Yesterday, I learned that Joe and Kendra Duggar brought their new baby girl into the world. I also learned that Joe’s little brother, 20 year old twin Jedidiah Duggar, has decided to run for public office in next year’s election. That’s right. This “man”, who is just 20 years old and still shares a dorm room in his parents’ home with several of his brothers, plans to run for Arkansas State Representative District 89 in Springdale. Naturally, he’s running as a conservative who values “religious liberty”, “the Second Amendment” (right to bear arms), and is “pro life”. He also plans to fight opioid addiction by encouraging addicts to go to religious programs (worked great for big bro, Josh, and his sex problems). This is despite the fact that his parents live in District 87 and Jed’s “business” is in District 88.

The incumbent of District 89, Megan Godfrey, is 35 years old, married, a mother of two, and a Democrat. She barely won her seat last year, unseating Republican State Representative Jeff Williams with 1857 votes to his 1827. According to the Arkansas House of Representatives’ Web site, Godfrey is “the Co-Director of English Language Learning for Fayetteville Public Schools. She graduated from the University of Arkansas cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University with an M.A. in elementary education.  She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of Arkansas”.

Yeah… well, it doesn’t look like Jed Duggar has a snowball’s chance in hell winning against Megan Godfrey. However… I thought Donald Trump also didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the White House, and look who’s in charge. I fear many people won’t take into account that Jed Duggar doesn’t have any relevant political experience and he can’t even listen to pop music, because his daddy is afraid he’ll get a boner. In fairness to Jed, it’s entirely possible that he will be engaged, or even married with a child on the way, by the time November 2020 rolls around.

Lots of folks will vote for Jed because they know his name, and he’s a white man who opposes abortion. Never mind that he doesn’t even have his own room and he graduated from the School of the Dining Room Table, taught by his mother, who has no college degree. Never mind that he evidently doesn’t value higher education himself. Nope… Jed is a guy who wants to suppress women’s rights to bodily autonomy, forcing them to be pregnant no matter what, but he simultaneously wants to protect the right to bear arms. So maybe some of those babies born to women who can’t or won’t take care of them might be dispatched by gun violence…

Jim Bob Duggar is probably hoping one of his sons will be a politician, because it’s one way for him to get back into power himself. Josh Duggar was once his main hope. But then Josh was exposed as a “sex pest”, having molested his sisters and another girl when he was a teenager, and then getting caught red-handed on the Ashley Madison Web site, cheating on his wife, Anna, who is due to give birth to their sixth child any day now. Boob was once himself a politician, but only lasted one term. Jed is young, kind of cute (if you like fundie guys), conservative, and white. I’d like to think that Arkansans are smart enough to know that Megan Godfrey is way more appropriate and qualified to be a legislator, but sadly, a lot of people probably think she’s an “uppity woman” who needs to get back in the kitchen. I’m amazed at how I view America these days. Just a few short years ago, I lived with the delusion that most Americans had more sense than they apparently do.

In other news… Is Melania Trump really the most beautiful First Lady ever?

Yesterday, a friend of mine from high school shared this picture of Melania Trump.

First of all… Melania Trump was a fucking model! She literally made her living in photo portfolios and on magazine covers! And one of her best known portfolios featured her in the nude! Now… I don’t actually care that Melania did nudes. Lots of professional models pose nude, and there is nothing wrong with that. But the above photo touting her as a paragon of beauty and class doesn’t make sense at all. She is a retired model, and as far as I can tell, she’s done her best to poorly emulate other, more accomplished First Ladies, rather than stay out of the limelight. Moreover, Mrs. Trump was herself an “illegal” when she came to the United States in the mid 1990s. Under her husband’s policies, she likely would have been deported back to her native Slovenia. She lied about having a college degree and supposedly speaks five languages fluently, but as yet, has not proven her ability.

Secondly, while I do agree that Melania is basically a naturally beautiful woman, I don’t agree that she is the “most beautiful” First Lady in the history of the USA. To me, she almost always appears to be scowling, which is not an attractive look, plus she has the well-preserved but unnatural appearance of someone who has had a lot of cosmetic work done. To be clear, she was beautiful when she was young and she’s still attractive now, but to me, she looks like someone who isn’t embracing her natural look and doesn’t seem to have much of a zest for life. To me, so much of beauty comes from the inside, rather than the exterior. Some of the most attractive people to me are those who wouldn’t be considered conventionally beautiful, if only because they seem to be pleasant, friendly, kind, and loving people.

Personally, I think Michelle Obama is more beautiful, mainly because she appears to be genuinely happy and doesn’t look like she’s had a bunch of surgery or cosmetic treatments. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was also gorgeous. Even Hillary Clinton was pretty back in the early 90s, although I am no fan of Hillary’s. All three of those ladies were much better qualified and more interested in serving as First Lady than Mrs. Trump is.

I have empathy for Mrs. Trump. It can’t be easy to look at Donald Trump’s pubes, smell the lingering odor of his McDonald’s inspired shits, or listen to his morning farts. On the other hand, I’d be surprised if they still share close quarters with each other, since there have been multiple filmed episodes of her showing that she doesn’t particularly enjoy being close to him anymore. I would not be the slightest bit surprised if they split up after he’s out of the White House… and that’s if he doesn’t die of a stroke first.

And as the wife of a man who was married to a narcissist, I will tell you that Bill is a lot more handsome now at age 55 than he was over twenty years ago, when he was still married to a soul sucking woman who constantly beat on his self-esteem. He once showed me a photo of himself, dating from the 1990s, when he worked for Whirlpool. He looked twenty years older than his early 30s age. He was clearly depressed, unhealthy, and broke. He didn’t so much as crack a smile in the picture; I didn’t even see the adorable glint he always has in his blue eyes today.

Happily, twenty years later, Bill takes care of himself and has fun. He’s a lot better looking because he has higher self-esteem and better self-regard. My guess is that when Melania Trump is finally free of her marriage, she will be extraordinarily beautiful. The perma-scowl might fade away, with the help of a little Botox to fill in the creases, and she will be able to enjoy her life out of the scuzzy Republican political arena. Hell, I might even like and respect her by then. As it is now, I just feel kind of sorry for her, especially as the idiotic rednecks like the guy who shared that picture of Melania declaring her “most beautiful” are probably masturbating to her image every night. But we all know Jed Duggar isn’t doing that in his dorm room, right? Eh… who are we kidding?

Well, it will be “interesting” to see how Jed Duggar’s campaign goes. Frankly, I am tempted to donate to Megan Godfrey’s campaign, and I don’t now nor will I ever live in Arkansas (even though that is where Bill is kinda technically from). I’m glad to see that yesterday’s elections are showing that people are pulling their heads out of their asses and voting more intelligently. I’m for big changes in 2020, starting with a Trump eviction from the White House.