Regretfully, it wasn’t always so, but these days I try to stay away from criticizing people for how they look, dress or present themselves. Part of my reluctance is lack of standing as a somewhat slovenly person.
But mostly, it’s a fairness, relevance and (long!) belated maturity thing, a sincere belief that people should be judged by their words and actions, not their conformance to conventional beauty standards, wardrobe choices, weight, haircuts, etc.
If you sensed a BUT coming up after that preamble, you’re right because damn. (Via Driftglass)
The “Mar-a-Lago face” phenomenon is ridiculous and superficial, but maybe it’s also something more:
Plastic surgeons told the Daily Mail the trend, with its “copious use of Botox, a Miami-bronze tan, puffy lips and silky-smooth skin” was “giving Trumpland an almost ‘plastic’ and ‘Real Housewives’ look”. The end result, said Salon, is faces “so fake-looking it’s uncanny, as if an AI image generator had replaced a person with an exaggerated version of themselves”.
It’s a tell that Trump is so fond of the word “fake.” There’s no one more fake than Donald Trump, a cowardly weakling who’s worshipped for toughness, a prolific liar who “tells it like it is,” a serially bankrupt, flailing nepo baby who played a decisive, self-made businessman on TV.
Trump is a ridiculous, deeply insecure and stupid loser when it comes to all of the human qualities that really matter. And yet he is skilled at mining the inexhaustible resource of grievance to acquire sufficient power to ruin a once great nation. The same can be said of Trump’s largest campaign donor.
This is where the MAGA aesthetic ceases to be a trend to be mined for cheap laughs. It’s AI slop made flesh, an incarnate denial of reality. And while sometimes that’s funny, it’s also dangerous. The loss of a shared sense of reality is a big part of what landed us in this fascist mess.
Perhaps unfairly, I experienced a similar wave of revulsion in reaction to this photo, ostensibly published to celebrate a “historic all-female space crew.”
I understand a couple of these women are actual rocket scientists and people with other talents. I’m unfamiliar with their politics, but I don’t assume they’ve all sunk to the same level of depravity as the individuals in the first photo, even if they voluntarily associate with Bezos.
But still, gross, and no thanks. I’ll celebrate a future all-woman crew that doesn’t get all glammed up for the launch and makes the trip for reasons other than celebrity self-actualization.
Open thread.
WTFGhost
I confess, I didn’t realize the first photo was a comparison, before/after. But once I saw that, wow!
suzanne
Ahhhh, Instagram face. Walking around looking like you have a FaceTune filter on.
Doc Sardonic
Belafon
They weren’t really a crew since they didn’t actually have to do much, so that whole part was silly. But I would volunteer in a minute to be sent up to even just the edge of space.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The giant rocket phallus in the background is a nice touch. /s
Also too, never stop reading Driftglass if for nothing else than his decades-long take downs of David Fucking Brooks.
Jeffro
Loomer genuinely looks like she’s a Joker groupie or something…I mean, ye gods…
Doc Sardonic
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: And it lasted 11 minutes
espierce
In Gaetz’s case, the forehead reduction surgery seems to have failed, moving his eyes even closer together!
Splitting Image
I’d celebrate the all-woman crew more if these same assholes weren’t systematically firing women in high level positions across the government (and anywhere else where government pressure can reach) and cutting educational opportunities that allow women to get the skills to crew a spaceship.
It’s worth remembering that the Soviets sent the first woman into space just so they could brag about doing it before the Americans. Then they sent up exactly one more, so that they could brag about sending a woman to do a space walk before the Americans. Real commitment to gender equality, those guys.
M31
“wow, that long?” — Donald J Trump
Elizabelle
Why can’t they just use cat filters?
Spot on. I notice it when scrolling through the NY Post too.* Rightwing ladyface is a thing.
The Unreal Housewives of Mar a Lago. No thank you.
* Always curious what they are whingeing about now.
Elizabelle
The Guardian called the Blue Origin stunt a “hen party.” Ayup.
ArchTeryx
@Elizabelle: Sounds about right. More tokens than in a tiddlywinks game.
Juju
@Jeffro: And she’s only 31. She looks a hell of a lot older than than 31. I thought 45ish.
oldster
Oh, I don’t mind the space travelers as much. They do not look all botoxed and plasticized. Yes, some of them are voguing, but it seems pretty good-natured.
The Mar-a-Lago face, on the other hand, is truly grotesque. And several of them actually looked like real human beings beforehand! Gaetz has always looked grotesque, but the woman in the upper right looked interesting and human before she got maralagoed.
West of the Rockies
@Belafon:
More photogenic cargo than crew?
me
@Splitting Image:
And the woman in question is currently a member of the Russian duma and a huge Putin fan.
laura
Those lips- those greasy pack of hot dog lips. That squiks me out more than any other affectation.
dc
Do male crews also have spandex fitted
outfitsuniforms?The Thin Black Duke
Honestly, this reality TV stunt is more depressing than inspiring, and it speaks volumes that Bezos refused to say how much it cost. Ridiculous. America is a deeply unserious country now.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@dc:
I wondered this exact same thing when I saw that photo, then looked up Shatner’s 2021 Phallus Space Phlight to look at what they wore.
And what a shock, it wasn’t tightly fitting spandex!
Quicksand
@Juju:
@Jeffro:
Did she really once look like that picture on the left? Because HOLY SHIT.
Juju
What’s with the bell bottom pants flight suit and the platform shoes? I don’t recall men who have gone up in the penis rocket wearing anything like those flight suits. I could be wrong, but I was probably distracted by trying to decide wether the rocket looked like a giant penis or Bezos’ head.
