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biofunmy · 6 years ago

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How the U.S. Beat Thailand, 13-0, at the Women’s World Cup

REIMS, France — The United States posted its biggest victory ever at the World Cup on Tuesday, opening the defense of its 2015 title with a 13-0 annihilation of overmatched Thailand.

Alex Morgan scored five goals, tying a team record, and Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis each had two. Lindsey Horan, Megan Rapinoe, Mallory Pugh and Carli Lloyd — two minutes into second-half injury time — completed the rout.

It was the largest margin of victory ever at the World Cup, and the most goals scored in a single World Cup match. The Americans outshot Thailand, 39-2.

The result was as comprehensive as those totals sounded, and the margin of defeat — and perhaps the Americans’ fist-pumping celebrations as the goals mounted in the final 15 minutes — left several of the Thai players in tears after the match.

But the flurry of goals also was a stunning display of the attacking force the United States can bring to bear. The goals came early (two in the first 20 minutes), in bunches (four in one six-minute span early in the second half) and late (five after the 79th minute).

The scoring frenzy thrilled the pro-American crowd of 18,591 inside the cozy, 21,000-capacity Stade Auguste-Delaune, but it also left the exhausted Thai players clutching the hems of their shorts in the final minutes as one American player after another wheeled away in one celebration after another.

“For these players, four years now some of them have been working, some of them even longer — I don’t find it my job to go and harness my players and rein them in,” Jill Ellis, the United States coach, said in response to suggestions that her team should have backed off with the result safely in hand. “This is a world championship.”

Several of the American players immediately seemed to grasp the emotional consequences of the victory margin. After the final whistle, Lloyd went directly to Thailand’s goalkeeper, Sukanya Chor Charoenying, to offer a hug and some encouraging words. Christen Press followed suit, and soon a line of United States players had formed in front of Chor Charoenying.

At midfield, Morgan went through a line of handshakes from teammates and reserves, and then embraced a teary-eyed Miranda Nild, the California-born Thai striker. Both played at the University of California, and they had met for the first time in a hallway under the stadium on Monday when both teams visited for their prematch walkthroughs.

Morgan, the Americans’ top scoring threat, played the entire 90 minutes, and the United States finished the match with an army of attackers — Morgan, Rapinoe, Lloyd, Pugh, Christen Press — pressing for even more.

[Rory Smith, the chief soccer correspondent for The New York Times, has started a newsletter on world soccer. Sign up here.]

Here’s how the United States won its World Cup opener, minute by merciless minute:

90’ +2

And Carli Lloyd gets the last one. (We think.) 13-0.

Lloyd, one of the captains, gets that goal she wanted. It’s a baker’s dozen now, and Katie Perry’s “Roar” comes on the loudspeakers. Well, the United States has certainly done that tonight.

Absolutely no mercy from the defending champs.

87’

12-0. Morgan. Again. You may have read this before.

That’s five for Alex Morgan, tying the team record for goals in a World Cup match. So, Alex, how’d your day go?

Three minutes of stoppage time coming and the consensus in press row is: Why?

85’

11-0! Stop the fight! STOP THE FIGHT!

Pugh, running like a thoroughbred right to left through the area, slots home for No. 11.

A reminder that the United States has four forwards on the field in the 85th minute of an 11-0 game. Mewis is trying to take control in the midfield, asking her teammates to cycle the ball back and around.

81’

Morgan has her fourth, and the U.S. reaches double digits, 10-0.

This has become a free-for-all now, and torment for those of us trying to keep track. Morgan scores her 10th with one of her feet into one of the corners, and let’s be honest: Does either fact really matter at this point? This has just been a stunning exhibition of offensive firepower.

Lloyd almost made it 11 with a sitter in the goalmouth but sent it over the bar.

79’

Rapinoe! 9-0! This record may stand for a while.

A counterattack adds the cherry (we think). Rapinoe drills a sliding shot from the spot on a lovely cross by Pugh on the break.

74’

That’s Morgan’s hat trick, and the record. It’s 8-0.

