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For most of my 81 years, starting during World War II, I have held Britain in the highest esteem. I have studied British literature and history while both a student and a teacher in university. For years, I faithfully read The Manchester Guardian almost daily [on paper in the library at the university where I taught]; For years I was subscribed to Punch and a couple of British motorcycle magazines; I owned six British motorcycles; and supported a Welsh football club.
Over the past 30 years or thereabouts I have taken my annual holiday in Europe. Except for visiting old friends in The Netherlands, France, and Italy, they have all been to the U.K. , from Inverness to Hayling island, and from sea to sea.
Until recently, the "special relationship" between our two countries has been a matter of deep satisfaction and some pride. Without identifying it as such, I considered both Britain and the British automatic and mutually faithful friends [Please, those who will be tempted to mock those statements, move on without comment, thanks.]
I believe firmly that the overwhelming majority [probably close to "totality"] of Americans have the same attitudes. Personally, I have never heard a single negative comment from an American about Britain and the British.
I discount the boorish, but vocally silent, incivility of the previous President, for example, regarding the bust of Churchill [which the present President corrected as one of his first acts] and for worse treatment of visiting British dignitaries. It is small consolation that the previous president has treated fellow Americans worse on occasion.
To my major point.
In recent times, it is clear to me, the attitude of many [too many] Brits toward the United States has declined precipitously, too often to downright insulting hatred. Note that my lifetime study of philosophy enables me to put that all aside as something over which I have no control.
However, when that reaches British persons of high political rank and affects what I consider vital aspects of our countries' relationship, it becomes worrisome at least. That is full upon us now.
Here we have a British Prime Minister publically and insultingly attacking an American President for "retweeting" references to years-old activities of Islamic terrorists committing unspeakable acts. Note that that retweet has not caused one person to be tortured or killed. This, while she ignores the most vicious contemporary attacks by Islamic terrorists on her own citizens and those of the Continent.
I cannot help wondering whose political ass she is kissing -- from the Islamic terrorists or Islamic rulers, to the powers that be in the European Union, mollifying them about BREXIT?
Is she doing this so forcefully to make it difficult, if not impossible, to reach a new bilateral agreement with the United States on trade and economic issues -- an agreement which would work decidedly to the benefit of the U.K. -- pointedly to one no longer ruled by the despots of the E.U.?
Or am I missing the point completely because she is, with too much subtlety for me, actually working against the very BREXIT result she is legally bound to bring into being?
I am fully aware that many [most? all?] of you do not see the powerful influence of your anti-Trump and increasingly anti-American media, but I live with it every single day here in the states, so it is far easier for me to see the same bias -- and always with the same words telling the same falsehoods -- over there.
Candidly, when I first heard of your Prime Minister's rant about my President's "retweet," I thought that she did not have her priorities in order -- the retweet of videos which show the coldest truths about terrorism compared with the endless stream of even worse terroristic behaviour all over Europe -- but now I have to wonder whether she knows full well what she is doing, and that is killing BREXIT, or at least working to get the U.K.'s relationship with the E.U. back in line with the European globalist power structure which she has supported in the past. That would entail stopping the possibility of a far-reaching trade agreement with the unspoken assumed enemy of both the E.U. and a new global system.
We're knee-deep in shit with no bottom on the bucket we're all standing in, and too many powerful forces keep shoveling more in. Or having their puppets doing it for them.
There is neither point nor need for background "music" in club-created team videos on the official site. For Heaven's sake, please someone ask them to stop it!
Try to watch the "interview" with Bony, today's offering. Three or four notes repeated endlessly throughout the whole piece make it difficult to hear him clearly, and to understand him, especially with his accent.
Perfect example of the film-maker being more concerned with his artsy presentation than with letting the audience in on the secret.
[To my fellow PlanetSwans posters: these are my opinions alone.]
1. Mr. Clement: it is well past time that a first team be identified and started regularly in order to allow them to begin functioning as a unit.
