KerleyQ

It's really a statement on how much the GOP has pissed me off over the past 8 years that I genuinely can't decide if I want him impeached or not. It would almost be rewarding them, to impeach him and let Pence take the job. And Pence is his own kind of mess that won't be as blatantly obvious to many voters when it comes time for re-election in 2020. Trump may be an unmitigated disaster, or he may be just enough of a disaster to make it so that they lose big in 2018 and 2020. And who knows how much they would actually be able to get done in 2-4 years of his lead, vs. 4 years of Pence. I'm honestly, genuinely stumped here. If his VP had been Kasich, Romney, someone like that, I'd be all for impeachment. Pence, though? Pence is the exact nightmare they've been trying to give us for years.

I highly doubt he knows enough about the Constitution to know they have this power.

My thoughts exactly. You didn't really do anything by stepping down. You just stepped aside and let it happen, even knowing it is a disaster for this nation. People have become awfully snowflake-y about their "conscience" when exercising their conscience amounts to throwing their hands up in the air and letting someone else decide for them. That's what all the "I'm going to vote third party because I refuse to vote for the lesser of two evils" people did three weeks ago, and it's what this guy is doing now. Apparently their conscience tells them to step back and just let bad shit happen to their fellow citizens.

The ones I encounter seem to be split into two camps. None will admit, outright, that this was a huge old mistake. Half just simply don't talk about it at all. They ignore all news items about him, they've stopped responding to argue if you post anything negative about him. They've just shut down. I think they do have some buyer's remorse, but they will never admit it. The other half are the obsessive fans of Trump. They're still out there slugging away for him, using cognitive dissonance to explain away anything and everything. Present actual facts to them, and it's merely "liberal spin." There is nothing he can do to lose their support. That whole "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue" thing? That's them. Alex Jones. It blows my mind that we have a P-E who treats whatever comes out of Alex Jones's fevered imagination as fact. Oh, I don't believe for a second that the ranting will stop. He'll keep having hidden phones that he hasn't told staff about, no matter how many they find and take away. He'll never stop. He can't. He has a pathological need for it. My brother is a Trump supporter (one who seems to have fallen in the first camp I discussed above - he basically hasn't said a word about Trump since the election, he just keeps ranting about Hillary). He spewed the same kind of "the country is a disaster, the economy sucks, etc, stuff that Trump fear mongered. I said to my Mom once "exactly what is so bad in his life that he keeps ranting about what a disaster the country is?" He and his wife both have very high paying jobs, and his requires very few actual hours in the office. He's at work less in a week, generally, than my kid is in school. They have a huge, like 5,000 square foot house for the two of them. They take a minimum of two week long vacations each year (I think it's 3 or 4 they've taken this year) to place like Hawaii and the Bahamas. They both drive expensive luxury cars. They're not drowning in debt for any of this stuff, either. So, I fail to get what he's talking about when he rants about the economy and how miserable life is in this country. And you can't get a straight answer if you ask him, unless he decides to honor you with one of his rants about Muslims. Explain to him that more deaths in the past 15 years (post 9/11) have occurred from home grown white Christian terrorists than Islamic terrorists, and he just rants at you about being anti-Christian. Trump managed to fear monger tens of millions of people, because he found a way to convince them that anything that goes wrong, either in their own lives, or around them, is someone else's fault, and, if only those people were stopped, life in this country would be for all of us like it is for him (or as they envision it is for him) - living in tacky gold leafed palaces, with super model wives, beautiful, successful family, jetting all over the globe in a private plane, etc. They don't get that that's not how any of this works. He's told them that life sucks in this country, and only he can make it better, and, for whatever reason, they bought into it, hook, line, and sinker. Nope. They don't need to understand it. They just trust that he knows best. So if he's saying it, it's gotta be wise.

Can you even imagine him and Melania laughing and interacting with the kids at those events? It's impossible to picture it.

I actually saw one of his supporters say "you don't see him whining every time something doesn't go his way, like you butthurt liberals." Um, what? If you take away whining, you take away 99 percent of his tweets, at minimum.

