The Most Active Threads Since Friday

The most active thread over the weekend was titled, "Olympics Opening Ceremony" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture". This thread started without much drama. Posters seemed to enjoy the opening ceremony, though a few were put off by the beheaded Marie Antoinette that appeared at the beginning of the Gojira musical segment. While there was considerable praise for Lady Gaga, there was considerable criticism of Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning. Celine Dion was a big hit among posters whereas Snoop Dogg seemed to elicit nothing but criticism. But, then, there were rumblings of dissatisfaction. A rumor that American conservatives were bothered by what they thought were Satanic references in the ceremony. Then complaints that gay people, drag queens, trans gender people, and other colorful personalities had been included in a mockery of "The Last Supper" painting by Leonardo da Vinci which portrays the Biblical Last Supper. Soon this had turned into a full-blown avalanche of resentment. This was a mockery of Christianity, argued poster after poster. They would never do this to Muslims said posters who know absolutely nothing about French-Muslim relations (I suggest that they look into the National Rally party and its current popularity in France). Posters were certain that the French had intentionally gone out of their way to insult Christians, and American Christians in particular. It was a full-blown freakout. Posters were swearing off both the Olympics and France and condemning their infection by the "woke mind virus". There was so much talk about Satan that I assumed that he must be participating in one of the sports. But other posters assured us that he does not exist. Some posters argued that it was not "The Last Supper", but rather the Festival of Dionysus that was depicted. Another poster explained that it portrayed a painting by Jan van Bijlert named "Le Festin des Dieux", which depicts various Greek gods participating in a banquet on Mount Olympus. But, the outraged posters were not about to stop being outraged and simply would not accept this explanation. Moreover, they soon found an additional controversy concerning whether one of the participants in the Last Supper/Le Festin des Dieux event had displayed a private part. At least one poster who was initially convinced that this was the case later agreed that it was more likely a tear in his costume. But, generally, the opinion of upset right-wing Christians is that the Olympics had been turned into a global grooming event aimed at turning children trans and mocking Christians. If being outraged were an Olympic event, MAGA Christians would have taken the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals.

The next most active thread over the weekend was the one about Vice President Kamala Harris running for President. Since I have already discussed that thread, I'll skip it today. After that was a thread posted in the "Political Discussion" forum titled, "Least Shocking News: Orange coward pulls out of debate". Almost immediately after President Joe Biden announced that he would no longer pursue the Democratic nomination for President, former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump hinted that he would not be willing to attend the Presidential debate that had been scheduled for September. In contrast, Trump advisors soon told the press that Trump would be willing to debate Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump himself said that he was upset by ABC News commentator George Stephanopoulos and that any future debate should be hosted by Fox News. However, the original poster of this thread, was prompted by a statement issued by Trump's communications director saying the event details cannot be finalized because the Democrats do not have a nominee and that former President Barack Obama might be attempting ot find an alternative to Harris. By that time, Harris had already received enough commitments from convention delegates to be elected nominee and, soon after the statement was released, both Barack and Michelle Obama publicly endorsed Harris. As a factual matter, at the time of Trump's debate with Biden, neither was the official nominee of their party. Both were presumed nominees, but neither had been officially chosen. Now, Harris is the presumed nominee. Therefore, any uncertainty that Trump might have about the identity of the Democratic nominee should be resolved. As is to be expected from Trump's supporters in the forum, they quickly fell in line with Trump's position. One poster argued that he hadn't even pulled out of the debate, though there is no logical reading that suggests that Trump is intending to attend the September debate. Other posters agreed with the statement that since the Democrats didn't officially have a candidate, Trump didn't have anyone to debate. But since Harris is as official as Biden had been at the time of the earlier debate, that doesn't seem like much of an excuse. As for the anti-Trump posters, they universally seemed to believe that this is proof that Trump is afraid to debate Harris. Most of them expect that Harris would easily out perform Trump, explaining his interest in avoiding such a spectacle. Eventually the thread went off topic into a discussion of the process by which Harris replaced Biden with posters arguing about the propriety of that process.

