She's Baaaaack! And Ivanka is Teaming with Daddy to "Make America Great Again"

Ivanka is back from her official, "Special Advisor to the President of the United States" trip to the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

I'm excited. How about you?

Of course, The First Daughter and her husband, Jared, had no sooner returned to D.C. than they left to confab with a collection of billionaires at the annual Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Well, Ivanka was seen confabbing with billionaires in Sun Valley.

Hubby, on the other hand, as reported by the Daily Mail--got to love the British media!--seemed intent on "avoiding the press and photographers by hiding behind a statue on campus." The pictures of The First Son-in-Law playing hide-and-seek are a riot!

I don't blame him, however, for trying to hide out.

Jared has evinced an unfortunate proclivity for omitting critical information--such as potentially embarrassing, concerning and even unlawful meetings/conversations he had with over 100 individuals--on security clearance applications. Each time he has gotten caught, he has had to go back and, uh, "amend" the applications--indeed, there seem to be an abundance of "amended" security applications in this administration. Combine that with the latest revelations about his joining the hapless Donald, Jr. and Paul Manafort in an unreported meeting with known Russian operatives in Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign and one understands why he might well want to lay low. There just might, after all, be someone close by bearing a subpoena with his name on it.

Perhaps Jared could, like his father-in-law, star in a non-reality, fake television show--something like, well, "The Apprentice"--in which his tag line would be "You're served" as opposed to "You're fired."

I like it.

But, I digress.

Let's talk Ivanka. And how she and Daddy are "Making America Great Again."

As you may have heard, President Trump is trying to deflect attention away from his worst-poll-numbers-in-the-history-of-polling and the drip-drip of disturbing and potentially calamitous news about the dalliance between his campaign--and, potentially, his business interests--with Russia/Putin by holding a series of what the White House calls "Theme Weeks."

If that sounds familiar, it should: He's already tried it and it was a Bigly Fail. Remember "Infrastructure Week?" Remember "Technology Week?"

Don't worry. Neither was memorable.

However, despite the Bigly Fail of previous "Theme Weeks," the White House Director of Media Affairs, Helen Aguirre Ferre, announced on Sunday "that the White House will be hosting a 'Made in America' product showcase Monday featuring products from all 50 states." This "product showcase" will be the kickoff event for "Made in America Week"--"Made in America" being a campaign slogan often used by the president when he promised dying rust-belt and textile-belt communities that he was going to "bring big, beautiful manufacturing jobs back to America," which was part of his bigger promise to "Make America Great Again."

The only other event scheduled for "Made in America Week" is the Wednesday release of a presidential proclamation that will emphasize the importance of "making goods in America" and "buying goods that were made in America."

What are we to make of the paucity of events and/or substantive policy discussion taking place during "Made in America Week?"

Let's make this of it, shall we? It was thrown together at the last minute as an attempt to deflect/distract from RUSSIA!

Ms. Ferre did take a shot at trying to convince the country that, no, no, no, no, the president really is engaged in bringing "millions of big, beautiful manufacturing jobs back to America." She issued a tepid, stock statement: "For too long our government has forgotten the American worker. Their interests were pushed aside for global projects and their wealth was taken from the communities and shipped overseas. Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, not only will the American worker never be forgotten, but they will be championed." [The singular/plural disagreement in the last sentence is on Ms. Ferre, not me. Do they not have proofers to go over official statements before they are released?]

I never bought any of the cow manure that Donald Trump tried to sell as chocolate ice cream while on the campaign trail--"We're gonna' bring manufacturing jobs back to America" was an example.

It may have been that my family has, for several generations, owned and run large dairy farms down on the South Carolina coastal plain and, having spent my fair share of time in milking barns, the stench is familiar to me. Or it may have been that I've been paying attention to Donald Trump over the years and early on--three decades ago--realized he was nothing more than a carnival barker, snake-oil salesman, grifter and world-class liar who had somehow evaded an orange jumpsuit.

You, of course, are quite free to disagree. You do not need permission from me to see The Donald as the savior of America's white, middle- and working-classes. If you do, I won't argue with you about it.

