3 LEAPS 3 SALTOS

 

Sonny Rollins Alfie's Theme 1973

 

Sonny Rollins: Tenor Sax. Bob Cranshaw: Bass Yoshiaki Masuo: Guitar Walter Davis Jr:Piano Davis Lee: Drums

Will teams fear the five-time champions?

"Their first-half performance here was genuinely appalling. Roger Ibanez, a centre-back who plays in Saudi Arabia, was completely adrift at right-back and replaced at half-time. Casemiro and Bruno Guimaraes looked like they were wading through treacle. Igor Thiago, a surprise selection up front, fluffed his one half chance and barely touched the ball. There was no pattern to the play. They scored in the only way they were ever going to score, via a slice of individual magic from Vinicius Jr."

read more> 

Brazil struggle in World Cup draw with Morocco: Will teams fear the five-time champions? - The Athletic

Revista elege filmes mais românticos de todos os tempos

 

 

A revista americana “Variety”, referência em cinema e cultura pop reuniu os 50 filmes mais românticos de todos os tempos" 

Revista elege filmes mais românticos de todos os tempos; veja lista e saiba ao que assistir no Dia dos Namorados – Canal do Madeira

Por falar em Santo Antonio...

 

MARIO BAGG

Seleção brasileira, uma namorada antiga

 

 

Luis Curro

 

12 de junho. Dia dos Namorados. Data muito celebrada pelos casais românticos, pelos pares apaixonados. Jantares especiais, presentes inolvidáveis, declarações poéticas. "Love is in the air", cantou pela primeira vez em 1977 o escocês-australiano John Paul Young.

Neste início de Copa do Mundo, faz-se necessário registrar que meu namoro com a seleção brasileira é antigo. Começou em 1982, quando, garotinho, apaixonei-me pela equipe comandada por Telê Santana e formada por craques da estirpe de Zico, Sócrates, Falcão e Júnior.

Cheia de ginga e vivacidade, eu já imaginava o nosso casamento. Só que a eliminação dramática diante da Itália resultou em rompimento. Com tamanha dor não dava para continuar. Era preciso sofrer silenciosa e solitariamente.

Tristeza na Copa da Espanha em 1982: Éder, sem camisa, e Luisinho no gramado do Sarriá depois da derrota da seleção para a Itália -   Jorge Araújo - 5.jul.82/Folhapress

A versão de 1986, novamente com Telê, e com Sócrates, e com Zico (em recuperação de lesão), e com Júnior, e com Falcão (na reserva), era uma continuação, ainda garbosa, da de 1982. Não foi difícil voltar a flertar e a reatar o namoro.

Um reatamento promissor, com Careca brilhando na frente, Josimar gratíssima surpresa na lateral direita –justamente na posição em que agora a seleção não tem ninguém– e uma defesa que remetia ao hino do Palmeiras, "ninguém passa", zero gol sofrido em quatro jogos.

Até que veio a França, uma intrometida que reapareceria depois um par de vezes. Estraga-prazeres, estraga-namoro.

Mesmo quando se gosta muito, e eu gostava muito mesmo da seleção, a relação pode começar a ficar desgastada se os finalmentes não chegam. No caso da Copa, eles são a conquista da taça.

Todo o encanto e a empolgação são ótimos, mas, se falta o principal, o continuar gostando torna-se árduo. Decepções castigam o namoro.

Pior é se, faltando o prato principal, nem o aperitivo é bom. A partir de 1990, meu compromisso com a seleção existiu, porém sem o fascínio de outrora.

Lazaroni, naquela Copa de eliminação ante a Argentina de Maradona, e Parreira, na seguinte, de vitória nos pênaltis após um 0 a 0 na final diante da Itália de Baggio, destruíram o futebol-arte, o maior atributo que a namorada oferecia.

Até houve bons momentos, o ápice em 2002, com maravilhas oferecidas pelos Ronaldos e Rivaldo, para depois o "não estou nem aí" da seleção ganhar contornos impensáveis. As DRs intensificaram-se.

Pisadas de bola minam a sedução, enfeiam a formosura. No entanto, a esperança que insiste em não morrer, aliada à expectativa que parece eterna do "agora será como antes", reata novamente o namoro.

