After not being seen publicly for over a month, Melania Trump emerged from the White House at 3:48 this afternoon and made her way along the colonnade overlooking the Rose Garden. She was joined by her husband, who gripped her hand with his own swollen and makeup-covered hand. With American flags carefully placed behind the podium, she stopped at the microphones and struggled to take her hand back from Donald Trump before he made his way to a seat saved for him in the audience. Once he was seated, the First Lady began her short speech: “Good afternoon. I heard you missed me.”
The event started ten minutes early and was over just 18 minutes later. Information provided to the press by the First Lady’s office highlighted her attire, noting that she wore a bright red Dior pencil skirt with an oversized sky-blue shirt by Michael Kors. Her look was completed with a pair of $895 Manolo Blahnik suede pumps.
After more than a month out of the public eye, and two months without making a public remark, the First Lady of the United States spent barely 18 minutes at an event that had been hyped as a major showcase for her “Fostering the Future” program. And the information her office chose to highlight to the press was what she wore, not the substance of what she said. Doing some rough math, it appears her full outfit cost more than $5,000.
Have always taught my children this at a young age - “What you tolerate today, you accept tomorrow”
When a bully tried to take my son’s lunch money in elementary school. He didn’t let him, he fought back. Was called to the school after the altercation occurred to have a discussion with the principal. When the principal decided that my son needed to be punished for fighting back when an older child hit him in the face, pushed him on the ground, kicked him and told my child he needed to give him his money out of his pocket. My child would not tolerate being beat up and hand over money for him to have lunch and got up and decked the older child on his butt.
Asked the principle since my son defended himself, did not relent and give his money for food for the school day to an older child who sees that the way in which you get ahead in life is to bully younger children and seems to get away with it. What form of punishment do you think my son deserves since he defended himself from a bully who wanted to steal his money for food? The principal did not have an answer. Then told the principal the same things I taught my children - “What you tolerate today, you accept tomorrow” If the principal wanted to tolerate that bully’s behavior so be it, however I will not nor will my son and walked out with my son. The bully never touched my son ever again, nor any other child in that elementary school.
Think we all need to ask the question to ourselves - How much more will any of us continue to tolerate?
Truly believe and hope that 70% of the population has learned that it is way past time to say “Enough” and make some changes that will be loud and clear in just 74 days, come November 3rd. Yes, there are many just exhausted, but it’s an angry exhausted that burns like a hot embers in a fire. Somedays we may become sad or feel helpless but there seems to come a flash that fire, by just yelling outloud so we still have those hot embers burning. For the 30% who seem to have their own agenda or issues and see nothing is going wrong in this nation. Well apparently they accept bigotry, prejudice, blaming others for their woes, being poorer, being sicker, having their rights stripped away, having their bank accounts drained, working harder for less money and a plethora of shite that can come rolling down the hill from this regime and just keep on accepting it. Sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid….
So when those election results are announced it will be the next fight, and yes it will be another stinking fight to continue making the changes and making those changes even further for the next generation to never have to deal with this again. Keep those embers burning the next generations are counting on it…
And btw - Never want to hear “Fiscal Responsibility” out of any other Republicans mouth ever again…
Wonderful microscopic observations, inspired by Heather's similar macroscopic observations. Reflecting on her and your wisdom, I recall an essential core moral maxim I received from my father, at about the same age you taught your son his, in a virtually identical situation, almost eighty years ago - fight back. Those two words are among the fewer than a dozen I think it takes to run a proper life. I'll add seven more: 'think', and 'feel the fear, do it anyway'. I don't know which three I would add to round out the even dozen. "Love something' would surely be two more.
And where, please, are the Democratic Party and its leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer on all this? Why are they not visibly, prominently, building and leading a well-organized movement to counter the Trump administration's many visible atrocities? Like Great Britain's shadow governments? Is it any wonder that their failure to provide effective public opposition is a damning test of their own continuance in office?
Maybe you don't understand how Congress is set up. When one party has complete control of the House and Senate, plus the White House (and SCOTUS), the other party cannot start investigations, issue subpoenas, or introduce legislation that runs counter to the administration's wishes.
All the people blaming Democrats and the national party for the depredations of MAGA are just enabling Trump and his spokescritters.
