DramatistDreamer

Yesterday, there was an obituary on a playwright who at one time had been dubbed a "feminist playwright". What truly caught my eye was in later interviews this playwright talked about her eventual disillusionment with feminism and how she got attacked equally by the women because of her lack of "establishment success". I knew someone who knew someone who used to work as Sarandon's assistant who claimed that she was one of the most self-centered person they'd even encountered!

For those who may not be familiar with politics in Germany and want more information on the split in Germany's far right party that @Huntress (thanks for that very informative breakdown of regions and districts!) mentioned in the above post, here's an article that discusses that. That was quite the dramatic exit though. Split emerges in German far right as co-leader storms out of news conference

For what it's worth, Merkel always has a pretty sober expression on her face. I think the U.S. news media is out of touch because the news is fairly USA-Centric but if you watch news shows like PBS' Newshour, you're likely to get a much broader (yet far more focused, nuanced), more global perspective. I have only sporadically kept up with German politics lately (I know that the media was focused on inhibiting the spread of "fake news" by Russian propaganda machine-sponsored bots) but I used to watch a news program called Deutche Welle when I once had satellite TV. Like France 24, I do think they have a livestream for news.

I know some Germans who are pretty upset that this far-right party got any seats at all. It's a first since the second World War. Disturbing indeed.

Trump ought to stay in his lane, which is pretending to legislate.

A lot of us have been saying this for some time, while people, media included, obsessed over voters who are likely going to remain hostile to the Democratic party, their "base" is being neglected. Yes, their base. The language that people use to justify this is very troubling, to say the least.

For what it's worth, the doubles was probably the only category I thought that the World Team could really win. Jack is a better doubles player than singles and Nick knows his way around a doubles court, contrary to what people think. More importantly, Kyrgios and Sock had actual chemistry, unlike Rafa and Tomas. Berdych was definitely was the weak link in the doubles today and Kyrgios and Sock was smart to target him.

@marceline I remember watching a documentary when they mentioned the Kennedy assassination (John) and how many Americans, presumably while grief stricken, claimed to have voted for him and supported him all along in surveys, despite voting and exit poll information that showed that it was impossible for all the people that claimed to have voted for Kennedy, to have actually have voted for Kennedy- the numbers didn't bear this claim out. I'm not sure if most students at Howard realize all those things that Comey has done afterward and I doubt they care (students can be amazingly single-minded that way). What they seemed to have focused in on is his perceived role in providing an entre to the White House for the likes of Trump. They don't see that their role in that, in not showing up at the polls in the battleground states that Clinton needed to win having a part in her loss. Likely, Comey is a visible target for their frustrations, the way Pelosi became a target when she was recently shouted down by DACA supporters (despite her efforts to preserve DACA).

I do think that the protest at BC was more striking, memorable and probably will leave a more lasting impression but in the end DeVos is still helping campus rapists to act with impunity and diminishing the rights of women in college/university life and extending overall inequality in higher education. No matter how loud they are at Howard, the end result will be similar, it won't stop business as usual. At least, they did manage to fit in a chorus of "I Shall Not Be Moved".

Because folks will never forget election 2016

Was just going to post this. Boom!

No problem. I missed most of the match myself but left the livestream going on my laptop so when I returned, I saw the score and the final few points of the match.

I came back to see that there were like 3 TB sets that had been played! Thiem Europe takes it!

It can be difficult to ignore at times (unless you BLOCK) but I liken it to going up against the Taliban in Afghanistan-- the Taliban's intention is not to 'win' war against countries like the U.S., USSR, U.K., etc-- the intention is to keep these big countries entangled in war 'til kingdom come', meanwhile the people, in those big countries, so caught up in 'perpetual war' in the Middle East, allow their own societies to decay (global economic crises, Brexit, Trump, upswing of neo fascism and neo-nazism, alt-right, etc). When the Taliban can entangle the mighty U.S. in a ground war for over a decade, that is victory enough for them. What makes it easier for me to ignore on this particular board is that trolls like #1 Troll often have no intelligent points to make, use dubious source material as supposed proof, and repeat the same garbage talking points repeatedly. It's an obvious waste of time and not worth responding directly to, however tempting.

Good move because it's not worth risking good mental health by subjecting yourself to the same nonsense over and over.

In this thread? Yes ma'am. New tricks but the same result- ain't nobody got time for that!

I heard that about watching on TV but I'm live-streaming it and it looks good! (*shrugs*) It probably looks great for the people in the stands at the O2. I'm pretty sure your boy Thiem would not have wanted this Cup to be in Australia, you know he plays a tournament every 5 minutes, he's probably signed up for one right after Laver Cup.

Well, I do like the black courts, LOL. Isner, Querrey and Sock are all there so I'm not sure what other Americans you mean? Donaldson? Taylor Fritz? Maybe they don't have as good agents as Tiafoe has, LOL. For what it's worth, Tiafoe did alright for a rookie, absent a few poor decisions, he did a lot better against Cilic than some would have predicted. Cilic loves Tiebreaks, he usually rocks them-- just ask Jo Wilfried. EDT: Yes, because it is named after Laver, it would have been fitting to have the inaugural Cup in Australia but my guess is...the travel would be an issue since this is in the middle of the European indoor hard court season and many of these guys won't want to take a 16 hours flight back to Europe from Australia. The other thing is that this is Roger Federer's "baby". He conceived this and his agent/representation organized this tournament, so I think Roger probably wanted it in Europe, given the travel schedule for the rest of the year for the majority of the players, travelling to Australia would have exhausted these guys. Also, in terms of why Frances is there, honestly, I think Roger Federer might have wanted Frances there, after Juan Martin pulled out. Federer is probably more aware than most of the need of a diverse looking group. Also, Federer considers himself of having links to Africa, through his South African mother. He knows that Frances is of African heritage by way of his Sierra Leonean parents, once del Potro withdrew, he probably wanted Frances to come onboard.

They can change their usernames but they're still BLOCKED, glad I don't see the nonsense. Guess what? #DotardTrump is trending across social media so I guess what many of us thought could never happen a year ago, has happened...people are actually agreeing with Kim Jong-un on something! All the proposed ACA replacement bills are garbage and all but the most dimwitted of the lot knows it. So those trolls can continue to post in feeble attempts to re-write history, they are merely showing their imbecility, like their Jim Jones-ish leader.

With these crazy mofos in charge of the U.S. and N.K., and with Trump's loose lips and big mouth, I guess we'd better prepare for more missile tests from North Korea. Kim vows to consider hardline response to US Speaking of crazy mofos, these GOP fools would rather see people die than admit that their ACA replacement bills are trash. All eleventy-billion of them.

Like I was telling someone a week or so ago, when they're not running for anything, they sometimes start speaking truths (here and there).

The 2017 Women's final ratings do not surprise me. There was more interest than the two previous years, particularly in the U.S. market, since these were two Americans, fresh-faced and photogenic yet outside of tennis, all but completely unknown. Sloane's comeback narrative didn't really have much time to 'catch fire' since the media was pretty fixated on Sharapova and Sloane was pretty much 'flying under the radar' which honestly, likely helped her since there weren't a lot of eyes (and pressure) on her as she advanced round by round. Good for Sloane (and especially her bank account) but mixed blessings for tennis, IMO as they were able to capitalize somewhat but not in the way they capitalized when the Williams Sisters won their first major titles. Also, it didn't help that the final was so lackluster in quality. It's possible that viewers came but didn't stay watching.