Hendrik Van Gent, Flemish Neo-Augustian philosopher/theologist
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Happy Birthday: December 19, 2023
Mike Lookinland, 63
Jennifer Beals, 60
Kristy Swanson, 53
Alyssa Milano, 51
Marla Sokoloff, 43
Jake Gyllenhaal, 43
Elaine Joyce, 80
Tim Reid, 79
John McEuen, 78
Janie Fricke, 76
Lenny White, 74
Scott Cohen, 62
Robert MacNaughton, 57
Criss Angel, 56
Klaus Eichtadt, 56
Tyson Beckford, 55
Rosa Blasi, 51
Tara Summer, 44
Nik Dodani, 30
Paulina Gretzky, 35
Richard E. Leakey (December 19, 1944-January 2, 2022)
"Mean" Gene Okerlund (December 19, 1942-January 2, 2019)
In Memoriam: Celebrities Lost 1294
Louis II, Duke of Bavaria, Ruler of Upper Bavaria
Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor, Founder of Yuan Dynasty in China
John I, Duke of Brabant/Limburg, poet
Happy Birthday: December 18, 2023
Keith Richards, 80
Stephen Spielberg, 77
Brad Pitt, 60
Katie Holmes, 45
Christina Aguilera, 43
Billie Eilish, 22
Leonard Maltin, 73
Eliot Gustin, 70
Jeff Kober, 69
Ron White, 67
Angie Stone, 62
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin, 59
Shawn Christian, 58
Rachel Griffiths, 55
Alejandro Sanz, 55
Casper Van Dien, 55
Cowboy Troy, 53
Limp Bizkit, 51
Randy Houser, 47
Josh Dallas, 45
Ashley Benson, 34
Bridget Mendler, 31
Isabella Orovetti, 19
J. J. Thompson (December 18, 1856-August 30, 1940)
Archduke Franz Ferdinand (December 18, 1863-June 28 1914)
Joseph Stalin (December 18 [O.S. December 6], 1878-March 5, 1953)
Ty Cobb (December 18, 1886-July 17, 1961)
In Memoriam: Celebrities Lost 1295
Sancho IV, The Brave, Scholar/King of Castile/Leon
Charles Martel of Anjou, Son of Charles II of Naples
Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, English politician
Margaret of Provence, wife of Louis IX of France
Happy Birthday: December 17, 2023
Eugene Levy, 77
Bill Pullman, 70
Peter Farrelly, 67
Claire Forlani, 50
Sarah Paulson, 49
Giovanni Ribisi, 49
Milla Jovovich, 48
Armin Mueller, 93
Tommy Steele, 87
Bernard Hill, 79
Ernie Hudson, 78
Chris Matthews, 78
Marilyn Hassett, 76
Wes Studi, 76
Jim Bonfanti, 75
Joel Brooks, 74
Paul Rodgers, 74
Wanda Hutchinson Vaughn, 72
Barry Livingston, 70
Sharon White, 70
Mike Mills, 65
Sara Dallin, 62
Tracy Byrd, 57
Duane Propes, 57
Lauri Holden, 54
Homicide, 53
Sean Patrick Thomas, 53
Eddie Fisher, 50
Marissa Ribisi, 49
Mark Lawson, 44
Ben Goldwasser, 41
Mikky Ekko, 40
Shannon Woodward, 37
Emma Bell, 37
Vanessa Zima, 37
Taylor York, 34
Graham Rogers, 33
Nat Wolff, 29
Pope Francis I, 87
Manny Pacquiao, 45
Willard Libby (December 17, 1908-September 8, 1980)
Cal Ripken, Sr. (December 17, 1935-March 25, 1999)
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Monday, December 25, 2023
FLOTUS: Melania Trump
Melania Trump (born April 26, 1970) is a Slovenian-American former model and businesswoman who served as the first lady of the United States from 2017 to 2021, as the wife of former president Donald Trump. Trump grew up in Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia) and worked as a fashion model through agencies in the European fashion capitals of Milan and Paris, before moving to New York City in 1996. She was represented by Irene Marie Models and Trump Model Management.
In 2005, she married the real estate developer and TV personality Donald Trump and gave
birth to their son Barron in 2006. Later that year, she became a naturalized
citizen of the United States. She is the second naturalized woman—after Louisa Adams—and the first non-native
English speaker to become First Lady. Since the end of her husband's
presidency, Trump has chosen a more private life, according to those close to
her.
Early life, family,
and education
Melanija Knavs
was born in Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia, now part of present-day Slovenia, on April
26, 1970. Her father, Viktor Knavs
(born March 24, 1944), was from the nearby town of Radeče and managed car and
motorcycle dealerships for a state-owned vehicle manufacturer. Her mother Amalija (née Ulčnik) (born July 9, 1945) came from the village of Raka and
worked as a patternmaker at the children's clothing manufacturer Jutranjka in
Sevnica. It was in Sevnica that the family lived in the state-run housing
complex Naselje Heroja Maroka.
As a child, Knavs and other children of workers at the
factory participated in fashion shows that featured children's clothing. From a
young age, she expressed an interest in fashion, and she began customizing and
sewing her own clothes. She has an older sister, Ines, who is an artist and her
"longtime confidant", and
an older half-brother—whom she reportedly has never met—from her father's previous
relationship. Her father was in the League
of Communists of Slovenia, which espoused a policy of state atheism. As was
common, however, he had his daughters secretly baptized as Catholics. Many of
the details regarding her early life here are unknown, because of both her own
private nature and Yugoslavia's record-keeping practices.
When Knavs was a teenager, she moved with her family to a
two-story house in Sevnica. When she was fifteen years old, she moved to
Ljubljana to attend the Secondary School
for Design and Photography, attending the school until her graduation at
nineteen. She then enrolled in the Faculty
of Architecture and Civil and Geodetic
Engineering to further study design. In 1992, during her first year in
college, she was named runner-up in the Jana
Magazine "Look of the Year"
contest, held in Ljubljana, which promised its top three contestants an
international modeling contract. This set Knavs onto a modeling career, and she
dropped out of college without completing her degree.
