Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

This really is a full service blog.

Bark louder, little dog.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Let there be snark.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

All your base are belong to Tunch.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

We still have time to mess this up!

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Soccer Open Thread

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  2. 2.

    otmar

    I don’t want to be in the shoes of Liverpool’s goalkeeper.

    I wouldn’t mind the salary, though.

  11. 11.

    Joe

    Two huge bonehead mistakes by Karius cost Liverpool that game. It’s going to be tough for him to get past those, feel sorry for the guy. That could haunt him forever.

  14. 14.

    luc

    The annoying this is that the one obvious a##hole on the field (Ramos), who among multiple other misdeeds caused the injury to Salah, did get away with all them.

    What a goal by Bale, though.

  15. 15.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread: LOLGOP at Eclectablog – If you’re using Trump’s language, you’re helping him:

    Either corporations waste trillions of dollars repeating their advertisements at you or you’re helping Donald Trump every time you retweet him or use his words.

    This is true even if you’re owning him with your comment attached to the retweet or accusing him of being “the swamp” or telling America to “Make America Bright Again.”

    Damn. I just helped him.

    See. This is isn’t easy, but this week we all saw through Trump’s very conscious attempt to distract and confuse the public about swelling investigations around his administration that have gotten in more than 100 indictments or guilty pleas against 19 people and three companies by pretending that the real scandal was that his campaign was being investigated at all. He even made up a name for this fictional scandal and implored the press to use it. In this case, most everyone, even the media, saw through the ruse.

    But sooner or later we all have to face that we in many cases act as Donald Trump’s viral marketing army. Our outrage feeds him and we’re earnestly debunking and fact checking him, we’re often helping him.

    And it’s time to start trying something new.

    […]

    What should we do otherwise?

    Stop retweeting and repeating him as much as you can. When you feel the urge to do that, focus instead on boosting the message of someone you want to win this November. Maybe set up a sort of swear jar, where you “punish” yourself every time you accidentally repeat him by making a donation you can afford to a candidate you back.

    But don’t some of his messages need to be pushed back on?

    A strong media would be protecting the truth for us, but the right has long been “playing the refs” to prevent this. If you feel you want to join the pushback, consider doing a quote retweet of people who do a nice job of getting framing out first as they rebut Trump instead of Trump. On Twitter, @ACLU, @ThePlumLineGS, @sarahkendzior ,@JamilSmith and @RVAWonk constantly do this well.

    I hate to hector you. You don’t have to agree or comply, but I bet you’d still feel that we’re not yet doing enough to limit Trump’s toxicity and there’s lots more we should be trying.

    Yup. Click over and read the whole thing.

    DougJ! hasn’t put up his BJNWTH Thermometer recently. Maybe his little monster is keeping him busy. ;-) I just kicked in some more.

    164 days to go…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yarrow:
    Randinho has always lived in Brazil. It’s just that real life got in the way of his football posting. David Anderson did some football posting in his Mayhew period, but that was only ever a sideline.

  19. 19.

    Yarrow

    @Amir Khalid: No, he moved to Brazil in 2014.

    Mércia and I have moved to the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil for at least most of each year. The undertaking was vast and exhausting, to put it mildly: selling my apartment in Jackson Heights, NY, obtaining my permanent resident’s visa for Brazil, arranging all the documents for moving our household goods to Brazil via a 40 foot container, then packing all the goods and moving them.

    Link to that post.

    His last post here was in December 2016. I hope he’s okay.

  22. 22.

    Yarrow

    @Amir Khalid: No big deal. I remember he said that after he moved to Brazil his internet connection was spotty. He was posting regularly about football when there were tournaments or big matches until December 2016 when he just stopped.

    I hope he’s doing okay. I wonder if the “Contact a Front Pager” form works for him. If whatever email it goes to still works, I mean. Perhaps one of the other FPers could check on him and let us know if he’s going to do World Cup posts.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    @Joe:
    Klopp has for some reason not bothered to sign a keeper fit to play for Liverpool even when one was available, concentrating instead on midfielders and forwards. As a Liverpool supporter I feel we need that keeper and another leader in defence like Virgil van Dijk.

