Simone Biles-A Perfect Description
Excerpts from Jonathan Liew of The Guardian on Simone Biles’ performance on Sunday after injuring her calf and ankle earlier in the day.
And of course she nails the floor routine, lands the Yurchenko double pike on the vault, follows it up with the straight somersault with 1½ twists, sails through to the all-around final with another entry on the all-time points list. Sometimes, she wobbles a little. Sometimes, she takes an extra steadying step. Even her stumbles seem graceful. Because if Biles has taught us anything over the last decade, it is to reframe the way we think and talk about star athletes, to refuse the instinctive deification that is really also a form of dehumanization. To stop demanding perfection and miracles as a condition of our love. Biles is perfect, because she isn’t.
The circus will carry on screaming around her. Her face will continue to sell premium hospitality packages the world over. Celebrities will swan in and swan out, gawping and leering, desperate to bathe in her reflected glory, hooking themselves to her fleeting cultural capital like junkies. But she alone knows what it took to get here, she alone knows what it means to be here, and even in the grand, grotesque, billion-dollar content fayre of big sport, she alone will define her power. Her talent. Her body. Her story. Her rules.
See my Video of the Day.
A first step
From Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse today.
President Biden announced he is backing Supreme Court reform and offered three specific items:
- A Constitutional amendment revoking presidential immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office
- 18-year term limits for Supreme Court Justices
- A binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court
We all understand these are unlikely to come into being while Biden is in office. That would take Constitutional Amendment for the first two and, at a minimum, Congressional legislation to create a binding code. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called Biden’s proposals dead on arrival. But the important point here is that Biden has shifted the conversation and put it front and center. It’s no longer about whether there can be reform, it’s about what it will look like. Biden has opened the conversation and put it on the front burner to make sure as many Americans as possible have exposure to it.
This is so long overdue for so many reasons.
Project 2025
Last month I wrote in this blog that starting in September, I would be reporting on each section of Project 2025, the playbook for a conservative president based on the vision of the Heritage Foundation and its leader Kevin Roberts.
As more and more people became aware of the contents of Project 2025, it was starting to become a liability for the former president’s campaign because of some of its extreme conservative views. As a result, the former president’s campaign has disavowed any support for Project 2025.
Yesterday, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 stepped down after blowback from the former president’s campaign. The former president’s campaign cheered what they believe is the demise of Project 2025
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said Paul Dans’ exit comes after the project “completed exactly what it set out to do.” Roberts who has emerged as a chief spokesman for the effort, plans to lead Project 2025 going forward. “Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels — federal, state, and local — will continue,” Roberts said..
On the surface, it looks like I will not have to bother with my promised work of Project 2025. Unfortunately, the former president and his campaign’s history of truth and lies tells me I should continue my effort of reporting on Project 2025, which I will.
Pete Buttigieg gets my Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day: “When I was deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t have kids back then, but I will tell you, especially when there was a rocket attack going on, my commitment to this country felt pretty physical.” Pete Buttigieg In response to J.D. Vance’s comment, “It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Better luck next year.
It looks like my $50 dollar bet on the Tigers winning 81 or more games this year is lost. The Tigers became sellers at the trade deadline, and they have traded away contributing starters for prospects. In the last 48 hours they have traded their number two starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, reliever Andrew Chafin, outfielder/first baseman Mark Canha, and catcher Carson Kelly. All of whom were major contributors for the Tigers this season. In addition, the Tigers have recently placed their best player Riley Greene and number three starting pitcher Reese Olson on the injured reserve list. Already on the injured reserve list are players the Tigers were counting on for the season, including Kerry Carpenter, Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Parker Meadows.
Happy Birthday
To my long-time friend since 7th grade, Nancy Wardrop Murray, who is always demanding more of my blog, Nancy Wardrop Murray turns ?? tomorrow, August 1.
To my exceptional daughter Katy, whose accomplishments have been many, but they do not compare to the love and joy she has added to my life over the last forty years. Katy celebrates a milestone 40th birthday on Friday, August 2.
Feel free to share my blog with others. To receive the blog in your email, please use the sign-up button which is located at the bottom of the blog below the Video of the Day or send an email to me at thomasdbiggs@gmail.com and I will start the process for you.
Quote of the Day: See above from Pete Buttigieg
Orchid of the Day: The USA women’s gymnastics team for demolishing the competition in the team finals. The difference between 2nd place Italy and 8th place Japan was 6.031 points. The difference between 1st place United States and 2nd place Italy was 5.802 points. A difference rarely seen in world gymnastics where 0.1 points matter.
Onion of the Day: U of M President Santa Ono, who has a contract that says he must live on campus in the newly renovated President’s house. In 2023 Ono purchased a home in West Bloomfield which is the address he uses for his driver’s license and voter’s registration. Per a report in the Detroit News, he is also getting a homestead property tax credit because he has declared the West Bloomfield home as his primary residence. When asked if he was aware of the tax credit, he said he had no idea of any tax credit.
I am sure this is all a misunderstanding, and it will be straightened out in due time, but it leads to my Question of the Day. How the hell did this happen? How many people had an opportunity to advise him of the proper way to handle this and dropped the ball? U of M is loaded with tax experts and contract law experts, some of whom are on the Board of Regents. This should not have happened.
Question of the Day: See above
Video of the Day: The GOAT’s floor routine on Tuesday at the Olympics
Simone Biles Leads Team USA to Gold with Unforgettable Floor Routine | Paris Olympics (youtube.com)