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.