2.. With two exceptions (below), today's starters should start every game through the end of December. The exceptions are that Fernandez should come back in, and, if fit, Abraham should replace Ayew.
3. Regarding Mesa, please ignore the self-identified wizards of the media. He was today, and will remain so long as you continue to start and play him, one of the most important keys to team success. [I am one who has always considered Leon Britton as a key to team success, but in his absence, Mesa will more than fill Leon's role, but he needs regular playing time with a regular team around him. He hasn't had that yet.]
I wish you the very best at Swansea, believing that you can, and should, and must, return Swansea City to its former style and success.
Brad Bobbly had zero idea of who were his best eleven and how to use them.
Sadly, Clement has zero idea of who are his best eleven and how to use them.
If Clement wants to save himself and the Swans, he'll do what our former Italian manager did to save the Swans -- pick his best eleven and play them in the same positions every game.
My advice: Pick your best eleven and play them in the same positions for the rest of 2017. Stop playing "Frankie Phukaround"!
Music Quiz #1. [Older folks might have a slight advantage, I know, but not as much as a music enthusiast.]
Below the Questions and Rules is a link to a well-known popular song of years gone by -- with all well-known and potentially easily-recognizable answers.
First, the questions:
1. Name of song. [1 point]
2. Name of each instrument played, with the given and family name of the person playing it. [total 8 points]
3. Name of the musical group playing the song. [1 point]
Total points possible: 10 points, plus tiebreaker if needed.
First Tiebreaker: Name of musical genre of song. [1 extra point]
Second Tiebreaker, if needed: Earliest time of posting Private Message. [1 extra point.]
Rules:
Rule 1. Only one entry per poster, posted by Private Message to Davillin, for entry security.
Rule 2. If you post more than one entry, only the first one [in time] will be recognized.
Rule 3. Spelling of answers must be close enough to be easily recognized without guesswork on my part.
Rule 4. Entry period ends at 10 p.m., Friday, 3 November, Swansea time [6 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time].
No Manager Fit to Manage any Premier League Side 26-10-17
NO FOOTBALL manager in the world is capable of managing any club in England’s top-flight to the standard required, fans have confirmed.
The millions that England’s top 20 teams earn from TV deals means they are all potential worldbeaters only let down by the men in the dugouts who are repeatedly proving unfit to lead them.
Football writer Tom Logan said: “Year in, year out, we’re seeing the same thing. Despite all the investment every team bar one is falling short, and it’s the managers to blame.
“Just look at the so-called elite. Klopp? Should be managing a Krautrock band. Mourinho? A specialist in the nil-nil away draw. Pochettino? Guardiola? Their win-loss ratios aren’t much better than men in flat caps in the 1950s.
“Across Europe it’s no better. Zidane? A gormless monkhead. Ancelotti? Open a pizzeria, already. There’s not a manager on the planet up to the job.
I had a helluva time putting these together, partly due to the result, partly due to weakened concentration the result caused, and partly due to the persistent intrusion of the knowledge that we need Leicester to defeat "Moneybags-to-paupers" Everton tomorrow.
As I was listening to some of the Perry Como songs on my computer, I was struck by this question, "Why do some songs, 'though very sad, give us pleasure?" This one does me.
Before I give some of my possible answers, I'd like to hear your answers, please.
Have you had this thermostat problem at home? Well, I certainly did, and it was a major factor in the divorce proceedings. Read this:
Women Forced to Attend Thermostat Awareness Course 12-10-17
WOMEN across the UK are being forced to attend a one-day thermostat awareness course to learn how they work.
The courses, run by the Department of Energy, are compulsory for anyone who has committed two or more thermostat misuse infractions in a 72-hour period and are projected to save the UK millions of pounds in bills.
Instructor Dr Thomas Booker said: “This is a thermostat. It can sense the temperature.
“When set to, for example, 21 degrees, it will regulate the temperature of your home at 21 degrees by turning the heating off or on without — and this is important — any need for manual adjustment.
