Thursday, April 26, 2018

Melania Trump used the gold-rimmed china that Hillary Clinton stole from the White House

Troll level: Master.

As you'll recall the exceedingly entitled Hillary Clinton stole a White House set of china valued in the tens of thousands of dollars. They stole other things and were forced to return them. They kept some of the items they stole and paid for them. But none of the numbers reported add up. The plates were part of the group of things they returned.

Souvenirs.

Come on. Can't a girl take a few souvenirs?

ABC News, Feb. 8, 2001
[The Clintons] sent $28,000 worth of household goods back to Washington after questions arose over whether the items were intended as personal gifts or donations to the White House. 
After they were criticized for taking $190,000 worth of china, flatware, rugs, televisions, sofas and other gifts with them when they left, the Clintons announced last week that they would pay for $86,000 worth of gifts, or nearly half the amount. 
Their latest decision to send back $28,000 in gifts brings to $114,000 the value of items the Clintons have either decided to pay for or return.
More nit-picky nefarious details of criminal minds at the link. But you read this already seventeen years ago.

And the numbers still don't add up. Stole $190,000, paid $114,000 returned $28,000.

I'm no mathematician but there seems to be a significant gap of $48,000.

But ew, it's so pretty.
I saw a gold china service set one time. I shouldn't mention this, but what the heck. Everyone's dead now. Bobby Buckles (dead) invited me to assist with a large luncheon for television stars who worked for Fox. The cast of Dynasty (mostly dead), company soap operas, and other random stars, too numerous to list but including, Gary Colman (dead), Gerald Ford (dead), Lucille Ball (dead), Sophia Loren, and Diana Ross who was giving a concert in Denver at the time of the Barbara Davis'  Carousel Ball fundraiser for children's diabetes. 

It was the second time Bobby invited me because he thought I was the right profile to help.

Invite me as a guest, you asshole, so I can mix and mingle. 

Come on. Be a sport. You'll see a lot of interesting people. And I did. I saw and heard Henry Kissinger who was advisor to Marvin Davis (dead) at the time. That was a big thing for me.

The gold plates were not used that day. They were stacked carelessly in a cabinet. One of the permanent staff opened a cabinet when I was in one of the dining rooms that revealed slots that held various sizes and styles of silver and gold serving trays upright on their sides. And I thought, now that's the way to store trays. She opened other built in cabinets that held different sets of plates and service ware. The gold plates were just one of several sets. Just like the White House. They entertained a lot. In fact, that day, another of my friends (dead) was chief cook there. He got Bobby Buckles his job. He showed me how to grill to medium rare, slice and serve a stack of fifty beef tenderloins. And not freak out about the high volume of food served to entertainment stars and other important people. 

It's no big deal. It's just a job. And that attitude stuck. I never did freak out about anything like that. If someone didn't like something then uckemfay. 

I was a terrible service person. 

A check for a couple hundred dollars came in the mail a few weeks after that. And I wasn't even expecting to be paid. I was just helping Bobby Buckles with this unusually large task. It was all totally legit. And a heck of a lot of fun too. Bobby was right.

And the gold plates did not impress me so much because I cast back to the little ceramics shop I wandered into at Barksdale Air Force Base. 

Women there were casting ceramic plates. 

That was not my sort of thing. I didn't care about regular household items like plates and mugs and elaborate German steins. 

B-o-o-o-o--r-i-n-g.

But I saw how it was done. Plates were a bit tricky because they're flat in the plaster mold and easy to mess up getting out. The mold seam had to be cleaned up. They tend to warp as they dry. When you pour eight of them then they're fired to bisque. Then painted in clear glaze. Then painted again with special gold paint. It's a tiny vial of what appears to be blood with microscopic flecks of actual gold that cannot be seen. When fired at lower than usual firing heat, the blood-like carrying material burns off and the gold melts and coalesces. One wrong move like a fingerprint and the project is ruined.

At that time, each tiny vial of gold paint cost $1.00 on the AFB. One vial could cover at least one plate. If you failed to to cover the pate evenly then there would be splotches of missing gold. And if you overpainted by double then the gold would melt and drip in unsightly patterns. It was a bit tricky to get the blood-like paint strokes exactly right. 

Skip 10 years. 

My parents bought me two common King Tut objects in fired bisque. The burial mask, and Queen Nefertiti. Incidentally, Nefertiti means "beautiful titi." I was supposed to paint them myself. I did paint the Tut burial mask, but I needed that special gold paint. I gave my parents instructions to buy it from the shop at Lowery Air Force Base, now subdivided into housing. At that time each vial cost $10.00. As you can see, an increase of 1,000%. But boy, my King Tut head sure looked great. Lapis Lazuli blue and gold striped Nemes headdress, and pure gold face. Real gold. Just like the real burial mask.

I bought too much. I still have one of the vials. And it would still work to make these type of plates. 

7 comments:

deborah said...

Oh, burn.

edutcher said...

White trash don't all cum from Arkinsaw.

MamaM said...

Beyond burn, Melania trumped.

Here's where the petty tyrant/warrior quote from the other thread fits as well:

The petty tyrant teaches the warrior to develop a strategy utilizing the four attributes of warriorship: control, discipline, forbearance, and timing.

Perhaps not so immediately recognizable in some of Trump's behavior, but definitely present in Melania's approach.

ampersand said...

They probably claimed it as a tax loss when they returned everything. I remember reading that one of the books Clinton took was originally owned by Thomas Jefferson. It may have been the bible Bubba was sworn in with. They stored it in the basement and was ruined by either mold or water.

AllenS said...

The Clintons. They sure are a class act.

Trooper York said...

Great story Chip.

Did you get to meet any of the famous people.

I would have went up to Joan Collins. I hear she is a goer.

edutcher said...

She wasn't called the British Open because she liked to golf.

Unless you count all the men she invited to sink a putt.