I’ve never been obsessed by the US or a president before either, though I did get a bit worked up over Reagan. I was still at high school ans actually had a life, but I still felt moved to write a letter about what a bad idea it was for him to be president.

I think with Trump it’s because he’s sooooo bad, and is in a position to do damage to the whole world (and is doing it) and it’s just so completely outrageous that it’s even happening. I still find it hard to believe that he got the job.

I feel the need to do something about Trump because of the damage, and, of course, there’s nothing I can do. That frustrates me intensely, and my only outlet is to write about it. It makes no difference, but it gives me a chance to sound off and release some feelings.

Yes, that would be the best solution if it existed in the US. And not only Russian assistance.
I somewhere posted the 10 reasons Mr Trump got elected instead of the rightful POTUS, Ms Clinton. Just see if I can recall them:
1 – The EC. The electoral college gives advantage to thinly populated rural states, which tend to be ‘conservative’ eg, a vote in Wyoming carries 3.5 times the weight of a vote in California or New York.
2 – Voter disenfranchisement: CrossCheck (depriving about 7 million voters, mainly black, of course, of their rights), closing voting stations in ‘minority’ areas, not having a public holiday during election day (disproportionaslly denying workers in precarious working conditions) etc. etc.
3 – Counting fraud, In seven of eight ‘swing states’ where Ms Clinton led the exit polls, Mr Trump won. In all those seven ‘swing states ‘ a Republican was in charge (and we are not talking 0.x %, but 2 to 7 % points. The only ‘swing State’ where this did not happen was Virginia, where the vote was overseen by a Democrat. Throwing away ‘provisional votes’ was but one of the means.
4 – The relentless and sustained Russian campaign by full-time paid trolls to smear Ms Clinton (emails, Uranium One, Benghazi, etc etc) on social media and diverting all attention away from Mr Trump.
5 – The ‘Bernie or bust’ crowd, that refrained from voting, because…
6 – The attitude of the Ctrl left, that drove many centrists to Trump, especially their smooching with fundamentalist Islam (de-platforming, the eternally offended, SPLC etc)
7 – Mr Comey stating a few days before the elections that the case of Ms Clinton’s emails was reopened, without mentioning the Trump campaign was also under investigation.
8 – The reaction of the ‘deplorables’ to the Obama admin, just read racism.
9 – Latent sexism, a woman president?
10 – the religious right, that came out in full force because of “Abortion”, not to mention greatly religious love of, nay , obsesion with, guns.

Yes , that is the point. We all know Mr Trump is guilty of conspiracy with a foreign power (and a ‘hostile’ one at that) and obstruction of Justice, but court-proof evidence is a different matter.
And yes, he dominates the news, and my thoughts. I have never ever been as obsessed with a US president. Is it because he is such an outrageous tweeter? Such a compulsory liar? Is it because he is an usurper? Something else? I really don’t know.
The teenager Noura Hussein in Sudan (not Saudi), to be executed for stabbing her rapist ‘husband’ to death, is completely lost in Mr Trump’s vagaries. The world should be up in arms, but is not. I hate the detail that she was first raped while being held by four men of her own family. I hope she will get off the -unjustified- hook, but I’m not hopeful. Sudan is, albeit not officially I think, an Islamic State at its worst. Noura will be the sad victim of that.

I wish the US had a mechanism for reversing an election. We have one, and it’s been used. If an MP is found to have spent more than the spending cap, for example, they lose their job and the person who came in second is appointed instead.

Yes, he’s an usurper, not just because of the successful Russian campaign, but also because of voter disenfranchisement and counting fraud.

It had to be once it was the same day because the Republicans couldn’t spin it for a while before the Dems heard the info. This is basically what Don Lemon in particular was saying yesterday. He and Anderson Cooper spent a lot of time pointing out this was a nothing burger because a spy and a confidential informant are not the same thing, and to say they are is Trump trying to make himself the victim. It’s another created scandal to divert attention.

CNN also works closely with the Times and the Post too. Maggie Haberman is on most nights, along with several others. James Clapper is a regular. Some of the CNN reporters are really good. They have regular GOP commentators too. Some support Trump and some don’t. Their arguments get exposed as being completely without merit. I usually watch Anderson Cooper, who’s on for 2 hours from noon my time, then Don Lemon for an hour. If I have time I watch Christiane Amanpour. I never miss Fareed Zakaria on the weekend, and I also record Jake Tapper to watch when I get up.

I used to watch Fox a fair bit to get the alternative pov, but they’re getting worse and worse, and it’s been about two months since I watched Fox. I’m just not getting anything useful from watching them, and the constant misrepresentation and outright lies make me really angry.

It’s a disgrace that it basically took a media campaign just to get these meetings on the same day.

Even though it’s 10am, I’m still in bed, which is fairly normal for me. It takes about an hour to shower and dress, and another half hour to do the morning chores like make the bed. I dvr CNN because it’s usually a while before I get a chance to start watching it, and it means I can fast forward through the ads.

Not getting MSNBC over there is a bummer for the serious news junkie, particularly at night (prime time). I think during the day CNN is probably the place to watch but at night with Lawrence and Maddow and the others they get far more in deep with the politics. They also work closely with the reports at the Times and the Post who are the people doing the hard work. Nothing replaces the NYTs and Washington post for news in this country. Anyway, this is where the most and best news comes from and if you know anyone getting their information from Fox, do not waste your time. You could also be getting your govt. from the republican party, also a waste of time.

The republicans will report directly to Trump, we are sure and then see what happens.

Thanks for the heads up. I haven’t watch any US news yet today. I’m about to. We don’t get MSNBC here, but I saw the bit on Clapper on Maddow’s Twitter feed. There was this cartoon today too: https://twitter.com/HeatherHastie/status/999443128858759168