ICTChris

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill providing aid for Ukraine, to the tune of $61bn. The Senate still need to pass it and then Biden will sign it into law. I don’t know if passing the Senate will be a challenge, yank politics is not really my thing. The aid, if it arrives, will be crucial for fortifying Ukraines defences. Russia is expected to launch an offensive during the summer and is pressing in a number of areas of the front. Ukraine has suffered from shell hunger with European allies, led by the Czechs, attempting to source artillery ammunition in the last few weeks and months. Russia has continued strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, including civilian targets with a particularly grisly attack happening a few days ago in Chernihiv, with 18 civilians killed including several children. Power plants supplying Kyiv and Kharkiv have also been hit, with shortage of air defence munitions blamed.

The guy filed lawsuits against various people about this conspiracy. In court documents he alleges Nicola Sturgeon was involved.

Someone has set themselves on fire outside the courthouse during Trumps trial.

Those of us old enough to remember the dog days of the Major government will get very similar vibes from this lot. Quite a few wretchedly useless MPs trying to wring out a few quid in their last few weeks at the trough. Who of them will end up doing a Milligan though?

I remember seeing one of these videos on Twitter, although from the report it's more of a TikTok thing. It was promoted via the For You tab, some reprobate was posting it. Strange videos but very creepy that they are being taken regularly and without any permission. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68826423

It would be hilariously funny if Aberdeen win this but they will probably get scudded 9-0 again, the useless Cormack shagging bellends they are.

In terms of team news for us, Sean McAllister has returned to us from Everton after he was thought to be out for the rest of the season with injury. I'd expect him to start on the bench. You might expect us to stick to the same team after winning two games in a row but Ferguson is a bit of a tinkerman in terms of his line ups so I think we might some alterations.

Israel firing missiles at Iran, clearly designed to draw attention away from this story.

I went to see 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' at Cineworld in Edinburgh. Near the start of the film there is a long scene with the main character, the eponomymous girl, is brutally raped by her state-appointed guardian. It's a pretty hard watch, especially in a fairly mainstream movie, and there was a palpable sense of relief when the scene ended. Just at that moment, the fire alarm in the cinema went off and the movie stopped. We didn't have to leave the cinema but everyone stood around for a few minutes. The staff came in and told us it was all fine, film would restart but they'd rewind it a few minutes so we didn't miss anything. The film then restarted literally at the start of the rape scene - a couple of people actually walked out so they didn't have to see it again.

I'm going to make an outlandish prediction on this - it won't happen.

I don't think authenticity is a good reason to vote for someone. People can be authenticate and an idiot.

I think the Bute House agreement is still very popular among the SNP membership. I'm sure there was a poll not long ago showing it had 85-90% support. I have no idea what the process is for the SNP party agreeing to it for the SNP government, as noted above the Green membership can end the agreement if they vote on it. Also, if I was Kate Forbes or another challenger I wouldn't look to replace Yusef in order to limit losses - let him take the defeat and then pick up afterwards. I'm not sure who the casualties would be in the SNP MP group but maybe the composition of that group might end up being more favourable following General Election losses? I am not up to date on my SNP Kremlinology so not sure whose supporters are most at risk. The other thing that rings out to me on this is that discussions like these are sometimes a bit arrogant - "oh we'll take those losses, get a new leader and then we'll win all those voters back easily". Will you? Maybe you'll lose all your MPs who are relatively sane and be left with the zoomers? Maybe a Labour government will steal your lunch? Maybe there will be much more to come out about party funds that could sink them further. When political parties try to have succession planning the electorate usually have a way of changing it - anone who remembers the Blair-Brown dramas or David Cameron talking about "yer Boris Johnson, yer Thereas Mays".

Be funny if he joined Alba.

In Home Alone, the adults all fly business class while the kids are back in, to use the American term, "coach". They justify this to themselves by saying that flying is an adventure for them anyway and it's not really remarked upon. Clearly, this is by far the least concerning incident of child neglect in that series of films but worth noting anyway.

You get caught hiring prostitutes and doing cocaine I have "personal issues"

I'm sure if Kate Forbes or Ash Regan were First Minister this pledge would be being met and more!

Only 116 mass shootings in four months!!

It really is. Only Arbroath have scored fewer goals, albeit only three fewer and they are 15 points behind us. Every single one of our defeats in the league this season, bar the 2-0 loss to Airdrie in January, has been by a single goal. Only Morton have had more 0-0 draws (five to our four, Queens Park have also had four). If you look at almost every other league, teams who have a similar defensive record to us are usually challanging at the top of the league - in the Premiership only the top four have defensive records as good, in our league only the top team, in League One and Two only the top two. It's a testament to how utterly toothless we have been all season, completely lacking in goal threat.

Just do that every game and then we'd be winning the league. #motivation #financialplanning

Our attacking options are very poor, to be fair. Aaron Doran, Nathan Shaw, Roddy MacGregor, Adam Brooks, Sean McAllister, Louis Longstaff in midfield - all of those players have spent time out injured this season, except Brooks, who is very young and raw. Billy Mckay, Alex Samuel, Austin Samuels, Aribim Pepple, Harry Lodovica as strikers - is there anyone sitting out games there who you'd have in the team ahead of Billy Mckay or Alex Samuel? Not for me. Cameron Harper has the most assists in our team, usually from the full back position. Not good. I think the two players we have missed the most this season compared to last are Daniel Mckay and Jay Henderson. Both of them had pace to stretch the game and we don't have anyone like that now. I'm not saying they were both brilliant all the time, clearly they both had ups and downs and poor performances, but we didn't replace them at all. ETA - Here are the statistics for those players (league only) David Wotherspoon scored four goals and had two assists in ten games. Cameron Harper has eight assists.

As noted above, we need to take chances on players who are injury prone and Roddy MacGregor is worth taking a chance on IMO.

ICT played Partick Thistle seven times in 2001/02 - four league games, cup tie with replay and league cup tie. We also played Dundee Utd seven times in 2018/19 - four league games, two play offs and a Scottish cup game.

Late to the party

Terrible story about a young man who had a cardiac arrest and died during an Aussie Rules game in Linlithgow. Ross McGhie was only 25 and played for the Kingdom Kangaroos, based in Fife. Awful. https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/fife-team-kingdom-kangaroos-tribute-to-cherished-team-mate-ross-mcghie-who-died-at-age-of-25-4591486

I think it's that poll that had a margin for the SNP of low - 1, high - 56, which is a way of saying that the sample size in Scotland is too small to make specific predictions about it.