Modeling career
European career
When she began her modeling career, Knavs took on an
alternate spelling of her name, Melania
Knauss, and she traveled Europe to find modeling work. Knauss started doing
commercial work at sixteen when she posed for the Slovenian fashion photographer
Stane Jerko. At eighteen, she signed
with a modeling agency in Milan, Italy. Knauss modeled for fashion houses in
Paris and Milan, where in 1995 she met Metropolitan Models co-owner Paolo Zampolli, a friend of her future
husband Donald Trump, who was on a
scouting trip in Europe. Zampolli urged her to travel to the U.S., where he
said he would like to represent her. In 1996, Knauss moved to Manhattan.
Knauss was featured in a sexually explicit photo shoot for
the January 1996 issue of Max, a now-defunct French men's magazine, with Emma Eriksson, another female model,
photos shot by the photographer Alexandre
Ale de Basseville. She also posed nude for the January 2000 UK edition of
GQ magazine, appearing on the cover naked except for diamond jewelry, reclining
on fur, aboard Trump's custom-fitted Boeing 727. When asked about the photos in
2016, Donald Trump said: "Melania was one of the most successful
models, and she did many photo shoots, including for covers and major
magazines. [The Max photo] was a picture taken for a European magazine before
I knew Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and
common".
New York career
Knauss moved to New York in 1996 to continue her career as a
model. Zampolli encouraged her to live near and socialize among people in the
industry, and he arranged for her to share an apartment with photographer Matthew Atanian in Zeckendorf Towers in
Union Square. Once she arrived in the United States, she would return to her
home country only sparingly and only for short periods. For her first
weeks in the United States, her travel visa did not allow her to work in the
country. Despite this, she accepted ten modeling jobs that earned her
approximately $20,000. She then received an H-1B visa that allowed her to work.
The Washington Post
in 2018 reported that at that time, Knauss's credentials included "runway shows in Europe, a Camel
cigarette billboard ad in Times Square and—in her biggest job at the time—a
spot in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, which featured her on the
beach in a string bikini, hugging a six-foot inflatable whale".
In September 1998, Knauss met then-real estate mogul Donald Trump at a party, and the couple
began dating while the latter was in the process of divorcing his second wife, Marla Maples. The divorce was finalized
in 1999. Knauss continued her modeling career with American magazine cover
shoots, including In Style Weddings, New
York Magazine, Avenue, Philadelphia
Style, and Vanity Fair Spain. In
1999, the couple gained attention after a lewd interview with shock jock Howard Stern on his show.
They appeared together while Trump campaigned for the 2000 Reform Party presidential
nomination. When The New York
Times asked what her role would be were he to become president, she replied: "I would be very traditional, like
Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy."
Marriage
The two became engaged in 2004. On January 22, 2005, they
married in an Anglican service at the Episcopal
Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a
reception in the ballroom at her husband's Mar-a-Lago
estate. The marriage was her first and his third. The event was attended by
celebrities such as Katie Couric, Matt
Lauer, former New York City mayor
Rudy Giuliani, Heidi Klum, Star
Jones, P. Diddy, Shaquille O'Neal, Barbara Walters, Conrad Black, Regis
Philbin, Simon Cowell, Kelly Ripa, Senator Hillary Clinton, and former president Bill Clinton. At the
reception, Billy Joel serenaded the
crowd with "Just the Way You
Are" and supplied new lyrics to the tune of "The Lady Is a Tramp". The bride wore a US$200,000 dress
made by John Galliano of the house
of Christian Dior, and the ceremony
and reception were widely covered by the media, including a Vogue cover that
featured her in her wedding gown.
On March 20, 2006, she gave birth to their son, Barron William Trump. She chose his
middle name, while her husband chose his first name. She also has four
stepchildren, stepsons Donald Trump Jr.
and Eric Trump, and stepdaughter Ivanka Trump from Donald's first
marriage to Ivana Zelníčková. She
has another stepdaughter, Tiffany Trump
from his second marriage to Marla
Maples.
After she became a citizen in July 2006, Trump sponsored her
parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, using the "chain migration" immigration
process that her husband later repeatedly criticized. The Knavs became citizens
in August 2018, five years after they acquired permanent residency.
In 2010, Melania launched her own line of jewelry, Melania Timepieces, and Jewelry, for
sale on QVC. She also marketed a Melania
Marks Skin Care Collection at high-end department stores. According to a
financial filing in 2016, her businesses brought in between US$15,000 and US$50,000
in royalties that year. In 2017, the two manufacturers of her jewelry and
skincare products under license said they had terminated their relationship
with her. On inauguration day her companies and products were listed in her
official White House biography but were quickly removed. A White House
spokesperson said her companies are no longer active and "the First Lady has no intention of using her position for profit
and will not do so".
Role in the 2016
presidential campaign
In November 2015, she was asked about her husband's
presidential campaign and replied: "I
encouraged him because I know what he will do and what he can do for America.
He loves the American people, and he wants to help them". She played a
relatively small role in the campaign, which is atypical of spouses of presidential
candidates. According to Washington
Post's Mary Jordan, however, Melania was one of Trump's biggest supporters
and continues to be a sounding board to him.
In 2016, Melania told CNN her focus as first lady would be
to help women and children. She also said she would combat cyberbullying,
especially among children. In July 2016, her official website was redirected to
trump.com. On Twitter, she stated
that her site was outdated and did not "accurately
reflect [her] current business and professional interests".
On July 18, 2016, Melania Trump gave a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention. It
contained a paragraph that was nearly identical to a paragraph of Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. When
asked about it, Melania said she wrote the speech herself "with as little help as possible". Two days later, Trump
staff writer Meredith McIver took
responsibility and apologized for the "confusion".
