"I hate politics... I love policy and impact. I hate politics. And unfortunately, the two are not separable... [It's a] very dark, negative business.... There is a darkness to that world that I don’t really want to welcome into mine"

Said Ivanka Trump, quoted in "Ivanka Trump has blunt 3-word response when asked why she won’t return to White House" (NY Post).

Reminds me of young Donald Trump:

"You can read Ivanka’s inane musings below, but they’re not the real point. She turned 43 on October 30."

"There is no reason to post this thread on November 4, the night before Election Day, other than to emphasize that she’s not even thinking about Donald Trump’s reelection bid. Ivanka basically found a way to tell her dad, 'I really don’t care, do U?' via Twitter thread, rather than donning an ugly jacket...."

Writes Margaret Hartmann in New York Magazine, reacting to Ivanka's stoicism-studded thread on X.

What's up with Ivanka? Who knows? She was the favored child, it always seemed, or at least the favored daughter. Maybe you're wondering Should I care? Just consult Marcus Aurelius — "You have power over your mind—not outside events" — or Epictetus — "Anyone capable of angering you becomes your master."

You can compliment Ivanka Trump as "the picture of gentle, pulled-together professionalism and good will" — but only after saying she "emerg[ed]" from "bowels."

I'm reading an article by the NYT fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, "Trump Family Trial Style/Ivanka Trump and her siblings dress for court — and the cameras" (dated November 9th):

She was the focus of this week’s final scene, flying up from her home in Florida, emerging from the bowels of a black town car to make her entrance in a navy wool coat and navy pantsuit, a black leather tote clutched in one hand, tiny pearl studs in her ears and with her blond hair falling in soft waves around her face, the picture of gentle, pulled-together professionalism and good will.

I've boldfaced the metaphor in which Ivanka Trump is likened to shit. 

It's not as though the car's resemblance to bowels was so precise and striking that the intestinal metaphor was simply irresistible. Ivanka Trump was apparently perfectly dressed for the occasion, and the fashion critic wanted to say so, but she couldn't just say that. She entertained us NYT readers with the giddy comfort of the absurd visualization of automotive defecation. 

Matt Bai knows he "should care more about Hunter Biden," but he just doesn't.

And he's telling you why in The Washington Post:

... I find it hard to get too worked up over all this, the way I did over the egregious conflicts of Donald Trump’s family during the last administration.

At least he's noticing it and admitting it publicly and feels the need to explain it (or sees some advantage in purporting to need to explain it). Whether the reasons given are sincere, we can judge for ourselves: 

Well, what would you wear under the circumstances?

"Inside, the church was less than half full. There were plenty of Hermès bags but few boldfaced names from the gilt-covered slice of Manhattan society the couple had inhabited..."

"... in the 1980s and 1990s.... 'In the tumultuous times of the last few years, with all the attacks we faced,' [Donald Trump Jr.] said, 'she was the first person to call and see if I perhaps wanted, or maybe needed, to move back in with her. That call was simultaneously the sweetest and most emasculating thing ever. And she could do that with the best of them, and usually it was on purpose.' When he was a small child, Mr. Trump said, he went with his family to the Hamptons. While there, he acted at Gosman’s (Montauk’s best-known seafood spot) in a way that 'exceeded the limits' of everyone’s patience. His mother, he said, took him to the bathroom and showed him 'what Eastern European discipline was really all about.' When it was over, he said, she told him, 'And if you cry, we’re going to come back in here and do this again.'... [Eric Trump] told another story about his sister Ivanka destroying a very pricey chandelier while playing in the house with a beach ball. 'Ivanka managed to quickly convince my mother that it was me,' he said. That time, the 'remedy,' as he put it, was a 'wooden spoon,' and what made his mother even more irate as she spanked him was his fervent denial of having played any role in the misbehavior. 'Not only had I broken the chandelier, but now I was also lying to her,' he said. But by the time she realized he was telling the truth, Mr. Trump said, she was 'too tired to deal with Ivanka.'"

