KerleyQ

Hmm...does he still have any of those "donations for veterans" left in the Trump Foundation coffers? Or will Putin be extending his line of credit?

Am I the only one who was a little skeeved out by the way Rick leeringly referenced his father "borrowing a cup of sugar" from his aunt? Just say no, Brooke. Then knee him in the nads. And say no again.

And, good Lord, how much airbrushing did they use on Melania? She literally looks like a Barbie doll. Look at her knees, or, you know, where her knees would be if they weren't airbrushed out to look like Barbie's "knees." Also, is Barron holding onto the string that is keeping her dress flowing out to the side like that? Is that why they're on opposite sides of the picture? So he can pull that string taught?

Katie, do you know what should embarrass you the most about losing your husband to your sister? The fact that it came after you set them up on a series of blind dates. Or, maybe it should be the fact that, to deal with the loss, you did various things, including faking a heart attack at your sister's wedding to another man, because you'd decided that the best revenge would be to land her "soul mate" for yourself. Or maybe it should be that ratty ass red string. Or the multiple times you were perfectly content to be with Bill, knowing he wanted your sister more.

Clearly he meant that he was going to drain the swamp and then see what was left stuck to the bottom that he could pry up and put in charge of shit.

Well, yeah, his win keeps her front and center in the media. It was far better for her career than a Hillary win would have been.

I don't think that erases her moral obligation to disclose it. I do agree, his supporters were in it for the long haul. However, all the undecided voters each have their own breaking points. You can't limit the avalanche of crap on him when you never know what might have pushed some voters over the top.

That was my thought, exactly. She says that if people knew what he was really like, he wouldn't have won. Well, honey, why wouldn't you have told people this shit before the election? Because your publisher thought it would make a bigger splash to hit the world after he won? Maybe go use that book advance to buy some integrity? Seriously, this needs to happen. Someone spread the word to all who are opposed to him to not hate watch it. Shut it down. Can we all pick something ridiculous to watch instead (or just to leave on your TV while you go to the mall or gym)? Something to beat or compete in ratings with him that is just completely and utterly insulting? This needs to be a movement. My theory has always been that he knew Bridgegate shit was going to get ugly, and Trump promised him a pardon if he signed on and did whatever he was told. I mean, I think they were actually friends before the primary, but Christie was someone who, like Mark Cuban, had his realization of "well, yeah, sure, he's good to keep around for a laugh, but um, this is serious," and spoke out against him despite their existing friendly relationship. So, when he eventually dropped out, Trump decided to get one up on him by essentially buying him with the promise of a pardon. And he got to make him look as ridiculous as possible at every turn.

I can't be the only one who thinks that these meetings with guys like Romney and Cruz are not going to lead to any appointments, but are, instead, his way of sticking it to those who opposed him? I could so easily see him getting them to come to him, thinking they'll get a role in his administration, making them kiss the ring, apologize for ever opposing him, etc, then he'll pick someone else for the job without even calling these guys to let them know they were passed over. Finally, he'll tweet something about how "Lyin' Ted came and begged me for a job in my administration after all the terrible things he said about me during the campaign. Sad."

On a somewhat related note (i.e. comparing him to awful dictators), I saw that one of his various mouthpieces keeps saying that "Donald Trump won by a larger margin than anyone since Ronald Reagan." This statement is not true on either a popular vote or electoral vote basis (where he's 8th and 6th, respectively, out of 8 elections). How Kim Jong Un can they be, getting all braggy about something that literally didn't happen? It is so going to suck when we're all issued our mandatory wall portraits of Glorious Leader to be prominently displayed in our homes. It's definitely both hilarious and scary. As POTUS, you don't tell another world leader "hey, if you're ever in the area, give me a call. I know a great hotel you can stay in." I compared his campaign (and people voting for him) a while ago to a sports team - sure, we all have ideas about what our favorite team needs to do better. I'm a Bears fan, so there's plenty of "shit they could do better" to list. That doesn't mean the team should hire some loudmouth fan off of Twitter who has no background in sports, no knowledge of things like the collective bargaining agreement, roster management, scouting, how to allocate money for various player contracts to stay under salary caps, what you need to assemble a proper training staff, and training facilities, league rules, etc, and make him GM, just because a bunch of other sports fans on Twitter like his posts ranting about all the things wrong with the team. That's what we just did, except, you know, for our whole country.

This. I won't click any links that go to Breitbart, EndingTheFed, Tomi Lahren, etc. I refuse to contribute a single click to their ad revenue.

