Quarter-Finals
July 9th
France vs Morocco
July 10th
Spain vs Belgium
July 11th
Norway vs England
Argentina vs Switzerland
Semi-Finals
July 14th
TBD vs TBD
July 15th
TBD vs TBD
Third Place Play-off
July 18th
TBD vs TBD
***Final***
July 19th
TBD vs TBD
Well, it's on to the Round of 16.
July 4th
Canada-0 Morocco-3
Paraguay-0 France-1
July 5th
Brazil-1 Norway-2
Mexico-2 England-3
July 6th
Portugal-0 Spain-1
USA-1 Belgium-4
July 7th
Argentina-3 Egypt-2
Switzerland-0(4) Columbia-0(3)
Notes
Norway taking Brazil was a shock, but a nice shock.
With Canada gone, and Mexico trailing at the 70' mark, there's a very real danger that we could lose all three host countries in this round. Mexico has now lost 3-2 after England fought off 20 minutes of assaults while a man down.
Spain has moved past Portugal with a late goal.
Belgium has jumped ahead of the US 1-0 early in the match. I suppose the Belgians are pissed that Balogun's red card was overturned. I don't blame them. I'd be pissed too. Honestly I'd rather lose without Balogun than win with him. Belgium has taken out the US, so all three hosts exit in the Round of 16. I guarantee that won't happen in 2030.
I came upstairs from working out and discovered that Egypt is on the verge of eliminating Argentina. They're up 2-0 in the 75th minute. Now this is going to be a really big deal. Of course the odds still give Argentina a 4% of winning and a 13% chance of it going to Extra Time. In the 79th minute Argentina has scored o make it 2-1 so here we go. Argentina tied it in the 83rd minute. Lionel Messi tied it up. Talk about insane. Argentina took the lead in the 94th minute 3-2. Argentina wins 3-2. Now that was a tough loss for Egypt. I feel for them.
Again, I was watching the Switzerland v. Columbia game and had to go eat dinner with the penalties at 1-1. Congrats to the Swiss winning it 4-3.
June 28th
South Africa-0 Canada-1
June 29th
Brazil-2 Japan-1
Germany-1(3) Paraguay-1(4)
Netherlands-1(2) Morocco-1(3)
June 30th
Ivory Coast-1 Norway-2
France-3 Sweden-0
Mexico-2 vs Ecuador-0
July 1st
England-2 vs DR Congo-1
Belgium-3 Senegal-2 (AET)
USA-2 vs Bosnia & Herz-0
July 2nd
Spain-3 Austria-0
Portugal-2 Croatia-1
Switzerland-2 Algeria-0
July 3rd
Australia-1(2) Egypt-1(4)
Argentina-3 Cabo Verde-2 (AET)
Columbia-1 vs Ghana-0
I think people need to stop assuming that everyone that voted for Trump did so simply because they were racist. I hear this claim a lot and I think it oversimplifies the situation. There are some fundamental differences in the outlook of the two parties. For example (I've put where I stand in parens):
Abortion: Democrats want less restrictions than Republicans. (D)
Religion: Republicans want to chip away at the Separation of Church and State while the Democrats want to preserve it. (D)
Immigration: Republicans want to restrict immigration while Democrats appear to be OK with increasing it. (R)
Illegal Immigrants: Republicans want to deport them and prevent more from entering the country while Democrats would prefer providing a path to citizenship and are not as concerned about additional illegals entering the country. (R)
DEI: Democrats are in favor of it while Republicans are opposed to it. (R)
Healthcare: Democrats are concerned about the cost of healthcare while Republicans don't seem to be concerned about it. (D)
Gay Rights: Democrats are more sympathetic than Republicans. (D)
Transrights: Democrats seem to be more OK with transrights, including allowing transwomen to compete in women's sports, than Republicans. (R)
Defense Spending: Republicans want to increase it while Democrats want to reduce it. (D)
Tax Policy: Democrats want a more progressive tax structure while Republicans continue to cut taxes for the rich. (D)
Social Safety Net: Democrats want to strengthen the Social Safety Net while Republicans want to weaken it. (D)
It's OK for people to line up on different sides on these issues. I'm with the Democrats on 7 of the 11 So I voted for Clinton, Biden and Harris.
