quartermainefan

Still not feeling it.   This was just more of the same only now we watched newbies contending with mini-Negan.  One was enough.   I liked Jesus last year, but integrate him into the main dynamic, not devote an episode to "The Jesus and whatever the other guy's name is Show"    I can't honestly say I care about Hilltop and how and if it survives.  Why did we spend an hour on their politics?   And then there is Carl and Enid.  The course of young love never runs easy, but haven't these two been acting out the same scene for a year?

Mini-Negan:  Why?   Was the original Negan so fascinating the show decided what was needed was a clone?  The scenes between mini-negan and whatever his name is was total FF material.  Newbie meets even newbier.   And when did Jesus become so close with Maggie and Sasha?   I don't recall them even meeting. 

About the only thing the show did right was at the bookends:   Carl being unable to play darts is a nice touch, and then pairing Carl with Jesus.   That's how you are supposed to integrate characters into the show, not the army of newbies the show has assaulted us with all season.   We've seen five episodes so far.  By my count the Saviors and their one-dimensional broken record cruelty has been on in some fashion each and every one.   Now the show wants to make going concerns of the blond guy with the burned face, Negan, the wife they share, the guy who runs Hilltop, Jesus, and who the heck knows who is coming next.   Whatever happened to Carol?  What about the wolves, did the show just drop them?   And when 40 Saviors and Negan came knocking on the door last week just standing there waiting to be ambushed, why didn't Alexandria just shoot them and end this tedious and goes nowhere storyline?

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

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. 

I am not really sure what Hillary's message was.   She said Trump didn't have the temperament,  but she didn't really address anything that was on the voters minds, clearly,    Where was she on Obamacare or the economy.   It has been consistent for years that a good half of the country didn't like Obamacare, and some with good reason.   She ignored that.  She wasn't interested in discussing that subject and that seems to have been the one of the key issues.   The sad irony for Hillary was of all people it was a Clinton who forgot "the economy, stupid".   Miss Universe, the Gold Star family....they seemed like such great topics at the time but it was just smoke and mirrors for the real issue, which because of her ties to Obama was an issue she really couldn't address.    And maybe she should have since jobs have been picking up and wall street is booming and made her pitch.    We know what she will do for gay rights, abortion rights, civil rights, muslim refugees seeking asylum, latinos here illegally looking to come out of hiding, all very nice, but what was her plan for the guy making $50,000 a year struggling to pay his premiums?

I don't think Hillary would have been a great president.   She comes across as a highly informed custodian with a lack of vision.   FDR didn't become the best president of the 20th century just because he was good at management.     She would have been a highly competent caretaker-in-chief, barring some unforeseen war forcing her to find her inner leader.

On another note, all politicians are such whores:  Now Mitt Romney is scheduled to meet with Trump.

24 minutes ago, AdelaideCate007 said:

Is the John Bolton he wants to make Secretary of State the same one that helped drag half the world into the Iraq war?

Yes.   I am a little surprised Trump would want this guy frankly.   He spent the first half of the year attacking the Iraq War and the lies that got the US into it, and here he is picking one of the chief liars about that war.    Bolton has this knack for being wrong about a lot of things a lot of the time.

4 hours ago, JaneAusten said:

 

 

BUT there was no rigging. She won by over 4 million votes. And he never really had her back. I believe he's actually gleeful about the results but if he thinks ALL democrats are going to buy his position and who he wants he has another thing coming. I agree with him to an extent about misunderstanding perhaps ignoring a voting base that's been important to democrats for years, but there are also other demographic groups that have other concerns as well. And less nots forget he's not in the democratic party

Go back and look closely at the Iowa caucus results.   I'd bet a hundred bucks he won that and then they magically found votes for her, questionable coin flips and whatever else it took to proclaim her the winner by a vote.

I really dislike the new direction of the show.  I knew it was going to be this way, and I don't see any way out of this.   The show is so enamored with Negan that three out of the four episodes so far have been Negen-oriented.   He is on almost every scene, he talks all the time, and his dialogue is very one dimensional and repetitive.   It's boring, he's boring, the actor is boring in the role. 

Then of course none of it makes sense.   Here on this episode we see Alexandria has an entire armory of guns.   Negan and 30 of his top soldiers come knocking on the door.   Why didn't they just go up into their towers and wait, kill Negan, and his lieutenants, and end the battle in two seconds?   The answer is because the comic made Negan into this major role so the TV show will too.  So they can't kill him which means everyone has to accept the status quo even though they had it in their power to win 1-2-3. 