Melania was again accused of plagiarizing Michelle
Obama's speeches when, as part of her "Be
Best" campaign in 2018, she gave a speech that appeared to closely
echo remarks by Michelle Obama in
2016 and also distributed a written pamphlet that was nearly identical to one
published by the Obama administration in 2014.
In February 2017, she sued Daily Mail and General
Trust, the owner of the Daily Mail,
a British tabloid, and sought US$150 million in damages over an August 2016
article that alleged that she had worked for an escort service during her
modeling days. The lawsuit stated the article had ruined her "unique, once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity" to establish "multimillion-dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which Plaintiff is
one of the most photographed women in the world". Her claim raised
potential ethical questions with its implication that she intended to profit from
being first lady. On February 18, 2017, the lawsuit was amended, removing the
language about her earning potential and focusing instead on emotional distress
In April 2017, the parties settled the lawsuit and the Daily Mail issued a statement that said, "We accept that these allegations about Mrs. Trump are not true
and we retract and withdraw them." The Mail agreed to pay her US$2.9
million.
Five days before the election, she told a crowd of
supporters in Pennsylvania: "Our
culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and
teenagers. It is never okay when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied,
or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground. And it is
absolutely unacceptable when it is done by someone with no name hiding on the
Internet". Regarding the contrast of her platform with her husband's
use of Twitter during his campaign,
Melania said shortly after the election that she had rebuked him "all the time", but that "he will do what he wants to do in the
end".
First Lady of the
United States (2017–2021)
She assumed the role of first
lady of the United States on January 20, 2017, continuing to live in
Manhattan at the Trump Tower with
their son, Barron, until the end of his 2016–2017 school year at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School.
A 2020 biography by Washington Post
reporter Mary Jordan revealed that
Melania stayed in New York to negotiate more favorable terms in her prenuptial
agreement with Trump for her and their son.
Of Trump's inauguration, Vogue compared Melania's wardrobe to those of Jacqueline Kennedy and Nancy
Reagan, writing that Melania closely works with her stylist, designer Hervé Pierre, preferring "strongly tailored pieces" in
bold colors and wearing almost exclusively high-end designers.
She and Barron moved into the White House in Washington,
D.C., on June 11, 2017. Her Secret
Service code name is "Muse"
(beginning with the same letter as Trump's code name, "Mogul", per
Secret Service tradition). She is the second foreign-born woman to hold the
title of first lady, after Louisa Adams,
wife of John Quincy Adams, who
was born in 1775 in London to a father from Maryland and an English mother. She
is also the first naturalized citizen (rather than a birthright citizen) to hold
the title and the first whose native language is not English. Though it has
frequently been reported that Trump speaks up to five foreign languages
fluently, evidence has shown that when speaking French or Italian, her speech
has been limited to basic greetings.
According to an unauthorized biography, she was well-liked
by her staffers, is cordial to Ivanka
Trump, and is not close to Mike
Pence's wife, Karen Pence.
On March 8, 2017, she hosted her first White House event, a
luncheon for International Women's Day.
She spoke to an audience of women about her life as a female immigrant, and
about working towards gender equality both domestically and abroad, noting the
role of education as a tool against gender inequality.
In January 2018, The Wall
Street Journal reported that during three months when she lived in
New York in 2017, she took Air Force
jet flights between New York City, Florida, and Washington at a cost of more
than US$675,000 to taxpayers. In comparison, former first lady Michelle Obama's solo travel cost an
average of about US$350,000 per year.
On March 13, 2018, Trump scheduled a March 20, 2018, meeting
with policy executives from technology companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Snap, and Twitter, to address online harassment
and Internet safety, with a particular focus on how those issues affect children.
Trump's office has avoided the use of the term "cyberbullying", and Trump has come under criticism for
championing Internet civility while her husband's Internet behavior has been
noted as uncivil. Trump attended the roundtable event, focusing on how children
are affected by modern technology. Trump said: "I am well aware that people are skeptical of me discussing this
topic", but "that will not
stop me from doing what I know is right".
Melania took an active role in planning the Trump
administration's first state dinner on April 23, 2018, to honor French President Emmanuel Macron. With Brigitte Macron, the French president's
wife, Trump visited a Paul Cézanne
exhibit at the National Gallery of Art
in Washington the day before.
On June 17, 2018, Melania referred to the Trump
administration's "zero
tolerance" policy at the border with Mexico, where children were being
separated from their parents. She stated that she "hates to see children separated from their families" and
wants there to be "successful
immigration reform". On June 21, 2018, she made a hastily planned trip
to Texas to one of the locations at which the Trump Administration's family
separation policy was being carried out. She attended a roundtable with
doctors, medical staff, social workers, and other experts at Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter. On
the way to the border facility, she caused controversy by wearing a jacket that
read, "I don't really care, do
u?" After much speculation about the jacket's message, including
criticism that she may have been expressing indifference toward the families
separated at the border, Trump stated that the jacket was aimed at people and
left-wing media who were criticizing her.
In October 2018, Trump took a four-nation, solo tour of
Africa, without her husband, focusing on conservation and children and
families, visiting Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt.
On November 13, 2018, Trump issued an "extraordinary" public statement calling for the firing
of Deputy National Security Advisor Mira
Ricardel. She had reportedly been privately pushing for her ouster for
weeks. The next day it was announced that Ricardel would "transition to a new role within the Administration". It
was described as unusual for a first lady to be publicly involved in White
House personnel decisions.
After the El Paso shooting in Texas on August 3, 2019, in
which a lone gunman killed 23 people and injured 23 others, Melania and President
Trump visited the hospital where eight of the survivors were being cared for.
The couple met with the families of survivors, hospital staff, and first
responders, and posed with a baby who had been orphaned when both of his
parents were killed. The White House had asked that the child be brought in and
he was accompanied by his uncle.
Melania ended her tenure by agreeing with Donald that he was
the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, despite his loss. She did not
contact incoming first lady Jill Biden
to make transition arrangements or provide her the traditional tour of the White
House. Melania never felt comfortable in Washington, reported The New York Times, citing people who knew
her.
