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Not sure what the background is but so far there's been little in the way of grief expressed on social media.











Apparently the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" were found written on the shell casings found at the scene.

You think Clinton was bad? I've got a few things to say about Nixon...

Oh and scoreboards that only display the totals are cheaper to build and simpler to operate, as well as being easier to understand.

In fact, help me out here, but didn't the old mechanical scoreboard on top of the Canal End terrace used to just display the totals while the electronic one in the Nally Stand did the standard format? Or am I mis-remembering?

Lads, has anybody not got the memo yet that the Dems and Repubs are equally as bad? I think we need to hear it more from the usual contributors, just to make sure nobody missed it.

Something I used to get nervous about was remembering which row to go back to after going up for communion, I'd be afraid of going back into the wrong seat and messing up some family's seating arrangements. With everybody up out of their seats to get theirs, you couldn't use other people as landmarks. I would pick maybe a station of the cross or a confession box to remember where my seat was. Then I just got into the habit of counting the number of rows. St Peter's chapel in Lurgan was handy because all the rows were numbered.

The collapse of the greens is to be expected. They knew they had limited time in government and wrung as much reform out of the system as they could while they had the chance. A lot of their reforms are like the smoking ban - unpopular at the time, accepted as normal later. They'll be back when people come to realise they were right all along.

Donald Trump spent his final hours in the White House not pondering the weighty responsibilities of his office, nor drafting a final message of unity for a battered nation. No, Trump's last act was a surreal spectacle of corruption, a high-speed pardoning spree that made a mockery of justice and turned the Oval Office into the world's sleaziest confessional booth. If Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son makes your blood boil, allow me to introduce you to Trump's Great American Grift-a-Thon—a grotesque parade of criminals, con artists, and connected cronies marching straight out of the federal pen with a wink and a nod from the Grifter-in-Chief.

The list was long, ridiculous, and glittering with names that reeked of scandal. Steve Bannon, the human fever dream who scammed Trump's own supporters with his fake "We Build the Wall" fundraiser, was pardoned with a flourish. This is a man who pocketed cash from red-hatted rubes and used it to fund his champagne-soaked, yacht-hopping lifestyle. In Trump's eyes, Bannon wasn't a criminal—he was a misunderstood capitalist, the kind of guy who makes the system work for him. "You stole from the little guy?" Trump probably muttered as he signed the pardon. "Good for you."

But Bannon was just the opening act in this pardon circus. Elliott Broidy, the sleazy Republican fundraiser who got caught peddling influence to foreign governments, was also set free. Trump must've appreciated Broidy's hustle: the greasy handshake, the whispered promises, the envelopes stuffed with cash. After all, they weren't so different, were they? Both were men who saw public service as a golden ATM, spewing out riches for the morally bankrupt.

And then there was Albert J. Pirro Jr., ex-husband of Fox News' very own Jeanine Pirro. Pirro wasn't just a tax cheat—he was the kind of tax cheat who would make an accountant weep with envy. Trump snuck in his pardon just before Joe Biden was sworn in, a parting gift to his favorite sycophant on television. It was almost poetic, in the way a train wreck is poetic.

Of course, Trump wasn't content to stop with his closest cronies. He needed to sprinkle in a little celebrity glitter, too. Enter Lil Wayne, who posed for a photo op with Trump after pleading guilty to federal weapons charges. Wayne's pardon wasn't about justice—it was about optics. Trump likely saw the rapper as a shiny bauble to wave in front of the cameras, proof that he wasn't just a bloated, orange relic of a bygone era but a hip, happening guy who was "down with the kids." Kodak Black got a pardon too, because apparently in Trump's world, platinum records weigh heavier than criminal records.
The absurdity didn't stop there. Shalom Weiss, who was serving 835 years—yes, you read that correctly—for orchestrating one of the largest insurance frauds in U.S. history, was freed. Eight hundred and thirty-five years is a sentence reserved for the kind of villain you'd find in a James Bond movie, but Trump saw a kindred spirit. "Nobody likes paying their debts," he probably thought, nodding sagely as he signed the paperwork. "I get it."

But amidst this avalanche of greed and self-interest, Trump threw in just enough feel-good stories to create the illusion of compassion. People like Corvain Cooper, serving life for nonviolent marijuana offenses, were granted clemency. These were the kinds of cases that genuinely deserved attention—but they were drowned out by the overwhelming stench of cronyism. It was like finding a single flower in a landfill.

Let's not kid ourselves: this wasn't criminal justice reform. This was a clearance sale for the corrupt, a final hurrah for Trump to reward his friends, punish his enemies, and line his pockets with IOUs from the sleaziest corners of American society. The whole thing had the subtlety of a Vegas lounge act and the moral integrity of a three-card monte game on a Times Square sidewalk.

If you're outraged by Joe Biden's pardon of his son, then buckle up. Trump's pardon spree was nepotism, corruption, and chaos turned up to eleven. It was a masterclass in how to wield power for personal gain, a grotesque finale to a presidency built on lies, grift, and greed.

As Trump slunk off to Mar-a-Lago, undoubtedly plotting his next scam, he left behind a legacy that will be remembered not for its leadership, but for its shamelessness. His parting gift to the nation wasn't unity or healing—it was a reminder that in his America, crime pays, loyalty is currency, and the only thing that matters is winning, no matter how dirty the game.

Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024

I remember when us fenians would do it on the bus, but only if it was a bus containing prods. If it was only fenians on the bus then nobody would bother doing it apart from the old ones.

From the POV of someone promoting the game to first-time viewers, there's enough for them to take in without a convoluted scoring system. They see four numbers up on the screen and they don't know who's winning. Now they're going to watch a game where the numbers increment at different rates, adding a further layer of confusion. Up to now we had to say "the first number represents the goals which are worth three, the second number represents points worth one. For each team you multiply the first number by three and add the second."

Now here's what we have to say. "The first number represents the number of goals that are worth three, the second represents the number of 1-point and 2-point scores over the bar. For each team you multiply the first number by three and add the second. The second number increases by 2 if they score from outside the big arc. What? Why do they annotate the 3-pointers separately but not the 2-pointers? No idea, mate."

If you display the totals, you avoid the whole conversation altogether. You can see at a glance who's winning, no mental arithmetic required. Even a first-time viewer can get it.

How anyone would want to be associated with either side is beyond my comprehension.

Can we not come together and agree that democracy is being subverted left right and centre by every party and this is just another example of that.

I can't make sense of how partisan people are on this topic.

What part of "we heard you the first time" do you not get?

When they go low, we go high.

Didn't work out so well for Hillary. Dems should have taken the gloves off years ago.

My main gripe with Obama was he didn't get the sword out and ram through the healthcare bill as he wanted it. He let the Rethuglicans run out the clock by giving concession after concession in the hope of getting a bipartisan bill, when all along they had no intention of giving a black president anything. He should have listened to Pelosi who knew what kind of people they were dealing with and how there's no reasoning with them.

I'd say it will just  be the same.

2-14 

eg, 10 normal points, and two 2 pointers.

Why confuse things  even more?

Option C is the least confusing.