This really did happen.
Stuttering John lied about his identity and Trump spoke to him thinking he was a US senator.https://t.co/D3BughtBbj https://t.co/3pDWcJrWZu
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 29, 2018
I thought for sure there’d be an official White House “Nah, not pranked, we were happy to give our boy Melendez the promo!” denial by now. But nooo…
All together, now: THANKS, JARED!
More on sloppy protocol: Legislative affairs was notified of call, checked with Mendendez COS, who said he was not trying to reach POTUS. Leg affairs said kill the call. It was patched through, however, reportedly by Kushner. https://t.co/OnLDLmUK7t
— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) June 29, 2018
because he's a fucking idiot https://t.co/A6U2Ra73T8
— Dirty Computer (@Johngcole) June 29, 2018
That prankster who called the President would have great stories to tell if the conversation didn’t lead him to drink himself to death
— WeaponizedHat (@Popehat) June 29, 2018
Surprised he didn't get the nuclear launch codes …
— Christopher van Lone (@LoneChristopher) June 29, 2018
“Are we sure he didn’t?”
Trump’s staunch defenders, needless to say, are VERY offended!…
This ship sailed on November 8, 2016, I'm afraid https://t.co/lLtad8NWcr
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) June 29, 2018
It should be against the law for a government official to impersonate a comedian. cc: @GovMikeHuckabee https://t.co/wMPAwSkcpD
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) June 29, 2018
Here comes the “No Crime, Cuz He’s An Idiot” defense…
"If it was that easy to dupe him, there's every chance in the world Putin duped him," says comedian "Stuttering John" of Trump. https://t.co/Xw4hFvf8Cs via @HuffPostPol
— John Melendez (@stutteringjohnm) June 30, 2018
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Are there going to be goons sent to intimidate/and/or arrest Stuttering John?
John Revolta
Sloppy nothin’. I’m betting Kushner was in on it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: They’ll arrest “Stuttering John” and “Crooked Hillary” at the same time.
Villago Delenda Est
I’d respond to the two house wenches on the Twitter machine, but they’ve blocked me.
The Lodger
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: They’re probably working on a way to deport him. So far, citizenship doesn’t seem to matter much.
Mary G
This article by Rebecca Traister is flamazing:
Summer of Rage
White men are the minority in the United States — no wonder they get uncomfortable when their power is challenged.
So many good points:
The aggravating irony is that NY Magazine puts this and all her other serious political commentary not in the “Daily Intelligencer” section where Jonathan Chait and Ed Killgore are published, but in “The Cut,” next to stuff about fashion and makeup. WaPo does the same, segregating articles they think are only interesting to women in a section called “The Lily.” No wonder it’s Teen Vogue, Elle, and other magazines have so much good and cutting-edge commentary. The structural bias is real even in progressive media.
The Ancient Randonneur
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
According to his Twitter feed the Secret Service showed up at his place at 1 AM, but I haven’t seen independent verification of that claim.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Mary G:
It’s for that same reason they missed the Ocasio-Cortez story.
Damned at Random
Stuttering John famously asked Gennifer Flowers if Clinton used a candom. We already know the answer to that question for old Rawdog. But it seems like a wasted opportunity
MagdaInBlack
@Mary G:
Last line :
” The reason the anger of a majority gets suppressed is because it has the power to imperil the rule of the minority”
They’re afraid.
Good.
John Revolta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: “Hell, let’s get Menendez while we’re at it. He wiggled out the last time but we can nail him for this.”
Dorothy Winsor
@Mary G: Good article. Thanks for the link.
NobodySpecial
Maureen Dowd’s hit squads are busy seeking out this interloper now, for daring to steal her access.
lobstaheatah
One of the many aspects of this that is just…sad, is that the Trump supporters at that Twitter thread seem to honestly not grasp the security issues. They’re all focusing on how kind and generous Trump was for taking the call and being nice to “Senator Menendez.” They also view it as a positive that his private conversations are just as much word salad as his public statements. They truly seem to be incapable of understanding the security implications.
