America has never had a Hatch Act Festival at the White House before tonight, where the law (which was enacted in 1939 to prevent “pernicious political activities” namely government employees campaigning on the job) was being broken flagrantly right and left. So in all fairness I cannot ask you to imagine a Hatch Act Festival coupled with a James Bond movie. But if I could, the shitshow we just saw would be exactly that.
Donald Trump began his appearance tonight, in the ongoing reality TV show which is his reelection campaign (and which has been his presidency*) with an immigration swearing in scene, wherein he welcomed five new American citizens, because hey, that’s just the kind of non-racist, non-misogynist, inclusive, really swell sorta guy he is. And this was the warm up for Melania to speak.
Now Melania didn’t just take stage on the podium that was good enough for Donald Jr., and Kimberly, and Tiffany, and Eric — oh, hell no. She entered with great cinematic fanfare, to wit, a long shot, striding down a long hall of the West Wing, and into the ante room of the Rose Garden. Frankly, I’m surprised she didn’t do Marilyn Monroe’s old trick and cut off 1/4 inch on her stiletto heels, the better to swing her ass as she approached the camera. But truth be known, Marilyn Monroe was a far more interesting character in our culture and in our politics, for that matter, than Melania Trump can ever dream of being.
So Melania appeared out in the Rose Garden and if you noticed anything unusual about this speech, it’s two things: 1. She was clearly looking to the side at a teleprompter. That was done because she wanted to accent her eyes and her cheekbones. Trust me. I’ve known a few fashion photographers, I’ve lived in L.A. for over four decades and 2. She was, Hand to God, dressed like a member of the Soviet Army. Don’t take my word for anything. Here.
This is the image the First Lady of the United States projected while speaking behind the official Presidential Seal of the United States. Make of it what you will.
Many have quipped in jest that if this was a Tom Clancy novel, Melania would be Donald’s handler. I don’t presume to know. I only throw out there, that the last time she did a troll on this level, it was with the pea coat that had “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?”
Meanwhile, here’s a little mood music. “Beware of pretty faces that you find, a pretty face can hide an evil mind.”
Melania did say that in her next four years as First Lady she would really work on Be Best. Or something.
Natasha was really the brains behind boris. We need Andy Kaufman about now doing his mighty mouse pantomime.
Is it coincidence? Just tell me. I’ll believe anything at this point.
HAHAH”AHA I love this – “Here I come to save the daaaaay….! I wish!
I paid a female spy for a while back in 1983. Very strange. I was just a lowly disbursing clerk and my boss comes to me and gives me this pay record and explained she was a spy and it was all secret. I never saw her and she wasn’t in the area for very long.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it sounds interesting.
That she was dressed to play good little soldier girl was exactly my take too! Wonder if it had anything to do with the recent hand swatting incident going down the stairs of AF1.
CNN did a story a few days ago, saying that Melania has “no plans” to campaign further. You just may have seen her swan song. I hope so. I can’t stand her, or any of them, and so if even one of them goes away, I see it as a victory.
Did you read Eric Boehlert’s piece this morning about how the press has treated her with kid gloves and constantly assigned benign or even laudatory motives to everything she does — after eight straight years of questioning every last thing Hillary did? I’m thinking now about how everyone had an opinion about how she should have left Bill or publicly slammed him after the Monica Lewinsky thing but I haven’t heard ANYONE talking about how Melania ought to have walked away from Donald for his multiple public indiscretions. And I HAVE heard people in the media try to claim this is inappropriate or “off limits.”
I’ll go look for that. She does get a pass from the press. She even got a pass when that outrage with the pea coat happened. Not everybody did, though. The NYT’s Charles Blow called the Trumps the “King and Queen Of Cruelty” and I agree.
They were giving her passes for last night’s appearance, too. Yeah, we’re going to vote for honesty and authenticity (whatever that means) in November – we’re going to vote for Biden.
I too, noticed the crisp look of a uniform, wondering why I thought that way, then it dawned on me, throw on an ammo belt, a helmet and sling a rifle over her shoulder, she could join into one of Putin’s grand review parades with hundreds of other Russian Troops, a real blending in, might not match well with all the plastic though …
That was exactly the impression I got. And you have to wonder if that’s not the impression she intended to give. The woman is a model. She knows about clothes (or is supposed to) so I can’t believe that this was yet another unconscious choice. She could have chosen to wear a dark suit and be conservative and elegant. She didn’t. She chose to wear a costume and make a statement. And the statement made is to look military. And this is while she’s married to a fascist, who brags how he’s going to throw people in jail.
