The childlike strangeness of Melania's "Be Best" campaign

This article contains one of the best descriptions I've ever read about her:

"Donald Trump’s emptiness revealed itself over decades in the media glare. But Melania, a former model, has long embraced vacancy as an aesthetic. She has the creepy, objectified opacity of a doll, or a robot—a shimmer of the uncanny valley. Her willed passivity may be the strongest expression of her agency. She is an avatar of blankness, a mute queen. Standing behind a podium in the Rose Garden, her husband in the audience, Melania spoke slowly, with practiced inflections; she sounded like an actor reading from a script that she didn’t quite understand. When the words “Be Best” materialized on a screen above her head, their wobbly font and off-key grammar produced a sense of dissociation, as though we were all kids wondering where our parents had gone."

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-childlike-strangeness-of-melania-trumps-be-best-campaign

Gasoline prices -- what is it in your area?

I live right down the road from a Shell station, and since there are four licensed drivers living in my house, including me, plus my husband has a truck, lawn tractor, boat, and roto tiller, we buy a lot of gas. (I know, should go electric with some of this lawn stuff)

So we notice gas prices. Monday gas was $2.58/gal. Tuesday it went up to $2.89/gal.

I wonder if this pullout from the Iran deal is affecting us already.

Does anyone ever get the feeling

our country is like the scene in "Titanic" where the orchestra keeps playing as the ship keeps sinking?

I just saw

Renacci on TV saying "Ohio wants the Trump agenda!". and bragged about getting congratulatory phone calls from Dumb and Dumber from Washington.

GAH!!!!!!! Their smarmy mugs make me want to scream!!!! We DO NOT want "Trump's agenda!"

If we get more Repukes in office, I don't think I'll be able to take it, I swear.

Do you prefer watching a movie in a theatre or at home?

Good discussion of pro's and cons's in this article.....

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/movies/cannes-film-festival-netflix.html?WT.nav=bottom-well&action=click&hpw&module=well-region&pgtype=Homepage&region=bottom-well&rref=movies#commentsContainer

This makes me so angry! "Rescission".....

....clawing back money that has already been authorized.

Of course, Republicans, being the nasty and vindictive sorts that they are, choose the CHIP program as the main item to put on the chopping block.

I'm sure that this program, that provides essential healthcare for millions of children, was the prime target all along since Hillary was the one largely responsible for its creation.

Cruel vindictive bastards!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-calls-on-congress-to-pull-back-dollar15-billion-in-spending-including-on-children%E2%80%99s-health-insurance-program/ar-AAwTSk0?ocid=mailsignout

A Few Things for Melania to tackle

She is supposed to introduce her initiative for children today, right?

Good luck, considering your husband's Draconian policies. Melly.

https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/1/8/16863656/childhood-mortality-united-states

Cartoonist Ann Telnaes - Trump's Dirty Laundry

Number of children in Japan shrinks to new record low

The number of children in Japan has fallen for the 37th straight year in a row, a sign the country's attempts to offset the country's severely aging population are failing.

According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2013, the last year for which data was available, foreigners made up only 1.3% of Japan's population, compared to 7% for the US ........

The lack of new workers is heightened by Japan's woeful levels of gender disparity, a recent OECD report warned. While the ratio of boys to girls is relatively in keeping with most industrialized countries, there is currently a 25% gender pay gap in Japan, the third-widest of all member states, and women are often discouraged from participating in the workforce by a variety of factors including lack of childcare, discrimination, and sexual harassment."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/number-of-children-in-japan-shrinks-to-new-record-low/ar-AAwShBi

Illinois Counties Declare "Sanctuary Status" for Gun Owners

"Several rural Illinois counties have taken a stand for gun rights by co-opting a word that conservatives associate with a liberal policy to skirt the law: sanctuary.

At least five counties recently passed resolutions declaring themselves sanctuary counties for gun owners — a reference to so-called sanctuary cities such as Chicago that don’t cooperate with aspects of federal immigration enforcement.

The resolutions are meant to put the Democratic-controlled Legislature on notice that if it passes a host of gun bills, including new age restrictions for certain weapons, a bump stock ban and size limit for gun magazines, the counties might bar their employees from enforcing the new laws."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/illinois-counties-declare-%e2%80%98sanctuary%e2%80%99-status-for-gun-owners/ar-AAwRGWm