On October 1, 2020, Stephanie
Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and senior adviser to the first lady
released audiotapes, on the CNN show Anderson
Cooper 360°, of Melania allegedly expressing controversial and profane
statements regarding her frustration with the media, her image, and role as
first lady. The Trump Justice Department
filed a civil suit against Wolkoff in October 2019, alleging a breach of a
nondisclosure agreement, which the Biden
Justice Department dropped in February 2021. In September 2022, Trump
claimed that the audiotapes were edited to make people believe
that her duties in the White House were not important to her.
Be Best campaign
On May 7, 2018, Trump formally started the Be Best public awareness campaign,
which focused on the well-being of youth and advocated against cyberbullying and
drug use. The campaign was accompanied by a booklet that was promoted as having
been written "By First Lady Melania
Trump and the Federal Trade Commission [FTC]", but it was nearly
identical to a document first published in 2014 by the FTC. The similarities
prompted accusations of plagiarism, to which her office responded by
admonishing the press for reporting on the issue. The fact-checking site Snopes
found the charge of plagiarism "Mostly
False" saying, "Melania
Trump did not claim she had written the pamphlet herself, and she contributed
an introduction to a slightly revised version of the booklet. The FTC was
always credited for the creation of the booklet and supported its inclusion in
the first lady's 'Be Best' campaign."
In December 2019, Be
Best became a trending topic on Twitter,
after Melania's husband Donald used Twitter
to mock teenage environmental activist Greta
Thunberg. A week before the incident, Melania had criticized academic Pamela Karlan for making comments about
Barron, stating that: "A minor child
deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics."
Approval ratings
During her husband's 2016 campaign, Trump was the least
popular presidential candidate spouse in modern polling. As First Lady, she managed to improve her
favorability ratings from 2016 to mid-2018. She reached a peak of 57% approval
in May 2018 per CNN polling, shortly after her first state dinner, and her
presence at the funeral of former first lady Barbara Bush without her husband Donald. In December 2018, CNN
reported that Melania's strongest base of support came from older, white, male
Republicans and conservatives, while she had the least approval from women who
were young or college-educated.
In March 2019, YouGov reported that Melania, with 51%
approval, was polling more popularly among the American public than other members
of her family: her husband Donald, stepchildren Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka,
and her stepson-in-law Jared Kushner.
In August 2020, Morning Consult, in
conjunction with Politico, reported that Melania, with 45% approval, was
polling more favorably among the American public than any other Republican
figures listed in the survey, including her family members, Vice President Mike Pence, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell,
and House minority leader Kevin
McCarthy.
In Gallup's annual poll of the most admired women, Trump
ranked in the top ten each of her years as first lady but never topped the
list. She joins Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson as the only American
first ladies who have never been named the most admired woman in this survey since
Gallup began conducting the annual survey in the 1940s.
Melania finished her tenure in 2021 as the least popular
first lady ever polled, according to polling by CNN, SRSS, and Gallup. Her
final approval rating was 42%, and her final disapproval rating was 47%; she
was the only first lady who finished with a net disapproval rating. Previous
first ladies since the 1970s had final popularity ratings of 71% on average.
The second-least popular first lady polled was Hillary Clinton, with a final approval rating of 52% and a final
disapproval rating of 39%.
Personal life
Religion
When the president and first lady visited Vatican City in May 2017, she
identified as Catholic. She was the first Catholic to live in the White House
since President John F. Kennedy and
his wife Jacqueline and was the second Catholic first lady of the United
States. When she visited the Vatican,
Pope Francis blessed her rosary beads, and she placed flowers at the feet
of a statue of the Madonna at the Vatican's Bambino Gesù Children's
Hospital.
Health
On May 14, 2018, she underwent an embolization, which is a
minimally invasive procedure that deliberately blocks a blood vessel, to treat a benign kidney condition. The procedure was reported successful and
without complications.
In October 2020, both Donald and Melania tested positive for
SARS-CoV-2 and were immediately quarantined. Melania experienced only "mild symptoms."
Public image
During the 2016 presidential election, Trump became the only
candidate's spouse with a negative approval rating since polling began in
1988.
Rumors persisted throughout the Trump presidency that
Melania and Donald had a secret animosity toward one another. This was
amplified upon the discovery that Donald may have committed adultery with Stormy Daniels. Other incidents also
provoked speculation, such as a video of her swatting her husband's hand away
in May 2017, her trip to see detained children at the border in June 2018, and
a tweet in support of LeBron James'
charity work a day after Donald criticized the basketball player in August
2018.
Happy Birthday: December 16, 2023
Benny Andersson, 77
Billy Gibbons, 74
Benjamin Bratt, 60
Krysten Ritter, 86
Joyce Bulifant, 86
Liv Ullman, 85
Lesley Stahl, 82
Tony Hicks, 78
Xander Berkeley, 68
Alison LaPlaca, 64
Sam Robards, 62
John Tenney, 62
J.B. Smoove, 58
Miranda Otto, 56
Daniel Cosgrove, 58
Michael McCrary, 52
Dave Rubin, 47
Zoe Jarman, 41
Theo James, 34
Amanda Setton, 38
Hallee Hirsch, 36
Anna Popplewell, 36
Stephan James, 30
Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485-January 7, 1536)
Ludwig Van Beethoven (December 17, 1770-March 26, 1827)
Jane Austen (December 16, 1775-July, 1817)
Arthur C. Clarke (December 16, 1917-March 19, 2008)
Steven Bochco (December 16, 1943-April 1, 2018)
In Memoriam: Celebrities Lost 1297
Willem Van Afflighem, Flemish poet/abbot of St. Truiden
John II of Trebizond
Saint Louis of Toulouse, French Catholic bishop
Hugh de Cressingham, English treasurer
Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hertford, English soldier
Happy Birthday: December 15, 2023
Don Johnson, 74
Adam Brody, 41
Michelle Dockery, 41
Charlie Cox, 41
Camilla Luddington, 40
Maude Apatow, 26
Cindy Birdsong, 84
Dave Clark, 81
Thaao Penghlis, 78
Carmine Appice, 77
Melanie Chartoff, 73
Julie Taymore, 71
Justin Ross, 69
Paul Simonon, 68
Doug Phelps, 63
Helen Slater, 60
Paul Kaye, 59
Molly Price, 58
Garrett Wang, 55
Michael Shanks, 53
Stuart Townsend, 51
Geoff Stults, 47
Kito Trawick, 46
George O. Gore, II, 41
Alana Haim, 32
Nero (December 15, 37 A.D.-June 9, 68 A.D.)
