DramatistDreamer

Wow @Costello, how did I miss your post?? Looks like Cibulkova is doing a cameo in the Li Na movie.

It's amazing how the U.S. media is neglecting to report the massive failures of the Trump administration on the international stage. The 2018 APEC Conference just concluded and for the first time since 1988, the participants weren't even able to summon enough agreement to craft a joint statement. The reason-- the U.S. and China and what some are referring to as an increasing Cold War. Ever wonder why there is virtually no news on the so-called U.S./North Korea summit relations? Because it's not going well. At all. Not to mention the fact that, according to reports, Trump is refusing to even listen to the evidence that implicates KSA crown prince MbS. Trump claimed that this arms deal was going to be 'yuge' but to this day, there has not been one completed deal between the U.S. and KSA. Not. one. Oh and what about that Middle East peace deal? How's that going? Weren't Jared and MbS supposed to craft some sort of new New World Order of peace and prosperity (namely for their own family's fortunes)? It seems stalled, at best, to me. Let's not even get into Europe. Or Canada. Or...sigh...Latin America. If I didn't read/watch international news, I swear, I'd know nothing of any of this! On the domestic front... There's been a turkey salmonella outbreak going on for about a year now, announced just in time for Thanksgiving...Gobble Gobble!

Shade.

But believing that they could extract themselves from a decades long socio-economic pact with minimal complications is a form of illusion, no? The younger people had no such illusions, they knew that their futures were tied to access to a global marketplace where they were permitted the right to travel across Europe without a tangle of bureaucracy. Many who work in the corporate sector probably work for multinationals. They knew what they stood to lose. As I understood, those (like Boris Johnson) who had been extolling the 'virtues' of an exit from the EU hadn't been doing it for 2+ years but for 20+ years! That's quite a long period of indoctrination, which could partially explain why older people were more likely to believe the Brexit mythology--they've been absorbing it for so long. To paraphrase on that old adage of 'a lie can become like the truth if repeated often enough'.

John McCain's problem wasn't having a woman as a running mate, it was the particular woman that he selected, who was clearly out of her depth in all matters political. Proposing that had Bernie won the nomination, he would've won the WH is asking for an awful LOT of hypotheticals to be put into place and JMO, but I don't see any of that happening. The fact that Bernie couldn't get out of the nomination is where the argument ends for me but let's entertain the far-fetched notion that he could have somehow secured the nomination-- Trump Inc. would've certainly dredged up every vote, every questionable word uttered by Bernie since he entered public office in the 1980s. Remember those very distasteful and shady articles that Bernie wrote when he was around 33 years old? Those would've most certainly been brought to the fore, instead of existing on marginalized blogs. Trust that every untoward thing that Bernie had written or said (and he has a record of this that stretches back decades) would've been dredged up. And lest, anyone believe that Bernie's questionable writings would be no match for Trump's history-- Trump Inc. would make sure to tilt the focus on how it reflects on Bernie's history in public service, meanwhile casting Trump's indiscretions as purely personal (as he had no history in public service before getting elected), much like how the Trump campaign used the l'affaire Lewinsky and Paula Jones to re-litigate Bill Clinton's fitness for public office and by association, HRC. Bernie's deviant essays from the 1980s would've been cast as perverted and warped, and unworthy of support from those evangelicals that the Trump campaign courted so assiduously. I could go on and on, point by point and show you how anyone could've magnified Bernie's perceived weaknesses in a general election because anyone could do it, even the most novice of political novices. And if a political novice could thoroughly deconstruct Bernie's general election campaign, imagine what people as cunning and ruthless as Kellyanne Conway and Roger Stone could do? I think the magical thinking about Bernie needs to come to a close. Speaking of magical thinking, I wonder how many Brits still labour under the illusion that there is any scenario in which an exit from the E.U. could produce a favourable outcome? Theresa May has failed to secure what the Tories promised but can anyone secure what the Tories promised? Sure doesn't look so from here. Also, this 1922 Committee is unlike anything I've ever read, seen or heard of in politics. Leave it to the Brits to dust off a little used rule that few people are familiar with and are confounded by and introduce it as a mechanism to add to an already tangled and complicated process.

Sounds like you have an aversion to bad writing, which is not in short supply on network too. I can see where a binge-method of presenting string of On Demand episodes might not be a good fit for a lot of continuing drama but even Netflix is beginning to present series that present episodes one at a time. I've had a ball binge-watching classic ATWT on You Tube and many of those episodes have no commercials. I think the biggest thing is that a lot of the websoaps of today just happen to be poorly written. The production values have improved but the scripts, by and large, haven't.

