Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Second rate reporter says what?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Everybody saw this coming.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

In my day, never was longer.

You are here: Home / Books / Barack Obama is STILL My President

Barack Obama is STILL My President

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I’ve said repeatedly that one of the things that really scares me the most about Trump is that he lives such a joyless life. He doesn’t appreciate art, music, movies, laughter- basically he exists to feel good about other people’s pain and to laminate everything with gold or whatever it is he thinks is the “best.” At any rate, a reminder of what it was like to have a real human being as President with Obama’s end of year list of books and music:

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books, movies, and music that I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors, artists, and storytellers – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list – I hope you enjoy reading, watching, and listening.

Here’s a reminder of the books that I read this year that appeared on earlier lists:
Becoming by Michelle Obama (obviously my favorite!)
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne
Educated by Tara Westover
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti
The Return by Hisham Matar
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen
The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes

Here are my other favorite books of 2018:
American Prison by Shane Bauer
Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
Feel Free by Zadie Smith
Florida by Lauren Groff
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark
There There by Tommy Orange
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

My favorite movies of 2018:
Annihilation
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Blindspotting
Burning
The Death of Stalin
Eighth Grade
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace
Minding the Gap
The Rider
Roma
Shoplifters
Support the Girls
Won’t You Be My Neighbor

And finally, my favorite songs of 2018:
Apes••t by The Carters
Bad Bad News by Leon Bridges
Could’ve Been by H.E.R. (feat. Bryson Tiller)
Disco Yes by Tom Misch (feat. Poppy Ajudha)
Ekombe by Jupiter & Okwess
Every Time I Hear That Song by Brandi Carlile
Girl Goin’ Nowhere by Ashley McBryde
Historia De Un Amor by Tonina (feat. Javier Limón and Tali Rubinstein)
I Like It by Cardi B (feat. Bad Bunny and J Balvin)
Kevin’s Heart by J. Cole
King For A Day by Anderson East
Love Lies by Khalid & Normani
Make Me Feel by Janelle Monáe
Mary Don’t You Weep (Piano & A Microphone 1983 Version) by Prince
My Own Thing by Chance the Rapper (feat. Joey Purp)
Need a Little Time by Courtney Barnett
Nina Cried Power by Hozier (feat. Mavis Staples)
Nterini by Fatoumata Diawara
One Trick Ponies by Kurt Vile
Turnin’ Me Up by BJ the Chicago Kid
Wait by the River by Lord Huron
Wow Freestyle by Jay Rock (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
And in honor of one of the great jazz singers of all time, who died this year, a classic album: The Great American Songbook by Nancy Wilson

His music playlist is, without exception, perfection. Every song on there is good.

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    Gwangung

    Well, I can say I love a President with that kind of taste in music (and likening that kind of music will no doubt enrage right wingers….)

  3. 3.

    lamh36

    Oooh…I saw that this morning. Love that list.

    So since we’re talking bout music…I have my own cool music related news.

    So guress who’s going BACK to LA….

    Oh and the concert I’m going to….

    @psddluva4evah
    Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Janelle Monáe and More to Perform at Aretha Franklin Tribute Concert https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8491660/aretha-franklin-grammy-tribute-concert-details … via @billboard

    https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/1078783472846716933

    So cool!

  4. 4.

    EriktheRed

    Matt Stoller can go fuck himself.

    (For those who don’t get why, check out his recent tweets re. President Obama)

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    It’s time to read “A House for Mr. Biswas” again, but I remember that was my favorite book of the year (1984, in my case). Cat in bag.

    And PBO proves, as always, that he has great taste in arts, literature, and women.

  6. 6.

    Chris T.

    Trump, who doesn’t read, nevertheless did have a recommended list of ten books.

    I think everyone here can guess what those ten books were about.

  7. 7.

    zhena gogolia

    @lamh36:

    Wow! Kelly Clarkson was fantastic on the Kennedy Center Honors the other night. In fact, I’d say American Idol did itself proud — the two highlights (other than Hamilton) were Kelly Clarkson and Adam Lambert.

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    I got Becoming for Christmas — I’m going to read it out loud to my husband as he cooks. I’m living the dream.