Even Negan's whole premise doesn't make sense.   First he is this terrible leader that kills and maims his own men.   And they haven't killed him why?  No reason other than the character has a 26 episode commitment or something.   Second, he has an infinity number of men.  Literally infinity.  No matter how many people Rick killed, the show just magically has more who can appear anywhere they want.   Well, where were they all this time Alexandria was living in peace?   How about the police woman in the city who took Beth, did Negan shake her down?  No of course not, because he shook no one down until the show needed a villain with an army.    Suddenly everyone knew Negan and Negan was aware of Alexandria.    But didn't Aaron spend the last two years scouting the entire  area looking for survivors?    Did he look everywhere except where Negan's men were--which is everywhere outside of Alexandria?  And then there is that Hilltop city.   They asked Rick and his eight fighters to go kill Negan.  So where did they send him, to not the place where Negan lives.   And why didn't they tell Rick "by the way, he has 600 soldiers"? 

I think I could handle this if only Negan was actually entertaining and did something more than talk non-stop about how badass he is.  It's glum, grim, unenjoyable and not fun.   It is not surprising ratings fell dramatically since the premiere.   Who wants to watch an hour of Daryl eating dogfood?  Which Einstein thought that was must see TV?

There was an article at either HuffPost or Politico or one of those sites, which said Bill Clinton tried to get the campaign to go into the rustbelt but the know it alls ignored him.   He told them more than once they needed a message for white working class, but they thought they had enough with what they had.    I don't know how Hillary could allow them to ignore Bill.   Handlers come and go, but he is her partner for life and he is no fool.  I think it was in the Times or somewhere that Bill sensed what was coming a while ago, and that's why he said what he did about Obamacare and started calling Hillary the real change agent.

I imagine Putin sees Trump as a useful idiot.  They'll make peace and everything will be peachy, but it will be on Putin's terms.   Trump will say "let the russians fight in Syria, why should we get our boys killed?"  and Putin will say "the mid east is ours".  Trump might even say "you do whatever you want, just keep the oil flowing". 

I really want to see what happens when Mexico tells him he isn't getting a single peso for his wall.   What then?    He'll be backed into a corner with no way of saving face.

I have to say the last two days Trump has been on his best behavior.   After all these years bashing Obama and the year and a half trashing Hillary, he has had only nice things to say about both, and I want to hope that now that he won he is dropping the rabid persona he needed to win.   He was a democrat up until fairly recently, and maybe some of that is seeping back in.  There's no more talk of throwing Hillary in jail, he thanked her for her years of service, he said he would call on Obama for counsel and it was an honor to meet him...I hope whatever has led him to be civil continues.    It was only a year ago Trump was saying he liked the medical system in Scotland.   Clearly that doesn't play in republican elections, but now that he's won maybe he wants to revisit that.   I think it would be easier for Trump to get a socialized - current hybrid than it would have been for Hillary or Bernie because it would be coming from someone not seen as a tax hiking commie lefty.

I agree with whoever said you don't want Trump impeached.   Mike Pence is bad news of the highest order.  

The more I think about it, the dems made a mistake and should have gone with Bernie.  He had the same change agent aspect Trump did, he had the millennials and the same mega rallies Trump did.  I think he just needed some way to reach out to black and latino voters and he would have been good to go.  I honestly don't remember why he was so resoundingly rejected in the south.  

7 minutes ago, AdelaideCate007 said:

Our news was suggesting that one way to help from here is to send donations to the organisations that will be most effected by this shitshow. I already donated just a bit ago to the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and ACLU. What are some other good organisations to donate to? I have the money and it's the least I can try and do. 

Planned Parenthood is probably the organization highest on their target list.     That is very generous of you, and whoever it was on your news that suggested that.   I feel really terrible about what happened here.  I am trying to remember what happened the last time this happened, and that was 2004.   Bush was in the middle of his war and they were interested in torturing people and whatever.   Compared to Trump, Bush comes off as this perfect gentleman. 

I think it is so funny that your TV discusses America like this disaster area in need of funds.  And it's true, you can do nothing except laugh about how horrible it is.     His 100 day plan I think was all about doing away with environmental protections, water protections, and whatever other kind of protections republicans hate.   I just hope the gods of plague and disease know to strike Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and every other state that stabbed Hillary in the back.   I don't blame republican states for voting republican; they are too dumb to know any better.   These other states however are a different story.    They hadn't voted republican in 25 years.

1 hour ago, Juliajms said:

That tweet is spot on. In the email dumps we saw that the Clinton team considered outing Bernie as an atheist. They decided against it, but the Republicans would not have been so kind. Jews poll way better than atheists, Even Muslims are seen more favorably. 51% of people polled are less likely to vote for an atheist. I've also seen polling that shows 40% of people will not vote for an atheist under any circumstance. So Bernie is a Jew by birth, an atheist in practice and a social democrat, which the majority of the people read as socialist (even though it's different). He was not going to win.

