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ACROSS
1 Making progress or making a bust? (7,5)
9 Failure leads us into genuine rejection (7)
10 1,000 + 0 = 10 (just add water) (7)
11 Romeo heading to the back—and beginning to yawn, too (6)
12 Support and exceed in honesty? (8)
14 Careless fellow pursues Elgin, losing his marbles? (9)
16 Guard barring Sunday admission (5)
17 Ape cut fruit (5)
18 The same iodine reduction: one calorie (9)
Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets.
Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.
As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war.
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20 Fool holding court? Thanks, that should fix just about anything (4,4)
22 Excellent puzzle piece in enigmatic rebus (6)
25 Rush around wildly and crash into a young attendant (7)
26 Packaging outspoken master of rhyme and rhythm (7)
27 El trains delivering the necessities for a future kind of travel? (12)
DOWN
1 Pitiful choice of letters to complete the word COI_ED (7)
2 Ransack fund-raiser if legislators accept that (5)
3 Hurtful hormone takes time to grow at first (9)
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4 A delay held up fancy event (4)
5 Along with Beethoven’s Fifth, dancing a minuet is something you can study (10)
6 Pests sustaining a traveler underground (5)
7 Teach lit differently—that’s a kind of scholarship (8)
8 One out of seven miners eyes New Zealand inappropriately (6)
13 Half the world is into marijuana at this point (10)
15 Spilling a mug with cola can generate disease (8)
16 Period of atonement starts late, with the period we inhabit following (9)
17 Veteran foiled a person disregarding the odds (3,3)
19 Three parts of a hospital for a woman giving birth? (7)
21 Mark a carrier (formerly fashionable) (5)
23 Ultimately, White Sox shortstop stole surgical boot (5)
24 Speaking to take advantage of sheep (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3440
ACROSS 1 10-DOWN [PRIME location] + INGST (Sting anag.) 8 O(VERDU[n])E 9 anag. 11 E(X)TIR (rev.) + PATE 12 hidden 13 NA + IFS 15 IM + M + I GRATE 18 DISH + O + NEST 19 C + HAIR 21 MOOS + E 23 anag. 25 pun 26 OX + I + DI(Z)E 27 anag.
DOWN 1 THE + ATRICS (anag.) 2 hidden 3 O + PER + ATIVE (rev.) 4 NUD + GE (rev.) 5 anag. 6 initial letters 7 M(ODE)R. + N 10 PRIM + E 14 anag. 16 MATCH B.O. + OK 17 A + NATO + LIAN (rev.) 18 hidden 20 “rimed” 22 ON(CU)E 23 [t]ERROR 24 anag.
Joshua Kosman and Henri PicciottoJoshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto are The Nation’s puzzlers. To read more about Kosman, click here. To read more about Picciotto, click here. Kosman and Picciotto explain what they’re up to in “Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Crosswords” (also available as a PDF).