DramatistDreamer

All those people who believe that Dumpster Fire Donny can actually turn back time and Make Coal Great Again are in for some disappointing times. Corporations have already calibrated, retrofitted and adjusted their companies for the greenhouse gas lowering regulations that the EPA put in place years ago. They are not going to undo all that. More states and businesses realize that wind and solar energies are building viable industries and creating jobs and that's not going to change. It's only going to expand. In fact, I recently read about a coal plant that had put solar panels on its company headquarters. To save money, Kentucky Coal Museum turns to solar panels If that's not a sign that solar and wind have genuine benefits, I don't know what is! Just like with the ACA (AKA Obamacare), people have already adjusted to the reality and it's a fantasy to think that people, corporations and states legislatures will throw all the benefits of this away for an idea whose time has already come and gone. Stop snorting the covfefe and get real, Donny.

If anything I see the GOP becoming ever more committed to voter disenfranchisement and voting suppression techniques. Irrespective of messaging, many people did not go to the polls and a low voter turnout tends to favor Conservative candidates. When Obama ran voter turnout was a priority (especially the first time around) because of the fear that people would not vote for a Black man. The second time, even with Obama voter participation %s were lower. Compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. has piss-poor voter turnout. There are a confluence of factors, but the U.S. by having voting on some ridiculous weekday, never rises to meet its potential with people going to the polls. As a former resident of NYC, I got to see up close some of the machinations of the Bloomberg administration, but that's a topic for another day. Suffice it to say that many NYers regret letting Bloomberg hoodwink them into that useless third term. He did some good for the city (bolstering the wealthiest, landscaping, etc) but I'm glad to have never voted for him. I did vote for HRC as my Senator, so there's that. Well if Toupée Fiasco wins in 2020, well thank God, for dual citizenship. I can literally go to a tropical island to live.

That's a good question- has 'ole covfefe handed out the final rose yet?

Then the question becomes: who does the intelligence community regard more highly- Comey or Trump?

Former FBI Director James Comey will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committe on June 8.

@SoapsudsWell TBH, ESPN has lost a lot of subscribers in the last two years due to cord-cutting. Many people discovered that ESPN was driving up subscriber fees over the past decade because they demand more cents on the dollar per subscriber than any other network on cable TV. ESPN has also recently fired a lot of its on-air personalities in a cost-saving manuever. Also, to be perfectly candid, tennis is small potatoes to the likes of ESPN since it still continues to be a niche sport. Despite their previous pronouncements of being an 'All Sports Network' and 'Home of the Grand Slams', at this point ESPN would much rather invest in NBA, NFL and even Golf than tennis, as tennis is least likely to give them a big return on their investment. I expect that ESPN will gradually be cutting their losses where tennis is concerned. With the exception of perhaps Wimbledon and the U.S., maybe the Australian if the risk is minimal- (I mean where else are they going to get a healthy ratings share at 3 am?), perhaps an exhibition or two, I see ESPN's involvement in tennis as pretty minimal compared to what it used to be in the past (no more WTA/ATP Tour tournaments).

@SoapsudsI saw it on the livestream so I get to bypass TC with their incestuous coverage. I only saw it once and that was enough for me. I saw a clip of Johnson that someone retweeted, so I only saw it once in that case too. I'm one of those people who don't mind streaming. I hook up the laptop to TV with a HDMI cable when I want to see it on a bigger screen but my gaming laptop already has a 18.4 inch screen, so I don't think I'm sacrificing much screen space. The World Feed is not too bad (although you always get the occasional buffoon) especially since there are many matches that don't have commentary. Unfortunately, TC may soon become the only (legal) game in town where tennis is concerned in the U.S. Have you visited ESPN's tennis page lately? Last time I looked, I was half-expecting tumbleweed to roll through the screen. Even ESPNtennis Twitter page is missing! ESPN may stream the Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this year but for everything else, it's not looking great.

It was so hard to watch Nico Almagro laying flat on his back, openly sobbing like that.

Toupée Fiasco is wavering in his decision because China and India made declarations that they intend to take the lead on Climate policy if the U.S. leaves the Paris accord. I guess Orange Menace thought they would follow his lead out of the agreement but he discovered just the opposite. EU, China, India to Take Lead on Climate if Trump Leaves Paris Agreement Also interesting to hear Trump rail about Germany's trade surplus yet between Trump and Melania they own like, 3 Mercedes Benz, including a Maybach. Meanwhile in Trump's America, LeBron James' mansion was spray painted with racist graffiti and someone left a noose at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. And interesting to hear that the Alt-right folks are disavowing any connection to the horrible man who stabbed three men on the train in Oregon, killing two but these are the same folks who desperately tried to link the murderous nutter who killed police officers in Dallas to the BLM Movement.

Thinking about how often Marland kept couples apart and made audiences wait, I think he subscribed to that same adage as Agnes Nixon, who used to say "Make them laugh, make them cry and make them wait". Often times this storytelling strategy worked (as in the gradual revelation of Lily's paternity) and sometimes his stories made people wait too long (Tom and Margo, Craig and Sierra, John and Lucinda, Iva and Kirk). In some cases, I think that unexpected circumstances contributed to some of these storylines stalling a bit (actors leaving in the cases of Gregg Marx, Scott Bryce and Finn Carter etc) and Marland perhaps getting distracted from reuniting popular, smart couples by shiny new characters (e.g. Renée Props) but in soapland, you are supposed to have characters and couples who are star-crossed or laden with obstacles and have to find their way back to each other. Without that, where would the drama be? I don't know about the rest of you but I've written scripts and it can be a draining process ! I can only imagine what it takes to keep successive storylines going (sometimes overlapping) over consecutive months, sometimes lasting over a year! I've tried my hand at writing a sitcom script and even making sure that you write a good A,B,C story can be a juggling act. I've often wondered if that pace eventually took a toll on Marland's health. The thing about the heart is, that it could be deteriorating without the person even realizing it and the effects can be sudden. Back then people may not have been as vigilant about watching the signs as they are now. Think about the basketball player who appears healthy, only to collapse on court and die and it is later discovered that he had arrythmia and other cardiac issues. I often wonder whether it might have made a difference if someone could have relieved Marland of his duties for awhile, let Marland go on a sabbatical to refresh himself, eliminate the obvious signs of burnout he was experiencing a year or two before his death. Not to sound too dramatic but it might have saved his life.

