Pretty in pink… isn’t she…. Pretty in pink….

Molly Ringwald’s got nothin’ on Judy today!

Moving us out of the 1980s, Judy looks fantastic. The giant pearls (real or faux? who cares?) are the perfect accompaniment to this top/dress. (Who knows?)

Judy focused on Trump’s tear-gas-enabled march to St. John’s Episcopal Church in DC for a Bible-wielding photo op. A reporter asked if it was his Bible. He responded, “it’s a Bible.” Some said he was holding it upside down but I cannot attest to that.

Even Dubya came out of the woodwork, saying, ““Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions.” Holy cow, who thought we’d be nostalgic for the Decider-in-Chief?

In other pink news, Judy hosted Bishop Budde, in front of whose church Trump posed. This chick is a class act, and look at the modified-Judy-pink-top-and-pearls!

In response to Judy’s question about Trump’s photo op, Bishop Budde assesrted:

“bringing himself and his entourage into our sacred space, using it as a backdrop, and holding the Bible, as if to put on the mantle of religious authority or blessing of what he had just said and done. And I felt it was urgent to remove that association as quickly as possible and to state our position in faithfulness to the Gospel as we understand it.”

Not a lot to cheer about in the news these days, but the following exchange made me cheer:

Judy Woodruff:

I see today that the president’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, is saying for people to question what the president did, to call it a photo-op or a photo opportunity is to question his faith. Is that what you’re doing? Are you questioning the president’s faith?

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde:

No, I’m challenging his actions.

And I am saying to him and to all who will listen that the Gospel of Jesus and the teachings of the Scripture are antithetical to the messages that he is communicating and the way he is responding to people in this moment, and that there is no spiritual mantle of authority for the actions that he had just moments before said that he would take.

Way to call b.s. in the most educated, civilized and ladylike way possible, just when we need it the most, ladies! MWAH!

Judy took summer a step further today. It was humid in the mid-Atlantic, and she took the opportunity to go full sleeveless. Also love the I-want-to-believe-they-are-diamonds earrings. We have discussed Judy’s necklines, but not spent much ink on her sleeve-lines. She looks fantastic. Really nice arms, second perhaps to Michelle Obama.

Judy does give Becoming there a run for her money, come to think of it. Go, Judy!

After a few serious days, let’s focus on the A-listers Judy had on the show today. Tiny Tony Fauci led off:

He made Judy look like a gargantua. No wonder she had to close her eyes. Dr. Fauci was resolutely, if measured-ly, upbeat about the COVID situation.

Next up, facemask/scarf maven Madame Speaker:

You wouldn’t think the Speaker has 7 years on Judy, but she does. Sure, they’ve both had work done, but that is beyond the bounds of this blog to speculate upon.

Nancy’s look is flawless: light-grey textured jacket, white shell, cream-with-roses mask that sets off the blue and green of her necklace. Way to go, Nancy.

Thanks, ladies, you nailed it today. (I don’t mean to leave out Dr. Fauci but there isn’t much to say there.)

It must be after Memorial Day, because Judy has gone bare-armed! And what lovely bare arms they are. Causes this blogger to ask if there’s a rule chez Judy, “no a/c until after June 15.” Just wondering. She looks great. I love the black-and-blue metallic top and of course the entirely appropriate silver earrings. Frankly, she could come out in a tube top today and I’d applaud; she has a lot of credit in the Bank of Judy Love for appearing live on Memorial Day.

Today, French President Macron pledged a ton of francs to help the French auto industry. Auto industry? To quote Cruiser, in the 1981 classic, Stripes, “There was one?”

In bleak news, a Minneapolis police officer kneeled with his full weight on the neck of a man named George Floyd while Mr. Floyd was on the ground, handcuffed on suspicion of FORGERY. That’s right, forgery. Mr. Floyd said repeatedly, “I can’t breathe,” while onlookers pleaded with the other three officers on the scene to make their colleague stop suffocating Mr. Floyd. The officer kneeled on Mr. Floyd’s neck for seven minutes while the other officers looked on. The bad-apple theory goes out the window when there are four officers, not one bad one, involved. Mr. Floyd died.

“I can’t breathe” was uttered infamously 11 times by Eric Garner, who also died at the hands of police. This is not a tagline, folks. They CAN’T BREATHE because a police officer is suffocating them to death.

PBS NewsHour had a brief clip of adorable Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, who has said and done the right thing in this so far, despite being about 20 years old:

PBS has a more substantive interview with sister-city mayor Melvin Carter:

Stay tuned on this one.

Also noteworthy was the “Cooper” altercation in an area of Central Park called the Ramble. Mr. Cooper, an African-American bird-watcher, asked Ms. Cooper (no relation), a white woman, to leash her dog, presumably because the dog would have interfered with his bird-watching. Ms. Cooper refused and called the police, which Mr. Cooper filmed. Ms. Cooper said, “I”m going to tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life.” Mr. Cooper filmed the whole interaction. He noted to the Times, ““I am one of the few male African-Americans who birds the Ramble regularly, and I have always been aware that if I am crawling around behind a shrub trying to catch a glimpse of that rare bird, holding a metal object in my hands, I will be perceived differently than a white man if police come across that scene.”

Internet justice was swift. As of this writing, Ms. Cooper has no dog and no job.

She is alive, though.

Lastly, you might have seen that Trump has threatened to pull the Republican convention from my former hometown, Charlotte, NC, if the city doesn’t lift its quarantine quickly enough to suit his highness. Luckily for the country, GA and FL have stepped up. How to choose, how to choose?

