The comments are always the best:

"I find it shocking that the FLOTUS wore a $39 jacket!"

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

 
this is pathetic, something a pissed-off teenager would do

Or something a clueless twit would do.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

well she did marry him. But she is very very careful with her image, so . . .

Has it been confirmed that this is real and not a photoshop job? Or does anyone care?

This is confirmed. Her spokeswomen said something along the lines that she wore it, and that there was no "hidden" meaning, and people shouldnt be focused on her fashion.

It angers me. We are not discussing her fashion. Its a jacket. We are talking about a "hidden" meaning. We are talking about the LITERAL meaning. You are advertising that YOU DONT CARE.

I think it is. If you google 'FLOTUS jacket don't care' it is pretty much everywhere.

In the greater scheme of things this has no impact. But it is very very weird, to say the least.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

i mean, in the greater scheme or things nothing has any impact. If instead of wearing the jacket she got up and said "Guys, I really dont care, do you?" it wouldnt be too different. her words dont really directly impact anything.

According to the article on CNN, her team said we shouldn’t read anything into her coat choice, so I’m guessing not photoshopped.. I can’t believe she would wear last season Zara. I took it to be a comment on how she feels about her husband.

It has been confirmed she wore it boarding the plane to TX but did not wear it upon arriving or during her actual visit. I took it as a shot at the media who've been lambasting her for not being in the public eye and creating conspiracy theories as to why.

I love to get a male version - I'd wear it every day!

My point was that her POV isn't relevant. She has no impact on policy. She really could stand up and say it. Most of Trump's base would agree with her anyway. Trump and his admin don't care at all where she stands on things though.

But as careful as she is with appearance it is difficult to believe this was just happenstance.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Or the pissed off wife of a known philanderer

Who is going to cash-fucking-in in the divorce when this is over

Or something a pissed off mother does. But let's just forget that some asshole said her son should be put in a cage with a pedophile.

#bebest

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Suffer Well.

It was Peter Fonda FFS. Was that even a blip on her radar?

That's f*cked up. I understand the arguments that we shouldn't be focused on clothing and that she has no formal authority on policy, etc.... but every First Lady has authority by simply possessing the title. Call it moral authority, or whatever, but it's what empowers them to tackle the projects that they work on while in the White House. For that f*cking idiot to be so incredibly arrogant that she's simply shrugged off the mantle of responsibility, reasonability and moderation is just abominable. (Further, how cowed are her people who couldn't even step up and say, "uh, Madame First Lady, that jacket's a bad idea. Please take it off.")

What. A f*cking. Dipsh*t.

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War is god

Please stop with the but, but, but, Hillary!!!

FLOTUS got POTUS a new jacket for his birthday last week:

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Suffer Well.

Do you follow Peter Fonda on Twitter? I'm betting no. Neither do I, but both of us heard about it.

The lady has a lot of justified grievances. Against Fonda (what he said was disgusting), against her husband (obv), against the role she's forced to play.

No matter why she was did it, wearing this jacket in protest on this particular trip was a self-centred and clueless move.

How long do they have to keep this media circus going and what are they trying to take attention from?

The insider trading allegations on Wilbur Ross Commerce Secretary? What else is going on? There were some damning water quality reports that impact a ton of kids... quitting UN human rights council?

Russian hacking of all 50 states.

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Suffer Well.

This now...

http://thehill.com/...eorganize-government

I also think they were trying to hide the fact that the kidnapped 2000 kids and used them as political hostages instead of trying to fix the situation.

Every time you think the bar cannot get any lower ... somehow another level is found. I guess when you are subterranean everything pretty much is the same.

drn92

Call it moral authority, or whatever, but it's what empowers them to tackle the projects that they work on while in the White House.

The words "moral authority" and the current Whitehouse should never be used in the same sentence.

Just speculating...but there's something weird about this.

I wonder if it wasn't really intended to troll liberals, but was instead intended as a private "fuck you" to her husband.

I imagine she was kind of forced into making this trip as a PR maneuver. Trump wasn't going to do it himself. So this was her way of being subversive. And the "Do you?" was for him.