Geminid
Those pics up top reminded me that Kimberly Guilfoyle was nominated to be U.S. Ambassador to Greece. A Palm Beach, Florida news site described her as Donald Tump Jr.’s “ex-fiance” and said she had not yet been confirmed as of April 2nd..
Tom Barrack on the other hand was confirmed by the Senate last month. The long-time Trump ally serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Turkiye.
Former Senator Jeff Flake was Joe Biden’s representative to Ankara. Flake left the post last fall, but not before he swam the Bosphorus. Now he’s in charge of a Arizona State political institute.
suzanne
The other one who has this look is Casey DeSantis, except she had the terrible luck to be brunette. But she’s got the freaky fillers, the bizarre eyebrows.
If they asked me, I would suggest that they take makeup lessons from Sarah McBride.
Jackie
@Belafon:
How did this escape the DEI Censorship Community???
That was my immediate thought – not celebrating an all female crew – who bought their barely into outer space seats – for a publicity stunt.
suzanne
@laura: The thing that freaks me out about the lip injectables is when they start moving around and they look like random lumps in their faces.
Baud
Of the photos, Musk is the only one that looks better IMHO. I don’t see the attractiveness of what other people are doing to their faces.
I don’t mind the space stunt so much, if it actually helps young girls get interested in space and science.
Juju
@suzanne: El Mark-o eyebrows.
Steve LaBonne
@The Thin Black Duke: We have been a deeply unserious country for a long time, but a relatively small number of serious people somehow managed to keep us more or less functioning. Now the wheels are off.
prostratedragon
@suzanne: Heh-heh. Kari Lake and her wearable soft focus.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Agreed.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
I think this is more accurate.
MisterForkbeard
@Jeffro: The Loomer one is the one that looks like it just went wrong. And to be fair, she looks a lot more human in most pics. Kristi Noem is the worst one to me, though – what drives a professional woman to try and look like a knockoff baby-faced young starlet with no relation to her previous look?
We know the answer to that – looking like a cheap blonde news reporter is how you get ahead in Trumpland. And hey, it (and blind sycophancy) got her a job as chief immigrant torturer.
M31
seriously, who is this stunt for?
people who love science/space? nope
feminists? hahaha nope
aging loser men who like to look at titties? wtf guys, there are so many titties you can look at for free
I don’t get it, no really
the only thing that makes sense is to stick it to the real feminists, the equivalent of electing Trump after Obama
fucking fuckers
Baud
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
I don’t know what the reaction of young girls will be. In the old days, it was space shows that helped inspire people. Today it’s reality TV.
rikyrah
@WTFGhost:
me either…LOL
Anyway
i think that’s the standard Brit lingo for bachelorette party …
M31
the only space spandex woman I ever want to see is Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest
Sister Golden Bear
I’ll just note the Musk’s hair transplants, jaw reshaping surgery and (self-acknowledged) testosterone treatments are all gender affirming healthcare.
Same can be said for the work — including conspicuous boob jobs — that these and other Republican monstrosities and Foxbots have had done.
prostratedragon
From The Twilight Zone episode “Number 12 Looks Just Like You”.
Dave from the Rust Belt
“Six women in a penis shaped rocket” sounds like the plot to one of those movies they used to show late at night on Cinemax.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: He has more hair but what is going on with his cheeks?
RaflW
What Laura Loomer has done to her face (or, what Dr.s have done that she has, presumably asked for!) is terrifying.
stacib
@The Thin Black Duke: Whew, so it’s not just me thinking practically this exact same sentiment. Gayle King should be embarrassed.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: To be blunt, I think the subtext is these women are supposed to be ornamental, not useful. All the other women who are found to be repulsive to the male gaze will be at home, pumping out babies like God intended. Women belong in the kitchen, not a laboratory.
Albatrossity
It’s not DEI if you have to pay to get in!
Shakti
I strongly reject that aesthetic as beautiful, evidence of whatever superiority they claim. and therefore aspirational because it signals submission to that horrible world view.
That’s what these horrid people are mad about, the fact nobody aspires to be them, as you can see in this article (Washington Post):
I remember this Tressie McMillan Cottom essay:
Toeless Flenser
Omg those lips …. It just looks like someone stapled a slug to her face
emjayay
This no thumbs up, replies to comments showing up half a mile south of the original comment, no photos no GIFs format still sucks today just like it always has.
Why?
Elizabelle
Fake people deserve fake faces.
Belafon
@emjayay: Have you thought about starting your own blog?
Shakti
@Dave from the Rust Belt: That’s just the tagline for a Barbarella sequel. Or am I wrong because I’ve never seen that movie?
No One of Consequence
@Belafon: Your first comment was kind of my thought: What exactly does this crew do? Occupy seats and try to control what I imagine are pants-shitting feelings of fear or the corresponding quite-real G forces.
This is not to denigrate the all-female crew, and I was pleased to hear about this achievement, but in addition to the hand-waving of ‘crew’, the promotional images I have seen landed with a thud personally. Why the need for glam? It reinforces the semi-seriousness of the event.
Its like the whole world is all-in on the race to pure facade. Absolutely, positively, NO substance, whatsoever. So paper-thin that it won’t withstand logical scrutiny nor even the faintest breeze. One could argue that this appears to be coupled with a disturbing trend of purposefully atrophying one’s abilities of self-reflection.
But the fug do I know?
-NOoC
laura
@suzanne: well, if one is determined to buy a future randomly lumpy over used sex doll face, why should I, a petty and salty gal, stand in their way?
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
My admittedly anecdotal evidence observed in teaching high school since 2005 is that young girls rarely watch anything on TV. They watch each other on insta & tiktok.
kwAwk
My thoughts for today start with the people, like Elon, who are trying to rehab the r word. Saying the r word doesn’t make you cool or edgy, it just makes you sound old. It’s a lot like a boomer in 1990 calling people a square.
