President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

This sounds like you are trying to deny your white supremacist roots. Not falling for it.

 

When did Shania go from "country singer now playing Vegas after a decade without a Top 10 single" to "pop diva?"

 

Nah, that’s accurate. Mick Jagger will be a “rock star” until the day he dies.

 

The State Dinner is tomorrow.

 

Trump receives a thick briefing book every night, but nobody harbors the illusion that he reads it. Current and former officials told me that filling out a card is the best way to raise an issue with him in writing. Everything that needs to be conveyed to the President must be boiled down, the former staffer said, to “two or three points, with the syntactical complexity of ‘See Jane run.’ ”

McMaster and Commander | The New Yorker

 

That, I can see. But I don't see Shania as pop. Of course, I don't see Garth as pop either. He's just a country singer with a big show.

 

A two year residency at Caesar's is not the same as being reduced to a lounge act.

Her current tour has her playing arenas:

http://www.shaniatwain.com/tour

She was literally a headliner in VH1's "Divas", alongside Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, and Gloria Estefan.

Not sure how many top 10 singles her co-headliners have had in the last 10 years, but I don't think it would be out of line to call any of them a "pop diva", even in 2018.

 

It's a real gray area. Jagger remains a "rock star" in large part because he represents a musical form that is becoming extinct. It's like calling Tony Bennett a "crooner." Pop and country have really melded and I think you'd have to take each act on a case by case basis. Opinions will differ, too. To me, an old fogie, the idea that Florida-Georgia Line is a country act is outrageous. But others disagree and since it's a matter of taste, why argue?

 

Not a single citizen of the Russian Federation made Time's 100 Most Influential List.

Oh, well. Guess that's the end of that investigation.

 

My real problem is the "pop" in "pop diva." I guess I'm showing my age by not knowing she was a pop - and not country - singer these days.

 

Issue No. 1: Shania Twain -- Pop Diva or 2nd-rate Lounge Act?

Morton Kondracke, you begin!

 

Richard Nixon and Donald Trump both:
--had a key staffer named H.R. who departed the administration before the president
--fired someone investigating his administration
--failed to win anywhere near a majority of the popular vote when they became president
--had an electoral college victory much smaller than that of the last person in their party who won
--had an electoral college victory much smaller than that of the person he replaced
--followed eight years of the Dems holding the White House
--defeated a candidate from the administration that held the White House on election day
--both used the term "silent majority" to describe their voters
--had a governor as a running mate
--were not serving in elected office at the time of their election
--hosted a state dinner for the French leader in the first half of their second year
--ignored and minimized their original secretary of state
--had a general as his WH chief of staff