as Nicole Wallace stated on the speed of the investigation, the duck seems to be moving slow, but the feet are pedaling fast under water. Dump has all the attention on him now...and he has a big mark on his back.

I really like the new show on MSNBC Nicole Wallace 3pm eastern. She says she is a moderate Rub, but talks like a true Dem. She has a lot of Rubs on her show...but will not allow them to spin falsehoods! I am always uplifted after watching her show...I know it is crazy!

And I will check her out!

and to paraphrase, those Repubs that choose America over Trump, will come to be seen as patriots

I enjoy her show too, she is pleasant and humorous and her perspective from working in Bush WH is interesting since she is so appalled at the total dishonesty and lack of ethics of Trump & Co. She often has Repubs who strongly speak out consistently against Trump's actions and policies, which makes me more hopeful.

She was not this feisty as a commentator, but after being a host of her own show...she is really getting down...lol!

That doesn't help in the short term, but it's how this country works. We have our votes as the final checks and balances on the government.

It starts in 2018, and in special elections before then. That is the thing we must work toward, regardless of Trump's short term fate. That is our backstop.

We must save ourselves through our votes. That is the answer to your question.

But I think paper ballots must be used. Btw I lurk around here a lot and respect your opinion

our system of checks and balances will keep us afloat until that happens. Many political commentators are saying this and it gives me some hope. It will take a long time to get back to wherever we were before Nov. I had to leave the US for my own sanity due to Bush in 2004. I couldn't stand it any longer and went to France and I wrongfully assumed they would not be kind to an American who doesn't even speak the language. Do you remember Bush wouldn't even call french fries by their name and called them "freedom fries" instead since the French government didn't support the war we were in. Everyone I met was so cool and wise and calm. They comforted me about the fate of our country and said, "Things happen, they come and go, eventually it will turn into the other direction so don't worry". And it did! When I came back to the US the next year many people were finally turning against Bush and then Obama was elected. I guess when your culture and society have been around for a thousand years you learn from experience. Hopefully our country will survive long enough to gain some of that wisdom.

In 2002. I remember when I was in Paris for a few days George visited there. Security was tight and we told people we were Canadian which is really sad. But we thought it was for the best. Beyond that, everyone in France was so nice to us. Great people there. I would go back in a heartbeat.

If the GOP makes healthcare too expensive for the average American, they insure that the next system WILL be single payer.

Religion in public schools has been tried over the nation's history. The effort has always failed. Even in Christianity, there are many many branches. Which branch should be the school standard. If an atheist does not sue, some religious person whose religion is slighted will.

Most young people don't think twice about a friend's sexuality. So to answer your question, would you allow rights to be taken from a friend or relative until that person technically cease to exist?

On the third world country thing. If the GOP keeps running up debt that the incoming Democrat can't completely slow the growth of or reverse the growth, we will become a third world country in everything but name. But regardless, extremes between the rich and everyone else will grow.

I like your optimism! But as a lesbian I have seen some bad things. So that does concern me even with the younger crowd. But I agree even that is getting better. However, when you talk about the incoming democrat are you supposing that elections will not be rigged to keep the right in power? That is what I'm most concerned about.

We lose elections because a lot of people on our side don't vote until they get fed up. One thing about rightwingers is they are always made at something, even if they have to make up stuff like the war on Christmas. So, the right vote anytime they get a chance and they get their knuckleheads in office. When Obama won by massive margins, there was talk about whether there would ever be a republican President again. Things chance, we need to be persistent and alert.

I tend to be optimistic because I have overcome setbacks during my life so far. That optimism allows me to see beauty and hope that other people sometime miss. My area of Florida is red, though not as red as it used to be. Today while on an errand I drove toward what looked like two teenaged girls. I could see all of the first girl, but not much of the other girl other than her slacks and blouse. As I got close, I could see that they were indeed teenaged girls, one had flowing hair, the other had on head and hair covering. The behavior of the two girls toward eachother indicated that they were friends, and from what their age looked like, I guess classmates during school. Young people below 30 years of age have interacted with eachother since first grade, some even went to preschool together. I have faith that the majority of them will view people for what they are as people and behave accordingly.

