I have a thread on the M18 story, but I've been waiting for this:
Airman arrested for death that prompted Air Force-wide safety review of Sig M18
Something about the entire "it discharged all on its owned from its holster" story sounded like a fable.
The Sydney Sweeney jeans ad praising her genes is genius: How nice to have the Sydney Sweeney “great genes” controversy. It is happily of no consequence, which is . . .
Froma Harrop.
The massive overreaction to Sweeney being in an American Eagle ad while being white continues on, and is nicely addressed by Froma Harrop above. Harrop's article reminds us of a few other pretty women, which likely means that it's a good thing the article was written by a woman.
Coincidentally, Beyoncé Knowles ad campaign for Levis continues on as well. It predates Sweeney's ad for American Eagle. I don't know anything about American Eagle jeans at all, but I do about Levis as I wear them a lot.
Knowles is also hot.
He does like the Sweeney ad. I'll bet he likes the Knowles one too.
And all this comes up, sort of, due to denim, something that women didn't often appear in, and for that matter decently dressed men, until after World War Two. While women wearing jeans had taken off well before that, Levis didn't introduce 501s for women until 1981.
Related threads:
Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.
Sydney Sweeney in American Eagle ad.
Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad shows a cultural shift toward whiteness.
CNBC headline.
Q: Your administration has been very open about the fact that American women are not having enough babies. There was an ad this week. Sydney Sweeney, an actress, was in an ad for Blue Jeans. Does America need to see more ads like that? And maybe fewer ads with people like Dylan Mulvaney on the cover?
Rob Finnerty in an interview of Donald Trump.
First, let us state something plainly.
Sydney Sweeney is hot.
Way hot.
And she looks good in the American Eagle Jeans, which are sort of retro 1970s denim really.
Really good.
So why are people having a fit?
Well, it's a really interesting tour through the culture, really.
Using attractive women to sell clothing is nothing new. Shoot, using attractive women to sell anything, is in fact not new.
So what's the big deal.
Basically, when you get right down to it, the big deal is two things. First of all, Sweeney is white. Secondly, this is a return to an obvious sex sells approach to selling that we haven't seen since the early 1990s.
The peak of the sex sells approach was really the 1970s. Coincident with the rise of feminism was the absolute exploitation of women in advertising. Calvin Klein really went to town with Brooke Shields, who was sexualized so young in her career that her image, in the movie industry, was basically a near example of child pornography. But in advertising, he wasn't the only one. There were in fact advertisements that would outright shock most Americans now as they used young teenage girls in sexualized poses. It was repulsive.
That seemed to have run its course by the mid 1980s, but even then, in the 1990s, Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith modeled jeans, in her case Guess jeans.
The 90s, however, also saw the really fruity elements of the American come into cultural power, and a lot of that gave us, unfortunately, what we have today in terms of a massive right wing populist reaction. In modeling, left wing media masters insisted that models not be, if possible, smoking hot young women and that instead they should be culturally diverse, and in some cases, fat.
Now comes this, in the midst of a real swing to cultural conservatism, but not culturalism of the Patrick Dineen type, but of the Dukes of Hazzard fan type.
What Sweeney said, quite frankly, is actually completely true. Genes are passed down from parents to offspring. Genes in fact determine external traits like hair color and eye color. That is a fact.
And, more than we like to admit, they determine a massive amount of our personality traits. If you hang around a family gathering and don't find people who have the same deep interests as you do, the same sense of humor, etc., you might wish to check to see if you are in the right place. Sure, some of that might be due to environment, you are all from the same family, but some not. It's well known that many of the traits that impact our personalities are in fact genetic.
So what's up with the upset.
Well she's white, as are 60.5% of the American population. That is who you are trying to sell to much of the time. The liberal left just can't have that.
If the same clothing promotion was being done by Anok Yai, the left wouldn't be having a fit, the right would be, and for the exact same reason.
Which is exactly why, if I ran American Eagle, I'd have Anok Yai join in the campaign.
Of course, that isn't the only reason people are enjoying being upset. They're also upset as the ads openly focus on Sweeney's assets, including having the camera in the jean jacket ad focus on her boobs until she intervenes to instruct the viewer to look at her face.
Well, gentle reader, that portrays reality. All the feminist reactions in the world are never going to stop men from observing cleavage when its right there. We're wired that way, and for a reason.
Which brings us to the next point. In the right wing defense, Trump, in a friendly Fox interview, was asked the bizarre question "Does America need to see more ads like that? And maybe fewer ads with people like Dylan Mulvaney on the cover?" after the pronatalist views of the far right were referenced.
That was weird.
The US, and for that matter the entire Western World, does not have a demographic crisis like the far right pronatalist like to imagine. But the suggestion that men are going to look at Sydney Sweeney and suddenly feel aroused and go out and procreate is truly odd.
