Top Items:
Daily Mail:
Comedian John Melendez ‘hoax calls President Trump on Air Force One and chats with him about controversial family separation policy while pretending to be a New Jersey senator’ — A voice sounding very much like that of President Donald Trump is heard in a phone call a comedian claims …
Discussion:
Washington Press, Hot Air and Political Wire
RELATED:
Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Prank caller patched through to Trump on Air Force One — The host of “The Stuttering John” podcast, John Melendez, got President Trump on the phone yesterday by pretending he was New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. “This is how easy it is to infiltrate the administration.” Melendez said in the podcast episode.
Discussion:
New Republic, Breitbart, Gizmodo, Boing Boing, Joe.My.God. and Shakesville
John Harwood / CNBC:
Trump's White House has been a money-making machine — Although Donald Trump handed over control of his businesses to his sons, the president still collects on their profits. Here's how Trump's White House is a money-making machine.
Annie Karni / Politico:
Why a new chief of staff wouldn't change Trump's White House — The president has proved resistant to being managed by either of his first two chiefs, and few expect anything different even if he replaces John Kelly. — “I'm leaving, and I'm not coming back.”
Tarini Parti / BuzzFeed:
The White House Is Becoming A Ghost Town. Trump Loyalists Worry It's Going To Get Worse.
The White House Is Becoming A Ghost Town. Trump Loyalists Worry It's Going To Get Worse.
Discussion:
Brookings
Louis Nelson / Politico:
White House scrambles to figure out how prankster got on the phone with Trump
White House scrambles to figure out how prankster got on the phone with Trump
Discussion:
Fox News, ThinkProgress, IJR, Raw Story, Mashable and Law & Crime
Chris Sommerfeldt / New York Daily News:
Comedian John Melendez says he prank-called President Trump on Air Force One masquerading as New Jersey senator
Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
White House asks billionaire Koch network and others to join activist coalition to lobby for SCOTUS nominee
White House asks billionaire Koch network and others to join activist coalition to lobby for SCOTUS nominee
Discussion:
Washington Post, ABC News and Townhall
NBC News:
North Korea has increased nuclear production at secret sites, say U.S. officials — “Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles,” said one U.S. official — WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea …
New York Times:
‘Shaken’ Rosenstein Felt Used by White House in Comey Firing — WASHINGTON — In the days after the F.B.I. director James B. Comey was fired last year, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, repeatedly expressed anger about how the White House used him to rationalize the firing …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Raw Story, Political Wire and Mediaite
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
G.M. Says New Wave of Trump Tariffs Could Force U.S. Job Cuts — General Motors warned Friday that if President Trump pushed forward with another wave of tariffs, the move could backfire, leading to “less investment, fewer jobs and lower wages” for its employees.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Raw Story and Political Wire
Lili Loofbourow / Slate:
The America We Thought We Knew Is Gone — Because countries are not people, it's tricky to translate whatever “loving one's country” means—it's quite abstract—into the language of heartbreak. It sounds melodramatic. What can heartbreak mean as a civic matter? And yet it is what I feel.
Discussion:
Fox News, Jezebel, Daily Kos and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
RELATED:
Katherine Burgess / Wichita Eagle:
HHS official to abortion opponents: 'We're just getting started'
HHS official to abortion opponents: 'We're just getting started'
Discussion:
Raw Story
Alexandra Glorioso / Politico:
Putnam and DeSantis vow to sign abortion-ban law if elected
Putnam and DeSantis vow to sign abortion-ban law if elected
Discussion:
One America News Network, MSNBC and Breitbart
The Babylon Bee:
Democratic Socialist Candidate's Primary Win Revoked After All Her Votes Forcibly Redistributed — NEW YORK, NY—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was elated when reports broke that she had won the Democratic primary for her district, defeating long-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley Tuesday.
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Rebecca Traister / The Cut:
Summer of Rage — It shouldn't have been such a shock. After all, many of those most painfully poleaxed by the news of Anthony Kennedy's retirement on Wednesday were the same ones who'd always understood the stakes; we knew that this was the risk, we've been scared for a long time.
Washington Examiner:
Overturn Roe v. Wade — We write not to praise Anthony Kennedy's jurisprudence, but to bury it. — Across 31 years, Justice Kennedy issued many rulings, good and bad. But his most lasting legacy was the travesty he released 26 years ago today, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, The Henry J. Kaiser …, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Maggie's Farm
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Wall Street Journal:
Newspaper Staff Warned Years Ago to Call 911 if They Saw Jarrod Ramos — Authorities charge suspect in Capital Gazette shooting with five counts of first-degree murder — Capital Gazette staff were shown a photo of Jarrod W. Ramos years ago, and warned that if they ever saw him to call 911, a former editor and publisher said.
