DramatistDreamer

Jeffrey Toobin now says he regrets his role in pushing a "false equivalency" between Clinton and Trump: "Every time we said something, pointed out something about Donald Trump... we felt like, 'Oh, we gotta ... say something bad about Hillary.'" https://t.co/I5Mfqs6azD

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 29, 2018

15 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

ESPN mentioned how much faster Australia had gotten. The noted the match of Cilic/Roger that would have lasted 5 hours instead of the 3 it did last.

Me either. And I think the tennis media feels the same way because why would they harp on how she accomplished everything now. I kept thinking is she going to try to retire again?...LOL  The media knows she won't be able to win another one.

No, I definitely thought her winning this year was likely, I even told a friend so after the first two days when a bunch of seeds tumbled out of the tournament.

I meant that if RLA had been as fast as it was last year, I wouldn't have seen her winning. 

This year, the first day, I immediately noticed the surface was playing faster on MCA than RLA and I saw Wozniacki having a better chance than anyone left in the women's draw, given the fact that RLA, especially in the early days was playing similar to Singapore, where the WTA Finals were held last season.

I actually think this year that RLA court was slower than last year. Perhaps after the heat wave and players playing over a fortnight, it might have sped up a bit but on a faster RLA court (like last year), I don't see Wozniacki winning.

58 minutes ago, Khan said:

Actually, time was up for Scott Baio (or at least his career) after "Happy Days" came to an end.

Oh, I agree but his offensive scumbag ways are finally being brought to light. It's laughable that people are questioning Eggert's timing when Baio has a history of a range of offensive behaviors toward his female costars going all the way back to Bugsy Malone.

(I'll never forget Victoria Rowell's allusion to a Diagnosis Murder co-star who demonstrated racist, sexist, offensive behavior, she didn't name names but I eventually figured out that it had to be Baio).

Time was way up for him a long time ago but the exposure of his misdeeds and offensive words are finally starting to take root in people's consciousness.

Charles should never have been put in charge-- he is worse than Buddy.

#TimesUp for Scott Baio.

Former ‘Charles In Charge’ star Nicole Eggert has accused Scott Baio of unspecified impropriety when she was a teenager. https://t.co/rVE4Lnt7Ym pic.twitter.com/ZXRZEOdFHa

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 27, 2018

I wouldn't be surprised if Roger catches Serena's 23 major titles.

36 minutes ago, Mitch said:

I do believe GL could have been saved IF the whole industry had changed their economics. They should have found studio space outside of New York and built the permanent sets where, unpopular as this might be...there would not be union regs on the production people...(if that exsisted..) and used the location sparingly. As upthread mentioned, someplace with an university and use that as SF U ..and the students as extras to crowd scenes..changed the way actors contracts are written, without the guarantee thing but a flat payout no matter how much the actor was used or not used.  I could not believe that Wheeler changed the filming.. but kept producing storylines that included spies and exploding cars that just looked ridiculous...(my fave..was Jon and Brad Cole character in what was supposed to be the jungle but was clearly the Peapack woods...) That production style cried out to the return of people in a kitchen talking....

I definitely think that the soaps should have changed their business model across the board.

Only, I think that, instead of wrestling with the networks, they should have banded together and invested in a dedicated platform that would have allowed them more freedom to invest in good quality storytelling.

Hulu was started by networks that banded together to push back against the growing influence of You Tube/Google.  CBS eventually pulled their programming and it took awhile but Hulu is producing critically acclaimed original programming.

If the soap production companies would have banded together, they could've pulled off something like this. AOL,  Soap Classics and TOLN each, at various times either streamed or produced soaps to varying degrees of success-- they almost pulled this off but failed because I honestly think one entity could never accomplish this alone, it would take a concerted effort by a consortium to make such a venture successful.

Also, it would take time and patience, which because many soap fans feel they've been hard done in the past, don't seem to have a lot of patience, especially when it involves change and/or technology.

I  hate that the mention of digital filming technique has become synonymous with Peapack with soap fans.  What Wheeler did was poor technique. Period. I've personally shot film on digital as a student and even on a low budget, it looked a helluva a lot better than Peakpack-style.

After her success at the WTA Finals last season, I actually saw Wozniacki winning this, especially after so many seeds crashing out in the first few rounds.

I guess it wasn't all about spending more time with the family.

Magnus Norman is now coaching Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

A Trump appointee to the National Labor Relations board, was best known for his actions in the 1981 air controllers strike (where all the strikers were fired), and is largely known to mark the decline of labor unions, proposes to demote regional directors (many of whom are seen as sympathetic to employees) possibly driving out long time civil servants, make it harder for employees to hold companies responsible for labor law violations, especially those involving franchisees--by of course, reversing an Obama-era rule.

It's an understatement to say that there are changes underfoot concerning labor.

Trump Appointee Is Trying to Squelch Us, Labor Board Staff Says

57 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

The men's side is again an absolute bust while the women are creating absolute barnstormers.

 

It feels like an anomaly that this year's women's title comes down to No. 1 vs 2, even though there were plenty of upsets. 

Yet, people are still trying to argue that women don't deserve equal prize money.  What a tired argument that I wish would evaporate.

James Blake was great in his response to an equal prize money curmudgeon.  His response was basically "You pay the same money for a 90 minute movie as for a 3 hour one".  Also, I'd add that not all three hour movies are good, while many 90 minute movies can be lean, tight and well told stories.

