Dear Friends & Readers: Today you get Two Blogs. The first one is: Football. The second one is: Trump’s Revolution. Scroll down and Enjoy Both! Next posting will be on July 30!
Yes, United States of America: it is called Football everywhere else in the world. Don’t you get it?
It is the game that has been played in every alley, street, town, city, refugee camp, backyard, rooftop and wherever, whenever, for hundreds of years. If they have a ball, they use it. If not, all those aspiring Cristiano Ronaldos improvise by rolling rags, newspapers, anything that can be kicked around!
Yes, Football is the Emperor of Sports; the most beloved ball game of all time and the one time every four years when the world seems to come together in one resounding: GOAL!!!
It is also the one time, the only game, for which I print the schedule, set the DVD on record in case I miss a game, and sit there mesmerized by the amazing footwork. I love every aspect of the game; the players most of all, those who at the end of the game are elated, as well as those who are crying and causing me to tear up too; the little children holding hands with the team players as they enter the field; the coaches with their jackets and ties – although some are now opting for open-necked shirts – their grimaces, yelling, gesturing, frustration, jubilation; the referees dizzyingly running around; the efficient paramedics; the hilarious commentators holding their breath, raising their voice to loudly announce a goal, only to have the ball miss as they fizzle away their shout-out in disappointment; the crowds who come from the powerful nations of our planet and those whose nations are being severely and criminally bloodied; the incredible Watch Parties in the world’s capitals! All of it! Every tiny aspect of it!
The first game this year was between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Well, now! Eight years ago, even four, I would have definitely been rooting for my Arab brothers, the Saudis. This year, I am rooting whole-heartedly for Russia! Who would have ever guessed it? As they say: It’s politics, stupid! My plain, biased, skewed, and yes, agenda-driven politics! Indeed, these past few years have given the world (except for the US) a pleasant version of Putin’s Russia. That smug, humble look that he gave Prince Salman after Russia scored the winning goal? Priceless! Putin’s GOAL! And he has every reason to be gloating: Sochi, and now the World Cup, have scored him a most impressive win so far in the precarious and international game of “Risk” that politicians are playing and that is putting our whole planet in jeopardy! Russia’s positive image is in sharp contrast with the image of Saudi Arabia and its warring destruction of Yemen amongst other eyebrow-raising, gasp-engendering actions, behaviors and alliances. Ah, how the wheels of politics turn, friends becoming enemies, enemies becoming friends! A dirty, corrupt game of nations in which innocent lives are laid at the alter of super egos.
As I watch, rapt with every movement on the field, I cannot help but think of those young boys and men sitting in front of their small black and white generator-powered televisions, eagerly following every match and then lugging their one remaining leg to a bed that they soak with heartfelt tears caused deliberately by Israeli IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) snipers, who maliciously targeted them in the legs with the exact purpose of preventing them from playing soccer ever again. The malevolence and criminality with which this policy is being executed on Palestinians is beyond reprehensible. It is dystopian and absolutely horrific. Yet, it comes from a government that calls itself democratic, and is supported by governments whose favorite words are “democratic values!” Quite a farce, if I’ve ever seen one! There is definitely no iota of justice in our world. Not one!
As the teams run around the football fields, another football game is going on in Washington, DC; a disgusting political football game over America’s immigration policies and how those are tearing away thousands of children, some mere babies, from their migrant mothers and families. Whatever is one’s point of view on this convoluted topic – whose roots go back to several Presidents and were not really caused by Trump, although he is milking it for all it’s worth – it is clear that the MSM, the Democratic Party et al are having phony conniptions. Pretty despicable! Their feigned indignation and Rachel Maddow’s crocodile tears notwithstanding, together with ex-FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) Laura, Hillary and Michelle piping in their worthless opinions when their husbands caused so many children to die, and while wicked Hillary never shed a tear for all the children her policies murdered, are so bizarre! So hypocritical! Frankly, Rosslyn Carter, with her and Jimmy’s lifelong activism, is the only one who deserves to be heard on this subject. Anyway, all this conjured up brouhaha is happening while across the world our bombs are being dropped on children whom we cry about only when it is politically expedient! According to the latest figures, 68.5 million people on our planet are now displaced from their homes. Disregarding them, we continue to drop bombs and to initiate more policies that are causing more uprooting and displacement, especially of those children whom we profess to care so much about, let alone their human rights. No one really believes us anymore. We, the US, have now withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council whose current High Commissioner, Prince Zeid of Jordan, is so frustrated by the inaction, by the bias and hurdles placed by the US and its allies to seriously address human rights abuses worldwide without injecting corrupt politics into the equation, that he wants to resign. The reason given for our withdrawal, is, of course, in and of itself, totally baseless, skewed and biased. Sickening, even though the UN has been rendered irrelevant and ineffective! It needs a drastic restructuring!
However, the World Cup, despite our infantile and vindictive boycotting behavior, goes on as I, and most of the world’s humans, are lovingly and excitedly watching every resounding GOAL!
My Seventy Year Old Eyes 