First: Hillary Clinton needs to contract with a conservative person to review any thought that crosses her mind before it gets made public. Case in point: In her forthcoming memoir, she says Donald Trump was creepy because he 'stalked' her during at least one of their pre-election debates. People have reviewed videos of the debate in question. Trump never got close to Hillary on his own. In fact, the only time during the televised debate that Hillary was at all close to Trump was when she walked right in front of him, on her own volition. But forget all of that. This is a woman who has been married to a man who is one of the most notorious gropers of this or any other age. But Trump is creepy. Hillary is creepy. She would do the entire American scene tremendous service if she would stay out of the public eye henceforth. Note to Mr. Sessions: A very good way of making this thought a reality would be a long overdue indictment. Dare we suggest that the Attorney General seize this prescient moment and seek a long overdue indictment?
Second: The European Union is extremely upset with Poland. Poland is in the crosshairs of other European nations? Who says history doesn't repeat itself? This time, the other European Governments are upset at Poland because the Polish had enough common sense and stunningly accurate foresight to refuse to take in Middle Eastern refugees. So now, while Germany, Sweden, Denmark and other European nations reel under the tremendous negative influence, crime and economic drain of the out-of-control, overwhelmingly young, male, difficult to employ Middle Easterners, Poland is doing really really well. Their economy is doing great, their people are free and generally happy, and their crime situation is not a crime problem. And just because of that, the nitwits like Angela Merkel are really pissed off. Merkel literally recruited refugees to come to Germany. And come they did, millions of them. And pay Germany has, and pay, and pay, and pay some more. In the cities, Germans shut and lock their doors at dusk and don't come out until dawn. Women have been assaulted in record numbers, and gang rapes are being reported in record numbers. Merkel has changed much of her attitudes toward the Middle Easterners. But it is too late. Germany can't send them back because they don't want to go.
Third: There are lots of things to be angry about when it comes to the mainstream media. The cat is out of the bag when it comes to their obvious pro-Ultra Far Left posture. The cat is out of the bag when it comes to the manner in which the mainstream Ultra Far Left Neo Marxist Media covers the President, Donald Trump. But very few people have noted the extremely misleading way that the mainstream media writes and broadcasts about these miscreant 'Anti-Fa" Thug Protesters. A great many of these 'protesters are being paid by George Soros and other well-heeled Ultra Leftists. Instead, the media reports on and creates the impression that these Ultra Left Thugs are just spontaneously reacting citizens. The media desperately wants readers and viewers to believe that Americans generally are so upset with Donald Trump that they are jumping at any chance to make a public display of their passion. This is not true. Leftists generally are very few in number, and many of them want nothing to do with the thugs out in the streets with wooden planks with large nails driven into the end to enhance the pain and agony they can deliver to anyone struck with such a weapon. There are no known instances of those on the right paying people to show up and protest.
Fourth: (This piece is a corrected version of a post from July 18 of this year. A number of errors were made in that post by your author, who failed to take into account that all UEFA teams have at least three matches remaining in Group Play leading up to the World Cup. I think I have it correct this time.)
Only one match result thus far prevents Poland from taking a perfect record into the finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Only one, and, of course, there is the small matter of the three matches that Poland and all other UEFA teams have left to play. The lone blemish on Poland's record came against the most unlikely of opponents. On September 4, 2016 the Kazakhstan National Soccer Team, which has failed to win even one match in Group Play, managed to draw with Poland in front of over 19,000 fans at the ultra-modern Astana Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan. In the match, Poland exploded to the lead in the ninth minute and increased the lead to 2-0 at the half. The lead held in the opening minutes of the second half before Kazakhstan's Sergei Khizhnichenko scored twice in a seven minute span to earn the home team a draw. As it was, Kazakhstan had only this and one other draw to go with four defeats in group play. Poland had only this match to blemish a perfect record. Of course, the Poles still have three matches left to play.
The magical White Eagles have almost already qualified for the World Cup Finals in Russia. There are three matches remaining for each of the European Teams (UEFA Teams) in this first round of World Cup Qualifying. Barring a complete collapse by the Poles - something nobody predicts - Poland will march into Moscow as one of the pre-tournament favorites. Poland's remaining matches include a game at Denmark on September 1, a home match - to be played at Warsaw - with Kazakhstan on September 4, and another home match, also at Warsaw, with Montenegro on October 8.
Poland (5 wins, 0 defeats, 1 draw) leads its Division with 16 points, followed by two teams, Denmark (3 wins, 2 defeats, 1 draw) and Montenegro (3 wins, 2 defeats, 1 draw), each with 10 points. Poland will win the division if they can win two of their remaining matches, or win one match and tie one match. They will also win their division, no matter how well or poorly they play, if Denmark and Montenegro fail to win at least two of their remaining matches.