Press feeds Morgan at the top of the area and she takes one dribble, then two to free herself for a right-to-left shot into the corner. That’s three for Morgan, and eight for the United States.

It’s also one short of the final the last time these teams met, in 2016.

64’

We’re in record territory now for the United States.

Their biggest win at the World Cup was a 7-0 victory over Chinese Taipei at the 1991 World Cup. Michelle Akers scored five times that day.

And Ellis just took off Ertz, a center back tonight, and sent on Mallory Pugh, a wing. U.S. formation is now a comically attacking 3-3-4 setup. Did Thailand offend Ellis or something?

Taneekam Dangda, a second-half substitute, shows one of the risks of rubbing it in: She chops down O’Hara as she cuts inside and gets a yellow card. Not a dirty foul but a hard one from a tired team. The last thing the Americans need in this game is a late injury, even if it was accidental.

60’

Substitutes for the United States, no relief for Thailand.

It’s a measure of how frightening the United States can be in attack that Thailand can breathe a sigh of relief at seeing the backs of Heath and Lavelle, who are subbed off, only to see Carli Lloyd and Christen Press run on.

It takes Lloyd all of two minutes to get her first shot, and all of three before Press takes one.

54’, and then 56’

Mewis! 6-0! Lavelle! 7-0! Do not look away from your screens.

One minute after Morgan’s second, Mewis gets hers. But I can’t even type it up before Lavelle gets HER second with a cool finish right in front.

It’s 7-0, and we’re starting to feel for the Thais here. Uh oh, now Carli Lloyd and Christen Press are on for Lavelle and Heath. We may not be done with goals here.

53’

GOAL! Morgan with her second!

Ertz heads on a free kick from deep on the right and it’s 5-0 after Morgan stabs it in. Goals coming fast now.

50’

GOAL! Mewis makes it 4-0 with a quick turn.

Mewis, receiving the ball from Rapinoe at the left edge of the area, takes a simple touch and lets her shot rip. The ball glances off a Thai defender, though, and ripples the net before Chor Charoenying can do anything about. It’s 4-0 now, the same score France had in its opener.

46’

No changes for either team, but the stats tell a story.

The United States outshot Thailand by 15-1 in the first half, and had 73 percent of the possession. Both of those statistics seem a fair reflection of the first 45 minutes.

Halftime

That went exactly as everyone expected it would go.

Three goals, little danger and everyone getting some exercise and a confidence boost. (And bonus: no injuries.) That was exactly the way the United States wanted to arrive in the World Cup. They and Thailand were the last teams to kick a ball in France, but this performance is on track to be the highest-scoring match of the first round. Regardless of the opposition — and Thailand hasn’t offered a ton — that will send a message.

42’

Dominance all over the field for the United States.

The United States has been so dominant tonight that it can sometimes be hard to tell who is playing where. Dunn and O’Hara are repeatedly getting forward of the midfielders ostensibly playing in front of them. But Dunn also has roamed inside, and Horan has drifted to the far-side touchline. Lavelle is free to go wherever she wants. And the center backs Ertz and Dahlkemper are pressing so far forward that each has been beyond the center circle in Thailand’s half at times.

Even Naeher, who has had almost nothing to do in goal, has crept forward so that she’s spent most of her night outside the penalty area, Manuel Neuer-style.

As I typed that, the U.S. got four shots off in quick succession, battering the poor Chor Charoenying once again, but she and her defenders gamely fight off each one. Horan tries to win a penalty at the end of the sequence, but Fortunato — again — isn’t having it.

30’

GOAL! Horan scores after some free-kick deception.

Lindsey Horan makes it 3-0 with what may prove to be one of the easier goals of her career. Rapinoe and Tobin Heath lined up over a free kick won by Heath at the top of the 18 on the right, and, after both run up, it’s Heath that takes it.

The play looked botched early, a ball simply driven into a clutch of players in the goalmouth, but it hit a couple and fell flat right at Horan’s feet: She pounced and roofed her shot, and it’s 3-0 at the half-hour mark.

23’

That was a penalty, but Thailand escapes.

