Tag Archives: Kardashians

Trumps won’t be ‘slumming it’ in White House

white-house

The Donald J. Trump family is quite used to an opulent lifestyle.

Posh resorts, jet airplanes, gawdy fixtures … all that kind of thing.

What are they getting now as they prepare for their new lives as the world’s most visible and gawked-at family — except, perhaps, for the Kardashians?

More of the same, only to a somewhat lesser degree. They’ll be fine.

The Man of the House says he’s going to forgo the $400,000 annual salary. He doesn’t need the money. The president-elect intends to collect a dollar a year, which he said not long ago is required by law. That means he can return nearly $1.6 million to the U.S. Treasury during the four years he’s in office.

It won’t amount to more than spitting into the ocean, but hey, it’s still a good bit of dough.

But think of this, too. The Trump clan is going to get to live in a pretty nice house. They’re going to have security like they’ve never seen. That airplane the president uses for official business — dubbed Air Force One when he’s aboard — ain’t bad, either. The Trumps can rest assured that the big blue-and-white Boeing 747 is decked out with the finest technology ever assembled for a single flying machine.

The Trumps won’t be driving their own motor vehicles for at least the next four years. They’ll have chauffeurs at the wheel, highly trained Secret Service security agents opening doors for them and staffers ensuring that their every wish is met and every command is followed to the letter — which likely is something to which they’ve become quite accustomed already … given the old man’s reported penchant for that kind of detail.

All this speculation is quite relevant, given the Trumps’ lifestyle and y-u-u-u-g-e success — which the president-elect boasted about continually while running for the first public office he’s ever sought.

I’m just hoping now as the new first family gets set to step into the public spotlight we don’t hear any griping from them about how they’re slumming it on the people’s dime.

O.J. returns — sort of — to the spotlight

OJ

Orenthal James Simpson might be getting out of prison soon.

The Nevada parole board has granted Simpson parole for some of the crimes for which he was sentenced to prison five years ago. He’s going to remain behind bars, though, until he becomes eligible to be paroled for the rest of the crimes.

So, what will he do once he walks out of the slammer?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/31/oj-simpson-parole/2603497/

Here’s a thought: He ought to seek to repay the African-American community that cheered his acquittal in 1995 for the double murder of his former wife and her friend.

Simpson went to prison on charges stemming from an altercation he had in Nevada over some sports memorabilia. I don’t begrudge his becoming eligible for release on those charges.

It’s the double murder and his acquittal of those charges that continue to eat at many millions of Americans.

The jury’s finding of “not guilty” was the result of brilliant defense work by Simpson’s legal team led by the late Johnnie Cochran. That the former football star walked on those charges infuriated most Americans … but cheered a significant minority of Americans, namely, African-Americans who were glad to see Simpson remain free.

More than 20 years later, it remains a fair question to ask: Why cheer this man’s acquittal only on the basis that he, too, is black?

For his entire adult life, there can be no finding of evidence that O.J. Simpson gave back to the community from which he emerged to attain athletic stardom and, to a lesser degree, a level of celebrity as a film actor.

Indeed, I saw something just this weekend about Simpson wanting — get ready for this one — to date Kris Jenner, the former wife of the late Robert Kardashian, another member of Simpson’s superstar legal team.

Eventually, Simpson will walk out of prison. He’ll be free to do whatever he wants — as long as he doesn’t violate the terms of his parole.

He ought to start his road back by giving something to the community that cheered him when — in my view — a jury let him get away with murder.

Then again, he did once vow to look for “the real killers” of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Is that pledge still on the table?

 

The impossible has happened … now what?

LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 28:  Chairman and President of the Trump Organization Donald Trump yells 'you're fired' after speaking to several GOP women's group at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino April 28, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Trump has been testing the waters with stops across the nation in recent weeks and has created media waves by questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States.  (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

Now that the impossibly ridiculous has occurred — and Donald Trump has become the latest Republican presidential candidate — it’s perhaps time to assess briefly whether this guy actually has a shot at being elected president of the world’s greatest nation.

This picture of The Donald ought to suggest that there’s no way on God’s Green Earth that he’ll take up residence in the White House on Jan. 20, 2017.

Diplomacy? Nuance? Sensitivity? Is that the face of a man who understands any of that? Say what you will about politicians in general, but it does take some degree of finesse to navigate through tricky pathways.

The Donald doesn’t possess it. What he does possess, though, is conceit, ego, self-absorption, narcissism and self-aggrandizement.

How do those traits play? In the world of popular culture, they play well. Why do you think The Kardashians are so successful? They possess zero actual talent. But there they stand — in front of us constantly.

I put Donald Trump in that category of celebrity.

Which is why it’s treacherous to rule him out completely as a serious contender for — oh, I am loath to say this — for the presidency.

Strange things can happen in this insane world of ours.

Trump is a creature of this popular culture that places zero value on people’s compassion or their ability to actually lead.

He boasts about his fabulous wealth, not giving a damn about those who count getting through the day a major accomplishment. He bellows that “I will make America great again,” all by himself, no doubt. He puts preposterous notions into the public domain questioning whether the current president is constitutionally qualified to hold the office to which he was elected twice.

In that weird, wacky world out there, these things seem to resonate with enough people to — dare I say it? — make him a legitimate candidate for the most powerful public office in the world.

Am I predicting a Trump presidency? Not for a nano-second. But I’m telling ya, the guy’s going to make noise out there. And some folks are actually going to listen to it.

What the heck. I’ll look on the bright side. The Donald’s going to give folks like me plenty of rhetorical ammo.

I’m locked and loaded.