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Thursday, December 27, 2018

Purple Prose

2018 Christmas Portrait

Anti-Trump Derangement Syndrome in the extreme (emphases mine)....
Trump portrait: you couldn’t create a creepier Yuletide scene if you tried

The formal smartness of the US president and the first lady adds to the emotional numbness of the scene

The absence of intimacy in the Trumps’ official Christmas portrait freezes the heart. Can it be that hard to create a cosy image of the presidential couple, perhaps in front of a roaring hearth, maybe in seasonal knitwear? Or is this quasi-dictatorial image exactly what the president wants to project? Look on my Christmas trees, ye mighty, and despair! If so, it fuels suspicions that it is only the checks and balances of a 230-year-old constitution that are keeping America from the darkest of political fates.

You couldn’t create a creepier Yuletide scene if you tried. Multiple Christmas trees are currently a status symbol for the wealthy, but this picture shows the risks. Instead of a homely symbol of midwinter cheer, these disciplined arboreal ranks with their uniform decorations are arrayed like massed soldiers or colossal columns designed by Albert Speer. The setting is the Cross Hall in the White House and, while the incumbent president cannot be held responsible for its architecture, why heighten its severity with such rigid, heartless seasonal trappings?

Everything here communicates cold, empty magnificence. Tree lights that are as frigid as icicles are mirrored in a cold polished floor. Equally frosty illuminations are projected on the ceiling. Instead of twinkling fairy magic, this lifeless lighting creates a sterile, inhuman atmosphere. You can’t imagine kids playing among these trees or any conceivable fun being had by anyone. It suggests the micromanaged, corporate Christmas of a Citizen Kane who has long since lost touch with the ordinary, warm pleasures of real life.

In the centre of this disturbing piece of conceptual art stand Donald and Melania Trump. He’s in a tuxedo, she’s wearing white – and not a woolly hat in sight. Their formal smartness adds to the emotional numbness of the scene.

Trump’s shark-like grin has nothing generous or friendly about it. He seems to want to show off his beautiful wife and his fantastic home rather than any of the cuddly holiday spirit a conventional politician might strive to share at this time. It begs a question: how can a man who so glaringly lacks anything like a common touch be such a successful “populist”? What can a midwestern voter find in this image to connect with?

Perhaps that’s the point. After more than two centuries of democracy, Trump is offering the US people a king, or emperor. In this picture, he gives full vent to his inner tyrant. If this portrait contains any truth about the state of America and the world, may Santa help us all.
Can you imagine the howls of outrage if such things had been written about the Obamas, particularly in a major newspaper?

In my view, it is true that the Trumps are not cuddly teddy bears around whom the American people can wrap themselves.  Is it really a necessary Presidential quality to ooze warmth, particularly in the magnificent Cross Hall of the White House?

26 comments:

  1. "It suggests the micromanaged, corporate Christmas of a Citizen Kane who has long since lost touch with the ordinary, warm pleasures of real life."

    Telling observation.
    This is the guy you will have in charge during the coming recession.
    He'll be sealed off with his trophy wife in Xanadu still screaming for a wall which will solve the problem(s).

    Question for the class, What does all the money lost in share buybacks after the corporate tax windfall do to corporate balance sheets after a market crash?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ducky can't stand anyone not dressed in a Mao jacket w/Red Army cap.... or Che Guevara beret.

      Delete
    2. And what’s wrong with a “Wall” to keep the scum out?

      Delete
    3. o
      We know this country is in trouble when every stoopid magazine - libtoid all and to the core! - has Her Ugliness Moochie Obama on the cover and/or featured in a puff piece that is miles from the truth. It's really pathetic when even the pop/general "culture" magazines feature this total NOBODY - and, as you sadly pointed out, all the libtoid commies "swoon" and wish she were still Queen of DC!! Oh, she's "queen," alright, but not in any social circle I'd be caught dead i

      Delete
    4. ___ On January Third ____


      There'll be nothing to tout.
      Nothing to buy.
      The stores have run out.
      Your funds'll run dry.

      DEMOCLAWS are coming to town!

      For their mill you are grist.
      They think fun’s a crime,
      They just clench their fist,
      When you seek a good time.

      DEMOCLAWS are coming to town!

      They'll monitor your reaping.
      They’ll ration what you take.
      Whatever you try keeping
      They will grab for their own sake!

      SO, you’d better not smile,
      You’d better not dance.
      Demoleaders are vile,
      They'll all look askance.

      DEMOCLAWS Upon You Will Frown.
      When Democlaws take over the town!

      They're the Communists
      Who would make us slaves
      THEY'VE CAPTURED the TOWN!


      (;-o

      Delete
    5. Despite my advocacy of earnest prayer and supplication, I have come to believe that the best way to neutralize the effect of chronic societal irritants and toxic influences is to MAKE FUN of THEM.

      Satan and his poor benighted followers have NO sense of humor.

      SATIRE may well be the BEST form of REVENGE.


      HAPPY ...+.. NEW ...+... YEAR!

      Delete
    6. I have come to believe that the best way to neutralize the effect of chronic societal irritants and toxic influences is to MAKE FUN of THEM.

      I couldn't agree more! These people should be ridiculed at every turn, for the perfidious, loathsome, un-American hypocrites that they are.

      Happy New Year!

      Delete
  2. AOW asked... "Is it really a necessary Presidential quality to ooze warmth, particularly in the magnificent Cross Hall of the White House?"

    That's such a good question.

    I think some people would like to say no, it doesn't, but in the age of television and instant news, I think it does. The ability to be a mourner in chief, a comforter and an encourager has become a part of the job.

