But... some of my best friends are Federer fans

I've been watching some inspiration $Hillary Clinton speeches and have been inspired by her beautiful messages of making peace with all kinds of humans. So I made a special effort to go to an old age home to find the remaining Federer fans make friends with some Federer fans, and after making one, even used my power to let him write some articles in the digital media.

Why Djokovic in 2016 pales in comparison to peak Federer:
http://sportpulse.net/content/why-djokovic-in-2016-pales-in-comparison-to-peak-federer

His second ever article, so do give any critiques if you think necessary.
In terms of my opinion, I think Djokovic has a great chance this year to take his tennis to really new levels, as I've said before this guy could be the perfect morph of Federer's strengths and Nadal's strengths.

He can take tennis to alien Jupiter level, but no one loves him, cares or will remember him.

But he will be remebered as someone, with a state founded tax free tennis academy he never atttends, and as a ugliest style player to be No1 ever.

I'm on a train so cant write any more for now

Djokovic gets no love. He is a wonderful player. GOAT debates are passé and just show the immaturity of the writers who pen such stuff.

Take an arbitrary set of statistics and make one look bigger than other, based on subjectivity du jour.

Where are the real Tennis fans?

I'm still getting over the idea anyone could find Hillary Clinton inspirational.

Please assure me that was ironic.

Bit of a meh article in my view. Just makes a bunch of pretty basic points unsupported by any real evidence.

In all honesty I didn't bother reading the article linked - simply because I doubt there is anything new to be said about the unique qualities & talents of Roger Federer. There have been so many column inches written about him over the years that they would pretty much fill Trump Towers.

More interesting (or, should I say, surreal) was the notion that Hillary Clinton could be considered "inspirational".

Although perhaps - in one sense - there is a whole generation for whom she has indeed acted as an inspiration : the inspiration to not engage with politics or politicians  ......

bogbrush wrote:I'm still getting over the idea anyone could find Hillary Clinton inspirational.

Please assure me that was ironic.

What did I write before the Hillary, look carefully Bogbrush

I'm deeply relieved!

Silly article - subjectively I enjoy watching Federer more than anyone else.  Objectively, it is possible to say that his big numbers are currently the best too; time will tell if Nadal's or Djoko's are better than his when they all retire; then there's the unquantifiable and endlessly re-hashed argument as to who faced the toughest competition.  

For me the core is that I've always loved watching Federer play the game, and the fact that what I see as his virtuosity has not come at the expense of flakiness or a short-lived time at the top or questionable behaviour on court has perhaps been the ultimate bonus.  It's also fair to acknowledge that the spectacle has been significantly enhanced in some of the great matches vs. Djoko & Nadal, even ones he's lost.

Well, I enjoyed the article it was a nice read. To summarize in my opinion Fed is the most accomplished and most likely GOAT. I think Novak in 2011 and 2015 matched and in some important measures surpassed Fed's best years in terms of objective numbers. However, I do give Fed a slight discount because he really did not face the same kind of competition of Djokovic growing up right in the middle of the golden age of talent, where Fed came up in a group of players that were head and shoulders inferior to the players who came up before or after them. Then again I think everyone knows my position.

It Must Be Love wrote:I've been watching some inspiration $Hillary Clinton speeches

So you mean Dhollary Clinton, I take it that's subtle satire about how she claims to be left wing (well, a democrat anyway) but is all about big money and business links. "Doll" as in woman as well, I take it that is your subtle satire about her making so much out of herself being a woman and slightly playing the feminist angle.

Still, the idea of stopping Donald Trump winning is pretty inspirational.

I actually don't mind Clinton, she's a very dull corporatist centrist who's real platform should be 'no real change either way'... but compared to the insane Republicans she's nearly angelic.
And not just Trump, he's actually the moderate centrist republican compared to Cruz and the Tea Party.

