OrlandoDon

Harris’ protection was not removed. From what I understand, by law she got protection for 6 months, and she was given extra time, she got 9 months. Then the protection expired. So rather than it being removed, she was actually given an extension. you talk about trump pardoning but don’t talk about biden’s autopen granting pardons. Additionally, nobody actually knows who processed biden’s pardons. If I recall, his staffers were asked in congress under oath about it and they plead the fifth. It’s both sides, but if you are abroad you don’t get the full story as left leaning media doesn’t report it.

It’s not about winning an argument, I think it’s bigger than that. Winning and losing arguments is why we are at this point, we’re all losers at present. If you do some objective reading you’ll easily find it. We see it daily. From three assassination attempts in the last year, 2 on trump and now Kirk, plus the violence around BLM or ICE, politicized to left leaning causes, it’s all there. Listen to the likes of Tim Walz, AOC, its toxic. But you get similar on the right, there’s a lot of reflection needed that will unlikely happen. how much time have you spent in America?

And this is where you lose me when we discuss politics. I’m not mental, the name calling starts. Been attacked here before, be it in 2020 when trump lost, or during Covid, so i tread lightly because people get personal really quickly, and ultimately I’m here for football. I am speaking from my experience living here, and the current situation, not about 50 years. I also treat many of you like my parents, if you don’t live here you get a filtered view of America in your media. I don’t know if anyone else lives here but many of you seem to believe you have a really tight and clear understanding of American culture and what it’s like living here. From what I see and sense here, being around it daily, watching news here, CNN, MSNBC, FOX etc, (plus having watched Charlie Kirk at times in recent years), and maybe starting to pay more attention in the last 10 years or so, I form my views. The daily attacks on a government, the rhetoric of politicians on the left talking about hitler and fascism, that doesn’t help. Trying to assassinate a president, twice, doesn’t help. I think it’s a statement in itself that we’ve seen recent attacks on the right and there’s no violence. Had it been a left equivalent killed this week, I think there would have definitely been a left leaning violent response. I’ve also said I believe the one person who could really do something to make a positive different right now is trump. And he won’t.

I said the left was worse than the right and I believe that. I didn’t say the right was blameless or innocent. Both are at fault.

Just watch the highlights and we certainly had chances, couple of really good ones too in aouchiche right at the start, karlsson, and Clarkson in particular. It still has to click, with chemistry, and a bunch of players still not fully match sharp, plus the two today who have never played in the SPL, and others while little Scottish experience. I think we’ll come good, and based on results everyone is taking points off everyone except Celtic and hearts. I hate that the transfer window is open for a month of our season. I also hope we reflect on the number of preseason games we play. We look slow and need game time. It will come!

I do believe the left is worse than the right, both in speech and in acts of violence, and don’t necessarily disagree with the blame. As you know, I lean right and support much of what the right is saying. But the one person who I truly believe can make a difference right now is trump. The left are a mess with poor leadership, if trump made a conscious effort to speak about turning the temperature down, including stopping the name calling, hitler, facist etc, that would help. However, he was the initial name caller, although much being stupid and childish names, for which he most likely won’t stop. It’s hard for him as Kirk was a close friend of his, but he has to step above it all and I don’t think he’s capable. if trump was to focus on policy that is more agreeable and find easy wins where he can work with the left, showing the willingness to unite and collaborate, I think we’d see a difference. But he won’t. You also clearly see this here, the left won’t support trump with anything, regardless of topic. If trump tried to defuse a bomb the left would attack him for being insensitive to the bombs rights and invading its space. The left will argue against trump simply for it being trump. much like Ukraine and Russia, Israel, etc, it requires concessions, sacrifice in stance for the greater good etc, and I don’t think trump is a compromising guy. I also don’t think the left would compromise and work with him regardless of topic.

Problem with Clarkson is I don’t think he suits a 4-2-3-1. At the same time I don’t know if we have two deeper midfielders who suit this formation. Think we may be better suited to a 4-1-4-1 where one player sits with two more advanced/attack minded. Think that would suit the likes of Clarkson palaversa Armstrong shinnie and polvara, most of our central midfielders actually.

Positives, we didn’t lose or conceded. Think our left back looks decent. Karlsson created for himself and others. Not much but it’s there. Main negative, no win no goals. willing to give us time, it’s been a huge overhaul in players over the last year. But we were slow and clunky. We need to gel and get chemistry fast. Very clear we’re a bunch of players who don’t know each others play or habits. concerted topi and adil are too similar, run around a lot with minimal end product. I’d be inclined to go with milanovic and karlsson wide with Armstrong at 10. No clue who our best two center mids are and what partnership works. Can’t stand seeing polvara at left mid. Would rather see the new young Swede who is a winger. similarly to rangers, we are a team without chemistry or identity, and look rather lost. Certainly hope we pull it together. Although we’re prob similar to man utd bringing in so many players year after year, they have looked lost for years. Brings me back to Scottish players and identity, hope we find it with a core of long term consistent players.

