Author: sloopyinca

Boy, do I feel stupid. I played golf yesterday and then went home to watch the Astros game. So I watched it, while flipping back and forth with the USA-El Salvador soccer match, until the 8th inning. I had my hopes up for a rally…then I noticed the “Replay” thingy up in the top right corner of the tv screen and realized it was daylight outside the stadium at 9:30. So I opened my phone, looked up the final score from the day game, acknowledged that I was an idiot and moved on with my life.

Speaking of the soccer game, the USA won 2-0, but played like ass on the back end. Do that against the Ticos on Saturday and they’ll get smoked. Also, El Salvador are the dirtiest bunch of fuckers I’ve seen in a while.

Bikes still racing in frogland. The Open is underway, and Spieth is off to a solid start this morning in addition to Stenson and Poulter. Its gonna be a fun week. Follow here.

Yesterday afternoon and evening were just an endless stream of serious shit happening. Let’s touch on some of it in…the links!

Al Gore: There’s still time to line my pockets, rubes avoid catastrophe. People are still buying the shit he’s peddling. Amazing.

So brave. So cutting edge. So … meh.  Why did you have to ruin a good show by coming back after all those years? And now you’re making it worse by being political and piling on?  Just count your money and stop. Please.

John McCain has brain cancer. The floor is yours to comment as you see fit.

Trump goes ballistic in NYT interview. Let me know if you find anything he said that was wrong, re: the Russian investigation/witch hunt. Because I read it a few times and I gotta say, he’s absolutely dead on.

Canadian government can suck just as bad as America’s. I just hope the people show up with torches and pitchforks when the government shows up to do their thing.

And I will close with pure, unadulterated impotent rage. This is it, folks. Boiled down to its essence. The most retarded ass shit you’ll read in over 140 characters all day. (TW: Salon. And I mean off-the-rails-out-of-his-fucking-mind Salon)

I’ll be eastbound and down today. Headed to Charlotte with my son for the AAU dive nationals. So I’m playing this. Wish me luck on that Lake Charles bridge. That fucker gives me an anxiety attack almost every time.

Have a great day, peeps.

People are riding bikes in the Alps today. And there was a crash, but everybody looks ok and the others got a nice respite before the first climb.  That’s the kind of up-to-the-minute breaking news you can expect at places.  Actually, it just popped up in the first story in my search. So don’t expect it here, really. And those of you that weren’t expecting it and are pissed about the spoiler: sorry about that. Elsewhere, The Open is less than a day away, thank God. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say the winner will be a first-time major winner again in an incredible finish that people will be talking about for quite some time (except UCS, who will not talk about it at all). And don’t forget that the USA takes on El Salvador tonight in soccer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup knockout rounds. Let’s hope they don’t play like they have so far.

In the baseball world, the Yankees and White Sox made a trade: Yankees got the better of it. The D-backs made a trade and look to be pushing for a playoff spot. The aforementioned pinstripes beat the Twins (sorry, Minnesodan contingent) and the Astros took out Monday night’s loss on the Mariners with style.  Rubber match tonight.

Well there’s a lot going on elsewhere, so lets unpack it in…the links!

I’m gonna explain with this first link why the American public doesn’t trust or respect the media. Here is the lede from the NYT: Trump and Putin Held a Second, Undisclosed, Private Conversation.  That’s their words, verbatim.  Now the first paragraph:

WASHINGTON — Hours into a dinner with world leaders who had gathered for the Group of 20 summit meeting, President Trump left his chair at the sprawling banquet table and headed to where President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was seated.

Now, by “undisclosed” and “private”, they mean at a massive table with probably a hundred people around, many with cameras. And by “undisclosed”, they mean in public and announced as a formal dinner with other heads of state.  And furthermore, by “left his chair…headed to Putin”, they mean he swapped seats with his wife.

Why the hell would I trust the gray lady after this completely disingenuous headline and intro to a story? Why would I trust the parrots at CNN or MSNBC or NPR or everywhere else that breathlessly reported a very public and informal conversation as something nefarious?  I ask you, what credibility do these people have left?

::catches breath::

How do you get booed worse than the Mets? Catch a foul ball, apparently. Well, catch a foul ball while being a horribly unpopular asshole.

Whatever a “Reddit AMA” is, Chris Cillizza has one. And people are airing their grievances. And its not even Festivus yet. But he’s apparently a good sport. (TW: Slate, although they don’t go full retard here. Instead, they gloss over the real criticism he’s getting hammered with by people showing his lack of integrity and objectiveness over and over and over and over and over again)

Looks like there was another person at the Trump Jr meeting. This one linked to “money laundering” according to reports. That link is an interview he gave in 2000 about how shell companies are used to open businesses in Delaware.  You know, just like a shitload of companies do every year.

