Khan

At the risk of sounding like an even bigger fool than I already do, I officially take back what I said several pages ago about being resistant to Mike Pence assuming the presidency. If "President Pence" is the only trade-off we have for keeping Trump out of the Oval Office, then I say, "Yes, please." The Democrats can always come back in four years and squash his bid for another term -- because, after all, we can't even be sure anymore that Trump will keep us alive and free by this time next year!

Since Trump has made it clear he'll skip daily intelligence briefings, I don't think they'll have anything to worry about.

In a way, Julia, that's the worst part of it all. Because, even if we receive a Christmas miracle straight out of a Pam Long storyline on GL and Trump is somehow blocked from the presidency, we still have to deal with all the issues that have cropped up in the wake of an awful, awful election. Blocking (or removing) Trump won't make go away everything that has been done and said since November 8. Because -- and granted, this is just from what I have gathered since the election -- but I think her team determined, rightly or wrongly, that those individuals did not reflect the majority of this country, either in terms of demographics, or with the issues that had concerned them throughout the election. As I said upthread, it kind of surprised me to learn that the number of manufacturing jobs lost in this country since NAFTA is relatively minor compared to the number of people who live currently in the U.S. It's just tragic that for a comparatively smaller group of people, their electoral votes ended up weighing more than everyone else's.

That's true. Black women don't give a s**t about likability. They just want you to do your damn job. Nobody brought you in it. At the risk of being even more unliked, I will say that that doesn't surprise me. Compared to most African-Americans I know or know about, I haven't personally experienced much racism in life. But what racism I HAVE experienced has come mostly from white women. And really, I am starting to think Black women are wasting their time. America does NOT deserve their help.

And I will lose. IMO, Black women, in general, know b.s. when they smell it. Regardless of the rhetoric.

The thing is, I THOUGHT Obama had learned that. I THOUGHT that was why he had issued all those executive orders that Trump keeps threatening to rip up and throw away as soon as he is inaugurated -- because he (Obama) had realized the other side would never compromise with (yeah, I'm gonna say it) an HNIC. Of course, leave it to Obama to exercise his power against unreasonable people by doing something that could be undone the minute he leaves office. The schmuck. Just shows to go you how ineffectual and inconsequential I always thought he'd be in the end. If we're all concerned that Trump could wipe out Obama's legacy with a few strokes of his pen, then maybe Obama's legacy wasn't that strong to begin with.

And yet, Little Jimmy Comey, who was probably working under orders from someone within the GOP, was allowed to re-drag Hillary mere days before the election without any push-back whatsoever from the Repubs, or even the MSM and many on the left. And all over what turned out to be nothing. Again. I must admit that when I read how Mitch McConnell basically blackmailed Obama into sitting on this information, I lost what little respect I had gained for our outgoing president. I understand Obama's belief in the so-called "better angels of our nature" and that individuals CAN work toward a consensus if we appeal to their sense of reason. But there comes a time when, as a leader, you have to set aside the Arthurian ideals and just do the damn thing, and to hell with the consequences. McConnell (and others) want to accuse President P-Funk of partisanship? Whatevs, man. We'll deal with that AFTER we let America know what the frak Putin is up to. Frankly, Mr. President, if you haven't learned by now that the GOP will resist anything you even THINK about doing or saying -- even if it means putting the safety of this country in jeopardy -- because it's you who is doing the doing or the saying, then I don't know what to tell you. Except maybe, just maybe, I was right all along and you weren't cut out for this job. And yes, we have officially made ourselves Putin's bitch. But you know something? Sometimes we get what we deserve.

"BUT THE EMAILS! DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE EMAILS! FOUR PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE OF HILLARY CLINTON'S EMAILS! AND HER HUSBAND IS AN AMORAL LETCH! AND THEY HAVE TAKEN MONEY FROM WALL STREET! WITH HER EMAILS!"

But they won't. Some might do the right thing, of course, but it won't be enough. We're just fucked. You wouldn't think someone as wealthy as Trump is would BE so...susceptible. I know I will never watch his cameo in "Judith Krantz's 'I'll Take Manhattan'" the same way again.

But they won't -- and even if they try, no one will believe them. Especially not those who don't trust the Liberal Media no matter what.

