KerleyQ

I was thinking the other day - Republican voters lost their freaking minds over Michelle Obama talking about how the White House was built by slaves. They twisted what she was saying and used it as an excuse to rant about how she "doesn't like the White House," bitching about how ignorant and ungrateful she was to live in our White House, etc, etc. Now, their FLOTUS, the one they've been saying for months will be a classier FLOTUS than Michelle, refuses to even live in the White House. Not a single peep from that crowd about how ignorant and ungrateful she is to not appreciate the opportunity to live in our White House. There are definitely two different standards at play here.

Did I read that right? We spent $7 million on arrangements/security for his Thanksgiving dinner? Please, tell me again, GOP, how awful it was when we spent millions on the Obama families vacations in Hawaii. Side note: Am I the only one who finds it hard to believe that the rather ordinary looking kitchen in that article is part of Mar a Lago? Where was the gold leaf? Those were plain brown wooden chairs at that table! I'm hearing he's got dementia and a tiny penis. That's just what I hear from a lot of people. I'm not saying it's true, I'm just saying what I've heard. Fabulous. Apparently the media is going to go willingly into that abyss. Can we dust off some of our retired news figures and get them on this shit? I know Dan Rather has been expressing how appalled he is by the media during this whole mess. Time to get back in the game guys, we need some reporters who understand the importance of a free press that can't be intimidated by any political figure. We can't allow the media to just meekly fall into line because they don't like being yelled at by a moldy tangerine.

My theory (which I know I'm repeating, as I've said it before here) is that they renegotiated the pre-nup when he started running. She got more money in the event of divorce, if she stuck it out through the campaign, appearing when needed, and through any Presidential term. I don't think she thought for a second that he was winning, so she figured she had the extra money and she could get out after the election. Now, though, to get the money, she needs to stick it out through his term. (She's probably crossing her fingers for impeachment.) There have been so many rumors that he owes money to Russian oligarchs who are tight with Putin. And those guys are not guys he can just declare bankruptcy and pay off pennies on the dollar. I've also seen a rumor, a few different places, that Putin has a tape of Trump that he would prefer not see the light. That would not shock me from either side. Of course Putin has blackmail material on wealthy and powerful people to keep them in line. And, of course, Trump is exactly the kind of arrogant "I can do whatever I want" entitled rich schmuck who would do something that would make for good blackmail material, thinking he's untouchable. Yeah, I have to give any effort on her part to get rid of Trump now a big old side eye. She knew exactly what she was doing in the election, and that her presence in it was going to likely help him win. But she riled the "Bernie or Bust" crowd up, even after he repeatedly urged them to stop and to support Hillary, stressing the importance of keeping Trump out of office. She's just as bad as all the voters who stayed home or voted third party/write-in and are now bitching about the outcome.

