I should have known this week was cursed on Monday. It took forever to get out of the house — forgot this, oops I need to put something in the crockpot, etc. And I lost my wallet. It fell out of my pocket as I was putting the dry cleaning into the car, part of my super-efficient early-Monday, after-workout routine. The good news is, it was found by a nice older man who was trying to find me in the White Pages (HA HA HA HA HA) when I realized what I’d done and raced back to the dry cleaner.
Some would see that as a glass-half-full good omen for the week, along with the chicken soup that turned out fine after I threw it together in the crockpot practically on my way out the door.
But I woke up Tuesday sick, and remain sick. Half a cold, kinda-fever, GI discomfort, nothing specific, just general malaise. (I’m the only person in the world who gets sick after eating chicken soup, evidently.) I relocated to Kate’s bed when Alan woke me at 3 a.m. to inform me I was snoring loud enough to wake the dead in cemeteries miles away. It was Kate’s bed instead of the guest room, because that bed is still strewn with tax documents, for the returns I have yet to finish.
So not a great week. so far. I have hopes for the remainder, as soon as I get this little mixed salad of bloggage served:
The Trumps — and the U.S. government, because who are we kidding about who paid for this — have access to the greatest photographers on the planet, and this is what some Belgian guy woman serves up for the first lady’s official portrait:
Of course Twitter is beside itself over this. Glamour Shots has been invoked, as has Olan Mills. I keep looking at it, wondering why a 46-year-old woman with classic Slavic bone structure and piercing blue eyes, not to mention access to the finest makeup and makeup artists in New York City, would approve a soft-lens product that you’d use on a pimply 17-year-old for her senior picture. I wonder if that’s a layer of subtext, the fogging of the lens that symbolizes her fundamental iciness and, shall we say, lack of enthusiasm for her new job. I’m fascinated by the background, which doesn’t say White House at all. (Although I think it is the White House; that looks like the window over the door on the Pennsylvania Avenue side.) And of course I see that Natasha always puts her hands in show-the-diamond position, her way of saying it was all worth it, all the humiliation, all the cheating, all the nights spent next to an old man who, having caught you, now barely acknowledges your existence, because this is her ring, and not yours.
Like I said, I’ve been sick. My mind gets sorta weird when its feverish. UPDATE: As usual, Robin Givhan has something smarter to say.
Also, there is this, and it is funny.
Back to work. Yes, I’m working. You think a sick day means couch time and Netflix? Ha ha ha ha ha.
coozledad said on April 5, 2017 at 11:26 am
I’m surprised they didn’t go with a montage of her displaying her business end. Nice piss-hooker diamond, though.
113 chars
Deborah said on April 5, 2017 at 11:33 am
Jolene mentioned on Facebook that Trimp was raving on how Melania’s approvals were through the roof, when they’re really at about 52. But honestly how can anyone approve or disapprove of someone who hasn’t done one blasted thing. Oh wait, she did inexplicably recite the Lord’s prayer at some event. Don’t FLOTUS’s usually get involved in some cause or another? All Melania seems to do is sit in her ridiculously decorated apartment in Trump tower getting her hair and make-up done or working out in her private gym. Oh and maybe she goes shopping once in a while. And she rarely even hangs around with her husband, but who can blame her for not wanting to do that?
I believe it was Sherri, who mentioned here a week or so ago that it seems like every single Trimp voter has been interviewed and written about. These people are not that fascinating.
I watched a clip of Louis CK on with Colbert I think last night, CK said Trimp was nothing but a lying sack of shit, that at first he thought he was some sort of evil genius like Hitler but it turns out he’s much, much simpler than that. Sounds about right to me. I don’t have a link, sorry.
Also, this sciatica is making me really crabby.
1198 chars
Deborah said on April 5, 2017 at 11:35 am
Oh, I see that Coozledad has a link to the Louis CK bit at the end of the last thread.
86 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 11:37 am
Teen Vogue wouldn’t airbrush a pimply 17 year old that much. Maybe this is for the cover of Breitbart’s new magazine for men?
