Omarosa: Yet Another Ridiculous Member of The Circus

[GreyhoundFan]

I love Joy Reid's tweet, complete with slam on "Diamond and Silk":

[onekidanddone]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Ben Carson ignores black people, but he doesn’t do it with the same level of intrigue. Now Mr. Trump’s going to have to celebrate Black History Month by issuing a few misspelled tweets and falling asleep in the middle of everything Ben Carson whispers without Ms. Newman there to do nothing next to the two of them.

Trump might be better off just ignoring Black History Month all together.  On his first one he blathered on about is fantastic ratings on 'The Apprentice' and mumbled Frederick Douglass's name. You know that Frederick, he is getting great ratings, or so I hear.

I just looked it up and found this gem from Sloppy Spice

 “And I think through a lot of the actions and statements that he’s going to make, I think the contributions of Frederick Douglass will become more and more.”

Is it really really sad that I wish he were still around and Sarah Shut-up-a-bee never replaced him?

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I love Joy Reid's tweet, complete with slam on "Diamond and Silk":

"Rayon and Cubic Zirconia" 

[Curious]

On 12/13/2017 at 11:16 AM, GrumpyGran said:

OMG, apparently she's "on vacation" until the 20th of January. Escorted from the building. Not coming back. Wow. Kelly is getting serious.

Of course we the people will still have to hand her another $15,000 while she does nothing. Oh, wait, she wasn't doing anything anyway.

This is pretty normal for a govt job.  If you have vacation time they have to pay you for it and if you are a problem they will happily let you take your "vacation" rather than work out the end of your time.  They would still have to pay her for the vacation days she didn't take so it probably is actually cheaper for the taxpayers this way.

I'm sure money wasn't really a consideration if they really wanted her out though. it's not like they are spending their own money.

[JMarie]

18 minutes ago, Curious said:

This is pretty normal for a govt job.  If you have vacation time they have to pay you for it and if you are a problem they will happily let you take your "vacation" rather than work out the end of your time.  They would still have to pay her for the vacation days she didn't take so it probably is actually cheaper for the taxpayers this way.

I'm sure money wasn't really a consideration if they really wanted her out though. it's not like they are spending their own money.

She has five weeks of vacation saved up, from a "job" she's held less than a year?

[Botkinetti]

I realize it speaks to the pettier part of my personality but I really enjoy watching pretentious ridiculous people be taken down a peg or two. I have grinned a few times picturing  “ Lady “ Omarosa being escorted out. 

[onekidanddone]

43 minutes ago, JMarie said:

She has five weeks of vacation saved up, from a "job" she's held less than a year?

The math does not add up

For Federal employees it works like this:

• 1-3 years you get 4 hours of AL per pay period
• 3-5 years you get 6 hours of AL per pay period
• 15 + 8 hours of AL per pay period

You can only carry over 240 hours from a calendar year. It is called use or lose. You need to burn off anything over 240 by December or it might be by the first pay period in Jan.  I don't know exactly because I've not  had over 240 in ages especially since I became a mom.

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

The math does not add up

For Federal employees it works like this:

• 1-3 years you get 4 hours of AL per pay period
• 3-5 years you get 6 hours of AL per pay period
• 15 + 8 hours of AL per pay period

You can only carry over 240 hours from a calendar year. It is called use or lose. You need to burn off anything over 240 by December or it might be by the first pay period in Jan.  I don't know exactly because I've not  had over 240 in ages especially since I became a mom.

Quoting my own post:  Typo it should have read 3-15 years you get 6 hours of annual leave. 

[JMarie]

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

The math does not add up

Maybe it's Betsy DeVos math?

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘Dumbest story ever’: How Omarosa’s reality-star exit from the White House hijacked the news."

Spoiler

As the spooling drama of Omarosa Manigault Newman’s White House departure spun into its 36th hour, Washington began asking itself: “Does it actually matter whether Omarosa quit or was fired?”

“Dumbest story ever,” tweeted John Harwood, the CNBC reporter.

His message was liked more than 17,000 times, but still the saga of her dramatic exit Tuesday night from the Trump administration churned on through Thursday — a reality television show that just couldn’t find its way to the closing credits.

“Omarosa” continued trending on social media. The name crawled across cable news chyrons and resurfaced at the White House daily press briefing. It more than held its own in a pair of news cycles already plenty busy with the Alabama Senate race upset, the troubled tax reform plan and the massive Disney-Fox deal.

Omarosa. Omarosa. Omarosa.

All the players in the meta-soap opera surrounding the former reality TV star’s departure from the relatively inconsequential job of director of communications at the White House Office of Public Liaison kept the story going. Anonymous White House officials shared details of her exit with political reporters. Manigault Newman gave an exclusive morning show interview. White House correspondents kept trying to get to the bottom of the story.

“Why are the taxpayers continuing the pay her salary for another month if she resigned?” CNN’s Jeff Zeleny asked press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House press briefing.

“The president likes Omarosa,” Sanders said. She confirmed again that Manigault Newman had resigned but would be paid until Jan. 20 because “there’s a lot of different protocols that take place in the government.”

Other White House sources were quoted in gossipy stories detailing how Manigault Newman had “tripped the alarm” while trying to barge into the White House residence to take up her case with President Trump before she was escorted out. The New York Post ran an illustration on its cover of Manigault Newman being dragged from the executive mansion.

Manigault Newman disputed those stories in her interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” saying she left of her own volition but hinting that certain aspects of her 11-month stay made her “unhappy.”

“When I have my story to tell as the only African-American woman in this White House, as a senior staff and assistant to the president, I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” Manigault Newman said. “And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.”

The political narrative on her time in the White House has already been written — and it doesn’t reflect well on her. Story after story described her wandering the halls of the White House aimlessly or ineffectively representing Trump before the groups she was hired to cultivate. Her appearance during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention devolved into a screaming match, for instance.

She seemed cast in the same role in the White House that she had on “The Apprentice,” where she was the show’s elegant and icy villain competing for Trump’s favor against 15 other contestants. “I’m not here to make friends,” she said then, and butted heads with almost everyone else on the show.

Manigault Newman has long disputed her depiction as an anti-hero.

“What you see on the show is a gross misrepresentation of who I am,” she told The Washington Post in 2004. “This show is about ratings,” she noted, and she was pitted against the other female contestants because it was “dramatic.”

Still, at different points during her White House tenure Manigault Newman has referred to herself as “the Honorable Omarosa Manigault” and “Lady Newman,” which prompted cackles in Washington. And she seemed to make few friends during her time in the West Wing. On Thursday, she complained of White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly’s “militaristic style.”

She returned to the airwaves for a “Nightline” interview that aired in the wee hours Friday morning on ABC to defend her former boss, saying Trump “is not a racist” despite his repeated conflicts with people of color.

“Yes, I will acknowledge many of the exchanges, particularly in the last six months, have been racially charged,” Manigault Newman said. “Do we then just stop and label him as a racist? No.”

As the story of her exit wore on, annoyance grew in many corners. The usually upbeat GMA co-host Robin Roberts looked exasperated to even have to discuss the matter. “She said she has a story to tell and I’m sure she’ll be selling. . . . Bye, Felicia,” said Roberts, using a catchphrase from the movie “Friday” to summarily dismiss Manigault Newman.

Roland Martin, the host of a morning news show on TV One, arrived in the studio to tape his show Thursday morning and learned his producers had reserved a segment to assess her resignation. Martin cut it down to three minutes and began the conversation by saying three times: “I don’t give a damn.”

“Here we were the day after black women in particular were on the ground in Alabama helping to raise money and get out the vote to defeat Roy Moore [and] I simply was not going to debase myself by having a back and forth over what happened to Omarosa,” Martin said later. “I was choosing to bask in the glory of what black folks did in Alabama.”

