Vox Sentences: I guess we have to talk about Donald Trump now

No, let's not take Donald Trump seriously

Missed me? (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

• Donald Trump is far ahead in the latest Washington Post/ABC News national poll, garnering the support of 24 percent of Republicans; Scott Walker was far behind in second with 13 percent.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• Let's be clear, though: he's still not going to win the nomination. Extreme base-pleasing candidates always have brief boomlets (remember Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain?) before flaming out as the establishment refuses to back them.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• Also, national polls don't really matter, and Trump is still in fifth in Iowa and second in New Hampshire.

  [RealClearPolitics]

• The poll was mostly taken before Trump attacked John McCain, saying, "He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• After those comments, support for Trump fell sharply in the poll: "Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant."

  [Washington Post / Dan Balz and Peyton Craighill]

• The poll also found that 62 percent of Americans would never consider voting for Trump. He's dead in the water in a general election, which establishment Republicans know.

  [Sam Stein]

• Political scientist Deborah Schildkraut: Trump claims to speak for a silent majority of Americans on immigration. He doesn't: Americans are broadly supportive of immigration reform measures.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• For more on Trump, check out Tez Clark's excellent summary of his stances on the issues

  [Vox / Tez Clark]

Bank on it

You will pry this stock photo from my cold dead hands. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

• Banks in Greece have reopened for the first time in three weeks.

  [NYT / Liz Alderman and Anemona Hartocollis]

• There are still limits on withdrawals, but they're more flexible: they're capped at €420 a week, not €60 a day. That's equivalent but means daily ATM trips aren't necessary. Payments abroad still aren't possible.

  [Reuters / Lefteris Papadimis and Lefteris Karagiannopoulos]

• At the same time, a new, higher sales tax — a key demand of European lenders — took effect Monday as well, further discouraging spending.

  [WSJ / Nektaria Stamouli]

• The European Commission sent a bridge loan to Greece while a final bailout deal is being completed; that let Greece pay make its debt to the IMF from last month.

  [The Guardian / Graeme Wearden and Katie Allen]

• While the IMF and European Central Bank have called for some of Greece's debt to be forgiven, German chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled that out.

  [Bloomberg / Eleni Chrepa, Paul Gordon, and Carolynn Look]

• For more, see 11 facts about the Greek crisis you need to know.

  [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]

Smoking Cubanos with Castro on 16th street

A Cuban flag, in front of what is now officially the Cuban embassy. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

• The Cuban Interests Section on 16th Street in Washington, DC has been formally converted into the Cuban embassy as part of the normalization of relations between the US and Cuba.

  [Washington Post / Karen DeYoung and Brian Murphy]

• The building was constructed in 1917 and served as the Cuban embassy from then until 1961, when the US broke off relations as Cuba grew closer to the Soviet Union.

  [Curbed / Michelle Goldchain]

• Simultaenously, the US embassy has reopened in Havana.

  [NYT / Azam Ahmed]

• Tourism to Cuba is still banned, but other trips — for academic credit, journalism, sports competitions, visiting relatives — are kosher. Flights to the island from Miami are generally run through charter operations, and regular airlines are only just starting to consider adding new flights.

  [NYT]

• Still not totally up on the context surrounding the normalization of relations? Check out Max Fisher's "9 questions about Cuba you were too embarrassed to ask."

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

Misc.

• Katy Perry's battle with Sisters Rita Callanan and Catherine Rose Holzman over control of their nunnery is the only news story that matters.

  [NYT / Michael Cieply]

• My colleague Andrew Prokop has a really excellent profile of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who was like the Paul Ryan of the 1990s and yet now finds himself as the left-most GOP presidential contender.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• There's a McDonald's in Manhattan, on Eighth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets, that's remarkably popular among heroin addicts.

  [NYT / Kim Barker]

• The case for returning to 18th century-style non-standardized spelling, in one article.

  [Slate / Katy Waldman]

• People pointed lasers at moving aircraft at least 43 times last Thursday and Friday. Since lasers can temporarily blind pilots, that's a real problem.

  [Popular Science / G. Clay Whittaker]

Verbatim

• "Eating a whale is more moral than eating beef."

  [Hal Herzog to Vox / Katie Herzog]

• "I want to say that at various points in your marriage, may it last forever, you will look at this person and feel only rage."

  [NYT / Ada Calhoun]

• "Look, I wish this country were further left than it is, but I live in reality."

  [Barney Frank to Washington Post / David Weigel]

• "This label is about a female Asian sex worker manually stimulating a man to orgasm and cleaning up the ejaculate with tissues. Why is that appropriate on a beer label?"

  [Adam Vavrick via Slate / Will Gordon]

• "Oh my GOD, look at how sad and gross she is, trying to sullenly make out with a girl who can’t even make eye contact with her? WELCOME TO MY ELEVENTH GRADE YEAR, SAPPHO."

  [The Toast / Mallory Ortberg]

Video of the day

• It recently came to my attention that not everyone has seen "Garson Hampfield, Crossword Inker." This is a problem.

  [YouTube]