Dr. Gonzo

Wasn't expecting to see that headline!

But I doubt India would do that, they don’t exactly have the best relations with China - including active border disputes. I’m actually not sure if China would want to anger the West too much at this point in time. They’re having their own economic issues with with a real estate bubble crisis & rely heavily on the west for trade. But I think they’re happy to play as a middle man where they advocate for deescalation but also are fine with Putin remaining in charge with Russia experiencing economic isolation. It gives them prime opportunity to exploit Russia.

Aren’t those all countries that have very strong trade ties with Russia? China is just trying to play both sides here imo. They rely on trade with the rest and many of their actions have been in line with the west’s condemnation of Russia. They also stand to gain pretty massively from a Russia that is largely isolated - they can do what they’ve done with Iran: become the dominant trade partner & have another country that is essentially one step above a puppet. Russia’s really given China prime opportunity to fully hook Russia with economic imperialism with this war. I really can’t understand Putin’s thinking here - he’s managed to make his military look like dogshit and for as long as he’s alive Russia will be economically isolated by the west. India was basically given permission from the US to use kid gloves on Russia early on in this conflict because Russia’s a huge exporter of food to them. The EU’s still buying Russian oil and gas despite the hard line been taken, but because of it they now have to pay in rubles. I think trade between Russia and India has all the same ties it has before the invasion.

Not really most Iranians aren’t Arabs & Putin dreams of being as repressive of a dictator as Khamenei. And they’re more a Chinese puppet than anything. But Iran not joining in on sanctions isn’t to be surprised at all. I can’t imagine they’d join in on sanctioning any countries that aren’t: the US, UK, & Israel

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/03/24/ukraine-has-launched-counteroffensives-reportedly-surrounding-10000-russian-troops/?sh=2b9be38b1170 Ukraine has reportedly surrounded 10k Russian troops in their recent counteroffensive.

The latest big scandal in the US is one of the Supreme Court Justices' wives was involved in planning the January 6th coup attempt to stop the election and keep Trump in power. He was the only Justice that voted that Congress not be allowed to investigate the storming of the US capitol... making it look like he was trying to protect his wife.

Is that Bain as in Bain Capital? If so, oooof you definitely don't want that bid.

If they were trying to surrender, it's definitely a war crime. I'm not going to defend war crimes, but if you put yourselves in the shoes of Ukrainian soldiers right now it's pretty easy to see why Russians will be on the receiving end of war crimes here. Russia's invaded them and commit shitloads of war crimes in the last week. They'll have seen the videos that go around on social media of the tanks that were running over civilians, the soldiers shooting at civilians, the bombing campaigns targeting civilian infrastructure and bomb shelters... and they're not going to know whether or not the Russians right in front of them are the same soldiers or not. Some of them are going to be wanting serious revenge. And because war crimes are seldom punished, they're probably going to feel like their crimes are justified in the face of this attack on them and the war crimes they faced in the opening moves of the war. I don't think it's justifiable, because it's still a war crime. Tank crews trying to escape their destroyed vehicles are likely about to surrender - so I think there's a good argument that shooting troops as they escape the vehicles is a definite war crime. But I also think Russia's invasion has done a lot to dehumanise Russians, especially with regard to how they're viewed by Ukrainians... and especially their soldiers. And as a result, I suspect Russian soldiers find themselves on the receiving end of a lot of war crimes as a result of a war they started that had a whole host of war crimes commited by them in the last month. The longer the war goes on, the less likely it is any Russians will be able to surrender before being gunned down imo.

That sounds fucking awful. Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better. Shit about the wound, though... but its probably infinitely better than having sepsis.

The Boehly bid I think would be the best for Chelsea. Martin Broughton was our chairman for a brief moment in history - appointed by Gillett and Hicks to oversee the sale to FSG. He made no secret that he was an absolutely massive Chelsea fan, but also said he would be looking for a new owner for Liverpool that would be the kind of owner he'd want at his club. We ended up with FSG, who while I think they're a bunch of cunts for: trying to trademark the word "Liverpool" and the Liver bird (because that's stupid, how can they claim to own the name of a city or icons of the city)... there's no doubt that the way they've run us is miles ahead of where we were under Gillett & Hicks and David Moores. He's a successful businessman, loves Chelsea, identified good prospective owners for us and got that sale through... I think if Chelsea can have him onboard with ambitious owners, they'll have someone at the top of the club that's got experience as a chairman of a football club who loves the club... and at very least knows what good football ownership should look like (theoretically). Also thank fuck the Saudi Media Group has been ruled out.

Surprised you didn't use this gif:

So’s Woody Johnson tbf

Fucking hell that’s depressing

I'm not sure that'll rule him out if Abramovich still gets a say tbh. It's not like Ricketts making offensive statements is as bad as what Abramovich has done in funding the oppression and displacement of Palestinians.

As the banner famously says: Football without Origi is nothing. I also hope we get at least one more mental moment from Origi. The man's a fucking hero and he definitely deserves a good final sendoff from the fans.

Woody Johnson owns the NFL's Jets and in the entire time I've lived in America the Jets have been consistently one of the worst sides in the NFL. Just completely a completely unambitious side, it seems they really only function as a side to pick a defense that's playing against them in the US version of fantasy football. I think a lot of potential American owners just see the money in the league without really understanding that you've got to be competitive to get the big prize money and that being a typical unambitious US sports side owner that can just collect TV money even when their side is shit doesn't really work out. Look at Gillett and Hicks with us. Or United, they spend a lot - but that was like what the Ricketts are intending on doing... a leveraged buyout so they don't put a penny in and they'll pay off their loans with money made from Chelsea. I know none of the potential buyers are really ideal, because let's face it... you can't spend a few billion on something and be a decent person, you're probably a blood sucking parasite that'd sell your own mother for the right price when you've got that kind of money. But I'd be hoping for anyone other than RIcketts or Johnson from that list @Ciceroposted.

What'd be worse, Ricketts or Woody Johnson?

It wasn't the 737-Supermax which was grounded recently (and even more recently I've gone on 4 separate flights with that plane and every time I see it's a supermax I have to clench very hard to avoid shitting myself before takeoff). It was the 737-800, which I've been on... hundreds of times... I imagine for it to head straight down like that at that speed, something either had to be horribly wrong or the pilot decided to kill himself and several other people. I've seen some drone footage of the crash site and... there's barely anything at the site of impact, it looks like a lot of shit had disintegrated. I hope there's a black box so the mystery of why the plane went down can be solved. But it's just horrifying and I feel so bad for everyone on the plane.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-russia-sending-mariupol-locals-remote-parts-of-russia-2022-3?utm_source=reddit.com Russia's doing Nazi-style mass deportations from Mariupol. Horrible news, but a bit funny considering the "de-Naziification" claim

The video was maybe one of the most mental I've ever seen for a plane crash. Goes down like a brick being dropped. I feel bad for the people on their plane. That's got to be a terrifying way to go.

Oh that’s reassuring actually

If he’s out for 6-8 weeks I don’t think we’ll be winning the league

After winning? It's not really campaigning on anti-corruption doing thatif you're already elected... that's just being a corrupt arsehole

Johnson & the tories: "It's not cool for us to take Russian money anymore, so our new best friends are Saudis"

I don't think funds like earlier when Moshiri came in as Everton's owner will be available immediately in the summer, but I really don't know how fucked Everton's finances are under FFP @RandoEFC might know better. I assume it'd be a sell-to-buy type situation though, although the Digne sale has probably freed up a bit of money.