125 chars
Betsy said on April 5, 2017 at 11:43 am
Got into a discussion with a friend over the weekend. She said Trump will not get impeached. I said he will. My argument was that he will just keep doing what he is doing and eventually it will happen. She is now mad at me. Yes she did vote for Trump. I have made sure not to tell her she is stupid. Maybe I should have. I think the First Lady is kind of creepy looking.
371 chars
coozledad said on April 5, 2017 at 11:43 am
Looks like Putin’s going to kill everybody with the piss tape bootlegs. ASCAP ought to offer him a job When he gets through being the President of Russia and the US.
165 chars
coozledad said on April 5, 2017 at 11:44 am
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/849562381072162817
53 chars
coozledad said on April 5, 2017 at 11:50 am
Shithouse, meet flames. Bannon’s out at NSC.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-bannon-removed-national-security-council
130 chars
Jason T. said on April 5, 2017 at 11:51 am
There was a time when someone like Yousuf Karsh would have shot that photo. Instead, we did, indeed get something that looks like it came from the Sears Portrait Studio.
No one who has followed Trump’s career is surprised. There is a stunning lack of grace in that family. It’s one thing to conspicuously consume — it’s another thing to conspicuously consume garbage.
I would say that all of the President’s taste is in his mouth, but given his love of KFC and well-done steaks with ketchup, I’m not sure he has any taste there, either.
544 chars
Icarus said on April 5, 2017 at 12:02 pm
how’s this
https://twitter.com/thewayoftheid/status/848529985904287745
75 chars
Jolene said on April 5, 2017 at 12:07 pm
Vivian’s piece is very good, especially the last paragraph, which is a little jewel.
84 chars
Jolene said on April 5, 2017 at 12:13 pm
Whoops! Does this do autocorrect, or did I mistype? I meant Givhan’s piece, of course.
86 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 12:20 pm
I’m sure the health insurance market would do a better job of being non-discriminatory than the auto insurance market, right?
https://www.propublica.org/article/minority-neighborhoods-higher-car-insurance-premiums-white-areas-same-risk
238 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 12:35 pm
Maybe the journos think they’re going to get a Pulitzer for their series on the forgotten man, the left-behind trump voter. The only mildly interesting thing left in the articles is how the bigotry will be expressed this time.
I have a theory for why coal miners and steel workers believe that their jobs should be brought back, rather than new jobs brought to their region. The legend of those jobs was that while they were dangerous, they were responsible for Building America. They were Doing Something Important. Now, that wasn’t entirely wrong once upon a time, and sometimes you need myths to do very dangerous jobs, it those myths are no longer relevant. Coal no longer holds the place it once held in America’s energy needs, and it’s not because of regulation, it’s because of better options. Even if it did, like with steel, those old jobs aren’t coming back because there are cheaper, easier ways of accomplishing the job now.
But coal country wants their coal jobs back, because that’s what made them important.
1029 chars
Deborah said on April 5, 2017 at 12:36 pm
Taibbi has a point, we shouldn’t lose our heads http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-putin-derangement-syndrome-arrives-w474771 but then again …
162 chars
David C. said on April 5, 2017 at 12:46 pm
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2017/4/4/82527/89253
What I do know is that Taibbi frames the question incorrectly from the get-go when he makes it all about Trumpian collusion, as if stealing the voter rolls and using them to microtarget our electorate with fake news were not enough on its own.
What you can’t do is say with any credibility that Trump having the GOP change the party platform to weaken its position on Ukraine isn’t any evidence of some kind of quid pro quo.
497 chars
Charlotte said on April 5, 2017 at 1:05 pm
If you’re not following Obama photog, Pete Souza, on Twitter, you should be: https://twitter.com/PeteSouza He’s making an art form out of trolling 45 with pictures of 44 being effective.
187 chars
Peter said on April 5, 2017 at 1:40 pm
Just in: Steve Bannon has been dumped from NSC. I think the real nugget is that the pro-trump apologists are posting that his appointment to NSC was only done so he could be a check on Flynn, who the WH said had issues.
I’m thinking that Mr. Flynn is not going to take this lying down and I think he’ll sing.
