***...In this period it is 0-4 on clay, 2-1 on grass, & 0-1 in AO H2H w/ Roger and Rafa; the AO match being a tight 5-setter. They never met at USO, but Fed won 5 in this period.***
...It took Nole taking Roger out in '10 for Nadal to finally acquire a USO! ...Nadal's owned Roger like no other player; even Nole who's finally gone ahead in H2H on both of them!
***Did you also notice how often Nadal failed to meet Fed in major tourneys?***
Of course; which is why Roger has all those USO's & WTF's!
***Lol - the WTF? You've picked the 1 place where Fed owns Nadal.***
Yep; indoor on a fairly fast court! Roger needs the help like I said! I'm no troll; Fed's still the GOAT for the X being, but no other great has another player own him the way Nadal did!
***You could argue Nadal needs slow & bouncy courts to negate Fed's offense & he has had favorable conditions more often than Fed in that sense. Of course Nadal's the better H2H player, esp. the fact that he never lost to Fed at RG & AO while beating him at Wimbledon once as well. They have played 3 X's in the faster conditions of Wimby/USO, & all 3 were at Wimby. They have met 8 X's in the slower conditions of AO/RG.
Of course Rafa has owned Fed in the H2H, but don't pretend like it's just Fed who needs favorable conditions. Rafa has gotten plenty, unless you consider Rafa nothing more than a clay courter & think that even high-bouncing slow HCs should favor Fed simply b/c it's called HC.***
All players need help at X's, but I'm talking about Roger & Rafa here! Roger was more vulnerable to Rafa than any other player; there's no mistaking that! Rafa was vulnerable to anyone off clay & other slower surfaces! There's a significant diff. & most know I can't stand Rafa; his game, toweling off, pulling on his junk, & adjusting his underwear pulling it out of his butt! I pretended it had t/b something else going on initially until it started getting ugly where Rafa even beat Roger at AO in '09! I figured the end was near, but here we are 7 yrs later w/ the same top elite player at the top of the draw!
***Fed is 2-9 vs a player 5 yrs younger to him. Novak is 4-9 vs player who's same age as him (approx)
Djokobots wanting to count overall h2h, but ignoring the slam h2h is reflecting their strong IQ. - Hope you realize Djokovic has only recently been ahead of Nadal in the h2h since he has seriously declined, but he's well ahead of Nole in his prime yrs. Your GOAT has also had a losing h2h vs Fed until the latter turned 34. Impressive, but not for Djokovic; the 34 yo still challenging & beating your GOAT yrs past his prime & not long from retirement. ... ---
Djokovic IS an all X great & what he has been doing in the past few yrs w/ his consistency at the big events has been incredible. But it's also true that since '14, he has had no rivals to challenge him and no great younger gen. players to challenge him. It c/b both things, i.e. that he's a great player, but he also has no current rivals to challenge him. ---
Actually, '12, which happened after '11, was Rafa's most dominant clay season ever; only '08 is comparable.***
Nole's '11 ruined Rafa's chance t/b somewhat consistent to have multi-yrs @ #1! As a result, his career & results bounce around quite a bit! Hard to call him the GOAT being so inconsistent, leaving the tour for extended periods, & being unable to defend a title off the clay surface!
***Besides the mucho anger in this post, isn't "cabanaboy Fed" a bit harsh?***
Harsh, but Roger was Rafa's bitch for the most part! Initially I felt gamesmanship was going on w/ the whole act of stalling, incessant toweling off, & challenging every call that went vs him! After a while I had to finally accept Rafa owned him, lock, stock, & barrel; even on grass & HC!
***Nobody is unbeatable, but surely Djokovic is the most complete tennis player ever. He's great on every surface (he is even one of the strongest clay court players of all X, having won the 2nd most clay Masters titles of all X despite playing in the same era as Nadal, & he's the only player who could ever challenge peak-Nadal on clay), he's great vs every major rival (winning records in h2h vs Nadal, Federer, & Murray, plus soon having the most wins vs top-10 players all X) and he has no weakness in his game. Also no mental weaknesses. As a player, no one was ever as complete as Djokovic. Even Federer's career has a few doubts, i.e. Fed has this awful record vs a major rival (Nadal). When Djokovic wins FO, nobody can deny anymore that he had the most complete career of all players ever.*** ---
Murray has never & will never be that great! He's solid enough, but IMO he s/b doing so much more w/ all the work he's done! That defensive mode vs the greats got him nowhere; 2 majors & a handful of Masters! Past champions who attacked the net relentlessly would "eat him for lunch" playing 30 feet behind the baseline!
***I think he can win another major, but anything beyond that is stretching it. He's simply not an ATG caliber player - although he is very good. - 2 Majors and the only player to win double digit Masters titles apart from the Big 3, Agassi & Sampras! I agree w/ you that he could have won more but...got him nowhere....come again? As for playing behind the baseline.... ALL top players do that nowadays except for Federer. Ever heard of a certain Rafael Nadal? They do it b/c modern string technology allows them to pass and make mincemeat of players who try to rush the net like your champions of old!***
Totally underachieved! He had too many chances & now allows an old man to work him on grass of all places! Losing that match in strts @ Wimbledon to Roger was just plain embarrassing; then later in Cincy in a semi! I just SMH in disbelief!
***Before the Wimbledon match I was thinking Murray would walk away the winner given he's younger, fitter, & @ the X I thought was in better form. He ended up getting dismantled by a 33-yo (soon t/b 34 yo) Federer! Yes, he played a great match - but it was nothing Murray couldn't counter. One thing I've noticed is he got content after winning his majors - he lost early @ the USO following his Wimbledon victory, along w/ a string of avoidable defeats to players he was/is superior to, culminating in a strt sets defeat to Wawrinka. The surgery had to happen, but even before he underwent it, he was on a downhill slope. ---
If Federer had played Djokovic in the final like he did Murray in the semis, Djokovic too would have lost in strs. As for Cincy, Djokovic went on to lose to Fed in strts in the final or did that escape your memory. Was that embarrassing too? You're obsessed w/ Federer's age, but prior to this year, he was playing some of his best ever tennis. Age is not a handicap like it was for your heroes of old. Today, w/ better training and better fitness, players can go on for much longer playing some of their best tennis. Just look at the number of 30 year olds still playing, some of them even older than Federer.***
I'm not trying to give Roger a break due to his age; just noticed "his prime" is stressed at being in the past! I think Roger should win more, but he's having as much trouble as anyone finishing a match! It started w/ that Wimbledon loss to Nadal, then those 2 cons. USO semi's to Nole w/ MP's & serving for it! He was fortunate to steal 1 more Wimbledon in '12 and make final of the Olympics, but he decided to hang in there to pad his record & hasn't won anything of substance since! Making finals just proved how weak the "also-rans" are who can't finish matches either vs the "Big 4" w/ leads & MP's serving for it!
***U.S. Justice Dept Won´t Seek Death Penalty Against Benghazi Suspect - Of course not...***
More than likely he cooperated and gave info which c/b useful in the future! Idiotic that Obama would intercede on his behalf! If he wanted, he could just pardon him instead of going half-arse w/ a commutation of a death sentence!
***Are Some Reps Like Paul Ryan Unscrewing The Wheels Of The Rep. Party? - Republicans & Republican Party? Please...
Trump has proved the words Rep. and Rep. Party are meaningless. W/ Trump we know any Rep. w/ any governing experience is worthless. Seriously, give credit where credit is due. What Trump has accomplished is no small feat. Trump didn't just win. Trump took on all Rep. comers (and let me remind you there were 8 or 9 governors & 4 senators in the race) and the Rep. Party as a whole... AND ROUTED THEM. ---
It's obvious the Rep. elephant is trying to pass an industrial sized coil of barbed wire. I've been monitoring politics for a 1/2 century. Never have I seen such chaos, such utter disarray in any U.S. political entity. Compared to the Reps., even the Libertarians look organized. Ten years ago I NEVER thought anyone could honestly say that, but today, IDK anyone that honestly couldn't. The Dems may take glee in it, but for the rest of us, we look on in horror. ---
...Let's put in context Fiero. Indiana had similar situation and they re-evaluated and backed off. But NC's governor is doubling down. And it looks like their resolute determination to discriminate vs a tiny defenseless minority may cost them $titanic.***
NC have already lost $millions w/ $billions on the line & this fool is actually "doubling down" as you said! Pence had more common sense to back off and save the state from complete humiliation when the NCAA among other things were ready to move out of the state! I keep trying to have faith in the voters of these places, but they disappoint me again and again; look at FLA and MI! What do these guys have to do not to be reelected? ...IDK what's going on allowing Dem. states to turn & then see them go under in education, business, & now we can't even trust the water being safe under their care!
***A) Indiana's law was completely different and had nothing to do w/ any Fed overreach.
B) I'm glad that leftists are finally coming on board to the idea that private vendors such as Bruce Springsteen can choose who they provide services to based upon conscience.
C) I notice none of you are referencing the actual suits or laws (Which would require you to believe that men who 'identify' as women be allowed to compete on women's sports teams).***
Trump Week Gone From Bad To Worse! - We can only hope Trump's past is blowing up in his face! Besides what we've already heard about his disparaging comments on Mexicans, women, Muslims, The United Nations, & trade deals, it's now coming out that he pretended t/b his own PR person 20 yrs ago using names (John Miller or John Barron), calling up newspapers, magazines, & TV programs pumping up his business, love life, & marriages! A butler of his that was on staff up to this year ranted about Obama and Hillary as "TRAITORS" and s/b hung in what he called the White Mosque! Trump has refused to release his tax records which has been standard for over 40 yrs using lame excuses of an audit! I could go on, but he's been embarrassed enough; him and his idiot supporters! This is so pathetic that this man has gotten this close to being the POTUS!
***Fiero; The human psyche is a fascinating study.
Regarding Religion: For the skeptical, no proof is possible. For the faithful, no proof is necessary.*
Regarding Trump: The naturally analytical may find credible Trump's confession that it's him. Trump supporters may find Trump's contradictory positions on it irrelevant. They support him anyway.
***Israel is demanding $5 billion annually, up from $3 B; offered $4 B tax dollars and it scoffed at as a paltry sum. This over the next 10 yrs or $50 billion, up from the last 10 yrs $30 B. To offset this expense it appears Reps are willing to cut $23 B EBT programs for Americans over the same X period. Remember now Penny, Israel comes 1st; after all they are self anointed "God's chosen people". The taxpayer isn't gifting them w/ 10's of billions, God is. ---
Foreign aid has nothing to do w/ the food stamp cut CJD. Except maybe that Reps want to cut all gov't programs across the board. That's exactly what the sequester deal was about w/ Obama since he & Reid refused to pass a budget (ever). That Rep. deal saved our Federal gov't B in added debt! ---
Sequester was mandated and put into effect after Reps in Congress could not bring closure to the "Bush Tax Cuts". They failed to reach an agreement when at the table. They were later closed after Sequester went into play.***
They'll never learn! Funny after all these years w/ our support of Israel, the partnership is all "talk" and little substance! For as long as I can remember they've been belligerent, rude, obnoxious, & total dicks when it comes to those settlements on the West Bank! They overreact to terror assaults and think nothing of killing Palestinian children; a group were on a beach playing soccer! Not even an "ooopps" came out of their mouths! Cutting their support is the least we can do when they don't seem t/b appreciative in the least! The last straw was Netanyahu interfering in the last election endorsing Romney! I was DONE w/ that idiot and have no problem w/ Obama freezing him out! ---
It's sad that Trump supporters don't seem to care when the man is caught in a lie; "it's really congenital" so everything's excused! It's not his fault; he can't help it; sorta like cancer! It's a sorry day when even the reported 9% of his fandom seem t/b able to carry the day & probably eviscerate the Rep. Party!
***Part of what puzzles me about it; they keep criticizing Hillary for being dishonest. So who are THEY going to vote for, the Easter Bunny?***
That's the Rep. way, attack an opponent's strength & their weaknesses are transferred as well! "W" didn't do ANYTHING in the service, so what did they do w/ Kerry who had medals all over his chest? They all attacked that record! It was 1 of the most obscene things ever done since they profess to have so much reverence & love for our armed forces! They're all full of shit & it's hard to have sympathy for them since they believe it like morons! It doesn't matter that "W" tried to cut their 3% raise, have allowed the VA to fall into disrepair, & through Trump are talking about privatizing it! SUCKERS!
***Then why is Hillary failing this week? She has definitely attacked her opponent's strengths, but yet she fails.***
Haven't you guys learned; Nat'l polls mean NOTHING? This is the Presidency where 50 individual elections are going on in the states w/ her well ahead in electoral college! OTTH, all she has to do is deal w/ the swing states that always determine these elections; Penn., Ohio, Wisc. MI, FLA, and maybe 1 of the Southern tossups like GA!
***Well since you listed my state which has been "purple" for as long as I can remember, and independents such as me are not allowed to vote in primaries...Trump won here I would guess by 85% while Cruz & Kasich were still on the ticket. I have a very definite thought that Trump will beat Hillary in a landslide in PA when everyone is able to vote in the general election. Yes I do think this is the year PA will show RED once again.***
***If Lendl had stayed with Murray, pretty sure he would have snagged a few more majors btw '14-16.***
Maybe, but he didn't! He reverted back to defense mode which is so ridiculous when it's obvious he won being more aggressive! Has Murray ever heard of videotape? You would think he would check all those losses to Nole at the AO and say to himself, "hmmmm, maybe I should pressure the guy more and stop 'waiting' him out!" What an idiot!
***I've read that Roger maybe's going to withdraw, again? - If he pulls out, I doubt he would play RG.***
It hasn't made any sense to go to Paris since he actually won it in '09! The last final was an embarrassment, but what did he care; he got to stop Nole's run of 42 matches in '11! He got to wag that finger 1 more X like "I'm still relevant!"
***It's too grueling ...bad ole backs don't get better. I tried to tell your boy Front that a few wks ago, but he told me that it was just a tweaked back similar to 1 of his gym workout injuries. - Murray opened a lead of 1020 over Roger in the ranking. Are the days in the top 2 for Roger over? Considering his health issues that m/b it.***
OMG I hope so! IMO he's still the GOAT, but it doesn't say much about the present and future generation allowing the old guy to hang around the top like this; same back "in the day" with Connors! I consider today's players a lot better, but it's obvious physical ability isn't enough; emotionally and psychologically they aren't ready to take over! - Nole's re-writing the recordbook & will overtake most if not all the meaningful entries if he keeps this up for another year or 3! His results vs the top 10 is now the best & he's surpassed Borg! He has 3 or 4 X's the # of matches since the elite seem to always make it to the semi's & finals so it's more impressive! He's already killing it on the Masters' tour & just needs to have a couple more "2 or 3 win major" seasons to overtake you know who! I'm very excited for him; not b/c he's a fave, but I've been nauseated by the Fedal love-fest for yrs now! What will the fans do when both start eating Djokovic's dust?
***Rafa's the best I've seen him in years. This Spring has been the beginning of the real incline. - If this is the "beginning," it means you think he will or can further improve. I am curious to hear "how much more" do you think he can go? ---
He could take RG this yr Herios. It's not a given, but I think he makes his last big push for his 10th & may well call it day if he gets it; end on a high note.***
I doubt Rafa would retire in your scenario! I hoped Roger would have done the same in '12 after winning Wimbledon, but there's too much $$$ t/b made & plenty of adulation to sustain them! It's someX's hard to walk away; look at Connors & McEnroe! John still can't bow out; constantly showing his skills in exh's & Powershare match tourneys! He's old & gray and he just can't give up the spotlight!
I don't think Nole's played particularly well; just eeeking out a lot of matches! Kei had him yesterday & took it to a TB in the 3rd! He like others have had all kinds of chances, but they've choked again & again! Personally, I don't think Nole's played lights out since he destroyed Rafa in Qatar months ago! He's just hung in there and barely survived; losing sets to "nobodies" and actually lost to Vesely, though many thought he didn't really try wanting the rest after start of MC!
***For the FIRST X I agree w/ your comment. Novak's not playing particularly great & that bothers me even more looking how the others are losing stupidly vs him starting w/ Nadal. Murray's playing very good, but far t/b the "greatest" on clay & Rafa also has lost to him, come on! ---
After Murray win vs Nole in Roma, where would y'all place him to win RG? Congrats!***
Nowhere! I'm betting he doesn't even make the final! He's shot his wad as far as I'm concerned; totally zoning the last 2 weeks making these finals and winning Roma over Nole! He's probably done until Wimbledon IMO!
***Lol, are u serious?***
Honey, you're obviously new here! My words come from GAWD! I'm almost always right! Been watching, playing, teaching, & prognosticating for well over 40 yrs! I live it even though very unhappy w/ the sad state of affairs with the game; the mindless aggression & the Big 4 taking all major titles!
****Suddenly, RG '16 became even more interesting. The 3 clay Masters are won by 3 diff. players. Also, surprisingly Andy has more clay pts than Nole or Rafa going into RG.
Andy: W, F & SF. (1960 points).
Nole: W, F & 2R. (1610 points).
Rafa: W, SF & QF. (1540 points).
If you add the 500 of Barcelona, Rafa will vault to #1, but that's not fair considering the other 2 did not play there. ---
Today's loss by Novak has at least 3 asterisks.
* Nole was softened by Rafa & Kei w/ 2 tough b2b matches.
** Nole injured his ankle yesterday trying to get dirt off of it.
***It was raining & so Novak did not give his all to make sure that he does not get injured trying to win this Rome trophy. After all RG is more important.****
As I said, Nole hasn't necessarily been playing that well and "he doesn't really need" the work or pts; doubling all other players on the ATP rankings!
***Agreed that Nole does not need pts w/ his huge lead. But, it's traditional to use the clay pts gained as a barometer to gauge RG contenders. ---
Those who say tennis is boring, what's your opinion on this clay season?
He had 4 solid players who ran hot so far: Djoko, Nadal, Murray & Nishikori
And all 4 delivered, resulting in a lot of entertaining matches:
•Nadal vs Murray/Monfils MC SF: Marked Nadal resurgence overcoming 2 great playing opps
•Nadal vs Nishikori in Barcelona: another quality final; Nadal looked awesome •Djokovic vs. Kei in Madrid: Ninja dominating the baseline; shotmaking was brilliant from both sides
•Djokovic vs. Murray Madrid final: Djokovic's moment during this clay season; 1 of the few great Murrovic matches accross the yrs
•Nadal vs. Djokovic in Rome: Nadal at the top of his game (relative to what he can produce atm); Nole showing amazing mental strength
•Djokovic vs. Nishi Rome semi: match of the year for me, hands down; probably the best highlight reel we got in quite some X despite a pretty poor 1st set from Nole.
One could mention the Rome final played today, although I didn't find it high quality or entertaining.***
***Tennisbase.com has a complex system for ranking players and they have Novak > than Rafa. But their system doesn't weigh Slam titles as highly as most, so Lendl is ahead of both. Federer is 3rd behind Laver & Rosewall. Here are the top rankings:
Based on those #'s, Roger will pass Rosewall shortly, but probably won't catch Laver. Novak will pass Lendl & probably Tilden & has a chance of making the "Big 3" a "Big 4." ===
Definitely wouldn't be 1 of the biggest upsets ever, lol. Rafa losing in '09 FO was a much bigger one for 1. I tend t/b positive & also don't believe in jinxes. I do think ND will win, but you can't say it w/b a shocking upset considering his history there.***
Supposedly Nadal had a knee injury; didn't he? I believe he skipped Wimbledon, had a rotten summer, culminating in Del Po wiping him out in the semi's @ the USO! By the X he got to the WTF, he was a shell of his old self & lost all 3 of his RR matches; 1 more to Soderling! I think Rafa got him back at Wimbledon the next year!
***That was when his parents were in the middle of their rift. I saw him @ the O2 and he was just going through the motions. He looked as if he would rather be anywhere else. ---
Can anybody stop Novak's domination? W/ Roger aging & Rafa not back to his best yet and Andy only winning 1 out of their last 13 meetings, who can stop this man? - No one, at least not yet. I suspect it w/b a combo of 2 things: he starts to slip a bit and the young guys like Kyrgios, Zverev, & Fritz take a step forward. But I think Novak is all but guaranteed the YE #1 ranking this year and possibly next. I think we'll start seeing cracks next year, and his reign ending in '18. ---
For the next year or 2, the only guy that can 'stop' Novak is Novak. - Let us hope that Kyrgios can. These 2 have never met and we don't know how they will match up vs each other until we see their collision materialize. - I think Stan can rattle him, but he's so hit or miss that you would have a better shot at winning the lottery than knowing which Stan is going to show up to a match. The issue a lot of players have playing Novak is that constant pressure on serve b/c that ROS is golden. I can see Novak being potent through '18.***
Both or either Nole or Andy have to do it soon; time running out!
***Why does TENNIS WAREHOUSE allow such blatent doping accusations of Nadal?***
M/b b/c it's called "free speech!" TF goes out of their way to delete posts that make the accusation, but most feel Nadal went over and beyond chemical help t/b an absolute BULL winning those FO's! Heaven knows I thought it w/ him being absolutely "ripped" 1 day, then deflated the next! I still muse about those absences from the tour being secret suspensions for PED use!
***Bachelot accused Nadal of taking 7 months out of tennis btw 2012 & '13 to cover up a failed drugs test. The Spaniard says he missed out on various tournaments, including the '12 Olympics & USO, b/c of a knee injury. "I'm going to sue her, and I am going to sue everyone who's going to comment something similar in future, b/c I'm tired of that," Nadal said at the IW's tourney.***
I'm embarrassed for cons who have to eat these brownies for the next few months b/c there doesn't seem t/b anything they c/d about Trump as their standard-bearer! It's a little late to push for a 3rd party candidate; that would definitely be suicide so they have to accept this loudmouth for now! I really didn't think Trump had a chance, but Reps proved me wrong in polarizing their electorate, defaulting on this guy! I better not ever hear about how much these guys LOVE their country allowing this charade to go on! For them to envision this guy w/ the nuclear codes is insane and it seems the party is what's truly important to them! It will backfire in the long run; we can only hope on the Dem-side!
***Trump Is Our Best Chance To Win - I'll take Trump over the gun grabbing, open borders, corrupt hillary hands down knowing both are not favorable w/ the majority of voters. ---
Fewer then 45% of GOP voters voted for Trump. He has no mandate in the GOP. By and large it's on him to EARN the respect of the % he demonized for most of the year. ...Most of us feel neither Trump OR Clinton are worth a vote. ---
The nation is screwed whether Trump or Hillary wins. Leave it to the GOP to produce yet another candidate worse then the Dems do. It's like a sick competition to see if they can find a worse candidate.***
Well If Hillary isn't better, who the HELL is? Not like I'm a fan, but if she isn't the most qualified in the history of this country, I don't know who is really! Was 1st lady of a state, then FLOTUS, a Senator of a huge state after a terrorist attack, culminating in running for President herself and becoming the Secretary Of State of the whole country! Please come up w/ anyone w/ such a resume! Trump has run an Int'l beauty contest; which is the extent of his foreign policy he brags about! Please!
***As more corruption of Hillary continues to surface, Trumps odds vs her will continue to improve.***
Thankfully that means little to nothing at this pt! Besides that, you know this is going to turn into 50 local state elections to determine the President w/ an electoral college already in her favor! Hopefully the country will come to their senses and ignore the hype and see running her down to get something new and stupid like this man makes us a laughing stock; even more so than "W!" What a winner he was; do I need to go down the disaster he turned out t/b?
***Trey Gowdy Finally Admits Truth About Benghazi - Whatever it is, it w/b as idiotic as Gowdy's position. Afterall, what is Gowdy calling into ??? here? The exercise of Executive branch judgement. That he can't as a legislator legislate. That any and every overseas request for more resources c/b and ought to be met. That he isn't willing to do. That there's some bottomless pit of money. That doesn't exist.***
This has been investigated and talked about more than Watergate where a real crime was perpetrated! This has been BS w/ dozens of hearings, reports, & discussions; all totaling nothing! They can't even get their facts straight calling it an embassy when it was the CIA HQ! The Ambassador didn't ask for protection and was well liked by the locals proved by the way they reacted, turning over some of the ones guilty of perpetrating this heinous act! It's so ridiculous to keep dragging this out when more disgusting and major events have been looked over and forgiven w/ little memory of them actually happening; including 250+ troop members blown up in their barracks in Beirut! I don't remember 1 Dem saying he was responsible for that! Such hypocrisy on the "right," but what do you expect from these animals?
***...Ask cons here if Obama was born in the US. I dare you…. That you’re too scared to have your opinion trounced in public is a given and we all know you won’t do it. But if you did, you would either get your doors blown off or get answers as crooked as a corkscrew as to where there are no answers at all. ---
No it's not; you're just too fucking stupid to understand it. Get an education & then comment, you look like a fool.***
So you're denying a good # of idiotic cons. Reps believe Obama isn't from this country and is holding the Presidency illegally? Delusion reigns it seems! It's so sad & pathetic that these people actually have a vote and aren't relegated to mental institutions! A 2 term Dem. President is actually running things and has > favorables than any of their loser candidates and they still can't get over It!
***Maybe you'd better read through the thread and then comment, how you got that out of a link about Clinton's "surplus" is beyond me.***
I don't need to read the thread! I lived back when the deficit was actually going down! It made no sense to disburse those checks to stimulate the economy; total fiction "W" inherited a recession! He and his supporters were full of shit and they couldn't stand the man trying to destroy all he accomplished during his presidency! I blame the people for being such idiots going back to loser tactics of Reps after 1 of the most successful presidencies in memory! It's bad enough they won't acknowledge what Obama's done to bring the country back after certain collapse of "W's" admin., but to support Trump shows they really don't give a shit about their country! They just assume we fail under him than continue any level of prosperity under another Clinton who they've been trying to destroy for over 25 yrs! Truly pathetic people who'll burn in HELL soon enough!
***For a new guy on the block you're pretty dam good; thank you ..and may Trump burn in Hell w/ Cheney, GWB, & Scalia.***
911 probably wouldn't have occurred if "W" wasn't in charge & vacationing in TX! They totally ignored the warnings & we'll be paying for his incompetence for decades to come! Thanks!
***Outright lie any honest person can see.***
You probably wouldn't know an honest person if they came up and smacked you in the face! "W's" whole admin. was a lie from beginning to end! There was this fake recession he inherited from Clinton he kept hammering, then of course those imaginary "weapons of mass destruction" Iran/Suddam supposedly had, and allowing Lehman's to go under which triggered so much bad news we almost went bankrupt! We were actually losing 600-800 thousand jobs a month, the auto industry almost went under, and the DOW went down to 6600! To this day, Reps still won't take responsibility for the turnaround of what Clinton had done to improve all our lives! He even went along w/ welfare reform and it didn't placate these losers; insisting on tax cuts we didn't need & starting 2 wars we weren't obligated to start! Revisionist history won't save your pathetic legacies! Reagan & 2 Bushes didn't create as many jobs as Clinton alone; not forgetting the recovery of Obama's led us to!
***Please don't forget to also mention HOW our "beloved" GWB got electd. - ...I couldn't care less you lick Obama's ass...***
I'm no fan of Obama's, but I'll take him over any RUBE Rep.! Collectively they lost their minds decades ago wanting to undermine anything beneficial to the people for some reason! They want to protect the sanctity of life & marriage, but they don't seem to care if kids are starving while they're caught marrying 2 or 3 X's themselves! The hypocrisy is mind-numbing!
***A new Washington Post article showed Trump didn’t pay a cent.” It surfaces a '81 NJ Casino Control Comm. report that includes tax info that Trump submitted as part of his app. for a gaming license, & contains a tantalizing hint at what m/b in Trump’s more recent returns:
State records show that Trump claimed that his combined income in '78 & '79 was neg. $3.8 M, allowing him to pay no taxes. A few yrs earlier, he had told the NY Times he was worth more than $200 M. Tax analysts say it's possible that Trump pays very low income taxes or no taxes at all, using tactics available to wealthy investors & developers such as depreciating the value of real estate.***
The problem is will it matter w/ his supporters? They don't seem to care about things like this or if caught in MANY lies! The hypocrisy's mind-numbing w/ Reps and cons., but what else is new?
***Total Destruction: College That Jane Sanders Ran Into The Ground Closes Its Doors - "Yes, the Sanders are quite the gruesome twosome. Jane utterly destroyed Burlington College. The school only had a little over 100 full-X students, w/ a total graduate & undergraduate enrollment of < than 500--and she was to accrue a $10 million debt?
Bernie plans to take the country down the same path of financial ruin, w/ his agenda leading to an explosion of gov't spending to cover his left wing goodie bag items. In all, the self-described, disheveled Dem. socialist plans on increasing spending by $33 trillion over the next 10 yrs, while adding $21 trillion to the Nat'l debt over the same period. To boot, his $15.3T in tax hikes won’t be enough to pay for his left wing, Candy Land vision for this country. And Dems want these 2 running the country? Lord help us."***
I learned college is highly overrated going back to the 70's where college graduates were bagging groceries, driving cabs, or walking dogs for a living! It's no joke the $100,000+ debt accrued by the student, the gov't, & society just so some nimrod can say they have a "sheep skin" on their wall! What a country!
***...Funny thought, but if that was some Repub w/ 74 str. months of job gains, they w/b screaming MT RUSHMORE MT RUSHMORE.***
You know it! Instead they're harking back to the Reagan yrs totally ignoring Iran/Contra; negotiating w/ terrorists, funneling moneys from weapons sales to Central America against the Boland amendment, & totally forgetting about that barracks bombing in Beirut w/ over 250 men killed while pummeling Hillary over an attack on a CIA outpost! These people just can't be believed or taken seriously!
***Pearl Harbor = Hiroshima: Obama Says No Apology For A-bomb On Hiroshima Visit - ...the 1st atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, killing about 140,000 people in total. Tens of thousands were killed by the fireball that the powerful Hiroshima blast generated, w/ many more succumbing to injuries or illnesses caused by radiation in the weeks, months & years afterward. The southern city of Nagasaki was hit by a 2nd bomb 3 days later, killing 74,000 people, in 1 of the final acts of World War II.***
Unfortunately "war is HELL" and sand was kicked in our faces which for once I didn't care about the retaliation! It's probably 1 rare occasion I can agree w/ troglodytes that we went nuts and tried to eviscerate an enemy! We weren't even in WWII; pretty much minding our own business w/ little intention of getting into the fray when Japan bombed Pear Harbor! If we had dropped more than the 2 on their little island, I wouldn't have complained about it! I'm still mad and I wasn't even born yet! What were those people thinking? They knew we had the capability and they still performed this heinous act upon us! I SMH over it and can't understand their thinking! Did they really think they could rule the Pacific if they knocked out that 1 facility? STUPID is as stupid does I guess! NO APOLOGY NECESSASRY!
***What A Loon; Hillary's slogan of "Stronger Together!" For What?***
Yeah, Hillary's a loon, but Trump's sane talking about banning Muslims, building a Mexican border wall, & allowing any nation to have nuclear weapons! We got it!
***I agree. It's not a great yr for political sloganeering. What grade would you give "make America great again?" D+
At least Hillary's has some pedigree. "Stronger Together" is reminiscent of similar unity slogans that hark back to ancient X's: e. Pluribus Unum. A house divided cannot stand. etc. It's after all the UNITED States of America.
F4, Trump is playing Reps for suckers. He's promising the impossible: - tax cuts - strengthened U.S. military - lowering the deficit - building a wall; Mexico pays
Perhaps the Don will pick a pink unicorn for his running-mate.***
Reps are suckers! To allow it to get this close w/ this BOOR, I just SMH! Can you imagine Trump w/ the nuclear codes, deciding if we go to war or not, or to go back to "trickle down economics again?" It's been tried 3 X's and it's been a colossal failure each X! Like true idiots, they go w/ what they know regardless if it works or not! Some Dems aren't much smarter believing Sanders w/b able to push all his BS policies thru like paying for college, taking taxes up to 90%, & so much more which are pipe dreams!
***Ray, what happened? You were a big Bernie supporter some X back.***
The longer this old man hangs in there, the most he's making a fool of himself! He needs 90% of the remaining delegates, but somehow thinks he still has a chance to win the nomination! ...He's sounding more & more like a typical, frustrated loser expecting people to kiss his ass to placate him like a spoiled child! His demands are ridiculous; esp. since he isn't even a Dem, but to try & replace the DNC chair he needs to take "several seats!" Like McCain, he just needs to go away after all is said and done and m/b he won't be exposed as a hypocrite & liar! ---
***Which cop made the conscious decision to kill Freddy Gray?***
I guess you want to blow it off & chalk it up to "an accident!" I wonder if this had been some white kid, would you be as glib? No wonder "Black Lives Matter" exist! This kind of crap goes on all the X around the country; usually w/o cameras to monitor the situation! Like that guy shot in the back 7 X's in Cleveland, it was accepted he must have tried to take the cop's weapon until video showed the ghastly truth! When will you care? I guess you'll continue to rationalize, "shit happen!"
***Do I think that someone in the Baltimore PD was negligent? Absolutely....but you claimed he was given a "death sentence" which is a conscious act or decision. Just responding to your choice of rhetoric. I will ask again...Who gave Freddy Gray a "death sentence?"***
I couldn't care less if a conscious decision or not occurred, when will cops be held accountable for their actions? I'm sure they didn't think they did anything wrong, but a man is dead for no other reason than he ran away! The BS about a knife was just that; BS and the family wound up w/ a nice payday b/c these fools didn't take their responsibility serious enough and allowed someone to die under their watch! In the old days, it didn't matter if you intended a person to die or not, if a life was lost you went to jail! If we weren't locking up so many people for smoking joints and jaywalking, there w/b more room to incarcerate irresponsible a-holes that caused a death like this!
***...IDK what happened b/c I wasn't there, but I believe everyone has a right to fair due process under the law. And if found accountable, they s/b punished accordingly.***
***Perhaps policemen s/b held to a higher standard. Spitting on the sidewalk is as offensive whether by pretty housewives or burly COPs, but pretty housewives are generally not accorded powers of arrest. Use of force and authority to arrest are extraordinary powers, and thus society retains the right to expect that those few granted those rights be held to more exacting standards.
A guy died here. The dead man looked fairly healthy before the police got to him.
Shrugging that off w/ a dismissive "not guilty" is a red flag warning about the viability of our society.***
Thank you! I have no dog in this hunt & know this guy is probably a lowlife, but it's not up to the cops to clean up the streets the way they did causing his death! A "not guilty" which is all too common in these situations tell them they can get away w/ murder if they want and we see & hear about it happening everyday! It c/b something as trivial as a traffic stop & the next thing you know, chalk up another dead person @ the hands of a law enforcement officer! When will it stop?
***Cops are too eager to kill over unnecessary apprehensions. - Cops didn't kill the P.O.S. drug dealer. As I recall the order to clear the neighborhood of drugs came from the mayor.***
I never heard anything about this guy "carrying!" They justified his arrest by saying he had an illegal knife which was total BS! He died only b/c he was stupid enough to run; some do that instinctually!
***No violation of any prescribed law is so small that cops won't kill to enforce. A Detroit school cop was captured on video body slamming a 15-year-old student after she was found to have stepped on an elevator w/ an expired elevator pass. ---
Yep....Some people actually claim they get beat down for cracked windshields...Imagine that!***
Maybe it's frustration of not being able to do anything about "real criminals" that shoot up a street, extort businesses, & any # of other offenses that can't be handled as easily as a traffic stop!
***Who would make such a stupid claim like that? - Somebody that gets in the police officers face.***
You mean like that poor woman in TX who didn't use a turn signal, then pulled over, wrestled to the ground & arrested; now dead while locked up? Yeah, she was very abusive; didn't put out her cigarette! That made a lot of sense! He only lost his job for filing a police report that was total garbage! His ass shb jailed, but there's no law for being a total asshole!
***Marching in lockstep w/ police state America makes supporters appear perfect fools probably in fear for their lives if they say the wrong thing against cops. ---
Why is it a "police state?" Your liberal Dems control the Executive Branch and the Dept. of Justice. ---
Police state USA is the militaristic overpowering of all the citizenry by force & threat of death. ---
Hillary has declined to a agreed on debate w/ Bernie Sanders on Fox News, stating her schedule and X are better spent on the road. ... ---
You people are dumb! Of course the guy behind wants to debate; happened w/ Trump too. So he's just as much coward for, let's get it right, being ahead!***
Don't you love it? Hillary's the frontrunner, but she's supposed to take an invitation from FNC hoping she'd trip up on the eve of taking the nom.! These hypocritical mohrons are priceless!
***Well, I suppose if you 2 & Hillary believe that she'll trip up in a dabate, then she should discount her previous statement and "chicken out." I mean, who wants to look the fool on FOX News?***
She's the best debater & hasn't lost even 1 IIRC! I just said people are "HOPING" she trips up! WHY give FNC the chance to try & embarrass her after undermining her intelligence, honesty, & professionalism? I would tell them fuck off myself!
***Freddie Gray arrest record includes at least 18 arrests:
•March 20, '15: Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance •March 13, '15: Malicious destruction of property, 2nd-degree assault •Jan. 20, '15: 4th-degree burglary, trespassing •Jan. 14, '15: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distribute
•Dec. 31, '14: Poss. of narcotics w/ intent to distr. •Dec. 14, '14: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance •Aug. 31, '14: Illegal gambling, trespassing •Jan. 25, '14: Poss. of marijuana •Sept. 28, '13: Distr. of narcotics, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, 2nd-degree assault, 2nd-degree escape
•April 13, '12: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distribute, unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, violation of probation
•July 16, '08: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, poss. w/ intent to distr. •March 28, '08: Unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance •March 14, '08: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to manufacture & distr. •Feb. 11, '08: Unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, poss. of a controlled dangerous substance
•Aug. 29, '07: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distr., violation of probation •Aug. 28, '07: Poss. of marijuana •Aug. 23, '07: False statement to a peace officer, unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance •July 16, '07: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distribute, unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance (2 cts)***
So much for a free society! We waste so much X, effort, & $$ trying to keep people from "using" when more people die from alcohol & cig's every yr! Unfortunately the country was founded on those vices while we freak out w/ pot, cocaine, & other substances that are created normally in nature! Such ridiculous priorities! If someone wants t/b stoned all day; let them for Gawdsake! We leave alcoholics alone as long as they aren't driving!
***You should try watching FNC & become informed.***
If you want to be misinformed or have breaking news that's 2 days old, tune into FNC! They're pathetic and I should know; been watching since '97 w/ lineup of O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, and Crier!" They make news by making mistakes, puting a "D" behind a Rep.'s name that's been indicted or being prosecuted, & bemoans how bad Dems are in comparison to saintly Reps! As long as they reported the facts, I was fine w/ how they slanted their news; now it's more about commentary & opinion and is unwatchable even though I push myself! The only program I can watch from beginning to end is Sat.'s, "Journal Editorial Report" & Sun.'s "Mediabuzz!" The rest has t/b taken w/ a grain of salt! The only anchors I have any respect for are Shepard Smith & Brett Baier on "Special Report!"
***...Yeah it's the channel I watch for the election news....I mean for the most part MOST of them are not completely biased and you know what to expect.***
I watch them all; MSNBC & CNN for the facts and FNC to see them freak out when their predictions go askew! I can still see Karl Rove freakin' out over Ohio during the general election! He was so sure Romney would take it, he wouldn't let it go after it "had been called" for Obama! Election night on FNC is very entertaining & funny! The others just give you the #'s!
***The fact you think ANY mainstream media outlet is giving FACTS is funny & disturbing. I don't trust those bastards one bit.***
***I hope Trump won't be as corrupt as Obama. ...***
Corrupt? Trump has already shown himself to be a bully, a pathological LIAR, & cheat! You and he have a lot of nerve disparaging 1 of the most successful Presidents in memory! How soon we forget what he had to overcome & fix b/c of your good guy & beer buddy, "W!" He proved t/b incompetent, weak, allowed Cheney to run him the 1st term, & exposed Valarie Plame just to vilify & to try & discredit her & her husband!
***I honestly think that HRC wants to help people & that she believes herself t/b the best person for POTUS to do that job, but she feels she has to engage in skulduggery to get to a place politically to become POTUS and be able to help people.
A huge # of honest people believe in HRC & trust her. A case in point is David Brock who after doing his attack book on Anita Hill was going to do a similar 1 on HRC. His fanatical support of her belies the idea that he was merely bought. Such people simply drift into other endeavors or subjects to appeal to the est. fan base, but not Brock.
What is it about HRC that inspires such people if it is not a genuine desire to work for the betterment of society esp. by helping the poor? The trick is what you have to do to get the power to help anyone. How far will Hillary go to get that power and has she already gone too far?
...Yeah, maybe HRC is just an evil bitch, but that doesnt strike me as plausible given the Brock events nor in how many avg. people from across the country believe in her deeply. The best scenario is that HRC is just naive and trusting for her subordinates to carry out all her instructions w/ little oversight. There's great plausibility for a person from her gen. to not grasp the fundamental difference in having private email vs a whole private email server. Hillary seems far to intelligent for this t/b the case, IMO. So why take such a risk?
...Unfortunately for her, the State Dept. has a long history of playing fast and loose w/ Nat'l security and the culture of that agency is such that 'minor' matters of classified document security are ignored on a routine basis, playing right into Hillary's worst practices & tendencies.
I dont think Hillary ever intended to break a major, serious national security law or rule. The problem for her is that they are ALL major laws and rules for a reason; they are needed to safeguard our nations secrets, the lives of its agents and the common interests of our allies, all of which, intentionally or not, Hillary Rodham Clinton has betrayed.
At the very lesst she has demonstrated that she's incompetent w/ Nat'l intelligence and is therefore unfit to hold the office of POTUS. Growing 1000's are beginning to realize this every day.***
You made sense until you ??'d Hillary's competence! I can agree she c/b careless & depends too much on her staff, but she's a very busy woman who's always had a lot of responsibility & a lot to get done! I will still take her over any RUBE Rep. who've proved they care more about party than the country's security & feasibility! W/ Clinton & Obama, they turned the economy around, produced millions of jobs, while doubling the DOW! Two Bushes have collapsed the economy, lost jobs, almost killed the auto industry, dropped the ball w/ Wall Street, started 2 wars w/ a huge lie, & divided the country w/ hate for Gays, women, & immigrants! IDK how you can forget what Obama had to deal w/ when he entered the White House! The DOW around 6600, now approaching 18,000, respect & admiration from around the world when they were burning "W's" effigy in protest & hate, and has the cooperation of many countries w/ new trade deals! OBTW, Brock turned on the Reps b/c they turned on him after they found out he was GAY!
...For all of you diehard, rabid Soap fans, I'm sharing below some facts that I've found out about the show that y'all might not know.
1. Susan Harris didn't create Soap as a parody of daytime soaps, and it wasn't meant to be ABC's ripoff of Mary Hartman. Harris had written for traditional sitcoms and created 1 of her own called "Fay". She said it was really hard to write a complete story and resolve it in 22 mins. She wanted to do a sitcom where the characters could grow and change and stories could arc over X eps. Her ex-husband Berkeley Harris was on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, and Susan realized that the soap opera format w/b the perfect form for her to tell stories the way she wanted to.
2. When Soap went to air and became an immediate hit, ABC considered running it in the same format they had used for Peyton Place in the '60s: twice weekly running yr round w/ no breaks. Harris resisted this b/c she wrote all the eps herself in the beginning and didn't think she could keep up w/ that pace and maintain the quality.
3. The original actress playing Mary was Salome Jens who coincidentally had played Mae Olinski on Mary Hartman. Katherine Helmond said that Jens was a very lovely person and excellent actress, but everyone thought that she was too ethereal, in a style similar to Helmond herself, and also too soft to play Mary. Harris decided that there was more humor in Mary and Jessica being completely dissimilar, and that the central relationship of the story was the 2 sisters so their casting was the most important.
Katherine Helmond was the first actor cast, but strangely the producers initially didn't want her to read for the part b/c she was known primarily as a dramatic actress. She found the audition difficult b/c she wasn't given any direction about the character or how they wanted it played. She based her portrayal of Jessica on a real life friend of her mother from her childhood. This lady was someone who never let anything in life bother her and always seemed to have an innocent almost childlike fascination w/ life that made her more of a playmate than an adult. Harris didn't laugh or smile at all during the audition but told Helmond in a very serious tone, "that was funny...very funny."
The hardest parts to cast were Chuck, Corinne, & Benson. Jennifer Salt was actually submitted for Corinne, but during the audition they asked her to read Eunice, too. W/ Chuck, they couldn't find an actor who could do ventriloquism adequately, so they almost cast 1 actor to play Chuck and then an offstage voice actor to read Bob's lines. The last 2 actors cast were Diana Canova and Robert Guillaume in that order. All of actors auditioning for Benson had played the part w/ either too much militance or too stereotypically obsequious. Diana got the part of Corinne b/c she dressed conservatively and didn't play Corinne as being sexy. Harris thought that was perfect for Corinne b/c it made her seem like a nice girl the audience could like w/o thinking of her as being a slut.*** ...cont,...
***4. Before the pilot was written and shot, Harris wrote a series bible that detailed the story lines and characters over 5 seasons. Soap was sold to ABC w/ the gen. agreement that it would run for 5 years. Many of the stories and characters in the bible are what we actually saw, including Danny being Chester's son, which wasn't even revealed until the last season.
5. Some stories and characters either changed or never made it to air. I.E., Jessica and Chester's eldest child was actually a son named David. David Tate had gone MIA 5 years before the action on Soap began. In Vietnam, David had been having an affair w/ an Asian girl named Noyen Nu. He went missing w/o knowing she was pregnant. She gave birth to his son Joey Nu Tate. Noyen and Joey were to have gone to Dunn's River to find the Tates. Eventually David would have made it back alive too. It would've turned out that Noyen's father was an opium baron. Meanwhile, Burt had a middle son named Michael who was a smuggler. He was to have kidnapped Joey Nu Tate and held him ransom in exchange for drugs from Noyen's father. David would've searched for them similar to Jody searching for Wendy after she was kidnapped by Carol.
6. Chester had 3 sisters: Meta, Hezza, and Adja (LOL!) - I'm not making this up.
7. Benson had previously lived in New Orleans where he produced a daughter named Ruby w/ a light-skinned black woman. She raised Ruby w/o telling Benson he had a daughter b/c she wanted Ruby to think that they were white! Ruby would've gone to Dunn's River and was slated to fall in love w/ Chief of Police Tinkler's son. It would've also been revealed that Tinkler was a segregationist. When Robert Guillaume left for his own sitcom, Harris reworked that plot w/ Danny and Polly.
8. In the 1st season, Senator McCallum was going to plot to murder his wife Marilyn t/b w/ Eunice, but there would've been a twist that she was secretly dying. Also, Eunice had been molested by a family member as a young girl and that accounted for her standoffish behavior.
9. The Major's real name was Seymour Gatling. His delusion about the war came about after he went to the front in WWI and flipped out when he discovered that the combat soldiers were using real bullets.
10. Along w/ Peter and Chuck, Burt's ex-wife Jewel had been scheduled to appear in the 1st season and make trouble for Burt and Mary.
11. PETER CAMPBELL'S MURDER. There were several changes to what we actually saw. Corinne was supposed to actually catch Jessica and Peter in bed together. Ingrid was to have arrived before Peter's murder, and the revelation that she was Corinne's mother was what drove her to go back to Peter despite him having had an affair w/ Jessica. Peter's body was to have been discovered by Corinne instead of Burt. In the bible, he wasn't stabbed, shot, strangled, suffocated, and bludgeoned. He was garroted to death on a racquet stringing machine!
***Yes, in the Soap bible, the murderers were Chuck and Bob!! Harris wanted Chuck t/b a psycho similar to the popular novel and subsequent movie Magic. Chuck would've killed Peter but attempted to blame it on Bob, who would've been propped up in the courtroom and pleading the 5th! In another stroke of genius, Bob was to have taken the witness stand and confessed, getting a reduced prison sentence by turning state's evidence against Chuck! The story of Dutch and the prison break was planned, but w/ Chuck and Bob. All of this was changed b/c audience reaction was so positive to the characters' comedic timing that Harris decided they couldn't afford to lose them. This created a need to make another character the killer, so it became Chester instead.
The original 1st season finale as scripted ended w/ the jury foreman reading Jessica's verdict. Although the producers thought it was obvious that she wasn't guilty, the network was receiving a lot of mail from viewers who thought that she was. ABC asked Harris to change the ending to the freeze frame of Jessica being led away with Rod Roddy's announcement that she was in fact innocent. At that X the writers hadn't made up their mind which of the 5 characters shown as suspects had actually committed the crime.
12. Richard Mulligan and Cathryn Damon were the most difficult actors to work w/ according to the directors. Everyone conceded that Mulligan was a comedic genius, but when Burt went nuts in the story, Mulligan apparently identified w/ the character too much and had a challenging personality onstage. Katherine Helmond said that most of the cast were very close off-screen too, except for Damon. Damon was a New Yorker and living on the West Coast was miserable for her. She had no friends or family there and would fly home on the weekends after taping, so although everyone liked her, she was somewhat aloof and hard to know beyond a professional level. Mulligan's improvisations also drove her crazy b/c she never knew what he might do on camera. The directors called the Campbell set DCLR for Dreadful Campbell Living Room b/c they always knew those scenes w/b hard w/ Damon and Mulligan in them.
13. Susan Harris hated the baby possession plot and later regretted doing it. If the show had gone to a 5th season, many of the minor cast would've been cut and the plots refocused back in Dunn's River and centering around the story of 2 sisters theme from the 1st season. Writer Stu Silver said that ABC cancelled Soap at the last minute w/o warning. They'd been led to believe there'd be a 5th and final season which is why Soap went out on a cliffhanger. The writers didn't have a resolution for how Jessica would've been saved. Silver said that most likely the shots we heard weren't from the firing squad but would've turned out to be from El Puerco's men shooting the bad guys.
14. Soap itself was shot using 4 cameras, and they had a thin fabric draped in front of the lenses to give the picture a softer focus than you would've seen on another taped series from that time. They also used a very elaborate key lighting so that visually it wouldn't be as bright and harsh as regular videotape lighting. Soap's editing was quite unusual for that era. Both the dress rehearsal and official taping before the live audience were recorded. Later, the editors would utilize the very best takes from each and assemble them together for the final product. For instance, in a 2 character scene one actor's lines m/b from the official taping, and the other character's reaction might have come from a dress rehearsal earlier in the day. For the first 3 seasons, Soap taped scenes in the order of the script. But, in the final season, episodes were taped out of script order by set, sometimes w/ scenes from future episodes being taped at the same time.***
***Yes, as he has success in several realms of endeavor. Trump is a successfull builder. And Hillary has built...? Trump is a successful author who has sold top sellers for years. ...***
I feel for you if you believe all that bluster w/o checking the real facts! You're taking the word of an inveterate liar, cheat, & irresponsible a-hole! It took reporters investigating him to make him give that $million$ he said had already been given to a Veteran's charity! You can't believe anything the man says! He's being sued over Trump college, his airline was taken away from him, there are no Trump meats, wine, or water products for sale, & he's under investigation for so many other miss-claims! When he was loaned money just to pay bills, the bankers had to "give him an allowance" b/c of his squandering of $$! Please go read up on your hero! I'll take Hillary's shady past over Trump's anyX!
***...I mean, who wants to look the fool on FOX News? ...***
Trump doesn't want it to come out so obviously that he's an inveterate liar & isn't even 1/2 as successful as he says he is; totally F.O.S. His idea of charity is to give someone a free round of golf or not charge them for staying in 1 of his buildings! He's a pathetic cheat & had a lot of nerve insisting Romney cough up his returns 4 yrs ago when he hasn't allowed us to see any of his! It's truly pathetic; esp. his supporters that allow themselves t/b lied to on a regular basis & eat it up! They'll be eating all kinds of things when he's exposed for the whole world to see!
***I'm sort of shrugging in disbelief that an IG report that would seem to make HRW unable t/b confirmed as an AG or SoS isn't sending panic waves through the Dem party.***
She's still a better fit as the POTUS over that loser Trump! He can pump up his ego as much as he likes, but I have to believe the country couldn't see themselves being led by such a nudge! People talk about Hillary's trustworthiness, but IMO, no one's more deceptive & pathological than The Donald! He's an embarrassment to humankind, not just the office he's looking to hold! The whole world is alarmed & justifiably so!
***Wow, a leftist thinks that the leftist is a better fit for POTUS; who saw that coming? I mean wow, out of the blue.***
You don't know what you're talking about, but what else is new around here? Years ago, I very well could have voted for a Rep., but they've collective lost their minds and my respect; esp. after the way they embarrassed themselves under the leadership of the last 2 Dems! They're always talking about respecting the office at least, but they couldn't even do that; showing their bigotry & racist side absolutely showing their contempt before Obama even took office! They ??'ed his heritage, patriotism, religious affiliation, his wife, the kids, & his intelligence! There's no coming back from that; the world knowing party comes before country in their feeble little ignorant & shrunken brains! I'm so done w/ them!
***Has any other presidential candidate refused to release their tax returns? - Romney disclosed. He's a self-made $millionaire. Trump declining to do so presents the appearance he has something to hide. He still railing about Hillary disclosing her speeches to Goldman Sachs of all things.***
Hypocrisy reigns on both sides of the aisle! Just be sure to acknowledge that! Character is being called into ?? as well since the issues can't be talked about by the Rep. nominee! Marco Rubio has lost all his credibility willing to support Trump after he was almost destroyed by the man! We shouldn't hear anything else about releasing of documents or speaking on character b/c no one seems to have any in this race unfortunately!
I was a big fan of Tom Brady's; even though from Chgo! I would have accepted "deflate-gate," but his fighting his punishment has really put me off! He's proved himself to not only be a cheat, but an a-hole who's more concerned w/ his reputation over the "game" itself! I also had Rodgers right up there in talent & grit, but he disappointed me by "vouching for his good buddy and baseball player Ryan Brawn when busted for PED use! It may not make sense to others, but character is important to me! Draymond Green disappointed me w/ his kicking of OKC's Steve Adams in the nether-regions and then lying about it! I was cheering them on until then; now they can go down in flames & I couldn't care less!
***Barry Bonds Sammy Sosa Mark McGuire Roger Clemons Lance Armstrong Bill Belichick Tom Brady Chicago Black Sox New England Patriots you guessed it-* - ***
The only one I don't have any problems w/ is Barry Bonds! He was already the greatest and best BB player of his era! If anything, his #'s were curtailed & suppressed by gutless managers that intentionally walked him over 200 X's a season during the period he supposedly was juicing; even Mike Scioscia in the World Series in '01! The only thing that changed were the distances of the homeruns he would have hit anyway! ===
***...concerning PED's, how about Serena light switch from Roid Rage to Estrogen Rebound Crying on court this year? Not to beat a dead horse, the WADA shows their yearly testing figures and what not, but how about they show TUE's and WHAT THEY WERE FOR for all the players? That w/b a step in transparency.***
I haven't cared about women's tennis since Henin retired! I have no 1 to root for so they could totally disband and quit and I wouldn't care! It's all mindless aggression from the baseline w/ disgusting grunting & primal screams; already bad enough w/ the men! Going back, it has always been a handful of players that kept my interest in the game like Goolagong, Court, Navratilova, Mandlikova, Sabatini, Hingis, & of course Henin!
***...I think Stan has an equally if not even easier draw than Nole ahead of him up to the SF in Paris.***
We can't assume Stan will play anywhere near as well as last year's tourney! He was "in the zone" hitting winners from behind the baseline! Even w/ his 2 majors, I see him as possibly the most inconsistent champion of all X; wins AO 1 day & loses a 1st Rd match to some nobody the next! Even Andy doesn't do that; usually fulfilling his seed & expectations for the most part!
***We can't. It sure w/b fun if more than 1 player was in the zone, but that probably won't happen. - If Nole hadn't gotten over his gluten allergy, Roger & Rafa might have won more majors!***
Mon Dieu, we're in the middle of a slam! Why in the world spend X w/ this type of supposition; esp. since he's been over this for over 5 yrs? No doubt Roger & Rafa would have won more majors if not for Nole, but that's the case for just about any player if you look back in the past! If Borg hadn't injured his shoulder in '77 & thumb in '78, he might have those USO while he was #1 & reigning Wimbledon & FO champion! We could look back on anyone for diff. reasons if they could have overcome a setback of some sort!
***AFter Fed & Nadal withdrawing, this is definetely RG '09 all over again. If Djoko still does not win this FO, he never will.***
He just needs to take this 1 tourney after so many attempts! I think he will probably destroy the rest of the tour in the remaining events if he does; his confidence soaring! I saw Borg annihilate his opp. after winning his 2nd Wimbledon in '77! You can have all the skill in the world, but it does you no good if not confident in your abilities in the crunch!
***...I think it was just an excuse to troll 1 of the Fed fan threads which was meant for his fans only IIRC.***
I was a huge fan of Roger, but w/ his hanging on like this w/ the pathetically weak opp., I see him as tainting his legacy! He's stunting the mental development of the next wave of players j/b of their reverence for the man; sorta like Michelle Kwan overshadowing Sasha Cohen in figure skating a decade ago!
***Interesting perspective. I feel the figure skating situation was worse since someone like Kwan gets favortism due to her legacy & someone like Cohen has to skate considerably better t/b allowed to beat her, which isnt really fair when it was supposed t/b "her X" and old Kwan retired in the 1st place. At least in tennis you play and there is no way to give someone an unfair advantage really.
I liken Fed playing so long to Connors. Did Connors damage his legacy? I dont really feel so, but OTOH he allowed everyone of his era to end up w/ winning records over him, including Lendl who he owned not only in his prime, but even in his early 30s & Lendl's prime. He didnt add to his big titles really. So was it worth it in the end? You would have to ask him. Federer is probably similar. I sort of see your pt on the younger players, but if their mental development is stunted by the presences of a 34 yo, even if arguably the GOAT, then they probably dont have the right stuff anyway. Agassi's diff. as he was playing so long to make up for lost X, & needed to add to an incomplete & unfulfilled legacy given his talent.***
After '14, people should have started bracing themselves for this day; both Fedal on their last legs! Roger's almost 35 & Rafa on wheels that are even older! McEnroe & Connors tried to hang on past their primes, but they won no more majors after '84! Why is this so hard to accept?
***To be fair to Rafa fans, he had really resurged the last 2 months, so I would definitely say it's in general surprising that he was having these wrist issues, esp. after playing so well in the 1st 2 Rds of Paris. I think more injuries will ultimately be unsurprising, but the timing and nature of the moment made it extra disappointing w/ a 3rd Rd default! ---
Given the way he has whipped that FH his whole life, it's amazing that his hand hasn't completely flown off his wrist by now.***
Agreed! I actually got to hating seeing his racket flying over his head like that; esp. when nothing was really on the shot! It was more flash than anything w/ the shot falling shorter & shorter in the court IMO!
***Djokovic's 1 of the greatest players to ever play the game. Could end up 'the greatest.' Murray's the best British player there has ever been in yrs! They have 1 of the best rivalries in the Open era.***
The Fedal & Murray/Djokovic rivalries are a joke & nowhere near that description! A rivalry usually entails both sides winning occasionally! That has never been the case w/ Fedal or Murray & Nole when 1 side owns the other! The only real rivalry is btw Nole vs Rafa or Roger & they've become one-sided in the last several yrs! The recordbooks have them close, but the ebb & flow of a real rivalry never existed unfortunately! Murray & Roger have been owned by Rafa and Nole owns them all now!
***Obama's hug of Hiroshima survivor epitomizes historic visit - ...There's no making sense of it.***
It's so frustrating dealing w/ delusional people who may have a legitimate gripe over what Obama does, but then have to embellish & make up shit along the way! I've been hearing about this "apology tour" since day 1 & it never happened except in their pointed, empty heads! It's bad enough w/ the populous, but the no-good-nicks on the news say it too; esp. Charles Krauthammer who's supposed t/b so smart! You expect HS dropouts like Sean Hannity t/b an ass & distort actual facts, but it appears all cons. do it! They would do so much better to stick to reality instead of showing their animus w/ lies & misinformation! The reason the man has been so successful is b/c of these idiots crying "wolf" all too often; same w/ the Clintons! There are legitimate reasons to air their ire, but they have to make everything > than it actually is to their own detriment!
***Seems I recall Prezzy *%%% stain erecting barriers to prevent WW II vets from visiting Memorials.***
That was on Congress refusing to pass a budget & shut down the gov't twice! That's hardly on Obama; blame Boehner & Ryan for not being able to control their Tea-Bag members who went to DC just to stop ANYTHING from happening to the detriment of their country!
***I agree F4. There m/b no more important X for insightful criticism of candidate or party than during an election year. ASTOUNDINGLY these Dem. bashers don't seem to have learned a moral lesson my Momma taught me when I was a boy: about crying wolf.
- When Dem-bashers lie, & claim Obama was born in Kenya, or that he apologized* in Hiroshima, IT UNDERMINES REPS. Apparently personal integrity & reputation simply aren't that high a priority to them. ...***
That's kind of a huge joke when you see "never Trump" losers falling in line w/ the guy! Rubio called him a con man, and a flim-flammer, but he's ready to go to the mat at the convention to make sure Trump beats Hillary! You can count on 1 hand the one's who have held firm, while even Lindsey Graham who all but proselytized getting someone to beat the man is relenting! I'm sorta disgusted w/ the entire lot of them! There's no such thing as integrity & reputation on "the right" when it comes to true cons! Trump never was and never w/b in line w/ their thinking & beliefs, but will whore out their reputations just to beat A CLINTON! It's so very sad & pathetic, proving party is more important to them than the wellbeing of the country & world!
***Yes. It's discouraging, BUT All is not lost.
a) Reps are not political or fiscal cons. as a group, even if there are a few notables among them. They're the exception, not the rule. Who was the most recent Rep. president to preside over consecutive balanced budgets?
b) Wm F. Buckley Jr. was a real political cons., an inspiration to many, including Ronald Reagan. And though he's gone, George Will is still here, and m/b about the best we have to replace WF.
The "never Trumpers" may have phrased it poorly. I think what they meant was: pick a better candidate. BUT, I don't think they meant: I'll vote for Hillary over Trump.***
Didn't you see 1 of the Koch brothers "hem and haw" about not supporting Trump & m/b having to vote for Hillary? lol!
***F4, I admire, envy, & appr. the Koch boys. And sadly, it's b/c of Trump specifically, but the Rep. primary electorate in gen. that has me thinking similar thoughts. I've been voting strategically, defensively since '72 when I voted vs Nixon. I don't want to vote for Hillary, but I'm prepared to do just about whatever it takes to keep Trump out of the White House for all but brief guest visits.***
Too many are voting against someone rather than for them! I could easily vote for a Rep., but after their antics during the Clinton yrs, I wouldn't vote for 1 t/b the local dog catcher! It only got worse w/ the elec. of Obama where they ??'ed & made scurrilous accus's about his intelligence, birthright, patriotism, religion, parents, & even his family! These were Rep. leadership members who had no shame in saying just about anything so vile I will never forgive it! They keep saying to at least be respectful of the office, but before Obama took office, they had already decided t/b as obstructionist as possible; even if it put the country in jeopardy financially or security-wise! They never give him credit for saving this country when "W" left it "on the brink!"
***For Reps, partisanship trumps citizenship. I consider that not merely treacherous, but perhaps traitorous. ---
A constant stream of changes & scuffles are unsettling Donald Trump’s campaign team, includ. the abrupt dismissal this wk of his Nat'l political director. And there is confusion among his donors, who want to give $$ to a “super PAC” supporting Mr. Trump, but have received conflicting signals from top aides about which 1 to support. On Thurs., Mr. Trump secured the Rep. Party’s nom. for prez, a remarkable achievement for a pol. newcomer. ...
2 months after assurances that the candidate would become “more presidential” and trans. to a more unifying phase of his campaign, Trump continues to act as if the primary is still underway. His team has struggled to fill top positions, such as communications dir., & Trump has made clear he still sees himself as his own chief adviser.
This wk, Trump fired Rick Wiley, his Nat'l pol. director, after Mr. Wiley clashed w/ campaign officials in 3 states. ...Asked for comment about his management style, and the current state of his campaign, Mr. Trump declined, criticizing the reporters writing this article.
So far, Mr. Trump has shown little inclination to adjust to a pol. world.
Trump has shown himself to be a masterly comm., and his instincts, esp. in identifying the issues that will animate voters, are shrewd. But the combat w/i the campaign has undermined the daily messages the team seeks to promote. On Wed., for instance, Mr. Trump met w/ dozens of female chief execs & entrepreneurs before his afternoon rally in Cal., a meeting that was never publicized. Instead, the campaign sent out a message announcing Mr. Wiley’s dismissal.
Trump has also been dismissive of data analytics, suggesting in interviews that his showmanship and rallies will continue to be effective. He has suggested that he'll compete in new states, despite the scant resources he has devoted to the traditional Rep. map so far. And he has been adamant to aides that he intends to try to compete in NY, which no Rep. has captured since Reagan, and has held discussions about hiring an additional pollster for the state.
Despite his and his aides’ talk of unification, Mr. Trump himself has so far proved unable and unwilling to rally the entire party around his candidacy. On Tues., he deliberately attacked Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mex. — a Hispanic rising star and head of the Rep. Governors Assoc. — in her home state, saying she was “not doing the job.”
Mr. Trump, who lent his campaign $$ during the primaries, has begun fund-raising for the gen. election, and there are signs that high-$$ donors are willing to help, esp. by donating to a super PAC supporting him. But there are several such groups, and the campaign has yet to unofficially sanction 1, leaving some donors confused about which super PAC, if any, they should support. ...***
That w/b the saving grace of the country & Hillary's campaign that this man will sabotage himself w/ constant shots to the head!
***The Koch brothers are already looking at pulling out of supporting Trump. Basically b/c Trump is such a clueless $#@$* politically. - That is the pt, No decent managers will work for Trump. He never listens.***
***Should permanent infrastructure for Olympics be built in Greece?***
I think they need to drop the whole sham of a comp.! I've been disgusted w/ the summer Olympics since they allowed USA pros to dominate in B-ball back in '92! It's just not right for rich vets taking over the whole thing! It's the same thing w/ tennis, baseball, & hockey! Everyone knows how corrupt the system is w/ countries buying the games w/ Nazi, aides to deposed dictators, & other nefarious characters running things in the OIC! I only watch figure skating these days & haven't even watched the tennis much since their admittance back in '84 as an exh.!
***I couldn't agree w/ you more. The Olympics s/b just amateur comp. ===
...I see your pt about YE #1s. I guess if we are speaking a bit subjectively not only was Sampras's comp. for #1 really weak (minus only Agassi in '95), but his '98 YE #1 & X at #1 was a joke & the worst 1 in history. Agassi really was probably the best player in '95 despite Sampras ending it at #1. He basically got it only since Agassi depressed from the USO loss skipped almost the whole fall season.
I think Sampras had difficult comp. on each individual surface, particularly the polarized surfaces like grass & clay, and also carpet. ...W/ all due respect guys like Chang, Stich, post prime Courier, Rafter, clay courter Muster (the guys who spent most of the X @ #2 behind Pete other than Agassi's 1.5 yr stint) arent tough comp. for #1 for a top notch ATG or GOAT at all. ---
I can see your pt. The thing w/ Sampras which I have to give him a bit of leeway is back then winning all 4 slams was < important. He won 14 & @ that X no one dreamed 2 players would reach 14 as well. If Sampras was around today he'd probably be trying harder for that RG title, whether he'd actually win it or not is another matter, but then again would Nadal win Wimbledon on 90's grass?***
Sampras was just really unlucky at the FO, actually having to defeat 3 past champs 1 yr before going out to eventual winner in '96 semi; Kafelnikov! We were so desperate to give props to Sampras and elevate him to GOAT status, we were actually ready to overlook that hole in his resume! Like you said, we had no idea the next gen. of players would find true greatness in Fed, Nadal, & now Djokovic! They will all surpass him even though @ the X Pete was way ahead of his closest rival in Agassi! Connors & McEnroe were just footnotes even w/ all the majors they won & Jimmy's 2 great yrs; '74 beating an old man (Rosewall) in the final of Wimbledon & USO and '82 where he came out of nowhere to take 2 more majors @ Wimbledon & the USO over McEnroe & Lendl respectively! I feel fortunate to have seen all these matches and then see all of them overshadowed by this current crop of greats! Borg still near the top w/ the best of them w/ his 5 str. Wimbledons & 6 FO's!
***W/ Tsonga's retirement, Gasquet's now the only French singles player. IDK how the local crowd is paying for tickets & watching; no big names & no local players.***
How have we survived the last gen. here in the States w/the USO? It's been owned by the Europeans for yrs w/ just 1 lucky win by Roddick well over 10 yrs ago; still looking for his MO!
***...All I have to say is shame on Nole if he doesn't throw the kitchen sink, the kitchen, then entire house, etc. at any player in his way to win this FO title.***
Tell that to Borg @ the USO, Sampras, Connors, & McEnroe in Paris, & Lendl @ Wimbledon! Ivan went all out; even skipped the FO a couple X's to prepare for grass! He won Queens over Edberg & Becker in '90, but it was only warm-up event! Both still ran over him when it counted at the AECTC! Many top players have a hole in their resumes, proved by only 7 or 8 w/ the CGS; Laver being the last to have a CYGS! IMO, this event won't define or besmirch the awesome tenure of Nole!
***“W/o Nadal, Roland Garros isn’t truly RG, and Djokovic knows it well.” Mats Wilander - "“And this is not good news for Djokovic,” Wilander wrote. “Because as a player you do not want to win Paris when there is nobody around you. In 20 yrs it w/b not be of importance, But today it is."***
I didn't read it, but I stopped listening to Wilander ages ago when he proclaimed Nole would never beat Rafa at a GS, on clay, or regularly! He's an idiot and if you pt to these predictions, he can only smile dumbly & admit his stupidity! Concerning the statement, I say to him, "tell that to Federer who finally took his lone FO chp. due to Rafa being upset!" He never came close w/o that little bit of help; even when he played out of his mind to beat Nole in '11 semi! He was wasting his X until Soderling gave him a clear path & a total gift!
***Disagree w/ Mats. Not having Superman around is actually very good news for Lex Luthor & his few followers. - The saddest thing is that Wilander is disrespectful, whether he's aware of it or not to every other player in the draw, including the guy who crushed Djokovic last yr. I don't remember him beating Borg at the FO '82 either. Anyway, the guy has lost his credibility after so many silly statements.***
Amen & Halellujah to that!
***We should drop Madrid or Shanghai and have Hamburg become grass & 1000 level again (they are obviously exp. at running a 1000 level event there) and be placed btw FO & Wimby.***
Well I can tell you that won't happen anyX soon; Tiriac growing Madrid t/b something in the future & Shanghai offering the most $$ to make themselves relevant!
***Who's for boycotting tennis til we have a 3 month grass season?***
The world tennis powers have gotten too cheap & lazy for that to ever happen; SORRY! We even got rid of high maintenance clay surfaces here in the States! The final straw was when Europe & South America started owning those tourneys like US Clay CT in Indy, Boston, & the USO when on Har-Tru; '75-77! Our juniors trained & grew up on clay back then, but we truly got lazy and plowed all those courts under to go to HARD which is so brutal on the body! Before Courier, Agassi, & Chang, we weren't even making FO finals much < winning any of them! We never seem to learn our lessons which is why we're so far behind the rest of the world in tennis; @ least on the men's side for now!
***Sampras still holds Open Era record of 6 str. yr end #1 record. (forget the wk record.) Djokovic is in pursuit of breaking it. Nadal w/ virtually immortal record at RG. They are all great players and no need to put anyone above any other.***
It's still hard for me to put Rafa anywhere near the top though! His results just weren't balanced enough! Even Borg who was thought of as a clay genius of his era won those 5 Wimbledons in a row & played 6 str. finals! Even grass greats never did that before Federer & the homogenized courts produced!
***Ah yes, Nadal is such a freak at RG. But I've been still predicting top player after '03 will do career slams, 4 str. slams, and Cal Slams. My prediction could have been fully right if no Nadal. Anyway Borg's record is unique in that sense. And Sampras 6 str. yr end record won't be broken easily. Let's celebrate these achievements.***
***I don't think it's true for Stojko vs Urmanov, even though I'm an Elvis fan, think the judges were hard on him, and consider his Bruce Lee program t/b a masterpiece. But he needed to be technically perfect, even superior to win, and he was not. He didn't have the quad in that program, and made 1 mistake just as Urmanov did. Urmanov just had the artistic edge, w/ a lovely & lyrical program in those '94 Olympics.***
Urmanov as well as Plushenko get their ice personas from Mishin; actually flirting w/ the judges & giving plenty of eye contact! The flourishes w/ the arms and hands also mesmerized the judges so they may miss something lacking in their skating, but I LOVED THEM BOTH! Even though I was a bigger fan of those 2 skaters, Yagudin probably surpassed them both but for his breaking down prematurely! Too bad Evgeny was around forcing him to "go for more" due to all those quads! Yagudin wouldn't have needed even 1 if not for Plushenko pushing him in the tech. score! If he had been nicer, I probably would have felt for him more, but who was he to give ultimatums to Mishin; "him or me?" What a nerve!
***Funny I was just looking at the results from the Australian Goodwill Games event of '01 the other day. ...***
Loved the 2001 event since it was a prelude to the Olympics in '02; everyone went "down under!" Irina & the rest of the women featured their upcoming SP's; Slutskaya's being "Serenade!" It was just as comp. w/ the men & Plushenko still ruled w/ his compatriot falling all over the place, but still snatching Bronze medal! "Winter" by Yagudin was beautiful though! His medal was a gift since he spent more X sitting on the ice than actually skating on it! Plushenko was still owning him at the X & was full of confidence while Alexei was being forced to do more than he wanted! On his 3-Axel, he knew Yvengy had added a triple toe! Yagudin was too close to the wall to do it, but went ahead anyway crashing into it hard! It was quite memorable! It was a great event after having old vets comp. in the previous 1 in 2000 where Surya beat out Sato barely w/ "Cour Senge Sanzo" (Heart W/O Blood)!
***HUH?***
Maybe you're too young to remember that Mishin was the coach for all those male figure skaters; Urmanov, Yagudin, & Plushenko! Yagudin was @ the top of his game by '98 winning Worlds over Eldridge & Plushenko! He wanted Mishin to drop Plushenko giving him an ultimatum! Mishin of course told him "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!" That's when he went to Tatyana Tarasova who expanded his presentation tech. & score! It was probably the best thing for both; Mishin could concentrate more on Yvgeny & Tarasova really made Alexei a great champ. winning sev. Worlds & OG in '02! That made Alexei "huge," but it also cost him! Plushenko was superior technically, winning most of the SP's & pushed Alexei to put more quads in his LP's he might not have needed to beat the rest of the tour! His hips broke down w/ all that stress & he was done by the following season; actually dropping out of Skate America the day of the event!
***I'm 35...I remember it and have it somewhere on VHS. Your post above makes sense. The 1 I was ??ing left me bewildered. I gotcha now though.***
...It's been so long since I've cared about FS! All my faves have retired for the most part! Looks as if Plushenko will have t/b dragged out of mothballs since Russia can't seem to get a good male FS to compete internationally! The ladies are loaded though for a change after Butyrskaya & Slutskaya left their ranks!
***I saw the original "ROOTS" and read the Playboy interview w/ Alex Haley. Thought it was good. The remake, standing in a long line of Hollywood tradition, will most likely be filled w/ PC nonsense & made up liberal wanking.***
The way I see it, no matter what was made up, we all know it was probably worse since slaves weren't even thought of as human beings 200+ yrs ago! People treated their barn animals better back then regardless of your lack of guilt at this country's wretched history! Like w/ the Nazi's & Jews, Germany will never be able to paint over that stain; no matter how hard they try! Being PC is just a small way of pacifying that guilt, but it won't happen anyX soon since we're still unable to get over the simple fight for civil rights in the South! We may never get over it in our lifeX since prejudice & bigotry is passed down from such hateful people! Everyone has to feel superior to someone; even East Indians have a "caste" system calling the lower dregs, 'Dravidians' or 'Untouchables!' Heaven knows the most bigoted people are probably from Japan; truly believing they are some kind of "master race" that to this day can't accept mixed relationships! I have no idea why they seem to get away w/ it; esp. after their horrible past w/ the treatment of Koreans during the war?
***...I think Obama's trying to get back in some peoples good graces. He thinks they will forget all of his horrible words and treatment of America. The sad part? SOME WILL NOT REMEMBER. BUT, you can bet, all of Obama's bad policys decisions w/b blamed on the NEW PRESIDENT. Anyone else notice? Like he's trying to leave, acting like the 'good president.' UGH. ACTING AS IF HE CARES.***
WTF are you talking about? In the lame duck session of any Presidency, it's not unusual for them to keep a low profile in the States, go abroad on a goodwill tour (not an apology tour like some losers keep saying), and do what he can w/ Executive Orders! Obama's popularity/favorability is above 50% while Congress' level is in the sewer! Who would you really rather be; seeming as to getting something done while a whole entity w/ well over 500 members are getting nothing done? I'd rather be sitting pretty as the President w/ a competent successor to continue what he has been trying to do! It's about X we had a chance of 3 str. terms to avoid the sabotage of an incompetent admin. from "the right" throwing all this good work "under the bus!" "W" came into office w/ a bustling economy, the DOW having been doubled, unemployment down, and an actual surplus budget! He turned it into shit w/ DOW dropping to 6600, losing 700-800 thousand jobs a month, mismanaging 2 wars, & putting us into disrepute in the world! Obama changed all that even if not at the levels we would like; he came into a real mess w/ obstructionist Reps fighting every effort he made to turn things around! Even so, we're in a HELL of a lot better shape than we were and Europe currently! So what do you have to say about that?
***Is this the Hope and Change you were hoping for? If the cons had got another 4 yrs, we would still be in the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression.***
They couldn't care less as long as they're in power! The really stupid thing is, even w/ the #'s going in the right direction, some knuckleheads will vote against it just so they could have a Rep. in office! It's so sad to remember going from "peace and prosperity" to a "near depression," but that's our country! We just never seem to learn; believing we need change when none is needed! The only thing we need a change in is in Congress; obstructionist Reps need to go! If Hillary is to take us to another level and to get the Nat'l Debt paid down, we have to get rid of all those Tea-Bagger idiots who just as well see the country go under than deal w/ progressive thinking!
