Republican Convention

VarunaTT

I know that the daytime stuff is generally boring anyway, but damn...these people just look exhausted already.  The following is my interpretation so far:

VarunaTT

And this one, when the speakers have to actually say Trump's name:

VarunaTT

Also, one of  the band musicians looks like a young Roy Orbison.

missJeanLouise

I wish I was home, watching this, instead of stuck at work.

OurWildKingdom

Speaking as someone who lives in the eye of the hurricane, I just want it over.

kimmiinthemitten

From what I saw on the news just now, it sounded more like the Nevada Dem caucus with the crowd yelling one thing and the leadership doing another. 

charlotte989875

kimmiinthemitten said:

From what I saw on the news just now, it sounded more like the Nevada Dem caucus with the crowd yelling one thing and the leadership doing another. 

I think leadership should be interpreted very loosely here. The RNC hasn't had real leadership in years. It's been a while since the Republicans have had this much discord in the party, unlike the Democrats who are used to this kind of infighting. 

kimmiinthemitten

charlotte989875 said:

kimmiinthemitten said:

From what I saw on the news just now, it sounded more like the Nevada Dem caucus with the crowd yelling one thing and the leadership doing another. 

I think leadership should be interpreted very loosely here. The RNC hasn't had real leadership in years. It's been a while since the Republicans have had this much discord in the party, unlike the Democrats who are used to this kind of infighting. 

kimmiinthemitten

Has anyone else noticed that the new Trump Pence logo is nowhere to be found on any of the signs and posters around the convention?

charlotte989875

kimmiinthemitten said:

Has anyone else noticed that the new Trump Pence logo is nowhere to be found on any of the signs and posters around the convention?

Too many of these? I'm guessing we'll see a new logo soon. 

MesmrEwe

DH had it on earlier today - it was painful to watch - Leadership saying one thing, crowd another... "All those in favor say Aye!" and the crowd "NOOOOOOOOOoooooo" ... Reminds me when the convention was up here and all of us were at the Campaign for Liberty event in Minneapolis instead and they tried to pull party shenanigans mid-way through...  And people wonder why no one of any profile is going nor anyone really watching for the sake of watching..  It's only watching for the train wrecks at both... 

My only hope is that the Anarchist types don't take over at either of the Conventions and damage businesses and property...  They did when it was here in MSP and every last one got off the hook while the businesses were on the hook for all the damages caused..

charlotte989875

Can we please discuss the absurdity of the Milania Trunp (or more accurately her speech writers) plagiarizing Michelle Obama ('s speech writers)?

VarunaTT

I just cackled.  As much as they're bringing up Reagan, Peggy Noonan is still alive and kicking, right?  It almost seems like an intentional fubar.

madamerwin

charlotte989875 said:

Can we please discuss the absurdity of the Milania Trunp (or more accurately her speech writers) plagiarizing Michelle Obama ('s speech writers)?

Can we discuss the absurdity of various party officials denying it was plagiarized? Or the absurdity of Melania Trump claiming to have a college degree, when it came out that, in fact, she doesn't (and the absurdity of The Donald not having a comment about that)?

VarunaTT

You know, I think this was just sheer stupidity.  Realistically, the stuff both women said is just political fodder and not that terribly interesting.  It'd be interesting to compare it to other "values" speeches and see how it comes out.

The part I do think is interesting is that an analysis showed it was 7% plagiarized and someone commented from the campaign that 7% was no big deal.  I'm trying to recall correctly, but I think my friends who are professors have a 5% threshold setting on software students now have to run their papers through, that check for plagiarizing.  So, fail for being original, more than anything?

charlotte989875

VarunaTT said:

You know, I think this was just sheer stupidity.  Realistically, the stuff both women said is just political fodder and not that terribly interesting.  It'd be interesting to compare it to other "values" speeches and see how it comes out.

The part I do think is interesting is that an analysis showed it was 7% plagiarized and someone commented from the campaign that 7% was no big deal.  I'm trying to recall correctly, but I think my friends who are professors have a 5% threshold setting on software students now have to run their papers through, that check for plagiarizing.  So, fail for being original, more than anything?

So I have a 0% plagiarism threshold.

The software (tons of different ones but all essentially the same) which will show you how much is the same as another work. So if you wrote a paper on Michelle Obama and used quotes from her speeches, but properly cited it all it would come it at a high level of similarity (well over 5-7% depending on how many quotes and how long the paper). That is not plagiarism.