314 chars
Jeff Borden said on April 5, 2017 at 2:11 pm
Well, that is one big diamond FLOTUS is sporting there, folks, but it cannot hold a candle to the sparkler Candy Spelling used to wear. When I was a TV critic, Aaron Spelling Productions had so many programs on ABC that people joked it stood for Aaron’s Broadcasting Co., so during a summer TV press tour in L.A., they threw a huge bash for him at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel with all the stars of his various programs (Joan Collins, Linda Evans, William Shatner among them) seated among the press. As you walked into the ballroom, you were greeted by Aaron and Candy, whose diamond ring was so huge it’s a wonder she could lift her hand. It turns out that diamond had once been owned by the Shah of Iran, or so said Candy when I asked her.
Aaron Spelling had an excuse for being a flashy, nouveau riche boor. He grew up dirt poor in Oklahoma and when he hit it big, baby, he really enjoyed his money. The Orange King was born into wealth, but man, he has zero class. And it appears the classlessness extends to the next generation of grifters. . .particularly Uday and Qusay. Ugh.
1084 chars
Deborah said on April 5, 2017 at 2:26 pm
Isn’t the size of the diamond sometimes directly correlated to the number of infidelities of the one who gives it?
114 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 2:37 pm
Taibbi, Greenwald, Sirota, several writers at The Nation, Jacobin; all seem more interested in rooting out “McCarthyism” than considering what they did to contributing to putting trump in office.
I don’t know if there was collusion between trump and Putin. I do know that there is a pattern of Russia spreading disinformation and working to undermine democratic institutions in the West. I do know that there are a number of people with connections to Putin who were and are involved with trump. I know there are a lot of strange things that don’t make a lot of sense yet. Maybe they are all innocuous. I’m waiting to find out. But anybody who spent the election season lecturing us about emails doesn’t have any moral ground to lecture us about red baiting.
761 chars
nancy said on April 5, 2017 at 3:00 pm
Not sure, Deborah, but I’m reminded of some female comic’s joke after Kobe Bryant allegedly made it up with Vanessa (after the hotel woman was assaulted) by giving her a similar-size ring: “What woman wouldn’t love to have a giant, sparkling reminder of her husband’s infidelity to look at on her finger every day?”
315 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 3:45 pm
Rick Perry on the NSC.
Now we know how important the NSC will be in this administration.
92 chars
Bitter Scribe said on April 5, 2017 at 3:46 pm
OT, but I know the crew here will appreciate it if anyone will:
Pepsi had to pull a TV commercial featuring Kendall Jenner joining a street demonstration, and defusing the tension by handing a Pepsi to a riot cop, after howls of outrage/laughter. The damn thing must have cost an absolute fortune to produce. I wonder what’s going to happen to the schmuck who greenlighted it–probably he’ll be in charge of Mountain Dew distribution in Tulsa. Also, don’t miss the memes inspired by the commercial.
952 chars
brian stouder said on April 5, 2017 at 4:01 pm
Bitter, during the 71 seconds I gave Oxy-Rush before hitting the button again, on the way to lunch today – he was ranting about Pepsi Cola. I thought – “Good on them, whatever they did” –
but I suppose the key people at their ad agency all have dyspepsia today
263 chars
Bitter Scribe said on April 5, 2017 at 4:10 pm
Brian–Now you’ve got me wondering…was Rush mad at Pepsi for the commercial, or for pulling the commercial?
109 chars
brian stouder said on April 5, 2017 at 4:12 pm
Dunno – but our local lip flapper and rightwing wannabe will surely parrot him this afternoon
93 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 4:26 pm
Two unrelated but related articles from the Seattle Times today, one concerning a possible homeless shelter in Bellevue (suburb of Seattle), the other with a perspective on addiction and safe injection sites, which Seattle and King County are moving towards.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/addiction-is-love-gone-awry-we-shouldnt-shame-drug-users-says-best-selling-author/
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/in-bellevue-worries-that-homeless-shelter-would-bring-crime-seattle-scourge/
522 chars
Jolene said on April 5, 2017 at 4:32 pm
Rick Perry on the NSC.
Now we know how important the NSC will be in this administration.
Perry’s department oversees the safety of our nuclear weapons, so, at least, he has a reason to be there.
207 chars
Bitter Scribe said on April 5, 2017 at 4:33 pm
Brian – OK, I looked, God help me, at Rush’s website, and I still can’t decide if he is for or against the commercial. I’m not sure even he knows.