***WHEN HIS TRUMP GOING TO RELEASE HIS: parent's marriage lic.? his school appls? his school recs (a foreign ex. student?) his selective service registr? his passport? his college thesis? articles he's written? his Baptism cert., if 1 exists?) The recs of all the corporations he owns? the client list & billing recs of everybody who has ever been a client of any of his corps? scholarly articles; none released or exist? (prob. don't exist)
Obama never lost his law lic.
Claim: There’s evidence Obama was adopted in Indonesia.
The only “evidence” is a handwritten school registr. page from the Santo Fransiskus Assisi (Saint Francis of Assisi) Catholic School in Jakarta, Indonesia, that refers to Obama as “Barack Soetoro.”
Claim: Obama lost his citizenship when his mother married an Indonesian.
FALSE: Minors could not lose their US citizenship under the law in effect in at the X, and parents could not relinquish the natural born citizenship of their minor children. Under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, Title III, Chapter 3.
“…nationality shall not be lost by any person under this section as the result of the naturalization of a parent or parents while such person is under the age of 21 years, or as the result of naturalization obtained on behalf of a person under 21 yrs of age by a parent, guardian, or duly authorized agent, unless such person shall fail to enter the US to estab. a permanent residence prior to his 25 BD: ….”
Since Obama returned to the US in '71 @ age 10 & has permanently resided in the US since then, he never lost his natural born citizenship under this Act. Even if his mother HAD renounced her citizenship, Obama would not have lost his natural born citizenship under the Act. He maintained his birthright citizenship. Therefore, this claim is false.
Claim: Obama could have been adopted in Indonesia.
FALSE: During the X Obama and his family lived in Indonesia that country didn’t allow adoptions of children who were Obama’s age.
Law No. 62 of 1958, Law on the Citizenship of the Rep. of Indonesia describes the laws for adopting children, but none of them applied to Obama. T/b eligible for adoption, children had t/b under the age of 5 yrs. Obama was 6 when he moved to Indonesia and thus ineligible.
Since Lolo Soetoro was a Muslim, any adoption whb under Islamic law. Islamic adoptions are unlike US adoptions b/c the child doesn’t take the name of the family and is still considered part of the birth family. The relationship is considered more like a foster-child than a biological child. Had Obama been legally adopted by Lolo Soetoro, his name would have remained Obama. For more on this, see The Indonesian Adoption “Barry Soetoro”
Myth - Therefore, this claim is false.
Claim: Foreign students couldn’t attend schools in Indonesia in the 1960s.
FALSE. Both citizens & foreigners over 8 yrs were required to attend schools if they were avail. In addition, Indonesians were banned from alien schools, but foreigners were not banned from Indonesian schools.
Although TheFogbow.com researchers have searched extensively, we have never found any evidence to show that an American citizen child w/b unable to attend an Indonesian gov't school.
Claim: His real name Barry Soetoro.
Barry Soetoro isn’t his legal name. In the modern world of fractured families, kids can go by diff. names during their lives. There's some evidence that he was called Barry Soetoro while in Indonesia. Soetoro was his stepfather for a while, and it was easier for the family to all have the same name.
Other presidents have gone by other names in their youths. Leslie Lynch King, Jr (Gerald Ford) & William Jefferson Blythe III (Bill Clinton) both changed their names legally as adults, but went by other names in their childhoods.
Claim: Obama and/or his mother were Indonesian citizens.
FALSE: According to both US & Indonesian law & passport records obtained via a FOIA Request, neither Obama nor Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro could have naturalized as Indonesian citizens.***
Poor victimized Trump; a rich white guy who's allowed t/b openly bigoted & misogynistic! I feel for him; esp. when his campaign's a sham touting his success when he's gone bankrupt 3 or 4 X's, takes out loans to pay his bills, & has been put on an allowance b/c he's such an irresponsible yutz! There are no more Trump steaks, water, airline, or college; and that's just the beginning since he's being sued by customers, his own employees, & other suckers who were stupid enough to listen to him!
***I agree Trump c/b rude, crass, snarky, unstatemanlike, unpresidential, & generally annoying...but what specifically has he said or done that makes him "openly bigoted & misogynistic." - Trump gets more free press than all the rest of the candidates combined. Him whining will get him even more. He's an entertainer, an attention whore, & a reality TV host.***
Disparaging the judge on his Trump College case faulting him for his rulings b/c he's Mexican can't sound good nudnick!
***I agree poor choice of words, but is it really "bigoted?" When many of his protesters are holding up Mexican flags?***
What does holding up Mexican flag have to do w/ this mohron? Italians wave the Italian flag all the X! What does that have to do w/ the price of eggs? You got to do better than that!
***Trump pushes back, he always has, surely the media knows it. Heck, media has lower approval ratings than Congress. In this instance Trump pushed and it sounds as if the media is whining.***
You obviously don't take this seriously; sorta like Trump! He's running for the highest office and he has to have SOME self-control! So far he's proven he has none & you s/b more concerned! You think he can get away acting like that w/ other world leaders; Putin & Kim Jong-Un i.e.? I don't think so! Everyone will go back to hating the USA when "W" was being an asshole & pushing his weight around stupidly!
***...I wouldn't put it past Hillary to have people planted in crowds shouting sexist things at her. - She didn't think that w/b necessary. America's Smartest Woman just expected that everybody would just go ahead & take her at her word.***
...and you'll take the word of Trump? Guys, ya gotta be at least somewhat consistent for people to take you seriously! Trump's a pathological and inveterate liar and if you check anything he says, you'll find it t/b utter BS! He said he had raised and given Vet's charity $6 Million; total lie! He actually had to write the check when there was no evidence of what he said! Spare me the hearts and flowers concerning Hillary when this man wouldn't know the truth if it was shoved up his ass!
***Speaker Ryan commits to voting for Trump this Nov.***
The poor guy just lost what little integrity he was trying to hold onto! I suppose he felt compelled since he's running the RNC conv., but IDK how he's going t/b able to sleep and live w/ this joke of a man being the party's standard bearer! They're all falling in line includ. Graham, Rubio, & McCain who swore he'd never be the nominee; now they're full throated endorsing him! What a collection!
...Reps. are all falling in line includ. Graham, Rubio, & McCain who swore he'd never be the nominee; now they're full throated endorsing him! ...
***F4 It's easy to point the flippant finger of political partisan ridicule @ this Rep. crisis. But candidly, the stakes are simply too high to make partisan mirth here.***
Who the HELL's being flippant? I'm being as serious as a fk'n heart attack that the Rep. party has little to no character and will back "ANYONE" that happens to have an "R" behind their names! If Charles Manson was paroled & spoke the same as Trump, they might have to contend w/ that maniac! I'm not being mirthful; it's painful to watch every yr as this party slides down the evolutionary chain!
***Trump supporters are idiots. Trot out a "Latino" spewing rightwingnuts talking pts & lets all pretend he said "something." What did he do, mouth Trump ain't PC 20-X's? What does anti-PC even mean beyond the worthless piece of shit is rude and obnoxious? It damn sure ain't that the man is saying anything of substance worth giving a listen, if that is what we would be talking about. But, we ain't are we?
It's the same for the pro-Trump Trump Univ. ad. Some schmuck mouthing the benefits of Trump U. were "incalculable." Fool declares he learned how t/b a "businessman" but didn't even learn to calculate his profit, and tries to pass it off as a positive. Good Gawd what an idiot. The ad is so pathetic, the plantiffs in the Trump University lawsuit should play it for the court. Look at this fool declare he can't calculate his profit. These idiots are so intent on "polly wanna crackering" rightiwingnut talking points, they can't even put together a cogent thought anymore.***
You got it! It's more than a little pathetic! Real Latinos have all kinds of reasons t/b disgusted w/ the man! As I mentioned last night, the couple of comm. directors they had in charge of Black & Latino affairs have all quit the RNC! Ryan & Priebus are gonna have to go out and find a few others to compromise their principles! - Well most cons are a bit slow! The media is still waiting for something more cogent than Trump's ranting "a hit job from lyin' Hillary" after her foreign policy speech the other day!
***Groucho... has all the personality of a Rat inside a trash bag doesn't he?***
Rats have a reason being rats; what's his excuse? People who care more about party than their country just makes me SICK! I keep thinking it'll get better and it never does; if anything it gets worse! Their true colors came out after Obama took over and they still can't live w/ it; "W's" legacy is he elected a Black man in their pathetic lifetime!
***Bernie certainly has more to offer America than kbt's 1st choice Ted Cruz. I wonder was it Cruz's skilled reading of Dr. Seuss Cat In The Hat that won his heart vote?***
He was truly an embarrassment w/ his own party begging him to stop! And he wonders why they didn't back him initially? The man's touched in the head in more ways than one! I feel for his family having friends & assoc. who could only shake their heads!
***...The REAL news was when Speaker Ryan announced that he had NOT endorsed Trump. That is news indeed. And that's the predicate which makes the reversal also news.***
It wasn't even an endorsement! He said he would vote for Trump and he said even that in a "low whisper" in his local paper w/ a Tweet! lol! People have already said, you'll never see one of those pictures with Ryan raising Trump's arm/"little hand" up in triumph!
***The Rep. Party began in 1854 and they were mostly abolistionists. Lincoln was rep. If there s/b white guilt today, that s/b reserved for the exclusive use by Dems.
1. Dems seceded from the Union after Abe Lincoln was elected b/c they feared he might free the slaves. 2. Dems supported 2nd class citizenship for blacks. 3. Dems created the KKK to burn black churches & lynch black men. 4. Democratic Presidents up to Truman and LBJ used the N word regularly & w/ gusto. 5. Dems chose as their Senate leader an avowed KKK member throughout the '60s, '70s & '80s. 6. Dems opposed the Civil Rights Act. 7. The presumptive Dem. presidential candidate of TODAY said that her mentor is the abovementioned Senate leader.
Dems should have white guilt for what they did from the 1860s to TODAY, and will likely do far into the future. They should rename themselves the Brotherhood of United Racists Party.***
Lincoln's no doubt turning in his grave over what's happened to his Rep. Party! There's been a juxtaposition of Blue Dog Dems to Republican rednecks; and you well know that! The bigots in the South prove how they are assaulting the right to vote to this day, making it harder & harder on them! Old black people who probably have no ID are made to jump hoops for no other reason than to discourage them from even going to the POLLS! Those aren't Dems of today; not like Reps of OLD! You s/b ashamed, but that idiot from Pennsylvania actually bragged about these tactics!
***Fiero posted a factual message that opposing forces cannot begin to dispute so instead they attack the messenger.***
They totally ignored that! As I said before Trump & these losers wouldn't know truth if it was shoved up their asses! They just can't acknowledge anything logically! It's always attack, attack & deflect, deflect!
***Michelle Obama: I Wake Up Each Day in House Built By Slaves - ...But I don't consider that either racial, or racist. Do you?***
It's such a shame when grown folks in the year 2016 can't talk about race when "everything" eventually revolves around it! Why would Trump bring up the ethnicity of a presiding judge on his FRAUD case if race isn't an issue? People who deflect it must have a lot of guilt and would rather forget about the country's wretched history of slavery, segregation, & of course civil rights that had t/b passed in the SOUTH as late as the 60's! Texas is the biggest producers of textbooks hoping to re-write or totally expunge that history, but as long as old fogies like Michelle & me are around, we'll have to invoke & broach the subject just so people like you guys won't forget it! Never forget The Tuskegee Exp., Brown vs The Board of Ed., Dred Scott, the fight for civil rights & perpetual separation by official legislation called Jim Crow! It wasn't that long ago; most of us were quite alive, but we can't talk about it? I think not!
Feel free to continue total obfuscation & deflect by using "being PC" moniker as a weapon like your hero TRUMP! It's ok; I made my point and it'll be here for you to stew over for quite a while! I hope the words aren't too BIG for you!
***the fight for civil rights Rep...Thank you.***
Not these Reps; maybe from a bygone era long ago! Today's Republicans aren't even sneaky abut their prejudices; totally disrespecting the Obama's and their family! Hard to believe you can sleep at night after seeing how they treated that man before he even took the oath of office! They had already decided not to compromise on anything! Any way they could obstruct was done! Even when he was abroad he was undermined by those animals in Congress and I'll never forget or allow them to forget it! You don't want to go down the list of disgusting action perpetrated on the man from questioning his intelligence to his citizenship! Screw all Republicans as far as I'm concerned; the same contempt they have for Dems I guess!
***...Apart from that, I've been observing the Obama family at close range for most of a decade. I'm not saying none of them has ever said anything bitter. I merely observe that they present themselves as conscientious servants of the whole People.
Whatever my ideological / political differences with them I have, that doesn't undermine their good faith effort in serving the whole People. And if you can do better, I hope you will. Good luck with that.
You don't like the Obama's. THAT'S FINE! just don't try to swindle us into believing your hatred is objective.
It never was. It's partisan. Conspicuously so. I wish you joy in anticipating the Trump admin. It will make the belly laugh we get at the Clinton inauguration all the more herniating.***
That's the problem w/ Cons.; anything said by a liberal is supposed to mean more than just the factual info! Their deflections are always to put others on the defensive unnecessarily so it's so hard to take them seriously! Coulter, Ingram, & Crowley have made their careers on FNC trying to undermine simple statements by challenging it w/ "PC moniker!" Trump can't help being that way b/c he always seems t/b in the wrong & never takes responsibility for being a boor, misogynist, or bigot! They love playing the victim when busted saying something totally offensive!
***I'm concerned about the persistent support for Sanders to the detriment of the welfare of the country. It's unfortunate that Sanders did not get more support in the primaries, but in order to defeat Trump, we all need to stick together.***
The rabid support is irrational; speaking of Hillary being indicted is ridiculous by Susan Sarandon!
***How do you know her support of Sanders is 'rabid,' as opposed to a more normal level? And the talk of Hillary maybe being indicted isn't starting & ending with Susan - the real source of that is the e-mail scandal, of which the legal outcome has yet t/b determined. - Hillary has more; 3 M more @ last count. I pray that I'm idealistic when I am 70.***
If that's my future, please put me to sleep long before it happens! Sanders is doddering & gotten entirely too full of himself! He thinks he's orchestrating a movement and his influence wouldn't last a moment if Hillary & Reps turned their sights on him to destroy the hubris of his running! Who really believes Congress would pass any of his nonsense; free college, universal heath-care, jack up taxes to 90%? Who really thinks it's possible? They're trying to cut taxes & benefits as it is so Sanders is obviously delusional if he thinks any of his idea will pass muster!
***Nole'll playing 4 days in a row catch up w/ Djokovic in the final? ---
No, he will not be tired. He destroyed Berdych and w/b rested for his SF vs Thiem. Thiem played longer & looked as if his match was more taxing, even on his younger body compared to Novak. To me, Nole is playing fairly well & getting better at each stage. Thiem w/b the next scalp. Wawrinka will likely beat Murray unless the inferior error-prone version shows up. ---
I saw some signs of tiredness in Djokovic in today´s match. I remember thinking ´hmmmm.... if he loses this set [the 3rd] we might have a match.´ If Thiem comes w/ all guns blazing & doesn´t feel the occasion, things could get very complicated. The glimpses of the Thiem/Goffin match I saw were of extremely high quality. They were playing faster, harder, & more accurately than Djokovic/Berdych. On the other side, I really hope Wawrinka blows Murray off. That'll guarantee a helluva final.***
After what happened last year, it's only justice w/ Nole getting somewhat of a break! This is his X & he has to get this done; "now or never!" X's truly running out! - At least Nole's match is 1st so if it runs long, he'll have more rest than the winner of Murray/Warwrinka; turnabout is "fair play!" What does that say about the tour when 3 of the 4 finalists are the same as the previous tourney? Unbelievable!
***Novak's X on court during the last few days was comparable w/ a reasonably comfortable route in a regular BO3 Tourney (abt 2 hrs on Tues., 1 1/2 hrs on Wed. & 2 hrs today), so it shouldn't be too difficult to handle for him. Having played 6 rather tough matches from the SF's of Madrid to the SF's in Rome w/i 8 days was probably a lot more taxing for him than getting to the SF's of RG.
If he wins somewhat comfortably tom. (in < 3 hrs) he s/b fine for the final w/ the day off on Sat. If it turns out t/b a gruelling match, the finalist from the btm 1/2 might have an advantage depending on how much energy the winner of the Wawrinka/Murray match needed to invest to reach the final. ---
When Roger won the '10 AO, many thought "OMG, now that Roger has passed Pete, he can play w/ abandon & thus will actually be more dangerous." We know what happened after that. When Rafa went on a tear in '13, many said it's just a matter of X when Rafa will pass Roger in GS count. Now, people would rather buy powerball lottery tickets than bet on it.***
IMO, Roger had already passed his peak & prime; resulting in him winning only 1 more major since that AO event! He needed help taking the last few; esp. '09 FO & Roddick's choke job at Wimbl. a few wks later! Rafa's career has always been on a yoyo string, so I had no fear of him overtaking Federer; esp. w/ his penchant to break down in the summer & fall!
***Who are you liking in the Nadal mold? Tennis'll keep on keepin' on... must be someone w/ a few of his qualities out there?***
What qualities are you eluding to; lack of sportsmanship, chronic stalling, & constant challenging of calls & being wrong?
***...Occasionally, I'm interested in the perspective of his fans.***
Well I hope it's but a blip on the radar w/ his style of play; heaven knows it's aggravating to watch! He's so far behind the baseline, he's dodging the linesmen & ball kids! lol! He's losing some of his strength so the ball has to travel farther to make it deep; resulting in his shots dropping precipitously short in the court! People say past champions couldn't handle today's players, but I beg to differ! They would relentless attack these lame baseliners & jump all over short balls causing them great grief & confidence; esp. Becker, Edberg, & Sampras!
***I do wonder what conditions (equipment, surfaces, etc.) would have to materialize to give rise to another player in this style?***
***Djokovic is dominant B/C Fed & Nadal have slid into oblivion (aka old/high mileage/on the cusp of retirement). He filled the gap. His dominance began the moment both Fed & Nadal started to slow down for diff. reasons.***
You're repeating another dubious post relating the same false info! These guys were all in their prime just 5 yrs ago when Nole owned them; 7 matches in a row over Nadal including 2 on clay! Why in the world do people keep saying this same ridiculous thing? Nole's gotten old w/ them; far from being a kid himself! Wake up! Shheeshhhh!
***Djokovic beat Nadal when Nadal was in peak mode in 3 cons. slam finals. It took Nadal's pet event to stop Djok winning all 4 slams vs Nadal in succession. So Djokovic clearly, and I mean clearly, is far more talented than, and has the better of, Nadal. Like w/ all things Nadal, the FO helps him out stats wise. Djok is to Nadal what Nadal is to Federer.
As for Federer, well Djok & Federer have had a more closely contested rivalry. When Djok was a kid, Federer shb beating him every X, but that didn't happen. Djok got his fair share of wins to keep the H2H close & when he became a man and was competing w/ still a peak Federer, the honors were shared so Djok always maintained a gettable distance w/ Federer. As Federer got older, then Djok took the broom to him and has run away w/ it. Federer should have won all their earlier matches & then he would still enjoy the H2H advantage. But again, didn't happen & now Federer has paid the ultimate price once again, an inferior H2H record vs a big era rival.
Djokovic is a far far far better player than Federer & Nadal. Had they all started at the same X, this would not change. The fact he's in the beastiest mode of his life means no one can do a damn thing to stop him and so Fed & Nadal fans hide behind the age argument when if the truth be told Djok would whip them even if they were in their beasty modes too.
Even the greatest of them all, Sampras would have a hard X w/ the current Djok. I'd give Sampras wins vs the current Djok at Wimbledon, the USO & the WTF. Djok would beat Sampras at the FO & the AO, but the fact it takes Sampras, the Ali (RIP champ) of tennis to beat Djok, says a lot about Djok. He's clearly the 2nd greatest player of all X. The stats don't quite show it yet, but they will.***
ITA! I check the record book & marvel how Nole's slowly moving up & taking over in short order! His rate of winning rivals Borg & if he keeps this up for another yr or 2, he'll pass him for good! The only thing holding him back are the fans who can't seem to let Fedal go!
***So why does Agassi & so many others have Nadal as the GOAT; even ahead of Federer? I think that's debatable, but Djokovic isn't close to either as he has won 6 majors when Nadal & Federer were past it. After FO '14, he had 6 majors! That stat tells you all you need to know.***
B/c they're all idiots! They figured a few yrs ago w/ Nadal owning Federer in the H2H & coming on strong winning majors, he deserved GOAT-dom! They had no idea he would break down like a toy and barely hold onto being competitive! Wilander actually said that Nole would never beat Rafa on clay or defeat him in a Major; was wrong, wrong, wrong, and so is Agassi & his ilk! They made a bad call & they're all going to have to "walk it back" due to dominance of Nole the last sev. yrs!
***Nole did it! Congrats to all Novak fans... 12 Slams & counting! - Djokovic has more titles (17) than losses (9) since the start of '15.***
Not everyone can play the Olympics or would want to w/ the conditions of that toilet in RIO. ...Back in '13, Nole had an AO & was in the final of the other 3 majors, but made #1 over ATP's awarding the POY to Rafa who owned 2 majors! They've been @ odds forever which is why 1 runs the MAJORS while the other manages the rest of the tour!
***Who are your contenders for Wimbledon? Dark horses?***
Nole w/b under immense pressure after winning FO & it w/b nice if he could match Rafa, Roger, & Bjorn in taking it the same season! ...Raonic has a new team working for him including McEnroe, so he's my dark horse! Neither Fed or Nadal will play or make the semi's IMO!
***It's not that these guys are just "too good" for Andy, it's just that he isn't good enough if that makes sense. Tennis fans deserve a better #2. Until then we're just gonna have to make do w/ him.***
The way I see it, Murray has the ability, but doesn't keep it up; probably burning himself out w/ his passion early on! He's usually sucking wind after 2 hrs of playing that stupid defensive game when he came out smoking & attacking the net! ...Murray wastes so much energy w/ his "come ons" and needlessly upsetting the crowd w/ his rants to himself & player's box! It's like he doesn't see it happen again & again! He points to his head when something good happens; probably should do the same when he does idiotic things as well!
***I'm going to say this is how Nole will end his resume:
Australian Open: 7 French Open: 1 Wimbledon: 5 U.S. Open: 3 ---
I think I'm going to revise mine a bit:
AO: 8 (He's comfortable here & can eek 2 more wins) Currently @ 6
FO: 2 (Now that he broke the barrier, he'll nab a 2nd) Currently @ 1
Wimbledon: 4-5 Currently @ 3
USO: 4 Currently @ 2***
To me, it's about X Nole had a pigeon in the final like past champions; say a Goffin, Berdych, or Ferrer! No champion has had it as tough as The Djoker going up vs the likes of Roger, Rafa, & Andy as much as him! Fed & Rafa have had their share for Gawd-sake!
***Of the 20 GS finals that Novak played, in 18 of them he faced Roger, Rafa or Andy across the net. The 2 exceptions are Tsonga in '08 AO & Stan in RG '15. The chances that he'll face Roger or Rafa in the finals in future is obviously dramatically decreasing. While he may continue to face Andy for some more finals, I'm very sure that he'll get his own fair share of pigeons in the near future.***
Tsonga doesn't count since that was his 1st major! Stan is better than Andy so Nole's really been put through the ringer to win his titles; bar none!
...That's why it's a sad state now w/ Fedal gone b/c Nole has a clear path to unlimited greatness which he doesn't deserve as clearly he's an inferior player to both Fed & Nadal.***
You almost had me until the gratuitous insult of the greatest returner in tennis history! There are plenty of good players; just don't know how to finish him off! Kei, Theim, Raonic, & others are more than competent & represent the sport well! They've just been unlucky enough to have to deal w/ 3 of the best in the game at the same X! Hewitt wouldn't have been "anybody" if born a couple yrs earlier or later; he lucked out! Players like Wawrinka, Murray, Cilic, Gasquet, Tsonga, Ferrer, & Berdych weren't so fortunate & it stopped them from taking at least a couple majors!
***I don't think there's any doubting when it's all said and done that Novak w/b considered a > all round player than Nadal ever was and in terms of current standing on this supposed "GOAT List."***
***...I think Nole wins at least 2 more Slams after this year, so if he gets to 13 by year's end, then I would put it at 15-16.***
I think we're all being very cons. in the count! He should pick up at least 1 more this season & 2 more next year! There's no reason to believe anyone on the tour right now can stop him from adding to his count consistently for the next 3 yrs even w/ history showing how difficult it is after turning 30! He's in great shape, quite flexible, & the tour is deficient mentally & can't seem to compete at his level for any length of X! There are great players, but they can't seem to stay on court themselves for more than a month or so; esp. Raonic & Kei! Things could change, but right now I see no reason to believe Nole can't break all the top records or add to his own!
***I think Novak wins somewhere in the 15-18 range.
Or to put it another way...
...if he wins no more this year he'll win 15 total ...if he wins 1 more this year he'll win 16-17 total ...if he wins 2 more this year he'll win 17-18 total ---
If Djokovic wins OG & CYGS this year, does he become better than Federer? Even though he has 3 Slams <, the CYGS is so tough to achieve. Fed failed to achieve it every single yr, even when he was at his absolute peak. If Djokovic does it this year, as well as obtain OG, surely this makes him better. If you also add in the other achievements - more YE #1's, more YEC's, more Masters titles, winning H2H over Nadal etc. Then there's a strong case for him being better than Federer if he achieves OG & CYGS this year. ---
Perhaps about = b/c 6 in a row + the much coveted CYGS w/b a massive deal. Maybe >, maybe not. - Novak has been to the finals of 21 of the last 22 1st tier events (Masters, Master Cup, & Slams). I love Roger fans calling weak era b/c those world beaters Fed had to beat from '03-07 on a fast court were so fearsome.***
People seem to forget USO semi of '10 & '11 where Roger was still in his prime w/ MP's vs Nole, but allowed him to come back w/ spectacular play & aplomb! That was 5 or 6 yrs ago! Was Roger doddering even then? People have such short memories; or what I call "willful blindness!"
***Or '07 when a puppy/asthmatic Djokovic beat Roger, Rafa, & Andy on cons. days, then the #1, 2, & 3 players in the world. Could you imagine the reaction if a 19 or 20 yo guy did that today? Plus he ran Roger real close in the USO final that year, lost in str. sets, but had SP's in every single set & basically choked the match away by wasting them. ---
I would ?? Federer being in his prime then. As a Nadal fan I'm honest enough to say that in his sight, I don't think he was @ his very peak in '08 W or AO '09 finals. Fed had dominated for 5 yrs & mentally & physically it must have took its toll, then Nadal & Djokovic appear young & fresh w/ big games. ---
...btw neither Fed or Nadal won 4 straight Slams. He's Laverovic you have to deal w/ that now.***
They'll start to undermine it saying "it means nothing if not w/i a CY!" I think I heard it for the 1st X w/ Agassi just to pump up his resume! It was nothing like Martina's run of 6 majors in a row and they still give her no credit for that!
***Of course, I guarantee the more Djokovic wins the more boring & arrogant he gets, the more he becomes the death of tennis, the more his era becomes weak. The funny thing is for years we all said that Fed's rollover gen. of contemporaries was laughably weak. ...Now that someone other than Fed is dominating even more impressively than Federer & threatening many of his records all of sudden weak eras are everywhere. Not all Fed fans, just those that have to continually denigrate other greats who have supplanted Roger.***
***Please provide evidence that Colin Powell & Condi Rice used a personal server - The State Dept. has discovered 12 emails containing classified info that were sent to the personal email accounts of Colin Powell & close aides of Condi Rice during their tenures as Sec. of State for Pres.t Geo. W. Bush.***
Besides the obvious hypocrisy of the "right," what I fault Rice & Powell for is allowing themselves t/b used & lose all integrity w/ their lies about "911 warning" & Iraqi "WMD's" respectively! "W" had them go out & LIE to the UN & a Congressional panel losing what little respect I had for them! Both s/b ashamed, but if you sidle up to someone as unethical as a Bush, you have to expect the worst! That 1 president ruined the reps of his entire cabinet when they initially were highly regarded! None of them will ever work again in gov't IMO!...Secr. of Defense Gates left & while Obama still in office, openly criticized him & even wrote a book! This is what happens when Dems even try & trust a Rep. scum sucker like him & Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman who actually quit & tried to run vs the guy in '12! How sleazy can Reps be & get away w/ it?
***Powell & Rice should suffer the same penalty as Hillary.***
Well we know a Rep. Congress isn't going to do that! If they want to make a Federal case out of it, then they should drag their asses back to DC!
***Would you vote for a Trump / Gingrich ticket? - The best pairing would be Trump and Cruz! That w/b a ticket the Dems could not defeat!***
That makes sense; put 2 disturbed characters on the same ticket! Nothing wrong with that!
***Gingrich was in the Nat'l news tearing Trump to shreds for his comments about the judge... and Gingrich should not be in the news at all. His time was up decades ago.***
He's making a comeback like NIXON! After singling out Bill for cheating & making hay about that, I guess we might forget about his 3 marriages; the screwin' around, & crooked book deal that sent him packin' from his job as Speaker of the House! Just give him X, he m/b President in 8 more years!
***Yeah... Gingrich is a lot like middle & old age bands from the 70's & 80's getting grandma to keep on truckin' while they milk the old age fan base dry... Gingrich is a false profit. (pun intended, prophet) ---
SECRET SERVICE AGENT BOOK ROCKS CLINTON CAMPAIGN - The worst think about Hillary for me is the fact she abandoned Americans in harms way leaving them to die! That alone should permanently bar her from every holding public office ever, again!***
What a bunch of idiots! I guess you losers have to make up something to take people's minds off the 10's of thousands of people killed or injured during "W's" wars looking for "weapons of mass destruction!" Seek serious help while you're at it!
***Secret Service: Hillary has Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, w/ explosive physical outbursts***
Just another black eye for the Secret Service that shows how unprofessional, classless, & not worth trusting by the people they are sworn to protect! How do you write a book about what goes on behind the scenes of the White House w/ impunity? It doesn't bother me b/c after Hooker-gate, drunken-gate, and all the breaks in security, they've shown they aren't worth the cheap suits they're wearing! Slimeballs!
***...Let's see, oh yes... It's all the Secret Service's fault! Look at them! And PLEASE stop looking at Hillary!***
It doesn't matter if everything in his trashy book is correct! There's a code where the SS is supposed to protect & keep the First Family safe! If any and all of these clowns write books, they are showing themselves to not have any character themselves! How would you like a family member ratting out your idiocentricities just for the HELL of it? It's the same thing!
***Liberalism is rooted in victimhood & the creation of more victims via racism and governmental preference! It guarantees perpetual injustice!***
And cons NEVER complain or act like they're being victimized! Just by the MSM, the press/magazines, Dems, Hollywood, etc., etc., etc.!
***...And as far as the armed forces, Trump couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag!...***
What else could Ryan do but back to the hilt this bigoted fathead? I feel for their party which mhb noble a while back, but have lowered the bar so far that we're on a precipice! I'd rather jump off a cliff than support such an insane monster, but that's just me! If you want to say voting for Hillary is a decision over 2 evils; fine! I can live w/ Hillary & Bill! Trump should scare everyone to distraction instead of "falling in line" like sheep & lemmings!
***Indeed, it all boils down to what folks have for sale. Turns out more than a few in the principles and values crowd are just ass lickers who obviously have always had those principles and values up for sale to support what Speaker Ryan characterizes as "textbook racism" and former Speaker Gingrich characterizes as "inexcusable." Funny thing....You could bet the farm & win, those Trump ass lickers don't have the 1st clue the price they sold their principles & values for to support Trump. No clue. ---
Why don't you tell me what Trump intends, aside from building a wall that Mexico is going to pay for? They going to cut a check to the US Govt?***
No they don't want to talk about real policy! That's how Trump won the nomination forgetting he needs to come up w/ real solution for real problems! It's all been about smoke & mirrors speaking in generalities like "we're going to be great, I'm going to bring jobs back, blah, blah, blah," w/o pinpointing how he's supposed to do any of it! It's sad for him and his supporters t/b so conned!
***It's not sad for his supporters. The're stupid enough to vote for someone who did not tell them how he plans to do any of these amazing things!***
He could have said anything! It appears Reps like to be LIED to on a regular basis! It's called being "strong & tough" I guess! What's rich is Trump calls other people liars all the X, but I'm not sure of 1 truth he's told since he's begun this campaign! He lying about his worth, the audit on his taxes & why we can't see them, the Veteran's charity, and about the check he supposedly wrote and sent months ago! It wasn't until the press put his feet to the fire & started checking things out that made him come around and now he feels aggrieved! He's a tool and his supporters are responsible for this clown being so close to power! ===
Hillary Clinton Declared Presumptive Dem. Nom. NBC News just called it w/ more Super Delegates confirmed their support for Clinton! It's over before primary tomorrow in NJ & CA! Sorry!
- Hillary Clinton captures commitments from delegates to become 1st woman to top major party ticket - News - NorthJersey.com -
***Go Hillary!! - Yeah! I'm really annoyed w/ Bernie bitching about super delegates now! If he had them, he wouldn't be screaming about how unfair it is! I just don't get what all these dumb 20 something's see in a 74 yo man!***
Tell me about it! What's more perplexing are women who s/b jumping @ the chance of Hillary being President! There are more female voters, but they consistently seem to prefer aging, doddering old fools instead of 1 of their own! It just makes no sense! Look at Kentucky after all McConnell has done to screw over the process; totally overlooked the female candidate w/ a good reputations & family! Idiots!
***Trump’s concern is about judicial impartiality. The judge in ??, Gonzalo Curiel, is a member of the La Raza Lawyers of San Diego, a group that claims it is not affiliated w/ the Nat'l Council of La Raza, but which lists that group, strongly opposed to the Trump candidacy on its website as part of its “community.” - ...He's going down, which shows just how f'd up the Rep.n Party is. They couldn't take Obama down w/ everything neg. they had against him & they won't be able to take HRC down w/ everything they have against her. Maybe instead of blaming the media & everyone else for their short comings, they should look w/i themselves. That's a joke b/c we know they'll never do that. They'd rather blame & keep on losing! ---
a) The GOP's in severe crisis. The crisis is so severe it threatens even the existence of the U.S. Rep. Party.
b) Rep. leadership realize, after 2 stunning losses; the Rep. message simply wasn't (isn't) appealing to the whole electorate. Even Republican primary voters have barged to the parapets angrily brandishing their farm implements in a THROW THE BUMS OUT mob scene. They had SIXTEEN other Rep. candidates to choose from. And they picked TRUMP ?!?! !
c) Now that The Donald's the presumptive Rep. nominee the ranking Rep. leadership are looking for a path to political party unity. Priebus, McConnell, & Ryan know, their chances vs the Dem. won't be as good if the Reps go into Nov.'s voting booths in a fustercluck.
- THE REPUBLICANS NEED UNITY. NOT JUST LIP SERVICE PAP. THE GOP NEEDS GENUINE IDEOLOGICAL ACCORD APPEALING ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY GET REP. VOTERS TO THE POLLS THIS NOV. -
The stakes are no < than that. And candidly; from the look of things at this point; I am not encouraged.
- I think Bush put Obama in the White house.
- And at this exceedingly early date, it looks like Trump is going to put Hillary in the White House.
First Lady William Jefferson Clinton! - gosh -***
I said this yrs ago, that w/b "W's" legacy; "GWB got a Black man elected to the Presidency of the United States!" McCain selecting Palin didn't help, but the major factor was Bush screwed the country over so badly; esp. in the waning months w/ skyrocketing unemployment, the collapse of the DOW, and 2 wars raging on, it all culminated in creating & electing Obama! "Thanks George!"
***"Bush did not put BHO in the WH, voters did that. Sear, you are so --- ridiculous." ---
- omg - What a simpleminded comment! I know how elections work Einstein.
OF COURSE the voters twice elected Obama. That was never in dispute. The issue is WHY?!?! And many scholarly opinions on it that I've sampled tend to agree; the Rep. brand was being punished in '08, and perhaps again in '12, for such ghastly treachery as:
"Intelligence gathered by this & other gov'ts leaves no doubt, that the Iraq regime continues to possess & conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." U.S. President Bush (the younger) televised address to the U.S. March 17th, 2003 - That was an absolute LIE!! And 1000's died as a result of President Bush (R-TX) lying U.S. into War on the premise it was a War of necessity, when it was clearly a War of choice.
And it's not difficult to imagine the Rep. brand is STILL paying the price for Rep. misdeeds that took place over a decade ago. Do you think it's a coincidence JEB! dropped out in single digits? Not only does the USA not want Bush, the Rep. primary electorate doesn't even want their own party's status quo.***
***Nole just right passed his 29th birthday. Let us examine what happened to other all-X-greats at this stage.
First, Fed. '10 USO Lost to Nole in SF '11 AO Lost to Nole in SF '11 RG Lost to Rafa in Final '11 SW19 Lost to Tsonga in QF '11 USO Lost to Nole in SF '12 AO Lost to Rafa in SF '12 RG Lost to Nole in SF '12 SW19 Champion '12 USO Lost to Berdych in QF
He reached at least QF's in the next 2 yrs (9 majors). If Rafa & Nole were taken away, he lost only twice to outliner, which m/b attributed to his aging. That is really amazing.
In Pistol’s case, he was only a factor in USO after 29th BD & there were no Rafa or Nole stopping him. Ironically he didn’t face Agassi until his swan song. Pete fell from peak much more steeply. Though both Pistol and Fed won only 1 major after 29th birthday, the context is very diff. It's as laughable to call 1 X wonder the same btw Roddick & Gaudio.
In Agassi’s case, he won 6 after 29th BD. The baseline player didn’t necessarily age worse than S&V type. Nole’s style's closer to Agassi’s than Pete's & I didn’t see it disadvantage.
Playing style cannot tell much on aging pattern. Nole's diff. from Rafa that he doesn’t have repeated injury history. If his aging is anything close to Fed, 17 is not daydream in this WEAK ERA. ---
1. You can see Roger's clear era of dominance, from '04-07, and then a plateau phase of '08-12, w/ '13-present being strongly declined. Actually, these charts clearly depict how Roger really hasn't won much from '13 to the present - that's the last 3 1/2 yrs.
2. '11 & '13 are the 2 yrs in which the Big 4 won every big title. I like to call '12 "The Year of the Big 4," b/c it was the most evenly balanced btw the 4. '08-13 is the range in which at least 3 of the 4 won Slams, & '05-14 is the range in which at least 2 won Slams.
3. Each of the Big 4 have had 1 year in which they did not have any shares of big titles: '13 for Roger, '15 for Rafa, '10 for Novak, & '14 for Murray. ---
Nole has a 3 yr window (14 slam ops left counting the remaining to 2) to surpass Federer to win 5-6 more slams. So basically he has to win < than 1/2 of the remaining Slams btw now and the USO '19 to surpass Federer. I think thats probable, barring injury. What's he gonna be in '19; 32 yrs of age? Thats nothing. Not to mention Nole was a late bloomer compared to Nadal. Thats also not to mention, he could very well win more @ 33-34 yrs old (I mean Fed was still reaching slam finals @ 34 as was Agassi even at 35). Nole's good for at LEAST 1 more slam this year, ending the year at 13. Getting nervous yet Fed fans? ---
...You lost me w/ '11-16 being a stronger era. Meanwhile the guy who Novak beat at RG is a mighty 2-8 in Slam finals. Am I missing something or are there other guys out there challenging Novak? Stan 2 matches every decade? Last 3 Slam finals Fed & Djokovic played 'guess who' had an overwhelming advantage. Could it be the guy nearly 34/35? I think not. Pull the other 1 w/ the nonsense that this is a strong era in tennis right now, please, 'cos no 1 at all is buying that.***
***Have the past 12 months been the most dominant period of any male player ever? Nole's rec:
Won Wimbledon Won US Open Won Beijing Won Shanghai Won Paris Indoors Won WTF Won Doha Won AO Won IW Won Miami Won Madrid Won RG
Final Canada Final Cinci Final Rome
Largest pt diff. btw 1 & 2 52 str. wks @ #1 Winning H2H vs all main rivals YE #1
If that doesn't make it the most dominant 12 months, then IDK what will. ---
Speaking about W/L % as a most significant criteria of greatness & dominance:
Match record * % W–L
1. Sweden- Björn Borg 83.4 136–27
2. Serbia- Novak Djokovic 82.8 288–60
3. Spain- Rafael Nadal 82.29 316–68
4. USA- John McEnroe 82.28 195–42
5. Czech.- Ivan Lendl 81.7 223–50
6. Switz.- Roger Federer 77.1 330–98
And if No1e have 33% more slams in last 12 months than Fed in '06, but have a poorer performance b/c of W/L % than will Fed have a poorer career performance than No1e when No1e wins another Slam. He will have 30% more slams, but poorer W/L records! ---
Since losing the FO final last yr, Djokovic has won 12 titles includ. all 4 majors, the WTF & 5 Masters 1000s. His W-L record is 85-6. I'm just wondering if these past 12 months c/b regarded as the most dominant by any player in history, and not just in the Open Era. I'm not sure about Laver's stats, but perhaps he had an even more impressive run in the late '60s. - Djokovic is the only man to have ever reached 3 cons. finals for each of the Slams. This is why he'll continue to win majors b/c you have to keep making it there. The min. you have a string of poor results @ a Slam the harder it gets. ---
21 of the last 22 1st tier events; Masters, Year ender, & Slams have featured Djokovic in the final w/ him winning 17 of those. He has now won 5 of the last 6 Slams as well. No, we have never seen dominance like this; not even in Fed's heyday. Novak goes into every match on every surface vs every opp. as the fave. Even in Fed or Nadal's heyday, you simply couldn't make that statement.***
***Yep - and Pete had the nerve to downplay the legitimacy of clay as a surface to excuse his shocking results LMAO.***
As X goes on, poor Petey will continue to drop in the GOAT discussion unfortunately! I was on the bandwagon just 10 yrs ago giving him the highest accolades even w/o a FO final played! At the X, he was so far ahead of his closest rivals & dwarfed the records of past greats, we were all ready to give him a pass on taking a FO title! He had 14 Majors which was significant back then and we were ready to carry his water to place him above Laver; now he's fallen back down due to awesome results of Roger, Rafa, & Nole! He's seen his stock truly fall! Laver's 2 CYGS; 1 as an amateur & 1 as a pro in '69 put him above Sampras for good even though 3 Majors short! OTTH, the old & new GOAT lists are as follows:
***Good stuff, Fiero. 1st of all, you really should include Pro Slams among majors, which would give Laver 19, not 11. He spent most of his best years on the pro tour and won 8 Pro Slams. As you likely know, the Pro Slams were shorter tourneys, more like the WTF's today - but they included the very best players on tour; far better than the Amateur Slams during the 60s.
But maybe Laver & Rosewall belong to the pre-Open Era, and we should treat them differently. As I see it, right now Federer maintains his hold as the greatest of the Open Era, at least in terms of career accomplishments. After him you have Sampras, Nadal, & Djokovic clustered together in some order. By the end of this year I think Novak will have separated himself from the other 2, even if he only wins 1 more Slam.
TENNISBASE.COM'S ALL-X RANKINGS 1. Rod Laver 2836 2. Ken Rosewall 2607 3. Roger Federer 2603 4. Bill Tilden 2361 5. Novak Djokovic 2182 6. Ivan Lendl 2162 7. Rafael Nadal 1990 8. Pancho Gonzales 1985 9. Jimmy Connors 1845 10. Pete Sampras 1808 11. John McEnroe 1747 12. Bjorn Borg 1636 13. Andre Agassi 1555 14. Tony Wilding 1414 15. Boris Becker 1323 16. Don Budge 1310 17. Roy Emerson 1278 18. Bobby Riggs 1189 19. Stefan Edberg 1184 20. Laurence Doherty 1163
It's interesting to note that they rank Novak ahead of Rafa, which is something I did earlier in the year and got a bit of (friendly) flack for. It's also clear that Roger will soon pass Rosewall, but probably not Laver. I can agree w/ that as I think Rod Laver--not Roger--has t/b considered the all-X #1. I'd probably also put Lendl below Nadal & Sampras, and Connors below Borg & McEnroe. Borg's the hardest player to rank b/c his career was so short & we didn't see what his decline phase would have looked like.***
***...in Nov. of last yr, which I post again w/ some adds:
1. From '11 thru '13, the Big 4 won 41/42 of the big events, w/ only Ferrer's lone win in Paris in '12 bucking the trend.
2. '14 was their least dominant yr for a decade, w/ 4 'non-big 4' winners, when there had never been more than 3 since '04!
3. But in '15 it reverted & went back down to only 1 'non-big 4' winner - 1 of the top 4 most dominant Big 4 yr so far.
4. This stat is true of all of the Big 4: since winning their 1st 'Big 14' tourney, every member of the Big 4 has gone on to win at least 1 of the Big 14 events every yr from then on right up to the present, except for 1 dodgy yr for each of them. For Novak, it was '10, for Roger '13, for Andy '14 & for Rafa '15.
Will '16 be another of these yrs, or will all the 'Big 4' win at least 1 of the 'Big 14' next year?!
5. Despite the Big 4's dominance, there have only been 2 yrs so far where they won all 14 big events, '11 & '13.
In '11 all the Big 4 won big events, but in '13 it was just Novak, Andy & Rafa, as Roger had his dodgy yr.
(In both '12 & '15 they came close, winning 13/14, in '12 w/ all the big 4 winning big events, but in '15 just Novak, Andy & Roger, w/ Rafa having his dodgy yr.)
So far this yr, not only have all 7 big events been won by the Big 4, they have constituted 11/14 final spots too!
For comparison, last yr 25/28 final spots throughout the yr were filled by Big 4 members.
Also, over 1/2 of the big finals so far this yr (4 of the 7) have been Djokovic-Murray finals. ---
...they thought Fed w/b an all X great even after his 1st major--they don't say that about everybody. Everybody was talking about Nadal as he came up. Folks talked about Nole when he was 19 having the talent t/b a great player--not just good, but great. Roger, Rafa & Nole are greats b/c they are simply better, particularly when it counts.***
It has been a strange merry-go-round w/ these 3 players! You had Roger dominating initially starting in '03, winning everything in sight; 3 major finals 3 X's! The tide turned a little w/ the ascension of Rafa; esp. @ the FO! He started to impose his will on Roger, finally beating him on all surfaces; even Wimbl. grass! Then along came Nole defeating them both & taking 3 majors of his own in '11! They played a little volleyball w/ the top ranking for a few yrs, now Nole has taken over for good! He's really exerting dom. on the tour; Majors, Masters, & now 4 str. WTF wins @ O2! They all are CGS winners, but unlike Roger & Rafa, Nole owns all 4 Slams at the moment w/ a chance at a CYGS this season after taking his 1st FO title over a relative pigeon & perennial "also-ran," Murray! Right now, it doesn't look like anyone can stop him from overtaking all the Open records, but it can change w/ this new gen. of players like Theim, Kei, & Raonic; we'll see!
***...There simply aren't any players on tour right now that are capable of a consistently high level of play to seriously challenge Novak. ---
...to take out Novak, 1 needs consistent high level of play in just 1 match. Many people like Simon, Belluci, etc. have come close before.***
But you have t/b able to finish; unlike Simon who was on top of Nole who committed 100 UFE & still let the match get away from him! Kei was beating him on clay a few wks ago & also allowed Nole to escape in a 3rd set TB! Murray was scary good in the 1st set of the FO, but he forgot how he beat him just a few wks before in Rome! It's all in their head & Nole doesn't panic! As soon as you ease up or miss a volley, he grabs them by the throat & snatches victory from defeat!
Please name 1 thing Trump can actually do! Making America great isn't "doing anything!" We all know that wall isn't going to be built, he's not going to trash all the trade agreements signed, & he's definitely not going to initiate tariffs on products made abroad! He's full of shit & even his family knows it! I think they should have the man committed and after he loses this election, we shouldn't see this idiot again w/o a straight-jacket on!
***Building the wall, owering the corp. tax rate, repatriate $$ lost overseas, stop refugees from war torn regions, put a focus on our education system rather than simply tossing $$ at it, emphasizing states rights, cutting regulations, repealing Obamacare if he has Congress, ,ot nominating left wing activists to the SCOTUS are but a few plans!***
Hilarious! Reps have been trying to repeal Obamacare for yrs w/ 50+ bills attempting that Herculean feat! As for the rest of it, we'll never know! Trump has embarrassed himself & the Rep. party so much, his normal allies are running for the hills dropping support for him! You can't win if the Party as a whole isn't backing you to the hilt!
***Stupid as it was they were keeping their campaign promises. They knew it couldn't be done when they didn't win a veto proof majority, but the promise had been made so they kept their bargain w/ the voters that elected them. ---
Clinton Wins Presidency nom. in Historic Landslide Beatdown over Donald Trump! - So in Cal. Clinto got 55.8% of the votes, Trump 73.3%. In Montana Clinton got 44.6% of the votes, in NJ Clinton got 63.3% of the vote, Trump 80.6%. NM Clinton 51.5%, Trump 70.7%. So. Dakota Clinton 25.6%, Trump 67%. Please do tell how that was a "beatdown" for Trump? The only thing I see Clinton doing that was of any significance is being the 1st female to clinch a presidential nom.***
Besides having less Reps in those areas, Trump ran unopposed! Of course he had big #'s in a primary or caucus last night! Sheeshh! Why do we bother trying to educate willfully ignorant people? I'm so embarrassed for you and your ilk! ---
...Obama wound up being 1 of the most successful 2 term presidents! The country recovered, though slowly after the disastrous admin. of "W" & the world isn't as upset w/ us!
***Of course the world loves us. We have a so-called American President apologizing for all our past actions. He's got the doors at Gitmo wide open. He gave away our top 2 terrorists in prison for a lowly traitor Private. He has an open border attitude & taking in foreigners like they were on sale. He's given Iran a X frame on when they can build nukes & even lied to the American public about who we were negotiating w/. No attempts at getting the people responsible for Benghazi. ---
Damn Ray......you are really striking out big X...
You do know we got the guys responsible for Benghazi don't you? The guys in Gitmo have not been convicted of any offenses...there are things known as human rights
The guys released were far from our top 5.....ever hear of Sheik Mohammad? The guy who planned 9-11?
We have fewer illegals today than under Rep. leadership
But you will just repost your lies tomorrow won't you?***
Just a week ago they were joking about how divided the Dem. Party was and now they're self-immolating and can't decide what to do w/ Trump who's became their presumptive nominee wks ago! How does this happen? They thought for sure all they'd need to do is point at Bill * Hillary and the election would fall into their laps! What a bunch of morons! It was all set up for them and this is the state of affairs w/ the Rep. Party; unable to get their collective act together nationally!
***Defiant Bernie Sanders Refuses to Bow to the Bitch***
Bernie's a very small man & getting smaller everyday! He's a true loser who's ego has been crushed like a peanut & he can't "let it go!" I've found him t/b a hypocrite & a liar and why he has so many supporters is beyond me! All that free stuff isn't practical & he's just conning them as much as anything Trump has said and done! He's lost what little the Democratic intelligencia had for him and it's unfortunate he isn't going to get much in return for begrudging support for Hillary! It's sad that it'll end w/ this old man fading into the background, but he did it to himself! His silly wife shouldn't have encouraged this curmudgeon act to finish off his pathetic career!
***Senator Sanders (I) is a magnanimous utilitarian that's the opposite of an elitist. Misguided though I believe he is, Sanders advocates the best, for the most. = Trump has good ideas, but can't keep the teenage mouth of his shut. On the flip side Hillary has 0 good ideas, but NEVER opens her mouth cause she knows it would end badly. ---
...Those job gains were illegal aliens getting the jobs of citizens who lost their jobs. - Of course not..., but if the rightwing Echo chamber tells you so, you gotta believe it.***
I've been saying, cons don't mind being lied to; a great need for reaffirmation regardless if wrong! It's more than a little pathetic when they harp on Benghazi, the emails, the server, & the CGI! These things have been investigated to death & after millions of $$ & countless hearings, "THEY GOT NOTHING!" Their heads want to explode, so to relieve the pressure they keep on insinuating something's there, it just hasn't been found yet! IDIOTS!
***Hilary's a crook. Her & Bill have sold this country down the river just to enrich themselves and win the White House back.....but we know they are crooked as hell and an Outsider is going to kick their political asses.***
Name it; don't spew it! Make a charge and make it stick why don't you? Reps have been pulling this shit for years, throwing out accusations & proving little! Why not go back & hit them on Iran Contra, starting 2 wars on the big lie of WMD, Katrina disaster, & of course the banking collapses that occur every X a Rep.'s in the White House w/ a Rep. Congress? You gotta do better than accuse Bill & Hillary of murder, pocketing $$ from the CGI, & any other # of BS charges! - ...It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see we need investments in infrastructure, but the House won't authorize any add'l spending even if it helped the economy! Bridges, roads, & utilities all need an upgrade, but they'll wait until Hillary gets in there; they hate Obama so much!
***Yes we do, but that's not why they're not spending, it's b/c DumBama doubled our debt already.***
Oh please, Obama didn't double shit! The cost of "W's" wars came a calling which had been off budget for yrs; not to mention the subsequent stimulus needed to keep the whole economy from collapsing! Overall spending went down to cover Rep. malfeasance during the term before Obama even got there! Spare me the blame for an economy on the brink, loans to auto industry, & the high cost of those wars that had to wane down! Give me a break!
***Bush mhb an amazing man to have all this blame on him many years after he was long gone. Gee, I wonder if you leftists & Socialists w/b doing the same w/ DumBama after he's gone?***
Nothing was more funny & pathetic than "W" trying to blame Clinton for inheriting a recession! Forgot that huh? He used that lame ass line until the day he left even when losing 800,000 jobs a month, the auto industry about to collapse, & trillions of $$ lost in the stock market when the DOW went down to 6600! It's now at 18,000, unemployment under 5%, gas prices <, & respect from around the world when they were burning "W" in effigy!
***He lowered taxes on just about everybody, but a lib only sees what he wants to see.***
Giving $300 to the common man did nothing but deepen the deficit! What was criminal was the 1000's of $$ given to rich folks that didn't need it! There was a surplus & "W" turned it into a deep deficit & recession w/i years! Reps don't deserve to ever take over the Presidency again after what they did this last X in power! You can't lower taxes and at the same X start 2 wars; that's insane!
***The reason W was successful w/ his economic growth & DumBama a failure is b/c you can't rely on 1 sector to boost the economy of 300 million people. - Slowest growth? Except for the roaring stock markets, people's IRA's 401 K's recovering. Who do you think makes up our markets? The largest companies in America are NOW > than ever and all you punks cry doom and gloom.***
If a Rep. was in office, they w/b touting all these #'s! These people are disgustingly hypocritical & don't even try to hide their partisanship! They're an embarrassment to the country constantly putting down everything good that occurs & making excuses when totally in the wrong!
***I wonder what Hillary's said that's worth millions? - It's not what they said that was worth millions, it was being able to print their names in the program that was worth it.***
Sounds a lot like jealousy to me; Sanders & "the rightwing!" They're just PO'd they w/b lucky to make a few 1000! Even after the Clintons have been maligned & accused of so much, their influence & popularity just drives you guys insane! They've been vilified like no other couple in history! The Rosenbergs have gotten off scott-free in comparison & there are people that just can't stand it! They've survived & been the most successful in the history of this world!
***...After hearing about Hillary's Armani jacket priced at $12,400, it's doubtful Trump wears $12,000 suit jackets. He also made his $$ in the private sector unlike the witch and her husband. - He likely sells his jackets for 1000's, but gets them made in China or Mexico for a few $$.***
I'm not sure Trump is selling anything! I distinctly remember Macy's kicking his products out the door & said they would no longer do so! Other stores & businesses soon followed! This campaign of HUBRIS is going to end up costing him more than he thought!
The Big 4’s share of the big finals grew steadily from 2003-2007 as Roger, Rafa, and then Novak rose to prominence.
'08 saw a dip, due perhaps to Federer’s mono & thus dip in form? (Roger didn’t win a single Masters title & only made 2 finals. In the previous yr, he reached 5 finals, winning 2.)
Then there was another dip in '10 (due to Novak’s dodgy year? i.e. Not only did Novak not win a Masters event, he didn’t even make a single final! (The previous yr he made 5 finals, the next year he made 6.)
'11 & '12 saw their most dominant shares up to that pt, then a dip again in '13 when Roger had his back problems, & in '14 w/ Andy’s dodgy yr & Rafa slipping.
But last year was the most dominant so far. (Even though Rafa had a poor '15 by his standards, the other 3 took up the slack so they still dominated, in fact even more than before.)
In terms of finals, '16 is, so far, their 4th most dominant yr...***
I've been railing about this for yrs! It's ridiculous that the rest of the tour has been so gutless, allowing 4 players to own the titles, but also the Rr-up positions as well! Never has it been so lame; even w/ the greatness of Borg, Connor, Lendl, & McEnroe in the draws! Two or more were upset most of the X; even in majors! That doesn't seem to happen much for the last decade and I find it appalling since I know the other players have the ability, just not the heart & mind! Simon illicited 100 UFE @ the AO vs Nole; lost! Sev. yrs ago, Deliciamo Lopez was in the 3rd Rd of a clay event in a 3rd set TB vs Fed! He was up 5-2, butchered an easy overhead at the net & preceded to give it all back allowing Roger to escape! Back at the FO in '12, Tsonga had 4 MP's vs Nole in the 4th set & let him off the hook, eventually giving the 5th away eating a bread-stick! Last season at Cincy, Grigor was up a break or 2 in 2 sets & let them both go vs Murray! I can list a dozen of these weak efforts, but my hands would just start shaking w/ rage!
***Btw '74-84, if we exclude the AO b/c the top players mostly didn't play it, then 25/33 Grand Slams were won by just 3 men!: Borg, McEnroe & Connors! Btw '78-81 they won all 12 GS! So whilst I agree w/ you to some extent, this sort of dominance has happened before; just not for as long! ---
Hard to believe Lendl had that many wins, m/b it's the press, but Fed seems more dominant. He needs just 33 more wins to surpass Sampras. Chances are by the end of this yr or next year's AO he will have. - Fed tied Lendl in matches won @ 1071. They both are joint #2 now. Jimmy Connors is #1 w/ 1256. Fed needs to win 185 more matches to tie Connors. So, Jimbo's record will be safe.***
I don't think people understand or remember how dominant Lendl was back in the 80's! He won 8 majors, made 8 str. USO finals winning 3 in a row, was #1 for quite a few yrs, & overtook his closest rivals in McEnroe & Connors! He was the original Djokovic who had to overcome 2 ATG's w/ hard work & resilience! He was rarely upset, making SF & Finals just as consistently & didn't win Wimbledon making 2 finals only b/c of grass court specialists like McEnroe, Becker, & Edberg!
***He's 1 of my fave players, that BH. I was just comparing him to someone like Djok who has 730 wins being placed above him, w/ 400 less wins. He would dominate today's court speed, probably why he helped Murray so much.***
Djokovic has been acknowledge to have a "Nole Slam" since he holds all 4 Majors @ this moment after winning FO this past wk over Murray! ...It all becomes moot if he's able to win both Wimbledon & the USO this season! Serena Wms has hers, but Navratilova won 6 in a row over 2 seasons! Anyone?
***What is the most exciting thing that has happened in tennis in last decade?***
It's hard to say; s/b Nole '11 season! ...it was a joke to call Fedal a true rivalry when Roger had only limited success against Rafa! It wasn't as much I'm this super-fan of Djokovic, but it was a combo of losin' Hingis & Henin twice & nothing was more boring than Fedal making all the major finals for a while! I gave Roger all due credit for becoming the GOAT before our very eyes doing unprecedented feats as taking 3 of 4 majors routinely, but guess what? He's been matched and outdone taking 4 straight WTF's at the O2 & creating his own moniker of Nole Slammer! OTTH, how many have this; Serena, Navratilova, & of course Graf & Laver's CYGS? Martina's the most noteworthy winning 6 in a row over 2 seasons!
***I'll tell you why Nole's overtaken them all in the h2h, Fed's a pensioner in tennis terms, Nadal's a mere shell of himself for 2+ yrs, & Murray's just not that good. Btw, it took till Fed was 34 til Djokovic overtook him & likewise Nadal had physically declined a lot. Not exactly much to boast about.***
History won't care if both Rafa & Roger were missing altogether in a major draw! They lost or didn't play at all and the tourney still went according to what would have happened regardless! Laver had problems w/ Rosewall & Hoad! We still give him props for his accomplishments even though he had 2 players who gave him heartburn! As far as I'm concerned, it's only valid concerning Nole the last 2 years! Rafa and Fed were #1 as recently as '13 & '12 respectively! So get over it already! He can only play who's pushed in front of him! It's hardly his fault he's so dominating that competent players just don't seem t/b able to break through! Down the line, few are going to even think that way beside Fedal sycophants!
***That couldn't be further from the truth. Fed's WD from RG screwed the draw up completely & made Novak's draw laughable. You really think a healthy Nadal would've lost to Murray at RG? The whole tournament this year was a shambles. Historians will most definitely recall all the facts.***
So did Murray's withdrawal a few yeas ago! It put Rafa at #4 when he shb #5 coming back from another hiatus! That punished Nole, so look at the complete history instead of instances that bolster your argument! You should know by now it's fruitless to try that w/ me! My history goes back to '74 & I'll always have a legitimate counter for you!
***Take it out 15 yrs for a really exciting shock: erratic Swiss hippie beats Sampras @ Wimbledon***
That period was quite interesting w/ Sampras dropping like a stone & unable to win an event for over 2 yrs; 2000 Wimbledon to '02 USO vs Agassi! I didn't see it, but it was all the talk of the internet some nobody ranked outside #126 took Pete out of Wimbledon in '01, giving Goran his last best chance at the title taking a WC! I was wondering why Sampras was still haunting the tour dropping out of the top 20 by the X of that USO! Even Connors didn't fall into obscurity so fast! IIRC, he was given a seed of #17 out of respect for his achievements b/c he certainly didn't deserve or earn it! It was great that he found a fountain of youth on site at Flushing and he progressively got better as the matches went on adding #14 to his resume!
***I think Nadal played some of his best tennis in '11, it was a very good year for him. Besides Djokovic, he dominated the rest of the field & was very consistent throughout the year.***
Tis true! It wasn't as if Nadal wasn't playing well; making final after final! Unfortunately Nole was on the other side of net X & X again! It was more reminiscent of Navratilova's dominance of Evert in '83 & '84! She was literally toying w/ Evert! Nole wasn't exactly toying with Rafa, but he was winning in str. on clay over Rafa in Madrid & Rome IIRC! Both were clearly #1 & #2 w/ Roger pretty much an afterthought save him stopping Nole's winning streak; somewhere around 42! Now he very well may be toying w/ Murray since he's not even playing his best! He's had some horrendous starts but surviving when it counted! Rafa stuck it out and actually took the #1 ranking back for the last X! He had a career years in '13 and fell precipitously, breaking down & barely able to hold onto his last vestiges of a X gone by!
***Novak Djokovic - 12 GS's - 6 A0, 1 FO, 3 WIM & 2 USO Career Grand Slam (Won all 4 Majors @ least once) NCGS - Won 4 slams cons. (Held all 4 at once) 29 Masters 1000 titles - Outright holder 12 ATP 500 Titles 5 World Tour Finals - 2nd only to Federer 4 YE #1 46 Tier 1 titles - 2nd only to Federer
Firmly in tier 1 w/ Federer, Nadal, Sampras. ---
Djokovic when you look at his #1 statistics in terms of YE #1's & wks @ #1, along w/ his 1000 level records, & 5 WTF titles; then you see how Novak probably gets the edge over Pete or Rafa in terms of accomplishment even though those 2 have 2 more slams than him. Pete never won as consistently as Novak at Master's events, he never won the FO, never won 5 of 6 Slams. In regards to Nadal, Novak owns him in recent years & they're the same age practically, already is lapping Nadal in wks @ #1 & YE #1's, & again Nadal didn't ever win 4 str. Slams & hold all the Majors @ once. So this recent accomplishment of being only the 3rd male player in 125 yrs of GS tennis to hold all the Majors @ once, probably elevates him over the 2 guys in the modern era who have 14 Slams. ---
...So basically ignore all evidence that suggests statistically Nadal played a > level in '11 than '10, and instead choose to "observe" w/ no basis that clearly he was worse?***
Rafa would have had 2 cons. career yrs but for Nole thwarting him in all those '11 finals; including SW19, Flushing, Rome, Madrid, Miami, & IW! The same 2 players contested them!
***Exactly. As I said Rafa would have won 5 Masters w/ 3 Slams in '11 if Novak didn't rise to beat him. He would have won 8/9 Majors bettering Fed's best run of 8/10. He would have 17 & be Open Era GOAT. He was winning the Majors Novak didn't in that stretch & only losing to him & the #'s back up his level of play. But yes, lets throw all of that out & say a 24-25 year old reaching all finals was not in his peak and try to justify it by saying the field of comp. drastically decreased from '10 & '11. ---
Djokovic's now in a similar position to where he was after Wimbledon '11 triumph, hs №1 ranking & proved again that he can beat top guys @ Majors outside of Australia. Novak is a very strong fave for both USO & AO, & if he wins both of these majors, there are no reasons why he can't win another RG if he keeps his form up. ---
...The real Djokovic didn't actually turn up until Beijing that fall....***
He gets into trouble, but has the mental strength to get out of it again & again; very impressive since I don't think he's played well since Qater! He obliterated Nadal; actually toyed w/ him w/ s&v pts & besting him in all the long rallies! It was the most complete match he's played all season! He's been a step or 2 behind that level all spring!
***I think that has a lot to do w/ all the tennis Nole's played! Only MC tourney out of all the big events was missing him, so I'm not surprised he can't keep bringing it all the X.***
He didn't blossom until late & he had to step on the gas to catch & surpass his 2 greatest rivals! They had a huge lead on him battling 5 yrs before he came into his own for good! I agree he could pull back a little, but I think that's what drives him to excel! He's getting little to no love for the most part; so he's always PROVING himself to the masses and Nat'l media!
***Djokovic was created by Federer & Nadal. He's the single biggest thing that came out of the Fedal era. They made him. I've often said that Lendl benefitted from Connors & McEnroe tailing off after '84-85. Still, Lendl had serious comp. from others like Becker, Edberg & Wilander.***
Lendl was surrounded by ATG's & future "HoF's!" Who are the "Big 3" surrounded by; Ferrer, Berdych, Clic, Tsonga, & Gasquet? Twenty to 30 yrs ago was the 1st true "Golden Age" of tennis w/ so much talent! I commented once that @ any given Major, their c/b a dozen GS winner! That's not even possible in this era w/ just 5 players dominating all of them! Another site mused about how the "also-rans" of this era can't even get to the final but a fraction of the X!
***...It's been great seeing Theim's rise this year (scoring wins over Nadal & Federer my fave parts, but it's really blown out of proportion.***
The desire is desperate to at least groom someone to take over! We've been waiting w/ players like Gasquet, Ferrer, Roddick, Tsonga, Cilic, Del Po, & Berdych, but they can't seem to get over the hump! They've played the "Big 3" enough to have more of a game plan than just outhitting or outlasting them! It's moronic in the 10th degree b/c of all their opportunities & you can count the wins in Maajors on 1 hand for the collective lot! They've been pathetic & s/b rather ashamed of themselves! We can only pray Theim fulfills his promise!
***...Fed's the dominant grass/HC player, not Rafa, so Fed s/b more expected to reach Rafa as #1 or #2 seed than Rafa automatically making finals as a #2 seed. I agree H2H is overrated in its value somewhat, but Rafa's H2H edge overall vs Fed is fully legit. He owns him incredibly badly on clay, and Fed has nothing elsewhere to come close to counteracting that huge clay edge, other than maybe indoors, but indoor's a far < important surface in today's game than clay. ---
...Nadal's outdoor HC record is inflated vs Fed b/c the majority of their outdoor HC meetings have been on slow HC well after Fed's prime on slow HC (matches like 11 Miami, 13 IW, 14 AO which Federer clearly had no chance to win). Federer leads in the 2nd 1/2 of the season 7-3 & 2 of Nadal's wins were in '13. So %-wise Federer owns Nadal in the 2nd 1/2 more than Nadal does Federer in the 1st despite Federer never getting to pad his wins by facing an awful version of Nadal in the 1st 1/2 of the year like Nadal did in '13. Also, Nadal faced Federer 8 X's in his worst confidence yrs of '08 & '13 when Fed was losing to guys he owned left & right & while Nadal was @ his peak. Federer never had the benefit of facing similar versions of Nadal (say 2nd 1/2 '09 Nadal or '15 Nadal). It's clear that the surface & age diff. influences their H2H big X. ---
3-0 in Australia's irrelevant as 2 of those meetings came past Federer's prime at the AO and when he was over 30. Obviously on a court that slow, 30+ yo Fed stands no chance vs prime Nadal.
The whole Federer-Nadal H2H comes down to 1 match...'09 AO. If Federer had won that match, it w/b obvious that the only surface Nadal w/b superior in a H2H matchup peak for peak was clay. Since he blew it, here we are.***
***We can plot Novak's career into 3 phases as below:
Phase 1 : Fedal Era ('05- 10) 1 Major in 24 appearance 1 WTF in 4 app.
Phase 2 : Big 4 Era (2011-14 FO)
5 majors in 14 app. 2 WTF in 3 app.
Phase 3 : Murray's Strong Depth Era ('14 Wimb - til date)
6 majors in 8 app. 2 WTF in 2 app.
Extending this a little further til the end of this yr; cons. basis.
7 majors in 9 app. 3 WTF in 3 app.
How does Murray figure that the current era has more depth?
Roger has Rolex, Nadal has Richard Milles, Djokovic has...Seiko Roger & Nadal have Nike, Djokovic has...Uniqlo Roger has Mercedes, Nadal has KIA , Djokovic has....Peugeot - Fed '06 ---
I've mentioned before, that I think tennis s/b viewed as distinct eras: •Pre Open Era •Open Era '68-03 •Open Era '03-Present (Poly String/More regulated conditions)◦This era we've seen 3 cons. dominant players collect the CS & put up unheard of #'s - everyone includ. former & current players & fans alike conclude that tennis in '16 is a diff. game than tennis in '93. It's almost like hard-bat ping pong paddles vs Sponge Bats in table tennis - it's a completely diff. game.
It's clear that every dom. player from now on will amass a CS. Hell Murray might even end his career w/ a CS - it's really not out of the realm of discussion. Nole 6+ #1's is all but a forgone conclusion barring something freak happening (injury - another player becoming as dom.) Both of those are unlikely...I wonder what year we're going to see a player go undefeated the entire year - Nole was the closest yet - except m/b Federer when he lost 4 matches - Noles 41-0 start to '11 was ridiculous. - ...We know Nadal never had Feds Consistency or Dominance, but Novak's Rod Lavers Successor. ===
The '88-93 gen. are a joke. Nishikori's the highest ranked of that group @ #6. The top 5 is 29 & older. Nishikori fluked 1 slam victory over Djkovoic ('14 USO). Hasn't beaten him since & gotten drubbed every X. Where's the Marat Safin of the '93-97 gen. to show up & just grab a Slam? Alex Zverev is YEARS away. The tour isn't the same as in 2000 when it wasn't as much about fitness. Now everyone is incredibly fit & only Djokovic can win the Slams b/c he just doesn't make errors & you can't hit winners by him w/ enough regularity to matter. Federer tried @ 2015 USO final, but it was a futile effort. Andy Murray in the FO Final was a joke compared to Fed's effort in the USO Final and he's 6 yrs younger. ---
(From the past; maybe 5 yrs ago) - Djokovic will never win another Slam.
*Oy vey said: ↑
2-3 more Slams, tops.
*soyizgood said: ↑
^^5 slams' definitely pushing it. I'm not sure he'll even make 5 slam finals for as long as Nadal holds up.
^^The 1st 4 pages are like diamonds.***
I love harking back to the proclamations of seasoned veterans like McEnroe and Wilander! They put so many limits on Nole years ago! Wilander in particular actually thought Rafa would own Nole for all time, saying he'll never beat Nadal on clay or Bo5 at a Slam! He's eating crow every time Djokovic comes onto the court because few if any thought his accomplishments were attainable by anyone, much less Nole! I've only gone with how I felt at the time and actually believed he had another chance of winning 4 majors in a row with multiple Masters to make it even more difficult for a record-breaker! His 2015 was actually better than 2011 and love checking the record book to see the updates where he's taken over or is running right behind Roger! Adding that YEC to 3 majors and 6 Masters was enough for me in '15, but it looks as if he has loftier goals of taking not only a NCGS, but an OGGS this season! I still wish he'd change his mind about going to RIO; just not worth it!
***...I've read several cons. on here post something about Trump being almost as bad a candidate as Hillary. Is Dot literally the ONLY liberal who dislikes Hillary?***
It's called choosing btw 2 evils & seeing what a disaster a neophyte like Trump w/b w/ his fingers too close to the nuclear codes! No one in this gen. is as qualified as Hillary, w/ a resume that rivals the best in the history of the country! Obama was totally w/o a record, but wound up doing a good job! Hillary's been the FLOTUS, a 2 term Senator, & Sec. of State! What has Trump accomplished beside defrauding people, bankrupting himself and others in his losing management of casinos, & running Miss Universe pageants & golf courses? Please spare me!
***Trump has said many X's in his stump speeches & town halls, as well as on many interviews that the Mexicans love him. If that's true, why is he afraid of a Mexican judge?***
In his own mind, who doesn't? He say women love him; add on the low information people, The Blacks, & of course The Muslims! He can insult a group and in the same speech say how much he's loved by them at the same time! Has he had a worst week+? Wow, talk about shooting oneself in the foot? Tweets won't "get it" as a strong response concerning the bombs dropped on his head! "Donald, you just keep doing it your way!" I see a lot of success with your approach!"
***This entire "racist" bullshit happened when Trump "misspoke" when describing the judge. Instead of using the word "Mexico," Trump should have used the words "La Raza Activist." Trump's point was that the judge is not neutral. - Now that he's getting brutalized by the media, maybe he'll realize that he's not the right tool for the job of president. He really wants to manage his business instead of playing at politics. He needs to decide which sandbox he wants to play in.***
He didn't misspeak; knows exactly what he was saying and reiterated it sev. X's over sev. diff. interviews! When are people going to stop making excuses for this bigot?
***Theres a special place reserved for those who vote solely based on gender ;)***
Heavens knows that's exactly what we've been doing for decades; both men & women voting for "the man!" There's a reason other than coincidence & continuity when most voters are women, but few hold elected office in comparison! Anyone who thinks Trump w/b a better leader than Hillary is obviously just against her personally & w/ sexism! No other person has been more qualified; esp. after a freshman senator w/ no record was elected twice! We obviously don't go w/ complete competence either or "W" would never have gotten out of TX! I don't blame the haters since they've been trained like Pavlov's Dog to salivate & pretty much foam @ the mouth when the woman's name is mentioned! I won't be voting for Hillary b/c of her sex, but b/c it only makes sense w/ the other choice being a tool like Trump!
***So you're going to do what every other drone has been doing for the last 30+ yrs- voting for the <er of 2 evils. How's that been workin' out for 'ya? That was a rhetorical ??.***
Somehow we're still here! I'm won't be as sure of that w/ a nut like Trump running the show! His pronouncements are not only comical @ 1st blush, they're also ill-informed, dangerous & irresponsible!
Reps For Hillary: Major Cruz Donors Shift to Clinton
“A # of deep-pocketed elite have given up trying to buy off Rep. pols in order to support Ms. Clinton, the only est.-friendly cand. of either party remaining in the race,” the Observer reported. “In response, the Clinton campaign has assembled a group dubbed ‘Reps for Hillary’ to reach wealthy GOP donors.”
The Hill complied a list of Reps who currently say they won’t back Trump as the nominee:
•Sen. Graham, R-S.C. •Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. •Gov. Charlie Baker, R-Mass. •Glenn Beck, radio host •Michael Berry, radio host •Brent Bozell, cons. activist •Bruce Carroll, creator GayPatriot.org •Jay Caruso, RedState •Mona Charen, senior fellow at Ethics & Public Policy Center •Linda Chavez, columnist •Eliot Cohen, former George W. Bush official •Former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. •Charles C. W. Cooke, writer for Nat'l Review •Doug Coon, Stay Right podcast •Rory Cooper, GOP strategist, managing dir. Purple Strategies •Jim Cunneen, former Calif. Assemblyman •Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla. •Steve Deace, radio host •Rep. Bob Dold, R-Ill. •Erick Erickson, writer •Mindy Finn, president, Empowered Women •David French, writer at Nat'l Review •Jon Gabriel, editor-in-chief, Ricochet.com •Michael Graham, radio host •Jonah Goldberg, writer •Alan Goldsmith, former staffer, House Committee on Foreign Affairs. •Stephen Gutowski, writer Washington Free Beacon •Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. •Jamie Brown Hantman, fr spec'l asst. for legis. affairs, Pres. Geo W. Bush •Stephen Hayes, senior writer @ The Weekly Standard •Doug Heye, former RNC comms director •Quin Hillyer, contrib. editor at Nat'l Review Online; Sr ed. @ the Amer. Spectator •Ben Howe, RedState writer •Former Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C. •Cheri Jacobus, GOP consultant and former Hill columnist •Robert Kagan, former Reagan official •Randy Kendrick, GOP mega-donor •Matt Kibbe, former FreedomWorks CEO •Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. •Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard editor •Mark Levin, radio host •Justin LoFranco, former Scott Walker aide •Former RNC Chairman Mel Martínez •Liz Mair, GOP strategist •Lachlan Markey, writer for the Free Beacon •David McIntosh, Club for Growth president •Dan McLaughlin, editor at RedState.com •Ken Mehlman, former RNC chairman •Tim Miller, Our Principles PAC •James Nuzzo, former White House aide •Katie Packer, chairwoman of Our Principles PAC •Former Gov. George Pataki, R-N.Y. •Former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas •Katie Pavlich, Townhall editor & Hill columnist •Brittany Pounders, cons writer •Rep. Reid Ribble, R- Wisc. •The Ricketts family, GOP mega-donors •Former Gov. Tom Ridge, R-Pa. •Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va. •Mitt Romney, 2012 GOP presidential nominee •Jennifer Rubin, Wash'ton Post cons. blogger •Patrick Ruffini, partner, Echelon Insights •Sarah Rumpf, former BreitBart contributor •Mark Salter, writer & former aide to John McCain •Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C. •Sen. Ben Sasse, R- Neb. •Elliott Schwartz, Our Principles PAC •Gabriel Schoenfeld, senior fellow, Hudson Institute •Tara Setmayer, CNN analyst & former GOP staffer •Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief The Daily Wire •Evan Siegfried, GOP strategist & commentator •Ben Stein, actor and political commentator •Brendan Steinhauser, GOP consultant •Stuart Stevens, former Romney strategist •Paul Singer, GOP mega-donor •Erik Soderstrom, former field director for Carly Fiorina •Charlie Sykes, radio host •Brad Thor, writer •Michael R. Treiser, former Mitt Romney aide •Daniel P. Vajdich, former national sec. adviser to Ted Cruz •Connor Walsh, former dig. Dir. for former Rep. Cantor, R-Va., founder Build Digital •Former Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla. •Peter Wehner, New York Times contributor •Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, R-N.J. •George Will, writer •Rick Wilson, Republican strategist •Nathan Wurtzel, Make America Awesome super-PAC •Bill Yarbrough, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of OH •Dave Yost, OH auditor of state***
***Campaign 2016’s Brave New World - As the U.S. election shapes up as a battle btw Trump & Clinton, the prospect for the public hearing anything approaching a truthful exchange of ideas appears hopeless. They're fillibustering as we post.***
If anyone listened at Trump's rally in Atl., this is obviously what's going on; mindless idiots just taking in the nonsense! It was embarrassing listening to this moron blathering about anything that comes to mind! He's all over the place about the Muslims, LGBT rights, the 2nd Amendment, and how fun his rallies are in the grand scheme of things! The man needs psychological help; a straight-jacket s/b waiting for him when he leaves the stage!
