Attention to the Unseen

Rolling Stone reports: On Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a show of selectively exiting the presidential race and throwing his support behind Donald Trump, hailing the former president as a champion of free speech. Less than a week later, Trump is already promising to crush First Amendment protections if elected in November. On Monday, Trump complained about pushback to a proposal to sentence people to a year in jail for burning the American flag. “I wanna get a law…

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The Guardian reports: Local Republican leaders saw the rally [in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Rust belt] as an opportunity for Trump to take the initiative after evidently being thrown by suddenly facing Kamala Harris after months of leading Joe Biden in opinion polls. Harris has not only erased Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania, but recent polls put her three or more points ahead. Frank Scavo, a businessman and ardent Trump supporter who was part of a coup that took hold of…

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Elaina Plott Calabro writes: Kash Patel was dangerous. On this both Trump appointees and career officials could agree. A 40-year-old lawyer with little government experience, he joined the administration in 2019 and rose rapidly. Each new title set off new alarms. When Patel was installed as chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense just after the 2020 election, Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised him not to break the law in order to…

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The Washington Post reports: The 50 biggest donors this cycle have collectively pumped $1.5 billion into political committees and other groups competing in the election, according to a Washington Post analysis of Federal Election Commission data. The vast majority of money from top donors has gone to super PACs, which can accept unlimited sums from individuals and often work closely with campaigns despite rules against coordinating their advertising. From billionaire investors to shipping magnates, these megadonors skew Republican, though they…

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Business Insider reports: The Democratic and Republican National Conventions concluded this week, solidifying former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as their party’s respective nominees. But between the partisan speeches and celebrity appearances, the ambiance of the convention — created in part by the design of the stage each candidate spoke on and the signs held by audience members — underscored each party’s priorities headed into this year’s contentious election. A political scientist told Business Insider the stagecraft…

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Politico reports: California and San Francisco in particular have become the poster child for unaffordability, with expensive housing fueling waves of homelessness that burden city services and repel people and businesses. State lawmakers have responded, passing laws that streamline permits for affordable housing and banning single-unit zoning, an effort seen as critical to paving the way for more building. “America is not a museum,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who’s locked in a tough reelection race, said as Democrats gathered…

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