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From the AP: A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump has gone on Twitter to note opposition among some of his supporters to selection of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as secretary of state. In a pair of posts on her verified Twitter account @kellyannePolls on Thursday, Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway seemed to be stating an argument against the placement of Romney in Trump’s Cabinet. Romney vehemently opposed Trump’s nomination early in the campaign, assailing the billionaire as a “phony.” In one tweet, Conway notes that she has been “receiving a deluge of social media & private concerns re: Romney Some Trump loyalists warn against Romney as sec of state.” In another, she makes references to former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, both Cabinet secretaries in Republican administrations, as men who “flew around the world less, counseled POTUS (president of the United States) close to home more. And were loyal. Good checklist.” WTF? Why is K.A. Conartist using Twitter to advise Trump? The only way she can communicate to him is through social media? Their transition process is a clusterfuck.

Not only does Trump have no political knowledge or steadfast beliefs (outside of his delusion of greatness), his campaign insiders say that his decisions are always influenced by whoever speaks to him last. That's a scary cocktail, especially if Bannon is always in his ear. His ineptness and lack of self-control will have him stumbling through the job from Day 1, and, given his misplaced illusions of grandeur, it's only a matter of time before he makes a grave misstep that level-headed Republicans can't ignore. If we're lucky, he'll just tinker with Obama's efforts and try to claim them as his own. I doubt that we (the more than 70% of Americans who want Trump gone) will get complacent about his presidency. And that 70% will grow with each passing year as he breaks his promises to his base.

Ugh. I can't listen to him without giving him the finger. Why does he keep saying "inner cities"? This isn't 1973. So clueless. For the next four years, I'll just get recaps from news outlets.

Bloomberg Politics noted a couple of steps that Republicans (the ones who don't want to look like they're supporting a criminal) can take long before an impeachment. They can pass a bill to force Trump to publish his returns and they can convene a permanent investigative committee to issue subpoenas regarding his business interests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJgLFuI9yhc

From what I read I would not even say he disavowed them. He was pressured to do so, even said, "Wow, you guys are really obsessed with this" to dismiss the importance of it, claimed that the criticism of Steve Bannon was hurtful to him because that wasn't "who he is" and said he never would have hired Bannon if he thought he was a white supremacist. In other words, he was saying that since he hired him, he's not to be called a white supremacist. His disavowal was basically him saying, "Okay, okay. I disavow Nazis. You happy now? Fine." There was no statement of conviction against the idea, just denial that anyone had anything to be worried about. And of course, he's not making a move to get rid of these people now that these shocking facts have been brought to his attention. ITA. Trump is clearly not making any effort to address his white supremacist base because he doesn't give a shit about racism. Also, Bannon is his puppetmaster. ("No puppet. No puppet. You're the puppet.") Bannon positioned himself to empower his base and he's avoiding the press to focus on doing just that. His base is panicked because they now live in a world where a black man served as President and their nightmare of whites becoming a minority is actually happening. If racists want to return to the 1950s or the slavery era, Trump isn't going to get them there. They should look into building a time machine.

Is it me or did this ep have a lot of style callbacks to classic sci-fi? Charlotte's dress seemed inspired by Star Trek or Lost in Space, and they re-used that old Westworld score (from when we saw Yul's cowboy in the background). The music also mirrored The Twilight Zone theme (during a moment with Teddy and the MiB) and the score from Planet of the Apes (when Dolores and William fled the old church town).

If Trump and Schwarzenegger (another womanizer) can win high political offices, any celeb can win. Alec Baldwin briefly considered it a while back. Dwayne Johnson is considering it. Bottom line, I just want someone who's intelligent, rational and cares about humanity more than his bank account.

I'll follow Padma with more from the NYT: Pressed (again) to address racist groups, he denied that his campaign has energized the alt-right movement (seriously?) and disavowed it. “It’s not a group I want to energize, and, if they are energized, I want to look into it and find out why.” (We're not stupid. His lack of action speaks volumes.) Trump offered a robust defense of his campaign chairman and newly appointed chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon. “If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn’t even think about hiring him,” he said. He said the charges bothered Mr. Bannon. “I think it’s very hard on him. I think he’s having a hard time with it. Because it’s not him." Trump also dismissed suggestions that Breitbart News, where Bannon is the executive chairman, was trafficking in racism and white nationalism. “Breitbart is just a publication,” he said. “They cover stories like you cover stories. They are certainly a much more conservative paper, to put it mildly, than The New York Times. But Breitbart really is a news organization that has become quite successful.” (Ugh.) He's also flip-flopping (again) and walking back his stances on climate change (he'll “keep an open mind” on the Paris climate accord) and the NY Times (“I have great respect for The New York Times”). He's trying to save face after his behavior at the last press meeting was leaked. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/business/media/donald-trump-new-york-times.html?partner=msft_msn&mtrref=undefined&gwh=78C735B93FE0060ACFE252B7487A76FB&gwt=pay

Paul Ryan's lack of integrity during Trump's campaign was sickening. He's spineless and chose his party over the people. I hope everyone remembers this when he tries to run in 2020.

