Ever since her doting daddy dissed the Dreamers, and banned transgender people from the military, Ivanka had been forced into semi-hiding. It was no longer safe for her to turn her exclusive Washington neighborhood into her own private catwalk, because the neighbors were all out there protesting. There hadn't been a front page spread about her latest outfit in The Daily Mail for at least a week. (Not that I'd been keeping count, mind you, but it suddenly dawned on me that their breathless fashion, hair, and makeup coverage, complete with the tasteful price-tags attached to everything for our resentful pleasure, were suddenly gone.)
So you can imagine my relief when Ivanka and her male model husband Jared Kushner reappeared on the Kalorama catwalk Saturday to go out for another fashion jog in their fashion togs. They were a perfect match in "somber" gray to show their solidarity with those victims of Hurricane Irma who might have lost their third vacation home in Naples or on Marco Island. DOTUS even wore color-coordinated gray/black sneakers to offset her gray leggings, with just the right trimming of black funereal mesh and a spiffy black Secret Service cap to match her security detail. Even her Daddy was happy to coordinate, bragging that "We're prepared at the very highest levels!"
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| Jogging the Jarvanka Way |
DOTUS unfortunately regressed into DOOFUS style (in coordination with Labor Day) when her one feeble claim to liberalism - "empowering" working women - took a powder. She disabused us of the media-marketed notion that she was some kind of moral force keeping Daddy's worst instincts at bay when she chirpily announced that the female wage equity she espouses sadly does not apply to the women who work directly for her Daddy in the White House. Also, she totally agrees with the overturning of the Obama rule which ostensibly forces CEOs to reveal male/female pay disparity.This fashion faux pas has elicited all the pout-rage you'd expect from the mainstream media market. They hate it whenever their groupthink narrative is challenged.
As a reward for loyally succumbing to Daddy, Ivanka was released from her East Coast bubble and allowed to accompany Daddy to North Dakota for another one of his pseudo-populist rallies. Because if they can't appreciate her in the Beltway, there's always still the Heartland to charm and fool and dazzle.
And even more sadly, her planned trip to China, where she is adored as the Great White Capitalist Goddess of Glamor and Virtuous Greed, had to be cancelled. I suppose we can blame it all on unfashionable North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, and Daddy's lecturing China about their need to do more to contain him.
But lest you feel too betrayed or let down, you will be happy to know that the umbel never falls too far from the hemlock - because DOTUS still tweets. She is particularly fond of sending out her very special thoughts and prayers, if not her actual Self, to wherever climate change disasters strike. She is also very busy maintaining her website, which is neatly divided into the categories which are most pressing and important to struggling, desperate people: Style, Work, Home, Play, Travel, Wise Words and Shop. So your only quandary is which category to relish first.
"How to be present for your family when you travel all the time" immediately piqued my interest, so I proceeded to relish without another thought. (The site will do that to you, so caveat emptor)
Ivanka, or maybe an underling just pretending to be Ivanka, interviewed an ESPN personality named Jenna Mayo, who has boldly missed Thanksgiving with her family for the last eight years in a row. How much more empowering does it get than that? The trick is to be absent and present at the exact same moment in time through the magical powers of selfishness and marketing and hypnosis - and let's not forget that old standby: the infliction of tons and tons of maternal guilt. In her preferred new position as DOTUS, Ivanka adds just the right buzzwords so necessary to put an identitarian neoliberal sheen on things:
Working hard in a male-dominant industry, Jenna has always aspired to set an example for women and girls that they should not be intimidated to choose a career in which they’re the minority. As a wife and now mom of two, Jenna manages to invest in both her family and work at the same time—even when she’s on the road.When you're a member of the Trump crowd, your most important narcissistic concern is to make sure that other people understand that you and your interests are always more important than other people's needs. What better way to sell narcissism as a virtue than to make sure it starts right in the bosom of your own family?
“People want to feel loved, valued, missed and important,” Jenna says. “When I’m away, I want to make sure my husband and kids feel that. It’s my responsibility as a wife and a mom.”
According to DOTUS, there are no five stages of grief to manage in kids who miss their absentee moms. There are instead five ways to bolster your own ego by pretending to care about your needy spouse and offspring.
1. Follow the "Love Languages": leave notes for the children. Stock the fridge to show solidarity with your selfless husband's life of service. Be careful about giving too many gifts to the kids, though - otherwise you might spoil them. Quality time and physical caresses can always be accomplished in the intervals between trips. You'll have them absolutely begging for it!