The way to put Democrats back in the driver's seat is to elect more of them to both houses this November. Then, if they do nothing, you'll have a case.
Randy I'm suggesting that Dem Leaders should get creative about resistance and think outside the box about national public political leadership, not just within the Congres and its rules, which is their comfort zone. It would help unify the Party and strengthen voting in November.
Those Democrats (Jeffries and Schumer) also need to go and all the other Democrats who have refused to stand up. While I realize we don't hold Congress or the House, they, in my eyes, are pansies in the true sense of the word and have not done enough for the Democratic Party. When will any of them, Dems and Repubs alike, finally grow a spine and work across the aisle and get this orange POS out of office- and all those complicit with him???
I also fail to understand why Democratic congress members or other government entities are not raising charges against the Administration for their obvious and often immoral violations of the Constitution. Such a coordinated and legal effort must be undertaken before the mid term elections. Perhaps the election results will finally motivate it. Are whistleblowers protections now just fiction?
The Democratic Party is rotten to its core, all the way down to the DNC, and it must be gutted all the way down to that level if it is to even begin to recover any power at all. Sparks remain throughout its ranks who are there to rekindle the flame. May they never go out. If ever they do, all I can see is a gray, flat, colorless landscape stretching to the horizon.
As usual, you have shown the world the true horror of DT and his cronies as they drive through Democracy without a care. As for his wife, well, I guess she has been coerced into appearing with the promise of more fashionable items to wear. (Whoever thought that the jacket stunt was a good idea?)
A truly ghastly and greedy family would be hard to find.
On a lighter note, please watch and enjoy The Jimmy Kimmel show with Rosie O'Donnell. (We all need a good laugh, especially at the expense of DT)
As usual, right on, Heather!! But I would like to point out one reason people may not be in the streets. We do not want to give him ANY reason to declare a national emergency.
As for the Democratic Party and what it's doing, PLEASE, people, read Ariella Elm and look at the Blue Print occasionally. The DNC has implemented Howard Dean's 50-state policy. It has funded EVERY state Democratic Party this year, even in red states. Because Dems live everywhere. It has made it possible for some states, including Mississippi and Alabama, I think, to have a Dem running in every single local election across the state. Up and down the ballot. That's how the hard work of gaining more power begins. The Dems have been organizing on the ground in every single state for more than a year. And also, if you'd dig a little, you'd learn Dems are working hard to have legislation and hearings lined up to present immediately if they win the House and the Senate. It takes time, you know, to have bills ready. To have hearings planned. And I'm fine with that work being quiet, firm, and competent. The less the Republicans know about it, the better. Making a lot of noise is not the only way to fight back. Dems ARE fighting back, including the leaders in the House and the Senate. They have done a lot as minority leaders. Remember? They cannot do everything we want because they are in the MINORITY!! The leaders have kept their caucuses together, voted as a bloc when they need to, and done their damndest to stop the worst legislation. And right now, they are planning what to do when they are in the MAJORITY. When they can actually do something. I'm looking forward to the competence. It is quite the contrast now, and it will be quite the contrast then.
I don’t give her the time of day. Her first remark…”I heard you missed me” was so tongue in cheek just like her famous jacket. She repulses me.
She’s a cold hearted money grubber just like all the rest of them. She can sit in her Dior skirt..her Manolos etc and pretend she’s doing something worthwhile but we know differently..she’s a fake and a phony who just takes.. takes ..takes and she truly DOES NOT CARE.
They are destroying our future..our children and grandchildren’s future .
He will bankrupt the nation just as he bankrupted his casinos and then take his chips and walk away.
It’s on us if we allow him to get away with it..it’s on the Democrats if they don’t step up and start really screaming and ACTING.
He’s stealing and sledgehammering everything from us..in front of us…no doubt about any of it.
November is our LAST chance to stop him….we better take it and run with it or else we’ll have to reap what we allowed him to sow forever.
Heather, there is a big protest coming up on Aug 28 in Washington DC at the Lincoln Memorial National Mall. Civil rights, women’s rights, economic injustice, healthcare, housing, an illegal and ill advised war, the grift, self-dealing, violations of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and much more. I am hopeful this will a stunning, hard to ignore, power filled display of our anger.
