James St James

The great Robert Fisk, talking about the reality of war.

@BB95902027 @FloppingAces The woke mind virus originated in the USA, before spreading across the West. Rather than blame the British, people in the US would do better to ask why their government is being run for the benefit of Israel.

@FloppingAces The British System vs the American System right there. Elon proved the American System is the best & why the British System sucks balls 4 the entire world. Which is why the British have been trying to destroy the US & the American system & any country trying for it for centuries.

The Ambush Backfired ... Hard. Zanny Minton Beddoes walked into that interview thinking she was going to publicly shame Elon Musk. Classic elite media playbook: call him “far right,” claim people “loathe” him, and watch him squirm. She tried to frame secure borders, safe cities, and sensible spending as fringe extremism. She even pulled the old “you don’t even live there” line while lecturing him about European politics. Musk didn’t flinch. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t soft-pedal. He looked her dead in the eye and said the quiet part out loud: those positions aren’t far right ... they’re normal. Then he went further. When she claimed people loathe him, he shrugged and fired back with the line that’s still circulating: “Maybe some people do loathe me… I don’t care. But a quarter billion people follow me. I think a lot more people actually like me than don’t. And I think a lot more people hate you and the media more than you realize.” That’s a public execution. The ambush didn’t just fail ... it detonated in her face. The same media class that spent years pretending common sense is radical just got reminded that the public sees them for what they are: disconnected, despised, and increasingly irrelevant. Trust in journalism didn’t collapse by accident. It collapsed because people like Beddoes spent years calling normal Americans extremists while protecting actual extremes. Elon didn’t just survive the hit. He turned the interview into a live demonstration of how far the prestige media has drifted from reality ... and how little power their labels still hold. The trap snapped shut on the trapper. (article below)

@keith_hickling @patmurphybbc Not true. He is still highly regarded at Derby, where he held the club together, practically single-handed, during administration. He even paid for some expenses out of his own pocket. His press conferences were always interesting and insightful, and his punditry is similar.

@patmurphybbc He might have been popular with local reporters for his “attempts at management”. Less so with supporters of the clubs

With one comment Wayne Rooney’s entered the upper echelon of football pundits. Good for him. Very popular with local reporters who covered his initial attempts at management. Open & honest. Now one of those u expect to say something surprising in the studio. A star this WCup.

@MarkTucker47873 @JohnWight1 Scotland could do worse than look at how the Scandinavian countries have revolutionised their entire coaching setup, from the grassroots upwards. The passion in Scotland for football is incredible, but it needs to restructure the game and the way it's taught.

@JohnWight1 Christ agree with all of that amazingly Scottish football so dominated by the Celtic rangers rivalry you have forgotten to develop youth players Punishing Rangers by relegating to bottom teir then having Celtic dominate admin positions has harmed Celtic & Scottish football

Glad that Spain won the tournament. Iran were a joy to watch. Cape Verde were a joy to watch. Scotland were dire in every particular and do not deserve the support they get. The players of the tournament were Mbappe and Bellingham. Easily the best game of football throughout was England vs France for third place. England in that game were superb. Tuchel under utilised his squad and has to take responsibility for England going out in the semis.

@AaronBastani Argentina consistently produce quality players, but they choose to play like thugs. They actually seem to prefer to win by cheating, rather than honestly. The final was a wretched affair, and the scenes afterwards were disgraceful. Thank goodness Spain won!

This level of ‘sportsmanship’ was given free rein by FIFA for much of the tournament. The referring towards Argentina against Egypt and England was atrocious.

@DrFrancisYoung What other "middlebrow" or more obscure Baroque composers would you recommend, organ composers or otherwise?

One of my great passions is ploughing through the complete organ works of middlebrow Baroque composers, but I can't forgive Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748) for writing SO MUCH that his complete works cost *£80*! Give it a rest, Johann 😩

@itfeltlikeakisx @AaronBastani Any coach who follows the Cruyff philosophy needs players who can keep the ball, and control possession and the tempo of the game. The English game doesn't generally produce those players. We almost always lose to teams who have this ability.

@JamesSaintJames @AaronBastani Have you heard of Pep Guardiola?

Great coaching to rest Saka against Argentina, when he didn’t play a single minute, so he could score a hat trick in the all-important third place play-off. Elite management mindset.