Just a thought.

That was my initial split-second reaction. Then I figured it might’ve been for the media. Now that Trump has said it was aimed at the media I’m more convinced you are right.

And it makes sense, atleast to me. If so, well done Melania.

I mentioned this to my wife and she is guessing the Donald said exactly that quote to Melania about the border issue and she’s mocking him.

Or that of a wife married to a pissed off teenager.

I was wondering the same. I cannot see FLOTUS trolling the media, like Trump claimed in his tweet.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

I feel like the flotus messaging is off.

I find it obvious that that's exactly what she intended.

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“Read the transcript.”

The insider trading allegations on Wilbur Ross Commerce Secretary?


I'd read about Ross's involvement with a Cyprus bank, the same one known as a big player in the world of money laundering of Russian oligarchs money.


It seems that between Flynn, Manafort and Ross, Trump was going out of his way to find people with strong connections to Russia but maybe it's all just one big co-incidence.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/23/wilbur-ross-russian-deal-bank-of-cyprus-donald-trump-commerce-secretary

Her spokeswoman's statement directly contradicts her husband's Tweet. He tried to say her jacket was an anti-Fake-News-Media statement.

The whole thing is perplexing and very tone deaf.

Like others I think this was a domestic beef -- another way to stick it to her husband.

Which, while understandable, doesn't win her any sympathy from me.

How dare she

play out a domestic drama on the public dime

drag the whole world into her private business, and badly screw up the "message" in the process

reality-show trash, as ever

I just don't get this.

It could have been intended to give the finger to the MSM. Or to her darling husband. Or to Peter Fonda. Or to liberals. Or to conservatives. Or to some other group.

But who the fuck knows? It's so ambiguously targeted that the only thing it really does it attract opprobrium, because people tend to rush to the most obvious conclusion, which here happens to be the most adverse one.

If she wanted to make a statement about something, this was a really fucking bad way of going about it.

I'm sure this will clear up any misconceptions and misunderstandings about all the connections between Trump's family, campaign staff and senior officials and Russians.

I like Melania, she seems a more decent person than I had originally assumed. And I sympathize with her plight of being married to the Donald.

But irrespective of the detained immigrant children crisis, wearing that jacket ANYWHERE seems beneath the 1st lady. And remember, ppl were posting on social media "how great will it be to have a FLOTUS with 'class' again", after the transition....
That jacket ain't classy for a soccer mom, let alone FLOTUS

Her "plight" is easily rectifiable.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Which leads us to the obvious and easy game of...

What if Michelle Obama did this?

Of course she wouldn’t have because, well, she isn’t retarded.

If Moochelle had worn the jacket (assuming one could be found in her size), she'd be on the cover of Vogue wearing it.

Man Jim, you have SURPASSED yourself this time! I didn't think this thread could produce a "What about Obama..." but not only have you proved me wrong, you managed to throw in a token insult at Michele Obama too!

10/10.

Why do I have a feeling the sales of that jacket have skyrocketed today?

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Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador

I don't know if you ARE an asshole, but you can be a motherfucker with some of your comments, this being one. You pledge in your signature to not make any personal attacks and then you have to resort to calling Michelle Obama a name. Why do you even post? You've nothing to offer, ever.

He has to post every now and then to remind us how nice it is we don't know him in real life.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

You should know that making fun of Michelle Obama is forbidden here. Calling Melania a "fcking idiot" "fcking dipsht" and a "twit" is fine though.

Right... there's no difference whatsoever between judging a person based on their actions and just calling someone fat for no reason whatsoever.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

So making fun of Michelle Obama's weight is out of bounds. Making fun of Donald Trump's weight is acceptable. Got it.

When our "leader" has made it a point, on several occasions, to publicly make fun of others' weight and appearance, he makes himself more than fair game for the same treatment. IMO, anyway.

Not sure I remember Michelle Obama stooping to the same level. Maybe you could enlighten us.

I don’t make fun of Dons weight. Only his bumbling idiocy.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Last year's jacket, and reportedly long sold out.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Yes, her plight; she came here to work, getting her picture taken naked, illegally on a tourist visa. Then she married the old rich con man with the connections to get here an EB-1, Einstien visa. Something reserved for highly accredited desirables. So she married the guy who rails against immigrants.