Wealthy people is the answer to your rhetorical question. That's why everyone (nearly) aspires to strike it rich, before life grinds them into the gravel that lines the rich peoples' driveways.
Two million dollars for kids "aging out" of foster care??!!!???
THAT IS SPIT IN THE OCEAN!!
These kids need reliable families, reliable housing, ongoing education either traditional or practical (Trade School, anyone?), a safe environment and adult support.
HOW ABOUT WE FUND , SAY, $2,000,000,000 ANNUALLY to support these kids, instead of having a one-time sportscar race around the block in DC to make ourselves feel better?
get out there and DO something. postcards to voters, bridge brigades, join a meeting of a local Indivisible. go to your city council and county commissioners meetings and SPEAK UP. it is easier than you think. JUST DO SOMETHING.
"We cannot allow ourselves, our children, or our grandchildren to grow up believing this is simply how the world works. That the president gets rich while the country goes broke."
Alas it is too late... Ronald Reagan's message has penetrated the psyche of our nation after decades of repetition and our country's faith in government is all but gone. And the belief that government spending is rife with "waste, fraud and abuse" prevails over the belief of liberal minded readers that "We pool our resources so the collective investment makes things more affordable and creates stability for everyone."
I share your hopeful attitude that we can restore confidence in government by making it clear that pooling our resources is the best way forward, but I do despair that the Democratic party is making that case for fear that they will be branded as a socialist or--- worse yet--- lose the donations of the billionaires they believe are needed to get elected.
Wayne, have you been watching the primary results? We Dems are indeed making that case by nominating leaders such as Dr. El-Sayed and Rep. Nixon for the Senate. Now we're all gonna be working hard to build turnout and get them elected in November, so please don't be asking us to create huge demonstrations in the meantime -- we have a midterm election to win! There's a lot of really hard and unglamourous work to be done between now and November 3, so let's get it done.
I don't recall the Democratic PARTY supporting either of the candidates you've cited nor, to the best of my knowledge, did they get behind progressive candidates in any of the primaries. The primary results you cited ARE heartening... I hope the Democratic party leadership will take note and begin to embrace the message of those who want to see the party move to the left... and hope they will give full throated support to those candidates AND $$$$ to those candidates...
We would do well to abandon the label 'progessive' and reclaim the traditional definition of our nature, which is embodied in the word 'liberal', which my children have helped me to come to call 'classical liberal'. I am old enough to recall that it was Rush Limbaugh who drove us to cowardly abandon it, simply by the way he contemptuously pronounced it. Much older that that, actually.
Two million dollars from the Trump crime consortium is the equivalent of me going through the sofa cushions for coffee money. After massively defunding public education, do they really think we’re stupid enough to think this is anything but a feeble attempt at deflection?
I agree with your feelings about America’s tepid response to the lunatic’s larcenous reign. Where are the protests? Where is the mainstream media? Are there no regulatory agencies who would stop this vanity race—another waste of OUR money, not the lunatic’s pockets? I am so angry, yet so sad because I have grandchildren and great-grandchildren who may never experience the good things America is capable of, and that I experienced. God help us!! 😢❤️🇺🇸
A large national debt is no problem until banks, foreign countries, and other creditors start asking for their money back. The debt, after all, is just pieces of paper, saying things like "Johnny owes Sally 50 cents for lemonade", only on a much larger scale. Unfortunately, the pile of fake Wall Street generated "wealth" that has created the climate where people are willing to run up such a gigantic debt is also just pieces of paper. At some point the fake debt and the fake wealth must collide and attempt to annihilate each other like matter and anti-matter. Then we will learn that there is more fake debt than fake wealth. When you dig a hole there never seems to be quite enough dirt to fill it back in again.
i have just finished reading Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. one more book compiling the horrors of the Nazi years, only this time i read it with a superimposed picture of what They are attempting to build this country into. no food, no jobs...people were ASSIGNED to factory jobs with minimal pay, no choice, also housing and child care were assigned. children were indoctrinated into how to speak or show affection, what books were allowed, etc. if THIS is acceptable to the ignorant among us, it is likely because they dont believe this could happen to other than their perceived enemies. i wish everyone were more aware that NEVER AGAIN IS NOW. and BTW, there are many of us who, tho exhausted, are still fighting.