Next was a thread titled, "So, the Dems new talking point is that Trump and Vance are ‘weird’" and, like the previous thread, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster linked to a tweet in which the tweeter recommended that Democrats adopt a tactic used by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The tweet included a video clip in which Walz complained that we can't even go to Thanksgiving dinner without ending up in a weird fight with our uncle about politics. He then went on to say that "they" — it's not clear whether he is referring to Republicans in general or former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Senator J. D. Vance — are "just weird". The original poster strongly believes that this is a terrible line of attack. Several of those responding disagree and think that current MAGAs are, in fact, weird and that it is helpful to point it out. The campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris has taken a very different tone than that of President Joe Biden. The Harris campaign is utilizing humor and Trump's own words against him. One tactic has been to show a video of Trump saying something followed by Harris saying that she approved the message. The campaign, perhaps following Walz' lead, has also pointed to odd positions, statements, and behaviors by Trump and Vance and described them as "weird". But this appears to simply be one arrow in the campaign's quiver and certainly not their primary message. A longstanding and disappointing practice by much of the mainstream media, particularly the New York Times, has been to launder Trump's erratic speaking. Trump repeatedly expresses long strings of gobbledygook containing lies, threats, and unrealistic claims which end up reported as something like "Trump took a hard line towards his opponents, making claims that sometimes stretched the boundaries of reality." This reporting absolutely fails to capture the insanity of Trump's normal communication. The Democrats are simply trying to make up for this. It appears that once Trump began getting in front of the public again, they were reminded of his aberrant behavior. Almost without precedence, Trump came out of his convention less popular than he went into it. Trump and many MAGA politicians have become used to communicating within their own bubble. Outside that bubble, they are not understood and simply considered weird. The best example of this at the convention was Donald Trump, Jr. His speech was popular within right-wing social media circles, but outside of those a translator was required to know what the hell he was talking about. Vance is almost the ultimate expression of this phenomenon. He talks about our country being ruled by "childless cat ladies" and porpoise sex. People think that he is bizarre and, no surprise, he has turned out to be the least popular Vice Presidential choice in history. No wonder people found it believable that he has "known" his couch in the Biblical sense. The guy is just weird. As many of the Republicans in this thread point out, there are some out of the ordinary people among the Democrats as well. Certainly, we have our flamboyant personalities. But they aren't our top of the ticket nominees. Biden's most outrageous characteristic was that he liked to drive a corvette. Harris has an unusual laugh. Neither one of them is repeatedly espousing the advantages of being electrocuted by a boat rather than eaten by a shark or talking about the "late Hannibal Lecter" (who, by the way, neither the books nor the movies give any indication is dead).

The last thread that I will discuss today was posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Titled, "Moving $200,000 out of cash to improve chances for college financial aid?", the original poster says that she and her husband have $200,000 in cash and stocks that they have been keeping as an emergency fund. They have $80,000 saved in 529 college savings plans for each of their two children. The original poster was using a college costs calculator and discovered that the $200,000 is hurting their chances of getting financial aid. Therefore, she is asking what would be the best way to reduce their cash holdings. Two ideas are to put the money in to the 529 plans or put it into their retirement plans. The original poster was reported to me with the complaint that she was trying to commit fraud regarding financial aid. Let me be clear that this poster doesn't appear to have any interest in doing anything illegal. Rather, she is exploring investment options that are beneficial to her, just as someone might attempt to reduce their tax burden through careful financial planning. It is not fraud, but rather smart money management. Several posters advised that both 529 plans and retirement plans have caps that the original poster might exceed if she attempted to add the entire $200,000. Other ideas posters had were to pay down their home mortgage or purchase whole life insurance. This discussion is complicated because some colleges consider some assets that others don't when making financial aid calculations. Most posters are familiar with what the FAFSA asks, but private colleges generally use alternative forms and may include items that the FAFSA does not. Therefore, advice that might work in some circumstances won't in others. Another controversy within the thread is that the original poster is reasonably financially well off. Many posters don't think that her kids deserve financial assistance. Other posters are in much worse financial straights and they see the original poster as trying to take advantage of the system while they themselves struggle. Again, the original poster is not trying to do anything illegal. She did not create the rules and is not responsible for them. She is simply trying to play by the rules in a manner that is most advantageous to her family. Still many posters feel a great need to scold the original poster even though she is not guilty of anything. Moreover, the original poster points out that they have money saved because they have not lived lavishly. They have a small house and old cars and their salaries have not always been as high as they are now. The original poster is not interested in "cheating", but simply protecting what she has managed to save. Now she realizes that keeping a large amount of savings in cash was a mistake and she is trying to correct it. Despite the significant number of unhelpful posts that probably frustrate the original poster, there is quite a bit of helpful advice. But this thread is a classic case of the necessity of separating the DCUM wheat from the chaff.