Sorry I was a little late with my last post, but I don’t wade into nineteenth-century waters with quite the self-confidence of my esteemed distant colleague Mr. Chait.

Here are some contemporary news/views treats before I start frantically trying to assemble this week’s TPMCafe column:

* Who says Barack Obama disrespects journalists? He’s taking his summer vacation once again on Martha’s Vineyard, where the media bigfoots tend to gather as well.

* Take-Down-the-Confederate-Flag bill moves on to SC House, where more significant resistence is expected.

* Speaking of said flag, brouhaha erupts in Iowa where county GOP float in parade displayed it. Iowa not real sympathetic to the Lost Cause.

* If you wonder why Ben Carson is running for president, one hint is in the number of copies of his latest book he’s sold: 362,813.

* At the Atlantic, Chris Arnade asks a very good question: what would “broken windows policing” look like if applied to Wall Street’s disorders?

And in non-political news:

* At Sports Illustrated, Amy Trask profiles Sarah Thomas, the NFL’s first full-time NFL referee.

As we break for lunch, here’s Ringo Starr’s vocal contribution to the White Album, “Don’t Pass Me By.”

YouTube video

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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.