O que a seleção oferece em contrapartida? Arrumada de meião (2006), pisão e expulsão (2010), humilhação (2014), cai-cai (2018), desatenção (2022). Fatalidades? Tantas? Erros. Evitáveis.

Azedou de vez. Tentei, quis ir além do namoro. Casamento, contudo, é coisa séria. E quando a descrença supera o desejo, não tem jeito.

esta vez, a seleção não será minha namorada. Continuo fiel a ela, jamais estarei com outras, por encantadoras e deslumbrantes que sejam. Mas insistir nesse namoro soa como dar murro em ponta de faca. Masoquismo.

Não consigo por ora voltar a me declarar, e este Dia dos Namorados passo sem ela. A paixão ressurgirá durante a Copa? A flechada do cupido terá de ser possante. Profundamente.

FOLHA

 

 

 

 

 

Brasil não é favorito, mas está longe de ser azarão

 

 

 

Marcelo Bechler

O Brasil não chega como favorito. Simples. Não fizemos um bom ciclo —nem em resultados, nem em desempenho. Nossos principais jogadores não conseguiram encaixar e formar uma equipe. Há esperança e também desconfiança de que Neymar chegue a tempo de nos salvar. O Brasil não é favorito, mas tampouco é azarão. Chegaremos em um bolo de seleções incompletas, em um torneio de oito jogos, sendo cinco mata-matas, que permitirá surpresas e times de ocasião chegando longe.

Quem fez o dever de casa e se organizou para entrar na Copa colocando medo foram Portugal, Espanha e França. Em teoria, a Argentina também, em que eu confio menos. As três seleções anteriores têm jogadores de sobra, formas de jogar bem consolidadas e foram testadas e aprovadas recentemente.

A Espanha aposta no controle de jogo com muita técnica desde os zagueiros, meio-campistas que não te deixam tocar na bola e dois atacantes de improviso, 1 vs 1 e capacidade de decisão. O que pesa contra é que justamente estes dois, Nico Williams e Lamine Yamal, chegam lesionados e não possuem substitutos à altura. A Espanha precisará recuperar seu melhor jogo já com a Copa em andamento.

Portugal e França possuem um misto de força, técnica e pragmatismo que pode levá-los longe, mesmo com os times dando a sensação de que jogam menos do que poderiam. Foi assim na Euro de 2024, quando a França foi até a semifinal com quatro gols em seis jogos, três empates, duas vitórias e uma derrota. Portugal caiu nas quartas de final para a França após 120 minutos de 0 x 0. Nas oitavas, também empatou sem gols com a Eslovênia, mas acabou avançando. A aposta é em solidez defensiva e que os ótimos jogadores de meio e ataque sejam capazes de desbloquear os jogos.

A Argentina vem a seguir, com apenas quatro derrotas desde 2023, título da Copa América e soberania nas Eliminatórias. As questões que geram desconfiança são o ciclo festivo, evitando amistosos com seleções mais fortes, e o baixo nível de jogo na Copa América de 2024. Messi segue sendo o ponto de desequilíbrio, mas, com 39 anos (irá completar dia 24), não se pode esperar o mesmo dele.

Depois dessas seleções (e todas elas têm pontos negativos relevantes), nenhuma é melhor que a do Brasil. Alemanha e Inglaterra estão num estágio parecido ao nosso: sofrem com instabilidade técnica, trabalho pouco desenvolvido pelos treinadores e muito tempo sem resultados. Holanda, Japão, Marrocos, Equador, Bélgica e Noruega vêm em um terceiro escalão: bons times, sem hierarquia dos outros, capazes de eliminar um grande em um bom dia e cair para alguém pior em um dia ruim.

O Brasil entra em desvantagem em relação a três ou quatro seleções, em igualdade com outras duas e à frente das demais. Nos falta consolidar a forma de jogar, que os jogadores estejam confortáveis no esquema montado e que ele potencialize os protagonistas Raphinha e Vinicius.

O que joga a favor é que o melhor técnico da Copa treina a nossa seleção. Com três semanas de treinos, o nível de jogo pode evoluir. Durante o Mundial, Carlo Ancelotti pode fazer esse time ganhar confiança e os jogadores se sentirem melhor. Caso os favoritos avancem em primeiro de seus grupos, o adversário mais difícil até a semifinal será a Inglaterra —um time também em formação. Se o Brasil avançar, é porque o time terá melhorado e poderá enfrentar as seleções mais dominantes nos dois confrontos finais.