Does the Oompa Loompa not remotely understand how reckless it is for a POTUS to tweet wild conspiracy theories as fact? This is just as bad as his various tweets about "failing" businesses or fabricated stories about companies looking to move their US locations out of the country. The President of the US cannot be so wildly irresponsible in the things he says/tweets. It means something.

Nope. Not even a little bit. The most infuriating part is that the bar for him to act "presidential," is as low as humanly, no, sub-humanly, possible. As long as he doesn't actually have Hillary brought up to the podium and executed during a speech, he's "presidential." Didn't smear his own feces all over the walls? Presidential. Didn't answer every reporter with "fuck you, asshole" during a press conference? Presidential.

Sonny really having to pay, for a lengthy time, over killing AJ would have made for some interesting story. There was so much potential there. They could have had Michael go after his legit business (and Carly's hotel), while also helping the authorities take him down for his criminal enterprises. I know leaving him in jail for any extended period of time was never going to happen, because they want Sonny/MB out there front and center. So, fine, don't leave him incarcerated for long, but he should have lost everything. I'm guessing that I'd be way more interested in watching Mo's Sonny try to essentially start over with nothing. Watch him have to earn people's respect and trust. There are ways for this show to keep Sonny heavily featured while actually telling some interesting story, but they steadfastly refuse to do it. And, now, we could have had some interesting story where he accepts his responsibility for Morgan's death and has to actually truly deal with the fallout. But, nope, he'll be all sparkly clean again before Valentine's Day (at the latest). And he'll just carry on being a mob boss, without a single thought for the fact that his lifestyle has repeatedly endangered his children.

Seriously. I can't even with this "torn between two loves" narrative. No, she's not. She's torn between the guy she loves and the manipulative asshat who just can't stand for her to be happy with someone else; the same guy who was willing to let her marry another man when it was going to be to his advantage in business. Fuck him.

When I read this I got mad at myself, because I just realized I wasn't already following Cary Elwes on Twitter. Another example of why Romney has no shot at SoS - Trumperdink is going to give all the posts to people who kissed his ass during the campaign, and the less qualified for the spot, the better. Romney definitely did not kiss his ass, and, my disagreement with his politics aside, he would actually be qualified for the job. So it's never happening. I wonder how many of his cult members have already convinced themselves that those letters were written by some secret Clinton operative trying to make him look bad (while simultaneously thinking it doesn't make him look bad because they completely agree with the letter writer). Self awareness is really not his strong suit. I swear, if he paints JFK's desk that crappy cheap gold... Any chance Comedy Central can get a show together for Keith to take the 11:30 time slot after The Daily Show? We're going to need him to get through the next four years. Of all that pisses me off about Sgt. Small Hands, this may be the biggest. The most he can do is issue a limp "stop it" when pressed on it during an interview. And the reason for that is that he cannot go against someone who likes him. It's flattering to him that people are doing this shit as some kind of twisted tribute to him. He won't forcefully condemn it, because it's an honor in his view. And, as long as you like him, you're golden in his book. It's why he wouldn't forcefully denounce Duke and the KKK during the campaign - they like him. It doesn't matter how deplorable they are, because they like him. Instead, he boasts "lots of people like me." It's so disgusting and narcissistic, and it's one more way that he's wildly unqualified for the job. You can't base decisions, as POTUS, on whether the players involved like you enough for your fragile ego's tastes. It can't be a coincidence that the people he keeps putting in charge of various departments are people who would like to dismantle those departments, can it? He's the Koch Brothers' dream POTUS. He's going to go ahead and do their dirty work, and they haven't even publicly affiliated themselves with him, so, when it all goes south, as it will, they're not on the hook for the blame.

Agreed. As far as I can tell, if Nelle does pull the "get drunk Sonny into bed and make him think they slept together while he was too out of it to want it" thing, the only difference between that and Franco/Sam or Ric/Carly would be that Sonny can't end up pregnant and unsure whether the mother is his wife or the person he believes sexually assaulted him. I don't have a blanket "no rape stories whatsoever" policy for soaps. Some rape stories over the years have been very powerful. But, the last time GH managed to do it right was Liz's rape. And, in the years since, they've managed to shit all over that one. And I don't know if any soap has ever done a good sexual assault story with the man in the role of victim. Michael's story could have been good, and it did have some well done moments, but then it just turned into Sonny and Jason's pain, and Sam hiring a strooker to help him get over it. And then there's the Sonny element. I don't want Nelle's actions to free pass Sonny's actions. He's done a lot of shit over the years that he should be paying for, and there's always some reason to wave the magic wand of forgiveness over him. Screw that. Let him suffer for a good long time here. I don't want this to become "poor Sonny" being victimized by "evil Nelle."

