Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Motown is Joe-Town!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Republicans don’t trust women.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Let me file that under fuck it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: BeBestest Xmas

Late Night Open Thread: BeBestest Xmas

by | 70 Comments

This post is in: , ,

The Horse is not wrong! Melania’s Christmas tableaus have always been strongly reminiscent of those at an upscale Midwestern mall. This year, now that she knows she’ll never have to do another one of these excruciating walk-throughs, it’s a mid-range Midwestern mall. (Perhaps she was told she could keep any funds left over from the ‘decorations appeal’.) And yet, it’s a more cheerful production than the others, even if it took someone raised outside the American and/or ‘Christian’ holiday tradition to appreciate it…

Monica Hess, in the Washington Post:

… The decor contains many roses, white lights and hanging ornaments — airplanes, speedboats — which Melania looks up at and beholds in wonder. There is a painting of a reindeer and another one of a fox; there is an ornament of an American flag and another one reading “Be Best,” referencing the first lady’s launch-failure of a signature initiative. There is a banner celebrating the 19th Amendment, which now comes across as fourth-dimensional trolling given that the majority of American women voters used their ballots to eject Melania’s husband from the White House…

Melania’s Christmas videos contain ornaments ostensibly made by children (extremely artistic children), but there is no evidence of actual children: no footage of visiting school groups, no sloppy handmade gingerbread, no festive soundtrack of recognizable child-friendly Christmas carols. The videos contain messages that the White House represents America’s “home,” but it’s depicted as the kind of a place where they give you a pair of slip-on hospital booties as soon as you walk in the door.

In a season meant to celebrate family, friends, community and warmth, Melania always appears alone and very, very cold.

The fans who love Melania’s Christmas decor — and they are legion, and they are loud — will insist they love it because it’s “elegant”; that Melania has returned “elegance” to the White House.

And maybe this is the disconnect: There are those who feel the White House should be a place of inclusion, a place where you hang up the weird calamari ornament just because Rhode Island made it, and Rhode Island is a part of the country, too. And there are those who feel the White House should be a symbolic showplace, whose inhabitants’ lives are untouched and unbothered by whatever is going on outside of its walls. Melania is not there to welcome you, she is there for you to admire her. When she delivers words, they will be stilted but she will look fantastic doing it…

Barring an unexpectedly dramatic post-WH Trump denoument, however, I doubt we’ll ever actually see her proposed book…

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    columbusqueen

    How anyone thinks Melania is not a tacky Eastern European whore with vague artistic pretensions is beyond me.

  2. 2.

    HumboldtBlue

    I read “Joe Biden sustains hairline fracture” and immediately thought to myself, “aww come one, leave him alone he got implants to take of that hairline” and remembered his foot.

  4. 4.

    Kent

    @columbusqueen: 

    Not only was Trump the worst president ever. Melania has to be our worst first lady ever. Even Bush had the good sense to marry someone respectable. Regardless of how horrible his presidency was, at least Laura Bush didn’t soil the role of First Lady.

  7. 7.

    West of the Rockies

    Melania just appears to be a cold, arrogant, plastic person.  Such miserable entitlement.  She is gold-plated resentment personified.

  9. 9.

    JustRuss

    It looks like Melancholia has given up trying to be edgy and is going with “give me something that won’t creep everybody out.”  A small win, but I’ll take it.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    (adjusts vocalization to Gabriel Heatter timbre) There’s good news tonight.

    Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will step down from his post on Jan. 20, the day President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, he announced Monday. Source

  12. 12.

    patrick II

    I watched part II of Colbert’s interview with Obama tonight.  They are very thoughtful men.  Stephen is a better in-depth interviewer than comedian.

  13. 13.

    piratedan

    @columbusqueen: in a way, I’m kinda glad that this is exactly who she is… my reasons for saying this is that it would be quite tragic if she had the smallest glimmer of a redeeming quality that might encourage us to bank our collective antipathy of this administration.  Since she isn’t a very good person, the only qualifier we can offer is that she’s somehow less evil than the person she’s married to and as qualifiers go, well, who isn’t?

