an almost adorable Trump moment!

Trump put out an appropriate Memorial Day tweet, at least:



Good boy! That is how the president is supposed to tweet! Now, just do that all the time, OK?

Not so much Ivanka. She (or her brand, anyway) put out a recipe for champagne popsicles for Memorial Day and a "turn the music up -- it's a three day weekend."

Sigh. I'm not going to screech, and people are absolutely making too big a deal out of it on twitter, but...well, it does make me wince. I really do wish people would try to remember what the day is about.

ETA:

Though I don't come from a military family (one grandfather was a veteran), tons of my childhood/high school friends went into the military and I almost married a Marine.  He died on duty (not in a battle -- a terrible accident) after we broke it off.  Anyway, I guess that's why it kind of bugs me that Memorial Day, for a lot of people, seems to be pretty much entirely about a three-day weekend and the start of summer.  But really and truly, I do not begrudge you your hot dogs and champagne popsicles.

The speech was OK with me.

I might not have reacted to the singing the same way if it weren't for the grinning, the finger-tapping and the wiggling, which for me came across an an impatient cheeky kid who, yes, wanted attention, and upon whom the real seriousness of the moment was rather lost.

I mentioned my little nephew. What this particularly reminded me of was him at my dad's funeral -- he was four at the time. He adored his grandpa, even though he never really go to know him before his dementia set in. He never saw my dad in the hospital, and though he was told Grandpa was in heaven, he really didn't have a clue that meant he wasn't coming back. We didn't do a casket at either the visitation or the funeral. So to Little Nephew, this was a big party, and a morning at church. So of course he was wiggling and giggling and being adorable, and his mom's efforts to keep him still weren't any more successful than they usually are.

At some point during the post-funeral brunch, he came up to me and his mother with a super-serious face and said "where's grandpa?" My sister-in-law said "in heaven, honey." And that was when it really sank in for him that grandpa was never coming back, and that was when he cried. It was freaking heartbreaking.

Anyway.

Trump's singing was less heartbreaking and much less adorable, of course. But I got the same general impression as I did from my nephew -- sure, he'd been told what the occasion was, but it hadn't really sunk in to a place where he was feeling it. It was a crowd, and a big ceremony, and he got to give a speech...he wasn't really feeling the ultimate sacrifice stuff.

The general on the far left does look like he's feeling it. He's mouthing the words, but not looking around or grinning or twitching, so the effect isn't the same at all. At least not for me.

They could have at least let him keep his big blue bouncy ball.

 I dunno, but I think Robo might be making fun of me.