***Donald Trump is the nominee for the Rep. Party. It's X to stop w/ the hypocrisy & the faux outrage. It wasn't that long ago that Reps were saying Obama "pals" around w/ terrorists. So Trump says basically the same thing and suddenly, there's all this GOP outrage. Spare me.
And the complaint about him mistreating minorities? Give me a break. The GOP is 90% white. There are reasons for that. Reps like to say it's b/c Dems give away free stuff. Well Reps give away $millions$ in free $$ to other Reps in the House in the Farm Bill. ...At least he's honest about who he hates and the nonsense he actually believes. And what he's said about our soldiers being thieves? Don't most Reps feel that way? It's why they want to cut veterans benefits. Let Trump be Trump. ---
...FBI generally does not conduct criminal investigations w/o probable cause.***
You're kidding right? All Reps have to do is throw an accusation and the FBI and Congressional hearings are off and running! Give me a break! After countless millions of $$'s & investigations up the wazoo; they still got nothing & Hillary's w/i months of succeeding her husband in the Presidency! The "right" will lose their fk'n minds & start jumping off buildings after all they've done & the Clintons have survived all the slings & arrows!
***I believe Ryan's in the vanguard of the sold-out GOP to give Hillary the WH to show us outsiders who's still boss. His smirking replies to O'Reilly last night about Kate's Law & other issues had me shaking my fist at the screen....The voters have spoken and it's X for the has-beens and never-will-be's to STFU and get behind Trump....I say PRIMARY HIS ASS!***
...and so it begins; the descension and back-biting! It's just great after these clowns have marched in lock step for so long vs Obama & the Dems! Bout X individuals started acting on principle instead of Party!
***You're supporting a woman who's guilty of over 300 counts of espionage, bribery, trading gov't contracts for speaking fees, & running an ongoing criminal enterprise. She probably also murdered Vince Foster and yet you fall in behind her enormous cankles....what a sucker.***
If Hillary's guilty of anything, it's wasting her time trying to lead this stupid country! We vote against our own interest all the X; proved by the disastrous "W" admin. & subsequent recession! "Thanks Geo. & the rest of those Rep. idiots!"
***Clev. survive game #5! Going home for game 6***
I was hoping it's closed out so Reps can get started getting that dump into shape for their conv. next month! - I'm glad Draymond Green was suspended and won't be allowed t/b around until after the game! Those cabaret kicks to the groin of opposing players finally cost him and will take a little luster off the win!
***...That was the X for LeBron & Irving to step up & be stars. They didn't. This series should be 2 - 2 and it's crazy not to blame LeBron. He doesn't have the Jordan drive. ---
Rate the players:
1. James 2. Curry 3. Klay 4. Green 5. Igoudala 6. Barnes 7. Livingston 8. Love 9. Irving
After James, Cle. has squat. Last I saw, b-ball is a team sport. LeBron is play 1 on 5. ---
I'll say this isn't one of LeBron's more embarrassing finals loses. If anything it has proved Kobe, Jordan, Duncan & Magic are only great b/c they had great teams. In an alternate universe, Shaq stayed in Orlando & never won a chp. Or Reggie Miller gets traded to the Knicks & wins 3 w/ Ewing. Or Rodman played for the Jazz & Karl Malone has 3 rings. ===
The Weak Era thing isn't really worth addressing b/c the argument goes nowhere, and you can't blame Novak for his comp. You could argue that it has made him easier to win slams thus devaluing them, but that's really not the same thing as an on paper weakness. ...Once people's careers are over, we tend to judge them by their acheivements (slams, etc.) mainly anyway, esp. if they are X Slam winners/ATG's.
Like you said Olympics is really only gaining steam now; it's just not really what you could consider a stain. It w/b more of in the category of "it w/b great if he does it;" same w/ Cinci. Some pt out Nadal still leads the Slam H2H 9-4, but that's significantly mitigated by the fact that ND leads the H2H overall.
Others might say that Federer dominated both grass and HC =ly and has arguably been the best ever at Wimbledon & US & respectively grass & fast HC. ...OTOH, these same people will often say overall acheivements (Slam wins) is all that matters and that surface doesn't even matter anymore due to homogenization. ...Thing is, he has X Slams at both Wimby & US and a chance to go for the "Double Career Slam" if he can win RG again. ...Ultimately, I think again that overall acheivements matter most, and that he's already done enough at X Slams to render this criticism rather meaningless.
In the final analysis, he simply's in the process of developing an exceptionally well-rounded resume complete w/ plenty of X @ #1, Masters on both HC & clay, YE #1, YEC, and of course Slam wins. The only criticisms vs him that could possibly hold weight when examined are gen. criticisms about the state of tennis (the aforementioned "Weak Era") & another 1 I've just remembered, the surface homogenization 1. ...Yes, Novak has put together a glistening resume! - I do think he needs to win @ least 1 more USO though & if he doesn't, he'll only have himself to blame for the missed ops btw '12-14. ===
If they do have a 5th Slam and upgrade Miami, expect Nole to get near 30 Slams.***
When The Lipton Int'l was created back in '85, it was thought of as the 5th Slam; 2 wks & all the events covered includ. MxD's! It was boycotted initially by Connors & McEnroe b/c of the = prize $$ offered IIRC! Everyone else was there and later even the 2 bad boys started going; so it has always been highly regarded & was initially Bo5 for the men! I don't think their status w/b elevated; even w/ Tennis HQ down there! Didn't I hear something about a need to move the event? They haven't been able to expand in yrs, but they used up their quota of land in the area it seems! Only X will tell what they decide to do, but for now it'll be "NOTHING!"
***...people have a hard X winning all 4 majors (only 8 men have done so in history of tennis); so now you want to add 1 more?***
Maybe it's just to raise the bar since it's been made a little easier w/ the homogenized courts! There used t/b a real & obvious diff. which made the feat a little more difficult! The elevation of the "Big 3" to ATG's occurred w/ courts more consistent & slow, updated racket tech, & the limited desire to win by the rest of the tour! There were 5 CGS winners over 100 yrs, then all of a sudden 3 more come along! They own the tour like no pro before them; even Laver & Rosewall! You can count the wins of Masters' events & majors on a hand or 2 over the last decade that haven't gone to them! I've been saying it's embarrassing for all concerned; the winners & the losers! This kind of dominance shouldn't occur w/ all things being =!
***I strongly disagree w/ the 5th Slam and there are tons of reasons. Some things just shouldn't be done artificially. The 4 Slams are a great long lasting traditional events, each of them begun long X ago in the 2nd part of the 19th Century except for the AO ( 1905 ). ... ---
I don't consider WTF even a Master. - May i ask why?***
I'd say b/c it's Bo3, players are on their last legs, & in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter 1 jot in overall tennis records! Heaven knows Lendl won enough, but who talks about it? The legend is still Nastase who worked the system, able to lose a match, & still win the event X X's! Nole will set himself apart by winning 4 in a row if he takes this 1 coming up; esp. after a rec. run in Masters the last few yrs! He's gone from 1 in a season, to 4, to 5, to 6 chp. w/ 8 finals!
***Depends who you ask. I respect quality wins. I still wish they had the bonus pts for beating a > ranked player. ---
Fed after '05 played a 1 dimensional baseline game. In '07, he became a guy who pretty much relied on his serve and FH. He had to, his movement declined in '07 & couldn't play the all court tennis he displayed in '04-05.
TBF, this OH thing is the most pointless debate in this thread. Every player has weaknesses, & Djokovic, for his weaker OH, is the best defender of overheads I have ever seen.
Whilst you are correct about the serve, you fail to mention that the serve is the 1 shot you have full control over. Federer has had some awful serving displays vs Nadal, Djokovic, & Murray.
All irrelevant. A '08 Fed doesn't even need to play on full steam to bamboozle Djokovic on slippery grass. Federer's slice is effective vs Djokovic TODAY.
Slippery grass? You do realise that the grass @ Wimbledon plays like a HC come finals day, right? The surface would favor Djokovic completely. The pt is, Fed wasn't at full steam in '08. I've already said how Federer in '03-07 w/b able to beat Djokovic @ W'15. W'08 was a sub-par Fed. He was sub-par throughout that entire year.
Is that what I argued? NO. I argued that a 5 X defending Champion is not losing in str. sets @ his fave major, on his fave surface. If he didn't lose in str'ts to Nadal, he sure as Hell ain't letting Djokovic bully him around.
He beat Fed in str. sets @ AO '08, beat Fed in str. sets at FO'12, beat Federer in str. sets at AO'11, gave Federer an absolute thumping for most of the match at AO this year to the point the crowd were silent. Djokovic's a stronger grass courter than Nadal. 3 > 2.
No. I don't believe Nole is better than Fed on grass b/c there's absolutely NOTHING to support such a claim. On just plain statistics, Fed's MILES ahead of Djokovic on that surface. Djokovic's a 1-dimensional player who took full advantage of Fed's decline combined w/ his back problems to beat him on a surface that resembled a slow HC for the most part.***
***It's now the summer of '16 & recently a few months back a viewing for about the 3rd X of Hannibal Rising, then Hannibal, rel. in '01.
Coupled w/ being floored by the original Silence of the Lambs in the cinema in early 90's, the entirety of the Dr Lecter movies done over the past 26 yrs or so, it all really starts to make sense.
The Hannibal series makes so much sense now. All along, Hannibal has been not much more than a bona fide bully's worst possible nightmare.
It occurred to me that Hannibal Lecter never actually harms anyone truly innocent in the movies.
He goes after the folks that are as =ly creepy, even more so than Dr. Lecter was originally portrayed in the Silence movie.
Now agent Starling and a lot of good guys & ladies have some very close calls, but Dr. Lecter never veers much from the kid and young adult he portrays in Hannibal Rising.
In that film, he does no more than fight fire w/ fire w/ the Nazi collaborators who killed his little sister. He pays everyone back that did him wrong from his stay in the post WW II Eastern bloc orphanage.
Albeit, the fascist & sexist French cook guy creep who's abusive to his Aunt, he's pretty cold about how he dispatches that rogue, but he doesn't harm the cool French Detective who also shared the same losses Hannibal did in WW II.
He has boundaries though and an unwavering consistent sense of loyalty and Honor. And that feels really strange saying this given just how scary and terrifying the Silence film was upon 1st release.
Even then, the bad guy in that movie was his ex-patient. The same goes for Ralph Fiennes role opposite Edward Norton Jr.
Dr. Lecter has no tolerance for hypocrites. He knows how those in power become corrupt & do =ly evil & damaging things to good people, a theme we see from his childhood in the 4th film, Rising.
Sounds weird, but Dr. Lecter's actually fair & protects the good guys & glad that are truly good & stay true to their moral values & ethics.
Ray Liotta's character as the sleazy peer of Starling suffers some really creative & horrible payback for dogging her. But, it's Lecter!
Dr. Lecter saves agent Starling's life & even chops his own hand off when she tries to handcuff him!
The film's have been released here and there over any yrs and at least 2 diff. Directors, but they stay true to the whole story which has a lot of surprises & curve balls.
Though it's a set of films in the horror/thriller genre & should not be taken too seriously, the films do convey the message that the World c/b very treacherous.
This evening's viewing of Hannibal brings up the possibility that Lecter, as crazy & creepy as he seems, is one of the arch-heroes so popular today.
He's fire that cancels out much worse fire than he could ever be. He does it in such a trippy cool way w/ great intellectual intelligence that an argument c/b made he's like a dark version of James Bond or Insp. Callahan from the Dirty Harry movies.
His methods are shocking & disturbing, but he gets the job done. I liked the Italian Detective in Hannibal & really wish he whb granted amnesty, but he was going to turn over Dr. Lecter to Mason, who intended to feed him to the wild boars!
So it goes, don't mess w/ Hannibal! And however much some joker w/ some power who's trying to keep their secret about being a stone cold fascist ...
Finally, unlike the steadfast and true Harry Potter films, the Lord of the Rings films, us viewers didn't get the privilege of watching the Hannibal films in their correct chronological order.
This seems purposely designed so as to have the movie fan constantly reassess their perception of Dr. Lecter.
It works!!
Exceptional movies, every last one of them and Anthony Hopkins is a fabulous Actor and a legend.***
Age avg: 24.6 Youngest player in the top 10: Delpo who was 21 yo Oldest players in the top 10: Federer & Davydenko, both aged 28 No 30+ yo in the top 10. 1/2 of the top 10 had players under the age of 25: Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Delpo & Tsonga.
Age avg: 29.7 Youngest player in the top 10: Nishikori who was 26 yo Oldest player in the top 10: Federer, aged 34. No players under the age of 25 yo in the top 10. 1/2 of the top 10 had players aged 30+: Federer, Wawrinka, Berdych, Tsonga, Ferrer.
Interesting that in both yrs, Fed & Tsonga were constants. Federer both X's was the oldest player in the top 10, while Tsonga was still at #10 both X's. Interesting how both top 10's are basically opposites of 1 another in terms of stats. ---
Avg age of the top 10: 23.6 Oldest player in the top 10: Connors, aged 32 Youngest player in the top 10: Cash, aged 19 7 of the top 10 players were under the age of 25: Lendl, Wilander, Gomez, Jarryd, Sundstrom, Cash & Noah Only 1 player was aged 30+: Connors
Avg age of the top 10: 25.0 Oldest player in the top 10: Agassi, aged 30 Youngest player in the top 10: Hewitt, aged 19 4 of the top 10 players were under the age of 25: Kuerten, Safin, Norman & Hewitt Only 1 player was aged 30+: Agassi. ---
So you had all the hair raising in '11 when Novak beat a healthy Nadal coming off his best year 7 X's in a row only t/b stopped by Fed from getting a CYGS? - I always apprec. Ultron/Hydra for his '11 even though 2 slam results were due to Rafa's mental block (Wimbledon & AO '12). I still gave 100% credit to him b/c Rafa was fully fit during those slams and hence no excuses for being mentally fragile.
Currently this is the worst era we are in...'08-13 was 1 of the toughest eras in men's tennis w/ all "Big 4" playing at their best, though 1 could make a strong case for Fed's decline from '11. I too believe that was his last peak year. There's no way on Earth a fit Nadal playing at near best capacity c/b stopped on any surface by anyone. It has been proved at least 20 X's over the last 6-8 yrs. Nadal's the 1 who made this era strong. It's his early exploits which have defined the dynamics of this gen., pre-'10 & his greatly matured presence post-'10 has certainly added value to this otherwise weak era.***
***Sampras sits on top of 14 slams in an era of specialists w/ widely diff. & stronger comp. He enjoyed his GOAT status officially for 9 yrs until '09.
... Now a new guy named Djokovic has entered the arena w/ his own set of accomplishments. In all the the yrs of Sampras vs Fed GOAT wars in the previous decade, the Sampras lobby was always blaming the era even before Fed reached the mark of 10 slams, that is seeming t/b apparent now w/ the NEW GOAT CONTENDER Djokovic taking advantage of the tired old lions Fedal and amassing slams. The more slams he wins, the more Fedal GOAT status will decline b/c he will have had better stats than them both in case he surpasses or = Fed. ---
I was a Sampras fan back then, he was never as dominant vs the field as Federer or Djokovic. In reality, after '97 he only had Wimbledon as a real dominant tourney for the whole year. Furthermore, if anything was a weak era, then those yrs. Look at his 2000 Wimbledon draw or his final ops Pioline (twice) or Martin etc. ...It’s just as or even more diff. to dominate today b/c you have to beat only “specialists” due to the homogenisation. Every tennis players now learns to play this style, and Federer /Djokovic /Nadal have to beat them day in, day out; just everywhere. So give them some credit! ---
One thing I'll give Sampras is the much more polarized conditions that he played in compared to Fedalovic (gotten even worse the last few yrs). This is a massively underrated factor. Back then, clay was slower than now, grass was much faster, fast HC's were faster, you had lightning fast carpet. If you were going to win all 4 & YEC back then, you had t/b able to execute many different styles of play on a world-class level. But you had specialists on every surface, so doing so was virtually impossible. What Agassi did (winning CGS) was really something special, and to me is clearly the most impressive of all CGS in the Open era. Pete might still be the Open era GOAT, although it's really hard to put him above Fed considering how rediculous his #'s are.
Which is why Borg's so highly revered; even w/ deficit in wins at USO & AO which he may have played once as a teenager! He was able to go from clay to grass to carpet quite seamlessly w/ only practice behind the scenes! He didn't do a lot of warm up events like they do now, but still won the FO/Wimby double 3 X's & was in contention in the final to do it 4 X's in '81! The players who have accomplished this feat are lucky to have done it once or twice w/ these homogenized conditions! No matter what these current players do, Borg remains close to the top overall; right up there w/ Laver & Sampras!
***Borg never dominated the tour like Fed or Novak.***
His winning % & victories over the top 10 was historic @ the X! It's not his fault many were upset before reaching him! Djokovic just passed Bjorn in that category, but turning 29, it's gotta be all downhill! I can't believe he'll be allowed to take 3 majors every year after this season! He may not get CYGS, but he should eeek out 1 of the remaining 2! He's going to start feeling in; mentally & physically holding off the other elite players!
***...Nadal/Federer/Nole couldn't even keep each other at bay. All will end up w/ 14-15 slams or more. Sampras kept his main contemporaries @ bay. He broke everyone's will. - Pete whb better on clay in today's era where it's faster & rallies are shorter. Clay court tennis was totally diff. in the 90's or even the early 2000's compared to today. He might have made a final or 2. Regardless, extreme surface speed disparity & Pete's thasselemia made it so that Sampras never really gave a crap about clay. His baseline game @ his peak was good enough in that he shd > on clay.***
***Djokovic won the FO & not a single Fk was given.***
It threatens the narrative & constant pontificating of the Fedal era! The media perpetuates it by musing back to a rivalry that never really existed! It's been a fraud since '08 when Roger finally fell to Rafa on his beloved grass court; his last refuge believed by the most loyal of fans! Even now, we'll never know if Roger truly still "has it" to turn around their H2H record as Nole has w/ them b/c 1 or both can't seem to reach their appointed Rds!
***- Djokovic leads Nadal in MS titles @ 29-28. - Djokovic narrows the gap in Slams to 14-12. - The gap in career titles stays at 4 at 69-65, but Djokovic overtakes Borg & Sampras, both of whom are on 64. - Djokovic overtakes Agassi in finals, leading 92-90. - Djokovic has won 8 of the MS events twice or >. - Most importantly, Djokovic completes the CGS & gets a Novak Slam. ---
1) Nole already ahead or tied w/ Rafa: a. Wks @ #1: 204-141. b. Yrs @ #1: Confirmed YE #1 for '15, so 4-3 as of the end of the yr. 4-3. c. WTF's: 5-0.
2) Caught up: a. Masters Series titles: 57-51. 29-28, 42-42 in finals. b. Career H2H: 26-23 to Djokovic. ... d. Career titles: @ the end of '15, he overtook Nastase & now leads 59-58 in career titles. ... Vilas' on 62, w/ Borg & Sampras tied on 64. So, if Djokovic wins 6 titles, he will overtake all of Agassi, Vilas, Borg, & Sampras. Titles: 69-65. Finals: 101-92. SF's: 135-127.
3) A chance: a. GS titles: 14-12! b. Career winning %: Djokovic leads 83.05 - 82.57!
Other categories suggested: a. Wins over top 10 opps: Djokovic 151-133 Nadal 174-140. b. Career match wins: 698 - 771. 730 - 796. c. Slam match wins: Djokovic 221-200 Nadal. ... e. Slam SF's reached: Djokovic 30-23 Nadal. f. Slam QF's reached: Djokovic 36-29 Nadal. g. Slam match winning %: Nadal leads 87.0 - 86.7 [200-30 vs 221-34]. Djokovic will overtake if he wins Wimbledon, although only very marginally. ---
Djokovic certainly has a chance to break Fed's record. The only thing that could really prevent him from doing so are emerging new players & father X. Decade of stats have shown how hard winning a major past 30 is. Another 5 majors looks easily attainable based on how he plays now, but 5 majors after 30 is an entirely diff. beast. ---
...Agreed. Putting Zverev, who is very inexperienced in front of a former finalist & more experienced up-and-comer seems very 'prisoner of the moment'***
But Zverev is on a run! Sometimes experience weighs on the veteran! How many good runs at majors do Tsonga, Cilic, Berdych, & Ferrer have w/ 50+ opportunities? They stink! I'm going all in w/ Zverev and Theim! We can only hope Kei & Milos back up their results! I'm so hoping they all continue this great stretch of tourney results! "Please back it up next season guys!"
***1. The Berdychs & Tsongas of the world have proven many X's that they can't deliver and so it does make some sense to have high odds on them.
2. ... Berdych, Gasquet, etc. certainly have > chances of going deep, but Zevrev probably has > chances of winning.
3. It's not like they're giving Zevrev a great chance to win either. They are just giving him 1% chance, that's all.
4. Finally, the odds have t/b understood from "business perspective" as well. Lots of people w/b likely to put $$ on Zevrev if they give him good odds than otherwise as he's currently trending. The bookies can have fun looting all these $$ as Zevrev's not yet ready to win a major.***
***Del Potro vs Fedora, '09 USO final was a great match making TM's top 20***
Fed had taken his lone FO title & only won Wimbledon b/c of Rafa WD'ing & his usual pigeon in the final; Roddick! Even more shocking, Roger's only taken 2 more majors over the last 7 yrs since! He whb going for his own Fed-Slam "down under" if he had finished off Del Po! I had no reason to believe he wouldn't rule for another 2 yrs! Getting back to #1 back in '12 was obviously a gift since Nadal & Djokovic were 1/2-dead after that long AO final in Feb.! Heaven knows Roger couldn't have improved; must of been the lack of comp.! The rest of the tour has stunk for a decade now!
***I think Milos'll win a Wimby title or 2 b/c of his serve & mentality. I w/b shocked if he ever got to #1. He's not athletic enough to accomplish that feat.***
Maybe someday, but the problem is, today's new gen. isn't getting any assist. from other players by upsetting an elite contestant! It doesn't happen enough due to excellence of the "Big 4" over the yrs & the additions of 16 more seeds to make 32 in draw totalities! Way back when, #17 could wind up in the draw playing the #1 seed! Happened at USO; McEnroe had to battle #17 Annacone & lost! Too often the top 3 or 4 seeds play each major semi so almost impossible to have an odd winner like Cilic 2 seasons ago at the USO! I rant about it not happening much at all; shows true weakness in the tour to allow cons. runs to QF & Semi's by the top few players again & again!
***You should see '09 Madrid sem w/ Rafa & Nole!; 4 hr epic of great playing from Djokodal. To me maybe the most heartbreaknig Novak loss, but in a way it was turning pt in their rivalry. Even Novak needed 2 more yrs to Rome '11 clay Master class. It's a shame that it ruined the rest of clay season '09 for both of them.***
People don't realize, 1 match can change a whole season for a player! Lendl's win in '84 at the FO was something he felt he needed a yr to recover from! He got to the semi's of Wimbledon & the final at USO, but had nothing left in either losing in strts. both X's! Edberg's loss in '89 FO final probably cost him in the Wimbledon final vs Becker; dropping a goose egg in there somewhere! Nole wasn't the same after '12 AO classic over Nadal, barely holding it together until '14! ===
***This was not a pretty B-Ball game, but it was gritty. In a game 7 there'll always be some major nerves that weren't nec. there the previous games. Lebron was an all around beast. He didn't score well until the 4th QF, but he changed the game w/ the huge plays on defense on top of the triple double. An incredible performance to turn the series around.***
Biggest choke job in NBA history! "Thanks Draymond; ya gave it away! Got suspended for game 5 & ended up losing in 7 w/ a 3-1 lead! Ya Blew it & it couldn't have happened to a stupider team!" I put this on the coach as well; overplaying Curry to break Bulls' record at the end of the season didn't help! The Bulls actually rested players & lost 2 of the last 4 back in '96, but knucklehead Kerr wanted the record & the Chp! "Was it worth it?"
***It kind of lets OKC off the hook for their choke in the WCF! -...Jordan at #1 & then behind him in some order you have Kareem, Russell, Wilt, & Magic. I then had LeBron followed by Bird. After this, it's tough for sure. I don't think he's #2 yet (that's Kareem IMO), but I do put him a hair ahead of Wilt & Magic now.***
I'm no Laker fan, but Jabbar & Johnson w/b ahead of LeBron who's the biggest crybaby of all the ATG's! His flops on court when not even touched is quite unseemly & I can't respect the guy even if he doubles it and take 1 more in Cle. before heading back to So. Beach! Wilt & Russell will also be ahead of him for all X!
***Polls are bullshit. Cons don't do phone polls.***
For a year, that's all Trump talked about were his POLLs and how far ahead he was vs the rest of the field & Hillary!
***...Like when cons. said the polls were all "skewered" and Romney would beat Obama. hahaha!***
Rove said they were skewed by a factor of 8 in comparison to Obama's run in '08! According to him, that turnout couldn't be duplicated and they all but subtracted 8 pts from Obama, ans gave it all to Mitt! Didn't you love the math? Karl freaked out on FNC! You can literally go to YouTube & search for "Rove freak out!"
***Hillary never raped anyone or ripped their hair out in a violent fit of rage. NaziCons have cried "wolf" so many X's vs the Clintons that when a real "wolf" shows up - most sane people don't give a shit. I don't give a shit. NaziCons owe the Clintons many "get out of jail free" cards. ---
...Hillary won't go on Fox News w/o a court order. They tend to bring out her abject stupidity when she goes into talking point mode.***
Both Clintons have done Fox; please! Brett Baier got his licks in on Hillary just 2 months ago! What an idiot! Know what you're talking about loser!
***Trump being open to any show, anyX as well as constant press briefings where he takes ??s.***
Trump being a regular on FNC or any cable news show means little since all he does is "name call," bluster about how rich he is, and proclaim all w/b great w/ him being president w/o a clue or real program to accomplish any of it! If you're suckered into believing his BS, then you are a loser! Being against Hillary isn't rational! Unfortunately that's where this race is going; voting for the < of 2 evils! When was the last race "for" someone; IKE maybe?
***Clinton is all about a very tightly controlled message, whereas Trump is a non-stop stream of consciousness. And it's the consciousness of an idiot who should shut up for his own good.***
Hard to believe Trump supporters see his "off the cuff" remarks refreshing! I find them most irresponsible! The world hangs on every word; Heaven knows Reps do the same when a Dem. speaks so they can whittle away & parse every syllable! The hypocrisy is mind-numbing!
***"This Father’s Day, fathers whose sons were murdered by illegal aliens are calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan to resign - Yeah that's a great attitude for anyone....see why we are wanting him out of there?***
You mean the last voice of reason? If you listen to the rebid Rep-wing of T-Baggers & cons., they want the economy to collapse, threaten our credit rating, & make Obama look incompetent no matter how bad it gets! W/o McConnell & Ryan holding these animals at bay, I'm not sure we'd survive past '18! Hard to believe I have to stick up for these idiots! I figured more "on the right" w/b rational enough to do it for me! Guess I'm wrong!
***The rationality of the rightwing's currently in doubt.***
It's more than a mess! I'm so accustomed to these fools moving in "lock step," but they're at a crossroad I didn't see coming! In my life, I've never seen them so dysfunctional; even when gambling w/ our credit rating several years ago & shutting down the gov't! I'm told it was about the same w/ Goldwater in '64, but so much else was going on; civil rights legis., Medicare bill, Viet Nam, & Kennedy's assassination! This is nothing compared to that era!
***FYI, the recent history of the speakership: When Speaker Boehner relinquished the post, it lay vacant. It was so undesirable a job; few if any would even apply for it. Ryan was offered the slot repeatedly. REPEATEDLY Ryan turned it down. Eventually Ryan dictated his terms & they were met.***
Rubio's either "touched" in the head or he's an inveterate liar! He also said he wouldn't run for Pres. if his mentor JEB entered the race! He not only went vs his word, he beat up on the guy!
***Thank you! - I doubt Rubio will lose to that idiot Grayson as Rubio is the better candidate..by far.***
How smart is it to elect a guy that voiced how bad it was in the Senate, took unprecedented X off missing votes, & can't say that he'll serve the entire 6 yrs? He's hoping to get another shot in 2020 it seems! Losing his own state to Trump in the primary; he's obviously not too bright to even continue this charade that a Nat'l electorate would elect him to anything! Grayson's a nut, but he'll be there & earn his $$! Rubio's been stealing for yrs right under the State's nose!
***A lot of people- Dems & Reps are very uncomfortable about the fact that Trump is this close to the presidency. These Bernie supporters need to use good judgment.***
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone!" I didn't think we could ever be this ignorant to allow a piece of work like Trump t/b this close! Everything he's spouting about Clinton c/b pinned on him! He's such an inveterate liar, but it appears his supporters don't mind! They need that reaffirmation of hate toward the Clintons which is so irrational! ...It wasn't enough Bill had 2 successful terms as President, he got his wife elected to the Senate, chosen as Sec. Of State, but now she's on the threshold of taking the White House & Reps are panicking; big X!
***Donald m/b fuming at his inability to "dominate the 24-hr news cycle" w/ his much advertised anti-Hillary speech. Instead, the headlines have been around the sit-in, Hillary's response, & getting Scowcroft's endorsement!***
Orlando & airplane crashes don't mollify his desires either! Anything that takes away from him is a bad day in his opinion & it has little to do w/ the obvious tragedies! I wouldn't doubt he actually admits it to his staff! What a tool!
***It's used to demonstrate Trump's hypocrisy b/c he was highly critical of John Stewart changing his name. Trump family used t/b Drumpfs!***
Trump's king of the hypocrites! He has the nerve to ?? & make accusations of the Clintons, but he was discovered t/b selling his brand while running for President! He's been using his own properties & paying exorbitant amounts for their use; in essence, paying himself & kids for things they own already! He even has the nerve to accuse her of lying when 3 out of 4 things he spouts is an outright fabrication; sorta like this phony audit of his taxes! So who's the real shady character in this picture?
***...Meanwhile the world is enjoying watching Trump crash. Hey, good ole GOP Arizona has gone toss up too! Nice Job Trumpies!***
It's early, but I foresee "scorched Earth;" esp. if Donald drops a little more un the polls! That was his huge talking point and now he has to resort to reading a teleprompter to keep him on message! Might as well try a script for a while before going loony with accusations & passing off lies as if TRUE! Trump wouldn't know the truth if it was kicking him in the ass! The worse it gets, the "HUGER" the LIE w/ this guy! How his supporters can overlook it just amazes all of us; the mass delusional is rampant on the "Right!" The nightly surrogates can't answer the easiest questions going to the "PC" card and musing about how bad everything else is in the world, "why are we so concerned about his tax returns?" What's good for the goose is good for the gander! I seem to remember Trump going after Romney for nondisclosure of his forms! The man's incoherent @ X's; ALL THE X really!
CLAIM: "It all started w/ her bad judgment in supporting the War in Iraq in the 1st place. Though I was not in gov't service, I was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war, and yes, even before the war ever started."
The facts: Politifact ranks this oft-repeated claim False. More: In Sept. '02, Trump said he supported the Iraq invasion during an interview w/ Howard Stern. ...
CLAIM: "Her server was easily hacked by foreign gov'ts — perhaps even by her financial backers in Communist China — putting all of America in danger."
The facts: U.S. officials have told NBC News that there's no evidence of penetration of the servers by hackers, although there's evidence of phishing attempts.
...
CLAIM: "She has pledged to grant mass amnesty and in her first 100 days, end virtually all immigration enforcement, and thus create totally open borders in the US. The 1st victims of her radical policies w/b poor African-American & Hispanic workers who need jobs. They are the 1's she'll hurt the most."
The facts: Clinton has proposed some big changes to how the country enforces its immigration rules and who w/b allowed to stay, but there aren't likely going t/b open borders or amnesty.
CLAIM: "Clinton's State Dept approved the transfer of 20% of America's uranium holdings to Russia, while 9 investors in the deal funneled $145 M to the Clinton Foundation."
The facts: Hillary Clinton's State Dept was one of 9 U.S. agencies to approve of the transfer of the 20% of the U.S. Uranium reserves to Russia. The State Dept was not the sole approver.
CLAIM: "She ran the State Dept like her own personal hedge fund — doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash."
The facts: Trump is citing the claim by "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer, who alleged that Clinton took direct action to benefit a Clinton Foundation donor from sale of a uranium mining company. ...he had not direct evidence of a quid-pro-quo. "No, we don't have direct evidence. But it warrants further investigation b/c, again, … this is part of the broader pattern. You either have to come to the conclusion that these are all coincidences or something else is afoot."***
***Democrats Are Learning You Have To Do Ridiculous Things To Deal W/ Ridiculous Republicans***
That's why the Dems have been getting their asses kicked for yrs! They didn't realize, to beat these tactics, they have to drop to Rep. scumbag levels to win anything! It's unfortunate that this has gotten so bad, but to save the country it looks as if THEY HAD TO DO IT!
***Amen! I couldn't agree more! I've been posting for years on various message boards that Dems must start fighting fire w/ fire. Maybe they're finally learning.***
I lost faith in the integrity of any Rep. when they threatened the credit rating of the country, coming to the edge of default a few yrs ago! I kept saying, they won't do this, but still shut the gov't down trying to make a pt! I can still see Cruz reading "Green Eggs & Ham" to his kids on the floor of the Senate! And he wonders why he got so little support for his run for President! What a tool! - Did we expect anything different? If nothing is changed when 6 & 7 yo babies are massacred, do you really think killing a club full of gay people will change things? Shit, 1 of their own was shot in the fk'n head & even w/ her pleas, there's been no legislation for meager background check! This Congress is hopeless!
***The American public are already near 90% in agreement on sensible gun regulation. It's X to stomp the NRA into the mud. Cons. are in for a very unhappy Nov.***
I think they see the handwriting on the wall when prominent Reps say they'll vote for Hillary; even Gen. Scowcroft from past cons. admin.!
***This is disgusting. IDK how Merrick would have voted, but it's absolutely ridiculous that the Reps won't let a sitting President, almost a yr away from the end of his terms, is denied a full supreme court. Now if Trump wins this election (heaven forbid) & is in a similar situation, I'm sure they will find some excuse to allow him to fill that empty seat.
The way the Reps have treated Obama is a reminder that racism never really ended or close to it. They would have resisted him as a Dem. anyway, but the way they treated him his entire 2 terms makes me wish that they all would pay for this in some way (losing their re-elections will be the best way). Their goal since day one was to make him fail. He did accomplish some things despite that, but they refer to him as a 'failed president.'***
I wasn't even a fan of Obama's thinking it "hubris" for someone that young & inexperienced to run for President, but he wound up being more mature and statesman-like than any Rep. in recent history! After what they've done, I wouldn't vote for a Rep. for dogcatcher! Yrs ago I could very easily vote 1 for Gov., but no longer! They really blew it IMO & showed how bigoted a party they truly have become! This is no longer the Party of Lincoln!
***I think moderate Reps who are appalled by the shenanigans of so many in the party should splinter off * call their new party the Lincoln Reps b/c so many of the fools in the current party now w/b an embarassment to Lincoln. But there are some good folks who could leave & reclaim the party of Lincoln for Lincoln.***
It m/b too late! ...ALL REPUBLICANS have been tainted b/c of them saying little or nothing when some all but called Obama "the N word" to his face! Some clown screamed out "you lie" during the SOTU! ...In Nat'l races, it's become a real joke b/c of how they politick! The South doesn't seem to care how slimy these guys are as long as there's an "R" behind their name! The North is a bit fair giving Rep. landslides in the past, but it rarely happens the other way around w/ most races squeakers for Dems!
***...Reps used the same tactics that the juvenile hippies in the 60's used.***
...Acting like gentlemen as in the 90's while Reps were sliming Clinton & his wife over something that had NOTHING to do w/ the running of gov't proved how LOW humans can go when wearing a suit! ...I guess it s/b thought of as a "youthful indiscretion" like Henry Hyde's excuse! Reps are the lowest form of life on 2 legs as far as I'm concerned! ...The "religious right" owns them along w/ the NRA, the Koch Brothers, and all kinds of Cons. "think tanks!"
***I can't figure out which of these candidates are the sleaziest, they are both bttm of the barrel.***
Hillary's defensive due to everyone attacking her w/ made up BS! Run down talking pts, most of it makes little to no sense; which doesn't stop her loser detractors! It's truly pathetic trying to make her responsible for just about everything that goes wrong! She was a lone Senator & a SOS that fulfilled the wishes of a President!
***I wouldn't vote for Trump & I wouldn't vote for Clinton; BOTH are slime dogs. I blame her for going after her husband's alleged victims. I blame her for Libya & her lies that got us into bombing them; something the President now regrets. ...When the best you can come up is Trump & Clinton, the party's are both lacking morals & conviction.***
And what candidate you gonna pick w/ all this so called integrity that could win? You may hate Clinton, but no one more prepared in the history of the office; resume the most extensive! I'd still rather have her in office to "check" those rats in Congress who can't wait to set the country back 20 yrs overturning every piece of legis. they can get away w/ just for spite! They want to wipe away anything that would even repressent Obama; true bigotry at work!
Play the victim if you like, but no President has had to put up w/ such disrespect in the history of the office! ...Make all the excuses you want to placate your own soul if you condone the behavior of these "monsters;" it'll take 2 gens to forget how truly ugly it was! ...The man has more patience than I could ever muster to ignore the attacks that came like shells during drone strikes! They maligned his wife, the kids, his mother & father, & ??'d his patriotism, religion, & actual citizenship! Just keep sweeping it under the carpet!
***Are you a paid shill, or do you subscribe to the Dems talking points?***
You say T-Pts; I call them facts! Be in denial if you like! Regardless of what happened to the bimbos of Bill, what's it to you how she treated them? What woman is going to take kindly to an affair on the Nat'l stage for all of us to watch & try to humiliate her over and over again? These people should have clean hands or the Clintons wouldn't have survived it all while Gingrich, Livingston, Hyde, Barr, & a host of other hypocrites were exposed and eventually out of office! I won't need to bring up Hastert do I? That w/b more "diversions" I guess! FNC became a network t/b on the Clintons' case 24/7! The coverage started & ended w/ Bill & Hillary! Hannity has her name dripping out of his mouth no matter the topic; just can't help himself! O'Reilly so up Trump's ass, he's almost incoherent trying to make excuses for the stupid things Trump says & does to embarrass his so called campaign! I could go on, but if I continued, you'd accuse it of being more "T Pts," when it's just factual info!
Literally Hillary's been out of office for years w/ no guarantee of even going back, but wields all this power according to her detractors! Truly daffy; after 11 hours of public hearings about Benghazi, Gawdy thinks he'll be breaking new ground in his report coming out! They're all so desperate; it's literally embarrassing!
***Trump Stuns Clinton Camp & Critics By Raising $11 M In 48 Hours***
It shouldn't be shocking to anyone that there are plenty of STUPID & bigoted cons. rich people willing to support this loser! I still remember the Koch bros. blew $300 M last cycle & got little for their $$! Obama still whitewashed Romney & the Reps in their own red states! It was a landslide that's likely t/b duplicated by Clinton in a few months! Get ready!
***...Blacks participate at EVERY LEVEL of the Dem. Party .. including at the very top. The Rep. Party remains virtually all white. ---
You mean other than the former head of the GOP? Or do you mean two former Sec. of State and the 1 on the Supreme Court? And blacks are 90+% Democrat, dumb ass. - Also, there's exactly 1 Black Dem. in the Senate & 1 Black Rep. And how many Blacks in the House are from white districts?***
That 1 Senator was a gift from NC; Gov. Haley appointed Scott to replace DeMint who left to shill for Heritage Foundation! I feel embarrassed for these Reps who know more than likely they're being "used," but somehow delude themselves that they're just being smarter in some way! The way Obama was treated from the beginning shb a wake up call for all of them! Excuses abound, but looks like bigotry & worse to me! A dog is treated better by today's Rep. Party! I won't forget it even if not an Obama fan! The office deserved better treatment from the opp.!
***And why do we hate Biden, Kerry, Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, Hillary, & Daschle so much again? They're white. You people are the ones who treat blacks differently b/c they're black. ---
You people eh? LOL.***
This guy probably doesn't know why he hates all those people! Like Pavlov's Dog, they've been trained to hate on command; esp. if a "D" is behind their names! It's been an irrational kind of hatred going back decades for Hillary! They even whined about her mention of staying home to have teas and bake cookies! Anything she said was used as a club to justify their animus & I've found these people increasing silly and aggravating! It's like they've collectively lost their minds running more sensible Reps out of the party; even leadership being "primary'd!" Obstruction & un-coop. are the watchwords these days & I can't see it getting any better w/ Hillary; prob. w/b worse! They hate the Clintons w/ a white hot passion; even if WHITE! It has t/b driving them insane that w/ all they've said & done, her resume has made her the most qualified nominee in history!
***What has been said & done about Obama that was not said & done about Bush?***
The deflections begin! "W's" being raked over the coals b/c of his rotten admin.! He turned a budget surplus into a deficit, more than doubled the Nat'l Debt when it was going down under Clinton, started losing 600-800 thousand jobs a month when unemployment was low before he took office, started 2 wars on a lie, & made a mess out of Katrina! Those are facts that can't be ignored or placated w/ "what abouts?" You sound like someone who would rail about Bill's troubles when the topic is taxes! I guess you could have a problem concentrating & you can't help it, but unfortunately the Rep. Intelligencia is about as pathetic trying to defend their governance whenever busted for malfeasance!
***...Politics don't have t/b dirty, but the Reps have made it so by giving up any moral scruples.***
Any moral compass or integrity was lost w/ the stalworths of the Rep. party being primaried out by T-Baggers or simply not running again yrs ago! They only have fools, reprobates, & total assess running things!
***...Fox News highest rated year ever.***
Probably doesn't mean much! Ratings were so bad yrs ago, they had to < cost per customer to even keep them in the lineup! This is a Presidential yr, coverage & ratings w/b up on all news channels; even bad 1's like Fox! I used t/b able to tolerate Hannity, but he's fast-ly losing his mind! He doesn't make sense showing the loathing he has for the Clintons! O'Reilly's losing all credibility, defending & making excuses for Trump! Megan Kelly's probably going somewhere else when her contract runs out! Ailes or Murdock couldn't even be bothered defending her when being insulted by that Neanderthal months ago!
***Bro, even though I have no interest in defending Fox as it clearly lacks any credibility, but so do left leaning stations like CNN or MSNBC as they continue to shove feminist & SJW ### at our TV. At least their news isn't that biased; it's only their opinion based shows...but yeah, Fox is crap.***
Started watching in '97 when tolerable w/ a lineup of O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, then Catherine Crier! Over the years they became such a disappointed, I was disillusioned enough to order "Outfoxed" which ripped holes in their pretense of being a real news show! I already knew, but it's good to see the video backing it up! Check it out; over 10 yrs old so probably cheap or free online!
***I did NOT state that Blk Repubs. are stupid. From the beginning I posed the hypothesis that Blacks who support the GOP are doing so for selfish reasons ...t/b diff...t/b noticed for that diff...and not really for the GOP's recent history for helping the Black race that of other minorities.***
If not stupid, something's wrong w/ them! Add women, gays, Muslims, & Latinos, you have to wonder why these people are supporting & voting against their personal interests? How disgusting does the RNC have t/b to run these groups off?
***...There's a theory among some Blacks that if you join a white culture in which a majority of whites created long ago, that there's no way that a Black will be accepted in such a culture, but it's a falsehood that an American be it Black, white, yellow, or brown can't join or adopt the cons culture, & it's unique belief system in which is open to all Americans regardless of their color.***
People forget most, if not all Blacks were Rep. way back when, but unfortunately there's been this juxtaposition of North & South where "Blue Dog" Dems converted to the Rep. party & things changed drastically! This didn't happen in a vacuum; took X, but it's been obvious! It s/b evident that bigots, racists, misogynist, & other reprobates have taken it over! They beat down Obama w/ little to no respect before he even took office! They've all but called the man "the N word" to his face! Who can forget a Rep. from AL. who screamed "you lie" at the SOTU? Who's done such a thing? He not only was proud of himself, he fund raised off of it! Decades ago, I could very easily vote for a Rep., but after the way they've treated Obama; undermining his family, patriotism, religious affiliation, & intellect, I wouldn't vote 1 to dog catcher in my city! They allowed themselves t/b turned into vile, disgusting animals who have little respect for their country & themselves! Anyone who would support such people, I have to take issue w/ to say the least!
***Southern "rednecks" became pseudo Dems ONLY b/c that "darn" Lincoln...a Rep....freed slaves, & that was an unforgivable "sin" for those southern good ol' boys.***
***...Murray's matches are no longer double the price of Djoke's, but not b/c people want to see him.***
Like Lendl, he's getting used to it! It obviously doesn't hurt his results!...The same thing happened to Martina in '81 after losing the USO to Austin! They cheered her on in '83 even though Evert was the opp.! She had 6 titles so NO TEARS for Chrissie's plight!
***...Novak got seeds 5 & 6 & Andy got seeds 7 & 8. There is a 16.66% chance of that happening @ Wimbledon. Combining both, this is the worst possible unbalanced 2 halves. Seeds 1, 3, 5 & 6 in top 1/2 & seeds 2, 4, 7 & 8 in bottom 1/2. There's only 8.33% chance of this worst case distrib. of top 8 seeds arising in a random draw & Andy managed to hit it.***
Oh ye of little faith! There's a reason Nole holds the record for defeating the most top 10'rs w/ 31 last season; takes on all comers! ...I think Andy's ready, but anything can happen; esp. if winning a warm-up event! Murray won Canada last yr; what good did it do him @ the USO?
***My prediction of 18 Slams--6 more than Nole has now--is based upon several factors: that he has shown no signs of decline yet, that the tour is particularly weak right now, & will continue t/b weak through @ least '17. Some decline's inevitable, although whether in '17, '18, or even '19 we don't know.
Novak has 3 Slams left before turning 30. If he wins all 3, he'll be @ 15, have won 7 Slams in a row, & not only be well situated to pass Roger to finish w/ 18+, but have a real chance to finish as the nearly-undisputed GOAT; @ least of the Open Era. If he wins 2 of those 3 Slams, he w/b @ 14 & still have a solid chance of passing Roger, but m/b more like 50-50. He'll probably finish in the 16-18 range, depending upon where he & the rest of the tour are @ a year from now.
If he wins only 1 of those 3 Slams, he w/b @ 13 on his 30th BD & will not pass Roger; would finish more in the 14-16 range. So the pt is, those next 3 Slams are huge--they're his window of opportunity. ---
...if we're talking about accomplishments strictly, h2h is not an accomplishment, its a stat ...***
I do look at the record book & Nole's moving up or has passed all comers! He actually improved his winning % & inched by Borg! Check it out; fascinating to see it change so rapidly since everything Nole's winning these days seems t/b gravy! He's already done so much before 30 after getting such a late start!
***I think he will end up going down as the GOAT on paper, & he earned it. In my eyes though Fedal will always be slightly better. - not disagreeing w/ that, but that's an entirely different thing from propping up his h2h vs Federer & saying he "owned" him.***
Well it's a much better situation w/ Nole than it is w/ Rafa who truly does own him! We used to make excuses saying most of those victories were on clay, but after Fed lost that Wimbledon final in '08, the so called rivalry was diminished IMO! It's something made up to seem like FEDAL meant something! He had a better tête-à-tête w/ Nole when wins legitimately went back & forth; as late at '12 Wimbledon semi! Since then, he's snuck a Master or 2 on a fast HC!
***He can, but Djokovic severely underachieved at the USO & FO. A player w/ his abilities should have won 4 USOs & 2 FOs at least. Now he's playing catchup.***
Like Rafa, he's usually about "done" after the summer tournaments & needs to refresh for FALL season in Asia & Europe! When you start w/ an AO, IW, Miami, & a clay Masters before the FO, it has to catch up to him! Nole will win another FO & USO in the future; I have little doubt of that!
Disagree w/ combined list of men and women ranking. If you DO make a combined list, you can't put Fed on top w/ only 17 slams compared to Graf, Serena and Court. I already find it impossible to compare legends across eras that are too far apart, but comparing btw genders' just ridiculous.***
I think TCC did that sev. yrs ago to the top 100 w/ Federer #1 over all men & women! OTTH, Graf in the top 4 & Martina maybe around 8! Martina has records NO ONE will ever approach w/ 20+ yrs in singles & after sev. yrs retirement coming back to take more doubles titles into 30+ years; 167 & 177 respectively, 59 major (31 in Dubs - 10 in MxD), winning her last a month before her 50th BD!
***Which year was the best/most exciting in the last decade?***
I picked '12 since you had a little bit if everything; Nole took another AO, Rafa owned the FO, Federer acquired his last major making it 17 @ SW19 plus retrieved the #1 ranking, & Murray broke thru by taking OG & the USO! Not sure how much more comp. it's been since Fedal bored me to death yrs ago!
***Roddick lost 4 Slam finals to Fed. Ergo Djokovic's to Murray what Federer was to Roddick - the guy who denied him > Slam success. I think it's a fair assessment just as saying Federer didn't win more Slams b/c of Nadal. Had Nadal not been around - how many more FO titles would Fed have won? ...That's 6 more Slam titles that Fed would have won & would put him at 23 Slams - ...If Nole wins the GS this year - will SI even bother to give him the cover & name him 'Sportsman of the Year' like they did w/ Serena even though she didn't win the Slam? It could possibly be the least exciting GS achievement in the history of tennis. Nobody but hardcore tennis fans will care.***
...No one's going to care about the level of comp. 10-30 yrs down the line; Roddick still was briefly #1 while Murray hasn't had a sniff of it even w/ a fairly good stretch of winning OG, the USO, & Wimbledon in succession in < than a yr! Murray's a lot better, but his comp. was "the best" w/ 3 GOAT's! Nothing he could do about that! I know Riddick didn't have much in his way w/ Sampras leaving, Agassi up & down, & Hewitt spent after his run at #1!
***Yet you stupid fuckers follow Clinton w/o ??.***
I don't follow anyone blindly, but I'd rather have any Dem over a Rep since I've only seen austerity, partisanship, warmongering, & vindictiveness when cons are in charge! The economy has a brief blip of improvement & they think all's right w/ the world before it all collapses w/ banks failing, Wall Street malfeasance due to lack of regulation, & ballooning unemployment when they swear jobs w/b created w/ > salaries! It's always a big, fat lie & I'm sick of the vicious cycle! Let's give Hillary a chance before making all kinds of prognostications & literally wishing the country would go under just to prove a point!
***Hey Reps who does the gov't owe $19 Trillion to exactly? How much of the debt increase under President Obama was unfinished Bush/Cheney business?***
They don't want to hear it! Everything said about the debt increase under Reagan & "W" is right, but they just assume anoint Obama as the "waster-in-chief!" Even when we had a surplus back in 2000/01 to actually start paying down the debt, they sabotaged it just as you said; giving tax breaks to people who didn't need it, starting 2 wars on a lie, and trying/fighting vs all social programs! Instead of paying for things, they'd rather play games w/ the budget, shut down the gov't costing us $$'s, & threatening our credit rating! There's nothing frugal about Reps when you see how much they waste on defense contracts to their buddies! "It's not my $$ so I can just give it away!"
***Why Did Bernie End Up Supporting Hillary? - Crazy old Bernie's now a certified Astrologer.***
...if that! The stupid ol' codger's losing respect by the day trying to play this Hamlet role when he lost the primary race wks ago! He said he would do anything to save the country from a Trump presidency, but he's obviously only in this for himself! He won't give it up costing us $millions$ to continue his Secret Service protection up to the convention!
***Why do GOPrs want Hillary t/b indicted?***
They can't stand that after all they've put the Clintons thru, they've done it all w/ success, got rich, & are universally loved! Jealousy's not a good look on them!
***It's a shame corrupt Obama will prevent the FBI from taking any action on their findings & Hitlery will continue rolling her eyes & smirking this all off.***
You're hilarious w/ how Trump has had about 3500 lawsuits filed against him, not paying a debt after services rendered or products received, and of course FRAUD w/ Trump U, ripping off old people! You want to keep up the BS, I'll point out how foolish you sound critiquing the Clintons w/o mentioning Trump's malfeasance & habitual lying!
***Lots of people want to give Trump a chance before making all kinds of prognostications about him too...***
He's already proved to be "Full Of Shit!" Trump talks about "America First," but has his suits, ties, furniture & heaven knows what else produced somewhere else in the world! His casinos have gone bust, he doesn't pay up, and he's a bigot! What gives him the right to run anything much < the country? It comes out of his own mouth when he contradicts or changes his mind w/i the same sentence if not days! The Clintons are quite successful @ what they do & people are just jealous of that! Get over it!
***...I want to increase social aid for foster kids & reduce the need for abortions.***
Well ITA! Unless there's a medical reason to terminate a pregnancy, couples have t/b a special kind of stupid to have "an accident" like this & use abortion as a means of birth control!
***ITA Fiero. I'm not in favor of making abortion illegal. I'm in favor of education, morals, ethics & responsibility so that people can make good decisions. But telling women abortion is not murder I believe is wrong.***
***You don't punish people for their success, but you do expect them to contribute to society. You do expect them to treat their workers fairly. ---
More liberal BS. Does Bill Gates contribute to society? Do the taxes that the rich pay contribute to society? Does creating jobs contribute to society? WTF more do you want business to do, forego all profit & just break even? How long would they be creating new jobs if they did that? You libs have no idea how business or the American economy works.***
I couldn't care < if business makes huge profits, but if they do, there's no reason to gouge their employees! I've been lucky in the past to work for companies that were very generous w/ benefits, bonuses, contributing to pensions, & treating employees to outings to celebrate holidays & milestones! Then I hear about Trump who's supposedly a billionaire & he cheats people @ every level & opportunity! Hopefully there w/b a reckoning w/ such a sleaze-ball!
***An employment contract's a voluntary agreement. "I agree to pay you $X to do job Y for 40 hrs a wk" "I agree to do job Y for $X for 40 hrs a wk." No one is being gouged. If you don't like what that employer is offering to pay, don't work for him. He has no obligation to pay you what YOU THINK YOU ARE WORTH. Trump has 1000's of employees & they all speak highly of him.***
Typical deflection & obfuscation! Plenty of people have said Trump doesn't pay up regardless of a contract! He's a cheat & a fraud! Why laud such despicable behavior?
***I don't give Obama credit for enough balls to indict Hillary so Biden can take her place on the ticket. I don't think he likes Biden that much anyway. He was on the verge of replacing him for '12 when Biden pulled that brilliant move of getting ahead of Obama on gay marriage. I don't think there's anyone, Dem, Rep or non-partisan that Obama really admires and respects. He is completely self-absorbed.***
Biden is likeable enough, but he's unelectable; old, a confirmed plagiarer, & always says things impolitic & silly! I still remember him early on blabbing too much about his situation as VP & where the secret areas he's sent if an emergency comes up! The Reps would eat him alive w/ his "gaffs" alone! He's probably the most honest of politicians, but the country prefers a little sleaze; we just can't help ourselves! Saints can't win anything in this country!
***Why do Reps hate Obamacare when it has helped millions of people get health insurance? - Check out the skin tone of the guy it's named for.***
There you go! The Reps had already decided to thwart anything the man tried to accomplish for the country! This is why I will spit in the face of any Rep politician looking for my vote! They've shown their bigotry & willingness to hurt the country to stop any + events to occur on Obama's watch! Unfortunately for them, even w/ all their obstruction, the man has accomplished a lot; even in his 2nd term! His polls are up while theirs is down & they can't stand it! Due to their own self-loathing, Trump is their standard bearer w/ most people unwilling to even endorse him, much < run as his ticket mate for the VP spot! When have we ever seen anything this lame in a Presidential year? If I were McConnell & Ryan, I'd be terribly embarrassed, but right now they're just going thru the motions!
***...It's just fun to watch a brainless, lefty idiots like you make a fool of himself.***
As opposed to the "righties" who show themselves to be bigots, unpatriotic, & slimy trying to thwart a Black President! Who's really made a fool of themselves; REALLY?
***...What fool votes for the same shit over and over again?...and you have the typical 2 party mindset...hence we get what we have right now, 2 people w/ ??able character & not well liked by MANY people. One of them w/b President...ain't we fucking lucky?***
You're kidding right? Talk to the nimrods that send old geezers back continually every 2, 4 or 6 yrs like McCain & McConnell who've been in office over 30 yrs! Need I say more?
***How are Reps supposed to have Blacks elected in our party when there are so few in it? This is when YOU become a nitwit b/c of your own rhetoric & biases. ---
Throughout this thread you right wingers "praise" those Blacks that vote Rep as ENLIGHTENED...If that were truly the case, would not these enlightened Blacks be PERFECT candidates for many elected positions for your equality-driven GOP?***
That's too rational for these people! When they have reputable Blacks backing them like Powell, they end up disappointing him or using him for means other than truth like promoting idea of WMD's in IRAQ! His reputation is tarnished for all X when he very well could have run for President himself! Proves you can't dance w/ the Devil w/o being burned!
***Dems are finally fighting fire w/ fire! I love it.***
Being too gentile as when Gephardt was Speaker really just gave Reps the freedom to slither in the sewer w/ carte blanche impunity! Pelosi has been under attack vociferously since she took over leadership being a hard woman who never let them get away w/ anything said or done! She's not even the Speaker now, but like Hillary they keep up the rhetoric b/c they hate "strong women" in power!
***Rep. candidates always reek.***
More than that; they're delusional! Commenting on trustworthiness of Hillary w/ Trump lying through his teeth about EVERYTHING is a joke they seem to not care about on the Rep. side! If he's such a great candidate, why is no 1 endorsing him of any stature? People are running for the hills & saying they won't even attend the convention! Hillary won't have that problem so who's going t/b really embarrassed at the end of this thing?
***When Bill Clinton left a balanced budget w/ surpluses in line to completely eliminate the national debt by '12, why did George W. Bush slash tax rates for the rich and double the debt from $5.7 trillion to nearly $12 T? A strong feeling that hit me when GW announced his plan to invade Iraq was that he was out to undo the 2 most criticized things about his father's admin. First item was his dad's backpedaling on his pledge, "Read my lips, no new taxes" and then the often heard criticism by those that felt he shouldn't have ended the Gulf War w/ Saddam Hussein left in power. That has been my impression on the matter; never seen it addressed anyplace so it's simply an impression.***
I've always thought Reps wanted to bankrupt the country thinking we'd have to slash or eliminate Soc. Sec., Medicare, Medicaid, Education, & other Nat'l social programs created by the Dems!
***I expect the crimes of the Bush family t/b revealed as well in due X - The world won't end b/c the person in charge has tits. Hell, she was probably running the show while Bill was in. God knows he was busy being a raunchy little bastard...someone w/ a knack for running the country was on duty, & it was probably Hills.***
The delusional behavior keeps getting stronger 'on the right!' It's a shame Reps breed such psychopaths! They'd rather the country fail under a Dem than get run better than some loser Rep. w/o a clue like Trump! A real sick shame!
***BREAKING: The FBI is recommending that Hillary Clinton should not be indicted over the use of a private email server.***
They got nothing after all the ??s, accusations, & hullabaloo! This is only the beginning b/c Reps will continue their rampage after she becomes President!
***Did anyone really think she actually would be indicted? - No, b/c as the FBI Director (a Rep.) stated, there was no INTENT! The Espionage act that you fools keep citing here back and forth WAS NOT violated.***
People need to stop equating this to Petraeus! He was CIA director giving access to his personal files to his "bimbo" on the side who was supposedly writing a book! There is no comparison! There was nothing like that going on w/ Hillary so they need to quit it and move on! Of course they won't, but what do you expect from these sore losers?
***Exactly, Fiero! They either know that or are too stupid to know that. Packers, who kept citing the Espionage Act (18 USC 793) refused to accept that this was about INTENT and it says it clearly in the beginning of the law. They kept saying what Paetreus did was far < criminal which was ludicrous. Only a complete and total dummy would think they were anywhere near the similar incidents. ---
Petraeus never served 1 day of prison X. People have done far worse than Clinton was ever even accused of & not even been charged w/ a crime. COULD she have been? Sure! And most of the Bush Admin. COULD have been indicted for lying about WMD's & many other things. Reagan himself COULD have been indicted for Iran/Contra. The difference here is that absolutely nobody was hurt. No harm was done to Nat'l security. No laws were knowingly broken & it's debatable whether laws were even unintentionally broken. Clinton should not have set up that private email server. It was bad judgment on her part. Trump makes worse judgments every other min. of his campaign. As Hail Mary plays go, this 1 never had a prayer.***
It's willful delusional behavior; even from Gowdy & Ryan to keep saying otherwise! They just make themselves look foolish, but they are talking to Reps! How smart can they be to keep letting them get away w/ this type of conspiracy rhetoric w/ nothing to back it up?
***"Sore losers"...the FBI director just described the Democratic nominee's actions as "careless and reckless" in regards to her handling issues in her office and you do not think this is necessary to talk about in vetting the possible next POTUSA? Jeeze.....you gotta be kidding me! ---
He did not say reckless and it wasn't issues, it was information. I think she w/b above board on this type of thing if she wins the Presidency b/c of this event. - I honestly believe if Hillary was caught robbing a bank, a # of her leftist supporters (along w/ other corrupt officials) would swear she was making a deposit!***
What's your point? Trump said he could murder someone on 5th Ave, in broad daylight & still win primary!
***My point is: They would find no fault against her for doing so....Trump made a stupid statement....I said as much at the X. ---
Well, wouldn't your statement be just as stupid? You know James Comey is a Rep. right?***
They don't care; anything short of an indictment meant "the fix was in!" It was a no win situation for all concerned!
***No 1's surprised by this finding...we are just surprised it took this long to get it out of them, but then again, I'm sure that was done on purpose. ...My ?? is "if it was vs the rules, why did she go out of her way to set up a private server in the 1st place?" ---
Flashback: Rove Erases 22 Million WH Emails on Private Server @ Height of U.S. Attorney Scandal – Media Yawns - Now that they’ve taken control of Congress, Reps are wielding power much the same way they did in the Clinton era... ---
Does anyone think that Trump w/b indicted for his fraudulent "University" or his real estate swindles or his rape of a 13 yo?***
***Cleared on Benghazi, cleared on Email-ghazi - what's next, cons?***
...and after all that; NOTHING! Minor embarrassment b/c "your hand" was overplayed & the rightwing cried "wolf" too much! When Hillary & Bill are actually guilty of something, no one will care b/c you've dulled the senses bitchin' about them even taking breath! They can do no right so who's gonna hear it?
***Seriously, the right popped their load going for indictments this whole X. They should have just been drumming it over judgment, rather than pinning it all on her getting arrested or whatever. NOW after the fact they'll try that, but it'll have far < weight to them, b/c everyone will just go 'but she was cleared on both accounts, by Rep. committees & directors, no <.' ---
..................Total U S Debt.................
Figures Easily Verified...Taken From Bureau of the Debt
US: $18,775,084,981,440 - Debt as of Dec. '15?
09/30/2014 $17,824,071,380,733.82
09/30/2013 $16,738,183,526,697.32
09/30/2012 $16,066,241,407,385.89
09/30/2011 $14,790,340,328,557.15
09/30/2010 $13,561,623,030,891.79
09/30/2009 $11,909,829,003,511.75 (80% - All Debt ^ 232 Yrs Borrowed By Reagan & Bushes)
09/30/2008 $10,024,724,896,912.49 (X's Sq. Debt Clock Mod. To Accommodate 10's of Trils)
09/30/2007 $9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2006 $8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62 (2nd Bush Tax Cuts Enacted Using Reconciliation)
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06 (1st Bush Tax Cuts Enacted Using Reconciliation)
09/30/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86 (Admin. & Congress Arguing About How To Use Surplus)
09/30/1999 $5,656,270,901,615.43 (1st Surplus Gener...On Track To Pay Off Debt By '12)
09/30/1998 $5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 $5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996 $5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995 $4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994 $4,692,749,910,013.32 (Bill Clinton Raised Taxes On The Rich early '93)
09/30/1993 $4,411,488,883,139.38 (Debt Quadrupled By Reagan/Bush 41)
09/30/1992 $4,064,620,655,521.66
09/30/1991 $3,665,303,351,697.03
09/28/1990 $3,233,313,451,777.25
09/29/1989 $2,857,430,960,187.32
09/30/1988 $2,602,337,712,041.16
09/30/1987 $2,350,276,890,953.00
09/30/1986 $2,125,302,616,658.42
09/30/1985 $1,823,103,000,000.00
09/30/1984 $1,572,266,000,000.00
09/30/1983 $1,377,210,000,000.00
09/30/1982 $1,142,034,000,000.00 (Reagan Slashed Tax Rates To Pre-Depression Levs)
***Being a yr younger, Nole's still catching up Nadal's win-loss %, the highest being 83.85% in March '14. Now he ='s Nadal's record from May '15: 880 matches played, 731–149 @ 83.07% - In comparison, I think Fed never reached 82% win-loss rec. ---
Just saw the Nole/Querrey result. I just figured Nole would come back & win all 3 sets today. Now people will understand why it's so hard for anyone to win a CYGS & why Graf (won the OGM the same yr) was the last person to do it - male or female. In 1 fill swoop Querrey has ended Nole's Slam hopes, stopped his run of Slam finals in a row - and streak making QF's & Semis in a row.***
I'm ok w/ it! IMO Nole's been playing just well enough to win! He hasn't necess. played awesome since Qatar where he wiped out Nadal dropping only 3 games! He looked rather emaciated to me! There's fit, then there's running around w/ "skin & bones!" Nole was obviously ticked on being on Court 1 rather than CC & he really blew it by using up his challenges early in that last set! He could have used them on 2 close calls that the linesmen missed! I say he can use the rest; spend X w/ his family & get ready for the summer to close a hole in his resume; Cincy Masters & take another USO! I'm happy enough that he @ least won his FO!
***I think Novak choked, big X. He certainly was due a bad day, & I don't blame him even a little bit if he found things t/b a bit overwhelming. SomeX's they're lucky & eek it out, other X's they lose. It's a pity, b/c he was chasing more history & we don't often get to see this happen - a genuine contender at the GS - so he's t/b admired, I reckon. Pity for his fans too, & the game of tennis. Well done to Querry! ---
Haven't yet seen the match but, on the face of it, this doesn't smell like a choke. We tend to start the countdown to the CYGS very soon, but the players know better. As such, having won 4 majors in a row, Novak has already made the 'Grand slam.' The biggest diff. being that the media frenzy is largely absent if it's not done w/i a CY. Novak won RG for the 1st X after winning SW 19, USO, AO in a row...didn't choke there. Btw, Laver didn't have to deal w/ the pressure of the media countdown to a CYGS like it is nowadays. ---
Novak's now 4-21 (16%) in bo5 matches in his career where he has dropped the 1st 2 sets. Of course the 4 he won all went the full 5 sets - Anderson '15 WC, Seppi '12 RG, Fed '11 USO, GGL '05 WC. Of the 21 he lost:
2 have been in 5 sets - Murray '12 USO & Melzer in RG '10. 6 have been in 4 sets including this last vs Querrey. 14 have been in 3 sets. In comparison, Rafa's 3-17 (15%), Roger's 8-32 (20%), & Andy's 9-34 (21%) in the same situation. ---
ESPN just ranked Novak ahead of Nadal. It's becoming consensus opinion. His resume owns Nadal's everywhere except Slam count. 60+ wks @ #1, 5 WTFs, Masters lead, h2h lead, more dominant seasons, better across all surfaces, more than makes up for 2 Slams. Nevermind the fact that Novak's resume is still expanding. ---
A few notes on Djokovic's dominance:
- Exactly 2 yrs ago today, prior to the current era, Djokovic still had a losing record in Slam finals.
- Exactly 1 yr ago today, Djokovic had still only won more than 1 slam in a year once. - Prior to Fed turning 30 & Nadal bottoming out due to injuries in '14, Djoker was a combined 6-13 vs them in Slams.
- To this day, of any all-X great, Djoker still holds the highest % of wks at #1 while holding only 1 Slam. ---
In '75 or '85, this raw #'s argument mhb quite effective. ...In '16, you simply cannot throw out raw #'s, devoid of any context, and expect them t/b accepted.***
***...Even in GS SF streaks, the top 3 are Roger (23), Novak (14) & Lendl/Laver(10?)... These 2 records bring out the contrast btw 21st & 20th centuries Open era men's tennis. Whatever homogenization of conditions (surface/balls/racquets mix) means, this record brings it into sharp focus like night & day.***
Besides the top players being infinitely better than their comp., you have to take in consideration the homogenized courts, racket tech, and of course the extended seedings! You don't get what occurred in the past w/ #20 in the world playing a #9 seed in the 1st Rd as what happened to McEnroe @ the USO when he was upset by Paul Annacone in '86!
***Honestly I think it w/b much more fun if we had only #16 seeds for the Slams.***
I think it has helped the top player too much; at least the lack of variety in the winners!
***It surely helps the top players to start smoothly into the tournament; probably much more important for the players ranked 17-32 as it greatly improves their chances to get at least the points & prize $$ for reaching the 3rd Rd. Also the top players dominating the Masters tourney where the top seeds can start vd a Top 20 player in a bo3 match to a similar degree as the Slams indicate it wouldn't change too much for them. ---
It would lead to more imbalanced draws and I would expect a slight increase of early upsets, but in the constellation w/ 4 players that are clearly above the field, the probability of 2 of them reaching the final / 1 of them winning the tournament would still be very high.***
...No one's going to care about the level of comp. 10-30 yrs down the line; Roddick still was briefly #1 while Murray hasn't had a sniff of it even w/ a fairly good stretch of winning OG, the USO, & Wimbledon in succession in < than a yr! Murray's a lot better, but his comp. was "the best" w/ 3 GOAT's!
***You mean no 1 but people who like tennis, right? B/c tennis fans, former players, analysts, experts etc. will always bring up the competition of the day to make their case. It's like when I see Navratilova forever spitting in Steffi Graf's eye because Graf didn't go become Seles' BFF after that maniac stabbed Seles - as if that negates Graf's on-court achievements. Rolleyes It's always going to be about what someone perceives as context. My context for Murray is - he hasn't won more more Slams because of Djokovic. He's 2-5 against Djokovic in Slam finals. Roddick was 0-4 in Slam Finals against Federer. Ergo, I stand by my "context" - Djokovic is to Murray what Federer was to Roddick - a PITA who kept him from winning more Slams . We'll just have agree to disagree.***
Not t/b an egomaniac about it, but obviously I'm being a lot more honest about the times giving Murray more credit for being better even though Roddick actually was #1 for about 5 mins! Outside of "us" historians, the cold, hard #'s will take precedent unless there's an old fogy from our era to give texture concerning conditions, technological breakthroughs, & the level of comp.!
***See 2-2 in sets now - Cilic can't finish the job - Fed could give him a 4-0 lead in the 5th & he would still lose. - Cilic hasn't got the killer instinct to finish it. Apparently he has only ever had 3 wins over the top 4 players. It certainly showed on the 2 MP's when he had 2nd serves to look @ & couldn't even get the ball in play.***
If it happens a handful of X's, you overall overlook it, but this is getting old! How many X's have I "gone off" on the 2nd & 3rd tier unable to finish? Querrey lucky Nole burned his challenges @ the wrong X which might have saved him on 2 cons. bad calls! Lets see if Cilic will complete this "bulimic" act yet again!
***It's the reason why the top 3 have won almost everything. But it is tiring seeing someone play so well all match, yet play average on a MP. Did you see Goran? He must be mad.***
***...Roger did scrap on Wed. & he should've been taken out. Cilic choked away the 4th set & put up a meager effort in the 5th. Today's pretty much the opp. though certainly Cilic's collapse was much worse. ---
Mal Washington played in the worst Wimbledon final ever.***
McEnroe had 2 finals that were pathetic; '83 vs Chris Lewis of NZ & Connors' "over the hill" performance in '84! ---
1. M Navratilova - 59 majors, 167 single's & 177 doubles, 6 majors (Martina Slam) won in a row ('83 SW19 - '84 USO when AO @ end of yr). 300+ wks @ #1, 2 CGS
2. S Wms - 22 majors, 3 CGS, OG winner in singles & doubles 3. S Graf - 22 majors, 4 CGS, '88 GCYGS w/ Olympic Gold 4. C Evert - 18 singles majors, 2 CGS, 7 FO & 6 USO 5. M Court - 24 singles majors, '70 CYGS, 64 majors, 11 AO, 3 CGS
***Doesn't Serena have numerous doubles majors as well? But I agree about Navratalova. She played a lot of doubles & in a era when dobs titles were still important, now tend t/b ignored. Johnny Mac was also from that era, & a fantastic doubles player, but that's often forgotten. Martina's 6 Slams in a row was also incredible, a triple "Martina Slam." (altho nobody ever called it that back in those days). I'd put Martina just behind Graf & Williams though.***
That was the best I could do OTTH! Martina won final of the Wimbledon Legends again w/ Selima Star! She'll be 70 & still taking nobodies to glory!
***Serena's played thru the following players: Davenport, Hingis, Capriati, Henin, Clisters, Sharapova, Aza. I'd cluster the 1st 3 in 1 era, the 2nd 2 in another, and the last 2 in the current 1, not to mention up & comers like, hopefully, not to jinx her ...Kerber. So does that make it a 4th era? 17 yrs is just a long X t/b winning majors. If that were McEnroe, i.e., he'd have been winning majors in '96. That's through Becker, Edberg, Courier, Agassi, Sampras, not to mention starting w/ Borg & Jimmy. Can you imagine someone on the men's side in the Open era doing that? ---
I think if Djokovic got thru to the final vs Murray, we would have gotten a 5 setter; kinda like the AO only shorter pts. Murray's 2nd serve mhb the diff. But Maybe Murray just steam rolls getting to the final would have most likely killed Djokovic. - Novak isn't Milos & Murray's tears after this win tell volumes about this matchup in Slams.***
We definitely can't tell how Murray would play if Nole there instead of Milos! We might as well compare it to '77 FO where Vilas won over Gottfried w/ Borg didn't play that season! Vilas has his FO title, won it fair & square, but contextual historians like myself will continue to be "hatin!" IMO, the headlines of the yr:
Nole takes his 1st FO title; continues dominance as #1 Murray solidified his ranking as #2 after making 2 other major finals, wins on clay over Rafa & Nole, & takes Wimbledon Serena continued to struggle tying Graf's major count @ 22 until Wimbledon Thiem, Zverev, Cuevas, Raonic, & Pouille make their marks Fedal absent & fading
***You're just a little bitter b/c a 34-yo Federer recovering from 2-0 sets down at Wimbledon was more epic than most of the matches in tennis this yr.***
If that pacifies your idea of great theatre; ya got me! In the grand scheme of things, Fed was just avoiding the inevitable by a round! I've already said & affirmed Roger's "THE GOAT," but both Nadal & Nole have reason or potential to overtake that universal thought! It gets murkier year after year! No one thought Nole would outdo '11, seemed burned out in '12 & '13, but recovered his footing by Wimbledon in '14 to make Fedal fans nervous w/ an even better streak in '15! Winning FO fills a gigantic hole so I can understand meager defiance in regards to who'll rule supreme when all's said & done?!
***Grass is not Nole's worst surface. He doesn't even play as many matches on grass a yr as other top players, which is why he can have an off day in the earlier Rds. He doesn't play Halle or Queens, and for 2 yrs str., he went right into Wimbledon, took care of the field, & walked off w/ the title. ...You don't walk into Wimbledon w/o any matches on the surface and win the title twice in a row if you struggle w/ the surface. Each time he's won Wimbledon, (3 X's) he did not play a warm-up tourney. Neither Federer, Murray nor Nadal can say this. Only the Wms sisters have been consistently able to do what Djokovic did and look how many they have. ...He's still pretty good on it though. X Dubai titles, Shanghai titles, a Basel title, etc. ---
Only Slams where Djoko performed worse in the final I'd say are RG '12 & W '13. I'd say at all other Slams he played & reached the final he was at about the same level
From '11 onwards:
'12 RG final - worse than RG 12 semi '12 USO final - worse than 12 USO semi '13 AO final - definitely worse than 13 AO semi (not even remotely close) '13 Wim - no need to elaborate '13 USO - yes, he wasn't stellar vs Stan, but he was worse in the final '14 RG - yes, played better vs Gulbis in the semi than vs Nadal in the final '15 USO - played better vs Cilic in the semi than vs Federer in the final '16 AO - played better vs Federer in the semi than vs Murray in the final '16 RG - played better vs Thiem than vs Murray in the final ---
Serena's going to go down as the greatest female tennis player of all X & possibly the greatest female athlete of all X.***
Debatable w/ true athletes like Martina & Steffi who were always on balance, rather than running w/ arms & legs flailing about like a Raggedy Ann doll!