It Must Be Love wrote:I actually don't mind Clinton, she's a very dull corporatist centrist who's real platform should be 'no real change either way'... but compared to the insane Republicans she's nearly angelic.
And not just Trump, he's actually the moderate centrist republican compared to Cruz and the Tea Party.

I am voting for anyone who isn't a Republican, on politics the Republican party as currently constituted (not historically speaking) is the most dangerous extremist group in the world and I wouldn't vote for the best Republican in the world to be dog catcher because he would probably end up abusing the animals. Short a 9-11 attack or her getting criminally indicted she will wipe the floor with the sociopathic rightwing. Yeah, compared to Ted Cruz or as I like to call him the Texas Evangelical version of Abu Bakr Baghdadi, I'll take Benito Trump if I have to. Cruz is like Christian Bale's character in American psycho except uglier, meaner, and less personally appealing.

socal1976 wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:I actually don't mind Clinton, she's a very dull corporatist centrist who's real platform should be 'no real change either way'... but compared to the insane Republicans she's nearly angelic.
And not just Trump, he's actually the moderate centrist republican compared to Cruz and the Tea Party.

I am voting for anyone who isn't a Republican, on politics the Republican party as currently constituted (not historically speaking) is the most dangerous extremist group in the world and I wouldn't vote for the best Republican in the world to be dog catcher because he would probably end up abusing the animals. Short a 9-11 attack or her getting criminally indicted she will wipe the floor with the sociopathic rightwing. Yeah, compared to  Ted Cruz or as I like to call him the Texas Evangelical version of Abu Bakr Baghdadi, I'll take Benito Trump if I have to. Cruz is like Christian Bale's character in American psycho except uglier, meaner, and less personally appealing.

Socal, if heaven forbid I ever commit a crime, you will have to be my personal lawyer. Although I may end up laughing at your analogies in court which may not help.

It Must Be Love wrote:

socal1976 wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:I actually don't mind Clinton, she's a very dull corporatist centrist who's real platform should be 'no real change either way'... but compared to the insane Republicans she's nearly angelic.
And not just Trump, he's actually the moderate centrist republican compared to Cruz and the Tea Party.

I am voting for anyone who isn't a Republican, on politics the Republican party as currently constituted (not historically speaking) is the most dangerous extremist group in the world and I wouldn't vote for the best Republican in the world to be dog catcher because he would probably end up abusing the animals. Short a 9-11 attack or her getting criminally indicted she will wipe the floor with the sociopathic rightwing. Yeah, compared to  Ted Cruz or as I like to call him the Texas Evangelical version of Abu Bakr Baghdadi, I'll take Benito Trump if I have to. Cruz is like Christian Bale's character in American psycho except uglier, meaner, and less personally appealing.

Socal, if heaven forbid I ever commit a crime, you will have to be my personal lawyer. Although I may end up laughing at your analogies in court which may not help.

Cheers IMBL, I haven't practiced in years but still have some of the skills. So I do agree with you keeping the Republicans out of the Whitehouse is the most inspirational thing Hillary could accomplish.

I'm trying to get even a smidgen of inspiration from the candidates of our future world politicians
One side of the pond Corbyn or maybe Boris Johnson
The other Hilary and Donald (Duck) Trump

Tell me the world has not gone mad.. the two that do have something in common is Trump and Johnson they both have a hairdresser with a sense of humour

Trump is to US politics a little bit like Rafa is to tennis.

Both of them burst onto the scene with a unique game style.  Neither is known for the subtlety of their game, but they are both effective.  With both of them, you know exactly what you are going to get, yet it is hard to find a plan to successfully counter their strategy.  Purists scoff at them, but they have devoted following among millions of admirers.  While traditionalists may be turned off, they bring in legions of new fans.

As Haddie would say about one of them, you can love them or hate them, but you cannot ignore them.

summerblues wrote:Trump is to US politics a little bit like Rafa is to tennis.

