DramatistDreamer

As much as I've come to dislike DeBlasio and his rigid leftist doctrine (which didn't seem as thoroughly ground in when he first got into office but is now), DeBlasio inherited an intractable homeless crisis that has proven extremely difficult to burrow out of. At the very least DeBlasio put an end to stop and frisk and set about trying to rectify some glaring criminal justice matters that had been festering during the Bloomberg administration. Since we could use all the good news we can get.

One of the things that I most hold against former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg (besides Stop and Frisk) is the fact that he promised to address this need but never did. He was supposed to oversee the construction of more affordable housing for families as well as Single Rooming Options (studio apartments), particularly for homeless men (many of whom were veterans, some with substance abuse and mental health issues that often kept them in a cycle of homelessness and hopelessness. Even as the homeless problem became a full-blown crisis, not seen since the Reagan years, Bloomberg did nothing to alleviate this. In fact, more luxury buildings and apartments were built under his watch than any other NYC municipal government in memory. One of the reasons why I'm glad he got so little support that he eventually dropped out of the presidential race.

While everyone was talking on and on about the "Corona Babies" that would supposedly be conceived, I was thinking about all the marriage that might be headed for divorce (and worse) because people could be trapped in a confined space with one another, including those trapped in abusive relationships. Between this horrible story and the unfortunate prisoner who should've been released from prison already, and the homeless people sleeping in a parking lot while practicing 'social distance', this crisis really has become a 'black light' showing up all the stains of society's various ills.

Blake recounted what Agassi told him at the net after he lost to Andre (was it that match or a different one?). Agassi told him that the one and only difference in outcome was that Blake didn't believe in himself. It seemed as though once James began to get confident in his game, things went wrong-- first with a horrible injury that he sustained in Italy, while preparing for the Italian Open (remember when he crashed into the netpost and injured his neck? He barely escaped permanent paralysis. Soon after, his father was diagnosed with cancer and died (James actually said had it not been for the injury, he might have missed that critical time to spend with his father). Also, possibly as a result of emotional and physical trauma, James had developed Bell's palsy, which he recovered from but it seemed like a cascade of events that he had to endure and recover from might have caused him to miss valuable time building his game, competing and winning matches. For awhile, it seemed like Blake could have picked up from where he left off when he returned to the Tour (he had a very good record vs. Nadal for awhile) but again...confidence. Blake seemed to be the type of player that needed to build confidence, brick by brick. He didn't seem to be the type of player that could quickly turn on the confidence and get in a groove by the second game of a match and then just go from there. I suspected that, had he won a big tournament (Miami, IW) or gotten to the semifinals or finals of a major tournament (Australian or U.S. Open), he might have been able to summon that confidence right away upon his return to the Tour, but as it was, he didn't appear to be that type of player that could just 'turn it on'. As it is, it seemed as if the timing in his career never quite synced. Ironically, when he sustained that neck injury, I felt as though James could have built a solid game on clay (for an American) because he had the patience and the athleticism, unlike many of his compatriots at the time but I suspect that, after that hard slam into the netpost, he became tentative with doing anything on clay, especially sliding (which he was practicing when he sustained the injury). It's a shame, really. One thing I've learned from watching people like Marcelo Rios (who never won a GS title but reached no. 1), Tsonga, and a few others who fell short of winning big tournaments is that sometimes a few points can really turn a match, a tournament and in a few instances, even the trajectory of a career. And Blake had a few complications beside all those.

Had planned to avoid this thread today (sometimes I need a break) but thought others might like this piece of news, that seems like it will be music to many people's ears.

The sheer awfulness of all everyone and all things associated with this wretched administration, perhaps, remains the one constant in our ever changing world.

I've really tried to scale back on reading too much about every minutiae surrounding this pandemic but has anyone read this article? It gives a breathtaking overview of all the mistakes, delays, missteps and flat out intransigence that has characterized the U.S./Trump administration's handling of COVID-19.

You could tell that this was uploaded from a SoapClassics DVD because of the abbreviated opening theme (which the theme was better before they made changes in 1987, which I didn't really like). This was one of the episodes that had streamed on the SoapClassics website. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH5PmjWpAVI

The SoapClassics website also streamed some episodes from the 1980s. I remember a few of the episodes streamed on their platform were some crystal clear episodes surrounding Tom and Margo's wedding. It was quite a treat since I had never seen those episodes before.

