DramatistDreamer

Nope, it's now completely believable. This the Trump age. People will rationalize and make excuses for it also, as if it is a normal thing. These are the times we live in where people will try to justify that which should never be justifiable.

This should come as no surprise that Mercer was behind this. By the way, that ad is beyond ridiculous.

The same people who complained relentlessly about Obama not taking action will be silent about this. This is Putin's wish, no doubt.

but, but...isn't Trump a birther too?

I understand that and I don't want to sound insensitive but at this point, I can only say "Join the Club". People who voted for HRC have already been suffering from Trump's policies and it hasn't been given much media attention because MSM has been so focused on the plight of Trump supporters. The tax laws have caused chaos for many on the East coast but because the GOP have successfully branded those of us in the region as "coastal elites", there is little regard for wage earners who are negatively impacted by the new tax laws. In terms of middle America/red states, these tariffs look to disproportionately affect agri-businesses. What has gotten little focus is the fact that Small/family farms have already been suffering-- for decades. Sorry to say this as it will sound unfeeling but perhaps if the "right kind of people" start to feel the pain perhaps there will be more empathy for the rest and things may have a hope of improving.

Then, at least the show might've had the opportunity to go to rest with more dignity in its final years.

Oh, I remember seeing that interview on the WLS blog. Yes, there may be a kernel of truth to notion that ATWT and probably GL fans were viewed as not being as aggressive, if you regard passion as renting skywriting planes and daily protests in front of the studio but FWIW, people knew that P&G had no intention of preserving those shows as they had already turned down previous offers. Compare that with the ABC soaps, AMC & OLTL where even in the cliff-hanger ending of AMC (which left a lot of AMC fans angry but seemed to leave open the possibility that the story wasn't over), there seemed to be more hope that some other entity could pick up those soaps. However, I absolutely refuse to accept any part of Goutman's fiction that he did not have anything to do with the show's ultimate demise. Alienating, marginalizin and dismissing seasoned talent, terrible character re-writes without regard for the show's history and a narrow focus on some characters and stories that loyal fans had little regard for, of course, had a corrosive effect on the show. Who does he think he's fooling?

The Easter bunny looks to be in total shock that he/she has to stand and breathe the same air as the charlatan standing next to him/her.

Ren and Stimpy was always kind of gross, JMO.

Welp, can't say I feel sorry for any of these folks.

Or could it be that The Wendy Williams Show is taped in NYC where a good portion of the audience is likely to be potential constituents for governor of New York? Remember this is a statewide election, not national. So unless she can be sure that a significant portion of Ellen's audience will be New Yorkers, why would Nixon hike it all the way to California? This is not really unusual for Nixon, who gave her first interview to a NYC-based newspaper that is the oldest active Black newspaper in the U.S. Also, Nixon's announcement of intent to run was delivered in Brownsville, a majority, low-income, Black neighborhood in Brooklyn. She is trying to appeal to mainly New Yorkers, especially as she has accused her opponent, Gov. Cuomo of having his attention diverted away from New Yorkers by competing national interests, leaving open the possibility that Cuomo is seeking higher office in the not-too-distant future. Nixon likely wants exposure yet wants to remain as local and close to home as possible and a NY-based show that has a nationwide audience likely checks all the boxes of what she'd want.

It could've been worse, did you see Y&R's sex trafficking story?

Eww at Miami Open this year!

Funnily enough, a few years ago, I think that All My Children 2.0, in particular (the version that streamed on HULU via TOLN) really tried to push the boundaries. I compare their sex trafficking story to the one on The Young and the Restless and it is like the difference between chess and marbles from a toy chest. The stakes in the AMC 2.0 story were so much higher than that in the Y&R story. One reason was because in the AMC 2.0 story, it involved a character that was well-known and pretty much a legacy character-- at least in the sense that she was child of a well-beloved character, which got the audience to care. Meanwhile Y&R decided to outsource their story to a marginal character that was introduced just for the sake of the sex-trafficking storyline (and soon vanished when it was over) and was connected to a newbie character that most people cared little for, to begin with. Speaking of AMC 2.0. There was a highly provocative scene involving oral sex involving two legacy characters, Colby and Pete, that got a lot of the old guard's knickers in a twist. The camera stayed mostly on Pete's face as he grunted and his eyes rolled back in his head while Colby (mostly off-camera, except for her hands sometimes reaching toward Pete's torso) exhorted him to talk about computer code. It's a scene you have to see to believe!

