Frozen faces.

I was just thinking about how, as the fall colors peak at our latitude and the lovely crescendo of autumn takes us inexorably into winter, just a few weeks away, we have this to look forward to:

A new season at Mar-a-Lago.

And a new season at Mar-a-Lago means new press photos of the Trumpettes!

See, the older I get, the more I notice bad plastic surgery on women of a certain age. Take a look at the taut puss of Toni Holt Kramer, self-identified leader of the Trumpettes. I see…nose work, lip fillers, maybe a chin implant and certainly those weird cheekbone puffs that make a woman’s face look like a freshly restuffed saddle, not to mention the shiny skin that screams Botox.

Actually, the entire Gallery pulldown on their website is worth your time, but especially Ms. Kramer’s birthday lunch, which looks positively surreal. Also, her busy time is split between her homes in Bel Air, California and Palm Springs, where she lives with her husband Robert and her beloved poodle, Caviar Deux.

I bet her hero never called her Horseface.

How’s everyone’s midweek? I had to take Wendy to the vet today — she caught one of her dewclaws in the leash ring on her collar, and it was sticking straight out, bloody and sore. She wouldn’t let me touch it, but by the time we arrived at the vet, she’d self-cared by biting it off, and seemed to be feeling pretty good again. The vet clipped her nails all around, said she’d be fine once it grew out, and didn’t charge me a dime.

“Don’t you want to amputate?” I asked. He looked startled.

“Not her paws,” I said. “Her dewclaws.”

No, he didn’t. Most breeders who do that do it when they’re three-day-old pups, because it actually requires snapping off a bone. Ouch, not for my sweetie pie. She has a natural tail, and I guess she’ll have a natural set of toenails, too.

And then I had a very long phone interview with a fascinating person that I hope grows into a story worth reading, and by then it was early afternoon, so I worked from home the rest of the day.

Do I have some bloggage? A bit:

Remember how shutting down Backpage was going to thwart online sex trafficking? And how sex workers said it wouldn’t work that way? Listen to the experts, because they were right.

Meanwhile, this pimp is dead — and after partying with Grover Norquist, no less. Of course, he still may be elected, because:

Nevada law specifies that candidates who die after the fourth Friday in July will still appear there, but the county clerk must post a notice that the candidate is deceased at every polling place.

And that, I think, is all. Three weeks until Nov. 6. A little less, actually.

Posted at 9:26 pm in Current events |
 

42 responses to “Frozen faces.”

  1. alex said on October 16, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    If I’d seen Toni Holt Kramer’s photos outside of that context, I’d swear she was a drag queen. Some of her friends too. Maybe we could borrow their pix for one of those guessing games where you have to figure out the real women versus impersonators.

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  2. The Garden Fairy said on October 16, 2018 at 10:51 pm

    Re: the Toni Holt Kramer image — Props to photographer McIntyre for catching the harsh light. Not only is every lump of facial silicone highlighted, but every bony knob on her thorax. Yeesh.

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  3. Nancy F said on October 16, 2018 at 11:18 pm

    “Aside from exercising, her early morning hours are spent studying the stock market and trading her family’s portfolio.”

    Trumpettes — they’re just like us!

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  4. Deborah said on October 16, 2018 at 11:41 pm

    Yowza, the photos of the Trumpistas are sad.

    LB and I are binge watching season 2 of the Handmaids Tale, talk about disturbing ….
    Jeeze I hope we can get to the bottom of all of this.

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  5. LAMary said on October 17, 2018 at 1:12 am

    I’ve been to Palm Springs once. It’s scary. I saw a very old lady in short shorts and a halter top slowly making her way across the street. Her skin looked like a used tan leather satchel. My plans were to stay overnight in Palm Springs and get two days of sales calls done. I only did one day and drove home.

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  6. beb said on October 17, 2018 at 1:32 am

    Can’t say I’m conscious of when or fit a woman has had work done on her.

    Spent the day taking the air conditioners out of the windows. Once upon a time it was easy to pick up the AC in the basement, walk them up to the living room and bedroom and shove them into the window. Nowadays I use a 2-wheeled hand truck to hump them up and down the stairs and have to rest between moving units. Getting old sucks.

    So, was it a good idea for Elizabeth Warren to have her DNA tested?. Does it take the Pocahontas thing off the table or just add fresh fuel to the haters?

    And does calling Stormy Daniels “horseface” constitute harassment by the President?

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  7. Dexter Friend said on October 17, 2018 at 4:09 am

    Dennis Hof mentions Pahrump frequently in the story; my daughter’s married step-daughter lives there with her boyfriend and their baby. They have legit jobs I hear, but what a place to raise a kid…I saw a clip on cable TV about that town, legal whorehouses lined up right on down the main streets, bragging they all have perfectly infection-free women working their sex trade. I also have seen several cop shows in which Las Vegas Clark County cops lure johns with cop decoys and lock them up. If you think Las Vegas is wide-open, think again. If you want that sort of action, go to Pahrump…or, Windsor, Ontario.

