Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
I'm not going to embed anything or point you to any specific clips. I'll just give you a list of thoughts that are nothing more than what I remember, in the order I remember them:
1. Melania sat stiffly and nearly immobile, her hands clasped firmly, as she gave calm, careful answers to everything the interviewer asked.
2. The scene was a balcony — someplace in Kenya — that overlooked a small, bleak, red landscape that we were urged to see as beautiful. I noticed the standing water in pools and imagined the insects and the chemicals that would need to be used to control the insects. And that was before ABC quoted President Trump as having called some places "shithole"/"shithouse" countries.
3. I didn't catch the name of the interviewer, a dark-haired man I didn't recognize. He was polite, but tried to draw something interesting out of Melania. The show had been promoted as an interview with no question off limits, but there was absolutely nothing that threw her off her determined firm poise.
4. We did not see — unless there are more than those 3 parts — any confrontation about sexual affairs that Trump may have had during her marriage to him. There was only a question whether she was wary about marrying him, given his reputation. She gave a strong no, and the interviewer did not follow up with specifics. In fact, no names of other women were ever spoken, including the names of his 2 ex-wives.
5. There were many nice clips of Melania doing First-Lady things while looking beautiful in beautiful clothes, and several repetitions of her saying that she wants to be known for what she does, not what she wears.
6. She was asked about her "I really don't care/Do u?" jacket, and she gave the answer she's given before: It was a message directed at the press. Specifically, she called it the "left-wing" press.
7. She expressed support for her husband about everything, it seemed, except the parent-and-child separations at the border with Mexico. She tells us she let him know that it was unacceptable, and then he agreed with her.
8. She was asked about the seeming discordance between her anti-bullying initiative and her husband's bullying of people (and we saw a montage of Trump calling people names and imitating how they talk and gesture). All I remember of her answer is that she spoke about how she herself is bullied: She is one of the most bullied persons "on the world." I would have been tempted to defend his speech as robust criticism of individuals who have chosen to pursue political power and to distinguish it from other bullying, but once you make a controversial distinction, you are showing everyone exactly where they can attack you, and she chose instead to put herself front and center as a straightforward, strong, independent, imperturbable woman. That's very hard to attack without looking like another one of her many, many bullies.
9. My memories of this soporific safari into the mind of Melania are fading fast. I had one more thing. Oh, yes. She's not unhappy being First Lady. The people who say that about her are wrong. She does miss being able to decide to go somewhere and leave in "a minute." And she has only her old friends — a small group — and she keeps in touch with them by phone and text. The interviewer prompts her about what they say about what to do if you want a friend in Washington. Yes, she knows the saying: If you want a friend in Washington, "buy a dog."
10. I thought the old saying was "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," and I was going to muse about Melania's orientation to shopping and wealth. The saying is associated with Harry Truman, who didn't buy his dog, Feller. It was given to him. I'm reading the Quote Investigator article about the saying, and I see that Truman wasn't interested in that dog. From a 1948 newspaper article: "But Harry seems about as close to this pup as he does to Hank Wallace.... And now, months later, the animal is still an outsider." And, from 1949: "Why doesn’t Truman have a dog? … It is my understanding Truman does not have a dog because Mrs. Truman thinks dogs are too much trouble to care for." So quite aside from whether it's "get" or "buy," did Truman even ever express this thought? This was a guy who seems not to have wanted the dog he was given, but that's not inconsistent with saying "If you want a friend in Washington, get/buy a dog." That could be read as a disparagement of the common person's desire for friends. Just get a dog if you're so needy. As for me, I really don't care.
October 13, 2018
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66 comments:
She is one of the most bullied persons "on the world."
I find her preposition superior to the convention.
We say "in the world" but we say "on earth."
Melania often omits the word "the" but she said "the world." If she'd said "on world," it would have sounded really weird, but she could have said "on earth" and been securely idiomatic.
She could also have said "on the earth," but the worst option would have been to say "in the earth."
Isn't the on/in//earth/world complexity interesting?!