Não sou ufanista, mas também não compartilho do apocalipse em torno da seleção.

FOLHA 

 

 

preto & brancos | black & whites

 

So queria uma boneca

MIGUEL PAIVA 

 

Lenine & Maria Bethânia - Foto de Familia

 

Feito um cheiro que destrava uma lembrança boa
Tem coisa assim que não se ensina
A foto que tem cheiro de tão nítida
Ressoa tudo que a memória descortina
E vira inundação por dentro
Que só cresce, cresce, cresce
Contamina no dilúvio bem-vindo da humanidade
O amor é uma espécie de vacina

4 X Minha Casa

Paulinho da Viola - Peregrino (Noca da Portela - in memoriam)

 

Ninguém vive feliz se não puder falar
E a palavra mais linda é a que faz cantar
Todo samba, no fundo, é um canto de amor

A war that may have been a tactical success for the U.S., but is a strategic failure

 

JEFFREY ST CLAIR>

+ The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner is almost always this interesting, but guys from the Atlantic Council usually aren’t. In this interview, Danny Citrinowicz provides a very clear-eyed assessment of the Iran War, documenting Trump’s repeated blunders and the reconstituted Iranian regime’s come-from-behind win. Here are some of Citrinowicz’s key observations:

“We have to remember what happened on February 28th—that Israel and the United States launched this campaign to topple the regime. In fact, they ended up strengthening it. Opening the Strait is not an achievement, since its closing was a by-product of the war itself. The Iranians are going to get some money, and sanctions relief may come after the deal is signed, too. If they don’t get money from this, they won’t do it. So, in that regard, what we’re facing right now is a war that may have been a tactical success for the U.S., but is a strategic failure.”

“I have to tell you something about the Iranian regime: They’re feeling so much in the driver’s seat that they’re not going to forgo anything. They have reached their limitations when it comes to compromising, and that’s where we are right now.”

“[Trump] should have stopped the war after three days…he should have stopped the war and offered to negotiate. There was no purpose after that. After three days, we all knew that there was not going to be any regime change in Iran. So why continue the war? Stop the war, say you won, negotiate on nuclear, capitalize on the fact that they are in disarray, and try to reach an agreement. Now? Now it’s a catastrophe!”

“[Trump] didn’t have any strategy, any plan, any anything. There were also none of the right experts in the room. Instead, there were people saying, You can do this, you can do that, telling Trump lies. Look at the blockade. How pathetic is his blockade? You should have done it before, not after. Who thought that this blockade would make Iran capitulate? Come on! You don’t know the Iranians. It was obvious it wasn’t going to work.”

“a collapse of the Israeli doctrine regarding Iran. Not only a defeat, not only a fiasco. A collapse. Look at what Netanyahu promised this whole time. He said, Just give me the opportunity to attack Iran. And he got it, twice. He got the U.S. beside him with all that power, the satellites, the air force, everything, and what have we got? A more radicalized regime that can rush into a nuclear bomb and still have a conventional missile capacity. It’s a shit show because at the end of the day, everything that Netanyahu promised failed miserably. And now Senator Lindsey Graham is talking about normalization. Come on. How can you be this disconnected from the situation in the Middle East? Israel is perceived as more of a threat than Iran by some countries after this. How are you going to have an agreement while Israel is annexing the West Bank?”

“Leaving the nuclear deal with Iran was one of the greatest strategic mistakes of the twenty-first century, and maybe would qualify as one of the biggest of the twentieth century as well, if you were to include it. Look, it wasn’t an optimal agreement, but it had certain virtues, and the worst thing was that the U.S. actually left the agreement with no counter-strategy. And Iran has learned so much since the U.S. left the agreement, especially on enrichment.”

