DramatistDreamer

Speaking of requests for immunity,

Yeah, that's the one. I forgot he existed. Did anyone hear about Mike Flynn requesting immunity in exchange for being interviewed by the FBI and Congress? According to the Wall Street Journal his request is being met with silence so far. Maybe they've got a strong enough case that they feel they don't have to honor Flynn's request?

Wasn't that fool from South Carolina? I don't really remember irrelevant politicians, LOL.

Internet users raise funds to buy lawmakers' browsing histories in protest but they may have to get in line behind him: "Cards Against Humanity" creator wants to buy Congress's browser history Also, former Texas congressman Steve Stockman was indicted on 28 charges of trying to steal money from charitable donations. By the way, he was also the same jerk who walked out of President Obama's 2014 State of the Union address. Former congressman indicted on conspiracy charges

The U.S. tennis media is trying to make Jack Sock as a singles player 'happen' and I'm not really feeling it. His doubles pairing with Vasek Pospisil was actually interesting (don't know why they split) and he's playing doubles this week with Nick Monroe and they've been successful so far (I think they're still in the tournament) but Jack as a singles player? I'm not all that interested, to be honest. @ChitHappens I think Rafa realized really early on in the match that he wouldn't need to bring his A game to beat Jack, so he probably didn't bother getting hyped. Maybe Rafa decided to keep some energy in store for the SFs where he faces Fognini, who can be a handful under normal times, let alone when Fabio's actually playing well.

Trump fans will dismiss this as 'fake news' but this was what I was referring to the other day when I mentioned how the so-called "Trump Bounce" had fizzled and there is a difference between the 'Consumer Confidence Index' which drives the stock market, and the actual economy. Little Sign of a ‘Trump Bump’ in the Economic Forecast "Consumers are more confident. Stocks are up 5 percent since the start of the year. And from the president on down, there’s talk of a Trump bump. The only problem: The boom is apparent everywhere except in the economic data." This was exactly what I mentioned in a post the other day, when another poster tried to shut me down. The funny thing is that I saw this on a Japanese news broadcaster several days ago. The Asian markets can often be early indicators of what's to come. They have their own internal issues, of course, but there are definite global trends that apply regardless of where the actual financial market is located. Economies are definitely more interconnected than ever before hence no market that operates on a global scale can be insulated from what happens in other financial market. The markets are interdependent and have been for about two decades now.

Rafa is running circles around Sock right now. Sock had a 2-0 lead early in the 2nd but I knew that wouldn't last and in predictable fashion, that lead came and went.

Oh Fabio, LOL.

Serena's response to her fiancé's tweet is cute

I just told someone else it had all the makings of a 3 setter. Just by the looks of the score in the second. Both players are unsure of themselves but Halep has been playing poorly as of late. She'll probably still win the match though. LOL.

@SoapsudsMy only option is streaming and the WatchESPN app does have links for both matches. Out of curiosity, I decided to click onto the tiebreak and usually tiebreaks are exciting. This one is just riddled with errors. Pretty bad.

While I'm no fan of either player, I'm somewhat neutral about Halep but I just don't care for Konta. I can get some work done because I'm not even trying to stream that match.

I posted about these U.S. led airstrikes over the weekend with a link to this article. U.S. Investigating Mosul Strikes Said to Have Killed Up to 200 Civilians Just to add: The number has been revised upword, taking account of February's death toll. As critical as I was of the Obama administrations use of drone strikes, at the very least, they admitted when there were deaths from a drone strikes. The current administration cannot even bear to use direct language. Probably?? U.S. ‘Probably Had a Role’ in Mosul Deaths, Commander Says * I tried to edit in the original post, thinking it would 'bump' it up in the queue to the latest post but nope, lol. So I had to make a new post with a link to the old one. Hee!*

+1 and everyone should be concerned what that means for solving crimes if witnesses feel too afraid to come forward.

Good point and the $$$ being generated by undocumented immigrants is significant. 'Undocumented' Immigrants Pay Billions in Taxes

Thanks for clarifying that @JaneAusten because I wasn't sure. From what I've seen on the news, I definitely get a sense that many police departments, particularly the ones that rely on decent relations with the community, resent being given this additional task that threatens to undermine their policework.

