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By James Goldgeier By James Goldgeier July 17 at 11:44 AM

President Trump Monday morning tweeted that most politicians would have done what his son, Donald Trump Jr., and other Trump campaign officials did when they met Russians promising secret information on Hillary Clinton.

This is a remarkable claim for a Republican to make. Republicans used to compete with each other over who was tougher on Russia (or, more precisely, the Soviet Union), and to condemn Democrats for their purported softness. Now, Trump sees nothing wrong with his son meeting a person who had been described to him as a Russian government attorney, in order to provide high level and sensitive information that was described as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. Heres how dramatically the Republican position has changed.

Being tough on Russia was once the name of the game

During the Cold War, anti-communism was the glue that held the GOP together. In the 1970s and 1980s, Republicans of all stripes took great political advantage in criticizing Democratic presidential candidates, such as George McGovern and Michael Dukakis, as being too weak to stand up for U.S. interests in the face of the threat from Moscow.

Conservative Republicans saw it to their advantage to criticize not just Democrats but members of their own party for showing any signs of appeasement of Moscow.

Most people remember Ronald Reagans victory over Jimmy Carter as the victory of a Republican champion of a strong defense in the face of the Soviet threat after four years of weak Democratic foreign policy leadership. But Reagan had built his political fortunes within his own party by attacking the detente, or lessening of tensions, with Moscow initiated by Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and national security adviser/Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as too accommodating of the Soviet Union.

Once in office, however, even Reagan himself was not immune to such critiques. As he prepared to meet with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for the first time in November 1985, who was out in front leading the charge against him? None other than Newt Gingrich, who called that meeting the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Neville Chamberlain in 1938 in Munich.

The battle between realists and neoconservatives dominated the GOP

GOP foreign policy debates were not just over exactly how tough to get with the Soviets. The main battle for the direction of Republican policy over the past four decades has been between realists, who traditionally focus on other states power but are less concerned with their domestic politics, and neoconservatives, who looked for the United States to use its power to promote its ideals.

Neoconservatives applauded Reagans critique of the Nixon/Kissinger policy of detente (an easing of hostilities). When the Soviet Union disappeared in December 1991, the realism of George H.W. Bush, national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, and Secretary of State James Baker was dominant and was quickly attacked by the neoconservatives for not taking enough advantage of the Cold War victory to promote democracy across Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The realists and neoconservatives continued to argue throughout the 1990s, culminating in the battles in the George W. Bush administration over the war in Iraq.

Today, both realists and neoconservatives are united in their displeasure over U.S. foreign policy in general and Americas Russia policy in particular: simply peruse Scowcroft protege and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haasss Twitter feed or his colleague Max Boots commentary. In the face of the intelligence communitys assessments of Russian interference in the 2016 election, the old GOP would have shown outrage. The new GOP seems to be trying to sweep the issue under the rug.

Trump is an outlier, but everyone is following

If Trump were a realist, he would be seeking to deal with Russia from a position of strength, not looking to accommodate Putin from the get-go. If he were a neoconservative, he would be pressing Putin on his abysmal human rights record. Instead, he is praising Putin for being strong and being tough. And it is unimaginable that any other president would have merely accepted Putins denial of election interference and moved on.

So why hasnt the GOP spoken up? Yes, there are occasional remarks by Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham suggesting Donald Trump is getting hoodwinked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose efforts working with the Trump campaign to swing the 2016 presidential race are under daily scrutiny.

For the most part, however, GOP voters and GOP elites have shrugged off behavior that would have led to outrage in the past. Since it is hard to imagine that a Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz or even John Kasich would have been this accommodating of Putin, is the party of Ronald Reagan really prepared to become the party of Trump on foreign policy, especially in Americas relations with Russia?

The New York Times recently noted that some conservatives have admired Putin even before Trumps rise; today, a number of conservatives are cutting Trump slack because they see Putin as a strong leader willing to stand up for traditional values. But that does not explain why many other Republicans, particularly in Congress, have stayed so quiet even as the revelations pile up.

Republicans didnt pay attention to Russia for a long time

Part of the problem for the GOP is that the partys attention was elsewhere for so long. In the 1990s, with Russia weakened and seemingly embracing democracy during the Boris Yeltsin years, the neoconservatives turned their attention to China, Iraq and Iran. Realists, meanwhile, largely lost interest as Russias standing as a great power declined. While the 2008 Russia-Georgia war grabbed some attention, it wasnt really until Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 that many in the GOP dusted off the old Cold War playbook to attack Obama for not being tough enough. Coupled with the alternative conservative narrative about Putin as a strong leader, the GOPers who want to get tough on Russia face head winds, and theyre out of practice.