Duane
ICE may not be abolished, but that’s a good starting place. Reign it in, now. Lots of acts take after 9/11 need to be revisited at the least. Instead the Federalist Supreme Court decides banning Muslims is a good idea.
Mike in NC
Idiot Wisconsin governor Walker was famously fooled into thinking he was speaking on the phone to one of the Koch brothers.
Mr Stagger Lee
Saw a great sign at the rally in Tacoma, Make America Honorable Again!
father pusbucket
It should be against the law for a game show host to impersonate a President.
Marcopolo
Reupping this from last thread:
Today is the last day for second quarter fundraising for campaigns. Pundits and prognosticators will be looking at everyone’s haul for the past three months, dropping hot takes, and making all kinds of ridiculous statements–for the most part.
I just went through my donations for the year-to-date and discovered I have now given about $400 to 14 different candidates/organizations. I’ll be making a couple more today in light of the deadline. If you would like to join me–and I hope you do–please send $25 to a candidate you are already supporting or pick one from the lovely Red to Blue list that the Democratic Party has already put together. There are 50+ candidates to choose from! Apparently, despite not trying, 5 of the folks I’ve already donated to are on the list so go me.
And if trying to choose just one or two candidates from the list is too difficult and you want to just make a single donation that gets spread out amongst all of these fine folks you can do that here.
Finally, I hope everyone who went to a march today had a blast.
zhena gogolia
I cannot and will not read that.
The Dangerman
I’m wondering what happens if he tries to back out of NATO when he meets Putin; what’s left of the Greatest Generation will all stroke out.
encephalopath
Didn’t we hear that the White House security people keep rebuilding Trump’s old phone for him? Because he’s the sort of senior citizen who clicks the links. A phishing dream target.
MattF
Good thing Trump is a genius.
Feebog
@Marcopolo:
I am in a safe blue district (Brad Sherman) so I am throwing some bucks at Katie Hill who is running against Steve Knight. This is one of those toss-up SoCal districts. She is a terrific candidate and has a great shot at this seat.
GregB
I await the transcripts from the prank phone call to Trump from the Emir of Baba-Booey.
Aleta
Kind of a shame it was not someone who, instead of a prank, pretended to be a donor or businessman. Recorded Trump saying something headline worthy –‘Trump says Pence can’t handle presidency’ or ‘Japanese bikes far superior to Harley Davidsons’ (fighting words!)
Aleta
Saw this sign on the internet. https://mobile.twitter.com/saxikath/status/1013107371978248192
zhena gogolia
@Marcopolo:
You inspired me to set up a monthly contribution to my “adopted” district via Swing Left — NY-19, Antonio Delgado. I don’t know j–k s–t about him, but I don’t care! It makes me feel less helpless sitting here in a blue district in a blue state.
Bill Arnold
A couple of interesting pieces on observer.com, which used to be (until Jan 2017) owned by Jared Kushner.
Milo Yiannopoulos doing his thing, in this case wishing for the shooting of journalists, note the date.
Milo Yiannopoulos Encourages Vigilantes to Start ‘Gunning Journalists Down (Davis Richardson • 06/26/18 12:32pm)
Scott Pruitt crossed a new ethical line here. Stealing from taxpayers and general corruption are one level, deliberately hurting individual people while on the government payroll is a higher level of evil.
Scott Pruitt Adds ‘Ratf**king’ to Laundry List of Expenditures (Davis Richardson • 06/28/18 1:59pm)
Marcopolo
@Feebog: Thank you. I live in a blue part of the state of Missouri. All the folks repping me in gov from city councilperson to US House are Democrats. MO primaries aren’t for another month but after the candidate to run against Ann Wagner (MO-2) is finalized, I will be sending them some dough. In the meantime I am supporting Sen McCaskill & sending random donations to Dems in mostly flippable House races. Today I gave to the folks running in PA-7 (my aunt lives there), Il-14, and KS-2. And to Audrey Denny in CA-1. She is a total total long shot (not a red to blue candidate) but I watched her give a speech a few weeks ago & thought she was great. And, we’ve got to also support the folks who take the time to present the Democratic message in parts of the country where it just isn’t heard all that much.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Actually, he looks fantastic! He has sons named Maxwell and Coltrane.
p.a.
