Jess Lahitou

Welcome To #RavsRecs, a look inside the lives (and minds) of your Ravishly staffers, with a list of things that are probably unnecessary but definitely awesome.

I am hesitant to write anything that might tangentially help Donald Trump, because I think the man entirely unfit to be president.

Last night, the saga continued. Fox Business Network hosted the fourth Republican Primary debate, with a slightly winnowed set of contenders: the top eight candidates were on stage, compared with ten in the previous showdown.

As the headline article (“Anxiety, Depression and the American Adolescent”) points out, depression has been replaced with anxiety as the leading mental health struggle of today’s adolescent. The one possible cause that stood out to me most was the impact of social media. With smartphone in hand, teens can be reading harmless texts, or – as was the case for one young female interviewed – they could be viewing disturbing Instagram posts, or reading about distant tragedies, or scrolling through hateful Facebook comments. Maybe even comments about them.

The Republican National Convention ended July 21. If you’re checking the calendar, that puts us at twelve days post-nomination wrap up for Donald J. Trump.

In that tiny window of time, DJT has managed to wreck any conceivable polls-bounce he might have gained from the star-spangled show of pretend Republican unity.

So I’m writing today from Elevation 8,080 ft., here in Avon, Colorado.

All this means that, for the first time since 1992, a third-party candidate has a very strong chance of impacting election results. And if something truly wild were to happen (say, no candidate broke the 270-electoral vote mark needed to win the presidency), then there’s an outside chance that a third-party could actually win the White House.

Watching recent cable news talking heads chat about the prospect of Trump/Cruz/Clinton/Sanders being “denied” the Republican/Democratic nomination, you would think that entertainment media is run by 5th graders. (Although... That WOULD explain a lot.)

Trump’s ability to kick it with top-notch op-ed crews is just nonexistent. As the New York Times’ interview with Trump shows, the man remains ever unable to give a simple, on-point answer. And Twitter's had a hey-day with his responses.

The blatant promise of a career in the spotlight has stripped the Bachelor/Bachelorette of its beautiful, benign lie: that we could watch “regular” people navigate the perils and pitfalls of modern dating, that such a quest was in and of itself enough, and that a happy ending was a real possibility.