Dr. Gonzo

Well why would that continue beyond a brief period? Tbh that was really just fueled by the detest Mourinho and Rafa had between each other. That’s going to be a motivating factor in how the players react too. Idk what you mean by “players, manager, and clubs” being at each other if you don’t give a fuck about the fans… because what else could club mean? Their boardrooms? As far as I know they never hated each other - they probably liked the media hype around the fixtures because marketing.

It's probably because in a lot of peoples' eyes we aren't/weren't rivals. There's no real connection for us hating Chelsea other than: having a lot of money & that the Chelsea fanbase has a lot of fucking tories. So from a lot of Liverpool fans perspectives, seeing Chelsea fans work themselves up about us was particularly funny - like a lot of them got bored of Fulham being their local rival so they had to make up a rivalry about us. Not so much from the lads we know on the forum, who are pretty sound, but a lot of the "banter" from Chelsea fans did end up making a lot of us seriously detest them because it just reeked of classism. But despite the classic matches from that era... it's not like we were ever really in competition with Chelsea at that time. We were never really serious contenders for the league title, other than one year (where Chelsea didn't win) - it was more of Rafa just having us punch above our weight in the CL against them in the "ghost goal" match that I feel really kicked off the "rivalry." That Rafa & Mourinho detested each other maybe made it seem like more of a rivalry to neutrals. And I'm sure it didn't help that the media wanted to constantly bring up Lampard v. Gerrard, and they probably had a hand in manufacturing some animosity between the fans... but I don't think that made many Liverpool fans or Chelsea fans treat it like a serious rivalry. Just the smooth brain lads like @The Liquidator treated it as a serious rivalry. I guess it depends on your definition of "rival" though.

Honestly age doesn’t excuse the performances over the last 3 matches. It’s only a few months ago this old squad was working really hard and making other teams scared. Imo it’s a mix of complacency and tactics that just don’t really work + too much reliance on players that have been injury prone for years. That leads to tactical decisions that don’t work - Milner & Henderson as the pivot has never really worked throughout Klopp’s tenure. It’s not helped when Milner isn’t holding his position the whole match & when you’ve got Henderson, Elliott, and Trent all occupying the same pocket of space most of the match… we hardly had any actual midfielders in the centre of the pitch. That’s the biggest failing of yesterday, it was a massive tactical breakdown. The only thing I will say about age of players being an issue is we just can’t rely on Milner for anything other than an experienced player off the bench. But the alternative is playing Henderson with 2 teenagers alongside him in a match away to a massive rival - We’re not that far removed from injury crisis ruining one of our seasons before. I think this season could be similar in that regard. But it should be better, but the players need to pull their fingers out because it’s not age that’s making players lose concentration. And it’s not age making Milner and Henderson completely unable to hold their positions.

Most of the republican party since Reagan have been neocons. The MAGA crowd has been the biggest ideological shift the party has seen in decades.

My friend told me a similar joke. Three Finnish men walk into a bar and each order a beer, one finishes his beer and asks for another. The other two glare at him for talking so much.

I've got a friend from Sweden who says the reason it's controversial is because she's too social and having too much fun to actually be Finnish - I dunno anything about Finnish stereotypes really other than they like drinking a lot, but sounds like they're pretty fucking funny stereotypes

I'm not surprised. Game of Thrones spinoffs are going to be how HBO milks content people are familiar with like the way Disney milks Star Wars and Marvel. Bet once Westworld is done, HBO tries to make some spinoffs out of that too.

Yeah, Liz Cheney (and her father before her) are definitely not people you can call RINOs - their party's traditional ideology is who they are at their political core. I hate her political beliefs, personally, but I don't think she's as morally depraved as the MAGA-cult brand of republicans. Her and Kizinger (idk if that's his name, but it's close at least) are repugnant politically, but are at least true to the values of their party and not white nationalists. Meanwhile the MAGA branch of their party seems to be primarily ideologically driven by white nationalism, religious fanaticism. They do both crossover in their craven loyalty to the billionaire class and corporate interests though.