This forum really needs a middle finger emoticon  

summerblues wrote:
With both of them, you know exactly what you are going to get, yet it is hard to find a plan to successfully counter their strategy.

You don't know what you're going to get from Trump actually. He was a liberal democrat until he went after Obama in the birther debate, and then thought about running for president in 2012 on the Republican side. Apart from his beloved wall on the border with Mexico (and that will seriously need to be built if trump wins the GE... to stop mass emigration from the US), he's actually all over the place. When pressed on anything he says he'll make great deals and 'knows the right people.' In reality I don't think he has a clue about how his proposed trade war with China would either bring about economic collapse or serious inflation in the US. Even his business and his brand is not that impressive if you consider his huge inheritance decades ago which itself is basically in the billions if you take into account inflation.

summerblues wrote:
While traditionalists may be turned off, they bring in legions of new fans.

Good that Nadal and other tennis superstars bring more people to the sport. However frankly I think the world would be a better place if Trump supporters didn't engage in politics at all. The vile youtube trolls who write racist stuff in the comments section have been brought to life, and they certainly aren't pulling any punches (esp if they see a non-white person at a trump rally).

It Must Be Love wrote:

summerblues wrote:Trump is to US politics a little bit like Rafa is to tennis.

This forum really needs a middle finger emoticon  

summerblues wrote:
With both of them, you know exactly what you are going to get, yet it is hard to find a plan to successfully counter their strategy.

You don't know what you're going to get from Trump actually. He was a liberal democrat until he went after Obama in the birther debate, and then thought about running for president in 2012 on the Republican side. Apart from his beloved wall on the border with Mexico (and that will seriously need to be built if trump wins the GE... to stop mass emigration from the US), he's actually all over the place. When pressed on anything he says he'll make great deals and 'knows the right people.' In reality I don't think he has a clue about how his proposed trade war with China would either bring about economic collapse or serious inflation in the US. Even his business and his brand is not that impressive if you consider his huge inheritance decades ago which itself is basically in the billions if you take into account inflation.

summerblues wrote:
While traditionalists may be turned off, they bring in legions of new fans.

Good that Nadal and other tennis superstars bring more people to the sport. However frankly I think the world would be a better place if Trump supporters didn't engage in politics at all. The vile youtube trolls who write racist stuff in the comments section have been brought to life, and they certainly aren't pulling any punches (esp if they see a non-white person at a trump rally).

Trump is an idiot but he has latched on to the traditional progressive democrat position on trade. Globalized free trade has been a disaster for the working and middle class in the western world has decimated an industrial base that took two centuries to build. Bernie also is someone who wants fair trade not free trade. We have basically nonexistent tariffs in America but in most of the world including China, American imports are tariffed at a much higher rate. Plus multinationals pay their workers in peso, yuan, rupees, while selling their goods for dollars, and then they don't pay even a reasonable tariff for coming in and using our infrastructure and market. Then they go pay taxes in Dubai or the Cayman Islands. This is the rigged economy, a trade war with China would cost China 500 billion a year, there won't be a trade war they will bend over and take it, if they don't screw them, our economy would have an extra 500 billion a year in domestic manufacturing demand, so we win any trade war with them and twice on Sunday. It won't be our economy that goes in the crapper. I am tired of the American middle class paying for the infrastructure of the greatest market in the world for big multinationals to make billions here and then not pay a single freaking dime in taxes to America, while we are asked to pay for infrastructure they can just use for free. America could and should demand a pound of flesh for anyone wanting to sell in our golden market and if they don't want to sell in a market that still makes up 20-25 percent of global demand they can go pound sand. This is the main reason we have such rapidly growing income inequality in the country because globalization has killed small local producers, unions, and repressed the wages of a generation of blue collar western workers. While we subsidize the setting up of polluting sweat shops in the third world to sheet in our air and water.

