DCUM Weblog

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.

Yesterday was another day in which political topics dominated the most active threads with three of the four threads that I will discuss today posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The first of these was titled, "HARRIS IS SELECTING MARK KELLY" and, of course, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster started this thread on Wednesday saying that Vice President Kamala Harris would announce that evening that she had chosen Arizona Senator Mark Kelly to be her running mate. The original poster provided no source for this claim, though in a follow-up post said that she has a "source who knows stuff". Apparently her source is a posterior body orifice given that Harris has yet to declare a choice, let alone announce that it is Kelly. I believe that I intended to remove this thread at the time it was created but got distracted. The thread duplicated another thread on the topic of Harris' Vice Presidential pick and was obviously not supported with any sort of legitimate source. Later in the thread the original poster, without identifying herself, claimed that Harris had selected someone other than Kelly and started sock puppeting answers to her own posts. Therefore, all indications are that this was a troll thread from the start. Regardless, the thread did provide the opportunity for many DCUM posters to give their opinion about Kelly. From the moment Harris emerged as President Joe Biden's replacement as the Democratic nominee for President, conventional wisdom assumed that she would choose a straight White male as her running mate. This was exactly what former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had done and such a move would balance the ticket nicely. For the most part, the only question is which bland White man would Harris choose. I agree with many of the posters in this thread that Kelly is as good a choice as any of them. Maybe not my favorite, but certainly not the worst selection. Kelly's strengths are that he can help carry Arizona and has a good reputation as a former astronaut and for his work on gun control. His weaknesses include a lack of executive experience and concern by unions that he has not been as supportive on labor issues as they would like. Generally, Kelly seems like he would be a solid pick and, if he didn't attract a significant number of voters to the ticket, he won't alienate many either. Whether Kelly will actually be Harris' choice remains to be seen. The original poster could turn out to be correct about the VP selection, if not the timing. But, ultimately, a troll could just be a troll and the nod will go to someone else.

Yesterday was another day in which the "Political Discussion" forum dominated. Fully 8 of the top 10 most active threads were posted in that forum. That includes three of the top four threads  that I will discuss today. The most active thread was titled, "Uh, seems like Trump's visit to the NABJ is not going well...". This thread is about an appearance by former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists. As the title suggests, things did not go well. Trump's attendance at the conference was controversial before he even arrived. Convention co-chair Karen Attiah resigned in protest over the invitation to Trump and other journalists boycotted the event. There were enough controversies during Trump's appearance — which ended prematurely when Trump's aids intervened — to fill a book. Right out of the gate Trump called ABC News "fake news" and described a question — in which panelist Rachel Scott listed several of Trump's statements about people of color — as "very rude". Then Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris' ethnicity, saying that he had known her for a long time and she had always been of Indian heritage. Trump claimed that she suddenly "turned Black". Trump spewed lies at such a rate that the panel of journalists questioning him couldn't keep up correcting him and, eventually, simply gave up. When Fox News' Harris Falkner asked Trump whether his running mate, Ohio Senator J. D. Vance would be ready on day one to run the country if necessary, Trump ignored the question and argued that historically the pick for Vice President didn't affect the election. That was not much of a vote of confidence for Vance. Within the thread the topic that caught on the most was the issue of Harris' ethnicity. Like Trump, several of his supporters in the thread sought to downplay Harris' race. Both Trump and his supporters seem to struggle with the concept of being biracial. Pro-Trump posters pointed to instances in which Harris has identified as being Indian as if that is proof that she is not Black. One poster made the false claim that Harris' father was half-White. These allegations harken back to Barack Obama and claims that he was not "Black enough". It is not at all clear to me what Trump and his supporters hope to gain from questioning Harris' race. The number of Black people who will be convinced that Harris is not Black based on what Trump has to say must be close to zero. Maybe a few White people might go along with Trump, but the likelihood that they would have ever voted for Harris in the first place is also probably close to zero. Basically, this is a stupid tactic with no real benefit and Trump's supporters in this thread are simply stupid enough to go along with it.

