I’ve got it! When someone first mentioned Malik Obama in Trump’s presence, he misheard the name as Malik Bama. Failing to connect him with the President, he figured this must be Malik B, formerly of The Roots. Having been a huge fan of their early work, especially Things Fall Apart, he decided to invite him.

Or a life if it.

I work in a similar industry. On one of my projects (thankfully only one), the client is a major bank. For over a year they’ve been whining and refusing to pay an invoice in the low five figures — for them, probably a monthly rounding error — for work that, without any ambiguity, improved their property.

Yes, his attitude toward NATO and what not is definitely that of an old-time mobster offering/threatening “protection.” (Is there a word for an ostensible offer that’s really a threat? If not, there ought to be).

Good Lord. I suddenly got the image of Trump sitting there, in the lonely watches of the night, getting the impulse to tweet “Hey Barry, great brother you have there. SAD if something were to happen to him.”

In *Casablanca*, when someone says of Richard Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) “one never knows what he’ll do, or why,” it’s a kind of tribute. He’s unpredictable, but always someone to be reckoned with.

If nothing else, the campaign should put paid to the notion that the “brand” stands for anything but bad taste, debt and sheepshit.

I’m pretty sure in the first debate he referred to her — at least at the outset — as “Secretary Clinton,” but added with heavy sarcasm (because she’d already started with the “Donald” stuff), “Is that OK? Your happiness is very important to me,” and...

I don’t know why it is, but this is according to Ezra Klein on Vox.com.

I remember that too. The country, or some fraction thereof, had the vapors.

Weird feeling, that kind of thing. In the 80s and early 90s, we had a corrupt, sleazy and cynical Prime Minister. The whole country was glad to see the back of him. A decade later, a later iteration of his party produced a mean-minded, moralistic control freak who was able to do at least ten times the damage his…

You’re probably right — or at least that’s far more likely than him trying to sustain or build a “Trumpist” movement. Way too much work, that. Who needs it?

And though you can’t always say this of people undergoing public humiliation: he brought it all, absolutely all, on himself.

Maybe. But North Americans are generally so keen on informality that sometimes, a little seemingly misplaced formality can convey disrespect, in a subtle way. Or at least make the point that you’re not friends with whoever it is, and you’re not going to be, either.

Basic respect would be another term for it — everyone is owed so much, and most people, all said and done, do accord it to others, however grudgingly or inconsistently. Those who don’t, like Trump, deserve the label of “toxic”.

On top of everything else, he’s never to my knowledge shown a trace of charm, or even simple grace, regardless of the setting.

I expect she’ll be able to collect a paycheque, all right — but it’ll bounce higher than a Superball.

... Kinja is weird. First reply never showed up, so I tried again. Now here they both are. Ah well.

Maybe your friend has the impression it’s analogous to Métis. (For those outside of Canadia: many in Manitoba and elsewhere in the west identify as Métis, which is the French for “mixed”).

And the year Donald Trump was publicly humiliated after failing at the biggest thing he’d ever tried for.... hmm. Maybe I’ll at least be able to accept 2016, after all.