***If you're going to factor in "grace" as a quantifier in being considered the GOAT you damn well better be a Fed Fan!***
I said Roger's the definitive GOAT at the present, but being challenged hard by Nole! Rafa's game is one of the ugliest, rivaled by Murray!
***Federer owns MANY of the ATP tennis records while Serena doesn't remotely hold as much b/c most of them are held/shared by the greats; Steffi/Martina/Chris. Compare to their respective sport, Federer is ahead of Serena. There's no parallel comparison.***
That's why it's too hard to jump on Serena's bandwagon! She & Rafa seemed to play when they wanted; plenty of success, but not sustained!
Event - Since - Rec. accomp. by Nole - - Players tied
Non-Cal. Yr GS - - SA Highest HC match win % - (88.4%) - SA ATP World Tour '70 - 34 Top-tier HC tourneys won - SA 10 Top tier tourneys won in a season - SA 18 Top tier tourney finals in a row - SA 15 str. finals reached in a season ('15) - SA 30+ match wins vs Top 10 opps in a season - SA Defeated all Top 10 players in a season - SA Highest overall match win % (83.0%) - SA ATP World Tour Masters 1000 '70 - 29 titles overall - SA 6 titles won season ('15) - SA 2 yrs winning 5+ titles - SA 4+ titles at 4 diff. tourneys - SA Highest Masters match win % (82.8%) - SA ATP Rankings '73 Highest # of ranking pts as World #1 (16,950) - SA Paris Masters '68 4 men's titles - SA IW's Masters '74 5 men's titles - SA China Open '93 6 men's titles - SA Shanghai Masters '09 3 men's titles - SA
GS tourneys recs - attained - - Open Era since '68
- '08–16 CGS (Winning 4 Majors @ least once) Laver, Agassi, Federer, Nadal - '15–16 Non-CYGS - - SA - Holding all 4 Major titles @ once - Laver - Holding all 4 Major titles on 3 diff. surfaces at once - SA - 30 cons. GS match wins - SA - '10–16 3+ cons. finals in all 4 Majors - SA - '15 All 4 Major finals in a season - Laver & Federer - '07–08 Youngest to reach the SF's of all 4 Majors (20 yrs, 250 days) - SA
USO - '07–16 12 HC finals overall - Fed '10–13 7 cons. HC finals - SA '05–16 Highest HC match win % - 88.4% (114–15) - SA
AO - '11–2012 & '15–16 2 streaks of 3 cons. Major titles - Fed
Wimbledon - '11–15 3+ titles @ each of the 2 Majors
- '16 Winning AO/FO title double in a season - Laver, Wilander & Courier - AO '12 Longest GS final (by duration) vs Nadal - Nadal - Djokovic's the 8th man to win the CGS and 1 of 6 players in the Open Era (Connors, Wilander, Agassi, Fed, Nadal) to win GS's on 3 diff. surfaces.
Recs @ each GS tourney - attained in the Open Era of tennis since '68
- AO '08–'16 6 titles overall - SA - 6 finals overall - SA - '11–13 3 consecutive titles SA - 3 cons. finals - Wilander & Lendl - '11–14 - 25 cons. match wins - SA - FO '09–16 6 cons. SF's apps - SA - USO '12 Longest final (by duration) vs Murray - Murray - Djokovic's the 1st & only player in the Open Era t/b undefeated in 6 AO finals; a perfect 6-0 record.
ATP WTF's recs:
- '12–15 4 cons. titles - SA - 15 cons. match wins - - SA - '14 - 76.1% (51–16) games winning % in 1 tourney - SA - '11 Qualified the earliest – 18 wks, 6 days - SA - Djokovic's the 4th man w/ Federer, Lendl & Sampras to win the WTF 5 X's
ATP Masters 1000 records - GP Super Series began in '70 ATP Masters Series was introduced in '90 IW's '08–16 5 titles overall - SA '07–16 6 finals overall - SAA '14–2016 3 cons. titles - Federer Miami Open '07–16 - 6 titles overall - Agassi '14–16 - 3 cons. titles - Agassi Shanghai - '12–15 - 3 titles overall - SA '12–15 - 3 finals overall - Murray '12–13 - 2 cons. titles - Murray Paris - '09–15 - 4 titles overall SA '13–15 - 3 cons. titles - SA ---
'16 Highest # of pts accrued in ATP rankings as World #1 (16,950) - SA '11–13 3 cons. yrs winning 20+ matches vs. Top 10 opps - SA '11 5 cons. match wins vs World #1 player in finals (Nadal) - SA '15 Most prize money won in a season ($21,646,145) - SA '16 All-X prize $$ leader ($102,026,620) - SA '09–15 - 6 - China Open titles - SA '12–15 - 4 cons. China Open titles SA***
***Sampras declared Djokovic' '11 season as the best he has ever seen, calling it "1 of the best achievements in all of sports." Becker called Djokovic's season "1 of the very best yrs in tennis of all X", adding that it "may not be the best statistically, but he's beaten Fed, he's beaten Nadal, he's beaten everybody that came around to challenge him in the biggest tourneys in the world." Nadal, who lost to Djokovic in 6 finals on 3 diff. surfaces, described Djokovic's performances as "probably the highest level of tennis that I ever saw." He was named '11 ITF World Champ. He also received the Golden Bagel Award by winning 13 sets w/ the result of 6–0. ---
...At the '15 USO, Djokovic reached the final for the 6th X in his career, achieving the feat of reaching all 4 grand slam finals. In the final of the tournament, he faced Federer once again, defeating him in 4 sets to win his 3rd GS title of the year, his 2nd title at Flushing Meadows, and his 10th career GS singles title, becoming the 5th man in the Open Era to win 10+ GS singles titles, as well as only the 3rd man to reach all 4 Major finals in a CY.
He returned to Beijing in Oct., winning the title for the 6th X, defeating Nadal in str. sets in the final to bring his overall record @ the tourney to 29–0. Djokovic then reached the final of the Paris Masters, where he defeated Murray in str. sets, taking his 4th title there and a record 6 ATP Masters 1000 in 1 year. After losing to Fed in the RR stage of the '15 ATP WTF's he took on the 3rd seed again in the final. He beat Federer in str. sets winning his 5th YEC title and he became the 1st player to win 4 cons. finals tournaments. ---
...Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in the final of the '16 FO in 4 sets, making him the reigning champ of all 4 majors, a historic feat the media dubbed the "Nole Slam." W/ his FO triumph, Djokovic became the 8th player in history (& the 2nd oldest) to achieve a CGS, the 3rd player in history to hold all 4 GS titles at the same X, & the 1st player to win $100 M in prize $$. ---
Following his tremendous success in the '11 season, Djokovic began to feature on all-X greatest lists. In late '11, Laver chose Djokovic as #6 in his top 10 male players of the Open Era. ...In April '15, Henman offered another comment on Djokovic's standing among the all-X greats, saying "it's only a matter of X before he's considered alongside Federer & Nadal as 1 of the GOATs." McEnroe put Djokovic in all-X top 5... "My top 4 are Laver, Sampras, Roger & Nadal, but Novak's @ #5 & rising."
Nick B...Over all, almost every player has a downfall; to me he doesn’t have one. He’s perhaps the best put-together player that I’ve seen over 60 years.” Tennis pundits have classified many of Djokovic's matches as some of the greatest contests ever, w/ the '12 AO final being considered the greatest match ever seen. Some longX analysts claim that the Djokovic-Nadal rivalry ranks as the best rivalry in tennis history primarily b/c of the quality of matches they produce. ---
What's a real ATG, what's true GOATness, what is the legitimate meaning of H2H? And so it goes.***
A real ATG overachieves all expectations like Borg winning 5 str. Wimbledons! True Goat-ness has Federer having a nice run in 2 of the biggest majors & owning many records in the book! H2H has always been that; regardless of surface! We tried to give Roger cover for yrs giving him dispensation for most of his losses to Rafa being on clay! The true record shows it really didn't matter w/ him taking Roger on grass in '08, HC at '09 AO, and many Masters on all surfaces; indoor & out! Nole's passed them both; took X, but he caught up there & in the record book!
***If you were looking at ATP pts (using current ATP pts weightings - though the Olympics will drop off after this yrs games) gathered in his career - then Andy's in the Wilander/Edberg terriotory. But if you solely base it on slam wins - then he obviously isn't.
Re. All the pts for all events where he can win 500 pts or > (again, this is NOT a >ness index - it is merely showing objectively the pts gained @ events 500 & >):
For ease I have reduced the weighting points down by a factor of 1000; eg Slams are worth 2 instead ATP 2000.
Scale is: (SV x 2) + (SEFNL x 1.5) + (SEFOL x 1.3) + (SEFRUNL x 1) + (SRU x 1.2) + (TOP9 x 1) + (TOP9RU x 0.60) + (SEFRUOL x 0.80) + (OSG x 0.75) + (SSF x 0.72) + (SEFSFNL x 0.60) + (500S x 0.50)
Becker = (6 x 2) + ((1 + 1) x 1.5)) + (3 x 1.3) + ((4 + 1) x 1) + (4 x 1.2) + (13 x 1) + (8 x 0.60) + (0 x 0.80) + (0 x 0.75) + (8 x 0.72) + ((2 - 1) x 0.60) + (9 x 0.50)= 57.36
Edberg = (6 x 2) + (0 x 1.5) + (1 x 1.3) + ((2 - 1) x 1) + (5 x 1.2) + (8 x 1) + (12 x 0.60) + (0 x 0.80) + (0 x 0.75) + (8 x 0.72) + ((2 - 1) x 0.60) + (8 x 0.50) = 45.86
Murray = (3 x 2) + (0 x 1.5) + (0 x 1.3) + (0 x 1) + (8 x 1.2) + (12 x 1) + (6 x 0.60) + (0 x 0.80) + (1 x 0.75) + (9 x 0.72) + (1 x 0.60) + (6 x 0.50) = 42.03
Wilander = (7 x 2) + (0 x 1.5) + (0 x 1.3) + (0 x 1) + (4 x 1.2) + (8 x 1) + (7 x 0.60) + (1 x 0.80) + (0 x 0.75) + (3 x 0.72) + (0 x 0.60) + (8 x 0.50****) = 37.96
Everything that in today's terms you can earn 500 pts & above per event is counted. That is:
•Slam Victories (SV) 2000 ATP pts •Slam R-ups (SRU) 1200 ATP pts •Slam SF's (SSF) 720 ATP pts •Season end F victories w/ no loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFNL) 1500 ATP pts
•Season end F victories w/ 1 loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFOL) 1300 ATP pts
•Season end F R-ups w/ no loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFRUNL) 1000 ATP pts
•Season end F R-ups w/ 1 loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFRUOL) 800 ATP pts
•Season end F SF's w/ no loss b4 the SF (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFSFNL) ATP 600 pts
•Masters 1000 = victories (we will call (Top 9)) ATP 1000 pts •Masters 1000 = R-ups (TOP9RU) ATP 600 pts •OGM Singles (OSG) ATP 750 pts •500 Series =s (500S) ATP 500 pts ---
# of slams where the player made semi's or > ========= Murray 20 Edberg 19 Becker 18 Wilander 14
Yes winning slams is the most important - but this metric shows Murray's consistency going deep in a slam.***
Which is why I've been saying that Murray will wind up being the best player never to get a sniff of the #1 ranking! These other players did w/ > consistency @ the majors!
***If Djokovic's a sure shot for 18 majors like some folks here think, we would have to liken Andy's chances for getting 10 majors.***
Why? Murray's won 1 major in a season 3 X's; Nole's taken 3 majors twice & on the cusp for matching Roger w/ 3 if he can somehow manage another win @ USO in Sept.! In my day, prime 70's & 80's w/ Golden Age in the 90's, I didn't think it possible to see such excellence w/ 3 ATL again! I had thought we'd have to settle for mediocrity like Hewitt, Safin, & old man Agassi trading #1 ranking after Sampras retired in '02! In quick succession we've had Roger, then Rafa, now Novak! I'm not ready to add Andy to the list j/b he took his 2nd Wimbledon!
***...Murray's been making all slam finals & this looks like his X to shine. - I would never say Djoker won a slam by luck.***
Nole's had to battle just to make final vs 1 of the "Big 4!" He's had it the toughest w/ the amount of success! Murray's just barely broken thru for the most part w/ Roger, Nole, & Rafa soaring over the tour like no past 3 ATG's!
***Yes, but when Murray REALLY sets his heart on achieving something & has Lendl in his corner & is not thwarted by back problems requiring surgery, he quite often achieves it. ---
Nobody can make the argument for Andy as an ATG. Not even Judy Murray would dare suggest it b/c it's so absurd. If Andy's suddenly an ATG, that makes guys like Lendl, Agassi & Wilander SUPER DUPER ATG's. And then that makes Roger Federer God almighty. This takes fannboyism to an absurdly new level. Nobody's an ATG when they've won 3 majors and lost in 9 other slam finals. The whole suggestion is just plain laughable.***
Amen & hallelujah to that! Hyperbole's been taken to new heights!
***Using this logic, then "in a diff. era w/o Rafa," Roger w/b sitting on 30 majors. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. It doesn't matter what Andy whd in a diff. era. It doesn't matter what Roger whd w/o Rafa. Everyone plays the cards they're dealt & the facts are Murray is 29 & has 3 majors. He can add to that, but he's never going t/b an ATG unless he turns tennis history on its ear & suddenly peaks past the age of 30 & gets 8 more majors. That's what it's going to take for him to become an ATG. Ain't happening.***
I try to emphasize you can only play who's in front of you! Navratilova gets little love even w/ her record b/c her major rival was Evert! It's like Martina didn't have to deal w/ BJK, Court, Wade, Goolagong, Shriver, Austin, Jaeger, Mandlikova, Novotna, Graf & Seles! All are in the HOF already! Serena lost her major rivals through retirement (Hingis & Henin), injury (Aza, Venus & Sharpa), & apathy (Kerber, Lusicki & The WTA Tour)!
***Murray's not an ATG yet but he has definitely moved ahead of the likes of Hewitt, Roddick, etc, despite not being #1.***
What is it they say, "there are lies, damned lies, then there are statistics?" It's unfortunate Murray's had to endure the = of "Borg, Connors, & McEnroe!" OTTH Vilas, Gerulaitis, Ramirez, Tanner, Gottfried, & so many others didn't have a chance from '74-84! Ramirez snuck in there for about a min. @ the top in singles & doubles, but Vilas wasn't even an afterthought in '77 w/ 2 majors (FO & USO on Har-tru) & about 130 matches winning "B level" tourneys on clay!
***Holding all 4 slams is looking at results over 4 cons. slams. Holding 4 of 5 slams is looking at results over 5 cons. slams. ---
You can't hold more than 4 slams @ a X (Federer can't hold "4 of 5" b/c there are only 4).***
Hey, they proclaimed Lipton Int'l (now Miami Open) as the 5th Major back in '85; then it was the YEC! Nole's got them as covered as he could for the last few yrs!
***I suppose the Olympics gold is somewhat more desirable than a Masters title due to its rarity, but a fraction of a Slam or WTF. But if you look at who had Olympics gold it is only s handful of greats: Edberg, Agassi, and Rafa, plus Andy, Kafelnikov, Mecir and a couple of far <er players in Rosset & Massu.***
Didn't see any of these OG matches! I may have caught a set or 2 of the ladies when Henin won! I did watch all of Fed & Murray in '12 expecting the same result! When it didn't happen as ordained w/ Fed getting his 7th Wimbl. & 17th major overall! Who would have thought it w/b his last? He went just 2 yrs btw '10 AO & '12 Wimbledon! It's been 4 yrs! Are we to expect guys to roll over so he can have 1 more great run?
***Of the 22 GS titles won by Steffi, 11 were before the stabbing of Monica by a German fan of Steffi. At the X, Monica's #1 in rankings and had won 9 GS's even though she was still a teenage. Considering Monica's age, her achievements by that X, it's not a stretch to say that Steffi's slam count whb considerably smaller if not for the incident. Afterwards Monica didn't play in the next 10 slams due to treatment & recovery of strength. The H2H btw them was 6-4 in Graf's favor before the incident & 4-1 after the incident (for a final figure of 10-5 which is actually misleading).
I'm tilting towards Helen Wills Moody for the GOATESS award even though she only has 19 GS. This is b/c she just rarely loses. She has only lost 3 X's in her whole career in GS matches. As I mentioned before from '27-33 she went thru a streak of not losing a set & that streak was 180 matches long. If only she had bothered to play in all GS's btw her 1st & last apps, based on her win-loss ration, her projected # of GS titles is a whooping 50.
Steffi Graf GCYGS> Laver CYGS> Don Budge CYGS > Connoly CYGS > Serena Slam > Djokovic Slam > Court CYGS***
W/ Navratilova's record & longevity, she's got t/b in the mix! She won 6 in a row; '83 Wimbl. to '84 USO finally losing at AO SF when at the end of the season!
***Well the tour w/b much more interesting if Murray can challenge Novak more regularly.
In '12-13, the chief rival of Novak was Rafa.
In '14-15, the chief rival of Novak was Aging Federer.
In '16-17, it looks like the chief rival of Novak w/b Andy Murray. ---
...I remember thinking Rafa could challenge Rogers record and then next thing I know he is stuck at 14 for what seems like forever. Similarly, when Roger won his 17th I don't think anyone thought it w/b his last! Turning to Djokovic, with no challengers in sight besides Andy it seems the sky's the limit for him to win more slams and challenge Feds 17. Yet Djokovic only has 2 more slams before he turns 30.
Looking at past GS winners I was shocked to see that only 10 times men won as 30 year olds, only 4 times won as 31 year olds, and only 6 times older than that. Will Djokovic suddenly hit a wall like the others did? Will he buck the trend and have his name sprinkled through those 30+ GS winner lists?
Looking @ X winners 30+ we have Laver (4 X's- 3 at age 30, 1 at age 31), Agassi (2 X's, age 30 & 32), Conners (2 X's, age 30 & 31), & Roswell (4 X's, ages 33, 35, 36, 37). So if Novak were to match this rare list he should win max 4 more once he hits 30. ...Will Novak buck the trend & be the 1st to win 5 slams once reaching the age of 30? Will he win the next 2 slams and then tie these greats to beat Roger or will he fall off a cliff like the rest of them? ---
Bags c/b a slam winner in a diff. era. - You mean in a weaker 1 than this?***
Hey, look back! There are players you don't even know that have 1 slam; Johansson comes to mind @ AO back in '02! I do believe old man Gomez overcame a spry Agassi in '90 to win RG! Goran Ivanisevic took a WC in '01 to acquire his lone Wimbledon! It used to happen every once in a while "way back when!" Today's stars have it too easy w/ extended seedings of 32 in majors, byes in the 1st Rd of Masters and they've gone from BO5 to BO3! That was the reason we didn't have any b2b winners due to how tough it was to even make a final much less win them in cons. tourneys/wks!
***Reasonable pts, but don't think this begins to account for the diff. - There were plenty of b2b winners in earlier eras: Laver, Newcombe, Borg, McEnroe, Becker, Edberg & Sampras at Wimbledon. Borg, Wilander, Lendl, Kriek, Courier, Agassi at AO. Kodes, Borg, Lendl, Courier, Bruguera & Kuerten at RG. Connors, McEnroe, Lendl, Edberg, Sampras & Rafter at USO.***
I was talking about cons. Masters when they were BO5 finals! That as a rarity IIRC!
***Serena might hate to lose, but, HWM actually rarely loses. HWM has lost only a total of 3 X's in GS matches in her whole career. Moreover, all these 3 losses are in the finals. To put it in perspective, Serena has lost 3 X's in just the last year ('15-USO through 2016-W). HWM was a trail blazer coming before MC, MN, CE and all others. So, she was not catching up to somebody's record and setting new standards. Before HWM, the record was 8 by Suzane Langlen. HWM's count was 19. More than twice the previous record. ---
I think Singles Tennis has no place in The Olympics. The Olympics are primarily a comp. among athletes/players representing their nations. Even hardly known sports are given a place in Olympics b/c they're a celebration of sports and also are meant to encourage sportsmen/women in all sports all over the world. Many great sportsmen in less lucrative sports, in terms of ability, are badly in need of recognition. There are numerous Olympic gold medalists who are unemployed. Most don't get to play their sport professionally as a career.
Tennis is more like Golf/Formula1/Nascar/Pool/Billiards/Poker/Snooker/Squash etc. If you are accomplished in these sports then you don't need the Olympics. Why do players like Federer, Murray, Djokovic, Nadal need Olympic medals? They already have all the $$ & glory in the world. If you want to make your country proud, go win the DC. ...In fact, keeping Tennis out of the Olympics increases the profile of DC which badly needs it. What's more, estab. players can happily let the < accomplished players share some fame & honor in the DC. I don't remember the men's Olympic medalists, but I remember Rios, Nalbandian, Phllippoussis, Baghdatis etc. If you have talent, the tour lets you make a living. You don't need Olympics.
Team sports are a slightly diff. deal. The very fact that it's a team sport means that players share credit. So there's some justification for them in Olympics ...That brings me to the only justifiable reason why singles tennis might have a place in Olympics. The Stars bring $$ to the host nation & the Olympics itself.***
I concur!
***Murray will end up w/ a better record than Nadal at 3/4 slams - Even Djokovic doesn't have a better record than Nadal at 3; so no chance Murray will mate.***
Huh? Nole has the best chance; 3 Wimbledons, has 2 USO, & obviously owns AO! Murray still has a chance, but Nole only needs to take 1 more USO to eclipse Rafa at 3 of the 4 majors! No one's going to care, but those are the facts! Another notch in his belt to laud over the sycophants of Fedal!
***In BO3 matches, Fed still has Novak's # as a 35 yo by leading h2h every year. That clearly shows Novak wins by endurance in BO5. ---
Well of course Fed's not as athletically agile or potent as he was in '06, i.e. You could make a better argument of after '12 since he was 29 in '10. Djokovic & Murray won the last 2 Slams & they are both 29. Federer does not have Djokovic's # & hasn't for quite a long X. Winning a match in Dubai, Cinci, or a RR match @ YEC does not equate to him having his #. Djokovic's winning vs Fed in BO5 is b/c at this pt in X, he's just a better big match player & is an overall better player. Federer has never dominated Djokovic in BO5 matches and only lead 4-2 after the '10 USO. Furthermore, his career 5 set record is rather poor for someone of his caliber.***
***If we look at tennis age as birth age + 1/4 yr/ Slam, then Novak is "29.5" w/ 2 more Slams before he turns 30. Here's how other all-X greats did from 29.5 on:
Connors (Spring, '82): would win 2 Slams that yr and 1 more the following yr, w/ 3 of his 8 Slams (38%) coming after age 29.5. He remained a top 10 player for another 7 yrs.
Borg (Winter, '85): retired 4 yrs before.
McEnroe (Summer, '88): Won his last Slam 4 yrs before. Was still a good player & would finish #4 the following yr, & sticks around for a few more yrs as a top 20 player, but was done as an elite.
Lendl (Summer, '89): Just won his 7th Slam and would win 1 more the following year. '89 was his last yr as #1; he'd remain a top 10 player for a few more yrs.
Wilander (Spring, '94): Trying to revive his career, but he'd won his last Slam 6 yrs before. In his "latter day Hewitt phase."
Edberg (Summer, '95): Last Slam was 3 yrs before, had fallen out of the top 10 earlier that year. Would play 1 more yr as a top 20 player.
Becker (Spring, '97): Won his last Slam the yr previously, was in rapid decline.
Agassi (Fall, '99): Amidst a career revival & his best yr. Won 2 Slams, finished #1. Would win 1/2 of his 8 Slams after "29.5" & remain a top 10 player for 7 more yrs (includ. '99).
Sampras (Spring, '01): In serious decline. Would win 1 more Slam the next yr & then retire.
Federer (Spring, '11): Still elite, but not peak. Would win a Slam the following yr, but none since.
Nadal (Winter, '15): In career crisis, hadn't won a Slam in a yr 1/2 (or been in a final), now spanning to over 2 yrs.
Of those 11 players, only Connors & Agassi won a significant share of their Slams after Novak's current age - 3 & 4 Slams respectively. Lendl, Sampras, Fed would win 1 more, but the rest did not win any.
So the ??'s, will Novak be a Connors/Agassi & win a sizeable chunk of his career Slams after his current age? Or will he be a Lendl/Sampras/Federer & win only 1 or 2 more? Or will he be more like the rest, and win no more?
Obviously it's highly unlikely that Nole doesn't win anymore. I also think he's almost certain to win at least 2 more to surpass the late careers of Lendl, Sampras, & Federer. But 3-4 more like Connors & Agassi? That seems possible, even probable. But the real ??'s whether he'll win a similar % of his total career Slams (38-50%) as they did in late career, which would mean he'll win 7-12 more, finishing w/ 19-24! That seems very unlikely. So my guess is that he wins somewhere in the 3-6 range, & finish somewhere in the 15-18 range. 4-5 more seems most likely. ---
His volleys are not poor. Isner has good touch for his size & has a big FH; esp. inside-out.***
Isner has to make every match an unforgettable classic unnecessarily! He should knock off so many players in a more timely fashion but for his limited court IQ! He has so much more talent than players of my day who were mostly "all serve" like Tanner, Alexander, & so many others, but they won titles and made major finals! They maxed out what they did best; Isner on the other hand hurts my heart seeing him waste his talents this way! He'll only be considered an afterthought even unable to win DC match at home vs some yokel from Great Britain not even ranked in the top 100!
***I won't argue w/ you there. Although I do think Isner pretty much maxed out his potential. When you're that big, your movement & stamina will always be pretty poor. He's had a solid career - I wouldn't say he's really underachieved. ...Him and his coaches figured it would use < energy & be more beneficial than trying to break every return game.***
***Human Beings are Really STUPID - man alive, what's GOD waiting for? When he obliterated this planet the 1st X I can't see how it chb any worse than what it is now.***
You're probably right! For as long as I've been alive, humans have never given a good reason why we exist but to pollute, destroy, & self emulate from day one! We've just about destroyed the planet in the last 100 yrs & there are plenty that couldn't care < where it's going! We all know we need air to breath & water to drink to stay alive, but look how we treat those most valuable of commodities! I'm glad I'm old so I won't be around when fools are walking around in globe helmets b/c we're too stupid to see how we are affecting our environment! ===
***...But it's still unreasonable to blame the entire police dept. as tainted.***
I'm the last 1 to say all police forces are tainted, but they taint themselves when they try to protect & back "1" who did something wrong! You can support the person w/o going on TV saying "he was in fear for his life!" It just won't fly when everyone has a video of what really happened for all to see! If a cop makes a mistake, say "I made a mistake" and stop trying to justify it by looking up the record of the 1 shot! Sandra Bland in TX was pulled over for not signaling when changing lanes! That cop was heard telling his supervisor he tried to deescalate the situation and it was a flat out lie! He was fired, but she's still dead!
***I agree that not every police station has all honest cops. But my pt is that they blame the OJ jury who blames the whole dept. for framing a man, when only 1 guy was held responsible (Furhman). ...*
If you lived as long as me, you would understand "anything" is possible! We had a case outside of Chigo in Naperville; a fairly affluent area where some kid was murdered! They wanted this put to bed ASAP & it appears they didn't seem to care who took the rap! After all was said & done, all concerned were found t/b in cahoots in framing some Latino kid; either disbarred or run out of office! The list of offenders went from the local cops to the sheriff deputies & from the DA to the judge! It was an absolutely obscene miscarriage of justice! It happens & probably a lot more than we want to believe! Sorry to blow up your bubbles! In CAL, supposedly if you knowingly try to prosecute a person you know didn't do the crime, you're supposed to take their place and be sentenced to significant stretches of X!
***SCOTUS has given the police Carte Blanche to harass.***
SCOTUS has pretty much allowed cops carte blanche to do just about anything and make it justifiable! Yrs ago a Chgo case was ridiculously heard by them and they felt if a cop stopped you for anything; even a broken tail light, that gave them license to search the trunk! We've had Gestapo tactics around for yrs; how can people not see this happening? Now cops can kill you during a traffic stop w/ impunity; video evidence showing the events, but they still get off! Do I have to run down the list of shootings where charges never came down or they were deemed "not guilty?" How many X's do you think this can go on before society freaks out & starts shooting back gratuitously like in Beirut?
***Yes indeed. Breath tests, blood draws: Americans have no protection vs mandatory breathalyzer tests at a police checkpoint, although mandatory blood draws violate the 4th Amendment (Birchfield v. ND). Ignorance of the law is defensible if you work for the gov't: Police officers who violate the law c/b granted qualified immunity if they claim ignorance of the law (Heien v. NC). That rationale was also applied to police who clearly used excessive force when they repeatedly tasered a pregnant woman during a routine traffic stop and were granted immunity from prosecution (Brooks v. City of Seattle). ...***
***Funny how Trump suddenly become a "Nazi" the minute he runs for President. Folks can call him whatever they want. Truth is, the public doesn't care. As long as he's providing jobs and keeping us safe from terrorism, that's all that matters. Trump's called dangerous & crazy yet who's the 1 who nearly got indicted over the E-Mail scandal? Who got massacred over Benghazi? Even MSNBC, the ultimate liberal channel can't stand Hilary?***
How's Trump supposed to create more jobs than are already being created now? You sound like those geniuses in 2000 that thought peace and prosperity, a budget surplus, and low unemployment wasn't satisfactory! We needed to have a "compassionate conservative" run the country into the ground! We're still trying to recovery, but the signs are good! The DOW dropped to 6600; now well over 18.000 pts! Unemployment was well over 10%; now under 5% even if not in full employment! It's still better than losing 800,000 jobs a month in the waning era of "W!" Do I need to go on? There's plenty to make any change ridiculous & sabotaging!
***Trump gets to "rake Hillary over the coals for it" b/c she supported Iraq before she undermined the mission like all the other Democrat traitors. Pence is honest and makes no bones about his support for the President and it makes Hillary a freaking hypocrite as well as a traitor.***
Pence is allowed a few mistakes, but Hillary's just incompetent & unreliable! Such hypocrisy w/ trade, foreign affairs, & more! When Hillary wasn't running for President, she was great; a truly thoughtful person! That all changed quick!
***More Blood On The Hands Of The Racial Arsonists - When you encourage political compatriots to kill innocent people, don't be surprised at what happens.***
Stop killing innocent Black people during a normal traffic stop; PROBLEM SOLVED! Eric Garner was choked out over some loose cigarettes! Nice of you a-holes to only see the COPs' side when we all know what precipitated all this shit! No one's innocent; including those poor cops who back each other to the hilt no matter how egregious their acts!
***What precipitated this was Darren Wilson killing that thug, Michael Brown, rather than letting Brown kill him - and the black community there not caring what Brown did...only that he was black & Wilson was white. - you aren't allowed to go around killing police. That's pretty standard. If you're encouraging racial tensions and throwing gas on the fire, you are adding to the problems.***
The only ones adding to the problem are "stupid" cops who kill people over a traffic stop! It's happening fast & furious; don't you see & understand how people can feel about that? Did you miss the videos? You can't get away w/ LYING saying "he grabbed for my gun and I had to pump 6 bullets in his ass" w/ impunity like you used to babe!
***Police are little more than armed security guards, not that "special" at all... 10th Amendment says nothing about citizens are t/b subordinate to police. They are employed by the pubic not in command of us.***
Speechwriters for Trump got lazy & it was discovered by MSNBC that 22 of 26 words were directly plagiarized from speech of '08 DNC conv. given by Michelle O! Twitter seemed to blow up right away about it!
***Some are making the pt that Michelle would not have gotten a pass if she did the same (blaming the speech writer).
Michelle O '08:
"And Barack and I were raised w/ so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people w/ dignity & respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree w/ them."
"And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next gen. B/c we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."
Melania T '16:
“From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people w/ respect.
They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many gens to follow. ...”
Seems pretty much like a slam-dunk. Her talking about the importance of treating people w/ respect and how she's going to pass those values on to her son while Donald is running his mouth in the most disrespectful way possible is just hilariously ironic.***
Michelle keeps a low profile so she doesn't have to duck so many slings & arrows from the "rightwing" machine! They've been merciless; down to criticizing her kids getting Secret Service protection just to go to school! I'm not talking about some redneck hillbilly; more like Rep. leadership in Congress! They know how all this works, but bash the Obamas relentlessly & it hurts; the disrespect & open bigotry's too much to bear! The main reason to get rid of Obamacare is to try & wipe out his existence even living in the Wh Hse! They won't say it that way, but that's what it's all about & I thought we had gotten past that kind of thinking! It's evidenced in every action of disrespect to Barack & his family & I'm appalled thinking I saw it all w/ what was done to the Clintons back in the '90's! These A-holes have outdone themselves & I didn't think it possible, but they proved me wrong; TRUE SCUM!
***Hmmm. Hadn't thought about this. Not inconceivable w/ the present lot of Repubs in Congress. - I read that Warren is scheduled for the 1st night of the convention. Whether or not someone is on the list is a signal regarding VP possibilities.***
I personally wouldn't care if Warren was on the shortlist for VP, but not sure the rest of the country is ready for 2 women on the ticket! We like to think we're past all that narrow-mindedness and bigotry, but after Obama, we may not see a Black person in that chair for a while! That's how we are; "well they can't call me a bigot now that we've gotten that out of the way!" If we were so ready, why is the Rep. party and the sycophants trying to annihilate his legacy; to wipe out the very existence of his family living in the White House?
***The presidential election s/b more about who c/b the strongest leader who can bring people together. Instead we've got 2 children throwing insults over which pokemon character is the best.***
Agreed, but Trump & his followers don't care about issues! It's all about bluster, using the words "huge" & "big" rather than talking about the economy, jobs, education, & foreign affairs! Trump wants to talk about his polls, how stupid the MSM was to doubt him winning, & exaggerating his "worth!"
***Lets just say w/o the Williams sisters, US tennis w/b a joke right now on both tours. Serena & Venus have been keeping the US relevant for the last 12-13 yrs along w/ Roddick to a <'r degree (pre-retirement)***
Well US women seem t/b coming on "of late!" They've had a decent yr & are winning events & making finals (singles & dubs) outside of the Williams' believe it or not! Keys, Stephens, McHale, Rogers, Vanderweghe, Sands, & others OTTH! It's getting better after all these yrs!
***None of these are slam contenders w/ the exception of Keys(maybe). From AO 2000 to FO '03, most if not all of the slams were won by either Serena/ Venus/ Capriati or Davenport. ---
...And we can also see the diff. btw the "< greats" like Edberg & Becker and the "> greats" like Roger; S in that the latter group tends to age better. For instance, if you compare Roger and Stefan at the end of the year they turned 25, the gap is noticeable but not enormous:
Those are just 2 players, but I think it illustrates the main diff. btw the 2 tiers of greats: the very greatest players have a longer peak and/or stronger plateau. Novak seems very much of the latter category. Actually, he started peaking later than most greats, having a massive breakout in '11 @ age 23-24. I think part of the reason he's maintaining peak form longer than Roger, Rafa, Pete, & almost everyone else, is that he was under the reign of Roger & Rafa for so long, which required him to push himself further & find the '11-16 form that we've been witnessing. ...I suspect Novak will remain the top player for another yr or 2, but when all is said and done, '11, '15, & '16 w/b his 3 best yrs, w/ '17 next, but not as good as those 3. ---
Reality is a Slam will always outweigh a WTF title &/or OG.
For both Nadal & Djokovic, an extra Slam would benefit both of them and their legacy above & beyond what either of the other 2 titles could.
W/ that said their individual priorities may differ & personally they may place greater emphasis on one or the other....who knows.
History however will always remember Slam winners above WTF & OG Medalists (in tennis at least).***
ITA about the USO having a lot more of historic weight! Rafa does need a YEC or he'll have another strike vs him being the GOAT! It's enough already that he's never defended a title off the dirt! That's bizarre by a lot; worst champions in history have done it! Rafter was no star, but he won the USO & took the following 1! How can Rafa even be in the conversation w/ such a short tenure @ the top of the ranking; very uneven career w/ injuries, moodiness, & other reasons discussed OT?
***Yeah I see where you are coming from and when it's all said and done you are absolutely right, his inability to win a WTF & defend a title away from Clay will inevitably work against him in any & all GOAT debates. To me GOAT debates s/b focussed towards consistency, longevity, major titles and ones impact on the sport...while Rafa rates exceptionally well in many of these criteria I personally think there are others who outscore him quite significantly and therefore unless we see a Rafa renaissance where he goes on to win another 3 or 4 Slams (w/ some being away from FO) I can't see Nadal ever laying a genuine claim to GOAT, regardless of whether he defends a title away from clay or adds a WTF Title to his already impressive CV.***
***The strategy that Fed used to break Sampras record is identical to what Novak is doing to break Fed. ...if Fed knew 17 was an easily achievable target perhaps he would have focused on Wimb alone from '10. Perhaps he would have skipped or tanked Masters' in the past, starting from '10. Novak knows he needs to get just 18.
1st of all, 17 was not an easily achievable target, but if Fed thought it was why would he focus just on 1 major? Your point about skipping Masters is basically implying that after winning 16 GS titles Federer didn't try to win more b/c he didn't know how many he can win, which is BS. Federer tried to win another major and he would've skipped or tanked Masters if he thought it would help.
Djokovic is going to try and win every Slam, just like Federer did when he didn't suck on clay. If Novak at some point decides that skipping Masters will help him to win a major, he'll do it. If he decides that, he needs to change his racket, he'll change it. ...For me Fed's the greatest ever and I don't think Djokovic is a better player than Roger. ---
Djokovic has been a constant presence in the deciding stages of the USO since '07, either winning or losing to the winner except in '09 & '14 when he lost to the losing finalist.
Djovak vs Mandy at the USO: '07 - Djovak barely beats Stepanek, but then rolls to the finals for a tight 3-set loss to Fed; Mandy loses to Lee in 3R
'08 - Djovak keeps dropping sets (and is stretched to 5 by Robredo), but gets thro & puts a decent display in the SF vs Fed, losing in 4; Mandy nearly loses to Melzer, outlasting him in 5, then beats Delpo & Nadal in good matches, but's rolled over by Fed in the final
'09 - Djovak loses to Fed in the SF again in tight 3; Mandy is crushed by Cilic
'10 - Djovak close to getting beat Troicki in the 1st Rd, but then rolls to the SF, saves MPs vs Fed & has a respectable 4 set loss to peak Nadal in the final; Mandy loses to Wawrinka in 3R
'11 - peak Djovak saves MP vs Fed again & beats Nadal convincingly in the final, whereas Mandy is beaten Nadal in a similar fashion in the SF (also is 0-2 down vs Haase, wtf?)
'12 - Djovak fails to Master the wind and can't dig himself out of a 0-2 hole, credit to Mandy for winning this
'13 - Djovak beats Wawa in 5 & then collapses in the 4th vs Nadal; Mandy is Wawrinka's previous op. & takes a beat down
'14 - Djovak beats Mandy in 4 in the QF & then loses the SF to Nishikori '15 - Djovak beats Fed in the final; Mandy is 0-2 down vs Mannarino & loses to Anderson in 4R in 4
Djovak > Mandy in all yrs except 2008 (Djovak=Mandy) & '12 (Mandy def. Djovak) - Obvious conclusion is obvious. ---
1 RG vs 1 RG 0 Rome + MC titles vs 6 Rome + MC titles 2 wins vs King of Clay vs 7 wins vs King of Clay
In before "if it weren't for peak Nadal, Fed would have 10 RG titles... even though he lost to broken hip Kuerten in his peak"
6 clay Masters vs 8 clay Masters Not a big diff. Djokovic's poised to add more though. The 2 are generally in the same league, anyway. It is not important what your opp. is called, only what game he plays. ---
If Djokovic ends up, say, w/ 2 RGs & 10 clay Masters, he'll be obviously ahead, but still in the same league overall, b/c finals also matter. 2 RG W out of 2 finals is 2x > than 1 RG W out of 1 final, but 2 RG W out of 6 finals isn't 2x > than 1 RG W out of 6 finals. Neither of them is in the list of >est claycourters - that would require 3 RG titles.
(The same way Djokovic is ahead of Murray on grass, but in the same league, given Murray's OG on grass - directly beating Djokovic - which halves the gap set by a diff. of one Wimby title, & 3 vs 2.5 isn't that big a differential.)***
***...It's a FACT that Federer's main rivals weren't good enuf during Fed's run ('03-07):
1. Roddick wasn't good enuf to meet Federer @ the FO 2. Hewitt wasn't good enuf to meet Federer @ the FO 3. Safin wasn't good enuf to meet Federer @ the FO or the USO 4. Nadal wasn't good enuf to meet Fed @ the AO or USO ---
Federer's gen. is sticking around & remaining relevant, at least in small tourneys, like none for decades. If we use the 5-yr gens, so far this yr Roger's gen. ('79-83) has won 8 tourneys--1 ATP 500 & 7 ATP 250s. Let's see how previous fared at the same pt:
Gen. Kuerten ('74-78) in '11: 1 title, Stepanek winning an ATP 500. This gen. would win 3 more titles in '12-13, all ATP 250.
Gen. Sampras ('69-73) in '06: 0 titles. Santoro would win 2 more ATP 250s in '07-08.
Gen. Beckberg ('64-68) in 2001: 1 title. Clavet won a single ATP 250, the last of this gen.
Gen. McEnlendl ('59-63) in '96: I only have info on ATP 500s >, but the last such title this gen. won was Canada Masters in '93 (Mikael Pernfors).
Gen. Borg ('54-58) in '91: Hard to imagine Borg's gen. active in the 90s. I only have info on Masters >, the last such title this gen. won was all the way back in '82! That w/b =lent to '07 for Roger's gen.
Gen. Connors ('49-53) in '86: Jimmy's last big title, a Masters, was in '84.
Gen. Newstase ('44-48) in '81: IDK, but this gen. hadn't won a big title since '75.
Gen. Ashe ('39-43) in '76: Actually, Mark Cox won a Masters =lent.
Gen. Lavewall ('34-38) in '71: Still going strong, w/ the last big titles being Laver winning 2 Masters =lents in '74. Rosewall won the AO in '71 & '72, & Gimeno the FO in '72.
...Fed's gen.--w/ players like Ivo, Lopez, Mayer, Verdasco, Ferrer, & Roger himself; all winning titles w/i the last 2 yrs--is setting standards that I'm guessing will @ < continue w/ Gen. Nadalkovic. Rafa & Novak's gen. w/b the same age in '21 &, I think will still be around.
It's < players who are sticking around. - ...3-4 yrs ago there were around 30-33% players over 30y in the top 100, now there are around 40-42%. There were 51 players over 30 in the main draw @ RG this yr. That went down to 48, still a huge #. - Many of the newer Djokovic fans that caught on to tennis in '11 or '15 do not truly realize how much > Nadal was in comparison to Murray.***
Both have =ly ugly games that have lost them winnable matches but for their defensive mentality when in the crunch!
***...Are u referring to Djokovic?***
Definitely speaking of Murdal! Of late, Nole's problem has been more w/ closing a match out! At each of his wins that went 4 or 5 sets, more than likely he was serving for it in the 3rd or 4th set, but pulled it out after adding an hour to the clock! OTTH I'm thinking about '14 Wimbledon against Fed, '12 AO & '11 USO vs Nadal! When it comes to Murdal, do I really have to go down the list; esp. vs Nole? I can imagine Andy's still haunted by '12 final vs Nole in Shanghai! Murray was serving for it in the 2nd, hit this gorgeous lob over the head of his opp. & camped out behind the baseline! In the mean X Nole 'styled' by hitting the ball btw his legs; an easy set up for Murray if he had more guts and came into the net like a normal, high ranked player! He was subsequently broken & after smashing his racket to smithereens lost the 3rd set & the match! When Murray played his most aggressive & won convincingly under the tutelage of Lendl, they won Olympic Gold, '12 USO & '13 Wimbledon over Nole, & of late beating Nadal on clay! If you remember, I was quite satisfied w/ Djokovic finally taking his 1st FO, so I ceded Wimbl. to Andy! I don't think Nole tried that hard not wanting t/b bothered w/ the CYGS pressure along w/ Olympic hopes!
...I was quite satisfied w/ Nole finally taking his 1st FO, so I ceded Wimbledon to Andy! ...not wanting t/b bothered w/ the CYGS pressure along w/ Olympic hopes!
***I think Djokovic feels the FO is a bit diluted as he didn't beat Nadal. That I think caused the big let down @ Wimbledon. He knows a lot of people have said Fed didn't get past Nadal to get the FO, so as satisfying as it is to get the monkey off the back, given what Nadal achieved at the FO, it w/b a diff. level of win to beat him. I think it's human nature. Let's say u and me were massive rivals. U were a clay court Goat & had beat me 6 X's @ the FO. Then a decade earlier I'd made the statement "I can beat u as u r beatable. ...Lay a few demons to rest."
And as for Murray, I agree w/ your analysis. The only match he lost at a major he should have won when he wasn't injured was AO '12. That wasn't passiveness that lost it. It was a tech. deficiency on the BH whereby he can't hit thru the ball like Djokovic. Nadal hits across it, always has. It's why so often when he tries to hit the BH down the line flat it goes wide. Djokovic should have more majors, but he has often been too passive; the most glaring was FO '15 vs Wawrinka. ---
The Djokovic - Murray H2H:
As it stands Djoker leads this H2H 24-10.
This now looks like the Fedal matchup in terms of dominance.
But just like clay played a large part in that rivalry, the Nolandy matchup is not as one-sided as it seems.
We immediately take away Novak's 1st 4 victories b/c he developed into a proper pro before Andy.
The '08 USO swing was Murray's breakthrough to a slam-challenger level, so we start the H2H there.
Andy takes a 3-0 lead until Nole gets his 1st win at the '11 AO.
They trade 3 more victories apiece until Andy's breakthru @ the '12 USO, & Slamray leads 7-4.
Novak wins the Shanghai final, but we give that to Andy after all the MPs lost. 8-4.
Djoker gets a WTF win for 8-5.
Andy gets distracted by a feather in the '13 AO final so we void that match. Andy's historic Wimbledon triumph that summer counts as 2 wins so the H2H goes to 10-5.
Neither of Djoker's 4 '14 wins vs Backray should count. So it becomes 10-6 after the '15 AO final. Andy deserved that loss after falling for the possum antics.
Djoker wins the US HC Spring matches. 10-8.
The '15 FO SF was Andy's for the taking, but the lack of floodlights gave Djoker a lifeline. Void match.
Murray wins in Montreal for 11-8.
Djoker dominates the end of year & the start of '16 to jump to a 12-11 lead.
Andy pulls even in Rome, but Novak leads the H2H again after his FO 13-12.
After Novak losing to Querrey at Wimbledon, it's clear he would have lost to Grassray in the final.
So as of now, the REAL H2H btw these 2 champions is 13-13. ---
Federer out of Rio and according to his FB entry, he's possibly done for the season.***
Few are that shocked! This isn't blowing up 1/2 as much as I thought! It wasn't like he was going to take anything!
***Federer has the records for most wks as #1, most wks in the top 2, & most wks in the top 3. He has the records for most cons. wks as #1 & most cons. wks in the top 2, but in '13 he fell out of the top 3 someway short of Connors' & Lendl's totals. He was chasing Connors down for most wks in the top 4 & most wks in the top 5. Currently, Connors leads 669-648 for wks in the top 4 & 705-675 for wks in the top 5.
He's also on the heels of Agassi for 2nd-most wks in the top 10. Agassi currently leads 747-730, w/ Connors ahead on 817. It's possible - if unlikely - that Federer w/b in the top 10 for the next 17 wks & so = Agassi. But most likely he won't get that record, either. Will he be able to regain such a high ranking in '17?***
***Novak's much more accomplished than Connors.... Novak left Connors in the dark a long X ago...***
The FO alone sets them apart! Connors had a storied career, but was made more significant by his rivals; Nastase, Borg, McEnroe, & Lendl! Even w/ all his winning, his weaknesses were glaring & by hanging on for so many yrs after his prime, he ended up hurting his legacy & #'s in general! Borg immortalized himself by leaving early! No 1 will bring up Connors' name next yr or in the next millennium! Like Rafa, most of his success was @ 1 place & rarely was able to defend majors; esp. outside of NY!
***Watch Novak lose the next 2 Slams, then defend Roland Garros. :D ***
It wouldn't bother me; just like him blowing AO & FO in '14, but salvaging his season & the #1 ranking by taking his 2nd Wimbledon!
***Djokovic will win his last Slam at the '17 AO - Here's why: Federer - 1st Slam - '03 Wimbledon. Last Slam - '12 Wimbledon. Exactly 9 ys. 1st & last Slam at his fave Slam. Nadal - 1st Slam '05 FO. Last Slam '14 FO. Exactly 9 yrs. 1st and last Slam at his fave Slam. Djokovic - 1st Slam '08 AO. Last Slam '17 AO. Exactly 9 yrs. 1st & last Slam at his fave Slam. It would all make sense.***
True enough, but Nole's a trailblazer who might turn history on it's head; esp. w/ his fortitute overcoming the 2 pre-eminent GOATs in Fedal!
***Interesting stat, but you have to add in the fact that Nole had a 3 yr period btw '08-11 where he didn't win a Slam. Nadal won Slams in 10 diff. yrs, Fed in 9 diff. yrs & Djokovic is in his 7th yr.***
Like Agassi, Nole might continue winning the AO until he's 33! Who has started the season this well yr after yr winning the AO, then the 1st 2 Masters 1000s automatically! Last season he took the 1st 3 for a new record, and there's no reason it couldn't continue for the next several yrs!
***Yeah, Novak's a serious threat to 2 of Feds most important records, Slams & wks @ #1. There's still a lot of work t/b done though, & he has to stay fit & free of injuries. ---
We've had threads for general discussion of young players on tour, but I thought I'd start a fresh 1. ...let's look at the players currently age 24 & younger in the top 100 Live Race to London rankings:
Live Race to London Rankings - < 25 (7/20/16) - 6. Dominic Thiem (22) 14. Nick Kyrgios (21) 17. Lucas Pouille (22) 22. Bernard Tomic (23) 23. Alexander Zverev (19) 38. Jack Sock (23) 47. Borna Coric (19) 48. Jiri Vesely (23) 53. Kyle Edmund (21) 56. Taylor Fritz (18) 73. Damir Dzumhur (24) 74. Thiago Monteiro (22) 80. Diego Schwartzman (23) 81. Yoshihito Nishioka (20) 82. Renzo Olivo (24) 84. Adam Pavlasek (21) 86. Jordan Thompson (22) 89. Karen Khachanov (20) 90. Bjorn Fratangelo (23) 98. Jozef Kovalik (23) 99. Taro Daniel (23)
Also worth mentioning are some younger (< 21) players in the top 200: 123. Elias Ymer (20) 127. Quentin Halys (19) 128. Frances Tiafoe (18) 131. Stefan Kozlov (18) 142. Daniil Medvedev (20) 164. Duckhee Lee (18) 165. Jared Donaldson (19) 167. Andrey Rublev (18) 169. Hyeon Chung (20) 198. Noah Rubin (20)
And here are the top ranked players under 18 in the top 500: 255. Denis Shapovalov (17) 278. Stefanos Tsitsapas (17) 458. Casper Ruud (17) 494. Louis Wessels (17)
And then of course... 621. Felix Auger Aliassime (15)***
***It's like those who want to give Borg extra Slams since he retired early. Graf retired at a X she was likely never winning another slam. Her last 3 yrs on tour she had won a mere 1 slam, after winning 3 in 1 yr the 2 yrs before that, she was obviously already in massive decline, & she was only getting older & slowing down further while the strength of the womens game would only increase from '99 (when she retired) until '04 or so. ---
The Graf era had long been dead when she retired. From '97-99 she even had a losing record to Amanda Coetzer. The '99 FO was a bit of a miracle for her w/ the crowd getting involved in ugly fashion, & Hingis completely unraveling. She was wise to know that w/b a high note to retire on.***
Graf started having problems w/ a # of players starting in the 90's! Sabatini came into her own; failing to finish Steffi off @ '91 Wimbledon though! Amanda Coetzer? Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario actually became #1 in singles & dubs in the mid 90's! That 1st Rd loss to Lori McNeil @ '94 Wimbledon signaled the beginning of the end for Graf! Hingis was coming into her own, Venus was growing up, & a few other Amazons started making life tough like Lindsay Davenport!
***...Compared to Serena, Graf had nowhere like these plays in her game b/c she simply had nothing comparable to the kind of shot selection & court craft Serena has, never mind Serena’s serve & power. Prime for prime, forget Serena, I’d say Kerber or Clijsters would win at least 13 out of 14 vs Graf.***
No Justine Henin; Serena's last major rival? How soon we forget!
***Novak lost the opener in Toronto doubles, but wins the opener in singles over Mueller, 7-5, 7-6.***
Nole's barely holding on; playing just well enough to win! I keep saying he hasn't annihilated anyone since Nadal in Qatar! Murray was scary good @ the FO, but Nole got the measure & tone of the match helding him off! He's been losing sets & being taken to the limit; having to survive TB's & other close calls!
***There was a GOAT called Roger who never managed to beat Nadal, let alone pushing him to the brink of defeat. Novak managed to instill fear which Federer clearly failed to do. Novak has more clay Masters to back up his claim as 2nd best clay courter after Nadal in this gen. Federer not. ---
Both Nole & Fed have very strong resumes, given that they were stopped by Rafa so many X's. Federer has more Slam & Masters 1000 finals. If he had won more vs a peak Nadal, then he w/b ahead in both title tiers. ...Novak has a couple more Masters 1000s. It basically comes down to each person's subjective opinion of how good Federer & Djokovic were in their primes on clay & which had to deal w/ a stronger version of Nadal. Personally, I'd give a slight edge to Federer, but I think both deserve a lot of recognition. Glad they both finally won the FO after so much effort. ---
B/c winning 8 Slams in an era w/ dozens of Slam contenders, drastic differences btw the surfaces, players who have trained to specialize in those diff. surfaces, & a player talent pool culled from the largest group in history in an era when tennis was the #1 junior sport worldwide, is a lot more impressive than winning 12 in an era w/ 3 Slam contenders, no diff. among surfaces, & a talent pool of players so barren that 30+ yo's are hanging on long enough to get into the top 20 by attrition.
It becomes more impressive when you realize that there were really only 3 Slams per year, since nobody counted (or played) AO & that Connors missed out on numerous Slams he'd have been the prohibitive fave to win during his prime, thru no fault of his own. Novak's 6 extra AO titles don't make up for all that. Connors isn't just > Novak. He's at least >>> Novak.***
***Do Blks who support Rep. over Dems realize they're factually "Uncle Toms?"
Why would any Black person want to support the Rep. party? Look how they performed unprecedented disrespect of Obama & his family! I couldn't care < how TROLLS hunt down every slight "W" got when compared to how Barack was stabbed @ every opp! These animals even criticized the Obama girls getting Secret Service protection to go to school! Rep. leadership actually made an issue of this during the budget and debt battles! To this day, factions of that party believe he's some kind of Manchurian Cand. illegally voted in as President since he's from Kenya, is a Muslim, etc.)!
My heart sink thinking about how this man has been treated! Why would Gays support them with the open hostility! Women are little more than props in publicity shots! Callista Gingrich has t/b an android following Newt around! ...Hillary was excoriated b/c she said she'd rather not "stay home & bake cookies!" Do I need to go on?
***...Black unemployment is a disaster, Blk on Blk crime is at all X highs & NOW, Obama called Blacks who murder police officers COWARDS after supporting them at the Dallas police memorial. ...***
And what would you suggest he do? ...I don't think most understand where this country had to bounce back from; whites aren't that > off when it comes to wealth! We're still trying to recover w/ the foot-dragging of the opp. party! ...I know it w/b ironic if after all the vilification, things take off economically once Barack leaves in Jan. & Hillary rides the wave of his good work!
***If you love America than you'll vote for Hillary in Nov. & make sure it's not a sad day for America.***
Oh that ship sailed yrs ago! When the economy was teetering over an abyss, unemployment sky'd over 10%, & the Nat'l Debt ceiling needed t/b raised, Reps gambled w/ our credit rating losing $20B alone by shutting down the gov't! They proved it was more important to have Obama kicked out after 1 term than to take care of business in a timely fashion! Even w/ all their footdragging and badfaith dealings having to do w/ the budget, we've recovered & they can't stand it! Hillary will continue the work and things will turn around for good even w/ the bad actors 'on the right!'
***DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns - DWS fired for corruption in DNC...***
Next X I hear or read something about a Rep. pols or cons. "egghead" bitchin' about how the MSM's so liberal and "in the tank" for Clinton, I'll point this BS out to them! ...I see a drubbing when people come to their senses about this carnival barker!
***...Well, Trump c/b rude & crude @ X's, but he's no Hillary! ;-) ***
You're damn right Trump is no Hillary; she's a 1st Lady of Ark. & US, twice elected US Senator fron NY, runner-up to DNC nominee, his Secr. Of St., & co-founder of a global initiative that's saved lives all over the world! Trump is a self-promoting loud-mouth who's so full of shit, he's beginning to believe his own delusions of grandeur! We can only hope his supporters come to their senses so there's no doubt anywhere in the world that this tool will only see the WH from the outside.
Did anyone try watching Trump's news conference? It looks more like something satirically created for background noise in the back of a bad movie? He's railing vs Hillary & Bill, his polls, & ranting about emails! This is what Reps want to elect to the most powerful office on the planet! He throws out a couple names, pretends he's meeting w/ them, & that makes it seems like he has ideas! This can't be real; just doesn't look like reality! Now he's back on Hillary's server! "Donald, give us solutions, not your daily spin of your bizarre and < than memorable comments of bigotry, misogyny, sexism, & total ignorance of current affairs!" I hope his straight-jacket w/b ready when he goes down in flames! He will not be able to handle it! - Funny, FNC's "Out#'ed" bimbos would rather talk about DNC convention instead of what just happened! Hilarious that they're too embarrassed to talk about it now or they're still in shock over his comments!
***Yes, it was surreal; & TREASONOUS. - LOL!! Great post Fiero. - Trump is a loon. He w/b a disaster as President. You cons never accepted Obama. Don't tell me I have to accept Trump. I don't & I won't.***
As bad as Hillary's supposed t/b, what does that say about your candidate? His polls have t/b worse or he wouldn't be on the attack so much! He has no solutions, only an ability to tell us why we're so bad off in comparison to the rest of the world! "Thanks Donald; at least you know what you think of us!" He thinks us to be as stupid as he is to believe any of his BS!
***OH REALLY...HILLARY LIES TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC ON A DAILY BASIS & YOU THINK TRUMP THINKS WE ARE STUPID...GET A GRIP! LOL - Trump does attack, he always has. It is his way of putting others on the defensive I suppose. However, his attacking does not mean he has no solutions. He's challenging Hillary's solutions (since you believe she has solutions). As for his ability for telling us how bad off we are, I agree w/ you--we are bad off & it's ridiculous for Trump to claim we aren't. ---
Oddly enough, I have actually found info favorable to Hillary in the leaked e-mails from Assange's "Wikileaks." I wasn't expecting that.***
It's always been made up conspiracies from "the right!" Hillary has a celebrity list & trying to keep that private, ended up exposing herself to ridicule! After so many yrs of Reps after her & Bill, you would think she'd be more careful! Nothing came of it, but it hurts her polls concerning honesty & trustworthiness! I have no problem w/ her in comparison to that inveterate liar w/ the bad hair! At least she knows what she's talking about over the incessant blatherings of some carnival barker!
***This is how biased the media is vs Trump. I watched the whole press conference, and nowhere Trump is committing treason. Clearly if you hate Trump, you'll find every way to justify your hate. Again, I don’t get it. The media is trashing Trump, yet they continue t/b his puppy dogs. He gets free media attention in the midst of an outstanding DNC convention, brilliant! And yes, Trump was clearly joking. In fact, he said Putin w/b rewarded by the press, if the 30,000 emails were retrieved.***
What's "good for the good is good for the gander" I always say! Trump keeps bringing up emails, Benghazi, & trying to undermine the CGI! No one's been more investigated w/ hearings & press conferences bemoaning all the things Hillary's detractors have been doing! Fk him and his stupid ass followers! Who wants a nimrod like this "frat Boy" who's more guilty of offenses including fraud, theft, & chronic misrepresentation?
***Personally, I think the fact that Trump wasn't serious about his email comment makes it *worse* not better.***
GOAT grass + Wimby GOAT rebound ace AO GOAT USO 2nd GOAT clay peak level GOAT peak level of play GOAT playing style and aura
You are spouting off your desire, which has no connection to historical fact.
The facts @ the majors:
•1st, no Grand Slam, so he's no GOAT. •U.S. Open - tied w/ Connors & Sampras. Surpassed by Larned, Sears & Tilden. •AO - he's in no "best of" category here, being surpassed by Emerson & Djokovic, & being in a 4-way tie w/ Crawford, Rosewall & Agassi. •FO - 2nd in what? He only has 1 FO title, & is surpassed by 25 players. •Wimbledon - tied w/ Renshaw & Sampras. There's no rewriting or denying actual majors victories, or rambling about trivia. History firmly places Federer in his proper place--not being a GOAT player, which was not going to happen by failing to win the GS. ---
Is he really the GOAT of all that? I know the word GOAT & Federer is synonymous these days and I don't really want to stoke the fire, but t/b tech, in the Open Era, Federer has roommates, but Djokovic & Nadal live alone. What I mean by that is that based on #'s, he can't outright claim GOAT at any 1 Slam, but they can. Nadal's RG GOAT (by far) & Djokovic's AO GOAT & they have the #'s. Fed shares his Wimbledon court w/ Sampras & his USO court w/ Sampras & Connors.
He shares the record @ those tourneys, but his overall beautiful to watch game, aura & presence edge him over Sampras for both. ---
...Be that as it may, there is still an argument for Murray being an ATG b/c of this. Let's take Becker for instance. How often do people really talk about his other titles & stuff. Most people remember him for what he did at Wimbledon. - I think a lot of people talk about his 6 Major titles, handful of WTF titles, & collection of "Masters Series" titles.***
Murray w/b =lent to Becker if he had just taken a couple of those AO's! Those were a lot of semi's & finals! It's not like his opps made it easy for him, but not even trying to change it up makes it look all the worse! It's 1 of the reason players like Berdych, Ferrer, Tsonga, Cilic, Del Po, & so many others who NEVER change their approach; staying w/i their comfort zone only made it easier for Roger, Rafa, & Nole to own them "lock, stock, & barrel! Wawrinka broke out of that group & sneaked a couple majors & Masters! Btw the rest Cilic & Del Po have lone Slams @ USO & they share a handful of Masters! Andy has more in him than that super-defensive game, pretty much just running everything down & waiting for his op to keel over! I've seen him volley, but he still rather let the ball bounce than to take it out of the air & attack to finish pts off quicker! Silly after so many chances so if he's not even close to Becker w/ more of a game, it's his own fault!
***When Djokovic defeated Federer at the '08 AO, this was his 1st match win over that GS's defending champion.
I think Djokovic has the record for this w/ 7 match wins. '08 AO, '11 AO, '11 Wimbledon, '11 USO, '15 AO, '15 FO, '15 USO.
Sampras & Agassi both did this 6 X's in their career. Federer did it twice. Nadal did it once. ---
OTTH: Murray did it twice ('12 USO, '16 FO), Del Potro once ('09 USO), Söderling once ('09 FO), Wawrinka once ('13 USO), Dimitrov once ('14 Wimbl.), even Stakhovsky once ('13 Wimbl.). I guess Djokovic has certainly achieved yet another notable record in doing it 7 X's!***
***Djokovic mhb a better player for Nadal final of '14 AO than Wawrinka; reason being everyone expected Rafa to win. ...the pressure was huge from a historical pt. Nadal was playing to = Sampras. He was also playing to = Laver's double CS, & be the 1st in the Open era to do so. Stan had lost a dozen X's to him and never even took a set. The expectation was so high on Nadal being the overwhelming fave that the pressure played a significant part in Nadal's back muscles seizing up under the tension even before the match began; causing the injury.
...I personally think it took until W'14 final for Novak to return properly, so I can understand my friend's suggestion that mentally he was vulnerable at AO'14.
In hindsight, the AO'14 final was the perfect storm for Rafa to lose. Everything was just vs him in that match. Pressure, expectation, history, being the overwhelming fave, & inspired GOATing opp. who played the ultimate underdog. ---
As I've argued before, Roger was the best player in the game from '04 until mid-'08; then from mid-'08 to early '10, Roger & Rafa were =s. But from mid-'10 on, Rafa or Novak has been the best in the sport, w/ Roger usually 3rd best (rankings aside). ---
Dude, of course only Agassi, Connors, Laver or Rosewall are the 1's w/ comparable or > longevity. BUT can you name a former world #1 who has a 'runner up' streak of 3 Slam finals combined w/ 3 WTF finals, all on his top 3 surfaces (grass/indoors/fast-HC)? - Or look at it this way. Borg never lost an RG final. Sampras never lost a Wimbledon Final. Nadal never lost an RG final. Nole never lost an AO final. The latter 2 still might, but it's not likely. Until last month Roger had never lost a Wimbledon SF & he found a way to do it. ---
Let's take a look at all players w/ 5+ major titles--including Pro, Amateur, & Open Era Slams--going back to William Renshaw, who could be considered the 1st all-X great player. Here they are listed by year of birth, w/ the yr of their 1st Slam & their age @ the X in parentheses.
I think that list shows us 2 things: One, teenage Slam winners are not totally unheard of, but very rare in tennis history. IDK about players w/ < than 5 Slams, but the only 2 5+ Slam winners who won their 1st as teenagers before Borg were Rosewall & Vines. Two, as we know there was a cluster of them in the 80s-90s, unlike any we have seen in tennis history.
Rafa's RG title in '05 doesn't look that out of place in terms of its rarity. What's out of place is that cluster of teenagers in the 80s-90s. It was "only" 15 yrs since the last teenage Slam title, whereas before Borg in '74 you have to go back 21 yrs to Rosewall in '53. ---
Borg is not a good comp b/c he retired @ 25 yo. Sampras played his last Wimbledon final @ 28 yo, Rafa his last (so far) @ 28 yo, & Novak @ 28 yo (so far). It isn't fair to compare those to Roger @ 32, 33, & 34--the ages he was @ the '14 Wimbledon, '15 Wimbledon, & '15 USO. To put it another way, Borg, Sampras, Rafa, & Novak never--or have not yet--played @ an age & level similar to Roger's the last few yrs.***
***Of all the records Serena is shooting for & has been discussed to possibly take, this is 1 rarely talked about. ...She is only 2 Wimbledons behind Navratilova, and is the clear fave for the forseeable future just based on how she is serving. Can she get to 9 or even to 10?
If she does get to 9, I would probably rate her as the grass & Wimbledon GOAT over Navratilova. She has had way tougher comp. than Martina there since:
Venus >> Evert on grass ---
Kerber, Radwanska, Muguruza... tough comp? Really? I think Serena is playing in the weakest era of all X's. ---
Really? ...The WTA has only been more than 2 players deep 1 X, & that X included Jennifer, Lindsey, Martina, Justine, Serena, Venus, Mary Pierce. ---
Martina is clearly the GOAT on grass, & Chrissie is 2nd, not Serena. Chrissie & Martina having each other as rivals is the only reason Serena even gets a casual mention in the GOAT discussion, b/c w/o each other, either 1 has 30+ slams. ---
...Mid 90s to early/mid 00s... So much variety in the game, diff. styles, surprise champions, lots of diff. personalities. Players like Kuerten, Moya, Rios, Rafter, Ivanisevic, Becker, Krajicek, Arthurs, clay court specialists like Mantilla, Bruguera & Costa, Safin emerging out of nowhere in 2000 & taking over, super aggressive young Roddick, early Fed…and oh yeah, Pete & Andre. I feel very privileged to have watched tennis during this X.***
If you think variety was the spice of life then, you should have grown up in my era w/ Borg, Vilas, Connors, Orantes, Ramirez, Gerulaitus, Nastase, Newcombe, Laver, Rosewall, Ashe, McEnroe, Tanner, The Bagel Twins (Solomon/Dibbs), & so many other colorful characters! That isn't even counting some of the best doubles players who made their mark; Smith/Lutz, Gottfried/Ramirez, Hewitt/McMillan, Stewart/McNair, Connors/Nastase, & even Borg/Vilas! Yep, singles stars played doubles!
***Nole's getting his 1st shot at plying the GURU since Paris '14. We all know what that spurred: Novak had experienced 3 str. 1-slam yrs in the middle of his prime, but the lesson from the GURU propelled him into a historical run of >ness, culminating in the Nole-slam. ... ---
...Monfils has never lived up to his potential. I think someone may have reminded him of this. I got Monfils finally getting off the snide today.***
Who hasn't? OTTH Dimitrov, Simon, Wawrinka, Tsonga, Murray, Isner, Querrey, Kei, Milos, & any # of other players who have all the shots, but can't complete the deal when it counts!
***Novak gets broken in the 3rd game. He shb broken in the 1st itself. But, he is trying to eke out a win w/o playing well.***
He's been doing that all season as far as I'm concerned! He hasn't played "lights out' tennis since he annihilated Nadal in Qatar! He's been playing "just well enough to get by," but has had more than a few close calls, being taken to the limit; esp. in Masters 1000 this season! - Monfils' suckin' wind! He's toast already!
***My Lord, you're a Debbie Downer already.***
Just a historic inevitability IMO! I get so frustrated w/ some players who have the goods, but think they can "outlast" an elite player instead of taking it "to them!" How many has Murray "given" to Nole b/c he thinks his training'll sustain him? It's idiotic when there are other aves of winning! Berdych, Ferrer, Cilic, Tsonga, & Monfils epitomize what I'm talking about being owned by "The Big 4!" They can't break out of their "comfort zone" to finish off a close match.
***In fairness, Monfils plays this way not just vs elite players, but against anyone. Monfils simply does not have an aggressive bone. He does not even attack a weak 2nd serve.***
***...Majors success is--obviously--about winning the title, a completely separate matter, so "cons. finals" means nothing. The goal--the achievement is winning the majors, not trivia.***
Lendl making 8 str. USO finals seems to get more "ink" than actually winning it 3 X's in a row '85-87! Streaks are important to me; love looking @ the record books for that reason! It's impressive & stands out in the annals of tennis history! It gives texture to the level of comp. & high level achieved by a single player who's dominating! I didn't think Nole could outdo '11, but he almost buried it in '15 w/ an extra Masters (1st 3 & another rec.) & the addition of the YEC! He filled the lone "major" hole in winning Paris 2 months ago, is on course to complete the Masters career-set in Cincy, & might even compete in Rio to top it all off w/ OG!
***Federer btw London & Rio Olympics...
222-52 @ 81% 76-20 @ 81% at majors 13-5 @ 72% at WTF
7-11 vs Djokovic (compare to Murray + Nadal: 8-28 vs Djokovic) 14-18 vs Big 4
(since Aug. '13, i.e. based purely on post-London) 48 wks @ #2 60 wks @ #3
That's a pretty damn good career right there. ---
There's a wk off btw Cincy & USO; Nole could recover. It's not like the 1st wk @ the USO w/b that tough. Anyways, it depends what he does at the Olympics & how much he cares about it. Wouldn't surprise me to see him withdraw last min. due to risk w/ Zika like so many athletes. I know I'm in the minority here, but to me winning Cincy & therefor having won every MS-1000 at least once is a >er achievement than the Olympics. Also if I'm Djokovic, I don't risk my health over it either. - I think Cincy is a >er achievement than the Olympics from a tennis perspective (as are some of the other M1000), but Djokovic wants to win a medal for Serbia.***
Another milestone; happens each X Nole takes the court! This Canadian Open's his 30th Masters, 4th Can. title, and is on course to set records we thought Roger would hold alone for decades!
***Don't get carried away please. Roger was never gonna be ahead in Masters given he played Nadal in so many on clay, but he's well ahead in most of the biggest records. ---
... when Federer was 29 (at the end of '10)?
Federer at 29 (Djokovic as of now) GS titles: 16 (12) GS match wins: 208 (223) Masters titles: 17 (30) Total titles: 66 (66) Total match wins: 743 (732) Total match played: 917 (882) Weeks @ #1: 285 (209+) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djokovic–Federer_rivalry
Djokovic has already surpassed Federer @ 29 in 2 categories (GS match wins & Masters titles), tied in 1 (total titles) and closed the gap in all others. Aside from GS titles & wks @ #1, Djokovic will end '16 ahead in 5 out of 7 categories above, which is absolutely amazing.***
***...In this period it is 0-4 on clay, 2-1 on grass, & 0-1 in AO H2H w/ Roger and Rafa; the AO match being a tight 5-setter. They never met at USO, but Fed won 5 in this period.***
ReplyDelete...It took Nole taking Roger out in '10 for Nadal to finally acquire a USO! ...Nadal's owned Roger like no other player; even Nole who's finally gone ahead in H2H on both of them!
***Did you also notice how often Nadal failed to meet Fed in major tourneys?***
Of course; which is why Roger has all those USO's & WTF's!
***Lol - the WTF? You've picked the 1 place where Fed owns Nadal.***
Yep; indoor on a fairly fast court! Roger needs the help like I said! I'm no troll; Fed's still the GOAT for the X being, but no other great has another player own him the way Nadal did!
***You could argue Nadal needs slow & bouncy courts to negate Fed's offense & he has had favorable conditions more often than Fed in that sense. Of course Nadal's the better H2H player, esp. the fact that he never lost to Fed at RG & AO while beating him at Wimbledon once as well. They have played 3 X's in the faster conditions of Wimby/USO, & all 3 were at Wimby. They have met 8 X's in the slower conditions of AO/RG.
Of course Rafa has owned Fed in the H2H, but don't pretend like it's just Fed who needs favorable conditions. Rafa has gotten plenty, unless you consider Rafa nothing more than a clay courter & think that even high-bouncing slow HCs should favor Fed simply b/c it's called HC.***
All players need help at X's, but I'm talking about Roger & Rafa here! Roger was more vulnerable to Rafa than any other player; there's no mistaking that! Rafa was vulnerable to anyone off clay & other slower surfaces! There's a significant diff. & most know I can't stand Rafa; his game, toweling off, pulling on his junk, & adjusting his underwear pulling it out of his butt! I pretended it had t/b something else going on initially until it started getting ugly where Rafa even beat Roger at AO in '09! I figured the end was near, but here we are 7 yrs later w/ the same top elite player at the top of the draw!
***Fed is 2-9 vs a player 5 yrs younger to him.
Novak is 4-9 vs player who's same age as him (approx)
Djokobots wanting to count overall h2h, but ignoring the slam h2h is reflecting their strong IQ. - Hope you realize Djokovic has only recently been ahead of Nadal in the h2h since he has seriously declined, but he's well ahead of Nole in his prime yrs. Your GOAT has also had a losing h2h vs Fed until the latter turned 34. Impressive, but not for Djokovic; the 34 yo still challenging & beating your GOAT yrs past his prime & not long from retirement. ...
---
Djokovic IS an all X great & what he has been doing in the past few yrs w/ his consistency at the big events has been incredible. But it's also true that since '14, he has had no rivals to challenge him and no great younger gen. players to challenge him. It c/b both things, i.e. that he's a great player, but he also has no current rivals to challenge him.
---
Actually, '12, which happened after '11, was Rafa's most dominant clay season ever; only '08 is comparable.***
Nole's '11 ruined Rafa's chance t/b somewhat consistent to have multi-yrs @ #1! As a result, his career & results bounce around quite a bit! Hard to call him the GOAT being so inconsistent, leaving the tour for extended periods, & being unable to defend a title off the clay surface!
***Besides the mucho anger in this post, isn't "cabanaboy Fed" a bit harsh?***
Harsh, but Roger was Rafa's bitch for the most part! Initially I felt gamesmanship was going on w/ the whole act of stalling, incessant toweling off, & challenging every call that went vs him! After a while I had to finally accept Rafa owned him, lock, stock, & barrel; even on grass & HC!
***Nobody is unbeatable, but surely Djokovic is the most complete tennis player ever. He's great on every surface (he is even one of the strongest clay court players of all X, having won the 2nd most clay Masters titles of all X despite playing in the same era as Nadal, & he's the only player who could ever challenge peak-Nadal on clay), he's great vs every major rival (winning records in h2h vs Nadal, Federer, & Murray, plus soon having the most wins vs top-10 players all X) and he has no weakness in his game. Also no mental weaknesses. As a player, no one was ever as complete as Djokovic. Even Federer's career has a few doubts, i.e. Fed has this awful record vs a major rival (Nadal). When Djokovic wins FO, nobody can deny anymore that he had the most complete career of all players ever.***
ReplyDelete---
Murray has never & will never be that great! He's solid enough, but IMO he s/b doing so much more w/ all the work he's done! That defensive mode vs the greats got him nowhere; 2 majors & a handful of Masters! Past champions who attacked the net relentlessly would "eat him for lunch" playing 30 feet behind the baseline!
***I think he can win another major, but anything beyond that is stretching it. He's simply not an ATG caliber player - although he is very good. - 2 Majors and the only player to win double digit Masters titles apart from the Big 3, Agassi & Sampras! I agree w/ you that he could have won more but...got him nowhere....come again? As for playing behind the baseline.... ALL top players do that nowadays except for Federer. Ever heard of a certain Rafael Nadal? They do it b/c modern string technology allows them to pass and make mincemeat of players who try to rush the net like your champions of old!***
Totally underachieved! He had too many chances & now allows an old man to work him on grass of all places! Losing that match in strts @ Wimbledon to Roger was just plain embarrassing; then later in Cincy in a semi! I just SMH in disbelief!
