Wales2004

I really don't get all those people claiming that these bans have made them feel safer. And Kellyanne Conway saying that the protesters don't understand is laughable because they don't know the facts. They use 9/11 as justification for the ban and their examples of the Boston Marathon and San Bernardino show how much they rely on the ignorance of the public not to be able to figure out that none of those instances including people from the banned countries. They keep referring to a list by Obama to justify the nations they included but he was supposed to be inept and claiming that it is not anti-Muslim because 41 other Muslim nations are not banned does not make it other than what it is. If the plan really is to oust Trump, they're going to have their hands full trying to stick this out until they are able to get all their legislation through.

The people who I've seen or read about having regrets over voting for Trump all point to the poor choice of candidates. I think the majority of those who now regret it or eventually will are probably those who were never enthusiastic about him in the first place. His main core of supporters will probably never regret it--no matter how adversely it may impact some of them. They may always find the fact that they want to believe he stands for them and their values worth their delusions. They don't ever need to "see the light." What is important is that they never succeed in dragging everyone else back to their version of how things should be. People have sat back for years and let certain individuals define what an American is with little or no challenge. Now their hatred has forced something that they never foresaw and hopefully it will lead to them being shut down. At the end of all of this, we will see how triumphant all those Trump supporters running around basking in his victory will feel when all they have to say is that he won. They will eventually realize that what they thought was their movement to "take back America" became their last desperate hold because it's never going back to whatever it was and they cannot bully everyone else into submission.

I don't think any Democrats in California want the border wall. Anyway, I don't think the border obsession is part of any playbook for him. I think he seriously wants to build this wall and find any little thing he can to claim that Mexico paid for it. And I don't think he's going to get anywhere with that. I guess the form of negotiations that he uses in business is not the best approach but he has yet to figure out that only his base and some wimpy individuals in the media and on the hill will give in to him. It was positively idiotic for him to say that the president of Mexico has to say that he won't pay for the wall, as if there is no way that anyone in Mexico would know he said that. He may actually end up weakening the global position of the U.S. The media seems to be pretty quiet about it being called the opposition party and being told to keep its mouth shut.

They're already walking back their dumb 20% tax threat. His big mouth has him in a jam because now he can't rest until he finds a way to convince everyone that he made Mexico pay for a useless wall. His Trumpkins are too dumb to get that his big bad tweet about paying for the wall or cancel the meeting was done because to make him look tough after he knew the meeting would be cancelled. He still does not get that a country is not a corporation and that he cannot use his bullying negotiation tactics to intimidate countries into doing what he says. GM laid off 2000 workers last Friday and they said some may be offered other positions but nothing specific. So all his big talk has not done anything but a few companies to let him take credit for moves they already had in the works. Maybe he's working on bankrupting the government.

CNN is reporting that four of them were fired as part of some house cleaning but it seems a bit sketchy. If they, in fact, had to submit their resignations as part of a tradition then why even bother saying they were fired? It would have been more tactful to say that they were not asked to stay on. And yes I know that this administration it neither tactful or diplomatic but it's not as if they can be used to make some grand statement about cleaning up Washington.

As far as I am concerned CNN's non-stop coverage and daily talks with him in 2015, paved the way for Trump. They shrugged off all of his divisive speech as nothing, gave him the opportunity to freely promote his lies and venom which made it attractive to the other cable news networks. It may be funny to toss around labels such as "alternative facts" for a laugh but I think it's counterproductive to use different words to dress up the word lie. I saw something a little while ago on MSNBC referring to a poll about "false facts." I am glad that Amy Goodwin on Democracy Now has not problem referring to whatever Trump says as lies because there are a lot of impressionable people out there who will eventually not understand the difference between facts and lies.

