DramatistDreamer

Maybe because he makes beating Nadal the goal, instead of winning the tournament? I'm not knocking Thiem, Nadal is clearly the king of clay but Rafa obviously looms so large for Thiem that he may not be able to see past that to what needs to happen next.

When candidates and super PACs collide. Beto O'Rourke told PACs to stay out of his race. They aren't listening

That match went on forevah!

I doubt any mainstream media outlets will be doing any in-depth reportage on this type of Trump voter any time soon. By the way, it's exhausting living while black in America during the Trump era.

Yup. Also Madrid is likely to be seen as the least valuable run-up tournament to the French.

It seemed as if Marland was starting something compelling with Detective Roy Franklin's family. The rift between Roy and his father Leonard because Roy's younger brother was shot and killed by the police coupled with the fact that Roy became a police detective is a story that could play today. Sadly, with today's soaps, it would likely be seen as risky somehow (soaps today tend to avert their gaze from any hint of a socio-political issue)--maybe it was also deemed too risky back then. Perhaps P&G wanted to pull the plug on that story, which could be the reason why it didn't progress any further. In fact, in a weird case of symmetry, Marland also created a similar family dynamic between Jessica Griffin and her family, but the tensions were compounded by social rather than political issues and that also only went so far. Personally, I thought that Roy's family dynamic was the more compelling but I wonder whether there was resistance from CBS and/or P&G to give a long-term dramatic spotlight to a Black family. This aspect always struck me as very strange.

Until they can figure out a way to blame Obama or Hillary, I guess they'll keep quiet about it.

Speaking of things we'll likely never know, it appears that the U.S. military and government are prepared to sweep this under the rug with no prescriptions on how to avoid this from happening again and no one in the upper echelons even prepared to take responsibility for what is being described as "lax oversight" and "sloppy" paperwork. Military Inquiry Finds Soldiers Were Unprepared in Deadly Niger Ambush

It's infuriating but not surprising unfortunately. There is a community of Ethiopian Jews in NYC, they actually have their own places of worship, so I actually think there would be better safeguards in place to prevent such an atrocity from happening in NYC. The language was quite condescending calling these people the weakest, especially given the heroics of the Ethiopian army during WWII. They remain the African Union's most disciplined and effective military force. Also, it is well documented that the Ethiopian Jews were tested (DNA/blood) to prove that they are in fact, descended from the line of King David, so I don't know what rational reason some rabbinate have for not placing value on their status as Jews. Unfortunately, the Ethiopian Jews do not get much sympathy from any side. There are non-Jewish Ethiopians who scoff at them for migrating, claiming that they should've known that they'd never find genuine acceptance in Israel. They are citizens however and should be afforded all the rights of any citizen and be allowed to live with dignity. A sad plight. I have family who are Christians and have visited the Holy Land but personally, it's situations like these that make me feel as though I wouldn't ever go. EDT: Then again, I live in the U.S. and at times, it gets pretty bad here too. I have relatives who live in the Caribbean and they are afraid to visit.

This should come as no surprise.

Robin Morse has been teaching acting, mainly in NYC, I believe. My goodness, I had forgotten all about the Lily factor! Of course! Interesting about Meg breaking out of that Lily circle, although when we look at the timing of the initial introduction of the Meg character, she was clearly brought on as foil to Lily, especially in regards to her relationship with Dusty. Fortunately for the Meg character (and Jennifer Ashe), the character was allowed to mature and progress to the adult world of relationships (and she progressed even faster than Lily did). @DRW50 is right to assert the notion that the characters in Pam's age group having been cycled out and replaced by a younger set, left the character kind of stuck for awhile and a bit hampered going forward. Still, I never got the sense that Pam was supposed to be a foil for Lily (like Meg), well, not for long because Pam was all the things that Meg was not when she first arrived in Oakdale. Pam was self-aware, mature and proud of her industrious nature, civil servant Jersey background. Unlike Meg, Pam never had fantasies of being anybody's heroine. Pam was a fully formed woman, which makes me think that there were bigger ambitions for the character that somehow went awry.

Same as in the U.S.-- a pattern of police brutality, which is regarded as a civil rights issue in most countries. One example of it happened less than three years ago when there was a case of an Ethiopian-Israeli soldier (still in his uniform) beaten by policeman. It happened frequently enough to spur some Ethiopians to refuse to participate in the compulsory military service until this issue was addressed. I must admit, in all the U.S. election chaos, I've lost track of what the results were but I read an article about at least a year ago that suggested that this was still a problem.

This is an interesting article that discusses the notion of how Genius revolves around the male gaze or haze, as it is referred to in this piece. Also the reality that anyone who inserts the truth of how problematic a select number of these "genius" men truly are, is basically told that their truth is not welcome and advised to keep it quiet. The World Still Spins Around Male Genius

Anyone who has ever watch Eastenders knows who Ms. Windsor is. So sorry to hear about this. It seems that she has the love and support she will need to deal with this awful disease. She and her husband have been together since at least 2000?? That sounds like a truly committed relationship.