Toupée Fiasco is giving out his cellphone number to other world leaders, creating a security and logistics nightmare. Trump to world leaders: Call me maybe _ on my cellphone

It's not 100% accurate, I doubt anything can be. There will always be a margin of error. I think this was the reason why players like Roger Federer and Marat Safin were initially skeptical, if not completely opposed to the use of Hawkeye. The difference, I think, is that on certain surfaces where the ball does not leave a clear mark, like hardcourts, Hawkeye is deemed more accurate than the human eye.

It's much easier for these folks to over-simplify the numbers by blaming low numbers on Obama for not running again, as if Black people never voted before he ran for POTUS. Taking a holistic approach to analysis doesn't fit into their pat narrative.

Hawkeye has a noticeable margin of error that impacts accuracy. Maybe because it's on clay, that leaves a mark, tennis bodies think that Hawkeye would not be any more accurate than just finding and pointing out the mark. In fact, due to Hawkeye's obvious margin of error, it's probably less accurate on clay than just finding the mark. Also, from what I've read, rigging up the apparatus for Hawkeye is no small feat. About a year and some months ago, someone died while helping to set up Hawkeye at a tournament in China. Perhaps with all these factors, the clay tournaments might feel that it's not worth the risk to set up something that is no more accurate than the human eye. As promised, a video (although it was not the one I originally saw) showing what happened in the Klizan/Lokoli match.

Trump is doing great work...for Russia. His overturning Obama's recent policy shift toward Cuba means that the Cuban government will once again be in Russia's orbit, as they were in the 50 years prior. They will probably be quite receptive to Moscow's overtures, in the future. Also, I'm reading this article that says that now that Italy is no longer within the U.S. sphere of influence, Russia is swooping in to fill the void. With Italy No Longer in U.S. Focus, Russia Swoops to Fill the Void Although this has nothing to do with Russia, it does have to do with Trump's seemingly innate ability to cause chaos in U.S. industries. First the citrus industry, now another food industry. Trump's delay of calorie-posting rule jolts restaurants

Yes, apparently there were some "moments" in this match like Klizan cheering and barking like crazy when Lokoli Double-Faulted. There's a longer clip of the incident that led to this FU non-handshake out there somewhere. If I find it, I'll post it.

Oh tennis being tennis. LOL.

A lot of people don't get them, but you really get them, you do! Yes, I loved how the dialogue was written for them. I thought, from the very beginning, it was witty and flirty and sharp. If Kirk and Iva broke up, it should've been temporary. If it ain't broke, why fix it? ATWT used to have such sharp dialogue back then and every character had a distinctive "voice". How every holiday, Bob Hughes would muse on Oakdale's constants in a world of change with that Garrison Keillor type quality. Lucinda waxing poetic in over the top Shakesperean soliliquies that occasionally turned edgy. Lisa doling out nicknames and diminuitives to people she couldn't abide by (Lucy, Johnny, Susie Q). Emma with her homespun musings of the charms and trials of life on the farm. John with his wry manner of expression. Tom and Margo's incisive manner of trading barbs, even when masking inner turmoil. No one character of Oakdale sounded alike!

Trump acting like a "drunk tourist"? Donald Trump acted like 'a drunk tourist' on Europe trip that led Angela Merkel to proclaim end of US alliance

Tiafoe is young and I think, hope will learn from this. Fognini, when he's not tanking sets is a talented player, definitely not a tomato can. Francis has to learn how Fognini operates and not be fooled by his 'tricks' again in future. Donald's match went down to the wire. It was just the type of exceedingly grinding match that Ferrer excels at winning. Given Ferrer's lack of consistency of late, I do agree that I'd be surprised if he got very far in this tournament. Then again, I'd never count out a former finalist and clay is his best surface. Mischa Zverev, who was a finalist days ago, went down in the first round to Napolitano, who I'd barely even heard of. So, it's not just American men. Steve Johnson, who I'm not a fan of, is still in the tournament, despite the loss of his father.

Also America detests dealing honestly with issues of race and the way it is used to marginalize and disempower some. It brings into sharp relief the fact that the notion of being "post-racial" was a myth used to make folks feel better about the scourge of America's "Original Sin" and its legacy. Discussing race and how it is used as a function to wield power while making others feel powerless/worthless over America's history honestly makes many people uncomfortable. Race was used as a tool to keep slavery going over centuries to build America's economic machinery. People, to phrase Jack Nicholson "...can't handle the truth".

I wish there was as much investigation into voter suppression in the 2016 election as there has been of Russian interference.

Marat Safin is out of politics and I couldn't be more thrilled. He used to be one of my favorite players. Marat Safin gives up his seat in the Russian Parliament

Whoever made the decision, it couldn't have been Marland, could it? He was dead by then, no?