Judy never rests! A toast to Judy! No Memorial Day holiday for Judy during COVID times! Judy! Judy! Judy! So dressy, the burgundy with the drop earrings. Here I was, in my work jeans and t-shirt, sitting on my COVID beach reading Steven King:

Enjoying a G&T with Husband (dry martini for him), and there’s Judy in her finery.

How DOES she do it, day after day? Other anchors might retreat to their Hamptons spread, but not Judy. She is serving, day after day. For real.

She covered Trump’s unwelcome visit to Baltimore. Ol’ Jack Young asked him not to come,

and apparently did not cut the grass to ease hizzoner’s footfalls. Good on you, Jack

This blogger is happy to see that Joe has agreed to wear a muzzle. Really, that’s best for everyone for the next several months.

Happy Decoration Day, everyone. Kudos all over the place to Judy for not taking the day off and for getting all gussied up for us.

I like this cozy Judy look. At first, I thought she wasn’t giving me much to work with, but then I looked more closely. It’s the perfect anchor lady outfit for a rainy day in the mid-atlantic: black mock-t sweater and pearl earrings. Nice choice, Judy. Goes with the paper flowers just off-screen to our right.

Though we are approaching 100,000 U.S. deaths from COVID, it’s Memorial Day, so off to the beaches we go! As the mayor of Amity told a reporter, “As you see, it’s a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and people are having a wonderful time.”

What could go wrong?

Of course, Amity was the fictional beach town depicted in

and as we know, things went awfully wrong.

Here’s an image of the O.C. boardwalk two weekends ago:

I’ll stay battened down, thanks.

Speaking of going awfully wrong, Joe (Biden) and Don (the president) screwed up again. Verbal gaffes are nothing new from either of these fellows, but Shields and Brooks found them noteworthy and so do I.

As far as I know, Judy was not puckering up to air-kiss either of these guys. I just caught her at an unfortunate moment. Back to Joe and Don.

Not for the first time, Joe messed up trying to be cool. Being interviewed by Charlamagne tha God (and if you didn’t see THAT rolling off Judy’s tongue, you ain’t lived), Joe said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” Judy couldn’t bring herself to say “ain’t” when quoting him. btw. Love her.

Joe, Joe, Joe. As the second-whitest (to David Brooks) whitey on the block, Mark Shields, said, “whites don’t get to tell blacks what being black means.” Joe didn’t walk his statement back, he RAN it back, but too late.

Don gave us another skin-crawling moment when he toured the Ford plant, maskless. When asked why he didn’t wear a mask, he said he didn’t want to “give the press the pleasure of seeing it.” But that’s not the bad thing.

Don paused during a speech at the Ford Motor Company plant in Michigan to praise the “good bloodlines” of the family descended from the firm’s founder, Henry Ford, a notorious anti-Semite and favorite of Adolf Hitler.

Why we just happen to have handy a snapshot of Henry Ford accepting the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from a Nazi official in 1938:

David Brooks disappointed by saying that Don doesn’t read books, so how would he know about this, but I think he was fed the line to appeal to the more radical elements of his base.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone! Thanks for reading!

Absolute home run, Judy! Ah, baseball, how we miss you.

Black pinstriped jacket over a white t, with (I like to think real) diamond earrings. Really knocked it out of the park today, lady. Looks like you might have trimmed your hair on the right, or is it behind your ear? I think you cut it. Nice work, but will be hard to slick back in a ponytail, if you do that. Ah, you probably don’t.

My new heroine, Cornell professor Rosemary Batt, was on the show tonight talking about the evils of private equity.

Ok, I couldn’t get a good photo of her, but we should listen to what she has to say. I won’t exerpt her scholarly pieces here, but tonight she boiled it down: clothing store sales are down 80% since the coronavirus lockdowns started, but that’s not what killed retail giants Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, Sears and JCPenney. I learned tonight that 10 of 14 retail bankruptcies are caused by private equity wringing all of the cash out of the businesses. Plus, it’s cool to be a female prof in the world of finance.

Don’t let your eyes glaze over! This is what happened to Toys R Us, remember them? BEFORE coronavirus, 1.3 million Americans had lost their jobs in retail in a decade due to private equity investing in and bankrupting retailers. Senator Warren (remember her?) had a plan for that. She introduced a bill to help curb private equity investment in retail, but it didn’t get anywhere.

Here’s a short piece about private equity, featuring Taylor Swift in gold lame, in case you want to read more:

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/1/6/21024740/private-equity-taylor-swift-toys-r-us-elizabeth-warren

And one from the Grey Lady:

I know, heavy stuff for the Thursday before Memorial Day, but this is a blog about clothes and clothes stores are dropping left and right. Just don’t blame it all on COVID.

Tomorrow, those clothes horses, Mark Shields and David Brooks!

10 points for novelty; haven’t seen this outfit before. I wish I could say I love the look. I wish I could say that.

Judy is younger than this look. She can pull off something sportier. Is the death toll in the U.S. from COVID of 93,000 getting her down? No one could blame her. Remember being astounded when the death toll exceeded that of American soldiers in Vietnam, 33,000 deaths ago?

States are opening so that’s fun… or is it? Before pulling out your jhorts

and heading to the O.C. boardwalk, you might consider that the much-maligned WHO reported 106,000 new cases in the past 24 hours, more than at any other time in the pandemic so far.

Judy did manage to wring some fun nostalgia out of this day for us. Remember Carlos Ghosn, the Nissan chairman who fled Japan in a box rather than face financial misconduct charges?

Sure you do.

If this doesn’t ring a bell:

This should:

Truly, last December, Ghosn was smuggled out in that box to Lebanon. Well, first to China, then to Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan.

Thanks for the memories, Judy!