I’ll be in Iowa from Saturday til Tuesday, mainly to attend the State Fair and visit friends, but you never know what politicians you’ll bump into there.

Here are some midday news/views snacks-on-a-stick:

* Alec MacGillis has the essential backgrounder on militarization of police after 9/11.

* Rand Paul attacks militarization of the police, too, but of course attributes it to Big Government.

* New UK general election forecast suggests another coalition government despite collapse of LibDems.

* Chuck Todd Meet the Press gig to be finally announced today.

* At Daily Beast, Patricia Murphy reports that those “losing” right-wing SuperPACs are having great fundraising year.

And in non-political news:

* The Upshot offers very cool charts about migration among the states over time.

As we break for lunch, here’s Television’s Tom Verlaine performing “Bomb” in 1987.

Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.