That wasn’t her color, either. It might as well have been camo – she was nearly a silhouette against that backdrop of Too Many Flags.
I believe it is all intentional, this outfit, the jacket. Like Rachel Maddow says, “pay attention to what they do, not what they say”.
Or, actions speak louder than words.
That’s exactly right. Even if she would be so tone deaf, somebody else saw her dressed this way and could have said something. No, the militant look was deliberate.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/08/melania-trump-rnc-speech
I tried to just post the photo, I couldn’t do it. This is one of many articles, Melania is dressed for battle, why? ?
I’m going to check out where the military theme is written about. It struck me as weird, but my bottom line has always been about that effing pea coat, “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” If she was so tone deaf as to wear that, at that time, that’s unforgivable. If she did it on purpose, as a troll, that’s unforgivable. That was the last straw for me, and I sense, for a lot of people.
I don’t know how she could accent her eyes when they’ve been reduced to slits by plastic surgery and she reduces them further by ladling on the heavy black eye makeup. She functionally has no visible eyes.
That takes care of the “see no evil” part of the monkey clan.
Yea there was one point when she turned her face away from looking at the teleprompter and it looked frozen solid.
First thing I thought when I saw her was “military something or other”. I thought for a minute whether I would wear a suit like that (I used to be quite the fashionista), then I said HELL NO. That outfit was straight up uniform.
The comment about Natasha and Boris, and her being his handler, really stuck out to me. I hadn’t thought about it but that could all be part of a long-term plan that we know the Russians have had in place for years against the US.
I wrote this last night, after her speech. I thought about it this morning, “Was I too critical?” And then I thought about it some more and I came up with “no.” It looks like what it looks like. She chose to present an image of the military, while standing behind the podium in the Rose Garden. Is this what the Trumps are foreshadowing, is a takeover? It would certainly seem to be.
Ha. We can’t be rocky so we must be bullwinkle. He gets by but it’s one catastrophe after another.
I thought Himself started his Hatch Act Festival with that pardon.
But the whole thing – I’m hoping for charges against Himself, “acting director” Wolf, and Pompeous.
If the Hatch Act is going to be totally ignored like this, then it should be taken off the books And I don’t think it should be taken off the books. It needs to be enforced.
It does exempt the president – but I think that needs to be fixed.
You can always count on the “Third Lady” to be as tone-deaf on appropriate fashion as she is on decorating.
It’s either tone deaf or it’s a troll and frankly, I don’t know which one is worse. I think it’s a troll. Trump is the “law and order” president and so Melania is going to appear dressed militaristically. Maybe I’m wrong.
The WHOLE RNC kkklan rally was appalling. The American media should be ashamed of themselves for calling this coronation of fascism in America we “well produced RNC Convention” as per W.Blitzer on CNN and B.Williams on MSNBC. I felt like breaking my TV set!! I can’t wait for Nov. 3, 2020 to get here.
It reminded me of North Korean television news. They deify Kim Jong-Un. This was the same flavor. The White House should not be used in this fashion.
So well produced that I heard they had five minutes of dead air on Monday night, a speaker pulled at the last minute yesterday, and Ghu knows what tonight and tomorrow.
They had technical difficulties last night, too. They kept starting and stopping for about fifteen minutes.
Not to mention the blatant criminal violations of the Hatch Act. Guess it’s ok now for the rest of us to smoke cannabis in public wherever since laws don’t apply.
I could not believe the Army Drab (name of that color in designer circles) Uniform!!! All she needed to complete the statement was a couple of faux medals.
When they show you who they are, believe them. She shows us all the time with her obvious fashion choices. They are NOT by accident or a “coincident”.
I have to believe you’re right. Nobody is this unconscious.
Bravo, Ursula. Melania is a woman for whom her clothing is her message. Is she telling us that her husband is a pawn of Putin with plausible deniability? Love your photo of the woman in a Soviet Army uniform.
William Wallace
I saw this and I said to myself, “Pea coat take II.” This is another troll. And we’re supposed to be too stupid to notice it. Or, so petty that we would take issue with a fashion choice. She doesn’t fool me for a moment and I don’t think I’m unique. She’s not fooling a lot of people.
I think she is telling us that Military Law is coming.
Oh, God. What a thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K1vJ0r0ax0
El hombre secreto by the Plugz