This Week in Disbelief
Funny, sad, weird news you might have missed!
I took a short trip to San Francisco to visit my daughter. I can report that the city by the bay is not as scary as depicted by the press. (Funny how SF instills fear in the hearts of tough New Yorkers.) Sure, it’s a bit scruffy in parts but in a Brooklynesque kind of way – meaning it’s hipster, artisanal, and woodsy, like a bunch of frayed pashminas strewn on the floor. In many ways, it’s a tableau of the 1970s. At the same time, though, it’s the city of the future. Unquestionably, my strangest adventure was riding in a driverless taxi. Yes, no longer a Waymo virgin am I!
In any case, I’m back in the saddle in New York. Here’s my compilation of curious, sad, funny news that might have escaped your attention:
Not demure, not mindful: MAGA fashion influencer McLaurine Pinover. On the same day that the Office of Personnel Management axed hundreds of federal employees, its chief spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover, a Trump appointee, was on Instagram, modeling work fashion (#DCInfluencer) from her government office. And if you click on the link (sadly, she took down her Instagram), she gets a commission too!
It wasn’t the only time Pinover peddled wares from her office. According to the New York Times, she posted a batch of “short videos, each four to nine seconds, featured her in her office, lightheartedly modeling her clothes, applying makeup, working at her desk and occasionally blowing a kiss to the camera.”
Hey, if Trump can turn the White House lawn into a Tesla sales lot, why shouldn’t this public servant hawk whatever she wants? She’s obviously a multitasker. So efficient.
Family scandal: JD Vance’s mother-in-law is woke. It turns out that Lakshmi Chilukuri, Usha’s mom, is a big proponent of DEI. She’s a provost at the University of California San Diego where she’s known as “Provost Chill.” According to CBS News, she’s championed a course on race, ethnicity and gender in biology and medicine and declared her proud commitment to diversity. So what’s JD’s reaction to all this? Blame the press, of course. "This story exists because CBS has decided that harassing my mother in law is a reasonable price in order to attack President Trump," he sniffed nonsensically.
Lamest defense for tariffs: paying through the nose is noble. Recently, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent chastised Americans for wanting affordable goods: “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream ... The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security. For too long, the designers of multilateral trade deals have lost sight of this.” Yes, the American Dream is all about suffering needlessly to fulfill a madman’s delusions. Wait, isn’t that what the Chinese went through under Mao?
Why didn’t these abortion cases get more coverage? For anyone who was fooled by Trump’s more moderate tone on abortion during the presidential campaign, these two cases – one in Idaho and the other in South Carolina – should set off alarms. Trump’s justice department recently moved to dismiss a case over emergency abortions brought by the Biden administration, which had sued Idaho over its almost total ban on abortions. At the same time, the Trump administration is siding with South Carolina to cut off Medicaid funding for medical (not abortion) services offered by Planned Parenthood.
Sycophant of the week: Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Ca.) who’s nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Since Trump took office, Republicans have been tripping over themselves to impress him with how far they’ll press their noses. Let’s see, there’s the proposal by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R.-FL.) to put Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore, then Rep. Claudia Tenny’s (R.-NY) bill to make Trump’s birthday a national holiday, “recognizing him as the founder of America’s Golden Age” — even though the stock market is tanking and egg prices are out of sight ($12.99 at my supermarket, albeit jumbo sized).
Say it ain’t so: Girl Scout cookies are toxic. A class action lawsuit has been filed against the Girl Scouts of America and the bakeries that produce those iconic cookies. The complaint claims that 100% of cookie samples contained heavy metals, including lead. And Thin Mints had more than 300 times the acceptable level of the pesticide glyphosate. I don’t care about the other cookies but leave the Thin Mints alone! You will have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands.
That’s it for now!
Vivia
Another gem, Vivia! On the bright side, JD was booed at the Kennedy Center. Russia said it didn't want Trump anywhere near the Peace talks and Elon's panache has pancaked.