I learned long ago that trying to pry denial, delusion or illusion away from someone is precarious business. So, if Trump is your guy, put on your MAGA hat, turn your television to FOX News and watch Tucker Carlson/Sean Hannity/"FOX and Friends" mangle reality. Or, go online and read Alex Jones' latest InfoWars conspiracy theory about animal/human hybrids who speak English and are trying to take over the country.

But here's a fact to take with you as you descend the rabbit hole: Donald Trump doesn't give a proverbial rat's gluteus maximus about the American worker--be he/she white, black, brown, middle-class, working-class or part of the working-poor. His protestations about "championing" American workers are as bogus and laughable as his explanation that he and Vladimir Putin were talking about "the adoption thing" when they got off to one side with only a Russian translator during the now infamous G-20 dinner.

And Ivanka is no different from her father. She is just as disinterested about "Make America Great Again" as she is about "empowering working women worldwide."

Even as The First Daughter mouths her father's platitudes about "other countries making our products...and destroying our jobs," container ships bearing millions of pounds of her branded goods--more than 2,000 shipments since 2010--ply the waters of the northern Pacific and the Atlantic on their way to the docks of American ports, where those goods will be off-loaded and distributed around the country to innumerable retail outlets.

Ivanka talks a good game about being "all in" on her father's [bogus] tirades against outsourcing manufacturing jobs overseas, but it's hard to make a credible case that you're helping Pops bring back those "manufacturing jobs" when 100% of the women's shoes and other items that bear your name are made in Asian, southeast Asian and even Ethiopian sweat shops.

You read that right: 100%.

You also read this right: Asian, southeast Asian and even Ethiopian sweat shops. Which employ all those women, one supposes, that Ivanka claims she wants to, uh, "empower"--cough, cough--to become "female entrepreneurs." They are working 14-16 hours a day. They are paid sub-subsistence wages. They often sleep on-site in filthy barracks and are able to see their families perhaps one weekend a month. But Ivanka is going to "lift them up" and "empower" them.

Uh-huh.

According to a recent Washington Post investigative report, Abigail Klem, who assumed the presidency of Ivanka's brand in January and has worked in executive positions for it since 2013, said that "she is confident that the company's suppliers operate 'at the highest standards'" and that "Ivanka sought to partner with the best in the industry."

Uh-huh.

One supposes that, if Ivanka's brand was partnering "with the best in the industry," it would be willing to follow what has become an apparel industry trend to disclose the names and locations of the overseas manufacturing plants that are producing its goods.

No such disclosure seems to be forthcoming from Ivanka, Inc.

Indeed, three Chinese activists working for China Labor Watch were recently detained by Chinese authorities for "investigating labor conditions" at factories belonging to a Chinese company that makes about 1/3 of the Ivanka brand shoes made in China.

So, as The First Daughter continues to deny that she is pimping her brand via the world stage of the White House, as she continues to shamelessly push her father's "Made in America" campaign theme and continues to talk about "empowering women the world over," she is making a fortune off-shoring the production of 100% of her brand items to foreign manufacturers whose poverty-ridden employees work slave-labor hours for slave-labor wages.

The First Daddy, of course, is no less a hypocrite than The First Daughter. While celebrating his farcical "Made in America Week," his branded suits, shirts and ties are primarily being manufactured in sweat shops outside of the U.S.--China, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam to name just four.

He tried, during the 2016 campaign, to justify his off-shoring practices by saying that "they don't even make them [the products that sell under his brand name] here anymore."

I immediately went to my closet and used my cell phone to take pictures of the labels inside four Brooks Brothers suits, three Brooks Brothers shirts, and six Brooks Brothers ties--all of which said "Made in USA." I then emailed the pictures with an accompanying explanatory note to Trump's campaign headquarters, requesting a response.

I'm still waiting for them to get back to me on that.

To her credit, the aforementioned Ms. Ferre, who has the unenviable job of pushing "Made in America Week" for a president whose family off-shores the manufacturing of virtually all of their apparel lines, did take a journalist's question as to whether the president's "Made in America" week might lead the president and his daughter to make a commitment to have their branded products manufactured by American workers in American manufacturing plants.

Her response: "We'll get back to you on that."

Uh-huh.