DramatistDreamer

I have to preface what I'm about to say by admitting that I've never seen the TV adaptation. 

Having said that, if half of what Wayans is saying is true, why on earth would the producers put up with that type of behavior?! Especially in this day and age, in the era of #MeToo and anti-bullying campaigns being so pervasive? 

This makes me wonder about the longevity of any show with those types of toxic BTS machinations.  It'll be interesting if it all goes away with a casting change or are there deeply embedded problems that will manifest in a different aspect?

I kind of feel bad for Berdych. I didn't see today's match but of the previous matches that I have seen, he looks a bit lost out there.

He came close quite few times but has been unable to grab that one complete breakthrough in the majors (i.e. "Slam"). 

I'm always loathe to say that anybody should retire, especially if they are uninjured and able to compete and want to compete but I wonder if maybe he's a bit burnt out, at the moment and perhaps a mini 'mental health' break might help.  All these consecutive first round losses cannot be good for the psyche.

On the women's side Ash Barty and another player whose name I can't remember (she's Canadian, I think) took breaks away from the game for mental health reasons. There should be no stigma for anyone who needs to take a break to restore their mental health.

Was expecting something like this to happen.

BREAKING: South Korean news agency: North Korea threatens to cancel U.S. summit over South Korea-U.S. military drills.

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 15, 2018

"Mr. Sadr, a scion of a Shiite clerical family, has spent years refashioning his image. He now offers himself as a populist outsider intent on fighting corruption, and he has capitalized on the grievances shared by many Iraqis over the systematic graft in their country."

I mean, it worked for Trump, right? 

Iraqi Voters Strengthen Hand of Militia Leader Who Battled U.S.

15 hours ago, Vee said:

Laura Harrier (OLTL) is still killing it - she's in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman which just debuted at Cannes.

By the way, here is the trailer for BlackKlansman, which I believe is due out in August:

Okay, I just noticed that the due date is written on the top of the video.

In my defense, though, I originally put up a post about this same movie about a month ago.

https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/43846-soap-stars-where-are-they-now/?do=findComment&comment=1562890

How interesting --> Trump Indonesia project just got $500 million in Chinese government loans https://t.co/nhh3umjHsi via @SCMP_News

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 14, 2018

27 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

It must suck to do the dirty work of defeating Nadal in a clay Masters 1000 tournament and not win the title. And it’s happened to Thiem twice in a row.

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.

Woman of color at Yale- White woman calls police
Men of color at Starbucks- White woman calls police
Women of color in Waffle House- White woman calls police
Airbnb guests of color- White woman calls police

If you can't see why Trump got elected, you're not paying attention.

— Kaz Weida (@kazweida) May 10, 2018

12 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

THIEM!

 

Let’s see if he can hold things together unlike last year in Rome.

 

Nadal has always been most vulnerable on the Madrid/Rome swing, peaking at Roland Garros.

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.

5 minutes ago, GMac said:

 

I see what you're sayin.  Let's see what happens.

 

 

I saw that on CBS This Morning today.   The animation was disturbing.  I feel so sad for these families not only for the death of their sons/husbands/fathers, but to know it was completely avoidable doubles down on the hurt.

 

This is what, the 3rd or 4th military fiasco under Trump after just a year and a half in office?  Where's the Benghazi crowd now?!?!  Hypocrites. 

 

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

Lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who is tied to the Trump campaign, becomes the first person jailed in the Mueller probe: https://t.co/Az8jCoZVyc

— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) May 10, 2018

1 hour ago, Juliajms said:

This is one of the worst things I've seen in terms of discrimination, although I had to look it up to make sure it hadn't happened in NY as opposed to Israel. I cried when I first heard about it.

http://www.israelhayom.com/2016/12/08/activist-urges-probe-of-trial-circumcisions-on-ethiopian-babies/

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.

Senior Brexiteer admits leaving EU is not quite going to plan https://t.co/rx7PCQW5G1

— Evening Standard (@standardnews) May 10, 2018

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

 

No, I've confused you. Carolyn Ann Clarke played Laura, and the role of Lesley Ann ( Candy ) on GL. 

 

Robin Morse played Pam on ATWT. She is the actor Robert Morse's daughter, FYI. But she's been in little else since ATWT.

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. 

16 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

Which civil rights are they being denied? I knew they existed and that there is discrimination, but I hadn't heard about a lack of civil rights.

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.

47 minutes ago, P.J. said:

 

I know the story stinks, but I had a soft spot in my heart for the actress. She'd been on GL as a ex-hooker/nurse. 

 

But Beau---no such attachment. 

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.

Saudi Arabia ready to ease oil concerns #nhk_world_news https://t.co/w6TjnhtF41

— NHK WORLD News (@NHKWORLD_News) May 10, 2018

30 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks for the articles on Japan. I was/am mostly confused as I've read about how dependent they've been on the US in various areas, even as Trump has mostly just played golf with Shinzo and not given him much support. At least it sounds like they're trying to move forward, I guess - I'm not sure what we're doing in the US. 

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.

33 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Hasn't Japan been seen as in something of a decline in recent years?

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).

Japan is moving toward “an entirely different strategy, where other countries cannot compete. Going forward, Japan will show a remarkable emergence as one of the locomotives of the global economy.” https://t.co/yHCi5FYtFX

— NYT Business (@nytimesbusiness) May 9, 2018

28 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

Yes, it is wrong for them to turn away refugees.  It's just that I'm having a hard time figuring out which country has the moral high ground from which to judge. Canada maybe? Germany to some extent.

 

When people call Israel an apartheid state I figure they are talking about the fact that they (sort of) control Gaza and the West Bank, but those people can't vote.

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.