Apparently, there's a fake death hoax on Twitter involving actress and composer Billie Eilish, who is the daughter of Maggie Baird, who played Dr.Taylor Baldwin, briefly an antagonist toward Lyla and Casey Peretti and Tom and Margo Hughes.

British journalists love to brag about how knowledgeable British fans are about tennis, while denigrating other countries (e.g. China) about how ill-informed their tennis fans are but only ignorance can truly explain why people would boo and continue to boo because of a mistake that a ballboy, a volunteer and a kid, made by accident. Maybe the Brit tennis fans are not all they've been lauded to be.

Wesley Morris writes a glowing review of Amazing Grace, which makes me even more curious as to why Ms. Franklin was so adamant that this film not be shown (at least in her lifetime). Aretha Franklin Didn’t Want You to See This Movie. But You Must.

Interesting profile story about Michael B. Jordan in NYT, which briefly gives a nod to the fact that he and Chadwick Boseman played the same character in All My Children. Michael B. Jordan Is Finally in Control. Now What?

I don't know the person who posted this but looking at this picture made me wonder if AH's Victoria was supposed to be some AB/Mac clone? Especially considering the fact that AshBash and David Tom were highly popular as a couple, I wouldn't put it past Y&R to find a clone and then try to build them up to be this big romance. It's just something about the way Bashioum is posed her that makes me think so. Yes, I know David Tom had been replaced by Biller Miller by then but still, the original suspicion remains.

New York City has rejected Trumpism, which is particularly delicious. Didn't Trump crow about how Love's loss was a done deal and how Love game him no love? If she keeps her seat, someone should ask him about that one.

Could there be another indictment for someone in Trump's circle incoming?

^^ Don't know what to say, other than how completely vile!

ESPN3 is replaying the second set but why bother, since I already know the score, lol.

Annnd, as a rejoinder to the story posted above, this.

AOC seems to be learning fast, hopefully she continues to learn. Some of the media seems intent on pitting AOC against Nancy Pelosi and vice-versa. The good news is that neither woman appears to be falling for it. I didn't expect Pelosi to fall for it but I've been pleasantly surprised that AOC isn't either.

Are they going after Boris Johnson and the others who have been instigating leaving the EU for over 20 years? Anyway, some tried to disparage it as 'Not a Blue Wave' but it certainly appears that some sort of blue wave did occur.

Just sitting down to read that NYT article about Facebook and lawd, these folks are horrid!! One of the biggest problems is that these companies have become publicly traded behemoths that are exhibiting all the signs and falling into all the pitfalls associated with corporations that are on the Wall Street treadmill. The quest to chase dollars and expansion coupled with the tech ethos to "move fast and break things" all make for an ugly combination results-wise. What the U.S. desperately needs is more competition. We're at the point in tech that telecommunications were at about 20 years ago (especially ironic since the FCC Chairman clearly doesn't want tech/ISPs etc. to be regarded and regulated the way that telecommunications currently are-- as a service), where the Ma Bells, etc. and a few other mega-companies who had the lionshare of the market and choices were exceptionally limited and the consumer had to put up with it until they were ordered to break the hell up! Then an opportunity for some new companies to come along. Some of those companies flopped, some were absorbed into larger companies but there were a few that remained independent and regional/local and to those consumers in those areas, it has made all the difference in the world. We need more of that. Amazon, Facebook and Google are all especially ruthless companies in the way they drive the financial and consumer marketplaces. Unless there are a bunch of companies that can set up shop, in regional and local markets (a la Cricket wireless...oh, but you laugh...!), we're doomed to put up with these corporate behemoths moving fast and loose (and carelessly) with our data and our wallets/pocketbooks.

The biggest irony is that May, who was ambivalent at best, about Leaving the E.U. now has the task of trying to carve out a deal has been left in her lap. The biggest Leavers have absconded, after seemingly throwing up their hands after they discovered that it would be impossible to get the deal that they've been trying to sell to the public for twenty years. This is extraordinary. The remorse is real.

I also hope that is over too. If Democrats and others have argued that Trump never had the temperament to be POTUS, what would it look like having an Avenatti as a nominee for the Democratic party?? Speaking of spectacles, Theresa May has just spoken at The House of Commons and is taking question and answers after a sizable number of her cabinet walked off the job, one by one. It's an extraordinary sight as it's playing out Live. May makes statement on draft Brexit Deal