To be fair to President Obama, he's in a unique situation right now in that he in position to potentially have some influence on Trump through the transition. Sure, he can aggressively call him out on stuff, but that will just cause Trump to do things just to spite him. I'm sure he's figured out by now that Trump is, to some degree, malleable if you have his ear and he thinks you like him. If he's publicly neutral, and if he is friendly during their private conversations, he has a greater chance of influencing decisions. I'm sure that, privately, he'd love nothing more than for these recount efforts to lead to a change, but until they do, he has to try to do what's best, and, for now, that's maintaining a position to have some level of influence on Trump during the transition.

I just saw that Putin said at an event last night (I think last night) that Russia's borders do not end anywhere. Of course, I could discount it as the normal boastings of a dictator, but, considering his ties to Trump and Trump's Putin-friendly foreign policy ideals, it's a bit unnerving. I've seen more than one person say they voted Trump because Putin said that, if Hillary won, there would be war. My response was "did it ever occur to you to wonder why he's so invested in our outcome and in Trump's win? And, why would you want to condone a hostile foreign leader's attempts to influence our electoral process?" There's a reason that man so badly wanted Trump in the White House. I'm genuinely concerned as to how we'll all find out what that reason was.

I think you're right. It amazes me how, every four years, you see people asking what the electoral college is. I think their basic understanding of it pretty much falls to something like this - "my state always goes blue/red, all that matters is what happens in {insert swing state here}." I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority don't know, for example, that the actual results aren't going to be official until December 19th, or that it is even possible that a state could go against the person who won it. I'm guessing that more people know that this year than in the past, since it's been brought up on social media so much over the past two weeks, but I think they still don't actually get the concept. Exactly. I think that most of us who are upset aren't being sore losers. If Hillary had lost to a Jeb or a Kasich, there wouldn't be so much anger and protesting. Yes, there would still be some people who are angry that the person who took more than 2 million more votes lost, but that would eventually die down or at least quiet down to some die hards over time. But, the situation we have now is not like that. A lot of us are in genuine fear for various communities in this country who are going to be targeted both by his stated policies and by the hatred and anger towards them that he stoked and validated among his supporters. Trump supporters tend to find it handy to break down Hillary supporters to a very broad and simple generalization. First it was "you're only voting for her because she's a woman." Now, it's "you're just being crybabies because your candidate didn't win." Neither is accurate. Might there be some who fall into those camps? Of course. But, there are a whole lot of us who were voting for her because we took the time to research the policies proposed by both candidates and we felt hers were the best for our country. And there are a lot of us who aren't taking this like it's a loss for their favorite sports team, but we're taking it as a loss for humanity. We're concerned that this man, with his combination of hateful, careless rhetoric and complete lack of preparation for and understanding of the job, will be a genuine danger to people in our country and around the world. We're concerned that this man has deep ties to Russia, that those deep ties resulted in various hacks to his opponent's campaign and into government systems. We're concerned that he's expressed a desire to decimate our relationships with our allies in favor of supporting Putin and his regime's desire to take over various small countries in his region. We're concerned that his alignment with Putin may mean that we join Putin in supporting Bassad's murderous regime in Syria, which has led to countless deaths of innocents, including children. We're concerned that his cabinet appointments will be disastrous for our economy, our environment, and our education system, so, basically disastrous for our children's future, our grandchildren's future. We're concerned because he has a casual, almost eager attitude towards nuclear weapons. We're concerned because he's proudly pro-torture. We're concerned because he will destroy decades or centuries old alliances because he doesn't like the way the leader of another nation blinked when meeting him. No crybaby mentality here. My candidates have lost in the past, and they'll lose in the future. That's how the system works. But never before has my candidate lost to someone who's reign (and let's make no mistake about it, he thinks of this as a reign) can be so damaging to so many. And not simply on an economic level, but on a life and death level. On a being able to walk to school or the store without being harassed or physically harmed level. There is nothing in me that will allow me to not speak up when this stuff happens. Trump himself whined about the "unfair" EC system back in 2012. And, another fail on the media here - it's still out there, and the media hasn't brought it up at all, even in light of the extreme disparity between the EC and popular vote this time. How can they not ask Trump, or one of his minions, about his anger at the EC back then, and how it ended up that the EC system is what got him the win, regardless of the actual vote totals?

