ChicagoCita

It is well-documented that when Marla Maples became pregnant with Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump pressured her to get an abortion. Obviously, she didn't. But he was very pro-choice then. His choice, not the choice of the mother, but still.... (And how awful it must be to be Tiffany, because if I know this, then she has lived with it most of her life.) Also, since Roe v. Wade was a decision of the Judiciary Branch of the government, the Executive Branch cannot overturn it. I simply can't believe a candidate representing a major party doesn't know what this chart from Kids.gov does. I'm at the point where I'd vote for mandatory civics classes for every registered voter.

Evangelicals are mostly conservatives (in all matters, not just politically), and fear the unknown. They like a world where everything is familiar and in its place. Gays marrying, women being sexually active with no regrets, and politicians and police not being revered authority figures freaks them out! So Trump comes out with his talk of a nation out of control, that he will return to the old days and traditions (Make America Great Again), and they eat it up! They are also obsessed with the right to abortion on demand, as CCB mentioned. Somehow they feel that revoking Roe v. Wade will stop all abortions. They don't seem to realize that it will stop safe abortions for the majority of women. Rich women will be able to have abortions performed by their doctors, as they always have, and poor women will die trying to abort their fetuses, as they did for centuries prior to Roe, and will do if Roe is somehow revoked. Somehow they are able to completely ignore lying, adultery, cheating, whoremongering, and taking the Lord's name in vain because ... abortion. And the Second Amendment obviously trumps the Ten Commandments in their world. As a progressive, left-of-center Christian, I find it amazing and sad beyond words. As for Utah, the Mormons have been cool to Trump ever since he started pressing the Muslim thing. They, more than most other groups, know and remember what it's like to be persecuted in one's own country due to religious doctrine and beliefs. I want to slap Whoopi's face when she mocks the Hot Topics, especially when she uses THAT VOICE. Don't like the Kardashians? Well, Queen Bee, don't bring them up! There are plenty of other topics that don't annoy you -- and consequently, you won't annoy us with.

It even varies with one person and the particular day. My BFF was a recovering alcoholic, very devoted to his recovery in AA, and when we had parties when we were in our 20s, he was the de facto bartender. Because who knows how to mix drinks like an alcoholic, right? He said it was fine, and he was a blunt guy, he would have let us know if it wasn't fine. Until four or five parties in, he got very withdrawn. Turns out it really was tempting him that night. And Robert's job as our party bartender ended that night. It's a process. (I'm happy to say that he stayed sober until the day he died, much too soon, but he was determined not to have morphine to get him through his final illness. He wanted to live and die sober. A braver guy, I'll never know.)

I took it tonight. Many of the questions I thought were pretty quick to come to me, but I didnt know some. I couldn't decide between Emerson and Thoreau, and time ran out, so I ended up with Thor. Maybe they'll take pity on me. Unless it's Emerson. ;-) I REALLY need to know more about popular culture!

And of course my deep-red relatives say it's simply a media spin to make a conservative governor look bad. (I bite my lips to not scream out "PEOPLE DEVELOPED INCURABLE DISEASES! IT'S NOT A PUBLICITY STUNT!") I am ready to slap Jediblahblah for talking over anyone who disagrees with her. She thinks if she rattles off what she has to say and never takes a breath, that makes her argument valid. I realize that this could be said about any member of the panel at any time, but it's particularly irksome to me when Jed does it.