2 hours ago, ChitHappens said:

Chung retiring is a huge disappointment but he gets the full 2,000 points anyhow for dispatching the trash!  I look forward to seeing more of him!  

 

Love Fed but I'm not sure I'm up for a match against Cilic. If I'm up, I'll watch but it's not must see for me. 

Yeah, I got up and after seeing that the match had already ended, wondered what happened then read that Chung had retired, which is certainly a disappointment but ranked at #58, he had a great tournament and I am sooo grateful that he put Sandgren out of the tournament.  For me, it was almost as satisfying as watching Venus bounce CoCo out of the tournament in the semis last year. 

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Al Gore came out today saying essentially "It could have been worse." I keep hearing that. It makes me wonder if he was planning something awful that had the brakes slammed on it and we haven't heard yet. 

 

I keep waiting to hear about these new jobs. All we've heard for weeks now has been closing, closing, closing. I know that we keep hearing a recession is on the way but between the job losses and the weakening dollar it must be near. 

It's incredible how articles about the coal industry have been pushed incessantly while three times as many large and storied retail stores go by the wayside every week with comparatively minimal media coverage.  Of course, when there's an industry whose majority are female and minority, that's sure to capture the least amount of interest on a national level.  Much like the latest school shooting tragedy, the 'Twit-in-Chief' can barely be bothered to tweet out a stale sentence about it.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

 

I think that everything has been so terrible for so long - not just this last year, but most of Obama's Presidency too (I don't mean him I mean the way he was treated) that many people turn a blind eye. And some of it is so confusing and craven. How else can you describe what Nunes did? It's desperate, craven...and yet it worked. The Republicans always do whatever they want and they always win. 

Still, the pace at which things have degraded even from 2017 to now is breathtaking when you stop and think.

A president who thinks that blurting out tweets (often reckless) are actual statements and are often times regarded as such by media and segments of the U.S. public!

I don't believe this would've been regarded as acceptable by the POTUS even two years ago.

What's deemed as acceptable behavior has really changed dramatically.

New tariffs could raise price of washing machines, hurt solar industry jobs

The simplistic thinking of the Trump administration is liable to hurt far more than it could help.

How apt that the organization is called the President's Club!

Presidents Club proves the habits of the expense-rich sexist old boys network will die hard

Seemingly, against all odds, the #MeToo movement takes hold in China.

‘Me Too,’ Chinese Women Say. Not So Fast, Say the Censors.

Leading member of Germany's far-right AfD party has converted to Islam and resigned from his position https://t.co/cZ3R2IXhHX pic.twitter.com/U38O7RSw7r

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 24, 2018

Here's the discussion that @Soapsuds posted about earlier.

"There are few lengths you wouldn't go to to mark me as the man you desperately want me to be." -@TennysSandgren

The TC Live team talks about Sandgren's Twitter controversy.

📺: #TCLive pic.twitter.com/MdkW2gT9Zc

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) January 25, 2018

BREAKING: French tennis player Alize Cornet under investigation after missing three random drugs tests in 12 months - French federation pic.twitter.com/Ux7ymDvuAj

— AFP Sport (@AFP_Sport) January 24, 2018

I admit to not wanting to hear anything more from Sandgren at this point.  I really wouldn't mind if he'd be pushed back to the margins of the Challenger Tour, or better yet the Futures, where I really don't have to see him.

As for the U.S. Davis Cup, I don't intend to watch them at all.  I'm not sure why Courier et al. are clinging to that group, it's not like they've won anything.

Oh God!  Just revolting!

Chung was so composed throughout the majority of the match. It was great to see him grab this match, for many reasons.

I saw it on ESPN Deportes. Much better than listening to those yahoo chatterboxes on the English language stream.

Here is the poster for Fed Cup.

I heard tickets for Fed Cup are already sold out! 

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I guess this is, as so many have said, mostly just being done to try to salvage the natural gas and coal industries. And of course this will cost more jobs, but who cares, right? Not our 'jobs President.'

 

I have to admit I do wonder how effective the market is as I read India is scaling back due to it not being as big as they thought. (I think it was India)

 

I read that some were saying they actually thought the tariffs would be even higher than this, which makes me wonder just how out of control things are behind the scenes.

India has always been an odd, exceptional case though.  Years ago, both China and India complained that they shouldn't be lectured to by Western countries that enriched their own economies using fossil fuels. China though has changed perspectives, especially after gaining such an advantage in the solar industry. 

India, however still struggles with their use of coal and fossil fuels and this is for a few reasons.

India, like China,  with a billion population,  has not been able to advance its economy or raise people out of poverty as fast as China has been able to, so India is still reluctant to be as committed as China has become in its ability to pull back on the use of fossil fuels.

Environmentalists in India, with help from citizens who are sick of dirty air (Delhi has some of the worst air pollution on earth, often surpassing Beijing's poor air quality in levels of particulate matter) pushed the government to make more of a commitment and India's government slowed the rate of building of coal-fired power plants but not nearly as much as China, which has actually closed plants.

In India, it's not so much about protecting the industry as it is about wanting to use the fastest means available to raise people out of poverty.  Change takes time, effort and money. 

And for all the talent that India has (it has probably the highest number of highly skilled tech workers), India has a very messy bureaucracy and infrastructure and for these reasons India's economy has lagged compared to China.

JUST IN: Robert Mueller has indicated to Pres. Trump's lawyers that the special counsel’s office will seek answers directly from the president on circumstances around Flynn, Comey firings, @ABC confirms.

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 23, 2018