World Cup semifinal #1 is today.  After a little deliberation, I’m going to go with France. Belgium look tough as nails, but the French are playing really well too and I think they have what it takes. Which means jack shit since I thought Spain would win it all.  But we can forget week-old predictions at our leisure here and I will.  France 3-2 is my pick.  Federer and Nadal both won yesterday.  The circus of a Woman’s draw fires back up this morning with 6 seeded players (are there more than 6 left int he entire draw?) taking the courts today.

The baseball all-star game balloting process is taking its lumps on social media after Justin Verlander knocks its antiquated system. The Astros, Yankees and Cubs all lost. And that’s about it for sports.  7 more weeks until college football. Thank God.

Tennis great Arthur Ashe

Theologist John Calvin was born on this date. But that was his lot in life.  So were painter Camille Pissarro, swill-maker Adolphus Busch, “creator” of A/C electricity Nikola Tesla, intellectual Marcel Proust, Houston Symphony founder Ima Hogg (seriously), boxer and wop Jake LaMotta, actor Fred Gwynne, tennis great Arthur Ashe, dipshit singer Arlo Guthrie, musician Greg Kihn, “The Hawk” Andre Dawson, Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, anti-war activist (who hasn’t played party politics) Cindy Sheehan, “singer” and “poster” Jessica Simpson, musician Wally Bryson and R&B singer Willie Ford.

Its also the date when Caesar defeated Pompey at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, the city of Dublin was founded, Lady Godiva took her naked horseback ride, Louis XVI declared war on Great Britain, Rochambeau landed in the US to join the Continental Army (and figuratively help kick the limeys in the nuts), Wyoming became the 44th state, the Baltimore Orioles sold Babe Ruth to the Red Sox, Woodrow Wilson delivers the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate (and puts in motion the steps leading to WW2), Bobby Jones (a very fine golfer, one of the best ever) won the US Open, Howard Hughes flew around the world in 91 hours, Allied forces invaded Sicily, MLK Jr was arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Georgia, Telstar 1 was launched, “Escape From New York” debuted, Coca-Cola admits they fucked up and will re-introduce old Coke recipe, French intel agents blew up Greenpeace’s “Rainbow Warrior” in New Zealand, Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as the first President of the Russian Federation, and Joe Camel was pulled from ads by RJR-Nabisco.

Well this date has some significant stuff.  But we have to move on to…the links!

Kavanaugh and family

President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to there Supreme Court. The guy looks really solid on 1A and 2A issues. He looks a little less solid on 4a issues and I don’t really know where he stands on 9A or 10A issues, which should come up in front of him.  Of course, the left is painting him as the most evil person since forever, but that was expected if Trump had nominated Jesus Christ himself.  One thing’s for sure: Red state Dems are going to be hard-pressed to go after him.

Whoever called Boris Johnson a squish yesterday (and yes, I’m looking at you, UCS), you might want to rethink that position. Looks like he’s sick of the Brexit team being staffed by Remoaners and is about to move in for the kill on Teresa May.

The Hat and Hair may soon have company

Want read something absolutely amazing…in a good way… for a change?  Then this might be the story for you.  These are the kids places with socialized medicine write off and let die. They’re the type of thing American doctors figure out and then get to work on.  And that’s why we are better than the countries with single-payer.

Boston is considering making citizenship meaningless. I can’t possibly see how this could have negative consequences (for Team Blue anyway).

Just in case you’d forgotten that the world is full of busybody assholes, I present you with this reaffirming piece.  Words escape me….

George Clooney released after being involved in a motorcycle crash in Sardinia.  I suppose he will be back to hectoring people about their global footprint after he flies back and forth to his Lake Como home a couple times.

Almost done!

Everybody trapped in the cave in Thailand is out now. That’s a great story about the triumph of humanity…and free market capitalists solving a problem government couldn’t.

If you’re gonna call this much attention to yourself, you might want to make sure you’re not giving cops a reason to pull you over.  Furthermore, you might want to make sure you don’t have any outstanding warrants.

The choice could have been so much worse, so no bitching!

Have a great day, friends.