Saying no one knew who the vice presidential candidates were just reeked of East Coast elitism and the mistaken assumption that people don't care about this election. I have an aunt who makes her living renting out properties in a small city in Indiana. It happens to be in the county that had a horrendous HIV outbreak last year, one so bad that it made international headlines, and the feds had to come in and take measures to fix it. Why did this county suddenly explode with HIV? Among other things, Indiana's governor, Mike Pence, stopped state funding to the only Planned Parenthood clinic in the county -- which did STD and drug testing/treatment and gave out free condoms -- and Indiana doesn't have needle exchanges. (Incidentally, that particular Planned Parenthood clinic did NOT perform abortions.) Because apparently drugs and Planned Parenthood don't fit into Pence's religious worldview, and stopping treatment for them will just make them go away! My aunt is still having problems renting her properties, since no one wants to move to that county. The 190 people diagnosed with HIV have had their lives changed forever. (The feds came in, Pence called a state of emergency for the county, and a needle exchange was instituted.) Mike Pence is also behind Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which basically made it legal to discriminate against people who live their lives outside of one's perception of the norm. It created a huge financial and social backlash and had to be amended within a couple weeks. Indiana's reputation and state coffers are still suffering. So, Whoopi and The View, you may not know who Mike Pence is, but those of us in the Midwest do. Too well. We know he's not James Brolin. And he's far from funny.

I was going to take it tonight, but was up most of the night with an emergency. Tonight isn't what I'd call "sharp" for me. Tomorrow for sure!

I love that there's no crosstalk on The Talk. I love the respect they seem to have for one another, at least on-air. But I find it virtually unwatchable because the topics are so fluffy and the discussions are so scripted. I like political discussions, so I prefer The View (minus Whoopi's pontificating). I enjoy The Talk most when it veers away from the fluff and into reality. Sheryl Underwood plays the clown most of the time, but when she gets real, she proves herself to be one of the most intelligent and compassionate people on any talk show. I would totally give up The View if The Talk would have that more often, rather that Kardashian News of the Day and the fakity-fake gasps by the audience at news like HiddleSwift has broken up.

This happened to me. Not in dating someone... but I went to a wax museum in Chicago a loooong time ago, maybe three or four years after the Beatles broke up. The Beatles were memorialized in wax there, showing their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Each figure had a plaque saying who was who (never a great sign for a wax museum to have to put names on its figures, but oh well). There were some younger kids in there with me and my family, and a boy around 12 said to the other, "Paul McCartney was in another band before Wings?" I was an older teenager and predictably rolled my eyes. But it did happen. I'm sure I've said things equally naive. But I'm not an EGOT, so I can't plagiarize it.

I got the impression it was taped after Thursday's show. Not many "hot topics" from Thursday's news, but they did reference Wednesday's news. And that would explain Whoopi's presence. My feeling is that they worked around Chelsea's schedule, and of course if it "made waves," Whoopi would want to be there to get some attention.

It's all about abortion with the Religious Right. Somehow they can ignore that Trump doesn't know the Bible ("Two Corinthians," anyone?), has never prayed for forgiveness because he doesn't think he has anything to be forgiven for, has openly and gleefully bragged about committing adultery, and has a laundry list of people he has cheated. Oh, yeah, and the lies upon lies upon lies. Yet because they are nervous about a Democrat appointing liberal judges who might uphold a woman's right to have a medical procedure that has been the law of the land for 40 years, they convince themselves that Trump is a Christian and therefore worth voting for. Let's face it, if Jesus came back as a politician -- a non-Christian, Middle Eastern dark-complected blue-collar pacifist who advocated selling one's wealth to provide for the poor, who hung out with the dregs of society, who never spoke out against homosexuality, but did speak out against people who publicly flaunt their religion -- Candace and Kirk and their Religious Right brethren would trip all over themselves to vote for his opponent. I'm sure Benjamin Franklin and half the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be curious to learn that.

If you go to Small Town USA, most of the kids under 20 have names like Destiny, Chase, Brooke, Rafe, Chance... soap opera characters. But really, is it any different than the absolute tribe of Judys who were born after The Wizard of Oz came out, or the Jennifer craze that was spawned by Love Story? Pop culture plays a huge role in naming kids. I have a 3x great-uncle who was named "Orlando" because of a popular novel back in the day. Who besides Jed said she was named after a TV character? My cable went out 10 minutes into the show today.