There is no doubt that in some states, Crosscheck & similar lists struck hundreds of thousands of citizens off the voting rolls & very disproportionately democrat demographics. In a number of crucial states where this happened Trumps margin was in the tens of thousands. {1}

In other states, gerrymandering after the 2010 Census resulted in a single dem district for every five, or even seven GOP districts; that ration is then reflected in that State's House reps.{2}

Diebold style vote tally systems are still in use in red states, especially in Dem heavy districts. Not only can the county office simply change the totals without a trace, but those districts are typically under-equipped to ensure long lines to discourage voters. And as usual there were reports of vote-flipping by the vote machines themselves.

VoterID laws likewise showed a marked result in who was allowed to place their vote and again they disproportionately affected dem leaning demographics.

In addition, several courts have been finding that these efforts were illegal.

Rigged elections are not something we can choose to believe or not believe in; they are the sort of thing where you either accept the findings or need to successfully dispute them.

{1} http://www.gregpalast.com/election-stolen-heres/
{2} http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/27/1579905/-These-three-maps-show-just-how-effectively-gerrymandering-can-swing-election-outcomes

They didn't believe Obama and the Democratic Congress had done enough. They ignored the republican mudslinging and outright obstruction and allowed Republican's to gain a solid majority in the House and in State Houses and Chambers.

The pendulum of politics swings back when extremes are reached, in most states, republican governors are hated by even republicans, I know that is the case in my home state of Florida. The issue is whether we will take advantage of that or continue beating the shit out of eachother and allowing republicans to win.

Here, I'll do it for you:
https://www.google.com/search?q=2010+census+redmap&ie=UTF-8

Redmap was a GOP project where two computer experts appeared out of nowhere and supplied the Party with incredibly precise instructions as to where to spend completely disproportionate (ie orders of magnitude, as in half-million dollars in races that normally only saw tens of thousands if that) amounts of national party/donor money to win Congressional seats.

There are only so many votes in every district. If we have more loyal Democrats in those districts than republicans have voters then it is our fault if we lose. We need to run candidates that can win in districts that they live in, candidates that are smart and willing to work their behinds off. Sitting around crying about magical algorithms does nothing, because human passion and determination can overcome algorithms. BTW, I am trained as an engineer and have set up algorithms. In every single one I made a number of assumptions. Now back to the computer algorithm you mentioned, the two experts made several assumptions about every single district that they targeted. Their predictions come true only if each of those assumptions are mostly or completely met. In a district where there are lots of Democrats two assumptions would be that Democrats won't turn out above X amount and republican turnout will be Y, with republicans voting P amount for their candidate - turn any of those assumptions on their head and the prediction becomes wrong.

But do you really think there are that many people that don't care versus how many crazy there are out there? I really hope not.

We would not have won all of that 43%, but with Trump's disapproval at 60-64%, my best is we would have won enough to elect Hillary Clinton and avoid the farce of a Trump Presidency.

Would be mute. 2018 is coming and retaking congress is our sole focus. 2020 we retake the whitehouse. Hopefully set America back on course. No time for handwringing....and all the time to work to rid our country of the conservative infection of our politics.

If we do 2018 right, 2020 will be a banner year for us. Voters would have experienced once again the damage of republican policies, there will be lots of republican senators up for reelection and Trump could be on the ballot for republicans, if not Trump then a muddied and damaged Pence. Our worst nightmare would be for Trump or Pence to be off the ballot in 2020 and someone like Kasich, Charlie Baker from Massachusetts or Brian Sandaval of Nevada to head their ticket, all of them are snakeoil soothsayers that could draw votes from our ticket.

When I asked him why he just said it was because she in our best interest. I begged him to vote Hillary but he refused. He cited corruption. Sigh. Never could point to what corruption. Just that "she was corrupted." They did not help at all. Still makes me angry. However, Russia, imo hurt worse.

As long as it is that way, we are stuck unless evidence is found to nail Trump AND GOPers want to get rid of him well before 2018 election.

without it coming back to bite him in the ass, bigtime.