***Before the Wimbledon match I was thinking Murray would walk away the winner given he's younger, fitter, & @ the X I thought was in better form. He ended up getting dismantled by a 33-yo (soon t/b 34 yo) Federer! Yes, he played a great match - but it was nothing Murray couldn't counter. One thing I've noticed is he got content after winning his majors - he lost early @ the USO following his Wimbledon victory, along w/ a string of avoidable defeats to players he was/is superior to, culminating in a strt sets defeat to Wawrinka. The surgery had to happen, but even before he underwent it, he was on a downhill slope.
---
If Federer had played Djokovic in the final like he did Murray in the semis, Djokovic too would have lost in strs. As for Cincy, Djokovic went on to lose to Fed in strts in the final or did that escape your memory. Was that embarrassing too? You're obsessed w/ Federer's age, but prior to this year, he was playing some of his best ever tennis. Age is not a handicap like it was for your heroes of old. Today, w/ better training and better fitness, players can go on for much longer playing some of their best tennis. Just look at the number of 30 year olds still playing, some of them even older than Federer.***
I'm not trying to give Roger a break due to his age; just noticed "his prime" is stressed at being in the past! I think Roger should win more, but he's having as much trouble as anyone finishing a match! It started w/ that Wimbledon loss to Nadal, then those 2 cons. USO semi's to Nole w/ MP's & serving for it! He was fortunate to steal 1 more Wimbledon in '12 and make final of the Olympics, but he decided to hang in there to pad his record & hasn't won anything of substance since! Making finals just proved how weak the "also-rans" are who can't finish matches either vs the "Big 4" w/ leads & MP's serving for it!
***U.S. Justice Dept Won´t Seek Death Penalty Against Benghazi Suspect - Of course not...***
ReplyDeleteMore than likely he cooperated and gave info which c/b useful in the future! Idiotic that Obama would intercede on his behalf! If he wanted, he could just pardon him instead of going half-arse w/ a commutation of a death sentence!
***Are Some Reps Like Paul Ryan Unscrewing The Wheels Of The Rep. Party? - Republicans & Republican Party? Please...
Trump has proved the words Rep. and Rep. Party are meaningless. W/ Trump we know any Rep. w/ any governing experience is worthless. Seriously, give credit where credit is due. What Trump has accomplished is no small feat. Trump didn't just win. Trump took on all Rep. comers (and let me remind you there were 8 or 9 governors & 4 senators in the race) and the Rep. Party as a whole... AND ROUTED THEM.
---
It's obvious the Rep. elephant is trying to pass an industrial sized coil of barbed wire. I've been monitoring politics for a 1/2 century. Never have I seen such chaos, such utter disarray in any U.S. political entity. Compared to the Reps., even the Libertarians look organized. Ten years ago I NEVER thought anyone could honestly say that, but today, IDK anyone that honestly couldn't. The Dems may take glee in it, but for the rest of us, we look on in horror.
---
...Let's put in context Fiero. Indiana had similar situation and they re-evaluated and backed off. But NC's governor is doubling down. And it looks like their resolute determination to discriminate vs a tiny defenseless minority may cost them $titanic.***
NC have already lost $millions w/ $billions on the line & this fool is actually "doubling down" as you said! Pence had more common sense to back off and save the state from complete humiliation when the NCAA among other things were ready to move out of the state! I keep trying to have faith in the voters of these places, but they disappoint me again and again; look at FLA and MI! What do these guys have to do not to be reelected? ...IDK what's going on allowing Dem. states to turn & then see them go under in education, business, & now we can't even trust the water being safe under their care!
***A) Indiana's law was completely different and had nothing to do w/ any Fed overreach.
B) I'm glad that leftists are finally coming on board to the idea that private vendors such as Bruce Springsteen can choose who they provide services to based upon conscience.
C) I notice none of you are referencing the actual suits or laws (Which would require you to believe that men who 'identify' as women be allowed to compete on women's sports teams).***
Trump Week Gone From Bad To Worse! - We can only hope Trump's past is blowing up in his face! Besides what we've already heard about his disparaging comments on Mexicans, women, Muslims, The United Nations, & trade deals, it's now coming out that he pretended t/b his own PR person 20 yrs ago using names (John Miller or John Barron), calling up newspapers, magazines, & TV programs pumping up his business, love life, & marriages! A butler of his that was on staff up to this year ranted about Obama and Hillary as "TRAITORS" and s/b hung in what he called the White Mosque! Trump has refused to release his tax records which has been standard for over 40 yrs using lame excuses of an audit! I could go on, but he's been embarrassed enough; him and his idiot supporters! This is so pathetic that this man has gotten this close to being the POTUS!
***Fiero; The human psyche is a fascinating study.
Regarding Religion: For the skeptical, no proof is possible. For the faithful, no proof is necessary.*
Regarding Trump: The naturally analytical may find credible Trump's confession that it's him. Trump supporters may find Trump's contradictory positions on it irrelevant. They support him anyway.
* paraphrase of Saint Thomas Aquinas***
***Israel is demanding $5 billion annually, up from $3 B; offered $4 B tax dollars and it scoffed at as a paltry sum. This over the next 10 yrs or $50 billion, up from the last 10 yrs $30 B. To offset this expense it appears Reps are willing to cut $23 B EBT programs for Americans over the same X period. Remember now Penny, Israel comes 1st; after all they are self anointed "God's chosen people". The taxpayer isn't gifting them w/ 10's of billions, God is.
ReplyDelete---
Foreign aid has nothing to do w/ the food stamp cut CJD. Except maybe that Reps want to cut all gov't programs across the board. That's exactly what the sequester deal was about w/ Obama since he & Reid refused to pass a budget (ever). That Rep. deal saved our Federal gov't B in added debt!
---
Sequester was mandated and put into effect after Reps in Congress could not bring closure to the "Bush Tax Cuts". They failed to reach an agreement when at the table. They were later closed after Sequester went into play.***
They'll never learn! Funny after all these years w/ our support of Israel, the partnership is all "talk" and little substance! For as long as I can remember they've been belligerent, rude, obnoxious, & total dicks when it comes to those settlements on the West Bank! They overreact to terror assaults and think nothing of killing Palestinian children; a group were on a beach playing soccer! Not even an "ooopps" came out of their mouths! Cutting their support is the least we can do when they don't seem t/b appreciative in the least! The last straw was Netanyahu interfering in the last election endorsing Romney! I was DONE w/ that idiot and have no problem w/ Obama freezing him out!
---
It's sad that Trump supporters don't seem to care when the man is caught in a lie; "it's really congenital" so everything's excused! It's not his fault; he can't help it; sorta like cancer! It's a sorry day when even the reported 9% of his fandom seem t/b able to carry the day & probably eviscerate the Rep. Party!
***Part of what puzzles me about it; they keep criticizing Hillary for being dishonest. So who are THEY going to vote for, the Easter Bunny?***
That's the Rep. way, attack an opponent's strength & their weaknesses are transferred as well! "W" didn't do ANYTHING in the service, so what did they do w/ Kerry who had medals all over his chest? They all attacked that record! It was 1 of the most obscene things ever done since they profess to have so much reverence & love for our armed forces! They're all full of shit & it's hard to have sympathy for them since they believe it like morons! It doesn't matter that "W" tried to cut their 3% raise, have allowed the VA to fall into disrepair, & through Trump are talking about privatizing it! SUCKERS!
***Then why is Hillary failing this week? She has definitely attacked her opponent's strengths, but yet she fails.***
Haven't you guys learned; Nat'l polls mean NOTHING? This is the Presidency where 50 individual elections are going on in the states w/ her well ahead in electoral college! OTTH, all she has to do is deal w/ the swing states that always determine these elections; Penn., Ohio, Wisc. MI, FLA, and maybe 1 of the Southern tossups like GA!
***Well since you listed my state which has been "purple" for as long as I can remember, and independents such as me are not allowed to vote in primaries...Trump won here I would guess by 85% while Cruz & Kasich were still on the ticket. I have a very definite thought that Trump will beat Hillary in a landslide in PA when everyone is able to vote in the general election. Yes I do think this is the year PA will show RED once again.***
***If Lendl had stayed with Murray, pretty sure he would have snagged a few more majors btw '14-16.***
ReplyDeleteMaybe, but he didn't! He reverted back to defense mode which is so ridiculous when it's obvious he won being more aggressive! Has Murray ever heard of videotape? You would think he would check all those losses to Nole at the AO and say to himself, "hmmmm, maybe I should pressure the guy more and stop 'waiting' him out!" What an idiot!
***I've read that Roger maybe's going to withdraw, again? - If he pulls out, I doubt he would play RG.***
It hasn't made any sense to go to Paris since he actually won it in '09! The last final was an embarrassment, but what did he care; he got to stop Nole's run of 42 matches in '11! He got to wag that finger 1 more X like "I'm still relevant!"
***It's too grueling ...bad ole backs don't get better. I tried to tell your boy Front that a few wks ago, but he told me that it was just a tweaked back similar to 1 of his gym workout injuries. - Murray opened a lead of 1020 over Roger in the ranking. Are the days in the top 2 for Roger over? Considering his health issues that m/b it.***
OMG I hope so! IMO he's still the GOAT, but it doesn't say much about the present and future generation allowing the old guy to hang around the top like this; same back "in the day" with Connors! I consider today's players a lot better, but it's obvious physical ability isn't enough; emotionally and psychologically they aren't ready to take over! - Nole's re-writing the recordbook & will overtake most if not all the meaningful entries if he keeps this up for another year or 3! His results vs the top 10 is now the best & he's surpassed Borg! He has 3 or 4 X's the # of matches since the elite seem to always make it to the semi's & finals so it's more impressive! He's already killing it on the Masters' tour & just needs to have a couple more "2 or 3 win major" seasons to overtake you know who! I'm very excited for him; not b/c he's a fave, but I've been nauseated by the Fedal love-fest for yrs now! What will the fans do when both start eating Djokovic's dust?
***Rafa's the best I've seen him in years. This Spring has been the beginning of the real incline. - If this is the "beginning," it means you think he will or can further improve. I am curious to hear "how much more" do you think he can go?
---
He could take RG this yr Herios. It's not a given, but I think he makes his last big push for his 10th & may well call it day if he gets it; end on a high note.***
I doubt Rafa would retire in your scenario! I hoped Roger would have done the same in '12 after winning Wimbledon, but there's too much $$$ t/b made & plenty of adulation to sustain them! It's someX's hard to walk away; look at Connors & McEnroe! John still can't bow out; constantly showing his skills in exh's & Powershare match tourneys! He's old & gray and he just can't give up the spotlight!
I don't think Nole's played particularly well; just eeeking out a lot of matches! Kei had him yesterday & took it to a TB in the 3rd! He like others have had all kinds of chances, but they've choked again & again! Personally, I don't think Nole's played lights out since he destroyed Rafa in Qatar months ago! He's just hung in there and barely survived; losing sets to "nobodies" and actually lost to Vesely, though many thought he didn't really try wanting the rest after start of MC!
ReplyDelete***For the FIRST X I agree w/ your comment. Novak's not playing particularly great & that bothers me even more looking how the others are losing stupidly vs him starting w/ Nadal. Murray's playing very good, but far t/b the "greatest" on clay & Rafa also has lost to him, come on!
---
After Murray win vs Nole in Roma, where would y'all place him to win RG? Congrats!***
Nowhere! I'm betting he doesn't even make the final! He's shot his wad as far as I'm concerned; totally zoning the last 2 weeks making these finals and winning Roma over Nole! He's probably done until Wimbledon IMO!
***Lol, are u serious?***
Honey, you're obviously new here! My words come from GAWD! I'm almost always right! Been watching, playing, teaching, & prognosticating for well over 40 yrs! I live it even though very unhappy w/ the sad state of affairs with the game; the mindless aggression & the Big 4 taking all major titles!
****Suddenly, RG '16 became even more interesting. The 3 clay Masters are won by 3 diff. players. Also, surprisingly Andy has more clay pts than Nole or Rafa going into RG.
Andy: W, F & SF. (1960 points).
Nole: W, F & 2R. (1610 points).
Rafa: W, SF & QF. (1540 points).
If you add the 500 of Barcelona, Rafa will vault to #1, but that's not fair considering the other 2 did not play there.
---
Today's loss by Novak has at least 3 asterisks.
* Nole was softened by Rafa & Kei w/ 2 tough b2b matches.
** Nole injured his ankle yesterday trying to get dirt off of it.
***It was raining & so Novak did not give his all to make sure that he does not get injured trying to win this Rome trophy. After all RG is more important.****
As I said, Nole hasn't necessarily been playing that well and "he doesn't really need" the work or pts; doubling all other players on the ATP rankings!
***Agreed that Nole does not need pts w/ his huge lead. But, it's traditional to use the clay pts gained as a barometer to gauge RG contenders.
---
Those who say tennis is boring, what's your opinion on this clay season?
He had 4 solid players who ran hot so far: Djoko, Nadal, Murray & Nishikori
And all 4 delivered, resulting in a lot of entertaining matches:
•Nadal vs Murray/Monfils MC SF: Marked Nadal resurgence overcoming 2 great playing opps
•Nadal vs Nishikori in Barcelona: another quality final; Nadal looked awesome
•Djokovic vs. Kei in Madrid: Ninja dominating the baseline; shotmaking was brilliant from both sides
•Djokovic vs. Murray Madrid final: Djokovic's moment during this clay season; 1 of the few great Murrovic matches accross the yrs
•Nadal vs. Djokovic in Rome: Nadal at the top of his game (relative to what he can produce atm); Nole showing amazing mental strength
•Djokovic vs. Nishi Rome semi: match of the year for me, hands down; probably the best highlight reel we got in quite some X despite a pretty poor 1st set from Nole.
One could mention the Rome final played today, although I didn't find it high quality or entertaining.***
***Tennisbase.com has a complex system for ranking players and they have Novak > than Rafa. But their system doesn't weigh Slam titles as highly as most, so Lendl is ahead of both. Federer is 3rd behind Laver & Rosewall. Here are the top rankings:
ReplyDelete1. Laver 2837
2. Rosewall 2608
3. Federer 2603
4. Tilden 2361
5. Lendl 2159
6. Djokovic 2078
7. Nadal 1987
8. Gonzales 1985
9. Connors 1850
10. Sampras 1807
Based on those #'s, Roger will pass Rosewall shortly, but probably won't catch Laver. Novak will pass Lendl & probably Tilden & has a chance of making the "Big 3" a "Big 4."
===
Definitely wouldn't be 1 of the biggest upsets ever, lol. Rafa losing in '09 FO was a much bigger one for 1. I tend t/b positive & also don't believe in jinxes. I do think ND will win, but you can't say it w/b a shocking upset considering his history there.***
Supposedly Nadal had a knee injury; didn't he? I believe he skipped Wimbledon, had a rotten summer, culminating in Del Po wiping him out in the semi's @ the USO! By the X he got to the WTF, he was a shell of his old self & lost all 3 of his RR matches; 1 more to Soderling! I think Rafa got him back at Wimbledon the next year!
***That was when his parents were in the middle of their rift. I saw him @ the O2 and he was just going through the motions. He looked as if he would rather be anywhere else.
---
Can anybody stop Novak's domination? W/ Roger aging & Rafa not back to his best yet and Andy only winning 1 out of their last 13 meetings, who can stop this man? - No one, at least not yet. I suspect it w/b a combo of 2 things: he starts to slip a bit and the young guys like Kyrgios, Zverev, & Fritz take a step forward. But I think Novak is all but guaranteed the YE #1 ranking this year and possibly next. I think we'll start seeing cracks next year, and his reign ending in '18.
---
For the next year or 2, the only guy that can 'stop' Novak is Novak. - Let us hope that Kyrgios can. These 2 have never met and we don't know how they will match up vs each other until we see their collision materialize. - I think Stan can rattle him, but he's so hit or miss that you would have a better shot at winning the lottery than knowing which Stan is going to show up to a match. The issue a lot of players have playing Novak is that constant pressure on serve b/c that ROS is golden. I can see Novak being potent through '18.***
Both or either Nole or Andy have to do it soon; time running out!
***Why does TENNIS WAREHOUSE allow such blatent doping accusations of Nadal?***
M/b b/c it's called "free speech!" TF goes out of their way to delete posts that make the accusation, but most feel Nadal went over and beyond chemical help t/b an absolute BULL winning those FO's! Heaven knows I thought it w/ him being absolutely "ripped" 1 day, then deflated the next! I still muse about those absences from the tour being secret suspensions for PED use!
***Bachelot accused Nadal of taking 7 months out of tennis btw 2012 & '13 to cover up a failed drugs test. The Spaniard says he missed out on various tournaments, including the '12 Olympics & USO, b/c of a knee injury. "I'm going to sue her, and I am going to sue everyone who's going to comment something similar in future, b/c I'm tired of that," Nadal said at the IW's tourney.***
***The Conservative Case for Trump***
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed for cons who have to eat these brownies for the next few months b/c there doesn't seem t/b anything they c/d about Trump as their standard-bearer! It's a little late to push for a 3rd party candidate; that would definitely be suicide so they have to accept this loudmouth for now! I really didn't think Trump had a chance, but Reps proved me wrong in polarizing their electorate, defaulting on this guy! I better not ever hear about how much these guys LOVE their country allowing this charade to go on! For them to envision this guy w/ the nuclear codes is insane and it seems the party is what's truly important to them! It will backfire in the long run; we can only hope on the Dem-side!
***Trump Is Our Best Chance To Win - I'll take Trump over the gun grabbing, open borders, corrupt hillary hands down knowing both are not favorable w/ the majority of voters.
---
Fewer then 45% of GOP voters voted for Trump. He has no mandate in the GOP. By and large it's on him to EARN the respect of the % he demonized for most of the year. ...Most of us feel neither Trump OR Clinton are worth a vote.
---
The nation is screwed whether Trump or Hillary wins. Leave it to the GOP to produce yet another candidate worse then the Dems do. It's like a sick competition to see if they can find a worse candidate.***
Well If Hillary isn't better, who the HELL is? Not like I'm a fan, but if she isn't the most qualified in the history of this country, I don't know who is really! Was 1st lady of a state, then FLOTUS, a Senator of a huge state after a terrorist attack, culminating in running for President herself and becoming the Secretary Of State of the whole country! Please come up w/ anyone w/ such a resume! Trump has run an Int'l beauty contest; which is the extent of his foreign policy he brags about! Please!
***As more corruption of Hillary continues to surface, Trumps odds vs her will continue to improve.***
Thankfully that means little to nothing at this pt! Besides that, you know this is going to turn into 50 local state elections to determine the President w/ an electoral college already in her favor! Hopefully the country will come to their senses and ignore the hype and see running her down to get something new and stupid like this man makes us a laughing stock; even more so than "W!" What a winner he was; do I need to go down the disaster he turned out t/b?
***Trey Gowdy Finally Admits Truth About Benghazi - Whatever it is, it w/b as idiotic as Gowdy's position. Afterall, what is Gowdy calling into ??? here? The exercise of Executive branch judgement. That he can't as a legislator legislate. That any and every overseas request for more resources c/b and ought to be met. That he isn't willing to do. That there's some bottomless pit of money. That doesn't exist.***
This has been investigated and talked about more than Watergate where a real crime was perpetrated! This has been BS w/ dozens of hearings, reports, & discussions; all totaling nothing! They can't even get their facts straight calling it an embassy when it was the CIA HQ! The Ambassador didn't ask for protection and was well liked by the locals proved by the way they reacted, turning over some of the ones guilty of perpetrating this heinous act! It's so ridiculous to keep dragging this out when more disgusting and major events have been looked over and forgiven w/ little memory of them actually happening; including 250+ troop members blown up in their barracks in Beirut! I don't remember 1 Dem saying he was responsible for that! Such hypocrisy on the "right," but what do you expect from these animals?
***...Ask cons here if Obama was born in the US. I dare you…. That you’re too scared to have your opinion trounced in public is a given and we all know you won’t do it. But if you did, you would either get your doors blown off or get answers as crooked as a corkscrew as to where there are no answers at all.
ReplyDelete---
No it's not; you're just too fucking stupid to understand it. Get an education & then comment, you look like a fool.***
So you're denying a good # of idiotic cons. Reps believe Obama isn't from this country and is holding the Presidency illegally? Delusion reigns it seems! It's so sad & pathetic that these people actually have a vote and aren't relegated to mental institutions! A 2 term Dem. President is actually running things and has > favorables than any of their loser candidates and they still can't get over It!
***Maybe you'd better read through the thread and then comment, how you got that out of a link about Clinton's "surplus" is beyond me.***
I don't need to read the thread! I lived back when the deficit was actually going down! It made no sense to disburse those checks to stimulate the economy; total fiction "W" inherited a recession! He and his supporters were full of shit and they couldn't stand the man trying to destroy all he accomplished during his presidency! I blame the people for being such idiots going back to loser tactics of Reps after 1 of the most successful presidencies in memory! It's bad enough they won't acknowledge what Obama's done to bring the country back after certain collapse of "W's" admin., but to support Trump shows they really don't give a shit about their country! They just assume we fail under him than continue any level of prosperity under another Clinton who they've been trying to destroy for over 25 yrs! Truly pathetic people who'll burn in HELL soon enough!
***For a new guy on the block you're pretty dam good; thank you ..and may Trump burn in Hell w/ Cheney, GWB, & Scalia.***
911 probably wouldn't have occurred if "W" wasn't in charge & vacationing in TX! They totally ignored the warnings & we'll be paying for his incompetence for decades to come! Thanks!
***Outright lie any honest person can see.***
You probably wouldn't know an honest person if they came up and smacked you in the face! "W's" whole admin. was a lie from beginning to end! There was this fake recession he inherited from Clinton he kept hammering, then of course those imaginary "weapons of mass destruction" Iran/Suddam supposedly had, and allowing Lehman's to go under which triggered so much bad news we almost went bankrupt! We were actually losing 600-800 thousand jobs a month, the auto industry almost went under, and the DOW went down to 6600! To this day, Reps still won't take responsibility for the turnaround of what Clinton had done to improve all our lives! He even went along w/ welfare reform and it didn't placate these losers; insisting on tax cuts we didn't need & starting 2 wars we weren't obligated to start! Revisionist history won't save your pathetic legacies! Reagan & 2 Bushes didn't create as many jobs as Clinton alone; not forgetting the recovery of Obama's led us to!
***Please don't forget to also mention HOW our "beloved" GWB got electd. - ...I couldn't care less you lick Obama's ass...***
I'm no fan of Obama's, but I'll take him over any RUBE Rep.! Collectively they lost their minds decades ago wanting to undermine anything beneficial to the people for some reason! They want to protect the sanctity of life & marriage, but they don't seem to care if kids are starving while they're caught marrying 2 or 3 X's themselves! The hypocrisy is mind-numbing!
***A new Washington Post article showed Trump didn’t pay a cent.” It surfaces a '81 NJ Casino Control Comm. report that includes tax info that Trump submitted as part of his app. for a gaming license, & contains a tantalizing hint at what m/b in Trump’s more recent returns:
ReplyDeleteState records show that Trump claimed that his combined income in '78 & '79 was neg. $3.8 M, allowing him to pay no taxes. A few yrs earlier, he had told the NY Times he was worth more than $200 M. Tax analysts say it's possible that Trump pays very low income taxes or no taxes at all, using tactics available to wealthy investors & developers such as depreciating the value of real estate.***
The problem is will it matter w/ his supporters? They don't seem to care about things like this or if caught in MANY lies! The hypocrisy's mind-numbing w/ Reps and cons., but what else is new?
***Total Destruction: College That Jane Sanders Ran Into The Ground Closes Its Doors - "Yes, the Sanders are quite the gruesome twosome. Jane utterly destroyed Burlington College. The school only had a little over 100 full-X students, w/ a total graduate & undergraduate enrollment of < than 500--and she was to accrue a $10 million debt?
Bernie plans to take the country down the same path of financial ruin, w/ his agenda leading to an explosion of gov't spending to cover his left wing goodie bag items. In all, the self-described, disheveled Dem. socialist plans on increasing spending by $33 trillion over the next 10 yrs, while adding $21 trillion to the Nat'l debt over the same period. To boot, his $15.3T in tax hikes won’t be enough to pay for his left wing, Candy Land vision for this country. And Dems want these 2 running the country? Lord help us."***
I learned college is highly overrated going back to the 70's where college graduates were bagging groceries, driving cabs, or walking dogs for a living! It's no joke the $100,000+ debt accrued by the student, the gov't, & society just so some nimrod can say they have a "sheep skin" on their wall! What a country!
***...Funny thought, but if that was some Repub w/ 74 str. months of job gains, they w/b screaming MT RUSHMORE MT RUSHMORE.***
You know it! Instead they're harking back to the Reagan yrs totally ignoring Iran/Contra; negotiating w/ terrorists, funneling moneys from weapons sales to Central America against the Boland amendment, & totally forgetting about that barracks bombing in Beirut w/ over 250 men killed while pummeling Hillary over an attack on a CIA outpost! These people just can't be believed or taken seriously!
***Pearl Harbor = Hiroshima: Obama Says No Apology For A-bomb On Hiroshima Visit - ...the 1st atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, killing about 140,000 people in total. Tens of thousands were killed by the fireball that the powerful Hiroshima blast generated, w/ many more succumbing to injuries or illnesses caused by radiation in the weeks, months & years afterward. The southern city of Nagasaki was hit by a 2nd bomb 3 days later, killing 74,000 people, in 1 of the final acts of World War II.***
Unfortunately "war is HELL" and sand was kicked in our faces which for once I didn't care about the retaliation! It's probably 1 rare occasion I can agree w/ troglodytes that we went nuts and tried to eviscerate an enemy! We weren't even in WWII; pretty much minding our own business w/ little intention of getting into the fray when Japan bombed Pear Harbor! If we had dropped more than the 2 on their little island, I wouldn't have complained about it! I'm still mad and I wasn't even born yet! What were those people thinking? They knew we had the capability and they still performed this heinous act upon us! I SMH over it and can't understand their thinking! Did they really think they could rule the Pacific if they knocked out that 1 facility? STUPID is as stupid does I guess! NO APOLOGY NECESSASRY!
***What A Loon; Hillary's slogan of "Stronger Together!" For What?***
ReplyDeleteYeah, Hillary's a loon, but Trump's sane talking about banning Muslims, building a Mexican border wall, & allowing any nation to have nuclear weapons! We got it!
***I agree. It's not a great yr for political sloganeering. What grade would you give "make America great again?" D+
At least Hillary's has some pedigree. "Stronger Together" is reminiscent of similar unity slogans that hark back to ancient X's: e. Pluribus Unum. A house divided cannot stand. etc. It's after all the UNITED States of America.
F4, Trump is playing Reps for suckers. He's promising the impossible:
- tax cuts
- strengthened U.S. military
- lowering the deficit
- building a wall; Mexico pays
Perhaps the Don will pick a pink unicorn for his running-mate.***
Reps are suckers! To allow it to get this close w/ this BOOR, I just SMH! Can you imagine Trump w/ the nuclear codes, deciding if we go to war or not, or to go back to "trickle down economics again?" It's been tried 3 X's and it's been a colossal failure each X! Like true idiots, they go w/ what they know regardless if it works or not! Some Dems aren't much smarter believing Sanders w/b able to push all his BS policies thru like paying for college, taking taxes up to 90%, & so much more which are pipe dreams!
***Ray, what happened? You were a big Bernie supporter some X back.***
The longer this old man hangs in there, the most he's making a fool of himself! He needs 90% of the remaining delegates, but somehow thinks he still has a chance to win the nomination! ...He's sounding more & more like a typical, frustrated loser expecting people to kiss his ass to placate him like a spoiled child! His demands are ridiculous; esp. since he isn't even a Dem, but to try & replace the DNC chair he needs to take "several seats!" Like McCain, he just needs to go away after all is said and done and m/b he won't be exposed as a hypocrite & liar!
---
***Which cop made the conscious decision to kill Freddy Gray?***
I guess you want to blow it off & chalk it up to "an accident!" I wonder if this had been some white kid, would you be as glib? No wonder "Black Lives Matter" exist! This kind of crap goes on all the X around the country; usually w/o cameras to monitor the situation! Like that guy shot in the back 7 X's in Cleveland, it was accepted he must have tried to take the cop's weapon until video showed the ghastly truth! When will you care? I guess you'll continue to rationalize, "shit happen!"
***Do I think that someone in the Baltimore PD was negligent? Absolutely....but you claimed he was given a "death sentence" which is a conscious act or decision. Just responding to your choice of rhetoric. I will ask again...Who gave Freddy Gray a "death sentence?"***
I couldn't care less if a conscious decision or not occurred, when will cops be held accountable for their actions? I'm sure they didn't think they did anything wrong, but a man is dead for no other reason than he ran away! The BS about a knife was just that; BS and the family wound up w/ a nice payday b/c these fools didn't take their responsibility serious enough and allowed someone to die under their watch! In the old days, it didn't matter if you intended a person to die or not, if a life was lost you went to jail! If we weren't locking up so many people for smoking joints and jaywalking, there w/b more room to incarcerate irresponsible a-holes that caused a death like this!
***...IDK what happened b/c I wasn't there, but I believe everyone has a right to fair due process under the law. And if found accountable, they s/b punished accordingly.***
***Perhaps policemen s/b held to a higher standard. Spitting on the sidewalk is as offensive whether by pretty housewives or burly COPs, but pretty housewives are generally not accorded powers of arrest. Use of force and authority to arrest are extraordinary powers, and thus society retains the right to expect that those few granted those rights be held to more exacting standards.
ReplyDeleteA guy died here. The dead man looked fairly healthy before the police got to him.
Shrugging that off w/ a dismissive "not guilty" is a red flag warning about the viability of our society.***
Thank you! I have no dog in this hunt & know this guy is probably a lowlife, but it's not up to the cops to clean up the streets the way they did causing his death! A "not guilty" which is all too common in these situations tell them they can get away w/ murder if they want and we see & hear about it happening everyday! It c/b something as trivial as a traffic stop & the next thing you know, chalk up another dead person @ the hands of a law enforcement officer! When will it stop?
***Cops are too eager to kill over unnecessary apprehensions. - Cops didn't kill the P.O.S. drug dealer. As I recall the order to clear the neighborhood of drugs came from the mayor.***
I never heard anything about this guy "carrying!" They justified his arrest by saying he had an illegal knife which was total BS! He died only b/c he was stupid enough to run; some do that instinctually!
***No violation of any prescribed law is so small that cops won't kill to enforce. A Detroit school cop was captured on video body slamming a 15-year-old student after she was found to have stepped on an elevator w/ an expired elevator pass.
---
Yep....Some people actually claim they get beat down for cracked windshields...Imagine that!***
Maybe it's frustration of not being able to do anything about "real criminals" that shoot up a street, extort businesses, & any # of other offenses that can't be handled as easily as a traffic stop!
***Who would make such a stupid claim like that? - Somebody that gets in the police officers face.***
You mean like that poor woman in TX who didn't use a turn signal, then pulled over, wrestled to the ground & arrested; now dead while locked up? Yeah, she was very abusive; didn't put out her cigarette! That made a lot of sense! He only lost his job for filing a police report that was total garbage! His ass shb jailed, but there's no law for being a total asshole!
***Marching in lockstep w/ police state America makes supporters appear perfect fools probably in fear for their lives if they say the wrong thing against cops.
---
Why is it a "police state?" Your liberal Dems control the Executive Branch and the Dept. of Justice.
---
Police state USA is the militaristic overpowering of all the citizenry by force & threat of death.
---
Hillary has declined to a agreed on debate w/ Bernie Sanders on Fox News, stating her schedule and X are better spent on the road. ...
---
You people are dumb! Of course the guy behind wants to debate; happened w/ Trump too. So he's just as much coward for, let's get it right, being ahead!***
Don't you love it? Hillary's the frontrunner, but she's supposed to take an invitation from FNC hoping she'd trip up on the eve of taking the nom.! These hypocritical mohrons are priceless!
***Well, I suppose if you 2 & Hillary believe that she'll trip up in a dabate, then she should discount her previous statement and "chicken out." I mean, who wants to look the fool on FOX News?***
She's the best debater & hasn't lost even 1 IIRC! I just said people are "HOPING" she trips up! WHY give FNC the chance to try & embarrass her after undermining her intelligence, honesty, & professionalism? I would tell them fuck off myself!
***Freddie Gray arrest record includes at least 18 arrests:
ReplyDelete•March 20, '15: Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance
•March 13, '15: Malicious destruction of property, 2nd-degree assault
•Jan. 20, '15: 4th-degree burglary, trespassing
•Jan. 14, '15: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distribute
•Dec. 31, '14: Poss. of narcotics w/ intent to distr.
•Dec. 14, '14: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance
•Aug. 31, '14: Illegal gambling, trespassing
•Jan. 25, '14: Poss. of marijuana
•Sept. 28, '13: Distr. of narcotics, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, 2nd-degree assault, 2nd-degree escape
•April 13, '12: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distribute, unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, violation of probation
•July 16, '08: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, poss. w/ intent to distr.
•March 28, '08: Unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance
•March 14, '08: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to manufacture & distr.
•Feb. 11, '08: Unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance, poss. of a controlled dangerous substance
•Aug. 29, '07: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distr., violation of probation
•Aug. 28, '07: Poss. of marijuana
•Aug. 23, '07: False statement to a peace officer, unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance
•July 16, '07: Poss. of a controlled dangerous substance w/ intent to distribute, unlawful poss. of a controlled dangerous substance (2 cts)***
So much for a free society! We waste so much X, effort, & $$ trying to keep people from "using" when more people die from alcohol & cig's every yr! Unfortunately the country was founded on those vices while we freak out w/ pot, cocaine, & other substances that are created normally in nature! Such ridiculous priorities! If someone wants t/b stoned all day; let them for Gawdsake! We leave alcoholics alone as long as they aren't driving!
***You should try watching FNC & become informed.***
If you want to be misinformed or have breaking news that's 2 days old, tune into FNC! They're pathetic and I should know; been watching since '97 w/ lineup of O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, and Crier!" They make news by making mistakes, puting a "D" behind a Rep.'s name that's been indicted or being prosecuted, & bemoans how bad Dems are in comparison to saintly Reps! As long as they reported the facts, I was fine w/ how they slanted their news; now it's more about commentary & opinion and is unwatchable even though I push myself! The only program I can watch from beginning to end is Sat.'s, "Journal Editorial Report" & Sun.'s "Mediabuzz!" The rest has t/b taken w/ a grain of salt! The only anchors I have any respect for are Shepard Smith & Brett Baier on "Special Report!"
***...Yeah it's the channel I watch for the election news....I mean for the most part MOST of them are not completely biased and you know what to expect.***
I watch them all; MSNBC & CNN for the facts and FNC to see them freak out when their predictions go askew! I can still see Karl Rove freakin' out over Ohio during the general election! He was so sure Romney would take it, he wouldn't let it go after it "had been called" for Obama! Election night on FNC is very entertaining & funny! The others just give you the #'s!
***The fact you think ANY mainstream media outlet is giving FACTS is funny & disturbing. I don't trust those bastards one bit.***
***I hope Trump won't be as corrupt as Obama. ...***
ReplyDeleteCorrupt? Trump has already shown himself to be a bully, a pathological LIAR, & cheat! You and he have a lot of nerve disparaging 1 of the most successful Presidents in memory! How soon we forget what he had to overcome & fix b/c of your good guy & beer buddy, "W!" He proved t/b incompetent, weak, allowed Cheney to run him the 1st term, & exposed Valarie Plame just to vilify & to try & discredit her & her husband!
***I honestly think that HRC wants to help people & that she believes herself t/b the best person for POTUS to do that job, but she feels she has to engage in skulduggery to get to a place politically to become POTUS and be able to help people.
A huge # of honest people believe in HRC & trust her. A case in point is David Brock who after doing his attack book on Anita Hill was going to do a similar 1 on HRC. His fanatical support of her belies the idea that he was merely bought. Such people simply drift into other endeavors or subjects to appeal to the est. fan base, but not Brock.
What is it about HRC that inspires such people if it is not a genuine desire to work for the betterment of society esp. by helping the poor? The trick is what you have to do to get the power to help anyone. How far will Hillary go to get that power and has she already gone too far?
...Yeah, maybe HRC is just an evil bitch, but that doesnt strike me as plausible given the Brock events nor in how many avg. people from across the country believe in her deeply. The best scenario is that HRC is just naive and trusting for her subordinates to carry out all her instructions w/ little oversight. There's great plausibility for a person from her gen. to not grasp the fundamental difference in having private email vs a whole private email server. Hillary seems far to intelligent for this t/b the case, IMO. So why take such a risk?
...Unfortunately for her, the State Dept. has a long history of playing fast and loose w/ Nat'l security and the culture of that agency is such that 'minor' matters of classified document security are ignored on a routine basis, playing right into Hillary's worst practices & tendencies.
I dont think Hillary ever intended to break a major, serious national security law or rule. The problem for her is that they are ALL major laws and rules for a reason; they are needed to safeguard our nations secrets, the lives of its agents and the common interests of our allies, all of which, intentionally or not, Hillary Rodham Clinton has betrayed.
At the very lesst she has demonstrated that she's incompetent w/ Nat'l intelligence and is therefore unfit to hold the office of POTUS. Growing 1000's are beginning to realize this every day.***
You made sense until you ??'d Hillary's competence! I can agree she c/b careless & depends too much on her staff, but she's a very busy woman who's always had a lot of responsibility & a lot to get done! I will still take her over any RUBE Rep. who've proved they care more about party than the country's security & feasibility! W/ Clinton & Obama, they turned the economy around, produced millions of jobs, while doubling the DOW! Two Bushes have collapsed the economy, lost jobs, almost killed the auto industry, dropped the ball w/ Wall Street, started 2 wars w/ a huge lie, & divided the country w/ hate for Gays, women, & immigrants! IDK how you can forget what Obama had to deal w/ when he entered the White House! The DOW around 6600, now approaching 18,000, respect & admiration from around the world when they were burning "W's" effigy in protest & hate, and has the cooperation of many countries w/ new trade deals! OBTW, Brock turned on the Reps b/c they turned on him after they found out he was GAY!
***Facts You Might NOT Know About Soap:
ReplyDelete...For all of you diehard, rabid Soap fans, I'm sharing below some facts that I've found out about the show that y'all might not know.
1. Susan Harris didn't create Soap as a parody of daytime soaps, and it wasn't meant to be ABC's ripoff of Mary Hartman. Harris had written for traditional sitcoms and created 1 of her own called "Fay". She said it was really hard to write a complete story and resolve it in 22 mins. She wanted to do a sitcom where the characters could grow and change and stories could arc over X eps. Her ex-husband Berkeley Harris was on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, and Susan realized that the soap opera format w/b the perfect form for her to tell stories the way she wanted to.
2. When Soap went to air and became an immediate hit, ABC considered running it in the same format they had used for Peyton Place in the '60s: twice weekly running yr round w/ no breaks. Harris resisted this b/c she wrote all the eps herself in the beginning and didn't think she could keep up w/ that pace and maintain the quality.
3. The original actress playing Mary was Salome Jens who coincidentally had played Mae Olinski on Mary Hartman. Katherine Helmond said that Jens was a very lovely person and excellent actress, but everyone thought that she was too ethereal, in a style similar to Helmond herself, and also too soft to play Mary. Harris decided that there was more humor in Mary and Jessica being completely dissimilar, and that the central relationship of the story was the 2 sisters so their casting was the most important.
Katherine Helmond was the first actor cast, but strangely the producers initially didn't want her to read for the part b/c she was known primarily as a dramatic actress. She found the audition difficult b/c she wasn't given any direction about the character or how they wanted it played. She based her portrayal of Jessica on a real life friend of her mother from her childhood. This lady was someone who never let anything in life bother her and always seemed to have an innocent almost childlike fascination w/ life that made her more of a playmate than an adult. Harris didn't laugh or smile at all during the audition but told Helmond in a very serious tone, "that was funny...very funny."
The hardest parts to cast were Chuck, Corinne, & Benson. Jennifer Salt was actually submitted for Corinne, but during the audition they asked her to read Eunice, too. W/ Chuck, they couldn't find an actor who could do ventriloquism adequately, so they almost cast 1 actor to play Chuck and then an offstage voice actor to read Bob's lines. The last 2 actors cast were Diana Canova and Robert Guillaume in that order. All of actors auditioning for Benson had played the part w/ either too much militance or too stereotypically obsequious. Diana got the part of Corinne b/c she dressed conservatively and didn't play Corinne as being sexy. Harris thought that was perfect for Corinne b/c it made her seem like a nice girl the audience could like w/o thinking of her as being a slut.*** ...cont,...
cont.,
ReplyDelete***4. Before the pilot was written and shot, Harris wrote a series bible that detailed the story lines and characters over 5 seasons. Soap was sold to ABC w/ the gen. agreement that it would run for 5 years. Many of the stories and characters in the bible are what we actually saw, including Danny being Chester's son, which wasn't even revealed until the last season.
5. Some stories and characters either changed or never made it to air. I.E., Jessica and Chester's eldest child was actually a son named David. David Tate had gone MIA 5 years before the action on Soap began. In Vietnam, David had been having an affair w/ an Asian girl named Noyen Nu. He went missing w/o knowing she was pregnant. She gave birth to his son Joey Nu Tate. Noyen and Joey were to have gone to Dunn's River to find the Tates. Eventually David would have made it back alive too. It would've turned out that Noyen's father was an opium baron. Meanwhile, Burt had a middle son named Michael who was a smuggler. He was to have kidnapped Joey Nu Tate and held him ransom in exchange for drugs from Noyen's father. David would've searched for them similar to Jody searching for Wendy after she was kidnapped by Carol.
6. Chester had 3 sisters: Meta, Hezza, and Adja (LOL!) - I'm not making this up.
7. Benson had previously lived in New Orleans where he produced a daughter named Ruby w/ a light-skinned black woman. She raised Ruby w/o telling Benson he had a daughter b/c she wanted Ruby to think that they were white! Ruby would've gone to Dunn's River and was slated to fall in love w/ Chief of Police Tinkler's son. It would've also been revealed that Tinkler was a segregationist. When Robert Guillaume left for his own sitcom, Harris reworked that plot w/ Danny and Polly.
8. In the 1st season, Senator McCallum was going to plot to murder his wife Marilyn t/b w/ Eunice, but there would've been a twist that she was secretly dying. Also, Eunice had been molested by a family member as a young girl and that accounted for her standoffish behavior.
9. The Major's real name was Seymour Gatling. His delusion about the war came about after he went to the front in WWI and flipped out when he discovered that the combat soldiers were using real bullets.
10. Along w/ Peter and Chuck, Burt's ex-wife Jewel had been scheduled to appear in the 1st season and make trouble for Burt and Mary.
11. PETER CAMPBELL'S MURDER. There were several changes to what we actually saw. Corinne was supposed to actually catch Jessica and Peter in bed together. Ingrid was to have arrived before Peter's murder, and the revelation that she was Corinne's mother was what drove her to go back to Peter despite him having had an affair w/ Jessica. Peter's body was to have been discovered by Corinne instead of Burt. In the bible, he wasn't stabbed, shot, strangled, suffocated, and bludgeoned. He was garroted to death on a racquet stringing machine!
The REAL killer was ... NOT CHESTER.***
cont.,
ReplyDelete***Yes, in the Soap bible, the murderers were Chuck and Bob!! Harris wanted Chuck t/b a psycho similar to the popular novel and subsequent movie Magic. Chuck would've killed Peter but attempted to blame it on Bob, who would've been propped up in the courtroom and pleading the 5th! In another stroke of genius, Bob was to have taken the witness stand and confessed, getting a reduced prison sentence by turning state's evidence against Chuck! The story of Dutch and the prison break was planned, but w/ Chuck and Bob. All of this was changed b/c audience reaction was so positive to the characters' comedic timing that Harris decided they couldn't afford to lose them. This created a need to make another character the killer, so it became Chester instead.
The original 1st season finale as scripted ended w/ the jury foreman reading Jessica's verdict. Although the producers thought it was obvious that she wasn't guilty, the network was receiving a lot of mail from viewers who thought that she was. ABC asked Harris to change the ending to the freeze frame of Jessica being led away with Rod Roddy's announcement that she was in fact innocent. At that X the writers hadn't made up their mind which of the 5 characters shown as suspects had actually committed the crime.
12. Richard Mulligan and Cathryn Damon were the most difficult actors to work w/ according to the directors. Everyone conceded that Mulligan was a comedic genius, but when Burt went nuts in the story, Mulligan apparently identified w/ the character too much and had a challenging personality onstage. Katherine Helmond said that most of the cast were very close off-screen too, except for Damon. Damon was a New Yorker and living on the West Coast was miserable for her. She had no friends or family there and would fly home on the weekends after taping, so although everyone liked her, she was somewhat aloof and hard to know beyond a professional level. Mulligan's improvisations also drove her crazy b/c she never knew what he might do on camera. The directors called the Campbell set DCLR for Dreadful Campbell Living Room b/c they always knew those scenes w/b hard w/ Damon and Mulligan in them.
13. Susan Harris hated the baby possession plot and later regretted doing it. If the show had gone to a 5th season, many of the minor cast would've been cut and the plots refocused back in Dunn's River and centering around the story of 2 sisters theme from the 1st season. Writer Stu Silver said that ABC cancelled Soap at the last minute w/o warning. They'd been led to believe there'd be a 5th and final season which is why Soap went out on a cliffhanger. The writers didn't have a resolution for how Jessica would've been saved. Silver said that most likely the shots we heard weren't from the firing squad but would've turned out to be from El Puerco's men shooting the bad guys.
14. Soap itself was shot using 4 cameras, and they had a thin fabric draped in front of the lenses to give the picture a softer focus than you would've seen on another taped series from that time. They also used a very elaborate key lighting so that visually it wouldn't be as bright and harsh as regular videotape lighting. Soap's editing was quite unusual for that era. Both the dress rehearsal and official taping before the live audience were recorded. Later, the editors would utilize the very best takes from each and assemble them together for the final product. For instance, in a 2 character scene one actor's lines m/b from the official taping, and the other character's reaction might have come from a dress rehearsal earlier in the day. For the first 3 seasons, Soap taped scenes in the order of the script. But, in the final season, episodes were taped out of script order by set, sometimes w/ scenes from future episodes being taped at the same time.***
***Yes, as he has success in several realms of endeavor. Trump is a successfull builder. And Hillary has built...? Trump is a successful author who has sold top sellers for years. ...***
ReplyDeleteI feel for you if you believe all that bluster w/o checking the real facts! You're taking the word of an inveterate liar, cheat, & irresponsible a-hole! It took reporters investigating him to make him give that $million$ he said had already been given to a Veteran's charity! You can't believe anything the man says! He's being sued over Trump college, his airline was taken away from him, there are no Trump meats, wine, or water products for sale, & he's under investigation for so many other miss-claims! When he was loaned money just to pay bills, the bankers had to "give him an allowance" b/c of his squandering of $$! Please go read up on your hero! I'll take Hillary's shady past over Trump's anyX!
***...I mean, who wants to look the fool on FOX News? ...***
Trump doesn't want it to come out so obviously that he's an inveterate liar & isn't even 1/2 as successful as he says he is; totally F.O.S. His idea of charity is to give someone a free round of golf or not charge them for staying in 1 of his buildings! He's a pathetic cheat & had a lot of nerve insisting Romney cough up his returns 4 yrs ago when he hasn't allowed us to see any of his! It's truly pathetic; esp. his supporters that allow themselves t/b lied to on a regular basis & eat it up! They'll be eating all kinds of things when he's exposed for the whole world to see!
***I'm sort of shrugging in disbelief that an IG report that would seem to make HRW unable t/b confirmed as an AG or SoS isn't sending panic waves through the Dem party.***
She's still a better fit as the POTUS over that loser Trump! He can pump up his ego as much as he likes, but I have to believe the country couldn't see themselves being led by such a nudge! People talk about Hillary's trustworthiness, but IMO, no one's more deceptive & pathological than The Donald! He's an embarrassment to humankind, not just the office he's looking to hold! The whole world is alarmed & justifiably so!
***Wow, a leftist thinks that the leftist is a better fit for POTUS; who saw that coming? I mean wow, out of the blue.***
You don't know what you're talking about, but what else is new around here? Years ago, I very well could have voted for a Rep., but they've collective lost their minds and my respect; esp. after the way they embarrassed themselves under the leadership of the last 2 Dems! They're always talking about respecting the office at least, but they couldn't even do that; showing their bigotry & racist side absolutely showing their contempt before Obama even took office! They ??'ed his heritage, patriotism, religious affiliation, his wife, the kids, & his intelligence! There's no coming back from that; the world knowing party comes before country in their feeble little ignorant & shrunken brains! I'm so done w/ them!
***Has any other presidential candidate refused to release their tax returns? - Romney disclosed. He's a self-made $millionaire. Trump declining to do so presents the appearance he has something to hide. He still railing about Hillary disclosing her speeches to Goldman Sachs of all things.***
Hypocrisy reigns on both sides of the aisle! Just be sure to acknowledge that! Character is being called into ?? as well since the issues can't be talked about by the Rep. nominee! Marco Rubio has lost all his credibility willing to support Trump after he was almost destroyed by the man! We shouldn't hear anything else about releasing of documents or speaking on character b/c no one seems to have any in this race unfortunately!
I was a big fan of Tom Brady's; even though from Chgo! I would have accepted "deflate-gate," but his fighting his punishment has really put me off! He's proved himself to not only be a cheat, but an a-hole who's more concerned w/ his reputation over the "game" itself! I also had Rodgers right up there in talent & grit, but he disappointed me by "vouching for his good buddy and baseball player Ryan Brawn when busted for PED use! It may not make sense to others, but character is important to me! Draymond Green disappointed me w/ his kicking of OKC's Steve Adams in the nether-regions and then lying about it! I was cheering them on until then; now they can go down in flames & I couldn't care less!
ReplyDelete***Barry Bonds
Sammy Sosa
Mark McGuire
Roger Clemons
Lance Armstrong
Bill Belichick
Tom Brady
Chicago Black Sox
New England Patriots
you guessed it-* - ***
The only one I don't have any problems w/ is Barry Bonds! He was already the greatest and best BB player of his era! If anything, his #'s were curtailed & suppressed by gutless managers that intentionally walked him over 200 X's a season during the period he supposedly was juicing; even Mike Scioscia in the World Series in '01! The only thing that changed were the distances of the homeruns he would have hit anyway!
===
***...concerning PED's, how about Serena light switch from Roid Rage to Estrogen Rebound Crying on court this year? Not to beat a dead horse, the WADA shows their yearly testing figures and what not, but how about they show TUE's and WHAT THEY WERE FOR for all the players? That w/b a step in transparency.***
I haven't cared about women's tennis since Henin retired! I have no 1 to root for so they could totally disband and quit and I wouldn't care! It's all mindless aggression from the baseline w/ disgusting grunting & primal screams; already bad enough w/ the men! Going back, it has always been a handful of players that kept my interest in the game like Goolagong, Court, Navratilova, Mandlikova, Sabatini, Hingis, & of course Henin!
***...I think Stan has an equally if not even easier draw than Nole ahead of him up to the SF in Paris.***
We can't assume Stan will play anywhere near as well as last year's tourney! He was "in the zone" hitting winners from behind the baseline! Even w/ his 2 majors, I see him as possibly the most inconsistent champion of all X; wins AO 1 day & loses a 1st Rd match to some nobody the next! Even Andy doesn't do that; usually fulfilling his seed & expectations for the most part!
***We can't. It sure w/b fun if more than 1 player was in the zone, but that probably won't happen. - If Nole hadn't gotten over his gluten allergy, Roger & Rafa might have won more majors!***
Mon Dieu, we're in the middle of a slam! Why in the world spend X w/ this type of supposition; esp. since he's been over this for over 5 yrs? No doubt Roger & Rafa would have won more majors if not for Nole, but that's the case for just about any player if you look back in the past! If Borg hadn't injured his shoulder in '77 & thumb in '78, he might have those USO while he was #1 & reigning Wimbledon & FO champion! We could look back on anyone for diff. reasons if they could have overcome a setback of some sort!
***AFter Fed & Nadal withdrawing, this is definetely RG '09 all over again. If Djoko still does not win this FO, he never will.***
ReplyDeleteHe just needs to take this 1 tourney after so many attempts! I think he will probably destroy the rest of the tour in the remaining events if he does; his confidence soaring! I saw Borg annihilate his opp. after winning his 2nd Wimbledon in '77! You can have all the skill in the world, but it does you no good if not confident in your abilities in the crunch!
***...I think it was just an excuse to troll 1 of the Fed fan threads which was meant for his fans only IIRC.***
I was a huge fan of Roger, but w/ his hanging on like this w/ the pathetically weak opp., I see him as tainting his legacy! He's stunting the mental development of the next wave of players j/b of their reverence for the man; sorta like Michelle Kwan overshadowing Sasha Cohen in figure skating a decade ago!
***Interesting perspective. I feel the figure skating situation was worse since someone like Kwan gets favortism due to her legacy & someone like Cohen has to skate considerably better t/b allowed to beat her, which isnt really fair when it was supposed t/b "her X" and old Kwan retired in the 1st place. At least in tennis you play and there is no way to give someone an unfair advantage really.
I liken Fed playing so long to Connors. Did Connors damage his legacy? I dont really feel so, but OTOH he allowed everyone of his era to end up w/ winning records over him, including Lendl who he owned not only in his prime, but even in his early 30s & Lendl's prime. He didnt add to his big titles really. So was it worth it in the end? You would have to ask him. Federer is probably similar. I sort of see your pt on the younger players, but if their mental development is stunted by the presences of a 34 yo, even if arguably the GOAT, then they probably dont have the right stuff anyway. Agassi's diff. as he was playing so long to make up for lost X, & needed to add to an incomplete & unfulfilled legacy given his talent.***
After '14, people should have started bracing themselves for this day; both Fedal on their last legs! Roger's almost 35 & Rafa on wheels that are even older! McEnroe & Connors tried to hang on past their primes, but they won no more majors after '84! Why is this so hard to accept?
***To be fair to Rafa fans, he had really resurged the last 2 months, so I would definitely say it's in general surprising that he was having these wrist issues, esp. after playing so well in the 1st 2 Rds of Paris. I think more injuries will ultimately be unsurprising, but the timing and nature of the moment made it extra disappointing w/ a 3rd Rd default!
---
Given the way he has whipped that FH his whole life, it's amazing that his hand hasn't completely flown off his wrist by now.***
Agreed! I actually got to hating seeing his racket flying over his head like that; esp. when nothing was really on the shot! It was more flash than anything w/ the shot falling shorter & shorter in the court IMO!
***Djokovic's 1 of the greatest players to ever play the game. Could end up 'the greatest.' Murray's the best British player there has ever been in yrs! They have 1 of the best rivalries in the Open era.***
The Fedal & Murray/Djokovic rivalries are a joke & nowhere near that description! A rivalry usually entails both sides winning occasionally! That has never been the case w/ Fedal or Murray & Nole when 1 side owns the other! The only real rivalry is btw Nole vs Rafa or Roger & they've become one-sided in the last several yrs! The recordbooks have them close, but the ebb & flow of a real rivalry never existed unfortunately! Murray & Roger have been owned by Rafa and Nole owns them all now!
***Obama's hug of Hiroshima survivor epitomizes historic visit - ...There's no making sense of it.***
ReplyDeleteIt's so frustrating dealing w/ delusional people who may have a legitimate gripe over what Obama does, but then have to embellish & make up shit along the way! I've been hearing about this "apology tour" since day 1 & it never happened except in their pointed, empty heads! It's bad enough w/ the populous, but the no-good-nicks on the news say it too; esp. Charles Krauthammer who's supposed t/b so smart! You expect HS dropouts like Sean Hannity t/b an ass & distort actual facts, but it appears all cons. do it! They would do so much better to stick to reality instead of showing their animus w/ lies & misinformation! The reason the man has been so successful is b/c of these idiots crying "wolf" all too often; same w/ the Clintons! There are legitimate reasons to air their ire, but they have to make everything > than it actually is to their own detriment!
***Seems I recall Prezzy *%%% stain erecting barriers to prevent WW II vets from visiting Memorials.***
That was on Congress refusing to pass a budget & shut down the gov't twice! That's hardly on Obama; blame Boehner & Ryan for not being able to control their Tea-Bag members who went to DC just to stop ANYTHING from happening to the detriment of their country!
***I agree F4. There m/b no more important X for insightful criticism of candidate or party than during an election year. ASTOUNDINGLY these Dem. bashers don't seem to have learned a moral lesson my Momma taught me when I was a boy: about crying wolf.
- When Dem-bashers lie, & claim Obama was born in Kenya, or that he apologized* in Hiroshima, IT UNDERMINES REPS. Apparently personal integrity & reputation simply aren't that high a priority to them. ...***
That's kind of a huge joke when you see "never Trump" losers falling in line w/ the guy! Rubio called him a con man, and a flim-flammer, but he's ready to go to the mat at the convention to make sure Trump beats Hillary! You can count on 1 hand the one's who have held firm, while even Lindsey Graham who all but proselytized getting someone to beat the man is relenting! I'm sorta disgusted w/ the entire lot of them! There's no such thing as integrity & reputation on "the right" when it comes to true cons! Trump never was and never w/b in line w/ their thinking & beliefs, but will whore out their reputations just to beat A CLINTON! It's so very sad & pathetic, proving party is more important to them than the wellbeing of the country & world!
***Yes. It's discouraging, BUT All is not lost.
a) Reps are not political or fiscal cons. as a group, even if there are a few notables among them. They're the exception, not the rule. Who was the most recent Rep. president to preside over consecutive balanced budgets?
b) Wm F. Buckley Jr. was a real political cons., an inspiration to many, including Ronald Reagan.
And though he's gone, George Will is still here, and m/b about the best we have to replace WF.
The "never Trumpers" may have phrased it poorly. I think what they meant was: pick a better candidate. BUT, I don't think they meant: I'll vote for Hillary over Trump.***
Didn't you see 1 of the Koch brothers "hem and haw" about not supporting Trump & m/b having to vote for Hillary? lol!
***F4, I admire, envy, & appr. the Koch boys. And sadly, it's b/c of Trump specifically, but the Rep. primary electorate in gen. that has me thinking similar thoughts. I've been voting strategically, defensively since '72 when I voted vs Nixon. I don't want to vote for Hillary, but I'm prepared to do just about whatever it takes to keep Trump out of the White House for all but brief guest visits.***
Too many are voting against someone rather than for them! I could easily vote for a Rep., but after their antics during the Clinton yrs, I wouldn't vote for 1 t/b the local dog catcher! It only got worse w/ the elec. of Obama where they ??'ed & made scurrilous accus's about his intelligence, birthright, patriotism, religion, parents, & even his family! These were Rep. leadership members who had no shame in saying just about anything so vile I will never forgive it! They keep saying to at least be respectful of the office, but before Obama took office, they had already decided t/b as obstructionist as possible; even if it put the country in jeopardy financially or security-wise! They never give him credit for saving this country when "W" left it "on the brink!"
ReplyDelete***For Reps, partisanship trumps citizenship. I consider that not merely treacherous, but perhaps traitorous.
---
A constant stream of changes & scuffles are unsettling Donald Trump’s campaign team, includ. the abrupt dismissal this wk of his Nat'l political director. And there is confusion among his donors, who want to give $$ to a “super PAC” supporting Mr. Trump, but have received conflicting signals from top aides about which 1 to support. On Thurs., Mr. Trump secured the Rep. Party’s nom. for prez, a remarkable achievement for a pol. newcomer. ...
2 months after assurances that the candidate would become “more presidential” and trans. to a more unifying phase of his campaign, Trump continues to act as if the primary is still underway. His team has struggled to fill top positions, such as communications dir., & Trump has made clear he still sees himself as his own chief adviser.
This wk, Trump fired Rick Wiley, his Nat'l pol. director, after Mr. Wiley clashed w/ campaign officials in 3 states. ...Asked for comment about his management style, and the current state of his campaign, Mr. Trump declined, criticizing the reporters writing this article.
So far, Mr. Trump has shown little inclination to adjust to a pol. world.
Trump has shown himself to be a masterly comm., and his instincts, esp. in identifying the issues that will animate voters, are shrewd. But the combat w/i the campaign has undermined the daily messages the team seeks to promote. On Wed., for instance, Mr. Trump met w/ dozens of female chief execs & entrepreneurs before his afternoon rally in Cal., a meeting that was never publicized. Instead, the campaign sent out a message announcing Mr. Wiley’s dismissal.
Trump has also been dismissive of data analytics, suggesting in interviews that his showmanship and rallies will continue to be effective. He has suggested that he'll compete in new states, despite the scant resources he has devoted to the traditional Rep. map so far. And he has been adamant to aides that he intends to try to compete in NY, which no Rep. has captured since Reagan, and has held discussions about hiring an additional pollster for the state.
Despite his and his aides’ talk of unification, Mr. Trump himself has so far proved unable and unwilling to rally the entire party around his candidacy. On Tues., he deliberately attacked Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mex. — a Hispanic rising star and head of the Rep. Governors Assoc. — in her home state, saying she was “not doing the job.”
Mr. Trump, who lent his campaign $$ during the primaries, has begun fund-raising for the gen. election, and there are signs that high-$$ donors are willing to help, esp. by donating to a super PAC supporting him. But there are several such groups, and the campaign has yet to unofficially sanction 1, leaving some donors confused about which super PAC, if any, they should support. ...***
That w/b the saving grace of the country & Hillary's campaign that this man will sabotage himself w/ constant shots to the head!
***The Koch brothers are already looking at pulling out of supporting Trump. Basically b/c Trump is such a clueless $#@$* politically. - That is the pt, No decent managers will work for Trump. He never listens.***
***Should permanent infrastructure for Olympics be built in Greece?***
ReplyDeleteI think they need to drop the whole sham of a comp.! I've been disgusted w/ the summer Olympics since they allowed USA pros to dominate in B-ball back in '92! It's just not right for rich vets taking over the whole thing! It's the same thing w/ tennis, baseball, & hockey! Everyone knows how corrupt the system is w/ countries buying the games w/ Nazi, aides to deposed dictators, & other nefarious characters running things in the OIC! I only watch figure skating these days & haven't even watched the tennis much since their admittance back in '84 as an exh.!
***I couldn't agree w/ you more. The Olympics s/b just amateur comp.
===
...I see your pt about YE #1s. I guess if we are speaking a bit subjectively not only was Sampras's comp. for #1 really weak (minus only Agassi in '95), but his '98 YE #1 & X at #1 was a joke & the worst 1 in history. Agassi really was probably the best player in '95 despite Sampras ending it at #1. He basically got it only since Agassi depressed from the USO loss skipped almost the whole fall season.
I think Sampras had difficult comp. on each individual surface, particularly the polarized surfaces like grass & clay, and also carpet. ...W/ all due respect guys like Chang, Stich, post prime Courier, Rafter, clay courter Muster (the guys who spent most of the X @ #2 behind Pete other than Agassi's 1.5 yr stint) arent tough comp. for #1 for a top notch ATG or GOAT at all.
---
I can see your pt. The thing w/ Sampras which I have to give him a bit of leeway is back then winning all 4 slams was < important. He won 14 & @ that X no one dreamed 2 players would reach 14 as well. If Sampras was around today he'd probably be trying harder for that RG title, whether he'd actually win it or not is another matter, but then again would Nadal win Wimbledon on 90's grass?***
Sampras was just really unlucky at the FO, actually having to defeat 3 past champs 1 yr before going out to eventual winner in '96 semi; Kafelnikov! We were so desperate to give props to Sampras and elevate him to GOAT status, we were actually ready to overlook that hole in his resume! Like you said, we had no idea the next gen. of players would find true greatness in Fed, Nadal, & now Djokovic! They will all surpass him even though @ the X Pete was way ahead of his closest rival in Agassi! Connors & McEnroe were just footnotes even w/ all the majors they won & Jimmy's 2 great yrs; '74 beating an old man (Rosewall) in the final of Wimbledon & USO and '82 where he came out of nowhere to take 2 more majors @ Wimbledon & the USO over McEnroe & Lendl respectively! I feel fortunate to have seen all these matches and then see all of them overshadowed by this current crop of greats! Borg still near the top w/ the best of them w/ his 5 str. Wimbledons & 6 FO's!
***W/ Tsonga's retirement, Gasquet's now the only French singles player. IDK how the local crowd is paying for tickets & watching; no big names & no local players.***
How have we survived the last gen. here in the States w/the USO? It's been owned by the Europeans for yrs w/ just 1 lucky win by Roddick well over 10 yrs ago; still looking for his MO!
***...All I have to say is shame on Nole if he doesn't throw the kitchen sink, the kitchen, then entire house, etc. at any player in his way to win this FO title.***
Tell that to Borg @ the USO, Sampras, Connors, & McEnroe in Paris, & Lendl @ Wimbledon! Ivan went all out; even skipped the FO a couple X's to prepare for grass! He won Queens over Edberg & Becker in '90, but it was only warm-up event! Both still ran over him when it counted at the AECTC! Many top players have a hole in their resumes, proved by only 7 or 8 w/ the CGS; Laver being the last to have a CYGS! IMO, this event won't define or besmirch the awesome tenure of Nole!
***“W/o Nadal, Roland Garros isn’t truly RG, and Djokovic knows it well.” Mats Wilander - "“And this is not good news for Djokovic,” Wilander wrote. “Because as a player you do not want to win Paris when there is nobody around you. In 20 yrs it w/b not be of importance, But today it is."***
ReplyDeleteI didn't read it, but I stopped listening to Wilander ages ago when he proclaimed Nole would never beat Rafa at a GS, on clay, or regularly! He's an idiot and if you pt to these predictions, he can only smile dumbly & admit his stupidity! Concerning the statement, I say to him, "tell that to Federer who finally took his lone FO chp. due to Rafa being upset!" He never came close w/o that little bit of help; even when he played out of his mind to beat Nole in '11 semi! He was wasting his X until Soderling gave him a clear path & a total gift!
***Disagree w/ Mats. Not having Superman around is actually very good news for Lex Luthor & his few followers. - The saddest thing is that Wilander is disrespectful, whether he's aware of it or not to every other player in the draw, including the guy who crushed Djokovic last yr. I don't remember him beating Borg at the FO '82 either. Anyway, the guy has lost his credibility after so many silly statements.***
Amen & Halellujah to that!
***We should drop Madrid or Shanghai and have Hamburg become grass & 1000 level again (they are obviously exp. at running a 1000 level event there) and be placed btw FO & Wimby.***
Well I can tell you that won't happen anyX soon; Tiriac growing Madrid t/b something in the future & Shanghai offering the most $$ to make themselves relevant!
***Who's for boycotting tennis til we have a 3 month grass season?***
The world tennis powers have gotten too cheap & lazy for that to ever happen; SORRY! We even got rid of high maintenance clay surfaces here in the States! The final straw was when Europe & South America started owning those tourneys like US Clay CT in Indy, Boston, & the USO when on Har-Tru; '75-77! Our juniors trained & grew up on clay back then, but we truly got lazy and plowed all those courts under to go to HARD which is so brutal on the body! Before Courier, Agassi, & Chang, we weren't even making FO finals much < winning any of them! We never seem to learn our lessons which is why we're so far behind the rest of the world in tennis; @ least on the men's side for now!
***Sampras still holds Open Era record of 6 str. yr end #1 record. (forget the wk record.) Djokovic is in pursuit of breaking it. Nadal w/ virtually immortal record at RG. They are all great players and no need to put anyone above any other.***
It's still hard for me to put Rafa anywhere near the top though! His results just weren't balanced enough! Even Borg who was thought of as a clay genius of his era won those 5 Wimbledons in a row & played 6 str. finals! Even grass greats never did that before Federer & the homogenized courts produced!
***Ah yes, Nadal is such a freak at RG. But I've been still predicting top player after '03 will do career slams, 4 str. slams, and Cal Slams. My prediction could have been fully right if no Nadal. Anyway Borg's record is unique in that sense. And Sampras 6 str. yr end record won't be broken easily. Let's celebrate these achievements.***
***I don't think it's true for Stojko vs Urmanov, even though I'm an Elvis fan, think the judges were hard on him, and consider his Bruce Lee program t/b a masterpiece. But he needed to be technically perfect, even superior to win, and he was not. He didn't have the quad in that program, and made 1 mistake just as Urmanov did. Urmanov just had the artistic edge, w/ a lovely & lyrical program in those '94 Olympics.***
ReplyDeleteUrmanov as well as Plushenko get their ice personas from Mishin; actually flirting w/ the judges & giving plenty of eye contact! The flourishes w/ the arms and hands also mesmerized the judges so they may miss something lacking in their skating, but I LOVED THEM BOTH! Even though I was a bigger fan of those 2 skaters, Yagudin probably surpassed them both but for his breaking down prematurely! Too bad Evgeny was around forcing him to "go for more" due to all those quads! Yagudin wouldn't have needed even 1 if not for Plushenko pushing him in the tech. score! If he had been nicer, I probably would have felt for him more, but who was he to give ultimatums to Mishin; "him or me?" What a nerve!
***Funny I was just looking at the results from the Australian Goodwill Games event of '01 the other day. ...***
Loved the 2001 event since it was a prelude to the Olympics in '02; everyone went "down under!" Irina & the rest of the women featured their upcoming SP's; Slutskaya's being "Serenade!" It was just as comp. w/ the men & Plushenko still ruled w/ his compatriot falling all over the place, but still snatching Bronze medal! "Winter" by Yagudin was beautiful though! His medal was a gift since he spent more X sitting on the ice than actually skating on it! Plushenko was still owning him at the X & was full of confidence while Alexei was being forced to do more than he wanted! On his 3-Axel, he knew Yvengy had added a triple toe! Yagudin was too close to the wall to do it, but went ahead anyway crashing into it hard! It was quite memorable! It was a great event after having old vets comp. in the previous 1 in 2000 where Surya beat out Sato barely w/ "Cour Senge Sanzo" (Heart W/O Blood)!
***HUH?***
Maybe you're too young to remember that Mishin was the coach for all those male figure skaters; Urmanov, Yagudin, & Plushenko! Yagudin was @ the top of his game by '98 winning Worlds over Eldridge & Plushenko! He wanted Mishin to drop Plushenko giving him an ultimatum! Mishin of course told him "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!" That's when he went to Tatyana Tarasova who expanded his presentation tech. & score! It was probably the best thing for both; Mishin could concentrate more on Yvgeny & Tarasova really made Alexei a great champ. winning sev. Worlds & OG in '02! That made Alexei "huge," but it also cost him! Plushenko was superior technically, winning most of the SP's & pushed Alexei to put more quads in his LP's he might not have needed to beat the rest of the tour! His hips broke down w/ all that stress & he was done by the following season; actually dropping out of Skate America the day of the event!
***I'm 35...I remember it and have it somewhere on VHS. Your post above makes sense. The 1 I was ??ing left me bewildered. I gotcha now though.***
...It's been so long since I've cared about FS! All my faves have retired for the most part! Looks as if Plushenko will have t/b dragged out of mothballs since Russia can't seem to get a good male FS to compete internationally! The ladies are loaded though for a change after Butyrskaya & Slutskaya left their ranks!
***I saw the original "ROOTS" and read the Playboy interview w/ Alex Haley. Thought it was good. The remake, standing in a long line of Hollywood tradition, will most likely be filled w/ PC nonsense & made up liberal wanking.***
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it, no matter what was made up, we all know it was probably worse since slaves weren't even thought of as human beings 200+ yrs ago! People treated their barn animals better back then regardless of your lack of guilt at this country's wretched history! Like w/ the Nazi's & Jews, Germany will never be able to paint over that stain; no matter how hard they try! Being PC is just a small way of pacifying that guilt, but it won't happen anyX soon since we're still unable to get over the simple fight for civil rights in the South! We may never get over it in our lifeX since prejudice & bigotry is passed down from such hateful people! Everyone has to feel superior to someone; even East Indians have a "caste" system calling the lower dregs, 'Dravidians' or 'Untouchables!' Heaven knows the most bigoted people are probably from Japan; truly believing they are some kind of "master race" that to this day can't accept mixed relationships! I have no idea why they seem to get away w/ it; esp. after their horrible past w/ the treatment of Koreans during the war?
***...I think Obama's trying to get back in some peoples good graces. He thinks they will forget all of his horrible words and treatment of America. The sad part? SOME WILL NOT REMEMBER. BUT, you can bet, all of Obama's bad policys decisions w/b blamed on the NEW PRESIDENT. Anyone else notice? Like he's trying to leave, acting like the 'good president.' UGH. ACTING AS IF HE CARES.***
WTF are you talking about? In the lame duck session of any Presidency, it's not unusual for them to keep a low profile in the States, go abroad on a goodwill tour (not an apology tour like some losers keep saying), and do what he can w/ Executive Orders! Obama's popularity/favorability is above 50% while Congress' level is in the sewer! Who would you really rather be; seeming as to getting something done while a whole entity w/ well over 500 members are getting nothing done? I'd rather be sitting pretty as the President w/ a competent successor to continue what he has been trying to do! It's about X we had a chance of 3 str. terms to avoid the sabotage of an incompetent admin. from "the right" throwing all this good work "under the bus!" "W" came into office w/ a bustling economy, the DOW having been doubled, unemployment down, and an actual surplus budget! He turned it into shit w/ DOW dropping to 6600, losing 700-800 thousand jobs a month, mismanaging 2 wars, & putting us into disrepute in the world! Obama changed all that even if not at the levels we would like; he came into a real mess w/ obstructionist Reps fighting every effort he made to turn things around! Even so, we're in a HELL of a lot better shape than we were and Europe currently! So what do you have to say about that?
***Is this the Hope and Change you were hoping for? If the cons had got another 4 yrs, we would still be in the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression.***
They couldn't care less as long as they're in power! The really stupid thing is, even w/ the #'s going in the right direction, some knuckleheads will vote against it just so they could have a Rep. in office! It's so sad to remember going from "peace and prosperity" to a "near depression," but that's our country! We just never seem to learn; believing we need change when none is needed! The only thing we need a change in is in Congress; obstructionist Reps need to go! If Hillary is to take us to another level and to get the Nat'l Debt paid down, we have to get rid of all those Tea-Bagger idiots who just as well see the country go under than deal w/ progressive thinking!
***WHEN HIS TRUMP GOING TO RELEASE HIS:
ReplyDeleteparent's marriage lic.?
his school appls?
his school recs (a foreign ex. student?)
his selective service registr?
his passport?
his college thesis?
articles he's written?
his Baptism cert., if 1 exists?)
The recs of all the corporations he owns?
the client list & billing recs of everybody who has ever been a client of any of his corps?
scholarly articles; none released or exist? (prob. don't exist)
Obama never lost his law lic.
Claim: There’s evidence Obama was adopted in Indonesia.
The only “evidence” is a handwritten school registr. page from the Santo Fransiskus Assisi (Saint Francis of Assisi) Catholic School in Jakarta, Indonesia, that refers to Obama as “Barack Soetoro.”
Claim: Obama lost his citizenship when his mother married an Indonesian.
FALSE: Minors could not lose their US citizenship under the law in effect in at the X, and parents could not relinquish the natural born citizenship of their minor children. Under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, Title III, Chapter 3.
“…nationality shall not be lost by any person under this section as the result of the naturalization of a parent or parents while such person is under the age of 21 years, or as the result of naturalization obtained on behalf of a person under 21 yrs of age by a parent, guardian, or duly authorized agent, unless such person shall fail to enter the US to estab. a permanent residence prior to his 25 BD: ….”
Since Obama returned to the US in '71 @ age 10 & has permanently resided in the US since then, he never lost his natural born citizenship under this Act. Even if his mother HAD renounced her citizenship, Obama would not have lost his natural born citizenship under the Act. He maintained his birthright citizenship. Therefore, this claim is false.
Claim: Obama could have been adopted in Indonesia.
FALSE: During the X Obama and his family lived in Indonesia that country didn’t allow adoptions of children who were Obama’s age.
Law No. 62 of 1958, Law on the Citizenship of the Rep. of Indonesia describes the laws for adopting children, but none of them applied to Obama. T/b eligible for adoption, children had t/b under the age of 5 yrs. Obama was 6 when he moved to Indonesia and thus ineligible.
Since Lolo Soetoro was a Muslim, any adoption whb under Islamic law. Islamic adoptions are unlike US adoptions b/c the child doesn’t take the name of the family and is still considered part of the birth family. The relationship is considered more like a foster-child than a biological child. Had Obama been legally adopted by Lolo Soetoro, his name would have remained Obama. For more on this, see The Indonesian Adoption “Barry Soetoro”
Myth - Therefore, this claim is false.
Claim: Foreign students couldn’t attend schools in Indonesia in the 1960s.
FALSE. Both citizens & foreigners over 8 yrs were required to attend schools if they were avail. In addition, Indonesians were banned from alien schools, but foreigners were not banned from Indonesian schools.
Although TheFogbow.com researchers have searched extensively, we have never found any evidence to show that an American citizen child w/b unable to attend an Indonesian gov't school.
Claim: His real name Barry Soetoro.
Barry Soetoro isn’t his legal name. In the modern world of fractured families, kids can go by diff. names during their lives. There's some evidence that he was called Barry Soetoro while in Indonesia. Soetoro was his stepfather for a while, and it was easier for the family to all have the same name.
Other presidents have gone by other names in their youths. Leslie Lynch King, Jr (Gerald Ford) & William Jefferson Blythe III (Bill Clinton) both changed their names legally as adults, but went by other names in their childhoods.
Claim: Obama and/or his mother were Indonesian citizens.
FALSE: According to both US & Indonesian law & passport records obtained via a FOIA Request, neither Obama nor Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro could have naturalized as Indonesian citizens.***
***Trump whines about the media***
ReplyDeletePoor victimized Trump; a rich white guy who's allowed t/b openly bigoted & misogynistic! I feel for him; esp. when his campaign's a sham touting his success when he's gone bankrupt 3 or 4 X's, takes out loans to pay his bills, & has been put on an allowance b/c he's such an irresponsible yutz! There are no more Trump steaks, water, airline, or college; and that's just the beginning since he's being sued by customers, his own employees, & other suckers who were stupid enough to listen to him!