  10. 10.

    debbie

    Yay for including There There in his list.

    Not only is Trump joyless, he takes no joy in his children or grandchildren. Who cannot take joy in, especially, small children?

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    I don’t know most of the music PBO recommended, although I have heard of most of the artists. So, that will be fun to check out.

    Leave No Trace, movie I missed, is on a LOT of critics’ best films list. Debra Granick, who directed Winter’s Bone (4 Oscar nominations; Jennifer Lawrence’s first big role).

  17. 17.

    gene108

    I wonder, if Obama gets exposed to newer acts, like Cardi B, because of teenage daughters or because he seeeks the stuff out?

  19. 19.

    lamh36

    @gene108: well, he’s always been a hip hop fan, and Cardi is a big deal right now in hip hop/rap. Even Denzel Washington mentioned Cardi in an interview when someone asked him what he was listening to.

    I’d think even without his daughters, he’d likely know bout Cardi

  21. 21.

    jl

    Trump released a book/music/movies list?

    More importantly, has Baud 2020!!!!?????
    Get cracking on that. Baud. We want a list, now!

    Edit: not one pundit/operator has attacked Baud as a corporate sellout/Russian spy. What is the problem with slow start to the Baud 2020! campaign?

  22. 22.

    gene108

    @lamh36:

    guress who’s going BACK to LA….

    John Smith? Tom Williams? Kaitlyn Moore? Yvette Anderson?

    I give up…who is going back to LA?

    Or I could just throw out more random name combinations till I get it right ?

  23. 23.

    jonas

    @debbie: Trump is functionally illiterate. Everyone not his kids or a cultish toadie acknowledges this. He hates reading; never reads anything, and anything he tries to read he doesn’t really grasp. See most recently how he didn’t realize Mattis’s resignation letter was a massive FU to his entire foreign policy until some talking head on Fox explained it to him.

  26. 26.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen

    One of these is not like the others.

    Also, I got a new book for Christmas, The Mirage by Matt Ruff, that’s very PKDesque judging by the summary. I say that because it’s like an alternate history book, like The Man in the High Castle, yet has speculative elements in it, because the world of the book is not as it seems; it may not be real.

    11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers. The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .

    Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world they are living in is a mirage—in the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of “backward third-world countries.” Other captured terrorists have been telling the same story.

    The gangster Saddam Hussein is conducting his own investigation. And the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee—a war hero named Osama bin Laden—will stop at nothing to hide the truth. As Mustafa and his colleagues venture deeper into the unsettling world of terrorism, politics, and espionage, they are confronted with questions without any rational answers, and the terrifying possibility that their world is not what it seems.

  27. 27.

    kindness

    I know he’s retired and all but I don’t know where he get’s the time to read all those books. More power to him.

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    @jonas: I wonder if maybe Trump is dyslexic.

    Also, I would bet he does enjoy some of the time he spends with Barron. Which may not be a lot. But Trump is inhuman enough without assuming he does not love his children, on some level.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    But Trump is inhuman enough without assuming he does not love his children, on some level.

    The way he looks upon immigrant children is proof he has no love for children, period.

  32. 32.

    Jharp

    Sadly I have never even heard of any of the books, movies, or songs (or bands or authors) Obama listed.

    Except his beautiful wife of course.

    Does that make me more like Trump than Obama?

  33. 33.

    WereBear

    @Elizabelle: But Trump is inhuman enough without assuming he does not love his children, on some level.

    The first Trump wife quoted him as, “Let’s have four children. Then one of them will be just like me.”

  34. 34.

    jl

    @Jharp: Reading ‘Becoming’ is enough. It is a very good book.
    I suppose the hubby had to list it first, but that is another issue.

  38. 38.

    SFAW

    @gene108:

    I don’t agree. He takes a lot of joy in Ivanka. It’s a creepy kind of joy, but joy nonetheless

    I have to admit, I don’t recall the phrase “takes joy” being used as a substitute for “lusting after.” Learn something new every day, I guess.

  40. 40.

    Raven

    @Jharp:
    And in honor of one of the great jazz singers of all time, who died this year, a classic album: The Great American Songbook by Nancy Wilson

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie: I don’t agree. Other people’s children, much like other people’s money. Both of which have far less value to him.

