2017 RHOP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ashley's husband is such an ass and I hope she leaves him while she is still young. So controlling and pathetic at the same time. She can do so much better. I don't understand why Karen would move to Great Falls. Not really a good place to go to downsize. There is more to this - black Bill Gates may be having some financial troubles.

+1 don't get the great falls downsizing either. Most lots are pretty big and the houses are more expensive. Typically not where someone who is an empty nester would move.

[Anonymous]

They are all so sad and insecure it's hard to watch. Way to much fake hair and make up. They give women of color a bad rep. My friends in Potomac are so much better.

[Anonymous]

Karen seemed extremely relieved that they sold the house. I think there is more to the story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ashley's husband is such an ass and I hope she leaves him while she is still young. So controlling and pathetic at the same time. She can do so much better.

I think he's treating her like he treats his daughter -- who is about the same age as Ashley. My friend knows all of them, as her husband is a part owner of the bar/club L2 in Georgetown, and Ashley was a bartender there, which is how she met her husband in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Karen house sale storyline hasn't made a lot of sense until Charisse's recent comments insinuating financial troubles are at the source of the sale (not a true desire to downsize)

* The house was listed as far back at 2014 (for $2.5M). The asking price was eventually cut to $1.75M. Somebody with better internet skills can probably find out what it actually sold for
* Karen stated she had a $10K monthly mortgage. That's a big nut to crack each month.
* While Karen refers to her husband as the black Bill Gates, it's worth taking a closer look at his career
----> He worked for IBM for 25 years, culminating as a regional manager
-----> He co-founded or was asked to run a start up in 1991 and was the CEO for 20 years
-------> By the time he and Karen bought the Potomac McMansion (~2004), his stake in the company, Paradigm Holdings, was worth about $40M (12M shares at $3.25/share) ...on paper
---------> That valuation was precarious, because paradigm seems to have gone public as a microcap reverse merger. Never a sign of a solid, growing company. In fact, the company generated about $60M in revenue in 2004 but that number shrank to $40M by 2008 and the company was losing money
------------> By 2010, local defense contractor CACI bought Paradigm for ...$0.29 per share. At the time, Raymond held about 10M shares so his take was < $3M
--------------> Not hard to imagine needing to make some adjustments commensurate with that significant apparent drop in wealth

The company looks like a typical Beltway Bandit firm. Just providing staffing/services for various government contracts.

Here's their total revenue from gov't contracts by year, and you can see a very steady and sometimes significant decline over the years:
http://www.fedmine.us/userDownloadedfiles/Contractor_DUNS_926338492-PARADIGMSOLUTIONSCORPORATION__02_09_2012-copyright_FEDMINE_213665.html

I can see why they did well earlier -- they were an 8a ("disadvantaged, minority-owned") buisiness from 1994-2004, making it much easier to get contracts. Once they exited that program, the real contracting world is much more difficult.

I like his personality, at least on the show. I thikn he's a no-nonsense, no-drama tech person. He's no Black Bill Gates though. Gates produced software and huge innovations. His company was just a body shop. His new company (Paradigm Solutions) does indeed produce software, but not cutting edge by any means. The usual operations management stuff: http://www.paradigmsi.com/company/the-paradigm-team/ (I'm an IT person so I know what's good and what's not).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that much of the drama is scripted but I'm curious how AA women feel about the show and its cast. Particularly AA women in the DMV.

I like them better than the Atlanta ladies...but they are pretty boring.

I'm black and live in MD and love the show!! I like that they're kinda boring -- they actually seem like halfway decent ppl who would be friendly in real life. I prefer the more run-of-the-mill drama they have to the over-the-top stuff on other Housewives series but it may be that because I'm local I just like seeing places and people I relate to.

+1

+2 RHOA has had a very mean-spirited vibe the last couple of seasons. Also those ladies don't seem as open with their personal lives as the RHOP cast. Instead they start a rumor or beef between each other and ride that drama episode after episode for an entire season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ashley's husband is such an ass and I hope she leaves him while she is still young. So controlling and pathetic at the same time. She can do so much better. I don't understand why Karen would move to Great Falls. Not really a good place to go to downsize. There is more to this - black Bill Gates may be having some financial troubles.

+1 don't get the great falls downsizing either. Most lots are pretty big and the houses are more expensive. Typically not where someone who is an empty nester would move.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ashley's husband is such an ass and I hope she leaves him while she is still young. So controlling and pathetic at the same time. She can do so much better.

I think he's treating her like he treats his daughter -- who is about the same age as Ashley. My friend knows all of them, as her husband is a part owner of the bar/club L2 in Georgetown, and Ashley was a bartender there, which is how she met her husband in the first place.

I think she acts like a child. That last fight they had prior to the event they had at their restaurant was ridiculous. Every time he tried to talk, she cut him off and yelled at him. I remember thinking at the time I watched it "well, that's why he treats you like a child...b/c you act like one."

[Anonymous]

Last season was spent with the transparent charade of the ladies pretending they lived in Potomac and that they had money. I think this season is a bit better because the ladies have acted more like themselves.....although if that's the real Giselle I feel sorry for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ashley's husband is such an ass and I hope she leaves him while she is still young. So controlling and pathetic at the same time. She can do so much better. I don't understand why Karen would move to Great Falls. Not really a good place to go to downsize. There is more to this - black Bill Gates may be having some financial troubles.

The way Ashley's Chef was looking at her? Hmmmm. He didn't seem quite as happy when Michael walked in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ashley's husband is such an ass and I hope she leaves him while she is still young. So controlling and pathetic at the same time. She can do so much better. I don't understand why Karen would move to Great Falls. Not really a good place to go to downsize. There is more to this - black Bill Gates may be having some financial troubles.

+1
I live in Great Falls and was laughing so hard when Karen declared that she'd simply bring her "Queen Bee-ness" from Potomac to GF, and rule the roost here. Too, too funny. I don't know anyone so full of herself. People are people here - most aren't caricatures.

In addition, the house they showed in Great Falls is hardly downsizing! It was much grander than their current one. I'm not sure I "get" what she means by downsizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like Monique, but she dresses real Jersey Shore ish; tacky.

I agree. She's clearly the most wealthy of the bunch, but she dresses in such a tacky way. She needs to learn that less is more. It's interesting that she and her husband seem very down-to-earth, given their wealth. I was also interested in seeing her parents, thinking they'd be very Jersey-ish. They seemed lovely though. I wonder where Monique gets her street-talk from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are all so sad and insecure it's hard to watch. Way to much fake hair and make up. They give women of color a bad rep. My friends in Potomac are so much better.

And the boobs constantly hanging out on all of them, is truly something to behold. I don't know *anyone* who dresses like they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ashley's husband is such an ass and I hope she leaves him while she is still young. So controlling and pathetic at the same time. She can do so much better. I don't understand why Karen would move to Great Falls. Not really a good place to go to downsize. There is more to this - black Bill Gates may be having some financial troubles.

The way Ashley's Chef was looking at her? Hmmmm. He didn't seem quite as happy when Michael walked in.

I noticed that too. He (the chef) seemed very protective of Ashley and not at all fond of Michael. Interesting.

[Anonymous]

Great Falls is not as good as Potomac. Potomac has Anglers inn a much bigger falls park with the c&o canal national park , the gold mines, Bullis , Saint Andrews, Congressional Country Club, Avenel, Churchill.. There is nothing in Great Falls.