I believe we know a little so far, he had posted/commented that he had issues with Kirk and his beliefs. Don’t think he’s considered far left or even a democrat though, just someone who had issues with what Kirk was saying and doing.

Definitely clunky, but it can’t be perfect immediately. We definitely need a goal for confidence. Hey one and I think we’ll see more.

Good balance of experience and youth there. I suppose we should look at nisbet kind of as a player coming back from injury versus a new signing. Knows the club manager and many players. lazetic (and Armstrong?) should get 20 mins or so, keen to see us hit form!

It’s been an interesting week. So far no reaction. No riots, looting, or violence we have seen in recent times when there has been a high profile shooting. Lots of talk about faith, family, love, and how we can better get along. Although it has been said that the left is the side that riots, and it’s the right this time. That could certainly change but a very different reaction to a potential ‘archduke’ moment for now.

I agree with you it’s been romanticized a little as he could come across as arrogant or condescending, but he was very confident and knowledgeable, and a very good guy. You can find a ton of stuff out there positive about him, depending on the clips you see will certainly influence your opinion of him. It was called debate because he challenged anyone to come and talk to him to discuss any topics or view points. Quite often those who came to talk to him knew very little of what they were talking about, just what they had been told to believe. He tried to help them open their minds with another viewpoint, or he asked them to really think about what they were saying and believing, and why. he went to college campuses because here, and maybe in other countries, educational institutions are very left leaning and more indoctrinating than educating at present. That’s what he fought against. He gave college kids information, an education, and viewpoints they were not being given from educational institutions. He’d argue the college kids were the activists who were being fed an agenda rather than a broad and impartial education. He’d also debate those who called him spreading misinformation as he felt it was those very people that were quite often spreading misinformation. He would elaborate a lot as to why he believed the way he did, rather than many of the college kids who believed what they were being told to believe. He challenged them to educate themselves and really think. you highlighted vaccines and he’d talk about how influential big pharma is in this country, the politicians they fund, institutions like the CDC which they fund and have/had board members, and the agenda of people and committees/organizations making decisions that were for personal and financial gain over the greater good. in USA our children are required to take so many more vaccines than Britain for example, and the health of the country is tanking while Parma gets very rich. Something is off and he’d expose that. He discussed the covid vaccine as a perfect situation where it was pushed, mandated in places, because people benefitted financially, not because it made a significant positive difference. People got very rich. This has been debated a lot in congress of late and the effects of the vaccine, tough for some people to hear or accept. he'd discuss illegal immigration. We have laws here that were not being inforced. Why have laws? This country is so much in debt and illegal Immigration is over extending resources such as housing, healthcare, education etc., as well as the increase in crime. he pushed an agenda of American/citizens first, rather than a party who appeared to prioritize illegals over ‘hard working’ legal citizens. A lot of people support that. hed discuss illegal immigration and the effect on population, and how voting and governmental seats are decided. I referenced this earlier this week. He discussed that the left are targeting immigration as a way of realigning districts and the allocation of seats. An ongoing issue here that both parties have exploited, and continue to exploit. He’d expose that and show how illegal immigration can buy votes, showing those who may not have been aware. A lot of people don’t understand how that works in America and the effect of an influx of people can have on the voting community. hed discuss crime. If someone committed a crime they were taken away from their family. If they are illegal and commit crimes they get deported. That may take someone from their family too but crimes are crimes and he’d talk about enforcing laws for the greater good of a country. you and I clearly have different beliefs but Kirk created a venue for debate and discussion, something that doesn’t happen a lot at the moment. No clue where you live but I’ve seen Kirk a lot and I certainly don’t see him as the guy you present. he gave the other side and sometimes people didn’t like how he did that but, in today’s society, people quite often can’t handle another viewpoint regardless of how it’s presented. He pushed discussion between differing viewpoints, presented an argument that quite often isn’t popular or gets shot down as misinformation because it doesn’t fit the narrative, and was killed for that.

I’m very excited for tomorrow, as if it’s the first game of the season. I’d really like to see gyamfi karlsson and lazetic start tomorrow. Thelin said everyone is fit but not all are fully match fit, Armstrong wasn’t with a club so I’d say we may not see him tomorrow. Nisbet hasn’t played a lot either so off the bench makes sense. As you say, too many changes isn’t ideal either. Was said earlier in the week, milanovic may be on the bench since he’s travelled, so maybe topi in the right. with karlsson on the left and having familiarity playing with sivert, wonder if we see the experience of sivert and shinnie in the middle with karlsson adil and topi behind lazetic. We’re young too so experienced leaders in the middle may be wise to start. i think we see goals tomorrow.

The world would be a better place if we all avoided social media!

Ha, Epstein isn’t going away. Although, I said this before, there’s too many big and powerful people who have been to the island for significant and overly revealing info to come out. trump and Kirk we’re good friends and from what I’ve heard trump was on the phone with his wife for significant time on Wednesday when this all went down. I don’t see him creating this mess and he seems quite affected by it.

Definitely crazy times and my wife and I talk about it quite a lot. As many of you know, we were forced out of California, lost jobs, and kids kicked out of school, all because of California politics. It’s a very divided country with very differing beliefs. However, I don’t know how a civil war would play out, most of the major cities are democratic and outside everyone else is republican, it’s not quite the north south divide. the conspiracy theory is that Charlie Kirk was such an up and comer that he was becoming too popular and influential. The dems had a stronghold on the young vote until recently when Kirk, Ben Shapiro etc started their college tours and talk about the other side of what students learn in college. The dems are losing the young vote. immigration is such a key issue at present too and I am sure you hear about the ICE raids. Population decides the number of govt seats each state gets, and that includes illegal aliens. Remove illegals and places like California, democratic, lose seats while places like Florida, republican, could gain. That decides an election. Little here is done for the good of the people, it’s all left or right and who must win. This is the perfect time for both parties to make a clear effort to tone it down and get along but they won’t do it.

The republican party’s Ben doak. Hugely popular, 31 yr old. Many felt a future president. Family man, Christian, founded turning point USA about 12 years ago. Spent a ton of time on college campuses promoting free speech and openly encouraged debate between differing viewpoints. He felt college campuses were very left leaning so was committed to help dialog between differing viewpoints and parties. There’s a ton of stuff about him online but, as is the case with politics today, depending who you read you’ll get very differing viewpoints.

Am I wrong to start a thread for him? Arguably the most expensive player we have ever ‘signed’. Perhaps not the best, but he’s a multimillion pound player. Am I wrong to assume he’ll be a one season wonder? interesting interview on red tv, the guy knows jimmy, has played with sivert, Rama, and Lewis Ferguson, all brought a very positive reaction from him when he talked about them. The number of goals and assists he has career wise was highlighted, we certainly need those. He comes across as quite a serious guy, plus talks about winning multiple times. As we all do, hope he’s a big hit starting this weekend with our first league win, something he states needs to happen this weekend too!

That’s why you have creativity at 7, 10, and 11, plus the full backs bombing on. You have two guys in there whose job is to win the ball/create turnovers, and play passes. They can be good passers with range, and can still attack, but flair/creativity is mainly from that 3 behind the 9.

You dont need creativity, that’s the whole point. We have three flair players ahead of them and attacking fullbacks, these guys serve a very different role to balance the team. Harsh on Clarkson but I don’t think he’s the type of player we need in there. As I said before though, all of our central mids have weaknesses.

Don’t disagree, but every central midfielder we have is flawed. I think palaversa has a physical presence that some of our others don’t have. Polvara shinnie sivert Clarkson are all frustrating too, none are ideal in the current situation. I also think shinnie has value in there but sivert isn’t mobile or disciplined enough for him to cover allowing Shinnie roam/push up. I wonder how close kjarten is to first team football. It’s an obvious problem area for us that the fact we didn’t sign anyone for this position has me curious as to how soon we see kjarten.

Really curious to see if we stick with Clarkson. With three flair players ahead of him and two attacking full backs I do feel 6 and 8 need to be our heavy lifters. All of our CMs have their flaws, and as we’ve identified, the window didn’t solve the problem. maybe we go w sivert and palaversa? Hoping kjarten comes good and quickly to replace sivert, and would like to start seeing him play.

Excited for this game, window is closed and no excuses now, season starts here. 3-1 us, lazetic 2 and palaversa. i believe karlsson is fit, he was simply an unused sub at bologna. Would like to see him and gyamfi on the left and lazetic up top. I’m more excited for him than nisbet to be honest. Not sure JT will go for a new left back left mid straight away, but milanovic has been travelling around the world so we maybe topi on the right, and I think maybe devlin is suspended??

Agreed. Miller and Bowie playing 15 mins has benefit, plus there is plenty of experience around them. At 2-0 I don’t think they’d cost us. No reason at all to play dykes for sure, and I’d like to think miller could have handled the situation instead of McLean. While I understand why, Clarke does himself no favors and could have been more forward thinking.