Court dates are not optional. And don’t punch horses!

A city council acts responsible with taxpayer money. Chamber of Commerce is outraged.

San Francisco has gone to the (wild) dogs. You know, without their retarded gun control laws this wouldn’t have happened.

And lastly, Welcome to Italy! Italians hardest hit.

A pretty good three man band.

That’s all for me, friends. Have a great day!

Nothing happened in the bike race yesterday. I guess everyone will have to wait until the time trial for any potential excitement.  The NBA summer league, which got an incredibly amount of hype from ESPN for some reason, wrapped up and nobody really cared. The Open pairings have been announced. The 1:04 and 1:26 pairings are sure gonna get a lot of eyeballs. As will the 2:48. And while its not as enjoyable to watch at the US Open, in my opinion, at least Birkdale isn’t a tricked out course.

In Texas sports, the Astros lost after clawing their way back and having every chance to win in the 9th. Zeke seems to be having a hard time growing up. And a Texans player gets arrested but happily proclaims, “oh, that is definitely my gun” to the cops.

Feel free to wear me out for the Zeke story. I can take it. Especially after the Buckeyes added to their ridiculous 2018 recruiting haul over the weekend by getting a commitment from the top TE in the country. Suck on that, TTUN!

Well, that’s all for stick and ball stuff. One more sports-related story to go. But I’ll get to that one in…the links!

Trump seems to have fewer blind spots to libertarians than any president for at least the last 30 years. But he sure put an asshole in there as Attorney General.

RAND PAUL WINS! RAND PAUL WINS! RAND PAUL WINS! At first, the right were shitting themselves over it, but now seem to have embraced a straight repeal, which is what the people want instead of a garbage bill full of garbage compromises and garbage throwaways to interest groups. Way to stand for your principles, Rand, Lee and a few others. Now get the government out of the business forever!

If this is all Skynet can muster, then we’ve got nothing to worry about.

ESPN goes further up its own asshole. Cool takedown of a non-American and his willingness to play along with the antics of a serial woman abuser and flat-out piece of shit human being while glossing over, for the most part, the history of that piece of shit human being. Note no comments allowed at that site.

More foreign hacking. Although I would imagine the principals in the case will make it less than newsworthy on CNN.

It’s not easy being green unemployed.

British tabloids do what British tabloids do. Salon gets the vapors. The headline is extra funny since a non-Murdoch paper did the same thing.

Hopefully some of you will enjoy this change of direction.

Good luck out there today, friends. You’re gonna need it.

Well the Wimbledon finals were sure underwhelming.  Venus collapsed like wet cardboard and Cilic got hurt. That’s not to say the two victors didn’t deserve it, but it sure would have been nice to see better matches that what we got.  Oh, and the bicycle race continues and that Froome guy is back in the lead last I checked. I assume there’s more drama to come, but I don’t really know. More knowledgeable people will explain it all in the comments, I’m sure.

And then we come to the Minnesota-Houston series.   The Astros took two of three from the Twins and got the second half of the season off to a good start. They gotta work on that pitching staff, but if they hit like this, they’re gonna be tough to beat even if they put Rudi Stein on the mound. (Apologies if I already used that joke. It’s early.) Seattle is up next.

Also, there was some event on tv last night with a season premiere. Please discuss at your leisure, but remember there are some people out there that want to watch but haven’t yet.  So at least give spoiler alerts. And with that little courtesy warning, we can transition to…the links!

From calls for impeachment to demands that we bomb Russia, the Team Blue narrative on the election has good from sad to scary.

John McCain’s surgery may be more serious than thought. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery…a swift resignation…and a quiet retirement.

Tragedy in Arizona swimming hole as flash floods sweep in.  What a tragedy. I have nothing else to say.

Buckle up, buckaroos! 2018 might be as awesome as 2016 if this trend keeps up.

Looks like the NYT laid off a few of their people tasked with vetting guest contributors. How else to explain the most logical piece I’ve seen on there in a while making it to print?

And finally, a touching story about the healing power…of hate. Just awesome. Totally fucking awesome.

Show me the way…

That’s all she wrote. Go have a great day!

Wimbledon mens semifinals today. Go Sam Querry! Ladies played yesterday and Venus beat that limey girl to make it to the finals. USA! USA! I hope she wins and does her usual classy interview. And I hope her smarmy, jerk of a sister takes notes. The dude I assumed was a lock to win the bike race seems to have lost his lead. I’m sure a few of you will clue us in on what’s gonna happen from here on out, because I’m not really paying attention.

