A Clinton campaign press release about "Donald Trump's alarming closeness with the Kremlin" had me about to go write that if the right were attacking a Democratic presidential candidate along these lines, the cries of "McCarthyism" would be deafening. Then I saw the Nation editorial "Against Neo-McCarthyism," in which the Nation complains that " Over the past month alone, establishment voices like Franklin Foer, Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Goldberg, Josh Marshall, and Jonathan Chait, among others, have Kremlin-baited Trump in lieu of reasoned argument and factual critique."

With Donald Trump getting badly outspent by Hillary Clinton, calls for "publicly financed" elections in which Mexican-American and Muslim taxpayers would be taxed to make sure Trump has the same amount to spend as his opponent are strangely scarce. This phenomenon is the topic of my column this week. Please check out the full column at Reason (here) and Newsmax (here).

After the column was published I did hear from one campaign finance reform advocate, Tyler Creighton, who sent links to some New York Times editorials and to a piece of legislation.

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial critical of Donald Trump's statements about Ukraine. Here's the key passage:

Mrs. Clinton's other advantage is that Mr. Trump knows little about the world and can't be bothered to learn. In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on the weekend, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest that Russian proxies had not invaded Crimea. "He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down," Mr. Trump blustered. Last week he floated the prospect of officially recognizing Russia's annexation.

A two-page briefing document could have acquainted Mr. Trump with the Crimean reality, but that would have required doing a high schooler's amount of homework. Maybe it could have even instructed him that a Republican who wants to win an election can't let a Democrat look more hawkish toward U.S. adversaries like Vladimir Putin.

Shrewd analysis from William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Trump's critics are quick to suggest these kind of things make him unfit for the Oval Office. Especially on the right, they frequently go on to add that any Republican or conservative who does not publicly pronounce him anathema will forever bear the mark of Cain.

It should be noted that his critics on the right are also invested in a big GOP defeat. If Mr. Trump loses by two or three points, they will be blamed for contributing to that defeat. If, by contrast, Mr. Trump loses by a landslide, they will look like prophets.

For the larger Republican Party, however, there's a catch. If it turns out Mr. Trump loses by a narrow margin, Republican senators and congressmen still have a chance of keeping their seats. A blowout defeat for Mr. Trump, on the other hand, would likely translate into massive Republican losses in both the Senate and House. Even so, it's a price the NeverTrump movement appears more than willing to pay to make their point.

David Frum has a pretty good piece up at the Atlantic on why Trump supporters think he will win. If you are so inclined, have a look, and feel free to use the comments function here to share your own thoughts.

A radio station in New Bedford suggests that something isn't quite right about the acceptance-speech story that Hillary Clinton told about the Massachusetts city. The details are here.

Donald Trump's comments about NATO and the Baltics are the topic of my column in Sunday's Las Vegas Review-Journal. Please read it by clicking here.

This gem of an exchange is from Jennifer Schuessler's interview of Andrew Sullivan, as published by the New York Times:

In an interview with Slate this week, Glenn Greenwald said that while the American media is now "essentially 100 percent united, vehemently, against Trump," the elite media is also utterly failing to connect with Trump voters, much as the anti-Brexit media and politicians failed to connect with voters in Britain. Do you agree?

William Kristol writes in the Weekly Standard:

conservatism too needs reform and renewal. This is a major task ...It is an endeavor that should also aim to revitalize the Republican party, if that is possible. We look forward to the task. We especially look forward to engaging the young—Americans who understand conservative principles, but who knew not Reagan; warriors not of the Cold War but of the 9/11 generation; constitutionalists who are students and law clerks rather than contemporaries of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito; entrepreneurs not of the 20th century but of the 21st. We oldsters can provide some useful guidance and help. But we can only do that if we freely acknowledge the need for fresh thinking and acting. We can only do that if we are well aware that the task is now less to "conserve" than to rebuild and renew.

If Mayor Bloomberg really wants to help Hillary Clinton get elected, he'd be better off staying at one of his many homes than speaking at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. The Bloomberg endorsement is the topic of my column this week. Please read the whole column at the New Boston Post (here), the New York Sun (here), and Newsmax (here).

Of all the many, many words about Hillary Clinton uttered at the Republican National Convention, the truest may have been these, from the party's vice presidential nominee, the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence: "She'll have the press doing half her work for her."

So begins my column for Sunday's Las Vegas Review-Journal. Please read the whole thing here.

If Melania Trump "plagiarized" her convention speech from Michelle Obama, then who did Michelle Obama plagiarize her speech from? Answer: Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. The details are in my latest article for Heat Street. Please check it out here.

Sick of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton? Have a look at Senator Tim Scott and Senator Cory Booker, who have teamed up across partisan lines to introduce two pieces of legislation aimed at increasing upward mobility and fighting poverty. That's the subject of my column this week. Please check the column out at Reason (here), the New York Sun (here), or Newsmax (here).

"How The Clintons and the Rest of Washington Are Getting Rich From the Turkey Coup" is the headline over my latest piece for Heat Street, which reports on, among other things, Richard Gephardt's $1.7 million (for 11 months work) foreign agent contract for the government of Turkey. Please check the article out here.

"Terrible Trump? Clintons are just as bad" is the headline over my column in Sunday's Las Vegas Review-Journal. Please check the column out by clicking the link here.