Wouldn't it be funny if we were to learn Donald Trump had been nothing more than a puppet for Vladimir Putin and the Russian government? I mean, we've been saying all along that that narcissistic bastard is not fit to run the country. But if we were to discover he was played just as much we were, and by darker forces.... Don't get me wrong -- there's every chance in the world that TrumpCo. knew about Russia's intentions and either actively cooperated or just looked the other way. But think about it: Russia interferes with the election process in order to get Trump elected, but Trump believes he's president-elect because the nation genuinely loves him (until, of course, he learns that's actually not the case). That would be funny, right? Well, I know I would laugh. Donald Trump would end up looking like a fat, empty-headed stooge, and I would be laughing and slow-clapping the whole damn time.

I believe the planet will recover. As I told one of my FB friends, though, I don't think the recovery will happen with our generation. Civil rights, reproductive rights, job recovery, tax and entitlement reforms -- all that, and so much more, are now in our children and grandchildren's hands to repair. Of course, that's not including climate change. We're all pretty much fucked there. The thing is, I believed back in '08 that we were making history too soon with Obama; and that sooner or later, we would have to pay for that. (Heck, Obama himself intimated in the New Yorker interview that someone like him probably came along about twenty or thirty years too soon.) This nation just was not ready for a Black president, so the White establishment, embodied by the Trump administration, is doing everything it can now to erase him entirely from history. Even if it means placing the nation and the world itself in jeopardy. And no one will ever convince me otherwise.

My theory: many on the right dismiss climate change as a hoax, because admitting that it is real would force the country and the world to rely on alternative sources of energy, which would devastate the coal, gas and oil industries. So, money talks.

Not too long ago, I joked that Trump should pick either Heidi Fleiss or Sydney Biddle Barrows for Labor secretary. But, you know, now that I've seen who Trump DID pick, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea after all to have a former madam in charge of America's workforce.

I'm sorry, but I see $70,000/year as damn good income. If that's what they are making on average and they still feel they are "falling behind," then government is not the problem. (Not attacking you, Julia. IJS.) No, the more I analyze this situation, the more I believe race (and Obama's race in particular) was the big factor in this election. Trump is a white male who reinforces many people's base fears and prejudices. Hillary, to them, represented four more years of President Parliament Funkadelic.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: sooner or later, those people will come to grips with the fact that progress is leaving them behind. No one likes to feel they've been forgotten, but that's exactly what will happen to them.

I read this morning in the Washington Post that 4.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost over the past two decades to outsourcing and automation. Is that accurate? Don't get me wrong -- four-and-a-half million people without livelihoods is serious. But if those numbers are indeed correct... 1) Considering that over 300 million currently live in the U.S., the plight of white, working-class citizens who say they have seen jobs being sent over to Canada, Mexico, and other places might be, well, slightly exaggerated. By that, I mean, the problem of jobs loss can't be as widespread as the candidates and the media have made it out to be since it apparently affected relatively few people. 2) It seems insane to me that a tenth of our country's current population is determining how the rest of us will be governed, or that the rest of us have to extend to them preferential treatment even though the numbers tend to be on our side.

I love him and I want him to run. Too bad he wouldn't win, though.

Stay classy, GOP.

Why am I not surprised?

Just...putting it out there: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-michigan-recount_us_5840b020e4b017f37fe3d8a9?

Speaking of... Let's say the electoral college goes along with the popular vote and chooses HRC. Would the fact that she officially conceded the election to Trump mean she would be disqualified (for lack of a better word) from accepting the victory that the electoral college potentially could hand her? (In other words, would Trump remain as President-Elect regardless of the electoral college's decision?) Moreover, if she were allowed to assume the presidency after all, would she be beholden to keeping Trump's cabinet picks in place? Or would those picks be scrapped and she would be allowed to put together her own cabinet?

Nevermind.

Take it from someone who lives in Oklahoma: Mary Fallin is everything you have heard and read about, and worse. Seriously, the woman should not be left in charge of a lemonade stand, let alone our nation's parks and wildlife. But, on the other hand, at least she wouldn't be just our state's problem anymore. So there's that.

I'd have to agree, marceline. January looks so very far away.