Trump seems to have a weird mental tic where he equates a trade deficit with the national debt. The two aren’t related or the same buddy. The trade deficit doesn’t affect the budget deficit of the Federal Government. Cutting taxes without cutting programs people like raises the deficit. That’s why Republicans always run on euphemisms of cutting waste, fraud and abuse. Nobody is for waste fraud and abuse. Campaign on cutting medical research, kicking grandma out of the nursing home and worse roads and schools, and you don’t get very far.
For Bill Maher, you got love bombed by Trump. Love bombing makes you feel good, that’s the whole point. Google ‘narcissists can be charming’ and see what pops up. Because you criticize those of us on the left, Trump sees and opportunity to split you off from us by being pretty charming in private. He doesn’t behave this way in public because he knows his appeal to his base is how horrible he is to people on the left. He sees your criticism of us as a means to justify his own dickhead behavior. And by the way, you’re getting old too, you’re not one of the cool kids anymore. While I agree with you on transwomen in sports, just for fairness, you’re views on transwomen in general are lost on the young generation. They see you spouting off about trans issues and see the same old men who in the 60’s were griping about guys who let their face grow long and girls who let their knickers down.
Goo goo ga joob.
No One of Consequence
@M31: Where can we deliver your Internets? (slash Citizen Kane slow clap GIF)
-NOoC
Elizabelle
And, in news of higher evolved beings than the devolved weirdos pictured above:
Elephants at the San Diego Zoo formed a circle to protect their young on sensing this week’s 5.2 earthquake (centered in Julian, CA, about 90 miles away). They put on some speed to do it, too. Local NBC link with video.
I love that the juvenile male elephant decided he was going to be a big kid and join the protecting outer circle, too.
catclub
Yeah, maybe only the most expensive plastic surgery is worth it.
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
I don’t partake of any of those media. My only point is that I don’t know what type of content young girls will find inspiring. Maybe glam is in with the young crowd.
tobie
What a profound insight, Betty Cracker. I’m grateful to you for this. And for all your posts, of course.
Doc Sardonic
@emjayay: Because the blogs mission is first and foremost to provide irritation to you and amusement at your irritation for the rest of us.
Belafon
@catclub: I think that most people don’t see the same person when they look in a mirror that the rest of us see when we look at them. I do wonder if who they see now is who they want to see.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Dave from the Rust Belt: Or the sort of movie that would be heckled by some schlub in a jumpsuit and two robots.
prostratedragon
@Elizabelle: That was cute. The others got into their places while the mother went to find the little one. They had a plan
The Thin Black Duke
@Belafon: I take great joy in knowing how hideous their faces are going to look ten years from now.
Elizabelle
And, from the LA Times: They’re hacking the crosswalk signals! They’re mocking the billionaires!
Hackers turn Silicon Valley crosswalks into mockery of Musk, Zuckerberg
M31
@Baud:
lol Musk looks better until you zoom out, then he looks like a Cybertruck on stilts
though the first picture shows a maybe-pretty-normal nerd guy who could have gone either way, the second picture is of a haughty jerk looking down on the plebes, like a shitty muppet
Baud
@M31:
Agreed. His full body shot is awkward.
Doc Sardonic
With Elno they successfully grafted a D list actors face and hair onto the Pillsbury Doughboy.
Elizabelle
@prostratedragon: Elephants are wonderful. And they could sense the seismic changes way faster than humans do.
From the LA Times story, where I first learned about these hero elephants:
Tony Jay
Gaetz pre-work looks like one of those pictures where they’ve turned the mouth and eyes upside down.
Whereas in the after-work one he just looks like one of those as-yet unconvinced kiddie-fiddlers.
Hardly an improvement, outside of the Republican Party, of course.
Elizabelle
@Tony Jay: Unconvicted. But yes.
And great to see you back.
prostratedragon
Other body image Twilight Zone episodes are “Eye of the Beholder” and “The Masks.”
schrodingers_cat
@The Thin Black Duke: I don’t think you have to wait for 10 years.
ExPatExDem
Suborbital space travel becoming a carnival ride for 1 percenters has made space travel less cool by association.
Jackie
@emjayay: Feel free to email John Cole and ask him directly.
Paul in KY
@dc: They did in Star Trek.
TF79
Transatlantic voyaging used to be so dangerous that it was mostly done for military or other government-sponsored purposes (exploration, research). Now you can hop on a cruise ship with Disney characters and goddamn rollercoasters. This is just phase 1 in that process. Wouldn’t shock me if some boat owner in 18th century England or whatever was hocking pleasure cruises using pretty noblewomen as advertising – same basic idea here (with a mix of pretty and “pretty” in this case I guess). Doesn’t strike me as something worth getting too worked up about, either way.
Captain C
Laura Loomer’s surgery made her look like a blow-up doll. Which, to be fair, is one of the uses TCFG has for her (the other being whispering conspiracy theories in his ear).
prostratedragon
@Elizabelle: Aha. Figured they were somehow communicating.
Elizabelle
Joe Biden will speak tonight, on social security. WaPost:
But the WaPost is hoping for blood. They helpfully repeat many examples of the shit Trump has heaved at Biden.
Paul in KY
@Baud: The one in upper left corner. Jeezus God, why do that to yourself!!! Pre-surgery Elon seemed to have a good smile (at least in that pic). Probably thinking about screwing someone over…
jonas
This is true. But you have to remember, he is extremely stupid.
Paul in KY
@Dave from the Rust Belt: A Flesh Gordon outtake…
AM in NC
Making fun of someone for physical traits they can’t help? Nope.