Gustave Eiffel (December 15, 1832-December 27, 1923)
J. Paul Getty (December 15, 1892-June 6, 1976)
Tim Conway (December 15, 1933-May 14, 2019)
In Memoriam: Celebrities Lost 1298
Petrus Johannes Olivi, French theologian/philosopher
Adolf, German Count of Nassau/King of the Roman Empire
Jacob de Varagine, Italian bishop/writer
Philip of Artois, French nobleman/soldier
Happy Birthday: December 14, 2023
Ted Raimi, 58
Natasha McElhone, 54
KaDee Strickland, 48
Vanessa Hudgens, 35
Tori Kelly, 31
Abbe Lane, 92
Hal Williams, 87
Joyce Vincent-Wilson, 75
Dee Wallace, 75
Cliff Wallace, 74
T.K. Carter, 67
Mike Scott, 65
Peter "Spider" Stacy, 65
Cynthia Gibb, 60
Nancy Valen, 58
Archie Kao, 54
Michaela Watkins, 52
Miranda Hart, 51
Brian Dalrymple, 48
Jackson Rathbone, 39
Nostradamus (December 1503-July 1566)
Tycho Brahe (December 14, 1546-October 24, 1601)
James Doolittle (December 14, 1896-September 27, 1993)
Ernie Davis (December 14, 1939-May 18, 1963)
Patty Duke (December 14, 1946-March 29, 2016)
Happy Birthday: December 13, 2023
Dick Van Dyke, 98
Steve Buscemi, 66
Jamie Foxx, 56
Amy Lee, 42
Taylor Swift, 34
Buck White, 93
John Davidson, 82
Kathy Garver, 78
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, 75
Ted Nugent, 75
Randy Owen, 74
Wendie Malick, 73
John Anderson, 69
Steve Forbert, 69
Morris Day, 67
Johnny Whitaker, 64
John Munson, 61
NeNe Leakes, 57
Luisa Strus, 56
Christie Clark, 50
Debbie Matenopoulas, 49
Tom DeLonge, 48
James Kyson Lee, 48
Kimee Balmilero, 44
Chelsea Hertford, 42
Wesley Watkins, 36
Marcel Spears, 35
Maisy Stella, 20
Mary Todd Lincoln (December 13, 1818-July 16, 1882)
Larry Doby (December 13, 1923-June 18, 2003)
Christopher Plummer (December 13, 1929-February 5, 2021)
Sunday, December 24, 2023
FLOTUS: Michelle Obama Part II
First Lady of the United States (2009–2017)
During her early months as First Lady, Obama visited homeless shelters and soup kitchens. She
also sent representatives to schools and advocated public service.
Obama advocated for her husband's policy priorities by
promoting bills that support it. She hosted a White House reception for women's
rights advocates in celebration of the enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 Pay equity law. She supported
the economic stimulus bill in visits to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the United States Department of Education. Some
observers looked favorably upon her legislative activities, while others said
she should be less involved in politics. According to her representatives, she
intended to visit all United States Cabinet-level agencies to get acquainted
with Washington.
On June 5, 2009, the White House announced that Michelle Obama was replacing her then-chief of staff, Jackie Norris, with Susan Sher, a longtime friend and
adviser. Norris became a senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service. Another key aide,
Spelman College alumna Kristen Jarvis,
served from 2008 until 2015 when she left to become chief of staff to the Ford
Foundation president Darren Walker.
In 2009, Obama was named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the Year. In her
memoir, Becoming, Obama describes
her four primary initiatives as First
Lady: Let's Move!, Reach Higher, Let
Girls Learn, and Joining Forces.
Some initiatives of First Lady Michelle
Obama included advocating on behalf of military families, helping working
women balance career and family, encouraging national service, and promoting
the arts and arts education. Obama made supporting military families and
spouses a personal mission and increasingly bonded with military families.
According to her aides, stories of the sacrifice these families make moved her
to tears. In April 2012, Obama and her husband were awarded the Jerald Washington Memorial Founders' Award
by the National Coalition for Homeless
Veterans (NCHV). The award is the highest honor given to homeless veteran
advocates. Obama was again honored with the award in May 2015, accepted by Jill Biden.
In November 2013, a Politico article by Michelle Cottle accusing Obama of being a "feminist nightmare" for not using her position and
education to advocate for women's issues was sharply criticized across the political
spectrum. Cottle quoted Linda Hirshman
saying of Obama's trendy styles, promotion of gardening and healthy eating, and
support of military families that "She
essentially became the English lady of the manor, Tory Party, circa
1830s." A prominent critic of Cottle was MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, who rhetorically
asked "Are you serious?"
Supporters of Obama note that the first lady had been one of the only people in
the administration to address obesity, through promoting good eating habits,
which is one of the leading U.S. public health crises.
In May 2014, Obama joined the campaign to bring back school
girls who had been kidnapped in Nigeria. The first lady tweeted a picture of
herself holding a poster with the #bringbackourgirls
campaign hashtag. Obama writes in her book about enlisting help for her
initiative Let Girls Learn to
produce and sing the song "This is
for My Girls".
Throughout the Obama presidency, particularly during
the second term, Michelle Obama was
subject to speculation over whether she would run for the presidency herself,
similarly to her predecessor Hillary
Clinton. A May 2015 Rasmussen poll found Obama had 22% of support to
Clinton's 56% of winning the Democratic nomination, higher than that of
potential candidates Elizabeth Warren,
Martin O'Malley, and Bernie Sanders.