@paulshanners @AaronBastani Interesting stat. Incidentally, almost all South American countries, apart from Brazil, are managed by Argentinians. In Europe, Spanish coaches, or those who follow Johan Cruyff's philosophy, have been the most successful. Today's final is interesting!

@JamesSaintJames @AaronBastani I’d start with an Englishman, not for jingoistic reasons but cos of this:

@moyo54 @AaronBastani How is Guardiola going to improve things, when our players can't keep the ball? Whenever we encounter sides that can keep possession, especially later in tournaments when we are tired, we lose. Rice/Anderson etc do not and cannot take control of a game.

@JamesSaintJames @AaronBastani Lots of People…Guardiola for example

@KeenanPeachy "Retarded, tasteless, and woke," is a pretty good summary of Hollywood, but I don't think an alternative financed by a tech billionaire would be any better. AI will allow genuinely creative artists to make movies, even individuals. That's where the opportunity lies.

I'm working on a big cover story on the sheer panic coursing through Hollywood right now (the odyssey numbers notwithstanding). The interviews I'm doing with (secretly based) industry insiders are blowing my mind. Consensus is that virtually 100% of the gatekeepers who greenlight projects and move talent and money through the pipelines are retarded, tasteless, and woke, and everyone around them who isn't is too scared of losing their job to point out that the emperor has no clothes. The solution is very simple, and for some reason I cannot fathom, it has not yet been tried. A tech billionaire just has to hang out a shingle, plant a flag, and found a mini studio/agency. Woo the smart and talented people who are trapped and staying quiet in their industry jobs. New tastemakers. A new pipeline. And watch the culture bloom. This could literally happen tomorrow. XStudios awaits....

@AynSocial @henrywinter This approach didn't work in the 2021 CL final, where Tuchel out-thought Guardiola, or Guardiola out-thought himself. Guardiola is a very specific type of manager, perhaps insufficiently pragmatic for this role, and his record in CL knockout football isn't exceptional.

@henrywinter If FA are going for the best manager they can get then they should break the bank for Guardiola. Perhaps his intensity & ruthless desire to stick to principles of playing attacking football with high levels of possession of the ball is the only thing that can improve England team

Thomas Tuchel on Bukayo Saka, who voiced his frustration at not playing more in the World Cup. Scored a hat-trick today. “Bukayo is a fantastic footballer, a key player for us, and he showed it again today. He was excellent. He was ready to go in the World Cup but I still felt a responsibility to take it slow with Bukayo (after injury). "He started some matches. It was a tough decision to leave him out of the semi-final. I felt with Norway (win in quarters) that Morgan Rogers showed he was special with his physicality and his body. We had him (Saka) warmed up several times (against Argentina). We were ready to change but situations meant... (they had to make other changes)." #ENG

@williamnhutton While we did do better than Brazil, Germany and poor old Italy, they have all won the World Cup this century, as have Spain, France and Argentina. The margins at the very top may be tiny, but we don't seem any closer to being able to make this final step.

Italy didn’t qualify, Germany went home early, Brazil were beaten by Norway and England came 3rd in the World Cup. We did well. Congratulations to the team and the Coach. At this level the margins are incredibly tight.

@NickHarris50458 @timfarron Who would you want instead of Tuchel, and why do you think your choice would be an improvement?

@timfarron He deserves nothing. a friendly win against France does not detract from the abomination of Wednesday night.

Also… can people stop whining about Tuchel please? He’s done even better than Greenwood, Robson, Southgate, Venables, Eriksson… indeed everyone bar Ramsey. Of course he’s not perfect, Wednesday still hurts, but he deserves credit, deserves our thanks and deserves to stay. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🥉

@AaronBastani It's easy to suggest removing the manager, but without suggesting a better replacement, it's a rather empty demand. I don't see any candidate who would be an obvious improvement on Tuchel.

Sadly this means Tuchel will keep his job.

There’s been nothing like this since Agincourt.

If you still think Israel is our friend: middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-m…

If this trend continues and white British children are a *minority* in our schools in the next decade, that will be an astonishing and rapid development worthy of legitimate debate and consideration.

