FYI

Gotta love the Belgium team FB post referring to the 4-1 victory over the US that said, ” Overturn This”

Here is more interesting information: (Thanks Joann)

Sophia Cai of Politico reported that White House FIFA World Cup Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani, the son of Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, told President Donald J. Trump about the suspension.

As officials from the U.S. Soccer Federation prepared and submitted an appeal to FIFA, Giuliani and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick offered White House lawyers and dug into the professional history of the referee who had made the red card call.

Then, on Thursday, Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino, with whom he has been friendly for eight years.

On Sunday, FIFA cleared Balogun to play on Monday. The last, and only, time a red card went unpunished before was in 1962.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has called the decision “incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”

“When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined,” it said. “Football is the most loved sport in the world because it is a beautiful game and is trusted because it is played everywhere with the same laws.”

And the ultimate irony… Balogun acquired U.S. citizenship by birth after his​Nigerian mother was unable to return home from a trip to New York because she was too far advanced in her pregnancy to fly.

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Open letter to the US Soccer coach

July 9, 2026

Coach Pochettino:

You blew the single greatest opportunity you ever will have as a coach and worse yet you failed not only your players but our country.

After President Trump intervened causing FIFA to overturn the ban on Balogun, you should have called a news conference and said the following.

Although I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the extraordinary efforts exerted in order to reverse the Red-Card ban on Balogun that now allows him to play in our next contest against Belgium, I am here to announce that he will not be playing in this game and we are honoring the initial call made on the pitch. While I believe the call was wrong, it nevertheless stands in the absence of outside influence and even the appearance of impropriety is bad for the game and our mutual association as footballers. Preserving the integrity and spirit of honest and fair competition is more important than winning under a cloud of doubt.

I’m genuinely curious if the thought of doing what I suggest ever crossed your mind?

Had you done this, you would have galvanized your role as a great coach while ensuring the positive impression the United States has made on the world. You would have taught your players a life lesson they would never forget while burnishing the credentials of what we are as Americans.

As it stands now, not only did we get our asses handed to us, but we appear to be bad sports that will go crying to daddy when things don’t go our way. Just think of the difference our loss to Belgium would have been if we had taken the high-road. Perhaps we still would have lost, but who knows, maybe accepting that Red-Card penalty might have energized players and fans and just maybe a different outcome, but even in defeat, had we done as I suggest, we would have been universally cheered in our defeat and respected for our sense of fair play.

I played an Olympic sport at a high level on 3-US teams, captained the team against Mexico and also served as an Executive in the national governing body authoring the sports successful application to the US Olympic Committee so I know and understand sports at the level you are coaching. That said, you failed to see the single most important moment in your tenure and because of that failure, you should resign.

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DETOUR: Hi-Road CLOSED

The World Cup Soccer coming to the US and North America is a gigantic bright spot in a world sometimes not so nicely glistening.  So far, the US has enlightened, charmed and otherwise impressed the hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors experiencing the magic of what it means to be fortunate enough to be within or borders.  The opportunity to continue that charming winning streak is about to come to and end I’m afraid.

As I write this, the match between the US and Belgium is about 60-minutes away.  As you probably have heard by now, our star scorer was prohibited from playing in this game because of a Red Card violation in the prior game, requiring him to sit this one out.  Long story short, President Trump intervened in the situation and now, miracle of miracles, this player is back on the pitch, ready to play tonight.

What a monumental mistake.

If I were the US coach, I would call a news conference and announce that even though we are able now to play our best scorer, thanks to presidential interference, we are not going to do so and that player will remain on the bench for this game and not play.  I would further declare that I was resting him for the next match and that even though we could play him, we understand the optics are bad and in the interest of fairness and the appearance of manipulation, we choose to take the original penalty and carry on.

If we did that, the world would admire our sense of fairness and our sportsmanship and even our harshest critics would be hard pressed to find fault with our choice.

