DramatistDreamer

According to her post, the decision had nothing to do with RA. She said she'd simply had nothing more to accomplish since she'd met all her goals. Whether that's true or not, I'm just going to take what she claims at face value.

No one should be surprised by something like this, and in Mississippi, it's pretty much par for the course.

Here's the trailer with McKenna Grace (one of the Faith Newmans, Y&R) in Troop Zero, starring Viola Davis. Looking at her and barely recognizing her, I realize it's probably been ages since I've seen her onscreen.

Clinton was probably aware that women are held to much higher standards than their male counterparts. Much of the electorate will applaud a man who is vocal and can trade insults but when a woman does it, she is seen as arrogant and deserving of being put in her place. Had Hillary went into a full-throated verbal assault on Trump, I just don't believe it would've went over well. I don't have that much faith in the American public to give a woman the same space as a man in many aspects in life, including presidential politics.

Since the merger in August, shares of CBS and Viacom have each dropped about 20%. Also, according to the newly merged company's chief executive, Viacom-CBS will be looking to reap half a billion dollars in cost savings- which most people know by what means this will be- through layoffs and job cuts. Of course, there are implications for all divisions of both companies but I don't know what further implications there could be for a division like CBS Daytime, an already stripped down department. https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/companies/young-sheldon-meet-spongebob-cbs-and-viacom-are-back-together/ar-BBXM7N1

China doesn't celebrate Christmas but still...I can't believe tennis is being played right now. I'm not watching because frankly, I need a break from tennis but for anyone who's interested. https://www.youtube.com/user/australianopentv/videos

Who the heck is this? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Just goes to show how truly messed up a country the U.S. is. I can't think of another country where something like this would take place. Can you?

Since the first time I'd seen Gatti was on Guiding Light as Dinah Marler, I remember being very confused when I saw her portraying Keesha Monroe on Y&R. I think that Keesha was definitely meant to be a woman of color, if not black. I remember wondering if Gatti herself was of mixed heritage but though there was never any indication of this being the case. I think Y&R was likely going for an ambiguously ethnic look. The storyline was compelling, without doubt but the casting choice was weird, even back then.

At random, I came across this interesting interview with Jennifer Gatti where she mentions a bit about how she got cast to play Keesha as well as some interesting thoughts on acting on a soap opera. Interview: Jennifer Gatti on Bon Jovi, Star Trek, and Leaving L.A.

I know, I actually accompanied my cousins to their polling site on Election Day years ago! It was so quiet and orderly and everyone was in and out in minutes, LOL! Only once have I had an election experience that comes close! I've voted in the Midwest, I have voted in NYC and in the suburbs about an hour and some minutes away, where I now reside and only if I show up at off-peak hours during midterms when turnout is suppressed, is it relatively quiet and orderly. But the small city nearest mine always, always has problems during election time. It's a mess and I'm not holding out much hope for it to improve by the primaries.

That's the influence of (dark) money in politics. I have a lot of family who live in Canada and the last time I visited with them, Canada just happened to be in an election years ago. It was orderly, straight-forward seamless process. I was struck by how, even in a metropolis like Toronto, people were able to get in and out without a bunch of commotion. In the U.S., that would only happen if you live in a small town but not in a large city. It's generally chaotic! Canada's political system is streamlined, the U.S. is unwieldy and at this point, I think it's like this by design. The party of "inclusion".

That is the one upside, if you can call it that. I can just tune out at this point and show up when I must. Shirley Chisolm was the first and only other black woman to run for president. The pandering to Kamala Harris' would be voters on social media has already begun in earnest and honestly, it's embarrassing to watch it unfold. These candidates ought to just give it a day before making desperate appeals this way. The only one who actually sounds sincere is Castro, who was locked out of the last debate and will likely be locked out of the next one. I have to say one thing though and that is that it is damn impressive that in the midst of being relentlessly trolled by Russian troll farms and disparaged at every turn, Harris was still able to co-sponsor a piece of legislation passed the House Judiciary on a bipartisan vote. Bernie has been in the Senate since Jesus was a boy and I don't think he has gotten that far.

The trolls can move to the next candidate now.

I saw a clip of Lori Loughlin's daughter speaking on her YouTube channel on some morning newsmagazine show over Thanksgiving weekend. Why is this child speaking on a vlog while her parents are still facing jail time? Does she not think that anything she says could be used against them? Don't get me wrong, I could care less but it strikes me as pretty foolish legally-speaking.

People are saying it was too early for her to drop out. Oh well.

Kamala Harris' online "army" could be overbearing but 90% that I saw (I didn't follow any of them) seemed basically harmless. I would be more concerned about the folks backing people like Gabbard (*hint* some of them backed Stein) and the fact that Americans still want to turn a blind eye to how unprepared election/voting apparatus still is. We face the same problems that were apparent in 2016, that hasn't gone away and no one is doing anything to address this.

And don't forget Tom Steyer who stole Harris' voter list.

I'm also depressed about this but sadly, I'm not surprised. Until Americans make sure that Citizens United is overturned and money doesn't have such a strong pull in civic/public affairs, the U.S. will get the leaders it deserves. At this point, Trump is the leader that the U.S. deserves unfortunately. I hope he won't be re-elected, but...

With Trump's 50 million scandals, I doubt this will get much notice.

The ATP/tennis really undersells their greatest assets. Sumit is obviously thirst-inducing and yet the ATP would rather every focus on dudes with lesser looks, lol. No wonder tennis is a niche sport, lol.

It's been something of a Barbara Crampton weekend for me the past few days, watching her on 1993 episodes of Guiding Light and here. Crampton's acting range is underrated. Sure, sometimes the characterization of Leanna Love could be overwrought (I'm not sure whether this was on account of the writing or the direction or acting choices) but seeing how slippery a character Leanna (or whichever name she'd go by), gives me an appreciation for the complexity in the character, a complexity that is sorely missing on today's soaps. Today's characters are so damn basic! It's really twisted how complicated characters like Leanna once were. Leanna was basically a misandrist who had an odd friendship with Jack, who was in essence, a chauvinistic playboy. Leanna, despite her misandry, clearly still wanted to be seen as desirable by men, as evidenced by those scenes after the wedding to Victor in Las Vegas. Those exchanges between Douglas, Victor and Leanna were hilarious. Poor Lynn Harbough's hair. The hair stylists on 1980s soaps were so unkind to women with long curly hair! All Ashley Crow and Lynn Harbough ever needed was a good leave in conditioner and some curl cream! Those stylish brushed the life out of curly hair in the '80s! Another painfully obvious fact is how different the details of business are handled now in contrast to classic Y&R and other soaps. Brad's pitch to Lauren about advertising strategies was specific and actually sounded like something you'd hear in an office. No wandering into coffee shops of athletic club bars making vague "business-y" comments before eliding into idle repetitive chit-chat. What a difference a few decades makes!