DramatistDreamer

I usually try not to post memes, especially in the Politics Thread but this one made me giggle.

That Chris Collins news was a long time coming.

I've been reading about this for the past year but with each read, I grow more worried about what will become of the people in countries like the Central African Republic. This is distressing and even more so, the more that I read about it.

This reminds me of when the Republicans in Congress were dodging their constituents after they tried to tank the ACA for the umpteenth time after Trump got in office. It will be interesting to see if all that ducking and dodging will yield similar results at the polls in the next election.

When are these players going to learn??

Quite a few tournaments have had incidents where there were confrontations in the past decade or so, mainly between fans. Australian and U.S. Open both had incidents where there were confrontations, although only one got anywhere near this physical but in the case of the U.S. Open, I'm pretty sure both parties were drunk. I haven't heard about such an incident occurring at The China Open before. I doubt this will be deal-breaker because both Tours make so much money in Asia, it's why the Asian swing (involving numerous tournaments) occurs during what should basically be the off-season. In fact, the fact that there is a dual ATP/WTA tournament (a la Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Madrid) tells me that both Tours have actually doubled-down on the strategy of an Asian swing. China is also one of their biggest markets. Personally, I can take it or leave it (half the matches occur while I'm sleeping anyway) but I don't see either Tour leaving all that money on the table. The ITF, ATP and WTA are far too greedy to leave all that money on the table without grabbing it and stuffing it in their collective pockets.

Don't know what to make of this but Scaramucci just tweeted to standby for more whistleblowers. This administration is beyond a circus of grifters, thieves and corrupt folks.

Well. Damn.

Apparently, some Chinese and Zhang fans are disputing this. Nonetheless, this is a security issue and needs to be investigated.

I gave up on CNN years ago. Then again, I haven't subscribed to cable in almost a decade, so it wasn't hard.

So now someone at CNN wants to emphasize proper standards? Puhleeze!

As much as I try to disregard much of what Maggie Haberman writes, she does seem to have a point (for once) in her assessment that the Clinton administration was far more disciplined during the impeachment process. Clinton didn't actually speak about impeachment, but chose to basically keep his head down and govern. No one in the Clinton administration went on about presidential harassment, they just kept their collective noses to the grindstone and did the legislative and executive work of the people's business. As big as Clinton's ego was (and still is), he kept it reeled in when he needed to whereas I don't believe that's possible with Trump. That makes a big difference, imo. Also, Clinton had some scandals but not all at once and he seemingly moved from strength to strength in the economic and in the day to day business of governing while things just seem to be coming further apart at the seams for Trump Inc. Don't forget about the disastrous trade wars, they're still happening and those who don't feel its effects, will by Christmastime. Stock markets are teetering, the housing market is flaring up, once again and people are still talking about the very real possibility of recession. If it were impeachment in a vacuum, with an otherwise well functioning economy, etc. (a la Clinton), it would be a different story but this time, this is not the case. Therein lies the difference.

The press STAYS minimizing Black women. Period. Apparently, we are good enough to be relied upon for our votes and the toothless #ListenToBlackwomen and #VoteLikeBlackwomen hastags abound, but apparently we are not good enough to be in charge of anything. Only function as de-facto "Hidden Figures" while cleaning up/organizing the mess that other folks left behind. Had anyone (other than a Black publication) bothered to see/poll Black women (you know, the so-called "base" of the Democratic Party), they'd see that Harris actually polls quite high, in the #2 slot. Au contraire. Great Britain had Thatcher and they are not evolved at all. I won't even get into Pakistan and Israel and India, if you look at these countries, their politics are a total mess. You don't need to be especially evolved to have a female head of state. You can be a mess, the same way as with any male head of state. It's in the mentality of the U.S. voter that makes the difference. The same mentality that didn't believe that a Black man could ever be POTUS. Some things really are that simple. This has thankfully happened, even though it's going mostly unnoticed.

Just. Ugh. 😷

That was a very technical love scene, lol. Deas and Zimmer are two highly regarded soap veterans so they were very professional and pulled it off in convincing fashion and it had some very real echoes of good ole fashioned soap scenes from the 80s but the choreography of the scene itself was very technical in execution. It was interesting to watch, it looked like the characters had fun and was a definite reminder of how much Reva Shayne loved sex but I didn't really get a lot of heat/passion/intensity in that scene. I was absent during this era of GL so it's still a bit of a jolt to see that these two characters were romantically paired at all. I guess it was inevitable though.

Lissen, the U.S. has some slim pickings these days, I'm just enjoying the fact that she's not a Trumpist, lol.

After reading the whistleblower's report, you had to know this was coming (or something like it).

She was always capable, imo, it's just that she often got bogged down playing these lengthy points that would lead to nowhere in last second because of poor shot choices. Glad to see that she is coming into her own as she's one of the few U.S. players that I can actually enjoy watching.

Wow, thankfully I missed that entire era of NYT. I was in grad school and too busy to read 95% of their articles. I do remember the bitterness I felt at the decision to invade Iraq. What I know of Elizabeth Vargas is mostly her personal struggles against alcoholism, I didn't realize that she was pushing such a vile narrative but I rarely watch 20/20.

What in the Fresh Hell is this??! I think someone ought to check the water at the NYT.

I never liked Rudy, not even a little. He was a horrid mayor who sold the city to tourists and he lied to emergency workers about the safety and air quality--many have died and are dying as a result of his lies. Rudy was, is and will always be pure scum in my book. Also, I hope Giuliani's cousin/wife takes him for every nickel he's worth.

I'm going to go on ahead and admit that I don't read the NYT nearly as much as they used to for many reasons but their paywall has just irritated me into curtailing how much I read their articles. I'll admit that I never actually had a paid subscription. Since about 1998/99 when NYT began to put their news online, I had an account and would get the headlines delivered to my inbox. It worked for me, this way, for a good solid decade before changes began to gradually take effect. There was an allotment of articles 10 a day, which was eventually whittled to 5 day. And even then, with the use of the incognito browser function, that was a workaround (yes, I'm telling on myself) but recently, NYT closed that loophole. I guess I'd feel worse about the sorry state of the NYT if they still allowed more access, and yeah, better reportage.

It would be great if P&G would give Alina Adams permission to run an official Twitter account or at least, someone equally dedicated if she doesn't have the time to spare. These shows deserve that much.

It's certainly wild (i.e. rollercoaster) but not unexpected AFAIC. IMO, it's really what people were referring to when they were speaking of the millenium and 'systems coming apart' only most may not have truly realized it because people were so fixated on some type of explosively chaotic event (like the Y2K that never happened) to occur but to me, this was what it was all about to begin with. People like Boris Johnson have been planting these seeds for over a quarter-century now so it should come as no surprise that this is happening. I don't think the chaos that has ensued should be a surprise either, given the violent rhetoric that was used to get GB to this particular moment in time, it's just that the British have deluded themselves into believing that one can make order out of chaos. Given what it took to derive this result, an orderly "Brexit" was never going to be in the cards. What's happening in the U.S. now is, to borrow and paraphrase (mess with) the words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez "a chronicle" of a collapse "foretold". Since before the Tea Party, the GOP was moving in this direction, whether people wish to acknowledge this, or not. And the fact that Americans have been getting more of their news from comedy shows, reality shows and combative talking heads on conservative radio and ratings grabbing cable "news shows" than news broadcasters that actually do in-depth, considerate reporting (hey PBS is still out there, people!) really foretold the way in which this country was going and paved the way for a reality-show, ratings grabbing man to ascend into the White House.