Free Melania — From Our Expectations

Now, stacked on the Trump tower of petrifying things we have to worry about -- war with Iran, war with China, war with Mexico, war with Islam, war with koala bears -- there is yet another looming disaster.The East Wing is perilously behind in planning for the Easter Egg Roll. Is the White House dropping the ball -- or rather, the ovoid?As our omnipresent new president hijacked our reality, the first lady vanished, sparking headlines for nary a glimpse in D.C. since the inaugural.Just as there is a gush of leaks from the resistance in the federal government about President Donald Trump's erratic and impulsive behavior, there are whispers about Melania's elusive and sphinx-like behavior.The New York Times' Julie Hirschfeld Davis wrote about the anguish of anonymous D.C. sources who fear the annual egg roll and other "elaborate White House events that are among the heaviest tasks for first ladies" are languishing in the deserted East Wing, as are unanswered requests for White House tours.While Melania plays Rapunzel in her Fifth Avenue tower, Steve Bannon is reveling in his role as the troll under the bridge. Beauty and the Beast.At least Dick Cheney, another mad scientist who hated multilateral relations and preached hegemony, waited until he had started a bogus war and smashed the globe before he embraced the nickname Darth Vader. Bannon calls himself that while he stirs the pot, noting that "darkness is good" and that Darth and Satan had real power.As the elegant Melania scorns the East Wing, the grungy Bannon reigns in the West Wing, where late into the night he plots his Manichaean schemes to blow up everything with trade wars, real wars and battles against the Islamic "caliphate." He blithely sits at the center like Jabba the Hutt as the slapdash White House sows strife, chaos and cruelty, putting out executive orders restricting immigration and rolling back financial regulations on Wall Street -- a move that will hurt the very blue-collar Americans Trump pledged to protect.  Continue reading...