The most active threads yesterday were mostly threads in the "Political Discussion" forum that I've previously discussed and will skip today. As a result, the first thread that I will discuss today was actually the sixth most active yesterday. Titled, "so sick and tired of gymnastics Olympics coverage" and posted in the "Sports General Discussion" forum, the original poster is, as the title says, sick and tired of the coverage of gymnastics. Her view is that nobody cares about gymnastics outside of the Olympics and, even then, they are only pretending to care. She is bothered generally by sports that have judges because judges are subjective. So that is another knock against gymnastics. She wants more coverage of archery and shooting. Several posters immediately chimed into say that they have subscribed to Peacock so that they are able to watch whatever events they choose. A month of Peacock for $8 seems like the deal of a lifetime if you really want to watch the Olympics. The original poster presented her complaint as if she were speaking for everyone. As the responses show, she clearly was not. Many posters enjoy gymnastics and are happy about the coverage. Some posters don't care about the judging at all, but simply enjoy watching the routines. A few gymnastics fans had nostalgia for the gymnasts of the past who they considered to be more graceful then today's athletes. Other posters argued that their interest in gymnastics is year long. One poster pointed out that there is nothing wrong with only being interested in gymnastics during the Olympics. It's fun to enjoy something different occasionally. Moreover, several posters were critical of the archery and shooting events that the original poster enjoys. These posters said that while they like participating in those sports themselves, they are boring to watch. Another poster agreed with the original poster but went on to complain that Simone Biles has received so much coverage. I don't understand that complaint. Biles has earned more medals of any U.S. gymnast. Of course she should receive outsized coverage. The original poster was told that if she doesn't like gymnastics, she should just not watch it. For their part, the gymnastics fans were happy to have as much coverage as possible. Throughout this thread posters pitch their favorite sports or athletes while others criticize the ones they dislike. The so-called "pommel horse guy" seems to have a lot of fans in the thread. But, the original poster was not among them. "Literally ZERO people ever care about the pommel horse. What a weird and stupid event", she wrote. This provoked a spirited defense of pommel horse events from other posters. While several sports received criticism in this thread, the announcers received even more. They were almost universally panned and the best defense one poster could rustle up was to postulate that they had been instructed to speak at a 4th grade level.

Yesterday I discussed the thread about the Olympics Opening Ceremony, devoting significant discussion to outrage at part of the opening that many Christians have interpreted as mocking "The Last Super" and, hence, Christianity itself. Yesterday's most active thread, titled, "Why are Christians insisting the opening ceremony depicted The Last Supper when it really was the Feast of Dyonisus?" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, is specifically about that controversy. The original poster asks why the outrage among Christians is not only continuing, but actually escalating. The original poster even quotes a Christian paster attempting to clarify the misunderstanding. Finally, the original poster notes that, "It seems as if Christians are very invested in feeling persecuted and disrespected these days." Many posters agreed with the original poster that the anger being expressed was misplaced. The more charitable among them conceded that a misunderstanding about what was being depicted was understandable given that those angered are more likely to be familiar with the "The Last Super" than "Le Festin des Dieux". In contrast, several posters remain very upset and offended. For their part, they don't believe that they are confused. They are quite certain that the depiction was aimed squarely at mocking their religion and any contrary explanation is simply an attempt to gaslight. I have repeatedly written that resentment and anger are the motivating forces of MAGA adherents. This is a group that largely feels that every other group has been given advantages at their expense. Having taken what is rightfully theirs, the "others" have the temerity to mock or laugh at them. Many of those posting clearly love the opportunity to feel persecuted and they are not going to allow anyone to take that away from them. A sense of unfairness, that everything is rigged against them, is part of the MAGA world view. Hence the complaints that only Christianity would be mocked in this manner. Nobody would risk offending Jews or Muslims in a similar manner, they say. In fact, if the ceremony mocked anyone, it was Greek gods, not Christians. But the world view of the angry posters does not allow for such nuances. Similarly, the targets of these posters' anger is broad. They are, of course, upset with those who produced the ceremony. They are also angry with the French more generally. But they also hold U.S. Democrats responsible as well. Democrats obviously had nothing to do with the events but still they are blamed. The connection appears to be the Democrats' support for LGBTQ rights. The MAGA anger is not simply that (according to their view) Christianity was mocked, but rather that it was mocked by members of the LGBTQ community. Apparently, that makes it even worse. They seem to believe that Democrats, who support the LGBTQ community, share responsibility because they are obviously part of a worldwide effort to spread LGBTQ acceptance, replacing traditional Christian values in the process. The Olympic ceremony was simply one instance of that effort. The angry posters promised to take this out on Democrats in November, making the Olympic Opening Ceremony the least expected campaign issue so far.