    However: this thread was about the marvelous Barack Obama. Back to talking about him, and less about his illegitimate and 7 Deadly Sins type “successor.”

  43. 43.

    Ken

    Apes••t by The Carters

    Oh! Oh! Prepare my fainting couch while I put on the special set of pearls I use for clutching!

  47. 47.

    Steve in the ATL

    @gene108:

    John Smith? Tom Williams? Kaitlyn Moore? Yvette Anderson?

    I give up…who is going back to LA?

    Tom Williams is a childhood friend of mine and he has been living in LA for twenty years, so try again!

  48. 48.

    Ken

    @WereBear:

    “Let’s have four children. Then one of them will be just like me.”

    Does… does this reflect some bizarre misunderstanding of genetics and Punnett squares?

  49. 49.

    zhena gogolia

    @rikyrah:

    I keep talking about the Kennedy Center Honors (I seem to have been the only person who watched it), and it was cool to see Nancy Pelosi in the box with the honorees. God, just to see a sentient adult representing the government. John Roberts was also there and now even he looks good to me.

  52. 52.

    Elizabelle

    @WereBear: In retrospect, one of the most interesting comments by the first wife was about the book of Hitler’s speeches on the nightstand. Or whoever came up with that. I think it came up in Marie Brenner’s 1980s/1990 profile of DJT and Ivanka in Vanity Fair.

    Seemed so far fetched at the time. No longer.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    Actually, I had Obama’s love of children (ref. the many photos of him mugging with babies and toddlers in the Oval Office) in mind when I brought up Trump’s joylessness. Quite the contrast.

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @Elizabelle:

    But Trump is inhuman enough without assuming he does not love his children, on some level.

    On what level does he actually love his children? My sense is that he loves them for as long as they don’t reflect poorly on him (i.e., in his view, not the rest of the world’s), or they praise him as being the best daddy. Not for who they are, but for whether they harm his rep or self-image.

  56. 56.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie:

    My God, remember when every day there were beautiful, inspiring photographs of the President with all kinds of people? Kids’ science fairs? The little boy feeling his hair? I’m in tears just thinking of it.

  57. 57.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Ken:
    I’m going to say yes. That sounds what someone who didn’t understand how Mendelian genetics works when they learned about it in middle school

  59. 59.

    zhena gogolia

    @SFAW:

    He punched his first-born son for not wearing a suit to go to a baseball game. Forgive me if I’m skeptical about his fatherly feelings.

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    @jl:

    Edit: not one pundit/operator has attacked Baud as a corporate sellout/Russian spy. What is the problem with slow start to the Baud 2020! campaign?

    Baud’s not the puppet!!! sellout!!! YOU’RE the puppet!!! sellout!!!

  62. 62.

    Burnspbesq

    I’m impressed that he picked up on Ashley McBryde. 2018 was a fantastic year for women in country/bluegrass/Americana, and McBryde’s “Girl Going Nowhere” was one of the best albums of the year. Other highly recommended albums from Rosanne Cash, Pistol Annies, I’m With Her, Kacey Musgraves, and Ashley Monroe.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: I doubt he spends any time with him. The one time I saw Barron with a smile was returning from FL in shorts. The picture was in the paper and trump was pissed because he was dressed in casual clothes. Now you see him dressed in trump’s style sullen looking.

  66. 66.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @zhena gogolia:
    Your comment reminds me of that kid who made a clock or something and the racist school administration thought it was a bomb and the kid had to be frog marched from the school by police. I remember Obama invited him and his family to the White House. Would a wonderful man. Trump would never do something like that.

    If memory serves, that boy and his family were middle eastern immigrants and they eventually went back to their home country due to all the harassment. That kind of thing pisses me off so much.

  67. 67.

    oldster

    Obama is still my president.

    The Russian puppet will be expelled some day. And history will expunge him from the list.

  73. 73.

    jl

    @Baud: Baud 2020! communications team sucks. Somebody got neo-libationist confused with neo-liberal. See poor confused and deluded commenter someplace above.

  74. 74.

