I'm suffering from abbreviation overload

"Rat Fuck." It was in use even back in the early 1960s. The technique has been in use politically since the beginning of politics. A mole place in an opponent's campaign is usually the source of the RFing.

Shoulda known that one.

the master of modern rat fucking.

Atwater didn't coin the term.

most...should have researched. Who did coin it?

various kinds. I graduated in 1963.

the early sixties. I didn't graduate for a couple more years and I wasn't free enough to prank.

...whether there was a mole or not (and I don't think there was), it's still the job of the campaign team to check for things like this.

and again. Those instances of plagiarism probably would have gone unnoticed by anyone who previewed the content of the speech. They would appear innocuous and apt in the speech, and would have gotten by. I don't know that there's a mole that close to the campaign, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

I wouldn't suspect this except for the Rick-Roll paraphrase. That has the classic look of a signature by the culprit, frankly. It's kind of like tagging a building. A true prankster wants to sign his or her work.

I stopped doing pranks in about 2000. But I was seriously into pranksterism before that, and pulled off some epic ones. All were harmless, but some were close to spectacular. In every one of them, there was a signature. That was an essential aspect of a major prank. Only those who knew me and who were also pranksters knew what that signature was.

The more I think about this speech, the more I suspect a prankster at work. He or she might not be a real mole from the other campaign, but could be working as an individual, but the Rick-Roll thing has the mark of a signature.

who is staying, we may see more...wouldn't that be fun?

And your personal revelation about your prankster past explains partly why I enjoy your writings, MineralMan. We have a similar past. I pulled off several sweet stunts and you're absolutely right: one must sign their work. It's how we claim our successes to the underground.

In the end, we'll find out what happened when everyone writes their books about the colossal failure of the Trump campaign.

When people live in an isolated bubble, this is what happens.

If it was a prank, it was a masterstroke. I've pulled a few major ones that had some national recognition, but nothing quite that major. I've stayed away from political pranks, for the most part, although not always. I dabbled in political pranks while still in high school, though. One of those backfired, though, which cured me of messing around with political pranking.

I shifted to other areas after that.

If you were to think about it,where in the world would Trump find a writer to write a grand introduction speech that she would be able to give convincingly and coherently ? Super models don't give speechs ! And they don't have to deal with memorizing lines or scripts like actors do.So she has no real public speaking experience.And clearly, she is no natural down those avenues.

Aside from all that, Trump doesn't pay ! So again, where in the world would Trump find a writer to trump her up ! Is what you see really what you get ?

like social media and website content. How well such writers are vetted varies, although if you're writing for candidates and those close to them, you're likely to have been fairly well vetted.

For someone to have pranked Melania's convention speech, he or she would have had to build considerable trust. That would take real dedication. It wouldn't be easy to get into such a position, but possible. You'd need a history of writing political speeches and collateral without any blemishes to speak of.

Still, politics is a strange business. Not all writers who work for politicians are necessarily wholly in a particular politician's camp. It's a profession, really, and talented speechwriters aren't easy to find. Something as big as a convention speech might be enough to induce a person to bow out of the trade with a bang, so to speak.

Just as the ghost-writer for Trump's Art of the Deal book went public recently and trashed Trump, it's always possible for a writer to have had enough and take that step. Writers are a little strange, anyhow.

I can imagine Trump himself rubbing his hands together in glee ,the sociopath he is over the thought of putting it over on it.Trump same as any thief thinks everything is for the taking. The context was all there, all they had to do was refashion it and put in a lot of the Donald. Chalk it all up to having been short changed, that is just where Trump basks himself in sheer delight.But that's just my opinion.

And there was no real way for them to find a good speech writer just for her on such short notice ! And that's the art of the scam.

could the speech writer be another? As someone says, he doesn't like to pay. He does have his one media person, she might be doing double duty.

I was suspecting a plant after I heard the side by side videos. then the rick roll? Whoa.

It's a classic prankster-style signature. To do something like that, though, you'd have to be willing to blow your cover and maybe destroy your career as a speechwriter. Might be worth it, though, in the case of Trump.

If someone gets fired, it will be interesting to see who it is. In my dark heart, I hope it was a master prank. I'd tip my hat several times to that prankster, for sure.

they will blame it all on Hillary. She sent them into the campaign to sabotage. But Trump is having a fit right now for sure. That is why he isn't talking. They are scraping him off the ceiling.

But think about it, if they admit a mole sabotaged the speech that is pretty damning evidence of incompetence. They are in the shit for sure.

with a bit of help from some ghostwriter that had helped with Don the Con's books. They never proofed it. The original was picked to pieces by Melania and rewritten.

Don't even know what to think! Maybe I'm in shock!

She's clueless and they are incompetent.

Was that a lot to ask from her? She needed to plagiarize from the much hated Black Prez's wife??? from FLOTUS?

How fitting that is. No wonder the campaign is trying to soft-soap this whole thing.

Interesting.

was the one who did the deed. Or perhaps, maybe McIver passed it off to some underling who saw the chance and took it, signing it with the RickRoll.

I can hardly wait for Steven Colbert tonight.

We may actually never know. Still, pranking can be very serious stuff, and there are masters of it out there. I was always a second-tier prankster in my day, but still part of a tradition of pranking. I got a couple of hat tips from a few of the masters, but was always too timid to put a lot on the line for a prank.

My peak effort was a prank on Bill Gates and Microsoft that went international in scope. I disguised my signature poorly, though, and my identity became known. Fortunately, Gates had a sense of humor about it, and I skated on what might have been the consequences. It was nip and tuck, though, for my career at the time.

That was pretty much the end of my serious pranking. I decided to make that my final prank and stopped doing it pretty much, and never again on that scale.

Melania's speech, though, sure looks like someone's work, though. Bless their hearts, if that's so.

dunno, but maybe.

fired. That could lead to the person revealing more about it. Personally, I'd be a little frightened to prank someone as unpredictable as Trump. I think he could be dangerous in a real way.

Still, if the worst consequence was being fired, then you can expect to hear about the prank from the person who pulled it off. It's too good to keep quiet, I think, even though it would effectively end one's career.

Trump never wanted to be president. He just wanted the publicity. But who knew that the United States was filled with low IQ white people desperate for a candidate to tell them 'It's OK to be a racist white person'

Go figure.

And is entirely within the realm of possibility.

for sure. New information is emerging, too. Appear fly, the writer hired to write the speech say the speech she read was n o t what he wrote.

He split for New York already. He's done with Cleveland and all those peons.

It will be interesting to find out.

No talk of Rudy, the woman whose son died, sessions, chachi, etc. I bet trump did this on purpose. I didn't think so until 5 when every station was talking mrs trump.

a good rat fucking when the opportunity presents itself.

And I wouldn't put it past one of don the con's grown kids to screw her over, just for fun, no matter what the consequences could be.

but I don't know the family dynamics, which are probably complicated.

can happen with families, especially when money and power are involved. Still, I think the simplest explanations probably fit.

"Trump campaign blaming ghostwriter Meredith McIver for Melania plagiarism scandal"

Rick: one time musical wonder = Trump: one time political wonder