Welcome to DU, Orange Free State!

Anything that hurts his ego is a beneficial thing.

I sometimes indulge in imagining that the collective press suddenly wakes up and realizes that all they're doing is reinforcing bad behavior when they cover him non-stop. He WANTS that attention. He WANTS to be the center of the universe. He WANTS everybody talking about him and puzzling over him and obsessing on him. So how 'bout we take the pacifier away? Put him on ignore for a day (or more)! And I realize that'll never happen. But it's a fun thought-exercise.

That's for sure! Dan Rather wouldn't have caved to this guy.

Party Over Country, dontchaknow.

Someone's voice has already been taken away.

Like the almost three MILLION more voters who voted for Hillary Clinton, and their (OUR) voices were silenced by some shrewd manipulation of a few key districts and a few thousand votes here and there.

Like the MAJORITIES of Democrats in gerrymandered districts, who have the majority numbers, but are silenced because of shrewd manipulation of the ridiculous and outrageous redrawing of districts that lead to us, and OUR interests, and OUR priorities, NOT being represented, because of artificial manipulations.

Like the repeated examples of more Democrats voting than republi-CONS, yet, somehow they've rigged the system so THEIR guy wins. And thus the minority rules. We're supposed to be a democracy based on majority rule. This completely subverts it. We see this damn syndrome repeat itself election cycle after election cycle. And while they cheat and they win, then nothing can be done about it - because THEY won and THEY hold all the cards and THEY hold all the power and THEY can set the agenda and we're left on the sidelines - EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE MANY MORE OF US THAN THERE ARE OF THEM!!!

Let me just make this clear: I don't like lying either. But at this point, watching this over decades, I can't figure out any other way to level the playing field. I find myself wishing WE had a Roger Stone doing rat-fucking for OUR side. And we don't. We play nice, we follow the rules, and we wind up getting rolled EVERY DAMN TIME!!!!!

I am, unfortunately, left with only one conclusion: If we play by the rules and the other guy cheats and wins, then the other guy gets to run the game and own the playing field and call the shots while we are forced to the sidelines as spectators. And I'm sick and tired of being the nice guy who finishes last. And in politics, the vast majority of the time, the nice guy DOES finish last.

If we ever hope to be in a position to govern, and to fix some of this shit that's gone so wrong, we have to win first. FIRST, we have to WIN. After years of observing this shit, I've been forced to conclude that if we play by the rules and they don't, then we get rolled. Fighting fair only works if BOTH SIDES do it. When ONE side refuses, and in fact raises that refusal to a high art and makes NOT playing fair into a veritable sacrament, then we're chumps if we don't. We'll just keep getting rolled.

I don't want to fight fair as long as the other side won't fight fair. I'm not interested in fighting fair when we know the other side refuses to do so. That's NO way to level the playing field.

Good question. It should be!

Kicking!

EXCELLENT resource material, RandomAccess! Thanks for this!

Kicking this. It's from earlier this year, but the info is STILL good now - AND onward.

Good point. They do follow orders well, though, don't they!

Good little treason-weasels they are.

If you take your marching orders from an avowed adversary of this country, you ARE by definition a treason-weasel. PERIOD.

All the more reason to hound them about it.

Join your local Indivisible group! One of their priorities is face-to-face appointments with representatives or their deputies. Ideally, every month - as the issues change. Attend their meetings and take in the discussion, and participate! That's how they figure out what's crucial to the local community (a lot of it might be about Russia, like the folks at my area's meeting have confirmed month after month. They vote on it. Meetings are usually once a month, for an hour. Hopefully you can give that small bit of time to your country. It's a GREAT way to plug into the Resistance effort and meet others of like mind. You're bound to make a few new friends.

And CALL your reps!

Be polite, but WEIGH IN!!!

Very important to remember: If they think you don't care, THEY WON'T, EITHER!

And if it's a Congressperson you're calling, might not hurt to remind him/her via those phone calls that the biggest blunder House Dems committed during bush/cheney for lying us into an unnecessary war, was when Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was "off the table".

Btw - I've listed several TOLL FREE numbers to the Capitol Hill switchboard in my sig line for easy reference.

Yep!