Baseball, which I thought was back last night, is actually back today. Well, the minor leaguers are still playing but I doubt anybody wants to hear about the exploits of Tim Tebow. Nope. We’re all waiting for the face-off between the Minnesodans and the mighty Houston Astros. Series starts tonight, which means if Houston doesn’t do well, I only have to mention it once in Monday’s links. We shall see. Of course, the dicks over at ESPN will probably have the Yankees-Red Sox series on wall to wall coverage instead, so find the MLB Network on your tv.

No more sports (mostly). Time for…the links!

OK, a little more sports. I hate the team, but I gotta applaud the coach for this level of trolling. Also, Vice have completely turned into a bunch of pussies.

An interesting WSJ piece about the Amazon-Post Office relationship. We should send up some smoke signals to the commenters. Looks like they understand the USPS. Maybe they’d fit in over here.

BREAKING NEWS: David French is now categorized as a one-man hate group. Jesus, what an accurate takedown. I’m glad someone in major media finally had the stones to do it.

Yesterday was National French Fry Day! Therefore one of the greatest breweries in the world threw a party.  Seriously, if none of you have had the pleasure of drinking some St Arnold beers, you’re really missing out. Their beers range from outstanding to ohmyfuckinggodittasteslikejesushimselfpissedinmymouth delicious.  Which reminds me: I’ll probably try to schedule the Houston meet up at the brewery during one of their events.

This actually is breaking, because it happened overnight: A Hawaiian judge has loosened the travel ban to include a whole host of people that nobody in their right mind would consider “close”. Expect the twittersphere to go insane.Seriously…I guess leftist judges are incapable of reading or they just don’t care about plainly-written laws, executive orders or Supreme Court rulings.

Some very scary news. Women, children and minorities Canadians hardest hit.

For the Tour de France fans. (Some of you might want to open this in a very small window or in the background if they’re at work. It might be NSFW!)

That’s it for me. By the way, I shot a 76 at the Shell Houston Open course yesterday. From the member tees, not the tips. Played out of my mind, but its noticeable when you play a course like that because the greens are always so receptive and hold shots most local tracks won’t hold. Let’s see if I can repeat the feat at my home course today, as I have a small money match with Judge Smalls and Dr Beeper today at noon.

Have a great day, dear friends!

One-two punch out at Wimbledon yesterday.  Looks like I was wrong about Sam Querrey vs Andy Murray. And Joker had an injury and was forced to retire.  So its Fed’s to lose now. On the ladies side, Venus marches into the semifinals today, where she has to be the favorite to win it all now, although the locals will likely be cheering for her opponent.

Guys are riding bikes through France toward an inevitable win for Froome. There USAMNT (soccer for those of you who don’t know or care) beat an island with the population of Sugar Land, TX by one measly goal last night and our very own Brett L was there to bask in the glory mediocrity. And ESPN let Mr Potato Head host an awards show that I didn’t even bother to watch, because…meh.

Thank the good lord that baseball is back today, otherwise I would probably just give up on the intro tomorrow and just head straight into…the links!

The Natalia Veselnitskaya situation gets weirder and weirder. I’m sure lots of people got special permission from Loretta Lynch herself to enter the country and then weren’t asked to leave for at least six months after their purpose for being here had expired, though. Right? RIGHT?!?!

Talos Energy strikes (black) gold! Let’s see how this works out once the Mexican government gets involved and all but fucks up the wealth her people should enjoy from it.

A true story of environmentalism and compassion. Followed up the a stark reminder that nature is a motherfucker.

Expedia’s CEO decides to piss off half of his customer base.

How to earn a taxpayer-funded vacation. Or: I’ll call an Uber from my early retirement party.

And finally, the meme war is over.  The ultimate battle was a slaughter. Seriously, I can’t stop watching. I had it on loop for a half an hour last night and I was literally crying. It was the most glorious piece of editing I’ve ever seen.  Now if we can just get POTUS to retweet it (yes, its twitter, but even if you aren’t a user, you still need to click through this, trust me), the MSM will literally shit themselves. So, you know, I’m praying he does.

It opens with a great guitar riff and gets better and better as it goes. You’re welcome!

That’s all I got today. Off to play the Shell Houston Open tournament course at Redstone. Wish me luck…I’m gonna need it.