If we prevail over Belgium without our best scorer, that really says something.  If we lose, we lose, fair and square; we go home heads held high.

We have a chance to demonstrate to the world what it means to be an American, in the spirit of fairness and the perception of it, we can show the world that we walk the walk not just talk the talk, but it looks like we will not take that path.  What a shame.  We saw an opportunity to interject something into the system and we took advantage of it.  Now we can’t win for winning and we can certainly be assured of losing something much more important than a soccer match.

I hope we lose to Belgium, just so the criticism stops because the further we go into the finals of this tournament with the albatross of inside dealing hanging around our neck; the worse it looks for America and her supposed sense of fairness.

We had a chance to make a real statement in doing the right, but hard thing but in a few minutes, we will blow that opportunity.  What a shame.

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At What Cost?

My Grandfather was born just 30-years after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.  That is how young we are as a nation yet 250 years of self governance sets the world record for such things.  Of, by and for the people is unique to America.

The youngest amongst us think two and a half centuries an eternity.  Those in my cohort know different.

We approach a time when a generation of men don’t know combat.  We approach a time where freedom is thought to be the norm.  We risk it all in that moment.  The barbarism of war can’t be dreamt away.  The hardness of men serves a purpose.  It’s what saves us from tyranny in its awfulness.

As good memories quiet our souls, the terrible gird our resolve.  Reality is the only instruction.  We ignore and reframe it at our own peril.

While we rightfully and joyfully celebrate today, let us not forget how we achieved what we have.  1.35 million have died in the name of the United States and on her behalf.  Still living today are roughly 6-million combat veterans, their experiences seared into their memories, awful burdens carried by them to protect us.

We live, flourish and thrive because of all of them.  The personal weight of carrying those terrible memories so the rest of us don’t have to is the ultimate price of freedom.  

While today we honor the dead and thank the living, most importantly, we warn the comfortable.  Freedom was anything but free in 1776 and its cost moving forward is ours to bear.

Thank you and may God bless America

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Denial, Vanity, Faith & Freedom

I have a paralyzing fear of doctors and hospitals.  I’m convinced that if I avail myself to examination, invariably disease, illness and likely death will follow.  Intellectually I understand this is irrational and yet I pride myself on being a rational man.  Nevertheless, I suffer under this enigma and struggle, even today, as I vacillate between what I know to be reasonable thought and action and that other world of inaction and dismissive denial.  I manage somehow to live in both worlds.

With my emotional dilemma as a backdrop, I begin this up until now untold story of my health care journey, reluctant in the telling because I am fiercely private, but important in the understanding that it might help others in similar circumstances.  Or maybe, more likely I suffer this unreasonableness alone.

In 2016, I grew tired of looking down and seeing the unsightly protrusion of what I came to understand was a condition called an “umbilical hernia”.  In more common terms, this condition causes your belly-button to pop out.  When combined with what is commonly known as a “beer-belly”, (which I was and am reluctantly fighting and yet cultivating), it made the overall condition rather unattractive.  I have been an active athlete all of my life and because I wanted to retain that level of activity, I conjured up all of the courage I could muster in order to visit with a surgeon who would relieve me of this condition.  Full-disclosure:  I was also highly motivated by no small dose of vanity and the come-to-find-out unrealized solution to my protruding gut.  The surgery fixed the belly-button but I was still stuck with the belly.

The surgeon dutifully visited me upon recovery and informed me that although he had successfully repaired my hernia, during the process unusual amounts of fluid were taken from my abdomen and additional testing was required.  I was scanned, examined and probed and told that it was very likely that I had lymphoma.  A few days later, after visiting with the oncologist it was all confirmed; stage 3-to-4 follicular lymphoma.

Aggressive chemotherapy was to begin, 6-courses of treatments three-weeks apart.   Good-bye hair, good-bye weight, and good-bye what was heretofore known as a daily and routinely expected quality of life free from illness.  Until it is taken from you, that assumption of good health as a guarantee is a life-changing adjustment in attitude.

