Tuesday's Most Active Threads

If you have ever asked yourself whether in a world in which federal employees are being purged en masse, aircraft are falling out of the sky, our President is proposing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and giving Russia control of Ukraine, and a drug-addled billionaire has managed to buy control of the U.S. Government, whether anyone would still want to talk about soccer, you can now assure yourself that the answer is "yes". Two soccer-related threads are included in today's post. The most active thread yesterday was titled, "McLean leaving FVU" and posted in the "Soccer" forum. This thread was actually started a few days ago by a poster saying that McLean Youth Soccer would leave Fairfax Virginia Union and that an announcement could be expected within the week. Despite having discussed many threads about the politics of youth soccer, I am still pretty ignorant about all the various organizations. As I understand things, and I could very well be wrong, Fairfax Virginia Union was a conglomeration of three youth soccer clubs that participated in the Elite Clubs National League, which is a national youth soccer league. A thread that I discussed recently was about Girls Academy, a girls' soccer league, joining wth MLS NEXT, a boys' league, to form an alliance of the two national leagues. Much of the discussion in that thread concerned whether teams would leave ECNL to join the new combined league. It appears that McLean Youth Soccer has done exactly that. It wasn't until yesterday that the original poster's rumor was made official. That's when discussion really took off. Frankly, I didn't understand many of the posts. Soccer posters really speak their own language, which I have not learned. Despite this, I could tell that most of the conversation involved how McLean would fare in the new league. Similarly, there was discussion of the future of FVU after McLean had left it. As would be expected, there doesn't seem to be much agreement on anything. Posters have differing opinions on such things as whether current McLean players will stay with the team or switch to other FVU teams. Similarly, posters argue about the fate of coaches. One thing that I've learned from the various soccer threads is that a priority for the girls’ teams is college recruitment. Therefore, there is considerable discussion on how the change in leagues will impact the exposure of players to college recruiters. For some posters, the biggest issue is that this is another change impacting a soccer club that has apparently undergone a number of recent changes. These posters are frustrated and hoping for stability. Other posters debate the pros and cons of sticking with McLean and competing in the new league or switching teams in order to stay in ECNL. All the various machinations involving teams, players, and coaches give this thread somewhat of a "Game of Thrones" feel.

Yesterday's next most active thread was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum and titled, "Dept of Ed Gives Schools Two Weeks to Eliminate Race-Based Programs". One of the threads that I discussed yesterday was about a letter from the Department of Education about a prohibition on using race as a factor in decisions such as college admissions. The original poster of that thread suggested that this would stop the practice of test-optional admissions policies. This thread is about the same letter, though looked at from a different angle. The original poster of this thread appears to be horrified by the letter. Other posters feel similarly, with one calling the letter "beyond stupid". Another poster notes that this is "beyond getting rid of affirmative action" and would not allow any club, organization, or affinity group that is based on race. For instance, Black Student Unions would not be allowed. Many posters point out that this is extremely intrusive involvement by the federal government in education, something that Republicans generally contend should be left to the states. There are, of course, supporters of the policies described in the letter. DCUM MAGAs have argued for some time that it is really White people, and White men in particular, who suffer the most from discrimination. Many of them cannot imagine any circumstance in which a person of color might gain advancement over them without having an unfair advantage. While the letter only addressed "race, color, or national origin", much of this thread is devoted to discussion of sex and gender. Many posters argue that if a group based on race is not allowed, neither should groups based on gender. This unleashes a considerable amount of contentious discussion. Despite the fears of many posters, I suspect the Republicans in control now will be all for separate places for women because that will allow separate places for men, something they likely fully support. However, where "race, color, or national origin" are concerned, Republicans clearly want to establish a very anodyne culture based on Whiteness. The focus will entirely be on potential advantages bestowed on people of color, with almost no attention to the disadvantages they suffer. In other words, if someone is included due to race, repercussions can be expected. But if the same person is excluded due to race, I would expect nothing but silence. Alternatively, instead of silence, perhaps loud protestations that race had nothing to do with the exclusion.

Next was the Blake Lively thread, which I am only noting as still going strong. The next thread that I will discuss was titled, "Why are US and Russia meeting unilaterally to resolve Russia-Ukraine conflict" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster refers to the U.S.-Russia negotiations taking place in Saudi Arabia regarding the Ukraine-Russia war and asks where the U.S.'s moral position has gone and why it is okay to side with the aggressor. The responses of posters tend to be consistent with their previously held opinions about cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and the Ukraine War. Those who have supported Ukraine and oppose Trump generally have a very negative attitude toward the negotiations. Those who support Trump mostly support his position and believe that it is time to bring an end to the war, even if that serves Russia's interests. Personally, I've found that these negotiations have been very clarifying. Any pretense that Trump is not completely in the bag for Russia has been discarded. Trump openly ridiculed Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and went so far as to accuse Ukraine of starting the war. What really appears to be happening in Saudi Arabia is the U.S. abandonment of Ukraine in exchange for Russian natural resources. The Russians, by giving Trump access to cheap Russian oil and minerals, will be allowed to dominate Ukraine. Trump supporters are more than willing to give Ukraine to Russia, believing that the fate of Ukraine is of little importance to the U.S. and that we should spend the money spent on the war in the U.S. instead. Other posters argue that the future of Ukraine is extremely important to the U.S. because the future security of Europe hinges on it. These posters predict future Russian aggression against other states, including NATO members, in the region. All indications are that Europe is either unable or unwilling to step up to replace the U.S. support for Ukraine. Therefore, a U.S.-Russian agreement could well spell the end of Ukraine as an independent state for all practical purposes. The Trump administration, fixated on mineral deposits, appears to have no interest in the ramifications of that reality. One other thing that has become apparent is how outmatched the U.S. side is in this negotiation. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Trump both have repeatedly made concessions to the Russians without receiving anything in return. This is an extremely amateurish negotiating tactic. For his part, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has not appeared up to the task either. The Ukrainians who have fought bravely must wonder what they have done to deserve having their fate placed in the hands of this band of half-wits.

The next most active thread was one that I've previously discussed and will skip today. That thread was the one about where federal employees who have been let go are expected to work. That question has only become even more pertinent since the thread was originally created. After that is another thread that was posted in the "Soccer" forum. Yes, I will say again, that in the midst of our world collapsing around us, posters still want to talk about soccer. This thread was titled, "New Additions to Leagues Check Up (ECNL & GA)". The thread was originally started back in October of last year. For those who are not conversant in the language of soccer, the title refers to Elite Clubs National League and Girls Academy. These are two national leagues. ECNL has both girls and boys teams while Girls Academy is, as the name implies, girls only. Since this thread was created, Girls Academy formed an alliance with MLS NEXT which is a boys league and the combined league now competes as a national league with ECNL. The original poster mentioned that there had been previous discussions about clubs joining either ECNL or Girls Academy. This thread was started to track the accomplishments of those clubs. I didn't read enough of the early posts in this thread to know if that is actually what happened. The thread is currently 60 pages long. Therefore, I skipped to the posts that were posted yesterday. Regardless of what happened before, at that point most of the posts were about current changes in the alliances of various clubs. The first thread that I discussed today was about the McLean Youth Soccer team switching from an ECNL-affiliated organization to GA/MLS Next. Similar moves are being made by other clubs and posters are using these threads to make predictions regarding such changes or to report on them when they have actually happened. The big change was the McLean switch. That resulted in considerable chest thumping by Girls Academy boosters. At the moment, posters are eagerly awaiting more shoes to drop, with a few predicting that there won't be any more shoes dropping.