How does that make her a RINO (not rhino, it stands for "Republican in Name Only") if she has the actual conservative values of the republican party? This new wave of Republicans with no real actual values and no real plan for governance other than tax cuts for the wealthy and promoting culture wars and division are the true RINOs. They're both linked by their slavish devotion to the ultra-wealthy and corporations, but outside of that... there's a smaller wing of the party that stands by the party's ideological principles - and then team MAGA that's taken the reigns which really only cares about using culture wars and identity politics to divide the country so they can retain power. The media, of course, loves the MAGA cult because their pushing of division - and when they're in control of the executive branch, the scandals they generate on nearly a daily basis, generate people giving them the clicks and views that keep the ad revenue paying them. So it's no coincidence the US is doomed to having it's electorate having to wage culture wars foisted upon them instead of voting for serious people who are driven by political ideology.

I think she's going to run to split the vote between real republicans and whoever the MAGA-cult candidate ends up being - Trump or DeSantis most likely. Interestingly enough, it appears a member of Trump's inner circle has trashed his own "best defense" of the FBI raid situation with the classified documents - he claimed he had declassified the documents because he could just declare them declassified. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone has said they don't have the paperwork to declassify the documents in question. This demonstrates that: There's a proper procedure for declassifying documents that Trump was aware of The procedure requires documentation He understands the procedure, or at very least the legal representative of his administration understood the procedure So he knew he can't just declassify info by simply declaring it declassified. He knew there was a procedure to follow and document and he did not follow or document it. So what would be his legal defense now? That he can't tell right from wrong because he's never faced any accountability for his crimes? If that's the case, he's not got the moral character to be in any position of power.

Too cowardly to play us even though we've also been shit so far this season...

I think Erdogan is an awful shitty human, but there's no doubt his foreign policy game is very strong. The Ukraine-Russia war has been nothing but a series of wins for him. He's even leveraged Russia's deepened ties with Iran to restore diplomatic relations with Israel, which I think signifies that Israel and Turkey have plans for Syria and are counting on Russia not being able to maintain their strong presence there as this Ukraine war keeps dragging on.

So a long time ago, I read this book because I thought "well if the Iranian government hates it, it's got to be really good" ... ... so I read it and read it... and kept waiting for the shocking parts with blasphemy and for it to get interesting. And it wasn't blasphemous in the slightest and was just a really, really, boring book, imo. I now know the dream sequences featuring Mohammed are just considered blasphemous because they're just a depiction of Mohammed... but I think it seems incredibly fucking stupid to get so offended by the book and for people to call for his death (and pay to have a bounty made on him)... but I just don't think that it was really blasphemous despite the prediction. If anything, the dream sequences make Mohammed not look like an evil piece of shit and instead show him as someone who resisted being tricked by the devil. Rubbish book, though, but he doesn't deserve to get attacked or killed because the book is shit. Really shows the fucking idiotic priorities of the Iranian government, though. They've got money to throw at a potential murderer for a guy who wrote a book, but they won't do a fucking thing for the Iranians living in Iran. Evil monsters hiding behind their religion.

I assume the people most up in arms about this in Finland are much older (and uglier) than their PM

Things people do when they've got under 5 braincells

I think this is hilarious: https://www.salon.com/2022/08/17/everyones-saying-no-hires-florida-insurance-lawyer-as-top-attorneys-refuse-to-work-for-him/ No decent attorneys want to take his case (because he doesn't pay his bills - and attorneys care about getting paid) - so he's got to go with a grifter from the news network that makes Fox News look like it's sane.

I'm convinced the guy only cares about two things: his own ego and his bank balance. Him being president allowed him to funnel a lot of money into his hotels and golf courses (especially as he'd force the Secret Service security detail into staying at those hotels/golf course resorts - and he golfed fucking constantly). Once he was no longer president, he couldn't just funnel US treasury money into his bank balance. I don't think it's really coincidental that Jared Kushner got $2b from Saudis for an unspecified investment - I think they've been doing illegal deals.