They have played that well. The second place team in the Group will play a home and home with another UEFA Division's Runner-Up to determine if it, too, can qualify to travel and compete in the Russia-based 2018 World Cup. Robert Lewandowski, who scored the second goal in the match at Kazakhstan, on a penalty shot, leads all scorers in Group Play. Lewandowski has scored an incredible 11 goals in six qualifying matches. His closest runner-up has but 6. In all of Europe, the best any other player could do was score barely over half of the number of goals scored by the incredible Lewandowski.
The way the World Cup works the qualifying in the UEFA Divisions is to send all nine division winners on to the finals. Four other UEFA teams will also qualify. Eight of the nine runner-ups in their respective divisions will be paired with another runner up, and the four pairs will play home and home matches. The winner of those four home-and-home match-ups also are on to Moscow. One of the nine runner-ups will be out of luck. That out-of-luck runner up is the so-called ninth place runner-up. The standings of the runners-ups will be figured based on the their won-loss-draw records against the top five teams in each division. Seven of the nine divisions have six teams, while two of the nine have five teams. The matches against the sixth place teams in the seven relevant divisions will not be counted in determining which of the nine runners-up is not going on to the second round.
Were I Wales, I would be worrying about the possibility of finishing second in its division and then being left out of further play because it has so many draws, which garner it only a single point per draw. It is extremely important for Wales to win its remaining matches, not only to enhance its chances of moving up in the division standings, but also to avoid being the ninth place team among the divisional runners-up.
Poland has never won a World Cup. It has earned a berth in the final round, however, on several occasions. Twice, Poland finished third overall in the World Cup: in 1974 and again in 1982. This is Poland's best side since those years. FIFA ranks them No. 6 in the World. They might be quite a bit better than that; that is how good they are. Lewandowski may be the World's best player.
Poland's magical run actually began in the first game they played after the end of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. West Germany won that World Cup, and almost the exact same team that won the Cup took the pitch in Warsaw for a friendly against Poland in September. Poland won.
The Poles carried that momentum into EURO 2016. But after easily qualifying for the final round, they lost to Portugal in the quarter-finals - on penalty kicks. The magical team in that tournament was Wales, which, ironically, is in deep trouble in their division in the World Cup Qualifying Round. The Welsh stand in third place in Group D, four points behind Ireland (3 wins, 0 defeats, 3 draws) and Serbia (3 wins, 0 defeats, 3 draws). Austria (2 wins, 2 defeats, 2 draws) also has 8 points in Group D, but Wales (1 win, 0 defeats, 5 draws) is the 'actual' third place team at the moment, based on Goal Differential (4 to 1). All four of those nations have three matches left to play. A match of tremendous importance takes place on September 2 at Cardiff, Wales, where the Welsh host Austria.
Also on September 2, Ireland visits Georgia (0 wins, 3 defeats, 3 draws) and Moldova (0 wins, 2 draws, 4 defeats) visits Serbia. With the gutty and determined Welsh trailing the two division leaders by four points, they are almost in a win or else situation. The good news about their situation is that they only need to beat out one of the two to qualify for Moscow (providing that they do not finish with the ninth best record among runner-ups). Another bit of good news - or is it bad news - is that the Welsh no longer have Ireland or Serbia on their schedule. Since they need a better overall result than at least one of the two teams ahead of it. Serbia does have to play Ireland. If Wales wins its remaining three matches and picks up 9 points, it will still need either Serbia or Ireland to lose or draw two of its remaining three matches. One of those 'non-wins' will happen for one of the two teams ahead of Wales when Ireland plays Serbia. But Wales will need at least a tie for that loser in one of the two remaining matches. It is complicated.
Before losing that heartbreaker to Portugal, Poland had recorded a win over Germany (and a loss and a tie), The win and the loss were in Group Play, the tie was in Group Play in the final round, where Poland was grouped with Germany, Ukraine and Ireland. Having nearly qualified for the finals, Poland drew powerful Switzerland in the first round of the 16-team final round. The match ended in a draw and Poland and the Swiss advanced to a shootout. Poland won. In the quarter finals (the round of 8), the Poles took eventual Tournament Champ Portugal to the bitter end. The match, including overtime, ended in a draw and both teams then advanced to a shootout. Portugal has some of the most dynamic offensive players in the world and it provided the difference in a one goal shootout win.
The Poles do not believe they can lose again.
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