But Manigault Newman’s friend Monique Pressley called the entire episode “a shame.” Pressley, who was a bridesmaid in Omarosa’s wedding and her friend of 20 years, sees racism and sexism in both the gawking fascination and backlash that has greeted the story.

“We see the highest-ranking African American female in our current administration being disrespected, dehumanized and minimized — not just by people at large, but by first and foremost other African Americans,” said Pressley, an attorney. “I wonder if it were Kellyanne Conway [who resigned]. . . if she would have gotten a ‘Later Becky’ the way Omarosa received a ‘Bye Felicia,’ or do we just reserve these guttural colloquialisms for people who look like us?”

Missing in the conversation, said Pressley, is a larger concern about representation in the Trump administration.

“Now, I look at a table of 30 senior staffers and there are no people of color,” she said. “She was in the room, [but] now what? She’s someone who has served in the National Guard, has been a professor; she’s someone who has multiple degrees, a member of the clergy. I just refuse to see her as some ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ person. . . . I don’t have a doubt that she’ll be fine.”

Omarosa might agree. “The White House is not my ceiling,” she told “Nightline’s” Deborah Roberts. “It’s just the beginning.”

I disagree with the assertion that if it was Kellyanne, people would have been any "better" reaction.

[GrumpyGran]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"‘Dumbest story ever’: How Omarosa’s reality-star exit from the White House hijacked the news."

  Reveal hidden contents

As the spooling drama of Omarosa Manigault Newman’s White House departure spun into its 36th hour, Washington began asking itself: “Does it actually matter whether Omarosa quit or was fired?”

“Dumbest story ever,” tweeted John Harwood, the CNBC reporter.

His message was liked more than 17,000 times, but still the saga of her dramatic exit Tuesday night from the Trump administration churned on through Thursday — a reality television show that just couldn’t find its way to the closing credits.

“Omarosa” continued trending on social media. The name crawled across cable news chyrons and resurfaced at the White House daily press briefing. It more than held its own in a pair of news cycles already plenty busy with the Alabama Senate race upset, the troubled tax reform plan and the massive Disney-Fox deal.

Omarosa. Omarosa. Omarosa.

All the players in the meta-soap opera surrounding the former reality TV star’s departure from the relatively inconsequential job of director of communications at the White House Office of Public Liaison kept the story going. Anonymous White House officials shared details of her exit with political reporters. Manigault Newman gave an exclusive morning show interview. White House correspondents kept trying to get to the bottom of the story.

“Why are the taxpayers continuing the pay her salary for another month if she resigned?” CNN’s Jeff Zeleny asked press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House press briefing.

“The president likes Omarosa,” Sanders said. She confirmed again that Manigault Newman had resigned but would be paid until Jan. 20 because “there’s a lot of different protocols that take place in the government.”

Other White House sources were quoted in gossipy stories detailing how Manigault Newman had “tripped the alarm” while trying to barge into the White House residence to take up her case with President Trump before she was escorted out. The New York Post ran an illustration on its cover of Manigault Newman being dragged from the executive mansion.

Manigault Newman disputed those stories in her interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” saying she left of her own volition but hinting that certain aspects of her 11-month stay made her “unhappy.”

“When I have my story to tell as the only African-American woman in this White House, as a senior staff and assistant to the president, I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” Manigault Newman said. “And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.”

The political narrative on her time in the White House has already been written — and it doesn’t reflect well on her. Story after story described her wandering the halls of the White House aimlessly or ineffectively representing Trump before the groups she was hired to cultivate. Her appearance during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention devolved into a screaming match, for instance.

She seemed cast in the same role in the White House that she had on “The Apprentice,” where she was the show’s elegant and icy villain competing for Trump’s favor against 15 other contestants. “I’m not here to make friends,” she said then, and butted heads with almost everyone else on the show.

