Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Republicans in disarray!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I was promised a recession.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Bark louder, little dog.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I really should read my own blog.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / Sports / Euro 2016 Austria v Portugal Open Thread

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57Comments

  1. 1.

    SRW1

    A draw in this game would leave both of these erstwhile group favorites on the verge of going home after the group stage.

    Oh, and Ronaldo: The most likely answer is early and more than once. But my real money for ‘play of the game’ is on Pepe.

  4. 4.

    humboldtblue

    @Runt: Yup

    He’s become a cult hero in Leicester along with defenders Robert Huth (Ger) and Wes Morgan (Jamaica)

  6. 6.

    Tony J

    Is there a single player on the Portugese team who doesn’t look like he’d benefit from a really spirited punch to the face?

  8. 8.

    Tony J

    Didn’t Kristol try to get the Austrian goalkeeper to make a #NeverTrump Presidential run recently?

  11. 11.

    Tony J

    Ooh, now that was an excellent free kick. OTOH watching Austria is like watching Germany play doped up on Ritalin.

  12. 12.

    Runt

    If the Portuguese can’t score onthe chances they’ve had in this half, you have to wonder what it will take.

  13. 13.

    Tony J

    @SRW1:

    No fools those Austrians. Remember, these are the people who managed to convince the entire world that their most infamous son was was a German. A feat only matched by Corsica and Georgia.

  14. 14.

    Creature

    Neither side looks like they can/want to/will score. Austria looks like a bunch of individuals, Portugal looks like they’re homesick.

  16. 16.

    Origuy

    Another big event is happening this weekend. The Jukola, the largest orienteering relay race in the world, is starting about now. There are 1700 teams of seven runners each registered. The name comes from a famous Finnish novel about seven brothers. The first leg runners go out at 10pm and the race goes through the night in the Finnish forest. The anchor runner of the winning team will finish about 7am tomorrow (Finland time). There are a few American and Canadians running; the winners are nearly always from a Nordic country.
    There is also a relay for four-woman teams called the Venla. It’s just about over now. There were over 1300 teams in this race. A team with two American women came in 599th place, but were in 304th after the Americans ran the first two legs. The top Canadian women, Emily Kemp, anchored the team that was 39th. She and one of the American women, 16-year-old Julia Doubson, will also run the Jukola. (Julia is in my club, so I’m very proud.)

  17. 17.

    SRW1

    @Tony J:

    That’s only the half of it. They also managed to make the world believe that Beethoven was an Austrian.

  23. 23.

    Tony J

    @Origuy:

    Q) Sounds awesome. Why isn’t there a documentary about it?

    A) They’ve tried, twice. Those film crews are still lost out there in the Finnish woods.

  25. 25.

    Tony J

    You know, for Iceland’s sake I’d prefer this to end up as a draw so they only require a draw in the last game with Austria as long as Portugal get well and truly stuffed by Hungary. But damn, it would fill me with joy to see Austria nick this one just to see the look on Ronaldo and Pepe’s faces at the final whistle.

    OTOH Baumgartener is making it really hard not to want him sent off ASAP. Those step over stamps on the instep can end a career and he’s done it twice. Not cool.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    LOL. More strategic positioning of the woodwork by Austria. Nelson Muntz “Ha-ha!” to Ronaldo.

  32. 32.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Go Team! ;-)

    ObOpenThread – J is watching parts of the Platform Committee meeting on C-Span and listening to some other Bernie-supporter convention or something on the web. Lots of people are making the point that the mid-terms are vital and that people have to stay involved and vote in the off-year elections.

    And there are other people decrying the money in politics, the PACs, and all the rest.

    And others are decrying that Gore and Kerry and Obama let their organizations whither on the vine after their Presidential races.

    I don’t know if anyone is making the connection that seems sorta obvious to me now. Namely, that if Team D has to raise $1B to elect a President over a 1+ year campaign season, how many billions would Team D need to raise to elect 435 House members, 33 Senators, and all of the State races that happen at the same time? And how are they supposed to do that without bombarding us with spam e-mails and weekly letters of doom and gloom that stuff our mailboxes all begging for money?

    How do we square the circle?

    Team D doesn’t have a natural free media organization the way the Teabaggers do. Do we want to see Nancy and Chuck and Hillary and all the rest on TV ads every week for the foreseeable future? Should we have to give money to Team D that they’ll just turn around to give to Comcast and Murdoch and the other media monsters?

    It seems like magical thinking to me, to imagine that a huge national organization can stay running at a high level between Presidential elections without a huge effort and a big budget. The way kids who go to summer camp together say that they’ll “keep in touch” when its done.

