Vox Sentences: Paul Ryan prepares for the fall

I saw the best minds of my generation endorse Donald Trump.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

Paul Ryan, like mankind, is fallen

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Paul Ryan finally endorsed Donald Trump Thursday.

  [Paul Ryan via Twitter]

• (Technically, he did not use the word "endorse," leading some to claim it wasn't really an endorsement. It was, and they should shut up.)

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• Ryan caved to Trump. Pure and simple. As of May 25, he said he still wasn't "ready" — and Trump hasn't exactly done much during that time to assuage any concerns about the tone of his campaign.

  [CNN / Manu Raju]

• Ryan told the AP he wanted to make sure the GOP is "unified before the fall." It's hard not to read Fall with a capital F.

  [AP / Steve Peoples and Scott Bauer]

• Perhaps Ryan is among the House Republicans who believe, without any evidence, that Trump will turn to them to fill in the gaps in his policy agenda.

  [Washington Post / Kelsey Snell and Mike DeBonis]

• Or the Republican establishmentarians who expect Trump to lose, and figure it will be relatively easy to return the party to its pre-Trump state in 2017.

  [NYT / Jonathan Martin]

• Of course, the easiest way to ensure Trump loses would be to not endorse him. Conversely, endorsing a polarizing candidate who ends up losing could be a long-term liability for a promising political career.

  [Washington Post / George Will]

• This is especially true for Paul Ryan, who was once considered, per this 2014 Politico article, "too smart to be president." It's been a long fall.

  [Politico / JR Ross]

• Ironically, at this point, if you want to save the GOP from itself, the best bet might be to hope Libertarian Gary Johnson spoils the race in the Electoral College — leaving the House to elect, presumably, President Paul Ryan.

  [USA Today / Ilya Shapiro]

Germany takes the right side in a genocide dispute

(Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

• Germany's parliament voted Thursday to officially recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide (conducted by Turks) as a genocide.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• The Turkish government is pissed. German legislators got harassing phone calls from Turkish citizens before the vote. Turkey recalled its ambassador from Germany afterward.

  [The Guardian / Philip Olterman and Constanze Letsch]

• Turkey has long been adamant that the Armenian genocide was not a genocide, and that any country that wants to be its friend should say it wasn't a genocide.

  [PBS Newshour]

• (One of those friends is the US; President Barack Obama blocked a congressional resolution attempting to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the genocide last year.)

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• It would seem that Germany would need to stay on Turkey's good side. The EU is only two months into a deal allowing it to send migrants from other countries back to Turkey — the closest thing it has to a "solution" to its refugee crisis.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken full advantage of Germany's desire not to upset him so far, from demanding that a German comedian be prosecuted for insulting him to demanding easier visas for Turks.

  [Washington Post / Erin Cunningham]

• Germany and the EU are reportedly already thinking the deal isn't worth it. If Germany was trying to torpedo the deal — or at least take Erdogan down a peg — genocide isn't a bad issue to take a stand on.

  [Deutsche Welle]

Uber, but for amoral profit-seeking

(Steve Jennings and Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

• Uber announced today that it's accepting $3.5 billion in investment from Saudi Arabia's government investment fund, and giving a Saudi political appointee a seat on its board.

  [Financial Times / Leslie Hook]

• This is not a great look. When people think of "Saudi Arabia" and "driving," they tend to think of the fact that women can't do that there. (Vox's Tim Lee argues that if Uber cared about literally anything but making money, it wouldn't have done this.)

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• (In fact, the popularity of Uber among Saudi women — at least rich Saudi women — has been cited as a way for the government to defuse political pressure to let women drive.)

  [Al Jazeera]

• Uber's defenders say it really needed the money. That is also not a good sign.

  [Fortune / Dan Primack]

• Uber needs investment right now because it's currently trying to drive competitors all around the world out of business with price wars. That means it's losing money in the short term. And it's not clear this strategy will pay off in the long term, either.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• The company is already so hungry for drivers that it's developed a way to lease cars to people who can't get leases elsewhere. Uber, but for subprime lending.

  [Bloomberg / Eric Newcomer and Olivia Zaleski]

MISCELLANEOUS

Forget Arcade Fire, New Pornographers, or Nickelback. The Tragically Hip are the most Canadian band on earth. [BBC]

• Emmy Noether was responsible for what may be the single most important theoretical result in modern physics. And for years, universities wouldn't hire her.

  [Ars Technica / Lee Phillips]

• Letting refugees into Europe isn't just a moral imperative. It's an economic one too.

  [NY Mag / Annie Lowrey]

• This is definitely the best controversy currently swirling in Washington, DC, on any topic, concerning any parties.

  [Washington City Paper / Jessica Sidman]

• The 100 most-viewed shows of the last TV season, in order.

  [Indiewire / Michael Schneider]

VERBATIM

"You name it and it was used to wipe the anus. One review of toilet technology notes that lots of places use water, grass, animal fur, corn cobs, seashells, snow, or hands." [NY Mag / Drake Baer]

• "Andrew Wylie, who runs the agency, said he would consider paying time and a half if he asked junior staff members to work overtime, but not if they worked long hours of their own volition. 'What am I supposed to do, sit at the door with a stopwatch?' he said. 'I’m not going to do that.'"

  [NYT / Noam Scheiber]

• "The Lonely Island don't just make dick jokes. They parody masculinity."

  [NY Mag / Jesse David Fox]

• "As attorney general, [Kamala] Harris is already one of only two black female Democrats in the country elected to a statewide post."

  [NYT Mag / Emily Bazelon]

• "In a move that would undoubtedly help him rank among the standout Bachelorette villains of all time, JoJo Fletcher's season 12 bad boy Chad Johnson … has apparently purchased the domain names of several of his fellow contestants, including Derek Peth, Robby Hayes, Chase McNary and Alex Woytkiw."

  [Us Magazine / Ryan Gajewski and Cara Sprunk]

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The business of GIFs: then and now [YouTube/Johnny Harris and Carlos Waters]

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