  15. 15.

    Comrade Colette

    @piratedan:

    she’s somehow less evil than the person she’s married to and as qualifiers go, well, who isn’t?

    Me. I’m considerably more evil than Monsieur Colette.

    That was what you meant, right?

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    strongly reminiscent of those at an upscale Midwestern mall

    What upscale Midwestern mall had a blood-drenched Christmas tree display, or those other skeletal, phantasmagoric trees?

  20. 20.

    Yutsano

    @Amir Khalid:

    Melania seems to have the right level of artistic vision to decorate a shopping mall. There’s honest money to be made doing that.

    I already see the problem…

    She’s not here to do work. She’s meant to be a socialite who is adored by upper crust New York royalty. She just happened to latch on to someone as vile and decrepit as she is. I’m almost certain a big chunk of the pre-nup was getting her out of any debt obligations they might share. I have no doubt she’ll try to go back to some life like that. I can’t see her living out her days in Florida listening to her husband’s grievances.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    I’d forgotten about that scumbag.

    Ah, a Pai filter.

    ;)

    Nevertheless, having him scoot away a year before his term is up qualifies as a Good Thing.

  26. 26.

    cain

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Andrea Mitchell was very upset that she didn’t get a personal phone call about his hairline fraction and this proves that he doesn’t care about the press at all!

  28. 28.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I was shocked the media didn’t make a big deal about Joe’s hair plugs.  So many of the issues I worried about—his Strom Thurmond eulogy, his shotgun comments—never touched his campaign.

    I honestly don’t know how to feel about this; grateful to the media, I guess? Confused? Angry that Hillary was treated so much worse?

  30. 30.

    Leto

    And there are those who feel the White House should be a symbolic showplace, whose inhabitants’ lives are untouched and unbothered by whatever is going on outside of its walls. Melania is not there to welcome you, she is there for you to admire her.

    That’s a fucking monarchy. If they want that, they can move their un-happy asses back to the UK. Or they can watch a few episodes of The Crown. Otherwise, fuck off with this non-sense. Jan 20th we’re kicking their grifting/autocratic/lazy asses to the curb, with hopefully a 1 bounce to jail.

  31. 31.

    cain

    @NotMax:

    Looking at those cars.. whew.. we had some ugly cars back then.. they look soo heavy. The 60s and early 70s had some great elegant cars. The 80s sucked except for maybe some of the Corvettes. I always considered any of the olds who were driving Cadillacs douche bags – but hey it’s their retirement money.

  33. 33.

    Leto

    @HumboldtBlue: the guy smoking the pipe and blowing glass… respect. We had a chance to see the Venice art glass and it was simply amazing. I shared this with the friends who were stationed with us in Italy at the time. Thanks for sharing!

  34. 34.

    Ian

    @Leto: The whole Christmas in the White House thing is basically American trappings of Monarchy.  Why in the world are our tax dollars going to seasonal decorations of a politicians residence?  Why are White House staff assigned to this?  Is there a single concrete benefit to throwing a pageant to one religion’s winter solstice ritual?

    It makes Americans feel warm and fuzzy on the inside knowing their leaders share their deepest religious suspicions.  The king is like me, so all must be well.

  38. 38.

    cain

    I would love to have gotten  To have someone’s take on this:

     

    Just left the classified briefing on the proposed massive, unprecedented arms sale to UAE, including F-35s and Reaper drones. Just a mind blowing number of unsettled issues and questions the Administration couldn’t answer. Hard to overstate the danger of rushing this though.— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 1, 2020

  39. 39.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    @columbusqueen:

    So was the media’s kid-glove  treatment of Joe just the deference they always afford white men?

    Or was the media just distracted by Trump’s ne’er-ending bullshit pageant?