 

COUNTERPUNCH 

 

“Keep the Game Beautiful”: Why ICE Crackdown & FIFA Greed Could Spoil the World Cup

 

"I think a lot of the story is about Donald Trump, and he wants it to be about him. We have to also make it about how communities are welcoming these teams. Here in Philadelphia, Ivory Coast played a free game to the public, so that their fans could see. And their fans can’t come from their home country. And it was packed at the Philadelphia Union Stadium. Folks in Virginia, Ghana — you know, the diaspora from Ghana welcomed the Ghana team with traditional instruments. People in New Jersey are welcoming Morocco and supporting them. We have to — we have to also show that people are celebrating right now."

 read the interview with NERMEEN SHAIKH:

“Keep the Game Beautiful”: Why ICE Crackdown & FIFA Greed Could Spoil the World Cup | Democracy Now!

Nemanja Radulović & Nataša Grujić & Friends - Makedonsko Devoćje | Podium Klassiek

Sonny Rollins & Thelonius Monk - The way you look tonight (Jerome Kern)

 IN MEMORIAM SONNY ROLLINS

 

Impertinencias

GUABIRAS

THIAGO LUCAS

AMORIM

 FRAGA

Noca Da Portela - País dos Sem (in memoriam)

 

eu to vivendo no pais do sem
sem emprego para trabalhar
sem dinheiro pras contas pagar
sem justiça pra justiticar
sem transporte para viajar
sem esperança
e sem sonho pra sonhar

4 X Paquetá

 

Our writers’ World Cup 2026 predictions

Winners? Breakthrough player? Best host nation? Shocks?

 

There are just a few days to go until the 2026 World Cup kicks off in Mexico City. We’ve been through team analysis, stadium guides and player profiles, and now it’s time for our writers to give us their predictions for the six-week extravaganza of soccer.

The men to watch, the games not to miss, the surprises, the shocks, and how the three host nations — the United States, Mexico and Canada — will get on. Eleven of our writers have their say.

  By Oliver Kay, Carl Anka, Elias Burke, Tamerra Griffin, Henry Bushnell, Joshua Kloke, Melanie Anzidei, Paul Tenorio, Felipe Cardenas, Jack Lang and James Horncastle

 

Marjane Satrapi, Artist and Author of ‘Persepolis,’ Dies at 56

 

 

 “Persepolis,” the author Fernanda Eberstadt wrote in a New York Times review of the book, “dances with drama and insouciant wit,” its inky black-and-white drawings modeled on contemporary comics and Persian miniatures.

read obit By Amelia Nierenberg and Ségolène Le Stradic

 

Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo' - Diving Duck Blues

Honey, if the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck

Ooh y'all, I'd dive upon the bottom, honey, and I'd never come up 

3 X Ceu & Mar

 

Pink Floyd - Money (in memoriam Dick Parry)

 

Cabiria

 

Copa de Trump não gosta das pessoas

 

 

 

Fifa cumprirá nos Estados Unidos mais uma etapa de seu flerte com o autoritarismo

Por Carlos Eduardo Mansur

 

 

A partir de quinta-feira, quando começarem os jogos, as imagens serão replicadas mundo afora: multidões reunidas, cenas de delírio ou decepção. As pessoas amam a Copa do Mundo. Pena que estamos às vésperas de uma Copa do Mundo que não ama as pessoas. Após a teocracia catari, a falsa democracia russa e antes do encontro marcado para 2034 com a sanguinária ditadura saudita, a Fifa cumprirá nos Estados Unidos mais uma etapa de seu flerte com o autoritarismo. Já se foi o tempo em que nos chocávamos com a falta de pudor com que a dona do futebol mundial impunha suas regras a quem era agraciado com a chance de receber a Copa. Desta vez, vemos como nunca antes a Fifa curvada a um governo. A Copa acontece sob as regras de Trump, ainda que o preço seja todo tipo de constrangimento possível imposto ao que orgulhosamente a entidade chama de “família do futebol”.

Não é preciso fechar os olhos à tirania do regime iraniano para se estarrecer com o fato de que, pela primeira vez, um país vai sediar um Mundial enquanto bombardeia uma nação visitante. É verdade que a agressão ao Irã foi posterior ao infame Prêmio da Paz criado por Infantino para bajular Trump. Mas, àquela altura, o regime americano já bombardeava embarcações no Caribe, ameaçava anexar a Groenlândia, prometia ações militares em diversos pontos das Américas e espalhava focos de tensão onde quer que visse seus interesses contrariados. O sorteio dos grupos da Copa fez o futebol servir de palco à constrangedora cerimônia em que Infantino deu um troféu de consolação ao presidente que falhara em sua campanha de autopromoção ao Prêmio Nobel da Paz.