Manigault Newman has long disputed her depiction as an anti-hero.

“What you see on the show is a gross misrepresentation of who I am,” she told The Washington Post in 2004. “This show is about ratings,” she noted, and she was pitted against the other female contestants because it was “dramatic.”

Still, at different points during her White House tenure Manigault Newman has referred to herself as “the Honorable Omarosa Manigault” and “Lady Newman,” which prompted cackles in Washington. And she seemed to make few friends during her time in the West Wing. On Thursday, she complained of White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly’s “militaristic style.”

She returned to the airwaves for a “Nightline” interview that aired in the wee hours Friday morning on ABC to defend her former boss, saying Trump “is not a racist” despite his repeated conflicts with people of color.

“Yes, I will acknowledge many of the exchanges, particularly in the last six months, have been racially charged,” Manigault Newman said. “Do we then just stop and label him as a racist? No.”

As the story of her exit wore on, annoyance grew in many corners. The usually upbeat GMA co-host Robin Roberts looked exasperated to even have to discuss the matter. “She said she has a story to tell and I’m sure she’ll be selling. . . . Bye, Felicia,” said Roberts, using a catchphrase from the movie “Friday” to summarily dismiss Manigault Newman.

Roland Martin, the host of a morning news show on TV One, arrived in the studio to tape his show Thursday morning and learned his producers had reserved a segment to assess her resignation. Martin cut it down to three minutes and began the conversation by saying three times: “I don’t give a damn.”

“Here we were the day after black women in particular were on the ground in Alabama helping to raise money and get out the vote to defeat Roy Moore [and] I simply was not going to debase myself by having a back and forth over what happened to Omarosa,” Martin said later. “I was choosing to bask in the glory of what black folks did in Alabama.”

But Manigault Newman’s friend Monique Pressley called the entire episode “a shame.” Pressley, who was a bridesmaid in Omarosa’s wedding and her friend of 20 years, sees racism and sexism in both the gawking fascination and backlash that has greeted the story.

“We see the highest-ranking African American female in our current administration being disrespected, dehumanized and minimized — not just by people at large, but by first and foremost other African Americans,” said Pressley, an attorney. “I wonder if it were Kellyanne Conway [who resigned]. . . if she would have gotten a ‘Later Becky’ the way Omarosa received a ‘Bye Felicia,’ or do we just reserve these guttural colloquialisms for people who look like us?”

Missing in the conversation, said Pressley, is a larger concern about representation in the Trump administration.

“Now, I look at a table of 30 senior staffers and there are no people of color,” she said. “She was in the room, [but] now what? She’s someone who has served in the National Guard, has been a professor; she’s someone who has multiple degrees, a member of the clergy. I just refuse to see her as some ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ person. . . . I don’t have a doubt that she’ll be fine.”

Omarosa might agree. “The White House is not my ceiling,” she told “Nightline’s” Deborah Roberts. “It’s just the beginning.”

I disagree with the assertion that if it was Kellyanne, people would have been any "better" reaction.

She really is a female version of Dumpy. Very full of herself. It seems she had a check-list of "accomplishments". Maybe she should finish her name with "Mistress of Everything, Master of Nothing".

[JMarie]

On 12/13/2017 at 11:15 AM, onekidanddone said:

Don't know, I've not heard a peep out of him all year.

Goshdarnit, look what I've done.  He's a guest on Laura Ingraham's show tonight!  And boy, is he ever gushing about how great Trump is!

(for those who don't Laura, her show follows Hannity on our favorite Fox News)

 

[onekidanddone]

26 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Goshdarnit, look what I've done.  He's a guest on Laura Ingraham's show tonight!  And boy, is he ever gushing about how great Trump is!

(for those who don't Laura, her show follows Hannity on our favorite Fox News)

 

Okay he (well Kelly) fires Omarosa and his BFF goes down in flames in Alabama and now they need to bring out one of Trump's 'black people'.  Look everybody a black guy likes Trump so he can't be a racist fuck. 