Globalized tariffless free trade has been a giant scam perpetuated on the western middle and working class by big multinationals. On this Trump and Sanders are right. But the man is dangerous for a 100 other reasons and wrong on a hundred other issues not to mention he is a loudmouth bully with a thin skin that most likely will launch a terrible war at some point. This is why he polls so well in the blue collar industrial Midwest, places where whole cities were turned into ghost towns by NAFTA and WTO.

How long after becoming President would he admit that the wall isn't actually going to be built. I say just call it on day one to save money and time being wasted.

socal1976 wrote:

Trump is an idiot but he has latched on to the traditional progressive democrat position on trade. Globalized free trade has been a disaster for the working and middle class in the western world has decimated an industrial base that took two centuries to build. Bernie also is someone who wants fair trade not free trade. We have basically nonexistent tariffs in America but in most of the world including China, American imports are tariffed at a much higher rate. Plus multinationals pay their workers in peso, yuan, rupees, while selling their goods for dollars, and then they don't pay even a reasonable tariff for coming in and using our infrastructure and market. Then they go pay taxes in Dubai or the Cayman Islands. This is the rigged economy, a trade war with China would cost China 500 billion a year, there won't be a trade war they will bend over and take it, if they don't screw them, our economy would have an extra 500 billion a year in domestic manufacturing demand, so we win any trade war with them and twice on Sunday. It won't be our economy that goes in the crapper. I am tired of the American middle class paying for the infrastructure of the greatest market in the world for big multinationals to make billions here and then not pay a single freaking dime in taxes to America, while we are asked to pay for infrastructure they can just use for free. America could and should demand a pound of flesh for anyone wanting to sell in our golden market and if they don't want to sell in a market that still makes up 20-25 percent of global demand they can go pound sand.  This is the main reason we have such rapidly growing income inequality in the country because globalization has killed small local producers, unions, and repressed the wages of a generation of blue collar western workers. While we subsidize the setting up of polluting sweat shops in the third world to sheet in our air and water.

Globalized tariffless free trade has been a giant scam perpetuated on the western middle and working class by big multinationals. On this Trump and Sanders are right. But the man is dangerous for a 100 other reasons and wrong on a hundred other issues not to mention he is a loudmouth bully with a thin skin that most likely will launch a terrible war at some point. This is why he polls so well in the blue collar industrial Midwest, places where whole cities were turned into ghost towns by NAFTA and WTO.

Very good points, fair argument.
I would agree with you on a lot of what you've said; also with the sense of perspective that having globalisation would inherently help mobile corporations and countries with cheaper labour costs. If you have one country that is manipulating their currency and have very cheap labour they will obviously have an advantage in terms of investment into their country.
So I can understand why people in the US would be against NAFTA, the TPP, and all the other trade agreements.
However I'd still have concerns about Donald Trump in charge of a stand-off against China to end the trade deals and currency manipulation: China are a powerful country and could have numerous tricks up their sleeves... it strikes me as quite risky.

Summerblues, if you don't mind me asking, which presidential candidate are you supporting in the US primary season ?

It Must Be Love wrote:Summerblues, if you don't mind me asking, which presidential candidate are you supporting in the US primary season ?

I am not a citizen here, so I am just enjoying the view.

summerblues wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:Summerblues, if you don't mind me asking, which presidential candidate are you supporting in the US primary season ?

I am not a citizen here, so I am just enjoying the view.

Taxation without representation, alas!
Which candidate being elected would be your biggest nightmare ? Which name makes you think 'better book a flight to Canada quickly'

It Must Be Love wrote:

summerblues wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:Summerblues, if you don't mind me asking, which presidential candidate are you supporting in the US primary season ?

I am not a citizen here, so I am just enjoying the view.