From "At Ivana Trump’s Funeral, a Gold-Hued Coffin and the Secret Service" (NYT).

I'll just say it was mean of the Times to say "the church was less than half full" and tag this post with "mothers," "domestic violence," and "gender difference" and move on.

"[Ivanka Trump] recalled when [Attorney General] Barr had said publicly on Dec. 1 that there was no evidence of fraud on a scale that would change the outcome of the election."

"When asked how it impacted her, she responded, 'It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he was saying.' The opening statement by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) presented this as Ivanka Trump effectively saying she agreed with Barr, though Trump’s words in the excerpt — that Barr’s opinion 'affected' her view and that she 'accepted what he was saying' — were not quite so direct. She certainly indicated that she found Barr’s perspective compelling. Donald Trump said in response that his daughter was just 'trying to be respectful to Bill Barr' and didn’t study the election results herself.... The clips the committee played Thursday night seemed geared toward suggesting that even Trump’s own child...  knew better. But so far, the evidence is piecemeal, with Barr’s testimony being the most compelling, and the committee will have to build upon it."

From "How damning was the Ivanka Trump and Mark Meadows testimony? The clips of them being informed that Trump’s claims were bogus are worth parsing — as are others featured by the Jan. 6 committee" by Aaron Blake (WaPo).

They should be scrupulous in how they use evidence or they ruin their own credibility. This seems like a blatant example of stretching — of making the evidence fit the conclusion you want to draw.

If Ivanka wasn't garrulous, why bring up the concept of garrulousness?

I'm reading "Ivanka Trump Testifies to House Panel Investigating Jan. 6 Attack" in The New York Times. Key sentence:

It was not immediately clear how revelatory her testimony was for the committee, but those familiar with the interview said Ms. Trump did not seek to invoke any privilege — such as executive privilege or the Fifth Amendment, as other witnesses have done — and broadly, if not garrulously, answered the panel’s questions.

And what's with "not immediately clear how revelatory"? It sounds like she testified simply and straightforwardly, but there was nothing interesting. Why act like later something might be revealed? It's such lame titillation. What was unclear?

What is the function of "if not garrulously"? It strikes me as vaguely sexist, as though you would expect her to chatter inanely.

What if there were a color that could drive (some) people mad?

Nope. pic.twitter.com/BgtT2wvFx1

— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) July 12, 2021

It's some kind of litmus test, so take the test: 

What is your reaction to this Ivanka family photo?

Why are they doing that? Why? Why! What does it mean? That color?!! It's nuts!

How lovely for them to dress up, coordinated like that, embodying family harmony.

Absurd, stylish clowns, tweaking the uptight lefties, with just — a color!

Sometimes pure color comes to the fore and overshadows celebrity, politics, and all that is mundane.

An evil color, for an evil family — it's all so wrong, so perfectly wrong.

 

pollcode.com free polls

ADDED: My theory is that they adjusted the color until Arabella was dressed in the shade of blue associated with Tiffany & Co. — see it here — and the other clothing (and the sky) went along for the ride. It came out so cute and hilarious that they put it up on Instagram, and the haters made it viral.

BUT: I looked through her Instagram but didn't see the picture. Others dug all the way back to last year — I didn't go that far — and found it:

"I like Ivanka... look, anybody can decide to run if they want to. I mean I'm not entitled to anything and so forth. I've got to earn my way forward."

Said Marco Rubio, on Fox News Sunday, when Chris Wallace asked him about the possibility that Ivanka Trump will primary him when he runs for reelection Florida in 2022. 

Wallace wanted to know "How seriously do you take Ivanka Trump as a potential opponent?" But Rubio ignored the opportunity to slight Ivanka and say that somehow she's not serious.

Anyway, Rubio is up for reelection in 2022. Six years before that, he had to do his reelection campaign while also running for the Republican nomination for President. Remember how Jeb Bush — in a last-ditch effort to make something of his own badly failing presidential campaign — criticized Rubio for not staying in Washington and doing his senatorial work? That happened in October 2015, when it was clear that Rubio was the best hope to get a moderate Republican candidate instead of Trump. Here's my blog post about that. I thought Jeb should have withdrawn and endorsed Rubio instead of attacking him on a very fake issue.

"Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up. I choose the latter."

Said Ivanka Trump, ironically knocking the artist Jennifer Rubell, who'd made a performance piece called "Ivanka Vacuuming." 

 

Rubell said: "I truly did not intend the piece to be only a critique of her. I thought it was just as indicting of the viewer and all of us in our perception of her. I invited her to see the show. I was so naïve — I thought she would think it was kind of funny." 

That happened in 2019, but I didn't notice at the time. I'm seeing it today in a NYT piece called "As Their D.C. Days Dwindle, Ivanka and Jared Look for a New Beginning/The end of President Trump’s time in office leaves his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, looking for a new home — but they appear to have plans in New Jersey."

Here's a WaPo article from February 2019, "The performance piece ‘Ivanka Vacuuming’ seems to irk the first daughter even more than ‘fake news’": 

"Just five short years ago Jared and Ivanka were dinner-party royalty here in Manhattan. It’s that kind of place."

"They had money, they had youth, they had celebrity. They were thin. I’m told that their manners were impeccable, so you’d never know that his father was an actual felon and her father a de facto one. Besides, you can’t hold family against someone, can you? We don’t choose how we’re born. But from then on, we do make choices, and we’re accountable for those. Jared and Ivanka are about to be held accountable...."

So begins "Was It Worth It, Jared and Ivanka?/The glossiest grifters become Vuitton vagabonds" by Frank Bruni (NYT).

This desire for revenge is so ugly, but I'll take Bruni's word for it that it's impeccable manners within the context of "dinner-party royalty here in Manhattan." He said "here," so he must know.

Your side won, so why can't you be graceful about it? Will your next column be about how Joe Biden would bring everybody together if only the losing side weren't so intransigent?

"After her speech, the first daughter strode past the first lady to greet her father. Melania, who had first smiled broadly at Ivanka, suddenly went stony."

"The exchange was particularly loaded given the context: Melania’s former BFF and aide, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, is beginning to dish on her new tell-all about the first lady, which includes accounts of conversations in which Melania mocks Ivanka. It has been reported that Melania calls Ivanka ''the princess' — Trump singled out his favorite child in his convention speech — and Ivanka has reportedly called Melania 'the portrait.' After many tugs of war, Melania has resigned herself to the fact that Jared and Ivanka run the White House. The basic view in the building is that Ivanka has wrestled Melania to a draw. Wolkoff writes that Melania was so annoyed by her stepdaughter’s attempts to, as she saw it, infringe on her role in planning the Inauguration that she launched 'Operation Block Ivanka.'"

From "The Princess vs. the Portrait in Trumpworld/The first family serves up a malarkey buffet" by Maureen Dowd (NYT).

Here's the excerpt about "Block Ivanka" from the Wolkoff book (published at New York Magazine)(warning: the author herself calls it "petty"):

"I recognize that my dad’s communication style is not to everyone’s taste and I know that his tweets can feel a bit unfiltered..."

Said Ivanka Trump, in her convention speech last night. Clearly, she was there to reach out to people who might like some or a lot of what Trump is doing but think there's something brutal and rough about him and nice people don't associate with that.

My choice of the word "rough" makes me think of that famous line attributed to George Orwell: "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." But that has nothing to do with how the President of the United States chooses to speak.

President Obama spoke in a beautifully polished style — most of the time — but he was ready to do violence on our behalf. I wrote "most of the time" because as soon I thought about Obama's readiness to do violence on our behalf, I remembered something he said: "Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine."

Here's the larger context of that Ivanka quote:

How dumb is it to attack Ivanka's story that her son built a Lego model of the White House!