I've been saying for a while that I think he's got some level of dementia. I fully agree that it's the likely reason for him having Jared or one of the kids with him at all times, even when it's wildly inappropriate. It's also why he's pushing so hard for Jared to have a role in his administration. Since Jared isn't a biological relation, an he's not directly involved in Trump's companies (he has his own business interests), he's the most likely to eventually be approved as some kind of aide or something. He's still a longshot, given that son-in-law is specifically spelled out in the rule, but since Humpty Trumpty seems to get away with bending and breaking all kinds of ethical boundaries and flat out rules, he has no reason to think that he won't get his way on this one, too. That also might explain why Ivanka and Melania seemed not so over the top thrilled with his win. I think the two of them likely figured this was just some little lark he was going to go on, and then it would be over, he would have gotten more attention for his company, and life would go on. Now he's really opened himself up to people figuring out what's going on with him. Junior and Eric, I think, are more ruthless and just want the power that comes with Dad being the POTUS. I think it's likely that Ivanka, Jared, and the kids will move into the White House with him, precisely for this reason - they want to be there 24/7 to protect his image. Melania, on the other hand, is, I think, more concerned with distancing her son from the whole shit show. The first thing that came to mind when I read this was the statement he made about Kelly Preston, when she and John lost their son. Instead of being able to focus on them, he had to make it about him, and how he tried to get her into bed once. Obviously, not every Medal of Freedom winner will be someone he tried to get into bed, but he will undoubtedly have some bullshit personal anecdote about himself that he feels relates to each recipient, and that is what the focus of his speech would be. Where President Obama managed to personalize all of the recipients, while still keeping the focus on them, with a great blend of humor and respect, Trump has exactly zero clue how to do that. Your entire worth in his world is based on two things - your looks, and whether you're nice to him. It's all he retains about anyone. The rest is just noise to him. The man has time to tweet about the NY Times, Hamilton, the mean protesters, etc, but he can't spare one tweet to call the people painting Nazi symbols all over "losers"? It's absurd that we have to go to Twitter as a barometer of how our Pres-Elect really feels about an issue, but that's the situation we're in now, and the fact is that he doesn't call out those committing the hate crimes like he does someone who hurts his delicate feelings. And that should tell everyone all we need to know about how his Presidency is going to go.

Judging by his home decor, he completely covets the life of royalty. He won't be able to resist establishing a connection to the Royal Family, no matter how old the Queen is. Besides, he saw those pictures from the last Obama visit with William and Kate. He's just dying to get a shot to work his "charms" on Kate. I hope she finds a reason to not be in his presence during the visit.

What gets me is the "I'm sure I'll be over it after Thanksgiving" thing. The fuck? No, don't get over it. This is a direct attack on the First Amendment, and you're a member of the press. You don't "get over it" once you've gotten a belly full of turkey and a day to relax with family. This isn't someone saying they didn't like that tie you wore to the office. This is the President-Elect telling the media that they can go fuck themselves if they try to write anything about him that he doesn't approve (or if they print a picture he thinks makes him look fat, but, really just accurately reflects his appearance). You don't just shrug that shit off.

His infrastructure plan is patently absurd. In the case of roads, for example, we, the people who actually pay taxes (ahem, Cheeto!), will be paying for those roads twice. First, we'll pay for the tax breaks to the corporate and foreign investors, then, we'll pay tolls on those roads directly to the corporate or foreign investors who control them. Bonus: Who here thinks that those investors will simply cease collecting tolls once they've recouped their initial investment and a generous profit? Who thinks those tolls will be reasonable and not a hindrance to travel (even to work or school) for many lower middle class and below Americans? Anyone? Anyone?

The first thought I had after Trump's whine about SNL was that Bush Sr. invited Dana Carvey to the White House and the two of them played pranks on White House staff. It seems like most Presidents have not only not whined about their portrayal or the jokes at their expense, but they embraced it, and took it as a compliment. Trump is so damn thin-skinned, I think there is a genuine chance that he might actually put out some feelers about getting SNL to stop mocking him. Personally, if I was running SNL, I'd double down. I'd also cut back on the fluffier comedy and point the comedy at the very serious issues he presents.

I have no doubt they're going to feel the pain. But, I don't think they'll make that logical connection that they're responsible for their own suffering, by virtue of their insistence on voting for a guy who spoke to their inner racist without paying attention to how his policies would affect them. They'll have that shit blamed on Obama, lazy welfare queens, Obamacare, all them damn foreigners coming in, etc. It will never, ever, in their minds, be that what is happening to them is the direct result of the really shitty choice they made at the poll.

They're crying now, but soon the cognitive dissonance will set in, and it will all be fine in their eyes.

Won't it be fun when, during his inauguration, he pulls out the over-sized scissors and cuts the First Amendment right off the Bill of Rights? Look who made his first propaganda film! They grow up so fascist!