Agora, a contagem regressiva para a Copa vê o futebol refém da política de Trump. A Fifa se vê incapaz de proteger seu torneio, a isonomia esportiva ou a dignidade dos participantes para conservar laços políticos e econômicos com Trump. A única condição para que a seleção iraniana dispute o torneio é uma aberração esportiva: o time ficará concentrado no México, jogará suas partidas nos Estados Unidos, mas não poderá pernoitar no país. Ou seja, terá que viajar e regressar à sua base no mesmo dia dos jogos. Enquanto isso, um jogador iraquiano passou sete horas retido na imigração ao desembarcar para a Copa. Jornalistas do Irã e de diversos países da África, embora credenciados pela Fifa, tiveram vistos negados.

Recente reportagem do site The Athletic apontou a decepção do setor hoteleiro americano com a demanda por quartos. A vilã é a política migratória de Trump e a sensação, corroborada por organismos como a Anistia Internacional e o Human Rights Watch, de que esta pode não ser uma Copa segura para visitantes. Na quinta-feira, o Mundial começa num país que impôs o banimento de entrada a cidadãos de quatro países que disputam o torneio: Irã, Senegal, Haiti e Costa do Marfim. Além disso, torcedores que quisessem sair de Argélia, Cabo Verde ou Tunísia enfrentavam exigências como o pagamento de cauções que podiam chegar a US$ 15 mil por pessoa.

Infantino e a Fifa silenciaram diante das políticas divisivas, das extradições e da violência contra imigrantes, das ameaças de intervenções militares e demais atrocidades do governo americano. E repetem o gesto enquanto obstáculos são impostos para que torcedores assistam ao maior evento de futebol do planeta, ou enquanto o Irã adiava seu embarque durante a interminável espera por um visto: sinal de uma entidade acuada em seus agrados a um chefe de estado imprevisível, como cartada para evitar ainda mais danos à Copa. Há um ano, Trump dividiu o pódio com os jogadores do Chelsea na mais embaraçosa cena do Mundial de Clubes. Na Copa do Mundo, a sensação é que o espaço dado a Trump será aquele que ele decidir ocupar.

GLOBO

History says 1 of these 5 teams will win the 2026 World Cup

 

 By Dan Santaromita

Despite its 96-year history, the World Cup is an event with a limited number of data points. After all, it’s a quadrennial event that missed two editions due to World War II. With just 22 men’s World Cups to date, it’s still a young event in terms of total tournaments.

That simply means there are a number of consistent trends among winning teams that we can use to try to project who could win the 2026 World Cup. Let’s apply those common traits among previous winners to narrow down the 48-team field and see which teams are still left standing.

Before starting, a caveat. The most obvious common trait for projecting a winner is to pick among the previous winners. Only eight countries have ever won a World Cup. One of them, Italy, did not qualify for 2026, and Uruguay, which won two of the first four World Cups, is a long shot this year. The other six (Brazil, Germany, England, Argentina, France, Spain) are all among the top seven spots in the betting odds to win the biggest event for the world’s game.

This could be a quick and lazy endeavor where that one trait is applied, and then we say one of those six teams is likely to win it this year. While it is very likely that one of those six countries wins this World Cup, I’m going to resist that urge and pretend to be open-minded that there could be a first-time winner this year.

No country from outside Europe or South America has ever won a World Cup

Teams eliminated: 26, including the United States, Mexico, Canada, Morocco

This immediately cuts many teams, including all three hosts. This stat goes beyond World Cup wins; it also extends to simply making it to the final. Thirteen different nations have competed in a World Cup final: 10 from Europe and three from South America.

Even as far as semifinals go, only three times has a country from outside the two dominant continents made it: the United States back in the original World Cup in 1930, South Korea as co-hosts in 2002 and Morocco at the last World Cup. Morocco has emerged as an improving national team, winning the 2025 Under-20 World Cup, taking bronze at the 2024 Olympics and making the quarterfinals at the last two U-17 World Cups since that 2022 run. The Atlas Lions could break this streak at some point, but they’re still long shots for this year.