For now, Republican leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan are saying as little as possible. Potential 2020 Republican candidates serving in the administration, such as Vice President Pence and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,Nikki Haley, are doing their best to distance themselves from the swirling controversy. Across the GOP, there is fear of antagonizing Trumps base going into the 2018 midterm elections.

Are Republicans really ready to capitulate to Vladimir Putin, whose No. 1 foreign policy priorities since he became president have been to undermine U.S. power and create opportunities for Russia to flex its muscle? It is hard to imagine they are, but in the era of Trump, they appear to believe that keeping the Party together requires them to do so.

James Goldgeier is Dean of the School of International Service at American University.

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Republicans used to compare talking to Moscow to talking to Hitler. Trump's startling new tweet shows that's changed. - Washington Post

Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) has hitched his political star to the campaign to repeal the gas tax a package of vehicle fees and fuel taxes that the Legislature passed earlier this year to raise $52 billion over 10 years for transportation projects. The little-known legislator from Orange County launched a citizens initiative to repeal the fuel taxes and fees in May. In June, he announced his candidacy for governor in 2018.

Meanwhile, in Orange County, the California Republican Party has been working intensely to recall first-term state Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton). Whats their argument against him? That he voted for the gas tax.

Other Republican politicians also have jumped on the bandwagon, including former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, who is pushing the repeal idea on a radio show he hosts.

But dont be fooled. The campaign by Republicans to punish supporters of the gas tax is really just the latest tactic in their war to wipe out with the Democratic supermajority in the state Senate and revive their own declining influence in state government. After all, the gas tax package passed with the votes of 81 legislators only one of whom was a Republican.

If this strategy rings familiar thats because a similar campaign to stop the car tax contributed to the recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and boosted the political careers of several Republicans, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. Davis crime, in the eyes of voters, was that he had raised vehicle fees from $70 a year to about $210 to cover a hole in the state budget. The electricity crisis from few years earlier also played a role in the recall campaign, but in the end, the car tax in this car-loving state was a more powerful campaign slogan even than rolling blackouts.

Of course, theres nothing unusual about Republicans seeking to win elections by attacking tax hikes. But it is cynical and destructive for them to make stop the gas tax the centerpiece of their political campaigns in the 2018 election. The package of fuel taxes and fees passed earlier this year represents an overdue investment in the states crumbling infrastructure. Even most Republicans agree that the states transportation system is in sorry shape from years of inadequate construction and maintenance. And thats no wonder, considering that the gasoline tax hasnt been raised in nearly three decades not since a bipartisan deal in 1989 supported by Republican Gov. George Deukmejian as an important investment in the states economic future.

Whats more, Republicans are exaggerating the significance of this relatively minor tax hike in a state that faces much more significant problems. Politicians should be talking about income inequality, affordable housing and the dangers of Trumps anti-immigrant policies to California residents, for starters. Or the congressional healthcare proposal that will force millions of people to lose coverage. Or the constant threat to Californias natural resources its mountains, deserts, oceans, wildlife and air from the environmentally hostile federal government.

Its hard to imagine that the prospect of paying $10 more a month to finally fix the states roads and bridges, which are in observably bad shape, and build public transportation projects for future traffic relief, even ranks on the same outrage scale as these critical California issues.

Will the Republicans gas tax ploy work? Possibly not. The political landscape has changed a lot since 2003, when 35% of California voters were registered Republican and the GOP still wielded some power in Sacramento. Since then, Republican registration has dropped steadily by about 400,000 even as the states population has grown. Now, only about a quarter of the states voters are registered Republican, and the GOP holds not one statewide office. Historically, Republican enclaves such as Orange County and northern San Diego County have turned purple, and in 2018, Republicans are expected to face tough challenges to retain congressional seats.

The reason the party of Ronald Reagan is becoming increasingly irrelevant is because it continues to back the wrong issues and demonize the very people it needs to attract to remain relevant in California.

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Republicans are playing politics with the gas tax again. No wonder they have no power in California - Los Angeles Times

Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images

I did not leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left its senses. The political movement that once stood athwart history resisting bloated government and military adventurism has been reduced to an amalgam of talk-radio resentments. President Donald Trumps Republicans have devolved into a party without a cause, dominated by a leader hopelessly ill-informed about the basics of conservatism, U.S. history and the Constitution.

