DramatistDreamer

That painting reminds me of dogs playing poker. Except far worse.

Some conservative allies of Angela Merkels lost some ground in Sunday's election but not to the right-wing anti-immigration parties but to the liberal Greens.

Looks as if Steven Mnunchin's old Yale roommate is stripping Sears for parts-spinning the most valuable assets to companies that Lampert owns, while collecting the profits. Is Mnunchin still on the board at Sears? Sears, the Original Everything Store, Files for Bankruptcy

So being an official at the EPA who cares about the health of children will land you on administrative leave without explanation. It's very clear who this administration could care less about.

Well, to be fair Borna, who is a younger guy with no perceivable injuries, couldn't manage Novak either.

Daniel Dale has a Twitter thread that goes in detail about Trump's 60 Minutes interview but honestly, I couldn't be bothered to read it all. I can see why Dale feels it's important to analyze his responses, but I'm beyond tired of parsing all of Trump's numerous lies.

How could I possibly overlooked Florida and their constant stream of voting shenanigans? Perhaps it is in the spirit of schadenfreude that I'm strangely, slightly bemused by watching these bankers, tech titans and the lot of them having to backpeddle and squirm over this conference in Saudi Arabia as others with half a conscience quickly back out of putting in an appearance. It just speaks to the lack of integrity of the Trump WH that they haven't done so at this time and are still trying to minimize the Khashoggi situation.

Apparently DelPo has a fractured patella.

Unfortunately, Bernie wasn't the only one minimizing the role of voter suppression in 2016. The media gave the issue short shrift as well. I was continually shouting to the heavens about it on my TL and only a few other, mainly black people were discussing it, amplifying the issue. Because there was little to no acknowledgement and reflection on it in the mainstream, it's happening AGAIN in Georgia as it has been discovered that voters have been purged from the voting roles. This comes off the heels of the discovery of voting places in predominantly African American districts being closed--was that Georgia too? Or South Carolina? The only reason anyone in mainstream media is paying any attention to this now is because one of the gubernatorial candidates is a black woman but apparently we're all supposed to be colorblind, right? Back to Bernie though...the man didn't know, understand or even want to learn the meaning of the word intersectionality. He had no grasp of how one's race can affect one's economic situation, health or healthcare prospects, etc. and he had no desire to learn or even acknowledge that such a dichotomy existed. That is truly what turned me off of him.

TBH, I never thought of it as optimism but I guess it comes off as such. Max mentioned the likes of the Whigs once being an active political party and being relegated to history and it reminded me that years ago, I was thinking of the Whigs and the Federalists and immediately thought of the GOP as the next likely political party to follow suit. It wasn't with any joy or glee that I thought about it, at the time. Just an assessment of how events seem to shift trajectories throughout the course of history. Not to get preachy but sometimes we think that we live in hardship that will never end but I always remind myself that slavery in this country lasted hundreds of years. That is truly an interminable amount of time where no doubt, people languished, believing that miserable state would always be. Unfortunately centuries last a long time but fortunately for me, not for all eternity. It's a somewhat bitterly depressing way to look at things but it reminds me that things don't last forever. Now will it change in our lifetimes is an entirely different question.

Yes, I agree that Hillary was the Democratic establishment's preferred candidate, part of that is because of Bernie's political affiliation but I also think that Bernie had some genuine problems reaching the many Democrats of color. Sanders definitely failed to strike the right tone with black voters and black women, in particular, who are not only a vital part of the Democratic voting base but the most consistently reliable in terms of voting. And we weren't voting for Bernie. Consequently, I can see Michael Bloomberg having some of the same issues, if not worse than Bernie, due to Bloomberg's shift back and forth between political party affiliations, among other issues. People in NYC regretted that third term pretty early on after he won re-election and national politics is often less forgiving than the local political scene where, perhaps pragmatism is overlooked, if not rewarded.

@KMan101 It is certainly a lot of episodes, I'm not trying to minimize the effort involved. P&G, for better or worse, would be starting from the 1980s because they 'wiped' what came before 1979 and the last decade is already digitized right? So that basically leaves the '80s and the '90s, which don't get me wrong, it still a whole lot but not every episode would be a priority. Some episodes/storylines, I would prioritize over others. I admit, I am talking specifically about ATWT, right now. In terms of cost, I imagine it wouldn't be cheap but there are actual film restoration programs at universities where there are students concentrating on film restoration. Does anyone reach out to those programs to see if students might want to take on some of these reels for credit? Or even a part-time/work-study job? It would be worth a shot and preferable to letting these archives further degrade. Under supervision, so that students don't destroy the film, of course. It would take some thought but with the emergence of new software and more effective restoration techniques, the process seems as though it would be less of a hardship than it used to be. If they could get a few teams of students that might help too. From what I understood of the SoapClassics effort, they lacked the manpower to take on a bigger slate of projects. So they had to undertake a relatively modest effort as a result. Now, in the era of crowdfunding, had someone started a Go Fund Me account to raise a stipend to fund a few teams of students and hire a few professionals to supervise...who knows how far they could've gotten in the last several years?

