Dr. Gonzo

The last 3 FBI heads are all lifelong Republicans - I don't see how they could be "too close to the Dems." I think the raid is simply the result of having a brazen criminal as President of the United States and him managing to skirt all accountability while he was President. I find it ironic what's gotten him raided is a law he's signed into power and his own refusal to cooperate with an FBI investigation after he hounded his first electoral opponent for her FBI investigation... while she was cooperating. It's America too, it's not like former Presidents have ever really faced accountability - nor do rich people really feel the sting of consequence for the crime for the most part. So it does blow my mind that he didn't cooperate with the FBI as he probably would have received a slap on the wrist. Also taking Ted Cruz's word on anything is inadvisable.

I’m enjoying the “law and order” crowd now crying about how someone they like isn’t above the law & that the FBI should be defunded. I also like DJTJ crying about how “it wasn’t the FBI alone, the DOJ was behind it all” - even though the FBI is a part of the DOJ Very amusing to see people defend the indefensible, sometimes demonstrating incredibly limited understanding of any of the basic concepts of what’s going on.

He’s denying it’s nuclear documents that we’re sought, but still refusing to release his copy of the warrant. My guess is it was definitely nuclear documents and he’s now going to challenge the DOJ trying to release the warrant. Because he doesn’t want us to see the warrant. Will be interesting to see his defenders suddenly do a 180 and start saying Garland shouldn’t produce the warrant after demanding that he should.

I thought about getting one before going to a wedding, but after looking at the prices I’m definitely not spending much on a watch at all. Even shit like Casio & Timex seems well overpriced to me. “Oooh it’s got lots of little gears and no batteries.” Fuck off like that makes it suddenly magically expensive

Sounds like a good film where a rich ex-footballer just lives his post-career life acting as a WUM on a random forum in 2022. But tbf this is the best random forum there is so it’s actually plausible.

Oh my god he had documents relating to nuclear weapons. I hope to fuck he hasn’t sold copies to the Saudis. Last thing we need is nuclear wahhabis

I'm not a Spurs fan, but to me that seems like an unnecessary transfer considering the addition of Richarlison.

What bait? Guy's said something I don't take seriously so I'm not taking it seriously.

Imo pundits getting in weird hot takes early in the season is a good omen considering past seasons.

Fuck, I set myself up for an answer like that. What's the real answer though?

Why the fuck are watches so expensive?!

The FBI basically gave Trump the victory by announcing the investigation into Hillary Clinton, though. The NY office of the FBI was even referred to as Trumpland: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/fbi-leaks-hillary-clinton-james-comey-donald-trump Clinton, in contrast to Trump, complied with the investigation. And was eventually cleared of all wrongdoing, after over a year of inquiry into the matter. The big contrast there is: Trump has refused to comply for over a year and that's why a warrant was issued. And it looks like the FBI received a tip from an informant. This is an FBI director appointed by Trump... investigating Trump for a law that... Trump signed into law making his crime a felony. I don't think it's the case that the director of the FBI that he appointed has been out to get him from the start. It's made all the more funny that it's over a law that Trump passed. With regard to the Epstein assassination, I'm sure it was done by people within the DOJ that controls the Federal Bureau of Prisons - that Trump and Barr had full control over. It's looking now like the Trump team is worried that someone in his inner circle is a government informant. There have been some claims as to who is suspected: from former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to his wife and kids. He's apparently asking people if they know "who's wearing a wire." Which doesn't really sound like the actions of a man who thinks they're completely innocent. The DOJ wants to unseal the warrant. It's also been pointed out by a lot of people that if Trump wanted the public to see the warrant, he's within his rights to put that all over the internet. So I think it's interesting the government is ready to show the public what they were looking for... but Trump isn't.

I don't think we're ever likely to overhaul the midfield and I'm not sure players like Bissouma and Phillips are what we'd really want. Personally, I want a player that replaces some of the dynamism Ox used to give our midfield - and that we sometimes see from Keita... although nowhere near as often enough. I'm also not that convinced Tielemans would be the right fit for us either - I think he's quality when he's up for it, but the way he played for Leicester last season when they needed him to come through big for them was... pretty disheartening I'm sure for most Leicester fans. He looked like he actively didn't give a fuck about their goals for the season... and that's not really the sort of mentality you want to have around a side that's looking to compete for as much as they can. We can't really afford mistakes and signing players for the sake of signing players is no guarantee of success - our strategy has worked for the most part so far. This has been the best era of supporting Liverpool in my life and probably yours. Yes, it's annoying we have to compete with a side like City that has just incredible depth... but we can't afford to spend a lot and be wrong without really feeling the consequences on the pitch. So you're probably not ever going to see us make sweeping overhauls to a whole position over one transfer window - we'll make probably one or two big signings and a few squad/youth signings while Klopp is at the helm, imo. And it's not so bad, we've got a good squad - we've got young players we're looking to develop to compete at a high level - and we've got seasoned veterans. We're fortunate enough to be in a position where we can spend a lot for really highly rated players in Europe - we just don't have an endless pile of cash to draw from and that's shit, but we're still in a much better position than most other clubs. But we can't suddenly act like we're City because we're trying to compete with them.