Americas first Republican president reportedly said, Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a mans character, give him power. The current Republican president and the party he controls were granted monopoly power over Washington in November and already find themselves spectacularly failing Abraham Lincolns character exam.

It would take far more than a single column to detail Trumps failures in the months following his bleak inaugural address. But the Republican leaders who have subjugated themselves to the White Houses corrupting influence fell short of Lincolns standard long before their favorite reality-TV star brought his gaudy circus act to Washington.

When I left Congress in 2001, I praised my partys successful efforts to balance the budget for the first time in a generation and keep many of the promises that led to our takeover in 1994. I concluded my last speech on the House floor by foolishly predicting that Republicans would balance budgets and champion a restrained foreign policy for as long as they held power.

I would be proved wrong immediately.

As the new century began, Republicans gained control of the federal government. George W. Bush and the GOP Congress responded by turning a $155 billion surplus into a $1 trillion deficit and doubling the national debt, passing a $7 trillion unfunded entitlement program and promoting a foreign policy so utopian it would have made Woodrow Wilson blush. Voters made Nancy Pelosi speaker of the House in 2006 and Barack Obama president in 2008.

After their well-deserved drubbing, Republicans swore that if voters ever entrusted them with running Washington again, they would prove themselves worthy. Trumps party was given a second chance this year, but it has spent almost every day since then making the majority of Americans regret it.

The GOP president questioned Americas constitutional system of checks and balances. Republican leaders said nothing. He echoed Stalin and Mao by calling the free press the enemy of the people. Republican leaders were silent. And as the commander in chief insulted allies while embracing autocratic thugs, Republicans who spent a decade supporting wars of choice remained quiet. Meanwhile, their budget-busting proposals demonstrate a fiscal recklessness very much in line with the Bush years.

Last weeks Russia revelations show just how shamelessly Republican lawmakers will stand by a longtime Democrat who switched parties after the promotion of a racist theory about Barack Obama gave him standing in Lincolns once-proud party. Neither Lincoln, William Buckley nor Ronald Reagan would recognize this movement.

It is a dying party that I can no longer defend.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham has long predicted that the 150-year duopoly of the Republicans and Democrats will end. The signs seem obvious enough. When my Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994, it was the first time the GOP had won the House in a generation. The two parties have been in a state of turmoil ever since.

In 2004, Republican strategist Karl Rove anticipated a majority that would last a generation; two years later, Pelosi became the most liberal House speaker in history. Obama was swept into power by a supposedly unassailable Democratic coalition. In 2010, the Tea Party tide rolled in. Obamas re-election returned the momentum to the Democrats, but Republicans won a historic state-level landslide in 2014. Then last fall, Trump demolished both the Republican and Democratic establishments.

Political historians will one day view Trump as a historical anomaly. But the wreckage of this man will break the Republican Party into pieces and lead to the election of independent thinkers no longer tethered to the tired dogmas of the polarized past. When that day mercifully arrives, the two-party duopoly that has strangled American politics for almost two centuries will finally come to an end. And Washington just may begin to work again.

JoeScarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, hosts the MSNBC show Morning Joe.

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Donald Trump is killing the Republican Party - The Denver Post

House Republicans are battling one another over how much work theyve done in President Trumps first six-plus months in office.

GOP leaders say the media isnt paying enough attention to a litany of significant bills that have already been passed by the House.

At a GOP leadership press conference on Wednesday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) touted a chart showing a spike in bills passed by the House since Trump took office.

Conservatives argue that the chart shows how sensitive their leadership is to the truth: that theyve been slow to enact promises to bring about major reform to Washington.

If I see another chart that shows how many bills weve passed in the first seven months, I think Im gonna scream, said conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The favorite bad habit of this GOP conference is to conflate activity with progress. They are not the same.

Two hours after the press conference with McCarthy, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus held an event of their own to argue the Houseneeds to cancel the August recess in order to get more work done.

Play the two press conferences: The one that the leadership had earlier in the day, and the one we had. And ask the American people, Who do you believe? said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Freedom Caucus founding member.

My guess is theyll probably say, Oh, those Freedom Caucus guys, I kinda think theyre on the right track.

McCarthy noted that the House has passed nearly 300 bills so far this year, which surpassed the average of 176 at this point in a new presidency since the George H.W. Bush administration. The vast majority of those bills have not been taken up by the Senate, however.