Hi @Max. I don't think that your post was presented in a manner that was at all offensive, I thought it was pretty respectful, in general. From my perspective, in recent times, I think that Democrats have been mostly liberal socially but economically have been centrist, if not slightly right of center. For example, Bill Clinton instituted welfare reforms that many liberals balked at, not to mention that he did nothing to reverse the tide of mass incarceration, particularly as it connected to non-violent crimes (mostly drugs, that many judges today might suggest treatment for, instead of prison) that begun under the Reagan era. Many people (even some conservatives) still express bitterness toward Obama over not sending any of the bankers to prison for causing the global economic crisis which had become a full-blown recession by the end of the George W. Bush era. The irony was that the GOP had already launched preemptive attacks on the Obama administration as being anti-capitalist in anticipation of severe penalties and restrictions against Wall Street for their part in the global economic crisis. Plenty of fines (that were easily paid by the offending financial institutions), some regulations (which the GOP have been trying to repeal ever since) but no jail time for anyone. Perhaps the Democratic populace are more liberal than their leaders. Even on the issue of gay marriage, President Obama and Hillary Clinton, as well, were both halting (at first), in their acceptance of gay marriage. Do you remember when both stated that they believed that marriage was an institution between a man and a woman? Both changed their minds but this was not an automatic shift. Obama even said that he would have to think about it, which happened before he eventually shifted his position. The interesting thing is that, although many complained that neither Obama nor Hillary seemed sufficiently liberal, Bernie Sanders, seen as a liberal icon obviously couldn't gather the votes to take the nomination and his future prospects for doing so seem dubious. I think that the populace, particularly the ones under 45, seem to be pushing leaders further to the left, which does have implications for the future but the leadership at this time still seems fairly rooted to the center. Again, socially, there is a bit of movement to the left of center but if you look at social programs, one of the biggest strides made in healthcare, even that is far from a liberal policy-- the insurance companies remain ensconced in the healthcare market place. A true liberal policy would've eliminated them altogether a la Canada or Sweden. Time will tell whether younger generations continue to push toward a genuinely liberal policy or whether there is more vacillation between centrist and left of center policies but I make a clear distinction between social/cultural liberalism and actual economic geo-political policy that I can see in government. I would say the former, not the latter is happening today. Also, I do agree with your assessment of the Republican party that their ethos seems unsustainable. Years ago, since the emergence of the Tea Party, I've been saying that the GOP will eventually fall in on itself and within twenty years will be relegated to the history books. I still believe this but I'm not sure that this won't happen sooner than I predicted.

There was NO WAY my a*s*s was getting up to see Sacha and Novak play. I did see some of the Coric/Federer match and Coric played pristine tennis, while Roger had quite a number of errors. I hope that Borna plays with that level (at minimum) against Nolé because he's going to need it. The last thing I want to see is a dropoff in quality and a romp in the final. Looking at this graphic, all I see is slow, slow, slow, S-L-O-W.

Probably what Trump likes best about his S-I-L. Clearly, they have much in common.

Yes, I definitely understood what you meant there, it was more of an add on, more than an "except". I just couldn't imagine where that whole breakin would be if they'd had the access journalism type press that we have these days. Not a whole lotta follow up is going on now. I guess I've got what's going on with the disappearance and presumed death of that Saudi journalist and the obvious ties to Trump's WH more on my mind than that bizarro story of people trying to create leftist ties to communists. That was laughable. What's going on with this Saudi journalist is clearly not.

Nope, it's not just you. I've got some ATWT saved that I've recently migrated to a flash drive until I find a way to get more space onto my laptop. Can't decide whether I should get an internal or another external HD. We really should be nagging and petitioning P&G to release more episodes online or something. I don't get it, what does P&G really have to gain by letting those master reels molder in storage? Can we find the guys behind the SoapClassics for some advice/advocacy? How did they get P&G to budge on releasing episodes?

Yes Wang Qiang really rallied and was relentless in that final set against Muguruza! She gave Garbiñe fits for that portion of the match.

Except, at least with Watergate, the media, in general acted with a degree of integrity (from what I've read). There are aspects of today's media that have traded what integrity they might of had, for WH access. Then there's trash commentary like the type that the Federalist engages in...

I guess if Turkey wants some outside help with the investigation of a possible murder that allegedly occurred within the walls of their embassy then they must do a 'quick fix' with their own lack of human rights, at least as much as it concerns foreigners.

I avoided the entire spectacle. Didn't watch one bit of video and skipped over any reference of Kanye or Trump, whom I've both blocked on my social media. So strange how the Republicans/conservatives used to attack the Democrats over how many celebrities they were seen in the company of. Now you have the likes of Kid Rock and Kanye in the Oval office. I just have no desire to witness this slow-moving train wreck play out in front of me. Excuse me, while I avert my gaze.

Didn't he play his father as a boy in that movie?