JKush enhanced WH cyber security by changing trump’s nym/password from admin/password to admin1/password1. Trump wanted nym: Mrfantastic but couldn’t spell it consistently.
Under the new format here my auto fill works consistently, but also adds my home address as the first item in the comment box. :-(
debbie
I hope he’s in a tirade about this for weeks.
Amir Khalid
Malaysian Official One Najib has been under pressure to explain all that cash and all them jewels’n’handbags stashed at his homes. This is his latest attempt. Note whose name he has dragged into it. Note also the immediate debunking of his claim by The Straits Times (a Singaporean newspaper, not to be confused with Malaysia’s The New Straits Times).
HinTN
@Marcopolo: The fucking R2B list doesn’t have Mariah Phillips (TN-4) on there and she is a damn good candidate to run against our thoroughly reprehensible incumbent, Scott DesJarlais. That’s the establishment in action.
Another Scott
@Marcopolo: Good, good.
There’s DougJ!’s Balloon Juice Nowhere to Hide, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
Marcopolo
@zhena gogolia: Thanks! Delgado was the preferred candidate in that district, but that is all I know about him. Frankly, the only important thing for me is if the Dems take the house in November, we will get to see Trump’s tax returns, we will see meaningful oversight of the Executive Branch, and at least for two years no one will be trying to kill the program providing my health insurance.
Here’s to Dems having subpoena power!
Oh and Fuck Devin Nunes, Jason Chaffetz, Trey Gowdy, Goodlatte, and any other R House committee chairman who have used the subpoena in support of Trump.
Barbara
@Mary G: I love everything by Rebecca Traister. I especially loved this quote, because it crystallized what I was thinking on the metro this morning, that the only passion that seems to count to major news media is that of Trump’s supporters.
Just this morning, the following headline appeared at WaPo: “The midterm elections shape up as a battle over intensity. Are Democrats ready?” This is on the same day that, on two weeks’ notice, a crowd of 50,000 was expected in D.C. and there were more than 500 events were scheduled across the nation.
Right before last election day, all these national publications were coalescing around the idea that Ralph Northam might lose to Ed Gillespie. They (not to mention many Dems) were stunned not just that Northam won by so much, but that in a single election, Democrats basically reversed Republican control of a very heavily gerrymandered House of Delegates.
They don’t see women or people of color.
?BillinGlendaleCA?
@p.a.:
That’s helpful. ?
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
Evansville, Indiana Keep Families Together protest
Only 2 pictures, but I couldn’t stay very long.
Notably, some moron on a Harley at the intersection kept gunning his engine while waiting for the light to change.?
It reminded me of the old joke about Harleys.
Q: What’s the difference between a Hoover and a Harley?
A: The dirtbag rides inside the Hoover.
Catherine D.
Hmm, my donations at the moment are going to our local Planned Parenthood. Political donations must wait until the absentee ballots are counted in NY-23.
debbie
Stuttering John must have lost his stutter, otherwise I think Trump would have recognized him from his many appearances on the Howard Stern show.
Litlebritdifrnt
Sticking my fingers in my ears and going “I can’t hear you” because me and DH had a GREAT day today. We drove up to Grange Over Sands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grange-over-Sands. We walked through the ornamental gardens and then down to the promenade onto the sands. The tide started to come in so we beat a hasty retreat back to the prom. From there we went up through the lakes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_District. We went through Bowness, Windermere, and Ambleside which were absolute zoos of humanity with herds upon herds of migrating wilderbeast dressed in shorts and t-shirts and much less ambling along the roads and car parks and lake sides to the point that you couldn’t actually drive. It was like Myrtle Beach during bike week. We then went up to Keswick and stopped by the Red Squirrel Nature Reserve which was much more civilized and then drove home through the Lyth Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyth_Valley. It was a wonderful day. I just love being home.