As a (now grown up) shy kid, I think the kid is just shy. For someone who is really, genuinely shy, the cameras, the people, the chanting, etc, is a living hell. Add in that this particular kid is probably under some pressure to "not let Dad down," and it's unimaginable. Of course, add in that he probably, honestly, doesn't even really know his father. I get the impression that Melania has a somewhat normal relationship with the kid, but Donald has a track record of not having any interest in his kids until they are old enough to be of some benefit to him. This isn't a kid whose father got down on the floor and played trucks with him on Saturday morning, or who read him books at bedtime. I'd be surprised if he isn't expected to call his father "Sir," and if their relationship wasn't very stiff and formal. Now, the poor kid is being dragged out in front of the cameras, in front of the crowds, he's already heard someone yell "Kill Obama" as his father spoke. I think this kid of the POTUS gig is tough enough for kids who have warm, genuine relationships with their fathers (like the Obamas, Chelsea, or the Bushes), but for a kid who has grown up like Barron has? It has to be a nightmare. I saw a post from a Facebook friend today who said something to the effect of "you have to remember that most of us who voted for Trump didn't do it because we like him, we were just voting against the corrupt system." OK, couple things. First and foremost, the person who posted it? Has spent his life privileged. He grew up that way, he still is that way. He's also a straight white Christian. The only thing that Trump represents that is a direct personal threat to this man is the awful shit he's said about woman, as the man has daughters and younger sisters. But, of course, as part of the more privileged portion of society, he likely has no genuine worry that Trump, himself, poses some kind of threat to the women in his life. His daughters won't end up being desperate young women who end up at a Trump type party, doing drugs and having sex with or being raped by 50 year old men in the hopes it will get them a start at their career. Two, you can't just hand wave the awful shit about the man you voted for because "well, I mean, I don't like him like him." You still voted for him. You still gave him your literal seal of approval as the man to represent our nation at the highest level. Also, don't tell people who are genuinely worried about their future - whether it's because of their race, their sexual identity, their religion, their financial status, etc, that they can't blame you for voting in what could be Armageddon for them, because, well, you didn't vote for him based on those things. You knew he was saying those things, loudly and often, but those weren't the reasons you voted for him. You still voted for him. You still knew "hey, this man is a danger to a lot of groups in this country," when you hit that button. It doesn't matter if you like it, or if you, personally, go around using the N word, chanting "build that wall," or looking at every Muslim (or Muslim-appearing) person you see like you expect them to blow you up where you stand. What matters is that, on any level, it was acceptable to you to vote for that person as the President. If you did vote for him, for whatever reason, it's your right. But, it's everyone else's right to be disappointed in you for doing so, from your position of privilege. Finally - Who is more corrupt than Trump? Who???

By summer, I was saying that, as long as he didn't actually smear his own feces all over the stage, we'd hear how he was "very Presidential." There really was no bar for him. Hillary's bar was insanely high. "Smile more. Don't smile that much. Don't smile like that. Smile more." The man was standing on stage, making puckered anus faces with no complaints, and Hillary was being critiqued down to the exact arc, width, and tooth to lip ratio of her smiles.

Even if any media source actually dared to report it, he'd just deny, deny, deny. He'd talk about how successful the building is, how everyone tells him they want to live there, like the First Family (ugh, I almost vomited typing that) lives there. All the best people are begging to get in there. He gets calls, so many calls every day, it's ridiculous, of people begging to get a place in the building. No other building in the country has a waiting list like this one.

I think she really is the new Taylor. Sticking her nose in everywhere, and now she'll apparently copy Taylor's entering into a "consolation" relationship with Eric because she can't keep any of her generation of men interested for long.

I seriously snorted when Katie had the gall to go with "no reason to feel insecure." Bitch, please. Insecure is your default setting.

Pence completely knew. He's been in cahoots with Ryan, McConnell, et al, from the beginning. That's why the "establishment" GOP eventually threw in with Trump (save a few notable exceptions) - because he was the means to get Pence in the White House. It's why they made him boot Christie from the VP slot. Christie is a loose cannon, who might, occasionally, do what he thinks is the right thing, even if it's not what GOP leadership wants. Pence is their perfect little white Christian supremacist soldier. Him listening to his conscience once in a while won't be a problem. Yep. If you read recent stories about his influence, one of the things that's been picked up is that Christie was the US Attorney who prosecuted Kushner's father a little over a decade ago, including pushing for a prison sentence. He's apparently always held a grudge against Christie for pushing for his father to do time (I think he was sentenced to 2 years). When people talk about the power struggle behind the scenes, that's one of the big ones, and it's why Christie was booted from the transition team. I think that Trump, for whatever reason, is genuinely friends with Christie and respects him, but Jared has chipped away at that whenever he can for his own personal reasons. I'm not a Christie fan, by any means, but compared to the rest of what Trump has surrounded himself with, he's by far, the best. And Jared got him the hell out of there because of his own resentment that Christie did his job and prosecuted his criminal father. I have zero hope that he's going to be a guy who steps back and advises his father-in-law to do what's best for us when it contradicts what's best for Jared or his own personal feelings.