While the press tried to turn Michelle Obama into Jackie Kennedy, Melania Trump actually shares more in common with her. A beautiful woman who is always impeccably dressed, more concerned with creating a beautiful space in the White House than being a social justice warrior, devoted to her child, married to a man with a wandering eye and yet devoted to her, and a woman who has had a successful career of her own the press seldom gives her credit for. It's very apparent to all those who are open to seeing it that Melania Trump is in her element around children. If she prefers some semblance of privacy while she's living in a fishbowl, I don't need to know the minute details of her life. She is a gracious hostess and guest, which is really all we have any right to expect from any First Lady.
She did an interview early on (can't remember which magazine/pub) and was utterly roasted -- parents dragged through the mud, etc. She was open and vulnerable to the press once, just once. I don't blame her.
Dogs and cats are commodities, that is, there are a whole bunch of them and they can be obtained at any time without any difficulty. That pounds use the word "adoption" while making you buy a dog has a whiff of canine/feline slavery about it. I prefer to make clear that cats and dogs are domesticated animals that are owned, and that my obligation to care for mine properly has no basis in family relationships, but rather in general morality. Cats in particular can be obtained at no price (beyond necessary immunizations) everywhere in the US, for the asking. There is no need to pay for a domestic shorthair, ever, and if it behaves in an unsatisfactory manner replace it, quickly.
Melania is reported to speak seven languages, and she traveled and saw more of the world, working, before January 2017 than most First Ladies. Her marriage to Trump is an example of that old, mutually beneficial "trophy wife" behavior of decades past, and is at least more honest than Hill&Bills sham of a Power Couple co-enabling mutual criminality.
What did Melania have to say about the concept of shithole countries?
By the second year of HIS Presidency, Michelle Obama had been on the cover of every magazine in the world- 12 times each. She had been proclaimed as amazing, beautiful, striking, brilliant, and a fashion queen. Though she had yet to be proud of the country dressing her, she was being propped up as the Most Amazing Woman Ever To Be First Lady And Probably Should Be President. Her every thought, no matter how trite, was put forward as a clear sign of her superior intellect. She was both a worldly beauty and a worldly thinker.
Except that she is neither. She's a bright woman, to be sure. So is Melania, who has managed to become an actual worldly person, a globally recognized model, and has, as a woman, transformed her life from the former Yugoslavia to a global career, to First Lady of the United States. Not bad.
Yet, Melania has been virtually boycotted in the press for two years. The actual model has not been on every magazine cover, but the wife of a crooked state senator from Illinois was.
No- I didn't watch it. But I'm surprised ABC actually showed it.
I wonder if Melania is deliberately refraining from perfecting her English. Maybe it's analogous to the way Trump speaks in short, blunt sentences and sometimes gets things wrong, and some people suspect he's doing that as a rhetorical trick.
I like to remember that Michelle Obama obtained a sinecure post in hospital administration when her hubby was a state senator, was paid $300,000 per year for it, and famously used her position to save her hospital money by developing the methods of rapidly "turfing" ill but indigent patients out of their ER and into someone else's hospital, where the expense could be borne by someone else. Because she cares.
In re Kenya: It looks just like it did 50+ years ago when I was there. Same for Turkey, Libya, Pakistan and Madagascar. Not just shitholes. Perpetual shitholes.
There is no need to pay for a domestic shorthair, ever, and if it behaves in an unsatisfactory manner replace it, quickly.
A Long Island cat became the first to have a hip replacement, which was just several thousand dollars more expensive than the common practice...total cat replacement. -SNL
I find her preposition superior to the convention.
There are no “rules” for prepositions, it seems like there might be to native speakers of a language, but they just happen and if you are learning a language, you just have to drill them into your head through rote memorization. Still, it does seem kind of "fresh."
She speaks "Global English" which is different than we native speakers use. Go on a computer programming forum sometime, you just have to accept it because I bet there are more ESL speakers than us native anglophones.
My major takeaway from this post is a sense of your disappointment you found nothing to bash the First Lady with. Or was it just your bored impatience? Then why post it at all?
Idioms are an easy way to identify foreigners. Canadians are the best at secretly infiltrating US society- gotta be on your toes to catch 'em.
The Michelle Obama is a fashion icon just shows the bias, and discredits them more with their catty comments on Melania.
