDA Nationals finalist. Laurel will be attending Duke University in the fall, where she will study public policy, global health, and Chinese.

Laurel agreed to sit down with Extemp Central to talk about her road to the NSDA National Championship and what advice she would give current extempers.

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Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz.  Good luck!

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Note that these will be the last questions of the first semester.  Extemp Central will resume posting new, original content on Monday, January 3.

1. How will the world decide the COVID-19 pandemic is over?
2. Should the British Conservative Party give Boris Johnson the boot?
3. What will be the global impact of the Evergrande default?
4. Is Aung San Suu Kyi the best leader for Myanmar’s democratic movement going forward?
5. To what degree can Emmanuel Macron make the European Union more powerful in the world?
6. Should El Salvador’s political leadership continue negotiate with street gangs?
7. Will New Zealand’s anti-smoking plan work?
8. What can cure the dysfunction that bedevils global democracies?
9. Who will win Colombia’s next presidential election?
10. Should Israel end its policy of nuclear ambiguity?

Note that these will be the last questions of the first semester.  Extemp Central will resume posting new, original content on Monday, January 3.

1. Will Donald Trump’s intervention in the Georgia governor’s race produce an Abrams victory?
2. Is Biden’s term turning into Jimmy Carter 2.0?
3. Will “The Great Resignation” continue into 2022?
4. Should the GOP abandon its position on keeping taxes low for business owners?
5. Would private school tax credit programs undermine public education?
6. Is there a “missile gap” forming between the U.S. and China?
7. Should Democrats cease using the term “Latinx”?
8. Is an arms embargo on Cambodia necessary?
9. How could Mike Pence defeat Donald Trump in a Republican presidential primary?
10. What steps do American cities need to take to curb rising homicide rates?

Today’s R&D is brought to you by Prepd (pronounced “prepped”). Prepd is building debate technology that helps extempers and congressional debaters research, practice, and compete. Visit www.prepd.in to learn more.

This week’s R&D covers the ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.  The United States backed out of a 2015 framework on Iran’s nuclear program during the Trump administration, something that President Biden is looking to reverse.  However, ongoing talks in Vienna, Austria between Iran and negotiators from the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, Germany, and France are deadlocked over Iran’s demand that all American sanctions against it end.  Some fear that the U.S. not joining a new nuclear accord could mean that Iran gets a nuclear weapon, potentially triggering a military conflict with Israel, who fears a nuclear Iran threatens its survivability.

Ray Takeyh on what Iran wants from the nuclear talks and what could happen next. https://t.co/WkPsMMal9v

— Council on Foreign Relations (@CFR_org) December 9, 2021

If US nuclear diplomacy with Iran continues to stall out, Israel should seriously consider ending its longstanding policy of nuclear ambiguity, argues Bennett Ramberg of @PacCouncil. https://t.co/S9rWP8kvac pic.twitter.com/w2ymTzTeZ8

— Project Syndicate (@ProSyn) December 9, 2021

At some point, the Biden administration will have to ask itself if it is really worth a war with Iran to prevent nuclear proliferation, @EmmaMAshford writes in this week’s It’s Debatable. https://t.co/4QW1ZiG62C

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) December 6, 2021

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Last weekend’s the University of Texas at Austin played host to the 24th Annual Longhorn Classic Tournament, which took place in person after the COVID-19 pandemic forced last year’s tournament to be online. The tournament allowed extempers to double in International and United States Extemp but no one managed to win both as #5 Cameron Roberts of Jack C. Hays High School (TX) and #16 Kyle Letterer of Plano West Senior High School (TX) split the titles.

Roberts dominated the International Extemp final, winning all three first place ranks available, and cruising to a five-rank victory over a bevy of Plano West extempers that were led by Phoena Lin. This marks Roberts’ first National Points Race win of the season in four opportunities.

In United States Extemp, Letterer enjoyed a narrow one-rank victory over Meghna Ittycheria of Lake Travis High School (TX) and also won his first National Points Race tournament of the season. Lin finished third, which made her the most consistent extemper at the tournament across both categories.

Other notable finishes at the Longhorn included a semi-finalist showing in United States Extemp for #2 McKinley Paltzik of Phoenix Country Day School (AZ), who also reached the quarter-final round of International Extemp, a semi-finalist finish by #8 Charles Hou of Plano West in United States Extemp, and semi-finalist placings by #14 Gabriel Bo of Plano West in each extemp category.

The Longhorn Classic is a fourth tier tournament in the National Points Race, so all extempers who reached the semi-final round and beyond will earn points. So as to avoid double counting, Extemp Central will give points to an extemper’s highest finish across the two categories.