Making fun of someone for CHOOSING to do that to themselves? 100% on board with it.
Those are not the same thing, and should not be treated as such.
Elizabelle
C-Span will cover President Biden’s remarks. Scheduled for 5:45 p Eastern.
Fmr. President Biden First Remarks Since Leaving Office on Social Security
Former President Joe Biden delivers his first public remarks since leaving office, delivering a keynote speech at a conference hosted by Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) in Chicago.
New Deal democrat
This is the poll result on immigration I was referring to on an earlier thread:
https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3922&utm_campaign=wp_the_5_minute_fix&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
This gives Dems a further opening to oppose him.
suzanne
@AM in NC: That’s about how I break it down. Comments about body = not OK. Comments about presentation choices, including makeup, styling, dress, aesthetics = fair game.
Paul in KY
@laura: You should not! Bravo for withholding any counseling.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Hope all fine with you and your family! Going to watch Villa hopefully get clubbed by PSG later today. I hate Villa, so PSG for me! Really rooting for Gunners tomorrow!
pieceofpeace
This is a societal problem, where appearance (face, body, house, landscapes, automobile, jewelry and watches, etc) has taken on enormous importance, at least in the USA. It’s not new.
And that’s often how people snap-judge others. A shame it’s reached the young in our society, was bad enough when only adults chose that route.
For me, the biggest problem with appearance being so bigly important, is that it can take much more inner comfort, curiosity, contentment and alternate possibilities away from our finite time of life.
Tony Jay
@Elizabelle:
I’m still hiatusing, mostly. Be popping in and out until the world gets less bizzeeee.
kwAwk
@jonas: lol That is hard to forget.
Elizabelle
@Tony Jay: and crazeeeee.
Adult beverages help!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@AM in NC: And they were adults when they chose to look like that.
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
All is good. About to watch The Minecraft Movie so Villa will have to unmake their French Mistake without me. I’ve got no strong feelings either way. Since PSG squeezed us out on pens I’m happy for (almost) any English team to do well, even Villa, though of course that depends on how strongly you feel about all the murders and the rumours of cannibalism that have always trailed Emery.
The Arse and Real Fascist can both go shove their seasons where the fleshlight shines. Whining delusionists vs Serial cheats, can’t they both lose? 8-)
Old Man Shadow
I’m pretty sure that deep down, if they ever have a quiet moment alone with their thoughts, they are very insecure about themselves and they hate themselves.
Not because of their actions, no, but just a strong dose of general self-loathing. Maybe ingrained in them by abusive parents or absent parents or a fundamentalist church or pastor or something else. Something that made them feel small or unheard or ugly. Something that sparked resentment that seethed within them and fueled toxic behavior and attitudes.
Or maybe they were born psychopaths and are just trying to fit in with this fascist clique.
Don’t know.
I’d be more sympathetic to them if they weren’t actively being ugly people through their words and actions to the rest of humanity.
oklahomo
@Dave from the Rust Belt:
Emanuelle in Space
Professor Bigfoot
@stacib: Nah, as one who has dreamt of space since he was a wee one, give me a chance to go and I’m there.
I can’t blame Gayle for taking the opportunity even though it was really meaningless.
Jackie
American journalists need to take heed:
montanareddog
@Paul in KY: Genuine question – why do you hate Villa who are a bit of an anodyne club with not particularly problematic ownership?
PSG are one of my hate clubs. A vile, racist fanbase (which I know from personal experience), sportswashing ownership who tried to buy success with their feeble attempt at a galactico policy. So, what really chaps my hide this season is that they are actually playing really good football and probably deserve to win the tournament. Cannot deny that Luis Enrique has done a remarkable rebuilding job.
sentient ai from the future
I would like to propose that we rename “ai slop” to “ai slurm” as it just fits better, and there need to be more Futurama references in popular culture. I am not a crank.
robtrim
They were all abducted by aliens at some earlier point in life. Genetic alterations were performed on them and this is the result. It’s like Night of the Living Dead and a Him/Her commercial.
Professor Bigfoot
@No One of Consequence: To quote from “The Right Stuff,” it’s because they were just “spam in a can.”
Did any one of them at any point of the flight control the spacecraft?
No disrespect to those women; Gawd knows I’da jumped at the chance to be on that flight, but to call them “crew” seems rather an exaggeration.
Miss Bianca
I’m still stunned at how much money some people will pay to mutilate themselves.
I mean, don’t get me wrong…plastic surgery has its place. I definitely got some after my bike accident. But that was all about fixing damage, not about changing my face to fit some *aesthetic* of damage.
And yeah…the thought that *their* “gender-affirming surgery” is A-OK but others’ is not…is a real teeth-grinder for me.
montanareddog
@Professor Bigfoot: Exactly. I don’t think Molly Brown ever claimed she was “crew” on RMS Titanic, as one example, even though she acquitted herself admirably during the disaster.
Miss Bianca
@sentient ai from the future: SLURM!!
Elizabelle
And then there is the “crew” on last year’s spectacular Titan sub implosion. Attending briefings does not make one a mariner or scientist. The Titanic claims a few more wealthy lives.
Always think Blue Origin is careful to send up some admired people so that we are not rooting for a cinematic fireball. As for Jeff and the inflatable fiancee, or Jeff and any of the tech titans.
This was just “there is a club. And you are not in it. Back to work!”
bjacques
100 comments and no mention of the Innsmouth Look? Jeez.
Laura Loomer is the ultimate Uncanny Valley Girl
Elizabelle
@bjacques: ‘Splain? You gonna make us google?