The entirety of the experience completely reinforced that irrational side of my psyche concluding that the hernia operation somehow caused the cancer yet the rational me did come to terms with the reality that the hernia surgery actually saved my life, thanks to my own vanity.

So obviously I recovered, but the recovery wasn’t the typical story-book of ringing the bell to celebrate my last treatment and being ordained as “Cancer-Free”.  For me it was that purgatory of in-between.  The doctors were puzzled that they didn’t completely get rid of my cancer, but regardless, I was seemingly in remission and symptom free.  Now my world became that of the endless follow-ups, never allowing for the certainty of relief and again, playing right into my worst, irrational fears that were now becoming real.

The uncertainty is by far the hardest part.  I began to live life in segments, gleefully unburdened of my fears by a positive doctor visit or a lab test result that catapulted me into good spirits for about a single day and then turned back into the grim reminder that my good fortune is measured in the time frames between medical exams.  I feel like nothing can harm me, especially early on during those “good-news” times, but the shelf-life of that comforting certainty is short and quickly replaced with doubt, fear and a gloominess hard to describe unless you have experienced it yourself.  My life is lived in narrow slices of time.

My local, community health care providers were, I’m sure, happy to hand me off to the regional cancer research-university facility that would address the “in-between” condition of my illness.  And so began the 2-hour car rides back-and-forth to Rochester, NY in order to get a higher level of expertise and to hopefully address and arrest this limbo of not quite having cancer, but being threatened by it’s reoccurrence.

For the first few years, visits, tests, scans and exams were regularly 6-months apart.  For a guy like me, this is what that looked like.  After leaving a Rochester visit and being told that everything was stable and unchanged, I would be on cloud-nine.  The car-ride back would be joyful, the air cleaner and crisper, the sky bluer, the conversations, more important, more meaningful.  This state of glee would last for a few days and then normalcy would return, the reality that my life was rewarded to me by my doctors, but only rationed out to me in 6-month portions.

As that date on the calendar for the next visit loomed large, the dread, the fear, the anxiety welled up inside of me.  I turned always to God for relief, and most times I was rewarded for my faith.  But other times, my self-doubts overwhelmed me and the silent, solitary struggle commenced a terrible cage-fight between courage and despair.  The terrifying reality to me was the fact that in that instance, I had to endure this alone, there was no one to solve this, no one to save me, it was me facing my own fears, my own mortality, my own test of faith.  I could not do it without God.

It took me a number of years to get more-or-less comfortable with my relationship with the Rochester caregivers.  The anxiety lessened to some small degree, but that old, irrational fear of more care yielding more bad-news and illness never completely disappeared.  It sounds stupid to say this, even as I write it and look at my own words, but it is the reality of what bounces around inside of my head.

And so finally, we get to the point several years ago when my providers agree that my situation has now evolved into a nearly 8-year remission and the prognosis seems promising and stable, so we go from a 1-year to a 2-year follow-up plan.  Again, the elation at the moment is hard to fully transmit to someone what has not experienced it.  In my mind, this has guaranteed me a disease free slice of life that just got thicker by a whole year!  I was bullet-proof, at least until this September.

I scheduled my CT scan for that 2-year follow-up.  My doctor in Rochester tells me that although there is no indication of any changes regarding my lymphoma condition, the scan has discovered something else.  Something is growing on my thymus.  (I had to Google it)  After a biopsy, sure enough it was cancerous and it, along with the thymus itself had to be removed.  Here we go again with the reinforcement of the irrational yet ironically, this time the follow-up scan for the lymphoma may save my life from an otherwise undiagnosed and symptom-free cancer that is totally unrelated. 

My surgery in late November was successful, except that the growth had penetrated into my pericardium as well as one lung.  Because of this, radiation is required and I start that course of treatment tomorrow, daily sessions, 5-days a week for 6-weeks.  Just like I did with the chemo, I plan on simply integrating this regiment into my normal day; treatment at 8AM, then to the YMCA for a light workout/shower, breakfast and then begin my day.