2. Be in touch daily: use Face Time in lieu of the Beanie Babies that Daddy used to bring you after all his business trips. Naturally, your own particular mother was always at home, taking care of you, and later trying to unload your worthless Beanie Babies as a way of tax-deductible charitable giving to unseen poor children during Christmas-time.
3. Get creative: whenever you go on TV, hold up up a sign that says "I Love Kale." You cleverly think that the all-important TV audience will thereby see you as a caring, hands-on mother whose family's nutrition is her top priority, even though you're a busy, famous star. It will make your kids so grateful that you are not at home. Also, be sure to send your son pictures of all the planes and trains that you get to ride on. (because despite your crusade of empowering women, your own daughter apparently would not be empowered by such things.)
4. Leave notes: be very original and be repetitive in a Goebbelsian kind of way. Write "I love you" over and over and over again. Leave these notes, along with your favorite Bible quotes, in their lunchboxes or backpacks. And they will be both embarrassed and grateful that you are not at home.
5. Always give your neglected loved ones something to look forward to. Schedule date night with your husband around your own hyperactive schedule. Pretend that Monday morning is really Saturday night. He'll never know! He will appreciate you for it, as he glumly sits at home and pines for you and is not out having an affair.
And always remember to never forget that Ivanka is the good Trump whose main accomplishment in life is to make you glad that you're not a rich ignorant asshole like Daddy.
This guy can't even manage his own website, let alone talk without making the hand gesture that matches his mouth that matches his you-know-what.
Annenigma, I'm sorry your comment (previous commentary, about what Hillary should strive for) got buried in the Times commentary. As Pearl said, your comment was gracious and sensible, two qualities the world lacks in great quantity at all levels. And to be that way towards Hillary before a large forum deserves extra points, both for sincere measures to help her out of her confusion and for the tone taken when seriously concerned about another human.
ReplyDeleteThe writers who keep raising the issue of global warming are warning us that, as the seas rise along with the temperatures, humanity will be stressed a great deal more than it is now. The graciousness and good sense we are lucky to find today, I fear, will not be enough to go around when the big story without interruption will be about billions of people hitting the road in mass migrations and the abandonment of coastal cities.
People my age will be out of the picture by then, and most of the people who now read Karen's columns may have enough time to live the decades left to them without the full horror described by Hedges today.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-great-flood/
But what of the very young? By the end of this century "civilization" (food and shelter, civility and order) will evaporate as people around the world elbow each other while heading for the hills. Ivanka, how about a new line for cavemen and cavewomen.
http://www.envirosecurity.org/actionguide/view.php?r=140&m=publications
It may be sensible––but not very gracious––to wonder whether the most culpable climate deniers are not the rich and powerful, the Doofuses and their rich daddies, but the everyday couples by the millions who still intend to bring children into a collapsing world. "There, there, don't exaggerate," you say? Well, if you don't believe in the consequences described by climate scientists and government panels, face it: you too are a climate denier.
Trivia time - I was curious about how Ivanka did in college so I looked her up on Wikipedia. I also thought I'd look up Obama and Hillary just for kicks since they were on my mind.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia reports that Ivanka graduated cum laude with a B.A. degree in Economics. She's also bilingual - English and French, plus a smattering of Czech.
Obama and Hillary are both monolingual. All that pandering to Hispanics but never bothering to learn the language? No se puede!
Barack Obama graduated with a B.A. in Political Science without academic distinction.
Hillary also graduated without academic distinction with a B.A. in the 'science' of Politics. Wikipedia (or the Clinton team authors) state, however, that she graduated 'with departmental honors'. In other words, Sine laude. More fakery.
Of course they both went on to graduate law school which Ivanka clearly didn't. Hillary flunked the bar exam in D.C. but passed in Arkansas (bar hopping?) Curiously, both Barack and Michelle surrendered their law licenses in 2008. Apparently neither planned to do any pro bono legal work for any worthy causes for the rest of their lives.
Ok, end of my trivia session. I'm going stir crazy here, stuck indoors for the past two weeks due to hazardous levels of smoke from wildfires wafting around the Northwest. But I can't complain, not after Harvey and Irma. The good news is that after 3 months of scorching heat and no rain up here (we're in a 'flash drought'), our first significant rain is predicted for later this week. Yippee!
Unfortunately, it won't be enough to put the fires out. That won't happen until the snow falls next month, if we're lucky. Fire season started a full month earlier this summer too. Welcome to Climate Change.