But even this does give us a glimpse into how modern Western society has really gone off the rails No man who wants to "transition" is ever going to look like Sydney Sweeney. Nor will any of them suffer from the Girl Flu every month. That's reality.
Anyhow. Givc the woman a break.
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REPORTER: Why do you think your supporters in particular have been so interested in the Epstein story?
TRUMP: I don't understand it. He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand what the interest and fascination is. The credible information has been given. It's pretty boring stuff.
Uh huh. He doesn't understand it. . .
Oh yes he does.
Let's start with this. There may be more on the Trump/Epstein connection that I had known. Ed Krassenstein reports on Twitter, with some comments by me, note the following:
Trump personally hosted a private party at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 attended only by himself, Jeffrey Epstein, and 28 young women, according to Trump associate George Houraney. (Which wouldn't necessarily mean that they were underaged).
Trump’s name appeared in Epstein’s black book with at least 14 phone numbers, per Vanity Fair.
He flew on Epstein’s plane at least seven times, and Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell flew on Trump’s jet in 2000—alongside a very young girl brought by Epstein. (But Trump was not on the plane at the time).
A 14-year-old girl, groomed by Maxwell, was introduced to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, per sworn testimony from an Epstein victim. (Which is super creepy, but doesn't mean that Trump bedded her).
Another woman accused Trump of raping her at age 13 during an Epstein-hosted party, even claiming Epstein and Trump argued over “who would take her virginity.” She later dropped the suit after alleged threats. (But this might not be true, and isn't verified).
In 2000, after Epstein was accused of propositioning another underage girl at Mar-a-Lago, Trump still told New York Magazine that Epstein was “a terrific guy.”
Trump publicly wished Ghislaine Maxwell “well” after her arrest for trafficking minors.
Epstein called Trump his “wingman” in a recording, saying they shared a taste for young women. (But that isn't Trump acknowledging the same).
Former model Stacey Williams says Trump groped her in 1993 during a meeting arranged by Epstein.
Trump and Epstein were frequently seen together in New York and Palm Beach throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
And it doesn’t stop there—Trump surrounded himself with others deeply tied to Epstein:
Alan Dershowitz, Trump’s impeachment lawyer, was accused of sexual misconduct by Virginia Giuffre, who said Epstein forced her to have sex with him. Dershowitz also defended Epstein in court. (Dershowitz denies the rape).
Alexander Acosta, Trump’s Labor Secretary, was the prosecutor who gave Epstein his sweetheart deal in Florida—granting him and his co-conspirators immunity. Trump later rewarded him with a Cabinet post.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former strategist, worked on efforts to rehabilitate Epstein’s public image after he was accused of trafficking minors.
Roger Stone, one of Trump’s closest advisors, defended Epstein publicly and downplayed the abuse allegations.
George Nader, connected to Trump’s 2016 campaign, was later convicted of possessing child pornography and linked to Epstein investigations. (That doesn't really mean anything in regard to Trump).
William Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, has no direct link to Epstein—but his father hired Epstein to teach at a private school despite Epstein having no degree, raising long-standing questions. (This also means nothing).
What's it all mean? Perhaps nothing whatsoever.
But there's a really severe smoke situation going on here, so no wonder people are looking for a fire.
Trump, with his GOP Senatorial lackies, is fighting tooth and nail to keep secret something they formally accused the Democrats of hiding. The Democrats indeed introduced a bill to open the files, and its going down in defeat.
There's some reason for that.
Okay, now the Democrats are trying to open the files up.
The old Republican story, which I heard from a loyal Trumpy just this past week, was that the files were hidden by Biden as they showed that Bill and Hillary Clinton had improper relations with Epstein. It all fit into the Q Anon conspiracy theories.
Donald Trump, who wants the press to quit paying attention to this, advocated for the files to be opened, but now wants to keep them closed.
Maybe Bill (I doubt Hillary) had some dalliance on Epstein Island, although there's no proof of that whatsoever. But Trump's connections with Epstein are really clear. Trump's desire that people look away also speaks volumes.
Trump (and fwiw Bill) fit into the statistical group of men that are more likely to fish in the shallow end of the pool, that being men who have had more than eight sexual "partners". I can't recall where I read that, and I'm not going to look it up, but with each added partner over one a man's sexual drive becomes more disordered, and after that point, no doubt varying by individual, the drive really becomes totally self focused and there's a heightened incidence of screwing teenage girls.
And Trump has in fact acted in a rather direct manner in this category once before, when at age 1997 he walked into the Miss Teen USA dressing room and stated: "Don't worry, ladies, I've seen it all before."
I'm sure he'd seen it all before, that's not hardly the point.
Indeed, Trump reported on the incident.
I'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else. And you know, no men are anywhere. And I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant. And therefore I'm inspecting it.
