Guys, I feel this as strongly as my own heartbeat: The coat is a deflection. Don’t be fooled. She’s wearing the coat with the right hand, but you should pay attention to the left.
Don’t get upset about the coat. These are not normal people. Don’t rail about how they don’t get it, or don’t understand optics, or whatever. That’s all they understand. They are all about surfaces. But something larger is going on. Don’t forget that.
I mean, it’s a $39 coat. That woman doesn’t carry $39 handkerchiefs.
So. A long, busy day, but the thing about busy days is, you put on the harness on Monday and the next thing you know, it’s Thursday and the week is almost over. So there’s that.
Just one bit of bloggage to take you into the weekend: The meltdown of Qanon, and if you don’t know what Qanon is yet, you should, because it’s the craziest crazy shit that’s ever been crazed. If you’re on Twitter, follow Will Sommer and JJ McNab, both of whom keep up with the far-right fringe, and are mostly very entertaining, to boot.
Me, I gotta sleep and rest up for a big night tomorrow — the Claressa Shields fight, topping an all-female night of boxing in downtown Detroit. Can’t. WAIT.
basset said on June 21, 2018 at 10:21 pm
Fighting is not a sport. Women fighting is even less of one.
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Suzanne said on June 21, 2018 at 10:26 pm
I saw the pics of Marie Antoinette in her coat this afternoon. My first reaction was that it had to be a fake photobecause nobody would be that tone deaf.
I stand corrected.
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Bitter Scribe said on June 21, 2018 at 10:43 pm
Charles Krauthammer, R.I.P.
For me: Meh. So he didn’t like Trump. BFD. He was one of a corps of pundits who paved the way for him with their relentless and ridiculous opposition to every single thing Obama did, or tried to do.
I’m sure lots of people will miss him. I’m not one of them.
As for Melania Trump, what is there to say? I used to feel the tiniest bit sorry for her because, as they say, whoever marries for money earns every penny. No more. Wearing that coat was either malicious or abysmally, jaw-droppingly stupid, and either way, it proves that she’s as big a disgrace as her husband.
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Mark P said on June 22, 2018 at 12:54 am
I’m pretty sure she can read, so I’m pretty sure she knew what her coat said. The expression is straightforward, not one whose subtlety would confuse or whose meaning would elude a non-native English speaker. Since Melania doesn’t have a reputation as a pathological liar, I have to assume that she was being honest. Does this (the sentiment, that is) surprise anyone?
I don’t attribute three-dimensional chess playing capabilities to Trump himself, nor to Melania.
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beb said on June 22, 2018 at 1:37 am
Charles Krauthammer has died. I know we’re not supposed to say bad things about the dead but surely Brian Williams of “The Eleventh Hour” had better things to do than spend two minutes of is show praising the creep. Besides, we’ll never see the mainstream media give as much press time to any liberal commentator.
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Dexter Friend said on June 22, 2018 at 2:38 am
Krauthammer? Country of origin please? Is it a noun? Is it a verb? Definitive use of speech again please? Will you use it in a sentence?~ Ah…those D.C. Scripps Howard Bee kids would have knocked the spelling out of the park.
I hated that fucker mostly like I hated asshats like Monica Crowley and that obnoxious Laura Ingraham during the Gulf Wars. All I knew was his politics; I knew nothing of his accident which broke his back and paralyzed him from the neck down.
Another famed journo left the repugg party: Steve Schmidt flew the red coop. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/today-i-renounce-my-membership-longtime-gop-strategist-steve-schmidt-announces-hes-leaving-his-party/2018/06/20/5918d7ee-747d-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?utm_term=.372f88721e02
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alex said on June 22, 2018 at 7:24 am
Reflecting on Melania’s facial gesticulations behind Trump’s back during his inaugural speech, I suspect that she’s in a perpetual snit and just acting out. The message is a big fuck you to her husband.
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Peter said on June 22, 2018 at 10:00 am
Ok, so I read the QAnon item that Nancy highlighted, and I have a question:
The article states, “David Seaman, a prominent proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory who has become an antagonist for QAnon believers….” Wait a second. A guy who got people to believe that a pizza parlor in DC had a kiddie sex ring in the basement is the sane person in this story? WTF!!!!
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Connie said on June 22, 2018 at 10:05 am
https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/06/20/how-i-broke-and-botched-the-brandon-teena-story/
Author completely rethinks her original story about the murder of a trans man. Very interesting.