When it was announced that ATWT was being canceled, I was on a hiatus from online life and I wasn't watching the show, was there a big petition (a la Change.org) circulated around, or anything? Years later, I heard some folks had gathered in front of the NYC CBS building to protest, or something (even though P&G headquarters in Cincinnati would've been more effective, tbh) but unless it was a crowd of tens of thousands, I doubt P&G would've so much as blinked. When SoapClassics was ending their partnership with P&G (according to SC, was P&G's decision not to extend the license), a Change.org petition probably should've been sent to P&G requesting that they extend the SoapClassics videos or at least allow some streaming of episodes. I don't expect P&G to ever get out of the way because this is how they are- they've never offered a reason why they don't bother, we all assume that it is prohibitively expensive to digitize their episodes but honestly, from 2012 or whenever SoapClassics stopped streaming and selling videos, had even a small group of people continued to digitize episodes, could you have imagined how many episodes would be viewable by now? People are assuming that the process of digitization has remained at the same arduous level, without considering the fact that technology always continues to innovate and move along and facility with technology always improves. Another aspect is that P&G could've damn well just stream rather than sell videos and, in most cases, this would ease some of the issues concerning music rights. Yes, there are some artists that undoubtedly will not give permission to re-air their music but I bet most would if asked. A simple way around that might be to have a chyron in the bottom corner that displays the artist's/band's name and song title. A dedicated ATWT website or even YT page could provide links on where to purchase the song and artist's/band's music. Would it take some work? Undoubtedly but we know how many dedicated people who are skilled at this and yes, many are soap fans, classic television fans, etc. Yes, there are a lot of episodes, even given the fact that we are dealing with 1980-1998/99 (the majority of episodes after were automatically on digital format) but like I said, between 2013-1020 is seven years, a substantial amount of time for even volunteers working in their spare time to work with. If anything this whole crisis has taught me is that, it's not usually lack of money or even time that prevents things from happening...it's often the lack of will. When people, companies, governments truly want to do something, they do it.

Stan and his alters.

I wonder how far back Martha's VHS collection goes? I wish more former soap stars would post episodes up on YouTube like Patricia Bruder and Margaret Reed have been known to do. I I'd be interested to see what episodes others have. Maybe we can fill in the blanks of missing episodes from YT and I doubt that P&G even cares at this point.

While they're at it, why don't they add Donald Trump to that class action suit?

Never one to miss an opportunity to spread disinformation and propaganda, China and Russia have once again taken to social media to float conspiracy theories on the origins of the novel coronavirus. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-virus-spreads-china-and-russia-see-openings-for-disinformation/ar-BB11Ps1U The only thing that I've seen is a tweet mocking Trump's handling by bringing up the lack of toilet paper, which only reminded me of that Golden Girls episode where Rose dreams that she is in Moscow with Dorothy and Blanche (and Sophia who complains that they left her at home and she had to hitch a ride with a nice East German kid to get to Moscow) and Dorothy jokes that she knows the reason why everybody in Russia looks so grumpy all the time--it's their toilet paper! I definitely thought that the origin of that tweet was probably from one of those disinformation sites.

You mean the same wanna be gangster that was quoted to have said this?

Yeah, I know Johnson won't change. He's been awful for decades. I'm just trying not to type what I really felt in that moment. Trying to be nice, lol. Anywho, Is this real?

If he makes it through, hopefully PM Johnson emerges as a better, more compassionate human being. In other events, this is a bit of heartfelt news.

This is crazy that there was no requirement for voting by mail in the bill. This all but guarantees the need for further legislation in the near future.

Canada seems to care about their people. The U.S., not so much. Also, many of the so-called "sh*t hole" countries also seem to care more about their citizens as exemplified by their efforts.

Stocks are up so far after the opening of markets, so I guess it's not so much the enormous loss of jobs to actual human beings but big business getting their cut of the "stimulus" money that matters most to Wall Street. Well, if this pandemic has clarified anything, it certainly has made clear where the priorities of governments are.

An article discussing the fine print in the "stimulus" bill. For Profit businesses and Trump companies are expected to benefit. I put stimulus in quotes because most who have looked at this bill agree that it is not stimulus so much as it is a survival bill to stave off the worst impact from the pandemic. Stimulus would be the follow up that will most certainly be needed to actually get people back on their feet. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/fine-print-of-stimulus-bill-contains-special-deals-for-industries/ar-BB11HvHu?li=BBnb7Kz