And how much do we want to bet that being named ambassador would be Ivana's payment for keeping her mouth shut during the campaign (and for the next four years)? Some Presidents give cushy ambassador slots to donors, Trump will give them to "people who didn't tell everyone what an unmitigated douchetool I am." While she was pregnant, he referred to her as a "monster" and a "blimp" (on the Stern show, of course). Has the man ever looked at himself in a mirror? Yeah, they're not going to bother themselves with that silly little ethical quandry. Remember - he's a special circumstance, according to Kellyanne. I assume that's code for "he's going to break every single ethical boundary, but we should all let him because he's really, really rich, and a Republican." Would not surprise me in the least. It's why he's in the VP slot in the first place. She's also still an elector in Florida. So, yeah, a Florida state elector is a member of the P-E's transition team, accepted a bribe from him to look the other way on a fraud case, and is someone he once held a campaign fundraiser for. No judgement here. My son is currently making noise about his size 14 shoes feeling a little snug. I will buy whatever brand I can get for his giant feet without breaking the bank too terribly.

They're probably way over his head. He's not "Schoolhouse Rock" smart. Melania probably had to leave "no gold toilet" out of her list of complaints about the White House. Trump can't know that she ever uses a toilet.

Yep. When you remember President Obama during any tragedy, but, especially, during Sandy Hook, and you remember the story of how he went to that school, and he privately met with each victim's families, one by one, asking them about their lost loved one, trying to show them some love and comfort, and then you think about Trump being the one who's responsible for representing all of us to the victims of another tragedy... He could never ever do what President Obama did that day. He could never deliver the kind of gut-wrenching teary eyed speech that President Obama delivered to the nation that day. He's just completely and utterly incapable of that level of empathy. He would not be able to stop himself from making it all about him. There's a clip out there where he essentially admits that he told Marla to abort Tiffany. Once again, I blame the media for failing to be on that. When he started his "there should be a punishment" BS about abortions, how did reporters not call attention to that clip? It should have been played on every news station, right after his "there should be some punishment" clip. It's mind-boggling how many times he said something completely false or something that completely contradicted his past statements and actions, something that was easily proven by video footage, and the media, at large, failed to play that footage. Keeping our politicians honest is a HUGE part of their job, and the bulk of them failed miserably at every turn this campaign. Both in this way, and in allowing him and his surrogates to appear on their networks, making blatantly false statements, without pushing back at all (or more than a weak token effort). It's so infuriating to watch news people cover him. I want to pull each and every one of them aside and ask "is this why you got into journalism? Was this your dream - sitting quietly while you allow someone to tell lie after lie without correcting them?"

He definitely will not like it. Remember after the VP debate, when people were saying that Pence did so much better at his debate than Trump did at his? Pence had to issue statements about how Trump won the VP debate, and Trump made his "joke" about Pence not being his first choice for running mate. He will one hundred percent put Pence in his place somehow if too many people point out that Pence handled the "Hamilton" incident a million times better than he did. This is why people make the decision to run for office with their family's input. It's not something that just affects the candidate - the family is on display all campaign long, and, if the candidate wins, it creates upheaval in their lives. In the case of winning POTUS, that means moving to the White House, no matter how much you love your existing home. This was something the Trump family was well aware of before his ridiculous escalator ride. Whether your child(ren) can handle moving schools mid-year, moving away from friends and whatever family they live by, etc, is one of the things you have to take into consideration when deciding on whether to run or night. After years of right wing bitching about the Obamas "spending out money" any time they took a vacation, now we're just supposed to suck it up and deal with the large added expense (to the taxpayers) to maintain the POTUS in the White House while also maintaining his wife and child in a New York apartment. And not only is there added expense, but extreme added difficulties in transportation in New York City, inconveniencing countless people who live and work in the area, so the SS can provide adequate protection for the two of them 24/7. And I'm still betting we're going to end up paying to renovate some part of Trump Tower to provide accommodations for the SS agents to live and work. After reading that article a few weeks or so ago about what a dump that place is (outside of Trump's floors), I'm sure he'll be happy to have the tax payers foot the bill to do some renovations for him, under the guise of arranging needed space for the Secret Service's use.