Michelle Obama had been on the cover of every magazine in the world- 12 times each.
The "diet expert" who designed Michelle's school lunch program has now retracted his "studies."
JAMA announced that it is retracting (removing from publication) six studies on nutrition by Cornell University food scientist Brian Wansink. That brings the total number of studies by Wansink that have been pulled to 13. And there are 15 other studies by the good doctor that are under review.
Cornell announced that Wansink is resigning his post at the end of the term. But the damage he has done to the credibility of the nutrition industry – and the social sciences in general – is only beginning to be understood.
Ars Technica:
As Ars has reported before, the retractions, corrections, and today's resignation all stem from Wansink's own admission of statistical scavenging to find meaningful conclusions in otherwise messy dieting data. The result is that many common dieting tips – such as using smaller plates to trick yourself into shoveling in less food and stashing unhealthy snacks in hard-to-reach places – are now on the cutting board and possibly destined for the garbage bin.
Prior to the scandal, Wansink made a name for himself publishing studies indicating, generally, that such subtle environmental changes could lead to distinct eating and health benefits. He helped cook up the idea for the now ubiquitous 100-calorie snack packs, for instance. And he served up the suggestion to have fruit bowls placed prominently on our kitchen counters.
The retractions have been reported nowhere in MSM.
Also no mention of the tons of food thrown away by school kids who were smarter than Wansink.
You can feel the caddy jealousy oozing from every pore in Ann's body when writing this blog. That FLOTUS is a fox!
If you want a friend in the blogosphere, watch a cat video. Especially if you're a woman.
1. As is typical for the press, they kept trying to fork her against what the press claim is her husband's thinking and positions, as if she doesn't know her husband better than they do. (E.g. 'We know your husband is a bigot, a hater, and a bully. What do you think of his being that?') 2. The questions were all based on a pathological view of individuality and independence - the presumption endlessly being shoved in our face that if she is married to him and she has a different view on something, that is a gotcha - really big deal. But she didn't flinch. My wife (from California) and I (from New York metro area) have never once agreed on anything in a conversation, but for three plus decades have always agreed on everything when we're not in a conversation. That is two people being true individuals but staying together to be more 3. The left, as exemplified by the left-dwelling press, are lately such busybody control freaks, that they can't keep it from coming out in almost everything they do and say, including how they frame the entire production of the interview with her. They already had mapped out where she should be and not be, and had no interest in showing her as anything but on the stage mark, or off it. Totally phony bio.
The children would not be separated from their putative "parents" if Mexico would enact emigration reform and share responsibility for migrants, refugees crossing their southern border.
"I thought the old saying was "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," and I was going to muse about Melania's orientation to shopping and wealth."
And if she hadn't said "buy" the headline would have been TRUMP ADVOCATES DOGNAPPING!!!
Or, as Obama said, "If you want a meal in Washington, eat a dog."
As for Africa, decades of social justice adventures and redistributive change have left many of the nations bleak, diverse, inhospitable, and unproductive.
First: I admire people who admit that they don't have the time to care for a dog and then have the good sense to abstain from getting/having/obtaining/whatever.. a dog.
Dogs require attention, routine and suffer greatly when they are not included in the "pack". Loneliness can drive a dog crazy or literally kill it from depression. Don't get a dog until you are ready to fully commit. To do otherwise (Obama) is just cruel.
Second: Melania's use of "on the world" is technically more correct than "IN the world". Unless she is living underground in a subterranean world, she is ON the world.
"Melania, you have a pussy, don't you really hate your husband?"
"Kanye, you're black, don't you really just hate Trump?"
"Mr Rodregez, you're a Hispanic US Citizen, don't you really think that anybody should be able to come into the US and claim benefits and take jobs and vote?"
I mean, how can anybody not hate Trump? He beat Hillary, for Christ's sake!
"What did Melania have to say about the concept of shithole countries?"
She said didn't witness the meeting where Trump supposedly said it. She says it was reported "anonymously," then ABC shows some Democrat saying that it wasn't anonymous because we know who was at the meeting. Or something. That's from memory. I'm not going to rewatch.