Bloomberg News reported that Obama is reconsidering his retirement from politics so he can defend his legacy, but it isn't considered a good look for an ex-Prez to not give a new leader a chance, especially before the first 100 days. He was also planning to write a book, which can have more of a lasting effect than a criticism campaign. Maybe he can do both. He'll also get behind whoever runs against T/P next. (I think the buzz of the next T/P opponent will emerge during the midterm elections and it won't be one of the names currently being considered.)

Pence constantly lied (with a straight face) as he minimized or denied his issues with Trump, so I don't trust him. He relies on talking points like a robot. On the plus-side: Pence isn't rash (as Jediknight noted). He also has the ability to read stacks of political briefs and to comprehend what he's reading.

Go Chris! The Cuomos (Andrew, Chris, the late Mario) are known for their integrity.

This! People repeat Facebook headlines and Donald's hyperbole like parrots. Social media and blogging has severely undermined news sources that do real reporting (which involves fact checking). People accept things at face value and don't want to read in-depth news reports. I'm hoping the reveal of Facebook's "fake news" can be a wake-up call.

Before her flashback, she was killing off the lawmen so she could talk to Hector without getting shot up. Didn't her plan involve recruiting Hector and Armistice?

Alec Baldwin just made my day. Too funny.

Sacrilege! No one can replace Clem! I hope the real Clem winds up in Maeve's army in season 2. Her plan was derailed by her flashback and now she seems kind of screwed. I don't think she'll attack the hazmat team. She'll go with them and try to hatch a plan en route. We'll probably see a scene that mirrors her flashback with Ford and Bernard, only she won't commit suicide this time. If she gets lobotomized and winds up in storage, it will be a sad/ironic moment because she'll be with an army of robots but unable to do anything about it.

Since Trump plans to use Twitter throughout his stay in office, I just wanted to post a reminder to everyone to read between the lines because Trump uses Twitter to steer the national conversation. For example, his Hamilton "outrage" tweets were used to deflect attention from the breaking news of the TrumpU lawsuit and his million dollar settlement. Whenever he uses multiple tweets about one topic, there's a bigger topic that should also be discussed.

Love it! It's heartwarming when you see everyone (and not just minorities) taking a stand against racism. I wish more T/P supporters would speak out against the hate crimes.

The MiB twice described Arnold as a "man" but I'm still not sure if he met him in person. I'm hoping Elsie 2.0 shows up for work and Stubbs notices something odd about her, like if she only does what's in her job description.

This is the first ep that left me confused. All that MiB expo and I still don't get it. He wants to die because he discovered that he's soulless? Is that it? And why kill Teddy? Wyatt's story is too vague for me to care about it at this point. Maeve's backstory is heartbreaking. Was she sentient before Abernathy? I liked Dolores's flashback of the town but William was acting weird, like he stumbled into the wrong scene without a script. I like that Stubbs is getting suspicious.

That sentence had two ifs in it. :) I'm sleep deprived and William's romance is like a sedative. That last sentence should read: William has to feel betrayed by someone at some point if he's going to go black hat and become the MiB.

When Dolores explained the voice in her head, kissed William in Pariah and had sex with him on the train, it feels a bit like she's using him. Why does she "need" him? I'm suspicious because I think their romance is dull and because there could be a parallel to Bernard/Theresa's journey: Is Dolores unaware that she's being instructed by Arnold to mislead William? If you buy the William = MiB theory, William has to feel betrayed by someone at some point if he's going to go black hat.

I'm hoping this ep can make Dolores and William's storyline more interesting because right now it's boring AF. It needs a twist to affect the romance like Bernard's twist last week.

Great link. I see a lot of "I wanted to send a message to the status quo by voting for an outsider," which I totally get. DC politics can be frustrating and a maverick can shake things up, but I draw the line at picking a woefully unqualified maverick (with a history of stiffing workers to line his pockets) who's unwilling to educate himself. Their assumption seems to be that Trump will only shake things up in a good way and that his inexperience won't make things worse. I would prefer a maverick who knows the ins and outs of DC (and understands the long-term ramifications of his maverick decisions) instead of a maverick who's completely out of his depth. Do his supporters really believe that Trump knows more than "all the generals"? His hyperbolic lies and flip-flopping are off the chain (and well documented) yet never questioned. It's a scary thing when candidates aren't researched until it's too late.

ITA that he's an attention-craving narcissist, but his motivation for and insistence on getting even stems from being wounded. If he had thicker skin, he wouldn't let negative comments fester in his brain until he can lash out on Twitter for days on end with "I know you are but what am I" tweets over the smallest slight. He reacts like a bratty child. He also thinks his new title will demand respect as if his actions are irrelevant. He still hasn't appropriately addressed the hate crimes but expects the Hamilton cast to apologize to Pence? That wasn't "harassment" and Pence wasn't made to feel not "safe." He's clueless.