  40. 40.

    cain

    @hervevillechaizelounge:

    Even so.. the GOP couldn’t use that as a attack vector because they revere Strom as well and attacking Biden on that front would have made the base angry.

    However, the Bernie Sanders Justice Democrats could have used that against him. But then again, that would mean the defeat of Biden which would not bode well either.

  42. 42.

    SWMBO

    @Dan B: Why?  Do they now believe that they helped Trump win?  How about a public fucking apology to Hillary?  She got more votes than Trump did and they still acted like she stole the election.  Biden got more votes than Trump did and they are now pointing out that Trump didn’t win the election.  How about they apologize for a LOT of shit they threw on Hillary and didn’t throw on anyone this election.

    Sigh.  Too soon?

  43. 43.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    @Dan B:

    So going forward we should vigorously work the refs and wield Hillary’s treatment as a cudgel, like the right does with the Bork hearings.

    I always feel better when I have a plan of action.

    Thanks for your help!

  44. 44.

    Sloane Ranger

    @hervevillechaizelounge: 

    So was the media’s kid-glove treatment of Joe just the deference they always afford white men?

    Or was the media just distracted by Trump’s ne’er-ending bullshit pageant?

    Why not both? Biden benefited from looking like one of the templates for a US President i.e male, white, distinguished and experienced. The ony outlier being his age, but, when his opponent was also in his 70s, that’s not much to make an issue of.

    Plus, after 3 years and more of being insulted, disrespected and almost one of being in danger of being infected from Trump, having Biden, who is concerned about their health and safety and, at worst, just ignores their questions, probably seems like a step up. Bound to affect reporters attitudes, if only unconsciously.

  45. 45.

    Dan B

    @SWMBO: Just repeating what Couric believes.  My feeling is that there may be some media people who did feel guilty.  I don’t believe there was as much introspection as Katie Couric does.  Misogyny is as likely but we may never know for sure.

  47. 47.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Ian:

     

    The whole Christmas in the White House thing is basically American trappings of Monarchy. Why in the world are our tax dollars

    Hardly in the UK. I can assure you that the only insight into Christmas decorations for the Royal family will come from the Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast, where we might get a glimpse of her Christmas tree in the background and I suspect that she remembers some of the ornaments from her own childhood.

    The decorations the media tend to publicise are the Oxford Street lights and Harrods.

  48. 48.

    Luciamia

    Sure, its Christmas so lets back off a little… But that upper right pic. Two candlelabras in a bathtub filled with greens. What the heck is that?

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I suspect that Melon delegated this to some of her staffers, who created something more traditional to avoid the tsunami of mockery of Melon’s more hands on years.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sloane Ranger:

    I think Americans generally don’t quite understand what royal figures are, and what they are not, to the rest of their nation. Especially in modern times where their role is almost entirely ceremonial. Royals don’t live in a glass bowl, mostly, and to the extent that they do they probably don’t care for it. Note Prince Harry, who felt the need to get his wife and children away from the media spotlight that his mother was thrust into as a teenager, and that he feels harmed her.

  53. 53.

    opiejeanne

    @Luciamia: It’s a very nice dining room table, and for some reasons there are greens all over it, with two candelabra. The greens look like a wreath that someone has just set down while they wait for the guy with the ladder so it can be hung somewhere else.

  54. 54.

    SectionH

    @Amir Khalid: Of course it harmed her. It’s a… compare and contrast question, between the US and UK. Good for them.

    I wonder whether the tabloids chasing his mother or the NYT+ tabloids chasing Hilary caused more damage. Or maybe I don’t wonder. Otoh, we haven’t seen the hard Brexit fallout yet…

  55. 55.

    Sloane Ranger

    @SectionH: And yet both Charles and Diana tried to use the media to their own advantage during the War of the Wales’s. Although evidence is circulating that the BBC Martin Bashir forged evidence to persuade Diana to give him an interview.