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4dbirds said on June 22, 2018 at 10:06 am
Don’t give a colossal turd for Charles K either. As another commenter said he paved the way for Trump. I know those who love him are mourning and I can identify with that punch in the gut. As for his views, he helped hurt real life people and as such is possibly complicit in many deaths. I personally can not shed a tear.
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Sherri said on June 22, 2018 at 10:23 am
Hi, I’m Q. I’ve been bringing you the news from the Deep State and it’s terrible efforts to obstruct the glorious aims of our Dear Leader, but your monthly donation could enable so much more! I could develop a network for operatives to undermine the Deep State, ring you more news, and set up infrastructure to prepare for prosecution of the traitors to our cause! Can I count on you for a small monthly donation of only $12.99?
Let’s Make America Great Again!
Q
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Jakash said on June 22, 2018 at 1:29 pm
Neil Steinberg’s column today is a swell take-down of Ann Coulter (it’s a shame that we’ve already used SheWhoMustNotBeNamed for Ms. Palin, as AC might even be a better choice for that moniker), applying the original definition of “geek” to her: “A carnival or circus performer, considered a freak, who performs sensationally disgusting acts that a normal person would not…”
But I was taken with a comment on the column at his blog that quotes Kurt Vonnegut from a brief interview with “In These Times” from 2003. Just as it seems prescient, in that it could have been written yesterday, it also reminds one of how bad things were already way back then. What’s actually amazing to me now is that this benighted country actually elected Obama twice, in-between the ongoing attempts to send the nation to hell in a hand-basket. Anyway, this is a long quote… sorry!
“I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka ‘Christians,’ and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or ‘PPs.’
To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!
And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.
What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!”
http://inthesetimes.com/article/44/kurt_vonnegut_vs_the
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Deggjr said on June 22, 2018 at 2:20 pm
“That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended – civilizations are built up – excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and the cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin.” CS Lewis, Mere Christianity.
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Dexter Friend said on June 22, 2018 at 4:00 pm
YouTube and Facebook both went online 13 years ago. Since then, I believe I have watched six gazillion videos. I have never experienced the joy this one just now brought me…it’s just about 20 minutes…take a break and enjoy.Qualifier: If you hate James Corden and/or Macca…ignore this message.
Karaoke in Cars with James Corden and guest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvzCTqkBDQ
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Sherri said on June 22, 2018 at 4:53 pm
Too far from the throne to require the monarch’s permission, but still: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/british-royal-family-is-welcoming-its-first-same-sex-marriage/
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Brian stouder said on June 22, 2018 at 6:32 pm
Dexter’s linked article about SSchmidt is a good one. I was also a proud Republican, a lifetime ago (back when I had hair)…Truly, I think oxy-Rush (and the guy who started American Spectator – whose name escaped me…I’m pecking this out at a KFC!!!) Drove me out of that party.
To this day, I remain enthralled with the can-do optimism of Jack Kemp….but that part of the GOP is as dead as he is
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Julie Robinson said on June 22, 2018 at 6:44 pm
Dexter, my Facebook feed was flooded by friends sharing the Corden/McCartney video this morning, and considering the rest of the news, it pleased me. Paul has seemed rather thirsty, as TLo would put it, the last few years, but watching him play in that pub, sweaty and joyful, made me reevaluate him.
He also has stopped dying his hair and eyebrows that awful do-it-yourself shade, so I cut him a few more breaks on account of that. Though I did halfway wonder if it was a wig?
Anyway, my mom continues to improve and is dutifully elevating her leg, so that’s all to the good. I fixed her computer again, and got her some of her favorite food, and her cat was sticking close. The cat never sticks close except when Mom is under the weather.
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LAMary said on June 22, 2018 at 6:59 pm
I suggested on Facebook that Melania should have a coat that says “I’m with Stupid.”
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 22, 2018 at 9:37 pm
Julie, blessings to you and your mom. Hope she can stay home as long as is a blessing to you both. That’s what makes me so thankful for our Medical Loan Closet ministry; it’s all about keeping people home and safe and secure as long as is reasonably sustainable.
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Dexter Friend said on June 23, 2018 at 3:22 am
Want to go stark raving mad? Try following The World Cup. It’s on Big Fox, Fox cable sports network, and yet another Fox cable station, and is also covered by espn and some deportes stations. I’m trying, but by now it’s all a big pudding in my head.
So Trump, big man supporting “our wonderful veterans”, cut the hell out of an assistance program that allowed certain veterans some meager food stamp help.
