Dr. Gonzo

It still all seems very risky to me. Because aside from all of these loan restructurings (which are absolutely a good thing for them)... they've also had to pull these things Barca and the Barca media mouthpieces are calling "financial levers." Things like selling off significant portions of their TV revenue for the next 25 years & selling away significant portions of their rights to merchandising and licensing (which I think means expect a load of cheap crap being made with Barca branding) for short-term gain... it seems like sort of mortgaging against their future to stay afloat. I know they have to do these sorts of things if they want to stay competitive now... but I do wonder if it's a bit short-sighted. I also think it's a bit funny they're "pulling all these levers" for short term benefit, but aren't really concerned with paying De Jong his deferred wages.

Went to Palm Springs for the weekend. Probably not the best idea in the world to go there in July tbh.

I think it’s pretext for the US to start getting involved in more shit in the Middle East tbh

It depends what you like to do when you travel. But generally speaking, I'd say yeah - the weather is pleasant 90% of the time. Not the most stuff in the world to do though, but if you just like good weather, beaches, hikes and shit like that... it's a good place to visit. I think the biggest downside is I don't think it's the greatest place to go to if you're not renting a car - because it wasn't really designed to a city that's easy to get around. But they're working on it.

I think China's going to come out of this conflict feeling pretty good too. Maybe not with their ambitions to eventually "reunify" China by taking Taiwan... but I think they've stood to gain a lot from Russia being put under strain by the West. They now have a role as a sort of middle man, with a reliant west on them, a cheaper oil & gas from Russia (also driving Iran to drop prices to be competitive, so ultimately getting cheaper oil and gas), and an economic void to fill with many western countries leaving Russia that China can replace and in turn have more influence over their politics in the future. Turkey's definitely come out of this looking like the NATO country that's angling to restore peace between Russia and Ukraine and end the war though and weirdly Erdogan ends up looking like a pretty good statesman at least on matters of foreign policy/geopolitics because of this conflict.

It's funny how angry he is Musk's not buying it and unbanning him

Pretty sure he did that to me a lot tbh

that first one is maybe the most shit Christmas tree I've ever seen in my life

I think the German Woolworth became independent from the rest of the Woolworth brand right around the time things got shit for Woolworth and they all closed, so they still exist. I think they still exist in some other countries, but not in the UK anymore at all. I dunno if it's true but I remember my grandad saying that Woolworth invented Christmas ornaments. So while they're gone, they definitely made Christmas look more festive... so they'll always have that (unless it's not true, in which case... wtf why did my grandad lie to me).

Welcome home pal

I'm not sure I agree with that. I think there's a few good young direct players at Southgate's disposal in attack & I'm not convinced that Rice is a must-start player for England. But even if he is, put him in a midfield 3 with Henderson and Phillips and I think a decent 4-3-3 is possible. Or drop Rice to the bench throw in Mount or Maddison for a 4-2-3-1. The thing is I don't think the manager likes playing with any tactics other than: "be strong defensively, hit them on the break, and work hard at set pieces" and he's not so interested in playing decent football as much as he is in just winning matches (which, in fairness to him, is his job). But I'm not sure that'll be enough to get us passed the better sides in a world cup.

We used 32 different players in the match - basically giving 3 groups of players a chance on the pitch every 30 minutes. Looks like we had some good chances, but our finishing wasn't there (hit the post 3 times and forced some good saves). It's probably a good sign for United that these players are looking eager to prove themselves for their new manager, but I don't think there's much to read into this other than our players aren't ready for the upcoming season yet.

it's a training match to build up fitness, I don't think anyone's really arsed hopefully the Glazers took it seriously though and buy themselves a yacht instead of players for United

