Melania Trump's False Claims of a University Degree

Part of me feels sorry for a political candidate spouse, but there are limits.  Especially when the spouse joins the actual candidate and engages in a pattern of lies and untruths.   First we had Melania Trump's plagiarism problem where she lifted paragraphs from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech at the Democrat Convention.  Now, it turns out that her claims of having a degree “in design and architecture at University in Slovenia” is false.  This from the woman who some pundits on the right thought would be Donald Trump's "secret weapon."   The Huffington Post looks at this exposed untruth.  Here are highlights:

It’s a good story, but it doesn’t appear to be true.

Melania Trump never earned a university degree in architecture ― she dropped out of college after her freshman year, according to her biographers.  Still, she claims to have a degree from “university in Slovenia.” 

Questions about her education grew more significant Tuesday morning, following the revelation that Melania Trump plagiarized parts of her speech to the Republican National Convention from one that First Lady Michelle Obama gave in 2008.

That revelation on Monday raised the question of whether there was anything else Melania Trump hadn’t been entirely truthful about.

Slovenian journalists Bojan Pozar and Igor Omerza wrote in their biography on the former fashion model that she “became ― and remained ― a college dropout” after leaving the University of Ljubljana’s architecture school following her freshman year.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign declined to comment early Tuesday on Melania Trump’s claim that she has a university degree. 

This must be Melania's idea of "architecture"

Melania Trump's Plagiarized Parts of Michelle Obama's 2008 Speech

For those who had hoped that Melania Trump might be different than her dishonest and disingenuous husband, last night did not auger for a good start.  In her speech deliver to the assembled Republican Party convention, Melania Trump plagiarized a portion of Michelle Obama's 2008 address to the Democrat Party convention almost word for word.   Sadly, both Trump's seem to believe that they can do whatever they want and think there should be never be any accountability.  One has to wonder who assisted Ms. Trump in preparing her remarks.  So much for the efforts of some pundits and commentators for trying to depict Melania as a woman of intelligence and substance.  CNN has details.  Here are highlights:

At least one passage in Melania Trump's speech Monday night at the Republican National Convention plagiarized from Michelle Obama's address to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

Side-by-side comparisons of the transcripts show the text in Trump's address following, nearly to the word, the first lady's own from the first night of the Democratic convention in Denver nearly eight years ago.

The controversy quickly overshadowed the speech, which was to have been her introduction to voters. It focused on her immigration to the US and her love for her husband.

A Republican operative familiar with how the campaign was handling the speeches said a number of senior aides had a role, edited Melania's speech, suggested changes and provided guidance.

The Trump campaign released a statement on the speech after the similarities were uncovered, but the statement did not mention the plagiarism charge. 

Here is [Melania] Trump, on Monday:

"From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son," Trump said.

And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

And here is Obama, on August 25, 2008:

"And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children -- and all children in this nation -- to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."

The sad part is that I'm not even really surprised.  With Trump, it is par for the course.

"Munchausen-by-Blog Syndrome"

Blogging can open up access to all kinds of wonderful people. It also can be a good form of therapy - perhaps one of the reasons I continue to blog - and blogging allows one to voice their thoughts and feelings with feed back from readers and others. I am pretty open with my identity and if one wanted to do so, they could literally find me in person and confirm that I am who and what I say I am. The business card shown on this blog IS my real business card, for example. Not so with all bloggers it seems. Which is why I on occasion go off on anonymous commentors who post foul comments yet lack the integrity to reveal their identity.

*

All too easily one can create a false persona and imagined existence and gain a following and support from readers that apparently satisfies some weird, messed up psychological issues/needs of the person actually behind the phantom personality that emerges from the blog. Recent events have shown that I like apparently many, many others fell victim to one such false blog and the obviously screwed up author behind it. Like many, I cross linked to Cooper's Corridor and then was an invitee to Nico's Niche. Now I find out that the blogger was a fraud and that much of the material was stolen from another blogger. I guess the moral is to be suspicious and cynical - something I do not like to be - unless and until you confirm the real existence of blog authors. Here are some highlights from Joe My God that disclose the unfolding of the unmasking of "Cooper" who in truth never existed (I thank Joe for the title of this post, btw):

*

Remember Cooper? The firefighter gay dad of two adopted boys who pulled his widely-loved blog after an "attack" of malicious comments and emails from the readers of this blog? Causing me to get extremely bent of out shape and offer Cooper a heartfelt (really) public apology? Over the last few days our little blogosphere has retched forth some unpleasant, uncomfortable revelations about Cooper. The short version:

*

He is not a firefighter.

He is not an adoptive father.

He is not gay.

He is not, in fact, a he.

*

The story began to unfold at Sweet/Salty, the blog of a woman named Kate, a young mother dealing with the death of her infant son. On the day of the supposed attack on Cooper's blog by JMG readers, Kate had emailed him, extremely distressed to have discovered that Cooper had lifted many of her gorgeously written posts verbatim, including photographs of her husband.

*

Upon receipt of Kate's surprisingly kind request to remove her plagiarized material, Cooper deleted his blog and apparently then concocted the JMG attack story to placate his legion of starry-eyed readers, people who avidly followed Cooper's Corridor as a place where they saw their most earnest ideals about gay parenting realized.Shortly afterwards, Cooper's Corridor resumed as Nico's Niche, a private blog where Kate's material continued to appear. Kate found my public apology to Cooper and emailed me about the situation. Knowing that Father Tony has had a longtime internet friendship with Cooper, I put him on the case. What he uncovered may blow your mind.

*

According to the bizarre confession wrangled by Father Tony, Cooper's Corridor/Nico's Niche was written by a woman, a 52-year-old British Columbia grandmother named Jo, who says that ever since she was a little girl she has felt that she is a gay man trapped in a woman's body. Cooper/Nico (Jo claims) was a concoction created in order to deal with her lifelong gender identity disorder. She says she calls her inner gay man "Nicky".

*

Go read Kate's initial angry post, then you absolutely must delve into Father Tony's post, where in addition to publishing Jo's emailed "confession", he muses in his typically artful way about the anonymous nature of the internet and how much we can ever really know about people, even when we think we have an insider's view of their day-to-day lives.

*

Even this post may please the sort of person who engages in what I call "Munchausen-by-blog syndrome", but consider this yet another unhappy lesson about trust, gullibility, and how we as gay people are sometimes overeager to find our heroes.