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  8. alex said on October 17, 2018 at 7:31 am

    Regarding Elizabeth Warren, I don’t think she had any choice but to clear the air, and who would have anticipated that people would beat up on her for vindicating herself? If she hadn’t done so, she’d be accused of having something to hide.

    Sure, it was totally foreseeable that Donald Trump would double down and call it fake science. But it’s disappointing to see the native American community trying to make political hay out of it to Warren’s detriment, and their alleged beef doesn’t strike me as legitimate aggrievement so much as an opportunity to bitch about come-lately schemers trying to dilute their share of the gambling royalties.

    I just read that Beto O’Rourke bombed in his final debate with Ted Cruz because Cruz was doing the Trumpist horse’s ass routine while O’Rourke was trying to debate legitimately. I fear the same optics if Warren ever has to debate il Douche. But I don’t know who can represent the Dems against against a bully or why the debate format should be allowed to be abused in this manner. Frankly, I think any Dem candidate would be better off refusing to debate Trump in 2020.

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  9. Heather said on October 17, 2018 at 8:25 am

    What a joke. If Trump ever thinks about those women at all, I’m sure he’s not very complimentary. Being trapped in a room with post-menopausal women is his nightmare.

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  10. Suzanne said on October 17, 2018 at 9:04 am

    Interesting note to the Jamal Khashoggi mess is that he is an Indiana State U graduate.
    The whole sordid affair makes me sick. Trump’s obvious denials about Saudi involvement makes me even sicker.

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  11. Julie Robinson said on October 17, 2018 at 9:11 am

    Elizabeth Warren gets under Trump’s skin and would throw him off balance in a debate, after which he would declare himself the winner while he continued to say horrible things about her. And his robots would believe him.

    Deborah, I haven’t been able to watch the second season of Handmaid’s Tale. Tell me it isn’t unrelentingly depressing? I can only take so much right now.

    Obviously the Trumpettes have some type of body dysmorphia, but if that’s all you see when you look around you, it becomes your standard. Same thing in Hollywood, and photoshopping in pictures. The unaltered face is no longer seen as beautiful or normal.

    That said, I wear makeup daily and color my hair, because I look terrible in gray. It makes me look sick and about 30 years older than I am. If it would go white it would be okay.

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  12. Sherri said on October 17, 2018 at 9:22 am

    I disagree, Alex. I think it was a terrible idea for Elizabeth Warren to do the DNA test, for several reasons. One, she should have been aware, or someone on her staff should have told her, that the Native community was going to react like this, and no, it’s not just about gambling revenues. It’s about sovereignty and tribal identity and what it means to be Native American. Besides, it doesn’t matter whether they should or shouldn’t react this way, it was utterly predictable that they would if you know anything about Native American politics.

    Two, it wasn’t going to clear the air anymore than Obama producing his birth certificate did. It’s not about facts.

    Three, it’s letting your opponent setting the terms of the debate, rather than you doing it. Don’t respond with, see, I am part Native America, respond with, it doesn’t matter whether I’m Native American or not, you’re racist. The lengths we go to to avoid speaking the simple truth of racism in this country…

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  13. Julie Robinson said on October 17, 2018 at 9:24 am

    Suzanne, don’t you feel that he’s given permission to other governments to kill their dissidents? Just as long as it’s profitable to the U.S., and of course, Trump personally. So the price of a man’s life is some fighter jets and an apartment building or two. It’s horrific.

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  14. alex said on October 17, 2018 at 9:52 am

    Sherri, I don’t know anything about native American politics, obviously. It would never have occurred to me in a million years that disclosing one’s DNA findings is somehow an affront to anyone’s sovereignty or tribal identity. She’s not trying to capitalize on the identity, and she’s also not letting Trump set the terms of any debate. She was known for her claims before Donald Trump ever called her a liar.

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  15. Jeff Borden said on October 17, 2018 at 10:12 am

    Anything that distracts from the midterms including Sen. Warren’s DNA, reaction to the Orange King’s latest anti-woman slur, another stupid tweet, etc. is a problem for me.

    McConnell just floated the notion that all of our deficit problems are not the result of ridiculous tax cuts, but Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. This undoubtedly will be the main focus of a GOP Congress. This is as serious as a heart attack. This is all about finally –so many decades later– dismantling the remnants of the New Deal. Dems need to keep pounding and pounding and pounding away at the issues of health care and income disparity.