153 chars
Suzanne said on April 5, 2017 at 4:36 pm
But there is this. If there had not been this controversy, I would never have known who the chick in the commercial was. I am still left wondering why anyone in this world cares what the Kardashians do.
202 chars
Bitter Scribe said on April 5, 2017 at 4:38 pm
Suzanne – Because they’re reality TV stars, which is apparently the highest achievement to which any American can aspire. One of them may be our next president because why not?
176 chars
brian stouder said on April 5, 2017 at 4:47 pm
When Bitter said “One of them may be our next president because why not?”, I thought ‘Thread Win!’!!
And I got this far on the ‘net, with Oxy-Rush/Pepsi –
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/04/05/kardashian-babe-angers-left-with-pepsi-commercial/
NBC News is beside itself. The Associated Press is beside itself. It doesn’t know how to explain this. This could not have happened, and they’re deeply searching for explanations for it because it doesn’t make sense to them because it doesn’t fit what they think they created in Ferguson with the coverage of that mythical “hands up, don’t shoot.” They think they poisoned the well against all white people in Ferguson and converted the town to a largely black town, and they thought they had done a good job.
Obama went in there and took over the police department based on the fact they thought it was racist. It was another one of these consent decrees allowing the Obama Department of Justice to determine how the Ferguson police department ran itself, otherwise they wouldn’t get any federal money. And then this election happens. They’re beside themselves. They can’t figure it out. You know, when things that happen outside the Beltway happen, they are clueless. They cannot explain them. Especially when they think they have gone someplace like Ferguson and forever poisoned the well.
And when the people don’t behave — as in vote — the way the media and Democrats think they should, then we have problems.
Now, about this Pepsi ad, what this really is — or what really has the left agitated here is — that these protests are serious things. They’re really serious, and they’re engaged in by really committed people against genuine fascist, authoritarian pigs like Trump. And to have Pepsi go in there and claim that giving a cop a Pepsi will make the protesters stop protesting is offensive. It’s absurd! And now Pepsi is hated. Pepsi is despised. Twitter last night blew up against Pepsi for, quote, “appropriating anti-Trump resistance to sell soda.”
So they went in there and made the protesters look like they were anti-Trump people and that they could be bought off and silenced with a cop accepting a gift of Pepsi in the midst of the protest. Now, as an adjunct to this, you know, I study advertising to a certain extent, because I think it gives us a clue as to our culture. Advertisers’ main objective is to separate people from their money, and so advertising has to be culturally relevant. It has to be hip, at least to the audience targeted.
Uhhhhh…errrrrrrrrr…Pepsi?/Ferguson?/NBC?/Democrats?…I think ol’ Oxy is realllly trippin’ today
2697 chars
Deborah said on April 5, 2017 at 4:52 pm
Sherri, what is your opinion of Seattle’s mayor? My husband thinks the guy walks on water regarding his take on cities. I haven’t really read that much about him to tell the truth.
Whoa, Chicagoans be careful out there, 22 ft waves on the lake predicted and 40mph winds at commute time. If you drive LSD, watch out!
318 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 4:59 pm
Are we sure that Limbaugh hasn’t been replaced by a not very sophisticated AI program? One that has the rules of basic sentence structure and then randomly tosses in enemies to attack?
To no one’s shock, females justices are interrupted much more than male justices: http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/04/legal-scholarship-highlight-justice-interrupted-gender-ideology-seniority-supreme-court/#more-254313
405 chars
Sherri said on April 5, 2017 at 5:33 pm
I would say that Murray’s ideas are good, he’s been pretty good at getting some stuff done, but the biggest issues are still going nowhere. Seattle’s city council is quite progressive and diverse, so that hasn’t been so much a problem. He and the council have worked together well on things like the $15 minimum wage, the ordinance allowing Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize (currently held up in court), and other worker-friendly moves.
Homelessness and housing affordability have been tougher problems. There hasn’t been a consistent strategy on how to address homelessness, which has frustrated everyone all along the spectrum. The city is currently being sued by the ACLU and the Episcopal Diocese among others over their homeless sweeps, because the police throw away people’s possessions when they do the sweeps to clear out encampments. On housing, there is a lot of pushback in the neighborhoods about increasing density, of course, which results in the usual complaints of destroying character and too much traffic.