Another poll that month found that 71% of Americans believed Obama should not
run for the presidency, only 14% approving. On January 14, 2016, during a town hall meeting, President Obama
was asked if the first lady could be talked into running. He responded, "There are three things that are
certain in life: death, taxes, and Michelle is not running for president. That
I can tell you." On March 16, 2016, while speaking in Austin, Texas,
Obama denied that she would ever run for office, citing a desire to "impact as many people as possible in
an unbiased way". In the epilogue to Becoming, Obama writes, "I have no intention of running for
office, ever," recognizing that "politics
can be a means for positive change, but this arena is just not for me."
Let's Move!
Obama's predecessors Hillary
Clinton and Laura Bush supported
the organic movement by instructing the White House kitchens to buy organic
food. Obama extended their support of healthy eating by planting the White House Kitchen Garden, an organic
garden, the first White House vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt served as First
Lady. She also had hives installed on the South Lawn of the White
House. The garden supplied organic produce and honey for the meals of the First Family and for state dinners and
other official gatherings.
In January 2010, Obama undertook her first lead role in an
administration-wide initiative, which she named "Let's Move!", to make progress in reversing the
21st-century trend of childhood obesity. On February 9, 2010, the First Lady announced Let's Move! and President Barack Obama created the Task Force on Childhood Obesity to
review all current programs and create a national change plan.
Michelle Obama
said her goal was to make this effort her legacy: "I want to leave something behind that we can say, 'Because of
this time that this person spent here, this thing has changed.' And my hope is
that that's going to be in the area of childhood obesity." Her 2012
book American Grown: The Story of the
White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens
Across America is based on her experiences with the garden and promotes
healthy eating. Her call for action on healthy eating was repeated by the United States Department of Defense, which
has been facing an ever-expanding problem of obesity among recruits.
Several Republicans have critiqued or lampooned Obama's
initiative. In October 2014, Senator
Rand Paul linked to Michelle Obama's Twitter account when
announcing on the website that he was going to Dunkin' Donuts. In January 2016, Chris Christie, Republican Governor of New Jersey and presidential
candidate, criticized the First Lady's involvement with healthy eating while he
was campaigning in Iowa, arguing that she was using the government to exercise
her views on eating. Obama had previously cited Christie as an example of an
adult who struggled with obesity, a demographic she sought to diminish by
targeting children since Let's Move!
was "working with kids when they're
young so that they don't have these direct challenges when they get
older." In February, Senator
Ted Cruz said he would end Obama's health policies and return French fries
to school cafeterias if his wife was First
Lady.
LGBT rights
In the 2008 US presidential campaign, Obama boasted to gay
Democratic groups of her husband's record on LGBT rights: his support of the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois
gender violence act, the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act, repealing the "Don't
Ask Don't Tell" policy, and full repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, civil unions; along with hate crimes
protection for sexual orientation and gender identity and a renewed effort to
fight HIV and AIDS. They have both opposed amendments proposed to ban same-sex
marriage in the federal, California, and Florida constitutions. She said the US Supreme Court delivered justice in
the Lawrence v. Texas case and drew a
connection between the struggles for gay rights and civil rights by saying, "We are all only here because of those
who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more
perfect union."
After the repeal of Don't
Ask Don't Tell on September 20, 2011, Obama included openly gay service
members in her national military families initiative. On May 9, 2012, Barack
and Michelle Obama came out publicly in favor of same-sex marriage. Before
this, Michelle Obama had never
publicly stated her position on this issue. Senior White House officials said Michelle Obama and Senior
Adviser Valerie Jarrett had been the two most consistent advocates for
same-sex marriage in Barack Obama's
life. Michelle said:
This is an important
issue for millions of Americans, and for Barack and me, it really comes down to
the values of fairness and equality we want to pass down to our girls. These
are basic values that kids learn at a very young age and that we encourage them
to apply in all areas of their lives. And in a country where we teach our
children that everyone is equal under the law, discriminating against same-sex
couples just isn't right. It's as simple as that.
At the 2012 DNC, Michelle said, "Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it ... and he
wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we
are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love."
Domestic travels
In May 2009, Obama delivered the commencement speech at a
graduating ceremony at UC Merced in Merced County, California, the address
being praised afterward by students who found her relatable. Kevin Fagan of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that there was chemistry between
Obama and the students.
In August 2013, Obama attended the 50th anniversary ceremony
of the March on Washington at the
Lincoln Memorial. Positive attention was brought to Obama's attire, a black
sleeveless dress with red flowers, designed by Tracy Reese. Reese reacted by releasing a public statement that she
was honored the first lady "would
choose to wear one of our designs during the celebration of such a deeply
significant historical moment".
In March 2015, Obama traveled to Selma, Alabama, with her
family to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery
marches. After President Obama's remarks there, the Obamas joined original
marchers, including John Lewis, in
crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
In July 2015, Obama journeyed to Coachella Valley while coming to Los Angeles for that year's Special Olympics World Games.
In October 2015, Obama was joined by Jill Biden and Prince
Harry in visiting a military base in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, in an attempt on
the prince's part to raise awareness of programs supporting harmed service
members. In December 2015, Obama traveled with her husband to San Bernardino,
California, to meet with the families of the victims of a terrorist attack that occurred
two weeks earlier.
Foreign trips
On April 1, 2009, Obama met with Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham
Palace. Obama embraced her before attending an event with world leaders.
Obama praised her, though the hug generated controversy for being out of
protocol when greeting Elizabeth.
In April 2010, Obama traveled to Mexico, her first solo
visit to a nation. In Mexico, Obama spoke to students, encouraging them to take
responsibility for their futures. Referring to the underprivileged children,
Obama argued that "potential can be
found in some of the most unlikely places," citing herself and her
husband as examples.