I don’t know what I’m in for, but I’m all in because I know that God has equipped me.  I’ve been saved twice in spite of my best efforts to ignore reality and then the Lord made it right. 

Here I go again and as always, thankfully shrouded in His everlasting protection.  Thank you Lord.

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The Value of Life is Apparently Negotiable

One-single-solitary 84-year-old woman went missing and the United States collective of shallow-mined pop-culture morons took interest gigantically disproportionate to any reasonable reaction. While no question troubling, maybe even tragic, why is it that this single event has such out-sized relevance?

According to the FBI, over half-a-million people in the US go missing every year. That is roughly 1400-a-day. Do all 1400 get helicopters flying around looking for them? Does the President go on the TV every day and lament the tragedy of it all? Do entire police agencies stop what they’re doing and hold news conferences to keep a nervous nation up-to-date on the latest developments?

Obvious to anyone paying attention, the elderly mother of a popular TV host is infinitely more important than the thousands of nameless and faceless mere mortals gone missing.

What a sad and damning commentary on the American psyche.

Just a reminder, while the FBI was offering $50k for information about missing person Mrs. Guthrie, another 1400 American went missing as well, no rewards, no recognition. Yet FOX news is covering this single, tragic story like it is the 2nd coming of the Lord. The last time a sitting US President took a personal interest in a civilian abduction was back in 1932 when the Lindbergh baby was abducted. So much for the myth that all lives are of equal value….

While news outlets camp out in the front yard of this woman’s home, say a prayer for the thousands of families that suffer in obscurity.

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Justice?

Would be failed assassin Ryan Routh is sentenced to life in prison for failing to kill President Trump with no shots fired.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the United States, the average time served for murder or non-negligent manslaughter is approximately 11 to 15 years in state prison before initial release. In California, the sentences range from 3 to 11 years.

Right here in Broome County, a man driving drunk, with nearly 4-times the legal limit of blood-alcohol, struck and killed a police officer with his car and served less than 5-years in prison. So tell me, how is “justice” being served for Mr. Routh?

Just another example of how society does value lives very differently.

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ICE Capades

In order to fully understand what is going on today with ICE, (Immigration & Customs Enforcement), especially in the context of Minneapolis, you need to hearken back to the Biden administration, specifically their lack of border control.  As millions, (14 million according to the Pew Institute) streamed across our southern borders during the last administration, hundreds of thousands were dangerous criminal felons; murders, child molesters, rapists, gang members and violent, anti-social people that should have been in prison.

Today, approximately 1.5 million illegals have Final Removal or Deportation orders and yet remain in the country.  Over 660,000 are either convicted felons or have pending criminal charges.  Within this group are some 13,000 CONVICTED MURDERERS and 15,800 CONVICTED SEX PREDATORS.  Not suspected, or charged or on trial, but adjudicated and convicted.  These people belong in prison.  Please, someone on the Left, stand up and explain to the rest of us the justification of protecting murders and rapists?  When you create a so-called “Sanctuary State or City”, who exactly do you think you are going to attract?  States and cities defined as “sanctuaries” should lose all federal funding.  Elected officials creating them should be criminally charged as co-defendant in the result of murders and violent acts perpetrated in their jurisdictions by these illegals invited to be safe in their communities.  Victims should have a legal recourse against those elected officials breaking federal law.

If we are to actually call ourselves “a nation of laws”, then enforcing them is part of the process.  If you are flummoxed by the apparent disconnect those on the Left have with these seemingly clear-cut and rational explanations of legal enforcement, here is where their self-proclaimed but misguided “righteous indignation” comes from and how it today comes into play.