According to what I read Consumer Confidence is up but the actual hard data doesn't reflect any of that. The stock market hit highs during the height of the recession so the stock market being up may be good for some investors but come to think of it, doesn't mean much to the average person. As for the actual sanctuary cities, the larger ones will most likely ignore Trump's edict.

Personally, I think anyone who lives in a diverse city is most likely making use of or reaping the benefit of the labor of illegal immigrants. A few months ago, I read an article about how the last of the victims of 9/11 had finally been identified (as in a picture with the name) for the museum and online exhibit (which I've seen) and quite a few had either been legal immigrants and a few were undocumented. Having lived in NYC in the time of 9/11, I knew that quite a few undocumented immigrants died while working- delivering breakfast to employees in the Towers and doing food prep for the Windows On The World restaurant. This article reminded me of how just how many died that day who were immigrants, both legal and undocumented. When you live in a diverse city it is inescapable but people forget that some of the most dangerous jobs, which are often in rural areas (chicken processing plants where losing appendages is a regular thing) are undertaken by immigrants, particularly undocumented. Trying to cause a climate of fear is a recipe for future disaster. Forcing police to split their time between protecting and serving the public and functioning as de facto immigration officers will yield negative results (police are concerned about a breakdown of trust in already fragile relations between the police and communities of color), especially when it comes to community policing. Also municipalities are not being funded/paid to do all the extra work that this will require. Smaller cities (that may feel more pressure to comply) have talked about banding together with larger cities to develop strategies and exchange ideas. Many larger cities have already talked of defying the order(s), while Trump admin. has threatened to cut federal funding. Maybe NYC should start cutting corners with security at Trump tower or just double their bill to cover any shortfalls. But we'll see how this shapes up. I will be paying keen attention to what impact this climate will have on local and national economies. On on Japanese news outlet, they were reporting that the so-called "Trump bounce" that happened in the weeks after the election has already dissipated and the global economy is trending downward (The dollar is down, the yen is up, which the Japanese do not like since it makes their exports like electronics, more expensive) and the stock markets are trending downward since the markets do not like the instability that the Trump White House is exhibiting. There is such a thing as the law of unintended consequences. The pain might spread well beyond the undocumented community.

Speaking of Illinois, earlier in the week, I read about a small group of states whose legislatures are now working on their own privacy regulations (regarding marketers and ISPs) and Illinois was one of the states in that group. Some states want to require that consumers know how their information will be used, some want to the ISPs to notify and get permission, others want to give consumers the right to not be included (like a Do Not Call/Contact list) or targeted by any marketers.

@SoapsudsYeah, St. Petersburg was indoors, it was held sometime last fall. Those Russian tournaments tend to offer huge appearance fees since they know that they have difficulty attracting top players.

People do know that Rand Paul was the one who pushed for the rollback of privacy regulations so that ISPs to can sell Internet users' personal information and browser histories, etc, right? So-called "libertarian" Rand Paul. It's amazing that people could be fooled into believing in that phony cult of personality but I tend to side eye libertarians, from jump, so...

LOL, about the comparison between RBA and Evert. She gives a firmer handshake though. Sasha beat Stan in St. Petersburg last year but I wondered then whether St. Petersburg was a cash tournament for Stan since he didn't seem all that pressed about losing and was seen partying later on with the Zverev brothers. Someone mentioned that since it's Stan's birthday, he'll probably be hitting the clubs in Miami with Donna.

What do you mean? With the Zverev/Wawrinka match. Alexander seems to be maturing at a good pace. The way he's playing these matches now, he doesn't seem to panic the way he used to in tight situations.

One of the many policies that Trump rolled back via executive order was the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Act. http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/federal-contractors-and-sub-contractors-85326/

There have been quite a few bagels served up on both sides of the tournament. I heard that Donald Young got a warning and refused to shake the umpire's hand. Fognini is talented but his matches are always accompanied by chaos!