...refuse to uphold agreements signed by previous administrations...

Meanwhile, the rest of the world will move on, leaving "great" America in the dust. How long before they all conclude that they don't need us?

Remember the hubristic PNAC? Well, I hate to tell the idiots who love Bannon and Trump, but the "New American Century" is not going to be the 21st century. Old Neocons can see that, in spades -- Frum looks sick at heart.

The Pope looks like he just gave an audience to the Barbarian Lord who notified him of the upcoming sack.

Melania's face looks absolutely awful, like she's been chosen for the sacrifice to insure fair winds.

The Crown Princess looks ... smug.

And the Barbarian Lord looks like he thinks he's already won.

This is a photo for an upcoming horror movie.

...his constant whining about the election being rigged becomes crystal clear. Yes folks it was rigged -- against all Democrats in general and against Hillary in particular.

As for you or anyone else not bothering to vote, that's just dumb. Securing our democracy is SO much more than voting.

Counting the vote honestly -- you've discovered how crucial that is. I suggest you start learning about how it's done.

Have you involved yourself in any way in the process of understanding how electronic voting works? Who builds, codes, and maintains the machines? Who persuades the County Registrar of Voters and the Secretary of the State of (wherever you live) that these are the wave of the future and they should dump the paper trail as obsolete?

Electronic voting/vote-counting equipment is eminently hackable and always has been. The debacle of 2000 in Florida, with all the hanging chads was a golden opportunity for Diebold and others to bring out their shiney wave of the future product, and that the owners were family friends of the Bushes was just a bonus.

As a place to start, look up the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It's one of the things they are involved in. Join Indivisible and take this issue up with them. Educate your state and local officials -- people are intimidated by electronics, and need guidance.

Above all, don't give up.

My acquisition of this information has been a bit random, but it stuck with me, and now I can add this as well.

...are many and historical. Diversity of population is one. Try to herd these cats. Geography is certainly a part of it: America is most of an entire continent, unlike, say, France. Culturally and politically, we are sharply divided and that is along geographical lines as well.

I could come up with more, but the bottom line is that we have to use our energies in other ways, and historically we have done so.

Sign up with Indivisible, for starters. Go to those town halls when your congressman is home. This is working. Attempting to get a "general strike" going will not.

... Kind of like looking for The Last of the Just.

Maybe they are all assholes and irredeemable, but I am still holding out some hope. Senator Graham certainly had all the right kind of gravitas at the opening of his hearing as he laid out the perils that face us in this moment. Cruz is slime, Grassley is clueless, but Graham seemed to genuinely understand where the US and Russia now stand.

On MSNBC, however, there is a handful of conservative commenters who I enjoy hearing from because they are intelligent, experienced, honest, and they have a good feel for how our constitutional government is supposed to work. Nicole Wallace, Steve Schmidt, Michael Steele, and so on. People like them (tho not all of them were in evidence today) were the ones in shock and a kind of mourning and making no excuses whatsoever for Trump.

See you tomorrow, Bains.

...which was startling when I finally noticed.

General consensus: Trump lied and everybody knows it's about Russia. If he thought Dems would be happy about this action, he was wrong.

Dems are pissed off because they know it was about a cover-up. MSNBC's conservative commentators are in sackcloth and ashes because they know how bad this is for the country. General agreement that while Trump is displaying the erratic desperation of Nixon, the basis of Trump's actions is far far worse.

...Putin hates Hillary in a very personal manner? (Which, in answer to a direct question, Hillary answered in a thoughtful and level way.)

You say you "love history, but" -- are you aware of the truth that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it? And are you aware that Putin had interfered in European elections with money and cyber warfare three times before he got to us, that he had a hand in Brexit, and that he is now working on the French election?

Knowing all that, should we allow the media and Trumpistas to continue to mock Hillary for telling the truth, which is that among the multiple factors that led to her loss was the interference of Putin and of Comey? Or should we go along with their narrative, let them call her a sore loser who should stfu, and in effect make ourselves complicit in the coverup?

jmho, btw

Where I saw an incredibly strong woman holding her head high, a powerful intellect assessing ALL the factors that led to her defeat, a woman with great heart still beating -- they portrayed a loser whining about her loss and blaming others for it.

Where I saw the courage in saying "I will return to being a citizen activist... And a part of the Resistance," I honestly do not know what they saw.

I'm only glad I tuned in and saw the interview for myself, all the way through, and saw the truth instead of being fed the Big Lie.

...and the rest of the world out. Do we really want to be THAT nation? The nation so fearful and cowardly we cannot bear being presented with, much less confronted by, anyone the least bit unlike ourselves?

Monetarily, the cost will end up being beyond belief, but psychologically the cost will end up being far more than we can ever afford to pay and still call ourselves Americans.

Second, no one -- and I mean no one -- ever seems to talk about the ecological cost. Unlike the Berlin Wall and the Warsaw Ghetto Wall, which were largely achieved by infilling city buildings, US borders with Mexico and Canada are mostly thousands of miles of open land -- forests, deserts, mountains, rivers -- all of which are the natural habitat, migration routes, and hunting territories of abundant species, some of them already endangered.

Third, and finally, Trump is insane and nothing he says can be taken for truth. The GOP Congress is his enabler as much as his family is, and altho many have been shaken by the Resistance in their home districts, they still are not to be trusted.

No. No deals. No quid pro quo.