Mewis was pulled down in the box, but the Argentine referee doesn’t give it. The television monitors indicated a V.A.R. review of the play was underway, but the referee, Laura Fortunato, urged the goalkeeper to take the goal kick, and once she hit it, there was no way to go back for review. Odd decision(s).

20’

LAVELLE! It’s 2-0 on a long-range shot.

That was quick. Lavelle took a couple of dribbles in the center, snuck a peek and decided to take a rip from the top of the circle. Her left-footed strike gave the goalkeeper almost no chance. And just like that, the Americans have doubled their lead.

12’

GOAL! Morgan again, and this one counts.

Two crosses pinged across the box were bound to produce something. O’Hara collected a loose ball at the top of the area and drove right before chipping the ball back into the middle. Morgan ghosted off the center back just a step and it fell right to her forehead. Boom. 1-0.

5’

U.S. GOAL! Nope. Morgan was offside.

The initial pressure is all one way, unsurprisingly, and Mewis takes the first shot — a rocket from outside the area that Chor Charoenying fumbles but saves. The next rush up results in a goal — briefly — on a gorgeous long cross from O’Hara to Horan that Morgan helps over the line.

But Morgan was offside, so we stay scoreless.

Starting lineups: Horan and Mewis are in, Sauerbrunn is out

The big question for the United States was whether Lindsey Horan, who hasn’t been fully fit this spring, or Sam Mewis, who looked great in the final tuneups, would start alongside Rose Lavelle in the midfield.

The answer has come in an unexpected way: Both will start against Thailand, but center back Becky Sauerbrunn will not. Sauerbrunn has what U.S. Soccer is calling a quadriceps “issue” — not an injury. Basically, she’s feeling something, and with Thailand as the first opponent, the coaches decided — to paraphrase one federation official — “why risk it?”

The good news for the U.S. is that Sauerbrunn’s replacement, Julie Ertz, just slides back from her midfield spot into the role she starred in at Canada 2015.

United States starting lineup: Allysa Naeher; Crystal Dunn, Abby Dahlkemper, Julie Ertz, Kelley O’Hara; Rose Lavelle, Sam Mewis, Lindsey Horan; Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath.

Thailand’s starting lineup: Chor Charoenying; Srangthaisong, Chinwong, Saekhun, Phetwiset; Thongsombut; Intamee, Phancha, Boothduang, Sung-Ngoen; Nild.

At long last, the World Cup begins for the United States

The United States and Thailand are the final two teams to kick a ball in this World Cup, which opened four weeks — O.K., four days — ago with France’s thumping of Korea in Paris. The Americans had only just arrived in France that day so, perhaps not surprisingly, they are straining at the leash to get started.

“Excitement would be the best word to describe where I am personally and where our players are,” United States Coach Jill Ellis said Thursday at her prematch news conference. “I think when the tournament kicks off and you watch the games, the anticipation for your first match grows. So I think the players are ready, excited, hungry.”

[For the U.S. and its coach, a low-key start to a high-stakes month.]

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buddyrabrahams · 7 years ago

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15 best moments of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang are in the books. Norway led the way in the medal count, bringing home 38 in total. Germany, including a surprising silver by their men’s hockey team, was next, and the U.S. was fourth with 23 medals.

From start to finish, there were shocking moments, controversies, messages of hope and peace, and some of the greatest athletic feats in the history of mankind.

Here’s a look at the 15 best moments from the 2018 Games:

15. North Korea and South Korea unite during opening ceremonies

Much was made over the North Koreans and South Koreans finding enough common ground so that both could compete in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. And while some of it may have been political posturing, at least for one brief moment, the two sides found peace and marched proudly under one flag during the opening ceremonies. It was in stark contrast to the 1988 Games held in Seoul, where the North Koreans not only refused to compete, but carried out a terrorist attack on a South Korean jetliner 10 months prior to the opening ceremonies. And considering North Korea could be seen from the mountain slopes in the Gangwon Province, it was particularly symbolic — a memorable and hopeful way to open the games.