[47of74]

Omarosa became worthless to Trump after she launched F-bomb tirade at black lawmakers: report

Quote

Multiple sources told ABC News that Manigault Newman cursed and scolded six members of the Congressional Black Caucus following a high-profile meeting with President Donald Trump.

“You don’t get to come into our house and demand to have f*cking privacy,” Manigault Newman allegedly said.

Finally, another White House staffer convinced Manigault Newman to walk away.

The Black Caucus declined a follow-up meeting with the administration.

 

[Curious]

On 12/15/2017 at 10:11 AM, JMarie said:

She has five weeks of vacation saved up, from a "job" she's held less than a year?

I don't know the rate of vacation accrual for top level senior Trump staff, obviously, but my husband works for the fed gov and his vacation/sick days add up pretty fast.  He's been in the same job for 30 years though.  I don't know if that makes a difference.

They have to pay for unused sick leave as well.  I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that she had a fair amount of vacay/sick leave saved up.  Maybe not 5 weeks, but at least several weeks.

On 12/15/2017 at 11:03 AM, onekidanddone said:

The math does not add up

For Federal employees it works like this:

• 1-3 years you get 4 hours of AL per pay period
• 3-5 years you get 6 hours of AL per pay period
• 15 + 8 hours of AL per pay period

You can only carry over 240 hours from a calendar year. It is called use or lose. You need to burn off anything over 240 by December or it might be by the first pay period in Jan.  I don't know exactly because I've not  had over 240 in ages especially since I became a mom.

ah I should have read down for the formula. So time on the job does make a difference.

I guess it's been a while since I asked what he got because I thought he was still at 4.  As long as he has time to take me to dr. appts and stay with me during my various hospitalizations, I don't worry too much about his vacation/sick leave.

He used to always have use or lose until I started having a million surgeries.  It's been a few years since he's had any.

I suspect that Omarosa's "goal" of making it to 1 year was very important to her and Kelly somehow made a deal that she gets to say she made a full year and she leaves quietly with no fuss.   Obviously, that isn't what happened, but I could see her making that deal and then trying to sneak back into the residence to tell 45 what a big meanie Kelly was being.

[Flossie]

4 hours ago, Curious said:

1 year was very important to her and Kelly somehow made a deal that she gets to say she made a full year and she leaves quietly with no fuss.   Obviously, that isn't what happened, but I could see her making that deal and then trying to sneak back into the residence to tell 45 what a big meanie Kelly was being.

Why does she have to sneak in to do that?  Everyone else seems to have his private number, so she could just call him.  But that wouldn't be as dramatic as a full on meltdown in the White House.  Unless Chump has blocked her.  Now that would hurt.  I'd suggest staying tuned for the book, but it would be so difficult to separate the tiny kernels of truth from the drama and fiction, it wouldn't be worth the time or the money.

[Curious]

7 minutes ago, Flossie said:

Why does she have to sneak in to do that?  Everyone else seems to have his private number, so she could just call him.  But that wouldn't be as dramatic as a full on meltdown in the White House.  Unless Chump has blocked her.  Now that would hurt.  I'd suggest staying tuned for the book, but it would be so difficult to separate the tiny kernels of truth from the drama and fiction, it wouldn't be worth the time or the money.

Cause she seems to have about as much impulse control as 45.  She was angry in the moment so why bother being rational and calling him.  From what I have read all this "old pals" are still able to get in touch with him via his private cell phone (which is driving Kelly nuts by the sound of it).

I would read her book, but I would consider it fiction I think.  I'm sure it would be entertaining to read her spin on things.  I thought about getting the Cory Lewandowski book, but changed my mind.  I might see if they have it at our library.  I would totally read a book by Spicer.  Again for the entertainment value, not the truthiness.