Marcopolo
@HinTN: Well, TN-4 is considered safe republican right now. The furtherest reaches for Red to Blue are probably WV-2 & TX 31 which were just moved from safe R to likely R on June 20th. By all means give to Mariah’s campaign yourself (see my comment above where I gave to a person running in a safe R seat), but I don’t think it’s fair to complain about the R to B folks not picking her in this case.
HinTN
@HinTN: To be fair, we have yet to hold our primary and she does have an opponent running but still. /grump
Barbara
@Aleta: That’s a great sign. The one picture I got was of a woman wearing a white t-shirt with “Never Again” hand printed on the back, and just below, that she was opposing family separation as a child of Holocaust survivors. That, and “when they came for the immigrants I did something” were my favorite messages on signs.
Mary G
@Barbara: I know. Rebecca Traister is the best. Even the Women’s March, especially the second march in January, didn’t get covered as much as the Trump rallies. That’s why I don’t worry about the polls narrowing. The rage is quite real, but nobody much is looking at us. Might be a good thing to be under the radar a bit.
Marcopolo
@Catherine D.: Wow, close race! 26 votes out of 21,661 cast. Another reminder of every vote counts. Are you rooting for either Della Pia or Mitrano?
Marcopolo
@Feebog: Thanks! I looked at all the CA folks on R to B–she is one of them. As I said earlier, I went with the total underdog in CA-1 (a district not expected to flip).
HinTN
@Marcopolo: I most assuredly have given. I attended an event and she thoughtfully and knowledgeably answered district-specific questions outside the wheelhouse of her stump speech. She’s got a chance if people will listen to her.
DCrefugee
Sounds like the professional staff knew what they were doing. But the amateurs…
Imagine if this had been Obama…
trollhattan
@debbie:
That’s an interesting point, the guy would have pretty good insight on how to get at Trump.
Marcopolo
@Mary G: After Nov ’16 I no longer make any predictions about elections. I would note, however, that polls do not do a good job of taking into account voter intensity. Pollsters always have to make predictions about who will show up on the day of the election. Their most reliable guide for that is who showed up last time. When a particular group gets supercharged excited they tend to be a little under the radar come election time in terms of pollsters predicting who will turn out. For example, if a lot of youngsters (under 30) do turn out due to Parkland and gun stuff in 2018 it will screw the polling up.
In all honesty, that is why Trump is doing all the awful shit vis a vis illegal immigrants and now with the Supreme Court pick. He & the folks around him are trying to find ways to get the Rs as intense about the midterms as the Ds already are. Lets hope they fail.
Duane
@Amir Khalid: Sounds like One Najib is in Dire Straits. (As Sultans of Swing plays in his head.)
Marcopolo
@HinTN: I have no idea what this race looks like in terms of who has a chance to win, but if you really like Mariah and are physically fit and have the time before Aug 2 (btw that is a Thursday what’s up with that), then do a couple door-to-door canvassing shifts for her. Maybe volunteer to help with GOTV on the weekend before the primary. I guarantee you will meet some interesting people.
I am staying out of the primary in MO-2 (district next door to me) but will be canvassing for the eventual winner. Our primary is Aug 7.
Amir Khalid
@Duane:
Mark my words, he’s on a Highway To Hell …
Catherine D.
@Marcopolo:
Mitrano, because she knows computer security and she’s not a white dude. OTOH, all the candidates in the primary were good on policy and are all better than the slug Tom Reed.
BC in Illinois
@Marcopolo:
I also am in St Louis County, in the district of Ann Wagner (R – safe Republican vote).
Here is what Mark Osmack, my candidate to defeat her, said at today’s rally:
Brachiator
@Mary G:
RE: WaPo does the same, segregating articles they think are only interesting to women in a section called “The Lily.”
This cuts both ways. It is not a coincidence that a good deal of the resistance, including people running for political office, have been women.
rikyrah
@lobstaheatah:
They have been proven to be phonies about security. They don’t really give two shyts about the security of the United States.
A Ghost To Most
@lobstaheatah:
Willful ignorance is a helluva drug.