 

Can you even imagine how riled up the alt right would have been if a Jew had been running in the general election? They already think Jews run the world, it would have been a nightmare. Selfishly, I'm very grateful that didn't happen.

 

Anyone interested in seeing the polling on how various religious affiliations effect votes should check out this link, it's pretty interesting. The second chart down is where they compare religions.

http://www.pewforum.org/2016/01/27/faith-and-the-2016-campaign/

It's funny that Trump fits some of those negatives.   He doesn't believe in god by any real measure, and he had personal financial troubles.   He had extramarital affairs too.

13 minutes ago, AdelaideCate007 said:

 

Giving all of you a virtual hug. You all don't deserve this.

 

A black cloud and rain just appeared over Sydney-

 

Feels oddly appropriate right now

Is that your view?   Except for that annoying building blocking your window, it's beautiful.

I feel sorry for Obama.   He tried his best to do the best he could.    He may not have done everything perfectly but nobody ever does, and now all his work will be undone and he will go from being one of the most consequential presidents to one whose entire imprint will be erased.   When they meet I can't imagine how awkward it will be given the personal animosity.

I think Trump's speech kind of shows one of the reasons why he won.   He is a good speaker, a natural, and he talks like a real person.  It's all nauseating, but he's good in front of a mic.  So was Mussolini but that's another story.

3 minutes ago, AdelaideCate007 said:

So Australian TV is basically calling this for Trump- citing the AP- and are calling this the biggest and most frightening upset in the history of the modern world. 

 

The people on 7 News and Sky news are having meltdowns and my twitter feed is a mess between all the people I know personally and all the media. I feel like the whole world just got crushed. 

She just conceded.  

27 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

I'm having a hard time processing this. I feel like I need to understand the details of exactly how this happened and how so many people got it wrong. I guess for now it's time for ambien and sleep.

Earlier in the season we had said it was no sure thing and with good reason.   Everyone got sidetracked by the Access Hollywood tape to the point we forgot that the real story was Trump and Bernie and what that said.    Plus, the country has a fear of women.    So who should be ashamed of themselves:

The 30% of the latino voters who voted for Trump

All the republican women who voted for Trump

If any group deserved to be the ones to end Trump's candidacy it was the latinos but it turns out one out of every three wants that wall I guess, or doesn't like muslims.

She's probably going to lose FL.   If dems can't take the senate tonight with the math being what it was (republicans were putting up something like 24 senators up for re-election compared to the democrats 10) then they will never reclaim the senate.   In two years it will be dems putting up 25 senators. 

Things are starting to become disturbing.  It isn't just Florida where Trump is hanging tough. 

Sorry to read about Janet Reno.   Parkinsons sucks.  She was right to go in at Waco.  Elian Gonzalez was a tough subject but I think she made the right decision there.  Appointing Ken Starr to investigate Whitewater was a blunder.

I find the idea that the FBI has partisan cliques a little disturbing.   They're people too so of course they will have opinions, but the FBI should be like the secret service and be operating in an ideology-free zone.   Perhaps that is naive, but agents should not be able to coerce the department to take action via threat of leaks.    Thankfully things aren't as bad as the days of J Edgar Hoover, but still, there should be a way to clean the FBI up from political agendas.

33 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

^ But we can't start advocating people's death because of what they think. That tends to work out badly for any society that tries it.  It wouldn't matter if this were just one of us on the board, but this is someone close to power (or potential power). I though it was pretty disturbing.

The guy is a nazi.  His hero  killed 6 million people just like me.   If this guy had his way my grandparents would have got it too and I wouldn't be here right now.    Let him die and make the world a better place I say.    He's a nazi, end of story as far as I'm concerned.   In the contest of who is most evil in world history, the nazis win.   That's who this guy aspires to be.

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

David Duke is a vile human being but that the son of a major Presidential candidate is casually saying he deserves "a bullet" is chilling. This ticket seems to have dropped any pretense of not being fascistic in every way. 

 

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/david-duke-deserves-bullet-eric-trump

Call me a fascist, but David Duke does deserve a bullet.   Just remember what Dave is thinking about so many of the people who post on this forum, if not as individuals then our various types.    The Trumps are fascists, but I am not wasting even a single brain cell worrying about David Duke's civil rights.   

6 hours ago, AdelaideCate007 said:

What exactly are "murder gangs"?

