Looking at his business history, his campaign and the mess that is his administration, do you really think he ever had any plan?  He just like seeing his name in print and his face on tv and having people sucking up to him.  That is the extent of his planning.

I still think the election was never serious for him, that he did it for attention and to fleece the suckers who would give him campaign contributions, without producing anything.  I think he got caught up in things and just went along with it because he got more and more attention and never expected to win.  When he ended up with the White House, I suspect he s@#$ himself and then went with it, surrounding himself with people to massage his ego.  The rest is a pack of opportunists who sucked up to get themselves into positions to wallow in the trough.

So, Trump says Russian interference was aimed at helping Dems. By targeting their own computer files and stirring up voters against them. So, in other words, the Russians were making the Dems hit themselves and ket saying, "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!" I see; it makes perfect, logical sense.....

Is this Bizarro World?

"Mr President, what about the evidence that the Russians deliberately tried to sway the election?"

"Russians am helping Democrats. Me am Bizarro Super Hero number 1! Me am awesome. Me am always winning! So much winning!"

An aspect of the Cohen tape story that has me baffled is that while some people are arguing whether Trump paying a playmate to buy her silence constitutes a msidemeanour or not and whether it is actionable, nobody seems to worry that it basically confirms that he did have an extraconjugal affair (something he always vehementaly denied).

When Bill Clinton was in a similar position, it led to an impeachment hearing. Oh, sure, the pretext was that he had lied under oath, but he had lied about his sex life, not about whether he was endangering the country or anything.

Have the times changed? Is cheating on one’s wife acceptable, now? Or is it that when it comes to Trump the public has a very, very high tolerance level on account of all the craziness that surrounds him? Or is it that it really doesn’t matter in the final analysis because the ant-Trumps think he’s guilty anyway, the pro-Trumps think he’s innocent whatever happens and there are no on-the-fence-about-Trump people to sway one way or the other?

There's a lot of sense in what The Captain says here, as Democrats indeed have come across as the party of the elites, but much of that image has been immoderately burnished by the Republicans (and not just the far right, Tea Party types), clearly a tactic of their Machiavellian strategy.

But leave us not forget the obvious preference among the Republicans for the moneyed classes, which if it was not evident before they took over all three branches of government, certainly is now. There is not a decision that has been made, an appointment approved, nor a policy enshrined since January 2017 that has not benefited the upper class of this country at the expense of everyone else. These range from the tax cut (Each of the Koch boys benefits to the tune of 500 million dollars) to the ravaging of the EPA (replacing Scot Pruitt or any Trump cabinet member is like cutting off one of the Hydra's heads) to the immolation of any government regulation that in any way restricts the right of a business to make money at the cost of jeopardizing the
health and safety of employees or consumers.

And that's without mentioning the attempted immolation of Romneycare, which health insurers and drug manufacturers apparently favor. Hmmmm.

Give it to the Republicans. Since the devastating defeat of Goldwater in 1964, they have been plotting and planning to do just what they are doing right now. They were patient, clever and calculating, and started their campaign to return America to the Gilded Age at the state and school board level.

They took over state legislatures, and ergo the state election boards and commissions. (now they are just a couple of GOP-controlled legislatures away from being able to call for a Constitutional Convention, one that would focus on substantial changes to the the First, Second and "Civil War" Amendments.)

They worked alongside fundamentalists on their moral message as they stood up for the persecution of Christians and the "Judaeo-Christian heritage of the Founders, exploited white resentment, aligned with the NRA as it became an arm of the munitions industry, cheapened education by equating theology to science, turned the concept of government regulation into an assault on individual liberty, paradoxically turned the concept of individual choice --whether a woman's right to decide what happens to her own body or anyone's right to love the person he or she chooses -- into civil sins, now have eroded or destroyed much of the public's understanding of the bedrock principles of the Constitution, from freedom of speech to the right to vote. (Thank you, John Roberts.)

Obama was vilified for his God and guns remark and Hilary for the basket of deplorables. If they had a chance, they'd not make those comments again. They were shorthand, bumper-sticker sentiments, the kind that whip up your enemies. Trump is excellent at those kinds of statements. However, we can't deny that the GOP and their avatar in the White House

I wrote way back somewhere on this thread and said many times in conversation that the 2016 election is our Election of 1860. In this case, the goal of the winning party (ironically, the nominal ancestors of the winners in 2016) was not the preservation of the union, but its disintegration.

I think Icctrombone said earlier that we are in the throes of a civil war now, and I see more and more evidence of it every day. This is a fracturing like we have not seen since 1968. Trump is an agent of chaos; he not only thrives in it, he requires it to survive, as others require food and drink and oxygen. He is an expert at playing side against side, and because he cannot be trusted (except to do whatever benefits him in the short term), he's a dangerous opponent. And the GOP is just like him; they're just better behaved.

And that's why even if Trump were to be removed tomorrow, none of this would change, at least not quickly. The damage has been done. We are in for a long and difficult run.

What do you think of Sean Spicer?

I'll tell you why I'm asking later.

I prefered Melissa McCarthy's impression to the actual SOB, mouthpiece for morons.