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  16. David C. said on October 17, 2018 at 10:22 am

    Like everything else, tRump will brazen out the Jamal Khashoggi thing until the next horror arrives (probably this afternoon). The giggling couch tumors at Fox and Friends will say “It was Iran” or some such BS and that will be that. They’ve found out a firehose of lies works and until Fox and Sinclair are burned to the ground 40% of the population will never know.

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  17. Sherri said on October 17, 2018 at 11:14 am

    Taking a DNA test and discovering an African-American ancestor does not make me African-American, not even a little bit, because I’m white, I’ve experienced the world solely as white, there’s never been any doubt that I’m white, and I’ve never been treated any other way. DNA tests, not even getting into their limitations for this sort of thing, do not answer questions of identity. Race is not a biological construct.

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/elizabeth-warren-dna-test-native-american.html

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  18. 4dbirds said on October 17, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    I watch Atypical on Netflicks. Jennifer Jason leigh’s facelift is awful.

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  19. beb said on October 17, 2018 at 12:35 pm

    My wife’s grandmother thought she was half Native American, which at the time was considered very embarrassing. She identified as white and that was that. If her grandmother was half Native American then my wife would have been 1/8th Native but her Ancestry.Com DNA test did not identify any Native American ancestry. She was disappointed by this, not because she was going to apply to any tribe for membership but because by now having some Native American blood was cool. I obviously know nothing about Indian tribal politics so I was taken aback by the hostility shown towards Warren.

    Because the mainstream media ignores Democrats as much as they can, it’s hard to know who is thinking of making a run in 2020. They mention Joe Biden knowing he’s too old and not aggressive enough to take on Trump’s chronic lying. John Kerry has been mentioned but since he never could put the Swift Boaters to rest, he’s a dead duck. The media would love it if Hillary would run again because their hate of her is endless. Warren now looks to be setting the table for a run. She has a teacher’s eloquence for explaining things but will she have the fire to bring people to the election booth? Beyond that is a grey field of unknowns. At the moment I like Rep. Adam Schiff. He seems like a tough fighter.

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  20. alex said on October 17, 2018 at 12:43 pm

    Michael Bloomberg officially changed his party affiliation to Democrat and has also been making noises about running.

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  21. Suzanne said on October 17, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    I think the ire from native Americans regarding Warren is that she identified as Cherokee with no proof of it. Apparently they have very strict rules on proof of Cherokee heritage.

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  22. Julie Robinson said on October 17, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    No more old white guys, period. I’d be happy with Warren or Kamala Harris, but no more old white guys.

    When I learned that my great great grandmother was black, it didn’t make me black because, as Sherri says, it wasn’t any part of my life experience. What it did do was to open me to black problems and life experiences, and especially black history. In the past, my more than one drop of black blood could have doomed me. As recently as a hundred years ago my grandmother didn’t feel safe to acknowledge it, or even to tell her own children. It has changed me to the core.

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  23. David C. said on October 17, 2018 at 2:56 pm

    Yeah, Bloomberg was a big proponent of stop and frisk. Try selling that to the black women who are the backbone of the Democratic Party.

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  24. Jeff Borden said on October 17, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    Alex,

    I fear Beto O’Rourke will be this year’s version of Wendy Davis, who gained fame for filibustering an abortion law in the Texas State Senate while wearing pink sneakers. She was crushed when she tried to use that fame to run in the gubernatorial race. Given the sheer unlikeability of Ted Cruz, his margin won’t be so great, but unless Hispanic and millennial voters turn out in huge numbers, he’ll be reelected. And that’s a shame. Cruz truly is a rampaging asshole.

    Is anyone paying attention to the shenanigans in Georgia, where the GOP secretary of state is running for governor? People in Fulton County waited for hours to cast early ballots at libraries, but then were turned away when staffers said technological issues prevented them from checking voter registration online. One of the stories I read mentioned a guy who finally gave up and left. This is frequently done in areas where the majority of voters are black or brown. Make it inconvenient and time-consuming to people who may not have the option to try again and you prevent a lot of voters from exercising their rights.

    Election Day should be a national holiday.

    BTW, for those who know people with transportation issues, Uber and Lyft are offering free rides to the polls for those without cars.

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  25. alex said on October 17, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    The shenanigans in Georgia are disgusting. And to think that we used to dispatch election observers to other countries to discourage this kind of shit.

    Where the fuck is Richard Lugar? There’s one old white guy I’d like to see, and I’d like to see him shaming these assholes.

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  26. Sherri said on October 17, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    Suzanne, it’s not just Cherokee. This is a big deal in the Native American world. Lawsuits have been fought over who belongs in a tribe.

    What Elizabeth Warren did buys into trump’s racism, from the Native American point of view, even though she did not mean to.

