Thursday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday was another day in which many of the most active threads were ones that I've previously discussed. As a result, the first thread that I will discuss today was actually the fourth most active yesterday. Titled, "Trump's rambling speech today" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, this thread was actually started back in January when former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump gave a speech in which he confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi and made number of other errors. Yesterday, the thread added seven new pages of posts due to a press conference that Trump held at Mar-a-Lago. Posters live-posted throughout the event and provided a running commentary. The tone of yesterday's discussion was set by the first poster to comment on the press conference who wrote, "Good lord, this man is totally detached from reality...". In many ways the press conference was simply a repetition of Trump's greatest hits and most of his answers could have been easily clipped from any of his recent rallies. Typical of Trump, he spewed a cascade of lies and misinformation. For instance, Trump claimed that he had attracted crowds on the National Mall that were larger than Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington speech. He also described a near death experience in a helicopter in which he was flying with California politician Willie Brown. Brown later said that he had never been in a helicopter with Trump. On the other hand, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that he and Trump used a helicopter to tour fire damage during Trump's time as President but that they didn't come close to crashing. Trump may have confused Willie Brown with former Governor Jerry Brown who was also on the flight. Trump also claimed that he had given Israel the Golan Heights. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 after occupying them since 1967. The mainstream media has spent two days debating the difference between Tim Walz "serving as a Command Sergeant Major at the time he retired" and "retired as a Command Sergeant Major". Yet, Trump's slew of lies will get very little attention. Another thing that has constantly bothered me about media coverage of Trump is the practice of cleaning up Trump's way of speaking. Trump will ramble incoherently from one topic to another and back again, hardly making any sense at all and the New York Times will report that "His wide-ranging remarks were sometimes meandering." That's like saying that Fidel Castro's famous 7 hour speeches "ran a little long". Technically accurate but hardly conveying the truth. Even worse was when Trump was asked whether he would ban mifepristone, a drug used in medicated abortions that account for about half of U.S. abortions. Trump's answer was, "You could do things that will be — would supplement absolutely and those things are pretty open and humane, but you have to be able to have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote, and the votes are taking place right now as we speak." How did the New York Times cover this gobbledygook answer addressing one of the most important issues of concern to voters? It ignored it completely.

The next most active thread yesterday was posted in the "Food, Cooking, and Restaurants" forum. Titled, "What's a food that people generally love but you think is overrated?", the original poster singles out Nutella as a food that she has never thought is very good. This is another of the negative threads that I really don't like. Why harsh other's mellow? Lots of people like Nutella. Let them enjoy it. I would prefer a thread about food that is often overlooked. Sure enough, just as soon as posters list things they don't like, other posters respond to say that they like those things, including Nutella. It should come as no surprise that people have different tastes. That's a great thing. Who wants to live in a world of no variety? Who cares that "anonymous" doesn't like Italian food? Basically, this thread is repeated cycles of "I don't like X" followed by "I love X". Good to know. The only break from the cycle was two posters who wrote that they don't like "Bahn mee" followed by another saying, "Guys, it's banh mi. Love it or hate it, but learn how to spell it if you're going to write about it." So, at least we got a spelling lesson out of this thread. If I really stretch my imagination, I might sort of undertand why someone would post in a thread like this. But I have no idea why anyone would bother to read it. Maybe someone was in desperate need of escape from reality and this thread was more readily available than opium. I'm not even sure that it would function as an effective sleep aid because someone disliking one of your favorite foods would probably wake you up. The only conclusion you can draw from this thread is that everything is hated and everything is loved. Anyway, simply out of spite I am going to have banh mi and Nutella for lunch.

Next was a thread titled, "If your student struggled academically in college…" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster understands that there are a number of reasons that a student may struggle academically in college. But she is particularly interested in cases where a student reached too high chasing prestige and would have been better off at a lower-ranked college that was a better fit. The first poster to respond described her daughter who is attending Yale and having a difficult time. The poster mentioned in passing that her daughter applied test optional. The topic of test optional admissions is always sure to attract attention and the thread immediately was diverted to debates about the value of admissions tests. Another poster proclaimed that at her kid's Ivy the test optional kids are the ones who struggle. It would be interesting to see if there is any real data in this regard because I can see how something like this would be very susceptible to confirmation bias. It requires significant digging through the test score discussion to find responses related to the original topic. Several posters report that they struggled as undergraduates for various reasons. In some cases that was because they were not prepared for the higher intensity level of college or in other cases they simply didn't try very hard. A few thought that they would have been better off choosing a different school. But, far and away, the most common reason for struggling in college was choosing the wrong major. Students who were forced to study something that they didn't enjoy often didn't perform well. Eventually this thread went even more off topic when posters started discussing reasons that kids might not be prepared for college, especially focusing on high school education. Posters even started talking about tiger parenting. The original poster seemed to be extremely interested in the responses to her post, but I am not sure she received as many useful replies as she might have hoped. The thread meandered all over the place, discussing the learning strengths that might be indicated by high test scores at one moment and the importance of piano lessons at another.

The last thread that I will discuss today was another one posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Trump campaign death spiral", this thread was started back on August 2nd by a poster wondering whether it was too late to replace former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump as the Republican Presidential nominee. I've mentioned before that threads have started running a lot longer now then they used to. In the past, a thread like this might run its course in a day or two. This one has been active from its creation, but added 6 additional pages yesterday. Time is moving so fast these days with so much happening that I can't remember what happened around August 2 to inspire this thread. That seems like years ago even though it was only a week. At any rate, there are a number of reasons that Trump cannot be replaced. As a poster pointed out in a response, neither party really has a replacement mechanism. President Joe Biden chose to drop out. Had he refused to do that, he would likely still be the Democratic nominee. Trump is unlikely to step back because, again as a poster responded, unlike Biden who will simply return to Delaware and enjoy retirement, Trump will likely go to jail. Winning the Presidency is his get-out-jail-free card. Moreover, as I constantly try to remind readers of this blog, Trump is a cult leader. The MAGA cultists are much more likely to follow Trump over a cliff than to realize that their fortunes might be better served with a different leader. Finally, unlike Biden at the time that he dropped his bid, Trump is the official nominee of his party. Who remembers all the threats to sue the Democrats if they replaced Biden? Those threats were hollow because Biden was not yet the official nominee but they would hold water in the case of a Trump replacement. Why would anyone want Trump to be replaced? The reasons are many. Trump is an old man whose mental competence is questionable. As was posted in this thread, his current schedule includes one rally in Montana, hardly a swing state. In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz are traveling to six states, all swing states that polls show are currently very close. Trump misses Biden so much that he has posted on Truth Social that Biden still may be chosen at the Democratic National Convention. We have no idea of the physical and psychological impact of the attempted assassination, if any. As his press conference yesterday demonstrated, Trump has no real ability to focus. It is clear that Republicans understand Trump's weaknesses. The MAGA cultists have reacted by becoming even more extreme than prior. The sense of desperation is easily noticeable. Non-cultist Republicans alternate between denial and self-deception. For the first time I am seeing posters argue that even though Trump may not be up to running the country, he will have capable advisors. Of course those suggesting this must not be familiar with Trump's advisors, but the idea that Trump would be a hands-off president is ludicrous. The state of the Trump campaign is perhaps best illustrated by one of the most recent posts in this thread in which a poster embedded a Tweet saying that the rapper Lil Pump will perform a Biden diss track at an upcoming rally. Like Trump, Lil Pump doesn't seem to know who Trump is running against.