The player power at United is just so toxic. The people are morons, so they won't do this, but they should be doing it to protect their investment in the club so they can keep leaching money through dividends... because it seems obvious (and they should know this as the owners of Tampa Bay's NFL team) - but being good and winning will make them make more money than being mediocre. Perhaps they were so simple, they thought signing Cristiano Ronaldo would be the same as signing Tom Brady with Tampa Bay... but it shows a critical lack of understanding of the numerous problems United have on the pitch and in the dressing room. But what they've really got to do is clear out a shitload of these dickhead players that think that because they're at Manchester United it means they're world class so they don't have to up their game. And that because they're "world class" in their minds, they think they know better than their manager. Your skipper with the massive slab for a head saying things like "I must be good, because I am picked every week" despite playing like shit and United suffering for it (regardless of any international goals against sides like the absolutely massive footballing powerhouse of San Marino) just sort of exemplifies what is wrong with the players at the club. That's the captain not taking responsibility for his own bad performances or for his team constantly underperforming. No fan wants to see that - they want to see their captain be a link between the fans and the players, someone who can be honest enough to say "I'm not having the best season, my teammates aren't having the best season... but we're stopping at nothing to try to right the ship." You know... a leader in the dressing room... a captain. And if that's the guy who's meant to be the squad's leader... I think it's safe to say that the club is full of players with an attitude that think they deserve success and think they don't actually have to work for it. Ego and entitlement only get you so far when you're trying to compete against sides that have the talent and desire to be truly competitive. And sure, those clubs definitely have players with massive egos as well... but at least they back up their ridiculous egos by having the talent and desire to show they're amongst the best in the country and the continent. What the fuck have these United players done in the past few seasons to back up these egos? The only one I can really think of is Ronaldo winning stuff at Real Madrid and Juve... and tbh, that's not just down to Ronaldo. He thinks he might be too good to not be playing in Europe... but he's part of that squad that failed to qualify for the CL.

Wow that happened pretty quickly, if true. The ego of these players is remarkable. It takes some gall being way understands for multiple seasons and then telling the manager "nah we don't want to learn your new tactics, we think you should do things the way our last permanent manager that got sacked did things." Take the time to learn the fucking new system and learn how to adapt rather than just give up immediately.

I think it's a mix of modern tactics sort of leaving the position he's best in behind & him not really adapting. And being lazy in training means managers think he doesn't take his career seriously - and it's not like it looks like he's worked particularly hard at finding a way to make a role for himself at a club outside of playing the role he's best in. The laziness isn't going to fly with a lot of managers in this era of football if you want to compete at the top end of the league and in Europe, nor is being unable or unwilling to adapt to new roles to allow for the manager to make a system that gets the best out of more players. He's a good example of why talent alone doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a good player. You need the right attitude to go with that talent.

I think Everton just don’t want to pay Spurs in 7 matches

He's claiming they've taken all 3 of his passports. Which begs the question... why the hell does he have 3 passports? Anyway, that means the FBI thinks he's a flight risk. Which is understandable because I think they clearly think he's been giving classified information to foreign powers.

Flat out admission because he's basically a human projector

I saw a report saying that she had alcohol, cocaine, and fentanyl (which was probably just in the cocaine she took... if it's true even) in her system. I saw another report say it was just large amounts of cocaine. I have no idea where the media gets their info from. But yeah, from that footage... really lucky nobody else got hurt. Another report says she went to a hairdresser who picked up a wig(?) - one interview with him says she smelled strongly of alcohol... another says he did not suspect drugs and/or alcohol. Apparently the woman who almost died and her pets are all relatively okay, which is decent news considering how bad it was for Anne Heche. I guess it's different though reacting to something crashing into your house at high speed and the resulting fire than... being in the thing crashing into your house at high speed and bursting into flames. It's one of those things though where I feel really bad for her and her family/friends... but I also think "wow what a shitty and selfish way to accidentally kill yourself - thankfully nobody else was hurt."

RIP... but she was definitely a bit of an arsehole drunk driving on cocaine like that. She almost killed the woman in the house she hit (and her pets)... and the resulting fire made her lose her home and most of her possessions. Sad way to go for her, I think even if she did recover from the coma she had been burnt beyond recognition with severe burns. But... great example of why you shouldn't drink drive or do hard drugs and then drive.