You’re reading The Weekly, a Saturday morning recap of the best Dispatch content of the week, with some additional commentary from Managing Editor Rachael Larimore.
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You → read → Larimore
Last week I wrote about polling showing that we could be in for a blue wave in the midterms.
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we → write → midterms
This week we gained some insight into how that forecast is already having consequences, and we looked ahead at the ramifications of a Democratically controlled Congress.
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we → gain → Congress
In short, Republicans are turning on President Donald Trump, even conspiracy theories aren’t working for him, and the president and some of his Cabinet could find themselves in very uncomfortable positions come January.
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president → turn → January
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Texas Attorney General and Senate nominee Ken Paxton, in a speech to donors, blamed the GOP’s midterm convention for driving down his poll numbers.
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Paxton → report → numbers
In Boiling Frogs, Nick Catoggio was skeptical of the notion that “Trumpapalooza” is the source of Paxton’s problems, but he was also surprised that Paxton spoke against the president.
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Paxton → boil → president
He wrote:
It would be shocking to hear any Republican on the ballot this fall admit that Trump is a liability for the party, of course, but Ken Paxton?
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Trump → write → course
A man who would have been removed from his office as state attorney general by his own party if not for the president’s intervention?
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who → remove → intervention
Who may very well have lost his Senate primary this year to John Cornyn if not for the president’s endorsement?
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Who → lose → endorsement
Who’s being bankrolled right now to the tune of millions of dollars from the president’s super PAC to keep him in the game against Talarico?
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Who → bankroll → Talarico
For him to declare “Trumpalooza” a major unforced error feels like an act of “disloyalty” on par with Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the Russiagate investigation.
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Sessions → declare → investigation
Trump, whose MAGA Inc. super PAC has more than $400 million on hand, has begun airing ads in which he vows that “America will never be a communist country,” that he will “expel the warmongers,” and yet another that touts the accomplishments of … the Iran war.
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that → have → war
Rather, I should say that the U.S. government is airing those ads, as taxpayers are the ones footing the bill.
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taxpayers → say → bill
Let’s turn to Jonah for a review of the ad promising to defeat communism:
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’s → let → communism
The ad transcends mere “campaign” rhetoric to become quite simply pure propaganda of the sort that in another era would require traditional conservatives to be medicated to avoid vomiting at the spectacle, and even then most could only endure watching it with the assistance of the Ludovico technique made famous in A Clockwork Orange.
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most → transcend → Orange
The ad’s soundtrack is a choir singing, “Love me.”
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soundtrack → sing → me
In Friday’s Morning Dispatch, we wrote that even some Republican lawmakers find the ads inappropriate, and they are likely illegal.
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they → write → Dispatch
But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr seems disinclined to investigate any impropriety, which leaves the matter to Congress.
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which → seem → Congress
Congress is now recessed until after the midterm elections, but it might have a full agenda when it gets back.
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it → recess → agenda
It needs to figure out how to fund the government, pass the National Defense Authorization Act, and more.
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It → need → Act
Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth last month, which prompted Speaker Mike Johnson to adjourn the House early to avoid a vote.
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which → introduce → vote
In Boiling Frogs, Nick runs through the various scenarios that could play out if the Democrats take the House.
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Democrats → boil → House
Kevin Williamson looked a little farther out, to January, and he predicted we could see multiple impeachments.
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we → look → impeachments
He wrote:
It is important to keep in mind that Trump has not acted alone in these matters: Consider, for example, that the Trump administration conducted an unauthorized war on Venezuela, kidnapped its president, and is operating a puppet regime in Caracas for the purpose of appropriating Venezuelan oil wealth—and this was in no small part the work of Marco Rubio, whose relatively mild public temperament should not be mistaken for moral distance from the administration and its crimes.
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temperament → write → administration
Investigations into the administration’s financial corruption are certain to involve scrutiny of Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick.
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Investigations → involve → Bessent
J.D. Vance’s role as an enabler of the abuse of ICE as a political weapon to be wielded against Democratic cities such as Minneapolis will be of interest.
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role → wield → interest
Don’t miss Arash Ahmadzadeh’s account of trying to get a student visa as an international student, Kimberly Mazzocco Hart’s essay on the death of “Butcher of Bosnia” Ratko Mladić, and Mike Coté’s analysis of the deal between the United States, Denmark and Greenland, all highlighted below.
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all → miss → States
On April 13 of this year, I was teaching Fernando Sor’s Study in B minor to a teenage student at the Conservatoire de Breuillet, just outside Paris, when an email flashed up on my phone.
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email → teach → phone
She wanted to know whether I was still interested in studying for a doctoral degree in historical musicology.
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I → want → musicology
But even then, five months before the semester was due to start, I did not know whether I would actually be able to attend.
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I → start → ?
That’s because an email like this comes with fine print for a person like me, as rising barriers make American higher education less and less accessible to talented students from less privileged backgrounds.
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education → ’ → backgrounds
The unfortunate truth is that foreign students, U.S. universities, and American society all lose out as a consequence.
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students → lose → consequence
Under President Donald Trump’s Proclamation 10998, the United States has suspended or limited entry and visa issuance for nationals of 39 countries.
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States → suspend → countries
And so began another series of barriers between me and the next stage of the education I had worked toward since leaving Iran a decade ago to pursue my studies.
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I → begin → studies
People die.
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People → die → ?
It’s violent and messy and cruel and sometimes things happen that should not.
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that → ’ → ?
But Ratko Mladić didn’t just kill as deemed necessary in the course of a war.
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Mladić → kill → war
He ordered the systematic slaughter of more than 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica—a U.N. “safe zone” for refugees of the ongoing conflict.
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He → order → conflict
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia determined this slaughter to be a genocide.
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slaughter → determine → Yugoslavia
Siege feels an inadequate descriptor for the terror, destruction, and carnage of that city and its civilians.
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Siege → feel → city
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