Destroy Oh Boy
What’s more interesting to me is that this aesthetic is what DJT prefers. Given his own ultra-strange uncanny look, the irony that they profess such hate for the genderfluid is palpable.
I still regret that the Walz strategy of calling them weird was muzzled. Their strangeness, their inhumanity, needs to be called out. The MAGA aesthetic is going to be critiqued in the same manner other authoritarian movements have been. I look forward to that. May even participate!
JML
@Paul in KY: aw, come on! give me a little Villa love! :P
It’s been a long drought for us…that probably won’t be ending today.
Marc
Maybe I’m weird, but I look at the first set of photos and think: wealthy older white people doing to themselves what they’ve done since the first wealthy white people existed, it’s part of their culture. I look at the second and think: young women having the time of their lives, looking the way they want to look, also part of their culture, you go Girls! I can see judging individuals for known behavior, but based on looks alone, even if bizarrely chosen from my perspective, sorry not me.
Belafon
@oklahomo: If I wasn’t at work, I would have laughed out loud. I wouldn’t want to have to explain that, though.
Scout211
Remember when the governor of Alaska was promoting tourism to Alaska in the first year of the pandemic? One of the many things he promoted was the lowest COVID numbers in the US. Those ads were blanketing my television at the time. But the laugh was on him as the Alaska COVID numbers rose and he had nothing to brag about.
Well, now Governor Newsom is trying a similar thing. Will it work?
This could be a good idea, but how does this actually get anxious tourists through customs at the airports and checks at the border? Hmmm.
Professor Bigfoot
@Doc Sardonic: Sssshhhhh! Don’t let him know, he might stop!
H.E.Wolf
Amanda Marcotte: ugliness as a choice by fascists.
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/24/from-mar-a-lago-face-to-uncanny-ai-art-magas-love-of-ugliness-is-submission-to/
Belafon
@Scout211:
Not really going over great: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/14/2316518/-Gavin-Newsome-Attempts-to-Entice-Canadians-to-visit-California-It-Goes-Over-as-you-Might-Expect?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web. Various reply posts, but I love this one in particular:
JoyceH
What irks me to no end about the Mar A Lago aesthetic is that everyone who poses with Trump is apparently contractually obligated to do that stupid ‘thumbs up’ gesture. And the women also must assume ‘pageant pose’, half profile with front knee cocked. (Thumbs up is the new Nazi salute, pass it on.)
And I want to RAGE every time I see what he’s done to the Oval Office, sticking those stupid gold curlicues all over the walls!
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Scout211: Another recent example of Gov Newsom’s incredible judgment…
/s
Sure Lurkalot
Another effect is the shiny face.
Shiny fucking fascists. Come on, REM, let’s rewrite and re-release!
They Call Me Noni
Having all that plastic surgery just makes your face look really unnatural as you age. You can usually tell the TV people who have had work done because their eyebrows and lips don’t move in a normal way making it difficult for them to show emotion. They seem to look surprised all the time. To each their own, but there’s a lot to be said for looking good for your age and not like some sort of freak of nature.
Professor Bigfoot
@They Call Me Noni: In accepting that “looking good for your age” is still looking good.
Crimony.
Scout211
@Belafon: Those reply posts were great!
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Yep. The Governor is looking for his close-up and this “Visit California” video is not it.
Jackie
@JoyceH:
And he’s ready to finish desecrating the Rose Garden. I read somewhere he wants to make it look more like the patio/terrace at MAL. He already had a magnolia tree taken down planted in the 1800’s. It quite possibly needed to be removed, but rather than replace it with another magnolia, he wants to cement or flagstone the area. GRRRR!
Leto
Wendy’s (burger chain) response to Katy Perry going to space is *chef’s kiss
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
Bezos is a weak azz clown, just like the rest of the Orange Menace bootlickers😠
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@JoyceH: All this shit the Trumper are doing is to hide Trump has stroke by making all the crap he does it hide it look normal. This is like all of Henry VIII courtiers put on fat suits when Henry gained weight.
rikyrah
@kwAwk:
Rehab the r word.
My teenage niece, upon hearing that word, looks perplexed. She just KNOWS that it’s foul and wrong .
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Elizabelle
@Scout211: Reminds me I had meant to share this LA Times story with you all when it appeared last week. Worth the click, for sure. (And I wish LA Times provided gift links.)
Two Canadian airlines recently cancelled their seasonal direct flights to Palm Springs early. Canadians are selling their CA homes, and doing well, given the currency exchange difference. Canadians own 7% of the second homes in Palm Springs. In 2017, a long time back, they were spending $236 million annually there.
Canadian snowbirds love Palm Springs. But Trump is making them say: Sorry! We’re leaving
rikyrah
@New Deal democrat:
We need to talk more about the 75% sent to El Salvador
THAT HAD NO GANG AFFILIATION😠😠
Trollhattan
@Geminid:
Jr. traded Kimmy in for a new model having a more traditional Trump gal look.
https://www.mensjournal.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_700/MjEzNTc5MDc4MjA3Mjg0Njg3/amfar-palm-beach-gala.webp
Meanwhile, his ex-ex has apparently hooked up with Tiger Woods, somebody who shares the Trump boys preferences.
It’s a crazy world.
Trollhattan
@Captain C:
Pretty sure I’ve spotted the inflation valve installed on Loomer’s pumpkin but cannot discern if it’s schrader or presta. Need to know before inflating or you might get an uncontrolled release.
Baud
Gloria DryGarden
@emjayay: it’s a big part of why I read from the bottom..
hells littlest angel
I almost feel sorry for Laura Loomer. Clearly, she is profoundly mentally ill. But that aside, she is a rotten, hateful human being.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I am so glad to see that.