* * *
Is everyone OK? You know they're standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.
One of the former contestants said Trump groped her.
Of course, Trump denies all of this, and the pageant has somewhat too, saying that it was exaggerated.
But here too, odd associations creep in. When Trump became involved in pageantry, in his 30s, John Casablancas was a figure in the whole thing. A personality in the modeling profession, Casablancas hosted events where he and others allegedly propositioned teenage models, although nobody says Trump did. Casablancas was married three times, all to models, and at the time of his third marriage he was 50 and the bride. . . 17. She was close, it might be noted, to the age of his children, who were 22 and 14 at the time. And it seems relatively well established that he'd had an affair with another teenager before that, who was 16.
So here we have Trump, who is on his fourth marriage, and a marriage to a model, who has a sexual track record that's not admirable, and who hung out, since his 30s, with men who were into screwing teenagers.
So why the focus on Epstein?
Well, it raises questions about Trump.
And he's sure acting like a man who has something to hide. . .
Maybe he doesn't. But opening up the files at this point is the only way to show that.
Last edition:
Porn industry, Supreme Court weigh in as Wyoming requires age verification on adult sites: As of Tuesday, Wyomingites' access to some corners of the internet was restricted by a new law requiring age verification for viewing pornography.
Funny I saw a bunch of reporting on this just the other day, none of which noted that Wyoming was a state that had such a law. . . no doubt as it didn't until yesterday.
I'm not going to shed any tears for the porn industry.
In other sex, sort of, news, a dude who looks like a dude went to the lady's room accompanied by the press (including a dude) and hoped to get arrested.
Transgender woman protests new law with visit to a Wyoming Capitol bathroom: Rihanna Kelver used the women’s restroom at the Wyoming Capitol building Tuesday in defiance of a new law prohibiting transgender people’s use of public facilities.
On the same day, the University of Pennsylvania banned dudes in women's sports.
Chuck Gray got help from his hero:
Last edition:
An interesting episode in Evansville:
And an episode all played out against the background of the state's GOP going increasingly to the very far right.
I'll note that this is "Pride Month". As I've noted before, I don't really get pride month for a bunch of reasons, one simple one being I don't see how a person can be "proud" of their sexual drive. That just seems odd to me. My views on the topic are found in the related thread links below, and a person can read them if they're interested.
I'm also kind of in the camp of the months just being the months, although I do see why Black History Month and Women's History Month got started to focus attention.
Anyhow, over time, Prime Month, which originally was limited to homosexuality, expanded out to LGBTQ, and that's another topic. L G & Q are related topics, but T is really a seperate one entirely, a fact that has caused some Ls to be upset by being included with Ts, and understandably so.
Anyhow, that's the topic of the post.
As noted, this is Pride Month and the Mayor of Evansville, on her own volition, put out small rainbow flags at the Evansville Town Hall. She noted that it represented a municipal spirit of acceptedness, although it was not a municipal act. It was a private one.
This shows something really interesting in general. For native Wyomingites, the view towards LGBTQ topics long was "I don't care what you do, just leave me alone". That's the native Wyoming view on a lot of things.
For this reason, for decades, locals in this community would find themselves in the grocery store line with a man wearing a tutu (I'm sincere on this), and think, "um. . .whatever". Or in my case, "um. . . poor taste in dresses".
The current right wing populist view, however, is very much "I care exactly what you are doing and I'm going to force you to stop doing it".
For locals, therefore, this entire topic has been a bit odd. There's been the movement towards "you must accept", which is generally met with "What? I wasn't bothering you" while also being met with "you must stop them", which has been met with "Why? They weren't bothering me".
Anyhow, the mayor put out flags.
This was, in turn, met with the actions of one Evansville resident who went out and drew swastikas on the sidewalk in protest. In addition, he threatened to purchase German swastika flags and put them out.
Why swastikas?
Well, nobody can really figure that one out. Asked about it in a town work session, he replied:
Yeah, there’s a difference. I’m not that stupid, but what I’m doing here is to make a point.
And what is that point?
Hard to figure.
Anyhow, Evansville residents reacted by having a sidewalk chalk fest. Seems about the best possible reaction, really.
A lesson here is that street level Wyoming isn't nearly as far right as GOP. At some point, that probably begins to have an effect.
Another lesson may very well be that the center needle on this has moved on, giving us an example of Yeoman's Twenty First Law of Behavior for the second time in two days. If that's the case, social conservatives will have a pretty hard time actually moving things back to where they want, as that requires a cultural change, and that change may have already taken place in the opposite direction.
Somewhat related, Wyoming's lone Congressman is backing a bill in Congress to change Pride Month (and I don't know how it ended up being called that) to "Family Month". A Hageman Facebook post stated:
This June, I am proud to cosponsor Rep. Mary Miller's resolution to officially declare June as Family Month.