Obama traveled to Africa for the second official trip in
June 2011, touring Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Botswana and meeting with Graça Machel. Obama was also involved
with community events in foreign countries. It was commented by White House
staff that her trip to Africa would advance the foreign policy of her husband.
In March 2014, Obama visited China along with her two
daughters Malia and Sasha, and her mother Marian Robinson. She met with Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese
President Xi Jinping, and visited
historic and cultural sites, as well as a university and two high schools. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes
said the visit and intent in Obama journeying there was to symbolize "the relationship between the United
States and China is not just between leaders, it's a relationship between
peoples."
In January 2015, Obama traveled to Saudi Arabia alongside
her husband, following the death of King
Abdullah. She received criticism for not covering her head in a nation
where women are forbidden from publicly not doing so, though Obama was defended
for being a foreigner and thus not having to submit to Saudi Arabia's customs,
even being praised in some corners. Obama was neither greeted nor acknowledged
by King Salman during the encounter.
In June 2015, Obama undertook a weeklong trip to London and
three Italian cities. In London, she spoke with students about international
education for adolescent girls and met with both British Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince Harry. She was joined by her two daughters and mother. In
November, she spent a week in Qatar, her first official visit to the Middle
East. She continued advancing her initiative for international education for
women by speaking at the 2015 World
Innovation Summit for Education for her "Let
Girls Learn" initiative in Doha, Qatar, and touring a school in Amman,
Jordan, where she met with female students. During the Qatar trip, Obama had
intended to visit Jordan as well, but the trip was canceled due to weather
conditions. In Jordan, Obama had intended to visit an Amman school, which had
been constructed with assistance from U.S. funds.
In March 2016, Obama accompanied her husband and children to
Cuba on a trip that was seen by the administration as having the possibility of
positively impacting relations between the country and America. Later that
month, the first couple and their daughters traveled to Argentina, meeting with
Argentine President Mauricio Macri.
Midterm elections
Obama campaigned for Democratic candidates in the 2010
midterm elections, making her debut on the campaign trail in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. By the time she began campaigning; Obama's approval rating was 20
percentage points higher than her husband's. Though Obama indicated in January
2010 that a consensus had not been made about whether she would campaign,
speculation of her involvement came from her large approval rating as well as
reports that she had been invited to speak at events with Democrats such as Barbara Boxer, Mary Jo Kilroy, and Joe Sestak. She toured seven states in
two weeks in October 2010. Aides reported that, though viewed as essential
by the White House, she would not become deeply involved with political
discussions nor engage Republicans in public disputes. After the elections,
only six of the thirteen Democratic candidates Obama had campaigned for won.
The Los Angeles Times concluded that
while Obama was indeed more popular than her husband, her "election scorecard proved no better than his, particularly in her
home state".
Obama was a participant in the 2014 midterm elections, held
at a time when her popularity superseded her husband's to such an extent that
it was theorized she would receive a much larger outpour of support in
campaigning. Reporting her travel to Denver, Colorado, David Lightman wrote that while Democrats did not want President
Obama to campaign for them, "the first
lady is very popular." In May 2014, Obama was found to have a 61%
favorable approval rating from a CNN poll, her husband coming in at 43%. In a
video released in July, as part of an effort to encourage voter turnout, she
called on voters to be "hungry as
you were back in 2008 and 2012". Obama appeared at a fundraiser in
Georgia in September for Democratic senate candidate Michelle Nunn. Obama's
approach to campaigning in Georgia strayed from discussing current events and
instead broadly stressed the importance of registering to vote and turning out
during the elections. Obama's infrequent appearances came from her dislike of
being away from her children and Washington politics as well as her distaste
for the opposition by Republicans to her husband's agenda and her view that
Democrats in the U.S. Senate had not sufficiently been supporters of her
initiatives to end childhood obesity. Obama raised her profile in October,
touring three states in four days. Obama called the elections her husband's "last campaign".
Hillary Clinton's 2016
presidential campaign
Obama endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and made several high-profile speeches in favor of
her, including an address at the 2016
Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. She also appeared multiple
times on the campaign trail in either solo or joint appearances with Clinton.
On October 13, 2016, Obama heavily criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for the statements he
made in a 2005 audio recording while at a Clinton rally in Manchester, New
Hampshire. A week later, Trump attempted to revive past comments Obama made regarding Clinton during the 2008 presidential election.
Public image and
style
With the ascent of her husband as a prominent national
politician, Obama became a part of popular culture. In May 2006, Essence listed
her among "25 of the World's Most
Inspiring Women". In July 2007, Vanity Fair listed her among "10 of the World's Best Dressed People".
She was an honorary guest at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball as a "young'un" paying tribute to
the "Legends" who helped
pave the way for African-American women. In September 2007, 02138 magazines
listed her as 58th of "The Harvard
100"; a list of the prior year’s most influential Harvard alumni. Her
husband was ranked fourth. In July 2008, she made a repeat appearance on the
Vanity Fair international best-dressed list. She also appeared on the 2008
People list of best-dressed women and was praised by the magazine for her "classic and confident" look.
At the time of her husband's election, some sources
anticipated that as a high-profile African-American woman in a stable marriage, Obama would be a positive role model who would influence the view the world has
of African Americans. Her fashion choices were part of the 2009 Fashion Week,
but Obama's influence in the field did not have the impact on the paucity of
African-American models who participated, that some thought it might.
Obama's public support grew in her early months as First Lady, as she was accepted as a
role model. On her first trip abroad in April 2009, she toured a cancer ward
with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown. Newsweek described her first trip abroad as an
exhibition of her so-called "star
power" and MSN described it as a display of sartorial elegance.
Questions were raised by some in the American and British media regarding
protocol when the Obamas met Queen
Elizabeth II and Michelle reciprocated a touch on her back by the Queen
during a reception, purportedly against traditional royal etiquette. Palace
sources denied that any breach of etiquette had occurred.