The most active thread over the weekend was titled, "Olympics Opening Ceremony" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture". This thread started without much drama. Posters seemed to enjoy the opening ceremony, though a few were put off by the beheaded Marie Antoinette that appeared at the beginning of the Gojira musical segment. While there was considerable praise for Lady Gaga, there was considerable criticism of Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning. Celine Dion was a big hit among posters whereas Snoop Dogg seemed to elicit nothing but criticism. But, then, there were rumblings of dissatisfaction. A rumor that American conservatives were bothered by what they thought were Satanic references in the ceremony. Then complaints that gay people, drag queens, trans gender people, and other colorful personalities had been included in a mockery of "The Last Supper" painting by Leonardo da Vinci which portrays the Biblical Last Supper. Soon this had turned into a full-blown avalanche of resentment. This was a mockery of Christianity, argued poster after poster. They would never do this to Muslims said posters who know absolutely nothing about French-Muslim relations (I suggest that they look into the National Rally party and its current popularity in France). Posters were certain that the French had intentionally gone out of their way to insult Christians, and American Christians in particular. It was a full-blown freakout. Posters were swearing off both the Olympics and France and condemning their infection by the "woke mind virus". There was so much talk about Satan that I assumed that he must be participating in one of the sports. But other posters assured us that he does not exist. Some posters argued that it was not "The Last Supper", but rather the Festival of Dionysus that was depicted. Another poster explained that it portrayed a painting by Jan van Bijlert named "Le Festin des Dieux", which depicts various Greek gods participating in a banquet on Mount Olympus. But, the outraged posters were not about to stop being outraged and simply would not accept this explanation. Moreover, they soon found an additional controversy concerning whether one of the participants in the Last Supper/Le Festin des Dieux event had displayed a private part. At least one poster who was initially convinced that this was the case later agreed that it was more likely a tear in his costume. But, generally, the opinion of upset right-wing Christians is that the Olympics had been turned into a global grooming event aimed at turning children trans and mocking Christians. If being outraged were an Olympic event, MAGA Christians would have taken the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals.

The first two most active threads yesterday were Vice President Kamala Harris-related threads that I've already discussed and, therefore, will skip today. The third most active thread was titled, "Horrible dorm assignment!" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster says that her child is going to college in southern California and, despite requesting a roommate, was assigned a single room in the basement of a building without air conditioning. The original poster is quite unhappy, believing that the school can easily afford to install central air conditioning in the building, and says that the experience has soured them on the university before school even started. A large number of the responses are from posters who also lived in college dorms that did not have air conditioning. Because they survived it, they don't have much sympathy for the original poster's child. Moreover, several posters point out, most students would love to have a single room. Therefore, they suggest the student should be able to trade rooms with someone else fairly easily. Other advice is to open a window and use a fan and that the warm weather will only last a couple of months. A number of those responding are either from California or have spent time there and they explain that temperatures cool off at night and it is not as humid as DC. Therefore, the nights are comfortable and the lack of air conditioning won't be a problem. The attitude of a lot of the posters is that freshmen year dorm experiences are almost always bad and something about which it is normal to have concerns. But, the original poster's child will survive it and she shouldn't worry. Other posters argue that if comfortable dorms were a priority, the original poster should have researched that ahead of time and chosen a college that has nicer dorms. In contrast to the "suck it up" crowd, a number of posters have advice about how to facilitate a room change. Some of these strategies are fairly elaborate with one poster even suggesting that the student grow mold in the room and then justify a room change because of the presence of mold. Much later in the thread, the original poster insisted that the lack of air conditioning was not the most important issue. Rather, her child is going cross-country to school and would now be living in a single room in a corner of the basement and somewhat isolated from other students. The original poster thinks that all of this combined is not conducive to an enjoyable college experience. She was hoping that her child would have a great experience at the university and this has tarnished things. It's possible that the concerns about the room are more on the part of the original poster and perhaps not shared by the student.