It took me a half hour into her first show to remember why she drives me nuts. She just screams her points, screams them, non-stop, not coming up for air, not listening to anyone else, and somehow she thinks if she drowns out Joy (in particular), then she has "won." It's like having a tape recorder that you can't unplug. It doesn't make whatever it's saying correct, it just makes the room annoying.

According to Politifact, Hillary tells "half true" to "completely true" statements 72% of the time, with 2% "Pants On Fire" lies. By comparison, Trump tells "half true" to "completely true" statements 30% of the time, with 18% of his statements being rated "Pants On Fire." Politifact is non-partisan and is a Pulitzer Prize winning website.

I like CCB's new hair. Less Prom Queen, more 21st Century. Her voice still grates, though. As do her politics. Reminds me that the Religious Right is neither (imho, of course). So scared of change and legal abortion that they're willing to overlook everything else.

I thought Paula was only going to be on Fridays?

Have they announced it's the last season? I'm sorry to hear that. This was once THE paranormal show. But you're right, it's gone downhill. Not sure exactly what happened, but I'm still sad to see it go away.

If you can find it, I recommend watching him in Gavin & Stacey, a Britcom. It's about the romance between (duh) Gavin and Stacey, but it was written by Corden and Ruth Jones, who play their respective best friends and absolutely steal the show. One of my favorites from the days when BBC America used to show actual British shows that we can't get here.

I hate these pretaped "new" shows -- but I am such a crybaby, I wept out loud when the young woman was given a scholarship today. I feel like I did all through the movie Beaches. I knew it was manipulative, I knew I was being set up to cry. And still I cried buckets. Hateful! It is so weird to have all these things going on in Bizarro World (aka the 2016 Presidential campaign), and have the lead "hot topic" be something so banal that I can't even remember what it was right now.

Next week's shows are "new," but in past years they've been a mishmosh of pretaped segments thrown together. I think reruns start the week after this.

I admire her for getting into politics at any age. But precocious she is not. I was canvassing door-to-door when I was in 8th grade. I made a "Vote For Bobby Kennedy" sign for my window when I was ten (sadly, he never got to the Illinois primary). Note that my parents were/are Republicans. My friend's son is in second grade and initiates discussions with his parents about the upcoming election and why he's against Trump. While admittedly my friend's son and I are/were dweebs, no one should act like they deserve a pat on the head for caring about politics for the first time at age 30.

Funny, now that the Daily Mail is blaming Whoopi for Paula's demotion, the woman who tells us she doesn't care about Twitter has taken to Twitter to defend her innocence. Whoopi Goldberg: I didn't get Paula Faris fired from The View

That is VILE. I am not a Paula fan because she can't make her points clearly, she just repeats the same line over and over. But she's pleasant and professional, and no one deserves that kind of assholery directed at them, privately and especially publicly.

Exactly. I didn't have any of the horrors you mentioned happen to me (thank God), but my teenage years were the most stressful in my life. Working two jobs, going to a prep school on scholarship and trying to keep my grades up, trying to fit into a 13-grade school having transferred in during 10th grade, being mocked openly for not being rich like the other kids. Throw in all the curve balls that come with puberty on top of that, and trying to get into a decent college that would offer my single mom adequate financial aid, and it was so stressful that I was constantly broken out in welts from the constant emotional pressure. I remember my scalp was covered with little ulcers (which eventually turned my hair white in streaks -- at age 16), so I went to a la-dee-dah day spa to have it looked at. The woman who was attending to me told me that in adults it would be considered a tension-related outbreak, but it obviously wasn't because I was so young and therefore carefree. I nearly leaped out of the chair to set her straight. I wish I'd had the kind of teenage years that Whoopi and Sherri apparently think are normal, but I was just appalled that they out-and-out pooh-poohed the notion that a teenage girl might have "struggles."

For crying out loud. She either founded Sirius OR XM. They were competitors. She did not found the company that resulted from the merger.