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  27. Sherri said on October 17, 2018 at 5:15 pm

    Just now getting around to this article, by James Fallows, about Lee Atwater and Gary Hart and Donna Rice: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/was-gary-hart-set-up/570802/

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  28. Sherri said on October 17, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    Speaking of DNA tests and racism, I present to you Lindsey Graham, continuing his audition for a place in the trump administration.

    https://thinkprogress.org/lindsey-graham-fox-friends-iranian-bigotry-9cfd92ee2975/

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  29. Suzanne said on October 17, 2018 at 5:32 pm

    That Graham thing makes my blood boil. We have a family member who married an Iranian immigrant who is now a proud US citizen. He is a great guy, intelligent, funny, great father, hardworking. I doubt Graham could find Iran on a map. The pox on him! I am so very angry

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  30. alex said on October 17, 2018 at 6:29 pm

    Lindsey Graham is coming to darken the doorstep of our fair city for the local GOP’s annual bean dinner, always a flatulent affair. Don’t expect him to shut his hole any time soon.

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  31. beb said on October 17, 2018 at 10:32 pm

    If Bloomberg wanted to do something good for the country I ought to register with the party he truly belongs to — Republican and challenge Trump in 2020. Bloomberg actually has the money he claims to have, could self-fund to an extent il douce can’t, and offers a vision of America different from TRump’s

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  32. Dexter Friend said on October 18, 2018 at 3:45 am

    Goodbye Beto, you gave it your all but when they vote for Cruz, they vote for Trump, well…that is what Trump is preaching. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158157933893438&set=p.10158157933893438&type=3

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  33. Heather said on October 18, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    In line with Graham’s Iranian comment, someone pointed out it was notable when Trump tweeted something like “Even the Native Americans don’t want her!” about Warren. That “even” said a lot.

    My dentist is Iranian and he’s hilarious.

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  34. LAMary said on October 18, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    A few years ago I found out I was one eighth Danish. I thought I was half Dutch, half German. This is the least shocking ancestry discovery I’ve ever heard of.

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  35. Little Bird said on October 18, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    I did the 23andme thing. I found out that I am incredibly white. It was kind of disappointing. I did find some stuff I never suspected, but it’s all very very white.

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  36. FDChief said on October 18, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    The average wingnut, being as ignorant of history as he or she is of everything else not related to making White People On Top Again, has utterly no understanding of the whole “U.S-supporting Iranian refugees fleeing to the U.S. after the overthrow of the Shah” thing. Not that they’d probably care, mind you – one set of dusky wogs is no better than the other, amirite? – but the vast bulk of the Iranians living in the U.S. today are, or are descended, from people whose lot was cast with the Yankee devils after we worked a coup and set the damn Pahlevis in power.

    Lindsey Graham, who lacks the intelligence God gave a nanny goat, who, if he had half a mind would be a halfwit, is clearly even stupider than that.

    But, then again, these people are Republicans. If they weren’t stupid, well, they wouldn’t be. It really is that simple.

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  37. Mark P said on October 18, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    I see some of the Democratic criticism of Warren’s DNA test as setting up an excuse for losing in the midterms.

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  38. jcburns said on October 18, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    Toni Holt (now +Kramer) used to be the (very inexpensive) Hollywood gossip feature rolled into WTCG’s 17 Update Early in the Morning with Bill Tush…in 1979.

    We would roll the tape and then take a one minute and 20 second nap. She was awful.

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  39. Sherri said on October 18, 2018 at 5:25 pm

    There are quite a few Native American tribes out here, so I expected the reaction to Warren’s DNA test. Having grown up in Tennessee, where the story of an Indian in the family tree is very common, I can also imagine that the Cherokee might be even more sensitive about this sort of thing.

    That this all happened the same week that SCOTUS let stand a ND requirement that ID with a street address rather than a PO Box be shown for voting, which disproportionately disenfranchises Native Americans, many of whom can only get mail delivery to a PO Box, is more salt in the wound.

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  40. Deborah said on October 18, 2018 at 5:36 pm

    The Saudi execution situation is so depressing. The immorality of Trump is stunning. And Pat Robertson needs to go away, far away.

    LB and I watched the last episode of Handmaids Tale Season 2, last night, didn’t help my mood.

    I’m at the airport in Albuquerque waiting for my flight back to Chicago. As I’ve said many times before, I hate the travel day the return trip takes. I did have a delicious breakfast in Santa Fe though, huevos rancheros with green chili sauce this time.

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  41. Sherri said on October 18, 2018 at 6:59 pm

    I’m in Pittsburgh, where I’m experiencing the odd sense of one minute feeling like I never left and the next minute, not recognizing anything!

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  42. Colleen said on October 18, 2018 at 7:12 pm

    I watched American Experience…the episode on eugenics. Let’s just say white men have a long history of wanting to preserve the world for white men, and of seeing immigrants as dangerous and inferior. Watching it really ramped up my anxiety about politics. We have been through this before. And learned nothing, apparently.

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