Dr. Gonzo

Richarlison was one of the few players Everton fans could count on to do something in matches for them that was positive. He's a good player and he's got a win-at-all costs mentality, which makes him an absolute twat to play against, but he's got the mentality to fight for his club. And he's performed pretty regularly for Brazil too. It's a big loss for Everton, but it's a huge signing for Spurs I think. He's a player that can come in for your two best players... and he can also play alongside them. So now you've got 4 very good players to compete for spots in that front 3 you have - I think that can only be a good thing for you. I don't really think you have anything to worry about. Terry Sheringham's thinking about things I think with a bit too much of an old school mentality - especially with this condensed season for the World Cup after an already pretty rigorous season with its own weird scheduling issues - you need depth to really contend. Now you've got exceptional attacking depth. Also it's all well and good having him remince about how Spurs did things in the old days that he maybe considers the golden years. But how many trophies did Spurs win then? I'm pretty sure the only thing he won at Spurs was player of the year - it seems a bit weird to tell someone like Conte, someone who's figured out how to win leagues many times, that he's doing it wrong and he should look to a period of time where Spurs won nothing.

Very happy with that news.

Jesus fucking Christ

He does everything from the point of view of a massive incel because he’s the king of the incels. I’ve only found there’s really 2 opinions on the guy: you think he’s an insufferable dickhead or you absolutely love him.

I think he's just trying to score easy points here. Gets to look like he's a champion of womens rights by making a dig at toxic masculinity & it's he gets to have a dig at Putin too, which is easy to do for any politician in the West to curry a bit of media favour. Plus being chummy with the media and making jokes has gotten him this far in his political career - I can't see him ever stopping, especially when he sees he's got an easy way to have a dig at some kind of political opponent. It's sort of the "special move" he's used throughout his career.

She worked at the White House for the Trump administration, she testified that Mark Meadows told Trump to say something to the protestors to get them to stop the capitol attack & that some of them had weapons. Her testimony included the president's response including statements like "I don't fucking care if they have weapons" and "they're not hear to hurt me" as well as his demands to be taken to the scene of the crime - "I'm the fucking president, take me to the capitol now." She also testified she overheard a conversation between Meadows and White House attorney Pat Cippilone: "You heard him [Trump], Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong." This was in response to chants of "hang Mike Pence." I think it's pretty telling that there isn't anyone willing to come forward to testify under oath, putting them under penalty of perjury, to contradict those claims. And testimony from people like William Barr, who was firmly in Trump's inner circle, don't seem to indicate that she's not being forthright about the president's behavior. Some of the more amusing parts of her testimony include William Barr telling Trump the election results were not a fraud and Trump threw his lunch that was covered in ketchup against the wall. She had to clean up the mess.

It was Pablo Escobar wasn’t it? First season of Narcos covers that story pretty well

I agree with that 100% but also... what?

In this era, if Jesus came back I'm pretty sure the US bible loving fanatics would crucify him for being an unwashed socialist

I agree, that's why I put it in quotes. These "moderates" are tbh quite happy for the republicans to pull the country further and further to the right, then they come in and make those policies the status quo (like Biden has done with many Trump-era policies: from immigration, the losing battle on trade with China, Middle East policy, etc...) There's about 2-4 people in US politics you can probably actually call left-wing and then the rest are either fairly right wing... or full on extremists.

I saw a poll recently where even many Trump supporters (not the diehard ones who are basically cultists at this point) think he shouldn't be the GOP nominee because he has too much baggage. And DeSantis also polls well among the many US "moderates." I realistically can't see any high profile dems winning it. Klobuchar's very much a status quo moderate democrat, which isn't really the kind of candidate that inspires voters to think positive change is coming with their election... a lot like Biden, tbh. And just in terms of the stupid things voters consider instead of... actual policies... she has a pretty nervous sounding wobbly voice that I think made her come off as a bit shit in the DNC debates. You pair her up against Trump or DeSantis and I think she'll probably come off looking really bad in the presidential debates even if she's just arguing against people spewing bullshit. I also think it's maybe a bit tough for sitting democrat senators right now - as a lot of them are taking heat from their base for failing to codify Roe v. Wade while they had the chance. Will voters remember that by the next election? I'm not so sure. I don't have much faith in most democrat politicians, too successfully battle this far-right movement in the US that's taken control of their conservative party. They've got the most watched media network on their side and they're comfortable making bad faith arguments in order to get votes and support. I'd like someone like Katie Porter to run, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Porter She won her seat in a district that once claimed it was "the most republican district in the United States" (although I'm not sure how that's true considering it's in California and not Alabama) - that has a long history of electing shitty people. She's popular in her district - and popular with a lot of left wing and liberal people in the US.

Didn't realise trump was president in 1969: https://www.thebalance.com/unemployment-rate-by-year-3305506 Also look how it spikes up because of COVID - maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the US federal government had... done stuff instead of just throwing their hands up and saying "it's up to each state to decide."

More criminals have been arrested at the border under Biden than they were under Trump - so Biden's better at keeping the border secure than Trump was Trump failed at every single policy goal he had except for: 1.) lower taxes for rich people; 2.) putting religious extremists into the Supreme Court. He really did fuck all for normal people. I suppose he does care for "his own people" but his own people are really just the ultra-wealthy parasites that have been gnawing at the western world.

