ChicagoCita

I think Meghan has very few true beliefs. She is who she needs to be situationally. She was hired by The View to be The Republican, so she is trying to represent all Republicans, not her own views (and failing miserably). Ten years ago, she was young and cute and daughter of The Maverick, so she put on a persona of being the face of the NEW modern Republican Party, being labeled a RINO (Republican In Name Only) by many. She got hired by Fox, and went far, far, far to the Right as a result. She often refers to her party girl past, but wears blouses that go to her chin and tsks-tsks at profanity ever since marrying someone from a religious conservative family. I reiterate my theory that, in her heart, she is bored silly by politics and her true calling is to be a reality TV commentator. She would be great at that (no sarcasm; she gets un-angry (lol) and shows a lot of passion and a fun side to her when she talks about the subject!)

I found it very naive when Sunny (or Whoopi) said that they couldn't imagine any parent not caring what was happening to their child while she was with R. Kelly. One thing I learned long ago (when I was LosAngelesCita) is that fame is as strong a drug as heroin. People will do anything to get close to fame and will make excuses and allowances for famous people that they would never make for JoeSchmo. Fame makes people act differently than they normally would, and look the other way at things they normally would not. If it is true that R. Kelly was promising these girls and their parents that he would make the underage girls famous, that was genius. It gave him a golden ticket to abuse them with very little oversight. That's how it lasted for so long, in plain view. It has been rumored for years that preteen and teenage stars like Shirley Temple, Elizabeth Taylor, and Judy Garland were all sexually used by Hollywood studio heads, with the knowledge and tacit approval of their parents, as a condition to them being made stars. It's sickening, and I'm really happy at least some of the current predators are being exposed.

You are probably right. I mostly listen to the show while I'm on my laptop working. So I didn't see Whoopi, I just heard her.

So am I the only person to notice the EXTREME white makeup spots placed below Meghan's eyes near her nose today? She must have pissed off the makeup department something fierce, because if I noticed them, they are obvious!

The way I interpreted the AOC/Whoopi thing is that, no matter how popular someone newly elected is, they are going to have to learn the ropes and they will most certainly make missteps. I have a close friend who is a member of the Chicago City Council. After he made a point at one of his first meetings, an alderman with much longer tenure took him aside and told him that he had made his point, and when he had, to stop talking. Half of his speech was overkill and extraneous. He appreciated her advice and learned from it. He has many such examples of "the elders" taking him under their collective wings and teaching him how things worked. As a result, he's a much better alderman than he was at first, and more important, he is more effective. So I think Whoopi was saying, learn from your elders in Congress. See what they have done and see how you can work from that point. Don't lose your ideas, don't lose your enthusiasm, but don't alienate your allies. Learn from them. They know how to get things done.

She reminds me of one of those "don't confuse me with the facts" people. The kind who listen carefully when you explain new information to them, seem to understand, and then go right back to their comfy erroneous beliefs. Change is scary, and so is learning! She will be 75 years old and still talking about the Rust Belt, and Red States, and loving guns, and fetishizing anyone who's been in the military.

Joy looked fabulous today. Everyone did (except Abby - she has gorgeous hair (if at times distractingly shiny) and it doesn't look good pulled behind her ears). But they all looked really nice today: clothes, makeup, and hair!

The way I look at it, there are things like taking the Lord's name in vain (which is prohibited in the Ten Commandments) and then there's good old-fashioned profanities, like the one the new Congresswoman used. I try to stick to profanities. ;-)

When she isn't telling us she's from "Middle America." She alone knows how "the middle of the country" thinks and feels, in her own mind. I've lived in both big- and small-town Illinois, Meghan, I'll gladly take you on about how the "middle of the country" feels. Here's a hint: We don't feel that Arizona OR New York OR Washington DC, all of which you claim as homes, are "the middle of the country."

After yesterday when she wouldn't shut up for anyone, that little heifer Meghan had the nerve to say to Joy, "I'm still talking"?

I think it's a new piece of British slang she picked up. She tends to reuse words she's just learned.

Meghan must have taken a vow of silence for the past two and a half weeks, because she would NOT shut the fuck up, and interrupted and/or spoke over every single person at the table. I would have balled up my scarf and shoved it in her mouth after two minutes had I been sitting there.

I believe it's his special place in Arizona near his home, where he used to sit. If I'm inferring correctly from what others have said, it is where he died. My brother in Arizona keeps sending me photos of his kids playing in a good amount of snow (esp. for them!), so I believe parts of Arizona are snow-covered, or recently were. Illegitimi non carborundum was one of Sen. McCain's favorite sayings, and that's why Meghan is tweeting it in his memory.

That outfit was too much, and as someone said, too matchy-matchy, but I agree that in real life, she dresses so much younger, more flattering, and cuter than she does on the show. I am much more fond of non-View Meghan. It's like she's playing a character on the show.