In June, Speaker Paul RyanPaul RyanRepublicans should apply lessons of healthcare debacle to tax reform War authorization push hits snag in House Are we getting things done? Congressional Republicans disagree MORE (R-Wis.) wrote an op-ed in the conservative Independent Journal Review imploring people to ignore the cable news bickering because this Congress is getting things done.

The truth is, even while carrying out our oversight responsibilities, weve been delivering on our promises to the American people. We are passing important legislation. We are doing our job, Ryan wrote. You just may not have heard about it.

The House has passed legislation to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs, unwind the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities and combat human trafficking. Congress has also sent bills to Trump's desk to eliminate 14 Obama-era regulations.

Ryan suggested that people may have missed that the House passed legislation to undo the Dodd-Frank law because it fell on the day of fired FBI Director James Comeys bombshell congressional testimony which he referred to as only a big Senate hearing.

While the focus in Washington was on a big Senate hearing earlier this month, the House passed this legislation that reins in Obamas costly Dodd-Frank regulation, Ryan wrote.

In May, the House also approved legislation to fund the government through the fiscal year preventing a government shutdown and showing that Republicans can keep Washington functioning, he argued.

And most importantly, he said, the House approved its version of ObamaCare repeal.

The Senate is struggling to move its own bill, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellCBO won't have Monday score for Senate healthcare bill After delay, Senate Republicans struggle not to let healthcare stall Health Secretary Price: More people will be covered under GOP bill than are currently covered MORE (R-Ky.) late Saturday delaying a vote while Sen. John McCainJohn McCainFormer National Economic Council director slams attacks on CBO CBO won't have Monday score for Senate healthcare bill After delay, Senate Republicans struggle not to let healthcare stall MORE (R-Ariz.) recovers from surgery. If theypass that bill, Trump could be on the verge of a major legislative win.

If they dont, congressional Republicans would be in real danger of hitting the 200-day mark of Trump's presidency next month without a single major legislative accomplishment.

I dont care how many charts you have up there. Were not going to convince the American people that were being productive until we actually have President Trump signing things into law that he campaigned on, said Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), underlining the importance of the healthcare push.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), another Freedom Caucus member, praised the work on measures that have passed the House. But he acknowledged that fulfilling the biggest campaign promises were the most important to prove Republicans can govern.

We actually have cleared some underbrush, and weve done it with the VA reforms, weve done it with some of the regulatory reforms, weve done it even with the Dodd-Frank repeal, Biggs said. But the real agenda is what the American people connect with. And what theyre connecting with are costs of health insurance or ObamaCare repeal, the tax reform.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), whos served in the House for the last 14 years, said Republicans need to keep perspective in an institution where change is designed to move slowly. He thinks GOP leadership is right to highlight what the party has been able to accomplish.

Most progress in government is incremental and cumulative, Cole said. Every now and then, you gotta take credit for what youve done and not always make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Conservatives upped the pressure on GOP leaders to cancel the annual August recess after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced hed keep senators in Washington for an extra two weeks. House GOP leaders, meanwhile, arent inclined to keep the chamber in session next month unless the Senate has sent over its healthcare bill.

Demands that lawmakers cancel a recess have typically come from the minority party trying to embarrass the majority party leadership.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), for example, forced a roll call vote in 2012 on a resolution establishing that years August recess. More than 100 Republicans caught off guard by the move were put on record in favor of leaving for the monthlong break.

And in 2008, after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had adjourned the chamber for the August break, Republicans gave speeches on the House floor accusing Democrats of inaction on energy legislation to respond to rising gas prices.

But the most conservative members of the House GOP conference have made names for themselves by always pushing leadership to be more aggressive.

I would challenge anyone to go to any of our districts and ask the question to either Sue or John on Main Street: Do you think that Congress is being productive? Meadows asked.

And if that comes back at higher than 30 percent I mean, and thats really pushing it I will make a public apology to all my colleagues for asking for us to stay in in August.

--This report was updated at 8:50 a.m.

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Are we getting things done? Congressional Republicans disagree - The Hill

The two leaders sought to play down sharp differences over trade, immigration and climate change, and, in the end, forged an unlikely friendship. Above, the presidents with their wives, Brigitte, left, and Melania.

Back in the U.S., the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity formed by Mr. Trump to investigate possible election fraud will hold its first meeting this week, without the extensive personal information on voters it requested from states.