The haters and disparagers are out in force on the WaPost reader comments thread, so someone is worried about Biden’s reemergence.
I miss him so much.
Gretchen
@suzanne: I think the Press Secretary is the strongest example of this. Her face is so weirdly smoothed and featureless it looks computer-generated. Even when she doesn’t open her mouth to tell the latest angry lies she gives me the creeps.
Gretchen
@emjayay: why are you still here if you hate it so much? Lawyers, Guns and Money has your preferred format.
Captain C
@Trollhattan: Can’t have her farting and flying out the window. What will the neighbors say?
Martin
@H.E.Wolf: So, I’m not an art guy, I just read a lot, but my understanding is that fascism seeks to bring all parts of the state to bear on reaffirming the presented theory of society. This is why conservatives hate postmodern art, why they insert themselves into everything from car styling to video game apparel.
It’s not that they embrace the ugliness, it’s that they embrace the willingness to commit to surgery in an act of conformity. It doesn’t matter if the outcome is attractive or not, is that they are all aiming at (and endorsing) a ‘correct’ representation of an American male or female and they are all advertising ‘I’m willing to change my very appearance in order to conform to that’. It’s a form of loyalty to the presented theory of society. They’re admitting they were a bad American because they didn’t look like the aspirational symbol and they are willing to correct that.
Authoritarian propaganda art is doing the other side of the transaction in putting forward what that correct representation is – the young girl holding a sheaf of wheat, the rugged man holding the sickle, and all that jazz. It’s not a neutral representation because everyone knows why it’s there, and it’s there to tell you something. And it exists in the space of what isn’t there, of what’s not allowed to be shown, and everyone understands that message as well.
Gloria DryGarden
@Elizabelle: i wish respect was a quality and behavior set this group of government “leaders” were capable of.
Captain C
@Elizabelle: Can’t have people comparing the current shitstorm with the relatively better times under Biden. Apparently, though, it’s OK to compare a distorted and negative view of Biden’s term with the shitshow that was Trump 1.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I’ve seen an uptick in troll activity on reddit also.
Elizabelle
Weird. Our power just went out for no reason.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
You know what you did.
Elizabelle
@Captain C: the trolls are hitting him hard from the “left.”
Jay
@Leto:
Perry got down and kissed the earth, and said “we must take care of Mother Earth”.
That, not even 3 hour tour, released as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 179 average US households release in a year.
TONYG
@Splitting Image: Ha. I hadn’t realized that there were only two cosmonauts. As someone who lived with the Cold War until I was almost 40, it’s remarkable to me how similar the American right-wing mentality is to the Soviet mentality.
lowtechcyclist
@me:
My first thought was, “and she has to be well into her 80s” because I remembered that her flight was in between our Mercury and Gemini series of spaceflights. Wikipedia says she’s 88 years old.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I always wonder how many are sincere and how many are actual trolls.
Captain C
@Elizabelle: People for whom nothing is ever good enough shouldn’t be surprised when no one wants to help them get what they want.
Trollhattan
@Martin:
Soviet Constructivism is endlessly fascinating to me and boy howdy, does it have staying power a century on.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3f/1924_Poster_by_Alexander_Rodchenko%2C_showing_Lilya_Brik_saying_in_Russian_Books_%28Please%29_in_all_branches_of_knowledge.jpg/1200px-1924_Poster_by_Alexander_Rodchenko%2C_showing_Lilya_Brik_saying_in_Russian_Books_%28Please%29_in_all_branches_of_knowledge.jpg?20200812003438
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jackie: His decorating taste is Whorehouse Modern
lowtechcyclist
@laura:
This. I’ve never understood the appeal of puffy lips.
ETA:
@suzanne:
Then thank goodness I’ve only ever seen still photos.
montanareddog
The always readable Marina Hyde’s take on the Blue Origin Babes: What’s more vacuous than an endless vacuum? It’s Lauren Sánchez and Katy Perry’s party in space
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Trollhattan:
Eldrick has his “type” that’s for sure. His ex-wife, just like this one.
I was at the Wed practice round/Par 3 contest in 2015 and he played in it, probably because he and skier Lindsay Vaughn were an item at the time so she was his caddy. Blond, perfect teeth.
Again, Eldrick has a “type”.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Lol. I was worrying. The Internet company just sent out a text. Hey it’s the power company. Not us.
Jay
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/travel-warning-united-states-1.7510877
catclub
@Elizabelle: Before you fix the problem fix the blame.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: i don’t mind someone kissing the earth and saying we need to take care of her. I don’t mind that rich celebrities might be awakened to the preciousness of the planet via this trip, sort of like william shatners “space” experience. Esp if they become spokespersons. And it’s cool if girls are interested in space and science.
i do mind that they are all slim and trim, ideal-bodied. and wearing womens workout gear of sorts- always tight, revealing. And I mind that all but one are in their twenties and thirties. After 35, we mostly don’t count anymore…
Im so happy to read everyone’s comments about the ornamental woman aspect, the rich privileges, the beauty standards, the tight form fitting fancy workout suits.
I’m wondering who did their hair and makeup for this glam shot.
@Martin: so many of your comments have been refreshing deep perspectives, I’m appreciating your thoughts a lot today. In particular, this
Princess
@Scout211: The answer is: it doesn’t and Canadians know that. They seem to have turned off the comments off but I heard on the radio this morning that they were close to 100% negative. One I remember compared visiting California to visiting the cousin you live in the house with his father who gets drunk and hits people.
Soprano2
Except for Elmo, all the before pics look better.
Gloria DryGarden
@Soprano2: truly
Trollhattan
I assume New Shepard is named for Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space, also to a suborbital altitude. This was in 1961 and the flight took 15 1/2 minutes. Shepard would eventually walk on the moon. Hero stuff? Yes.
