DRW50

One of the main things for people to work on is to make sure they even have the right to vote. In Wisconsin this year, I believe, Republicans openly spoke of how they shut down polling places near colleges because they didn't want Democrats to win.

Thanks. I'd never seen this one. Can you believe all the stories in this episode? Can you imagine any show (soap or not) juggling that many today? I remember someone saying AMC was a show that benefited from the hour format in a way most soaps didn't. I can sort of believe that here. How long did Nina keep calling her mother "Monique"? So this was the period of time during that Nazi story that offended some. Airing simultaneously as sensitive topics like Devon and Lynn Carson and also the poignant baby story with Jesse and Angie just shows how disparate AMC was at this point and why they had a hard time keeping it from going off the rails by a few years later. This was right before the yacht party that I believe led to a cast ban on drug use as didn't someone fall off the boat while coked up? The way they handle Brooke's fears of sterility after aborting a child are just so different, so much more mature, than anything on soaps now. I don't even know if they say "abortion" on most soaps now. Opal really does seem to be on her own show.

What bothers me with Pence is more that I still feel like many people out there are turning a blind eye to him because he isn't Trump. That means if Trump ever does get pushed out, he's going to get a huge free pass he doesn't deserve. He truly scares me.

And supposedly they also weren't happy with him running his mouth to the press. These are so many big egos that they don't remember Trump's ego has to be the biggest of all. That's likely one of the reasons his son in law and that Rence Priebus stuck around, because they probably know how to cowtow.

Linda Gray interviewed about her new Hollyoaks role.

I can't see the Republicans in the Senate, especially McConnell, allowing that two-term amendment to be repealed.

I've only gotten into the first season (still early episodes - I really liked the first Nancy I have to admit). The episode with the wonderful Mildred Natwick as the dying grandmother was extremely moving and really spoke to me, especially her relationship with Willie. That they left her dying scenes offcamera and had her live out her last days at her farm with Willie only added more loss to the material, more than overwrought scenes of tears and last words would have. There's something very honest about TV drama from the late '70s and early '80s that I don't think we've seen since.

Everything about Trump and his team suggests people who will not have any real political future or are already at the end of their political careers. Unless Pence is savvier than he seems to be I think this will also be the highest he gets. I just wonder if Republicans will be able to insulate themselves from him politically enough to offset Democratic gains in 2016. Voters seem to be so very willing to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt over and over again.

The media doesn't really care about his appointments, beyond finger-waving, because most of them won't be affected. They live in a bubble. Only when he starts coming for the press will they care. It's the reason why they keep pouting about lack of access. If he gave them access they'd likely gush over him as much as they gushed over W. Trump plays them like a fiddle, especially by repeatedly pointing out that they are a failing business. They get defensive and yet they fall into line every time. There's nothing the press loves to do more than tut-tut about those disrespectful liberals. Booing that bigot, who is so "polite" and trips all their daddy issues (stern, controlling, blandly handsome yet also cold and disturbing), is catnip for them to once again remind the left that they just don't know their place.

Were these Trump voters? I doubt most of his voters would care either way. I do think that the media never really devoted enough time to how serious these scandals were and instead just went for easier and in their minds likely more juicy stories (like WILL HILLARY BE INDICTED), but they did cover this, I agree. One of the biggest problems with basing so much of the campaign on Trump the way Democrats did was that it all became numbing. I already mentioned this but a week before the election I saw an ad that was just a minute or a minute and a half of him saying terrible things. It just ended up canceling each other out. And I was someone who was voting against him, with no hesitation. I can't imagine how a swing voter or reluctant Trump voter may have reacted.

