Forum posts made by principessa

Never mind spelling or grammar. Just write your story as you would a text message or tweet. After all, this is your version of artistic expression. Be sure to tell that to the story moderator who returns your story suggesting corrections.

For the record McCrae was a Canadian. This poem became iconic and is read each Remembrance Day. Children learn of it in elementary school. The poppies that are worn in Canada in the days leading up to Remembrance Day were also inspired by that poem. Tradition now is to deposit your poppy on the war memorial in your city after the service that day. By the end of the day memorials everywhere are blanketed with poppies.

If there is solid evidence, as you suggest there could be, then President Trump will be impeached. If there isn't he will win in 2020.

Meanwhile, after their loss in the election the Democrats formed their own think tank to study, in depth, why they lost. The conclusions of that think tank are far removed from Comey and the Russians. It concluded that to reverse their ongoing slide and win back the House in 2018, they would have to convince those who would normally vote Democrat but chose Donald Trump, to change sides. Their findings contradicts the current party line that mobilisation of support, those that failed to vote must be 'got out' to vote, is the answer.
If the investigations at present underway are not finalised before the 2018 elections, and the advice given by their own think tank goes unheeded, that very think tank says that there will be further losses in 2018. They say as many as 15 more Senate seats will be lost. That's scary for any party.



I agree that the Dems have a lot of rebuilding to do. They have lost their ability to appeal to middle class Americans, just as the GOP have convinced the same group to vote against their own self-interest for a party whose mantra is tax cuts for the rich. Trump's budget will drastically cut programs such as Medicaid and food stamps whille doing exactly that, providing advantages and cuts for the wealthy. However, you have to give people reasons to vote for you rather than just against the other guys. It is also time that the Dems look to a younger generation for leadership, perhaps someone like Cory Booker.

What will be interesting will be to see how far the investigations get before the 2018 election and their impact on GOP candidates. Will they stand by Trump or jump ship if evidence accumulates against him and his team? We'll see. I think that even if it does not go that far, Trump will have a fight on his hands if he lasts to 2020. Four years of him and his Cabinet may well be enough for the American people.

http://thefilmexperience.net/storage/bette%20davis%20amen.gif?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1425918535145


That is from "All About Eve" where Davis famously says, "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night." That may be apt for the the months ahead of us as the investigations proceed.

There is another way to look at this. The GOP Congress is up for re-election in about a year and a half. One third of the Senate will be running that year as well. As Robert Mueller's investigation proceeds and the net widens catching more and more members of Trump's team, their instinct for self-preservation may well kick in. There will be Congressional investigations ongoing and journalists following every lead regarding money and paper trails. The steady drip, drip, drip of more and more damning information may reach a critical mass where even many Trump supporters will no longer be able to deny what has gone on in this administration before, during, and after the election. If there is solid evidence that Trump allowed this to happen with his knowledge and consent, or is himself implicated in collusion with the Russians to win the election, it is game over. Surely conspiring with an adversary of the US to undermine American democracy at its most basic level, an election, is a high crime as it is understood as a basis for impeachment. The GOP may desert Trump if it comes to this, but he will not resign instead of putting the country through the process as Nixon was convinced to do. He will have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the White House, still calling it all fake news. As of tonight, Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband is the focus of the Russia investigation by the FBI. This is going to unravel like a badly knit sweater. It may take many months to document all of the malfeasance, but the process has begun.

There is a precedent for this and it is Watergate. Relentless work by journalists connected the dots from a stupid break-in to Nixon's re-election campaign and from there to his close advisors (Erlichman, Haldeman, and of course John Dean) and straight to the Oval Office and Nixon himself.

Richard Nixon suborned perjury and obstructed justice in secret. This was revealed in the tapes that were subpoenaed during Watergate. Trump has obstructed justice in demanding personal loyalty from James Comey and in firing him to stop his investigation of Trump and his team colluding with the Russians. He baldly admitted this on national television in his interview with Lester Holt. Even if the investigation did not produce enough evidence to charge Manafort, Flynn, Stone, and others in Trump's cadre, this interference is obstruction of justice. The demand for personal loyalty is out of bounds for a leader of a democracy. The head of the national police force owes loyalty to the public, the Constitution, and the rule of law. Personal loyalty of the police to political leadership is something that happens in dictatorships. Let us not forget that Trump also posted a barely veiled threat against Comey in a tweet soon after he fired him.