Discussion:
The Atlantic, Politico, WHNT-TV, CNN and Baltimore Sun, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
Robbie Gramer / Foreign Policy:
U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Resigns in Disgust After Trump Anti-Europe Rants — James Melville is the latest in a string of career diplomat resignations over Trump's comments and policies. — The U.S. ambassador to Estonia, James D. Melville Jr., a career diplomat and member …
Discussion:
National Review
Washington Post:
U.S. assessing cost of keeping troops in Germany as Trump battles with Europe — The Pentagon is analyzing the cost and impact of a large-scale withdrawal or transfer of American troops stationed in Germany, amid growing tensions between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to people familiar with the work.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Political Wire
Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Obama: ‘You are right to be concerned’ — In his first public comments in months, the former president talks about anger, regrets — and what the Republicans are doing right. — LOS ANGELES — Barack Obama's message to Democrats: Stop dreaming of him. — Speaking at a Democratic National …
Discussion:
CNN, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Washington Press, The Daily Beast, Townhall, POLITICUSUSA, Conservative News Today, Washington Free Beacon, Daily Wire, IJR, Washington Post, theGrio, Washington Times, Mashable, Axios, TheBlaze, Talking Points Memo, Chicks On The Right, The Week and Mediaite
RELATED:
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Associated Press may have led FBI to Manafort storage locker — A meeting last year where Associated Press reporters discussed with federal officials the news outlet's investigation of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's finances may have led the FBI to a storage locker the bureau raided, an FBI agent testified Friday.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Daily Caller News Foundation, Law & Crime and Front Page Magazine
RELATED:
New York Times:
Russians Offered Business Deals to Brexit's Biggest Backer — LONDON — Arron Banks, a British financier who bankrolled the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, has long bragged about his “boozy six-hour lunch” with the Russian ambassador eight months before the vote.
Brad Reed / Raw Story:
12-year-old black kid gets cops called on him for cutting neighbors' grass — A 12-year-old black child had the police called on him simply for mowing the lawn as part of his summer business. — News 5 Cleveland reports that 12-year-old Reginald Fields was mowing the lawn of Lucille Holt …
Discussion:
Washington Press, newsnet5, FOX31 Denver and WTVR-TV
Lam Thuy Vo / BuzzFeed:
They Played Dominoes Outside Their Apartment For Decades. Then The White People Moved In And Police Started Showing Up. — “This used to be a bad neighborhood.” Two areas of New York City that have recently gentrified have a corresponding high rate of quality-of-life complaints, which sometimes draw the police.
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: Trump's private threat to upend global trade — President Trump has repeatedly told top White House officials he wants to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization, a move that would throw global trade into wild disarray, people involved in the talks tell Axios.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Politico, New York Times, CNBC, Washington Post, What The Fuck …, Breitbart, MSNBC, Raw Story, CNN, Mediaite, Joe.My.God., Washington Times and The Week
Michelle Kosinski / CNN:
Exclusive: Trump appointee guts UN document on racism, says leaders don't have duty to condemn hate speech — Washington (CNN)A Trump administration appointee to the State Department tore into standard UN documents that condemn racism as a threat to democracy.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money and New York Times
Maria Armental / Wall Street Journal:
Comcast Blames Widespread Service Outage on Cut Fiber Line — The company, which has more than 29 million business and residential customers, said it was working to restore services — Cable giant Comcast Corp. CMCSA 0.55% is responding to a widespread outage Friday that has left customers without cable …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Mediaite and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Seth Abramovitch / Hollywood Reporter:
Death in a Hollywood Sex Dungeon: How a Top Agency Executive's “Mummification” Ritual Ended in Tragedy — For years, WME vp Skip Chasey has led an openly double life as a “master” in L.A.'s BDSM community. But a role-playing encounter involving plastic wrap went horrifically wrong …
Hamilton Nolan / Splinter:
We Get Voicemails — This week I wrote something that got widely circulated among angry right-wing people on the internet, which caused my personal contact information to be published online, which allowed me to hear voicemails from many new friends. Let's listen to a few.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Romaissaa Benzizoune / New York Times:
How to Be a Hoejabi — A couple of years ago, Nadia Ali made international news for being a Muslim porn star. She was banned in Pakistan and began to receive death threats. (How many porn stars can say that they have graced ISIS's personal hit list?) So I don't think the conservative Muslim world liked her.
Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:
“This Guy Is Up to Eyeballs in Shit“: Bill Shine, Roger Ailes's Former Enforcer, Has Been Hired to Shake Up the West Wing. But Might Hope Hicks Be Chief of Staff? — Pushed out of Fox partly for helping to enable sexual harassment, Shine imbibed his boss's view that the press was the enemy—the perfect fit for Trump's West Wing.
Discussion:
The Hill, Raw Story, Mediaite and Shareblue Media
Dylan Scott / Vox:
Federal judge blocks Kentucky's Medicaid work requirements — HHS did not adequately consider whether work requirements meet Medicaid's goal of providing health care to low-income Americans, a judge ruled. — A federal judge blocked Kentucky's Medicaid work requirements on Friday …
Discussion:
The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Courier-Journal, Washington Post, Mother Jones, ThinkProgress, Politico, Common Dreams, Splinter, Daily Kos and MSNBC
U.S. Department of Justice:
Man Arrested for Threatening to Murder Family of FCC Chairman — ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A California man was arrested today in Los Angeles on charges of threatening to kill the family of Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, for Pai's role in repealing regulations relating to net neutrality.
Natasha Korecki / Politico:
‘I snookered them’: Illinois Nazi candidate creates GOP dumpster fire — Republicans fear blowback from Holocaust denier's run for Congress. — CHICAGO — Illinois Republicans botched four opportunities to stop an avowed Nazi from representing their party in a Chicago-area congressional district.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and Mediaite
Paul Szoldra / Task & Purpose:
Trump's Pentagon Quietly Made A Change To The Stated Mission It's Had For Two Decades — For at least two decades, the Department of Defense has explicitly defined its mission on its website as providing “the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country.”
Discussion:
Mother Jones
Roque Planas / HuffPost:
Trump Hired A Cop To Run ICE. It Didn't Work Out. — Thomas Homan was unlike anyone who ran Immigration and Customs Enforcement before him. He retired Friday. — Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan retired Friday from government service after spending …