14. Nathan Chen’s remarkable comeback

Nathan Chen arrived in South Korea with high expectations. Unfortunately, Chen got off to what he called a “disastrous” start, as he fell and failed to land several tricks in both the team skate and short program. The struggles prevented Chen from landing his planned jump competition and all but eliminated him from medal contention. But with no quit in him, Chen returned to the ice and promptly made history, landing six quadruple jumps, which had never before been done in the Olympics. And while it wasn’t enough for Chen to medal, it catapulted him from 17th place to fifth place.

“I felt accomplished despite the short programs,” Chen told PEOPLE. “And part of me was disappointed because I had laid down such a great long program and also such a terrible short program, they [wouldn’t] really match up and I [wouldn’t] be able to make that podium spot.”

13. Lindsey Vonn ends Olympic career with bronze, tears

Vonn, 33, is arguably the greatest female Alpine skier in American history, but as her body breaks down, it is believed 2018 will be her final opportunity to compete at the Olympic level. And while skiing in front of her family and in memory of her grandfather, a Korean War veteran who died several months ago, Vonn took home one final medal — a bronze in the downhill. She then gave an emotional interview.

“It’s been really hard for me not to get emotional for so many reasons, especially because of my grandfather,” Vonn told NBC in a post-race interview. “I wanted to win so much because of him, but I still think I made him proud. Our family never gives up, and I never gave up. I kept working hard, and I am really proud of this medal, and I know he is, too.”

Vonn then spread some of her grandfather’s ashes on the slopes so that a part of him would “always remain in South Korea.”

12. Yuzuru Hanyu wins back-to-back golds in men’s figure skating

Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu won gold in Sochi, but after injuring his ankle in November, there was some concern that he may not have been able to compete in PyeongChang. His recovery took longer than most had expected, and Hanyu had only begun landing his triple axel roughly three weeks ago, and his quads two weeks ago. But when it came time to compete, Hanyu was perfect, earning a score of 317.85. He won back-to-back gold medals for the first time since Dick Button in 1948 and 1952. Hanyu also became only the fourth skater to win back-to-back golds in Winter Olympics history.

11. Chloe Kim lands back-to-back 1080s

History was the theme in PyeongChang, and snowboarder Chloe Kim carved out a piece of her own. The 17-year-old became the first ever Olympian to land back-to-back 1080s during her women’s halfpipe final run. The irony of her record-setting performance was that she had already secured a gold medal prior to the final run, and her third run meant very little in the grand scheme of things. But she instead decided to save her best for last and wowed the world with a never-before-seen performance, earning a score of 98.25.

“Going into my third run I knew that I was taking home the gold,” Kim told the New York Times. “But I just knew that I wasn’t going to be completely satisfied taking home the gold and knowing that I could have done better.”

Kim leaves PyeongChang as one of the most popular US athletes, and she is well-positioned to capitalize on her newfound fame.

10. Red Gerard goes classic teenager before winning gold

17-year-old Red Gerard and his family became internet sensations during the 2018 Winter Olympics, and he capped off his newfound fame with a pair of gold medals to boot. But he didn’t go viral because of his impressive snowboarding performances, but rather, because he’s a typical teenager, and that showed through during competition. Gerard overslept the morning of his first gold medal run, having fallen asleep watching an episode of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” on Netflix the night prior. In a rush, he also lost his jacket and was forced to borrow that of his snowboarding teammate, Kyle Mack. Meanwhile, 17 members of his family were dominating Snapchat with videos of them shotgunning beer in preparation for Gerard’s run. Then, after failing during his first two slopestyle runs, he nailed his third run and became the first American of the Games to take home a gold medal. Shocked by the victory, Gerard shouted a memorable expletive on TV.

9. American men win curling gold for first time ever

Out of the gate, the U.S. men’s curling team struggled and didn’t appear poised to compete for a gold medal. However, they rebounded and completed a remarkable and stunning 10-7 upset of Sweden in the gold medal match. It was the first time in history that American men won a gold medal in curling, and it was made all the more remarkable given the hole they had to climb out from.