Those of us too young to remember Watergate should read "All the President's Men" or watch the movie with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, the legendary journalists who wrote the book and whose dogged and determined work brought Nixon down. The echoes to current events are eerie. Two lessons to remember from Watergate: follow the money and it is the cover up not the crime that tends to get people in trouble. What is needed now is some GOP politicians who put country before party and power and have the backbone to ask a crucial Watergate question: what did the President know and when did he know it?

My personal opinion is that Nixon was a much smarter man than Trump, despite their sharing paranoia, insecurity, resentment. The collusion with the Russians will eventually be exposed and documented and Trump will be impeached if he does not resign. I doubt he will last through his four year term, especially if the Dems retake the House and Senate in 2018. By that time the dam may have broken and public opinion may well have turned against Trump.

Adult children who have put themselves in the public limelight, especially those involved in politics, are fair game. This would be true for Dick Cheney's daughter who was a right wing commentator before running for office and Chelsea Clinton to the extent that she involved herself in her mother's campaign or comments on public policy. Of course Trump's offspring are not off limits but for his young son. Children of POTUS should be allowed to grow up as normally as possible and without media scrutiny as was the case for Chelsea Clinton and the Obama girls.

Not a free speech issue, it's not the government restricting her right to speak, it's entitled and intolerant protesters.

Coulter is a racist, mean-spirited idiot. The easiest way to let people find that out is by letting her speak.

I agree with you. The protesters have been played by her. This has gotten her a lot of publicity and now she will say she has been victimized by them. Universities are supposed to be a marketplace of ideas, not monolithic group think. The best way to counter someone like Coulter is to take apart her arguments or not show up at her events. She thrives on being a provocateur and the attention that it creates.

I think that it is the height of hypocrisy for members of both houses to deny the American public an affordable plan if not the same Rolls Royce healthcare plan that they have, paid for by that same American public. That is shameful.

All of Congress as well as their staff are required by law to purchase health insurance from an ACA exchange just like all others who do not have an employer program


Thank you. I did not have up to date information.

I agree with the others in saying that you should relax and let the characters take over. Having a sense memory of various sexual activity will help you describe what they are doing and feeling. Let the scene build as arousal would build and intensify and then climax (pun intended).

One thing that is an immediate turn off is what we call the laundry list to physically describe your characters, especially if it is very unrealistic. For example: She was a slim 5'6" blue-eyed blonde with long hair, 38DD boobs and shaved pubes. He was tall, dark and muscular, and his penis was at least 8 inches before arousal.

I would let the details of the characters' appearance come out slowly in the story or as they are having sex. Avoiding impossible bodies, like a facsimile of a Barbie doll for a female character is also wise. You want to write about people who are believable, not cartoon characters.

I think that it is the height of hypocrisy for members of both houses to deny the American public an affordable plan if not the same Rolls Royce healthcare plan that they have, paid for by that same American public. That is shameful.

The US spends more than any other country in the world on healthcare and has dismal outcomes in terms of life expectancy, child mortality and other measures of its success. It is time for Americans to demand that healthcare be recognized as a right of citizenship and not a for profit industry. That would be a big leap for politicians but it is not creeping socialism, rather it would bring the US into the 21st century along with the rest of the industrialized countries in the world. Despite the scare tactics of big pharma and some medical groups, a system like that in Canada, works and works well for the majority of the population. It is not perfect, but no one goes bankrupt trying to pay for care for a catastrophic illness.

I can see that people tend to read current authors more than longer standing ones. I have given my short lists before so this will be brief:
Lisa
Liz
Principessa
avgblackgrl
DanielleX is someone I have read over and over, especially her "Renaissance of the Heart" series. She is just an instant turn on for me if you just mention her name by now.
Then there is Sprite's, "Do You Want Ketchup With That?"
Then there are the poets I adore: LaylaJune is just extraordinary. We all know her as a very classy lady, but that class somehow rubs off on her gift---her poetic muse.
I tend not to read men but there are some damned good writers here who are male.

I have been away so forgive me for not thanking you sooner. I appreciate being listed with some very talented people. Thank you so much.

https://upload.lushstories.com/132348604-tumblr_mxe3q3PisV1scehjfo1_400.gif

It was reported that Trump has no patience for briefing books or policy papers. He doesn't have the attention span or intellectual curiosity for long reads. Staff have been told that reports and policy papers should be limited to one page with maps and illustrations. Kind of 'Being President for Dummies". It would be funny if it weren't so scary. So he knows how to read, he just doesn't like doing it.