    RSA

    There’s relatively little overlap between Obama’s tastes and mine (still some, I was happy to find!) but I’ll point out something I appreciated:

    It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors, artists, and storytellers – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before.

    Obama is remarkably accomplished but also modest. You “may not have heard of” these artists. Contrast that with the clickbait headlines you see every day: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About X. 10 Words You’re Pronouncing Wrong. 5 Things You Shouldn’t Do in Restaurants. 5 Books You Need To Read. Obama knows he’s talking to people who may range widely in interests, tastes, education, cultural background, and even intelligence–and he wants to communicate with all of us.

  75. 75.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’ll add to the voices recommending Becoming. I bought the book to have it on my shelf and put some shekels in Michelle’s pocket. Also for the picture album that most memoirs have in the middle. But I got the audio book too, so I can hear her tell her own story.

    It is wonderfully good for my mental health to hear or see either of them. Even better than cute cat videos. And it reminds me that we were the country that elected Barack twice and that puts the Obama’s at the top of the most-admired list. We were that country and we will be again. We’re not dead yet. Or permanently deplorable.

  77. 77.

    Mike J

    I really don’t care what kind of music trump or Obama listen to. If Trump went on tour with the Posies and sang all the Alex Chilton songs (happy bd rip) he’d still be a worthless piece of shit. If Obama never listened to anything but Henri Mancini soundtracks (not a bad thing, but very limited) he’d still be 10^10000000000000000 times the president Trump is.

    I do like Obama’s list though.

  78. 78.

    Jay

    As all threads are open threads,…..

    “The Syrian army said it entered Kurdish-held town of Manbij on Friday for the first time in years, after the Kurdish YPG militia urged Damascus to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks.

    The announcement was quickly welcomed by the Kremlin, whose spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, called it a “positive step” that could help stabilize the situation.”

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/syria-turkey-kurds-manbij-1.4960356

  80. 80.

    Julia Grey

    @Elizabelle:

    the book of Hitler’s speeches on the nightstand

    .

    If he ever actually read them, it was before his eyes aged out to the reading glasses stage.

    I get a kick out of all the pictures of Trump doing close, reading-type work without glasses. He signed the wrong line on those agreements the other day as a result, I’d guess.

    Does he wear contacts for far vision, or are his weird blank facial expressions and inattentive manner because he can’t really SEE what’s going on around him?

  81. 81.

    Marcopolo

    Just was a point out I tried to post Obama’s list in the comments this morning and it got marked as spam…

    That is all…

  82. 82.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Jay:

    The Syrian army said it entered Kurdish-held town of Manbij on Friday for the first time in years, after the Kurdish YPG militia urged Damascus to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks.

    The announcement was quickly welcomed by the Kremlin, whose spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, called it a “positive step” that could help stabilize the situation.”

    Uh oh. Sultan Erdogan of the Neo-Ottoman Empire sure isn’t going to like that. Wonder if he’ll screech at Putin about it?

  84. 84.

    Quinerly

    @zhena gogolia: I saw it! Loved seeing Pelosi in the honorees’ box. Think she was sitting pretty close to Cher. I loved Cyndi Lauper’s performance and outfit.

  85. 85.

    jl

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: Will be interesting to see Trump administration explain how ISIS is completely defeated, while ill-planned and rash US withdrawal produces more fraught and complicated combat situations that develop as forces still there fight to defeat ISIS.

    But maybe not. Trump has already put out tweets defending his decision that say ISIS is already completely defeated and that ISIS not already completely defeated. So, maybe they’ll just put out random nonsense.

  86. 86.

    Rmirth

    Fatiumata Diawara’s (Malian singer) album was one of my faves this year. Cool to see it on PBO’s list. He has always been a fiction reader — I love that about him. Most men of that age/demo are heavy into Non-fiction.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    @Doug R

    It’s Hollywood, where on paper no movie makes a profit.

    Although Gone with the Wind may finally tiptoe into the black by 2020.

    :)

  90. 90.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @jl:
    Judging by his recent comments of using Iraq as a base to intervene in Syria in the future, I don’t he knows what to do. He’s like a weathervane in the wind.

