The Most Active Threads Since Friday

As has been the case recently, the political forum dominated discussion over the weekend. All but two of the ten most active topics were in the political forum. The most active thread was titled, "Second Gentleman scandal" and, of course, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster linked to an article by the Daily Mail that reported that Vice President Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff had an affair during his first marriage. The website claimed that Emhoff was involved with a woman who was a nanny for his children and a teacher at their school. Moreover, Emhoff apparently impregnated the women. The Daily Mail reported that friends of the woman said that she terminated the pregnancy but also reported on a video posted on the woman's Facebook page that showed a baby around the time she would have given birth. The result is that it is not clear whether the woman gave birth to Emhoff's child and, if so, what happened to it. In reaction to the story, Emhoff released a statement confirming the affair and saying that he had taken responsibility for the situation, though it is not clear what that entailed. Other relevant facts of this story are that the affair happend at least four years before Harris and Emhoff met each other. However, Harris was aware of the affair when they got married and the story was known by the Biden campaign when Harris was selected as his running mate. Clearly this story tarnishes Emhoff's otherwise pretty good reputation. But, as many posters in the thread were quick to point out, Emhoff is not running for anything and the affair has nothing to do with Harris. Moreover, posters who support former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump are not in a position to criticize Emhoff given the fact that Trump cheated on all three of his wives. in addition, according to court testimony and FBI documents, one of those wives, Marla Maples, had multiple affairs herself while married to Trump. So, if being a cheater or being married to a cheater is a problem for a presidential candidate, that's bad news for Trump. But none of this stopped the MAGA cultists who were posting in the thread. Either they were sure a child had been born and that Harris had abandoned it or they were sure that the nanny had had an abortion and that had some negative reflection on Harris. Either way, according to them, it was bad for Harris. While Trump himself seems to be fixated on Harris' race and ethnicity and his choice for Vice President, J. D. Vance, is preoccupied with Harris' not having given birth, many MAGA cultists, including several of those posting in this thread, have decided that Harris sex life — whether real or imagined — is their best issue. For instance, Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate for Secretary of State in Missouri, recently tweeted that, "Fat & Slut shaming is how we take America Back. Kamala Harris is an Indian hoe". Many posters in this thread seemed to have signed on to this agenda with many using Emhoff's past to disparage Harris, despite her having no connection to it. Other MAGA cultists simply used the thread as an opportunity to directly attack Harris in terms similar to what Gomez tweeted. As such, I eventually locked the thread.

The next most active thread was the one about Vice President Kamala Harris's choice for Vice President. But, I've already discussed that thread and, therefore, will move to the next most active thread. That thread was also posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Trump says he's agreed to Fox debate while Harris sticks with ABC plan", the orignal poster describes a controversy involving potential Presidential debates. Prior to President Joe Biden's decision not to pursue the presidency, a second debate between Biden and former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump was scheduled for September 8 to be hosted by ABC News. Immediately after Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden, Trump suggested that plans for that debate were off. Harris said that she planned to attend the debate whether Trump was there or not. Then, over the weekend, Trump announced that he had accepted a debate to be hosted by Fox News on September 4. There were problems with his announcement. First, it doesn't appear that Harris was consulted on the proposal and doesn't appear to show any interest in it. Moreover, Fox itself has been quiet on the subject and, as such, the network itself may not be completely on board. At any rate, this thread is essentially an exercise in how many times posters can say the same thing over and over again. One argument is that Trump is chicken for not agreeing to the September 8 debate. The other argument is that Harris is a chicken for not agreeing to the September 4 debate. These two arguments basically repeat for 27 pages. Some MAGA cultists in the the thread argue that Trump didn't back out of the September 8 debate because that debate was supposed to be between Trump and Biden and Biden is no longer the candidate. Therefore, the agreement is void. Biden supporters don't buy that argument, saying that Trump had agreed to debate the Democratic nominee for President and that is now Harris. The cultists have other reasons for not wanting a debate hosted by ABC News, but none of those stands up to even the most superficial scrutiny. The bottom line is that Trump does not want to debate Harris other than under conditions particularly favorable to him. As Harris emerges as the front runner in the campaign, a debate decreases in importance to her. Therefore, she can probably afford to ignore Trump's debate on Fox and simply show up for the Septemer 8 event and use that as a chance to speak to the nation.