Did anyone honestly believe she was going to mount a serious campaign?

I've never believed there was any discernible distance between the two countries. Certainly, North Korea aggravates China at times but North Korea has natural resources that China values and trade between the two countries has only increased over the past year. At times, China views North Korea as a wayward cousin that needs guidance and an occasional lecture yet when Chinese citizens were posting derisive comments about Kim Jong-un on Weibo, China's microblogging platform, referring to Kim as "Fatty Kim", the Chinese government clamped down and began to censor any reference to "Fatty Kim", scrubbing the site completely of any sign of the nickname. I have friends who are originally from South Korea and culturally, many South Koreans are culturally quite close to China. They grew up watching TV shows, including cartoons from China in the 1980s. Now, it's the reverse with many Chinese watching and dancing to K-Pop as well as following beauty/aesthetic trends coming out of South Korea but 30 years ago, when many of my friends were children, it was the exact opposite. South Korea and China are not in lockstep with everything, especially since politically, S. Korea is a democracy but the two countries certainly have less tensions than say... South Korea and Japan has, due to Japan's onetime occupation of South Korea and the Japanese military once making sex slaves of South Korean women (once known as "Comfort Women"). Stormy or no Stormy, many people have been and remain dubious that there will actually be a summit taking place between the Trump administration and the North Koreans. I guess we'll see but one thing remains consistent and that is the relationship between China and North Korea, which was never in doubt.

Forgot to post this but Florencia Lozano (Téa Delgado, OLTL) was emcee for the 2018 Theater Women Awards. Theatre Women Awards Celebrate and Advocate

Just after the Trump administration undoubtedly pissed off Xi Jinping and China with saber rattling over tariffs, Kim Jong-un makes his first trip to another country as North Korean leader-- and where does he land? Why China, of course! You think they're discussing a certain possible summit with a certain dotard politician from the U.S.?

Even if Aaron and Lucy were destined to be together, it would've been a good idea if writers had kept them apart, built up their characters as separate individuals, perhaps paired each actor with a more dynamic, more experienced actor, then only put Aaron and Lucy in each other's orbit on occasion until each actor had more experience, improved and then try to build something. Unfortunately, neither actor was on long enough to do this and the writers weren't patient or skilled enough to write a slow-simmering relationship to pull this off anyway. The way Aaron and Lucy were written, the writing for them was so week that each couldn't even stand on their own and be interesting enough as individual characters. ATWT of 30 years ago was a lot more bold and frank with topics than the ATWT of the last 15 years of its life on air. Just a few weeks ago we were all discussing the Susan/Dan open marriage storyline from the 70s and digging into the episodes that are on offer on You Tube, I was struck by scenes where Sierra attempted to talk to Tonio about how her fantasizing about Craig during sex with her husband was taking a toll on their sense of intimacy while Tonio squirmed with discomfort and tried to change the subject. An exasperated Lucinda would also mention the same thing to Craig, accusing him of being in bed between Sierra and Tonio. So interesting how much bolder and willing to take risks ATWT was back then. I guess when the ad $$$ started to dwindle, shows became more risk averse and then started writing less interesting, less thought-provoking but "safe" stories.

Congrats to Agim Kaba and his wife on their new addition! Agim looked every bit the part of a soap hunk but the writing just wasn't there for Aaron. Yes, Kaba was inexperienced but so was Jon Hensley at that age but the writing for Hensley, as well as the fact that Hensley's character was positioned in scenes/storylines with some of the strongest and most dynamic actresses on the show (Brown, Widdoes, Hubbard, Ashe, Byrne and later Smith) from the very beginning, Hensley had no choice but to "up" his ability to at the very least, meet his scene partners at an acceptable level, which is why/how I believe Hensley improved markedly as an actor during his time on the show. Agim/Aaron did not have the benefit of great writing for the character and many of his scenes were with other novices like himself (e.g. Peyton List) who got better after they left the show.