Yesterday was another day dominated by presidential politics. The most active thread was the thread that I've already discussed about Vice President Kamala Harris running for president. After that was a thread titled, "Harris vs Trump poll numbers" which was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster started the thread with an excerpt from a National Public Radio story discussing a new poll that it had conducted along with PBS and Marist. The results showed that former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump led Harris by a single point and in a five-way contest that included the minor candidates, Trump and Harris were tied. A significant change from previous polling was a large increase in the number of undecided voters which the original poster suggested was a good omen for Harris. Any polls at this time need to be taken with a grain of salt. While the latest polls were conducted after President Joe Biden withdrew as a candidate, they still covered days in which his replacement by Harris was not a sure thing. Moreover, she has not yet selected a running mate, a decision that will likely have an impact. Also, as the original poster points out, national polls are not all that significant. Of more importance are polls of battleground states. These caveats, along with the immense desire of some posters to engage in advocacy instead of analysis, leads posters to generally interpret the data according to their partisan perspectives. Some posters argue that polls are useless altogether and have been consistently wrong, something that is not actually true. Others see what they want to see in the data and interpret it thusly. One thing that is clear in the early polling — and explicitly stated in the excerpt included by the original poster — is that Harris has caused a reset of the election. She clearly has momentum and I believe it is beyond dispute that she has a much greater upside than either Trump or Biden. Whereas voter opinion about the older candidates was fairly well set, Harris has shaken things up. More importantly, there is enthusiasm for her among groups that had been luke warm, if not outright hostile, to Biden. A major topic of discussion in this thread was the importance of Harris' choice for Vice President. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was suggested repeatedly on the basis that he might help Harris carry the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. Others suggested that he would be just as helpful if he remained as governor. U.S. Senator Mark Kelly was similarly proposed based on his presumed ability to help carry his home state of Arizona. Because of the perceived importance of the VP selection, the thread devolved into a debate mostly about that topic. In addition, a number of posters are disappointed, either in Harris or the method by which she replaced Biden. These posters seem to show up in every thread and disrupt it with their off-topic rants. Polling results mean nothing to these folks because they have everything figured out already. But, for the rest of us, we will probably have to wait a bit longer for things to shake out and for the polls to provide more useful results.