 Now if you used direct quotes from her speeches, didn't cite them, and attempted to pass it off as your own, even if it's only a few sentences, that is plagiarism. 

VarunaTT

Okay, that makes sense.  I never had to use that when I was a student, so I'm not sure how it worked.

I still think this is probably just sheer stupidity.  The American values speech is pretty common.  When I think of all the stump speeches I've sat through and how interchangeable they usually were....IDK, this seems like another example of the sheer incompetency of his campaign, rather than malicious plagiarizing.

Heffalump

madamerwin said:

charlotte989875 said:

Can we please discuss the absurdity of the Milania Trunp (or more accurately her speech writers) plagiarizing Michelle Obama ('s speech writers)?

Can we discuss the absurdity of various party officials denying it was plagiarized? Or the absurdity of Melania Trump claiming to have a college degree, when it came out that, in fact, she doesn't (and the absurdity of The Donald not having a comment about that)?

That's what kills me.  It's not a phrase here, a phrase there.  An entire paragraph is lifted verbatim from Michelle Obama's speech, and the Trump campaign's best retort is "Well, Michelle doesn't own the English language."  (I imagine that was followed by "nyah-nyah-nyah!" but I can't prove it.)

MesmrEwe

I look at her speech last night as a "Fluff speech" and give very little credence to the standard "First lady touting her husband/wife" speech- spend time on the speaker's circuit and you're likely to hear the same speech rehashed 14 different ways from Sunday using the same story line.  Nothing more nothing less.  Heck, in my own industry everyone has "that guy" that copied their performance from someone else verbatim from 8 years ago.  One going so far as to copy an entire training complete with the stories!  The mere fact that they're using speech writers (both parties) is what bugs me - aren't they intelligent enough to do these specific speeches, for this platform, on their own?  I know the answer is no for most of these people on either side of the aisle, but REALLY?!?!?!  These are the "best and brightest"... 

charlotte989875

MesmrEwe said:

I look at her speech last night as a "Fluff speech" and give very little credence to the standard "First lady touting her husband/wife" speech- spend time on the speaker's circuit and you're likely to hear the same speech rehashed 14 different ways from Sunday using the same story line.  Nothing more nothing less.  Heck, in my own industry everyone has "that guy" that copied their performance from someone else verbatim from 8 years ago.  One going so far as to copy an entire training complete with the stories!  The mere fact that they're using speech writers (both parties) is what bugs me - aren't they intelligent enough to do these specific speeches, for this platform, on their own?  I know the answer is no for most of these people on either side of the aisle, but REALLY?!?!?!  These are the "best and brightest"... 

The answer is, yes they are, but they're not allowed to by the parties and campaigns that are run and controlled by men.

 Michelle Obama was educated at Princeton and Harvard, Laura Bush at SMU and UT at Austin, Hilary Clinton at Wellseley and Yale, Barbara Bush at Smith College-- these are all highly educated women that would have no problem assembling intelligent and passionate speeches. To think that women educated at some of this countries most prestigious colleges and universities couldn't write and deliver a speech on a national stage is ridiculous. 

VarunaTT

To be fair, male politicians, regardless of educational background, don't write their own speeches either once they hit a certain level of government and campaigning.  They're involved in the writing, and I'm sure the women @charlotte989875 listed probably were as well (IDK about Mrs. Trump, since she has no political background, training, experience or education at all.  I wouldn't let her get up there with her own speech).  

kimmiinthemitten

I have to be honest, I was looking forward to her speech and am disappointed by the plagiarism for a different reason.

She is a beautiful and intelligent woman who took risks that paid off well for her. She speaks 5 languages, runs a couple of businesses and is a family woman and all anyone talks about is her naked on a rug because pretty women can't be lifted up for their professional accomplishments. I really hoped her speech could change that for her, and it did, but not in a way that gave her any credence. 

I had the Kardashians on in the background the other day and Kim is talking about when Piers Morgan said she needs to be successful with her clothes on. She responded with "why don't you try to be successfull with your clothes off, it's actually much harder."  And I think she's right. Unattractive female politicians are torn down for their looks and attractive ones are torn down for showcasing their looks. We're damned if you do and damned if you don't and I was really hoping for a breakthrough moment.