Her plight, let her stew in it.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

I read that. So I'm off to the local Goodwill store to grab some old jackets and then Wally World for a can of white paint.

MAGA!

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

He put it in bounds when he tried to have the White House physician and former candidate for the VA Secretary tell us that he weighs 199 pounds. They then came out with a number of 239 pounds, just low enough to be below the weight in which his BMI that would be considered obese.

Your inability to discern the difference between the two situations and the context of them, leads me to believe that no matter what facts are presented to you, you will remain faithful to Trump.

I still don't have people who currently support Trump figured out, but willful ignorance and flexible morality seem to be key components.

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Suffer Well.

I think I found a glimpse of how he maintains his support when I visited Antelope Canyon a couple years ago. If you're unfamiliar, Antelope Canyon in AZ is a spectacular place, a slot canyon on Navajo land that you can only visit with a Navajo tour guide.

Our guide was a complete dick. Very poor interpersonal skills and totally ill-suited to the service industry. However, we went to see the canyon at peak time when the beams of sunlight penetrated through the holes in the top of the canyon. So it was crowded, and the different groups had to be kept moving along to avoid too much delay in each place.

Everyone wanted good photos of themselves and their families, and without 20 Japanese tourists in the background. Well this is where our tour guide came into his own. He barked at the Japanese tourists with the key Japanese phrases he'd learned. He used his giant frame to shoo people along and make way for us, his group. He was being a total dick to everyone, but suddenly when he was doing it to help us, we kind of liked him. Yes, he was a dick, but he was our dick!


This is the world of a Trumpian.

Here's a thoughtful take on this whole story.

Quote:

In the middle of the 20th century, assessing the rise of the television on the workings of the American mind, the historian Daniel Boorstin diagnosed a new phenomenon: the “pseudo-event.” According to Boorstin, the happening that is better known, today, as the media event is something that exists only to serve as fodder for an omnivoracious information system: things like the photo op, and also the press release, and also the general tendency to assume that life itself can be steadily shaped into commercially familiar forms. Boorstin was writing in 1962, during the time in the United States in which world war was giving way to cold war and in which people everywhere were correctly concerned about the ways information could be manipulated to sway public opinion; the events Boorstin was naming, however, suggested another kind of danger. To give oneself over to the image-first logic of the media, he feared, was to cede some of the complex truth of the world to a glib, and commercialized, fantasy. While “propaganda oversimplifies experience,” Boorstin argued, “pseudo-events overcomplicate it.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/...dingers-coat/563474/

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Suffer Well.

And it's only going to get worse. Crazy to think you can now easily create your own fake video with an app...

http://www.businessinsider.com/...eos-deepfakes-2018-4

Next we'll have to worry about Russian bots creating fake news to try to influence our elections...

Flexible morality? Look at threads involving Chris Christie. I don't recall him mocking someone's appearance yet that didn't stop many people here from ridiculing him over his weight. In fact some of the same people who were outraged about the Michele Obama joke have made fun of Christie's appearance.
I don't know if it's because she's a black female that she's off limits or if it that she's on the left, but there certainly seems to be a double standard in play.

Nice story- Antelope Canyon is definitely a cool place, and I recall guides like the one you mentioned when I was there a few years ago. But I don't think it is completely accurate in the description of the relationship Trump's supporters have with him.

There is an element of he's our "dick" - especially with his views of immigrants and brown people- but what many of them fail to see is that he will hurt many of his supporters in the long term with his shortsighted policies. That's the part I don't get and where it differs from your story.

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Suffer Well.

I love this analogy. Then you find out he is bonused by how many trips he can run in a day- so you all had your time cut way short and he made bank off it and you still loved your 5 minutes when a year ago you would have gotten 20! You are happy, the Japanese group is happy because they didn’t have the ahole guide - and everyone has a story to tell. Win win! Was anyone even present in the moment at the monument and who cares when you have photos to show that box was ticked and you both think you had a better experience than the other- so you were the winners! Yes, I’m sick of so much winning.