I'm not opposed to immigration, legal or illegal, because I'm racist but because I think an influx of immigrants is driving some aspects of inflation. I think this is especially an issue when it comes to housing. We already have too many people chasing too few rentals. Let's not make it worse.
The whole world doesn't stop for the World Cup and the Supreme Court has issued a number of very important decision. Some were good and some not so good.
(1) Trump's Executive Order restricting Birthright Citizenship has been struck down.
At least the court can still read. People were getting a little nervous about this given some of the other recent court decisions regarding Temporary Protective Status but sanity has apparently prevailed.
(2) Trump CANNOT arbitrarily fire members of the Federal reserve.
This preserve's the Feds independence and is clearly a good decision. Giving a sitting President control over the Federal Reserve would have been a disaster.
(3) States CAN restrict participation in sports based upon biological sex.
This one just makes common sense. I always though participation was segregated by sex and I never understood the concept of allowing participation based upon self-identified gender.
(4) Coordinated spending between a political party and a candidate CANNOT be limited.
OK, so three out of four isn't bad. Again the court doesn't seem to have a problem with allowing money to influence the electoral process. Why not just hold an auction and give the office to the highest bidder?
The 14 core points of the initial agreement include:
Group A MP W D L GF GA GD Pts
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According to Trump, he has made a deal to end the fighting in the Middle East. Unfortunately, no one has seen the text of the deal and we're hearing contradictory things from Trump and JD Vance.
The best I can make of it is:
(1) The Strait of Hormuz gets opened but it's unclear if there will be tolls or not.
(2) If Iran doesn't rebuild its nuclear capability then it get access to money? I'm reading between the lines here.
(3) If it does rebuild its nuclear capability then it doesn't get access?
(4) The Gulf States and the US, according to JD Vance, are putting together a $300 billion fund to help rebuild Iranian infrastructure. I assume this is the money they get access to plus the $100 billion currently frozen but I'm not sure. Trump has denied that such a fund exists.
(5) If the Israelis keep attacking Lebanon then the deal is off, and the Israelis haven't agreed to stop doing so because they're not signatories to the deal.
As you can see from the above, I don't really know a whole hell of a lot and apparently neither do the Israelis who claim they haven't seen the deal either.
More to follow when more information is available.
On to the next three days. You notice I'm not making any predictions because that would just make me look foolish.
Group A MP W D L GF GA GD Pts
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I continue to be amazed at how many people have a mistaken impression of how Social Security operates.
Legally, Social Security is required to invest in special-issue US Treasury Bonds. And no, Social Security revenue NEVER contributes to the General Fund, so it has absolutely nothing to do with the deficit or the debt. Here's how Social Security operates:
All revenue collected is first used to pay current benefits. If there is a surplus, it goes into the Social Security Trust Fund which, by law, is invested in special-issue US Treasury Bonds because it is considered the safest investment and CAN NEVER LOSE MONEY. These aren't just IOUs, but blue chip financial investments. These bonds collect interest which also goes into the Social Security Trust fund. What is special about these bonds is that they can be redeemed at anytime at par value. In other words, they're basically cash collecting interest.
If there is not enough to cover current benefits, then first interest, and then bonds, from the Trust Fund are used to meet the shortfall.
Up until 2010 Social Security was taking in more money than it was paying out, so the Trust Fund was growing and all interest was reinvested back into the fund.
After 2010 Social Security used interest from the Trust Fund to make up the shortfall in tax revenue rather than investing that interest back into the Trust Fund. The Trust Fund reached a maximum size of about $2.9 trillion in 2020.
Starting in 2021 the shortfall exceed both the tax revenue and the Trust Fund interest so Social Security began cashing in bonds to make up the shortfall. The Trust Fund currently contains approximately $2.56 trillion.
Unless either (1) more revenue is added or (2) expenses are reduced or (3) some combination of more revenue and reduced expenses is implemented, the Trust Fund is expected to be exhausted in 2032. At that time benefits will have to be reduced by about 22% to match what's being collected in tax revenues.