[apple1]

I am tired of hearing about this idiot. She's a distraction from - oh, I don't know - Mueller's investigation, or something.

It's too bad she didn't take Paris Dennard with her when she left. (I don't know what Paris' "official" role is; he is the ever-present token black defender on news shows).

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, Curious said:

I would read her book, but I would consider it fiction I think.  I'm sure it would be entertaining to read her spin on things.  I thought about getting the Cory Lewandowski book, but changed my mind.  I might see if they have it at our library.  I would totally read a book by Spicer.  Again for the entertainment value, not the truthiness.

Don't pay full price on Lewandowski's book. I thinking it will be selling at 5 Below any day now.

[Cartmann99]

On 12/15/2017 at 9:27 AM, Botkinetti said:

I realize it speaks to the pettier part of my personality but I really enjoy watching pretentious ridiculous people be taken down a peg or two. I have grinned a few times picturing  “ Lady “ Omarosa being escorted out. 

That scene from It's a Wonderful Life where Violet Biggs is being hustled away by the cops just popped into my brain. Violet is struggling to get away from them, while trying to impress them with the fact that she knows Potter. 

[GrumpyGran]

11 hours ago, Curious said:

I don't know the rate of vacation accrual for top level senior Trump staff,

Well, if everyone there gets vacation at the same rate as Dumpy, it would be 8 hours of vacation for every hour worked.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Curious]

21 hours ago, apple1 said:

I am tired of hearing about this idiot. She's a distraction from - oh, I don't know - Mueller's investigation, or something.

It's too bad she didn't take Paris Dennard with her when she left. (I don't know what Paris' "official" role is; he is the ever-present token black defender on news shows).

My husband said someone (on CNN I'm assuming) said Paris should be Omarosa's replacement.   I'm all for getting him off CNN because he drives me insane.  Actually, all the 45 surrogates do because they twist themselves into knot covered pretzels trying to defend all the stupidity.   Andre Bauer used to bother me the least and then he was all "but Hillary" this weekend.  Victor Blackwell shut that bullshit right down and said Andre you know why you were asked to be on this panel and it wasn't to discuss Hillary Clinton!

As much as I dislike Paris Dennard (and it's a lot), he would likely be a better prospect than Omarosa and other people 45 might choose.   It seems like he's probably got a better relationship with organizations in the black community, he worked for a president before so knows what that is like and he seems to be able to keep relatively calm when discussing his opinions.

20 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Don't pay full price on Lewandowski's book. I thinking it will be selling at 5 Below any day now.

Our dollar tree gets a good assortment of political books.  I got Levi Johnson's book for $1 and I think I got one of the Sarah Palin ones as well.  I always check for political books I have some marginal interest in. 

[Cartmann99]

I've been musing about Omarosa and the vacation time discrepancy. I think that everybody she worked with donated some of their vacation time to have an Omarosa-free workplace until her official last day. 

 

[GrumpyGran]

15 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I've been musing about Omarosa and the vacation time discrepancy. I think that everybody she worked with donated some of their vacation time to have an Omarosa-free workplace until her official last day. 

 

I kind of wonder if  she is still "employed" there. There are several versions of what happened here. I tend to believe that she and Kelly first came to an understanding about the 20th being her last day. We can assume that she went on a honeymoon after her wedding. In my experience, employers offer a week of vacation at one year and you can take it during the year provided you are there for the entire year. So this would allow her to go without having to re-pay the vacation.

It seems something happened after the agreement, there was a heated discussion and he decided she needed to go immediately and she wasn't happy about that. Why, unless she's losing the appearance of completing the year? It's not like she was working on anything, other than polishing her resume. Take the time off and do your media tour, with a much more positive spin. If you have agreed to leave why not enjoy a work-free holiday season? She must have tried to pull something or the story about her agreeing to leave was a lie made up after the confrontation. Either way we know something happened because you don't just tell your boss you're done at 6pm on a Friday evening.