***I agree Trump c/b rude, crass, snarky, unstatemanlike, unpresidential, & generally annoying...but what specifically has he said or done that makes him "openly bigoted & misogynistic." - Trump gets more free press than all the rest of the candidates combined. Him whining will get him even more. He's an entertainer, an attention whore, & a reality TV host.***
Disparaging the judge on his Trump College case faulting him for his rulings b/c he's Mexican can't sound good nudnick!
***I agree poor choice of words, but is it really "bigoted?" When many of his protesters are holding up Mexican flags?***
What does holding up Mexican flag have to do w/ this mohron? Italians wave the Italian flag all the X! What does that have to do w/ the price of eggs? You got to do better than that!
***Trump pushes back, he always has, surely the media knows it. Heck, media has lower approval ratings than Congress. In this instance Trump pushed and it sounds as if the media is whining.***
You obviously don't take this seriously; sorta like Trump! He's running for the highest office and he has to have SOME self-control! So far he's proven he has none & you s/b more concerned! You think he can get away acting like that w/ other world leaders; Putin & Kim Jong-Un i.e.? I don't think so! Everyone will go back to hating the USA when "W" was being an asshole & pushing his weight around stupidly!
***...I wouldn't put it past Hillary to have people planted in crowds shouting sexist things at her. - She didn't think that w/b necessary. America's Smartest Woman just expected that everybody would just go ahead & take her at her word.***
...and you'll take the word of Trump? Guys, ya gotta be at least somewhat consistent for people to take you seriously! Trump's a pathological and inveterate liar and if you check anything he says, you'll find it t/b utter BS! He said he had raised and given Vet's charity $6 Million; total lie! He actually had to write the check when there was no evidence of what he said! Spare me the hearts and flowers concerning Hillary when this man wouldn't know the truth if it was shoved up his ass!
***Speaker Ryan commits to voting for Trump this Nov.***
The poor guy just lost what little integrity he was trying to hold onto! I suppose he felt compelled since he's running the RNC conv., but IDK how he's going t/b able to sleep and live w/ this joke of a man being the party's standard bearer! They're all falling in line includ. Graham, Rubio, & McCain who swore he'd never be the nominee; now they're full throated endorsing him! What a collection!
...Reps. are all falling in line includ. Graham, Rubio, & McCain who swore he'd never be the nominee; now they're full throated endorsing him! ...
ReplyDelete***F4 It's easy to point the flippant finger of political partisan ridicule @ this Rep. crisis. But candidly, the stakes are simply too high to make partisan mirth here.***
Who the HELL's being flippant? I'm being as serious as a fk'n heart attack that the Rep. party has little to no character and will back "ANYONE" that happens to have an "R" behind their names! If Charles Manson was paroled & spoke the same as Trump, they might have to contend w/ that maniac! I'm not being mirthful; it's painful to watch every yr as this party slides down the evolutionary chain!
***Trump supporters are idiots. Trot out a "Latino" spewing rightwingnuts talking pts & lets all pretend he said "something." What did he do, mouth Trump ain't PC 20-X's? What does anti-PC even mean beyond the worthless piece of shit is rude and obnoxious? It damn sure ain't that the man is saying anything of substance worth giving a listen, if that is what we would be talking about. But, we ain't are we?
It's the same for the pro-Trump Trump Univ. ad. Some schmuck mouthing the benefits of Trump U. were "incalculable." Fool declares he learned how t/b a "businessman" but didn't even learn to calculate his profit, and tries to pass it off as a positive. Good Gawd what an idiot. The ad is so pathetic, the plantiffs in the Trump University lawsuit should play it for the court. Look at this fool declare he can't calculate his profit. These idiots are so intent on "polly wanna crackering" rightiwingnut talking points, they can't even put together a cogent thought anymore.***
You got it! It's more than a little pathetic! Real Latinos have all kinds of reasons t/b disgusted w/ the man! As I mentioned last night, the couple of comm. directors they had in charge of Black & Latino affairs have all quit the RNC! Ryan & Priebus are gonna have to go out and find a few others to compromise their principles! - Well most cons are a bit slow! The media is still waiting for something more cogent than Trump's ranting "a hit job from lyin' Hillary" after her foreign policy speech the other day!
***Groucho... has all the personality of a Rat inside a trash bag doesn't he?***
Rats have a reason being rats; what's his excuse? People who care more about party than their country just makes me SICK! I keep thinking it'll get better and it never does; if anything it gets worse! Their true colors came out after Obama took over and they still can't live w/ it; "W's" legacy is he elected a Black man in their pathetic lifetime!
***Bernie certainly has more to offer America than kbt's 1st choice Ted Cruz. I wonder was it Cruz's skilled reading of Dr. Seuss Cat In The Hat that won his heart vote?***
He was truly an embarrassment w/ his own party begging him to stop! And he wonders why they didn't back him initially? The man's touched in the head in more ways than one! I feel for his family having friends & assoc. who could only shake their heads!
***...The REAL news was when Speaker Ryan announced that he had NOT endorsed Trump. That is news indeed. And that's the predicate which makes the reversal also news.***
It wasn't even an endorsement! He said he would vote for Trump and he said even that in a "low whisper" in his local paper w/ a Tweet! lol! People have already said, you'll never see one of those pictures with Ryan raising Trump's arm/"little hand" up in triumph!
***The Rep. Party began in 1854 and they were mostly abolistionists. Lincoln was rep. If there s/b white guilt today, that s/b reserved for the exclusive use by Dems.
ReplyDelete1. Dems seceded from the Union after Abe Lincoln was elected b/c they feared he might free the slaves.
2. Dems supported 2nd class citizenship for blacks.
3. Dems created the KKK to burn black churches & lynch black men.
4. Democratic Presidents up to Truman and LBJ used the N word regularly & w/ gusto.
5. Dems chose as their Senate leader an avowed KKK member throughout the '60s, '70s & '80s.
6. Dems opposed the Civil Rights Act.
7. The presumptive Dem. presidential candidate of TODAY said that her mentor is the abovementioned Senate leader.
Dems should have white guilt for what they did from the 1860s to TODAY, and will likely do far into the future. They should rename themselves the Brotherhood of United Racists Party.***
Lincoln's no doubt turning in his grave over what's happened to his Rep. Party! There's been a juxtaposition of Blue Dog Dems to Republican rednecks; and you well know that! The bigots in the South prove how they are assaulting the right to vote to this day, making it harder & harder on them! Old black people who probably have no ID are made to jump hoops for no other reason than to discourage them from even going to the POLLS! Those aren't Dems of today; not like Reps of OLD! You s/b ashamed, but that idiot from Pennsylvania actually bragged about these tactics!
The Right To Vote:
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-right-to-vote/2012/07/07/gJQA9ljbUW_story.html -
***Fiero posted a factual message that opposing forces cannot begin to dispute so instead they attack the messenger.***
They totally ignored that! As I said before Trump & these losers wouldn't know truth if it was shoved up their asses! They just can't acknowledge anything logically! It's always attack, attack & deflect, deflect!
***Michelle Obama: I Wake Up Each Day in House Built By Slaves - ...But I don't consider that either racial, or racist. Do you?***
It's such a shame when grown folks in the year 2016 can't talk about race when "everything" eventually revolves around it! Why would Trump bring up the ethnicity of a presiding judge on his FRAUD case if race isn't an issue? People who deflect it must have a lot of guilt and would rather forget about the country's wretched history of slavery, segregation, & of course civil rights that had t/b passed in the SOUTH as late as the 60's! Texas is the biggest producers of textbooks hoping to re-write or totally expunge that history, but as long as old fogies like Michelle & me are around, we'll have to invoke & broach the subject just so people like you guys won't forget it! Never forget The Tuskegee Exp., Brown vs The Board of Ed., Dred Scott, the fight for civil rights & perpetual separation by official legislation called Jim Crow! It wasn't that long ago; most of us were quite alive, but we can't talk about it? I think not!
***What did Dems do for Black Americans?***
ReplyDeleteFeel free to continue total obfuscation & deflect by using "being PC" moniker as a weapon like your hero TRUMP! It's ok; I made my point and it'll be here for you to stew over for quite a while! I hope the words aren't too BIG for you!
***the fight for civil rights Rep...Thank you.***
Not these Reps; maybe from a bygone era long ago! Today's Republicans aren't even sneaky abut their prejudices; totally disrespecting the Obama's and their family! Hard to believe you can sleep at night after seeing how they treated that man before he even took the oath of office! They had already decided not to compromise on anything! Any way they could obstruct was done! Even when he was abroad he was undermined by those animals in Congress and I'll never forget or allow them to forget it! You don't want to go down the list of disgusting action perpetrated on the man from questioning his intelligence to his citizenship! Screw all Republicans as far as I'm concerned; the same contempt they have for Dems I guess!
***...Apart from that, I've been observing the Obama family at close range for most of a decade. I'm not saying none of them has ever said anything bitter. I merely observe that they present themselves as conscientious servants of the whole People.
Whatever my ideological / political differences with them I have, that doesn't undermine their good faith effort in serving the whole People. And if you can do better, I hope you will. Good luck with that.
You don't like the Obama's. THAT'S FINE! just don't try to swindle us into believing your hatred is objective.
It never was.
It's partisan. Conspicuously so.
I wish you joy in anticipating the Trump admin.
It will make the belly laugh we get at the Clinton inauguration all the more herniating.***
That's the problem w/ Cons.; anything said by a liberal is supposed to mean more than just the factual info! Their deflections are always to put others on the defensive unnecessarily so it's so hard to take them seriously! Coulter, Ingram, & Crowley have made their careers on FNC trying to undermine simple statements by challenging it w/ "PC moniker!" Trump can't help being that way b/c he always seems t/b in the wrong & never takes responsibility for being a boor, misogynist, or bigot! They love playing the victim when busted saying something totally offensive!
***I'm concerned about the persistent support for Sanders to the detriment of the welfare of the country. It's unfortunate that Sanders did not get more support in the primaries, but in order to defeat Trump, we all need to stick together.***
The rabid support is irrational; speaking of Hillary being indicted is ridiculous by Susan Sarandon!
***How do you know her support of Sanders is 'rabid,' as opposed to a more normal level? And the talk of Hillary maybe being indicted isn't starting & ending with Susan - the real source of that is the e-mail scandal, of which the legal outcome has yet t/b determined. - Hillary has more; 3 M more @ last count. I pray that I'm idealistic when I am 70.***
If that's my future, please put me to sleep long before it happens! Sanders is doddering & gotten entirely too full of himself! He thinks he's orchestrating a movement and his influence wouldn't last a moment if Hillary & Reps turned their sights on him to destroy the hubris of his running! Who really believes Congress would pass any of his nonsense; free college, universal heath-care, jack up taxes to 90%? Who really thinks it's possible? They're trying to cut taxes & benefits as it is so Sanders is obviously delusional if he thinks any of his idea will pass muster!
***Nole'll playing 4 days in a row catch up w/ Djokovic in the final?
ReplyDelete---
No, he will not be tired. He destroyed Berdych and w/b rested for his SF vs Thiem. Thiem played longer & looked as if his match was more taxing, even on his younger body compared to Novak. To me, Nole is playing fairly well & getting better at each stage. Thiem w/b the next scalp. Wawrinka will likely beat Murray unless the inferior error-prone version shows up.
---
I saw some signs of tiredness in Djokovic in today´s match. I remember thinking ´hmmmm.... if he loses this set [the 3rd] we might have a match.´ If Thiem comes w/ all guns blazing & doesn´t feel the occasion, things could get very complicated. The glimpses of the Thiem/Goffin match I saw were of extremely high quality. They were playing faster, harder, & more accurately than Djokovic/Berdych. On the other side, I really hope Wawrinka blows Murray off. That'll guarantee a helluva final.***
After what happened last year, it's only justice w/ Nole getting somewhat of a break! This is his X & he has to get this done; "now or never!" X's truly running out! - At least Nole's match is 1st so if it runs long, he'll have more rest than the winner of Murray/Warwrinka; turnabout is "fair play!" What does that say about the tour when 3 of the 4 finalists are the same as the previous tourney? Unbelievable!
***Novak's X on court during the last few days was comparable w/ a reasonably comfortable route in a regular BO3 Tourney (abt 2 hrs on Tues., 1 1/2 hrs on Wed. & 2 hrs today), so it shouldn't be too difficult to handle for him. Having played 6 rather tough matches from the SF's of Madrid to the SF's in Rome w/i 8 days was probably a lot more taxing for him than getting to the SF's of RG.
If he wins somewhat comfortably tom. (in < 3 hrs) he s/b fine for the final w/ the day off on Sat. If it turns out t/b a gruelling match, the finalist from the btm 1/2 might have an advantage depending on how much energy the winner of the Wawrinka/Murray match needed to invest to reach the final.
---
When Roger won the '10 AO, many thought "OMG, now that Roger has passed Pete, he can play w/ abandon & thus will actually be more dangerous." We know what happened after that. When Rafa went on a tear in '13, many said it's just a matter of X when Rafa will pass Roger in GS count. Now, people would rather buy powerball lottery tickets than bet on it.***
IMO, Roger had already passed his peak & prime; resulting in him winning only 1 more major since that AO event! He needed help taking the last few; esp. '09 FO & Roddick's choke job at Wimbl. a few wks later! Rafa's career has always been on a yoyo string, so I had no fear of him overtaking Federer; esp. w/ his penchant to break down in the summer & fall!
***Who are you liking in the Nadal mold? Tennis'll keep on keepin' on... must be someone w/ a few of his qualities out there?***
What qualities are you eluding to; lack of sportsmanship, chronic stalling, & constant challenging of calls & being wrong?
***...Occasionally, I'm interested in the perspective of his fans.***
Well I hope it's but a blip on the radar w/ his style of play; heaven knows it's aggravating to watch! He's so far behind the baseline, he's dodging the linesmen & ball kids! lol! He's losing some of his strength so the ball has to travel farther to make it deep; resulting in his shots dropping precipitously short in the court! People say past champions couldn't handle today's players, but I beg to differ! They would relentless attack these lame baseliners & jump all over short balls causing them great grief & confidence; esp. Becker, Edberg, & Sampras!
***I do wonder what conditions (equipment, surfaces, etc.) would have to materialize to give rise to another player in this style?***
***Djokovic is dominant B/C Fed & Nadal have slid into oblivion (aka old/high mileage/on the cusp of retirement). He filled the gap. His dominance began the moment both Fed & Nadal started to slow down for diff. reasons.***
ReplyDeleteYou're repeating another dubious post relating the same false info! These guys were all in their prime just 5 yrs ago when Nole owned them; 7 matches in a row over Nadal including 2 on clay! Why in the world do people keep saying this same ridiculous thing? Nole's gotten old w/ them; far from being a kid himself! Wake up! Shheeshhhh!
***Djokovic beat Nadal when Nadal was in peak mode in 3 cons. slam finals. It took Nadal's pet event to stop Djok winning all 4 slams vs Nadal in succession. So Djokovic clearly, and I mean clearly, is far more talented than, and has the better of, Nadal. Like w/ all things Nadal, the FO helps him out stats wise. Djok is to Nadal what Nadal is to Federer.
As for Federer, well Djok & Federer have had a more closely contested rivalry. When Djok was a kid, Federer shb beating him every X, but that didn't happen. Djok got his fair share of wins to keep the H2H close & when he became a man and was competing w/ still a peak Federer, the honors were shared so Djok always maintained a gettable distance w/ Federer. As Federer got older, then Djok took the broom to him and has run away w/ it. Federer should have won all their earlier matches & then he would still enjoy the H2H advantage. But again, didn't happen & now Federer has paid the ultimate price once again, an inferior H2H record vs a big era rival.
Djokovic is a far far far better player than Federer & Nadal. Had they all started at the same X, this would not change. The fact he's in the beastiest mode of his life means no one can do a damn thing to stop him and so Fed & Nadal fans hide behind the age argument when if the truth be told Djok would whip them even if they were in their beasty modes too.
Even the greatest of them all, Sampras would have a hard X w/ the current Djok. I'd give Sampras wins vs the current Djok at Wimbledon, the USO & the WTF. Djok would beat Sampras at the FO & the AO, but the fact it takes Sampras, the Ali (RIP champ) of tennis to beat Djok, says a lot about Djok. He's clearly the 2nd greatest player of all X. The stats don't quite show it yet, but they will.***
ITA! I check the record book & marvel how Nole's slowly moving up & taking over in short order! His rate of winning rivals Borg & if he keeps this up for another yr or 2, he'll pass him for good! The only thing holding him back are the fans who can't seem to let Fedal go!
***So why does Agassi & so many others have Nadal as the GOAT; even ahead of Federer? I think that's debatable, but Djokovic isn't close to either as he has won 6 majors when Nadal & Federer were past it. After FO '14, he had 6 majors! That stat tells you all you need to know.***
B/c they're all idiots! They figured a few yrs ago w/ Nadal owning Federer in the H2H & coming on strong winning majors, he deserved GOAT-dom! They had no idea he would break down like a toy and barely hold onto being competitive! Wilander actually said that Nole would never beat Rafa on clay or defeat him in a Major; was wrong, wrong, wrong, and so is Agassi & his ilk! They made a bad call & they're all going to have to "walk it back" due to dominance of Nole the last sev. yrs!
***Nole did it! Congrats to all Novak fans... 12 Slams & counting! - Djokovic has more titles (17) than losses (9) since the start of '15.***
ReplyDeleteNot everyone can play the Olympics or would want to w/ the conditions of that toilet in RIO. ...Back in '13, Nole had an AO & was in the final of the other 3 majors, but made #1 over ATP's awarding the POY to Rafa who owned 2 majors! They've been @ odds forever which is why 1 runs the MAJORS while the other manages the rest of the tour!
***Who are your contenders for Wimbledon? Dark horses?***
Nole w/b under immense pressure after winning FO & it w/b nice if he could match Rafa, Roger, & Bjorn in taking it the same season! ...Raonic has a new team working for him including McEnroe, so he's my dark horse! Neither Fed or Nadal will play or make the semi's IMO!
***It's not that these guys are just "too good" for Andy, it's just that he isn't good enough if that makes sense. Tennis fans deserve a better #2. Until then we're just gonna have to make do w/ him.***
The way I see it, Murray has the ability, but doesn't keep it up; probably burning himself out w/ his passion early on! He's usually sucking wind after 2 hrs of playing that stupid defensive game when he came out smoking & attacking the net! ...Murray wastes so much energy w/ his "come ons" and needlessly upsetting the crowd w/ his rants to himself & player's box! It's like he doesn't see it happen again & again! He points to his head when something good happens; probably should do the same when he does idiotic things as well!
***I'm going to say this is how Nole will end his resume:
Australian Open: 7
French Open: 1
Wimbledon: 5
U.S. Open: 3
---
I think I'm going to revise mine a bit:
AO: 8 (He's comfortable here & can eek 2 more wins)
Currently @ 6
FO: 2 (Now that he broke the barrier, he'll nab a 2nd)
Currently @ 1
Wimbledon: 4-5
Currently @ 3
USO: 4
Currently @ 2***
To me, it's about X Nole had a pigeon in the final like past champions; say a Goffin, Berdych, or Ferrer! No champion has had it as tough as The Djoker going up vs the likes of Roger, Rafa, & Andy as much as him! Fed & Rafa have had their share for Gawd-sake!
***Of the 20 GS finals that Novak played, in 18 of them he faced Roger, Rafa or Andy across the net. The 2 exceptions are Tsonga in '08 AO & Stan in RG '15. The chances that he'll face Roger or Rafa in the finals in future is obviously dramatically decreasing. While he may continue to face Andy for some more finals, I'm very sure that he'll get his own fair share of pigeons in the near future.***
Tsonga doesn't count since that was his 1st major! Stan is better than Andy so Nole's really been put through the ringer to win his titles; bar none!
...That's why it's a sad state now w/ Fedal gone b/c Nole has a clear path to unlimited greatness which he doesn't deserve as clearly he's an inferior player to both Fed & Nadal.***
You almost had me until the gratuitous insult of the greatest returner in tennis history! There are plenty of good players; just don't know how to finish him off! Kei, Theim, Raonic, & others are more than competent & represent the sport well! They've just been unlucky enough to have to deal w/ 3 of the best in the game at the same X! Hewitt wouldn't have been "anybody" if born a couple yrs earlier or later; he lucked out! Players like Wawrinka, Murray, Cilic, Gasquet, Tsonga, Ferrer, & Berdych weren't so fortunate & it stopped them from taking at least a couple majors!
***I don't think there's any doubting when it's all said and done that Novak w/b considered a > all round player than Nadal ever was and in terms of current standing on this supposed "GOAT List."***
***...I think Nole wins at least 2 more Slams after this year, so if he gets to 13 by year's end, then I would put it at 15-16.***
ReplyDeleteI think we're all being very cons. in the count! He should pick up at least 1 more this season & 2 more next year! There's no reason to believe anyone on the tour right now can stop him from adding to his count consistently for the next 3 yrs even w/ history showing how difficult it is after turning 30! He's in great shape, quite flexible, & the tour is deficient mentally & can't seem to compete at his level for any length of X! There are great players, but they can't seem to stay on court themselves for more than a month or so; esp. Raonic & Kei! Things could change, but right now I see no reason to believe Nole can't break all the top records or add to his own!
***I think Novak wins somewhere in the 15-18 range.
Or to put it another way...
...if he wins no more this year he'll win 15 total
...if he wins 1 more this year he'll win 16-17 total
...if he wins 2 more this year he'll win 17-18 total
---
Five stages of Fedal Fan Grief:
• Stage 1: Denial
• Stage 2: Anger
• Stage 3: Weak Era Argument
• Stage 4: Depression
• Stage 5: Acceptance
---
If Djokovic wins OG & CYGS this year, does he become better than Federer? Even though he has 3 Slams <, the CYGS is so tough to achieve. Fed failed to achieve it every single yr, even when he was at his absolute peak. If Djokovic does it this year, as well as obtain OG, surely this makes him better. If you also add in the other achievements - more YE #1's, more YEC's, more Masters titles, winning H2H over Nadal etc. Then there's a strong case for him being better than Federer if he achieves OG & CYGS this year.
---
Perhaps about = b/c 6 in a row + the much coveted CYGS w/b a massive deal. Maybe >, maybe not. - Novak has been to the finals of 21 of the last 22 1st tier events (Masters, Master Cup, & Slams). I love Roger fans calling weak era b/c those world beaters Fed had to beat from '03-07 on a fast court were so fearsome.***
People seem to forget USO semi of '10 & '11 where Roger was still in his prime w/ MP's vs Nole, but allowed him to come back w/ spectacular play & aplomb! That was 5 or 6 yrs ago! Was Roger doddering even then? People have such short memories; or what I call "willful blindness!"
***Or '07 when a puppy/asthmatic Djokovic beat Roger, Rafa, & Andy on cons. days, then the #1, 2, & 3 players in the world. Could you imagine the reaction if a 19 or 20 yo guy did that today? Plus he ran Roger real close in the USO final that year, lost in str. sets, but had SP's in every single set & basically choked the match away by wasting them.
---
I would ?? Federer being in his prime then. As a Nadal fan I'm honest enough to say that in his sight, I don't think he was @ his very peak in '08 W or AO '09 finals. Fed had dominated for 5 yrs & mentally & physically it must have took its toll, then Nadal & Djokovic appear young & fresh w/ big games.
---
...btw neither Fed or Nadal won 4 straight Slams. He's Laverovic you have to deal w/ that now.***
They'll start to undermine it saying "it means nothing if not w/i a CY!" I think I heard it for the 1st X w/ Agassi just to pump up his resume! It was nothing like Martina's run of 6 majors in a row and they still give her no credit for that!
***Of course, I guarantee the more Djokovic wins the more boring & arrogant he gets, the more he becomes the death of tennis, the more his era becomes weak. The funny thing is for years we all said that Fed's rollover gen. of contemporaries was laughably weak. ...Now that someone other than Fed is dominating even more impressively than Federer & threatening many of his records all of sudden weak eras are everywhere. Not all Fed fans, just those that have to continually denigrate other greats who have supplanted Roger.***
***Please provide evidence that Colin Powell & Condi Rice used a personal server - The State Dept. has discovered 12 emails containing classified info that were sent to the personal email accounts of Colin Powell & close aides of Condi Rice during their tenures as Sec. of State for Pres.t Geo. W. Bush.***
ReplyDeleteBesides the obvious hypocrisy of the "right," what I fault Rice & Powell for is allowing themselves t/b used & lose all integrity w/ their lies about "911 warning" & Iraqi "WMD's" respectively! "W" had them go out & LIE to the UN & a Congressional panel losing what little respect I had for them! Both s/b ashamed, but if you sidle up to someone as unethical as a Bush, you have to expect the worst! That 1 president ruined the reps of his entire cabinet when they initially were highly regarded! None of them will ever work again in gov't IMO!...Secr. of Defense Gates left & while Obama still in office, openly criticized him & even wrote a book! This is what happens when Dems even try & trust a Rep. scum sucker like him & Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman who actually quit & tried to run vs the guy in '12! How sleazy can Reps be & get away w/ it?
***Powell & Rice should suffer the same penalty as Hillary.***
Well we know a Rep. Congress isn't going to do that! If they want to make a Federal case out of it, then they should drag their asses back to DC!
***Would you vote for a Trump / Gingrich ticket? - The best pairing would be Trump and Cruz! That w/b a ticket the Dems could not defeat!***
That makes sense; put 2 disturbed characters on the same ticket! Nothing wrong with that!
***Gingrich was in the Nat'l news tearing Trump to shreds for his comments about the judge... and Gingrich should not be in the news at all. His time was up decades ago.***
He's making a comeback like NIXON! After singling out Bill for cheating & making hay about that, I guess we might forget about his 3 marriages; the screwin' around, & crooked book deal that sent him packin' from his job as Speaker of the House! Just give him X, he m/b President in 8 more years!
***Yeah... Gingrich is a lot like middle & old age bands from the 70's & 80's getting grandma to keep on truckin' while they milk the old age fan base dry... Gingrich is a false profit. (pun intended, prophet)
---
SECRET SERVICE AGENT BOOK ROCKS CLINTON CAMPAIGN - The worst think about Hillary for me is the fact she abandoned Americans in harms way leaving them to die! That alone should permanently bar her from every holding public office ever, again!***
What a bunch of idiots! I guess you losers have to make up something to take people's minds off the 10's of thousands of people killed or injured during "W's" wars looking for "weapons of mass destruction!" Seek serious help while you're at it!
***Secret Service: Hillary has Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, w/ explosive physical outbursts***
Just another black eye for the Secret Service that shows how unprofessional, classless, & not worth trusting by the people they are sworn to protect! How do you write a book about what goes on behind the scenes of the White House w/ impunity? It doesn't bother me b/c after Hooker-gate, drunken-gate, and all the breaks in security, they've shown they aren't worth the cheap suits they're wearing! Slimeballs!
***...Let's see, oh yes... It's all the Secret Service's fault! Look at them! And PLEASE stop looking at Hillary!***
It doesn't matter if everything in his trashy book is correct! There's a code where the SS is supposed to protect & keep the First Family safe! If any and all of these clowns write books, they are showing themselves to not have any character themselves! How would you like a family member ratting out your idiocentricities just for the HELL of it? It's the same thing!
***Liberalism is rooted in victimhood & the creation of more victims via racism and governmental preference! It guarantees perpetual injustice!***
ReplyDeleteAnd cons NEVER complain or act like they're being victimized! Just by the MSM, the press/magazines, Dems, Hollywood, etc., etc., etc.!
***...And as far as the armed forces, Trump couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag!...***
What else could Ryan do but back to the hilt this bigoted fathead? I feel for their party which mhb noble a while back, but have lowered the bar so far that we're on a precipice! I'd rather jump off a cliff than support such an insane monster, but that's just me! If you want to say voting for Hillary is a decision over 2 evils; fine! I can live w/ Hillary & Bill! Trump should scare everyone to distraction instead of "falling in line" like sheep & lemmings!
***Indeed, it all boils down to what folks have for sale. Turns out more than a few in the principles and values crowd are just ass lickers who obviously have always had those principles and values up for sale to support what Speaker Ryan characterizes as "textbook racism" and former Speaker Gingrich characterizes as "inexcusable." Funny thing....You could bet the farm & win, those Trump ass lickers don't have the 1st clue the price they sold their principles & values for to support Trump. No clue.
---
Why don't you tell me what Trump intends, aside from building a wall that Mexico is going to pay for? They going to cut a check to the US Govt?***
No they don't want to talk about real policy! That's how Trump won the nomination forgetting he needs to come up w/ real solution for real problems! It's all been about smoke & mirrors speaking in generalities like "we're going to be great, I'm going to bring jobs back, blah, blah, blah," w/o pinpointing how he's supposed to do any of it! It's sad for him and his supporters t/b so conned!
***It's not sad for his supporters. The're stupid enough to vote for someone who did not tell them how he plans to do any of these amazing things!***
He could have said anything! It appears Reps like to be LIED to on a regular basis! It's called being "strong & tough" I guess! What's rich is Trump calls other people liars all the X, but I'm not sure of 1 truth he's told since he's begun this campaign! He lying about his worth, the audit on his taxes & why we can't see them, the Veteran's charity, and about the check he supposedly wrote and sent months ago! It wasn't until the press put his feet to the fire & started checking things out that made him come around and now he feels aggrieved! He's a tool and his supporters are responsible for this clown being so close to power!
===
Hillary Clinton Declared Presumptive Dem. Nom. NBC News just called it w/ more Super Delegates confirmed their support for Clinton! It's over before primary tomorrow in NJ & CA! Sorry!
- Hillary Clinton captures commitments from delegates to become 1st woman to top major party ticket - News - NorthJersey.com -
***Go Hillary!! - Yeah! I'm really annoyed w/ Bernie bitching about super delegates now! If he had them, he wouldn't be screaming about how unfair it is! I just don't get what all these dumb 20 something's see in a 74 yo man!***
Tell me about it! What's more perplexing are women who s/b jumping @ the chance of Hillary being President! There are more female voters, but they consistently seem to prefer aging, doddering old fools instead of 1 of their own! It just makes no sense! Look at Kentucky after all McConnell has done to screw over the process; totally overlooked the female candidate w/ a good reputations & family! Idiots!
***Trump’s concern is about judicial impartiality. The judge in ??, Gonzalo Curiel, is a member of the La Raza Lawyers of San Diego, a group that claims it is not affiliated w/ the Nat'l Council of La Raza, but which lists that group, strongly opposed to the Trump candidacy on its website as part of its “community.” - ...He's going down, which shows just how f'd up the Rep.n Party is. They couldn't take Obama down w/ everything neg. they had against him & they won't be able to take HRC down w/ everything they have against her. Maybe instead of blaming the media & everyone else for their short comings, they should look w/i themselves. That's a joke b/c we know they'll never do that. They'd rather blame & keep on losing!
ReplyDelete---
a) The GOP's in severe crisis. The crisis is so severe it threatens even the existence of the U.S. Rep. Party.
b) Rep. leadership realize, after 2 stunning losses; the Rep. message simply wasn't (isn't) appealing to the whole electorate.
Even Republican primary voters have barged to the parapets angrily brandishing their farm implements in a THROW THE BUMS OUT mob scene.
They had SIXTEEN other Rep. candidates to choose from. And they picked TRUMP ?!?! !
c) Now that The Donald's the presumptive Rep. nominee the ranking Rep. leadership are looking for a path to political party unity.
Priebus, McConnell, & Ryan know, their chances vs the Dem. won't be as good if the Reps go into Nov.'s voting booths in a fustercluck.
- THE REPUBLICANS NEED UNITY. NOT JUST LIP SERVICE PAP. THE GOP NEEDS GENUINE IDEOLOGICAL ACCORD APPEALING ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY GET REP. VOTERS TO THE POLLS THIS NOV. -
The stakes are no < than that. And candidly; from the look of things at this point; I am not encouraged.
- I think Bush put Obama in the White house.
- And at this exceedingly early date, it looks like Trump is going to put Hillary in the White House.
First Lady William Jefferson Clinton! - gosh -***
I said this yrs ago, that w/b "W's" legacy; "GWB got a Black man elected to the Presidency of the United States!" McCain selecting Palin didn't help, but the major factor was Bush screwed the country over so badly; esp. in the waning months w/ skyrocketing unemployment, the collapse of the DOW, and 2 wars raging on, it all culminated in creating & electing Obama! "Thanks George!"
***"Bush did not put BHO in the WH, voters did that. Sear, you are so --- ridiculous."
---
- omg - What a simpleminded comment! I know how elections work Einstein.
OF COURSE the voters twice elected Obama. That was never in dispute. The issue is WHY?!?! And many scholarly opinions on it that I've sampled tend to agree; the Rep. brand was being punished in '08, and perhaps again in '12, for such ghastly treachery as:
"Intelligence gathered by this & other gov'ts leaves no doubt, that the Iraq regime continues to possess & conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." U.S. President Bush (the younger) televised address to the U.S. March 17th, 2003 - That was an absolute LIE!! And 1000's died as a result of President Bush (R-TX) lying U.S. into War on the premise it was a War of necessity, when it was clearly a War of choice.
And it's not difficult to imagine the Rep. brand is STILL paying the price for Rep. misdeeds that took place over a decade ago. Do you think it's a coincidence JEB! dropped out in single digits? Not only does the USA not want Bush, the Rep. primary electorate doesn't even want their own party's status quo.***
***Nole just right passed his 29th birthday. Let us examine what happened to other all-X-greats at this stage.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Fed.
'10 USO Lost to Nole in SF
'11 AO Lost to Nole in SF
'11 RG Lost to Rafa in Final
'11 SW19 Lost to Tsonga in QF
'11 USO Lost to Nole in SF
'12 AO Lost to Rafa in SF
'12 RG Lost to Nole in SF
'12 SW19 Champion
'12 USO Lost to Berdych in QF
He reached at least QF's in the next 2 yrs (9 majors). If Rafa & Nole were taken away, he lost only twice to outliner, which m/b attributed to his aging. That is really amazing.
In Pistol’s case, he was only a factor in USO after 29th BD & there were no Rafa or Nole stopping him. Ironically he didn’t face Agassi until his swan song. Pete fell from peak much more steeply. Though both Pistol and Fed won only 1 major after 29th birthday, the context is very diff. It's as laughable to call 1 X wonder the same btw Roddick & Gaudio.
In Agassi’s case, he won 6 after 29th BD. The baseline player didn’t necessarily age worse than S&V type. Nole’s style's closer to Agassi’s than Pete's & I didn’t see it disadvantage.
Playing style cannot tell much on aging pattern. Nole's diff. from Rafa that he doesn’t have repeated injury history. If his aging is anything close to Fed, 17 is not daydream in this WEAK ERA.
---
1. You can see Roger's clear era of dominance, from '04-07, and then a plateau phase of '08-12, w/ '13-present being strongly declined. Actually, these charts clearly depict how Roger really hasn't won much from '13 to the present - that's the last 3 1/2 yrs.
2. '11 & '13 are the 2 yrs in which the Big 4 won every big title. I like to call '12 "The Year of the Big 4," b/c it was the most evenly balanced btw the 4. '08-13 is the range in which at least 3 of the 4 won Slams, & '05-14 is the range in which at least 2 won Slams.
3. Each of the Big 4 have had 1 year in which they did not have any shares of big titles: '13 for Roger, '15 for Rafa, '10 for Novak, & '14 for Murray.
---
Nole has a 3 yr window (14 slam ops left counting the remaining to 2) to surpass Federer to win 5-6 more slams. So basically he has to win < than 1/2 of the remaining Slams btw now and the USO '19 to surpass Federer. I think thats probable, barring injury. What's he gonna be in '19; 32 yrs of age? Thats nothing. Not to mention Nole was a late bloomer compared to Nadal. Thats also not to mention, he could very well win more @ 33-34 yrs old (I mean Fed was still reaching slam finals @ 34 as was Agassi even at 35). Nole's good for at LEAST 1 more slam this year, ending the year at 13. Getting nervous yet Fed fans?
---
...You lost me w/ '11-16 being a stronger era. Meanwhile the guy who Novak beat at RG is a mighty 2-8 in Slam finals. Am I missing something or are there other guys out there challenging Novak? Stan 2 matches every decade? Last 3 Slam finals Fed & Djokovic played 'guess who' had an overwhelming advantage. Could it be the guy nearly 34/35? I think not. Pull the other 1 w/ the nonsense that this is a strong era in tennis right now, please, 'cos no 1 at all is buying that.***
***Have the past 12 months been the most dominant period of any male player ever? Nole's rec:
ReplyDeleteWon Wimbledon
Won US Open
Won Beijing
Won Shanghai
Won Paris Indoors
Won WTF
Won Doha
Won AO
Won IW
Won Miami
Won Madrid
Won RG
Final Canada
Final Cinci
Final Rome
Largest pt diff. btw 1 & 2
52 str. wks @ #1
Winning H2H vs all main rivals
YE #1
If that doesn't make it the most dominant 12 months, then IDK what will.
---
Speaking about W/L % as a most significant criteria of greatness & dominance:
Match record * % W–L
1. Sweden- Björn Borg 83.4 136–27
2. Serbia- Novak Djokovic 82.8 288–60
3. Spain- Rafael Nadal 82.29 316–68
4. USA- John McEnroe 82.28 195–42
5. Czech.- Ivan Lendl 81.7 223–50
6. Switz.- Roger Federer 77.1 330–98
And if No1e have 33% more slams in last 12 months than Fed in '06, but have a poorer performance b/c of W/L % than will Fed have a poorer career performance than No1e when No1e wins another Slam. He will have 30% more slams, but poorer W/L records!
---
Since losing the FO final last yr, Djokovic has won 12 titles includ. all 4 majors, the WTF & 5 Masters 1000s. His W-L record is 85-6. I'm just wondering if these past 12 months c/b regarded as the most dominant by any player in history, and not just in the Open Era. I'm not sure about Laver's stats, but perhaps he had an even more impressive run in the late '60s. - Djokovic is the only man to have ever reached 3 cons. finals for each of the Slams. This is why he'll continue to win majors b/c you have to keep making it there. The min. you have a string of poor results @ a Slam the harder it gets.
---
21 of the last 22 1st tier events; Masters, Year ender, & Slams have featured Djokovic in the final w/ him winning 17 of those. He has now won 5 of the last 6 Slams as well. No, we have never seen dominance like this; not even in Fed's heyday. Novak goes into every match on every surface vs every opp. as the fave. Even in Fed or Nadal's heyday, you simply couldn't make that statement.***
***Yep - and Pete had the nerve to downplay the legitimacy of clay as a surface to excuse his shocking results LMAO.***
ReplyDeleteAs X goes on, poor Petey will continue to drop in the GOAT discussion unfortunately! I was on the bandwagon just 10 yrs ago giving him the highest accolades even w/o a FO final played! At the X, he was so far ahead of his closest rivals & dwarfed the records of past greats, we were all ready to give him a pass on taking a FO title! He had 14 Majors which was significant back then and we were ready to carry his water to place him above Laver; now he's fallen back down due to awesome results of Roger, Rafa, & Nole! He's seen his stock truly fall! Laver's 2 CYGS; 1 as an amateur & 1 as a pro in '69 put him above Sampras for good even though 3 Majors short! OTTH, the old & new GOAT lists are as follows:
Before '06:
1- Sampras (14 Major - 6 YE #1)
2- Laver (11 Majors - 2 CYGS '62 & '69)
3- Borg (11 Majors - 5 Str. SW19 & 6 FO's)
4- Emerson (12 Majors - CGS in Singles & Dbls)
5- Connors (8 Majors)
6- Lendl (8 Majors)
7- Agassi (8 Majors - CGS)
8- McEnroe (7 Majors)
9- Wilander (7 Majors)
10- Tilden (10 Majors)
After '10 so far, but could change:
1- Federer (17 Majors -7 SW19's, 5 USO's, 4 AO's, 1 FO, 302 wks @ #1 & CGS)
2- Djokovic (12 Majors - 200+ wks @ #1, CGS, the most Masters 1000's, winning rec. over his closest rivals)
3- Nadal (14 Majors - 9 FO's)
4- Laver (11 Majors - 2 CYGS '62 & '69)
5- Sampras (14 Major - 6 YE #1)
6- Borg (11 Majors - 5 Str. SW19 & 6 FO's)
7- Agassi (8 Majors - CGS)
8- Lendl (8 Majors)
9- Connors (8 Majors)
10- McEnroe (7 Majors)
***Good stuff, Fiero. 1st of all, you really should include Pro Slams among majors, which would give Laver 19, not 11. He spent most of his best years on the pro tour and won 8 Pro Slams. As you likely know, the Pro Slams were shorter tourneys, more like the WTF's today - but they included the very best players on tour; far better than the Amateur Slams during the 60s.
But maybe Laver & Rosewall belong to the pre-Open Era, and we should treat them differently. As I see it, right now Federer maintains his hold as the greatest of the Open Era, at least in terms of career accomplishments. After him you have Sampras, Nadal, & Djokovic clustered together in some order. By the end of this year I think Novak will have separated himself from the other 2, even if he only wins 1 more Slam.
TENNISBASE.COM'S ALL-X RANKINGS
1. Rod Laver 2836
2. Ken Rosewall 2607
3. Roger Federer 2603
4. Bill Tilden 2361
5. Novak Djokovic 2182
6. Ivan Lendl 2162
7. Rafael Nadal 1990
8. Pancho Gonzales 1985
9. Jimmy Connors 1845
10. Pete Sampras 1808
11. John McEnroe 1747
12. Bjorn Borg 1636
13. Andre Agassi 1555
14. Tony Wilding 1414
15. Boris Becker 1323
16. Don Budge 1310
17. Roy Emerson 1278
18. Bobby Riggs 1189
19. Stefan Edberg 1184
20. Laurence Doherty 1163
It's interesting to note that they rank Novak ahead of Rafa, which is something I did earlier in the year and got a bit of (friendly) flack for. It's also clear that Roger will soon pass Rosewall, but probably not Laver. I can agree w/ that as I think Rod Laver--not Roger--has t/b considered the all-X #1. I'd probably also put Lendl below Nadal & Sampras, and Connors below Borg & McEnroe. Borg's the hardest player to rank b/c his career was so short & we didn't see what his decline phase would have looked like.***
***...in Nov. of last yr, which I post again w/ some adds:
ReplyDelete1. From '11 thru '13, the Big 4 won 41/42 of the big events, w/ only Ferrer's lone win in Paris in '12 bucking the trend.
2. '14 was their least dominant yr for a decade, w/ 4 'non-big 4' winners, when there had never been more than 3 since '04!
3. But in '15 it reverted & went back down to only 1 'non-big 4' winner - 1 of the top 4 most dominant Big 4 yr so far.
4. This stat is true of all of the Big 4: since winning their 1st 'Big 14' tourney, every member of the Big 4 has gone on to win at least 1 of the Big 14 events every yr from then on right up to the present, except for 1 dodgy yr for each of them. For Novak, it was '10, for Roger '13, for Andy '14 & for Rafa '15.
Will '16 be another of these yrs, or will all the 'Big 4' win at least 1 of the 'Big 14' next year?!
5. Despite the Big 4's dominance, there have only been 2 yrs so far where they won all 14 big events, '11 & '13.
In '11 all the Big 4 won big events, but in '13 it was just Novak, Andy & Rafa, as Roger had his dodgy yr.
(In both '12 & '15 they came close, winning 13/14, in '12 w/ all the big 4 winning big events, but in '15 just Novak, Andy & Roger, w/ Rafa having his dodgy yr.)
So far this yr, not only have all 7 big events been won by the Big 4, they have constituted 11/14 final spots too!
For comparison, last yr 25/28 final spots throughout the yr were filled by Big 4 members.
Also, over 1/2 of the big finals so far this yr (4 of the 7) have been Djokovic-Murray finals.
---
...they thought Fed w/b an all X great even after his 1st major--they don't say that about everybody. Everybody was talking about Nadal as he came up. Folks talked about Nole when he was 19 having the talent t/b a great player--not just good, but great. Roger, Rafa & Nole are greats b/c they are simply better, particularly when it counts.***
It has been a strange merry-go-round w/ these 3 players! You had Roger dominating initially starting in '03, winning everything in sight; 3 major finals 3 X's! The tide turned a little w/ the ascension of Rafa; esp. @ the FO! He started to impose his will on Roger, finally beating him on all surfaces; even Wimbl. grass! Then along came Nole defeating them both & taking 3 majors of his own in '11! They played a little volleyball w/ the top ranking for a few yrs, now Nole has taken over for good! He's really exerting dom. on the tour; Majors, Masters, & now 4 str. WTF wins @ O2! They all are CGS winners, but unlike Roger & Rafa, Nole owns all 4 Slams at the moment w/ a chance at a CYGS this season after taking his 1st FO title over a relative pigeon & perennial "also-ran," Murray! Right now, it doesn't look like anyone can stop him from overtaking all the Open records, but it can change w/ this new gen. of players like Theim, Kei, & Raonic; we'll see!
***...There simply aren't any players on tour right now that are capable of a consistently high level of play to seriously challenge Novak.
---
...to take out Novak, 1 needs consistent high level of play in just 1 match. Many people like Simon, Belluci, etc. have come close before.***
But you have t/b able to finish; unlike Simon who was on top of Nole who committed 100 UFE & still let the match get away from him! Kei was beating him on clay a few wks ago & also allowed Nole to escape in a 3rd set TB! Murray was scary good in the 1st set of the FO, but he forgot how he beat him just a few wks before in Rome! It's all in their head & Nole doesn't panic! As soon as you ease up or miss a volley, he grabs them by the throat & snatches victory from defeat!
Please name 1 thing Trump can actually do! Making America great isn't "doing anything!" We all know that wall isn't going to be built, he's not going to trash all the trade agreements signed, & he's definitely not going to initiate tariffs on products made abroad! He's full of shit & even his family knows it! I think they should have the man committed and after he loses this election, we shouldn't see this idiot again w/o a straight-jacket on!
ReplyDelete***Building the wall, owering the corp. tax rate, repatriate $$ lost overseas, stop refugees from war torn regions, put a focus on our education system rather than simply tossing $$ at it, emphasizing states rights, cutting regulations, repealing Obamacare if he has Congress, ,ot nominating left wing activists to the SCOTUS are but a few plans!***
Hilarious! Reps have been trying to repeal Obamacare for yrs w/ 50+ bills attempting that Herculean feat! As for the rest of it, we'll never know! Trump has embarrassed himself & the Rep. party so much, his normal allies are running for the hills dropping support for him! You can't win if the Party as a whole isn't backing you to the hilt!
***Stupid as it was they were keeping their campaign promises. They knew it couldn't be done when they didn't win a veto proof majority, but the promise had been made so they kept their bargain w/ the voters that elected them.
---
Clinton Wins Presidency nom. in Historic Landslide Beatdown over Donald Trump! - So in Cal. Clinto got 55.8% of the votes, Trump 73.3%. In Montana Clinton got 44.6% of the votes, in NJ Clinton got 63.3% of the vote, Trump 80.6%. NM Clinton 51.5%, Trump 70.7%. So. Dakota Clinton 25.6%, Trump 67%. Please do tell how that was a "beatdown" for Trump? The only thing I see Clinton doing that was of any significance is being the 1st female to clinch a presidential nom.***
Besides having less Reps in those areas, Trump ran unopposed! Of course he had big #'s in a primary or caucus last night! Sheeshh! Why do we bother trying to educate willfully ignorant people? I'm so embarrassed for you and your ilk!
---
...Obama wound up being 1 of the most successful 2 term presidents! The country recovered, though slowly after the disastrous admin. of "W" & the world isn't as upset w/ us!
***Of course the world loves us. We have a so-called American President apologizing for all our past actions. He's got the doors at Gitmo wide open. He gave away our top 2 terrorists in prison for a lowly traitor Private. He has an open border attitude & taking in foreigners like they were on sale. He's given Iran a X frame on when they can build nukes & even lied to the American public about who we were negotiating w/. No attempts at getting the people responsible for Benghazi.
---
Damn Ray......you are really striking out big X...
You do know we got the guys responsible for Benghazi don't you?
The guys in Gitmo have not been convicted of any offenses...there are things known as human rights
The guys released were far from our top 5.....ever hear of Sheik Mohammad? The guy who planned 9-11?
We have fewer illegals today than under Rep. leadership
But you will just repost your lies tomorrow won't you?***
Just a week ago they were joking about how divided the Dem. Party was and now they're self-immolating and can't decide what to do w/ Trump who's became their presumptive nominee wks ago! How does this happen? They thought for sure all they'd need to do is point at Bill * Hillary and the election would fall into their laps! What a bunch of morons! It was all set up for them and this is the state of affairs w/ the Rep. Party; unable to get their collective act together nationally!
ReplyDelete***Defiant Bernie Sanders Refuses to Bow to the Bitch***
Bernie's a very small man & getting smaller everyday! He's a true loser who's ego has been crushed like a peanut & he can't "let it go!" I've found him t/b a hypocrite & a liar and why he has so many supporters is beyond me! All that free stuff isn't practical & he's just conning them as much as anything Trump has said and done! He's lost what little the Democratic intelligencia had for him and it's unfortunate he isn't going to get much in return for begrudging support for Hillary! It's sad that it'll end w/ this old man fading into the background, but he did it to himself! His silly wife shouldn't have encouraged this curmudgeon act to finish off his pathetic career!
***Senator Sanders (I) is a magnanimous utilitarian that's the opposite of an elitist. Misguided though I believe he is, Sanders advocates the best, for the most. = Trump has good ideas, but can't keep the teenage mouth of his shut. On the flip side Hillary has 0 good ideas, but NEVER opens her mouth cause she knows it would end badly.
---
...Those job gains were illegal aliens getting the jobs of citizens who lost their jobs. - Of course not..., but if the rightwing Echo chamber tells you so, you gotta believe it.***
I've been saying, cons don't mind being lied to; a great need for reaffirmation regardless if wrong! It's more than a little pathetic when they harp on Benghazi, the emails, the server, & the CGI! These things have been investigated to death & after millions of $$ & countless hearings, "THEY GOT NOTHING!" Their heads want to explode, so to relieve the pressure they keep on insinuating something's there, it just hasn't been found yet! IDIOTS!
***Hilary's a crook. Her & Bill have sold this country down the river just to enrich themselves and win the White House back.....but we know they are crooked as hell and an Outsider is going to kick their political asses.***
Name it; don't spew it! Make a charge and make it stick why don't you? Reps have been pulling this shit for years, throwing out accusations & proving little! Why not go back & hit them on Iran Contra, starting 2 wars on the big lie of WMD, Katrina disaster, & of course the banking collapses that occur every X a Rep.'s in the White House w/ a Rep. Congress? You gotta do better than accuse Bill & Hillary of murder, pocketing $$ from the CGI, & any other # of BS charges! - ...It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see we need investments in infrastructure, but the House won't authorize any add'l spending even if it helped the economy! Bridges, roads, & utilities all need an upgrade, but they'll wait until Hillary gets in there; they hate Obama so much!
***Yes we do, but that's not why they're not spending, it's b/c DumBama doubled our debt already.***
ReplyDeleteOh please, Obama didn't double shit! The cost of "W's" wars came a calling which had been off budget for yrs; not to mention the subsequent stimulus needed to keep the whole economy from collapsing! Overall spending went down to cover Rep. malfeasance during the term before Obama even got there! Spare me the blame for an economy on the brink, loans to auto industry, & the high cost of those wars that had to wane down! Give me a break!
***Bush mhb an amazing man to have all this blame on him many years after he was long gone. Gee, I wonder if you leftists & Socialists w/b doing the same w/ DumBama after he's gone?***
Nothing was more funny & pathetic than "W" trying to blame Clinton for inheriting a recession! Forgot that huh? He used that lame ass line until the day he left even when losing 800,000 jobs a month, the auto industry about to collapse, & trillions of $$ lost in the stock market when the DOW went down to 6600! It's now at 18,000, unemployment under 5%, gas prices <, & respect from around the world when they were burning "W" in effigy!
***He lowered taxes on just about everybody, but a lib only sees what he wants to see.***
Giving $300 to the common man did nothing but deepen the deficit! What was criminal was the 1000's of $$ given to rich folks that didn't need it! There was a surplus & "W" turned it into a deep deficit & recession w/i years! Reps don't deserve to ever take over the Presidency again after what they did this last X in power! You can't lower taxes and at the same X start 2 wars; that's insane!
***The reason W was successful w/ his economic growth & DumBama a failure is b/c you can't rely on 1 sector to boost the economy of 300 million people. - Slowest growth? Except for the roaring stock markets, people's IRA's 401 K's recovering. Who do you think makes up our markets? The largest companies in America are NOW > than ever and all you punks cry doom and gloom.***
If a Rep. was in office, they w/b touting all these #'s! These people are disgustingly hypocritical & don't even try to hide their partisanship! They're an embarrassment to the country constantly putting down everything good that occurs & making excuses when totally in the wrong!
***I wonder what Hillary's said that's worth millions? - It's not what they said that was worth millions, it was being able to print their names in the program that was worth it.***
Sounds a lot like jealousy to me; Sanders & "the rightwing!" They're just PO'd they w/b lucky to make a few 1000! Even after the Clintons have been maligned & accused of so much, their influence & popularity just drives you guys insane! They've been vilified like no other couple in history! The Rosenbergs have gotten off scott-free in comparison & there are people that just can't stand it! They've survived & been the most successful in the history of this world!
***...After hearing about Hillary's Armani jacket priced at $12,400, it's doubtful Trump wears $12,000 suit jackets. He also made his $$ in the private sector unlike the witch and her husband. - He likely sells his jackets for 1000's, but gets them made in China or Mexico for a few $$.***
I'm not sure Trump is selling anything! I distinctly remember Macy's kicking his products out the door & said they would no longer do so! Other stores & businesses soon followed! This campaign of HUBRIS is going to end up costing him more than he thought!
***It’s not just the tournament wins where the Big 4 are dominant, but also in the finals spots.
ReplyDeleteThe Big 4’s share of the 28 finals spots in the 14 big events since 2003:
'03: 3/28 -- 11%
'04: 7/28 -- 25%
'05: 13/28 - 46%
'06: 15/28 - 54%
'07: 21/28 - 75%
'08: 19/28 - 68%
'09: 20/28 - 71%
'10: 17/28 - 61%
'11: 23/28 - 82%
'12: 24/28 – 86%
'13: 20/28 - 71%
'14: 21/28 - 75%
'15: 25/28 - 89%
'16 (so far!): 11/14 - 79%
The Big 4’s share of the big finals grew steadily from 2003-2007 as Roger, Rafa, and then Novak rose to prominence.
'08 saw a dip, due perhaps to Federer’s mono & thus dip in form? (Roger didn’t win a single Masters title & only made 2 finals. In the previous yr, he reached 5 finals, winning 2.)
Then there was another dip in '10 (due to Novak’s dodgy year? i.e. Not only did Novak not win a Masters event, he didn’t even make a single final! (The previous yr he made 5 finals, the next year he made 6.)
'11 & '12 saw their most dominant shares up to that pt, then a dip again in '13 when Roger had his back problems, & in '14 w/ Andy’s dodgy yr & Rafa slipping.
But last year was the most dominant so far. (Even though Rafa had a poor '15 by his standards, the other 3 took up the slack so they still dominated, in fact even more than before.)
In terms of finals, '16 is, so far, their 4th most dominant yr...***
I've been railing about this for yrs! It's ridiculous that the rest of the tour has been so gutless, allowing 4 players to own the titles, but also the Rr-up positions as well! Never has it been so lame; even w/ the greatness of Borg, Connor, Lendl, & McEnroe in the draws! Two or more were upset most of the X; even in majors! That doesn't seem to happen much for the last decade and I find it appalling since I know the other players have the ability, just not the heart & mind! Simon illicited 100 UFE @ the AO vs Nole; lost! Sev. yrs ago, Deliciamo Lopez was in the 3rd Rd of a clay event in a 3rd set TB vs Fed! He was up 5-2, butchered an easy overhead at the net & preceded to give it all back allowing Roger to escape! Back at the FO in '12, Tsonga had 4 MP's vs Nole in the 4th set & let him off the hook, eventually giving the 5th away eating a bread-stick! Last season at Cincy, Grigor was up a break or 2 in 2 sets & let them both go vs Murray! I can list a dozen of these weak efforts, but my hands would just start shaking w/ rage!
***Btw '74-84, if we exclude the AO b/c the top players mostly didn't play it, then 25/33 Grand Slams were won by just 3 men!: Borg, McEnroe & Connors! Btw '78-81 they won all 12 GS! So whilst I agree w/ you to some extent, this sort of dominance has happened before; just not for as long!
---
Hard to believe Lendl had that many wins, m/b it's the press, but Fed seems more dominant. He needs just 33 more wins to surpass Sampras. Chances are by the end of this yr or next year's AO he will have. - Fed tied Lendl in matches won @ 1071. They both are joint #2 now. Jimmy Connors is #1 w/ 1256. Fed needs to win 185 more matches to tie Connors. So, Jimbo's record will be safe.***
I don't think people understand or remember how dominant Lendl was back in the 80's! He won 8 majors, made 8 str. USO finals winning 3 in a row, was #1 for quite a few yrs, & overtook his closest rivals in McEnroe & Connors! He was the original Djokovic who had to overcome 2 ATG's w/ hard work & resilience! He was rarely upset, making SF & Finals just as consistently & didn't win Wimbledon making 2 finals only b/c of grass court specialists like McEnroe, Becker, & Edberg!
***He's 1 of my fave players, that BH. I was just comparing him to someone like Djok who has 730 wins being placed above him, w/ 400 less wins. He would dominate today's court speed, probably why he helped Murray so much.***
Djokovic has been acknowledge to have a "Nole Slam" since he holds all 4 Majors @ this moment after winning FO this past wk over Murray! ...It all becomes moot if he's able to win both Wimbledon & the USO this season! Serena Wms has hers, but Navratilova won 6 in a row over 2 seasons! Anyone?
ReplyDelete***What is the most exciting thing that has happened in tennis in last decade?***
It's hard to say; s/b Nole '11 season! ...it was a joke to call Fedal a true rivalry when Roger had only limited success against Rafa! It wasn't as much I'm this super-fan of Djokovic, but it was a combo of losin' Hingis & Henin twice & nothing was more boring than Fedal making all the major finals for a while! I gave Roger all due credit for becoming the GOAT before our very eyes doing unprecedented feats as taking 3 of 4 majors routinely, but guess what? He's been matched and outdone taking 4 straight WTF's at the O2 & creating his own moniker of Nole Slammer! OTTH, how many have this; Serena, Navratilova, & of course Graf & Laver's CYGS? Martina's the most noteworthy winning 6 in a row over 2 seasons!
***I'll tell you why Nole's overtaken them all in the h2h, Fed's a pensioner in tennis terms, Nadal's a mere shell of himself for 2+ yrs, & Murray's just not that good. Btw, it took till Fed was 34 til Djokovic overtook him & likewise Nadal had physically declined a lot. Not exactly much to boast about.***
History won't care if both Rafa & Roger were missing altogether in a major draw! They lost or didn't play at all and the tourney still went according to what would have happened regardless! Laver had problems w/ Rosewall & Hoad! We still give him props for his accomplishments even though he had 2 players who gave him heartburn! As far as I'm concerned, it's only valid concerning Nole the last 2 years! Rafa and Fed were #1 as recently as '13 & '12 respectively! So get over it already! He can only play who's pushed in front of him! It's hardly his fault he's so dominating that competent players just don't seem t/b able to break through! Down the line, few are going to even think that way beside Fedal sycophants!
***That couldn't be further from the truth. Fed's WD from RG screwed the draw up completely & made Novak's draw laughable. You really think a healthy Nadal would've lost to Murray at RG? The whole tournament this year was a shambles. Historians will most definitely recall all the facts.***
So did Murray's withdrawal a few yeas ago! It put Rafa at #4 when he shb #5 coming back from another hiatus! That punished Nole, so look at the complete history instead of instances that bolster your argument! You should know by now it's fruitless to try that w/ me! My history goes back to '74 & I'll always have a legitimate counter for you!
***Take it out 15 yrs for a really exciting shock: erratic Swiss hippie beats Sampras @ Wimbledon***
That period was quite interesting w/ Sampras dropping like a stone & unable to win an event for over 2 yrs; 2000 Wimbledon to '02 USO vs Agassi! I didn't see it, but it was all the talk of the internet some nobody ranked outside #126 took Pete out of Wimbledon in '01, giving Goran his last best chance at the title taking a WC! I was wondering why Sampras was still haunting the tour dropping out of the top 20 by the X of that USO! Even Connors didn't fall into obscurity so fast! IIRC, he was given a seed of #17 out of respect for his achievements b/c he certainly didn't deserve or earn it! It was great that he found a fountain of youth on site at Flushing and he progressively got better as the matches went on adding #14 to his resume!
***I think Nadal played some of his best tennis in '11, it was a very good year for him. Besides Djokovic, he dominated the rest of the field & was very consistent throughout the year.***
ReplyDeleteTis true! It wasn't as if Nadal wasn't playing well; making final after final! Unfortunately Nole was on the other side of net X & X again! It was more reminiscent of Navratilova's dominance of Evert in '83 & '84! She was literally toying w/ Evert! Nole wasn't exactly toying with Rafa, but he was winning in str. on clay over Rafa in Madrid & Rome IIRC! Both were clearly #1 & #2 w/ Roger pretty much an afterthought save him stopping Nole's winning streak; somewhere around 42! Now he very well may be toying w/ Murray since he's not even playing his best! He's had some horrendous starts but surviving when it counted! Rafa stuck it out and actually took the #1 ranking back for the last X! He had a career years in '13 and fell precipitously, breaking down & barely able to hold onto his last vestiges of a X gone by!
***Novak Djokovic - 12 GS's - 6 A0, 1 FO, 3 WIM & 2 USO
Career Grand Slam (Won all 4 Majors @ least once)
NCGS - Won 4 slams cons. (Held all 4 at once)
29 Masters 1000 titles - Outright holder
12 ATP 500 Titles
5 World Tour Finals - 2nd only to Federer
4 YE #1
46 Tier 1 titles - 2nd only to Federer
Firmly in tier 1 w/ Federer, Nadal, Sampras.
---
Djokovic when you look at his #1 statistics in terms of YE #1's & wks @ #1, along w/ his 1000 level records, & 5 WTF titles; then you see how Novak probably gets the edge over Pete or Rafa in terms of accomplishment even though those 2 have 2 more slams than him. Pete never won as consistently as Novak at Master's events, he never won the FO, never won 5 of 6 Slams. In regards to Nadal, Novak owns him in recent years & they're the same age practically, already is lapping Nadal in wks @ #1 & YE #1's, & again Nadal didn't ever win 4 str. Slams & hold all the Majors @ once. So this recent accomplishment of being only the 3rd male player in 125 yrs of GS tennis to hold all the Majors @ once, probably elevates him over the 2 guys in the modern era who have 14 Slams.
---
...So basically ignore all evidence that suggests statistically Nadal played a > level in '11 than '10, and instead choose to "observe" w/ no basis that clearly he was worse?***
Rafa would have had 2 cons. career yrs but for Nole thwarting him in all those '11 finals; including SW19, Flushing, Rome, Madrid, Miami, & IW! The same 2 players contested them!
***Exactly. As I said Rafa would have won 5 Masters w/ 3 Slams in '11 if Novak didn't rise to beat him. He would have won 8/9 Majors bettering Fed's best run of 8/10. He would have 17 & be Open Era GOAT. He was winning the Majors Novak didn't in that stretch & only losing to him & the #'s back up his level of play. But yes, lets throw all of that out & say a 24-25 year old reaching all finals was not in his peak and try to justify it by saying the field of comp. drastically decreased from '10 & '11.
---
Djokovic's now in a similar position to where he was after Wimbledon '11 triumph, hs №1 ranking & proved again that he can beat top guys @ Majors outside of Australia. Novak is a very strong fave for both USO & AO, & if he wins both of these majors, there are no reasons why he can't win another RG if he keeps his form up.
---
...The real Djokovic didn't actually turn up until Beijing that fall....***
He gets into trouble, but has the mental strength to get out of it again & again; very impressive since I don't think he's played well since Qater! He obliterated Nadal; actually toyed w/ him w/ s&v pts & besting him in all the long rallies! It was the most complete match he's played all season! He's been a step or 2 behind that level all spring!
***I think that has a lot to do w/ all the tennis Nole's played! Only MC tourney out of all the big events was missing him, so I'm not surprised he can't keep bringing it all the X.***
ReplyDeleteHe didn't blossom until late & he had to step on the gas to catch & surpass his 2 greatest rivals! They had a huge lead on him battling 5 yrs before he came into his own for good! I agree he could pull back a little, but I think that's what drives him to excel! He's getting little to no love for the most part; so he's always PROVING himself to the masses and Nat'l media!
***Djokovic was created by Federer & Nadal. He's the single biggest thing that came out of the Fedal era. They made him. I've often said that Lendl benefitted from Connors & McEnroe tailing off after '84-85. Still, Lendl had serious comp. from others like Becker, Edberg & Wilander.***
Lendl was surrounded by ATG's & future "HoF's!" Who are the "Big 3" surrounded by; Ferrer, Berdych, Clic, Tsonga, & Gasquet? Twenty to 30 yrs ago was the 1st true "Golden Age" of tennis w/ so much talent! I commented once that @ any given Major, their c/b a dozen GS winner! That's not even possible in this era w/ just 5 players dominating all of them! Another site mused about how the "also-rans" of this era can't even get to the final but a fraction of the X!
***...It's been great seeing Theim's rise this year (scoring wins over Nadal & Federer my fave parts, but it's really blown out of proportion.***
The desire is desperate to at least groom someone to take over! We've been waiting w/ players like Gasquet, Ferrer, Roddick, Tsonga, Cilic, Del Po, & Berdych, but they can't seem to get over the hump! They've played the "Big 3" enough to have more of a game plan than just outhitting or outlasting them! It's moronic in the 10th degree b/c of all their opportunities & you can count the wins in Maajors on 1 hand for the collective lot! They've been pathetic & s/b rather ashamed of themselves! We can only pray Theim fulfills his promise!
***...Fed's the dominant grass/HC player, not Rafa, so Fed s/b more expected to reach Rafa as #1 or #2 seed than Rafa automatically making finals as a #2 seed. I agree H2H is overrated in its value somewhat, but Rafa's H2H edge overall vs Fed is fully legit. He owns him incredibly badly on clay, and Fed has nothing elsewhere to come close to counteracting that huge clay edge, other than maybe indoors, but indoor's a far < important surface in today's game than clay.
---
...Nadal's outdoor HC record is inflated vs Fed b/c the majority of their outdoor HC meetings have been on slow HC well after Fed's prime on slow HC (matches like 11 Miami, 13 IW, 14 AO which Federer clearly had no chance to win). Federer leads in the 2nd 1/2 of the season 7-3 & 2 of Nadal's wins were in '13. So %-wise Federer owns Nadal in the 2nd 1/2 more than Nadal does Federer in the 1st despite Federer never getting to pad his wins by facing an awful version of Nadal in the 1st 1/2 of the year like Nadal did in '13. Also, Nadal faced Federer 8 X's in his worst confidence yrs of '08 & '13 when Fed was losing to guys he owned left & right & while Nadal was @ his peak. Federer never had the benefit of facing similar versions of Nadal (say 2nd 1/2 '09 Nadal or '15 Nadal). It's clear that the surface & age diff. influences their H2H big X.
---
3-0 in Australia's irrelevant as 2 of those meetings came past Federer's prime at the AO and when he was over 30. Obviously on a court that slow, 30+ yo Fed stands no chance vs prime Nadal.
The whole Federer-Nadal H2H comes down to 1 match...'09 AO. If Federer had won that match, it w/b obvious that the only surface Nadal w/b superior in a H2H matchup peak for peak was clay. Since he blew it, here we are.***
***We can plot Novak's career into 3 phases as below:
ReplyDeletePhase 1 : Fedal Era ('05- 10)
1 Major in 24 appearance
1 WTF in 4 app.
Phase 2 : Big 4 Era (2011-14 FO)
5 majors in 14 app.
2 WTF in 3 app.
Phase 3 : Murray's Strong Depth Era ('14 Wimb - til date)
6 majors in 8 app.
2 WTF in 2 app.
Extending this a little further til the end of this yr; cons. basis.
7 majors in 9 app.
3 WTF in 3 app.
How does Murray figure that the current era has more depth?
Roger has Rolex, Nadal has Richard Milles, Djokovic has...Seiko
Roger & Nadal have Nike, Djokovic has...Uniqlo
Roger has Mercedes, Nadal has KIA , Djokovic has....Peugeot - Fed '06
---
I've mentioned before, that I think tennis s/b viewed as distinct eras:
•Pre Open Era
•Open Era '68-03
•Open Era '03-Present (Poly String/More regulated conditions)◦This era we've seen 3 cons. dominant players collect the CS & put up unheard of #'s - everyone includ. former & current players & fans alike conclude that tennis in '16 is a diff. game than tennis in '93. It's almost like hard-bat ping pong paddles vs Sponge Bats in table tennis - it's a completely diff. game.
It's clear that every dom. player from now on will amass a CS. Hell Murray might even end his career w/ a CS - it's really not out of the realm of discussion. Nole 6+ #1's is all but a forgone conclusion barring something freak happening (injury - another player becoming as dom.) Both of those are unlikely...I wonder what year we're going to see a player go undefeated the entire year - Nole was the closest yet - except m/b Federer when he lost 4 matches - Noles 41-0 start to '11 was ridiculous. - ...We know Nadal never had Feds Consistency or Dominance, but Novak's Rod Lavers Successor.
===
The '88-93 gen. are a joke. Nishikori's the highest ranked of that group @ #6. The top 5 is 29 & older. Nishikori fluked 1 slam victory over Djkovoic ('14 USO). Hasn't beaten him since & gotten drubbed every X. Where's the Marat Safin of the '93-97 gen. to show up & just grab a Slam? Alex Zverev is YEARS away. The tour isn't the same as in 2000 when it wasn't as much about fitness. Now everyone is incredibly fit & only Djokovic can win the Slams b/c he just doesn't make errors & you can't hit winners by him w/ enough regularity to matter. Federer tried @ 2015 USO final, but it was a futile effort. Andy Murray in the FO Final was a joke compared to Fed's effort in the USO Final and he's 6 yrs younger.
---
(From the past; maybe 5 yrs ago) - Djokovic will never win another Slam.
*Oy vey said: ↑
2-3 more Slams, tops.
*soyizgood said: ↑
^^5 slams' definitely pushing it. I'm not sure he'll even make 5 slam finals for as long as Nadal holds up.
^^The 1st 4 pages are like diamonds.***
I love harking back to the proclamations of seasoned veterans like McEnroe and Wilander! They put so many limits on Nole years ago! Wilander in particular actually thought Rafa would own Nole for all time, saying he'll never beat Nadal on clay or Bo5 at a Slam! He's eating crow every time Djokovic comes onto the court because few if any thought his accomplishments were attainable by anyone, much less Nole! I've only gone with how I felt at the time and actually believed he had another chance of winning 4 majors in a row with multiple Masters to make it even more difficult for a record-breaker! His 2015 was actually better than 2011 and love checking the record book to see the updates where he's taken over or is running right behind Roger! Adding that YEC to 3 majors and 6 Masters was enough for me in '15, but it looks as if he has loftier goals of taking not only a NCGS, but an OGGS this season! I still wish he'd change his mind about going to RIO; just not worth it!
***...I've read several cons. on here post something about Trump being almost as bad a candidate as Hillary. Is Dot literally the ONLY liberal who dislikes Hillary?***
ReplyDeleteIt's called choosing btw 2 evils & seeing what a disaster a neophyte like Trump w/b w/ his fingers too close to the nuclear codes! No one in this gen. is as qualified as Hillary, w/ a resume that rivals the best in the history of the country! Obama was totally w/o a record, but wound up doing a good job! Hillary's been the FLOTUS, a 2 term Senator, & Sec. of State! What has Trump accomplished beside defrauding people, bankrupting himself and others in his losing management of casinos, & running Miss Universe pageants & golf courses? Please spare me!
***Trump has said many X's in his stump speeches & town halls, as well as on many interviews that the Mexicans love him. If that's true, why is he afraid of a Mexican judge?***
In his own mind, who doesn't? He say women love him; add on the low information people, The Blacks, & of course The Muslims! He can insult a group and in the same speech say how much he's loved by them at the same time! Has he had a worst week+? Wow, talk about shooting oneself in the foot? Tweets won't "get it" as a strong response concerning the bombs dropped on his head! "Donald, you just keep doing it your way!" I see a lot of success with your approach!"
***This entire "racist" bullshit happened when Trump "misspoke" when describing the judge. Instead of using the word "Mexico," Trump should have used the words "La Raza Activist." Trump's point was that the judge is not neutral. - Now that he's getting brutalized by the media, maybe he'll realize that he's not the right tool for the job of president. He really wants to manage his business instead of playing at politics. He needs to decide which sandbox he wants to play in.***
He didn't misspeak; knows exactly what he was saying and reiterated it sev. X's over sev. diff. interviews! When are people going to stop making excuses for this bigot?
***Theres a special place reserved for those who vote solely based on gender ;)***
Heavens knows that's exactly what we've been doing for decades; both men & women voting for "the man!" There's a reason other than coincidence & continuity when most voters are women, but few hold elected office in comparison! Anyone who thinks Trump w/b a better leader than Hillary is obviously just against her personally & w/ sexism! No other person has been more qualified; esp. after a freshman senator w/ no record was elected twice! We obviously don't go w/ complete competence either or "W" would never have gotten out of TX! I don't blame the haters since they've been trained like Pavlov's Dog to salivate & pretty much foam @ the mouth when the woman's name is mentioned! I won't be voting for Hillary b/c of her sex, but b/c it only makes sense w/ the other choice being a tool like Trump!
***So you're going to do what every other drone has been doing for the last 30+ yrs- voting for the <er of 2 evils. How's that been workin' out for 'ya? That was a rhetorical ??.***
Somehow we're still here! I'm won't be as sure of that w/ a nut like Trump running the show! His pronouncements are not only comical @ 1st blush, they're also ill-informed, dangerous & irresponsible!
***Rep. donors are flipping to Hillary...
ReplyDeleteReps For Hillary: Major Cruz Donors Shift to Clinton
“A # of deep-pocketed elite have given up trying to buy off Rep. pols in order to support Ms. Clinton, the only est.-friendly cand. of either party remaining in the race,” the Observer reported. “In response, the Clinton campaign has assembled a group dubbed ‘Reps for Hillary’ to reach wealthy GOP donors.”
The Hill complied a list of Reps who currently say they won’t back Trump as the nominee:
•Sen. Graham, R-S.C.
•Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich.
•Gov. Charlie Baker, R-Mass.
•Glenn Beck, radio host
•Michael Berry, radio host
•Brent Bozell, cons. activist
•Bruce Carroll, creator GayPatriot.org
•Jay Caruso, RedState
•Mona Charen, senior fellow at Ethics & Public Policy Center
•Linda Chavez, columnist
•Eliot Cohen, former George W. Bush official
•Former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.
•Charles C. W. Cooke, writer for Nat'l Review
•Doug Coon, Stay Right podcast
•Rory Cooper, GOP strategist, managing dir. Purple Strategies
•Jim Cunneen, former Calif. Assemblyman
•Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla.
•Steve Deace, radio host
•Rep. Bob Dold, R-Ill.
•Erick Erickson, writer
•Mindy Finn, president, Empowered Women
•David French, writer at Nat'l Review
•Jon Gabriel, editor-in-chief, Ricochet.com
•Michael Graham, radio host
•Jonah Goldberg, writer
•Alan Goldsmith, former staffer, House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
•Stephen Gutowski, writer Washington Free Beacon
•Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y.
•Jamie Brown Hantman, fr spec'l asst. for legis. affairs, Pres. Geo W. Bush
•Stephen Hayes, senior writer @ The Weekly Standard
•Doug Heye, former RNC comms director
•Quin Hillyer, contrib. editor at Nat'l Review Online; Sr ed. @ the Amer. Spectator
•Ben Howe, RedState writer
•Former Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C.
•Cheri Jacobus, GOP consultant and former Hill columnist
•Robert Kagan, former Reagan official
•Randy Kendrick, GOP mega-donor
•Matt Kibbe, former FreedomWorks CEO
•Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
•Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard editor
•Mark Levin, radio host
•Justin LoFranco, former Scott Walker aide
•Former RNC Chairman Mel Martínez
•Liz Mair, GOP strategist
•Lachlan Markey, writer for the Free Beacon
•David McIntosh, Club for Growth president
•Dan McLaughlin, editor at RedState.com
•Ken Mehlman, former RNC chairman
•Tim Miller, Our Principles PAC
•James Nuzzo, former White House aide
•Katie Packer, chairwoman of Our Principles PAC
•Former Gov. George Pataki, R-N.Y.
•Former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas
•Katie Pavlich, Townhall editor & Hill columnist
•Brittany Pounders, cons writer
•Rep. Reid Ribble, R- Wisc.
•The Ricketts family, GOP mega-donors
•Former Gov. Tom Ridge, R-Pa.
•Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va.
•Mitt Romney, 2012 GOP presidential nominee
•Jennifer Rubin, Wash'ton Post cons. blogger
•Patrick Ruffini, partner, Echelon Insights
•Sarah Rumpf, former BreitBart contributor
•Mark Salter, writer & former aide to John McCain
•Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.
•Sen. Ben Sasse, R- Neb.
•Elliott Schwartz, Our Principles PAC
•Gabriel Schoenfeld, senior fellow, Hudson Institute
•Tara Setmayer, CNN analyst & former GOP staffer
•Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief The Daily Wire
•Evan Siegfried, GOP strategist & commentator
•Ben Stein, actor and political commentator
•Brendan Steinhauser, GOP consultant
•Stuart Stevens, former Romney strategist
•Paul Singer, GOP mega-donor
•Erik Soderstrom, former field director for Carly Fiorina
•Charlie Sykes, radio host
•Brad Thor, writer
•Michael R. Treiser, former Mitt Romney aide
•Daniel P. Vajdich, former national sec. adviser to Ted Cruz
•Connor Walsh, former dig. Dir. for former Rep. Cantor, R-Va., founder Build Digital
•Former Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla.