“If you are feeling a little cold and adjust it upwards to, say, 30 degrees, it will not provide a short-term boost of heat but will begin heating the entire home to tropical temperatures. The opposite will happen if adjusted down, though that’s of course entirely theoretical.
“The way to operate a thermostat is simply to choose the temperature you’re most comfortable with and to leave it alone and not touch it. Let me repeat that: pick a temperature, do not touch it and leave it alone.”
I like to have fun with the outgoing message on my telephone's answering machine, and have done so since my first one
Please allow me to give my two favourites, followed by a question for any of you who have done so also.
1. On there now. You call and get my answering machine, which says first, in an answering machine sonorous voice, "The answering machine is off."
After about 5 or 6 seconds, a softer voice says, "Nah. Just kidding." 5 or seconds after that comes the beep.
2. My all-time favourite from many years ago. My son Mark helped me to record it.
With a very long extension cord, I put the answering machine out in front of my house, right on the curb, with Mark instructed and at the controls.
I put my Norton Commando on the street immediately adjacent to the answering machine, and after giving Mark a silent signal to start recording the outgoing message, I kick started the Norton and gave a bit too much throttle so it really "roared" into life.
I then took it at full throttle and full throat through the gears for about a hundred yards, whereupon Mark, as instructed, stopped recording and let it beep.
When a caller got my answering machine, what he heard was one hellishly loud motorcycle snarling away.
No further information or message. Perhaps it required a bit of a poet to get the message, but I don't care. I got it.
p.s. I wish i still had that tape recording. Perhaps I do, in some long-lost box.
Have any of you done a madman outgoing message that you'd like to share?
Now read what a former U.S. player, with 112 U.S. caps, has to say:
Claudio Reyna Eviscerates US Soccer as “Arrogant” and “Obnoxious”
By Kyle Bonn, Oct 18, 2017, 9:50 AM EDT
Former USMNT captain Claudio Reyna has come out guns blazing after the Americans failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, repeatedly condemning the mentality of the coaches and players in the wake of the debacle.
Speaking to Goal.com’s Ives Galarcep, the usually hushed NYCFC Sporting Director put the USMNT on blast during his lengthy chat. “You travel to Spain, Argentina, Germany,” Reyna said, “and you run into coaches and sporting directors and there’s a humility about their work that doesn’t exist here, and that’s, for me, seeing it, is to me a big concern.”
“When you have a disappointment like last week, and we’ve had past disappointments as well, and we’ll have disappointments in the future, but what we need to understand that it’s for me behavioral.”
Reyna, who garnered 112 caps during his time with the US National Team as a midfielder, questioned the advancement of the game in the United States, looking to differentiate an increase in popularity from headway on the field. “What I think has happened in the past 10 years is we’re confusing investment, expansion, growth, and all these other things with progress,” Reyna said. “All these things have sort of created a feeling that we’re progressing, but I call it expanding, growth and more fans. From the general growth side it’s happening, but are we really progressing? When I look around at certain levels I don’t see progress happening.”
The 44-year-old eventually let the heads of the federation have it, saying nothing will improve no matter who is in charge unless the mentality of those at the helm changes. “People are sitting together and thinking about strategies and how we’re going to get better,” Reyna said. “We need a little humility and modesty at the table. Unfortunately we have a little too much ‘Mr. I Know Everything’, ‘Mr. Arrogance’, ‘Mr. Obnoxious’, ‘Mr. Loud’, and when those get together nothing happens.”
Before finishing out his chat with Goal, Reyna made sure to point out that the country has quality players at its disposal, and that it’s on the federation to develop them and pull the best out of them, or else the disappointments will continue.
“There’s a lot of positives despite the disappointing result that we had last week,” Reyna said. “I think we’re all embarrassed. I’m embarrassed as a former player that I have to go around and have people make fun of us, and get texts from my friends in Europe who remind me we’ll be on [vacation] next summer. I can laugh, but it hurts. It definitely hurts.” ______________ http://soccer.nbcsports.com/2017/10/18/claudio-reyna-eviscerates-us-soccer-as-ar
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