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3. On Capitol Hill, the Senate majority leader announced Saturday night that he will delay votes on a bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, because Senator John McCain, above, is recovering from surgery.

Without Mr. McCain, Republicans would not have the votes they need to take up or pass the bill this week. Two crucial Republican senators have said they remain unswayed by the newly revised health care proposal.

A key change would allow insurance companies to provide the kind of bare-bones plans some deride as junk insurance. The bill also provides $45 billion for opioid addiction treatment.

Our magazine writer traveled to a small town in New Hampshire, where one police officer has been tasked with trying to curb the rash of opioid overdoses.

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4. China cremated its most prominent political prisoner and only Nobel Peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, and dropped his ashes into the sea, ensuring that there would be no grave to serve as a magnet for pro-democracy protesters.

Long jailed, Mr. Liu developed liver cancer and died last week under guard at a government hospital, a pointed reminder that human rights issues have receded in Western diplomacy with China.

In 1989, Mr. Liu kept vigil on Tiananmen Square to protect protesters from encroaching soldiers and in 2008 initiated a pro-democracy petition, earning the enmity of the Communist leaders.

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5. A gruesome murder case is still unfolding outside of Philadelphia, where the bodies of four missing young men were unearthed at a remote farm.

Cosmo DiNardo, above who has been described by prosecutors, his own lawyers and the police as mentally ill confessed and named a cousin as an accomplice. Officials say drug deals were involved.

Heres what we know so far.

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6. In a medical milestone, a gene-altering leukemia therapy was unanimously recommended by an F.D.A. panel, putting it on track to be the first gene therapy to reach the market.

Emily Whitehead, 12, above, is the first child ever given the altered cells. Now cancer free, she helped lobby the panel for approval.

In other health news, a study found that phthalates chemicals banned from many products as potentially harmful to children exist in high concentrations in the processed cheese powder in boxed mac and cheese products.

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7. Turning to climate, Antarcticas landscape has dramatically changed. A massive chunk of floating ice that weighs more than a trillion metric tons broke away.

News organizations trying to help audiences understand the scope of the development compared the size of the iceberg to Luxembourg, Qatar and, in our case, Delaware.

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8. Now to the borderlands of the United States and Mexico. To the people who live there, the edges of these two countries are where language, culture, family and business overlap.

We take you there in this three-part video series.

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9. The prime minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, declared victory over the Islamic State in Mosul, but the scale of the humanitarian crisis there is only beginning to emerge.

Our correspondent traveled to the battered city to show what ISIS left behind from three years of rule like a sword, a ruined church and a childs backpack filled with explosives.

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10. Lets escape briefly to a place where visuals and poetry merge into a singular experience. We asked six photographers to use works by six rising American poets for inspiration.

The photographers approached the assignment in unexpected ways, and each offered insight into his or her process and interpretation.

Damon Winter, immersed in a poem that spoke to grief, took the photograph above in Ithaca, N.Y.

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11. In London, Garbie Muguruza, above, beat Venus Williams in two sets, becoming the first Spanish woman to take the Wimbledon singles title since 1994.

And Roger Federer won his record eighth Wimbledon title by defeating Marin Cilic in straight sets The victory, his first at Wimbledon since 2012, made him the oldest man to win at the All England Club in the Open era, which began in 1968.

Across the pond, the U.S. Womens Open golf tournament is in its final round at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey. On Friday, when President Trump attended, some activists protested the choice of locale, but most of the players welcomed his presence.

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12. For Game of Thrones fans, winter is finally here. Before Season 7 kicks off tonight (9 p.m. Eastern, HBO), lets review what you need to remember. And our in-house G.O.T. obsessives are ready to email you a weekly newsletter with exclusive interviews and explainers. Sign up here.

Also, if youre using your friends ex-boyfriends parents password to watch Game of Thrones or any TV show, youre not alone. Good news: Our examination of the legalities suggests the practice is probably O.K.

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13. Finally, we leave you with a bit of armchair travel to the lonely landscape of the North Dakota Badlands, where dinosaurs and rhinoceroses once roamed.

Travelers join paleontologists to help excavate cinematic favorites like triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Our writer said she left a dig dusty, blistered, sunburned, scraped and exhausted, but also uplifted by a greater appreciation of our fleeting place in history, our smallness on this earth and how much there is left to discover about the places we think we know.

Have a great week.

Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help.

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Donald Trump Jr., Macron, Senate Republicans: Your Weekend ... - New York Times