Thank you Heather.
Have always taught my children this at a young age - “What you tolerate today, you accept tomorrow”
When a bully tried to take my son’s lunch money in elementary school. He didn’t let him, he fought back. Was called to the school after the altercation occurred to have a discussion with the principal. When the principal decided that my son needed to be punished for fighting back when an older child hit him in the face, pushed him on the ground, kicked him and told my child he needed to give him his money out of his pocket. My child would not tolerate being beat up and hand over money for him to have lunch and got up and decked the older child on his butt.
Asked the principle since my son defended himself, did not relent and give his money for food for the school day to an older child who sees that the way in which you get ahead in life is to bully younger children and seems to get away with it. What form of punishment do you think my son deserves since he defended himself from a bully who wanted to steal his money for food? The principal did not have an answer. Then told the principal the same things I taught my children - “What you tolerate today, you accept tomorrow” If the principal wanted to tolerate that bully’s behavior so be it, however I will not nor will my son and walked out with my son. The bully never touched my son ever again, nor any other child in that elementary school.
Think we all need to ask the question to ourselves - How much more will any of us continue to tolerate?
Truly believe and hope that 70% of the population has learned that it is way past time to say “Enough” and make some changes that will be loud and clear in just 74 days, come November 3rd. Yes, there are many just exhausted, but it’s an angry exhausted that burns like a hot embers in a fire. Somedays we may become sad or feel helpless but there seems to come a flash that fire, by just yelling outloud so we still have those hot embers burning. For the 30% who seem to have their own agenda or issues and see nothing is going wrong in this nation. Well apparently they accept bigotry, prejudice, blaming others for their woes, being poorer, being sicker, having their rights stripped away, having their bank accounts drained, working harder for less money and a plethora of shite that can come rolling down the hill from this regime and just keep on accepting it. Sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid….
So when those election results are announced it will be the next fight, and yes it will be another stinking fight to continue making the changes and making those changes even further for the next generation to never have to deal with this again. Keep those embers burning the next generations are counting on it…
And btw - Never want to hear “Fiscal Responsibility” out of any other Republicans mouth ever again…
Wonderful microscopic observations, inspired by Heather's similar macroscopic observations. Reflecting on her and your wisdom, I recall an essential core moral maxim I received from my father, at about the same age you taught your son his, in a virtually identical situation, almost eighty years ago - fight back. Those two words are among the fewer than a dozen I think it takes to run a proper life. I'll add seven more: 'think', and 'feel the fear, do it anyway'. I don't know which three I would add to round out the even dozen. "Love something' would surely be two more.
Could not agree more with all that you pointed out. One step in front of another, keep moving forward..
And where, please, are the Democratic Party and its leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer on all this? Why are they not visibly, prominently, building and leading a well-organized movement to counter the Trump administration's many visible atrocities? Like Great Britain's shadow governments? Is it any wonder that their failure to provide effective public opposition is a damning test of their own continuance in office?
Maybe you don't understand how Congress is set up. When one party has complete control of the House and Senate, plus the White House (and SCOTUS), the other party cannot start investigations, issue subpoenas, or introduce legislation that runs counter to the administration's wishes.
All the people blaming Democrats and the national party for the depredations of MAGA are just enabling Trump and his spokescritters.
The way to put Democrats back in the driver's seat is to elect more of them to both houses this November. Then, if they do nothing, you'll have a case.
Randy I'm suggesting that Dem Leaders should get creative about resistance and think outside the box about national public political leadership, not just within the Congres and its rules, which is their comfort zone. It would help unify the Party and strengthen voting in November.
Those Democrats (Jeffries and Schumer) also need to go and all the other Democrats who have refused to stand up. While I realize we don't hold Congress or the House, they, in my eyes, are pansies in the true sense of the word and have not done enough for the Democratic Party. When will any of them, Dems and Repubs alike, finally grow a spine and work across the aisle and get this orange POS out of office- and all those complicit with him???
one word...AIPAC. it rules them as well. we MUST get rid of Citizens United.
