Avaleigh

I agree with both of these points. He 100% loves winding people up. He does and says things specifically to upset people on the left. When he says stuff like "Am I allowed to run [for a third term]?" He says it with a sly kind of smirk like he's delighted that he's going to get millions of people angry, worried, afraid, and, most importantly, posting about him on Xitter, Bsky, and wherever else. He firmly believes that there is no such thing as bad publicity. At the same time, he's so clearly testing the waters to see if he'll be able to find a way to serve a third term. Everyone should be concerned about this whether they are on the left or right especially when these queries are coming from a guy who so obviously admires the world's dictators. He wants to be some sort of dictator king hybrid, and we're lucky that he isn't a younger, healthier man because I think he'd be harder to stop. As it is, I don't think he'd have the support to follow through with his apparent desire to be a dictator for life. At least, I hope he wouldn't.

Pairs are a problem too. Cipres, Coughlin, Oppegard, etc. I'm just guessing/speculating/theorizing here, but I wonder if the scarcity of male partners contributes to some of these issues? There are so few male partners in comparison to female partners that maybe this indirectly leads certain men to feeling like they're a little untouchable and can get away with whatever behavior once they're on a solid team. If nothing else, it seems like women feel more pressure than men when it comes to both disciplines because if things do go south with a partnership, they know that it'll be easier for the guy to find a new partner than it will be for them.

I was thinking about all the Republicans who still worship at the altar of Reagan. How can they be okay with Trump getting us into an unnecessary trade war with countries that are supposed to be our allies? Reagan is on record saying that getting into a trade war with allies is a road to weakening our economy.

I live in LA. Today I paid $4.29 a gallon for gas and that's at the cheap station. Elsewhere it's in the $4.59-$4.79 range. The prices have gone up every week since Trump has taken over. Eggs at Ralphs are $7.99. $8.99 if you want a dozen organic. A couple of specials where you can get 18 for $10-$13.99 depending on the brand. $7.49 for our usual whole grain bread. We're cutting out our cold brew plus my once a week Starbucks that I have while I wait for my daughter to finish a therapy session. We're really going to have to commit to doing the bulk of our shopping at Costco even though it's pain in the ass for us for several reasons. Also, getting gas at Costco is the only thing that makes sense at this point. Ralphs (Kroger) is just completely outrageous. Trader Joe's is somewhat affordable depending on what you're buying, but it's not a good place to do a big shopping trip if you're trying to be conservative with spending. At least I can rest easy knowing that the Gulf of Mexico is listed as the Gulf of America on Google Maps. /s It's going to be a long four years. When I asked my mom why Trump hasn't been able to make groceries more affordable she said 'Give him time. The Democrats are doing everything they can to make sure he doesn't succeed.' *sigh* I held my tongue and didn't point out that he said prices would go down immediately just by him being in office. I also didn't bother to ask what it is she thinks the Democrats are doing to prevent him from keeping his promise about lowering the price of groceries. It's just become impossible to have a sensible conversation about anything political, so I mostly refrain but sometimes it's really, really hard to accept that she believes this stuff. It's like she's a different person than the one who raised me. It make me so sad, it's hard to put into words.

Agreed that men aren't necessarily going to beat women in every sport or in every match up. It depends on a variety of factors. There are records in skiing, gymnastics, and in swimming, just to name a few examples, where women have outperformed men. That being said, at the end of the day, there's a reason why men and women compete separately in sports. It gives more opportunities for women to succeed, and this is, of course, important for women and girls for a variety of reasons. If you look at something like the LA or NYC Marathons, there has yet to be a woman who has beaten the men's record. Even when it comes to something like the "gender challenge" in the marathon, the women are given a head start in order to make it fair. For sports like the long jump or the high jump, the world records have been set by men. In figure skating, there are dozens of men who can do quadruple jumps. It's become common for men to perform multiple quads in a program. There's even a man who is consistently doing a quad axel. Meanwhile, it's still relatively uncommon to see a woman do a triple axel. Currently, there are only three women this season who can do it and only one who's nailing it consistently. (I'm excluding the Russians who aren't competing this season. Also, the Russians may or may not be guilty of using PEDs. Kamila Valieva is likely just one example.) I don't think it's sexist to say that men sometimes/often have an advantage over women when it comes to a variety of sports. Regarding high school sports, I think it's important for there to be separate categories for men and women because of the scholarship opportunities that are offered. I wouldn't want to see sports become unisex because I think this would lead to fewer opportunities for women. As for trans athletes, I haven't seen any evidence that allowing trans athletes to compete will necessarily lead to unfairness for female athletes. Regarding the Olympics, I don't understand why there's resistance to having a trans division. I actually think it would go a long way to bringing positive exposure for trans athletes and the trans community in general. There would be more medal opportunities, and it would give the world a chance to get to know and root for various trans athletes. There would also be the added benefit of not having transphobic people attempting to tarnish an athlete's win with accusations of unfairness.

