Melania has this wonderful rags to riches story she loves to tell, about coming here as some struggling immigrant, ripping and clawing her way through the awful New York fashion industry, scrupulously following the immigration laws, going home to see family, doing a little soft core porn … then getting a real job being married to someone rich .. Wait, she generally gets real fuzzy in there between the soft core porn and getting married. But much as she’s tried, no one can scrub the entirety of the net, and so she can’t sue us for noting that she did the porn, it’s like “there,” and she does still appear to be married. That’s not the only stuff that’s “set,” so to speak.

Anyway, on with our story. Cut to the chase: Rags to riches, she did everything by the book, legally, and fck-you.

Actually, it’s the same story as her husband’s, proving that she won’t just plagiarize from Democratic First Ladies. It’s just that Donald’s idea of “rags” was a “small one million dollar loan” from his father. The key is, both stories, hers and Donald’s, are outright lies.

But you don’t get charged with a crime for just lying about your past as a way to make yourself sound better in media articles. You can and usually do get charged with a crime when you outright lie under oath so obviously that there is no real other way to construe it. Ask Bill Clinton.

So why did no one care in 2016 when it was “proven” that Melania lied under oath in 2013? Why did no one “official” care when two weeks ago, we again published proof that Melania lied back in 2013?

If you missed our backstory from a couple weeks ago, Melania did a deposition in 2013 in which she was specifically asked about her past education, and she said that she graduated from college with a degree in architecture. To put it gently, Melania doesn’t have a “degree” in anything the degree of shamelessness to which she’ll lie.

We printed the transcripts from the deposition, along with other proof that she’s admitted to dropping out of school so she could do more soft core porn. Okay, that’s not true, she has admitted she left school, but it was to do modeling. The point is that Melania has seemingly admitted she doesn’t have a degree, but under oath, she lied and said she did. To make matters worse, the White House won’t respond to Politifact’s request to respond to our report. (Politifact labeled our story “mostly true” taking issue only with the headline, to which we respond we think Politifact’s rating is “Mostly True,” too).

Vanity Fair mentioned Melania “may” have lied during her deposition during a 2016 article, and “may” is awfully generous, considering the same Vanity Fair article published outright proof Melania did lie. Why did no one care then? Why does no one care now?

Is it because the Trump’s do nothing but lie?

Sure, yes, that is part of it.

But lying under oath, and lying so obviously, is generally a pretty big deal, even for a Trump. It wasn’t just a “scheduling conflict” that kept Donald Trump from testifying to Mueller. It was real fear that he’d bury himself in a lie that he couldn’t get out of – it would be “on paper,” in a “legal proceeding,” and that’s entirely different than just shouting over helicopter noise.

Now, this would be true of your average, every day, person who – for some reason – had proof come out of an outright lie in a deposition. For an “immigrant,” who lied in a deposition about that immigrant’s background raises the entire thing to another level, because then the suspicion becomes that the person lied in the deposition to cover lies in immigration papers. And that, friends, is something that one just cannot do, not if you want to assure your citizenship stays “current.”

You would almost have to be president or have husbands in high places to avoid a very serious investigation into all that.

Which brings us back around to our real point. Where is all the outrage? Are we just outrage fatigued? Because if Trump has one signature issue – beyond lying, and porn – it is immigration. If Trump happens to be married to someone who has a criminal issue within her own damn immigration papers, and if Trump perhaps assisted in that lie (she got the damned Einstein visa! One of four people from Slovenia that year to get the coveted visas). So where is the outrage? Or at least interest in establishing what did or didn’t happen with respect to Melania’s immigration and lying about her backstory?

I think that I know.

There is just too much “shit” out there involving Trump, and Melania, and it’s hard enough to keep current day to day. There was once a time – 5 years ago, in fact – where a phone call from Politifact to the White House about a blog proving with transcripts an outright lie in a deposition, would stop the White House in its tracks. It would be an epic scandal, sending aides scurrying, lawyers being called, and some damage control.

Not now. There are no epic scandals anymore because Trump has removed both “truth” and “law” from the equation. When the Republican congress doesn’t even want to hear the evidence of your phone call to a foreign power wanting dirt for cash? People assume that you are going to lie about “little shit” like immigration history and testimony.

Actually, Melania’s story might well end-up exactly where she figured it might – only on a much greater scale. She likely figured that going from rags to riches meant she didn’t need to tell the truth, that doing the “shady” stuff, the porn and whatever, was the dangerous part, and that people would believe her legal story because she’s rich and pretty. Trump has always believed it, indeed it might be the only thing he’s ever really believed, that the “truth” couldn’t matter less, provided one is “rich enough,” or had the right friends.

Maybe.

Maybe they are proving themselves right, that it just doesn’t matter anymore. Maybe.

The point is, that neither Melania’s story, nor Donald’s, is done yet. And what matters and what doesn’t isn’t “set.” What is set are Melania’s words in her deposition, just like Trump’s words to Zelensky, and all their financial records – which, given all we know, are probably all full of lies as well. Lies in taxes, in immigration, in testimony, and when representing the government, all used to matter. It would appear that they no longer do.

Except that part – whether they will matter again, the real end of Melania’s story, of Trump’s story, and of our story, that’s not over yet. Rags to riches? Well, they go both ways, and apply to countries, as well as people. Unlike the Trump stuff on the net, in taxes, and in court papers, our words aren’t set, or at least the final say isn’t set yet.

So we can’t end Melania’s story at “riches,” nor Trump’s.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom