Gloucester Saint

I was going to respond to say this is going too far, much as I despise MAGA, but the more I see of Trump’s executive orders challenging all oversight from Congress to the WH, you may be proved right. The Founding Fathers America is disappearing fast and the American people did this. They are the only people who can stop it.

It is looking increasingly that way. There is nothing Europe can do except organise against the Russian threat to the continent and if the non-MAGA states are really uncomfortable with what Trump, Musk and Vance are doing, they either hold referendums (propositions over there) to break away in the case of the few bigger and/or most wealthy states with their own coastlines and trade routes if they think Project 2025 will block Federal elections (California) or re-instate their own legislation to loosen Federal control from executive orders. It’s a fucking mess their electorate have gotten them into and great for China. Crazy stuff but the world went mad starting with Brexit. Reagan, Bush and Clinton America is gone forever.

When Trump says Ukraine started the war and Zelensky doesn’t have a mandate, he’s repeating what Soviet state TV and radio have been saying since 2022. Gift for Putin who was on his last legs domestically. Those alleged photos in a Moscow hotel must be really damaging.

Fraser and Taylor are fit, they just aren’t fancied by current (Fraser) nor previous management (Taylor both) as far as I’m aware. Downes is a personnel/attitudinal issue, ABK possibly ditto although the summer medical transfer saga hasn’t helped, so I’d say Stewart and Larios are the two who haven’t been in the picture for selection for any longer than the odd week since 2023 and 2022 respectively. If they don’t want to retire and the insurer report says then can still cut it in the top 3 divisions, then loan them out with an under-write if they break down again long-term. At least we might get some wages if someone wants to gamble. The club has got hooked on cheap, risky transfers. The odd one works - Danny Ings - but one spectacular success doesn’t make a strategy. In the same way Livramento didn’t justify three years of buying ECL club fringe much younger players en masse without thinking about how they fit your team structure and tactics.

Thanks Duncan for sharing. Between him and Larios they’ve missed 5 seasons of football pretty much, it’s near-impossible to catch up. J Rod missed two with us but that was mainly surgical infections I gather from his ACL (which I still shudder having seen it happen) and then compensatory ankle issue. With Ross Stewart, it doesn’t seem seem to be just the hamstring tear following the Achilles.

It’s very legally opaque. In theory, there should constitutionally be no restrictions on travel other than socio-legal and/or interventions from family or partners. But Idaho introduced laws in 2023 which forbid health centres from making referrals out of state and prosecuting friends or family who offer advice to young women. For a young woman who might have been a victim of sexual assault in her family, that’s a dreadful scenario and not neccessary in the 21st century. Tennessee followed suit with other Red/GOP states reviewing currently https://theconversation.com/crossing-state-lines-to-get-an-abortion-is-a-new-legal-minefield-with-courts-to-decide-if-theres-a-right-to-travel-238167#:~:text=Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in,constitutional right to interstate travel.”

He wasn’t there for 5 minutes, he was asked repeatedly first more nicely and then more forcibly to move on for nearly 2 hours. That’s not right, it’s intimidation towards the women and not fair on the residents. What if you’re trying to sell your house? It’s all tied into freedom. I don’t actually agree with online banning of content generally, whether it’s Christian or Muslim extremism (really graphic and nasty porn aside), I’d rather expose extremists with reason and evidence then have them disappear to dark webs, but Vance can’t realistically batter a much older civilisation on that and openly and enthusiastically severely restrict women’s freedoms over their bodies. Freedom can’t be something the US Conservative movement repeals in the most basic human forms when it suits and bans others when it doesn’t.

Can’t be good for anybody. Ross needs to move on with the next stage of his life with a very positive bank balance behind him to invest in the future and still play football if he’s able up to the standard defined by the insurers which could be as high as the 5th tier.

The context being that Juric has been utilising a formation with several full-backs in it.

Great to see such a patriotic country with such dedication to its airline safety and injured veterans…not

https://www.dcreport.org/2025/02/18/disabled-vet-fired-at-the-faa-this-threatens-public-trust-and-increases-the-likelihood-of-future-accidents/ https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/doge-lists-militarys-probationary-workers-pentagon-118947796 https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/02/18/boston-man-who-oversaw-va-information-security-swept-up-in-doge-cuts-veteran-privacy-at-risk/ https://taskandpurpose.com/news/veterans-affairs-cuts/

Joined Ross Stewart, Larios, Tereja, Sarmiento and others in the Southampton disappearing triangle.

Club can attempt to reach a negotiated settlement but if he isn’t anywhere fit for the level they are playing at there’s the frustration option to terminate the contract if the player and agent won’t play ball. Same as Larios. Time to be business-like but reasonable. Not good for the players’ mental health just cluttering the place with no prospect of what they originally sought to do for a living. After insurance they could play again at more appropriate level - Spanish lower semi-pro leagues or lower Scottish leagues or an ambitious non league outfit like South Shields for Stewart as high as the insurer will allow.

Looks a much better physique than 18 months ago, better training and coaching under Rohl and has done the work on his core which Smallbone needs to apply himself on to be the best version of himself and what he can be.

The home-made chutney SOG made was very tempting, I headed over from the Cotswolds to Romney Marsh but my car fell down the sinkhole in Surrey on the way there.

The guy was asked repeatedly not to intimidate women going for procedures and advice, with a PCO speaking to him 1-1 for 1 hour 40 mins, he ignored it, ignored a small fine, so was hit with a much larger one by the courts and law of this land. He’s also been funded by Christian Evangelist extremist groups in the US so is a political activist. The vast majority of the local residents around the clinic insisted on a buffer zone as a minority of others were persistently doing the same and invading their privacy. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9kp7r00vo Also, Vance wants free speech for the far right online but doesn’t support and his party and appointed judges refuse to allow millions of women basic rights over their bodies. Once Roe Vs Wade is restored, I’ll listen to him on freedom of speech.

Got to dash, will respond more later. The misinformation around abortion and reproductive rights wasn’t good for start https://www.dw.com/en/jd-vance-free-speech-claims-debunked/a-71642886

Their midfield still has far too much pace and power for ours. Agree broadly with their upcoming decline - their last couple of windows have been Reed-esque although Minteh has started pulling his finger out recently. Mid-sized clubs cannot afford one bad window at PL level.

This post is a pity as your post and reposte on the Reform thread was so well framed and thought through. Trump just gave Putin exactly the domestic imaging and messaging he so badly wanted - US and USSR as equals as per 1980s and before. Huge tactical fuck up which will have long-lasting repercussions after Trump. He (Putin) was struggling to hold on domestically before that and his mate Donald just gave him a huge unwarranted boost. Which will hit you and I in the pocket as well. The idea that the US hasn’t gained economically from being leader of the free world is for the birds - or MAGA nuts. Yes, some NATO members need to spend more of defence but 5% isn’t feasible for most, 3% maybe. Europe needs a fresh defence strategy and to count the US out largely although I suspect air cover might be the compromise. As for the JD Vance comments, we’ve clearly got totally different values on what western democracy looks like, especially from an election denier like him. Meeting with a Neo Nazi politician but not with the official state leader of Germany tells you all you need to know about Vance and Musk. This from the man who called his President ‘America’s Hitler’. More like Chamberlain. The D-Day 80th anniversary and GI blood shed must have passed Vance by.

True, they’ve just not been so blatant about territorial gains. Puerto Rico (labelled an unincorporated territory of the US) being one example.

It was hilarious I have to say and unrealistic. As subtle as a loud fart in Winchester Cathedral.

More than 4400 at Plainmoor on Saturday though, that’s more than some clubs in League 1 attracted and most in League 2.

Ironic (not that the Americans do that stuff) that the Yanks spent half-a-century lecturing us British about empire and that’s exactly what they are doing now. Even brought down the Eden government over Suez.

It’d be like the Gazza Dentist Chair celebration in Euro 96 but in the Standing Order not Wembley.

The 🐘 is still in the room - trade with RoI dropped 6bn during 2024 due to Brexit trade friction and red tape https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/17/irish-figures-show-6bn-drop-in-trade-with-great-britain It went up between RoI and NI, the latter still operating under EU trade rules.