I have too many favorites to name them all. Simplicity has always been someone whose work amazied me and I have loved everything she's written. Her work is what attracted me to her in the first place.

Master Jonathon, Chuckepoo, and averageblkgirl are writes I actively seek out. Liz is just incredialbe.

Oceanrunner, Lilly, Dirty_D, Sweet_as_candy and Ravenstar have all impressed me beyond measure. Adagio has a talent that can astonish me at times. Principessa, whom I've written with many times is vastly underrated and Coco very much deserves a nod.

There are others, and I'm going to kick myself for leaving them off. It just goes to show how much talent we have in our community.

I just noticed this so forgive me for a late thank you. I do love to write and certainly enjoyed our collaborations. I wish I had more time to write more stories and to be more present to focus some attention on my work. Thank you again, Milik, coming from you it is high praise. And of course thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my stories.

I'm not so sure. I bet there are a whole bunch of folks who feel abandoned by the political process (you know -- Trump voters) that sees this whole shit show as a good thing. I've yet to see ANY politician (other than Trump that is) coming across as smug since the inauguration. They all look a little off-balance and off their collective games. Remember that those voters are predominantly feed up with the "system" and that change regardless of outcome is a net positive in their view.

President Obama ran on change in 2008; he attempted to effect it with minor muscle movements and ultimately failed to deliver.

President Trump is attempting extraordinary change with major muscle movements, and I'm betting that change will come. I'm just not too sure that it will be the changes he has in mind. The electorate is more interested and involved -- primarily in opposition to the White House -- than it has been in decades. Congressional leaders may finally be faced with situations in which they will be forced to set aside party rivalries and work in unison to rein in White House overreach.


You forget that immediately after President Obama's first inauguration Mitch McConnell vowed that he would be a failed president and that the GOP would block him every step of the way. They did and became the party of "no". They would not even put forward legislation for programs that they had suggested during the campaign because they feared that he would get the credit. So, the inertia had a cause and it was the GOP, not the President.

Trump is flying by the seat of his pants as he always does. If this were Freudian analysis, he operates only on id and ego, with none of the superego incorporating values and morals and controlling impulses encompassed in the id. He has no plan. Bannon is the one with the plan. He told us that he is a Leninist and wants to blow up the government. Bannon wants constant drama and chaos, and he is getting it.

I hope that you are right and that the Congress will work in unison to rein in WH overreach. I am cynical enough to fear that this will only happen when that reaches criminality and Trump has to be impeached. Trump is reckless, stubborn and determined, not to mention out of touch with reality. He would not likely resign even knowing that the votes were there to impeach him and put the country through that awful process. And then we would get Pence, a right wing religious zealot. A fresh hell.

He was just shilling for Ivanka's brand this morning and both Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer did so as well. (Great way to get points with the boss but bad judgement.) This was after news that Nordstrom was dropping her brand because of weak sales. Does Trump think he is on HSN rather than president? Does he not have more important things to think about? He will have to develop a thicker skin and not respond to every perceived affront.

Trump has not put his assets in a blind trust but rather left his sons in charge. He has not provided his tax returns to the public. He continues to hype his companies and properties. His son-in-law is now a close adviser in the Oval Office presumably with security clearance. I could go on and on about his conflicts of interest and ethical lapses, but he is not being called on them by the GOP who control both houses of Congress. I predict that this will continue until it cannot be ignored as it evolves from mere nepotism and questionable ethics to criminality and then the GOP will have no choice but to deal with it.

Trump sees himself as above the law and the boundaries that have been traditionally adhered to by previous presidents. He has shown his lack of respect for the law by disrespecting a judge during the campaign and more recently the three judge panel hearing the government's appeal regarding his immigration ban and the judge who granted the stay that was being appealed. He has no idea about how government works and imagines that he can just issue orders rather than having legislation go through Congress. Executive orders cannot do everything.

Think about it. He has been in power less than a month and already there has been more questionable behaviour than in Obama's two terms. I think that some who voted for him wanting change are having some regrets. Surely this circus is not what they wanted. Of course it is Steve Bannon's plan to have so much going on that any opposition is diluted in an effort to fight all of them.

One day the minority of the electorate who voted for Trump will realize that the Emperor is naked.