I'm pretty sure he thinks empathy is for "losers." He seems to think that stuff like the golden rule is only for suckers and weaklings. Anything he does that falls under the kindness category, e.g. calling the family of someone who was killed, is purely about self interest and whether or not it'll make him look good to his base.

I don't really see how it would help to have a right leaning thread here unless the idea would be for it to only be for comments that support right wing ideology and even then, I wouldn't be in favor of it because I think that any poster here has the right to post in any thread on any forum. So at the end of the day people would still be permitted to respond if they, say, want to add proper context to a claim they know is inaccurate, want to post a link that goes against an argument being made, or just want to weigh in on misinformation. It wouldn't be inclusive to ban left wing posters from a particular thread, just as it wouldn't be inclusive to ban right wing posters here who want to add to the conversation. Ultimately, people are going to say what they have to say whether it's in this thread or another. The stakes are too high for people to not comment when their lives are being so disrupted, and that's putting it mildly. There are real worries and concerns that people have particularly regarding healthcare. There are several steps that could have been taken rather than deleting the entire Royals forum. Just one example of many would be to have permanently locked the thread that certain posters found problematic. As far as the Royals forum, that was definitely a case of punishing the majority because of the views of a minority of posters who felt that a certain thread should be tailor made for them. There were several posters who could have moved on and chose not to even though it was clear that they were in a thread that was making them unhappy. There were several posters who were out of line on both sides of the argument there, but they were absolutely the minority. Most people who posted there posted respectfully, as they do here.

I was so distracted by the other skating news that I forgot to shield myself from spoilers. I'm stuck at work and haven't been able to watch yet. Lesson learned! Glad to hear that it went well for Petrokina!

According to NPR, a military official said that, at the request of the family, the name of the third member of the crew is not going to be identified. It's unusual for a name to be withheld, but I can't say that I blame the family one bit for making the request in order to protect their daughter's name and reputation considering how many people are using this tragedy to push false and hurtful agendas regarding DEI.

It was nice seeing Tenley again. It was also nice to see people like her and Nancy being so supportive of the skating community. There was one comment I read that made me a little teary. It was something to the effect of 'Dick Button left us so that he could skate with the kids and help them reach the heights.' I'm a non-believer/agnostic, but I think this is a beautiful way to see the world, and it definitely made me feel better.

Today really sucks. 😭 ETA: Am I the only one who checked to see how Mr. Nicks is doing? He and Uncle Dick were the same age.

When one of the reporters essentially asked him why he thinks DEI is a factor he said, "Because I have common sense and a lot of people don't." So basically any time something goes wrong, his assumption is that some minority group must be to blame because no way are "those people" capable of doing their jobs correctly. Sounds like textbook prejudice and racism to me. In the MAGA world, only white males are allowed to make mistakes and even when they make mistakes, you don't have people questioning whether or not they should have been hired in the first place. If we go back years ago, to a time the MAGA supporters apparently believe was a much better period in our country's history, there are numerous flight crashes that happened due to pilot error, where the pilots involved were white. The difference between Trump and people who don't support his agenda is that we have enough common sense to know that diversity or lack there of isn't to blame for why things like this happen. People have brought up the plane that crashed in the Potomac back in 1982 as a comparison to this incident. The captain involved made several mistakes and continued on even when his copilot raised concerns about the instrument readings. Nobody blamed their race or once suggested that they shouldn't have been hired in the first place. Tenerife, one of the most devastating disasters in the history of aviation, happened due to pilot error in addition to radio interference that made some audio from air traffic control unclear to the pilots. Hundreds of people died. Not once did the race/religion/sexuality of the pilots come into question. It's sad that not only are people dealing with a tragedy, but now there are people who are worrying about a friend or family member's name potentially being dragged through the mud by Trump and his administration. Talk about rubbing salt in a gaping wound.

I've known for many years that Trump is a lowlife, self absorbed, maniac of a human being, but he still somehow manages to shock and disgust me on a regular basis. Many people suffered a tragedy yesterday, including the figure skating community. Trump pretends for about 5 seconds to care and offer comfort to the people who are devastated by this tragedy, and then spends the rest of his rambling speech talking about how DEI, Obama, and Biden are somehow to blame for the midair collision. It's so disgraceful, I can't even. He's still talking out of his ass as I type this. All he sees here is an opportunity to take a shit on the Democrats and DEI. He's such an infuriating person.

I've been thinking about all of the coaches and people from the skating community who were alive when that happened, and what they must be feeling. The kids who were on board were so young. It feels terribly unfair. They had a moment of silence at Euros. This is all so devastating.

Apparently, there's confirmation that Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on the plane in addition to others from the skating community. I feel terrible for Maxim. Just a terrible tragedy all around. I feel so awful for the families.