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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, Slate’s politics newsletter that can’t recommend the hottest new trend enough: Putting your head in the sand for a few months. If you don’t see the news, then it doesn’t happen. In any event, does anyone know why these troops keep patrolling the Surge’s street?

We’d like to thank Ben Mathis-Lilley for covering over the past few months while your regular author did his part to arrest the global birthrate crisis. Ben said nice things about us last week, so he’ll get a good bunk when he returns to the Surge’s work camp.

Once again, there was news this week. Congress returned from recess to continue figh

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