Donald Trump Struts in His Own Pageant  —  Washington — SOME blondes have all the fun.  —  As Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush get more testy, Donald Trump gets more chesty.  And more blond.  —  It's mind-boggling to contemplate a President Trump trying to make peace between North and South Korea …

Who Won Science Fiction's Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters  —  Since 1953, to be nominated for a Hugo Award, among the highest honors in science fiction and fantasy writing, has been a dream come true for authors who love time travel, extraterrestrials and tales of the imagined future.

Scott Walker Takes His Third Position On The Hottest Issue In The Republican Primary  —  Presidential candidate's Scott Walker's journey to find a position on birthright citizenship, enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, took another unexpected turn.

Harry Reid endorses Iran deal, boosts chances Congress won't block it  —  Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid gave a forceful endorsement Sunday to the nuclear deal with Iran, a key boost that provides continued momentum for preventing Congress from blocking President Obama's pact.

Hillary's e-mail defense is ‘total BS’: former State Dept. officials  —  Former State Department security officials don't buy Hillary Clinton's latest alibi that she couldn't tell that government e-mails — which she improperly, if not illegally, kept for several years on an unsecured home server …

What Does Joe Biden Have to Lose by Jumping In to the Presidential Race?  —  It's the silly season of August, and political reporters can only write so many articles about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  So we get treated to the spectacle of a meeting between Vice President Joe Biden …

Trumpus Maximus Goes to Mobile  —  About two hours before gates opened for Donald Trump's out-of-nowhere, only vaguely explicable rally at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, a gaggle of us journalists began to work the line.  The line—already 1,500 deep two hours out—was a dream …

National Fronts  —  Trump's rise is mirrored on the European right.  —  From Malmö comes the news that the Sweden Democrats, scrubbed-up neo-fascists who have forsaken the Roderick Spode uniforms, have become Sweden's most popular political party, commanding the allegiance of a quarter of Swedish voters.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Why ‘Black lives matter’ resonates … This is a column about three words of moral cowardice:  —  “All lives matter.”  —  Those words have risen as a kind of counter to “Black lives matter,” the movement that coalesced in response to recent killings and woundings …

Why Donald Trump Won't Fold: Polls and People Speak  —  In the command centers of Republican presidential campaigns, aides have drawn comfort from the belief that Donald J. Trump's dominance in the polls is a political summer fling, like Herman Cain in 2011 — an unsustainable boomlet dependent …

Kentucky GOP greenlights joint Senate, presidential run for Rand Paul  —  The Kentucky GOP's central committee voted Saturday to adopt a presidential caucus system next year, clearing the way Republican Sen. Rand Paul to run for president and reelection at the same time.