Host countries do have a strong record at World Cups, with six wins. Four host countries won their first World Cup on home soil, but none of them were complete surprise winners. That brings us to the next trend.

No country with an Elo Rating outside the top 17 entering a World Cup has ever won one

Teams eliminated: Paraguay, Austria, Scotland, Czechia, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Elo Ratings are famous from the chess world and can be applied to national teams, even retroactively. Whatever you think of the FIFA World Rankings, they have only been around since 1992. The Elo Ratings can be traced back to the first World Cup and show that the World Cup has historically not been kind to underdogs, especially those not hosting.

The lowest Elo Rating of a World Cup winner entering the tournament was Uruguay at 17 in 1950. Uruguay winning in Brazil is one of the most famous upsets in World Cup history.

Extending the cutoff to 17 is being kind. Uruguay is the only winner outside the top 15, and 15 of the 22 winners ranked inside the top four.

Mexico (currently at 19 in the world), Morocco (24), Canada (25) and the United States (all the way down at 36) would all have fallen off here even if they weren’t eliminated in the first category.

No European team has won the World Cup without having multiple Ballon d’Or winners

Teams eliminated: Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey

It makes sense that countries that produce the best players in the world also have successful teams.

The Ballon d’Or, first given out in 1956, was only awarded to players from Europe until 1995, so it’s not fair to apply this to South American teams (though Brazil and Argentina have combined for 13 wins in the 30 times the award has been handed out since).

Winning a World Cup tends to lead to a Ballon d’Or win (seven out of the 11 times when a winning team has had eligible players), but this rule still applies without those instances.

Of European countries, France has the most different players to win the award with six. Germany and Italy have five different winners, England has four and the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have three each, as does the former Soviet Union (one Russian, two Ukrainians).

No team has won a World Cup with a foreign-born manager

Teams eliminated: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, England, Portugal, Uruguay

To be honest, this stat is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The countries that are the best at the sport tend to have more qualified managers and have a tendency of being prideful in hiring one of their own. There is an undeniable correlation, but it’s harder to argue causality.

Would other foreign managers have been able to win with some of the squads that won World Cups in the past? Probably, but it’s also a pretty good stat.

When Brazil hired Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti, and England hired German manager Thomas Tuchel, this was part of the discussion. It’s harsh to hold it against a team for having Ancelotti, one of the most accomplished managers in the sport. This is a stat that will eventually come to an end, but for this exercise, we’re going to say it goes on for at least another four years.

Portugal is led by Spaniard Roberto Martínez while Colombia (Néstor Lorenzo), Ecuador (Sebastián Beccacece) and Uruguay (Marcelo Bielsa) all have Argentine managers. There are six Argentines managing at the 2026 World Cup, more than any other country.

Teams remaining: Argentina, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain

There’s nothing overly shocking about these remaining teams. Spain and France are the top two betting favorites entering the tournament. Argentina is the defending champion. Germany has won four World Cups, each at least 16 years apart, demonstrating their ability to win in different eras.

The Netherlands is the only team on the list that hasn’t won a World Cup, infamously losing finals in 1974, 1978 and 2010. The Dutch have tons of history in the sport and a talented roster that is still among the top eight favorites entering the tournament.

NEW YORK TIMES 

 

Sonny Rollins - Blue 7 (in memoriam)

 

Tommy Flanagan / Max Roach / Sonny Rollins / Doug Watkins

4 x 6 x 1

NANDO MOTTA

JEAN

LAERTE 

KLEBER

 

Hail the Unconquering Hero!

 

 

Jeffrey St. Clair>

Trump began his war on Iran during talks to prevent it. He said it gave him the element of surprise. His missile strikes killed much of the Iranian leadership, including some of the Iranians his team thought might govern the country after the bombing ended. One of his missiles hit a girls’ school, another hit the compound of Mahmood Ahmadinejad, one of the candidates Trump’s people had in mind to run Iran after they killed Ayatollah Ali Khameni, the Iranian religious leader who, austere as he was, preferred negotiation over confrontation.

Trump brushed off talk from some of his advisers that Iran would likely respond by shutting the Strait of Hormuz and attacking other Gulf States that had aided the US, either explicitly or covertly. His aides were right. He and Hegseth were wrong. Then Israel killed Iran’s top negotiators. Suddenly, there was no one left to talk to. Trump claimed that the Iranian military was completely destroyed. Iran responded by downing US fighter jets, drones and surveillance planes. It struck US military bases, ships and a CIA station house.

