Juliajms

They are underestimating Paul Ryan. I think he's going to be pretty successful in gutting some of these social safety net programs. Knowing that he received social security benefits as a child after his father died makes me despise him even more. How can you benefit from a system and then plot to take it away from other little children who need it? I just don't understand people who know what it's like to be vulnerable and then try to screw others out of the same help they received.

This is really sad. I'm not sure who I'm more worried about, the elderly or poor children in public schools. Its funny reading how worried conservatives were that taking money from the government for schools would lead to federal standards. I think we would be a lot better off if we had that. At least I thought so until a few weeks ago.

Yeah, sort of, but the legal kind. Someone tricked me into going to one of their meetings 20 years ago. It was truly bizarre. The person who tricked me into going was late, so these women outside the meeting room befriended me. They were very proud of the fact that they take extra napkins and sugar from places like McDonald's so that they could "put the money saved into their business". When the doors of the meeting opened they grabbed my arms and we ran to he front so we could get the best seats. To see a guy lecturing us about Amway. Basically the whole point is to buy all your own household items from Amway and to get people signed up under you so you get a percent of their sales. It's just short of a cult. No thanks. Ben Carson is really a strange case to me. On the one hand, no amount of education or training could have ever turned me into a brain surgeon. I recognize that he has to be super smart, but he thinks the Earth was created a few thousands years ago? I just don't get it.

^ I feel like I'm one of the AI bots in Westworld. "Dolores, do you ever question the nature of your reality"? I sure as hell have the last couple of weeks. When this first happen I honestly wondered if maybe I'd been knocked in the head before the election and all of this is some terrible coma induced nightmare.

Carson for HUD Secretary? Strange. http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/11/ben-carson-cabinet-hud-trump-231772

^ I agree it's kind of sweet, but at the same time it's disturbing that we have very little idea what this man is really up to.

^ Not just that, but how their party was in disarray. Now here we are in it's our party that isn't really sure where to go from here. This election was truly a reversal of fortunes, which is part of the reason people are so shell shocked I think.

OMG. Don Lemon playing parts of Richard Spencer's speech and yelling "Heil Trump". Why, God would you give that man a platform however brief? I'll admit I kept hoping they would come around to the idea that the rich are soaking them while turning the lower classes against each other, but I've finally realized it's not happening. The working class resents the poor on food stamps more than the ultra wealthy. I've finally accepted it.

I don't really love the way the main cast is isolated in their own little bubbles, but I don't see that changing any time soon. I think we're spending time on their politics because all of these groups are going to have to come together to fight Negan. That's not looking like an easy thing to achieve with Gregory in charge. Jesus or even Maggie is going to have to take over. I'm not really looking forward to Jesus and Carl headed towards Negan. If I were Rick and Carl survives this, I think I might kill him myself.

This is really the scariest part of it all to me. This is about the worst time for climate change deniers to be in charge. It's entirely possible that they are going to push us past he point of no return. It also sounds like he is pushing for Elizabeth Warren maybe?

Yeah, I saw the infrastructure bill will likely be a scam to pay private companies to do what they were always going to do. I can't even pretend to be surprised. Bernie is willing to work with Trump for a $10 minimum wage because that's what losing is. It's harsh, but when you lose this badly you take the scraps and are glad to get them. Honestly, we'll be lucky if they don't try to do away with the minimum wage all together, which some Republicans are itching to do. I don't believe that could really happen, but $12 is pie in the sky now. Hell, $10 probably is too. How sad is that?

Maybe there will be so many financial conflicts of interest that he'll choose to resign over selling his interests. That's probably our only hope. People (including Ezra Klien) floated the idea that he would quit before he election. That was clearly wrong. He had plenty of opportunities to do just that. He could have used the pressure Melania and Baron were facing at any point. Now, he has a ton of staffers to do the heavy lifting for him, so I don't see it happening. He wants the power and prestige. The campaign shows us that he's actually pretty resilient in the way that narcissist tend to be. When he was outright confronted as a liar, he'd just say he never said what we all saw him say and stick to that. No matter how many times he's shown to be wrong or incompetent, he comes back the next day insisting that he's right and "the only one that can fix it". I've known a few guys in management who are like this. It's amazing how many people interpret this lack of self awareness as strength. Of course I've never encountered anyone who is as completely shameless as Trump. I see Ted Cruz is willing to accept a Supreme Court nomination.

