You really expect Putin to admit or put forth the reasons for interfering with internal American politics?  I don't really care what his reasons were.  I don't really care whether Democrats were targeted or Republicans were targeted or Rosie O'donnell was targeted.  The Russians have no business meddling in our business.  I'm relying on what our intelligence agencies have concluded with high confidence. 

I don't care about any "charge that the leaking of DNC emails by Wikileaks affected the election."  I care that Putin directed hacking into American systems and his intent. The intent can be derived by anyone with a brain by what was released from the hacking.  You all have shifted the focus to what was hacked and it's effect on the election--the focus should be on Russia doing anything to interfere regardless of whether it was effective or not.  Your continuing focus on what was hacked makes me believe that you think it's okay because it reinforces your case against the godless Democrats. In your world it would be okay for cops to break into a home and search it without a search warrant provided they find evidence of a crime.  Seems like you would do well in Nazi Germany of the 1940s and any talk about the sanctity of our Bill of Rights is just eyewash as long as you benefit from looking the other way.

Witmo, you are being taken for a ride.  This wasn't putin, it was a disgruntled Bernie supporter in the dnc for one for one of the leaks and phishing scheme by some putz who got lucky because Podesta is a moron and exposed his gmail account, apparently for months for the other leak.   The dems have tried 4 or 5 different narratives since Trump whooped Hillary, this one has got a little traction because liberals are so gullible. 

Trump is having fun, no way he would outlaw flag burning even if he could.   We haven't been hearing too much about Trump's cabinet selection process lately have we?

Regarding original post, the idea of a president communicating directly with the people is not new. But it has historically been scripted, as in fireside chats, State of the Union, etc.

Trump's tweets provide an unedited channel of communication. As we all know, this has good and bad aspects. But Trump is obviously abandoning one monolith (conservatism) for the reigning and powerful populism that put him in office. Yes, populism has its own issues. But Trump won by speaking directly and frankly with the 1,000,000+ people who attended his rallies. HRC drew roughly 110,000, and was correctly perceived as dishonest, a veiler and manipulator of truth, with the promise of more opaqueness if elected.

Witness, too, her engagement with this recount move. At the very least it looks like she could be party to a Constitutional crisis if the electoral votes are delayed. And she remains in the shadows.

People are tired of never, yes, never, being sure about what is really going on with their leaders. Trump is trying to stay in touch. It's a process and will unfold roughly, but it's an important process if our country is to be truly ours.

I think Trump tweeting will be transformational for the media, the typical soundbite manipulation they get away with now won't work.  As long as Trump can control himself, which I think he can, I think it will be great.  MSM will need to change their ways or quickly become less relevant than they are now.   

As far as the recounts go, Stein missed the deadline for Pennsylvania and handcounts have been denied in Wisconsin.  Also Wisconsin's machines are not connected to the internet which nullifies the hacking during the election argument.   This is really starting to look like a clown show.

Hillary won the popular vote by 1.7 million votes so far.  She won California by 3.5 million votes.  Remove California from the equation and Hillary would have lost the popular vote by 1.8 million votes.   If we ditch the EC every close  vote will be decided by California, we might as well save money and not have elections in the rest of the country if we dismantle the EC.

You are right, our children are watching, what a fricken hypocrite Hillary is.

Actually no and anyone who states that isn't thinking about the real problem with the budget - which is social services, medical expenses and I'll throw debt service into that.  These items are mandated spending and the money is authorized to be spent by previous Congresses.  The current Congress would actually have to proactively make a new law to cut the spending and that would include presidential signature.

The reason this is a trouble is because these items are predicted to spend 72% (2.84T) of the budget in 2016.  Before Congress allocates the first dime to the military, national parks or the FAA, 85% of the revenue is already allocated, all but 500 billion.

Congress is not voting for more debt, they're voting to keep the government running.  The hard truth is that we have only two paths out of this deficit.  1) Raise taxes by about 20% across the board and suffer the fallout from that or 2) cut social programs and suffer the fallout from that.  Some people believe we can grow the GNP but most of those same people believe in taxing their way to a higher GNP and that exacerbates the problem.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm struggling every month to keep it going at my 28% marginal rate.  I cannot imagine paying 20% more in taxes - it becomes a choice of what I give up...the mortgage, groceries, school tuition, or insurances.

Tip Oneil used to shut the government down with regularity, he didn't give a shit, he had balls.  Bohner, Ryan and McConnell are pussies, Obama knows this and gets what he wants.  Hillary knows this and will get what she wants.  Trump knows this and will get what he wants, although he will have to work a little hard than Obama or Hillary. 

So the question is do you want 4 more years of incompetence or do you want things to begin to get better?  Hillary = incompetence,   Trump = turn around and better things.   I know how I'm voting.

That's already covered by rule 13.

When a good, decent human being like Mitt Romney can't survive the politics of personal destruction that occurs every quadrennial, then no conservative can.  This is the democrats home field advantage, and we are worse as a country for it.

Romney acted like a pussy, plain and simple.  His advisers sucked, that's why he lost.  Judging from his actions over the last few years, it's probably a good thing he did.   

Negative. That's the voice of reason you're hearing.

Actually there was little reason in your statement, no one is asking for carpet bombing, but ROE should allow the launch of some type of assertive action and the possible smoking of the missile launchers and their respective crews.  It's pretty simple,  Iran is allowed within a hundred yards of our ships and we take no protective action for fear we will start an incident.  Liberal thinking kills me,  launching missiles and harrassing warships are incidents, incidents that should be very unsafe for the perpetrators.  Obama and Kerry have don't have half a set of gonads between them and our enemies are well aware of that.