Trump claimed Iran had no leaders and its government was in a state of collapse. But the new regime quickly coalesced around Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, and took a more radical, uncompromising stance. Trump said the Kurds would invade Iran and arm Iranian dissidents. But the Kurds, burned one too many times by the US, declined. And after US and Israeli missiles hit neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, power plants and oil refineries, the Iranian resistance turned against the US.

The Strait of Hormuz was shut down. The price of oil shot up and Trump’s poll numbers sank. The global economy was sent into crisis. Trump asked the European nations he had refused to warn about his plans to go to war against Iran for help. They refused. Spain, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland went further. They either blocked or restricted the use of their airspace, landing rights or shared military bases for airstrikes on Iran.

His top intelligence advisors, Joe Kent and Tulsi Gabbard, either resigned or were pushed out. The CIA and the Pentagon began leaking stories to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that Trump had been fully briefed that Iran would likely respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz. Trump sent the FBI out to find the leakers and hound the reporters. More stories came about how the US had used half of its THAAD interceptor missiles to defend Israel, at $15.5 million a pop, while Israel held its own missiles in reserve.

Unable to extort former US allies to bail him out or bomb the Iranians into submission, Trump began to manipulate the market, announcing fake cease-fire deals one week, threatening to make Iran glow the next. The market spasmed up and down and people with inside knowledge, including Trump, who made over 3000 trades, cashed in.

The US kept bombing with Iran’s high-tech weapons to little strategic effect. Iran kept responding with low-tech drones, which got progressively more accurate in their targeting. Within two months, the US had largely exhausted its missile supply, while Iran was rebuilding its own Fateh-110 short-range and Shahab-3 medium-range missiles, repairing its missile launchers, and reinforcing the bunkers at its nuclear sites.

Chess not being Trump’s game (no one is quite sure what his game is), he responded to Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz by moving inexplicably to impose his own blockade, thus placing himself in check. He vowed to send the Navy SEALs to steal Iran’s uranium stockpile. He didn’t and they couldn’t have, anyway. Trump threatened to send the Marines to seize Karg Island. He didn’t and they couldn’t have, in any event. The Iranians took note. The price of gas continued rising. Farmers ran out of fertilizer. An airline went bankrupt. Trump shrugged. The costs of the war were peanuts to him.

Trump boasted that Netanyahu would do anything he asked him. Trump said he was in control. But the Israelis acted on their own. They did what they wanted, which was to deepen and widen the war, subverting every timid move toward peace by Trump, by escalating its attacks on Hezbollah, Iran’s ally in southern Lebanon. Fulfilling Thucydides’ prophecy, Trump had walked right into his own trap and Netanyahu, behind his cynical smile, helped to spring it.

Europe was against the war. Russia was against the war. China opposed the war. The global south opposed the war. The American public opposed the war. But Congress did nothing as Trump usurped its constitutional power, refusing even to invoke the War Powers Act. There was no one left to stop the war, which almost no one wanted.

Two months into the war, Trump was desperate to find a way out. He sent his negotiating team, led by JD Vance, to Pakistan. The Iranians rebuffed the offer. Vance came home in disgrace and out of favor with Trump, who now considers him a loser. Trump turned his affections toward Marco Rubio, who wants to invade Cuba, but keeps his distance from Iran, a war even he understands to be unwinnable, plugging his ears against the ravings of the Israel-lobby funded hawks in his own party, as Odysseus did the call of the sirens. So the negotiations were left to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two non-diplomats, whose negotiating style is predicated on the pursuit of their own self-interest.

Trump needs a fig leaf to end the war. He was willing to pay Iran billions to hand over its enriched uranium stockpile. This should be an easy win and could have been under Ali Khamenei, who seemed ready to make just such a concession to prevent war, before they bombed his home. After all, Iran doesn’t need it. There are other ways to acquire nuclear weapons, if it wants them. But at this point, Iran knows it holds all of the cards. Iran, not Trump, holds the fate of the global economy in its hands. Despite the death and destruction Trump and Netanyahu have inflicted, Iran is more powerful now than it was before the war. The cards it holds can’t be bombed away. The US would have to send hundreds of thousands of ground troops to come take them. To Trump’s credit, he’s too squeamish to endure the bloodbath such an invasion would inevitably engender.

