And they miss the point. Again.

Cheesecake Factory interior

From what keeps appearing in my social media feeds, it appears the Reich wing has once again focused on the wrong thing. Former President Obama joked about Orange Julius's obsession with plastering as much gold crap as it's physically possible to cram into one mansion. He noted that Cheetolini is so focused on decorating that he should be on HGTV, which is actually a pretty accurate assessment. The Donald seems to be a lot more interested in and sort of knowledgeable about things like pilasters than he is in foreign policy or how economics and trade work. (I saw a clip in which he went on and on about minutiae involved in home maintenance. He apparently knows how to repair cracked plaster pilasters and blistered stucco.)

In any case, Obama's quip was that Trump has the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. It's actually a bit of a dig at the Cheesecake Factory. The decor at a typical Cheesecake Factory is indeed over the top (note the pseudo-Egyptian Old Kingdom columns in the photo) by some standards but it's not covered in architectural tat that looks like someone got turned loose with a case of Krylon metallic paint. The exteriors of the chain are much gaudier than the interiors. In contrast, The Donald has the White House so packed with cheap gold crap that even Hussein might consider it all a bit too much.

The Donald has always been obsessed with gold tchotchkes. He and Melania did a photo shoot at their Manhattan penthouse quite a few years ago. The penthouse bore a strong resemblance to what I've always mentally pictured what a low-budget bordello would look like. Tacky. Super tacky. Decor that appeals only to drug lords and not-too-bright mafiosi. Which does fit Orange Julius rather neatly.  

The MAGA world freaked out over Obama's joke, proving once again that (a) MAGA has absolutely no sense of humor, and. (b). they're not too bright. Omigod. Obama is sneering at working folk and their taste in food. No reaction to the comparison to Saddam Hussein (a horrible dictator) and Hussein's well known love of gold and tackiness in his multiple Iraqi palaces. Nope. It's outrageous that Obama was elitist and mocked the food of the working class. Given that the Cheesecake Factory menu prices run on the high end for casual dining, I'm not sure just how many "working class" folks are eating there, especially when restaurants in general are seeing diminishing sales this year, but that's a minor quibble. How does anyone with two brain cells just breeze right by the Saddam Hussein reference and focus instead on overpriced hamburgers? 

One thing that just struck me about The Donald's obsession with "fixing" the White House is where the heck is the First Lady? We all know Melania has zero interest in doing anything, but even Epstein's sloppy seconds must know it would be good public relations for her to be the face of "improving" the building. It would be yet another way to one up the Kennedy legacy. Of course, it's possible Von Shitzenpants suggested that Melanoma be the public face for the tackiness and she said No. Based on recent photos, my guess is she's hoping to be a grieving widow soon. 

I need to find a better cave

I swear every time I'm foolish enough to emerge from self-induced blissful ignorance and listen to the news or read something other than AI generated revenge stories on Facebook I regret it. Each time I think things have gotten as weird as humanly possible, things get even weirder. Or maybe disconcerting would be a better descriptor than weird.

I mean, in the past week or so we've had the Cornell gang rape case (not much of a shocker to any woman who's been unlucky enough to attend a college with frat houses; the most surprising thing was Jane Doe having the courage to go after the asshats with civil litigation), the Trump administration's decision to emulate the Taliban by live streaming a public execution (I am moderately surprised Trump isn't pushing for holding said execution at Northwest Stadium as half time entertainment for a Washington Commanders game), Trump's ambassador to Greece being so blatant with her grifting (she sent text messages detailing her extortion attempts? Seriously? We all knew Guilfoyle wasn't real smart -- she was briefly engaged to Cokey McSniffles [aka Don jr] -- but whatever gets used as lip filler must have a side effect of rotting brain cells), and the list keeps growing. 

*Trump cheering while 3 male MAGAts attempt to beat the crap out of a woman who had the audacity to wear an anti-pedophile tee-shirt, which kind of paints a clear picture of what a bunch of kiddy diddlers the MAGAts are. In what has to be a classic MAGAt move, one of the dudes involved bragged about assaulting the woman in a Facebook post. If we sane folk didn't know already that MAGAts live in an alternate reality, going public and bragging about attacking a woman for wearing a shirt that he didn't like would make it clear. What sane person is going to brag publicly about assaulting anyone? 

*Trump's new press secretary, another Ivanka clone who can give Natalie Harp a run for the money as the most obsequious minion in the White House but apparently can't read words more than one syllable long -- her first outing at a press briefing was so bad that there are rumors she's going to beat Scaramucci's record for rapid firings. Every day brings another bizarre episode, something so unthinkable in terms of what passed for normal a few years ago that it renders me effectively speechless. 

And it's not just Trump and politics. It's also people. While everyone is still talking about the Cornell 7, sexual abuse, and misogyny, Shane Gillis decides to do a woman-hating joke on national television. Dude might as well be wearing a I'm With Stupid tee-shirt with the arrow pointing at himself. 

I definitely need to spend more time in the Woman Cave with soft rock playing quietly in the background from the local easy listening station. No news, no internet, just perfectly good fabric for me to cut into tiny pieces to sew back together eventually.