Just a question....What does that letter have to do with the nomination of Sessions?

The relevant Senate committees hear testimony in support and against the nomination of members of the president's cabinet before voting on them. As I said they had already heard from civil rights icon John Lewis who was almost beaten to death marching for civil rights in Alabama. Jeff Sessions' record on race, civil rights, and voter suppression should have disqualified him from the position of Attorney General of the US. The AG is meant to uphold the Constitution of the US and protect all of the rights it describes for all US citizens. His history and views are antithetical to that, as is the case with many of Trump's cabinet picks in that their views do not match the brief of their department, and have actually been in opposition to the work they are tasked to do.

His nomination has passed with a 52-47 vote in the Senate. He is to be confirmed tonight.

Sometimes I think he gets his information from the National Enquirer or the Globe.

Or Breitbart News, Steve Bannon's alt right site.

McConnell used an arcane rule to silence Warren and said, “Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech,” he said. “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

There are now tweets with the hashtag #she persisted everywhere.

We must all persist, resist, and be resolute in opposition to this administration.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/08/nevertheless-she-persisted-becomes-new-battle-cry-after-mcconnell-silences-elizabeth-warren/?utm_term=.95f90705e0dd

Yesterday, Senator Elizabeth Sessions was reading a letter written by Coretta Scott King during the debate on the nomination of Jeff Sessions for AG of the US. The letter was written in 1986 when Sessions was nominated to be a federal judge. In 1986 he lost on the basis of his long record of voter suppression and denial of civil rights as well as racist remarks to colleagues. John Lewis has already spoken strongly against his confirmation. If this passes it will be another travesty of the Trump choice being precisely the wrong person with the wrong record to run a government department.

Here we see one woman reading the words of another woman being silenced by men.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OeFePLOniu0

It's for all views whether you agree with them or not, but it's got to be fact. Nobody can say anything they like about anyone else. You can't just make things up about people. There's a law against it.

You can respond with documentary evidence that something is not the truth or sue for libel if you meet the criteria of the law. But you cannot make things up and call them "alternative facts" as Kellyanne Conway did. As I said before, it is the job of the press to expose lies, hypocrisy, and corruption. If President Trump or one of his administration says the earth is flat that is not a reason to believe it and deny the press the right to question it and prove him wrong.

Freedom of speech is not for views that you agree with, it is for all views whether you agree with them or not. The press is free to report the news and investigate issues, especially when politicians mislead the public or are guilty or hypocrisy, lies, or corruption. When they have credible evidence and print the story, they are fulfilling their obligation to the public. Freedom of the press and expression are principle pillars of democracy. So, in the era of Trump, we have to understand there will be constant tension between the White House and the press. The President, with Bannon and Conway, have a very loose relationship with the truth and deflect with aggression when they are caught lying.

There are reputable media sources with more conservative views, but Fox News and Murdoch publications are not among them.

As we are tinkering with badges, I would like to suggest that those ranked 1, 2 or 3 in a story competition get a badge indicating that in gold, silver or bronze and that those who were the remaining in the top ten get a finalist competitor badge. It would be good if these could be awarded retrospectively just as the number indicators on other badges are being done.

The competitions here are fierce and those in the top ten in each contest deserve some kind of recognition as well as the winners and seconds and thirds. This information also could be listed with the competition information after it closes for readers looking for something interesting to read.

That was the true sucker punch to U.S. democracy. No one saw that coming. You can see Bannon's fingerprints on everything, wanting a Secretary of Education that doesn't believe in public school, a Secretary of Energy that wants the position abolished (when he can remember it), a head of the EPA who has sued it multiple times to stop its actions.

They aren't merely conservatives. They are essentially anarchists. They call themselves Libertarians, just trying to halt the size and spread of government by being "disruptors." But the glee with which they go about destroying any regulation/amendment/civil right/treaty/accord in their path shows their love of destruction for destruction's sake.

Exactly right. Don't forget that Bannon called himself a Leninist with the goal of blowing up government. He is on the way to achieving his goal given the choices Trump has made for his cabinet and what he has done. They rail against the media when it reports anything negative about the administration and call it fake news, and then lie with impunity about what they are doing or have said. The media will not just shut up as advised by Bannon. But for Fox News, Breitbart, and Murdoch publications they are not the mouthpiece and lapdog of the administration as the press was in Soviet Russia. But we know how much Trump admires Putin and the power he wields.