An ex-hooker and a nurse, whoa what a skill-set! Robin Morse deserved better than what she actually got. I think she was on the receiving end of two unfortunate events that impacted her character Pam heavily: I think the writing perhaps put her with Beau maybe much earlier and for keeps because they likely knew in advance that Brian Bloom wouldn't be staying for much longer. Also, the writer's strike, well, we all know what it did to the storylines. I remember watching as a kid and not having much patience for Beau Watching You Tube episodes just a few years ago and he didn't bother me, maybe because by now I've seen so much worse on soaps since those days.

Guess who's ready to step into the void left by the U.S.' withdrawal from the agreement with Iran? It should've been obvious that this would happen.

That dependency likely has more to do with military/self-defense issues than economic in recent times. Most economies are fairly interdependent because of globalization, rather than outright dependent. Japan is still a mainly export economy, which means they need people to buy, of course, but the world is their customer base, not just the U.S. Actually, because their products tend to lean toward the higher end, the upwardly mobile countries comprise their consumer base. Abe has been shedding Japan's pacifist image over the past few years, not without some controversy and resistance but his more aggressive stance is likely to be welcomed, especially with the U.S. political turn over the last year or so. Abe actually rejected Trump's overture for a separate bilateral trade agreement. Abe proposed that the U.S. rejoin the TPP instead. So that was a polite rejection, pretty much.

Japan did indeed go through a period of prolonged stagnation for almost 20 years. Japan's biggest problem is demographics. They have an aging population and not enough young workers. This is what happens when a society is staunchly anti-immigration. But for now, Japan has been slowly emerging from their economic stagnation while no one has been looking. By the way, Japan has the world's 3rd largest economy (for now). These are not refugees that I am talking about. There is at least one full generation of Israeli born Ethiopian-Jews whose parents/grandparents migrated from Ethiopia to Israel over 25 years ago. People should really look that up. I happen to have a few Ethiopian born friends that I met in school, I remember discussing it with them when it happened. They were pretty upset when the Israeli government disposed of Ethiopian donated blood to the blood bank, even after the government claim it was in error. But those in their 20s and early 30s are citizens by birth. Many have been protesting their treatment by refusing the compulsory military service until they are accorded with the same civil rights as their fellow Israeli citizens.

The way they've treated Africans, even their Ethiopian descended, citizens (most of whom were born in Israel by now), is pretty s*hitty. I know that many of the black citizens were protesting and refusing to join the military until they were accorded the same rights as any ordinary Israeli citizen. It's strange that no one talks about it. I've heard words like apartheid being used but I don't expect America to care about this, especially this administration.

All the major players look suspect right with the world going into every wealthy country for themselves. Not even the pretense of some type of altruistic unity. How quickly things change.

Precisely. On another note, Golan Heights is trending and I'm afraid to look. It's all happening fast, folks.

This is definitely not making the news and I was just mentioning the exploitation of prison labor.

The U.S. has been an imperialistic country for over a century, it's just that, over the last few decades that imperialistic grip has become weaker for a number of reasons- one of them being that other countries, once on the margins have gotten stronger. China, a country whose empire had faded centuries ago (before America existed) and was considered a poor backward country by Western standards, has come in from the margins to become a superpower. Japan (also an empire that once practiced imperialism all over the Northeast Asia) and Germany, shed their post WWII infamy and are highly successful economies that are at the top of the global financial hierarchy. The U.S., no longer able to build its economy on slavery, child labor and other forms of legally sanctioned exploitation (although there is still prison labor) has found its revenue streams have fallen, as it would when you have to pay an actual wage. As for The Saudis and the Israelis. Crown Prince MbS and Benjamin Netanyahu are each contributing to instability in the Middle East which is threatening to spread into other parts of the world. The kingdom of S.A. and the Israeli governments have now become strange bedfellows in their enmity with Iran. From what I've read it seems both governments are looking toward the possibility of war with Iran because they are relying on their ally, the United States to help them fight any battle. With the U.S. extracting itself from the agreement with Iran, this is one step closer to becoming a realistic possibility, especially with a loose cannon like John Bolton at the helm. Also Netanyahu likely needs to put fear in the hearts of Israel citizens to detract away from yet another corruption trial, just in case the people were finally ready to toss him out on his keyster. As we see from Trump supporters, fear works wonders. By the way, it's going to be interesting to find out who paid Black Cube to go after the two Obama officials (through their spouses which is pretty heinous). Speaking of corruption and fear... Russia also stands to benefit and who says their election tampering is over? There's always the midterms. It's a possibility that they've perfected their approach, especially with the current administration which tends to be very compliant toward Russian oligarchs. The Trump administration's only plan (as far as I can see) is to keep riding the wave of kakistocracy and line their pockets full of cash. A kind of"Get Rich or Get Impeached While Trying" plan. Reading about Novartis and AT&T throwing millions of dollars that likely ended up in one of Cohen's shady LLCs with no reasonable or sensible explanation, tells much of the story of what this administration's plan is.