Isn't Jesse Waters just a comedian? Or is that Greg Gutfield? Either way, this whole fixation on trans stuff is something the media is pushing to both sides to get people to not actually focus on issues that impact everyone and just create a weirdly divisive culture war for politicians to harp on about rather than actually fix the issues that impact everyone. In more positive news coming from the US, California is using it's $100b budget surplus to start producing it's own insulin so that the cost of insulin in California won't be tied to the cost of insulin in the US (which is absurdly high, as most pharmaceutical products in the US). I hope they allow it to be sold to other states and not just Californians, although it should be at a slightly higher cost for people out of state since they don't pay California taxes. Even with a slightly higher cost for non-Californians, that would be a significant cost reduction for anyone who needs insulin in the entire country. On the other hand, California's federal tax numbers show they put in more than any other state to the federal treasury than other states... and don't really get that much back from the federal government comparatively. And a lot of Californians are very resentful of having to subsidise other states that get back shitloads more money than they put in. So it could be a bad political move within California to allow it to be sold to other states. But it would be a good thing for national politics. Because the high price of pharmaceutical drugs in the US is an issue that impacts most people. I don't think we're seeing the sort of leadership from the US federal government that does anything really helpful for Americans, so perhaps the states have to take matters into their own hands.

If I'm honest, I thought the last leadership contest for the tories felt like the party scraping the bottom of the barrel... so I really don't have any sort of optimism that the next PM will be any better. Sunak's the favourite... and it feels a bit weird because he's got the recent track record of fumbling with the economy and his wife's tax dodging. Imagine if Cameron wasn't a coward and didn't resign after the Brexit referendum result. But of course, it was easier for him to give up all pretense of being a leader and go chase after cash. Honestly, I'd have done the same thing... but I'm also not trying to be Prime Minister.

The biggest question I have about that match is why the fuck are we playing a "friendly" with Man United? I know the answer is "to make money off fans in Thailand who get a chance to see 2 big rivals even though it's just a training match to get them ready for the season" but it still feels wrong to do anything with United and call it "friendly."

I think there's a certain pretty serious allegation against Ronaldo that might be preventing him from ever going back to the US until it's been resolved tbh.

Shinzo Abe’s been shot

Thank fuck it won't be Gove, Raab, or Hancock. Especially Hancock, that guy's an absolute fucking joke of a human being. Imagine that moron running a country

I'm not sure Lincoln's an example of a unifier or someone who restored traditional/cultural value - he's someone who had a good policy on slavery (ending it), but that flew in the face of norms and traditions of the US to the point that the country was literally divided in war. I think examples like Lincoln or FDR are better alluding to how America needs someone who can correctly identify what traditions and values have been hurting their country for decades and find a way to get through the division and partisan bullshit the media pushes to make Americans realise that something needs to change for their country to stop sliding down the slope it's been on. And push the traditions and values that have held the test of time as American society has changed over the centuries and are the actual universal American values. But the partisan divisions will be very difficult to heal when you've got the most watched news media outlets actively dividing the electorate and pushing half of them to radical positions. And some traditional universal American values are falling to the wayside in the political slide America's been on for the past 6 or so years.

I never said they were. But take a look at the 4th Amendment. There's clear text in the amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. And then there's how the courts have interpreted that to narrowly restrict what counts as a search or seizure necessitating a warrant. If they can narrowly restrict privacy, they can narrowly restrict guns from entering the hands of absolute morons who shouldn't be allowed to own cars let alone guns.

I wouldn't be surprised if they're bumping up his base pay as a reward for playing really well over the last few years.

Someone with that many red flags shouldn't be able to purchase a gun legally like he did. The simple fact is there's not enough scrutiny behind who's allowed to buy guns and who isn't. There are other countries that have legal gun ownership - but they have substantially more rules on what disqualifies someone from owning a gun. The US is an outlier because there are almost 50% of the world's privately owned guns in the country... but with barely any regulation on firearms. People like to say "it's because it's a constitutionally protected right" - but there are other constitutionally protected rights that have been whittled away at by courts and laws... so that's not a valid reason to not regulate guns. You now have to go to page 5 to find the Highland Park, Illinois shooting that happened just a few days ago in this link: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/number-of-gun-deaths - I think that in itself is appalling and shows how serious of a problem gun violence is in the US.

So you think America needs someone so divisive it leads to civil war because it's inevitable?

I can't believe he's not resigning...