I agree. That could be an interesting way to calculate the electoral votes. So, for example if you win 60 percent of a state's votes, then you get 60 percent of the state's electoral votes? It would be interesting to see how something like that would affect how candidates campaign. For example, Texas - the Dem candidates typically don't spend much time there. But, if the percentage was at stake, they'd likely spend more time there, trying to get a decent percentage of the vote, even if they wouldn't get the majority. It might also bring more voters to the polls. A lot of people have the attitude of "well my state always goes this way, so my vote doesn't really matter." It could essentially make us all "swing states" instead of the intense focus on a handful of states that determine the outcome.

I was thinking the other day - Republican voters lost their freaking minds over Michelle Obama talking about how the White House was built by slaves. They twisted what she was saying and used it as an excuse to rant about how she "doesn't like the White House," bitching about how ignorant and ungrateful she was to live in our White House, etc, etc. Now, their FLOTUS, the one they've been saying for months will be a classier FLOTUS than Michelle, refuses to even live in the White House. Not a single peep from that crowd about how ignorant and ungrateful she is to not appreciate the opportunity to live in our White House. There are definitely two different standards at play here.

Did I read that right? We spent $7 million on arrangements/security for his Thanksgiving dinner? Please, tell me again, GOP, how awful it was when we spent millions on the Obama families vacations in Hawaii. Side note: Am I the only one who finds it hard to believe that the rather ordinary looking kitchen in that article is part of Mar a Lago? Where was the gold leaf? Those were plain brown wooden chairs at that table! I'm hearing he's got dementia and a tiny penis. That's just what I hear from a lot of people. I'm not saying it's true, I'm just saying what I've heard. Fabulous. Apparently the media is going to go willingly into that abyss. Can we dust off some of our retired news figures and get them on this shit? I know Dan Rather has been expressing how appalled he is by the media during this whole mess. Time to get back in the game guys, we need some reporters who understand the importance of a free press that can't be intimidated by any political figure. We can't allow the media to just meekly fall into line because they don't like being yelled at by a moldy tangerine.

My theory (which I know I'm repeating, as I've said it before here) is that they renegotiated the pre-nup when he started running. She got more money in the event of divorce, if she stuck it out through the campaign, appearing when needed, and through any Presidential term. I don't think she thought for a second that he was winning, so she figured she had the extra money and she could get out after the election. Now, though, to get the money, she needs to stick it out through his term. (She's probably crossing her fingers for impeachment.) There have been so many rumors that he owes money to Russian oligarchs who are tight with Putin. And those guys are not guys he can just declare bankruptcy and pay off pennies on the dollar. I've also seen a rumor, a few different places, that Putin has a tape of Trump that he would prefer not see the light. That would not shock me from either side. Of course Putin has blackmail material on wealthy and powerful people to keep them in line. And, of course, Trump is exactly the kind of arrogant "I can do whatever I want" entitled rich schmuck who would do something that would make for good blackmail material, thinking he's untouchable. Yeah, I have to give any effort on her part to get rid of Trump now a big old side eye. She knew exactly what she was doing in the election, and that her presence in it was going to likely help him win. But she riled the "Bernie or Bust" crowd up, even after he repeatedly urged them to stop and to support Hillary, stressing the importance of keeping Trump out of office. She's just as bad as all the voters who stayed home or voted third party/write-in and are now bitching about the outcome.