I agree with some of the idea but it goes too far into projection. Some of the worst racists out there live in big cities and on the coasts. You can't reach most of the rural voters - there's no denying that. And there's no denying that many of them are prejudiced in myriad ways, and thanks to the echo chamber of today, feel no compulsion to ever question anything they believe. Democrats shouldn't chase after these voters. They also shouldn't pat them on the head and go on about understanding and a big tent. Yet just blithely dismissing millions of voters for a fantasy world of liberal superiority doesn't work either. The support behind Bernie Sanders shows just how much bigotry and thinly veiled contempt and the power of groupthink can influence many who are supposedly more educated and in more diverse areas. The truth is that many women in rural areas have no way out but marriage. Many men in rural areas can't afford college, and I'd imagine that if they did get the chance, they might think of the men (or women) they know who did go to college and probably aren't any better off than they are. This isn't 1996, or even 2006. The question I'd ask this guy is how he explains those who have gone to college, have made their own choices, live in places full of diversity, and are still bigots, still smug and sure in their iron-gate minds. What do we say to them? Because I really do think these people are a huge reason why Hillary lost. The "both are bad" and the need to be morally superior above all else. The Bernie types, and the types who voted for that idiot Jill Stein. I saw some gushy New Yorker article about a Bernie Bros podcast, Chapo something, full of guys who brag about how white they are and talk about "retard" and how "gay" something is and about the horrors of Hillary, and they were so smug, so sure of themselves, getting big attention and credibility because they were going to be there as a big liberaler-than-thou check on President Hillary. And she lost, and they were blindsided. Did they really question themselves? No. They just went on to talk sh!t about how terrible she and the Democrats are. It's easy for them, because they always get to be right. And being rich white men, they never have to worry about the times that they're wrong. I generally think he's a bit of a pompous bore who is also clearly caught up in his own image, but I agreed with some of what Jon Stewart said.

I get what you're saying. I think part of the problem is hard truths. Manufacturing jobs and coal jobs aren't coming back. I'm sure Trump believes he can do anything so he probably does think he can stop it (as he seems to think he stopped Ford from moving part of their plant to Mexico), but I don't know if anyone would have believed Hillary if she tried that. I think she didn't want to be honest about these things or about Obamacare (that it's always had problems, problems made worse by the Republicans, and it will likely be phased out or made into a whisper of a nothing). She probably should have been, and tried to talk about actual plans, but many just don't want to hear it. It's like Jimmy Carter. He was honest and he was pilloried for it.

Pence booed at a performance of Hamilton. The real question is why was he there? Did he think it was about George Hamilton? http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/11/19/13683864/mike-pence-hamilton-booed-clip

The best you can do with the gun vote is try to neutralize it. That worked in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Generally though it's difficult. I don't mean to brush widely but I don't think it's a coincidence that gun paranoia went into overdrive among the gun voter with a black President.

It's hilarious. It looks like one of those '70s sci-fi shows where characters suddenly become large-sized from shrinking. I think that may have still been Marland though, although I can't remember when the strike material started (I guess when you no longer see writer names on the credits). Was it March? April? I know there was that whole story with ghosts haunting Duncan's castle and Shannon having visions of her and Duncan and he would murder her in past visions or whatever. I remember an episode with a medium going hogwild. But Marland loved that type of stuff so maybe it was his, I don't know.

It's less about a change election than about campaigns and reading the pulse of the country. I think Hillary had the right message in many ways but was the wrong candidate in the wrong year. Dukakis was running as a change candidate after 8 years of the same and he lost. W was doing the same and would have lost if not for SCOTUS rigging.

He's also a singer - he really could do anything. It makes no sense to me the show got rid of him. James Bye? Yeah, a lot of people seemed to just be wandering the stage. They said they had almost no rehearsal time. Tilly Keeper's "sexy moves" just sort of show again how miscast she was. A few BTS bits are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGLFLSEGiY8

Children in Need performance. These haven't been the same since they moved them to the CiN location, but it has some nice moments when everyone isn't drowned in background dancers. It's kind of sad watching it knowing it's DBH's last though.

Here's a brief writeup on the man Trump has supposedly chosen to head the CIA. Fun times ahead. http://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/post/107013415458/mike-pompeo

Not much of a surprise but this man is the one that I seem to remember shouting off after national security briefings he attended with Trump and Christie or whoever. Just no. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-national-security-adviser-donald-trump.html?ribbon-ad-idx=2&src=trending

Oh I've hated Jane for years (Laurie Brett is a decent actress though, although she really seemed to be phoning it in until the last few months), I just always liked her relationship with Masood for how they both were tempted and had a strong emotional bond but both were married and wanted to be loyal. I didn't like the story where they almost cheated and almost went off to Florida, and then I went into white hot rage with Jane after the Bobby reveal, but I liked their scenes in these last few weeks. I hate his relationship with Carmel too of course. Yeah the stuff with Denise, once she accepted his decision and it became about her fears of letting go and facing the reality of her pregnancy with the demon seed, was the best, along with his last scene with Kush about Zaiir. I wish they could have brought back Shabnam or Tamwar or of course Zainab but oh well. A few weeks ago when the spoilers came out I was afraid Zainab was going to be killed off so I should be grateful for what didn't happen.

It's terrifying to try to guess whether he or Ted Cruz would be the worse option.