Iran is now in the position to dictate the terms of any deal, not the man who hubristically considers himself the “artist” of dealmaking, though most of his deals, like this one, ended in ruins.

COUNTERPUNCH

Richard Dawson - Gondola (

 

I don't want any more regrets
My dreams died like dolphins in a net
I never got to go to Venice
And how many summers have I left?
I still can't believe I'm a grandma

Mommie Dearest

 

 

In Liza Minnelli’s riveting memoir, the ghost of Judy Garland is felt on every page. 

READ REVIEW BY 

Frances Wilson

 

 

 

 

 

Gaza: A Meditation on Spirit and Survival

 

"The images that have emerged from Gaza reveal the anatomy of a desolate landscape that defies human comprehension. Nothing can prepare the conscience for the sheer suffocating scale of a seemingly endless treeless terrain overwhelmed with millions of tons of concrete and rebar.

There is a distinct agonizing geometry to the destruction of buildings folded upon themselves.  The angles, lines and shapes of neighborhoods have been completely warped, creating a jarring unnatural landscape of ruins, where once familiar streets, blocks and landmarks are now unrecognizable. The steel and mortar that once housed generations of families, communal memories, bustling markets, and schools full of children eager to learn, have been leveled into a desolate sea of gray."

 read article by REZA BEHNAM

Gaza: A Meditation on Spirit and Survival  - CounterPunch.org

Atletas da Seleção visitam Museu

DUKE

 

Box resgata crônicas de Nelson Rodrigues publicadas entre as Copas de 1958 e 1970: combate ao 'derrotismo' e futebol como símbolo maior da nacionalidade

 

"O personagem da semana podia ser um time, um jogador, uma partida ou os inimigos do cronista (como o “execrável pessimismo”). Nelson aproveitava a coluna para corrigir injustiças e comentar hábitos nacionais, como se vê nos trechos destacados nesta página. Em dezembro de 1962, ele reclamou que não admiramos Garrincha “com a efusão necessária” e atacou comentaristas que acusavam o craque de prender a bola e atrasar o jogo. “O brasileiro é, antes de tudo, um impotente da admiração”, pontificou o cronista. Para destacar o ímpeto justiceiro do escritor, Caco Coelho fez questão de incluir em “As Copas de Nelson Rodrigues” textos sobre craques pouco lembrados, como Roberto (artilheiro do Botafogo) e Paulo Borges (goleador do Bangu).

Às vezes, Nelson também falava de outros esportes, como o boxe de Éder Jofre e o tênis de Maria Esther Bueno. Mesmo nos textos dedicados a modalidades diversas, ele dava suas botinadas no vira-latismo e reafirmava que “o brasileiro é o maior”. Para o cronista, o sucesso de Maria Esther nas quadras era índice do “fabuloso despertar da pátria”. “É o triunfo do Brasil como um todo harmonioso e irresistível”, celebrou. "

leia reportagem de RUAN DE SOUSA GABRIEL

e trechos de cronicas de Nelson Rodrigues 

Creep by The Pretenders

 

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here 

The 10 most important games in World Cup history: ranked

 

"To mark the upcoming milestone, The Athletic has come up with a list of the 10 most important World Cup games. Not the 10 best, but rather the ones that have, for a variety of reasons, had the biggest impact on the sport and loom largest in its history.

For this article, a longlist of games was drawn up and then a panel of our journalists ranked them in order of most importance.

So, here are the top 10… and the reasons why."

READ THE LIST BY WILL JEANES 

Detalhes pela casa | Details round the house

Noca da Portela - Caciqueando (in memoriam)

 

Este ano eu não vou marcar bobeira
Vou caciquear
Só vou parar na quarta-feira

Joe Simon - THE CHOKIN' KIND (in memoriam Wayne Moss)

 

I gave you my heart
But you wanted my mind, oh yeah
Your love scares me to death, boy
Oh it's the chokin kind
That's all it is

pix pix pix pix pix

   QUINHO

JBOSCO

AROEIRA

LUTE