Wasn't the alleged shithole country comment supposedly in relation to a discussion asylum claims where the applicant him or herself is essentially saying "I CANNOT live there anymore, YOU HAVE TO TAKE ME" because the place is such a shithole?
" I admire people who admit that they don't have the time to care for a dog and then have the good sense to abstain from getting/having/obtaining/whatever.. a dog. Dogs require attention, routine and suffer greatly when they are not included in the "pack". Loneliness can drive a dog crazy or literally kill it from depression. Don't get a dog until you are ready to fully commit. To do otherwise (Obama) is just cruel."
I wonder what percentage of dog owners regret getting a dog. Sometimes you can see that a dog owner doesn't even like his dog. I have avoided ever getting a dog in part because I'd feel a moral obligation to love it and meet all its needs, and if I did not, I would have to put a lot of effort into lying to myself or feeling deeply guilty. It's like having a child. You have to commit and follow through, and if you ever perceive your own resistance to the long, hard task, you will either have to feel terrible or become/remain shallow and numb.
Before birth control and abortion, having a child was different, because it was the natural consequence of heterosexual love and desire. It was a big, coherent whole that was almost irresistible. With birth control and abortion came choice, and then you end up with a lot of good, responsible people who refrain from having children, like the way I don't have a dog. And you have a lot of people who have only thought it through lightly and have children and may rise to the task or not. And presumably there are a few people who've thought it through deeply and decided to have children, but what percentage of children have parents like that?
Of course, there are also many people who stick with the old tradition of rejecting birth control and abortion (or at least abortion), but even among those, there are different depths of real belief in the full integration of sexual desire and the conception of children. There's a powerful incentive to keep the faith, because it makes sense of what you are doing.
The value of the set FLOTUSILF is also the smallest positve integer.
Althouse: I wonder what percentage of dog owners regret getting a dog. Sometimes you can see that a dog owner doesn't even like his dog. I have avoided ever getting a dog in part because I'd feel a moral obligation to love it and meet all its needs, and if I did not, I would have to put a lot of effort into lying to myself or feeling deeply guilty. It's like having a child. You have to commit and follow through, and if you ever perceive your own resistance to the long, hard task, you will either have to feel terrible or become/remain shallow and numb.
Exactly the reasons that I don't have a dog, or actually any pets anymore. I know that I just do not have the time, the lifestyle or ability to do the "right" thing by my pet at this moment in my life. I love dogs. I love cats. It would be unfair to the animal and place a huge guilt burden on us.
We have a client whose wife was very much into breeding and showing her pedigreed dogs. It was "her" thing in life.....not his. She suddenly passed away with a surprise illness. He is now stuck with these dogs. He is keeping them out of respect for her memory and the deep love he has for his wife...... but doesn't really like or want the dogs. They are not mistreated and are well cared for. He doesn't say it, but I think he can't wait for the dogs to end.
And I do agree. The ability to decide (birth control) on having children has changed the whole dynamic of marriage and family.
If can't spend a lot of time with your dog, get TWO dogs so they can keep each other company. As stated, Dogs are pack animals and are made to be around other dogs or their substitute dogs (humans).
Melania seems to be getting used to the role of First lady. Most of them get used to the pomp and circumstance and get to like it.
The MSM treatment of her has been indecent, but what else is new?
"On the world" is the way a Slavic language speaker would say it. We are on the surface of the world. If we we in a cave maybe we'd be "in the world". It's just the way their prepositions work.
I like to remember that Michelle Obama obtained a sinecure post in hospital administration when her hubby was a state senator, was paid $300,000 per year for it, and...
... the position was so important, it was eliminated after Obama became US Senator and Michelle quit.
If I recall correctly, it was the of Chicago Hospital.
Tony Reznik (swindler) also paid for half of their beautiful house in Hyde Park.
The scandals started BEFORE he got to the White House and continued thereafter.
"In the world" is the usual phrase but would sound incorrect to any ESL speaker. How can you be "in the world"? It sounds like you're under the ground - in a Jules Verne novel.
OTOH, we say "on Earth" so why not "on the World"?
Go read the latest MSM attack on Trump for "praising Robert E. Lee".