Well the American League won the All Star Game. And Aaron Judge didn’t hit a ball all the way to Coral Gables, much to the fans’ dismay.  That Froome guy is still leading the bike race. And the Joker/Agassi experiment seems to be working. Oh, and Venus Williams made it to the semifinals of Wimbledon for the thirty-eighth time. Ok, that is probably an exaggeration, but Jesus, how old is she? She will face limey Johanna Konta in the semifinals, in what will probably be the only match where the locals aren’t overwhelmingly pulling for her.  The men Play their quarterfinals today as well, and America’s hopes sit on the shoulders of Sam Querry. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

That’s all I’ve got for sports unless you guys want to talk about the circus of a pre-fight promo tour where one guy mocks the tax problems of the other guy…who pulls out $100,000,000 checks and mocks him back for never seeing a big payday.  I have a feeling the fight won’t be nearly as energetic as the buildup for the former once he gets clocked. But I’ve been wrong before.

Anyway, I want to play golf today, but I probably won’t get a chance. Its been raining off and on for a few days now and its coming around again. So expect me to sit here and stalk all day.  Especially in…the links!

So Natalia Veselnitskaya says she never gave intel info to Trump Jr. In fact, she says she has no idea where that part of the story came from.  Meanwhile, Don Jr. goes full Fredo-mode and releases emails that show he was trying to do big things, great things, yuuuuge things for the campaign by finding dirt on his dad’s opponent.  Jesus, Fredo Donny, just keep Mo Green and the other investors out of the family’s way and stop trying to get too involved, capice?

I don’t quite understand the headline here. By “test,” do they mean “utilizes university policy as intended” or does it mean “enrages violent assholes that seem to have all the influence”?  Either way, I’m going long on bike locks for the upcoming school year. I have a feeling there’ll be plenty of them swinging around.

I don’t say this often, because its almost never called for. But Texas needs to step up her game!

Leftist assclown gets invited on one of biggest PM news opinion shows in country. She then spends an entire column justifying her actions by making assumptions about her inviter without so much as giving them a chance to explain. (Yeah, its Salon. Oh, and Aman-duh Marcotte. Enter at your own risk.)

A weird-ass immigration story. I don’t particularly care for his defense. It would be better if, you know, people looked at the absurdity of drug laws.

This kid has a future in NASCAR. Or child protective services. Either way, lol.

Hey, God. get the rain out of here and give me some of this.

That’s all, peeps. Go out there and have a great day.

Man, Wimbledon finally had an interesting day, didn’t it? Nadal got bounced. The top seeded woman, Kerber, got bounced. Two American women, only one named Williams, are in the Quarterfinals and we still have an American man in the draw, albeit living off his serve.  Its almost as if I predicted a few things might happen now that we’re in the second week.

In baseball news, there’s some serious ass business going on in Cincinnati. And Aaron Judge is an absolute monster at batting practice. I’d love to see them tweak the format somehow so the two biggest bombers don’t face off in round 1, but all around, that was an enjoyable home run derby…even if a Yankee won it. All Star Game tonight. Let’s see if the Astros players deliberately tank it so they aren’t stuck with home field advantage in the World Series (should they make it). They’re better on the road.

People still riding bikes and I don’t know what’s going on. I guess that Froome guy is winning? Who knows. Either way, its time to move on to…the links!

The New York Times (don’t worry, this isn’t a NYT link) is alleging that an email was sent in advance of the Donald Trump Jr meeting with a foreign national, claiming the information she had was part of a Russian government effort to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The sources are “three people with knowledge of it”, the Times makes the case that this is collusion.  No word on the Clinton campaign’s, or Trump’s GOP primary opponents, colluded when they hired former intel officers from foreign nations to develop damaging information on Trump with Fusion GPS. Also no word on whether the Trump campaign took the lawyer seriously. I guess they couldn’t round up “three people with knowledge” to chime in on that one.

The Jane Sanders loan swindle investigation is heating up. Not sure whether the rumors of Bernie pressuring bankers is true, but if so I wouldn’t expect his name to stay out ion the news much longer. Maybe three people with knowledge could let us know what’s happening.

Apparently, if you sign a contract and then decide you might not like the politics (or political affiliation) of the person you signed it with, you think it should be ok to break that contract without cause and not get your ass sued. Well, that’s not how it works. (The story is so slanted it may as well be a damn opinion piece. Beware!)

In a bold public relations gambit, the Miami Marlins are suing for the property of a few fans. I swear, Jeffrey Loria must have mentored the guy who set up the Fyre Festival.

Texas teen dies in freak accident. Seriously, how is this even possible? Even with a GFCI outlet in the bathroom, aren’t cellphone chargers all equipped with a transformer that would break the circuit if overloaded? And don’t most phones just stop working if they’re dropped in water?  That’s what’s always happened when something similar happened to me.