I think he's been bringing it up here and there during the campaign. He did the episode where he called out the false equivalency thing (ending in the raisin metaphor). That was definitely a takedown of the media normalizing his candidacy (and pretending that there was no significant difference between him and Hillary). Now, with the election in the past, he has to take down an entirely different kind of normalization - the media's current inclination to pretend that this is all fine, and we just need to give him a chance to see what he's going to do. I saw a perfect response to that - "OK, sure, I'll give him a cha....and he just appointed a white supremacist to his staff." I really want one of the late night people to do a full and complete takedown on CNN. They're the ones who really normalized the shit out of this campaign and, now, his election. From hiring his still drawing a salary campaign director as a "political consultant," to their coyly referring to Bannon yesterday as someone whose website had "some incendiary headlines." Compound that with their nearly breathless coverage of his every rally, and they played a huge role in normalizing him, especially contrasted with their more skeptical treatment of Hillary.

The best part is that he says it's because he lacks the experience to perform a role in the government. Um, Ben? Didn't you like just run for President? In the United States of Trump, she absolutely can. Except that they've somehow masterfully managed to convince a portion of the country that they aren't exactly that. And people are, without any sense of irony, rallying for Cheetos & Company to fight the "elite establishment." I've run out of face palms on that one. I will be shocked if he doesn't bring in a throne for the Oval Office. We'll all be expected to pretend it's just his shiny gold desk chair, but he's going to sit on a fucking throne in the White House. None of that corruption involves emails, so he'll be fine. That's the standard now. Just saw on Twitter that, after an exec at New Balance praised Drumpf's win, complaining about how President Obama "left us behind," the neo-Nazis have declared New Balance "the official shoes of white people." So, is this like going to be part of our required uniform come 1/20? New Balance shoes, gaudy Ivanka Trump bracelets. What part of our new uniforms will be announced next? Does Eric have a sideline business where he makes shitty socks?

And not only did she have no issue posting it, but the mayor of her town apparently didn't even think twice before writing what amounts to a "high-five" comment on the post. It's mind boggling. Basically, despite the fact that the transfer process has started, Drumpf's win isn't official until the EC casts their votes next month. They could, legally, cast their votes for Hillary, if they feel like it's the right thing to do. (Before the election took place, there was one elector, can't remember the state, who said he would not cast his vote for Hillary, even if she wins his state.) Obviously, it's not something that has been done on any significant level in recent history, but it is something that could be done, if enough electors feel it's needed. If they do cast their votes contrary to their state's result, if enough of them do it (and cast them for Hillary), then she'd become POTUS. The only way we end up with Pence in the job is if Trump is still the winner and does not fulfill his term (resigns, impeached, or passes away).

Dear Electoral College - You're casting your votes on my birthday. And, well, guess what's on the very top of my birthday list, in bold, all caps, underlined 10 times?

Which still really doesn't make sense to anyone who thinks about it for more than a second. The employees of his who would be on the ACA would be part timers. How much time is he spending hanging out with the part timers to talk about their insurance coverage? I wonder at what point each of his surrogates hit that point where they realized "ah, screw it. I don't even need to make up particularly good covers for his lies. Just babble whatever comes to mind first, and move on with some dig about emails." I saw an article earlier today about how there is now a list in NY (I'm pretty sure it was NY) where people have signed up to be escorts for people worried about being harassed or assaulted on their commute to work/school. People are signing up with their name, neighborhood, their normal commute, etc, and someone who feels unsafe can contact whoever on the list fits their commute, so they can go together. My first thought was "and the more known this list becomes, the higher the odds that some racist pieces of shit will sign up to be "safe escorts" so they can mess with some poor Muslim woman or trans woman who's just trying to get to work without being verbally or physically assaulted." I can just see some of the more ardent Trump/Breitbart people taking the existence of the safety pins or a list like this as some kind of affront to their dominance. I remember reading something at some point along the line (I want to say it was during the primary, but, you know, the sheer volume of ridiculous Trump shit makes it hard to mentally timeline all of it) that he was legitimately interested in doing "The Apprentice: The White House" if he won. I wonder even more about the people who are vocal about other groups' rights, but then vote against them. Like an acquaintance of mine - she's very, very pro-LGBT rights. And it has always seemed very genuine to me. But, she turns around and votes for people like Trump, because she's just so damned worried that, with liberals in office, someone she deems "unworthy" might get an extra dollar of her tax money. I just can't even comprehend how that is a mindset you can have when you are aware of the issues facing the LGBT community. When you have friends and family among any group who will undoubtedly suffer under a Trump regime - "Well, sorry about the complete decimation of your rights, but, hey, did I tell you I got an extra $5 on my tax return this year? Take that lazy food stamp mooches!" I've just assumed we're on the clock for the Mike Pence "gay scandal" for a while now. It's happening at some point. I hope that, in his case, it's extra messy - the kind of scandal that ends his political career in flames.

We are all the White House staff.

I don't think he's tweeting about them in the name of unity. He's doing it to say "see, they all bowed down in the end."

Exactly. It's protocol for certain people to congratulate him, whether it's sincere or not. I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that we won't see the same warmth develop between him and the Bushes, Clintons, or Obamas that has developed between those three families, partly originated when they were working together on transitions. Everyone is offering up the expected congrats, but none of them are interested in extending some kind of familiar, friendly relationship. You're not going to see Michelle or Laura affectionately hugging Donald at some future event.