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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Bizarre Reaction to the WHCD Reveals We're in Deeper Trouble Than We Thought
"I actually really like Sarah," Wolf said. "I think she's very resourceful. Like, she burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she's born with it; maybe it's lies. It's probably lies."
This is being cast as an attack on Huckabee Sanders' appearance, when in fact it's a makeup brand reference, as any casual reader of a womans magazine understands.
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the White House press secretary, not a vulnerable wife and mother being pilloried for no reason. Her boss is a man who lies with relish and without consequence, and she routinely lies on his behalf. This is an administration that has repeatedly tried to force undocumented migrant teenage girls into carrying unwanted pregnancies to term. "Aunt Lydia" isn't such a baseless comparison.
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Flint still doesnt have clean water. That line was in the same speech as the one that mentioned eye shadow and Aunt Lydia. Only one of those things is truly offensive, and it didnt seem to register on the list of outrages felt by members of the White House Press Corps. There are wives and mothers in Flint, too if Michelle Wolf talks about their eye makeup, will we finally care about them?
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a20102293/whcd-michelle-wolf-sarah-huckabee-sanders/
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)Michelle scored better than any of the 50 Mil worth of cruise missiles recently did.
Initech
(99,909 posts)They want their opinion to be absolute. They want absolute power. They can't stand to hear anything that even slightly differs from their absolute opinion. This is what we have been witnessing.
Caliman73
(11,690 posts)I agree 100%. It is the reason why Fox News was created and why the right wing radio networks were funded, why the internet sites that push right wing talking points followed. Conservatives have ALWAYS lost the fight over ideas because for better or not, change is inevitable. The human species was built on adaptation and advancement. When we stagnate, we die. Conservatives have been trying to halt progress since progress became a thing. "No, we cannot stop by the river and farm crops, we have to keep hunting and gathering or the gods will strike us down". "No, we cant build towns, the gods will strike us down", "No, we can't ...", that is what conservatives do and there is some validity to slowing change in some respects, but conservatives in this country have always seemed to do it in the service of power and wealth, in opposition to equality.
Conservatives like Christian dominionists, see anything that is not their complete dominance of the discourse as an attack on their very existence.
Submariner
(12,482 posts)I never read women magazines casually or otherwise.
I'm a guy, and my first impression was Wolf was making fun of Huckabee's looks because of that droopy or lazy eye issue she lives with, which has been commented on before here on DU.
I did not make any connection to makeup, so I don't feel my reaction is bizarre.
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)but, I remember the TV commercials "maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline"
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)And "Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline," is an old tagline for makeup.
stopbush
(24,375 posts)American commercial culture?
Check.
Those sneaky black women. Always looking to embarrass the white guys!
Next time shell keep the references to tastes great, less filling.
Submariner
(12,482 posts)and did not know, or wonder or care about, her skin color, which had nothing to do with it to me.
Please excuse my ignorance for not being up to speed on today's American commercial culture of skin products.
stopbush
(24,375 posts)Those of our vintage have more of a chance of understanding her reference to the old maybe its Mabelline ads than do the youngsters.
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)I don't read magazines AND I'm single AND I don't watch TV and I knew what smoky eye meant just by the context. just sayin
Context!
tomg
(2,574 posts)Last edited Tue May 1, 2018, 05:08 PM - Edit history (1)
those mentioned. I saw it as reference to her eyeliner, but the Maybelline allusion went right by me. My first impression was it was simply a joke I didn't get. I teach lit and - particularly with modernist literature which is often very allusive - my students miss things or misread details all of the time. I think I might even use the joke as an illustration when we talk about allusion. I wasn't aware of the lazy eye issue which adds another layer to the joke where it could be construed in a very different way.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,857 posts)I'm a guy and I knew exactly what she meant.
Oh, and if you don't know something, there's a thing called google...it does a great job of answering questions. Or maybe you have an Echo and you could have asked that.