I could see it being something where Laura goes to see him, and she sees how alone he is for Thanksgiving, so she talks him into coming back with her to spend the day with their grandson. She may not be Sonny's biggest fan (and she shouldn't be), but Laura is one hundred percent the type who would take pity on and extend some kindness to a guy who's spending Thanksgiving wallowing by himself after losing his son.

I will not be remotely surprised if they move in there with him.

And now, apparently, Barron and Melania are going to remain in New York. She definitely never wanted any part of this whole mess. One article I read about this said that she and Barron became even closer during the campaign. On the surface, that seems like a weird thing to say about a "hands on" mother and her 9-10 year old child. But, when I thought about it, I can also read it more not as "they weren't close," but that their mutual aversion to this whole campaign mess created an extra "us against them" kind of bond between the two of them. It's going to be so freaking bizarre to see a married POTUS essentially living in the White House as a bachelor, while his wife and young child live elsewhere. To all the Trump supporters who spent the past several months talking about how they can't wait for their great, classy First Lady to replace Michelle in the White House, well, I hate to break it to you, but she has zero interest in being your First Lady.

"He knows what the job entails" may be the biggest steaming pile of shit Kellyanne has shoveled for him.

If someone ever does a donation in Trump's name campaign, you know his ass would deduct every last one on his taxes.

I like it a lot more for political stuff, because I'm on there anonymously, so I don't have to deal with getting into it with some of my right wing family and friends. If you take the plunge, you can private message me on here if you'd like my Twitter name. Anyone else on here who wants it can message me, too. I just don't want to post it publicly, but I'd be happy to follow and chat with any of you on there, too. (You just have to put up with my sports tweets, too, since sports and politics are literally all I talk about there.) Yeah, when I saw that whole deal with the reception for foreign diplomats, I was thinking "there is no way this shit is OK." Of course, I also thought it reminds me of the timeshare presentations this resort we go to tries to get us to agree to when we're there. It's fancier, but, let's face it, that's what this little cocktail reception was - a hard sell on the benefits of foreign government officials staying in the President's hotel when they visit the US. I saw a comment from one of the diplomats who attended who said something to the effect of "well, of course, you have to stay in his hotel when you visit his country. It would be rude not to." And that's exactly the impression he wants to be in all of their minds - that it would be some big breach of respect and protocol to stay at one of his competitors' hotels while visiting "his" country. The ethical implications are blatant there. When I saw the comment about wanting college to be restricted to "the cognitive elite," I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. This is some very real, very serious shit, and these people feel emboldened by Trump's win. Who knows what kind of shit he'll agree to if they kiss his ass just right, given their complete and utter support of his campaign. Also, Tila Tequila (who is, inexplicably, a white nationalist) tweeted out a picture of her and a few other attendees at that meeting doing the Hitler salute. It's so nice for them that they don't need to feel any of that pesky shame for their repulsive views anymore. I saw a story a little while ago where McCain was being interviewed and said that if Trump even tries to reinstate the use of torture, he'll drag his ass into court. McCain's always hard to predict. I think that, as he gets towards the end of his career, he's become less "party over all else" than he was, and he does have a moral compass in there, so I can see him doing the right thing here and there. It won't be all the time, because the Tea Party (and now, the Trump Party) can be merciless with the RINO crap, but I'm thinking that, under Trump, he's going to find a way to pick his battles. And, hopefully, he picks the right ones. There is so much bad that Trump, Ryan, and McConnell want to do, but I don't think we can realistically expect guys like McCain and Rand Paul to go against all of it, but, hopefully, the two of them are able to identify the biggest red flags and go against those. Honestly, if I was the Dem leadership, I'd start befriending the two of them. Maybe pick a pet issue of theirs that you're willing to sign on and support with them, earn their trust (and a favor or two), and call on the two of them together when something major comes up that you need to fight against or for. Just having those two agreeing to vote your way on an issue would make all the difference, given the current Senate numbers. I would like to think that, given what happened on Election Day, the Dems in Louisiana are going to be extra motivated to get their asses to the polls, come hell or high water. They have to realize how much is at stake. Lucky for me, I lived with a roommate from the southern part of Illinois (which is much more red than the Chicago area) for six years. I picked up her accent during that time, and while I don't regularly lapse into it these days, I still do sometimes and can still do it intentionally when I want to. That may come in handy as my "undercover" gimmick in the United States of Trump. Did anyone else see that the idiot in that Starbucks video, ranting and raving about his order taking too long and yelling "Trump!" is now suing Starbucks for "white discrimination"? It sounds like what happened (before the video kicks in) is that he was getting pissy because it was taking too long for his order, and the guy he was with jokingly said "maybe they're taking so long because they saw the Trump sign on your truck." This idiot took that as a call to action and started ranting and raving. Bonus points - the police in the Miami area are very familiar with him - multiple arrests for DUIs and domestic violence. And, he's a known crackpot who regularly sends emails to reporters at the Miami Herald, bitching about Obama, Hillary, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, gay people, etc. One especially epic letter ranted about how President Obama got rid of 95 million jobs, in order to make everyone dependent on the government, so he can advance his perverse global goal of lesbianism, abortion, and Muslim power or some shit like that. He seems like a fun guy.