It shows their stupidity and dishonesty in brilliant, Bright, Colors.
I watched zero parts of it. I have never quite understood people's obsession with the "First Lady." It mirrors our country's strange showbiz attitude towards the British royal family, which I have never been able to stomach, though if British I would likely be a monarchist. In retrospect, fusing the position of head of state with the head of government into a single Executive was probably not a great idea.
The only thing I know about Slovenians is that they are not Slovakians, at least not technically. There are many things about Melania I can't relate to. She lives outside the normal parameters of my life. How often in real life do you meet a woman that beautiful and well dressed and with such perfect posture? I'm not knocking her. I'm just saying that there's something unknowable about her. Her beauty, her accent, her ethnici background puts her at a distance from us........ The plus thing about being beautiful and having a mysterious accent is that you can say the most banal things, and they sound like profound observations on the human condition.
The show had been promoted as an interview with no question off limits, but there was absolutely nothing that threw her off her determined firm poise.
What? She didn't clutch at her pearls or burst out crying? How disappointing! But good for her!
Netflix is carrying a Slovenian mockumentary, 'Houston, We Have A Problem', about how the Yugoslavs sold their successful space program to the US in the early 1960's, interspersed with commentary by Slavoj Zizek. It ends up being nostalgia for the Tito era.
The press is disgusting, hoodwinking the public into thinking immigration policy is really about differences between the First Lady's views and needs, and the needs of the US.
Trump was praising U.S. Grant in Ohio, not Lee.
But the Media never likes anything with U.S. in it, do they?
Slavoj Zizek is a hoot. This is where I first saw him. You'd think if he just spit once in a while he could say it without spraying it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pervert%27s_Guide_to_Ideology
“My major takeaway from this post is a sense of your disappointment you found nothing to bash the First Lady with. Or was it just your bored impatience? Then why post it at all?”
“You can feel the caddy jealousy oozing from every pore in Ann's body when writing this blog. That FLOTUS is a fox!”
Some commenters seem to be still angry at Althouse over saying she believed Blasey Ford early on. Hasn’t Althouse given you folks enough red meat (pro trump posts) yet for you to forgive her her trespasses? Forgiveness is divine, remember?
As for Melania, she seems to be a beautiful poised woman who is as egocentric as her husband.
Blogger tcrosse said...
Or, as Obama said, "If you want a meal in Washington, eat a dog."
Fried chicken dog whistle.
Blogger mikee said...
I like to remember that Michelle Obama obtained a sinecure post in hospital administration when her hubby was a state senator, was paid $300,000 per year for it, and famously used her position to save her hospital money by developing the methods of rapidly "turfing" ill but indigent patients out of their ER and into someone else's hospital, where the expense could be borne by someone else. Because she cares.
Then she complained on the campaign trail or “connected” with the room because she “cares” that she could barely afford ballet lessons for the girls. On $300k/yr.
That salary alone I think put her in the 1-2% in yearly income at the time.
> As for Melania, she seems to be a beautiful poised woman who is as egocentric as her husband.
Unlike every other person on the planet.
I have never been able to stomach, though if British I would likely be a monarchist
Right, it's odd, all right. German interlopers who own much of the property in England, but you ask the British about it, and they love their queen.
Ann Althouse said...
"I wonder if Melania is deliberately refraining from perfecting her English," and "Melania often omits the word 'the' but she said 'the world. If she'd said 'on world,' it would have sounded really weird, but she could have said 'on earth' and been securely idiomatic."
According to Wikipedia at least, in Melania's native Slovenian language, "There are no definite or indefinite articles as in English (a, an, the) or German (der, die, das, ein, eine). A whole verb or a noun is described without articles and the grammatical gender is found from the word's termination."
One of the things I enjoy about being around people who are not native English speakers is the way that native language constructs and concepts appear in their English speech. I like to noodle around how the structure of different languages can impact thinking and expression, especially with things that "don't translate well."
As the Professor said, "Isn't the on/in//earth/world complexity interesting?!"