Here's a wiki to Bill Barr's dad's book in case you don't believe me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Relations#:~:text=Space Relations%3A A Slightly Gothic Interplanetary Tale is,by Fawcett Crest Books in February 1975.

Monica Lewinsky wasn't a child though? Trump palled around with Epstein more than most of Epstein's colleagues - he's even called Epstein a friend in the past. Trump was president and harbors ambitions of running the US again, Bill Clinton's just a private citizen. I don't think any of us will know who had the closest ties to Epstein or who fucked the most children on his island - especially now that Epstein is dead. But for all the conspiracy theories about Epstein - there's facts that are just often overlooked for an easy theory to string together. He was on suicide watch under 24 hour surveillance in a high security US federal prison - and the moments where he's unaccounted for (and "kills himself") the guards aren't watching and the video footage is deleted. That would only be possible if you had a lot of control over the federal prison system. And WIlliam Barr, who's father gave Epstein his first professional job and who he's known for a very long time (and wrote a book about aliens taking him on a space ship to a planet where sex adventures are had!) had control over the federal prison system. And I think it's likely that considering who Barr's boss was... that's two people who very much have possible motive for Epstein to not say anything. I'm not saying that's what happened for sure... but in terms of conspiracy theories a lot of shit about Epstein is directed at Clinton and then people point to things like Monica Lewinsky who isn't even tangentially related to Epstein. It's like saying "Trump did it, Remember 'Grab 'em by the Pussy.'" But looking at the facts of how he died and who was in control of the US federal prison system... there's a much more logical conspiracy theory to be made - and it's honestly more obvious. And just because something is a conspiracy, doesn't mean it's totally bullshit. But we'll never know unless one of those guards (who've both already pled guilty to improperly leaving their post) say anything - which they probably won't ever will. And honestly all of Epstein's associates should be investigated: Trump, Clinton, the nonce prince, Musk, Gates. Because it's only people who are either very wealthy or very politically connected (or both)... involved with some seriously allegedly disgusting things. And those are the people that are running the western world. But that fact is probably why we will never get a real investigation or inquiry.

Idk how we can say what Harvey Elliot's best position is yet. I don't think he looks good out wide tbh, and I think his best performances for us have come at CM. And we've seen very few of Carvalho in competitive matches for Liverpool. I've got concerns about the midfield with the aspirations we have, we have good players - albeit they are injury prone. But we also don't want to block off our promising young players from having a pathway into the first team. Clyne getting a horrific injury led to Trent getting a shot and look how that turned out. Elliot, Carvalho and Jones all will likely need regular football to push on. The fact is when Klopp & the transfer team have brought someone they really want in... it's panned out well for us. I am glad we waited for Virgil instead of signing a last minute CB the summer we didn't land him. I'd rather they get someone they're fully comfortable with being brought into the squad then someone they're not fully sold on. So I'm with @Danny on this - the club has clearly identified CM as a position where they're ready to spend a lot to address the age and likelihood these players get injured and bolster it with someone that's got a lot of quality. If we spend a lot on someone they're not really sold on... chances are that player is going to fail and I'm not sure the results would be much different with a dud transfer compared to playing the kids we've got as backups in the event of injuries. I'd rather bring in players they actually have a strong belief will fit in at the club, and if that means waiting for Bellingham or whoever else... then we'll just have to do the best we can do with what we've got. Because as that one injury ridden season showed us, while we're far from our best when we're decimated by injury... we're still better than most clubs in the country. The squad's got plenty of quality and character even if we can't put out our best XI. And realistically we can't afford to make the kinds of mistakes that clubs with infinite pools of cash can make - otherwise we end up facing the kind of shit we dealt with in the 90s and 00s... or what United are going through now.