Trump seems to be pathological. He probably believes whatever lie he is telling at the time he is telling it. California is an easy target for him because of the border and the favorite Republican myth that all the illegals are coming in and stealing jobs. He's upped the myth by making them criminals. People can fixate on Mexico all day long but that is not the only country from which illegal immigrants come. And there aren't a bunch of illegal immigrants fraudulently voting in California either. There were some system glitches that affected absentee ballots for people who registered during a certain period in which duplicate ballots were sent out with the address of the recently registered voter but different addressees. I believe they would have caught large irregularities before the results were certified and no one in the time since has come forward to report any scams. The easiest way to commit voter fraud would be through the absentee ballots and based on the numbers I've seen there are not enough to cover the range he quoted. And I don't buy that a whole lot of dead people voted either because even though the state is not so swift in catching when a resident has died, the counties are better at purging. I do think it's time that instead of just relying on the courts, something should be done to try to get identification for those voters who need it.

I briefly watched a discussion on one of the PBS channels about religion and politics and one of them seemed to be gleeful about the whole anti-abortion direction and one was hopeful because he believes that they are going to preserve healthcare for those who cannot afford since liars always do what they say. I find it troubling that these people want to narrow Christianity down to stopping abortions. I want to know what special version of the Bible they read that tells them that Christians ought to be knee-deep in politics. And I don't get why abortions are more important to them than helping the poor. I can never see myself having an abortion but it's not my place to try to tell another woman what she should do. It's an extremely personal decision and I have only had one woman tell me that she had an abortion and did not struggle with it. She accepted what she felt she needed to do. Some of the others look back and mainly wish they didn't have to but probably would have made the same decision under the circumstances. I'm not for the idea of letting some girl die having a botched abortion just because some tax dollars would go to her having the procedure done more safely. I don't suppose they worry about their tax dollars going towards funding weapons and other arms that end up killing innocent children in the crossfire of wars meant to keep these conscientious taxpayers safe. CNN officially became useless in 2015 when they became the Trump network. Both Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon took turns interviewing Trump daily for ratings. And they both either excused or downplayed his hateful rhetoric by making out as though he was that friend who just ran off at the mouth a little but meant no harm. I was done with CNN after that (though I would still check the site). Now the breaking news is all about Trump this or that and not anything significant. I saw some mention online of Anderson Cooper calling out John Lewis and the Democrats for what he considered hypocrisy. I also noticed that they've got some contributors that are pro-Trump which would be fine if it's just about balance. However, at least one of them is of the Trump won and you better get over it variety. He won but I don't live in an alternate world where reality is a lie and I'm not visiting that place for anyone. I'm not interested in living in fear and I won't do it.

It's disturbing that Spicer can stand up there and flat out lie with a bunch of made-up numbers and not be challenged by the media. They can actually check those things quickly and they should have been prepared for the 3-5 million lie from yesterday. The fact that they are not even on top of that minutiae is far outweighed by the lack of coverage on these major issues.

I cannot see a deal being made over Ben Carson because he's probably the most useless token ever and nothing in the way of a bargaining chip. Unless the deal was that they would delay but that makes it a temporary thing and more likely than not that Sessions gets voted in.

The House is expected to pass The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act today. It basically denies abortion coverage in health insurance plans to specific groups of women, and provides incentives for private health insurers to drop abortion coverage, bans it in multi-state health insurance plans except in certain cases, and denies women and small businesses tax credits if they choose health plans that cover abortion.

He said they were without merit. So you know.....they must be without merit because he said so. And only he knows the truth. On the other hand, he told the congressional leaders with whom he met this evening that he lost the popular vote because of voter fraud. You know like 3-5 million fraudulent votes. No evidence or anything but since he said it then it must be true. If ThinSkin wants to cut down on some wasted taxpayer dollars he would ban Jason Chaffetz and Issa from holding useless hearings. But then what would they do to pretend they're all about their constituents?

Spicer lied about federal hiring being up so that it could seem as if they are putting a stop to waste. Federal hiring actually decreased since 2009. It is probably the case that there was not much in the way of hiring or creation of new positions anyway, since automation and budget cuts have caused reductions in staff across the board (with the exception of the military). Trump's all about taking credit for what was already being done or going to be done anyway. While he's "befriending" the unions for bragging purposes, he wants to gut the civil service's equivalent of a union by reducing the minimum pay to $1. Cutting government waste would be great if they actually cut waste but the 30% jobs that they are likely to not cut much in the way of waste. They need to be able to fund his "great" deals since he so easily gave up $7 million or so in tax dollars to fund the 700 jobs he "saved" in that Carrier deal (which btw does not prevent Carrier from making other job cuts).