Bannon has found the perfect empty vessel to choreograph in Trump. He is now on the National Security Council which is a policy and security group, and not a political one. The Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff was removed - an unheard of move. Trump will go along with everything so long as his ego is flattered and he gets attention. He has no appetite for the real work. There are no Cliff Notes for being president. As I have said before, I think Trump will not last a full term. He will either be caught in scandal and criminality and forced to resign (or be impeached), or he will resign for health reasons because he cannot cope.


By the way, Trump's approval rating in a new poll is 44%. That is the lowest number for a president at this point in his tenure since Eisenhower when such polling began.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/politics/donald-trump-approval-rating/index.html

Thank you, Amy.

We are not even two weeks into this nightmare and he is succeeding. Trump thrives on attention and Bannon makes it happen with chaos and drama. The immigration ban and choices for the cabinet have his name all over them. They could not have chosen more unsuitable people. They mean to encourage controversy at a level way beyond anything we have seen before. They mean to distract us with multiple issues so that any opposition will be diluted among them. How many fires can you fight at once?

The Democrats had better start rebuilding and organizing now from the bottom up and take a page out of the Tea Party's book. Resist, obstruct, and deny Trump and his coterie on every issue and in every circumstance. Anything else will be viewed as weakness. Become the new party of "no". They will not have to pledge to make Trump a failed president. He will manage that on his own. I have no doubt that he will not last the full term, never mind two. The GOP establishment made a Faustian deal and now they will have to live with it. The majority of the American people did not vote for him. He does not have a mandate. He played the game to win the Electoral College and succeeded with Bannon's help. Bannon wants to blow up the government and slash the threads that hold US society together: no comity, no consensus, just a jingoistic nationalism that includes racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and more. He will self-destruct with incompetence, ethical lapses and criminality. It will culminate in his being impeached or forced to resign with the knowledge that the votes are there to pass a bill of impeachment. It will take years for America to repair the damage wrought by Trump and Bannon.

Each day there is a new outrage. It is so bad that it could be an amalgam of "Dr. Strangelove", "The Manchurian Candidate" (the original one), and a Mel Brooks film. Unfortunately it is real.

"Snap out of it!" said Cher as she slapped Nicholas Cage. He had just told her that he was crazy in love with her in "Moonstruck".

"Out of Africa" from the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, the pseudonym of Karen Blixen. She also wrote "Babette's Feast" which is also a great movie.

I feel less safe not because of immigrants or refugees, but because Donald Trump is POTUS.

It was one thing to contemplate this when he was part of the circus of the GOP primary campaign, but once he became their candidate it was not funny any more. He has appealed to the worst in people and normalized racism, xenophobia, sexism and pathological lying - all that with impunity and encouragement of his followers. Now he is POTUS. Most of his choices for his cabinet distinguish themselves by ethical issues and backgrounds/views completely antithetical to the departments they have been chosen to run. A racist AG. An Education Secretary who plagiarized answers on her application package. A HUD Secretary with no background at all. And now we have Steve Bannon, a presidential appointee who need not pass any Senate scrutiny and a well known ideologue sitting in on NSA meetings. This man said he was a Leninist in that he wanted to completely blow up government. He has his own alt right agenda and has found the perfect empty vessel in Trump to carry it out. All you need to do is flatter him, as Putin well knows.

Trump is a man who cannot let go of what he deems an insulting tweet. How will he deal with an international crisis? I cannot imagine him negotiating out of a situation like the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 60s. The fact that he is capable of starting a nuclear war should give all of us sleepless nights.

During Watergate, Nixon asserted that anything the president does is legal because he is the president. Without getting into the entire history of that sad episode in US history, I will just say that Alexander Cox had been appointed to investigate the scandal and criminal wrongdoing that led all the way to Nixon. He had a dramatic confrontation with Nixon when he subpoenaed the tapes the president had secretly recorded of his Oval Office conversations. When Cox refused a direct order from the White House to seek no further tapes or presidential materials, Nixon fired him in an incident that became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. The AG then, Elliot Richardson, resigned rather than obey Nixon's order to fire Cox. More resignations followed at the Department of Justice until someone agreed to fire Cox, Robert Bork. Fast forward to the end: Nixon was forced to resign after being informed that there were enough votes to impeach him for criminality and more.

That is probably too much information, but my point is that this has happened before.