I also fail to understand why Democratic congress members or other government entities are not raising charges against the Administration for their obvious and often immoral violations of the Constitution. Such a coordinated and legal effort must be undertaken before the mid term elections. Perhaps the election results will finally motivate it. Are whistleblowers protections now just fiction?
The Democratic Party is rotten to its core, all the way down to the DNC, and it must be gutted all the way down to that level if it is to even begin to recover any power at all. Sparks remain throughout its ranks who are there to rekindle the flame. May they never go out. If ever they do, all I can see is a gray, flat, colorless landscape stretching to the horizon.
Thank you Heather,
As usual, you have shown the world the true horror of DT and his cronies as they drive through Democracy without a care. As for his wife, well, I guess she has been coerced into appearing with the promise of more fashionable items to wear. (Whoever thought that the jacket stunt was a good idea?)
A truly ghastly and greedy family would be hard to find.
On a lighter note, please watch and enjoy The Jimmy Kimmel show with Rosie O'Donnell. (We all need a good laugh, especially at the expense of DT)
Love from the UK.🇬🇧
As usual, right on, Heather!! But I would like to point out one reason people may not be in the streets. We do not want to give him ANY reason to declare a national emergency.
As for the Democratic Party and what it's doing, PLEASE, people, read Ariella Elm and look at the Blue Print occasionally. The DNC has implemented Howard Dean's 50-state policy. It has funded EVERY state Democratic Party this year, even in red states. Because Dems live everywhere. It has made it possible for some states, including Mississippi and Alabama, I think, to have a Dem running in every single local election across the state. Up and down the ballot. That's how the hard work of gaining more power begins. The Dems have been organizing on the ground in every single state for more than a year. And also, if you'd dig a little, you'd learn Dems are working hard to have legislation and hearings lined up to present immediately if they win the House and the Senate. It takes time, you know, to have bills ready. To have hearings planned. And I'm fine with that work being quiet, firm, and competent. The less the Republicans know about it, the better. Making a lot of noise is not the only way to fight back. Dems ARE fighting back, including the leaders in the House and the Senate. They have done a lot as minority leaders. Remember? They cannot do everything we want because they are in the MINORITY!! The leaders have kept their caucuses together, voted as a bloc when they need to, and done their damndest to stop the worst legislation. And right now, they are planning what to do when they are in the MAJORITY. When they can actually do something. I'm looking forward to the competence. It is quite the contrast now, and it will be quite the contrast then.
I think the biggest legacy that Trump leaves behind is that lying is OK, inconsequential, and not worthy of correction.
May Trump leave no legacy, but only a footnote.
I don’t give her the time of day. Her first remark…”I heard you missed me” was so tongue in cheek just like her famous jacket. She repulses me.
She’s a cold hearted money grubber just like all the rest of them. She can sit in her Dior skirt..her Manolos etc and pretend she’s doing something worthwhile but we know differently..she’s a fake and a phony who just takes.. takes ..takes and she truly DOES NOT CARE.
They are destroying our future..our children and grandchildren’s future .
He will bankrupt the nation just as he bankrupted his casinos and then take his chips and walk away.
It’s on us if we allow him to get away with it..it’s on the Democrats if they don’t step up and start really screaming and ACTING.
He’s stealing and sledgehammering everything from us..in front of us…no doubt about any of it.
November is our LAST chance to stop him….we better take it and run with it or else we’ll have to reap what we allowed him to sow forever.
Heather, I am so grateful for your clear vision through the chaos.
Heather, there is a big protest coming up on Aug 28 in Washington DC at the Lincoln Memorial National Mall. Civil rights, women’s rights, economic injustice, healthcare, housing, an illegal and ill advised war, the grift, self-dealing, violations of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and much more. I am hopeful this will a stunning, hard to ignore, power filled display of our anger.
And the NY Times continues to treat Democratic Socialists as mysteriously appealing! Who appreciates this version of capitalism you described so well?
Wealthy people is the answer to your rhetorical question. That's why everyone (nearly) aspires to strike it rich, before life grinds them into the gravel that lines the rich peoples' driveways.
Two million dollars for kids "aging out" of foster care??!!!???
THAT IS SPIT IN THE OCEAN!!
These kids need reliable families, reliable housing, ongoing education either traditional or practical (Trade School, anyone?), a safe environment and adult support.
