I think there'a a lot to the "whatever the last person he talked to suggested" theory—I don't think he has any deeply held beliefs that would translate to specific policies, rather than 'there should be giant statues of me.' There will thus be lots of jockeying to be that person.

One of the interesting themes of post-election articles was "Hey, we checked and presidents tend to do the stuff they promised. Not 100%, and sometimes halfway, but overall."

This is where "not literally, seriously" turns ugly, when it turns out everyone thought different promises were literal.

I think First Lady (national and state) is a sucky and outdated job, and that it's unfair to shove innocent spouses there because oh, by tradition we need someone whose hair the nation can criticize. (My model being Mrs. Dean, who didn't understand why she should leave her patients to gaze admiringly at her husband…

People have mentioned the classic Christies, so I'll toss out BJ Oliphant's western (CO and NM) Shirley McClintock series. (Pen name for Sheri Tepper; check your library as they're from the 90s.) The more reality-constrained genre means smaller problems, which thus allow more possible ways for the story to go—there…

Merlyn's continued survival continues to perplex me.

There is some alternate, better reality in which Carson retired from his respected career in pediatric brain surgery, invested the savings from that and his inspirational biography in a standard bond/index fund mix, and then, like, volunteered with Doctors Without Borders occasionally or something. Dangled…

Bill Bryson noted a recent British book proposal in which a chap was going to go to America and break our obscure laws ("In Whosito WI you can't hang laundry on Wednesday" and so on) and he hoped get arrested. Bryson checked and noted such blechy details as "There is no Whosito, WI" and "No one in this other town that…

This. "We have a boy character, and a girl character…"

His son is his chief of staff. You can't help who your relatives are, but you can help who your chief of staff is.

Sure, drag facts into it.

Flynn Jr claims (on Twitter, natch) that such "investigations" will continue until Pizzagate is proven to be false.

Me too! I like bacon, but there is no need for bacon scented soap.

Every other episode of The Flash, summarized in a brief cartoon: http://www.gocomics.com/cul…

There are no exploding apples on this post. You're not the stridemother!

"Post-truth" is the Oxford Dictionary word of the year. Which I learned by reading the comics this morning. (Non Sequitur.)

Shirley! Yay!

He's just there to rile people up, isn't he?

Oh.

What I find alarming about it is that no one, even those close to him, would bet their retirement savings on whether:
a) He decided to normalize relations with Taiwan because it's a no-bullshit acknowledgement of reality.
b) He didn't know there was a China-Taiwan Thing going on.
c) Whoever he had lunch with told him it…