Yesterday’s promo was 11 minutes, albeit with a much greater payload. Still don’t understand the “why” except a lot of Star Trek when somebody was young.
Trollhattan
@Soprano2:
Elmo’s I could caption “two kinds of ugly.”
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
When Alina Habba says she would rather be pretty than smart, remember that this is what her side of the aisle is getting told what pretty looks like.
Martin
Good christ what’s wrong with you? My thoughts today are really, really dark.
Gretchen
@Gloria DryGarden: Lauren Sanchez redesigned the outfits because she didn’t think the original ones made her look hot enough – the workout gear esthetic is intentional. I’m sure she was sorry they wouldn’t let them be low-cut so she could show her cleavage. She described them as « bringing a little spice to space ». https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/style/lauren-sanchez-blue-origin-spacesuit-monse.html?unlocked_article_code=1._04.qzWm.5kUBjHPS1Ca1&smid=url-share
Jay
Photo’s at the link,
https://nitter.poast.org/Gerashchenko_en/status/1912205125008970221#m
JWR
Bezos: “Hey ladies, wanna come over and ride my rocket?” [/groan]
That said and ICYMI, Kenneth Stern was on Amanpour & Co today (Youtube link):
Sister Golden Bear
@Elizabelle:
Canadians own about 7% of the Palm Springs housing market. The tourist season is ending, but the short-term rental market is going be taking the first hit — albeit probably not until Fall when it cools down enough for tourists again.
West of the Rockies
Guilfoyle (Gargoyle) really does have an ill-favored gash of a mouth now
And Gaetz is freaky looking.
columbusqueen
Yeah, Marie Antoinette in space is not really a giant step for mankind.
Baud
Martin
@columbusqueen: Bring on the space guillotines.
Gloria DryGarden
@Martin: but you are clear, accurate, illuminated.
I love that you get it about women and beauty and ideals. We’re under so much pressure to be pretty, it’s your ticket to get in. That’s gone for me now, I can’t be seen, I’m writing from an ice floe.
and the European panel discussions at your university when you were in school, how cool that was.
i come from a family where we couldn’t talk about the elephant in the room. Elephant was standing on my body. The truth was screaming out of me all the time, if you knew what you were looking at.
However dark it is, naming what’s going on, accurately seeing the undercurrent is so meaningful for me. A lie tears the fabric of reality, but truth, even if it’s horrible truth, is how we begin to mend.
so much power in naming things. You start by noticing where you are, then reach for how you’d like it to be. ( I’m referencing robert fritz)
what’s wrong, is with the people who prefer pretty lies, pretense, in service to dark powers and nonconsensual dominance situations.
i do hope this answer is of service
off to an appointment, will check back later. I really appreciate your comments today. It’s only a genuine compliment, rub it in like lotion.
Melancholy Jaques
@Jackie:
American journalists won’t have been charged or jailed, just fired. A few get fired, the rest fall in line. To be honest, I think the falling in line has already happened.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: I had puffy lips as a teenager and I couldn’t wait to lose the puppyfat and have Twiggy lips. Never happenwd, but at least they had some shape by my mid-twenties.
These women are looking to have teenage lips again.
sab
@Trollhattan: I remember that! We lived in Florida just north of the spacw coast and were herded out to the playground to see it go by, and the stages dropping off one by one. I was in first or second grade.
Gloria DryGarden
@sab: lips seem to be getting thinner as I age. I used to so admire full lips on people.
it turns out, pouty lips are not required, anyone can enjoy kissing, or be kissable
once we’re finished fixing our thighs and hips and boobs to fit an ideal, of course we should fret about our lips and noses, and get surgery. Emma Thompson says it so well. I’m late, r now, but I’ll find a link later if someone else doesn’t.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I think a lot are malicious trolls.
Hoodie
Mar-a-Lago face is fascist kitsch. It’s a sentimental abstraction of human appearance, what Kundera called “the stopover between being and oblivion.”
MisterForkbeard
@Miss Bianca: I think there’s some room where surgery or change makes sense, even just for unnecessary reasons. Getting your teeth whitened is a thing, for example – no real medical benefit, but it makes you look nicer and I don’t have a problem with people doing it.
Some plastic surgeries are just fine, even when they’re not necessary. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with feeling better about yourself by changing some of your external showing. It’s a problem when it’s kind of freakish or done to appease a particular person – or when a cultural group (like high-level Republicans) require that kind of change or look
brantl
GAETZ looks like the worst traits of Beavis and Butthead combined in the after picture.
PST
Since this is an open thread, I would like to draw attention to the latest from Josh Marshall: What’s Really in the White House Law Firm Agreements? He has gathered as much information as he can and concludes that the so-called agreements are no more than a short series of bullet points without any of the “basic blocking and tackling” of real contracts like identifying the parties, duration, jurisdiction, etc. He has not heard of any having signature pages. Even the bullet points are “worded in ways that make the purported commitments basically meaninglessness.” In short, these are designed to let Trump assert that he has bent the firms to his will and to let the firms tell themselves and insiders that they have agreed to nothing. They don’t appear to be agreements with the government but with Trump personally, and they don’t obligate him to do anything except call off EEOC investigations for now and not issue threatened executive orders for now. This doesn’t mean that these agreements are harmless — far from it — and Marshall says so. They are a lot less than Trump wants us to believe, but they are temporizing first steps that will make subsequent steps easier unless the political climate changes radically.
Timill
@Trollhattan: New Shepard is a prototype and fundraiser for New Glenn (wot? No Grissom?) which is an orbital launcher intended to have about double the payload of the Falcon 9.