Earlier I said that the plan to expand press via Skype was out of the Putin playbook but I should have said the expansion of the press in those briefings is out of the Putin playbook. They hope that more press will result in less attention to detail and definitely less specific questions (not that those types of questions would be answered anyway). When the Trump mouthpieces start spouting off all his concern for the poor, etc., it would be great if someone would ask where all this concern was before he ran. He's had decades to show his concern and make a significant impact. The criteria for helping the poor is not holding public office. His way of "helping" seems to be by putting up roadblocks and making things worst. They want to paint this awful picture of America and position him as the savior who comes in and fixes everything. I am tired of hearing how good he is at making deals. He is not and has never been America's best businessman. His tax returns probably show how little in taxes he actually pays due to whatever loopholes his accountants use. He also probably has more foreign debt than is known. Bankruptcies have been beneficial to him and allowed him to get away with paying his creditors a mere fraction of what he owed. America is not a corporation and some of his "great' negotiating skills are going to end up costing people who cannot afford it. Part of his plan to "rescue" the American worker is going to ultimately cost the American consumer and when they are one in the same then the benefits will be meager.

So he doesn't want to lie, but he does want to disagree with the facts. I could not have been in that room because I would not have been able to contain myself. The Nielsen ratings included cable and unless I did not hear him, CNN did not have 16 million viewers. There is no way that CNN would have topped viewership on any broadcast channel. I don't even think it generally tops Fox Cable News. Oh and the Skype press thing is apparently out of the Putin playbook.

So what if Michael Moore lives in a mansion? I'm no fan of his but he's not out oppressing poor people and plotting to pay them all sub-standard wages. Is he pretending that he lives in a rundown neighborhood or something? I don't know how many times I've heard people trying to stifle the liberal media by "threatening" that they would somehow lead to his getting a second term. The liberal media does not have that much negative influence on anyone and basically that statement is an admission that there are a bunch of idiots voting. Yes childish idiots. Anyone who would vote to "stick it to the liberal media" and their welfare and their fellow citizens at risk is a childish idiot. He does not have a mandate. Not only did he lose the popular vote but tack on the other 7 million who voted for third party candidates. There are so very many things that could happen before ThinSkin even gets close to seeking a second term.

I think the bigger non-renewal was George Will. Stacey Dash just comes across as an airhead and relatively harmless compared to that angry MI sheriff with the cowboy hat. Kellyanne Conway asking why no one called her lying butt to talk instead of marching is both sad and laughable, since she found that speech unifying. I don't live in her universe and I am not going to go along with all these apologists who keep insisting that ThinSkin means well. I am no fan of the media but I certainly am not going to let my feelings blind me to the Trumpkin Hustle. Tom Barrack sat at a table with Chuck Todd and company and proceeded to smooth talk them into believing he was saying something other than the same nonsense the others have been spouting. He told them ever so nicely that Trump's inauguration was just as historic as Barack Obama's. And he told them that there were 1-1.5 million people there. Now they either knew he was hustling them but being sweet about it, so they excused it. Or they were too suckered by his charm to actually hear what he was saying. Surely the media is large enough to be able to fact-check the twitter nonsense and lies and still be able to focus on important things such as how one of his "great" moments on Friday will make it harder for some to buy homes. And are auto industry jobs the only ones in America worth saving (except for giving a massive tax incentive to Carrier in exchange for less than a 1000 jobs)? It seems as if jobs are being cut in other sectors and the media kind of glosses over this.

Spicer had nothing to say about the size of the Women's March crowd. Tomorrow the Trumpkins will probably go on all the Sunday show's whining about the media and how they didn't praise his speech. Any mention of the Women and they will try to twist it into how the anti-abortionist group was not welcomed. Trumpkins are on a mission to gaslight the thinking public and divert people from the truth. I'd be an alcoholic if I took a drink every time one of them called the ACA a failed Obama policy when asked what their replacement plan is.