“We’ve played our best when our backs were up against the wall,” U.S. vice Tyler George told NPR. “We took it to another level this week. Usually we’re fighting and scrapping to get into the playoffs but for five days we were the best team in the world and we did it at the right time.”

In a strange twist of fate, the curling team was then awarded the women’s curling gold medals by accident. But even that wasn’t enough to diminish the elation felt by the Americans, who apparently still have a ways to go before they truly reach celebrity status.

8. Rachel Homan’s husband nervously double-fists beer at 9 a.m.

Not every remarkable or memorable moment at the 2018 Olympics Winter Games happened during competition. In fact, Shawn Germain, the husband of Canadian curler Rachel Homan, stole the show when he was spotted nervously double-fisting his third and fourth beers during his wife’s 9 a.m. competition. Although most found the morning drinking amusing and understood the nerves, others were heavily critical. Germain took the high road.

“You can judge all you want. The stress level is high, I’m not a drunk, I’m just Canadian,” Germain said in a since deleted tweet.

Two amusing beer stories at one Olympic Games is a win for the world.

7. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un impersonators steal attention

With tension between the U.S. and North Korea at an all-time high, two brilliant impersonators brought a little levity to the situation in PyeongChang. During opening ceremonies, the Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un lookalikes wowed the crowd and even had some people fooled. Unfortunately, they were both eventually booted from the opening event, but later returned during some of the competitions. Both Howard X, a Hong Kong-based entertainer, and Dennis Alan, a Chicago-based musician, said their presence was not politically motivated and merely served to entertain.

“I don’t use my likeness as Donald Trump to make any kind of political statement,” Alan told USA TODAY. “I realize it is a fine line because I am a lookalike of a political figure. My motivation is to provide entertainment and to make people laugh.”

Mission absolutely accomplished.

6. Shaun White makes Olympic history en route to gold medal

Entering the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, no person had ever won three gold medals in the snowboarding halfpipe. Then came Shaun White. The world famous White, a dominant American snowboarder and extreme sports legend, bested the field with a 97.75 score en route to that never before won third snowboarding halfpipe gold medal.

“I started seeing everyone putting these great runs in and I figured I would step it up,” White told NBC Sports. “They motivated me to send it on that last one.”

After his disappointing performance in Sochi, in which he finished fourth and failed to medal, it was all about redemption and history for White, just as another extremely accomplished Olympian noted.

5. Mexican cross-country skier finishes last, carried off like a winner

German Madrazo first put on a pair of cross-country skis last year. This year, he finished last at the 2018 Winter Olympics Games, crossing the finish line 26 minutes behind the overall winner. But that finish felt like a gold medal performance to Madrazo, everyone watching, and everyone he had just competed against. Skiers from Colombia, Tonga, Morocco, Portugal and other countries all awaited Madrazo as he made strides towards the finish line, grinning ear-to-ear with a Mexican flag raised high and proud above his head. He was then picked up and carried off like Rudy with the whole crowd cheering. It was a truly great and memorable moment that is not soon to be forgotten.

4. Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were electric

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir opened the 2018 Winter Olympic Games as flag-bearers for Canada, but that was just the beginning of what would turn out to be a dream. They broke their own world-record in the short dance en route to a gold medal, but their performance was so captivating that onlookers began to wonder about their remarkable chemistry. Carrying that chemistry over, they then went on to earn a gold medal in the ice dance competition as part of Team Canada.

“It felt so exhilarating to have delivered that performance,” Virtue told PEOPLE. “I kept looking at Scott and say ‘Did we really just do that?’ It was such a special moment to share together. The momentum just kept building, beginning to end, and the crowd was electric. It was 20 years in the making.”

Virtue later got a shoutout from Ryan Reynolds on Twitter, while Moir caught viral attention for his beer-swilling, emotional roller coaster during a Canadian hockey game.

