Crown Princess Ivanka, the clear favorite. She who will be Queen hereafter.
Prince Consort Jared -- because he's married to the Crown Princess. Looks like a cipher, but is he really?
The two Princes in the Tower, Junior and Eric, who aren't that important but have jobs assigned to them
The Bastard Princess Tiffany (have you seen their body language when she's around?)
Princess Consort Melania, product of another foreign alliance, who reports back whence she came. No love lost between Melania and the three Spawn of Queen Ivana.
Prince Barron, still a child and still unimportant to anyone but his mother, lucky for him

Chris Matthews calls them The Romanoffs, but I had this schema worked out long before he started saying that. Once I came up with Mad King the rest just fell into place -- what a sick family.

I remember the speech Obama gave at the DNC during the BushCheney administration. 2004? It made a huge impression here at DU -- wow, we all said, this guy's an up-and-comer. I live 2 hours out from Los Angeles, and some of my activist Dem friends filled a van with people to go hear him speak at a neighborhood park somewhere in LA. 2006? It was outdoors and it was packed. We had to park blocks away. He told a story -- all politicians tell a story, but this was pretty much the story of this country as I would tell it myself, and of course I liked that.

I heard about his book and made a point of reading it. I discovered there were only a few degrees of separation between us -- His parents and I went to the same university, though they were a bit before my time. I supported the first campaign of a man who turned out to be a close friend of his mother and father when they were all students: Neil Abercrombie, who by the time I met him was a university prof running for the legislative seat in the 3-M District (Makiki, McCully, Manoa) where I lived. You may have heard his name because he ended up in the US Congress and later became Governor of Hawai'i, but no matter.

Barack Obama's autobiography went straight to my heart as a fellow kama'aina. I never in my life thought my small remote home state would produce a man who might actually end up as president. His grandparents had a very similar reaction to moving to the Islands as my parents did when they came: this is an ethnically-blended paradise. It's not really Heaven, real people with real troubles live there, but in the 1950s and 1960s it was very different in atmosphere from the Mainland.

And there was so much more that he revealed. To you, he is a black man with a white mother. Right? To me, I see how his haole mother fostered his African American identity even when they moved to Indonesia. To me, I see the choices of identity he had, and how he chose to move to the Mainland and how he chose Michelle Robinson. And -- I see the stamp of Hawai'i on him to his core.

But here at DU we had some good old battles over his identity -- I can't remember who said he didn't seem black enough, but there it was.

Be that as it may, although my first choice in 2007-8 was Hillary, I was happy to support Obama. We all want to imagine we understand our preferred candidates' character -- but it would seem so out of character to me if someone accused Obama of nonconsensual sex. As far as I can tell, the man has not had a breath of scandal on him. It would take a lot of convincing for me to lose faith in him.

I don't know what you want me to say. Perhaps you chose the wrong example to use on me and should throw out another challenge.

All things being equal, despite being #MeToo , I try to not make snap judgments when someone I really know nothing about is accused of something, and it has nothing zero zilch nada to do with the color of their skin. I don't know very damn much about Virginia except it is Southern and is allegedly turning Blue, but I sure know Nixonian ratfucking when I see it, and we just keep falling for it.

Made a little joke about how he could have had Melania and Karen make salads in the absence of kitchen staff, but they would have been (dismissively) little salads, so HE decided to order in real food (man food, you know, not lady food) and HE paid for it. He said there were 300 burgers. But the next time he described it the feast had grown in the telling to 1,000 burgers. His generosity grew in the telling, kind of like Jesus multiplying the loaves and the fishes.

And then he walked away.

One of the team was heard to mutter, regarding the menu: "I thought it was a joke." Those poor kids -- it really was a kind of Trumpian joke: "Look at me, look at me, look how clever I am" posing for cameras, with zero regard for the people in the room he had tricked into coming. And this will be their memory of their splendid and special White House Dinner that they got dressed in their best for: soggy french fries and cold burgers, and a host who used them for a lousy photo op all about himself.

...the American people are not with Trump.

But Hillary, much-mocked and much-reviled by the Right Wing in all its manifestations, has been absolutely right at several points in her career. In the current context, the first was when she said a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (known here as the VRWC) was at work to take down her husband's presidency, and the second was when she called Trump a puppet for Putin.

When in despair over our fellow citizens, hold on to the truth that they (as well as we) voted for her. We are all under siege in a war that is not being fought with guns and bombs by men in recognizable uniforms. But it is a war, and hard for people to wrap their minds around its nature.

It's what they do. What do you think the headline stories in today's New York Times are about? You know, the story that all the talking heads on cable tv touted as breaking news last night? The reason they all credited the New York Times is because it was Times reporters who ferreted it out and put it together.

Why would you want newspapers to print "speculation" when what we need is solidly-sourced truth? We still have some great newspapers.

As for cable news, I will ask you the same question I ask everyone else who comes here claiming that "no one" is researching, reporting, connecting dots, inviting experts, etc etc: Do you ever watch MSNBC, Rachel Maddow in particular? And if you don't why not? Rachel (or as Charles Pierce calls her, Kindly Doc Maddow) has been connecting dots from the get-go, with charts, documents, heavy research, well-footnoted references to newspaper journalists out there in the trenches, and outstanding expert guests.

Rachel's the most academic, but she is not the only one.

May I point out how viciously hated by the RW our heroes are? How would you like it if FOX "assessments" began as the last breath was drawn, and continued apace throughout the next week, overriding eulogies by colleagues and family?

Just my contribution to DU's annual spat over Santa, currently going on in LBN.

Susan comes from an unusual family. Her grandfather is the anthropomorphic personification of Death. Susan has chosen to be a schoolteacher.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/66591-all-right-said-susan-i-m-not-stupid-you-re-saying-humans


“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

― Terry Pratchett
The Hogfather

Susan comes from an unusual family. Her grandfather is an anthropomorphic personification of Death, who has spent a long time trying to figure out what makes human tick. Susan has chosen to be a schoolteacher.


https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/66591-all-right-said-susan-i-m-not-stupid-you-re-saying-humans


“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

― Terry Pratchett
The Hogfather

Silly, irritable people out there in DU Land are squabbling over whether children should be told about Santa Claus, and the nay-sayers sound like joyless 17th century Calvinists.

Meanwhile, I am wearing my badge that says "I saw the Hogfather at Crumley's" and enjoying the season.

How about the rest of you?

God knows, Trump is utterly incapable. I am so grateful President Obama does: you can feel him pausing a decent moment to let Trump have a chance, then stepping forward to do the job.