Weird new low
Liberal resistance to President Donald Trump has hit a weird new low. They've attacked him, his older children, his youngest son, Barron, and his wife, Melania.
Recently, they've come back to Melania. They've slapped at her desire to stay in New York while Barron finished the school year, her clothes, the shoes she wore to board Air Force One and even when she did or did not choose to hold hands with the president.
Now she's got a body double.
"This is not Melania," the man who started the Twitter conspiracy wrote, his words accompanied by a photo of the first lady. "To think they would go this far & try & make us think its[sic] her on TV is mind blowing. Makes me wonder what else is a lie[.]"
"Will the real Melania please stand up?" wrote another conspiracy theorist. "Is it me or during his speech today a decoy 'stood in' for Melania? And why would the moron say 'my wife, Melania, who happens to be right here' Seriously, watch very closely."
Instead of letting social media trolls be social media trolls, the likes of CNN and Newsweek began to investigate. With the body double rumors, Newsweek, once a respected news magazine, even said, according to an oddsmakers, Melania Trump was now 25 percent more likely to leave her husband before the end of the year.
CNN did an entire story on the ridiculousness but, to its credit, did lead its story with the fact: "No, Melania Trump doesn't have a body double."
Your tax dollars at work
A Mississippi Democratic congressman who advocates for increased government spending financed by taxes on the wealthy has gone back on his word to fire his chief of staff, who was convicted for tax evasion for stiffing the U.S. Treasury of $150,000.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said in August 2016 that "if [Issac Lanier Avant]'s proven to be guilty then obviously [firing] would be the result," but his staffer's later plea of guilty has not moved the congressman to action.
Since then, Avant has been spending his weekdays in the halls of Congress and his weekends in jail. Prosecutors requested a one-year prison term, but he was given a month in jail, followed by a year of weekends in jail. In the meantime, he's been indicted on a new charge of filing a false security clearance form, a charge which could net him five more years in prison.
The court found he, despite a $170,000 salary, didn't pay tax returns for seven years. Prosecutors said he was dishonest throughout the investigation, and when he did file a tax return lied about donating $50,000 to a religious group and attempted to take a "bizarre" tax write-off for rollerblading.
In September 2015, after the Internal Revenue Service had begun garnishing his wages for back taxes owed, Avant was given an award for "exemplary leadership" by the Congressional Black Caucus, an award he displayed at his sentencing in hopes of being given less time. In the same good character hearing, his lawyer boasted that he had volunteered for a charity 20 years ago.
Some leadership!
Women 'inviting' harassment
When Republican politicians make statements thought to be anti-women, they are excoriated, dragged through the media mud and shamed. Ask former U.S. Senate candidates Richard Mourdock (Indiana, 2012) and Todd Akin (Missouri, 2012), both of whom were likely winners until making unfortunate statements. When Democrats do it, few eyebrows are raised.
U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, was the culprit last week. Commenting on accused sexual predator and big Democratic donor Harvey Weinstein, the congresswoman said his behavior was disturbing, but women deserved blame for their dress and actions.
"I grew up in a time when it was as much the woman's responsibility as it was a man's - how you were dressed, what your behavior was," she said. "I'm from the old school that you can have behaviors that appear to be inviting. It can be interpreted as such. That's the responsibility, I think, of the female. I think that males have a responsibility to be professional themselves."
Women can let it happen, she said.
"I think we also need to start talking about the power that women have to control the situation," Johnson said. " I think that many times, men get away with this because they are allowed to get away with it by the women."
Mourdock and Akin critics? Your move.
Urinetown
A Canadian transgender artist has used 200 gallons of her urine as part of an art exhibit to protest President Trump.
The solo exhibit, "Monumental," targets the president's rescinding of former President Barack Obama's rule on allowing transgenders to use the bathroom of their current gender rather than the one they were born with.
The artist, whose name is Cassils and who goes by the pronoun "they," saved all of her urine since Trump rescinded the previous executive order. It was stored artistically in 262 orange, 24-hour capture bottles, which were arranged into a cube. Only one space was left.
During the September opening of the exhibit at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York City, the artist was high above the crowd - for privacy - and fitted with a catheter. The urine she passed during the opening was placed in the final orange capture bottle and placed on the cube to complete her, or, rather, their work.
The exhibit runs through Oct. 28. Hurry!