So Ivankas story about her son building a lego model of the WH model is most likely a lie. She used the same story herself about Trump Towers.https://t.co/fISo2Gy45k

— Call Me Prez🌊🗽🔥🆘🍑❄️💪 (@lunaticopresid1) August 28, 2020

... here's the video of ivanka telling the story about her building a lego trump tower from an old episode of late night with @conanobrien.https://t.co/fQ7zD1gP09 https://t.co/zKFIO9OYLG

— fake nick ramsey @ 🏡 (@nick_ramsey) August 28, 2020

It's not that big a deal to build a Lego model of the White House! They sell kits. But who would attack a mother proud of her little son's accomplishment?! And it gives her the opportunity to knock you right down with a photograph:

"While Melania stayed in New York, Ivanka continued to establish herself in the West Wing, notorious for its cramped and limited working spaces."

"According to several people, she was eyeing real estate in the East Wing as well, the domain of the first lady. Among other proposals, Ivanka suggested renaming the 'First Lady’s Office' the 'First Family Office.' Melania did not allow that to happen. It was tradition, and she was not going to let her stepdaughter change it. Ivanka’s office remained in the West Wing. Melania’s delay in moving from New York initially put her at a disadvantage. Even some of the staff positions and budgets that would have been available to support the first lady’s office were gone, diverted to support those in the West Wing, including Ivanka.... With Melania away, Ivanka used the private theater, with its plush red seats, and enjoyed other White House perks. Some said she treated the private residence as if it were her own home. Melania did not like it. When she and Barron finally moved in, she put an end to the 'revolving door' by enforcing firm boundaries.... People working in the West Wing say they have heard Trump criticize Don Jr. and Eric and even Ivanka for doing or saying something that the president thought was not helpful, but none could recall hearing him say anything negative about Melania.... More than a dozen past or current White House officials interviewed attributed Melania’s influence to the fact that Trump believed that just about everyone else had an agenda, except Melania. He believed she had no ulterior motive and just wanted him to succeed...."

From "How Melania Trump blocked Ivanka Trump from encroaching on her domain" by Mary Jordan (adapted from the book, "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump")(WaPo).

"So, don’t ever, ever let anyone tell you that you’re too angry, or that you 'should keep your mouth shut.'"

Says Michelle Obama — in "Graduates, 'Don’t ever, ever let anyone tell you that you’re too angry'" (WaPo).

If you don't let other people say things, then you are the one who is silencing the other. Where does anyone get the power not to let other people say things? I know, it's a figure of speech, and when you don't "let" another person "tell" you something, what you mean is that you don't have to believe what you're told. They can tell it, but you don't have to accept it as true.

But is it never true that you're too angry? Is Obama saying that no one should ever believe that they're too angry. No, she's just saying form your own opinions about whether your anger has gone too far. You can't trust anyone who tries to impose that opinion on you — to tell you you're too angry.

When I read Obama's advice, the first person I thought of was Donald Trump. Maybe somebody told him that at his graduation: Don’t ever ever let anyone tell you that you’re too angry. But doesn't he let Ivanka tell him that he's too angry?

I get email from Tom Cotton, addressing me as "Patriot."

It says:

On Wednesday, I published an article in the New York Times calling for an end to violence in our streets. Outnumbered police officers, encumbered by feckless politicians, bore the brunt of the violence.

Feckless!*

These rioters, if not subdued, not only will destroy the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens but will also take more innocent lives. The overwhelming majority of Americans are sick and tired of this violence and want to see strong action taken to restore law and order.

I’ve caused a total meltdown from the media and radical liberals. Reporters are attacking me and going after the New York Times for having the audacity to publish a piece that doesn’t fit within their liberal ideology.

He is glorying in their attack on him and fundraising. Of course, that's how it's done.  There follows a request for a donation, with clickable links. He says "socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez" are "are trying to silence," and "liberal media and their democrat cronies" — yeah, small "d" — are "trying to silence our conservative voices."

I never give money to politicians. I'm just showing you that Tom Cotton is fundraising over the NYT reaction to its publication of his op-ed, that I was addressed as "Patriot," and that "feckless" has returned.
___________________

* I've already done a post about "feckless" — back when Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a "feckless cunt." I said: "In case you're wondering what the fuck 'feck' even is that we should feel bad about the lack of it, it's just another way to say 'effect.' So to be 'feckless' is to be lame, without effect." That was in the beginning of June 2018. Later that same month, Kathy Griffin called Melania Trump a "feckless complicit piece of shit," and I blogged it here. So... "feckless" had a moment, 2 years ago.

