memeorandum: ‘The Simpsons’ Duff Beer Tries to Tap Markets Outside Springfield (Keach Hagey/Wall Street Journal)

3:45 AM ET, July 12, 2015

Top Items:

Donald Trump just gave an amazingly surreal speech in Las Vegas — Donald Trump just gave one of the most bizarrely captivating speeches of his several-weeks-old campaign. — Standing in front of an animated screen in Las Vegas on Saturday, Trump spoke passionately for almost a half an hour …

Will Dunham / Reuters:

White House contenders Trump, Bush in virtual dead heat: Reuters/Ipsos poll — Donald Trump, who became the center of attention in the race for the 2016 Republican U.S. presidential nomination with his denunciation of illegal immigrants from Mexico, has vaulted into a virtual dead heat …

Discussion: RealClearPolitics Videos, Hot Air, National Review, Raw Story, Political Wire and Townhall.com

Mark Hensch / The Hill:

Poll: Jeb, Trump in virtual tie — GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Donald Trump are locked in a virtual tie for the 2016 Republican nomination, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll released Saturday. — It found that 16.1 percent of self-identified Republicans back Bush, the former governor of Florida.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Nick Gillespie / The Daily Beast:
Hillary's Strategy Is Actually Brilliant

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Cafe Hayek and Hit & Run

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Trump rides momentum to Arizona

Discussion: Arizona Republic, Washington Post and ABC News

Anthony Weiner / Business Insider:

I have one big question for Bernie Sanders — Apart from the Donald Trump sideshow, one of the biggest stories in the presidential election this past week has been the apparent momentum Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is enjoying in his underdog campaign. — Sanders has been drawing crowds …

Discussion: Liberal Values, Mediaite, Weekly Standard, Slantpoint and Fox News

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Class or Ideology? My Conversation With Bernie Sanders — “Everything I'm telling you may end up being wrong,” Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator seeking the Democratic nomination for president, said early in our conversation on Thursday. — I had written concluding he had slim chances …

Discussion: Business Insider and Washington Post

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Obamacare Resistance Regroups — Three Congressional votes, two Supreme Court lawsuits, and an election have slowed them down but not stopped them. — Shares … The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, authorizing the federal income tax, was ratified in 1913.

Michael F. Cannon / Washington Examiner:
The ACA is dead — long live Obamacare

Discussion: Salon and Lawyers, Guns & Money

providencejournal.com:

DEM: ‘Something happened,’ but no evidence of device after ‘ground disturbance’ at Salty Brine beach — PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Salty Brine beach was evacuated Saturday morning while the state bomb squad investigates reports of a possible explosion near the rocks, according to a spokeswoman …

Discussion: Raw Story and Associated Press

New York Times:

In Fiery Speeches, Francis Excoriates Global Capitalism — ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay — His speeches can blend biblical fury with apocalyptic doom. Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of global capitalism. He compares them to the “dung of the devil.”

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:

DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — In an interview with the Union Leader, aspiring 2016 Republican presidential nominee Jeb Bush took a slap at the foreign policies of President Barack Obama, stating that the leader of the free world uses too many big words and wastes his time at conferences …

Discussion: Gawker, Addicting Info, theGrio and New York Times

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Senate Republicans push to punish ‘sanctuary cities’ — Republicans want to use a largely non-controversial education bill to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities” in the wake of a San Francisco shooting that garnered national attention. — The recent killing of 32-year old Kathryn Steinle …

Martin Matishak / The Hill:

Miffed Benghazi chairman: State gave me ‘articles about Richard Gere’ — The chairman of the House panel investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on Friday ridiculed the State Department's responses to requests for documents. — “It is still like pulling teeth to get the information …

Discussion: Hot Air

Candace Barnette / WTOK-TV:

New Details in Stonewall Death Investigation … Headlines List — Stonewall, Miss. — The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is stepping in to investigate an incident in Clarke County where a man died after an altercation with a police officer. — Clarke Co. coroner Greg Fairchild …

Discussion: The Clarion Ledger, The Huffington Post, Raw Story, Addicting Info and theGrio

Jon Swaine / Guardian:
Mississippi police accused of choking unarmed man to death with flashlight

Discussion: WMC Action News 5 and News Mississippi

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

‘The Simpsons’ Duff Beer Tries to Tap Markets Outside Springfield — Inspired by animated brand, new brew hits shelves in Chile; ‘caramel aromatic’ — When Homer Simpson stood up and delivered his famous toast to alcohol as “the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems,” there's no question what was in his stein: Duff Beer.

Discussion: Daily Mail, Eater, Guardian, The Week and UPROXX