DramatistDreamer

@Wales2004 Yes, I read about it and saw a portion of the interview with Maria Bartiromo fawning and simultaneously having to correct him that he was not launching missiles in Iraq but Syria, how disgusting! I'm still in disbelief that people voted for this man, what an entire mess!

And politically China and Russia have often worked together to block initiatives from passing in the U.N., especially ones that concern human rights issues. I know that China is not a NATO member, of course, but their blocking often comes to bear when it comes to taking collective global action on things like Syria.

And they both know that without China, this is simply a declaration. Talk is cheap. Speaking of cheap talk, what about that campaign promise about branding China a currency manipulator? Well, Trump is backtracking on that declaration apparently. Trump Says China Not FX Manipulator, Sees Dollar Too Strong (*speaking of campaign promises, Robert Reich appears to be cataloguing them on his FB page, I don't normally follow him but that post is a hoot*).

I don't believe that to be entirely true. When tragedy struck, even the likes of Bush (H.W. and W) were expected to say something and so was Clinton. The bar was set lower for Trump. But one example of a standard that seemed to set explicitly for Obama was what I used to call 'Church Watch'. Does anyone remember when evangelical groups (who were convinced that Obama was Muslim) kept asking when Obama was going to choose a church and why didn't he go often enough? When Obama was seen on Palm Sunday going to church, people asked why he chose the particular church he chose, some even complaining that it must've caused a traffic and logistical nightmare for the congregants. Obama, even though he never explicitly courted evangelicals, was scrutinized whether or not he attended Church, once, someone even criticizing his choice of color of suit! I was shocked to see these rumblings given a platform in mainstream media. Trump, on the other hand, has openly courted evangelicals but is anyone holding him to account on whether he attends church? *Crickets*.

I'm always confused by how the Women's Tennis decides to label their tournament hierachy but I think it's something similar to what the Challengers are to the ATP. So yeah, maybe a tier just below the WTA tour. In typical USTA fashion, the darn livestream conked out when Bouchard was up 5-3. I refreshed the page but by the time, the livestream returned, the groundscrew were sweeping the court, so I'm guessing Bouchard won.

I mentioned this in another thread (San Bernadino shooting). It's definitely apparent. I also mentioned the fact that the parents of little boy who was killed, Jonathan Martinez will not be getting public condolences from Trump since he is from the very same ethnic group that Trump spent over a year demonizing. It will not appeal to his base for Trump to recognize the humanity of Black women (who his administration targets regularly) nor Mexicans and Mexican descended people (that he spent all his campaign railing against and calling derogatory names). While Obama was expected to be the Consoler-in-Chief and speak of every single tragic event or act of turbulence, Trump has no expectations, so it seems.

Anyone ever heard of Brianna Morgan? She is a U.S. player who has pushed Eugenie Bouchard to a third set at the Women's Pro Circuit apparently. I shouldn't be watching but I'm taking sneak peeks. USTA PRO CIRCUIT WOMEN'S LIVE STREAMING She just broke Genie's serve too. Bouchard broke back so the 3rd set is even again.

@Soapsuds Maybe it'll work at the ATP website?

Just how behind the Trump administration is in staffing its departments. Yes, it is unprecedented!

Is Jared the Boy in the Plastic Bubble? What the heck is this contraption that he sleeps in??!

Play has been cancelled today in Houston due to rain. Rain has disrupted quite a few tournaments over the past year, at least. As the weather becomes more extreme, I see this as happening more often.

Sean Spicer is also a disaster...a walking one. Exhibit A or is it J by now?

Someone on social media mentioned that Tillerson is landing into a literal dumpster fire upon arrival in Russia. As racism in the U.S., no doubt, made things worse for his ability to manuveur politically here in the United States. The same way you mention China having a lot of unfettered reign, is the exact same way many people have viewed and spoken of the U.S. for decades. Only, while the U.S. was once viewed as a imperialist power by much of the world, China has been somewhat successful in convincing people to see them as an equal partner that doesn't look down on other countries yet wants to do business as 'equal partners' with the implication that they would be better partners than you-know-who. Honestly, I think a lot of the pushback had as much to do with how the U.S. has been historically viewed by other countries (who over the last several years have felt the need to assert themselves as China clearly does) and Obama as the U.S. head of state, as it does with any racial component.

JMO, but it's not body shaming when there are links between obesity and illness, particularly heart disease and diabetes. During the campaign, it was stated that Trump already constituted what any medical professional would declare obese- that has implications for not only his health but ultimately who is the president (although many have already ceded that title to Bannon, another candidate for the cardiac arrest club) at least, who is seen as the head of state. If health were no factor, there would be no publication of presidential candidate's physicals. It's obviously important. Trump has shamed and spewed vitriol on people for their appearance including their weight (he once said he would be glad not to have to see Rosie O'Donnell's 'big fat ugly face'), so I don't care about how he's perceived or whether he would feel ostracized. His administration would gladly let people die for lack of access to proper healthcare. What country doesn't get played, at some point? Zimbabwe, with no useful currency of its own perhaps? You play your hand, sometimes you get played, other times, you hold the cards. That's why diplomacy matters. Compromise is a necessity and the U.S. political system has become so warped over decades that compromise has morphed into a dirty word, rather than as a tool to be used expertly. The very nature of democracy is rooted in the fact that no one gets what they want every single time.

In the media, there's a noticeable absence of any Russia-Trump election collusion talk . Gee, funny how that works!