    Perhaps it's not much different than how some might think about FDR. How many years was he our president and in a wheel chair? Kennedy was so worried that his Addison's disease would be discovered and the world would see him as not virile, healthy and young, that he kept it quiet.

    I wonder if either of those men could be elected today with the lens of TV and the internet beaming pictures of their compromised bodies around the globe.

    I think Trump's inability to connect, emote and grieve with people who are hurting will ultimately hurt him, and insure the next President will be better at those roles.

    No matter who won in 2016, we were not gonna get a particularly "warm" president.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice picture. What's the fuss about?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Personally, I don't want a president who emotes. Or a savior. I simply want a president who works from outside the swamp, for the people that elected him, and in the national interests. Nothing else matters.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's a LOVELY picture of or First Couple. President Trump looks especially well groomed, splendidly attired and graciouss –– a perfect match for his elegant, beautifully reserved, wife who always acts the part of a perfect lady.

    "Honi soit qui mal y pense" springs instantly to end when brought face to face with the rancid thetoric and putrid, frankly depraved sentiments of the crypto-Marxist members of ENEMEDIA.

    LEFTISTS are to American Society as ROACHES are to an otherwise clean, attractive, well-equipped kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  6. No doubt there is an army of people who do nothing but run everything through the anti filter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. WEGOTTA

    AC-cen-tu-ate the POSITIVE, E-li-mi-nate the NEGATIVE, LATCH ON to the AFFIRMATIVE and don't fool with Mr. In-Between.

    If you want to have a HAPPY New Year, yagotta ACT HAPPY no matter how BAD you FEEL

    It's just like acquiring faith.

    Act AS IF you already had it, and you WILL get it.

    So make a DETERMINATION to ACT happy. If not for yurself at least for the sake of others.

    Sad, angry, bitter people do not ATTRACT, they REPEL and DEPRESS others..

    And to ASSUME that LOOKING ALWAYS on the DARK SIDE IS "REALISTIC," and "TRUTHFUL" is ANTI-LIFE, a positive INSULT to GOD, and a DETRIMENT to HUMAN PROGRESS.

    H__A__P__P__Y__ ...+... N__E__W ..+.. Y__E__A__R__!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Not really sure what the point of the piece or the post was. Each party has their "derangement syndrome", and each party has found asinine ways to criticize the POTUS at the time.

    Were this 4 or so years ago, a certain party would be rightly castigating the POTUS for lying to service-members in a combat zone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CI,
      The point of this blog post is an illustration of how far over the edge some "journalists" are.

      Delete
    2. That’s fair, a lot of journalists have gone off the reservation over the past couple of decades.

      Delete
  9. The left has gone completely unhinged by the election of Trump, and the miserable performance of the loser Hillary Clinton.. . Some of the verbiage that is used by the angry left is just absurd even by their standards. i.e. He is going to build concentration camps for Muslims. He is going to sick the IRS on his political enemies, Obama did that. He is going to piss off our enemies. This is opposed to pissing off our allies like Israel and the U.K. After watching 8 years of the boorish behavior by Obama the left should give it a rest.
    At least we now have a president that the country knows will have our back when push comes to shove.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obama Derrangment Syndrome. Needs help. Call the hotline. Trump will answer and then fart in your ear.

      Delete
  10. A Note about Cory Booker who “had” a decent relationship with the New Jersey community.

    Your vote on the Iran deal killed any good work that you MAY have done in the past. . You will not get any credit for any of your past actions. No amount of verbiage explains that vote. And if you ever run against Trump, I will do my very best to see that you are defeated even worse than Hillary was. I hope that Trump mops up the floor with you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The election of President Donald J. Trump sent the left on a runaway train to Batshiteville.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SF,
      It does seem that way. And not only the Left!

      In fact, some Never Trumpers and say and write the most insulting things about Trump -- and any who voted for him.

      From a WaPo book review:

      ...[GOP strategist Rick Wilson writes in "Everything Trump Touches Dies" and] trashes the Trump fans within the base he helped shape: “I know you’re in an oxy stupor much of the time, so I’ll try to move slowly and not use big words.” Wilson attacks Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz and Mike Pence, and he says Newt Gingrich “started twerking [for Trump] faster than a five-buck stripper.” Such sexualized put-downs abound in Wilson’s book. White House adviser Stephen Miller “needs to spend a week getting laid.” Wilson finds Trump campaign adviser Carter Page “reeking of late-stage virginity.” And the white-nationalist alt-right movement is a bunch of “pudgy white boys from lower-middle-class suburbs who couldn’t find a woman’s clitoris with a GPS and a magnifying glass.”...

      Sheesh.

      Delete
  12. Sugar and spice and everything nice –– that's what little GIRLS are made of.

    Nails and snails and puppy dogs' tails –– that's what little BOYS are made of

    Bullshit, Venom, Vomit and Emetics –– that's what LEFTISTS and FENCESITTERS are made of

    ReplyDelete
  13. What makes me laugh is those who believe the criticism of the Trumps is the same as criticism all presidents and First Ladies have received. As if. Not sure I ever heard anybody complain that Michelle Obama's high heels were too high. Those who still maintain she's really a man (and they exist) are insane, and a very small percentage. Now there are those who believe Melania has a body double who goes out at events, etc. This is insane. No, the criticism isn't quite the same! Open the eyes, folks. I can't stand Trump, tho I'll never stop being grateful Hillary did not win, but the criticism, so personal, is over the top.

    ReplyDelete

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