I enjoy people who 6 years ago said things like “nobody is above the law, lock her up” are now demanding that someone be considered above the law. I dunno why I’d expect ideological consistency from this gaggle of absolute morons though. Surely you must realise that it was probably Trump who had Epstein suicide-ed? The person in charge of the US prison system was AG Bill Barr, a longtime family friend of Epstein. And Trump was his friend since the 80s. Too people who were probably a bit worried about what Epstein might have to say. They had the means (controlling the prison system), motive (keeping him quiet), and opportunity (controlling the prisons again).

I still don't understand why China cares so much. She's not the first person from the US congress (or even Speaker of the House) to travel to Taiwan. Tbh, I think it makes China look like a bit of a paper tiger and I'm not sure they want to be entrenched in a war over Taiwan and get bogged down in a conflict where a much larger military ends up struggling against a smaller military armed by NATO (and most likely other South Asian countries), the way Russia's found their war in Ukraine gone. I get that they want Taiwan's semiconductor industry... but I'm not sure they'll get it (at least without having the infrastructure of those industries completely decimated in a war) by acting the way they've been acting. And ultimately, it's bad for business (which tbh, so are China's current covid policies) - which I think is strange China would want to jeopardise that, considering making goods for the rest of the world is what got them to be a genuine superpower. Because if it were me in charge of the decision making for these multinational companies... I think these sorts of statements from China would have me thinking "well, this looks like it might very well end up with China becoming another pariah state - perhaps it's time to transition out of China" and there are countries like Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, etc... that I think would be quite keen to see western companies move manufacturing out of China to them. The Western world probably needs to be looking more carefully at who they're doing business with. European energy dependence with Russia has Europe wanting to be harsher on Russia for it's invasion and destabilisation of the continent... but really unable to make the steps they'd want to make because... they're dependent on Russia for energy. China's sort of got global manufacturing by the balls right now and are getting increasingly hostile with regard to Taiwan and wanting control over the semi-conductor industry... and if China invades Taiwan, the strongest reaction would be to uproot what made China so strong in the first place. But they can't do that if China's got the manufacturing industry by the balls.

Ron DeSantis tweeting about how he's "shocked" by this news very much reminds me of this:

I don't know why republicans are crying about the raid on Trump's house. It's not like there wasn't a warrant - there was a warrant. The FBI has asked him to turn over missing White House documents many times. That they had to ask for a warrant to go and get them is telling. It's not some random warrantless search. It's not something the Trump team would have thought beyond the realm of possibility (at least if they have competent lawyers) - when you don't produce documents the FBI asks for but has evidence that you have in your possession... it's always likely a warrant can be granted. It's kind of pathetic too, when they talk about the politicisation of the justice department after they spent years harping on about Clinton and having a criminal investigation into her... which resulted in a finding that she didn't do anything wrong, after tarnishing her reputation before the election. The hypocrisy is actually quite hilarious. I can only assume the documents perhaps contain some damning information on these politicians crying the loudest right now.

I'm a bit worried about our midfield just because we're relying on so many injury prone players this season. I think this is a big year for Jones (although he's already injured), Elliott, and Carvalho. There will be enough moments for them to get big chances to stake a claim in the midfield. I'm also wondering if with the injuries we've got right now if we'll see a bit of a different formation to our usual formation. I doubt it though, seems like Klopp hates changing the shape unless he absolutely has to.

These are the sorts of dipshits that wish the crusades never ended because they never saw their skyman bring about what was promised in the book that was written that they think controls everyone's life. Religious extremists are scum, doesn't matter what religion it is and where in the world they come from. The religious right of the US is desperate to create such a absolute shitshow in the Middle East that the war envelopes the holy lands, because they think that's what's necessary for their prophesy to come true. Which tbh is a bit funny... because where's their faith in their God? Shouldn't they just have to be good Christians and follow the teachings of Christ and be patient for it to eventually happen? But that'd probably require them to do things like: care about poor people or... read more of the Bible than the quotes their hyperpartisan pastors and priests have cherry picked to make their political point. They're no different from the Wahhabi scum they pretend to be so much better than. Just a different flavour of scum, but still absolute scum.

Conte at this United squad would be a hilarious disaster. These are players that got sick of Solksjaer and Rangnick telling them what to do and stopped giving a fuck. Conte would have them physically exhausted after the first training session and they'd decide "yeah, fuck this we're not playing for that angry Italian guy." And he'd want to overhaul the squad because... why the fuck wouldn't he? And the Glazers would be like "no no no that costs too much money, just get these overpaid dickheads we've already got to actually perform" all while they'd quickly decide they don't like this manager and he's no fun so they don't want to give a shit for him.

Strong Brendan Rodgers vibes from Arteta in that

That is shocking news, that's absolutely no age to go. Very sad, RIP.