CNN gives Van Jones and Ana Navarro quite a bit of airtime. They have a few other commentators who talk about it a lot. One is named Angela, but I can't think of her last name. Then you have Jeffery Lord and that Mcanany (sp) woman saying it's not true, but I don't think even they believe it. I also feel like I've read a ton of articles on Politico, The Atlantic, Salon and the other usual suspects talking about the issue of racism in this election. Anyone who doesn't know we are about to be ruled by racists has their head in the sand or they just don't want to admit it, imo.

I guess I'm not seeing as much denial as you do. I see lots of people talking about racism. Trump himself hid his racism and sexism with nothing but the thinnest of veils. "Oh, I don't know anything about the Klan, how can I disavow them"? The problem from my perspective is what do you do when a large portion of the electorate chooses a racist/sexist/fascist with no shame? Hell, that's why some of these people picked him. Then that leader doubles down and appoints open white supremacists (again hiding being the thinnest of veils) to leadership positions. This sort of Nationalism tends to feed on itself and gets stronger, which has me very worried. The conventional wisdom is that demographics are going to save us at some point, but I've become skeptical of that after what just happened.. I think it would be very foolish to rely solely on that hope. I have no idea where the Democrats go from here, but I hope the leadership comes up with a decent plan over the next year. Maybe we'll be lucky and Trump will come crashing down, but I don't know how that happens given that nothing seems to touch him.

^ I'd love nothing more. Also, I think this is true: Vox ‏@voxdotcom 8h8 hours ago Hamilton tweets are a shiny object distracting people from Trump’s fraud settlement and corruption

Trump is about to be the most powerful man in the country, who is going to take his Twitter from him? Why would they take his Twitter from him, he won and credits social media with his success. All the crazy things he's said aren't hurting him because a good chunk of the population agrees with him. And yeah, I find that depressing as hell, but I can't really deny it at this point.

There is no rational reason to even boycott. This guy (by his own admission) went off his meds and screamed at a barista for "anti white discrimination" because his coffee took too long. At least the original guy has an excuse, the rest of these people seem to honestly believe that Starbucks is discriminating against white Trump supporters.

A follow up to the Starbucks story. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/living/trump-cup-starbucks/index.html Trump cups. Is this real life? Meanwhile the original guy has admitted that he was off his meds the day he went off on the barista and accused her of anti white discrimination.

That's some good news at least. I feel like it's open season and certain politicians are going to be testing to see how much they can get away with.

^ True and let's just say any trust I had in the FBI is now seriously eroded. Lord help us all, I feel Pandora's Box has truly been opened and so much %*&^ is about to go down.

^ I would say that when it comes to FBI operations most Americans wouldn't feel qualified to know when that is justified and when it isn't. It's not like we have the information to make that decision. Obviously children on a no fly list doesn't make sense and anyone can see that is wrong, but when it comes to adults how could individual Americans ever know what that is justified and when it isn't? A registry is much more clearly wrong and worrisome. Also this article is arguing that a registry would be constitutional. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-muslim-registry-constitution-231527

^ Bernie is really too old to be the leader of the party. Is he really going to run for President at 78 years old? Perhaps I'm being ageist, but I don't mean to be. It just doesn't seem practical at all. As for he gutting of entitlements, seniors vote. Maybe it's going to take that pain to make seniors and their children rethink things a bit.

All this talk of a Muslim registry is deeply disturbing.

@JaneAusten I'll agree with you that education in STEM subjects have been a problem for a long time. I remember my chemistry teacher complaining about 20+ years ago. At the same the average IQ is 100. You aren't going to make a math major or an engineer out of that no matter how good your educational system is. So sure, we need to make the most of the potential we have in this country, but I think it's an obvious area where immigration can solve some of our needs.

I would say that a lot of these jobs are in various forms of engineering (computer, bio) and other STEM sectors and not everyone has the brains for it. Some of the health care jobs we need such as elder care are low paying and high stress. Similar to daycare where people are also underpaid.