HOW ABOUT WE FUND , SAY, $2,000,000,000 ANNUALLY to support these kids, instead of having a one-time sportscar race around the block in DC to make ourselves feel better?
Thank you, Heather.I am desperately trying to hold onto hope.
Hope must inspire us to action. It it doesn't what, exactly, is it for? Solace? Not enough. Not nearly enough.
get out there and DO something. postcards to voters, bridge brigades, join a meeting of a local Indivisible. go to your city council and county commissioners meetings and SPEAK UP. it is easier than you think. JUST DO SOMETHING.
"We cannot allow ourselves, our children, or our grandchildren to grow up believing this is simply how the world works. That the president gets rich while the country goes broke."
Alas it is too late... Ronald Reagan's message has penetrated the psyche of our nation after decades of repetition and our country's faith in government is all but gone. And the belief that government spending is rife with "waste, fraud and abuse" prevails over the belief of liberal minded readers that "We pool our resources so the collective investment makes things more affordable and creates stability for everyone."
I share your hopeful attitude that we can restore confidence in government by making it clear that pooling our resources is the best way forward, but I do despair that the Democratic party is making that case for fear that they will be branded as a socialist or--- worse yet--- lose the donations of the billionaires they believe are needed to get elected.
Wayne, have you been watching the primary results? We Dems are indeed making that case by nominating leaders such as Dr. El-Sayed and Rep. Nixon for the Senate. Now we're all gonna be working hard to build turnout and get them elected in November, so please don't be asking us to create huge demonstrations in the meantime -- we have a midterm election to win! There's a lot of really hard and unglamourous work to be done between now and November 3, so let's get it done.
I don't recall the Democratic PARTY supporting either of the candidates you've cited nor, to the best of my knowledge, did they get behind progressive candidates in any of the primaries. The primary results you cited ARE heartening... I hope the Democratic party leadership will take note and begin to embrace the message of those who want to see the party move to the left... and hope they will give full throated support to those candidates AND $$$$ to those candidates...
We would do well to abandon the label 'progessive' and reclaim the traditional definition of our nature, which is embodied in the word 'liberal', which my children have helped me to come to call 'classical liberal'. I am old enough to recall that it was Rush Limbaugh who drove us to cowardly abandon it, simply by the way he contemptuously pronounced it. Much older that that, actually.
Two million dollars from the Trump crime consortium is the equivalent of me going through the sofa cushions for coffee money. After massively defunding public education, do they really think we’re stupid enough to think this is anything but a feeble attempt at deflection?
Indeed I think they do. Why wouldn’t they? Not intendingbmeanness but haven’t sat on the Congress as we should have !!
I agree with your feelings about America’s tepid response to the lunatic’s larcenous reign. Where are the protests? Where is the mainstream media? Are there no regulatory agencies who would stop this vanity race—another waste of OUR money, not the lunatic’s pockets? I am so angry, yet so sad because I have grandchildren and great-grandchildren who may never experience the good things America is capable of, and that I experienced. God help us!! 😢❤️🇺🇸
A large national debt is no problem until banks, foreign countries, and other creditors start asking for their money back. The debt, after all, is just pieces of paper, saying things like "Johnny owes Sally 50 cents for lemonade", only on a much larger scale. Unfortunately, the pile of fake Wall Street generated "wealth" that has created the climate where people are willing to run up such a gigantic debt is also just pieces of paper. At some point the fake debt and the fake wealth must collide and attempt to annihilate each other like matter and anti-matter. Then we will learn that there is more fake debt than fake wealth. When you dig a hole there never seems to be quite enough dirt to fill it back in again.
i have just finished reading Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. one more book compiling the horrors of the Nazi years, only this time i read it with a superimposed picture of what They are attempting to build this country into. no food, no jobs...people were ASSIGNED to factory jobs with minimal pay, no choice, also housing and child care were assigned. children were indoctrinated into how to speak or show affection, what books were allowed, etc. if THIS is acceptable to the ignorant among us, it is likely because they dont believe this could happen to other than their perceived enemies. i wish everyone were more aware that NEVER AGAIN IS NOW. and BTW, there are many of us who, tho exhausted, are still fighting.