I think some parts of this reboot seemed clunky, but wow, it gave me life! As someone who is in mild panic mode most of the time over what's going on in our federal government, it was wonderful to watch a half-hour a week where people had discussions like those I have with my friends. I'd love to see Murphy et al. come back for more.

When Meghan is not on The View, occasionally she makes me proud of her. I am in full agreement with her on this tweet, even though I wonder if she would have written it had she not experienced it up close and personal with her father's illness. Bill O'Reilly is a total ghoul and tweets like this disgust me.

I come from a long line of farmers and teachers and farmers and teachers. Absolutely the salt of the earth, and I'm proud that they are my family, but they're not the stuff of prime-time television. I'm sure - in the highly unlikely event that one of our family ended up on the show - the story would concentrate on my one ancestor who was such a scoundrel that when he was arrested, finally, there were sheriffs from seven counties in three states lined up to see who got to bring him to trial first. (Among many other things, he was an actual horse thief!) It's very probable that the celebrity is given a lot of information about his/her ancestors, because you know that they had to do a ton of research to get to the television-worthy ones, but the viewers don't get to hear about their stories.

In high school, during Watergate, independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was fired by Nixon, was making a speech at Columbia University in New York. My history teacher, who was awesome, yanked us all out of class (British history?) and took us to Columbia to hear him speak. She said that history didn't happen just in books, that it was happening every day, and dammit, we were going to witness one of the most important players in history, so get on the subway girls, we're going uptown!

I'm not exactly sure where to put this, but there's a book coming out about the "behind the scenes" at The View. The author claims to have interviewed most of the hosts. This intrigues me: "Setoodeh uncovers the truth about Star’s weight loss and wedding madness. Rosie’s feud with Trump. Whoopi’s toxic relationship with Rosie. Barbara’s difficulty stepping away. Plus, all the unseen hugs, snubs, tears―and one dead rodent. Ladies Who Punch shows why The View can be mimicked and mocked, but it can never be matched." It comes out in April: Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of "The View". I've preordered it. ADDING: In the CNN Tip Sheet, the author says, "The two cohosts who never agreed to sit down with me — even though I'd interviewed them both before — were Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck," Setoodeh told me. "Read it and you’ll see why."

It never dawned on me before, but no one from The View currently is from anywhere near the fabled middle of the country. Joy, Whoopi, and Sunny are all New Yorkers, Ana is a Floridian, and Meghan and Abby are each one state away from the Pacific Ocean. Sara was a true Midwesterner, wasn't she? Another reason to get her back on the show! I'm so sick of a one-percenter Arizonan trying to explain how the Midwest feels. I am from both big- and small-town Illinois, so I especially want to throw forks at the TV when Meghan tries to explain why we all support Trump. Damn carpetbagger!

When Meghan forgets that she's in perceived enemy territory, when she forgets she is the one person responsible for defending the hearts and minds of every "middle of the country" Republican, when she feels like she's loved (ie, her brother in the audience), she can be fun to watch. The photos of her on her Instagram account are so different from her View persona. I wish we could see relaxed, off-her-self-imposed-soapbox Meghan more often.

Oh, hopefully that's in HER mind only!

I liked the Josh Duhamel episode a lot. I majored in Tudor-era history in high school, so it was something I knew a bit about, but actually seeing the rack was blood-curdling. Terrifying. Also, the ancestor's insistence after the fact that he was a lowly man without much involvement in the horrors of the era... I'm sorry, dude, but one doesn't get nicknamed "The Rack Master" for being a nobody. After last week's over-reactions by Mandy Moore, Josh was a nice contrast. He was a lot more serious, a lot less pretty-boy, and lot more willing to talk about his spiritual/religious beliefs than I'd expected. He impressed me a lot. I loved him talking about his relationship with his grandmother!

I have a Facebook friend whose son was murdered in 2017. He was 15. I'd say a good 95% of her FB posts since have been mourning him, and begging him to come back for just a day. I feel like I'm helping her work through it just by being a witness to her pain. I feel for Meghan; and I hope to hell she's getting counseling. Good intense counseling. I am empathic to her in her grief, but I see the repercussions every day on TV and it's unpleasant to see her so emotional, so angry, so humorless. I really think she needs to pull it together for one hour a day on the air, or take a leave of absence until she's able to. Watching The View these days is like waiting for a ticking bomb to go off.

I was in our local library this weekend, and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin was there learning about one of the library's innovative programs. I didn't get a chance to speak to him, but if I had I would have taken the opportunity to apologize for how Meghan treated him on The View. I know he probably brushed her aside and forgot about her rudeness the way he would a pesky mosquito, but it really embarrassed me to have her treat a senior senator that way.