"... Ivanka. Always Ivanka. She stood tall on her stilettos. She rose, golden-haired, above the group."

"She was dressed in black cropped pants and blazer. She was toting a very large white handbag and later was wearing a matching face mask with tiny metallic stars.... and White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany... was in a closefitting double-breasted blazer with gold metallic buttons and skinny trousers. She was perched atop a pair of stiletto pumps — a style of footwear that this White House, all on its own, may be keeping in circulation."

From Robin Givhan's fashion-and-politics account of Trump's Bible-laden procession to St. John's Episcopal Church.

It wasn't a terribly far walk...



... but I was struck that the women had to — or chose to — wear stilettos. It made me think of those traditions of crawling to church — deliberately taking on pain and suffering as you make your way to the sacred destination. There are similarities and differences...



The look is not meant to say I am suffering. The idea is to walk fluidly alongside the men as if it's completely natural and perfectly comfortable. There's no visible expression of humility or sacrifice. If anything, the expression is of pride in the prettiness, the extra height, and the complete hiding of any difficulty.

So, it's a bit like a hair shirt, which is a hidden item of clothing that inflicts suffering and is worn as penitence. And yet the stilettos are not worn in secret. They are quite conspicuous and that is the point. And the suffering is merely endured, not undertaken for a higher purpose.

Have stilettos gone out of fashion? Robin Givhan — whose work requires her to keep up with fashion — calls them a "style of footwear that this White House, all on its own, may be keeping in circulation." That has to mean they are passé. Maybe it's like the way right-wing women in the 1960s continued to wear teased, sprayed bouffant hairdos long after other women had moved on to what was called "the natural look."

"In 2020, among political controversies, Elon Musk and several political figures, including Ivanka Trump made a reference to the red pill concept."

That's the last line of the Wikipedia article "Red pill and blue pill" — which is full of great stuff. In addition to explaining the original meaning in the movie "The Matrix," there's the earlier movie, "Total Recall," in which the Schwarzenegger character is offered a red pill and told "it's a symbol of your desire to return to reality." And:

The choice between taking a blue or red pill is a central metaphor in the 2011 Arte documentary film Marx Reloaded, in which philosophers including Slavoj Žižek and Nina Power explore solutions to the global economic and financial crisis of 2008–09. The film also contains an animated parody of the red/blue pill scene in The Matrix, with Leon Trotsky as Morpheus and Karl Marx as Neo.

Ha ha. I want to see that. Aha!



I love cartoons. Are they real life? Are they just fantasy?

Anyway, yesterday, Elon Musk tweeted: "Take the red pill." That's the whole tweet. What did he want to take the red pill about?

And Ivanka was right there:

Taken! https://t.co/Ng0S2OFC93

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 17, 2020

Does she know? I mean, there is no pill to take to get you exactly to reality. If you use the metaphor, you're simply insisting that YOU know where reality is and that other people are living in a fantasy world. It's just a pop-culture, cheeky way to assert that YOU know what is true and those other people are wrong. But Elon Musk's tweet doesn't specify the thing that is asserted to be true. And Ivanka is signaling that she's in on the truth and it's the same truth that Elon Musk is pushing.

You can look at his Twitter feed and try to get a sense of what he's talking about. My previous post is about another Elon Musk tweet — one that rages against the extenuation of the coronavirus lockdown — but this "red pill" tweet isn't close to that in the feed. The lockdown protest was back on May 14th and this "red pill" business was on the 17th.

Now, maybe he's just saying, Let's all look at what's really real. Turn away from the fantasy life that might make you feel good, but the truth is better.

That makes me think of the Jesus catchphrase: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

ADDED: The director of "The Matrix" responds to Elon and Ivanka: "Fuck both of you."