@thanatokephaloides

She could have used her influence and power to go after big pharma, GMOs, and all the antibiotics and growth hormones shot into our food. Instead she plants a garden and says, come one kids - let's move.

#3

try criticizing queen obama - pfft Her let's move PR stunt directed at overweight kids really pissed me off. Don't go after the toxins in our food, blame the kids.

And her veggie garden on the White House grounds, while an excellent idea in its own right, is an option wholly unavailable for most of us 99%ers. But, of course, any movement towards basic high-school grad salaries paying enough to make it a realistic option wasn't in the cards either.

You'd think our national leaders would have developed beyond high school level personalities, but...

@Nastarana

I'm supposed to be insulted by Melania Trump being in the White House. She's basically irrelevant to me. I just checked, and nope, I don't have any emotions like that about her at all. Nothing. At most I find her a bit of a mystery. But then I've never understood marrying a disgusting man, because of money and power. It's bizarre, imo, but Melania Trump is hardly the first woman to do that.

Donald Trump being in the White House is an insult to all Americans. He's an insult to all people in every country. But his wife, why would we care about her? I realize I'm against the entire concept of "first couple" and "two for the price of one" presidencies. Putting the wife under a microscope and making her looks and everything else about her a qualification for his election, just doesn't sit well.

How about we get rid of First Lady as a job? The whole idea seems archaic to me. It's interesting how in some ways, Americans seem to still long for monarchy and having a royal family. We just can't let it go. The First Lady has to look and act a certain way, for show.

I honestly don't care about Melania. I can't imagine how she stands her husband (~shudder~), but I'm not insulted by her. I definitely don't agree with the idea that the First Lady, whoever it may be, is required to do or be anything in particular. They were not elected. Why do we treat the president's family and wife like a pseudo royal family, with the press and public watching and reacting to their every move, what shoes they wear, their fashion and style and hair and how beautiful they are, what causes they champion, how they raise their children, everything. I just don't think those things matter.

I do agree about the hypocrisy on dkos in attacking her, but that is par for the course over there. Partisan nonsense is what they do, not consistency.

#6 and I admire your generosity and kindness.

Nevertheless, while I emphatically don't join the DK vituperation, I do consider Mrs. T's presence in the WH to be an insult to American women.

Michelle Obama, who was roundly criticized by the right for alleged extravagance, took the trouble to wear American designers; Mme. T can't even bother to do that. Clothes is one thing but I have other, more serious causes for complaint, in that I can't help thinking that with all the resources of hubby at her command she might have.. read a book once in a while, or if she is not into reading, arranged for briefings so that she might be less of an idiot. Maybe taken some graduate courses, done some travel to non luxury locations. Upper class American women, most of them, understand that they need to be and be seen to be patronesses of worthy causes; Melania appears to do none of that. Fancy pants charity balls are ridiculed by people who never get invited to them, but there are lots of other ways a wealthy woman can make herself useful.

What amused me about the DK article and subsequent mud slinging, is how, not so long ago, Kossacks were into Feminist Solidarity, and Melania was off limits. If the goal was to defeat T-Rumpus, a hard, cold look into the wife's antecedents, mode of life and so on, might have been thought to be warranted. Who were her previous partners? What about her immigration status? If she really does speak 4 or 5 languages, why did she need to be a model at all? Mrs. Heinz-Kerry, another target of RW vituperation, worked, as in held down an actual Jay Oh Bee, translating for the UN, before she married Mr. Heinz.