    If we want to keep up the enthusiasm and the organization going after November, it’s going to be a really tough slog. And it’s going to take lots of people donating to the DNC, DCCC, DSCC and all the other Team D players – as well as individual candidates and state and local parties. We’ll need to accept the “annoyance” of solicitations from them, also too.

    At least it seems that way to me at the moment. Have I missed something? What say you?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    Tony J

    No! Yes!!!

    Oh it’s not your night is it Ronny-Boy?

    (Phenomenally gifted footballer, but oh so very, very easy to dislike).

  39. 39.

    Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)

    @SRW1:

    Salzburg only became part of Austria in 1805. During Mozart’s lifetime- and for centuries before- Salzburg was a prince-archbishopric inside the Holy Roman Empire.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    @Randinho:
    CR7’s rep is that he’s currently the vainest man in football. There’s going to be more than a bit of Schadenfreude at that penalty miss.

  43. 43.

    SRW1

    @Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again):

    Yes I know, but that ‘of the German Nation’ part in the Holy Roman Empire is kinda fuzzy, given the duration and the boundaries that ‘Empire’ had during its existence. And during Mozart’s time everybody knew that this ‘Empire’ had become a joke anyway. Napoleon merely signed its death certificate.

    Also, too: Any claim of Salzburg as German would only awaken shouts of ‘Anschluss’.

  46. 46.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Randinho: Good points. Part of broadcasters’ mission is to do things in “the public interest”. Of course, Comcast and Fox and the rest would simply argue that they deliver most of their stuff over fiber or cable (not the airwaves), so the FCC rules shouldn’t apply.

    Those parts of the FCC’s mandate need to be updated, since (AFAIK), all the big cable companies have to use satellites and microwaves to transmit stuff across the country and around the world (and in areas where fiber isn’t available). Just because the “last mile” is over coax doesn’t mean that the public airwaves aren’t used.

    And I think that a compelling case can be made that the public interest needs to be served whether the airwaves are used or not. Fiber companies need permission from governments to run their fibers over public lands, so part of that license should be acting in the public interest just as much as a broadcaster does, and for similar reasons. We don’t allow thousands of wires to run over intersections any more…

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who would like to see Public Financing, also too, but that would be an even harder slog…)

  48. 48.

    Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)

    @SRW1:

    It also went back and forth between the Austrian Hapsburgs and the Bavarian Wittelsbachs in the 19th Century. The Luxembourgs (or whichever house ruled Salzburg), were constantly playing the Hapsburgs against each other, going way, way back.

    Salzburg won its independence from Bavaria in the 8th Century. It sits on the other side of the Alps from the rest of Austria. It is at the southern end of a plain which contains Bavaria. If not for its geographic situation, Salzburg might have been able to go the way of Lichtenstein.

    Just sayin’…

  49. 49.

    NorthLeft12

    I hope this does not get me banned, but I despise the Portuguese…….national soccer team. Worst collection of divers and whiners in the world. The sad part is that they actually have some talent but can’t resist trying to fool the refs.

  51. 51.

    ? Martin

    @humboldtblue:

    And in what can only be considered a stab in the back, a betrayal so foul and unforgivable that it boils the blood, In-N-Out is skipping right past us to open a restaurant in Grants Pass, Oregon (an hour to the north and just over the border).

    I thought eating meat in your county was illegal.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    @Just One More Canuck:
    Here in Asia you see CR7 on posters for all kinds of hair care and grooming products. I’ve seen him line up for matches — where he’s going to head the ball, run up and down a pitch all afternoon, etc. — with every last hair gelled in place, and I think, WTF?.

  53. 53.

    ? Martin

    Anyone want to hazard a guess as to when Crisiano Ronaldo dives for the first time.

    I for one am always proud when he makes it out of the tunnel. For such a talented player, he is uncannily clumsy when other players are 1-5 meters from him.

  54. 54.

    JMG

    Bar in Sarlatt, France, small town in Perigord where I am at tonight, exploded in glee when Ronaldo missed the PK. Has there ever been a great, great player in any sport so loathed by all fans? Even Ty Cobb was more popular.

  55. 55.

    Origuy

    @SRW1: Thanks, but it says “Detta programma kan ses i dotta Finland”, which I think is “This program can only be viewed in Finland” in Swedish. There’s another line that i think says the same thing in Suomi.

    There is a web service that is streaming it live in English, but I don’t want to pay 15 Euro and spend all day watching it.

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