I have always been fascinated by prepositions of different languages and how they indicate how different peoples came to view reality differently. "On the world" and "in the world" is an example of that. I would guess that "on the world" is the literal translation from the Slovenian language. When you climb a tree, an English speaker would say that "you are in the tree", while a German would probably say "you are on the tree". One can understand both views, but it is odd how they are emphasized differently.
"I wonder if Melania is deliberately refraining from perfecting her English," and "Melania often omits the word 'the' but she said 'the world. If she'd said 'on world,' it would have sounded really weird, but she could have said 'on earth' and been securely idiomatic."
Ann Rand was really impressive how she could dissect sentences from articles in, say, the New York Times and show the underlying assumptions. Absolutely amazing, and she made it look easy.
But here, I'm thinking the phenomenon you are describing could simply be the way an English learner learns. I'll bet she hears "the world" an awful lot, being in the white house, for instance.
"OTOH, we say "on Earth" so why not 'on the World'?"
I think the concept change is in the word "world". As a native English speaker, when I hear "world" used in the context that Mrs. Trump was using it, I think not only of the Earth, but of the peoples and cultures inhabiting it- we are within that melange of cultures and people. I don't know how a Slovenian would view it, but if she is using the preposition "on", then I would think the word she would use for "world" is probably not as expansive a concept as it is for an English speaker. Of course, English speakers will speak of planets as "worlds", and we might well describe inhabitants on Mars, for example, as being on that world.
Re "bullying" (paragraph #8), remember that you always have to translate from Hivespeak to plain English. In plain English, bullying someone normally carries with it at least a hint of coercion. Even normal schoolyard, verbal harassment ("Hey, four eyes!") is carried on against smaller kids by bigger kids (at least it was in my day) with at least a physical threat hovering in the background. To the "liberal" Hive, "bullying" means standing up to "liberals" and either making fun of the their nonsense or taking apart their nonsensical argumments.
Before birth control and abortion, having a child was different, because it was the natural consequence of heterosexual love and desire. It was a big, coherent whole that was almost irresistible.
Gosh, that sounds right out of Pope Paul VI's (widely reviled) Humanae Vitae.
We do say “on top of the world.”
It’s just a stray phrase. Seems related to “top of the morning.”
Keep up. Stay on top.
Anyway, “in the earth” sounds like you’ve been buried, and “earth” is used to mean soil and to refer to this particular planet. Another planet would be a new world, and we speak of more than one world even on this planet. There’s the old world and the new world.
Your old world is rapidly changing, sang Bob Dylan.
And: “Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth / None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”
Earth is earthier.
World id worldlier.
There’s no earhlly reason why I’m so earthy and worldly but not worldy, which isn’t a word.
Some women are called an earth mother, but no one gets called a workd mother.
We think maybe some day we’ll have world government, but we don’t talk about earth government, which sounds like something that happens after extraterrestrials invade.
We celebrate Earth Day, but world day would be something else, maybe more like U.N. Day.
“Caddy jealousy “?
No, thanks. Im happy with my Audi.
No, thanks. Im happy with my Audi.
Isn't that a car that people with great privilege drive?
- BMW driver here
And I watched none of it.
Amazing how ignorable that nobody is. Even more ignorable than that cheapskate tax fraud she agreed to have as a husband.
Roy Loftquist,
That is the native terrain and vegetation of that part of Kenya... Why would it change? Mount Rainier looks pretty much the same as it did 50 years ago too.
My BMW was always in the shop. My Honda gets an oil change and that's it. 125, 000 miles and another 125,000 to go.
Got me. Hope you don't have Ford envy, there was a clunker.. Bet there won't be many Ford sales after that lemon.
Blogger J. Farmer said...
I watched zero parts of it. I have never quite understood people's obsession with the "First Lady." It mirrors our country's strange showbiz attitude towards the British royal family, which I have never been able to stomach
--
Having First Lady Bill Clinton pour inevitable clarity on that arrangement might have been the only benefit of a prez HR Clinton.
I am so tired of the “children separated from their parents” red herring. The following article by The National Review explains the process more fairly and puts the responsibility where it belongs - on the parents.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/illegal-immigration-enforcement-separating-kids-at-border/#slide-1
People probably started saying "buy" the dog after Nixon/Checkers.
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