That's just how it is with US politics though. Both parties give you two candidates you hate, and you pick the one you hate the least. My wife's a US citizen and voted for Biden and she doesn't think he's a good president, but she still likes him more than Trump. Which I think is a pretty reasonable assessment because Trump's a big part of the reason why the US has gotten so shit over the last 5 years: he started a trade war the US can't win and has made prices of everything more expensive, he spent a year doing fuck all as a virus spread across the country, and he lost an election and then tried to claim he won it and inspired a gang of knuckledraggers to try to stop the election results from being accepted. And he appointed the people that basically ended reproductive rights for women in the US just a few days ago, so I can't imagine many women are too pleased with him. It's what happens when you've got the two parties essentially owned by the same wealthy people. All the actual issues that are important to people don't really get addressed, you just get 2 different flavours of social policy while they push pro-corporate shit that makes the country shittier. I don't think Biden's a great president, I didn't think he was going to be a good president tbh if you go through this thread. I still think he's better than Trump, because Trump was a fucking moron with authoritarian tendencies.

I don't think Harris will really have a chance either. She's sort of been an invisible VP - which just feels weird, even though they don't really have any power other than breaking ties in senate votes. And she's tied to an unpopular administration. Maybe she'd have a chance if it was her vs. that religious fruitcake Pence, but there's no way Pence ever comes close to political relevance again either. I think the republicans are going to nominate DeSantis and then he'll be up against Biden. Biden won his last election not because people really like him or anything, but just because a lot of people really hate Trump. I don't think the dems will primary (try to replace) their presidential candidate before an election, just because I don't think that's ever happened before. And if it ends up being Trump v Biden again, I think it's just a toss up - there's people enough people who hate both of them that they'd probably just not be inclined to vote. But no third party has a chance, so it'd be one of them. But I think DeSantis is nailed on for the presidency. Democrats don't really have much unity in terms of the direction of the country, DeSantis has this Trump-like cult of personality spreading through the US media so he's getting a lot of national popularity... and Biden's just not that popular of a president. I think the democrats biggest hope is that the abortion stuff motivates people to vote for democrats to reduce the odds of a US nationwide ban on abortion. But voters in most first world countries have attention spans shorter than goldfish and what's a political issue now is probably not going to be covered in the news in a presidential election 2 years from now.

I don't think there's any chance he gets reelected, so probably after that.

Are you the South African guy from that HBO documentary about q-anon?

Pretty impressive cock size pal

what?

Is this some kind of weird Burnley sex joke? Going to bed with your mum and some virgins? A bit weird mate.

Yeah, it's very awful. I think, unfortunately, the longer this war goes on the more brutal Russia will be in trying to break the will of the Ukrainian people... a bit like what we saw with Russia helping Assad in Syria. I know people have been holding out hope that Russia wouldn't bring that kind of carnage to Europe... but I don't think Putin or the Russian leadership particularly care about where the conflict is. I think this is just how Russia fights when it's in a conflict that has gone on longer than the leadership had originally anticipated. And tbh, I think that was signaled when they put the guy who was in charge of Russian forces in Syria to be in charge of this war. Like @Aladdinsaid, for Ukraine this is a war of attrition - whether they can be propped up by the West to keep up this fight to get some semblance of a Ukrainian victory before they've become too stretched and worn out to keep up the fight. Russia's lost a huge chunk of it's military, but they have the manpower to keep the fight up regardless of the huge losses. But Putin's not exactly patient and Russia's got a history of getting pretty brutal and not shying away from war crimes in order to achieve military victory... and if Ukraine doesn't win, I don't think Russia will ever see the consequences for war crimes. And I do wonder if Russia will feel the sting of sanctions over the long term, like Iran and Cuba, or if European dependence on them will be too strong to give Russia long term consequences for the invasion assuming that by the end of all of this Putin is still in power. I know from my family, the long term economic impacts of sanctions are devastating - and while I think it's unfair for tons of ordinary Russians who had nothing to do with this invasion other than just living in Russia... because if Putin stays in power, Russia deserves to be feeling the economic sting of sanctions for a long time. Sanctions aren't a death-nell to a country, Iran and Cuba have survived while being cut off from normal access to the global economy. But they do create an economic strain that just gets compounded over time - and while they can be miserable for the people living in those countries, Russia needs to be feeling the consequences of being a belligerent war criminal nation. I'm not convinced sanctions are actually any good at getting meaningful long-term change over time (because... well look at Iran and Cuba lol) - but I certainly think Russia's more deserving of punative sanctions than two countries that have been punished for decades for getting rid of US-backed puppets.

Jesus Christ How long before they start forcing pregnant women to ingest firearms so that the unborn can exercise it's second amendment rights and protect itself from womb shooters?

It really does feel like papers are just making things up to get clicks and it’s easy to do that about a club that hasn’t made any big moves but has just had a high profile takeover and changes made above the manager. I think journos are quite keen for some big Chelsea transfer news… but since there isn’t any really, they’re just throwing shit around and seeing what the editors think will stick.