Trump's carny act isn't working anymore  —  His Folgers Coffee™ Conference showed a candidate in decline.  —  🚨 This special five-edition week of PN is made possible by paid subscribers 🚨 If you aren't one already, please sign up to support our independent journalism.

Scoop: Harris-Walz probes ignite House GOP divisions … - One House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity to critique their party's investigations, said the probes are “unnecessary.”  — “We have an election to win. … - Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) argued that investigating Harris and Walz is …

Donald Trump shares seemingly fake pictures of Taylor Swift — and Swifties are furious  — Donald Trump appears to have shared AI-generated images of Taylor Swift and her fans.  — The images, which have telltale signs of AI use, show Swift and fans endorsing him in the election.

John Fetterman Has No Regrets  —  John Fetterman is skipping this week's Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and, to hear it from him, it has nothing—literally nothing—to do with him scotch-taping photos of the Israeli hostages to his Senate office walls.

Legendary TV talk show host Phil Donahue dies at 88  —  Donahue died on Sunday night following a long illness, his family said in a statement.  —  Longtime TV talk show host Phil Donahue died on Sunday night following a long illness, his family said.  He was 88.

Gouging out the truth  —  In a speech on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris fleshed out some of the economic policies she would pursue if she won the presidency in November.  Harris spoke briefly about her plans to crack down on price gouging in the grocery industry.

Exclusive: John Kelly rejects Trump's comments that civilian award is ‘much better’ than Medal of Honor: ‘Not even close’  —  Former Trump chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly rejected former President Donald Trump's comments that the Presidential Medal of Freedom that honors civilians was …

Murder Is Likely Falling At The Fastest Pace Ever Recorded In 2024  —  Richards Heuer's Psychology of Intelligence Analysis was required reading when I was a baby analyst at CIA and I like to think that its teachings have permeated throughout my analysis and writing.

Democrats Taunt Trump At Trump Tower Chicago Ahead of Convention  —  The DNC is tagging Trump Tower amid reports former president plans to use his property during the Democratic convention … Party operatives, armed with a high-powered projector, booked themselves a room across the street …

Trump Proposes Ban on Criticizing Pro-Trump Judges … Over the weekend, Donald Trump expressed in a speech his belief that public criticism of judges and Supreme Court justices who rule in Trump's favor should be illegal.  —  Trump took this position expressly, twice, in his speech, albeit in a stream-of-consciousness riff.

Missouri Outlawed Abortion, and Now It's Funding an Anti-Abortion Group That Works in Other States  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

In Chicago, the ghosts of 1968 are still haunting American democracy  —  CHICAGO — For a half-century, I'd only seen this city's iconic John Logan Monument — a dramatic bronze statue of the Civil War hero charging into battle on horseback — in photographs.

Mayoral candidate vows to let VIC, an AI bot, run Wyoming's capital city  —  Victor Miller has skirted attempts by OpenAI and the state to shut down his campaign, believed to be the first U.S. effort of its kind.  —  Mayoral candidate Victor Miller, a bespectacled librarian with an AI obsession …

The Governor Who Endorsed Trump to Heal American Politics  —  Sign up for The Decision, a newsletter featuring our 2024 election coverage.  —  On the evening last month when Donald Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania, Spencer Cox was at home in the Utah governor's mansion.

Walz Praised Chinese Communism as a System Where ‘Everyone Shares’  —  As a high school teacher in the 1990s, Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota governor Tim Walz appeared to extol life under Chinese communism, telling his students that it is a system in which “everyone shares” and gets free food and housing.

Corporate Bullshit (permalink)  —  Corporate Bullshit: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America is Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen's 2023 book on the history of corporate apologetics; it's great:  —  https://thenewpress.com/books/ corporate-bullsht