  91. 91.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Jay:
    If they slaughter Kurds, the absolute very least that should happen to Turkey is to be expelled from NATO. There may not be a mechanism for that, but there should be.

  92. 92.

    Barbara

    I have heard of most of the books and movies, and have a current plan to read There There by Tommy Orange, a novel written about contemporary Native American cultural themes. I saw The Death of Stalin on the Delta flight that brought me to my current destination. Let’s say it’s hard to know what to make of the film as satire or as history, but you won’t be bored.

    I have long given up being conversant with popular music. It’s not that I don’t like a lot of it, but I find it virtually impossible to navigate or even find a source that provides a way into the universe of new music.

  97. 97.

    Barbara

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: I am still reeling that Trump assumed that the U.S. could use a sovereign nation as a base for launching acts of war against another nation without asking or even communicating about such a position first. I know he is clueless but this is beyond the pale.

  98. 98.

    jl

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: Not so much a weathervane, but a flunky who does whatever one of his foreign bosses demand when they make a phone call.

    I think more evidence, if any needed, that Trump is bald face lying about asking for months for a plan from DoD and DoD not producing anything. If Trump had actually made a request and followed up on it all, there would be some plan, maybe a crappy plan or a disingenuous crappy half-assed plan for stuff they didn’t want to do, but there would be something. If there was any planning process and Trump had said in timely way he was going to do it, a half-assed plan would have been quickly un-assed as far as possible. But, looks so far like there is absolutely nothing but Erdogan’s phone call and whatever threat he made to Trump.

  101. 101.

    jl

    @rikyrah: Such a ridiculous lie, contradicted by numerous news reports that make the headline top of the hour summaries. Trump WH and GOP House has been shutting down, GOP House leadership ignoring, against their own rules, House Dem attempts to end the shutdown or work an acceptable deal.

    I guess Trump thinks he can scare the country with Nancy Pelosi boogie-femi-women monster forever. Only the dwindling scattered herd of hard core nutso Trumpsters care.

  103. 103.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ve said repeatedly that one of the things that really scares me the most about Trump is that he lives such a joyless life.

    I think this is a profoundly important observation. For all his flaws — and they were legion — someone like G. W. Bush at least always seems to relish life. He seems to find pleasure in the people around him, and in exploring his own creativity. No, I’m not giving him a pass on starting an ill-considered war, or on his numerous bumbles and stumbles, but I never thought of him as devoid of normal human feeling, including simple enjoyment of life’s gifts.

    The exact opposite is the case with Trump. Thanks for pointing it out so clearly, John.

  104. 104.

    jl

    @Baud: Baud 2020! tax returns? Either you don’t have any, or you have some visible means of support. I smell a dilemma for your supporters. Sturdy vagabonds don’t like uppity types who deal with stinking ‘incomes’.

  106. 106.

    Hob

    Every single time Obama has done something like this, I’ve seen one online douchebag or another sighing about how it’s such an obvious list, it’s so curated, there aren’t any surprises, he probably had his staff write it, etc. Like Obama isn’t enough of a fucking hipster for them.

    I mean, I’m sure he did run it by a couple of people to make sure he hadn’t accidentally included something that was going to be super controversial for some reason he wasn’t aware of, but I have no trouble believing that these are just the things he happens to like. What the hell is wrong with people? (And no I’m not going to link to those comments)

  110. 110.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Barbara:
    Who needs Russia when Trump can fuck up our foreign relations right good by himself? Then again, they are the ones who likely put him in office…

  111. 111.

    jl

    @Baud: ” Maybe I just lie on my tax returns. ”
    Seems pretty uppity to me to even admit to having any and bothering to lie on them.
    Damn Baud 2020! getting too big for his britches. You can count me out, buddy (again).

  113. 113.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @jl:

    But, looks so far like there is absolutely nothing but Erdogan’s phone call and whatever threat he made to Trump.

    It’s the most pathetic part of this whole thing. Our head of state is apparently so cowardly or corrupt that he can be coerced/convinced into altering our foreign policy goals by the wannabe-strongman of a former republic that is nominally an ally of ours. We all know this, but he’s not a leader. I hope another 9/11 never happens while this traitor is in office.