All quarter-finalists at the Longhorn receive a bid to the Extemp Tournament of Champions (TOC) at Northwestern University, while all semi-finalists will receive a bid to the University of Kentucky TOC in each category because the Longhorn attracted seventy-two extempers in International Extemp and eighty-seven in United States Extemp.

Here are the results of the 2021 University of Texas Longhorn Classic (Click here for tab sheet):

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Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz.  Good luck!

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First semester tournaments have been kind to National Points Race leader Daniel Kind of Lake Highland Preparatory School (FL) whose momentum continued at last weekend’s George Mason University Patriot Games, hosted in an online setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kind won his fourth major national circuit event of the season – and third in a row – against a final round field that included three other top ten extempers, although none of those competitors finished second as unranked Olivia Wetzel of Whitmer High School (OH) took second place.

With the win, Kind becomes the first extemper from Florida to win the George Mason Patriot Games since 2015, when Nathaniel Saffran of Trinity Preparatory School captured the championship.

Dev Ahuja of Solon High School (OH), who came into George Mason ranked third, finished in that same position when the competition was over. George Mason is the third time this semester that Ahuja has reached the final round of a National Points Race event. Teammate Vikram Sundaram, who is ranked eighth in the nation, finished fifth.

Seventh ranked Marc Zavarro of Western High School (FL) also notched a third National Points Race final, finishing fifth.

Isabel Brittin of the Potomac School (VA) rounded out the final round with a sixth place finish.

George Mason counts as a third tier tournament in the National Points Race, so all competitors who reached the quarter-final round will earn points. All quarter-finalists will also receive a bid to the Extemp Tournament of Champions (TOC). Since the tournament attracted a smaller field than normal, with only forty-three competitors participating, all finalists will receive a bid to the University of Kentucky TOC.

Here are the results from the 2021 George Mason University Patriot Games (Click here for tab sheet):

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1. If Russia invades Ukraine, should China invade Taiwan?
2. Should Great Britain allow Scotland to hold another independence referendum?
3. Will Eric Zemmour be Macron’s runoff challenger in the next French presidential election?
4. How can Xiomara Castro improve Honduran democracy?
5. Did the BJP err by repealing India’s farm laws?
6. Will international powers fail to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program?
7. Does Sudan’s military have too much control over the nation’s political transition?
8. Will Silvio Berlusconi become the next president of Italy?
9. Has Africa become the battleground of the West’s emerging rivalry with China?
10. Five years on, has Colombia’s peace deal lived up to the hype?

1. To what extent should the United States defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity?
2. Is President Biden responsible for Vice President Harris’ poor poll numbers?
3. Are existing discipline guidelines making America’s schools less safe?
4. Will the omicron variant doom Democratic efforts to keep control of Congress in 2022?
5. What should the Biden administration do if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade?
6. Will Major League Baseball’s owners reach a new labor agreement with the players’ union by spring training?
7. Can Dr. Oz win Pennsylvania’s Senate seat?
8. Will a reduction of the Fed’s quantitative-easing program substantially lower inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy?
9. What role should the U.S. federal government play in fixing lead pipes throughout the country?
10. Will Stacey Abrams win Georgia’s governorship next year?

Today’s R&D is brought to you by Prepd (pronounced “prepped”). Prepd is building debate technology that helps extempers and congressional debaters research, practice, and compete. Visit www.prepd.in to learn more.

This week’s R&D covers the omicron variant of COVID-19.  First discovered in South Africa, the variant is still under study and as of the time of this R&D’s creation, a handful of cases have been identified in the United States.  There are fears that the new variant might infected vaccinated individuals and be more contagious than the delta variant from India.

As the omicron variant stirs concerns across the globe, the CDC says all American adults who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should get a booster shot. https://t.co/bwuKaSZMaG

— U.S. News & World Report (@usnews) December 2, 2021

The possibility that Omicron might now outcompete Delta has the world on edge and may yet see markets lose their cool. We explain how wildly it differs from other variants https://t.co/KZFM8lNm7P

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 2, 2021

Biden says his top experts anticipate COVID-19 cases to increase in the weeks and months ahead as the omicron variant is likely to spread throughout the United States this winter. https://t.co/XiYLK6DWTj

— Roll Call (@rollcall) December 2, 2021

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Pranav Pattatathunaduvil attended Plano West Senior High School in Plano, Texas. He was the 2021 NSDA National Champion in International Extemp, 2020 Champion of the Glenbrooks in Domestic Extemp, and runner-up at the 2021 Montgomery Bell Academy Round Robin, 2020 Harvard Invitational, and 2020 Tournament of Champions (TOC). He is currently a freshman at Yale University, studying Global Affairs and Economics.

Pranav graciously agreed to talk with Extemp Central about his career, sharing his thoughts on navigating the wild 2020-2021 national circuit season and the people who helped him along the way.

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Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz.  Good luck!

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