•Peter Wehner, New York Times contributor
•Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, R-N.J.
•George Will, writer
•Rick Wilson, Republican strategist
•Nathan Wurtzel, Make America Awesome super-PAC
•Bill Yarbrough, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of OH
•Dave Yost, OH auditor of state***
Talk about self-emulation!
***Campaign 2016’s Brave New World - As the U.S. election shapes up as a battle btw Trump & Clinton, the prospect for the public hearing anything approaching a truthful exchange of ideas appears hopeless. They're fillibustering as we post.***
ReplyDeleteIf anyone listened at Trump's rally in Atl., this is obviously what's going on; mindless idiots just taking in the nonsense! It was embarrassing listening to this moron blathering about anything that comes to mind! He's all over the place about the Muslims, LGBT rights, the 2nd Amendment, and how fun his rallies are in the grand scheme of things! The man needs psychological help; a straight-jacket s/b waiting for him when he leaves the stage!
***Donald Trump is the nominee for the Rep. Party. It's X to stop w/ the hypocrisy & the faux outrage. It wasn't that long ago that Reps were saying Obama "pals" around w/ terrorists. So Trump says basically the same thing and suddenly, there's all this GOP outrage. Spare me.
And the complaint about him mistreating minorities? Give me a break. The GOP is 90% white. There are reasons for that. Reps like to say it's b/c Dems give away free stuff. Well Reps give away $millions$ in free $$ to other Reps in the House in the Farm Bill. ...At least he's honest about who he hates and the nonsense he actually believes. And what he's said about our soldiers being thieves? Don't most Reps feel that way? It's why they want to cut veterans benefits. Let Trump be Trump.
---
...FBI generally does not conduct criminal investigations w/o probable cause.***
You're kidding right? All Reps have to do is throw an accusation and the FBI and Congressional hearings are off and running! Give me a break! After countless millions of $$'s & investigations up the wazoo; they still got nothing & Hillary's w/i months of succeeding her husband in the Presidency! The "right" will lose their fk'n minds & start jumping off buildings after all they've done & the Clintons have survived all the slings & arrows!
***I believe Ryan's in the vanguard of the sold-out GOP to give Hillary the WH to show us outsiders who's still boss. His smirking replies to O'Reilly last night about Kate's Law & other issues had me shaking my fist at the screen....The voters have spoken and it's X for the has-beens and never-will-be's to STFU and get behind Trump....I say PRIMARY HIS ASS!***
...and so it begins; the descension and back-biting! It's just great after these clowns have marched in lock step for so long vs Obama & the Dems! Bout X individuals started acting on principle instead of Party!
***You're supporting a woman who's guilty of over 300 counts of espionage, bribery, trading gov't contracts for speaking fees, & running an ongoing criminal enterprise. She probably also murdered Vince Foster and yet you fall in behind her enormous cankles....what a sucker.***
If Hillary's guilty of anything, it's wasting her time trying to lead this stupid country! We vote against our own interest all the X; proved by the disastrous "W" admin. & subsequent recession! "Thanks Geo. & the rest of those Rep. idiots!"
***Clev. survive game #5! Going home for game 6***
ReplyDeleteI was hoping it's closed out so Reps can get started getting that dump into shape for their conv. next month! - I'm glad Draymond Green was suspended and won't be allowed t/b around until after the game! Those cabaret kicks to the groin of opposing players finally cost him and will take a little luster off the win!
***...That was the X for LeBron & Irving to step up & be stars. They didn't. This series should be 2 - 2 and it's crazy not to blame LeBron. He doesn't have the Jordan drive.
---
Rate the players:
1. James
2. Curry
3. Klay
4. Green
5. Igoudala
6. Barnes
7. Livingston
8. Love
9. Irving
After James, Cle. has squat. Last I saw, b-ball is a team sport. LeBron is play 1 on 5.
---
I'll say this isn't one of LeBron's more embarrassing finals loses. If anything it has proved Kobe, Jordan, Duncan & Magic are only great b/c they had great teams. In an alternate universe, Shaq stayed in Orlando & never won a chp. Or Reggie Miller gets traded to the Knicks & wins 3 w/ Ewing. Or Rodman played for the Jazz & Karl Malone has 3 rings.
===
The Weak Era thing isn't really worth addressing b/c the argument goes nowhere, and you can't blame Novak for his comp. You could argue that it has made him easier to win slams thus devaluing them, but that's really not the same thing as an on paper weakness. ...Once people's careers are over, we tend to judge them by their acheivements (slams, etc.) mainly anyway, esp. if they are X Slam winners/ATG's.
Like you said Olympics is really only gaining steam now; it's just not really what you could consider a stain. It w/b more of in the category of "it w/b great if he does it;" same w/ Cinci. Some pt out Nadal still leads the Slam H2H 9-4, but that's significantly mitigated by the fact that ND leads the H2H overall.
Others might say that Federer dominated both grass and HC =ly and has arguably been the best ever at Wimbledon & US & respectively grass & fast HC. ...OTOH, these same people will often say overall acheivements (Slam wins) is all that matters and that surface doesn't even matter anymore due to homogenization. ...Thing is, he has X Slams at both Wimby & US and a chance to go for the "Double Career Slam" if he can win RG again. ...Ultimately, I think again that overall acheivements matter most, and that he's already done enough at X Slams to render this criticism rather meaningless.
In the final analysis, he simply's in the process of developing an exceptionally well-rounded resume complete w/ plenty of X @ #1, Masters on both HC & clay, YE #1, YEC, and of course Slam wins. The only criticisms vs him that could possibly hold weight when examined are gen. criticisms about the state of tennis (the aforementioned "Weak Era") & another 1 I've just remembered, the surface homogenization 1. ...Yes, Novak has put together a glistening resume! - I do think he needs to win @ least 1 more USO though & if he doesn't, he'll only have himself to blame for the missed ops btw '12-14.
===
If they do have a 5th Slam and upgrade Miami, expect Nole to get near 30 Slams.***
When The Lipton Int'l was created back in '85, it was thought of as the 5th Slam; 2 wks & all the events covered includ. MxD's! It was boycotted initially by Connors & McEnroe b/c of the = prize $$ offered IIRC! Everyone else was there and later even the 2 bad boys started going; so it has always been highly regarded & was initially Bo5 for the men! I don't think their status w/b elevated; even w/ Tennis HQ down there! Didn't I hear something about a need to move the event? They haven't been able to expand in yrs, but they used up their quota of land in the area it seems! Only X will tell what they decide to do, but for now it'll be "NOTHING!"
***...people have a hard X winning all 4 majors (only 8 men have done so in history of tennis); so now you want to add 1 more?***
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just to raise the bar since it's been made a little easier w/ the homogenized courts! There used t/b a real & obvious diff. which made the feat a little more difficult! The elevation of the "Big 3" to ATG's occurred w/ courts more consistent & slow, updated racket tech, & the limited desire to win by the rest of the tour! There were 5 CGS winners over 100 yrs, then all of a sudden 3 more come along! They own the tour like no pro before them; even Laver & Rosewall! You can count the wins of Masters' events & majors on a hand or 2 over the last decade that haven't gone to them! I've been saying it's embarrassing for all concerned; the winners & the losers! This kind of dominance shouldn't occur w/ all things being =!
***I strongly disagree w/ the 5th Slam and there are tons of reasons. Some things just shouldn't be done artificially. The 4 Slams are a great long lasting traditional events, each of them begun long X ago in the 2nd part of the 19th Century except for the AO ( 1905 ). ...
---
I don't consider WTF even a Master. - May i ask why?***
I'd say b/c it's Bo3, players are on their last legs, & in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter 1 jot in overall tennis records! Heaven knows Lendl won enough, but who talks about it? The legend is still Nastase who worked the system, able to lose a match, & still win the event X X's! Nole will set himself apart by winning 4 in a row if he takes this 1 coming up; esp. after a rec. run in Masters the last few yrs! He's gone from 1 in a season, to 4, to 5, to 6 chp. w/ 8 finals!
***Depends who you ask. I respect quality wins. I still wish they had the bonus pts for beating a > ranked player.
---
Fed after '05 played a 1 dimensional baseline game. In '07, he became a guy who pretty much relied on his serve and FH. He had to, his movement declined in '07 & couldn't play the all court tennis he displayed in '04-05.
TBF, this OH thing is the most pointless debate in this thread. Every player has weaknesses, & Djokovic, for his weaker OH, is the best defender of overheads I have ever seen.
Whilst you are correct about the serve, you fail to mention that the serve is the 1 shot you have full control over. Federer has had some awful serving displays vs Nadal, Djokovic, & Murray.
All irrelevant. A '08 Fed doesn't even need to play on full steam to bamboozle Djokovic on slippery grass. Federer's slice is effective vs Djokovic TODAY.
Slippery grass? You do realise that the grass @ Wimbledon plays like a HC come finals day, right? The surface would favor Djokovic completely. The pt is, Fed wasn't at full steam in '08. I've already said how Federer in '03-07 w/b able to beat Djokovic @ W'15. W'08 was a sub-par Fed. He was sub-par throughout that entire year.
Is that what I argued? NO. I argued that a 5 X defending Champion is not losing in str. sets @ his fave major, on his fave surface. If he didn't lose in str'ts to Nadal, he sure as Hell ain't letting Djokovic bully him around.
He beat Fed in str. sets @ AO '08, beat Fed in str. sets at FO'12, beat Federer in str. sets at AO'11, gave Federer an absolute thumping for most of the match at AO this year to the point the crowd were silent. Djokovic's a stronger grass courter than Nadal. 3 > 2.
No. I don't believe Nole is better than Fed on grass b/c there's absolutely NOTHING to support such a claim. On just plain statistics, Fed's MILES ahead of Djokovic on that surface. Djokovic's a 1-dimensional player who took full advantage of Fed's decline combined w/ his back problems to beat him on a surface that resembled a slow HC for the most part.***
***It's now the summer of '16 & recently a few months back a viewing for about the 3rd X of Hannibal Rising, then Hannibal, rel. in '01.
ReplyDeleteCoupled w/ being floored by the original Silence of the Lambs in the cinema in early 90's, the entirety of the Dr Lecter movies done over the past 26 yrs or so, it all really starts to make sense.
The Hannibal series makes so much sense now. All along, Hannibal has been not much more than a bona fide bully's worst possible nightmare.
It occurred to me that Hannibal Lecter never actually harms anyone truly innocent in the movies.
He goes after the folks that are as =ly creepy, even more so than Dr. Lecter was originally portrayed in the Silence movie.
Now agent Starling and a lot of good guys & ladies have some very close calls, but Dr. Lecter never veers much from the kid and young adult he portrays in Hannibal Rising.
In that film, he does no more than fight fire w/ fire w/ the Nazi collaborators who killed his little sister. He pays everyone back that did him wrong from his stay in the post WW II Eastern bloc orphanage.
Albeit, the fascist & sexist French cook guy creep who's abusive to his Aunt, he's pretty cold about how he dispatches that rogue, but he doesn't harm the cool French Detective who also shared the same losses Hannibal did in WW II.
He has boundaries though and an unwavering consistent sense of loyalty and Honor. And that feels really strange saying this given just how scary and terrifying the Silence film was upon 1st release.
Even then, the bad guy in that movie was his ex-patient. The same goes for Ralph Fiennes role opposite Edward Norton Jr.
Dr. Lecter has no tolerance for hypocrites. He knows how those in power become corrupt & do =ly evil & damaging things to good people, a theme we see from his childhood in the 4th film, Rising.
Sounds weird, but Dr. Lecter's actually fair & protects the good guys & glad that are truly good & stay true to their moral values & ethics.
Ray Liotta's character as the sleazy peer of Starling suffers some really creative & horrible payback for dogging her. But, it's Lecter!
Dr. Lecter saves agent Starling's life & even chops his own hand off when she tries to handcuff him!
The film's have been released here and there over any yrs and at least 2 diff. Directors, but they stay true to the whole story which has a lot of surprises & curve balls.
Though it's a set of films in the horror/thriller genre & should not be taken too seriously, the films do convey the message that the World c/b very treacherous.
This evening's viewing of Hannibal brings up the possibility that Lecter, as crazy & creepy as he seems, is one of the arch-heroes so popular today.
He's fire that cancels out much worse fire than he could ever be. He does it in such a trippy cool way w/ great intellectual intelligence that an argument c/b made he's like a dark version of James Bond or Insp. Callahan from the Dirty Harry movies.
His methods are shocking & disturbing, but he gets the job done. I liked the Italian Detective in Hannibal & really wish he whb granted amnesty, but he was going to turn over Dr. Lecter to Mason, who intended to feed him to the wild boars!
So it goes, don't mess w/ Hannibal! And however much some joker w/ some power who's trying to keep their secret about being a stone cold fascist ...
Finally, unlike the steadfast and true Harry Potter films, the Lord of the Rings films, us viewers didn't get the privilege of watching the Hannibal films in their correct chronological order.
This seems purposely designed so as to have the movie fan constantly reassess their perception of Dr. Lecter.
It works!!
Exceptional movies, every last one of them and Anthony Hopkins is a fabulous Actor and a legend.***
***YE Top 10 in '09:
ReplyDelete1. Federer
2. Nadal
3. Djokovic
4. Murray
5. Del Potro
6. Davydenko
7. Roddick
8. Soderling
9. Verdasco
10. Tsonga
Age avg: 24.6
Youngest player in the top 10: Delpo who was 21 yo
Oldest players in the top 10: Federer & Davydenko, both aged 28
No 30+ yo in the top 10.
1/2 of the top 10 had players under the age of 25: Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Delpo & Tsonga.
And now, let's compare this w/ the '15 YE top 10:
1. Djokovic
2. Murray
3. Federer
4. Wawrinka
5. Nadal
6. Berdych
7. Ferrer
8. Nishikori
9. Gasquet
10. Tsonga
Age avg: 29.7
Youngest player in the top 10: Nishikori who was 26 yo
Oldest player in the top 10: Federer, aged 34.
No players under the age of 25 yo in the top 10.
1/2 of the top 10 had players aged 30+: Federer, Wawrinka, Berdych, Tsonga, Ferrer.
Interesting that in both yrs, Fed & Tsonga were constants. Federer both X's was the oldest player in the top 10, while Tsonga was still at #10 both X's. Interesting how both top 10's are basically opposites of 1 another in terms of stats.
---
YE top 10 in '84:
1. Mcenroe
2. Connors
3. Lendl
4. Wilander
5. Gomez
6. Jarrid
7. Sundstrom
8. Cash
9. Teltscher
10. Noah
Avg age of the top 10: 23.6
Oldest player in the top 10: Connors, aged 32
Youngest player in the top 10: Cash, aged 19
7 of the top 10 players were under the age of 25: Lendl, Wilander, Gomez, Jarryd, Sundstrom, Cash & Noah
Only 1 player was aged 30+: Connors
YE top 10 in 2000
1. Kuerten
2. Safin
3. Sampras
4. Norman
5. Kafelnikov
6. Agassi
7. Hewitt
8. Corretja
9. Enqvist
10. Henman
Avg age of the top 10: 25.0
Oldest player in the top 10: Agassi, aged 30
Youngest player in the top 10: Hewitt, aged 19
4 of the top 10 players were under the age of 25: Kuerten, Safin, Norman & Hewitt
Only 1 player was aged 30+: Agassi.
---
So you had all the hair raising in '11 when Novak beat a healthy Nadal coming off his best year 7 X's in a row only t/b stopped by Fed from getting a CYGS? - I always apprec. Ultron/Hydra for his '11 even though 2 slam results were due to Rafa's mental block (Wimbledon & AO '12). I still gave 100% credit to him b/c Rafa was fully fit during those slams and hence no excuses for being mentally fragile.
Currently this is the worst era we are in...'08-13 was 1 of the toughest eras in men's tennis w/ all "Big 4" playing at their best, though 1 could make a strong case for Fed's decline from '11. I too believe that was his last peak year. There's no way on Earth a fit Nadal playing at near best capacity c/b stopped on any surface by anyone. It has been proved at least 20 X's over the last 6-8 yrs. Nadal's the 1 who made this era strong. It's his early exploits which have defined the dynamics of this gen., pre-'10 & his greatly matured presence post-'10 has certainly added value to this otherwise weak era.***
***Sampras sits on top of 14 slams in an era of specialists w/ widely diff. & stronger comp. He enjoyed his GOAT status officially for 9 yrs until '09.
ReplyDelete... Now a new guy named Djokovic has entered the arena w/ his own set of accomplishments. In all the the yrs of Sampras vs Fed GOAT wars in the previous decade, the Sampras lobby was always blaming the era even before Fed reached the mark of 10 slams, that is seeming t/b apparent now w/ the NEW GOAT CONTENDER Djokovic taking advantage of the tired old lions Fedal and amassing slams. The more slams he wins, the more Fedal GOAT status will decline b/c he will have had better stats than them both in case he surpasses or = Fed.
---
I was a Sampras fan back then, he was never as dominant vs the field as Federer or Djokovic. In reality, after '97 he only had Wimbledon as a real dominant tourney for the whole year. Furthermore, if anything was a weak era, then those yrs. Look at his 2000 Wimbledon draw or his final ops Pioline (twice) or Martin etc. ...It’s just as or even more diff. to dominate today b/c you have to beat only “specialists” due to the homogenisation. Every tennis players now learns to play this style, and Federer /Djokovic /Nadal have to beat them day in, day out; just everywhere. So give them some credit!
---
One thing I'll give Sampras is the much more polarized conditions that he played in compared to Fedalovic (gotten even worse the last few yrs). This is a massively underrated factor. Back then, clay was slower than now, grass was much faster, fast HC's were faster, you had lightning fast carpet. If you were going to win all 4 & YEC back then, you had t/b able to execute many different styles of play on a world-class level. But you had specialists on every surface, so doing so was virtually impossible. What Agassi did (winning CGS) was really something special, and to me is clearly the most impressive of all CGS in the Open era. Pete might still be the Open era GOAT, although it's really hard to put him above Fed considering how rediculous his #'s are.
Which is why Borg's so highly revered; even w/ deficit in wins at USO & AO which he may have played once as a teenager! He was able to go from clay to grass to carpet quite seamlessly w/ only practice behind the scenes! He didn't do a lot of warm up events like they do now, but still won the FO/Wimby double 3 X's & was in contention in the final to do it 4 X's in '81! The players who have accomplished this feat are lucky to have done it once or twice w/ these homogenized conditions! No matter what these current players do, Borg remains close to the top overall; right up there w/ Laver & Sampras!
***Borg never dominated the tour like Fed or Novak.***
His winning % & victories over the top 10 was historic @ the X! It's not his fault many were upset before reaching him! Djokovic just passed Bjorn in that category, but turning 29, it's gotta be all downhill! I can't believe he'll be allowed to take 3 majors every year after this season! He may not get CYGS, but he should eeek out 1 of the remaining 2! He's going to start feeling in; mentally & physically holding off the other elite players!
***...Nadal/Federer/Nole couldn't even keep each other at bay. All will end up w/ 14-15 slams or more. Sampras kept his main contemporaries @ bay. He broke everyone's will. - Pete whb better on clay in today's era where it's faster & rallies are shorter. Clay court tennis was totally diff. in the 90's or even the early 2000's compared to today. He might have made a final or 2. Regardless, extreme surface speed disparity & Pete's thasselemia made it so that Sampras never really gave a crap about clay. His baseline game @ his peak was good enough in that he shd > on clay.***
***Djokovic won the FO & not a single Fk was given.***
ReplyDeleteIt threatens the narrative & constant pontificating of the Fedal era! The media perpetuates it by musing back to a rivalry that never really existed! It's been a fraud since '08 when Roger finally fell to Rafa on his beloved grass court; his last refuge believed by the most loyal of fans! Even now, we'll never know if Roger truly still "has it" to turn around their H2H record as Nole has w/ them b/c 1 or both can't seem to reach their appointed Rds!
***- Djokovic leads Nadal in MS titles @ 29-28.
- Djokovic narrows the gap in Slams to 14-12.
- The gap in career titles stays at 4 at 69-65, but Djokovic overtakes Borg & Sampras, both of whom are on 64.
- Djokovic overtakes Agassi in finals, leading 92-90.
- Djokovic has won 8 of the MS events twice or >.
- Most importantly, Djokovic completes the CGS & gets a Novak Slam.
---
1) Nole already ahead or tied w/ Rafa:
a. Wks @ #1: 204-141.
b. Yrs @ #1: Confirmed YE #1 for '15, so 4-3 as of the end of the yr. 4-3.
c. WTF's: 5-0.
2) Caught up:
a. Masters Series titles: 57-51. 29-28, 42-42 in finals.
b. Career H2H: 26-23 to Djokovic.
...
d. Career titles: @ the end of '15, he overtook Nastase & now leads 59-58 in career titles. ... Vilas' on 62, w/ Borg & Sampras tied on 64. So, if Djokovic wins 6 titles, he will overtake all of Agassi, Vilas, Borg, & Sampras. Titles: 69-65. Finals: 101-92. SF's: 135-127.
3) A chance:
a. GS titles: 14-12!
b. Career winning %: Djokovic leads 83.05 - 82.57!
Other categories suggested:
a. Wins over top 10 opps: Djokovic 151-133 Nadal 174-140.
b. Career match wins: 698 - 771. 730 - 796.
c. Slam match wins: Djokovic 221-200 Nadal.
...
e. Slam SF's reached: Djokovic 30-23 Nadal.
f. Slam QF's reached: Djokovic 36-29 Nadal.
g. Slam match winning %: Nadal leads 87.0 - 86.7 [200-30 vs 221-34]. Djokovic will overtake if he wins Wimbledon, although only very marginally.
---
Djokovic certainly has a chance to break Fed's record. The only thing that could really prevent him from doing so are emerging new players & father X. Decade of stats have shown how hard winning a major past 30 is. Another 5 majors looks easily attainable based on how he plays now, but 5 majors after 30 is an entirely diff. beast.
---
...Agreed. Putting Zverev, who is very inexperienced in front of a former finalist & more experienced up-and-comer seems very 'prisoner of the moment'***
But Zverev is on a run! Sometimes experience weighs on the veteran! How many good runs at majors do Tsonga, Cilic, Berdych, & Ferrer have w/ 50+ opportunities? They stink! I'm going all in w/ Zverev and Theim! We can only hope Kei & Milos back up their results! I'm so hoping they all continue this great stretch of tourney results! "Please back it up next season guys!"
***1. The Berdychs & Tsongas of the world have proven many X's that they can't deliver and so it does make some sense to have high odds on them.
2. ... Berdych, Gasquet, etc. certainly have > chances of going deep, but Zevrev probably has > chances of winning.
3. It's not like they're giving Zevrev a great chance to win either. They are just giving him 1% chance, that's all.
4. Finally, the odds have t/b understood from "business perspective" as well. Lots of people w/b likely to put $$ on Zevrev if they give him good odds than otherwise as he's currently trending. The bookies can have fun looting all these $$ as Zevrev's not yet ready to win a major.***
***Del Potro vs Fedora, '09 USO final was a great match making TM's top 20***
ReplyDeleteFed had taken his lone FO title & only won Wimbledon b/c of Rafa WD'ing & his usual pigeon in the final; Roddick! Even more shocking, Roger's only taken 2 more majors over the last 7 yrs since! He whb going for his own Fed-Slam "down under" if he had finished off Del Po! I had no reason to believe he wouldn't rule for another 2 yrs! Getting back to #1 back in '12 was obviously a gift since Nadal & Djokovic were 1/2-dead after that long AO final in Feb.! Heaven knows Roger couldn't have improved; must of been the lack of comp.! The rest of the tour has stunk for a decade now!
***I think Milos'll win a Wimby title or 2 b/c of his serve & mentality. I w/b shocked if he ever got to #1. He's not athletic enough to accomplish that feat.***
Maybe someday, but the problem is, today's new gen. isn't getting any assist. from other players by upsetting an elite contestant! It doesn't happen enough due to excellence of the "Big 4" over the yrs & the additions of 16 more seeds to make 32 in draw totalities! Way back when, #17 could wind up in the draw playing the #1 seed! Happened at USO; McEnroe had to battle #17 Annacone & lost! Too often the top 3 or 4 seeds play each major semi so almost impossible to have an odd winner like Cilic 2 seasons ago at the USO! I rant about it not happening much at all; shows true weakness in the tour to allow cons. runs to QF & Semi's by the top few players again & again!
***You should see '09 Madrid sem w/ Rafa & Nole!; 4 hr epic of great playing from Djokodal. To me maybe the most heartbreaknig Novak loss, but in a way it was turning pt in their rivalry. Even Novak needed 2 more yrs to Rome '11 clay Master class. It's a shame that it ruined the rest of clay season '09 for both of them.***
People don't realize, 1 match can change a whole season for a player! Lendl's win in '84 at the FO was something he felt he needed a yr to recover from! He got to the semi's of Wimbledon & the final at USO, but had nothing left in either losing in strts. both X's! Edberg's loss in '89 FO final probably cost him in the Wimbledon final vs Becker; dropping a goose egg in there somewhere! Nole wasn't the same after '12 AO classic over Nadal, barely holding it together until '14!
===
***This was not a pretty B-Ball game, but it was gritty. In a game 7 there'll always be some major nerves that weren't nec. there the previous games. Lebron was an all around beast. He didn't score well until the 4th QF, but he changed the game w/ the huge plays on defense on top of the triple double. An incredible performance to turn the series around.***
Biggest choke job in NBA history! "Thanks Draymond; ya gave it away! Got suspended for game 5 & ended up losing in 7 w/ a 3-1 lead! Ya Blew it & it couldn't have happened to a stupider team!" I put this on the coach as well; overplaying Curry to break Bulls' record at the end of the season didn't help! The Bulls actually rested players & lost 2 of the last 4 back in '96, but knucklehead Kerr wanted the record & the Chp! "Was it worth it?"
***It kind of lets OKC off the hook for their choke in the WCF! -...Jordan at #1 & then behind him in some order you have Kareem, Russell, Wilt, & Magic. I then had LeBron followed by Bird. After this, it's tough for sure. I don't think he's #2 yet (that's Kareem IMO), but I do put him a hair ahead of Wilt & Magic now.***
I'm no Laker fan, but Jabbar & Johnson w/b ahead of LeBron who's the biggest crybaby of all the ATG's! His flops on court when not even touched is quite unseemly & I can't respect the guy even if he doubles it and take 1 more in Cle. before heading back to So. Beach! Wilt & Russell will also be ahead of him for all X!
***Polls are bullshit. Cons don't do phone polls.***
ReplyDeleteFor a year, that's all Trump talked about were his POLLs and how far ahead he was vs the rest of the field & Hillary!
***...Like when cons. said the polls were all "skewered" and Romney would beat Obama. hahaha!***
Rove said they were skewed by a factor of 8 in comparison to Obama's run in '08! According to him, that turnout couldn't be duplicated and they all but subtracted 8 pts from Obama, ans gave it all to Mitt! Didn't you love the math? Karl freaked out on FNC! You can literally go to YouTube & search for "Rove freak out!"
***Hillary never raped anyone or ripped their hair out in a violent fit of rage. NaziCons have cried "wolf" so many X's vs the Clintons that when a real "wolf" shows up - most sane people don't give a shit. I don't give a shit. NaziCons owe the Clintons many "get out of jail free" cards.
---
...Hillary won't go on Fox News w/o a court order. They tend to bring out her abject stupidity when she goes into talking point mode.***
Both Clintons have done Fox; please! Brett Baier got his licks in on Hillary just 2 months ago! What an idiot! Know what you're talking about loser!
***Trump being open to any show, anyX as well as constant press briefings where he takes ??s.***
Trump being a regular on FNC or any cable news show means little since all he does is "name call," bluster about how rich he is, and proclaim all w/b great w/ him being president w/o a clue or real program to accomplish any of it! If you're suckered into believing his BS, then you are a loser! Being against Hillary isn't rational! Unfortunately that's where this race is going; voting for the < of 2 evils! When was the last race "for" someone; IKE maybe?
***Clinton is all about a very tightly controlled message, whereas Trump is a non-stop stream of consciousness. And it's the consciousness of an idiot who should shut up for his own good.***
Hard to believe Trump supporters see his "off the cuff" remarks refreshing! I find them most irresponsible! The world hangs on every word; Heaven knows Reps do the same when a Dem. speaks so they can whittle away & parse every syllable! The hypocrisy is mind-numbing!
***"This Father’s Day, fathers whose sons were murdered by illegal aliens are calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan to resign - Yeah that's a great attitude for anyone....see why we are wanting him out of there?***
You mean the last voice of reason? If you listen to the rebid Rep-wing of T-Baggers & cons., they want the economy to collapse, threaten our credit rating, & make Obama look incompetent no matter how bad it gets! W/o McConnell & Ryan holding these animals at bay, I'm not sure we'd survive past '18! Hard to believe I have to stick up for these idiots! I figured more "on the right" w/b rational enough to do it for me! Guess I'm wrong!
***The rationality of the rightwing's currently in doubt.***
It's more than a mess! I'm so accustomed to these fools moving in "lock step," but they're at a crossroad I didn't see coming! In my life, I've never seen them so dysfunctional; even when gambling w/ our credit rating several years ago & shutting down the gov't! I'm told it was about the same w/ Goldwater in '64, but so much else was going on; civil rights legis., Medicare bill, Viet Nam, & Kennedy's assassination! This is nothing compared to that era!
***FYI, the recent history of the speakership: When Speaker Boehner relinquished the post, it lay vacant. It was so undesirable a job; few if any would even apply for it. Ryan was offered the slot repeatedly. REPEATEDLY Ryan turned it down. Eventually Ryan dictated his terms & they were met.***
***Marco Rubio is running for re-election.***
ReplyDeleteRubio's either "touched" in the head or he's an inveterate liar! He also said he wouldn't run for Pres. if his mentor JEB entered the race! He not only went vs his word, he beat up on the guy!
***Thank you! - I doubt Rubio will lose to that idiot Grayson as Rubio is the better candidate..by far.***
How smart is it to elect a guy that voiced how bad it was in the Senate, took unprecedented X off missing votes, & can't say that he'll serve the entire 6 yrs? He's hoping to get another shot in 2020 it seems! Losing his own state to Trump in the primary; he's obviously not too bright to even continue this charade that a Nat'l electorate would elect him to anything! Grayson's a nut, but he'll be there & earn his $$! Rubio's been stealing for yrs right under the State's nose!
***A lot of people- Dems & Reps are very uncomfortable about the fact that Trump is this close to the presidency. These Bernie supporters need to use good judgment.***
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone!" I didn't think we could ever be this ignorant to allow a piece of work like Trump t/b this close! Everything he's spouting about Clinton c/b pinned on him! He's such an inveterate liar, but it appears his supporters don't mind! They need that reaffirmation of hate toward the Clintons which is so irrational! ...It wasn't enough Bill had 2 successful terms as President, he got his wife elected to the Senate, chosen as Sec. Of State, but now she's on the threshold of taking the White House & Reps are panicking; big X!
***Donald m/b fuming at his inability to "dominate the 24-hr news cycle" w/ his much advertised anti-Hillary speech. Instead, the headlines have been around the sit-in, Hillary's response, & getting Scowcroft's endorsement!***
Orlando & airplane crashes don't mollify his desires either! Anything that takes away from him is a bad day in his opinion & it has little to do w/ the obvious tragedies! I wouldn't doubt he actually admits it to his staff! What a tool!
***It's used to demonstrate Trump's hypocrisy b/c he was highly critical of John Stewart changing his name. Trump family used t/b Drumpfs!***
Trump's king of the hypocrites! He has the nerve to ?? & make accusations of the Clintons, but he was discovered t/b selling his brand while running for President! He's been using his own properties & paying exorbitant amounts for their use; in essence, paying himself & kids for things they own already! He even has the nerve to accuse her of lying when 3 out of 4 things he spouts is an outright fabrication; sorta like this phony audit of his taxes! So who's the real shady character in this picture?
***...Meanwhile the world is enjoying watching Trump crash. Hey, good ole GOP Arizona has gone toss up too! Nice Job Trumpies!***
It's early, but I foresee "scorched Earth;" esp. if Donald drops a little more un the polls! That was his huge talking point and now he has to resort to reading a teleprompter to keep him on message! Might as well try a script for a while before going loony with accusations & passing off lies as if TRUE! Trump wouldn't know the truth if it was kicking him in the ass! The worse it gets, the "HUGER" the LIE w/ this guy! How his supporters can overlook it just amazes all of us; the mass delusional is rampant on the "Right!" The nightly surrogates can't answer the easiest questions going to the "PC" card and musing about how bad everything else is in the world, "why are we so concerned about his tax returns?" What's good for the goose is good for the gander! I seem to remember Trump going after Romney for nondisclosure of his forms! The man's incoherent @ X's; ALL THE X really!
***The facts: According to PolitiFact, 59% of Trump's checked claims have been deemed false or "Pants on Fire" false, versus 12% for Clinton.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump:
•True: 2%
•Mostly True: 7%
•Half True: 15%
•Mostly False: 17%
•False: 40%
•Pants on Fire: 19%
Hillary Clinton:
•True: 23%
•Mostly True: 28%
•Half True: 21%
•Mostly False: 15%
•False: 11%
•Pants on Fire: 1%
CLAIM: "It all started w/ her bad judgment in supporting the War in Iraq in the 1st place. Though I was not in gov't service, I was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war, and yes, even before the war ever started."
The facts: Politifact ranks this oft-repeated claim False. More: In Sept. '02, Trump said he supported the Iraq invasion during an interview w/ Howard Stern. ...
CLAIM: "Her server was easily hacked by foreign gov'ts — perhaps even by her financial backers in Communist China — putting all of America in danger."
The facts: U.S. officials have told NBC News that there's no evidence of penetration of the servers by hackers, although there's evidence of phishing attempts.
...
CLAIM: "She has pledged to grant mass amnesty and in her first 100 days, end virtually all immigration enforcement, and thus create totally open borders in the US. The 1st victims of her radical policies w/b poor African-American & Hispanic workers who need jobs. They are the 1's she'll hurt the most."
The facts: Clinton has proposed some big changes to how the country enforces its immigration rules and who w/b allowed to stay, but there aren't likely going t/b open borders or amnesty.
CLAIM: "Clinton's State Dept approved the transfer of 20% of America's uranium holdings to Russia, while 9 investors in the deal funneled $145 M to the Clinton Foundation."
The facts: Hillary Clinton's State Dept was one of 9 U.S. agencies to approve of the transfer of the 20% of the U.S. Uranium reserves to Russia. The State Dept was not the sole approver.
CLAIM: "She ran the State Dept like her own personal hedge fund — doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash."
The facts: Trump is citing the claim by "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer, who alleged that Clinton took direct action to benefit a Clinton Foundation donor from sale of a uranium mining company. ...he had not direct evidence of a quid-pro-quo. "No, we don't have direct evidence. But it warrants further investigation b/c, again, … this is part of the broader pattern. You either have to come to the conclusion that these are all coincidences or something else is afoot."***
***Democrats Are Learning You Have To Do Ridiculous Things To Deal W/ Ridiculous Republicans***
ReplyDeleteThat's why the Dems have been getting their asses kicked for yrs! They didn't realize, to beat these tactics, they have to drop to Rep. scumbag levels to win anything! It's unfortunate that this has gotten so bad, but to save the country it looks as if THEY HAD TO DO IT!
***Amen! I couldn't agree more! I've been posting for years on various message boards that Dems must start fighting fire w/ fire. Maybe they're finally learning.***
I lost faith in the integrity of any Rep. when they threatened the credit rating of the country, coming to the edge of default a few yrs ago! I kept saying, they won't do this, but still shut the gov't down trying to make a pt! I can still see Cruz reading "Green Eggs & Ham" to his kids on the floor of the Senate! And he wonders why he got so little support for his run for President! What a tool! - Did we expect anything different? If nothing is changed when 6 & 7 yo babies are massacred, do you really think killing a club full of gay people will change things? Shit, 1 of their own was shot in the fk'n head & even w/ her pleas, there's been no legislation for meager background check! This Congress is hopeless!
***The American public are already near 90% in agreement on sensible gun regulation. It's X to stomp the NRA into the mud. Cons. are in for a very unhappy Nov.***
I think they see the handwriting on the wall when prominent Reps say they'll vote for Hillary; even Gen. Scowcroft from past cons. admin.!
***This is disgusting. IDK how Merrick would have voted, but it's absolutely ridiculous that the Reps won't let a sitting President, almost a yr away from the end of his terms, is denied a full supreme court. Now if Trump wins this election (heaven forbid) & is in a similar situation, I'm sure they will find some excuse to allow him to fill that empty seat.
The way the Reps have treated Obama is a reminder that racism never really ended or close to it. They would have resisted him as a Dem. anyway, but the way they treated him his entire 2 terms makes me wish that they all would pay for this in some way (losing their re-elections will be the best way). Their goal since day one was to make him fail. He did accomplish some things despite that, but they refer to him as a 'failed president.'***
I wasn't even a fan of Obama's thinking it "hubris" for someone that young & inexperienced to run for President, but he wound up being more mature and statesman-like than any Rep. in recent history! After what they've done, I wouldn't vote for a Rep. for dogcatcher! Yrs ago I could very easily vote 1 for Gov., but no longer! They really blew it IMO & showed how bigoted a party they truly have become! This is no longer the Party of Lincoln!
***I think moderate Reps who are appalled by the shenanigans of so many in the party should splinter off * call their new party the Lincoln Reps b/c so many of the fools in the current party now w/b an embarassment to Lincoln. But there are some good folks who could leave & reclaim the party of Lincoln for Lincoln.***
It m/b too late! ...ALL REPUBLICANS have been tainted b/c of them saying little or nothing when some all but called Obama "the N word" to his face! Some clown screamed out "you lie" during the SOTU! ...In Nat'l races, it's become a real joke b/c of how they politick! The South doesn't seem to care how slimy these guys are as long as there's an "R" behind their name! The North is a bit fair giving Rep. landslides in the past, but it rarely happens the other way around w/ most races squeakers for Dems!
***...Reps used the same tactics that the juvenile hippies in the 60's used.***
ReplyDelete...Acting like gentlemen as in the 90's while Reps were sliming Clinton & his wife over something that had NOTHING to do w/ the running of gov't proved how LOW humans can go when wearing a suit! ...I guess it s/b thought of as a "youthful indiscretion" like Henry Hyde's excuse! Reps are the lowest form of life on 2 legs as far as I'm concerned! ...The "religious right" owns them along w/ the NRA, the Koch Brothers, and all kinds of Cons. "think tanks!"
***I can't figure out which of these candidates are the sleaziest, they are both bttm of the barrel.***
Hillary's defensive due to everyone attacking her w/ made up BS! Run down talking pts, most of it makes little to no sense; which doesn't stop her loser detractors! It's truly pathetic trying to make her responsible for just about everything that goes wrong! She was a lone Senator & a SOS that fulfilled the wishes of a President!
***I wouldn't vote for Trump & I wouldn't vote for Clinton; BOTH are slime dogs. I blame her for going after her husband's alleged victims. I blame her for Libya & her lies that got us into bombing them; something the President now regrets. ...When the best you can come up is Trump & Clinton, the party's are both lacking morals & conviction.***
And what candidate you gonna pick w/ all this so called integrity that could win? You may hate Clinton, but no one more prepared in the history of the office; resume the most extensive! I'd still rather have her in office to "check" those rats in Congress who can't wait to set the country back 20 yrs overturning every piece of legis. they can get away w/ just for spite! They want to wipe away anything that would even repressent Obama; true bigotry at work!
Play the victim if you like, but no President has had to put up w/ such disrespect in the history of the office! ...Make all the excuses you want to placate your own soul if you condone the behavior of these "monsters;" it'll take 2 gens to forget how truly ugly it was! ...The man has more patience than I could ever muster to ignore the attacks that came like shells during drone strikes! They maligned his wife, the kids, his mother & father, & ??'d his patriotism, religion, & actual citizenship! Just keep sweeping it under the carpet!
***Are you a paid shill, or do you subscribe to the Dems talking points?***
You say T-Pts; I call them facts! Be in denial if you like! Regardless of what happened to the bimbos of Bill, what's it to you how she treated them? What woman is going to take kindly to an affair on the Nat'l stage for all of us to watch & try to humiliate her over and over again? These people should have clean hands or the Clintons wouldn't have survived it all while Gingrich, Livingston, Hyde, Barr, & a host of other hypocrites were exposed and eventually out of office! I won't need to bring up Hastert do I? That w/b more "diversions" I guess! FNC became a network t/b on the Clintons' case 24/7! The coverage started & ended w/ Bill & Hillary! Hannity has her name dripping out of his mouth no matter the topic; just can't help himself! O'Reilly so up Trump's ass, he's almost incoherent trying to make excuses for the stupid things Trump says & does to embarrass his so called campaign! I could go on, but if I continued, you'd accuse it of being more "T Pts," when it's just factual info!
Literally Hillary's been out of office for years w/ no guarantee of even going back, but wields all this power according to her detractors! Truly daffy; after 11 hours of public hearings about Benghazi, Gawdy thinks he'll be breaking new ground in his report coming out! They're all so desperate; it's literally embarrassing!
ReplyDelete***Trump Stuns Clinton Camp & Critics By Raising $11 M In 48 Hours***
It shouldn't be shocking to anyone that there are plenty of STUPID & bigoted cons. rich people willing to support this loser! I still remember the Koch bros. blew $300 M last cycle & got little for their $$! Obama still whitewashed Romney & the Reps in their own red states! It was a landslide that's likely t/b duplicated by Clinton in a few months! Get ready!
***...Blacks participate at EVERY LEVEL of the Dem. Party .. including at the very top. The Rep. Party remains virtually all white.
---
You mean other than the former head of the GOP? Or do you mean two former Sec. of State and the 1 on the Supreme Court? And blacks are 90+% Democrat, dumb ass. - Also, there's exactly 1 Black Dem. in the Senate & 1 Black Rep. And how many Blacks in the House are from white districts?***
That 1 Senator was a gift from NC; Gov. Haley appointed Scott to replace DeMint who left to shill for Heritage Foundation! I feel embarrassed for these Reps who know more than likely they're being "used," but somehow delude themselves that they're just being smarter in some way! The way Obama was treated from the beginning shb a wake up call for all of them! Excuses abound, but looks like bigotry & worse to me! A dog is treated better by today's Rep. Party! I won't forget it even if not an Obama fan! The office deserved better treatment from the opp.!
***And why do we hate Biden, Kerry, Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, Hillary, & Daschle so much again? They're white. You people are the ones who treat blacks differently b/c they're black.
---
You people eh? LOL.***
This guy probably doesn't know why he hates all those people! Like Pavlov's Dog, they've been trained to hate on command; esp. if a "D" is behind their names! It's been an irrational kind of hatred going back decades for Hillary! They even whined about her mention of staying home to have teas and bake cookies! Anything she said was used as a club to justify their animus & I've found these people increasing silly and aggravating! It's like they've collectively lost their minds running more sensible Reps out of the party; even leadership being "primary'd!" Obstruction & un-coop. are the watchwords these days & I can't see it getting any better w/ Hillary; prob. w/b worse! They hate the Clintons w/ a white hot passion; even if WHITE! It has t/b driving them insane that w/ all they've said & done, her resume has made her the most qualified nominee in history!
***What has been said & done about Obama that was not said & done about Bush?***
The deflections begin! "W's" being raked over the coals b/c of his rotten admin.! He turned a budget surplus into a deficit, more than doubled the Nat'l Debt when it was going down under Clinton, started losing 600-800 thousand jobs a month when unemployment was low before he took office, started 2 wars on a lie, & made a mess out of Katrina! Those are facts that can't be ignored or placated w/ "what abouts?" You sound like someone who would rail about Bill's troubles when the topic is taxes! I guess you could have a problem concentrating & you can't help it, but unfortunately the Rep. Intelligencia is about as pathetic trying to defend their governance whenever busted for malfeasance!
***...Politics don't have t/b dirty, but the Reps have made it so by giving up any moral scruples.***
ReplyDeleteAny moral compass or integrity was lost w/ the stalworths of the Rep. party being primaried out by T-Baggers or simply not running again yrs ago! They only have fools, reprobates, & total assess running things!
***...Fox News highest rated year ever.***
Probably doesn't mean much! Ratings were so bad yrs ago, they had to < cost per customer to even keep them in the lineup! This is a Presidential yr, coverage & ratings w/b up on all news channels; even bad 1's like Fox! I used t/b able to tolerate Hannity, but he's fast-ly losing his mind! He doesn't make sense showing the loathing he has for the Clintons! O'Reilly's losing all credibility, defending & making excuses for Trump! Megan Kelly's probably going somewhere else when her contract runs out! Ailes or Murdock couldn't even be bothered defending her when being insulted by that Neanderthal months ago!
***Bro, even though I have no interest in defending Fox as it clearly lacks any credibility, but so do left leaning stations like CNN or MSNBC as they continue to shove feminist & SJW ### at our TV. At least their news isn't that biased; it's only their opinion based shows...but yeah, Fox is crap.***
Started watching in '97 when tolerable w/ a lineup of O'Reilly, Hannity & Colmes, then Catherine Crier! Over the years they became such a disappointed, I was disillusioned enough to order "Outfoxed" which ripped holes in their pretense of being a real news show! I already knew, but it's good to see the video backing it up! Check it out; over 10 yrs old so probably cheap or free online!
***I did NOT state that Blk Repubs. are stupid. From the beginning I posed the hypothesis that Blacks who support the GOP are doing so for selfish reasons ...t/b diff...t/b noticed for that diff...and not really for the GOP's recent history for helping the Black race that of other minorities.***
If not stupid, something's wrong w/ them! Add women, gays, Muslims, & Latinos, you have to wonder why these people are supporting & voting against their personal interests? How disgusting does the RNC have t/b to run these groups off?
***...There's a theory among some Blacks that if you join a white culture in which a majority of whites created long ago, that there's no way that a Black will be accepted in such a culture, but it's a falsehood that an American be it Black, white, yellow, or brown can't join or adopt the cons culture, & it's unique belief system in which is open to all Americans regardless of their color.***
People forget most, if not all Blacks were Rep. way back when, but unfortunately there's been this juxtaposition of North & South where "Blue Dog" Dems converted to the Rep. party & things changed drastically! This didn't happen in a vacuum; took X, but it's been obvious! It s/b evident that bigots, racists, misogynist, & other reprobates have taken it over! They beat down Obama w/ little to no respect before he even took office! They've all but called the man "the N word" to his face! Who can forget a Rep. from AL. who screamed "you lie" at the SOTU? Who's done such a thing? He not only was proud of himself, he fund raised off of it! Decades ago, I could very easily vote for a Rep., but after the way they've treated Obama; undermining his family, patriotism, religious affiliation, & intellect, I wouldn't vote 1 to dog catcher in my city! They allowed themselves t/b turned into vile, disgusting animals who have little respect for their country & themselves! Anyone who would support such people, I have to take issue w/ to say the least!
***Southern "rednecks" became pseudo Dems ONLY b/c that "darn" Lincoln...a Rep....freed slaves, & that was an unforgivable "sin" for those southern good ol' boys.***
***...Murray's matches are no longer double the price of Djoke's, but not b/c people want to see him.***
ReplyDeleteLike Lendl, he's getting used to it! It obviously doesn't hurt his results!...The same thing happened to Martina in '81 after losing the USO to Austin! They cheered her on in '83 even though Evert was the opp.! She had 6 titles so NO TEARS for Chrissie's plight!
***...Novak got seeds 5 & 6 & Andy got seeds 7 & 8. There is a 16.66% chance of that happening @ Wimbledon. Combining both, this is the worst possible unbalanced 2 halves. Seeds 1, 3, 5 & 6 in top 1/2 & seeds 2, 4, 7 & 8 in bottom 1/2. There's only 8.33% chance of this worst case distrib. of top 8 seeds arising in a random draw & Andy managed to hit it.***
Oh ye of little faith! There's a reason Nole holds the record for defeating the most top 10'rs w/ 31 last season; takes on all comers! ...I think Andy's ready, but anything can happen; esp. if winning a warm-up event! Murray won Canada last yr; what good did it do him @ the USO?
***My prediction of 18 Slams--6 more than Nole has now--is based upon several factors: that he has shown no signs of decline yet, that the tour is particularly weak right now, & will continue t/b weak through @ least '17. Some decline's inevitable, although whether in '17, '18, or even '19 we don't know.
Novak has 3 Slams left before turning 30. If he wins all 3, he'll be @ 15, have won 7 Slams in a row, & not only be well situated to pass Roger to finish w/ 18+, but have a real chance to finish as the nearly-undisputed GOAT; @ least of the Open Era. If he wins 2 of those 3 Slams, he w/b @ 14 & still have a solid chance of passing Roger, but m/b more like 50-50. He'll probably finish in the 16-18 range, depending upon where he & the rest of the tour are @ a year from now.
If he wins only 1 of those 3 Slams, he w/b @ 13 on his 30th BD & will not pass Roger; would finish more in the 14-16 range. So the pt is, those next 3 Slams are huge--they're his window of opportunity.
---
...if we're talking about accomplishments strictly, h2h is not an accomplishment, its a stat ...***
I do look at the record book & Nole's moving up or has passed all comers! He actually improved his winning % & inched by Borg! Check it out; fascinating to see it change so rapidly since everything Nole's winning these days seems t/b gravy! He's already done so much before 30 after getting such a late start!
***I think he will end up going down as the GOAT on paper, & he earned it. In my eyes though Fedal will always be slightly better. - not disagreeing w/ that, but that's an entirely different thing from propping up his h2h vs Federer & saying he "owned" him.***
Well it's a much better situation w/ Nole than it is w/ Rafa who truly does own him! We used to make excuses saying most of those victories were on clay, but after Fed lost that Wimbledon final in '08, the so called rivalry was diminished IMO! It's something made up to seem like FEDAL meant something! He had a better tête-à-tête w/ Nole when wins legitimately went back & forth; as late at '12 Wimbledon semi! Since then, he's snuck a Master or 2 on a fast HC!
***He can, but Djokovic severely underachieved at the USO & FO. A player w/ his abilities should have won 4 USOs & 2 FOs at least. Now he's playing catchup.***
Like Rafa, he's usually about "done" after the summer tournaments & needs to refresh for FALL season in Asia & Europe! When you start w/ an AO, IW, Miami, & a clay Masters before the FO, it has to catch up to him! Nole will win another FO & USO in the future; I have little doubt of that!
***All X Greats - players who won 6 or more Grand Slams in the Open Era:
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what % of their "big matches" - GS SF's & Finals went to 5 sets?
Federer - 66 Matches - 11 Matches (17%) 3-8
Djokovic - 50 Matches - 11 Matches (22%) 9-2
Lendl - 47 Matches - 10 matches (21%) 5-5
Connors - 46 Matches - 6 matches (13%) 1-5
Nadal - 43 Matches - 6 matches (14%) 4-2
Sampras - 41 Matches - 4 matches (10%) 2-2
Agassi - 41 Matches - 11 matches (27%) 6-5
Borg - 33 Matches - 9 matches (27%) 8-1
McEnroe - 30 Matches - 8 matches (27%) 5-3
Edberg - 30 Matches - 9 matches (30%) 6-3
Becker - 28 Matches - 4 matches (14%) 1-3
Wilander - 25 Matches - 5 matches (20%) 4-1
*Murray - 29 matches - 5 matches (17%) 3-2
---
Disagree w/ combined list of men and women ranking. If you DO make a combined list, you can't put Fed on top w/ only 17 slams compared to Graf, Serena and Court. I already find it impossible to compare legends across eras that are too far apart, but comparing btw genders' just ridiculous.***
I think TCC did that sev. yrs ago to the top 100 w/ Federer #1 over all men & women! OTTH, Graf in the top 4 & Martina maybe around 8! Martina has records NO ONE will ever approach w/ 20+ yrs in singles & after sev. yrs retirement coming back to take more doubles titles into 30+ years; 167 & 177 respectively, 59 major (31 in Dubs - 10 in MxD), winning her last a month before her 50th BD!
***Which year was the best/most exciting in the last decade?***
I picked '12 since you had a little bit if everything; Nole took another AO, Rafa owned the FO, Federer acquired his last major making it 17 @ SW19 plus retrieved the #1 ranking, & Murray broke thru by taking OG & the USO! Not sure how much more comp. it's been since Fedal bored me to death yrs ago!
***Roddick lost 4 Slam finals to Fed. Ergo Djokovic's to Murray what Federer was to Roddick - the guy who denied him > Slam success. I think it's a fair assessment just as saying Federer didn't win more Slams b/c of Nadal. Had Nadal not been around - how many more FO titles would Fed have won? ...That's 6 more Slam titles that Fed would have won & would put him at 23 Slams - ...If Nole wins the GS this year - will SI even bother to give him the cover & name him 'Sportsman of the Year' like they did w/ Serena even though she didn't win the Slam? It could possibly be the least exciting GS achievement in the history of tennis. Nobody but hardcore tennis fans will care.***
...No one's going to care about the level of comp. 10-30 yrs down the line; Roddick still was briefly #1 while Murray hasn't had a sniff of it even w/ a fairly good stretch of winning OG, the USO, & Wimbledon in succession in < than a yr! Murray's a lot better, but his comp. was "the best" w/ 3 GOAT's! Nothing he could do about that! I know Riddick didn't have much in his way w/ Sampras leaving, Agassi up & down, & Hewitt spent after his run at #1!
***Yet you stupid fuckers follow Clinton w/o ??.***
ReplyDeleteI don't follow anyone blindly, but I'd rather have any Dem over a Rep since I've only seen austerity, partisanship, warmongering, & vindictiveness when cons are in charge! The economy has a brief blip of improvement & they think all's right w/ the world before it all collapses w/ banks failing, Wall Street malfeasance due to lack of regulation, & ballooning unemployment when they swear jobs w/b created w/ > salaries! It's always a big, fat lie & I'm sick of the vicious cycle! Let's give Hillary a chance before making all kinds of prognostications & literally wishing the country would go under just to prove a point!
***Hey Reps who does the gov't owe $19 Trillion to exactly? How much of the debt increase under President Obama was unfinished Bush/Cheney business?***
They don't want to hear it! Everything said about the debt increase under Reagan & "W" is right, but they just assume anoint Obama as the "waster-in-chief!" Even when we had a surplus back in 2000/01 to actually start paying down the debt, they sabotaged it just as you said; giving tax breaks to people who didn't need it, starting 2 wars on a lie, and trying/fighting vs all social programs! Instead of paying for things, they'd rather play games w/ the budget, shut down the gov't costing us $$'s, & threatening our credit rating! There's nothing frugal about Reps when you see how much they waste on defense contracts to their buddies! "It's not my $$ so I can just give it away!"
***Why Did Bernie End Up Supporting Hillary? - Crazy old Bernie's now a certified Astrologer.***
...if that! The stupid ol' codger's losing respect by the day trying to play this Hamlet role when he lost the primary race wks ago! He said he would do anything to save the country from a Trump presidency, but he's obviously only in this for himself! He won't give it up costing us $millions$ to continue his Secret Service protection up to the convention!
***Why do GOPrs want Hillary t/b indicted?***
They can't stand that after all they've put the Clintons thru, they've done it all w/ success, got rich, & are universally loved! Jealousy's not a good look on them!
***It's a shame corrupt Obama will prevent the FBI from taking any action on their findings & Hitlery will continue rolling her eyes & smirking this all off.***
You're hilarious w/ how Trump has had about 3500 lawsuits filed against him, not paying a debt after services rendered or products received, and of course FRAUD w/ Trump U, ripping off old people! You want to keep up the BS, I'll point out how foolish you sound critiquing the Clintons w/o mentioning Trump's malfeasance & habitual lying!
***Lots of people want to give Trump a chance before making all kinds of prognostications about him too...***
He's already proved to be "Full Of Shit!" Trump talks about "America First," but has his suits, ties, furniture & heaven knows what else produced somewhere else in the world! His casinos have gone bust, he doesn't pay up, and he's a bigot! What gives him the right to run anything much < the country? It comes out of his own mouth when he contradicts or changes his mind w/i the same sentence if not days! The Clintons are quite successful @ what they do & people are just jealous of that! Get over it!
***...I want to increase social aid for foster kids & reduce the need for abortions.***
ReplyDeleteWell ITA! Unless there's a medical reason to terminate a pregnancy, couples have t/b a special kind of stupid to have "an accident" like this & use abortion as a means of birth control!
***ITA Fiero. I'm not in favor of making abortion illegal. I'm in favor of education, morals, ethics & responsibility so that people can make good decisions. But telling women abortion is not murder I believe is wrong.***
***You don't punish people for their success, but you do expect them to contribute to society. You do expect them to treat their workers fairly.
---
More liberal BS. Does Bill Gates contribute to society? Do the taxes that the rich pay contribute to society? Does creating jobs contribute to society? WTF more do you want business to do, forego all profit & just break even? How long would they be creating new jobs if they did that? You libs have no idea how business or the American economy works.***
I couldn't care < if business makes huge profits, but if they do, there's no reason to gouge their employees! I've been lucky in the past to work for companies that were very generous w/ benefits, bonuses, contributing to pensions, & treating employees to outings to celebrate holidays & milestones! Then I hear about Trump who's supposedly a billionaire & he cheats people @ every level & opportunity! Hopefully there w/b a reckoning w/ such a sleaze-ball!
***An employment contract's a voluntary agreement. "I agree to pay you $X to do job Y for 40 hrs a wk" "I agree to do job Y for $X for 40 hrs a wk." No one is being gouged. If you don't like what that employer is offering to pay, don't work for him. He has no obligation to pay you what YOU THINK YOU ARE WORTH. Trump has 1000's of employees & they all speak highly of him.***
Typical deflection & obfuscation! Plenty of people have said Trump doesn't pay up regardless of a contract! He's a cheat & a fraud! Why laud such despicable behavior?
***I don't give Obama credit for enough balls to indict Hillary so Biden can take her place on the ticket. I don't think he likes Biden that much anyway. He was on the verge of replacing him for '12 when Biden pulled that brilliant move of getting ahead of Obama on gay marriage. I don't think there's anyone, Dem, Rep or non-partisan that Obama really admires and respects. He is completely self-absorbed.***
Biden is likeable enough, but he's unelectable; old, a confirmed plagiarer, & always says things impolitic & silly! I still remember him early on blabbing too much about his situation as VP & where the secret areas he's sent if an emergency comes up! The Reps would eat him alive w/ his "gaffs" alone! He's probably the most honest of politicians, but the country prefers a little sleaze; we just can't help ourselves! Saints can't win anything in this country!
***Why do Reps hate Obamacare when it has helped millions of people get health insurance? - Check out the skin tone of the guy it's named for.***
There you go! The Reps had already decided to thwart anything the man tried to accomplish for the country! This is why I will spit in the face of any Rep politician looking for my vote! They've shown their bigotry & willingness to hurt the country to stop any + events to occur on Obama's watch! Unfortunately for them, even w/ all their obstruction, the man has accomplished a lot; even in his 2nd term! His polls are up while theirs is down & they can't stand it! Due to their own self-loathing, Trump is their standard bearer w/ most people unwilling to even endorse him, much < run as his ticket mate for the VP spot! When have we ever seen anything this lame in a Presidential year? If I were McConnell & Ryan, I'd be terribly embarrassed, but right now they're just going thru the motions!
***...It's just fun to watch a brainless, lefty idiots like you make a fool of himself.***
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to the "righties" who show themselves to be bigots, unpatriotic, & slimy trying to thwart a Black President! Who's really made a fool of themselves; REALLY?
***...What fool votes for the same shit over and over again?...and you have the typical 2 party mindset...hence we get what we have right now, 2 people w/ ??able character & not well liked by MANY people. One of them w/b President...ain't we fucking lucky?***
You're kidding right? Talk to the nimrods that send old geezers back continually every 2, 4 or 6 yrs like McCain & McConnell who've been in office over 30 yrs! Need I say more?
***How are Reps supposed to have Blacks elected in our party when there are so few in it? This is when YOU become a nitwit b/c of your own rhetoric & biases.
---
Throughout this thread you right wingers "praise" those Blacks that vote Rep as ENLIGHTENED...If that were truly the case, would not these enlightened Blacks be PERFECT candidates for many elected positions for your equality-driven GOP?***
That's too rational for these people! When they have reputable Blacks backing them like Powell, they end up disappointing him or using him for means other than truth like promoting idea of WMD's in IRAQ! His reputation is tarnished for all X when he very well could have run for President himself! Proves you can't dance w/ the Devil w/o being burned!
***Dems are finally fighting fire w/ fire! I love it.***
Being too gentile as when Gephardt was Speaker really just gave Reps the freedom to slither in the sewer w/ carte blanche impunity! Pelosi has been under attack vociferously since she took over leadership being a hard woman who never let them get away w/ anything said or done! She's not even the Speaker now, but like Hillary they keep up the rhetoric b/c they hate "strong women" in power!
***Rep. candidates always reek.***
More than that; they're delusional! Commenting on trustworthiness of Hillary w/ Trump lying through his teeth about EVERYTHING is a joke they seem to not care about on the Rep. side! If he's such a great candidate, why is no 1 endorsing him of any stature? People are running for the hills & saying they won't even attend the convention! Hillary won't have that problem so who's going t/b really embarrassed at the end of this thing?
***When Bill Clinton left a balanced budget w/ surpluses in line to completely eliminate the national debt by '12, why did George W. Bush slash tax rates for the rich and double the debt from $5.7 trillion to nearly $12 T? A strong feeling that hit me when GW announced his plan to invade Iraq was that he was out to undo the 2 most criticized things about his father's admin. First item was his dad's backpedaling on his pledge, "Read my lips, no new taxes" and then the often heard criticism by those that felt he shouldn't have ended the Gulf War w/ Saddam Hussein left in power. That has been my impression on the matter; never seen it addressed anyplace so it's simply an impression.***
I've always thought Reps wanted to bankrupt the country thinking we'd have to slash or eliminate Soc. Sec., Medicare, Medicaid, Education, & other Nat'l social programs created by the Dems!
***I expect the crimes of the Bush family t/b revealed as well in due X - The world won't end b/c the person in charge has tits. Hell, she was probably running the show while Bill was in. God knows he was busy being a raunchy little bastard...someone w/ a knack for running the country was on duty, & it was probably Hills.***
The delusional behavior keeps getting stronger 'on the right!' It's a shame Reps breed such psychopaths! They'd rather the country fail under a Dem than get run better than some loser Rep. w/o a clue like Trump! A real sick shame!
***BREAKING: The FBI is recommending that Hillary Clinton should not be indicted over the use of a private email server.***
ReplyDeleteThey got nothing after all the ??s, accusations, & hullabaloo! This is only the beginning b/c Reps will continue their rampage after she becomes President!
***Did anyone really think she actually would be indicted? - No, b/c as the FBI Director (a Rep.) stated, there was no INTENT! The Espionage act that you fools keep citing here back and forth WAS NOT violated.***
People need to stop equating this to Petraeus! He was CIA director giving access to his personal files to his "bimbo" on the side who was supposedly writing a book! There is no comparison! There was nothing like that going on w/ Hillary so they need to quit it and move on! Of course they won't, but what do you expect from these sore losers?
***Exactly, Fiero! They either know that or are too stupid to know that. Packers, who kept citing the Espionage Act (18 USC 793) refused to accept that this was about INTENT and it says it clearly in the beginning of the law. They kept saying what Paetreus did was far < criminal which was ludicrous. Only a complete and total dummy would think they were anywhere near the similar incidents.
---
Petraeus never served 1 day of prison X. People have done far worse than Clinton was ever even accused of & not even been charged w/ a crime. COULD she have been? Sure! And most of the Bush Admin. COULD have been indicted for lying about WMD's & many other things. Reagan himself COULD have been indicted for Iran/Contra. The difference here is that absolutely nobody was hurt. No harm was done to Nat'l security. No laws were knowingly broken & it's debatable whether laws were even unintentionally broken. Clinton should not have set up that private email server. It was bad judgment on her part. Trump makes worse judgments every other min. of his campaign. As Hail Mary plays go, this 1 never had a prayer.***
It's willful delusional behavior; even from Gowdy & Ryan to keep saying otherwise! They just make themselves look foolish, but they are talking to Reps! How smart can they be to keep letting them get away w/ this type of conspiracy rhetoric w/ nothing to back it up?
***"Sore losers"...the FBI director just described the Democratic nominee's actions as "careless and reckless" in regards to her handling issues in her office and you do not think this is necessary to talk about in vetting the possible next POTUSA? Jeeze.....you gotta be kidding me!
---
He did not say reckless and it wasn't issues, it was information. I think she w/b above board on this type of thing if she wins the Presidency b/c of this event. - I honestly believe if Hillary was caught robbing a bank, a # of her leftist supporters (along w/ other corrupt officials) would swear she was making a deposit!***
What's your point? Trump said he could murder someone on 5th Ave, in broad daylight & still win primary!
***My point is: They would find no fault against her for doing so....Trump made a stupid statement....I said as much at the X.
---
Well, wouldn't your statement be just as stupid? You know James Comey is a Rep. right?***
They don't care; anything short of an indictment meant "the fix was in!" It was a no win situation for all concerned!
***No 1's surprised by this finding...we are just surprised it took this long to get it out of them, but then again, I'm sure that was done on purpose. ...My ?? is "if it was vs the rules, why did she go out of her way to set up a private server in the 1st place?"
---
Flashback: Rove Erases 22 Million WH Emails on Private Server @ Height of U.S. Attorney Scandal – Media Yawns - Now that they’ve taken control of Congress, Reps are wielding power much the same way they did in the Clinton era...
---
Does anyone think that Trump w/b indicted for his fraudulent "University" or his real estate swindles or his rape of a 13 yo?***
***Cleared on Benghazi, cleared on Email-ghazi - what's next, cons?***
ReplyDelete...and after all that; NOTHING! Minor embarrassment b/c "your hand" was overplayed & the rightwing cried "wolf" too much! When Hillary & Bill are actually guilty of something, no one will care b/c you've dulled the senses bitchin' about them even taking breath! They can do no right so who's gonna hear it?
***Seriously, the right popped their load going for indictments this whole X. They should have just been drumming it over judgment, rather than pinning it all on her getting arrested or whatever. NOW after the fact they'll try that, but it'll have far < weight to them, b/c everyone will just go 'but she was cleared on both accounts, by Rep. committees & directors, no <.'
---
..................Total U S Debt.................
Figures Easily Verified...Taken From Bureau of the Debt
US: $18,775,084,981,440 - Debt as of Dec. '15?
09/30/2014 $17,824,071,380,733.82
09/30/2013 $16,738,183,526,697.32
09/30/2012 $16,066,241,407,385.89
09/30/2011 $14,790,340,328,557.15
09/30/2010 $13,561,623,030,891.79
09/30/2009 $11,909,829,003,511.75 (80% - All Debt ^ 232 Yrs Borrowed By Reagan & Bushes)
09/30/2008 $10,024,724,896,912.49 (X's Sq. Debt Clock Mod. To Accommodate 10's of Trils)
09/30/2007 $9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2006 $8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62 (2nd Bush Tax Cuts Enacted Using Reconciliation)
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06 (1st Bush Tax Cuts Enacted Using Reconciliation)
09/30/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86 (Admin. & Congress Arguing About How To Use Surplus)
09/30/1999 $5,656,270,901,615.43 (1st Surplus Gener...On Track To Pay Off Debt By '12)
09/30/1998 $5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 $5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996 $5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995 $4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994 $4,692,749,910,013.32 (Bill Clinton Raised Taxes On The Rich early '93)
09/30/1993 $4,411,488,883,139.38 (Debt Quadrupled By Reagan/Bush 41)
09/30/1992 $4,064,620,655,521.66
09/30/1991 $3,665,303,351,697.03
09/28/1990 $3,233,313,451,777.25
09/29/1989 $2,857,430,960,187.32
09/30/1988 $2,602,337,712,041.16
09/30/1987 $2,350,276,890,953.00
09/30/1986 $2,125,302,616,658.42
09/30/1985 $1,823,103,000,000.00
09/30/1984 $1,572,266,000,000.00
09/30/1983 $1,377,210,000,000.00
09/30/1982 $1,142,034,000,000.00 (Reagan Slashed Tax Rates To Pre-Depression Levs)
09/30/1981 $997,855,000,000.00 ***
Thanks!
***Being a yr younger, Nole's still catching up Nadal's win-loss %, the highest being 83.85% in March '14. Now he ='s Nadal's record from May '15: 880 matches played, 731–149 @ 83.07% - In comparison, I think Fed never reached 82% win-loss rec.
ReplyDelete---
Just saw the Nole/Querrey result. I just figured Nole would come back & win all 3 sets today. Now people will understand why it's so hard for anyone to win a CYGS & why Graf (won the OGM the same yr) was the last person to do it - male or female. In 1 fill swoop Querrey has ended Nole's Slam hopes, stopped his run of Slam finals in a row - and streak making QF's & Semis in a row.***
I'm ok w/ it! IMO Nole's been playing just well enough to win! He hasn't necess. played awesome since Qatar where he wiped out Nadal dropping only 3 games! He looked rather emaciated to me! There's fit, then there's running around w/ "skin & bones!" Nole was obviously ticked on being on Court 1 rather than CC & he really blew it by using up his challenges early in that last set! He could have used them on 2 close calls that the linesmen missed! I say he can use the rest; spend X w/ his family & get ready for the summer to close a hole in his resume; Cincy Masters & take another USO! I'm happy enough that he @ least won his FO!
***I think Novak choked, big X. He certainly was due a bad day, & I don't blame him even a little bit if he found things t/b a bit overwhelming. SomeX's they're lucky & eek it out, other X's they lose. It's a pity, b/c he was chasing more history & we don't often get to see this happen - a genuine contender at the GS - so he's t/b admired, I reckon. Pity for his fans too, & the game of tennis. Well done to Querry!
---
Haven't yet seen the match but, on the face of it, this doesn't smell like a choke. We tend to start the countdown to the CYGS very soon, but the players know better. As such, having won 4 majors in a row, Novak has already made the 'Grand slam.' The biggest diff. being that the media frenzy is largely absent if it's not done w/i a CY. Novak won RG for the 1st X after winning SW 19, USO, AO in a row...didn't choke there. Btw, Laver didn't have to deal w/ the pressure of the media countdown to a CYGS like it is nowadays.
---
Novak's now 4-21 (16%) in bo5 matches in his career where he has dropped the 1st 2 sets. Of course the 4 he won all went the full 5 sets - Anderson '15 WC, Seppi '12 RG, Fed '11 USO, GGL '05 WC. Of the 21 he lost:
2 have been in 5 sets - Murray '12 USO & Melzer in RG '10.
6 have been in 4 sets including this last vs Querrey.
14 have been in 3 sets.
In comparison, Rafa's 3-17 (15%), Roger's 8-32 (20%), & Andy's 9-34 (21%) in the same situation.
---
ESPN just ranked Novak ahead of Nadal. It's becoming consensus opinion. His resume owns Nadal's everywhere except Slam count. 60+ wks @ #1, 5 WTFs, Masters lead, h2h lead, more dominant seasons, better across all surfaces, more than makes up for 2 Slams. Nevermind the fact that Novak's resume is still expanding.
---
A few notes on Djokovic's dominance:
- Exactly 2 yrs ago today, prior to the current era, Djokovic still had a losing record in Slam finals.
- Exactly 1 yr ago today, Djokovic had still only won more than 1 slam in a year once.
- Prior to Fed turning 30 & Nadal bottoming out due to injuries in '14, Djoker was a combined 6-13 vs them in Slams.
- To this day, of any all-X great, Djoker still holds the highest % of wks at #1 while holding only 1 Slam.
---
In '75 or '85, this raw #'s argument mhb quite effective. ...In '16, you simply cannot throw out raw #'s, devoid of any context, and expect them t/b accepted.***
***...Even in GS SF streaks, the top 3 are Roger (23), Novak (14) & Lendl/Laver(10?)... These 2 records bring out the contrast btw 21st & 20th centuries Open era men's tennis. Whatever homogenization of conditions (surface/balls/racquets mix) means, this record brings it into sharp focus like night & day.***
ReplyDeleteBesides the top players being infinitely better than their comp., you have to take in consideration the homogenized courts, racket tech, and of course the extended seedings! You don't get what occurred in the past w/ #20 in the world playing a #9 seed in the 1st Rd as what happened to McEnroe @ the USO when he was upset by Paul Annacone in '86!
***Honestly I think it w/b much more fun if we had only #16 seeds for the Slams.***
I think it has helped the top player too much; at least the lack of variety in the winners!
***It surely helps the top players to start smoothly into the tournament; probably much more important for the players ranked 17-32 as it greatly improves their chances to get at least the points & prize $$ for reaching the 3rd Rd. Also the top players dominating the Masters tourney where the top seeds can start vd a Top 20 player in a bo3 match to a similar degree as the Slams indicate it wouldn't change too much for them.
---
It would lead to more imbalanced draws and I would expect a slight increase of early upsets, but in the constellation w/ 4 players that are clearly above the field, the probability of 2 of them reaching the final / 1 of them winning the tournament would still be very high.***
...No one's going to care about the level of comp. 10-30 yrs down the line; Roddick still was briefly #1 while Murray hasn't had a sniff of it even w/ a fairly good stretch of winning OG, the USO, & Wimbledon in succession in < than a yr! Murray's a lot better, but his comp. was "the best" w/ 3 GOAT's!
***You mean no 1 but people who like tennis, right? B/c tennis fans, former players, analysts, experts etc. will always bring up the competition of the day to make their case. It's like when I see Navratilova forever spitting in Steffi Graf's eye because Graf didn't go become Seles' BFF after that maniac stabbed Seles - as if that negates Graf's on-court achievements. Rolleyes It's always going to be about what someone perceives as context. My context for Murray is - he hasn't won more more Slams because of Djokovic. He's 2-5 against Djokovic in Slam finals. Roddick was 0-4 in Slam Finals against Federer. Ergo, I stand by my "context" - Djokovic is to Murray what Federer was to Roddick - a PITA who kept him from winning more Slams . We'll just have agree to disagree.***
Not t/b an egomaniac about it, but obviously I'm being a lot more honest about the times giving Murray more credit for being better even though Roddick actually was #1 for about 5 mins! Outside of "us" historians, the cold, hard #'s will take precedent unless there's an old fogy from our era to give texture concerning conditions, technological breakthroughs, & the level of comp.!
***See 2-2 in sets now - Cilic can't finish the job - Fed could give him a 4-0 lead in the 5th & he would still lose. - Cilic hasn't got the killer instinct to finish it. Apparently he has only ever had 3 wins over the top 4 players. It certainly showed on the 2 MP's when he had 2nd serves to look @ & couldn't even get the ball in play.***
If it happens a handful of X's, you overall overlook it, but this is getting old! How many X's have I "gone off" on the 2nd & 3rd tier unable to finish? Querrey lucky Nole burned his challenges @ the wrong X which might have saved him on 2 cons. bad calls! Lets see if Cilic will complete this "bulimic" act yet again!
***It's the reason why the top 3 have won almost everything. But it is tiring seeing someone play so well all match, yet play average on a MP. Did you see Goran? He must be mad.***
***...Roger did scrap on Wed. & he should've been taken out. Cilic choked away the 4th set & put up a meager effort in the 5th. Today's pretty much the opp. though certainly Cilic's collapse was much worse.
ReplyDelete---
Mal Washington played in the worst Wimbledon final ever.***
McEnroe had 2 finals that were pathetic; '83 vs Chris Lewis of NZ & Connors' "over the hill" performance in '84!
---
1. M Navratilova - 59 majors, 167 single's & 177 doubles, 6 majors (Martina Slam) won in a row ('83 SW19 - '84 USO when AO @ end of yr). 300+ wks @ #1, 2 CGS
2. S Wms - 22 majors, 3 CGS, OG winner in singles & doubles
3. S Graf - 22 majors, 4 CGS, '88 GCYGS w/ Olympic Gold
4. C Evert - 18 singles majors, 2 CGS, 7 FO & 6 USO
5. M Court - 24 singles majors, '70 CYGS, 64 majors, 11 AO, 3 CGS
***Doesn't Serena have numerous doubles majors as well? But I agree about Navratalova. She played a lot of doubles & in a era when dobs titles were still important, now tend t/b ignored. Johnny Mac was also from that era, & a fantastic doubles player, but that's often forgotten. Martina's 6 Slams in a row was also incredible, a triple "Martina Slam." (altho nobody ever called it that back in those days). I'd put Martina just behind Graf & Williams though.***
That was the best I could do OTTH! Martina won final of the Wimbledon Legends again w/ Selima Star! She'll be 70 & still taking nobodies to glory!
***Serena's played thru the following players: Davenport, Hingis, Capriati, Henin, Clisters, Sharapova, Aza. I'd cluster the 1st 3 in 1 era, the 2nd 2 in another, and the last 2 in the current 1, not to mention up & comers like, hopefully, not to jinx her ...Kerber. So does that make it a 4th era? 17 yrs is just a long X t/b winning majors. If that were McEnroe, i.e., he'd have been winning majors in '96. That's through Becker, Edberg, Courier, Agassi, Sampras, not to mention starting w/ Borg & Jimmy. Can you imagine someone on the men's side in the Open era doing that?
