East
1st Round
1 Mil over 8 Orl 4-0
2 Tor over 7 Brk 4-1
3 Bos over 6 Phi 4-2
5 Mia over 4 Ind 4-2
East Semis
Mil over Mia 4-1
Bos over Tor 4-3
East Finals
Mil over Bos 4-2
West
1st Round
1 LAL over 8 Por 4-2
2 LAC over 7 Dal 4-2
3 Den over 6 Uta 4-3
4 Hou over 5 OKC 4-3
West Semis
LAL over Hou 4-3
LAC over Den 4-1
West Finals
LAC over LAL 4-2
NBA Finals
Mil over LAC 4-2
Donald Trump said, "Shifting production to Thighland and to Vietnam" during a recent speech. He was reading off a teleprompter and quickly realized he had made a mistake. "Thailand and Vietnam," he corrected. The faintest hint of sheepishness. While we would expect to be familiar enough with Thailand that he would pronounce it correctly upon reading it, the reaction was one of the most human moments Trump has shown his entire presidency. He made a mistake and instead of stupidly doubling down for no apparent reason beyond his own ego as he has done so often, he simply corrected the error and moved on. It was actually nice to see.
Enter Dinesh D'Sousa. D'Sousa was trying to pay Trump back for pardoning him. He was trying to be a good soldier. Instead, he prolonged shelf-life of the gaffe and exposed himself as a moron.
D'Sousa tweeted, "This is actually the correct pronunciation. Most Americans say it wrong. Thailand is pronounced phonetically. It’s 'Thighland,” not “Tai-land.'" He doubled down, tripled down, and just wouldn't give it up. Along the way people told him he was wrong. The Thai people don't pronounce it "thigh." He said, we're speaking English. People said they've never heard an English-speaker call it "Thighland." He said, what about Britain and Australia. People said, we're from there and nope; it's Thailand. He said, well, in India I learned it as Thighland." People from India said, nope, we don't say it that way either. Then multiple clips of D'Sousa pronouncing the country Thailand came out.
D'Sousa is wrong and short-sided for continuously arguing the wrong point. It definitely doesn't help Trump. But I have additional problems with his tweet.
1) Trump immediately corrected himself. D'Sousa is implicitly arguing that Trump is smarter than everyone by pronouncing the country as "Thighland." But who says something correct and then immediately says it the wrong way? Trump looks much better making an innocent mistake and then correcting himself, instead of saying something correct and then saying it incorrect. People only say the right answer and then correct it with the wrong answer if they're really stupid. So in D'Sousa's scenario, he's calling Trump even stupider than we thought. With friends like that...
2) D'Sousa doesn't know what the word "phonetically" means. Nobody is pronouncing Thailand, Tai-land, or Thighland phonetically in this or any situation. Pronounced phonetically, the "ai" doesn't make a long I sound. If you read it phonetically, it's not Tie or Thigh. It's Tuh-huh-aa-ih-land. Pronouncing "Thighland" phonetically gets you something like Thig-h-land. Trump was actually sight-word reading, guessing the word based on a combination of the beginning letter and context.
Trump is probably asking an aid, "Can we unpardon? It that a thing? Look into unpardoning."