3. Aliona Savchenko, Bruno Massot earn highest ever score in pairs skating

Aliona Savchenko has competed in five Winter Olympic Games with three partners and representing two different countries. Never before had she won gold until Bruno Massot came in for the assist. But the duo didn’t just win gold, they dominated with the highest-ever score in pairs skating. Performing to music by Armand Amar, the duo earned a record-breaking 159.31 points, bringing their total to 235.90 points and moving them from fourth place to first place and a gold medal.

“Today I wrote history,” Savchenko told NBC Sports. “This is what counts. It is my moment. We celebrated new year together and we said 2018 will be our year and it became our year.”

“I got the gold medal in my head. Yesterday I said I don’t want her to come back with another bronze medal. She deserved this gold medal,” Massot added.

2. U.S. women’s hockey team wins thrilling gold

With no NHL players competing in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, expectations weren’t very high for the U.S. men’s team. And in the midst of a 20-year gold medal drought, expectations were tempered for the U.S. women’s team. But the latter went on to make history and did so with some of the most intense drama the Olympics has ever seen. Going up against their fierce Canadian rivals, the women’s U.S. team battled tooth and nail in an increasingly stressful game that eventually pushed its way into overtime and then a shootout. Even the shootout eventually needed some additional shots to settle things, and came to a conclusion when Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson triple-faked her way to a goal and goalie Maddie Rooney blocked the final Canadian shot.

“The greatest day of all of our lives,” U.S. captain Meghan Duggan told USA TODAY.

Making the celebration that much more amazing was the fact that the greatest win in women’s U.S. hockey history came on the 38-year anniversary of the men’s “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union in Lake Placid.

1. Ester Ledecka shocks world, wins super-G

Ester Ledecka entered the 2018 Winter Olympic Games as a two-sport athlete who was considered a long-shot (at best) to medal in the skiing super-G. Even Ledecka herself didn’t expect to reach the podium, which makes her remarkable 0.01-second victory that much more shocking. After her run, which came using the skis of Mikaela Shiffrin, Ledecka stared in disbelief at the scoreboard as everyone everywhere erupted in screams and applause. Her mouth remained agape as she struggled to understand what had just happened. It was, for all intents and purposes, one of the greatest Olympic upsets of all-time.

“I was thinking, ‘OK, they’re going to change the time. I’m going to wait for a little bit, and they’re going to switch and put some more seconds on,'” Ledecka told USA TODAY. “I was just staring at the board and nothing was happening. Everybody was screaming and I just started to think about, ‘OK, this is weird. Why do they scream?'”

But the scoring change never came. Much to her surprise, and just about everyone around the world, Ledecka had won gold, and she celebrated in a funny way. As it turns out, that was just the start for her in PyeongChang.

After her remarkable super-G victory, Ledecka returned to her primary sport and went on to win the snowboard parallel giant slalom. That victory etched her name in history forever as she became the first woman to ever win gold medals in two sports during the same Olympic Games.

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yes-dal456 · 8 years ago

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America’s Health Is In The Hands Of GOP Frat Boys

This just in: Health care is not a game. It’s a matter life or death for millions and millions of Americans. But you sure wouldn’t know it from watching Donald Trump and House Republicans celebrate their narrow victory on Thursday.

The House managed to pass a bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), aimed at altering or eradicating provisions of Obamacare, a somewhat muted version of the “repeal and replace” battle cry screamed throughout the election campaign but one that nevertheless will still devastate all but the richest of society with exorbitant medical costs that many cannot afford. Medicaid would be slashed by hundreds of millions. Twenty-four million fewer would be left without health insurance.

But the Republicans celebrated this impending tragedy with cheers on Capitol Hill and then got on buses to the White House for some further revelry in the Rose Garden.

“Trump basked in adulation as lawmakers heaped praise on him,” Ashley Parker reported in The Washington Post:

“… Including Trump and [vice president Mike] Pence, a dozen lawmakers and officials spoke, a snaking queue ― nearly all white men ― who took turns stepping to the lectern to claim their reward: cable news coverage, orchestrated by a president who values it above almost all else.”