Next was a thread titled, "NYT story: Trump administration could strike abortion almost immediately using Comstock law" and, again, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. This thread was originally started back in February with the original poster linking to a New York Times article about plans by supporters of former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump to enact sweeping restrictions on abortion should Trump return to power. One of the ways the Trump supporters plan to restrict abortion is by using the Comstock Act, a long-dormant law from 1873, to criminalize the shipping of materials used for abortions such as abortion pills. This thread itself went dormant after a few days and six pages of posts. However, the thread was revived on August 1 by a poster hoping to draw attention to how Trump might single-handily end abortion if he is re-elected. The thread has added 24 pages since then. Despite both the intention of the original poster and the poster who revived the thread, very little of this thread was devoted to the specific topic of how Trump might prohibit abortion. Instead, the thread is a giant debate on the broader issue of abortion. To that extent, the arguments are well-known. On one side are those posters who believe that life begins at conception and an abortion is literally the killing of a baby. They argue that unborn babies have equal rights with the mother. Therefore, even threats to the mother's life are not sufficient for them to support an abortion. On the other side are those who believe that a pregnant person deserves bodily autonomy. Therefore, abortion is a choice that person may make, possibly in consultation with medical professionals but certainly not with the government. In between are many positions reflecting how many weeks after conception individual posters support the freedom to choose an abortion. These various positions tended to be founded on different principles. To the anti-abortion crowd, this is a moral or religious issue. The pro-choice posters tend to see this as primarily a woman's rights issue involving who has control of a woman's body. Others simply see abortion as a political or practical matter. Among those who clearly see the issue primarily as political is Trump. While Trump takes credit for Roe versus Wade being overturned, he has decided that a national ban is politically dangerous and, therefore, stresses that abortion should be left to the states. Trump has repeatedly said that he cannot do anything to restrict abortion if he does not get elected and implied that supporting a national ban on abortion would hurt his chances for re-election. Trump's relative moderation regarding abortion has disappointed anti-abortion groups. However, many Trump supporters remain strong advocates of prohibiting abortion and, as demonstrated in the article that provoked this thread, are making plans to do exactly that if Trump returns to the White House. Moreover, given that Trump's opposition to a national ban in based on political practicalities, he can change that position whenever it suits him.

The next two most active threads were also posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. However, I am bored of writing about politics and you are probably even more tired of reading about it. So I will skip those two threads and discuss one of the two most active threads that was not political. That thread was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum and titled, "Sleeping with someone for first time when you're over 50". I have noted before that DCUM is over 20 years old now if you include the mailing list years and nearly that old as a website. Quite a few users have been here the entire time. As they, or should I say we, have aged, interests have changed. At the same time, we have attracted an increasing number of, let's say, mature users. The discussion on the website reflects these demographics. For instance, this thread was started by a poster who is apparently in her 50s and, also apparently, reentering the dating market. She has a number of practical questions about how to address certain issues before becoming intimate with a man she has been dating. Of concern to her is how to bring up the issue of sexually transmitted diseases and the use of condoms. She suggested that she might bring this up during dinner before they get to the point of actual intimacy. The responses demonstrate that health concerns conflict with certain age-related realities. For instance, pregnancy is not much of a concern for women of this age. But many of the posters are worried about STIs and, therefore, strongly argue in favor of condoms. However, some posters note that older men may not have the stamina or wherewithal of a teenager and a condom may interfere with their ability to perform. Posters report reluctance on the part of both men and women to use condoms. Similarly, many posters, including the original poster, discuss exchanging STI test results. However, this appears to be another area in which there is a huge gulf between theory and reality. In theory, posters seem to want to exchange results. In reality, it doesn't seem like many of them do. Many of the male posters have had vasectomies and they report that this causes women to be even less interested in condom usage. In reaction, posters constantly remind that STI rates in older people are growing rapidly. This thread took a bizarre turn when one poster claimed that "I’m told I’m a beauty" and that possibly due to this men are more cooperative about condoms and test results. Posters responded by saying that guys say this to every woman with whom they want to sleep. The poster took that as a challenge and ended up posting pictures of herself in a swimsuit. This caused an entirely new ruckus. There was a debate about whether the poster was an attention-seeking woman or a man trying to encourage women to post their pictures. Meanwhile, a huge argument about STIs continued. The bottom line of this thread seems to be that dating after 50 is a real minefield with an STI lurking behind every corner. Therefore, women must have the confidence to demand that their dates practice safe sex, but not have the confidence to post their pictures on DCUM.