On traffic, Murray has pretty much held steadfast to prioritizing transit, bike, and pedestrian access rather than cars, and light rail is becoming a huge success. That doesn’t stop people from complaining that road diets don’t work and we Must Do Something, especially after a propane truck flipped one morning and shut down I-5 in both directions in the middle of downtown a few weeks ago. The absurdity of building roads to accommodate such an event never seems to occur to people.
Murray has also worked well with Dow Constantine, the King County Executive. In general, with a few exceptions, the Seattle area does a much better job of regional cooperation among its cities than I saw in the Bay Area. I don’t hear a lot of complaints in the suburbs about Seattle controlling everything.
I haven’t heard anything to indicate that Murray is interested in running for Governor in 2020. I’m pretty sure Constantine and Bob Ferguson, the AG who’s been raising his profile suing trump, are both planning runs.
Nobody serious seems to be stepping forward,to challenge him, so he should win re-election handily. He’s much more effective than the last mayor, who was better at protesting than governing, and has better ideas than the mayor before that.
2291 chars
Jakash said on April 5, 2017 at 5:34 pm
Suzanne @ 31. That was my takeaway from this Pepsi-palooza, also. I’ve done my best to avoid all knowledge of the entire Kardashian clan, but occasionally something slips by. Such as never having seen this particular one before, and not really knowing who she is or where she fits in, or whatever, until today. (Well, I still don’t know that.) I feel like every time I grudgingly, accidentally become acquainted at all with some aspect of K-world, a Charlie’s Angel gets her wings. Or something like that. D’oh!
518 chars
David C. said on April 5, 2017 at 5:50 pm
Speaking of mayors, the local slumlords got their knickers in a twist because the city imposed health and safety inspections on rental properties. In out election yesterday, they ran a slate for the common council and mayor, spent an assload of money, and they all went down in flames. Sometimes the good guys win.
314 chars
Heather said on April 5, 2017 at 6:19 pm
I actually muted any mention of Kendall Jenner on my Twitter feed a while ago, but it’s not really working.
107 chars
Deborah said on April 5, 2017 at 6:26 pm
Thanks Sherri, my husband is on a tear that Main Street is what Dems should be focusing on in small towns and big cities, rather than Wall St. obviously. I keep reading that Trump voters should be wooed to turn 2018 and 2020 around. I’m not so sure about that. Seems like we need to get out the Dem leaning vote, put our money and energy in that direction, not try to get entrenched people to change their minds. But what do I know?
432 chars
Rana said on April 5, 2017 at 11:18 pm
That picture of Melania threw me when I saw it, for the simple reason that, despite being rich, pampered, preened, etc. Melania normally looks older than me… and she’s not. She’s a year younger. There’s something harsh and worn about her un-filtered features – perhaps it’s too much makeup – that always makes her look prematurely aged to me.
So to see this fantasy image where she’s been smoothed into an icon that looks to be in her mid-thirties at most, is very very strange.
I wonder what Ivanka thinks, seeing her stepmother airbrushed into looking like her stepdaughter’s age?
592 chars
Rana said on April 5, 2017 at 11:26 pm
On the issue of Trump supporters et al, I found this article rather interesting. It’s biting, but perhaps worth mulling over. https://fusion.net/the-long-lucrative-right-wing-grift-is-blowing-up-in-t-1793944216
210 chars
Rana said on April 5, 2017 at 11:32 pm
For reference, this is what Melania actually looks like (heavily made-up, but still showing her true age): http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-08-08-1470665255-5466776-4646556d2bf86db97ab3e840da8702b3.jpg
206 chars
Linda said on April 6, 2017 at 6:05 am
Re: Tabbai on Trump derangement. He seems to think that unless there is indictable paydirt, Trump comes out smelling like a rose. He’s wrong. Trump now has the stink of corruption on him in the popular mind. The drip drip drip of bad looking news has made him stink, even if he is convicted of nothing. We now simply assume he is no good. He may never be convicted, but can never be exonerated. And he karma is, that is what 20 years of conservative media work has done to the Clintons. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
518 chars