  25. 25.

    Steve on St. Simons Island

    @Bonnie: the word “soccer” is derived from the term “association football”, but the Brits like to pretend that they weren’t the creators of the S-word

  27. 27.

    ArchTeryx

    Since it’s an open thread, and I wasn’t quick enough on the draw on the last one, here’s where I put on my ornithologist’s hat. (My favorite one to wear, though one that never had a chance of giving me a living):

    The term for your baby birds is altricial. Those are babies born naked, blind, and utterly helpless except to eat, peep and poop. (Pun intended). They grow up fast because they HAVE to – any predator can get to them with zero effort, so the parents have to hide them well and they have to grow and fledge fast. Even so, the casualty rate among altricials is shockingly high, part of why they have big broods in the first place. Almost all passerines (perching birds, what we think of as small songbirds) have altricial hatchlings.

    This is in contrast to semialtricial (bird of prey hatchlings, born downy and eyes open, but unable to move much or feed themselves) and precocial (born downy, eyes open, able to move and feed themselves – ducklings and goslings are the examples everyone knows). Precocials tend to have higher survival rates but many still die – take a good look at all the x-eating-duckling videos on YouTube if you want a sample.

    That nest full of fresh squab is damn lucky to have John Cole as a guardian. The predators don’t stand a chance. :-) Just be very, VERY careful you don’t accidentally lead any right to the nest – it’s happened many times with even experienced naturalists.

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    @Bonnie:
    Let’s see.
    It is in the rest of the world. And that’s 95% of the worlds population.
    I was a freshman in HS in CA in the early 60s and we played football with a round ball and two nets. Didn’t even have one of those out of round things on the property.
    And football was played centuries before americans squashed a ball and attempted to use aggressive force rather than finesse to carry a ball down field.
    So football it is.

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    @Steve on St. Simons Island:
    I wonder if it’s OK if you live out in the hinterlands and can live off the land? Weather isn’t too bad if you don’t live all the way south, plenty of water falls out of the sky in most parts….. OTHO there do seem to be a few rather dangerous predators hanging around who might just take kindly to a fresh meal of human in a lot of that hinterland.

  32. 32.

    Morfydd

    Sorry, the football screen was hijacked for cute family pictures and then dance floor videos. I got what i paid for, i guess.

  33. 33.

    A

    So pleased that Bale was the one to stick the knife in the bindippers. Scousers deserve that. Hope it’s the last time they see Salad in Red short too.

  34. 34.

    A

    @Amir Khalid: Yep Lovren is a shitshow. Didn’t think at the time Van Dijk was a good buy at 75 million, but I gotta say, it was.

    Karius had a mare, but he also made some great stops—could’ve been 5-1. Imagine if it was Mignolet!

  35. 35.

    Mike Furlan

    @luc: Ramos ruined the game for me. I just wanted to see Salah play. I didn’t care who won. I dislike Real Madrid and I dislike the Liverpool owner, John Henry. All I wanted is to see everybody do their best with no injuries. Not in Zidane’s game plan. Probably told Ramos to head butt him.

  36. 36.

    cmorenc

    @Bonnie:

    Soccer isn’t football.

    An unqualified reference to “football” in every part of the world, with the exception of in the United States (maybe Canada, too) – is used and universally understood to refer to soccer, not American “football” – which would be better descriptively called “arm-ball”.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @cmorenc:

    American “football” – which would be better descriptively called “arm-ball”.

    A few commenters here call it “hand-egg.” That always makes me giggle, so that’s what I now call it too.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    @A:

    the bindippers. Scousers deserve that.

    Are these vile regional stereotypes the stuff of your daily discourse?

  40. 40.

    Sctrojan90

    Recorded and watched last night because I was…refereeing soccer yesterday.

    Good game. RM was just a better team with superior depth. That has been Liverpool’s achilles all season.

Comments are closed.