  114. 114.

    lgerard

    i recall reading that trump’s children lived on a separate floor of the tower with their minders. The only real time they spent with him was when they visited his office.
    They spent summers with Ivanna’s father in Europe. He was an outdoors man who was their real father figure until he passed away. Hence the interest in hunting and such.

  117. 117.

    Jay C

    @jl:
    Unfortunately, that “herd of hardcore nuts Trumpsters” doesn’t really seem to be all that “scattered” or “dwindling” much just yet. IMO, it’s not growing much, either: but even just stable, it’s still a significant-enough minority that the GOP can’t ignore it to any great degree.
    And yeah, I’m sure that Republicans, from Trump on down to the city-councilman level will be using “San Francisco Liberal Nancy Pelosi” as an all-purpose insult good for any context.
    Which I’m sure will bother Madam Speaker very little…

  118. 118.

    Quinerly

    @JPL: I know nothing about Poco’s life prior to 3/2014. I’m now learning he is much older than I was originally told. A certain amount of mystery surrounds Poco. Supposedly, he was on the mean streets of South St. Louis for two years. I’m sure there are puppy support issues and as far as I know, he has never filed any tax returns. Come to think of it, he really does nothing all day but lay around and occasionally sniff the pussycat. His campaign may have a problem if he’s actually vetted.

  119. 119.

    Mike in NC

    Somebody should send Trump the Cliff Notes version of “Crime and Punishment”. Maybe Melania can read him select passages while he’s watching Fox & Friends.

  120. 120.

    Hob

    @Raven: Are we not allowed to bitch about things that aren’t particularly important? It doesn’t worry me, it’s just stupid and this new list reminded me of it. Is that OK with you?

  121. 121.

    germy

    We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!

    The United States loses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a “profit making operation.” We build a Wall or close the Southern Border. Bring our car industry back into the United States where it belongs. Go back to pre-NAFTA, before so many of our companies and jobs were so foolishly sent to Mexico. Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border.

  122. 122.

    frosty

    Where does he find the time for all that!!! I used to read a book a day* but I just can’t get to it now … of course, less than 3 hrs a day with the jackals and all the people who are wrong on the internet might free up some time.

    I am humbled.

    * Mysteries, thrillers, sci-fi, and westerns were a big chunk of them

  124. 124.

    jl

    @germy: If Trump wants to destroy himself politically, this is a better way than many other possibilities people have worried about.

    Please proceed, Mr. corrupt, unfit, and incompetent, President Trump in confusing your ridiculous and fraudulent Wall proposal with your ridiculous and fraudulent trade wars. I don’t mean to make light of the situation, but Trump is going to do what he is going to do. If he wants to cause damage, he will cause it. But good that he is spouting such incoherent and insane BS in pubic, that it will make it almost impossible for corporate news to ignore that Trump is incoherent and insane.

  127. 127.

    SenyorDave

    My New Year’s resolution in 2017 for 2018 was to stop wishing ill on the right wing nutjob Trump defenders. After seeing that there is no bottom with Trump, and no bottom with his defenders, best exemplified by the people defending and even endorsing the child separation policies resulting in at least two deaths, I take back my last year’s resolution. These people who say shit like the parents are at fault should SUFFER. That includes KAC and SHS – they are evil people. I am confident that these two would have gladly been mouthpieces for Hitler if given the chance. As for Trump? If he isn’t out of office by the end of 2019, I’m rooting for him to stroke out on the crapper. I think it would be fitting if there was an argument between Ivanka, Quday and Usay as to whose turn it is to clean the Donald.

  128. 128.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with

    What a foolish, foolish man.

    Trump is fixated on Mexico, but Canada gets a relative pass. For now.

  131. 131.

    PaulWartenberg

    I love how Obama’s list of fave things 2018 is so diverse, and speaks of a man who remains well-read and entertained.

    But I’m very heartbroken that Into the Spiderverse is NOT ON THE LIST. Obama, boss, dude, you are a comic book geek, we know this, how could you NOT have the best superhero movie on your list?!

  132. 132.

    cynthia ackerman

    BHO is the first President younger than me.

    I have been consistently pleased by his candor, grace, intelligence, empathy, and beneficence.

    He is my President forever.

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