I think he just got them so angry and riled up, and they were prepared for him to be "cheated out of his win," that they had this anger all built up. Then he won, and they still had the built up anger, so it had to come out somehow. The interesting thing is the way he worded his tweet about it. He said that he settled it for "much less than the actual penalty" to get on with the country's business. So, um, are you saying you settled for less fraud than the actual fraud you committed? I mean, I know that's usually what a settlement is, but it seems odd for the one paying the penalty to basically brag "I defrauded them out of so much more money than that!" especially when that person is the P-E. I think every doctor has their preferences. My foot doctor told me nothing but Nike running shoes several years ago. In looking at them compared to other shoes, they definitely had the best arch support and I think the biggest issue is likely arch support. Those insoles are likely the thing that is really making a difference. If you feel strongly about it, talk to her PT again, seek another medical opinion, and try out some other shoe brands with the inserts in them, see if she feels the same (or better) than she does in the New Balance shoes. My favorite part of Trump's whining on Twitter about Pence being "harassed" at Hamilton is that he actually says that the theater is supposed to be a safe space. Really? The "un-PC" conservative talking about safe spaces the second someone says something that hurts his VP's precious little feelings? You can't make this shit up. But, hey, go ahead and boycott Hamilton folks. Maybe do it the same way you're "sticking it to those libtards at Starbucks." Go buy up tickets and leave them at will call for "Trump." Go for it. Oh, and Starbucks baristas, can we talk? As someone who has long had their last name misspelled and mispronounced by the pizza restaurants of the world, I offer you this - every single one of those cups should say "Tramp" or "Rump" on them. Don't refuse. With a smile, input their order the same way my local pizza place inputs my last name even as I spell it out for them, and carry on.

But the economic plans he has laid out are very similar to what Brownback has done in Kansas. That? Has not brought jobs back in any manner of speaking. Kansas has tanked in virtually every single economic indicator, including, at last check, being the worst state for unemployment in the nation. Regardless of whether we take Trump literally or give him the benefit of the interpretation of his words, the end result is the same - he's selling something that is complete bullshit, and the people who can least afford for him to be wrong are the ones that bought it without hesitation.

Not in this case. Hand to God, they think he did this because he's willing to sacrifice that settlement to put the country first. He's a great patriot or some such shit.

Maybe it will be like when the TayTots kept calling their grandfather "Eric Forrester" when he was banging their mom. "Aunt Katie is dating Eric Forrester now."