Taxation without representation, alas!
Which candidate being elected would be your biggest nightmare ? Which name makes you think 'better book a flight to Canada quickly'

Really? I wouldn't bother.. been there..done that

It Must Be Love wrote:

socal1976 wrote:

Trump is an idiot but he has latched on to the traditional progressive democrat position on trade. Globalized free trade has been a disaster for the working and middle class in the western world has decimated an industrial base that took two centuries to build. Bernie also is someone who wants fair trade not free trade. We have basically nonexistent tariffs in America but in most of the world including China, American imports are tariffed at a much higher rate. Plus multinationals pay their workers in peso, yuan, rupees, while selling their goods for dollars, and then they don't pay even a reasonable tariff for coming in and using our infrastructure and market. Then they go pay taxes in Dubai or the Cayman Islands. This is the rigged economy, a trade war with China would cost China 500 billion a year, there won't be a trade war they will bend over and take it, if they don't screw them, our economy would have an extra 500 billion a year in domestic manufacturing demand, so we win any trade war with them and twice on Sunday. It won't be our economy that goes in the crapper. I am tired of the American middle class paying for the infrastructure of the greatest market in the world for big multinationals to make billions here and then not pay a single freaking dime in taxes to America, while we are asked to pay for infrastructure they can just use for free. America could and should demand a pound of flesh for anyone wanting to sell in our golden market and if they don't want to sell in a market that still makes up 20-25 percent of global demand they can go pound sand.  This is the main reason we have such rapidly growing income inequality in the country because globalization has killed small local producers, unions, and repressed the wages of a generation of blue collar western workers. While we subsidize the setting up of polluting sweat shops in the third world to sheet in our air and water.

Globalized tariffless free trade has been a giant scam perpetuated on the western middle and working class by big multinationals. On this Trump and Sanders are right. But the man is dangerous for a 100 other reasons and wrong on a hundred other issues not to mention he is a loudmouth bully with a thin skin that most likely will launch a terrible war at some point. This is why he polls so well in the blue collar industrial Midwest, places where whole cities were turned into ghost towns by NAFTA and WTO.

Very good points, fair argument.
I would agree with you on a lot of what you've said; also with the sense of perspective that having globalisation would inherently help mobile corporations and countries with cheaper labour costs. If you have one country that is manipulating their currency and have very cheap labour they will obviously have an advantage in terms of investment into their country.
So I can understand why people in the US would be against NAFTA, the TPP, and all the other trade agreements.
However I'd still have concerns about Donald Trump in charge of a stand-off against China to end the trade deals and currency manipulation: China are a powerful country and could have numerous tricks up their sleeves... it strikes me as quite risky.

They don't have any games to play, what are they going to dump their dollars? To hurt us they would have to devalue 3 trillion in their own debt. If country A sells country B 100x, and country B sells country A 5x who gets in the knickers if there is a trade war. In fact, that is the one war we should fight and can't lose. China has been sucking us like a leach in cahoots with multinationals. The gravy train in a fair world will be over for both the wonderful Chinese regime and the even more wonderful amoral megabillion dollar multinationals.

Yes that's a fair point in terms of economics, but could China not hit back with something outside that ?
For example they have basic control over North Korea, and also own a lot of resources in Africa.
You may well be right that this is a way US should fight but can't lose, but I have a gut feeling that the Chinese government could do a number or threaten something big if it comes to it.

It Must Be Love wrote:Yes that's a fair point in terms of economics, but could China not hit back with something outside that ?
For example they have basic control over North Korea, and also own a lot of resources in Africa.  
You may well be right that this is a way US should fight but can't lose, but I have a gut feeling that the Chinese government could do a number or threaten something big if it comes to it.

China is no threat to US militarily or in any other way. The only reason they have become a threat economically is because the multinationals have bought the REpublicans and half the Democrats who are centrist (Hillary/Obama/bill) Wall Street Democrats, and the Chinese government has reaped the rewards of this unholy alliance. Meanwhile progressive Democrats like Sanders and Warren have been against these deals from the start. And certainly China or North Korea don't frighten me militarily at all if we just mind our own business like we should anyway.