Obama has been compared to Jacqueline Kennedy due to her sense of style, and also to Barbara Bush for her discipline and
decorum. Obama's style has been described as "fashion populist". In 2010, she wore clothes, many high-end, from more than fifty design companies with less expensive pieces from J.Crew and Target, and the same year a study found that her patronage was
worth an average of $14 million to a company. She became a fashion trendsetter,
in particular favoring sleeveless dresses, including her first-term official
portrait in a dress by Michael Kors,
and her ball gowns designed by Jason Wu
for both inaugurals. She has also been known for wearing clothes by African
designers such as Mimi Plange, Duro
Olowu, Maki Oh, and Osei Duro, and styles such as the Adire fabric.[
Obama appeared on the cover and in a photo spread in the
March 2009 issue of Vogue. Every first
lady since Lou Hoover (except Bess Truman) has been in Vogue, but only Hillary Clinton had previously appeared on the cover. Obama later
appeared two more times on the cover of Vogue,
while First Lady, the last time in
December 2016, with photographs by Annie
Leibovitz. In August 2011, she became the first woman ever to appear on the
cover of Better Homes and Gardens
magazine, and the first person in 48 years. In 2013, during the 85th Academy
Awards, she became the first first lady to announce the winner of an Oscar
(Best Picture which went to Argo).
The media have been criticized for focusing more on the First Lady's fashion sense than her serious contributions. She said after the
2008 election that she would like to focus attention as First Lady on issues of concern to military and working families.
In 2008, U.S. News & World Report
blogger, PBS host, and Scripps Howard
columnist Bonnie Erbé argued that
Obama's own publicists seemed to be feeding the emphasis on style over
substance, and said Obama was miscasting herself by overemphasizing style.
For three straight years – 2018, 2019, and 2020 – Obama
topped the Gallup poll asking who is the
"most admired woman" in the U.S.
Time magazine
features an annual "Person of the
Year" cover story in which Time
recognizes the individual or group of individuals who have had the biggest
impact on news headlines over the previous twelve months. In 2020, the magazine
decided to retroactively choose a historically deserving woman for each year in
which a man had been named Person of the
Year, reflecting the fact that a woman or woman had been named Person of the Year only eleven times in
the preceding hundred. As part of this review, Michelle Obama was named the Woman of the Year for 2008.
Subsequent activities
In May 2017, during an appearance at the Partnership for a Healthier America
conference, Obama rebuked the Trump administration for its delay of a
federal requirement designed to increase the nutritional standards for school
lunches. In June, while attending the WWDC in Silicon Valley, California, Obama
called for tech companies to add women for the diversifying of their ranks. In
July, Obama honored Eunice Shriver
at the 2017 ESPY Awards. In
September, Obama delivered an address at the tech conference in Utah charging
the Trump administration with having a fearful White House, appeared in a video
for the Global Citizens Festival
advocating more attention to giving young girls an education, and attended the
Inbound 2017 conference in Boston. During an October 3 appearance at the Philadelphia Conference for Women,
Obama cited a lack of diversity in politics as contributing to lawmakers
being distrusted by other groups. In November, Obama discussed gender disparity
in attitudes with Elizabeth Alexander
while attending the Obama Foundation
Summit in Chicago, and spoke at the Bushnell
Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut.
In April 2018, Obama responded to speculation that she might
be running for president by saying she has "never
had the passion for politics" and that "there are millions of women who are inclined and do have the
passion for politics."
On January 2, 2021, Obama encouraged Georgia residents to
vote in the state's runoff in the U.S.
Senate election and to contact VoteRiders,
a non-profit voter ID education organization, to make sure they have the
necessary ID to vote.
On January 20, 2021, Obama and her husband attended the
inauguration of Joe Biden. Michelle
Obama wore a matching plum coat, sweater, pants, and belt designed by Sergio Hudson to the inauguration.
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
On April 28, 2023, Obama along with actress Kate Capshaw, joined Bruce Springsteen on stage during his
show in Barcelona where they provided backing vocals and tambourine on Springsteen's
song "Glory Days".
Becoming, podcast and
television
Obama's memoir, Becoming,
was released in November 2018. By November 2019, it had sold 11.5 million
copies. A documentary titled Becoming,
which chronicles Obama's book tour promoting the memoir, was released on Netflix on May 6, 2020. She received a Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording in 2020
for the audiobook.
In July 2020, she premiered a podcast titled The Michelle Obama Podcast. In February
2021, Obama was announced as an executive producer and presenter on a
children's cooking show, Waffles + Mochi.
It was released by Netflix on March 16, 2021. On September 11, 2021, the Obamas
attended a 9/11 memorial to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the attacks.
More recently, Regina Hicks signed a deal with Netflix alongside
her and Barack's Higher Ground
production company to develop comedies. She received two Children's and Family Emmy Awards at the 1st Children's and Family Emmy Awards: for
Outstanding Short Form Program (We the
People) and Outstanding Preschool
Animated Series (Ada Twist, Scientist).
Obama made guest appearances in television comedies,
including Parks and Recreation in
2014, and Black-ish in 2022,
receiving Black Reel Awards for Television nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress, Comedy Series. She produced the
documentary film Crip Camp (2020),
and the biographical drama film Rustin (2023).
On July 21, 2022, it was announced that Obama's next book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain
Times, would be published in November 2022. The book was published by Penguin Random House.
In 2023, Obama received a Primetime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Hosted
Nonfiction Series or Special nomination at the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for the Netflix documentary film The
Light We Carry: Michelle Obama and Oprah
Winfrey.
Bibliography
Obama, Michelle
(2012). American Grown: The Story of the
White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens across America. New York: Crown
Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-95602-6. OCLC 790271044.
Obama, Michelle
(2018). Becoming. New York: Crown
Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-5247-6313-8. OCLC 1030413521.
Obama, Michelle
(2022). The Light We Carry: Overcoming
in Uncertain Times. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 9780593237465.
OCLC 1336957651.
Book reviews
New York Journal of
Books, 2018
Awards
In November 2023, Obama was named to the BBC's 100 Women list.
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