I've been saying for a while that I think he's got some level of dementia. I fully agree that it's the likely reason for him having Jared or one of the kids with him at all times, even when it's wildly inappropriate. It's also why he's pushing so hard for Jared to have a role in his administration. Since Jared isn't a biological relation, an he's not directly involved in Trump's companies (he has his own business interests), he's the most likely to eventually be approved as some kind of aide or something. He's still a longshot, given that son-in-law is specifically spelled out in the rule, but since Humpty Trumpty seems to get away with bending and breaking all kinds of ethical boundaries and flat out rules, he has no reason to think that he won't get his way on this one, too. That also might explain why Ivanka and Melania seemed not so over the top thrilled with his win. I think the two of them likely figured this was just some little lark he was going to go on, and then it would be over, he would have gotten more attention for his company, and life would go on. Now he's really opened himself up to people figuring out what's going on with him. Junior and Eric, I think, are more ruthless and just want the power that comes with Dad being the POTUS. I think it's likely that Ivanka, Jared, and the kids will move into the White House with him, precisely for this reason - they want to be there 24/7 to protect his image. Melania, on the other hand, is, I think, more concerned with distancing her son from the whole shit show. The first thing that came to mind when I read this was the statement he made about Kelly Preston, when she and John lost their son. Instead of being able to focus on them, he had to make it about him, and how he tried to get her into bed once. Obviously, not every Medal of Freedom winner will be someone he tried to get into bed, but he will undoubtedly have some bullshit personal anecdote about himself that he feels relates to each recipient, and that is what the focus of his speech would be. Where President Obama managed to personalize all of the recipients, while still keeping the focus on them, with a great blend of humor and respect, Trump has exactly zero clue how to do that. Your entire worth in his world is based on two things - your looks, and whether you're nice to him. It's all he retains about anyone. The rest is just noise to him. The man has time to tweet about the NY Times, Hamilton, the mean protesters, etc, but he can't spare one tweet to call the people painting Nazi symbols all over "losers"? It's absurd that we have to go to Twitter as a barometer of how our Pres-Elect really feels about an issue, but that's the situation we're in now, and the fact is that he doesn't call out those committing the hate crimes like he does someone who hurts his delicate feelings. And that should tell everyone all we need to know about how his Presidency is going to go.

Judging by his home decor, he completely covets the life of royalty. He won't be able to resist establishing a connection to the Royal Family, no matter how old the Queen is. Besides, he saw those pictures from the last Obama visit with William and Kate. He's just dying to get a shot to work his "charms" on Kate. I hope she finds a reason to not be in his presence during the visit.

What gets me is the "I'm sure I'll be over it after Thanksgiving" thing. The fuck? No, don't get over it. This is a direct attack on the First Amendment, and you're a member of the press. You don't "get over it" once you've gotten a belly full of turkey and a day to relax with family. This isn't someone saying they didn't like that tie you wore to the office. This is the President-Elect telling the media that they can go fuck themselves if they try to write anything about him that he doesn't approve (or if they print a picture he thinks makes him look fat, but, really just accurately reflects his appearance). You don't just shrug that shit off.

His infrastructure plan is patently absurd. In the case of roads, for example, we, the people who actually pay taxes (ahem, Cheeto!), will be paying for those roads twice. First, we'll pay for the tax breaks to the corporate and foreign investors, then, we'll pay tolls on those roads directly to the corporate or foreign investors who control them. Bonus: Who here thinks that those investors will simply cease collecting tolls once they've recouped their initial investment and a generous profit? Who thinks those tolls will be reasonable and not a hindrance to travel (even to work or school) for many lower middle class and below Americans? Anyone? Anyone?

The first thought I had after Trump's whine about SNL was that Bush Sr. invited Dana Carvey to the White House and the two of them played pranks on White House staff. It seems like most Presidents have not only not whined about their portrayal or the jokes at their expense, but they embraced it, and took it as a compliment. Trump is so damn thin-skinned, I think there is a genuine chance that he might actually put out some feelers about getting SNL to stop mocking him. Personally, if I was running SNL, I'd double down. I'd also cut back on the fluffier comedy and point the comedy at the very serious issues he presents.

I have no doubt they're going to feel the pain. But, I don't think they'll make that logical connection that they're responsible for their own suffering, by virtue of their insistence on voting for a guy who spoke to their inner racist without paying attention to how his policies would affect them. They'll have that shit blamed on Obama, lazy welfare queens, Obamacare, all them damn foreigners coming in, etc. It will never, ever, in their minds, be that what is happening to them is the direct result of the really shitty choice they made at the poll.