Many white Leftists hate themselves.  This self-loathing is attached to the premise that the original sin of slavery and the way we treated the American Indian so significantly stains our founding legacy that anything we do before and without addressing that sin, that unforgivable foundation on which we exist, is unjust because it builds upon the fatally flawed condition without any redress.  The whiteness of their skin just reminds them of the sins of their ancestors and reinforces the awfulness of their shamed lineage.  They can’t stand themselves because they can’t stand who they came from.  Their dilemma turns dangerously towards delusion and insanity as they struggle to somehow make amends.  They rationalize open borders and sanctuary spaces as ways in which they can pay their penance for being who they are and denying their evil forefathers.  They seek a divorce from their legacy and this kind of acting out relieves them of the sin of their “white guilt”.  Screaming at the police, protesting and perhaps even getting arrested promotes their “street-cred” and makes for bragging rights at the ladies Wine Nite get-together.

A quick history lesson would be in order.  The USA led the world in addressing the evils of slavery and eradicated it over 100 years ago.  The American Indians were indeed poorly treated and we have been making amends for that ever since and continue to do so.  There is no history of any nation or tribe or people that doesn’t include war, plunder and unjustified death.  We all did terrible things to each other and from those awful histories we have observed, learned and evolved, all of mankind.  Some have learned faster than others.  All humans and regions and nations throughout the world took eons in order to become civilized and the United States was no exception however, we were the exception when it came to leading the way in that civilization process.  Today, our nation is about to have its 250th birthday, still intact and still civilizing.  We strive today to make ourselves better people, our nation more strong and righteous and the world a better place.  We are happy to share our democracy and our way of live with whoever is interested, but we do it in a lawful and organized way.

We are indeed a nation of laws and we need to vigorously enforce them if we are to maintain our country.  Liberals need to wrap their heads around the fact that yes, we made mistakes, but we strive to do better, we are a nation of compassionate people trying to constantly evolve to the next higher level of civility.  There is no going back, we need to look forward and up not back and down.  We won’t do that until we embrace one another and make that advancement our common goal, within the framework of the Constitution and the well defined laws that have flowed from that document.

  To those on the Left, we are not the awful people you think we are.  We want all of the things you want, peace, happiness, security, safety, healthy children, and we can all begin to work together to increase all of those things by humbling ourselves, renewing our relationship with God Almighty and continue to make America the greatest nation on God’s earth.  . “Through one’s tears for the past, one’s future becomes blurred.”Criss Jami


Protecting criminals won’t absolve you from your own self-loathing but God will, if you embrace Him.

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ICE Over-reach

The latest sequel to the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter debacle comes to you live from snow-white Minnesota with a cast of lily-white performers.  Noticeable differences include the absence of burned down neighborhoods and the twist in the plot that includes the cop in this case actually getting it wrong.

Bottom line on the ICE Shooting, if the agent could have gotten out of the way, he should have gotten out of the way. In reality he was able to get out of the way because he did get out of the way, uninjured, so again, clearly his life was not in danger, he simply had to step aside, which he did while firing his weapon.  Had he simply let her go, at most, charges would have been violations or at a stretch, low level misdemeanors.  Instead she is dead.  Not obeying a lawful order to stop, or to get out of the car, or whatever, is not license to use deadly force.

The shoot was bad.

The hoopla of course, has much to do with the built-up frustration, and hostility as America repeatedly witnesses angry-middle-class housewives turn into urban-warriorettes, pretending to be righteously indignant in order to be the center of attention in their wine-club.  Virtue signaling from the rare-air of the upper-middle class mommies looking for something to do makes them Tic-Tok and X celebrities, validated from the comfort of their SUV’s.

While they may be easy to hate, that doesn’t sign their death warrant.

And here is the most troubling part.  We are all so over-loaded with the barrage of stories coming from the news-cycle; we tend to forget over time what has happened.  In eight weeks or so, this episode will be a distant memory, covered over with whatever the next story will be and in some small by-line buried in the newspapers or perhaps not even mentioned in the larger media machine, the family of the dead woman in Minnesota will be paid an undisclosed sum of money and no admissions of wrong-doing will be forthcoming and with that, we’re off to the next stop for our outrage machine to become re-engaged.

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