For the first time in many years , I was again called a communist, this time by my wacky step-grandson of Arlington, Virginia, who is going to try to enter the new proposed Space Force, another idea straight from the lying face of Trump. Yep, my wife told him how we are both against this concept, making us commies…when, ironically, it’s his President who is an agent of North Korea and Russia. Kids!
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Connie said on June 23, 2018 at 8:17 am
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/vote-against-the-gop-this-november/2018/06/22/a6378306-7575-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.73776bef79e9
George Will says vote against the Republicans.
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susan said on June 23, 2018 at 1:50 pm
Oh great. Geo. Will says to vote against the fascist party. Where will the quasi-fascists go, then? To blue-dog Democrats. Let’s turn the spineless Democratic party even further to the right. Fü¢k Geo. Will and the “never trumpers.” They take no responsibility for the monsters they are and they created.
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Jakash said on June 23, 2018 at 2:07 pm
“This isn’t my Republican Party, dammit. I belong to the party of Joe McCarthy, the John Birch Society, Barry Goldwater, Nixon’s Southern Strategy, Ronald Reagan’s ‘welfare queen’ talking points, George W. Bush’s Iraq invasion, and John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin. Trump is NOT m”
https://twitter.com/samknight_one/status/1009653170233069568
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Little Bird said on June 23, 2018 at 4:50 pm
https://www.facebook.com/100000073947586/posts/1997904276888684/
If this works it’s a link that discusses Melania’s jacket.
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Suzanne said on June 23, 2018 at 5:15 pm
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2018/07/09/kim-jong-un-singapore-summit-north-korea-wins/
Even onservative National Review admits that the conman-in-chief got conned.
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beb said on June 23, 2018 at 6:07 pm
Even though George Wills resigned from the Republican party earlier I expected he would continue to support and promote Republican policies and to an extent he has. But his call for people to vote against Republicans this fall is a shock. I guess his disillusion with the party of trump was real.
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Julie Robinson said on June 23, 2018 at 8:13 pm
It worked, LB, and left me scratching my head more than before. Why would she?
Dexter, I could hardly believe your step-grandson except that I was just out in Iowa with the hateful right-wingers, and I know that the more ridiculous, the more likely they’ll believe it.
Jefftmmo, thank you. She’s better again today, and we’ve made plans to go see West Side Story at the movies tomorrow.
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A. Riley said on June 23, 2018 at 10:06 pm
Re: Paul McC and the carpool karaoke that everyone and their brother have been sharing: I love Sir Paul and have since I was about ten and saw him and his mates on the Ed Sullivan show. I finally got to see him in concert last summer. The sweetness and generosity and simple lovability of the man come through just as clearly in performance to who knows how many thousands of people as in that little video. Love Sir Paul.
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Dexter Friend said on June 24, 2018 at 1:59 am
Jakash: A wormy nerdy looking fucker just left his gig as a Fox military expert, name of Peters…some of you probably know of him, but I never watch Hannity or any Fox bullshit. Anyway, he was on with Ari on msnbc an hour ago…he’s had it with what he calls Fox propaganda and their ratings ploy, that being the creation of a phony baloney slant on news and presidential actions. He said Trump is, basically, destroying the country one day at a time. “The Base” will call Peters a traitor, if they have not already.
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Deborah said on June 24, 2018 at 12:52 pm
Just jumping in here to say that you all might check move-on’s website, they’re organizing marches on June 30th to keep families together. The Republicans aren’t done doing damage in that regard yet. There is a march in Santa Fe, which we will be attending, I’m about to go back out to Abiquiu in a few minutes so I didn’t take the time to get the link to the move-on site, sorry. It does make a difference when a lot of people show up to these marches, it sends a message that needs to be sent. If you can find the time on Saturday, please give it a shot.
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Jakash said on June 24, 2018 at 2:15 pm
I suppose I’m in the minority here, but I’m not wild about the idea of requesting that the smokey-eyed lying machine, Ms. Huckler Sanders, leave one’s restaurant. This tweet, tho…
https://twitter.com/JohnDingell/status/1010600804024246275
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Suzanne said on June 24, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Jakash, the “Mrs Smoky Eyes” incident is why I couldn’t understand the evangelicals happiness over the baker incident. Did they not think this would be turned against them? That no one would ever refuse to serve them (Christians that is although I struggle to call Mrs Smoky Eyes one) because their moral beliefs would now allow them to do so? And now the precident has been set that it’s just your religious freedom allowing you to do so. I realize that it’s not settled law, but still. Turn about fair play. But conservatives more and more do not get that concept.
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Diane said on June 24, 2018 at 6:07 pm
Thanks for that link Little Bird. It provided a very interesting context for the jacket.
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