Point out the Chris Christie threads.

The fact is Michelle Obama has carried herself with decorum and has been completely above board. She hasn't resorted to lowball name calling, has advocated for the needy, tried to make improvements, never created any controversy. DJT has been the opposite in all of those ways. Some of Christie's actions as governor were also pretty pathetic. Going after his weight is probably unacceptable, but point out the threads and the context.

For example - "Why do politicians lie about this stuff? Warning graphic content". I'll save you time. The graphic content warning is about a photo of the Christie on a beach. There's plenty of other nasty stuff said about his weight in other threads.

PrinceMax wrote:

For example - "Why do politicians lie about this stuff? Warning graphic content". I'll save you time. The graphic content warning is about a photo of the Christie on a beach. There's plenty of other nasty stuff said about his weight in other threads.

Tried to look for that thread, but cannot find it. I think I recall it, though. Was that from the time Christie had the beach closed to public use due to a storm but then took it over and used it for a private outing with his family? I agree that name calling isn't necessary in that situation to call out his selfishly despicable behavior and abuse of public resources to do that and the name calling is destructive. I won't validate the name calling, but the difference here is that it's at least contextualized to Christie's poor behavior, whereas the criticisms of Michelle Obama cannot be. In addition, Christie chose to run for office and open himself up as a public figure in that way, whereas Michelle was along for the ride. The criticisms I've seen of the Obama girls are especially despicable.

Yeah, I know, I struggled with that term but those two words were the best I had to convey the concept. So, I went ahead and assumed people would understand that I mean, particularly as it pertains to an office, even if a relatively informal one such as the First Lady's.

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War is god

I think we're making this too complicated.

In our society it's generally OK to joke about a man's weight. John Daly. Charles Barkley. Taft. Christie.

It's generally not OK to joke about a woman's weight. Barr. Oprah.

Fat men in business and government are just considered kind of masculine and strong.

Fat women are considered disgusting.

If you're in search for logical consistency in it, that's a whole other thread.

True in our personal lives, generally. Guys joke with each other about being fat. You *never* joke with a woman about being fat unless you really, really know what you're doing.

That was my thread: https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ng=christie#p6354021

Christie was/is a despicable human being, especially in his treatment, attitude, and statements towards others (his own damned constituents!). He deserves whatever dung is tossed his way. If his weight were the only thing for which he received criticism, that would be wrong. Just like criticizing Michelle Obama for her appearance is wrong.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Well there is also the part about the politician being fair game for pretty much everything, the families not.
Trump and Christie being fat, they are going to get it. Whereas Michelle and Melania shouldn't be subject to pot shots.

You can only pick on the families for the parts of them that they have inserted into the debate. If Michelle Obama advocates eating better and is on camera eating cheese fries, have at it. If Melania wears that jacket during an official trip, have at it. Baron didn't do anything to bring this on to himself other than choosing his parents. Calling Obama Moochelle is always the sign of a 7 year old asshole.

Attacking Melania on having an accent is being an asshole. Pointing out that Trump is against immigration but has an immigrant wife that quite possibly worked without authorization is not.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

How is this guy still here and Duffy not?

He's trolling. Everyone knows he's trolling so just ignore him and let's talks about Aaron Rodgers instead.

Indeed. Stating in your sig line that you will only ever contribute one post per thread is the definition of a troll. No-one would miss him for that reason alone.

You're going after Taft now? You sick SOB. We're surely in a race to the bottom now.

What if the question she was answering was, "Do you care if two guys get married?"

Or the question could have been, "Do you care if Barron has friends who are black?"

Whataboutism for the win!

We could speculate on a whole host of shit, but at least others here are speculating about things that are relevant to actual situations that have occurred.

The simple fact of the matter is it was a poor choice, particularly from someone whose wardrobe choices have been carefully calculated in the past. Even if she wasn't trying to send a message of not caring about the immigrants at the border or even if she wasn't trying to send any message at all, it was a terribly short-sighted and inappropriate choice in the scheme of things and context of her trip.

