(2) Trump and Macron are very tactile with each other and it's driving the media crazy! LOL. I just saw a video of Trump chatting with Macron and he picked a piece of lint off his jacket. The ultimate sign of love.😄
Video from earlier today:
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(3) Arrival Ceremony
(4) Melania and Brigitte visited the National Gallery of Art.
Highlights video: First half of Day 1. (Must watch):
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(7) This is a good point. The French state visit arrival ceremony focused on the Marines, Army and Navy as it was history-themed but there were LEOs and others in uniform there, out of the spotlight, also reflecting on American values & saluting.
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(8) Visitors' book.
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(9) This thread will be: French visit Day 2:1, with several others to follow, ie 2:2, 2:3 and so on.
All links to these threads will be in the "regular" #PhotoThread for this week that is my pinned tweet.
(10) I ran out of superlatives to describe the visual and cultural elements of this French state visit, including the Arrival Ceremony on Day 2. I'll try to let the photos speak for themselves for a while.
(11) Both ladies are fashion superstars.
(12) I watched this live. Haters use photos for their narrative but when watched in real time, this is a perfectly sweet, normal, brief kiss, and tbh I was impressed by how adept they were, lol. She titled her hat out of the way, perfectly timed.
(13) When Emmanuel Macron kissed Melania's hand it was a beautiful moment. I think Brigitte was taken a little by surprise and even she blushed at his very French romanticism. Melania is very familiar with French culture & speaks fluent French (+ 6-7 other languages.)
(14) No idea what Macron's hand signals meant, must be a French thing. Brigitte wasn't yawning, she was blowing a kiss to the crowd. POTUS was so proud of the military and the sight before him, that all he could do was offer both hands. Cute.
(18) Gen Kelly, Wilburine, Ivanka, and Gen Dunford, who was in his dress uniform, a first for me. So classy.
(19) I think the lapel pins on Kushner and McGahn are designed to show guests who is on the American side. Another pin was worn by the French. The stars are also repeated in the decorations. They are on the concrete where the Macrons stepped out of their car.
(20) The public displays of affection between Macron and Trump on Day 2 were either incredibly cute or confusing/weird, depending on your political opinion, LOL.
There are so many CUTE photos of PDAs that I will make a thread just for them. #MonAmie
(21) Rich pickings, these photos.
Thank you Melania Trump, style icon!
(22) "Put it there."
❤️🇺🇸🇫🇷
(23) Press conference. Sarah Sanders doesn't have a negative look on her face, j/s. I think she is laughing. The number of people laughing and smiling throughout the day and evening was so nice to see. These guys deserve a celebration.
(24) The ladies visited the National Gallery of Art... this kind of art is so French, these two love and appreciate good art, they bring publicity to the gallery's work, it's a win-win.
(25) President and Mrs Macron also found time to visit the grave of JFK and Jackie Kennedy Onassis, whose father had French ancestry.
Macron's tweet with this photo said "Ask yourself every day what you can do for your country."
(26) VP & Mrs Pence hosted a state luncheon in the Eisenhower Exec Office Building (part of the WH complex) for President and Mrs Macron.
(27) This is a very long photo so click on it to see the portrait of Teddy Roosevelt above the door. The Presidents are leaving a side room to, I think, go to their joint press conference.
(28) Behind the scenes: Servicemen and women wait for the next stage of the festivities. Cool umbrella.
(29) This all round visual feast is going to be a hard act to follow. But if anyone can, it's Melania.
(30) BTW, a certain former First Lady was there... just not as President.😄
(31) The above photo was taken by an MSM photog who probably should have left well alone. Media were allowed in the night before to view the rooms that were prepared for Day 2.
(32) It's time to start on the PDA thread. Stay tuned.
Well said, @DonnaLeeSun. I have the same approach.
Donna is "Unapologretically Canadian."
I am Unapologetically New Zealander/Kiwi. Granted, "sorry" has a special meaning in Canada, eh? But our countries do have a lot in common. Mini-thread:
I really get what Donna is saying in her Twitter bio:
"Trumpism has a strong foothold in Canada & we ignore it at our peril. Pay attention, esp. to PP, former PM Harper & idiot Premiers!"
The same is true of New Zealand, Australia, and our OG mothership: The UK.
PP stands for Pierre Poilievre, who became the leader of Canada's conservative party on 10 September 2022.
For me it's super simple: Far right extremism gained a foothold in the US, only to be rejected by majorities of voters multiple times since. Because #DemocracyWins.
Evidently, my above use of the term misogyny has triggered a few of them.
They're trying to insinuate that Kohberger was a liberal which, even if true, would have nothing to do with the points made in my tweet. We already know several things about him, and his crimes...
Further, when writing the above list of 5 known and/or confirmed misogynists, some of whom have killed at least one woman, I considered a range of factors that put them on that list.
I want to encourage discussion about misogny and the targeting of women by violent offenders.
Esp. the 2020 US presidential election, and others where right wing governments were (and will soon be) punished for anti- public health and safety, anti-science, ignorant approaches to pandemic response.
Do politicians and their advisers get this yet? In most households, it is one or more women who take basic health and safety seriously, & who develop a superior knowledge base due to our more complex biology, higher rates of illness, & greater need for infection control measures.
Of course there are many men with the same health knowledge and risk management priorities as women, but we are talking about "in general" here, and how that applies to elections.
Gotta laugh, my tweet generated the following reply from a maga account:
"Ukraine flag in bio"
Ad hominem/genetic fallacy is all they have. They deflect by targeting the player not the ball. Because playing the ball is too hard for them. It requires honesty & courage.
I'm talking about changing the way domestic violence incidents are handled, and doing more to put long term distance between known DV offenders and their legal access to guns.
An idea best espoused by the outstanding @BeauTFC. Link to follow.
The outstanding @BeauTFC talked about this issue here:
I wonder what price between $8 billion and $44 billion Elon Howard Hughes Musk might consider to sell this vital pro-democracy communications hub before he completely destroys it.
I mean, that's his goal, right?
He paid waaaay too much for it. Value currently estimated at $8 billion. Surely there are billionaires out there with the ability to build a consortium to entice it out of his grubby little hands?
There's a good argument for the US federal government buying it, too...
Or a group of countries. It's not all about the US, you know.
What does the Putin regime have on Musk, that could get him to over-spend so much money? The global fascist movement is the only winner out of this. Or was it the Mercers?