Baud
@PST:
Interesting. Good journalism.
Trollhattan
@Timill:
Thanks, makes a certain amount of sense. More sense than “Cybertruck, a truck you can think of as virtual.”
NotMax
FYI. Speech from Biden coming up in a few minutes. Link is to a live stream.
sab
@PST: I wonder if there will be reputational damage if they go the Trump way and yet sign nothing? I would be wary but I am not a huge connected company.
As an individual I would avoid those companies like the plague. Indication to me that they were never trustworthy advocates for lesser clients. But they are law firms above my client paygrade in any case. Such an indication of corruption all around.
ETA But also indication they do and can talk to the current White House.
It’s like Victor Orban at fast speed without the finesse. Hopefully that suggests incompetence and unwarranted hubris.
Jay
@PST:
Not a huge surprise. Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s disbarred and charged with fraud, idiot “lawyer” is negotiating these from a Steakhouse. Oh, DJTdiot insiders also said that when he was on the Transition team, he was demanding bribes for positions. It’s a Steakhouse because he has no “official” position, no Government office, no Government phone.
Almost everybody with half a brain knows one of the “games” now. Make it look like you are caving in to DJTdiot’s EO’s while actually giving him nothing.
Jay
@sab:
Theoretically, because it’s a blatant quid pro quo, these Firms can be changed with bribery and fraud.
DJTdiot’s DOJ could use it as a threat lever, but would never actually lay charges.
7-10 ten years is the Statute of Limitations when the bribery and fraud involves the US Government.
JML
@Jay: it is a potential move from people like these law firms or the universities & schools districts being told to disavow DEI. “yes, yes Current Occupant, we will discontinue all ILLEGAL DEI programs, we’ll absolutely root out anything that’s actually ILLEGAL” while changing a name or two to keep doing what they’ve always been doing.
(there’s been some of these conversations between my system’s schools and red state universities who have bene through some of this where they managed to sand off some magic words without functionally changing their practices? we’ll see. It helps that the people in charge in DC have little expertise, are sloppy AF, and have the attention span of a toddler on a sugar high.)
Jay
@JML:
keep in mind that DEIA thought crime also includes any document with any of the banned 100 words. Keep a thesaurus at hand if taking this path.
Jackie
Leaks suspected from Hegseth’s adviser:
Jay
@Jackie:
so, a scapegoat has been found for the WhiskeyLeaks scandal.
Baud
Someone was inspired.
Baud
Mississippi Goddamn does something good.
Martin
@PST: They are a pattern of extortion and bribes that the law firms have agreed to, conducted in the open. That there is no legal consequence to this from the judicial system that surely sees it for what it is (I mean, I’m not a lawyer, and it’s plain as day to me) serves as just another bit of evidence that whatever rule of law people thought was had to hold these people to account is completely gone.
You seem to think these are first steps, but I think the game is already gone. In the last week we had an insider trading operation conducted directly from the president and he went on to brag about how much money he made some of his billionaire friends. Plus openly ruminating about extrajudicial deportation of US citizens. None of this got any pushback. The effects will get worse, but the rules are already long gone.
Captain C
@brantl: Maybe that was the look he was going after?
Trollhattan
The roadshow’s coming to town.
May they knock it out of the park.
PST
@Martin:
I meant only that I think the law firms are fooling themselves, not that we are only at step one on the road to kleptocratic fascism. They think that they have conceded little or nothing, but now that they have made the symbolic surrender, there will be more demands, each greater, and each harder to resist. They can’t unring the bell of complicity, so collaboration becomes easier with each step and resistance more difficult.
NaijaGal
@Splitting Image: This!!!! Send a few women into space while firing women astronauts from NASA and scrubbing their data from its website and then claim that you’re inspiring young girls.
Timill
@NaijaGal: Different thems: Blue Origin picked the passengers for the hen party: the current regime is, through NASA, firing women and scrubbing data.
SuzieC
@Jeffro: That’s what I was thinking. She looks like a psycho circus clown
am
You’re a national treasure Betty Cracker.
A palate cleanser for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Whitson
It goes on, and on. 3rd highest on total EVA hours. A badass hero of science.
On smaller screens her list of notable awards and honors requires some scrolling to get through. Her astronaut pictures are generally of a qualified person competently astronauting.
NaijaGal
@Timill: Wish I could see it that way when Jeff Bezos has made it clear whose side he’s on. It’s not mine.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: I hate that asshole Martinez. Villa did a great job of scaring them. Thought Rashford should have stayed on.
As an MC fan, going to the Bernebau is triggering. Hope they watch out for that damned Roydrigo
My wife is a big Gunners fan. I also used to hate them till I got with her. Also having Eddie Munster run the club (after his stint at MC) helps.
Paul in KY
@Old Man Shadow: Lot of them are psychopaths of some degree, IMO.
Paul in KY
@montanareddog: I hate that jerk Martinez (tho he is a great goalkeeper) and the toffs seem to love Villa, so I don’t.
I do like Ollie Watkins!
Edit: I don’t like PSG either, but enemy of my enemy and all that. Plus I do like their style of play.
Paul in KY
@montanareddog: If Molly Brown had been captain, the ship never would have hit the iceberg.
Paul in KY
@JML: My son is fine with Villa. He hates Bournemouth for some reason.
For me, alot of poncy toffs seem to love them, so I don’t. Plus, having a jerkwad like Martinez on team doesn’t help.
Paul in KY
@Trollhattan: I would say Schrader. Think cheap and you usually will be spot on.
Paul in KY
@Gretchen: She actually may be an alien wearing a ‘human suit’.
Sort of like those rat things in the Gunslinger series…