Comment on Friday Talking Points -- Toss of a Coin

Why did SD Governor Kristi Noem decide to publish her story about killing her allegedly 'untrainable' dog? Her state's Senate Minority Leader offers three theories: Inoculation from others telling it; lifting her national profile - and distraction from her governing record.

Without cameras on Hope Hicks' testimony, media outlets were left with only a transcript to analyze why she broke down in tears. "It's a mistake to say Hope Hicks cried because she knew she just ended Donald Trump's career," says Elie Honig, "or she cried because she had just collapsed on cross-examine.

"The big issue in '68, it turned out, was not Vietnam - it was law and order," says historian James Traub. And for Biden, "The electoral danger is [protesters] offending the much larger group of voters to Biden's right." And his "narrow path" is to "take action in regard to Israel that will show that he shares some of their concernsin a way that does not identify him with the demonstrators."

Despite Biden and Trump now saying they will debate, neither party has contacted the Commission on Presidential Debates, says co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf, and likely won't until after their Conventions. After September 6, the last day any state determines who qualifies for the ballot, "we'll then know who meets the requirement of being on enough ballots to conceivably get 270 electoral votes."

MSNBC's Katy Tur and Axios' Jim VandeHei managed to have a very long conversation about the effects of right wing propaganda without ever mentioning the words right wing propaganda. I guess I should quit being astounded by stuff like this, but it continues to amaze me how people in our corporate news media dance around naming just who exactly is responsible for turning most Republicans' brains into mush. Here's the transcript of the beginning of their exchange from her show this Thursday, and notice the words that aren't used here.

Donald Trump's TIME interview will shock you. It is a long piece, but every American needs to read it. This country must wake up and realize what we face in the 2024 election: it's all hands on deck. TIME reporter Eric Cortellessa explains:read more