@Setanta,
I do understand, Set. And the present circumstance of a Trump Whitehouse, along with the broad right wing attempts to do exactly what you say, underlines the need for focus on Trump. Lash's trolling here is, to my mind, the prime example. But it is a common feature of right wing participants' contributions because of their media/information diet.
Before I began this thread, I saw myself, personally, as having two options - to fall into despair, apathy and non-engagement or to keep attending to things and to maintain a running record and discussion on this new political situation. But at the same time, I wanted to avoid some age-old tendencies towards pissing contests and intellectual carelessness. I sought to make this thread a place where folks could join in on the theme but I also hoped to make it a place where people would want to come and participate. So, I thought some resiliency in tone (humor desirable, for example) and in content would make participation more fun.
But threads tend to evolve and take on a life of their own. For the most part, a bunch of others participating have goals similar to mine and we've had a ton of relevant posts, either thought/argument pieces or links to quality information and commentary. Of course, as always, we're beset by the unusual suspects (I'll say!) I have most of them on ignore because I see no value in attending to them and certainly find that engaging them is rather like spreading manure across everyone's lawn. It's **** I can't influence other than through reminders now and again.
All that said, let me add that this place would not have been as compelling and fun if you weren't part of it.
