Dr. Gonzo

Gareth Southgate is the first English manager to get relegated as a player, club manager, and international manager

Also asylum seekers aren’t illegal immigrants.

They were promised jobs in Massachusets by Florida, who had no authority to promise those jobs to people. They purposefully didn't notify anyone at DHS in Marthas Vineyard that they were sending migrants there. They were also told they were being flown to Boston and that's where they'd get work. They were instead sent to Martha's Vineyard to embarrass Kamala Harris while she's there. It was all a political stunt. They're also being housed in Massachusetts (the state Martha's Vineyard is in, btw) not New York. Begs the question where you're getting your news from tbh. California, Illinois and Pennsylvania are all "sanctuary states" as well - so doesn't really make sense why another sanctuary state would be taking in so many migrants seeking sanctuary. They were also told to change their addresses with USCIS - which isn't the appropriate agency they'd be reporting address changes to. That was a deliberate attempt to get them flagged and fast tracked for deportation after they'd been used as pawns in a political stunt. DeSantis and relevant Florida agencies are now being sued, Texas is being investigated for it's own similar stunt, and the DOJ is investigating both states for being involved in kidnapping and human trafficking. This isn't even properly about illegal immigration - the Biden administration has stopped more illegal immigrants at US borders than any other president's administration in US history in 2 years. People who live in cities and towns on the US-Mexico border aren't too concerned about illegal immigration either (source: I live in a city by the US-Mexico border) - there's a reason for that too, 1.) legal migration of Mexicans to the US, and vice versa, is easy as fuck - it's mostly the drug war that leads people to dig tunnels and use submarines; 2.) most illegal immigrants to the US enter via airports legally - and stay once their visas have expired. This was just an attempt to bring immigration to the public eye again before the midterm elections (like that MiGrAnT cArAvAn that suddenly stopped being an issue for right wing media as soon as the last midterm elections were over) and bring a new front to DeSantis's culture war (because his "war on Disney" stopped being popular with his voters once people in Florida, especially Orlando, found their local and state taxes going up as a result... in the middle of the cost of living skyrocketing). One thing I question: is why the fuck did it cost $500k to hire a jet to fly these people? A quick check indicates a private jet holding 40-50 people is significantly cheaper to hire for one flight that length. So is there some crony capitalism in the midst of this human trafficking scandal? My guess is: yeah, absolutely. In any case, if the US wants more safety at the border with Mexico - they should be addressing their drug policy and doing what they can to stop their nation's drug problem from making Mexico a cartel ruled wild-west. And if the US wants more protection against illegal immigrants, it's got to be better about enforcement of expired visas. Trafficking people to states that republicans don't like very much doesn't really solve the issue. Or any issue. It just furthers a culture war that doesn't serve to do anything other than further divide the country. And that's probably being done because otherwise people will pay attention and see that the rampant corporate corruption of America is probably the greatest issue it faces.

The footage of the protests in Iran is crazy. Good luck to all of those brave kids, I remember my uncle telling me about the aftermath of the 2009 protests - I hope things don't go so brutally for them. The death toll from the response by the Basijis & IRGC keeps rising though - I think it's already higher than the "official" toll of 2009 (which I'm pretty sure really underrepresents how many kids they killed).

Of the newer assassins creeds, I think the best ones are the ones like Black Flag & Valhalla where you’re not really an assassin but your character becomes one. Agree with you on the burnout. I generally like Ubisoft’s open world games (welll…. Assassins Creed & Far Cry), but they are very easy games to burn out on. So much shit to do in those games and the missions do get quite repetitive. I think running through the whole series all in a row would seem more like a chore than it would be fun, which is a shame because some of those games are quite good. Especially the second one.

The first Red Dead Redemption is arguably the best campaign of a single player game I've ever played in my life. The second one is very good and I definitely recommend playing the first one... first... because while the second is a prequel (which is weird lol), they do a lot of referencing back to the first one which I think makes it more enjoyable. But holy shit that first one is so good. Ass Creed games range from really good to absolute shite - but that's an absolute fuckload of games to play if you're going to run through that series.

FFS he's called up an injured Henderson to replace the injured Phillips. I fucking hate Gareth Southgate.

The darkest days under Rodgers can be quite fucking dark, so I'm not surprised. Weirdly, like with us... he's managing to cling onto the job longer than should be reasonably possible considering the performances (and results). Bit of a shitshow for Leicester though - changing managers mid-season is never ideal unless you've got someone lined up after they're ready to come back into football after their sabbatical. And the new manager's going to have to come in and try to give players bereft of confidence some confidence again, as well as try to get players that haven't looked like they give a fuck to suddenly give a fuck. But when Rodgers is out of ideas, it's absolute rubbish and your club feels like it's in total freefall. I know how you feel right now.