That is so stupid! I've never understood why they do this blackout sh*t! Do they think you're going to say "Oh well, my only choice is to buy a ticket and go to Houston to watch!"? It's not even like it's the NFL, tennis is still a niche sport. Every eyeball counts! For what it's worth, I don't know when ESPN3 is going to be streaming another tennis match that's not NCAA. ESPN has pretty much abandoned the French Open, so I have no clue what clay court matches they'll show, if any this year. They usually stream Monte Carlo and Madrid, they used to stream Rome but I think they dropped it last year, so this year, who the hell knows?

Hey, I thought Duncan was Scottish? His accent was eh, not great, I could see where the confusion came. See, I thought I was the only one who preferred Shannon with Brian but people kept saying they thought they were boring. Those people should've watched Brian and Beatrice and they really would've known what boring was! At one time, when I was a grad student, wondered if I could do my internship for ATWT (since I was in NYC at that time) but I ended up interning for a talent agency, I used to read scripts. I had a conversation with someone at PGP to submit my resume but in retrospect, the end must've been near at that point, since their office seemed pretty chaotic. It turned me off trying to get into daytime. ATWT would've been the only show I would've wanted to write for (ABC Daytime had some Production internships but I didn't feel I knew enough about their shows at that time-- turns out, neither do most writers in daytime today!).

Did you ever find a media platform to watch?

LOL. The theater writer in me just has too much darn integrity to write a dumb story (on purpose). I didn't like the coupling at first, and to be honest, they could get tedious at times with some scenes at the "moor" of the castle but in the last decade of the show, especially when Bonnie was on, it might have been nice to reunite Duncan and Shannon, it might have created a bit more material for Tamara Tunie and the Jessica story to have to process her feelings of her ex-husband reuniting with the wife that he had before Jessica, who tries to pretend that it wouldn't be a totally awkward situation. It could've also have given Lisa something to do as she was close to everyone- she loved Shannon but Bonnie was her goddaughter, so Lisa would be caught in the middle. Imagine if, while Bonnie was in Oakdale with Jessica, Duncan and Shannon reconnected in Scotland, courted, decided the love was still there and reappeared in Oakdale because they wanted Jessica and Bonnie to be the first to know that they were remarrying? I hated how they neglected Jessica on the show after the fallout from that ridiculous Marshall Travers storyline and for what, the likes of Janet and Liberty?! I'd much rather have a confrontation between Jessica and loopy Shannon and Duncan with Lisa caught in the middle.

God, I would've loved to rewrite/unwrite the sh*t out of that awful storyline. Leave the Craig character with one iota of integrity that he was awful in other situations but could stand up for himself and declare that at the very least, he was faithful to Sierra. I would've just made Gabriel Tonio's son with the servant and have Sierra and Craig conspire to keep it a secret from Gabriel, (who overhears them arguing about it) because Sierra always suspected that Tonio survived in the jungle somehow as her contacts never offered physical proof of Tonio's demise. While Craig argues that Gabriel is old enough to be told the truth and chides Sierra for the times she held it against Craig for being dishonest, Gabriel takes off in search of his father. It would've been truly great to have Peter Boynton reprise his role for a brief storyline arc. If the show truly wanted to go "soap opera" wild, they could've had Tonio know that he had a son out there and (with help, perhaps from an old nemesis/ally -James?- have staged Bryant's death and have had him spirited to the jungles of Montega where Sierra is soon contacted via the underground network that Bryant is alive and that if she hands Gabriel over to his 'real' father, she will see her son again. Frantic, Sierra decides that Gabriel needs to be armed with the truth so that they can protect him as they figure out a way to bring Bryant home but discovers that Gabriel is missing and his passport and several belongings are gone. Gosh, when I think of how much ATWT could've done to at least go out strong...sometimes it hurts.

The Indian tennis association and its members just can't get it together! Countless disputes and childish spats over the years and they're still doing it! Bhupathi and Paes in public spat over Davis Cup

The storylines in the mid-late 80s to early 90s wasn't just about Barbara but the characters she was involved in and there were such good stories to watch. 86 was one of the best years for Barbara dramatically, she was building Simply Barbara, juggling Fashions, being mentored by Lucinda Walsh, which caused a rift between her and Lisa, while sleeping with Lucinda's son-in-law, after she nearly wrecked Tom & Margo's marriage, tried to take revenge on Brian and Shannon, ended up being blackmailed by Tad Channing. We didn't just see Barbara scheming, we saw her working, designing, poring over every detail of her business. Oh, and then we saw the lies come crashing down, as well as haunting her when she was falsely accused of murder, we saw Barbara fall in love and allow herself to be vulnerable (something Barbara had been loathe to do after past failure in relationships). Barbara just seemed like a much more complete character back then. Under Sheffer, I'm sure it was a relief for Colleen to be active again and to have someone to actually write for Barbara but her character seemed to be written much more broadly, whereas under Marland, there was a lot more specificity. Under Sheffer the humor was very broad, to the point of being slapstick, at times. I swear, once Colleen was doing an impression of Groucho Marx during that scene before she jumped out the window. It seemed a bit too cartoonish for my liking.

I'm sure you're right. ATWT was so disjointed. It was like several different shows in one. As much as I enjoyed seeing Julianne, it brought into sharp relief how glaring the contrast was between her scenes with the Hughes, which were at least mostly, recognizeable and so many other characters that I could care less about by that point.

From what I'm guessing, it may have been a reunion for the cast and crew of Tremors. It would've been so nice if she had gotten invited back before the show ended (perhaps around the time that Julianne Moore returned) but with a different Craig, as well as that Gabriel character (that looked more like Sierra's ex-husband Tonio Reyes) it most likely would've been awkward.

Looking at this picture from Finn Carter's FB page (never knew she had one, frankly), I realize that I haven't seen her in ages. I think this was taken over a year ago but she looks great here!