President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Sounds like a good use of time.

Joe Arpaio Claims He ‘Proved’ Obama Birth Certificate Is ‘Fake’ and Will Resume Debunked ‘Birther’ Movement If Elected

 

And there goes QYFW with another accusation that he can't support with even a shred of evidence. He just wants it to be true because those teenagers are making his beloved Republican party look bad.

 

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of the stigmatizing mental illness. But it’s better than nothing

 

Is QYFW even a gun owner? I think his bullshit on this topic, and this thread, is motivated by party loyalty.

 

Normally, if there were people at State and Central Intelligence, Kim making his first visit with a foreign leader and travelling to Beijing to meet with Xi would be a big deal.

 

Who knows, but I miss the days when people had the decency to not personally attack kids who survived a mass shooting.
You don't have to play for keeps, folks.

 

So all I did was look up "best high school essays and picked the top two that got kids into every Ivy League school:



Read the essay that got a high-school senior into 7 Ivy League schools

They're lovely. To me, they do not read with the level of sophistication of the NYT op-ed.

First, I'm so in favor of gun control I'd disarm cops in many situations. So my skepticism has nothing to do with the gun issue.

Second, some of the kids have said wonderful things. Emma Gonzalez on Saturday? Lovely speech with the silence and the timer going off. The words were hers. IMO, the reading a was a little...dramatic, but I get that. You don't want the kids freezing onstage.

Third, what struck me about this op-ed is that it, like the 11-year-old girl's speech, wasn't really about the gun issue. The undercurrent of the op-ed is some sort of systemic failure within the school system to handle its worst students that renders moot the idea that kindness toward children could have any general effect on violent actions. It comes, too, with a policy directive: " It is the responsibility of the school administration and guidance department to pinpoint those students and get them the help that they need, even if it is extremely specialized attention that cannot be provided at the same institution."

The argument is just...very sophisticated for a HS senior. And, beyond that, a blunt, visceral displeasure for the administration:

I don’t remember if he was confronted for his actions, but in my 12-year-old naïveté, I trusted that the adults around me would take care of the situation.

Five years later, after hiding in a dark closet at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I would discover just how wrong I was.

Maybe it came right off the kid's computer just like that. If so, well, good work.

But I think we also know there's no way these kids aren't working with advocates. They are. This writer could have easily sent this to the Miami Herald. But it's in the New York Times. I don't think that's an accident.

And it just makes me skeptical. Anytime I feel like a certain polish is on something - such as when an athlete writes something for The Player's Tribune or reads a statement clearly written by handlers - I'm skeptical.

Maybe I'm wrong. But, additionally, this idea of "well, you can't even express skepticism on a message board without proof" is odd. So, if we were sitting at a bar - which is what a message board is - I couldn't bring it up? C'mon.

 

If you want to make a TINMHITTMAL omelette, you gotta trigger a few libs.

 

If you're going truther on us, piss off.

 

Nobody's looking for proof. Just evidence, any evidence. As for it being in the Times, that's because these kids are newsworthy now. And I assure you the admissions offices at the top 50 or so colleges in the land get essays as well written as this by nearly every applicant. This high school was an elite public high school. It's not surprising the students are capable speakers, writers, etc.

 

Really? Then you must be really impressed by it. Because that is one cogent, tight piece of writing. 656 words. Tight as a drum.

 

It's not bringing it up. It's an accusation, and yes, you should have something more than "it's too good" as evidence to make that kind of accusation.

That you even had to go looking shows you don't regularly read the writing of teenagers. You don't know their capabilities. You certainly don't know the capability of that particular teenager. This isn't a bar. It's a message board for journalists and former journalists. We should know something about evidence and we should have some interest in being able to back up what we say. Sure, you can post what you want, but I am absolutely right to call bullshit on your post. I can't prove she really did write it, but I'm not the one making an accusation that somebody lied.