Submariner
(12,482 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)about Trump or call out his bad policies and the dem will be portrayed as a bully or abrasive depending on gender if they do. Trump will be blunt and honest
Look how the debates were post discussed 2016 on MSMs. He called Clinton a nasty woman and the devil, no blink of an eye from many of the talking heads .
Wolf is right that he is their gravy train and in fact many may not even have a job if he is not reelected and the country is calm and a WH not in constant calamity
They need thier clown show with no thought of the dangers as long as they can 'cover ' it
Also as they point out it was OK to make a body joke about Chris Christie . I think it could not be hyped so the media dropped it
volstork
(5,393 posts)of American journalism when an article as brilliant as this is published by a magazine that usually features "12 Ways to Blow His Mind in Bed" rather than by one of the so-called bastions of the Fourth Estate?
Well-said, Jill Filipovic.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)tblue37
(64,979 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,681 posts)I dont know who those people think they are that she cant say that to them because they offend people all the time, he told PBS NewsHour. For many people, its cathartic to watch that woman speak truth to power like that.
He said the routine was grounded in her truth and that he respected Wolfs artistry.
I know how hard it is to do what she did in front of that lame-ass crowd, he said.
Count me among those for whom that speech was cathartic.
Going high doesn't mean you have to turn the other cheek.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,681 posts)Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam!
skypilot
(8,847 posts)...since the early days of this administration when even some here at DU thought that the press would start "doing its job" in reaction to the contempt and condescension coming from whoever was press secretary at the time. I remember holding out a similar hope but you know it's all over the first time the press corps chuckles at some lame joke coming from the podium. That moment always comes.
Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)On one hand, she gets to spew vile, accusatory lies on a daily basis, impugn the character of pretty much anyone, and just generally be part of the Trump machine.
Then, if she gets a little back, it's poor Sarah, how dare you make fun of her appearance, you're awful, this is so over the line... BULLSHIT!
This is no different than people going after Ivahhhhnkah and Jahhhr-uhd for things they say and do as part of the administration. For god's sake, one joke about her eye makeup, and it wasn't even a put-down about her makeup.
ismnotwasm
(41,916 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)particular media personalities that stick their necks out.
limbaugh on 600 radio stations can start a lot of screaming hate - then they all do it
and the right believes a lot of the lying because the left gives talk radio a free speech free ride - a think tank-coordinated chorus of 300 ignorant lying racists 1500 radio stations are ignored while they get to create big lie after big lie and then when sanders and trump repeat them they may as well be telling truth
calling them liars is the same as calling the talk radio gods liars and doing it to their face like that is a major threat to authoritarian power/certitude
ignoring talk radio while it gets to create this alternate reality that makes the current republican party and trump possible has been the biggest political mistake in history
Turbineguy
(37,206 posts)in his presser, Trump mentioned a Nigerian girl named Lydia who had been kidnapped by Boko-Haram.
CrispyQ
(36,221 posts)It is revolting to see members of the press, who should have an adversarial relationship with the White House, comforting the press secretary and standing up for her honor when she is a chief architect of and apologist for these new political norms of idiotic crudeness, rank corruption, and unapologetic deceit.
Gothmog
(143,998 posts)This was a funny skit
Va Lefty
(6,252 posts)"Every hour it's Trump, Russia, Hillary, and a panel of four people who remind you why you don't go home for Thanksgiving,"
You guys are obsessed with Trump,""Did you use to date him? You pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him."
"What no one in this room wants to admit is Trump helped all of you," "He couldn't sell steaks, vodka, water, college, ties or Eric. [But] he has helped you sell your papers, books, and TV. You created this monster, and now you're profiting off of him."
And then the killer...she reminded them that Flint Mich. still doesn't have safe drinking water. A reminder that maybe this was the sort of story they should be covering instead of all-trump all-the-time.
Retrograde
(10,068 posts)is why an industry event gets so much coverage. There's a good article in the NY Times entertainment section today (if you can get past the firewall)
I place a lot of the blame for the current White House on the so-called press, who spent much of 2016 treating Trump as a ratings-magnet whose every utterance needed to be covered while overlooking simple facts like his utter lack of qualifications for the job. IMHO, they helped create him: now they're whining when people bring it up.