It is appalling to witness the Chief Rabbi instructing the Church of England that they, as English Christian clergy, should not engage with Palestinian Christian clergy petitioning them. And then to publicly label the Church “shameful” for not obeying him? What puts his judgment or authority above theirs? Lastly, to pronounce damage in Jewish-Christian relations on account of this is to deliberately seek to *cause* damage between peoples, when he has no such authority. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and everyone else are all people who just instinctually get along with each other and don’t need the pronouncements of spiritual leaders seeking to kick off power games between them.

@KnightsTempOrg The youth of Ulster is not "united" or "bonded", which is what you understandably wish for. It remains divided on sectarian lines. I don't consider Ulster a good example for the rest of the UK. You may disagree!

@JamesSaintJames Nobody is suggesting that?? Did you read the post.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿This is how the Typical youth of Loyal Ulster spend their time These lads are not glued to x boxes or tictok. They are part of the tribe, marching as their fathers did and here playing for the local old people. Imagine if ALL the youth of England did the same? In Ulster there are 70,000 but tranfered to England that would be 4,000,000 Yes 4 Million of OUR youth united, disciplied and bonded . Nobody could take England from us IF we had this!👊

@ThePosieParker To speak with such flippancy about what is taking place in Palestine is contemptible. Israel is carrying out a genocide, and any reasonable person can see this. It is our moral duty to oppose such evil. To fail to do so is to be complicit.

Those on the left who crap on about Palestine hate the white working class.

@AHomelyHouse I'm both impressed and inspired.

Managing a big household is challenging, no matter what your circumstances are. We have 10 kids living in a 3 bedroom farmhouse cabin from the 1700's. My wife tried a number of approaches over the years with mixed results, and at one point asked me to devise a system for it. I opted for a household SOP (standard operating procedure) system based on the kinds of systems we used in the military - there are always lots of people and gear to manage and keep in good order there, usually under less-than-ideal circumstances. We used SOPs a lot - you figure out an effective fix for the problem, codify it, then train all the junior personnel on it. That becomes the way you do things. It's always open for modification if necessary, but it gives you a good baseline that takes a lot of guesswork and the need for micromanagement out of the equation. Once everyone knows how the system works, it can fairly well run itself. Your job as the leader is just to check periodically, retrain if necessary, and enforce the standards. For household chores I went through each room one at a time and cleaned and organized it to my standard. I noted down the inspectable areas and tasks for each room, and took photographs. I wrote up a procedure for each room, annotated the photos, and compiled them all into an SOP binder that lives on the family documents shelf. Each older kid is assigned a room, and their first task in the morning before breakfast and school is to set their room in order to the baseline standard. I do a quick check, then we get breakfast and start our day. It usually takes about 5-10 minutes, and it ensures that we are at least starting the day every day with a clean and orderly house. With a bunch of little kids, the order always gets trashed in the course of a day with all the playing and activities. That is absolutely unavoidable, and shouldn't even be something you put any energy into trying to prevent or resist. It is what is. But we can still keep things in reasonable limits and start our day everyday with some neatness and peace of mind - chronically chaotic houses actually contribute to stress levels in parents and children alike. The procedure for a room like this is written out on the SOP page for that room: Inspectable Standards: · No loose items on the floor or table · Bags and hang-up items on pegs · Books standing (not stacked) on shelves, shelves straight and tidy Daily Tasks: A. Clear and wipe table. B. Ensure no gear adrift on floor or shelves. C. Straighten the books on the shelf. D. Sweep the floor. Weekly Tasks (every Saturday AM, additional to daily tasks): A. High dust, dust horizontals B. Shake and vacuum rug C. Mop or scrub floor Monthly Tasks (1st Saturday of the month): A. Wash windows with window cleaner B. Low dust, including table base C. Once each kid is trained on the tasks and familiar with the standards for their room, it can actually happen surprisingly quickly and easily, and becomes part of their habitual morning routine within a few days. We initially did a rotation of rooms on a schedule, but several of the kids found that they preferred just sticking to one room consistently, so that's how we do it now. That's how we do it and keep our small house from getting too chaotic with all the people. I highly recommend making an SOP book where you can write everything out and clearly present things like tasks, conditions, and standards. It makes everyone's lives easier. Hopefully that's helpful for you!