Thoughts on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

I was planning to watch the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night. I watched a lot of the pre-game, red carpet stuff on C-SPAN. The reporter kept asking people who they were wearing and it became so awkward that the anchor finally told him to stop. “This is Washington. Nobody has any idea who they’re wearing.”

I was wondering if maybe Trump was going to somehow manage to be charming in his speech. Highly unlikely, but still. And if he was going to be vile and awful to the press (as usual), I wanted to see him embarrass himself until I couldn’t stand it anymore and then go to bed.

After the chaos was unleashed, my first thought was that they’d obviously cancel the event. People in the room (including multiple pregnant women) had plunged to the floor and everyone was shaken. The fact that Trump wanted to carry on (“the show must go on”) seemed to be just another example of his complete disregard for others.

When he then held a press conference at 10:30pm and all the reporters showed up in their formalwear, I felt badly for them. If you had had a night like that, wouldn’t you want to just go home and go to bed? But no…they had to go back to the White House and listen to Dear Leader blather on about his ballroom and lie about all “the love” in the room. (Quiet, Piggy!)

Reporters are people too and I feel badly for them, especially the female ones. Trump treats them like shit. I felt especially bad for the WHCA President & Host Weijia Jiang who tearfully announced that Trump was insisting she reschedule the event within 30 days. (The Commander Commands and the People—especially the Women—Must Obey.)

And then, I just had to go online and see what people were saying. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the entire country thought the event was staged. That was all I saw in the comments.

I’ve never been prone to conspiracy theories. (Typically, I mentally dismiss people who raise them.) But…maybe.

Could the whole thing have been staged? And if it was, why?

Our government is flailing, people. I grew up in this country and I’ve never felt like this about it before. The on again off again trip to Pakistan is just the latest example. What the hell are they doing? Do they even know??

We have now entered the Twilight Zone. That’s how I feel. Cue the music.

Honestly, the TV show Twilight Zone was a bit before my time. It’s more of a Boomer thing. I never actually watched it. But culturally, it has been referred to so often that I have a sense of it.

Reviews

I did a bunch of GenX things last weekend:

1) Went to see a cover band. The band was called Tusk and they are a Fleetwood Mac Tribute band. They were really great musicians and played all the songs really well. It was a beautiful, warm night. I danced and had fun. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album came out in 1977 and it was my junior high jam. I loved that album so much. I did my majorettes try-out to “Second Hand News.” Hearing it all again, 47 years later, I have to admit, it’s yacht rock.

Tusk playing “Go Your Own Way” – don’t they sound just like Fleetwood Mac?

2) Went to see Fly Me To The Moon in a movie theater. All the movies out this summer seem like they’re for twenty-somethings. This one looked like it was geared for my age group and it was. If you ever drank Tang or Tab, this movie is for you. I thought it was very entertaining. ScarJo’s luminous beauty, the US space program of the 1960s, and a couple of very solid jabs at the Nixon administration were highlights for me. On the downside, the portrayal of the creative, gay movie director seemed like an over-the-top caricature, complete with ascots and limp wrists. Also, the whole plot seemed to feed into the whacko, conspiracy-theory, alt-reality culture we’re now living in.

When we came out of the movie, I had texts from both of my kids telling me Trump had almost been iced. A quick social media search revealed that Trump had stood up after the shooting and dramatically urged the crowd to “fight” and Republicans were blaming Democrats for the entire thing. Conspiracy theories were already in full bloom.

3) On Sunday night, with a growing sense of despair about the inevitability of the United States’ descent into right-wing madness, I happened to watch a Netflix comedy special and it was SO FUNNY. I laughed and laughed. Leanne Morgan was the only female comedian who appeared in the lineup of Netflix specials, so I took a chance on her and I’m so glad I did. She’s exactly my age (born in 1965) and I just loved her references to the 80s and all things wife/mother/grandmother-related. She avoids politics entirely. This bit about Dexatrim being speed had me in tears.

Highly recommend