---
I think if Djokovic got thru to the final vs Murray, we would have gotten a 5 setter; kinda like the AO only shorter pts. Murray's 2nd serve mhb the diff. But Maybe Murray just steam rolls getting to the final would have most likely killed Djokovic. - Novak isn't Milos & Murray's tears after this win tell volumes about this matchup in Slams.***
We definitely can't tell how Murray would play if Nole there instead of Milos! We might as well compare it to '77 FO where Vilas won over Gottfried w/ Borg didn't play that season! Vilas has his FO title, won it fair & square, but contextual historians like myself will continue to be "hatin!" IMO, the headlines of the yr:
Nole takes his 1st FO title; continues dominance as #1
Murray solidified his ranking as #2 after making 2 other major finals, wins on clay over Rafa & Nole, & takes Wimbledon
Serena continued to struggle tying Graf's major count @ 22 until Wimbledon
Thiem, Zverev, Cuevas, Raonic, & Pouille make their marks
Fedal absent & fading
***You're just a little bitter b/c a 34-yo Federer recovering from 2-0 sets down at Wimbledon was more epic than most of the matches in tennis this yr.***
If that pacifies your idea of great theatre; ya got me! In the grand scheme of things, Fed was just avoiding the inevitable by a round! I've already said & affirmed Roger's "THE GOAT," but both Nadal & Nole have reason or potential to overtake that universal thought! It gets murkier year after year! No one thought Nole would outdo '11, seemed burned out in '12 & '13, but recovered his footing by Wimbledon in '14 to make Fedal fans nervous w/ an even better streak in '15! Winning FO fills a gigantic hole so I can understand meager defiance in regards to who'll rule supreme when all's said & done?!
***The Open Era rankings:
ReplyDeleteTier 1 ATG (Federer)
Tier 1.5 ATG (Sampras, Djokovic, Borg)
Tier 2 ATG (Lendl, Nadal, Agassi, McEnroe, Connors)
Tier 3 ATG (Becker, Edberg)
Close, but no cigar: Wilander
Murray
Kuerten/Vilas/Courier
Roddick, Hewitt
Rafter, Wawrinka, Bruguera, Kafelnikov, Safin
---
Nadal ranked w/ Agassi, Connors, Lendl, and McEnroe? No way. Too much Slam differential, even if he is clay heavy.***
Tier 1 ATG (Federer, Laver)
Tier 1.5 ATG (Sampras, Djokovic, Borg)
Tier 1.75 ATG (Nadal, Agassi)
Tier 2 ATG (Lendl, McEnroe, Connors)
Tier 3 ATG (Becker, Edberg)
Close, but no cigar: Wilander
Murray
Kuerten/Vilas/Courier
Roddick, Hewitt
Rafter, Wawrinka, Safin
***Grass is not Nole's worst surface. He doesn't even play as many matches on grass a yr as other top players, which is why he can have an off day in the earlier Rds. He doesn't play Halle or Queens, and for 2 yrs str., he went right into Wimbledon, took care of the field, & walked off w/ the title. ...You don't walk into Wimbledon w/o any matches on the surface and win the title twice in a row if you struggle w/ the surface. Each time he's won Wimbledon, (3 X's) he did not play a warm-up tourney. Neither Federer, Murray nor Nadal can say this. Only the Wms sisters have been consistently able to do what Djokovic did and look how many they have. ...He's still pretty good on it though. X Dubai titles, Shanghai titles, a Basel title, etc.
---
Only Slams where Djoko performed worse in the final I'd say are RG '12 & W '13. I'd say at all other Slams he played & reached the final he was at about the same level
From '11 onwards:
'12 RG final - worse than RG 12 semi
'12 USO final - worse than 12 USO semi
'13 AO final - definitely worse than 13 AO semi (not even remotely close)
'13 Wim - no need to elaborate
'13 USO - yes, he wasn't stellar vs Stan, but he was worse in the final
'14 RG - yes, played better vs Gulbis in the semi than vs Nadal in the final
'15 USO - played better vs Cilic in the semi than vs Federer in the final
'16 AO - played better vs Federer in the semi than vs Murray in the final
'16 RG - played better vs Thiem than vs Murray in the final
---
Serena's going to go down as the greatest female tennis player of all X & possibly the greatest female athlete of all X.***
Debatable w/ true athletes like Martina & Steffi who were always on balance, rather than running w/ arms & legs flailing about like a Raggedy Ann doll!
***If you're going to factor in "grace" as a quantifier in being considered the GOAT you damn well better be a Fed Fan!***
I said Roger's the definitive GOAT at the present, but being challenged hard by Nole! Rafa's game is one of the ugliest, rivaled by Murray!
***Federer owns MANY of the ATP tennis records while Serena doesn't remotely hold as much b/c most of them are held/shared by the greats; Steffi/Martina/Chris. Compare to their respective sport, Federer is ahead of Serena. There's no parallel comparison.***
That's why it's too hard to jump on Serena's bandwagon! She & Rafa seemed to play when they wanted; plenty of success, but not sustained!
***All-X rec:
ReplyDeleteEvent - Since - Rec. accomp. by Nole - - Players tied
Non-Cal. Yr GS - - SA
Highest HC match win % - (88.4%) - SA
ATP World Tour '70 - 34 Top-tier HC tourneys won - SA
10 Top tier tourneys won in a season - SA
18 Top tier tourney finals in a row - SA
15 str. finals reached in a season ('15) - SA
30+ match wins vs Top 10 opps in a season - SA
Defeated all Top 10 players in a season - SA
Highest overall match win % (83.0%) - SA
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 '70 - 29 titles overall - SA
6 titles won season ('15) - SA
2 yrs winning 5+ titles - SA
4+ titles at 4 diff. tourneys - SA
Highest Masters match win % (82.8%) - SA
ATP Rankings '73 Highest # of ranking pts as World #1 (16,950) - SA
Paris Masters '68 4 men's titles - SA
IW's Masters '74 5 men's titles - SA
China Open '93 6 men's titles - SA
Shanghai Masters '09 3 men's titles - SA
GS tourneys recs - attained - - Open Era since '68
- '08–16 CGS (Winning 4 Majors @ least once) Laver, Agassi, Federer, Nadal
- '15–16 Non-CYGS - - SA
- Holding all 4 Major titles @ once - Laver
- Holding all 4 Major titles on 3 diff. surfaces at once - SA
- 30 cons. GS match wins - SA
- '10–16 3+ cons. finals in all 4 Majors - SA
- '15 All 4 Major finals in a season - Laver & Federer
- '07–08 Youngest to reach the SF's of all 4 Majors (20 yrs, 250 days) - SA
USO - '07–16 12 HC finals overall - Fed
'10–13 7 cons. HC finals - SA
'05–16 Highest HC match win % - 88.4% (114–15) - SA
AO - '11–2012 & '15–16
2 streaks of 3 cons. Major titles - Fed
Wimbledon - '11–15
3+ titles @ each of the 2 Majors
- '16 Winning AO/FO title double in a season - Laver, Wilander & Courier
- AO '12 Longest GS final (by duration) vs Nadal - Nadal
- Djokovic's the 8th man to win the CGS and 1 of 6 players in the Open Era (Connors, Wilander, Agassi, Fed, Nadal) to win GS's on 3 diff. surfaces.
Recs @ each GS tourney - attained in the Open Era of tennis since '68
- AO '08–'16 6 titles overall - SA
- 6 finals overall - SA
- '11–13 3 consecutive titles SA
- 3 cons. finals - Wilander & Lendl
- '11–14 - 25 cons. match wins - SA
- FO '09–16 6 cons. SF's apps - SA
- USO '12 Longest final (by duration) vs Murray - Murray
- Djokovic's the 1st & only player in the Open Era t/b undefeated in 6 AO finals; a perfect 6-0 record.
ATP WTF's recs:
- '12–15 4 cons. titles - SA
- 15 cons. match wins - - SA
- '14 - 76.1% (51–16) games winning % in 1 tourney - SA
- '11 Qualified the earliest – 18 wks, 6 days - SA
- Djokovic's the 4th man w/ Federer, Lendl & Sampras to win the WTF 5 X's
ATP Masters 1000 records - GP Super Series began in '70
ATP Masters Series was introduced in '90
IW's '08–16 5 titles overall - SA
'07–16 6 finals overall - SAA
'14–2016 3 cons. titles - Federer
Miami Open '07–16 - 6 titles overall - Agassi
'14–16 - 3 cons. titles - Agassi
Shanghai - '12–15 - 3 titles overall - SA
'12–15 - 3 finals overall - Murray
'12–13 - 2 cons. titles - Murray
Paris - '09–15 - 4 titles overall SA
'13–15 - 3 cons. titles - SA
---
'16 Highest # of pts accrued in ATP rankings as World #1 (16,950) - SA
'11–13 3 cons. yrs winning 20+ matches vs. Top 10 opps - SA
'11 5 cons. match wins vs World #1 player in finals (Nadal) - SA
'15 Most prize money won in a season ($21,646,145) - SA
'16 All-X prize $$ leader ($102,026,620) - SA
'09–15 - 6 - China Open titles - SA
'12–15 - 4 cons. China Open titles SA***
***Sampras declared Djokovic' '11 season as the best he has ever seen, calling it "1 of the best achievements in all of sports." Becker called Djokovic's season "1 of the very best yrs in tennis of all X", adding that it "may not be the best statistically, but he's beaten Fed, he's beaten Nadal, he's beaten everybody that came around to challenge him in the biggest tourneys in the world." Nadal, who lost to Djokovic in 6 finals on 3 diff. surfaces, described Djokovic's performances as "probably the highest level of tennis that I ever saw." He was named '11 ITF World Champ. He also received the Golden Bagel Award by winning 13 sets w/ the result of 6–0.
ReplyDelete---
...At the '15 USO, Djokovic reached the final for the 6th X in his career, achieving the feat of reaching all 4 grand slam finals. In the final of the tournament, he faced Federer once again, defeating him in 4 sets to win his 3rd GS title of the year, his 2nd title at Flushing Meadows, and his 10th career GS singles title, becoming the 5th man in the Open Era to win 10+ GS singles titles, as well as only the 3rd man to reach all 4 Major finals in a CY.
He returned to Beijing in Oct., winning the title for the 6th X, defeating Nadal in str. sets in the final to bring his overall record @ the tourney to 29–0. Djokovic then reached the final of the Paris Masters, where he defeated Murray in str. sets, taking his 4th title there and a record 6 ATP Masters 1000 in 1 year. After losing to Fed in the RR stage of the '15 ATP WTF's he took on the 3rd seed again in the final. He beat Federer in str. sets winning his 5th YEC title and he became the 1st player to win 4 cons. finals tournaments.
---
...Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in the final of the '16 FO in 4 sets, making him the reigning champ of all 4 majors, a historic feat the media dubbed the "Nole Slam." W/ his FO triumph, Djokovic became the 8th player in history (& the 2nd oldest) to achieve a CGS, the 3rd player in history to hold all 4 GS titles at the same X, & the 1st player to win $100 M in prize $$.
---
Following his tremendous success in the '11 season, Djokovic began to feature on all-X greatest lists. In late '11, Laver chose Djokovic as #6 in his top 10 male players of the Open Era. ...In April '15, Henman offered another comment on Djokovic's standing among the all-X greats, saying "it's only a matter of X before he's considered alongside Federer & Nadal as 1 of the GOATs." McEnroe put Djokovic in all-X top 5... "My top 4 are Laver, Sampras, Roger & Nadal, but Novak's @ #5 & rising."
Nick B...Over all, almost every player has a downfall; to me he doesn’t have one. He’s perhaps the best put-together player that I’ve seen over 60 years.” Tennis pundits have classified many of Djokovic's matches as some of the greatest contests ever, w/ the '12 AO final being considered the greatest match ever seen. Some longX analysts claim that the Djokovic-Nadal rivalry ranks as the best rivalry in tennis history primarily b/c of the quality of matches they produce.
---
What's a real ATG, what's true GOATness, what is the legitimate meaning of H2H? And so it goes.***
A real ATG overachieves all expectations like Borg winning 5 str. Wimbledons! True Goat-ness has Federer having a nice run in 2 of the biggest majors & owning many records in the book! H2H has always been that; regardless of surface! We tried to give Roger cover for yrs giving him dispensation for most of his losses to Rafa being on clay! The true record shows it really didn't matter w/ him taking Roger on grass in '08, HC at '09 AO, and many Masters on all surfaces; indoor & out! Nole's passed them both; took X, but he caught up there & in the record book!
***If you were looking at ATP pts (using current ATP pts weightings - though the Olympics will drop off after this yrs games) gathered in his career - then Andy's in the Wilander/Edberg terriotory. But if you solely base it on slam wins - then he obviously isn't.
ReplyDeleteRe. All the pts for all events where he can win 500 pts or > (again, this is NOT a >ness index - it is merely showing objectively the pts gained @ events 500 & >):
For ease I have reduced the weighting points down by a factor of 1000; eg Slams are worth 2 instead ATP 2000.
Scale is: (SV x 2) + (SEFNL x 1.5) + (SEFOL x 1.3) + (SEFRUNL x 1) + (SRU x 1.2) + (TOP9 x 1) + (TOP9RU x 0.60) + (SEFRUOL x 0.80) + (OSG x 0.75) + (SSF x 0.72) + (SEFSFNL x 0.60) + (500S x 0.50)
Becker = (6 x 2) + ((1 + 1) x 1.5)) + (3 x 1.3) + ((4 + 1) x 1) + (4 x 1.2) + (13 x 1) + (8 x 0.60) + (0 x 0.80) + (0 x 0.75) + (8 x 0.72) + ((2 - 1) x 0.60) + (9 x 0.50)= 57.36
Edberg = (6 x 2) + (0 x 1.5) + (1 x 1.3) + ((2 - 1) x 1) + (5 x 1.2) + (8 x 1) + (12 x 0.60) + (0 x 0.80) + (0 x 0.75) + (8 x 0.72) + ((2 - 1) x 0.60) + (8 x 0.50) = 45.86
Murray = (3 x 2) + (0 x 1.5) + (0 x 1.3) + (0 x 1) + (8 x 1.2) + (12 x 1) + (6 x 0.60) + (0 x 0.80) + (1 x 0.75) + (9 x 0.72) + (1 x 0.60) + (6 x 0.50) = 42.03
Wilander = (7 x 2) + (0 x 1.5) + (0 x 1.3) + (0 x 1) + (4 x 1.2) + (8 x 1) + (7 x 0.60) + (1 x 0.80) + (0 x 0.75) + (3 x 0.72) + (0 x 0.60) + (8 x 0.50****) = 37.96
Everything that in today's terms you can earn 500 pts & above per event is counted. That is:
•Slam Victories (SV) 2000 ATP pts
•Slam R-ups (SRU) 1200 ATP pts
•Slam SF's (SSF) 720 ATP pts
•Season end F victories w/ no loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFNL) 1500 ATP pts
•Season end F victories w/ 1 loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFOL) 1300 ATP pts
•Season end F R-ups w/ no loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFRUNL) 1000 ATP pts
•Season end F R-ups w/ 1 loss b4 the F (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFRUOL) 800 ATP pts
•Season end F SF's w/ no loss b4 the SF (WTF, WCT Finals * & GS Cup *) (SEFSFNL) ATP 600 pts
•Masters 1000 = victories (we will call (Top 9)) ATP 1000 pts
•Masters 1000 = R-ups (TOP9RU) ATP 600 pts
•OGM Singles (OSG) ATP 750 pts
•500 Series =s (500S) ATP 500 pts
---
# of slams where the player made semi's or >
=========
Murray 20
Edberg 19
Becker 18
Wilander 14
Yes winning slams is the most important - but this metric shows Murray's consistency going deep in a slam.***
Which is why I've been saying that Murray will wind up being the best player never to get a sniff of the #1 ranking! These other players did w/ > consistency @ the majors!
***If Djokovic's a sure shot for 18 majors like some folks here think, we would have to liken Andy's chances for getting 10 majors.***
Why? Murray's won 1 major in a season 3 X's; Nole's taken 3 majors twice & on the cusp for matching Roger w/ 3 if he can somehow manage another win @ USO in Sept.! In my day, prime 70's & 80's w/ Golden Age in the 90's, I didn't think it possible to see such excellence w/ 3 ATL again! I had thought we'd have to settle for mediocrity like Hewitt, Safin, & old man Agassi trading #1 ranking after Sampras retired in '02! In quick succession we've had Roger, then Rafa, now Novak! I'm not ready to add Andy to the list j/b he took his 2nd Wimbledon!
***...Murray's been making all slam finals & this looks like his X to shine. - I would never say Djoker won a slam by luck.***
ReplyDeleteNole's had to battle just to make final vs 1 of the "Big 4!" He's had it the toughest w/ the amount of success! Murray's just barely broken thru for the most part w/ Roger, Nole, & Rafa soaring over the tour like no past 3 ATG's!
***Yes, but when Murray REALLY sets his heart on achieving something & has Lendl in his corner & is not thwarted by back problems requiring surgery, he quite often achieves it.
---
Nobody can make the argument for Andy as an ATG. Not even Judy Murray would dare suggest it b/c it's so absurd. If Andy's suddenly an ATG, that makes guys like Lendl, Agassi & Wilander SUPER DUPER ATG's. And then that makes Roger Federer God almighty. This takes fannboyism to an absurdly new level. Nobody's an ATG when they've won 3 majors and lost in 9 other slam finals. The whole suggestion is just plain laughable.***
Amen & hallelujah to that! Hyperbole's been taken to new heights!
***Using this logic, then "in a diff. era w/o Rafa," Roger w/b sitting on 30 majors. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. It doesn't matter what Andy whd in a diff. era. It doesn't matter what Roger whd w/o Rafa. Everyone plays the cards they're dealt & the facts are Murray is 29 & has 3 majors. He can add to that, but he's never going t/b an ATG unless he turns tennis history on its ear & suddenly peaks past the age of 30 & gets 8 more majors. That's what it's going to take for him to become an ATG. Ain't happening.***
I try to emphasize you can only play who's in front of you! Navratilova gets little love even w/ her record b/c her major rival was Evert! It's like Martina didn't have to deal w/ BJK, Court, Wade, Goolagong, Shriver, Austin, Jaeger, Mandlikova, Novotna, Graf & Seles! All are in the HOF already! Serena lost her major rivals through retirement (Hingis & Henin), injury (Aza, Venus & Sharpa), & apathy (Kerber, Lusicki & The WTA Tour)!
***Murray's not an ATG yet but he has definitely moved ahead of the likes of Hewitt, Roddick, etc, despite not being #1.***
What is it they say, "there are lies, damned lies, then there are statistics?" It's unfortunate Murray's had to endure the = of "Borg, Connors, & McEnroe!" OTTH Vilas, Gerulaitis, Ramirez, Tanner, Gottfried, & so many others didn't have a chance from '74-84! Ramirez snuck in there for about a min. @ the top in singles & doubles, but Vilas wasn't even an afterthought in '77 w/ 2 majors (FO & USO on Har-tru) & about 130 matches winning "B level" tourneys on clay!
***Holding all 4 slams is looking at results over 4 cons. slams. Holding 4 of 5 slams is looking at results over 5 cons. slams.
---
You can't hold more than 4 slams @ a X (Federer can't hold "4 of 5" b/c there are only 4).***
Hey, they proclaimed Lipton Int'l (now Miami Open) as the 5th Major back in '85; then it was the YEC! Nole's got them as covered as he could for the last few yrs!
***I suppose the Olympics gold is somewhat more desirable than a Masters title due to its rarity, but a fraction of a Slam or WTF. But if you look at who had Olympics gold it is only s handful of greats: Edberg, Agassi, and Rafa, plus Andy, Kafelnikov, Mecir and a couple of far <er players in Rosset & Massu.***
Didn't see any of these OG matches! I may have caught a set or 2 of the ladies when Henin won! I did watch all of Fed & Murray in '12 expecting the same result! When it didn't happen as ordained w/ Fed getting his 7th Wimbl. & 17th major overall! Who would have thought it w/b his last? He went just 2 yrs btw '10 AO & '12 Wimbledon! It's been 4 yrs! Are we to expect guys to roll over so he can have 1 more great run?
***Of the 22 GS titles won by Steffi, 11 were before the stabbing of Monica by a German fan of Steffi. At the X, Monica's #1 in rankings and had won 9 GS's even though she was still a teenage. Considering Monica's age, her achievements by that X, it's not a stretch to say that Steffi's slam count whb considerably smaller if not for the incident. Afterwards Monica didn't play in the next 10 slams due to treatment & recovery of strength. The H2H btw them was 6-4 in Graf's favor before the incident & 4-1 after the incident (for a final figure of 10-5 which is actually misleading).
ReplyDeleteI'm tilting towards Helen Wills Moody for the GOATESS award even though she only has 19 GS. This is b/c she just rarely loses. She has only lost 3 X's in her whole career in GS matches. As I mentioned before from '27-33 she went thru a streak of not losing a set & that streak was 180 matches long. If only she had bothered to play in all GS's btw her 1st & last apps, based on her win-loss ration, her projected # of GS titles is a whooping 50.
Steffi Graf GCYGS> Laver CYGS> Don Budge CYGS > Connoly CYGS > Serena Slam > Djokovic Slam > Court CYGS***
W/ Navratilova's record & longevity, she's got t/b in the mix! She won 6 in a row; '83 Wimbl. to '84 USO finally losing at AO SF when at the end of the season!
***Well the tour w/b much more interesting if Murray can challenge Novak more regularly.
In '12-13, the chief rival of Novak was Rafa.
In '14-15, the chief rival of Novak was Aging Federer.
In '16-17, it looks like the chief rival of Novak w/b Andy Murray.
---
...I remember thinking Rafa could challenge Rogers record and then next thing I know he is stuck at 14 for what seems like forever. Similarly, when Roger won his 17th I don't think anyone thought it w/b his last! Turning to Djokovic, with no challengers in sight besides Andy it seems the sky's the limit for him to win more slams and challenge Feds 17. Yet Djokovic only has 2 more slams before he turns 30.
Looking at past GS winners I was shocked to see that only 10 times men won as 30 year olds, only 4 times won as 31 year olds, and only 6 times older than that. Will Djokovic suddenly hit a wall like the others did? Will he buck the trend and have his name sprinkled through those 30+ GS winner lists?
Looking @ X winners 30+ we have Laver (4 X's- 3 at age 30, 1 at age 31), Agassi (2 X's, age 30 & 32), Conners (2 X's, age 30 & 31), & Roswell (4 X's, ages 33, 35, 36, 37). So if Novak were to match this rare list he should win max 4 more once he hits 30. ...Will Novak buck the trend & be the 1st to win 5 slams once reaching the age of 30? Will he win the next 2 slams and then tie these greats to beat Roger or will he fall off a cliff like the rest of them?
---
Bags c/b a slam winner in a diff. era. - You mean in a weaker 1 than this?***
Hey, look back! There are players you don't even know that have 1 slam; Johansson comes to mind @ AO back in '02! I do believe old man Gomez overcame a spry Agassi in '90 to win RG! Goran Ivanisevic took a WC in '01 to acquire his lone Wimbledon! It used to happen every once in a while "way back when!" Today's stars have it too easy w/ extended seedings of 32 in majors, byes in the 1st Rd of Masters and they've gone from BO5 to BO3! That was the reason we didn't have any b2b winners due to how tough it was to even make a final much less win them in cons. tourneys/wks!
***Reasonable pts, but don't think this begins to account for the diff. - There were plenty of b2b winners in earlier eras: Laver, Newcombe, Borg, McEnroe, Becker, Edberg & Sampras at Wimbledon. Borg, Wilander, Lendl, Kriek, Courier, Agassi at AO. Kodes, Borg, Lendl, Courier, Bruguera & Kuerten at RG. Connors, McEnroe, Lendl, Edberg, Sampras & Rafter at USO.***
I was talking about cons. Masters when they were BO5 finals! That as a rarity IIRC!
***Serena might hate to lose, but, HWM actually rarely loses. HWM has lost only a total of 3 X's in GS matches in her whole career. Moreover, all these 3 losses are in the finals. To put it in perspective, Serena has lost 3 X's in just the last year ('15-USO through 2016-W). HWM was a trail blazer coming before MC, MN, CE and all others. So, she was not catching up to somebody's record and setting new standards. Before HWM, the record was 8 by Suzane Langlen. HWM's count was 19. More than twice the previous record.
ReplyDelete---
I think Singles Tennis has no place in The Olympics. The Olympics are primarily a comp. among athletes/players representing their nations. Even hardly known sports are given a place in Olympics b/c they're a celebration of sports and also are meant to encourage sportsmen/women in all sports all over the world. Many great sportsmen in less lucrative sports, in terms of ability, are badly in need of recognition. There are numerous Olympic gold medalists who are unemployed. Most don't get to play their sport professionally as a career.
Tennis is more like Golf/Formula1/Nascar/Pool/Billiards/Poker/Snooker/Squash etc. If you are accomplished in these sports then you don't need the Olympics. Why do players like Federer, Murray, Djokovic, Nadal need Olympic medals? They already have all the $$ & glory in the world. If you want to make your country proud, go win the DC. ...In fact, keeping Tennis out of the Olympics increases the profile of DC which badly needs it. What's more, estab. players can happily let the < accomplished players share some fame & honor in the DC. I don't remember the men's Olympic medalists, but I remember Rios, Nalbandian, Phllippoussis, Baghdatis etc. If you have talent, the tour lets you make a living. You don't need Olympics.
Team sports are a slightly diff. deal. The very fact that it's a team sport means that players share credit. So there's some justification for them in Olympics ...That brings me to the only justifiable reason why singles tennis might have a place in Olympics. The Stars bring $$ to the host nation & the Olympics itself.***
I concur!
***Murray will end up w/ a better record than Nadal at 3/4 slams - Even Djokovic doesn't have a better record than Nadal at 3; so no chance Murray will mate.***
Huh? Nole has the best chance; 3 Wimbledons, has 2 USO, & obviously owns AO! Murray still has a chance, but Nole only needs to take 1 more USO to eclipse Rafa at 3 of the 4 majors! No one's going to care, but those are the facts! Another notch in his belt to laud over the sycophants of Fedal!
***In BO3 matches, Fed still has Novak's # as a 35 yo by leading h2h every year. That clearly shows Novak wins by endurance in BO5.
---
Well of course Fed's not as athletically agile or potent as he was in '06, i.e. You could make a better argument of after '12 since he was 29 in '10. Djokovic & Murray won the last 2 Slams & they are both 29. Federer does not have Djokovic's # & hasn't for quite a long X. Winning a match in Dubai, Cinci, or a RR match @ YEC does not equate to him having his #. Djokovic's winning vs Fed in BO5 is b/c at this pt in X, he's just a better big match player & is an overall better player. Federer has never dominated Djokovic in BO5 matches and only lead 4-2 after the '10 USO. Furthermore, his career 5 set record is rather poor for someone of his caliber.***
***If we look at tennis age as birth age + 1/4 yr/ Slam, then Novak is "29.5" w/ 2 more Slams before he turns 30. Here's how other all-X greats did from 29.5 on:
ReplyDeleteConnors (Spring, '82): would win 2 Slams that yr and 1 more the following yr, w/ 3 of his 8 Slams (38%) coming after age 29.5. He remained a top 10 player for another 7 yrs.
Borg (Winter, '85): retired 4 yrs before.
McEnroe (Summer, '88): Won his last Slam 4 yrs before. Was still a good player & would finish #4 the following yr, & sticks around for a few more yrs as a top 20 player, but was done as an elite.
Lendl (Summer, '89): Just won his 7th Slam and would win 1 more the following year. '89 was his last yr as #1; he'd remain a top 10 player for a few more yrs.
Wilander (Spring, '94): Trying to revive his career, but he'd won his last Slam 6 yrs before. In his "latter day Hewitt phase."
Edberg (Summer, '95): Last Slam was 3 yrs before, had fallen out of the top 10 earlier that year. Would play 1 more yr as a top 20 player.
Becker (Spring, '97): Won his last Slam the yr previously, was in rapid decline.
Agassi (Fall, '99): Amidst a career revival & his best yr. Won 2 Slams, finished #1. Would win 1/2 of his 8 Slams after "29.5" & remain a top 10 player for 7 more yrs (includ. '99).
Sampras (Spring, '01): In serious decline. Would win 1 more Slam the next yr & then retire.
Federer (Spring, '11): Still elite, but not peak. Would win a Slam the following yr, but none since.
Nadal (Winter, '15): In career crisis, hadn't won a Slam in a yr 1/2 (or been in a final), now spanning to over 2 yrs.
Of those 11 players, only Connors & Agassi won a significant share of their Slams after Novak's current age - 3 & 4 Slams respectively. Lendl, Sampras, Fed would win 1 more, but the rest did not win any.
So the ??'s, will Novak be a Connors/Agassi & win a sizeable chunk of his career Slams after his current age? Or will he be a Lendl/Sampras/Federer & win only 1 or 2 more? Or will he be more like the rest, and win no more?
Obviously it's highly unlikely that Nole doesn't win anymore. I also think he's almost certain to win at least 2 more to surpass the late careers of Lendl, Sampras, & Federer. But 3-4 more like Connors & Agassi? That seems possible, even probable. But the real ??'s whether he'll win a similar % of his total career Slams (38-50%) as they did in late career, which would mean he'll win 7-12 more, finishing w/ 19-24! That seems very unlikely. So my guess is that he wins somewhere in the 3-6 range, & finish somewhere in the 15-18 range. 4-5 more seems most likely.
---
His volleys are not poor. Isner has good touch for his size & has a big FH; esp. inside-out.***
Isner has to make every match an unforgettable classic unnecessarily! He should knock off so many players in a more timely fashion but for his limited court IQ! He has so much more talent than players of my day who were mostly "all serve" like Tanner, Alexander, & so many others, but they won titles and made major finals! They maxed out what they did best; Isner on the other hand hurts my heart seeing him waste his talents this way! He'll only be considered an afterthought even unable to win DC match at home vs some yokel from Great Britain not even ranked in the top 100!
***I won't argue w/ you there. Although I do think Isner pretty much maxed out his potential. When you're that big, your movement & stamina will always be pretty poor. He's had a solid career - I wouldn't say he's really underachieved. ...Him and his coaches figured it would use < energy & be more beneficial than trying to break every return game.***
***Human Beings are Really STUPID - man alive, what's GOD waiting for? When he obliterated this planet the 1st X I can't see how it chb any worse than what it is now.***
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right! For as long as I've been alive, humans have never given a good reason why we exist but to pollute, destroy, & self emulate from day one! We've just about destroyed the planet in the last 100 yrs & there are plenty that couldn't care < where it's going! We all know we need air to breath & water to drink to stay alive, but look how we treat those most valuable of commodities! I'm glad I'm old so I won't be around when fools are walking around in globe helmets b/c we're too stupid to see how we are affecting our environment!
===
***...But it's still unreasonable to blame the entire police dept. as tainted.***
I'm the last 1 to say all police forces are tainted, but they taint themselves when they try to protect & back "1" who did something wrong! You can support the person w/o going on TV saying "he was in fear for his life!" It just won't fly when everyone has a video of what really happened for all to see! If a cop makes a mistake, say "I made a mistake" and stop trying to justify it by looking up the record of the 1 shot! Sandra Bland in TX was pulled over for not signaling when changing lanes! That cop was heard telling his supervisor he tried to deescalate the situation and it was a flat out lie! He was fired, but she's still dead!
***I agree that not every police station has all honest cops. But my pt is that they blame the OJ jury who blames the whole dept. for framing a man, when only 1 guy was held responsible (Furhman). ...*
If you lived as long as me, you would understand "anything" is possible! We had a case outside of Chigo in Naperville; a fairly affluent area where some kid was murdered! They wanted this put to bed ASAP & it appears they didn't seem to care who took the rap! After all was said & done, all concerned were found t/b in cahoots in framing some Latino kid; either disbarred or run out of office! The list of offenders went from the local cops to the sheriff deputies & from the DA to the judge! It was an absolutely obscene miscarriage of justice! It happens & probably a lot more than we want to believe! Sorry to blow up your bubbles! In CAL, supposedly if you knowingly try to prosecute a person you know didn't do the crime, you're supposed to take their place and be sentenced to significant stretches of X!
***SCOTUS has given the police Carte Blanche to harass.***
SCOTUS has pretty much allowed cops carte blanche to do just about anything and make it justifiable! Yrs ago a Chgo case was ridiculously heard by them and they felt if a cop stopped you for anything; even a broken tail light, that gave them license to search the trunk! We've had Gestapo tactics around for yrs; how can people not see this happening? Now cops can kill you during a traffic stop w/ impunity; video evidence showing the events, but they still get off! Do I have to run down the list of shootings where charges never came down or they were deemed "not guilty?" How many X's do you think this can go on before society freaks out & starts shooting back gratuitously like in Beirut?
***Yes indeed. Breath tests, blood draws: Americans have no protection vs mandatory breathalyzer tests at a police checkpoint, although mandatory blood draws violate the 4th Amendment (Birchfield v. ND). Ignorance of the law is defensible if you work for the gov't: Police officers who violate the law c/b granted qualified immunity if they claim ignorance of the law (Heien v. NC). That rationale was also applied to police who clearly used excessive force when they repeatedly tasered a pregnant woman during a routine traffic stop and were granted immunity from prosecution (Brooks v. City of Seattle). ...***
Amen & hallelujah to that!
***Funny how Trump suddenly become a "Nazi" the minute he runs for President. Folks can call him whatever they want. Truth is, the public doesn't care. As long as he's providing jobs and keeping us safe from terrorism, that's all that matters. Trump's called dangerous & crazy yet who's the 1 who nearly got indicted over the E-Mail scandal? Who got massacred over Benghazi? Even MSNBC, the ultimate liberal channel can't stand Hilary?***
ReplyDeleteHow's Trump supposed to create more jobs than are already being created now? You sound like those geniuses in 2000 that thought peace and prosperity, a budget surplus, and low unemployment wasn't satisfactory! We needed to have a "compassionate conservative" run the country into the ground! We're still trying to recovery, but the signs are good! The DOW dropped to 6600; now well over 18.000 pts! Unemployment was well over 10%; now under 5% even if not in full employment! It's still better than losing 800,000 jobs a month in the waning era of "W!" Do I need to go on? There's plenty to make any change ridiculous & sabotaging!
***Trump gets to "rake Hillary over the coals for it" b/c she supported Iraq before she undermined the mission like all the other Democrat traitors. Pence is honest and makes no bones about his support for the President and it makes Hillary a freaking hypocrite as well as a traitor.***
Pence is allowed a few mistakes, but Hillary's just incompetent & unreliable! Such hypocrisy w/ trade, foreign affairs, & more! When Hillary wasn't running for President, she was great; a truly thoughtful person! That all changed quick!
***More Blood On The Hands Of The Racial Arsonists - When you encourage political compatriots to kill innocent people, don't be surprised at what happens.***
Stop killing innocent Black people during a normal traffic stop; PROBLEM SOLVED! Eric Garner was choked out over some loose cigarettes! Nice of you a-holes to only see the COPs' side when we all know what precipitated all this shit! No one's innocent; including those poor cops who back each other to the hilt no matter how egregious their acts!
***What precipitated this was Darren Wilson killing that thug, Michael Brown, rather than letting Brown kill him - and the black community there not caring what Brown did...only that he was black & Wilson was white. - you aren't allowed to go around killing police. That's pretty standard. If you're encouraging racial tensions and throwing gas on the fire, you are adding to the problems.***
The only ones adding to the problem are "stupid" cops who kill people over a traffic stop! It's happening fast & furious; don't you see & understand how people can feel about that? Did you miss the videos? You can't get away w/ LYING saying "he grabbed for my gun and I had to pump 6 bullets in his ass" w/ impunity like you used to babe!
***Police are little more than armed security guards, not that "special" at all... 10th Amendment says nothing about citizens are t/b subordinate to police. They are employed by the pubic not in command of us.***
Speechwriters for Trump got lazy & it was discovered by MSNBC that 22 of 26 words were directly plagiarized from speech of '08 DNC conv. given by Michelle O! Twitter seemed to blow up right away about it!
ReplyDelete***Some are making the pt that Michelle would not have gotten a pass if she did the same (blaming the speech writer).
Michelle O '08:
"And Barack and I were raised w/ so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people w/ dignity & respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree w/ them."
"And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next gen. B/c we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."
Melania T '16:
“From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people w/ respect.
They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many gens to follow. ...”
Seems pretty much like a slam-dunk. Her talking about the importance of treating people w/ respect and how she's going to pass those values on to her son while Donald is running his mouth in the most disrespectful way possible is just hilariously ironic.***
Michelle keeps a low profile so she doesn't have to duck so many slings & arrows from the "rightwing" machine! They've been merciless; down to criticizing her kids getting Secret Service protection just to go to school! I'm not talking about some redneck hillbilly; more like Rep. leadership in Congress! They know how all this works, but bash the Obamas relentlessly & it hurts; the disrespect & open bigotry's too much to bear! The main reason to get rid of Obamacare is to try & wipe out his existence even living in the Wh Hse! They won't say it that way, but that's what it's all about & I thought we had gotten past that kind of thinking! It's evidenced in every action of disrespect to Barack & his family & I'm appalled thinking I saw it all w/ what was done to the Clintons back in the '90's! These A-holes have outdone themselves & I didn't think it possible, but they proved me wrong; TRUE SCUM!
***Hmmm. Hadn't thought about this. Not inconceivable w/ the present lot of Repubs in Congress. - I read that Warren is scheduled for the 1st night of the convention. Whether or not someone is on the list is a signal regarding VP possibilities.***
I personally wouldn't care if Warren was on the shortlist for VP, but not sure the rest of the country is ready for 2 women on the ticket! We like to think we're past all that narrow-mindedness and bigotry, but after Obama, we may not see a Black person in that chair for a while! That's how we are; "well they can't call me a bigot now that we've gotten that out of the way!" If we were so ready, why is the Rep. party and the sycophants trying to annihilate his legacy; to wipe out the very existence of his family living in the White House?
***The presidential election s/b more about who c/b the strongest leader who can bring people together. Instead we've got 2 children throwing insults over which pokemon character is the best.***
Agreed, but Trump & his followers don't care about issues! It's all about bluster, using the words "huge" & "big" rather than talking about the economy, jobs, education, & foreign affairs! Trump wants to talk about his polls, how stupid the MSM was to doubt him winning, & exaggerating his "worth!"
***Lets just say w/o the Williams sisters, US tennis w/b a joke right now on both tours. Serena & Venus have been keeping the US relevant for the last 12-13 yrs along w/ Roddick to a <'r degree (pre-retirement)***
ReplyDeleteWell US women seem t/b coming on "of late!" They've had a decent yr & are winning events & making finals (singles & dubs) outside of the Williams' believe it or not! Keys, Stephens, McHale, Rogers, Vanderweghe, Sands, & others OTTH! It's getting better after all these yrs!
***None of these are slam contenders w/ the exception of Keys(maybe). From AO 2000 to FO '03, most if not all of the slams were won by either Serena/ Venus/ Capriati or Davenport.
---
...And we can also see the diff. btw the "< greats" like Edberg & Becker and the "> greats" like Roger; S in that the latter group tends to age better. For instance, if you compare Roger and Stefan at the end of the year they turned 25, the gap is noticeable but not enormous:
Stefan (thru '92): 6 Slams, 2 yr-end #1's, 37 titles, 9 Masters/WTFs
Roger (thru '06): 9 Slams, 3 yr-end #1's, 45 titles, 15 Masters/WTFs
And then compare them after that yr:
Stefan: 0 Slams, 0 #1s, 5 titles, 0 Masters/WTFs
Roger: 8 Slams, 2 yr-end #1's, 43 titles, 12 Masters/WTFs
Those are just 2 players, but I think it illustrates the main diff. btw the 2 tiers of greats: the very greatest players have a longer peak and/or stronger plateau. Novak seems very much of the latter category. Actually, he started peaking later than most greats, having a massive breakout in '11 @ age 23-24. I think part of the reason he's maintaining peak form longer than Roger, Rafa, Pete, & almost everyone else, is that he was under the reign of Roger & Rafa for so long, which required him to push himself further & find the '11-16 form that we've been witnessing. ...I suspect Novak will remain the top player for another yr or 2, but when all is said and done, '11, '15, & '16 w/b his 3 best yrs, w/ '17 next, but not as good as those 3.
---
Reality is a Slam will always outweigh a WTF title &/or OG.
For both Nadal & Djokovic, an extra Slam would benefit both of them and their legacy above & beyond what either of the other 2 titles could.
W/ that said their individual priorities may differ & personally they may place greater emphasis on one or the other....who knows.
History however will always remember Slam winners above WTF & OG Medalists (in tennis at least).***
ITA about the USO having a lot more of historic weight! Rafa does need a YEC or he'll have another strike vs him being the GOAT! It's enough already that he's never defended a title off the dirt! That's bizarre by a lot; worst champions in history have done it! Rafter was no star, but he won the USO & took the following 1! How can Rafa even be in the conversation w/ such a short tenure @ the top of the ranking; very uneven career w/ injuries, moodiness, & other reasons discussed OT?
***Yeah I see where you are coming from and when it's all said and done you are absolutely right, his inability to win a WTF & defend a title away from Clay will inevitably work against him in any & all GOAT debates. To me GOAT debates s/b focussed towards consistency, longevity, major titles and ones impact on the sport...while Rafa rates exceptionally well in many of these criteria I personally think there are others who outscore him quite significantly and therefore unless we see a Rafa renaissance where he goes on to win another 3 or 4 Slams (w/ some being away from FO) I can't see Nadal ever laying a genuine claim to GOAT, regardless of whether he defends a title away from clay or adds a WTF Title to his already impressive CV.***
***The strategy that Fed used to break Sampras record is identical to what Novak is doing to break Fed. ...if Fed knew 17 was an easily achievable target perhaps he would have focused on Wimb alone from '10. Perhaps he would have skipped or tanked Masters' in the past, starting from '10. Novak knows he needs to get just 18.
ReplyDelete1st of all, 17 was not an easily achievable target, but if Fed thought it was why would he focus just on 1 major? Your point about skipping Masters is basically implying that after winning 16 GS titles Federer didn't try to win more b/c he didn't know how many he can win, which is BS. Federer tried to win another major and he would've skipped or tanked Masters if he thought it would help.
Djokovic is going to try and win every Slam, just like Federer did when he didn't suck on clay. If Novak at some point decides that skipping Masters will help him to win a major, he'll do it. If he decides that, he needs to change his racket, he'll change it. ...For me Fed's the greatest ever and I don't think Djokovic is a better player than Roger.
---
Djokovic has been a constant presence in the deciding stages of the USO since '07, either winning or losing to the winner except in '09 & '14 when he lost to the losing finalist.
Djovak vs Mandy at the USO:
'07 - Djovak barely beats Stepanek, but then rolls to the finals for a tight 3-set loss to Fed; Mandy loses to Lee in 3R
'08 - Djovak keeps dropping sets (and is stretched to 5 by Robredo), but gets thro & puts a decent display in the SF vs Fed, losing in 4; Mandy nearly loses to Melzer, outlasting him in 5, then beats Delpo & Nadal in good matches, but's rolled over by Fed in the final
'09 - Djovak loses to Fed in the SF again in tight 3; Mandy is crushed by Cilic
'10 - Djovak close to getting beat Troicki in the 1st Rd, but then rolls to the SF, saves MPs vs Fed & has a respectable 4 set loss to peak Nadal in the final; Mandy loses to Wawrinka in 3R
'11 - peak Djovak saves MP vs Fed again & beats Nadal convincingly in the final, whereas Mandy is beaten Nadal in a similar fashion in the SF (also is 0-2 down vs Haase, wtf?)
'12 - Djovak fails to Master the wind and can't dig himself out of a 0-2 hole, credit to Mandy for winning this
'13 - Djovak beats Wawa in 5 & then collapses in the 4th vs Nadal; Mandy is Wawrinka's previous op. & takes a beat down
'14 - Djovak beats Mandy in 4 in the QF & then loses the SF to Nishikori
'15 - Djovak beats Fed in the final; Mandy is 0-2 down vs Mannarino & loses to Anderson in 4R in 4
Djovak > Mandy in all yrs except 2008 (Djovak=Mandy) & '12 (Mandy def. Djovak) - Obvious conclusion is obvious.
---
1 RG vs 1 RG
0 Rome + MC titles vs 6 Rome + MC titles
2 wins vs King of Clay vs 7 wins vs King of Clay
In before "if it weren't for peak Nadal, Fed would have 10 RG titles... even though he lost to broken hip Kuerten in his peak"
6 clay Masters vs 8 clay Masters
Not a big diff. Djokovic's poised to add more though. The 2 are generally in the same league, anyway.
It is not important what your opp. is called, only what game he plays.
---
If Djokovic ends up, say, w/ 2 RGs & 10 clay Masters, he'll be obviously ahead, but still in the same league overall, b/c finals also matter. 2 RG W out of 2 finals is 2x > than 1 RG W out of 1 final, but 2 RG W out of 6 finals isn't 2x > than 1 RG W out of 6 finals. Neither of them is in the list of >est claycourters - that would require 3 RG titles.
(The same way Djokovic is ahead of Murray on grass, but in the same league, given Murray's OG on grass - directly beating Djokovic - which halves the gap set by a diff. of one Wimby title, & 3 vs 2.5 isn't that big a differential.)***
***...It's a FACT that Federer's main rivals weren't good enuf during Fed's run ('03-07):
ReplyDelete1. Roddick wasn't good enuf to meet Federer @ the FO
2. Hewitt wasn't good enuf to meet Federer @ the FO
3. Safin wasn't good enuf to meet Federer @ the FO or the USO
4. Nadal wasn't good enuf to meet Fed @ the AO or USO
---
Federer's gen. is sticking around & remaining relevant, at least in small tourneys, like none for decades. If we use the 5-yr gens, so far this yr Roger's gen. ('79-83) has won 8 tourneys--1 ATP 500 & 7 ATP 250s. Let's see how previous fared at the same pt:
Gen. Kuerten ('74-78) in '11: 1 title, Stepanek winning an ATP 500. This gen. would win 3 more titles in '12-13, all ATP 250.
Gen. Sampras ('69-73) in '06: 0 titles. Santoro would win 2 more ATP 250s in '07-08.
Gen. Beckberg ('64-68) in 2001: 1 title. Clavet won a single ATP 250, the last of this gen.
Gen. McEnlendl ('59-63) in '96: I only have info on ATP 500s >, but the last such title this gen. won was Canada Masters in '93 (Mikael Pernfors).
Gen. Borg ('54-58) in '91: Hard to imagine Borg's gen. active in the 90s. I only have info on Masters >, the last such title this gen. won was all the way back in '82! That w/b =lent to '07 for Roger's gen.
Gen. Connors ('49-53) in '86: Jimmy's last big title, a Masters, was in '84.
Gen. Newstase ('44-48) in '81: IDK, but this gen. hadn't won a big title since '75.
Gen. Ashe ('39-43) in '76: Actually, Mark Cox won a Masters =lent.
Gen. Lavewall ('34-38) in '71: Still going strong, w/ the last big titles being Laver winning 2 Masters =lents in '74. Rosewall won the AO in '71 & '72, & Gimeno the FO in '72.
...Fed's gen.--w/ players like Ivo, Lopez, Mayer, Verdasco, Ferrer, & Roger himself; all winning titles w/i the last 2 yrs--is setting standards that I'm guessing will @ < continue w/ Gen. Nadalkovic. Rafa & Novak's gen. w/b the same age in '21 &, I think will still be around.
It's < players who are sticking around. - ...3-4 yrs ago there were around 30-33% players over 30y in the top 100, now there are around 40-42%. There were 51 players over 30 in the main draw @ RG this yr. That went down to 48, still a huge #. - Many of the newer Djokovic fans that caught on to tennis in '11 or '15 do not truly realize how much > Nadal was in comparison to Murray.***
Both have =ly ugly games that have lost them winnable matches but for their defensive mentality when in the crunch!
***...Are u referring to Djokovic?***
Definitely speaking of Murdal! Of late, Nole's problem has been more w/ closing a match out! At each of his wins that went 4 or 5 sets, more than likely he was serving for it in the 3rd or 4th set, but pulled it out after adding an hour to the clock! OTTH I'm thinking about '14 Wimbledon against Fed, '12 AO & '11 USO vs Nadal! When it comes to Murdal, do I really have to go down the list; esp. vs Nole? I can imagine Andy's still haunted by '12 final vs Nole in Shanghai! Murray was serving for it in the 2nd, hit this gorgeous lob over the head of his opp. & camped out behind the baseline! In the mean X Nole 'styled' by hitting the ball btw his legs; an easy set up for Murray if he had more guts and came into the net like a normal, high ranked player! He was subsequently broken & after smashing his racket to smithereens lost the 3rd set & the match! When Murray played his most aggressive & won convincingly under the tutelage of Lendl, they won Olympic Gold, '12 USO & '13 Wimbledon over Nole, & of late beating Nadal on clay! If you remember, I was quite satisfied w/ Djokovic finally taking his 1st FO, so I ceded Wimbl. to Andy! I don't think Nole tried that hard not wanting t/b bothered w/ the CYGS pressure along w/ Olympic hopes!
...I was quite satisfied w/ Nole finally taking his 1st FO, so I ceded Wimbledon to Andy! ...not wanting t/b bothered w/ the CYGS pressure along w/ Olympic hopes!
ReplyDelete***I think Djokovic feels the FO is a bit diluted as he didn't beat Nadal. That I think caused the big let down @ Wimbledon. He knows a lot of people have said Fed didn't get past Nadal to get the FO, so as satisfying as it is to get the monkey off the back, given what Nadal achieved at the FO, it w/b a diff. level of win to beat him. I think it's human nature. Let's say u and me were massive rivals. U were a clay court Goat & had beat me 6 X's @ the FO. Then a decade earlier I'd made the statement "I can beat u as u r beatable. ...Lay a few demons to rest."
And as for Murray, I agree w/ your analysis. The only match he lost at a major he should have won when he wasn't injured was AO '12. That wasn't passiveness that lost it. It was a tech. deficiency on the BH whereby he can't hit thru the ball like Djokovic. Nadal hits across it, always has. It's why so often when he tries to hit the BH down the line flat it goes wide. Djokovic should have more majors, but he has often been too passive; the most glaring was FO '15 vs Wawrinka.
---
The Djokovic - Murray H2H:
As it stands Djoker leads this H2H 24-10.
This now looks like the Fedal matchup in terms of dominance.
But just like clay played a large part in that rivalry, the Nolandy matchup is not as one-sided as it seems.
We immediately take away Novak's 1st 4 victories b/c he developed into a proper pro before Andy.
The '08 USO swing was Murray's breakthrough to a slam-challenger level, so we start the H2H there.
Andy takes a 3-0 lead until Nole gets his 1st win at the '11 AO.
They trade 3 more victories apiece until Andy's breakthru @ the '12 USO, & Slamray leads 7-4.
Novak wins the Shanghai final, but we give that to Andy after all the MPs lost. 8-4.
Djoker gets a WTF win for 8-5.
Andy gets distracted by a feather in the '13 AO final so we void that match. Andy's historic Wimbledon triumph that summer counts as 2 wins so the H2H goes to 10-5.
Neither of Djoker's 4 '14 wins vs Backray should count. So it becomes 10-6 after the '15 AO final. Andy deserved that loss after falling for the possum antics.
Djoker wins the US HC Spring matches. 10-8.
The '15 FO SF was Andy's for the taking, but the lack of floodlights gave Djoker a lifeline. Void match.
Murray wins in Montreal for 11-8.
Djoker dominates the end of year & the start of '16 to jump to a 12-11 lead.
Andy pulls even in Rome, but Novak leads the H2H again after his FO 13-12.
After Novak losing to Querrey at Wimbledon, it's clear he would have lost to Grassray in the final.
So as of now, the REAL H2H btw these 2 champions is 13-13.
---
Federer out of Rio and according to his FB entry, he's possibly done for the season.***
Few are that shocked! This isn't blowing up 1/2 as much as I thought! It wasn't like he was going to take anything!
***Federer has the records for most wks as #1, most wks in the top 2, & most wks in the top 3. He has the records for most cons. wks as #1 & most cons. wks in the top 2, but in '13 he fell out of the top 3 someway short of Connors' & Lendl's totals. He was chasing Connors down for most wks in the top 4 & most wks in the top 5. Currently, Connors leads 669-648 for wks in the top 4 & 705-675 for wks in the top 5.
He's also on the heels of Agassi for 2nd-most wks in the top 10. Agassi currently leads 747-730, w/ Connors ahead on 817. It's possible - if unlikely - that Federer w/b in the top 10 for the next 17 wks & so = Agassi. But most likely he won't get that record, either. Will he be able to regain such a high ranking in '17?***
***Novak's much more accomplished than Connors.... Novak left Connors in the dark a long X ago...***
ReplyDeleteThe FO alone sets them apart! Connors had a storied career, but was made more significant by his rivals; Nastase, Borg, McEnroe, & Lendl! Even w/ all his winning, his weaknesses were glaring & by hanging on for so many yrs after his prime, he ended up hurting his legacy & #'s in general! Borg immortalized himself by leaving early! No 1 will bring up Connors' name next yr or in the next millennium! Like Rafa, most of his success was @ 1 place & rarely was able to defend majors; esp. outside of NY!
***Watch Novak lose the next 2 Slams, then defend Roland Garros. :D ***
It wouldn't bother me; just like him blowing AO & FO in '14, but salvaging his season & the #1 ranking by taking his 2nd Wimbledon!
***Djokovic will win his last Slam at the '17 AO - Here's why:
Federer - 1st Slam - '03 Wimbledon. Last Slam - '12 Wimbledon. Exactly 9 ys. 1st & last Slam at his fave Slam.
Nadal - 1st Slam '05 FO. Last Slam '14 FO. Exactly 9 yrs. 1st and last Slam at his fave Slam.
Djokovic - 1st Slam '08 AO. Last Slam '17 AO. Exactly 9 yrs. 1st & last Slam at his fave Slam. It would all make sense.***
True enough, but Nole's a trailblazer who might turn history on it's head; esp. w/ his fortitute overcoming the 2 pre-eminent GOATs in Fedal!
***Interesting stat, but you have to add in the fact that Nole had a 3 yr period btw '08-11 where he didn't win a Slam. Nadal won Slams in 10 diff. yrs, Fed in 9 diff. yrs & Djokovic is in his 7th yr.***
Like Agassi, Nole might continue winning the AO until he's 33! Who has started the season this well yr after yr winning the AO, then the 1st 2 Masters 1000s automatically! Last season he took the 1st 3 for a new record, and there's no reason it couldn't continue for the next several yrs!
***Yeah, Novak's a serious threat to 2 of Feds most important records, Slams & wks @ #1. There's still a lot of work t/b done though, & he has to stay fit & free of injuries.
---
We've had threads for general discussion of young players on tour, but I thought I'd start a fresh 1. ...let's look at the players currently age 24 & younger in the top 100 Live Race to London rankings:
Live Race to London Rankings - < 25 (7/20/16)
- 6. Dominic Thiem (22)
14. Nick Kyrgios (21)
17. Lucas Pouille (22)
22. Bernard Tomic (23)
23. Alexander Zverev (19)
38. Jack Sock (23)
47. Borna Coric (19)
48. Jiri Vesely (23)
53. Kyle Edmund (21)
56. Taylor Fritz (18)
73. Damir Dzumhur (24)
74. Thiago Monteiro (22)
80. Diego Schwartzman (23)
81. Yoshihito Nishioka (20)
82. Renzo Olivo (24)
84. Adam Pavlasek (21)
86. Jordan Thompson (22)
89. Karen Khachanov (20)
90. Bjorn Fratangelo (23)
98. Jozef Kovalik (23)
99. Taro Daniel (23)
Also worth mentioning are some younger (< 21) players in the top 200:
123. Elias Ymer (20)
127. Quentin Halys (19)
128. Frances Tiafoe (18)
131. Stefan Kozlov (18)
142. Daniil Medvedev (20)
164. Duckhee Lee (18)
165. Jared Donaldson (19)
167. Andrey Rublev (18)
169. Hyeon Chung (20)
198. Noah Rubin (20)
And here are the top ranked players under 18 in the top 500:
255. Denis Shapovalov (17)
278. Stefanos Tsitsapas (17)
458. Casper Ruud (17)
494. Louis Wessels (17)
And then of course...
621. Felix Auger Aliassime (15)***
***It's like those who want to give Borg extra Slams since he retired early. Graf retired at a X she was likely never winning another slam. Her last 3 yrs on tour she had won a mere 1 slam, after winning 3 in 1 yr the 2 yrs before that, she was obviously already in massive decline, & she was only getting older & slowing down further while the strength of the womens game would only increase from '99 (when she retired) until '04 or so.
ReplyDelete---
The Graf era had long been dead when she retired. From '97-99 she even had a losing record to Amanda Coetzer. The '99 FO was a bit of a miracle for her w/ the crowd getting involved in ugly fashion, & Hingis completely unraveling. She was wise to know that w/b a high note to retire on.***
Graf started having problems w/ a # of players starting in the 90's! Sabatini came into her own; failing to finish Steffi off @ '91 Wimbledon though! Amanda Coetzer? Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario actually became #1 in singles & dubs in the mid 90's! That 1st Rd loss to Lori McNeil @ '94 Wimbledon signaled the beginning of the end for Graf! Hingis was coming into her own, Venus was growing up, & a few other Amazons started making life tough like Lindsay Davenport!
***...Compared to Serena, Graf had nowhere like these plays in her game b/c she simply had nothing comparable to the kind of shot selection & court craft Serena has, never mind Serena’s serve & power. Prime for prime, forget Serena, I’d say Kerber or Clijsters would win at least 13 out of 14 vs Graf.***
No Justine Henin; Serena's last major rival? How soon we forget!
***Novak lost the opener in Toronto doubles, but wins the opener in singles over Mueller, 7-5, 7-6.***
Nole's barely holding on; playing just well enough to win! I keep saying he hasn't annihilated anyone since Nadal in Qatar! Murray was scary good @ the FO, but Nole got the measure & tone of the match helding him off! He's been losing sets & being taken to the limit; having to survive TB's & other close calls!
***There was a GOAT called Roger who never managed to beat Nadal, let alone pushing him to the brink of defeat. Novak managed to instill fear which Federer clearly failed to do. Novak has more clay Masters to back up his claim as 2nd best clay courter after Nadal in this gen. Federer not.
---
Both Nole & Fed have very strong resumes, given that they were stopped by Rafa so many X's. Federer has more Slam & Masters 1000 finals. If he had won more vs a peak Nadal, then he w/b ahead in both title tiers. ...Novak has a couple more Masters 1000s. It basically comes down to each person's subjective opinion of how good Federer & Djokovic were in their primes on clay & which had to deal w/ a stronger version of Nadal. Personally, I'd give a slight edge to Federer, but I think both deserve a lot of recognition. Glad they both finally won the FO after so much effort.
---
B/c winning 8 Slams in an era w/ dozens of Slam contenders, drastic differences btw the surfaces, players who have trained to specialize in those diff. surfaces, & a player talent pool culled from the largest group in history in an era when tennis was the #1 junior sport worldwide, is a lot more impressive than winning 12 in an era w/ 3 Slam contenders, no diff. among surfaces, & a talent pool of players so barren that 30+ yo's are hanging on long enough to get into the top 20 by attrition.
It becomes more impressive when you realize that there were really only 3 Slams per year, since nobody counted (or played) AO & that Connors missed out on numerous Slams he'd have been the prohibitive fave to win during his prime, thru no fault of his own. Novak's 6 extra AO titles don't make up for all that. Connors isn't just > Novak. He's at least >>> Novak.***
***Do Blks who support Rep. over Dems realize they're factually "Uncle Toms?"
ReplyDeleteWhy would any Black person want to support the Rep. party? Look how they performed unprecedented disrespect of Obama & his family! I couldn't care < how TROLLS hunt down every slight "W" got when compared to how Barack was stabbed @ every opp! These animals even criticized the Obama girls getting Secret Service protection to go to school! Rep. leadership actually made an issue of this during the budget and debt battles! To this day, factions of that party believe he's some kind of Manchurian Cand. illegally voted in as President since he's from Kenya, is a Muslim, etc.)!
My heart sink thinking about how this man has been treated! Why would Gays support them with the open hostility! Women are little more than props in publicity shots! Callista Gingrich has t/b an android following Newt around! ...Hillary was excoriated b/c she said she'd rather not "stay home & bake cookies!" Do I need to go on?
***...Black unemployment is a disaster, Blk on Blk crime is at all X highs & NOW, Obama called Blacks who murder police officers COWARDS after supporting them at the Dallas police memorial. ...***
And what would you suggest he do? ...I don't think most understand where this country had to bounce back from; whites aren't that > off when it comes to wealth! We're still trying to recover w/ the foot-dragging of the opp. party! ...I know it w/b ironic if after all the vilification, things take off economically once Barack leaves in Jan. & Hillary rides the wave of his good work!
***If you love America than you'll vote for Hillary in Nov. & make sure it's not a sad day for America.***
Oh that ship sailed yrs ago! When the economy was teetering over an abyss, unemployment sky'd over 10%, & the Nat'l Debt ceiling needed t/b raised, Reps gambled w/ our credit rating losing $20B alone by shutting down the gov't! They proved it was more important to have Obama kicked out after 1 term than to take care of business in a timely fashion! Even w/ all their footdragging and badfaith dealings having to do w/ the budget, we've recovered & they can't stand it! Hillary will continue the work and things will turn around for good even w/ the bad actors 'on the right!'
***DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns - DWS fired for corruption in DNC...***
Next X I hear or read something about a Rep. pols or cons. "egghead" bitchin' about how the MSM's so liberal and "in the tank" for Clinton, I'll point this BS out to them! ...I see a drubbing when people come to their senses about this carnival barker!
***...Well, Trump c/b rude & crude @ X's, but he's no Hillary! ;-) ***
You're damn right Trump is no Hillary; she's a 1st Lady of Ark. & US, twice elected US Senator fron NY, runner-up to DNC nominee, his Secr. Of St., & co-founder of a global initiative that's saved lives all over the world! Trump is a self-promoting loud-mouth who's so full of shit, he's beginning to believe his own delusions of grandeur! We can only hope his supporters come to their senses so there's no doubt anywhere in the world that this tool will only see the WH from the outside.
Did anyone try watching Trump's news conference? It looks more like something satirically created for background noise in the back of a bad movie? He's railing vs Hillary & Bill, his polls, & ranting about emails! This is what Reps want to elect to the most powerful office on the planet! He throws out a couple names, pretends he's meeting w/ them, & that makes it seems like he has ideas! This can't be real; just doesn't look like reality! Now he's back on Hillary's server! "Donald, give us solutions, not your daily spin of your bizarre and < than memorable comments of bigotry, misogyny, sexism, & total ignorance of current affairs!" I hope his straight-jacket w/b ready when he goes down in flames! He will not be able to handle it! - Funny, FNC's "Out#'ed" bimbos would rather talk about DNC convention instead of what just happened! Hilarious that they're too embarrassed to talk about it now or they're still in shock over his comments!
ReplyDelete***Yes, it was surreal; & TREASONOUS. - LOL!! Great post Fiero. - Trump is a loon. He w/b a disaster as President. You cons never accepted Obama. Don't tell me I have to accept Trump. I don't & I won't.***
As bad as Hillary's supposed t/b, what does that say about your candidate? His polls have t/b worse or he wouldn't be on the attack so much! He has no solutions, only an ability to tell us why we're so bad off in comparison to the rest of the world! "Thanks Donald; at least you know what you think of us!" He thinks us to be as stupid as he is to believe any of his BS!
***OH REALLY...HILLARY LIES TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC ON A DAILY BASIS & YOU THINK TRUMP THINKS WE ARE STUPID...GET A GRIP! LOL - Trump does attack, he always has. It is his way of putting others on the defensive I suppose. However, his attacking does not mean he has no solutions. He's challenging Hillary's solutions (since you believe she has solutions). As for his ability for telling us how bad off we are, I agree w/ you--we are bad off & it's ridiculous for Trump to claim we aren't.
---
Oddly enough, I have actually found info favorable to Hillary in the leaked e-mails from Assange's "Wikileaks." I wasn't expecting that.***
It's always been made up conspiracies from "the right!" Hillary has a celebrity list & trying to keep that private, ended up exposing herself to ridicule! After so many yrs of Reps after her & Bill, you would think she'd be more careful! Nothing came of it, but it hurts her polls concerning honesty & trustworthiness! I have no problem w/ her in comparison to that inveterate liar w/ the bad hair! At least she knows what she's talking about over the incessant blatherings of some carnival barker!
***This is how biased the media is vs Trump. I watched the whole press conference, and nowhere Trump is committing treason. Clearly if you hate Trump, you'll find every way to justify your hate. Again, I don’t get it. The media is trashing Trump, yet they continue t/b his puppy dogs. He gets free media attention in the midst of an outstanding DNC convention, brilliant! And yes, Trump was clearly joking. In fact, he said Putin w/b rewarded by the press, if the 30,000 emails were retrieved.***
What's "good for the good is good for the gander" I always say! Trump keeps bringing up emails, Benghazi, & trying to undermine the CGI! No one's been more investigated w/ hearings & press conferences bemoaning all the things Hillary's detractors have been doing! Fk him and his stupid ass followers! Who wants a nimrod like this "frat Boy" who's more guilty of offenses including fraud, theft, & chronic misrepresentation?
***Personally, I think the fact that Trump wasn't serious about his email comment makes it *worse* not better.***
***Fed =
ReplyDeleteGOAT grass + Wimby
GOAT rebound ace AO
GOAT USO
2nd GOAT clay peak level
GOAT peak level of play
GOAT playing style and aura
You are spouting off your desire, which has no connection to historical fact.
The facts @ the majors:
•1st, no Grand Slam, so he's no GOAT.
•U.S. Open - tied w/ Connors & Sampras. Surpassed by Larned, Sears & Tilden.
•AO - he's in no "best of" category here, being surpassed by Emerson & Djokovic, & being in a 4-way tie w/ Crawford, Rosewall & Agassi.
•FO - 2nd in what? He only has 1 FO title, & is surpassed by 25 players.
•Wimbledon - tied w/ Renshaw & Sampras.
There's no rewriting or denying actual majors victories, or rambling about trivia. History firmly places Federer in his proper place--not being a GOAT player, which was not going to happen by failing to win the GS.
---
Is he really the GOAT of all that? I know the word GOAT & Federer is synonymous these days and I don't really want to stoke the fire, but t/b tech, in the Open Era, Federer has roommates, but Djokovic & Nadal live alone. What I mean by that is that based on #'s, he can't outright claim GOAT at any 1 Slam, but they can. Nadal's RG GOAT (by far) & Djokovic's AO GOAT & they have the #'s. Fed shares his Wimbledon court w/ Sampras & his USO court w/ Sampras & Connors.
He shares the record @ those tourneys, but his overall beautiful to watch game, aura & presence edge him over Sampras for both.
---
...Be that as it may, there is still an argument for Murray being an ATG b/c of this. Let's take Becker for instance. How often do people really talk about his other titles & stuff. Most people remember him for what he did at Wimbledon. - I think a lot of people talk about his 6 Major titles, handful of WTF titles, & collection of "Masters Series" titles.***
Murray w/b =lent to Becker if he had just taken a couple of those AO's! Those were a lot of semi's & finals! It's not like his opps made it easy for him, but not even trying to change it up makes it look all the worse! It's 1 of the reason players like Berdych, Ferrer, Tsonga, Cilic, Del Po, & so many others who NEVER change their approach; staying w/i their comfort zone only made it easier for Roger, Rafa, & Nole to own them "lock, stock, & barrel! Wawrinka broke out of that group & sneaked a couple majors & Masters! Btw the rest Cilic & Del Po have lone Slams @ USO & they share a handful of Masters! Andy has more in him than that super-defensive game, pretty much just running everything down & waiting for his op to keel over! I've seen him volley, but he still rather let the ball bounce than to take it out of the air & attack to finish pts off quicker! Silly after so many chances so if he's not even close to Becker w/ more of a game, it's his own fault!
***When Djokovic defeated Federer at the '08 AO, this was his 1st match win over that GS's defending champion.
I think Djokovic has the record for this w/ 7 match wins.
'08 AO, '11 AO, '11 Wimbledon, '11 USO, '15 AO, '15 FO, '15 USO.
Sampras & Agassi both did this 6 X's in their career. Federer did it twice. Nadal did it once.
---
OTTH: Murray did it twice ('12 USO, '16 FO), Del Potro once ('09 USO), Söderling once ('09 FO), Wawrinka once ('13 USO), Dimitrov once ('14 Wimbl.), even Stakhovsky once ('13 Wimbl.). I guess Djokovic has certainly achieved yet another notable record in doing it 7 X's!***
***Djokovic mhb a better player for Nadal final of '14 AO than Wawrinka; reason being everyone expected Rafa to win. ...the pressure was huge from a historical pt. Nadal was playing to = Sampras. He was also playing to = Laver's double CS, & be the 1st in the Open era to do so. Stan had lost a dozen X's to him and never even took a set. The expectation was so high on Nadal being the overwhelming fave that the pressure played a significant part in Nadal's back muscles seizing up under the tension even before the match began; causing the injury.
ReplyDelete...I personally think it took until W'14 final for Novak to return properly, so I can understand my friend's suggestion that mentally he was vulnerable at AO'14.
In hindsight, the AO'14 final was the perfect storm for Rafa to lose. Everything was just vs him in that match. Pressure, expectation, history, being the overwhelming fave, & inspired GOATing opp. who played the ultimate underdog.
---
As I've argued before, Roger was the best player in the game from '04 until mid-'08; then from mid-'08 to early '10, Roger & Rafa were =s. But from mid-'10 on, Rafa or Novak has been the best in the sport, w/ Roger usually 3rd best (rankings aside).
---
Dude, of course only Agassi, Connors, Laver or Rosewall are the 1's w/ comparable or > longevity. BUT can you name a former world #1 who has a 'runner up' streak of 3 Slam finals combined w/ 3 WTF finals, all on his top 3 surfaces (grass/indoors/fast-HC)? - Or look at it this way. Borg never lost an RG final. Sampras never lost a Wimbledon Final. Nadal never lost an RG final. Nole never lost an AO final. The latter 2 still might, but it's not likely. Until last month Roger had never lost a Wimbledon SF & he found a way to do it.
---
Let's take a look at all players w/ 5+ major titles--including Pro, Amateur, & Open Era Slams--going back to William Renshaw, who could be considered the 1st all-X great player. Here they are listed by year of birth, w/ the yr of their 1st Slam & their age @ the X in parentheses.
1918: Riggs ('39, 21)
1921: Kramer ('46, 25)
1927: Sedgman ('49, 21)
1928: Gonzales ('48, 20)
1930: Trabert ('53, 22)
1934: Rosewall ('53, 18)
1934: Hoad ('56, 21)
1936: Emerson ('61, 24)
1938: Laver ('61, 22)
1944: Newcombe ('67, 23)
1952: Connors ('74, 21)
1956: Borg ('74, 18)
1959: McEnroe ('79, 20)
1960: Lendl ('84, 24)
1964: Wilander ('82, 17)
1966: Edberg ('85, 19)
1967: Becker ('85, 17)
1970: Agassi ('92, 22)
1971: Sampras ('90, 19)
1981: Federer ('03, 21)
1986: Nadal ('05, 19)
1987: Djokovic ('08, 20)
I think that list shows us 2 things: One, teenage Slam winners are not totally unheard of, but very rare in tennis history. IDK about players w/ < than 5 Slams, but the only 2 5+ Slam winners who won their 1st as teenagers before Borg were Rosewall & Vines. Two, as we know there was a cluster of them in the 80s-90s, unlike any we have seen in tennis history.
Rafa's RG title in '05 doesn't look that out of place in terms of its rarity. What's out of place is that cluster of teenagers in the 80s-90s. It was "only" 15 yrs since the last teenage Slam title, whereas before Borg in '74 you have to go back 21 yrs to Rosewall in '53.
---
Borg is not a good comp b/c he retired @ 25 yo. Sampras played his last Wimbledon final @ 28 yo, Rafa his last (so far) @ 28 yo, & Novak @ 28 yo (so far). It isn't fair to compare those to Roger @ 32, 33, & 34--the ages he was @ the '14 Wimbledon, '15 Wimbledon, & '15 USO. To put it another way, Borg, Sampras, Rafa, & Novak never--or have not yet--played @ an age & level similar to Roger's the last few yrs.***
***Of all the records Serena is shooting for & has been discussed to possibly take, this is 1 rarely talked about. ...She is only 2 Wimbledons behind Navratilova, and is the clear fave for the forseeable future just based on how she is serving. Can she get to 9 or even to 10?
ReplyDeleteIf she does get to 9, I would probably rate her as the grass & Wimbledon GOAT over Navratilova. She has had way tougher comp. than Martina there since:
Venus >> Evert on grass
---
Kerber, Radwanska, Muguruza... tough comp? Really? I think Serena is playing in the weakest era of all X's.
---
Really? ...The WTA has only been more than 2 players deep 1 X, & that X included Jennifer, Lindsey, Martina, Justine, Serena, Venus, Mary Pierce.
---
Martina is clearly the GOAT on grass, & Chrissie is 2nd, not Serena. Chrissie & Martina having each other as rivals is the only reason Serena even gets a casual mention in the GOAT discussion, b/c w/o each other, either 1 has 30+ slams.
---
...Mid 90s to early/mid 00s... So much variety in the game, diff. styles, surprise champions, lots of diff. personalities. Players like Kuerten, Moya, Rios, Rafter, Ivanisevic, Becker, Krajicek, Arthurs, clay court specialists like Mantilla, Bruguera & Costa, Safin emerging out of nowhere in 2000 & taking over, super aggressive young Roddick, early Fed…and oh yeah, Pete & Andre. I feel very privileged to have watched tennis during this X.***
If you think variety was the spice of life then, you should have grown up in my era w/ Borg, Vilas, Connors, Orantes, Ramirez, Gerulaitus, Nastase, Newcombe, Laver, Rosewall, Ashe, McEnroe, Tanner, The Bagel Twins (Solomon/Dibbs), & so many other colorful characters! That isn't even counting some of the best doubles players who made their mark; Smith/Lutz, Gottfried/Ramirez, Hewitt/McMillan, Stewart/McNair, Connors/Nastase, & even Borg/Vilas! Yep, singles stars played doubles!
***Nole's getting his 1st shot at plying the GURU since Paris '14. We all know what that spurred: Novak had experienced 3 str. 1-slam yrs in the middle of his prime, but the lesson from the GURU propelled him into a historical run of >ness, culminating in the Nole-slam. ...
---
...Monfils has never lived up to his potential. I think someone may have reminded him of this. I got Monfils finally getting off the snide today.***
Who hasn't? OTTH Dimitrov, Simon, Wawrinka, Tsonga, Murray, Isner, Querrey, Kei, Milos, & any # of other players who have all the shots, but can't complete the deal when it counts!
***Novak gets broken in the 3rd game. He shb broken in the 1st itself. But, he is trying to eke out a win w/o playing well.***
He's been doing that all season as far as I'm concerned! He hasn't played "lights out' tennis since he annihilated Nadal in Qatar! He's been playing "just well enough to get by," but has had more than a few close calls, being taken to the limit; esp. in Masters 1000 this season! - Monfils' suckin' wind! He's toast already!
***My Lord, you're a Debbie Downer already.***
Just a historic inevitability IMO! I get so frustrated w/ some players who have the goods, but think they can "outlast" an elite player instead of taking it "to them!" How many has Murray "given" to Nole b/c he thinks his training'll sustain him? It's idiotic when there are other aves of winning! Berdych, Ferrer, Cilic, Tsonga, & Monfils epitomize what I'm talking about being owned by "The Big 4!" They can't break out of their "comfort zone" to finish off a close match.
***In fairness, Monfils plays this way not just vs elite players, but against anyone. Monfils simply does not have an aggressive bone. He does not even attack a weak 2nd serve.***
***...Majors success is--obviously--about winning the title, a completely separate matter, so "cons. finals" means nothing. The goal--the achievement is winning the majors, not trivia.***
ReplyDeleteLendl making 8 str. USO finals seems to get more "ink" than actually winning it 3 X's in a row '85-87! Streaks are important to me; love looking @ the record books for that reason! It's impressive & stands out in the annals of tennis history! It gives texture to the level of comp. & high level achieved by a single player who's dominating! I didn't think Nole could outdo '11, but he almost buried it in '15 w/ an extra Masters (1st 3 & another rec.) & the addition of the YEC! He filled the lone "major" hole in winning Paris 2 months ago, is on course to complete the Masters career-set in Cincy, & might even compete in Rio to top it all off w/ OG!
***Federer btw London & Rio Olympics...
222-52 @ 81%
76-20 @ 81% at majors
13-5 @ 72% at WTF
13 singles titles
4 Masters titles
Davis cup win
28 finals
3 Major finals
3 WTF finals
10 Masters finals
8 Major semis (3A, 3W, 2U)
7-11 vs Djokovic
(compare to Murray + Nadal: 8-28 vs Djokovic)
14-18 vs Big 4
(since Aug. '13, i.e. based purely on post-London)
48 wks @ #2
60 wks @ #3
That's a pretty damn good career right there.
---
There's a wk off btw Cincy & USO; Nole could recover. It's not like the 1st wk @ the USO w/b that tough. Anyways, it depends what he does at the Olympics & how much he cares about it. Wouldn't surprise me to see him withdraw last min. due to risk w/ Zika like so many athletes. I know I'm in the minority here, but to me winning Cincy & therefor having won every MS-1000 at least once is a >er achievement than the Olympics. Also if I'm Djokovic, I don't risk my health over it either. - I think Cincy is a >er achievement than the Olympics from a tennis perspective (as are some of the other M1000), but Djokovic wants to win a medal for Serbia.***
Another milestone; happens each X Nole takes the court! This Canadian Open's his 30th Masters, 4th Can. title, and is on course to set records we thought Roger would hold alone for decades!
***Don't get carried away please. Roger was never gonna be ahead in Masters given he played Nadal in so many on clay, but he's well ahead in most of the biggest records.
---
... when Federer was 29 (at the end of '10)?
Federer at 29 (Djokovic as of now)
GS titles: 16 (12)
GS match wins: 208 (223)
Masters titles: 17 (30)
Total titles: 66 (66)
Total match wins: 743 (732)
Total match played: 917 (882)
Weeks @ #1: 285 (209+)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djokovic–Federer_rivalry
Djokovic has already surpassed Federer @ 29 in 2 categories (GS match wins & Masters titles), tied in 1 (total titles) and closed the gap in all others. Aside from GS titles & wks @ #1, Djokovic will end '16 ahead in 5 out of 7 categories above, which is absolutely amazing.***