I was glad when I finally got a goal this morning. Up to that point, I was feeling snakebit. I’d blasted a long shot just over the crossbar. I’d had a one-timer from in close ruined by an amazing play by the goaltender. I’d snuck a left-footed wormburner through their entire defense only to see it go wide by less than the width of a soccer ball. I’d taken a touch that I shouldn’t have and ruined an easy chance to score.
When the goal finally came, it was pretty routine. A simple give-and-go where I sent it out wide, made a short run, and had all the time I needed to slot the return pass past the helpless goalie.
The wait was made easier because my passing was the best it’s been since I went back on the pitch after a twenty-five year hiatus. I had three assists in the first half. I think the final score was 5-3, but all I know for sure is that we won.
And now I need an ice bath.
Martin, you’re sounding like a powerful offensive force here! Get those epsom salts, Brother.
Trump’s answers to Stephanopoulous this morning were transparently weak. Such a amazingly insecure man.
And Trump attacked the Khan family again. I was struck by this writing by Ezra Klein:
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/30/12332922/donald-trump-khan-muslim
Donald Trump’s slander of Captain Humayun Khan’s family is horrifying, even for Trump
What kind of person is Donald Trump?
Updated by Ezra Klein @ezraklein
Jul 30, 2016, 2:07p
“Let’s be very clear about what Trump is doing here: as ABC wrote, he’s suggesting “Khan’s wife didn’t speak because she was forbidden to as a Muslim.” This is bullshit. It is flatly, verifiably, false. But that’s almost beside the point.
Trump listened to a speech by the bereaved father of a fallen Muslim soldier and used it to slander the fallen soldier’s family. That was his response. That is his character.
At this point, I honestly don’t know what to say. I don’t have new language for this, I haven’t found another way of saying this isn’t okay, this isn’t kind, this isn’t decent.
…
If you would like to see Ghazala Khan speak, you can do so in this interview she gave to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. As Fallows writes, she breaks down sobbing while speaking of her son. It suggests she let her husband give the DNC speech for a simple reason: she remains overwhelmed by grief.
This is the woman Trump decided to slander. This is the gauge of his cruelty.”
Ezra Klein does not normally write like this. I’m glad he has the common sense to do so in response to this dangerous, disgusting campaign Trump is running.
Nice work on getting back into soccer. I know the feeling of finally succeeding after a slump. Our men’s USTA tennis team won our league and is now going to “state” – yeehaa! Earlier this year I lost all of my singles matches in the first league and felt horrible. In the second league I played only doubles and was much more on my game – winning every match and always stronger in the second set.
I think three years ago, I went and bought rackets for everyone and I got them out on the courts a little bit, but Finn was too young for it. Now that’s six and a half, I think it’s time to give it another try.
Actually, getting in a little bit of shape from playing soccer makes me more enthusiastic about playing some tennis.
Get him out now – and get him playing in some groups. If he has any talent you need to get him started young. 6.5 is actually considered a bit late these days.
Rolling Stone has a very informative interview with Jane Sanders.
But this is the read of the day:
In a purple state, will Clinton’s coattails help or hurt candidates?
This is Immanuel Jarvis in action
Observations:
This election is now Hillary Clinton’s to lose or to win big downticket.
In North Carolina, you don’t nationalize the campaign, you localize it by point out that Trump is just a crazier version of Pat McCrory. And that the GOP downticket are the same folks who if they get absolute power in Congress will do to the nation what the NC GOP has done to North Carolina.
Finally, what Hillary Clinton did during the convention was push her “steel magnolia” creds. For a lot of Southern voters, that offsets some of the negatives. Likely the biggest one of which in the South is her slightly nasal midwest accent that years in Arkansas and New York have not erased. But people will remark on it when she shifts into “Southern” even though that is a common adjustment to audience for lots of people in the elite. And some Southerners can shift out of Southern to Standard US accents when required. It is that midwest accent that detractors spin as “shrill”.
The questions for North Carolina are:
Are you serious that a Midwestern accent is a negative in the South? More so than any other version of Yankee speech? I’ve spent one week in the South in my whole life, on a business trip, and while people obviously knew that I (a lifelong Pacific Coast resident) was a Yankee, nobody every showed any interest in guessing where I came from.
I’m pretty ignorant about soccer, but so what? The thing I love about these post-game commentaries from Booman is precisely that they’re not about politics. We’ve all got friends, families, and lots of interests aside from politics, I hope. All work and no play makes political junkies mightily tedious, one-dimensional characters.