I think they'd actively have to try to find someone worse than Rodgers at stopping the rot at this point

Yeah, you should actually look into the details they weren’t even told where they were going and had to fill out false DHS forms. Everyone involved should be investigated

Perhaps DeSantis has that idea because Cubans can come to the US in what would otherwise be illegal immigration, but because of the Cold War, undocumented immigrants from Cuba get a pathway to citizenship in the US. And they are a reliably conservative voter block in Florida. In the rest of the country though, even legal immigrants don't have voting rights. You've got to become a naturalised citizen to be able to vote as an immigrant. I think it's more considered inhumane because taking people from one place without telling them where they're going is... kidnapping and human trafficking... Not so much the destination they've been sent to. And I think most normal people would find kidnapping and human trafficking to be morally wrong. I think it backfired though as the plan was to piss off a wealthy "left wing" (although I think Martha's Vineyard is more classically liberal and not really left-wing at all) neighborhood and instead that community rallied around these migrants who were trafficked from Florida to Martha's Vineyard to provide them support. It's managed to piss off even conservative Hispanic groups too. And it's just another example of a culture war being fought by America's political "leaders" rather than doing anything to address the issues. No surprise DeSantis is waging yet another culture war though.

12 defenders and 5 midfielders looks funny

Hasn't Ukraine already declared it a war, it's Russia that hasn't. Armenia's triggered CSTO asking Russia for assistance & Georgia's holding a referendum to see whether the population supports driving out the Russians from Ossetia. Looks like Azerbaijan and Georgia are either taking advantage of how stretched Russia is, or they've been told by a west this is a good time to press their claims. Because realistically, Russia's not going to be able to keep up a fight against a NATO equipped Ukraine, while also needing to protect its allies under CSTO and protect its separatist republic it played a part in setting up. Putin cant project strength if his peacekeepers are essentially worthless. But if Russia does declare a war, they can start conscription and start throwing bodies at these conflicts. But that's now potentially 4 fronts of active conflict for Russia - Ukraine, Azerbaijan-Armenia (where they're meant to be keeping the peace), and Syria (propping up Assad), and potentially Georgia. Even with conscription, I don't think Russia can enjoy success on all fronts. Especially as Georgia would likely receive NATO backing as well.

Deport this man back to the US

Yeah, tbf I'm still working while sick. I'm just not going to the office. And the holiday was with paid time off that I'd earned and I deserved a fucking break.

I tested positive for COVID again! Missed 10 days of work & now missing 10 more, and I'm not allowed to leave my house which suits me just fine with this fucking jetlag.

Heading back home, was a good trip for the most part. Liked Rome, a bit pissed off about my wallet for a day or two, but the good food fixed that up. Bari and Puglia were incredible. Naples… ehhh the Veiled Christ and pizza was great… but honestly that’s about all I liked. Couldn’t wait to get the fuck out. Florence was incredible. Can’t wait to go fucking home and sleep in my own bed again though.

Nope front pocket, impressive skill from the pickpocket. All in all, I’ve closed all the cards & had no cash with me… so I’ve really just lost drivers license (which is a pain) and the wallet itself. But it’s still seriously fucking annoying and a shit way to start a trip.

Landed in Rome, promptly got my wallet taken off me, want to go home lol

It's very interesting imo that it seems his time at clubs seems to follow a sort of pattern. Definitely not a "long term" manager. I think he might do well in a league like Serie A where managers aren't really expected to do anything in the long term - where it won't seem so bad if he floats from club to club every couple of years.

Tbh around the end of Rodgers tenure with us, a lot of players that ended up being looking a lot better once Rodgers left looked a lot like players that couldn't cut it at the level expected of them either. I said it last year, but I think a lot of how Leicester have stagnated reminds me of how he just couldn't get things right with us once Suarez had gone. He's a decent manager until he gets stale, then he gets really annoying. Weird tactics, players out of position, results won't go your way and he won't really change much unless there's injuries or suspensions... it's like a rot sets in with him and it just starts spreading throughout the squad. I think Leicester need to sack him sooner rather than later if they want to keep looking forward without having to recover from too many setbacks.

It's the beginning of the season, I don't think any conclusions can really be drawn until we're 10 matches in or so. See above for my thoughts on the 7 year shite. It's just lazy journalism tbh. It's not like Dortmund where they played well but were constantly missing boatloads of chances, we were just poor in the first 3 matches. Good in that glorified friendly cup against City & against the most shit team I've seen in a long time.

Fabinho was really poor in the first two matches, but we did look a lot better when he came on against United and definitely against Bournemouth (although I don't think too much can be read into the Bournemouth match because I think Bournemouth are possibly the worst side in the league by some distance). We've seen it before, like the year where no CBs or CMs could stay fit for more than a period of weeks - with enough injuries, the system will break down entirely. And I think also relying on Milner and Henderson for too many matches too quickly is going to lead to other moments where the system just breaks down. Imo we need to be bringing in 2 midfielders in the next few windows that compliment Fabinho well, because we've got a few sicknotes and reliance on old players, in what is possibly the most important area of the pitch.

It's not exactly been a mystery - for seasons many managers have had their side target him because he bombs so far up the pitch. When our midfield is functioning like a normal midfield, usually a central midfielder drops into that gap. In some matches this season we've abandoned that (but honestly, I think it's just that we've asked Henderson and Milner to play more matches than they can physically handle) and our system can break down pretty badly if players aren't all playing their roles correctly. I don't really think he'll abandon the system of having the CMs cover for when the fullbacks push forward.

We should be expecting to beat any team outside of the "top 6" if we're at Anfield tbh