• Before Trump's newest Foreign Policy Rant, the news of the day was likely going to be about the candidate's extended Twitter tirade against the "dishonest and corrupt media" holding him back. The anti-media tweetstorm was fueled by a devastating account in the New York Times of Trump's volatile campaign behavior and the despondency of campaign staffers who believe the "sullen and erratic" Trump is "beyond coaching." They're not likely to feel better after digesting this latest public tantrum.

• Also from the New York Times, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been discovered to have been paid $12.7 million in secret cash from pro-Russian Ukrainian forces; that's in addition to the millions Manafort was getting on the books from pro-Russian Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych for Manafort's political services. Manafort denies the payments; conspicuously, it's not clear whether Manafort continues to be paid by Yanukovych and allies even while he's working on the Trump campaign. The Ukrainian investigation is ongoing.

• On CNN Sunday, Paul Manafort claimed a NATO base in Turkey had come "under attack by terrorists." This isn't true. The only source for that claim, other than Manafort himself, appears to be Russian state-controlled media outlets.

• Ivanka Trump is taking a break from the campaign trail to ... wait. To vacation with Russian president Putin's girlfriend? Um, all right.

• Former mayor of New York City and man who had his name legally changed to 9/11 Rudy Giuliani introduced the aforementioned Trump foreign policy speech by declaring to the audience: "Before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States. They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office.." There appears to be something in Trump's aura that reduces all nearby to blubbering idiots, or perhaps only blubbering idiots are willing to associate with the man at this point.

• Case in point: Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson, still digging out from under the aftermath of declaring that it was pre-presidential Barack Obama who invaded Afghanistan to claim on her latest television appearance that reporters on the campaign trail have "literally beat Trump supporters into submission." An honest question for media members: If a particular political surrogate is known primarily for an unending stream of lunacies and falsehoods, what purpose is served by continuing to speak to that propagandist? Is it, in other words, unethical to book a spokesperson on your airwaves who you know in advance will be openly lying—whether intentionally or via transcendent ineptitude—to your audience?

• A further sign of a campaign off the rails: Dismissal of Trump's negligible ground presence in the critical state of Florida from senior campaign adviser Karen Giorno, who says Trump's large-scale rallies are "the best type of outreach you can possibly have. He's touching 40,000 people in two days." Oh dear.

• Yet another polling low: Trump heading towards "the worst showing among younger voters in modern American history." With only 20% of the Millennial vote, Trump's support is even lower than that managed by Richard Nixon ... during the Vietnam War.

• That 20% may look like manna from heaven compared to Trump's standing among black American voters. In danger of bottoming out even lower than John McCain's dismal 4% showing, Trump has disengaged from the black community entirely.

• Faced with a candidacy in disarray, the Republican National Committee is beginning to mull just when to cut Trump loose. If they do, it's over: Trump's tiny campaign has been relying on the RNC for even the most basic state-by-state infrastructure.

• Republican vice presidential nominee was asked whether the Trump campaign's defense of Trump's offensive statements as "sarcasm" was getting old. "I don't think it's getting old at all, Chris," was the response. Post-November, will there be a reckoning for once-thought-serious Republicans who debased themselves so thoroughly to the Donald Trump effort? It's hard to stage a competent walk-back after you've endorsed, well, that.

• The Trump campaign appears to be serious in their calls for supporters to "monitor" polling places to discourage "cheating" in non-Trump supporting districts. Trump's proposed remedies both amount to direct intimidation of legal voters and are likely very, very illegal.

• From birtherism to Obama-founded-ISIS, most of Trump's most ridiculous conspiracy theories come from three places: ex-aide Roger Stone, conspiracy theory kingpin Alex Jones, and the Russian propaganda sites that they use to prop up many of their so-called "stories." Jones, for his part, is ecstatic at the current state of events: It's "surreal to talk about issues here on air and then word-for-word hear Trump say it two days later. It is amazing."

• Trump campaign mail: "They said we couldn't win a primary; couldn't get the nomination. That's what they told the founding fathers too."

• Sen. Marco Rubio: I still back "con man" Trump.

• We already have tests for would-be immigrants, so Sen. Harry Reid has a suggestion for Trump.

• We may be beyond the limits of what traditional "unskewing" can accomplish.

• Conservative radio voice Charlie Sykes: "When this is all over, we have to go back. There's got to be a reckoning on all this. We created this monster."

x Trumpist foreign policy. Well, actually attributed to Genghis Khan, but what's the difference? pic.twitter.com/LFr3BA1UaR — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 15, 2016

x 16. Ok I have now watched the last of Trumps speech. I can only describe it in one word... Madness. The man is a dangerous megalomaniac. — Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) August 15, 2016