Yesterday's most active thread was the Kamila Harris thread that I discussed yesterday and will skip today. After that was a thread that was created back in April 2022 but was revived recently due to renewed interest in its topic. Titled, "What the hell happened to JD Vance?", and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, the original poster expresses surprise that J. D. Vance — at that time known mostly as the author of "Hillbilly Elegy" — had turned full MAGA during his Senate campaign. The renewed interest in the thread is obviously because Vance was recently selected as the running mate of former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump. I didn't read this thread when it was originally created and looking at it now, the first thing I noticed is how much the discourse surrounding "Hillbilly Elegy" had changed between the time it was published and 2022. When the book originally gained popularity, it was overwhelmingly praised. So much so that, as I wrote in an earlier blog post, when I discussed the book on DCUM I was half convinced that something was wrong with me for not being impressed by it. The posts discussing "Hillbilly Elegy" in this thread generally contained thoughts much closer to mine and the unvarnished praise that originally greeted the book was gone. More importantly, posters were frequently able to discern signals in the memoir that suggested that Vance was perfectly capable of making the transition from "intelligent, reasonable Republican" to MAGA cultist. Nobody seemed to believe that Vance's conversion was authentic. Rather, the general feeling was that Vance understood that turning MAGA was a political necessity. The more generous of the posters suggested that Vance might actually act more responsibly once he was in office. Now, two years after this thread was created, it is even more difficult to determine who is the real J. D. Vance. Vance was never the son of Appalachia as his book led many to believe. He grew up in suburban Ohio in a middle class neighborhood. Far from being a defender or advocate for those trapped in poverty in the mountains, Vance held them in disdain, viewing them as being responsible for their own failures. The people of Appalachia were little more than a prop that Vance used to promote the right-wing ideology favored by his billionaire mentor Peter Thiel. Now, in his new MAGA persona, Vance portrays himself as the proponent of the poor and working class that many wrongly assumed he was when "Hillbilly Elegy" first came out. But whereas this may have been believable back in 2016, despite his memoir demonstrating otherwise, few seem to believe it now. The opinion of Vance most frequently presented in this thread is that he is a valueless opportunist who will do whatever is necessary to gain power.

DCUM is a Washington, DC-based forum and Washington, DC, as the center of the federal government, is a political city. Nevertheless, it was still a bit surprising this morning when I looked at the list of yesterday's top 10 most active threads and discovered that 9 of the 10 were political. The most active was the thread about President Joe Biden's announcement that he would not accept the Democratic nomination for President. I discussed that thread yesterday and will skip it today. Not surprising, I guess, is that the next most active thread was titled, "Kamala Harris for President". The thread, of course, was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. In another thread over the weekend someone asked if Vice President Kamala Harris could defeat former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump. I responded saying that not only did I think that she could, but should do so fairly easily. I was then asked to explain why I felt this way. My argument was that Biden has done a fairly good job as President. Inflation is under control, unemployment is low, the stock market is at near record highs, and the economy is growing. Biden has a fantastic record of passing legislation, something is even more impressive in light of the difficult political environment on Capitol Hill. As a result, if Biden were 20 years younger, this election would not even be close. Kamala Harris is not a 20 year younger version of Joe Biden, but she is as close as we are going to get. As Biden's partner during his administration, she can claim partial credit for his successes. While Biden achieved a lot, he believes that there is more to do. Harris will be the one to do it. Despite holding this position, I was still surprised by the wave of enthusiasm Harris' candidacy has met. As the original poster of this thread described, fundraising since Biden stepped down has been at record-breaking levels. Perhaps even more importantly, there appears to have been a massive psychological change among Democrats. Over night, a pessimistic, almost depressed, and — let's face it — kind of sour group has been transformed into a hopefull, enthusiastic, and excited bunch of believers. It will take a few days for the polls to catch up, but I expect huge poll shifts in favor of Democrats. In several states, Democratic Senate candidates have been over-performing Biden. I expect Harris will close that gap and maybe even exceed the Senate candidates in some cases. Meanwhile, it is now Trump — the oldest presidential nominee in history — who is old, confused, and worn out. He is still "truthing" about Biden and clearly has no plan to take on Harris, already trying to find an excuse not to debate her. To make things worse for Trump, early indications are that his vice presidential nominee, J. D. Vance, is a dud. In his first solo outing Vance practically put the audience to sleep before musing over whether he would be accused of racism for drinking a Diet Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has long been associated with Appalachia and Vance was probably attempting to fake authenticity by choosing it as a drink. But the soft drink has also been blamed for tooth decay throughout the region — Vance even discussed "Mountain Dew mouth" in his novel, "Hillbilly Elegy". That probably explains why Vance chose the inauthentic, but less dentally problematic, Diet version.