KR
BobTheSubgenius
(11,535 posts)This story would have been dead in 24-48 hours, had Michelle Wolf had a Y chromosome.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)This is the TWENTY-FIRST century. This is the birthplace of some sorta noise that many praise as "music" - music laced with profanity and suggestive themes about taking advantage of women. I'm old enough to recall when a kid really could get their mouth washed out with soap if someone heard them utter a profanity. I also know folks - young adults - adults of Ms. Sanders generation - who can't string 5 or 10 words together without half of them being "fucks". So I honestly don't think it's very cruel or demeaning to paint her as some kind of saintly lass. I mean.... Sarah Sanders works for a guy no more decent - no more respectful of women than Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and others of that strata. Gimmee a break - she's no more due respect than Satan's spouse.
Johnny2X2X
(18,731 posts)You have to watch the Far Right to anticipate what is next.
Know that this group will accuse the Left of everything they themselves are guilty of. The scariest trend out there is Q Anon and it's gaining steam. Far rightwingers (And probably many in the White House) believe there is a global child sex ring and almost all major liberals will be implicated. They believe the latest Hollywood Sex Cult bust proves that Pizzagate is real. Forget how insane that sounds, but know this, they can hack anyone's email or computer and they will start planting evidence this way.
They will do ANYTHING! We have to be prepared for this. Get ready, because they are going to start trying to frame and jail their enemies, they've already started actually.
Teegraph
(2 posts)The Comey Memos show that Trump is willing to rape Journos in prison to get them to expose sources. The fact (not fat ) that @margarettalev @whca would role over so quickly is a disgrace.
...The president then wrapped up our conversation by returning to the issue of finding leakers. I said something about the value of putting a head on a pike as a message. He replied by saying it may involve putting reporters in jail. They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend and they are ready to talk. I laughed as I walked to the door Reince Priebus had opened.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,096 posts)welcome
Teegraph
(2 posts)I need to get my post numbers up so people don't think I am a RU Troll
marble falls
(56,353 posts)cheetolini really does that? From where in the Comey memos is that cited?
wishstar
(5,267 posts)"First is Mr. Trumps private expressions of contempt for press freedom. According to a Feb. 14, 2017, memo, the president said Mr. Comey should jail journalists to compel them to identify government leakers, as Justice Department officials did in 2005 with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. When the FBI director said that such a plan would face legal barriers as well as reticence at the Justice Department, the president ordered Mr. Comey to talk to the attorney general about being more aggressive, saying, They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, and they are ready to talk, according to the memo. In response to this disgusting statement, Mr. Comey writes he laughed and exited the room.
Mr. Trump would not be the first president to bemoan leaks, but a president repeatedly suggesting the imprisonment of journalists should be unfathomable in a country committed to freedom of expression. It rings all the more threatening in the context of Mr. Trumps historic hostility toward the media, which includes calling to loosen up libel laws , encouraging crowds at his campaign rallies to turn and jeer at the peaceful press corps behind them, and transforming the term fake news into a phrase now used by dictators across the world to dismiss truthful reporting they do not like. Meanwhile, his vulgar reference to making a new friend in prison trivializes the dehumanizing torture of prison rape that too many inmates continue to suffer. These comments deserved not a laugh from Mr. Comey, but the cold silence he reported giving to many of Mr. Trumps other disturbing remarks."
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)SunSeeker
(51,367 posts)Moostache
(9,895 posts)When Trump or an asshole pretending to be offended on behalf of Trump feigns outrage, this is how we should all respond:
Beartracks
(12,761 posts)... would be as much a critique as saying Scott Pruitt uses baby seal leather to make his shoes.
Which is to say: it's not about her appearance. It's about her relationship with facts. Period.
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3catwoman3
(23,812 posts)Response to 3catwoman3 (Reply #43)
Scurrilous This message was self-deleted by its author.