Trump shouted, “How am I doing? I’m president. Hey, I’m president. Can you believe it?” Not if I don’t want to. It all felt like a chintzy version of the victory party after a high school football championship, except no one dared douse Coach Trump or assistant coaches Pence and Paul Ryan with Gatorade. Which was unfortunate.

Democrats got into the act, too, singing, “Hey hey hey, goodbye!” at the Republicans in the House chamber, reminding the GOP that they had just cast a vote that may cost many of them their seats in the 2018 midterms.

The whole thing was very classy, as if the Founders high-fived, fist-bumped and burst into “We Are the Champions” after signing the Declaration of Independence.

The fact is, few Republicans have even read the bill. They did not wait for a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office before ramming it through. No hearings were held; no group was given the opportunity to raise its objections in such a public forum: no American Cancer Society, AARP, the March of Dimes, the American Hospital Association — all of which, along with many other professional and advocacy organizations, have made their opposition known. No American Medical Association, which announced, “millions of Americans will lose their health insurance as a direct result of this proposal...”

“Not only would the AHCA eliminate health insurance coverage for millions of Americans, the legislation would, in many cases, eliminate the ban against charging those with underlying medical conditions vastly more for their coverage.”

But if you’re looking for the real reasons Republicans were throwing themselves a frat party on Thursday, heed first the words of Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association of the United States:

“It is critically important to look at this bill for what it is. It is not in any way a health care bill. Rather, it is legislation whose aim is to take significant funding allocated by Congress for health care for very low-income people and use that money for tax cuts for some of our wealthiest citizens. This is contrary to the spirit of who we are as a nation, a giant step backward that should be resisted.”

Then remember, as Paul Kane noted in The Post, that the GOP “viewed the measure as a necessary step to demonstrate some sense of momentum and some ability to govern in GOP-controlled Washington... inside the White House, President Trumps advisers became increasingly concerned about how little they had to show in terms of early victories.”

And so they were willing to vote for a lousy, misbegotten piece of legislation just so they could get the first round of tax cuts for the rich and to make it look as if they had accomplished something. Not exactly the Age of Pericles..

I remembered that old poem, After Blenheim, in which Robert Southey recounts the 1704 battle in which Britain’s Duke of Marlborough (ancestor of Winston Churchill) defeated the forces of France’s Louis XIV.

The poem concludes:

“And everybody praised the Duke

Who this great fight did win.

‘But what good came of it at last?’

Quoth little Peterkin.

‘Why that I cannot tell,’ said he,

‘But ’twas a famous victory.’”

Never confuse motion for action, Republicans. And your “famous” victory may be Pyrrhic. Fortunately, this horrible health care legislation has a long way to go through the Senate before Donald Trump gets the chance to affix his EKG-like signature. As South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted yesterday, “A bill — finalized yesterday, has not been scored, amendments not allowed, and 3 hours final debate — should be viewed with caution.”

Perhaps the most relevant — if unintentional — comment came from Trump himself Thursday night when he told Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, “You have better health care than we do.” The Land Down Under has universal health care with a private insurance option. They call it Medicare.

If the Democrats don’t immediately start playing Trump’s statement on a constant video loop between now and November 2018, they’ve lost the will to live. The White House said Trump didn’t mean anything by it (although he then doubled down on his words with a tweet) but if you’re in the mood to have a celebration of your own, lift a glass to what he told the Australian PM and make a toast to blowing up this bogus health care reform bill and giving us what Americans truly need — Medicare for all.

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imreviewblog · 8 years ago

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America’s Health Is In The Hands Of GOP Frat Boys

But the Republicans celebrated this impending tragedy with cheers on Capitol Hill and then got on buses to the White House for some further revelry in the Rose Garden.

“Trump basked in adulation as lawmakers heaped praise on him,” Ashley Parker reported in The Washington Post:

The whole thing was very classy, as if the Founders high-fived, fist-bumped and burst into “We Are the Champions” after signing the Declaration of Independence.

The poem concludes:

“And everybody praised the Duke

Who this great fight did win.

‘But what good came of it at last?’

Quoth little Peterkin.

‘Why that I cannot tell,’ said he,

‘But ’twas a famous victory.’”

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