And lastly, we come to this story. I won’t even comment on it, because I want y’all to read it and debate it in the comments. I’d like to see what y’all think, to be honest.

Sexual exploitation of minors?

That’s what I have for the day, friends. Hope it gets your day going right.

Well we’ve reached the All-Star Break and have two teams with 60 wins after the Astros demolished the Blue Jays yesterday to split the four-game series.  Even money says there will not be a Dodgers-Astros World Series. Any takers?

And after a couple of close calls on Saturday in the women’s tournament, we are on to week 2 of Wimbledon. And I can see an upset or two happening today.  Probably not in the man’s draw though. I suspect that will hold form until at least the quarterfinals.

Also, people are riding bikes across France, but I can’t be bothered to tune in. I don’t really know any of the cyclists anymore and there aren’t any of them peddling wristbands for social signaling. And without that, what’s really the point?

That’s it for sportzball. Now let’s dive into…the links!

We’ve pondered making up some Glibertarians hats, but are afraid whichever one of you this was would have kept it on when you went haywire.

International Olympic Committee to Rio de Janeiro: go piss up a rope. And yet there are still cities and countries dumb enough to beg them for attention.

Looks like Comey deliberately leaked classified information when he decided to leak his version of conversations with President Trump to the New York Times. Lucky for him the special prosecutor involved in the whole Russian interference investigation is a close buddy of his.

Due process? We don’t need no stinkin’ due process! The comments aren’t exactly reassuring either.

That’s an unbearable way to be waken up. I don’t know what else to say.

This will probably dominate the news day, so I may as well touch on it too. The story as I see it: somebody called on Donald Trump Jr. and said she had damning info on Hillary Clinton. He agreed to meet her and invited Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner to the meeting as well. The lady they were meeting, a Russian attorney, rambled on for a few minutes and then went into a spiel about overturning a law we passed some years ago that led to Russia not allowing adoptions of Russian kids by American families. The meeting lasted 20 minutes and adjourned. Now that person is alleged to have ties to the Opposition research firm the DNC hired that created the fake dossier on Trump about him liking women to piss on him and other stuff, none of which has even come close to being verified. And I’m supposed to be outraged, somehow. Because according to the ranking Dem member on the House intel committee:

Well the Astros lost…to a team of flappy-heads.  And the Twins beat the Orioles (since there is a lot of rooting interest in those two teams from several Glibs).  About the only other thing going on in the sports world is the courting of perennial assclown Carmelo Anthony by many NBA teams.  Seriously, who in their right mind would openly invite cancer into their body? Nobody.  Then why would an NBA team plan on throwing $100M at a minimum to bring that guy in?

Lots of big tennis matches today as Wimbledon trudges on. I’ll make a bold prediction that all of the top seeds playing will advance with the exception of maybe one minor to moderate upset. Nothing ever seems to happen there until the second week of the tournament.

And in case anybody was wondering, and I know some of you are, college football starts in 7 weeks and the NFL is exactly 2 months away from opening their season (the same day the Buckeyes open up as well!). So we got that going for ourselves, which is nice.

Anyway, you guys have places to go and people to see and undoubtedly don’t want to keep reading me ramble on and on. So let me go ahead and usher in…the links!

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. At least he had the decency to resign.

Leftist, anarchist assclowns go apeshit in Hamburg. I hope they get the water cannons out in force today.

United Airlines just can’t stop shitting the bed. Plus their excuse smells like bullshit. We “scanned his boarding pass improperly”? Since when do they scan anybody’s boarding pass with anything but the exact same indifference the scanned the previous one with?

Never trust your lady parts to Florida Man Doctor! Also, dude, you’re 87. May be time to perv elsewhere, huh?

Perhaps there was a woman menstruating nearby. (Cue up the STEVE SMITH sprinter jokes.)

Illinois House overrides Governor’s veto to pass budget. Let the taxing begin!  I hope every one of them get primaried. And the funny thing is, the are still gonna get their credit downgraded.

And last, but not requiring a link, Trump to meet Putin today. From what I hear on Fox, it will be a glorious meeting where Trump will tell the Russian leader what we plan to do in Syria and North Korea. From what I hear on MSNBC, it will be Putin telling Trump what he will do in Syria and North Korea. And from what I hear on CNN, they will eat a baby together on Russian state TV while urinating in the mouth of a wheelchair-bound transgender midget. I’ll have to find out later tonight how it goes. I’ll be on the golf course this afternoon.

This needs no intro.

Have a hell of a great friday, friends.