Is it worth getting all pissed off about? Not really, as there are policy-specific issue Trump has failed on that are worth being pissed off about and fighting, things that matter at the ballot box. Plenty of those.

Dang, why didn't I think of this.



https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/whats-hot/retailers-are-selling-i-really-care-jackets-in-response-to-melania-trump-to-raise-money-for-immigrant-families-%E2%80%94-and-theyve-already-sold-out-twice/ar-AAz1XYL?li=BBnb7Kz

Back to Goodwill and Walmart for me.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

I think it's hard to imagine any other question than the obvious one given the context.

http://www.howies.co.uk/really-care/mens-really-care-tshirt-2018.html?colour=316

they're all over eBay too. It's now officially a cash cow (for what, three days? Then people will be over it).

Meanwhile, in the detention centres . . .

The context being she was making a trip to the border? OK, then how about the questions being:

• Your doctor says you shouldn't take such a physically demanding trip so close to your surgery. Do you care?
• You are going to be criticized by the media no matter what for taking this trip. Do you care?
• You are travelling to an area ravaged by flooding and your personal safety could be at risk. Do you care?

And to think Obama got a raft of shit from many of the same "Melania's coat is no big deal" crowd for wearing a tan suit.

What the fuck? Are you managing a red herring factory?

Easy, cowboy. I'm just playing out possibilities. There was speculation about what the question was in the thread so I did my own speculation.

Is my speculation any less reasonable?

The second one is a possibility, I guess. The others are a stretch.

I can't figure out if she's really smart, and intended to make us all run in circles deciphering a cryptic, ambiguous statement. Or just screwed up. I think she probably thought about it a lot, though because any former super model is acutely aware of people looking at her and how she looks.

Regardless, it's subversive. This was almost certainly not the idea of either her own or the WH's communications depts. She went off-script. Which is kinda cool.

It’s the most idiotic question I’ve read all week, but I’ll play along.

Yes. Yes, it is far less reasonable. At least everyone else’s speculation had something, however stretching the logic, to do with a realistic scenario.

My feeling is that generally family members are innocent bystanders. Sure the first lady is much less of a bystander than the kids, but I think it's not too cool to go after their appearance. Go after their deeds. What Melania did yesterday was a good thing. But the jacket was a really bad idea. Specifically because of threads like this. It takes away from the good thing she did. Now all of the talk is about whether she is an idiot, an asshole, or just clueless.

Either way, going after Trump or Chris Christie because they are fat is kind of weak sauce along the lines of calling him Drumpf, or calling Obama Obummer, etc. In general when I see that kind of name calling in an opinion, my view of that opinion is lowered from the start. And my opinion of the person who use that gets lowered. If that's the best you've got...

I think that this was brought about by talk radio. I'm in my mid 50's and I clearly remember hearing snippets of Rush Limbaugh labeling groups that he didn't like (fem nazi, tree hugger, etc) and telling how evil they were. Then all you need to do is call somebody a [insert label here] and nobody has to listen to their opinion because now we all know that everybody under that label is not worth listening to.

It is intellectually weak to do that and intellectually weak to be swayed by it.

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

ny time Melanie coat

Consider this from the very reasonable NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/...t-melania-trump.html

"Or maybe, just maybe, it was a message for those of us who like to read messages into her clothes. One that said, “I’m going to wear whatever I want and I don’t care what you think about it.” After all, she wore the jacket again deplaning later at Andrews — wore it unapologetically knowing all the hoo-ha it had caused, the confusion and umbrage, the distraction from what she said was her core message of compassion. Wore it as if to give direct proof to the words on her back. That would be kind of meta."

How about this one. A smart person in her position doesn't wear something that is going to lead to nothing but tribe filtered speculation about it's meaning. A smart person in her position who has something to say comes out and says it.

She can only come out of this worse off than she started.

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

You are correct, sir.

If she had something to say, she should say it.

If she had nothing to say and this was an unfortunate wardrobe choice, she needs to do better.

At a minimum, she should have people around her who know better.

But, you are also correct, we should all do better than tribe filtered speculation.

Here's an idea for her next coat. Maybe it'll be less controversial.