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/nyregion/brentwood-ms-13-gang-case-arrests-long-island.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/nyregion/they-keep-finding-bodies-gang-violence-in-long-island-town-fuels-immigration-debate.html

Apparently they are called MS-13 and they are no better than animals in many cases.      They have their origins in El Salvador I think and came to America to give  reasons for Hillary to call gang members super predators and for my friend to say "this is what the liberals gave us when they opened up immigration".    

I love talking to republicans because it is always so interesting to hear how someone else sees things that isn't even on my radar.   I never thought about the inheritance tax as being a compelling reason to vote one way or another, but I can see why that would be important to some.   I have another friend who is a border patrol agent and hates Obama with a passion because the border patrol budget got cut while they were put upon to be de facto police in isolated areas without cops for no compensation and with no training.   So isolated they don't even have cell phones and the govt is too cheap to do anything about getting them on the phone network.   I didn't even know that was a thing.    He wanted Bernie or Trump.   I have one friend, a cliche mainstream republican who actually puts on a jacket and tie to meet his parents for dinner at fancy Manhattan university alumni clubs that probably don't even allow jews, and he wanted Rubio.   Now he won't even discuss politics anymore and is sitting the election out.     I love talking politics, but it's more fun talking to people who disagree with you.  It's a shame Max sort of got driven off this forum.   He was our only republican I think.

He is a white male, but white men exist too.  I am not saying I agree with everything he says (although deporting murder gangs sounds pretty ok to me) but white men are allowed their point of view too and it is real.   And all these little things start to form a narrative.   Trump speaks to this guy, and he is a college educated white guy who isn't a religious zealot, isn't into guns, has no problem with gay rights or being friendly with people of color...he just has a world view Hillary does not seek to address.  

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

One of the reasons the polls are now tied or shifting toward Trump is because more Republicans, including those with college degrees that often huff and puff about how they don't like Trump, are moving toward him. It's another example of why Democrats are better off spending less and less time making any effort toward wooing the fantasy of a moderate Republican that died somewhere around 1980. Most Republicans would vote for a lunatic, and happily do so, over any Democrat ever.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/30/white-republicans-are-coming-home-to-donald-trump-at-just-the-right-time/

There has been a pattern all along of Trump bleeding but then recovering.   To be honest I think I agree with Ann Coulter who way back said Trump would have had a tougher time against Sanders.    Hillary is just a bad candidate who has difficulty sealing the deal.   She knows her stuff and would make an excellent appointee, but running for office and selling is not her strong suit.   She couldn't beat a guy nobody ever heard of who had been a senator two years, and she has trouble maintaining a lead against a nutjob.

A lot of people don't see Trump as a nutjob though.  They see him as someone who is looking at all the manufacturing jobs leaving the country and who promises to stop it, meanwhile Hillary was initially promising to expand the new world trade order.     My old roommate from college, a bright guy who lives in a section of the country riddled with recent gang violence--gangs imported from south of the border no less.   His question is  basically "why are liberals against deporting these animals?".   Then he segues into pretty much  "and the cops are not allowed to do their job because everyone will claim they are racist".   Then he reads a memo from the school board asking children to not wear certain colors to school to reduce  gang violence and he sort of says "How crazy is this, they murder everyone and we are not allowed to hurt their gang feelings".    (I paraphrased all)    Add in the fact he is wealthy and wants to leave his kids his money when he dies, and you have a Trump supporter that is perfectly sane.     I mentioned Trump has certain anti-american ideas like basing laws on religion, and he glosses right over that because that is not on his radar.    

Ezekiel is a good addition to the show.   There is rarely nice people introduced so he is a welcome addition especially since the show is down some good guys.  Some things you just have to accept, like his insta-attraction to Carol, and how it is Alexandria never met any of these new settlements before Rick and the gang came along,  but I am willing to look the other way through a plot hole or two.  Alexandria went all this time without so much as giving Negan a grape but everyone else has been offering up their weekly harvest apparently.   Another thing is when these groups started forming how did Negan get even a single recruit if Ezekiel and Alexandria were right up the road offering a much better deal with no potential for baseball bats to the head.

Carol has to get over this silly contrived head trip she has.   It still is from out of nowhere, and she is needed to save the day back home.   Also, Morgan said he was there two days and she seems to have convalesced a few days more, you would think this town would have lent him a horse to go tell his own settlement Carol was safe and sound and they had new friends.

3 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

I wonder which state is more screwed Kansas or Wisconsin? It's down right shameful what's going on in both states.

I honestly feel those states deserve everything they get.   Nobody tells them to vote in republican governors and legislatures, but they do it every year.   Let them enjoy it.