    Like most people whose mere existence garners publicity, they seek it where they think it benefits them personally or a cause they support but complain when they are caught being escorted,  tired and emotional, out of a nightclub.

    It’s just that we’re not that interested in the specifics of their Christmas decorations.

  56. 56.

    SectionH

    @Sloane Ranger: Yeah, sadly I’m sure that’s true. I mostly had a quick flash about why his childhood might have caused Harry to wanna opt out of the spotlight.

  57. 57.

    NeenerNeener

    @Yutsano: I can’t see Trump staying married to her once they’re out of the WH; she is 50 after all, and Hope Hicks is available and only in her 30s.

  58. 58.

    Anne Laurie

    @NeenerNeener: It’s a theory, but I doubt there will be enough left to interest Hicks, who can do better even if she does seem to have an unseemly weakness for abusers.

    Much as she seems to loathe her spouse, I don’t think Melania will officially divorce him before Barron turns 18, at least.  The older kids would very much like to cut him out of the family ’empire’ (such as it is), but it’s a lot harder for them to do that while she’s sharing a house with Dear Old Daddy.

    I’ve always thought Julia Ioffe had the best take — Melania’s like a medieval minor princess who’s sold herself off to keep the aging ‘king’ from getting himself into worse trouble. It has been, and for the immediate future will be, safer for her to stay in the Marred-A-Largo ‘castle’ than to risk the mercies of her stepkids’ lawyers.  Wendy Deng’s done okay without Rupert Murdoch’s indulgence, but Melania doesn’t have Deng’s brains, education, or global networking talents to sustain her current lifestyle.

  59. 59.

    SectionH

    @Amir Khalid: I totally agree with you that most Americans don’t understand actual countries where most of the people truly think their monarch is Important. I could just quit by saying that most Americans don’t understand our own system, so it’s kind of hopeless. But ma lot of us do try to learn a bit about the rest of the world. I’m not a fan of monarchies, including the Windsors, but it’s fascinating to see that Monarchies exist and where and how and why.

    I’m thinking of Thailand, as an obvious response to you, as a place where the royal family is Very Important. But damn. that’s kinda fraught right now, innit?

    This is actually a very fundamental discussion. I’m not gonna start at 3am my time.

  60. 60.

    Starfish

    @Luciamia: See. This is the correct question. This piece really reflects the whole dictator chic aesthetic that the Trumps prefer.

    Also, Melanie walks the fine line of supporting and trolling her husband all at once.   Were the boats symbolic of the boat parades that supported Trump? Some of those boats sank so is this just making fun of Trump?

    The Nineteenth Amendment stuff is “Look Republicans are the real party that supports women. Look at all the terrible women we put in power and ignore the whole repeal of the Violence Against Women Act and our Supreme Court picks.”

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    What upscale Midwestern mall had a blood-drenched Christmas tree display

    All of ’em, Katie? They can be found right next to the “Cleti* welcome here” diners.

    *”Cleti” == plural of Cletus, of course.

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    @Anne Laurie:

    If Barron has ANY smarts, he’ll look at his father’s “vast wealth” and say “maybe I can swap my share for student debt? At least that way I’ll have a chance of paying that off in this lifetime.”

  64. 64.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Achrachno: And Scott Atlas walked the plank today. Gone immediately. This at least is good.

    Soon to be supplanted by a yob with a black hoodie & scythe whose name sounds like Grimm Rieper. Be careful what you wish for; be more careful what you celebrate.

  66. 66.

    randy khan

    @NotMax:

    Pai is stepping down – as every FCC chairman does when the party holding the White House changes – because the title of chairman is conferred at the pleasure of the President, so he won’t be chairman as soon as Biden is inaugurated.  Nobody wants to be chairman and then get demoted to being a regular commissioner.

  67. 67.

    randy khan

    One thing to remember about the White House Christmas decorations is that they are planned far in advance.  So this year’s theme was decided before we even knew that Joe Biden would survive South Carolina.

Comments are closed.