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

1:05 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 …

Discussion: New York Post, CNN, PoliticusUSA and KTLA

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: Raw Story, RealClearPolitics Videos, National Review, Hot Air, 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: PoliticusUSA and Washington Monthly

Nick Gillespie / The Daily Beast:

Hillary's Strategy Is Actually Brilliant — Why, from a strategic standpoint, Clinton is right to stay as low profile as possible. — Has any future president been more misunderstood than Hillary Clinton? — As someone who cannot imagine any possible scenario in which I would cast …

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

John Fund / National Review:
History Shows That Trump Is Perfectly Willing to Play the Spoiler

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNSNews and Hot Air

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: Weekly Standard, Liberal Values, Mediaite, 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 — Obamacare supporters are mistaken if they think the Supreme Court's King v. Burwell ruling settles the issue. Even in defeat, King threatens Obamacare's survival, because it exposes Obamacare as an illegitimate law. — Say what you will about the Affordable Care Act.

Discussion: Salon and Lawyers, Guns & Money

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 …

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

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, Addicting Info, Hinterland Gazette and theGrio

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

Discussion: WMC Action News 5

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Blame John Boehner for the House GOP's Confederate flag fiasco — The Confederates launched a surprise attack, under cover of darkness. — It was 8:30 Wednesday night, and the House was plodding toward its 20th hour of debate on a little-watched appropriations bill, when Rep. Ken Calvert …

Discussion: Salon, The Huffington Post, Slantpoint, Humphrey on the Hill, Booman Tribune and New York Times