It is time to reject radical ideologies and honor traditional family values that have shaped our country for generations.
A press release said something similar.
Some Facebook wag posted in reply:
Where's your Hageman family picture?
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Related threads:
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It's really interesting to watch the hardcore MAGA mind at work.
The same people who, last month, were all atwitter with Elon Musk now reject him and claim that "Liberals" are flocking back to Musk.
No, they aren't.
For not MAGAites, Must is forever tainted, as he well should be. What those outside of the Trump orbit are rejoicing in is the fight between Musk and Trump. That doesn't amount to welcoming Musk back to anything. Rather, it's enjoying the mutual assured destruction between two such damaging personalities.
Trumpites who are claiming a welcoming back are, rather, trying to comfort themselves from the reality that Donald Trump really only stands for chaos, not for Conservatism (which is where I reside), or much else. If Musk fell out with him, it's because Musk seems to have a slight bit more fiscal sense than Trump, and the majority of Republican Congressman, who are wrecking the nation's finances. The populists don't seem to appreciate that's happening, and the National Conservatives, which have other goals, don't seem to care.
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Last edition:
June 6, 2024
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray informed County Clerks that they may not use drop boxes in the upcoming election:
The topic of drop boxes has figured prominently in far right wing conspiracy theories even though there's no evidence whatsoever that they were involved in corruption in the last U.S. election, and certainly did not in the Wyoming election. Sec. Gray used 2000 Mules prominently in his campaign, which apparently focuses on them, with that film having been completely discredited. The conservative company which distributed it recently pulled it and apologized for it.
Apparently, less than 10 Wyoming counties actually use drop boxes, but the clerks en masse rejected Gray's directive. If he wants to actually enforce his view, he'll have to attempt to get a court order, which risks the embarrassing possibility of losing as well as making people mad that a state official is suing local clerks. If he doesn't take legal action, however, he'll look politically emasculated.
June 12, 2024
A bunch of states held primaries yesterday.
Nancy Mace held off a Republican challenger in South Carolina.
Trump backed Kelly Armstrong won in North Dakota.
June 14, 2024
And if this election wasn't weird enough:
June 15, 2024
The Presidential election continues to get increasingly surreal.
Business executives who met with Trump recently, in some instances, came away a bit shocked by what is obvious. CBS reports that some:
“said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,”
D'uh.
That's been the case for quite a while, and it's really showing. Consider this from last week:
I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery and the battery’s underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’ By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately. Do you notice that? A lot of shark … I watched some guys justifying it today: ‘Well, they weren’t really that angry. They bit off the young lady’s leg because of the fact that they were not hungry, but they misunderstood who she was.’ These people are crazy.
Eh?
There's plenty of reason to be concerned that Trump is in some state of mental decline. These statements are certainly alarming, to say the least. At this point, moreover, it's being willfully blind to suggest that Joe Biden is mentally impaired and not suggest the same thing about Trump.
Trump suggested last week that he'd look at replacing the income tax with tariffs. That would throw the country into a Depression.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, himself no spring chicken, was photographed amongst Trump's Senatorial acolytes last week, and then giving him a birthday cake. Dr. Barrasso is just that, a physician, and there's no real reason to believe that he's a Trump fan, but that's the case for a lot of those photographed smiling at Trump, all of which is both sad and alarming.
June 17, 2024
June 21, 2024
A Sixth Cent sales tax will be on the ballot in Natrona County.
June 25, 2024
An article on Hageman's primary challenger in the GOP:
Helling has a less than zero chance of unseating Hageman. What this item really reminded me of, however, is just how old these candidates are. Helling is an old lawyer. His bar admission date is 1981, which would make him about 70. Hageman's is 1989, which I knew which would make her about 61, old by historical standards although apparently arguably middle-aged now.
Barrasso is 71. Lummis is 69. John Hotz, who is running against Barrasso, has a bar admission date of 1978 which would make him about three years older than Helling. Seemingly the only younger candidate in the GOP race this primary is Rasner.
This isn't a comment on any of their politics, but rather their age. Helling is opposed to nuclear power, a very 1970ish view. With old people, come old views, quite often, even if they're repackaged as new ones.
June 26, 2024
Boebert won the GOP primary in her new district in Colorado.
Democratic member of "the Squad" Jamaal Bowman lost his primary race in New York to moderate Democrat George Latimer.
June 27, 2024
Trump-endorsed Riverton Utah Mayor Trent Staggs lost the Republican primary to Representative John Curtis for the Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney. Trump-backed state Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams lost the primary to Jeff Crank. Trump's endorsed South Carolina 3rd Congressional District, candidate pastor Mark Burns, lost to nurse practitioner Sheri Biggs.
Trump endorsed Gabe Evans, defeated Janak Joshi for the Colorado's 8th Congressional District nomination.
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