I believe they do listen to some. The problem is in treating groups as monolithic. Not all latinos/hispanics have immigration on the top of their lists of concerns and not all black people have racism on the top of their list of concerns. Times are changing but the Democrats are carrying on as if everything is basically the same and all they need to do to protect their positions is march in place. They are not offering anything to younger generations at all. I am sure some of them have children and understand how different it is to be a young adult now than when they grew up and yet they don't seem to understand that they need to adapt in terms of platform, messaging, etc. And I also think they underestimate the "uneducated" man's ability to think as well. Today's Eliza Doolittle does not need the professor. She can make it happen on the internet, so all that dependency that worked for them in the past won't fly as well now. It doesn't even matter if the little people don't understand world affairs and the like because the American way has been sold as make more money and then make more and knock over whoever and whatever you need to, in order to make it.

It's not. I just pointed out that he was helping her. Mass incarceration is one of the issues that is brought up in media race discussions as a major problem in "the black community" and a part of Hilary Clinton possibly addressing it as campaign bone is Bill Clinton acknowledging his contribution to it. He probably did not need to since his role in it has long been swept under the rug. I don't get those people who believe that Barack Obama's election is a sign of a post-racial society. Racial division is too lucrative to some politicians, community leaders, media outlets, and "race experts" for them to promote racial harmony in this nation. Yesterday's breaking news: http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/29/politics/dennis-hastert-indictment-questions/index.html

I don't know if there will be a candidate in the 2016 Presidential election for whom I will reluctantly vote but I already know some for whom I won't vote. In an effort to help Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton is fully supporting Hillary's efforts to change his criminal justice policies. http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/06/politics/bill-clinton-crime-prisons-hillary-clinton/

Those who defend Bill Cosby don't all have the same reason(s) for doing so. I think it might just be hard for some people to see the person they saw one way as a serial rapist. The number of women coming forward may not make it any easier for them to reach that conclusion--especially if they were never around him or never met him. If everyone rationalized things in the same way there would likely be less strife in the world. I think his election is more about the voters who elected him than it is about him. Those who hate Barack Obama because of race were never going to take his upbringing into consideration anyway. Hating another person on the basis of race is irrational. Model behavior will not have an impact on that type or irrationality. Once upon a time people may have assumed that "good behavior" would help with disadvantages and ward off the racists or at the very least, give them less of a reason to attack. In politics it is just thrown around as part of the manipulation to which politicians are prone. To say that black people should behave a certain way implies that orderly behavior is against the nature of black people and people such as Bill O'Reilly are only too happy to show their concern for the black people by doling out this advice, and pointing out some black man who said it, as though they've come up with some great solution. The fix for racism comes from within the racist individual. The victims are not the ones who can solve it. Intellectualizing race discussions with smart-sounding terminology simply allows people to make racism a profession and create distractions. The cure comes from individuals. Individual's thoughts and feelings cannot be legislated and all the aricles, books, and discussions will probably never address that and certainly won't change that.

I have zero interest in this movie but the movie soundtrack has some lovely songs on it:

Profiling is just a form of sanctioned harassment. It's easy for people to pretend it's necessary to harass "the few" in order to "keep the masses safe." I'm sure the people who are its biggest supporters are those who are quite certain that they will never be profiled/harassed. Nobody knows with one hundred percent certain which "muslim looking" person might be a terrorist or whether the "muslim looking" person is even a muslim. And I'm going to guess that the "security" people are not properly trained and generally just bring their biases to work with them when deciding who looks "suspicious." Unless they are looking for a specific individual or someone sets off a detector or the like then either everyone is under suspicion or no one at all. The person most likely to do something devastating is probably very rarely the person people suspect and that's how they get away because everyone is busy profiling the innocent person. As for general police profiling, they should include as part of their public outreach the need for people to be more descriptive regarding suspects. Saying someone is black male, a male hispanic, et al, is not enough of a description and gives them license to harass based on something vague enough to allow them to get away with doing it.