DramatistDreamer

Trump cannot even say the name of Heather Heyer. Perhaps it's cold comfort that her name not come out of his lying mouth. It's better for the woman who knew her best to speak anyways.

Charlottesville Is the America That Donald Trump Promised Here's an excerpt:

Interesting Op-Ed positing that unlike his presidential predecessors, Trump, more than anyone else, is giving a huge morale boost to despots and dictators like Kim in North Korea and plenty of room for them to maneuver by making the U.S. an even bigger boogey-man, in which North Korea can use to direct the blame for all the country's ills, including widespread starvation among its population. Donald Trump Is Giving North Korea Exactly What It Wants On a different topic, I've started reading this interesting article that presents the hypothesis that the woes of struggling retailer Sears have been not only preventable, but constructed in an effort of financial engineering by a hedgefund money-manager named Edward S. Lampert, who apparently use tactics commonly used by Wall Street to extract profits. These tactics include orchestrating competition between the retailer's various departments and starving various stores of cash in severe cost-savings measures. Not only have these tactics failed to produce profits but have fostered a toxic environment that has led to infighting within the company and the pathetic state of the stores' appearance. This is an interesting excerpt from the article: “I don’t think it was inevitable that Sears would find itself in the position it is in today,” said Arthur Martinez, who orchestrated a turnaround of Sears as its chief executive in the late 1990s. “The Sears brand has become largely irrelevant,” he said, “and it breaks my heart to say that.” Keep in mind that the Trump administration has, contrary to campaign promises, appointed a vast number of Wall Street alumni in numbers that look to be higher than any other administration before it, who look likely try to run the country the way that hedgefund manager runs Sears. The Incredible Shrinking Sears

This guy looks nothing like the photo that Trump trolls have been circulating on social media today.

Like I said...I'm disgusted.

Maria has withdrawn from Cincy, to the surprise of nobody. Even though I don't subscribe to beIN, I heard it's pretty bad. The other day they got dragged for a tweet they sent out about Venus (and tagged her) following her loss to Svitolina. They deleted the tweet.

Trump is no kind of leader, no kind of president, I don't care what anyone says, he is a whole and utter disgrace. He truly is not fit to lead. In just a few short months, this is where the country is? This is all truly disgraceful.

Trump's trolls dipping in and out of this thread, perhaps?

Someone has already died of their injuries as a result of this. These white supremacists people are no better than ISIS or Al Qaeda. Using the same terrorist tactics.

He's also started threatening military action against Venezuela. Mueller must've gotten hold of the taxes and money trail. Yet the media loved to propogate the lie that there was no difference between the two Presidential candidates.

It's no coincidence that these folks are congregating, without hoods, en masse while Trump is president. These people are clearly emboldened by a Trump presidency. But like the typical 'Trump troll' supporter, they stand boldly in their utter ignorance. Carrying Tiki Torches a symbol from Polynesian culture, wearing Polo shirts, made by an American designer of Jewish heritage, Ralph Lauren. These images are being broadcast to the world and for many, will now be seen as what America now stands for, like it or not. Ironically Trump, in all his boorish lies, claimed he'd 'restore' respect to the U.S. He has done the exact opposite. No one respects this clown-show of absurdity that is unfolding in front of our eyes.

Hm, I'm not sure I agree. Can you offer specific cases on why you feel this way?

For the people in the slow lane who don't think that white supremacy is a real issue. Soledad O'Brien posted this on social media. These monuments have been up for hundreds of years and although some are due to come down (finally!) many are still up!

To each their own but I don't find women's tennis boring. It's less predictable than the men's for sure, but not boring. The women's french final was more interesting than the men's, JMO.

Oh yeah, last year's U.S. Open court was unusually slower. God, I hope they don't make it that slow again! I don't think I could take another Kerber/Pliskova final!

I'm sure the Trump/MAGA supporters will be glad to consume all the rotting produce since they are clearly happy with Trump, who himself is filled with rot from the inside out.

I feel like Canada's courts have usually been mid-tempo range like IW or Miami but this year it's been ridiculously slow, like Rio Games, quicksand slow. In any case, if these U.S. Open series tournaments aren't going to ensure that they are at least close to the speed at the U.S. Open, then what's the point of being part of the "U.S. Open series"??

Especially since Canada decided to slow their courts way down this year. I can only imagine-- this match must be like watching a clay court match on Ambien.

P&G never truly thought much of these shows to begin with, other than the fact that they were "cash cows" in their heydays. The daytime soap was created specific to "sell soap" literally and it was all about turning a profit, the entertainment was secondary to the $$$. It was also a genre that was started by a women, Irna Phillips, that largely appealed to women, who made up the bulk of the viewing audience, while the large majority of the executives were men who did not much value "women's work" and any field that was seen to be dominated by women (even though, in reality most of the headwriters tend to be men). Want to know why teachers have the lowest average salaries of the majority of the industries around? How about nurse's salaries compared to Wall Street? Which of these careers do the most vital work? Industries that are seen as attracting and/or catering to women usually command the lowest regard. This is a very sad fact. The soap industry is no different. Production companies like P&G barely valued soaps when they were raking in the money (e.g. 'wiping' of classic episodes, Eileen Fulton also once mentioned P&G's seeming reluctance to market the show even at the height of its popularity), let alone once ratings began to steadily decline in the 90s. It's about placing value on what you have and doing what you can to preserve it. If P&G never put much value on these shows, why do believe believe that they'd do what they could to preserve them? One can only hope that somewhere, someday, there will be an employee who rises in the ranks at P&G who grew up watching and valuing these soaps and decides that the company has wasted a big opportunity to connect with fans of these shows and decides to amend this. Just to add a bit more, To add to this P&G was different from other producers of soaps, in that they were also a corporation that sold consumer goods and would be listed on the Stock Market, with a board of directors and investors to please and all the restrictions and limitations to go with it. Unlike the other producers of soap operas, P&G was not specifically an entertainment company either, their bread and butter was consumer goods, so its possible that other entertainment based production companies (e.g. Bill Bell Productions, etc.) had a bit more creativity and flexibility while P&G was a bit more rigid in how they financed their productions. P&G was the first but you cannot tell me that Bill Bell Sr. and Agnes Nixon, having once worked under P&G, didn't take notes and figure out what they wanted to emulate as well as how they wanted their shows' business to be conducted in a drastically different way than from what P&G did.

When an unstable wingnut in N. Korea meets an unstable wingnut occupying the White House, it has consequences.

Cilic is also out of Cincy now.

+1

Even Federer struggled yesterday though. Both courts in Montreal and Toronto are too f*%^&-ing slow!! When Caroline Wozniacki's coach and Dad claim that the court is slow, you know it's too f*%^&-ing slow!!! Speed it the hell up! How are Toronto/Montreal's tournament supposed to be good preparation for the U.S. Open when we know that the U.S. Open courts will be faster than this? The irony is that Nolé and Andy probably would've thrived on these slow-as-molasses courts.