Dr. Gonzo

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.

Fuck me, did you survive an abortion?

Yeah I looked at the born alive Wikipedia and no surprise that the UK had a more sane definition than the US. What a country, less abortions because “pro-life” but won’t do anything about school shootings

You’re not born alive til you’re actually fucking born

Are you using a religious definition of “being alive” because legally speaking you’re not legally considered alive in most countries unless you’ve actually been given birth to. And as far as I know, no country gives post birth abortions. Some states are set to criminalise abortion as soon as possible - leading abortion clinics to close their doors. So you can’t really pretend decision isn’t impacting shitloads of women just because nothing has happened yet. So you’ve essentially rallied against something that never happens while tried to sweep under the rug the millions of people that are feeling the impacts of this decision as nothing to really worry about. I think American society is too fractured to fix at this point. Probably a good time to practice saying Nihau

Just FYI California does not allow abortion up until childbirth & anyone who tries to tell you otherwise doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about

Roe v. Wade officially repealed today... pretty mental tbh. Thomas's rationale suggests that other rights granted by the 14th amendment are up on the chopping block next - which could be worrying for a lot of people. Absolutely does nothing to heal the division in a really fractured political society either. It just changes law that's been settled since the 50s and guarantees that some states will go to extremes to limit abortions the way things were in the 50s.

Really rough time for Afghans. Taliban back in power, food scarcity issues, and now this earthquake.

No but literally right before people stormed the capital he said: "We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them." Which is really not so subtle. And he even pretended he'd be there with them. "I'll be there with you. We're never going to take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong." I don't even know why they're having hearings, he should have been charged by Bill Barr right when it happened just based off that. Especially given Barr's testimony and by his own words thought that Trump was "disengaged from reality."

The smoking gun is the order he gave to the acting AG - "Say the election was corrupt, the Republican senators and I will take care of the rest" - that alone demonstrates intent. Then you take into account testimony from people who were in the inner circle of the Trump campaign, the numerous instances of sitting legislators aiding with the people who stormed the capital, the video footage of Trump & family while the events were unfolding, the recorded call to the Georgia Secretary of State asking that he "find the 10,000 votes" that would give Trump the win... It should be a much bigger deal to more people that the "leaders of the free world" had an attempt to have their election results overturned where people died and there's really been little consequence.

China is the real winner from this war, tbh. Russia relies on them more than ever now and Russia now has 2 countries selling it oil at below market rates that are basically cut off from the normal global economy. But Russia is for sure worse off economically than it was and it likely won't recover fully until they have regular economic engagement again with the west.

People died but sure & the evidence has been quite damning tbh

If Russia remained uneffected their stock market wouldn’t have crashed & then been frozen

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education1 happened already mate

The thing is since 2014: Russia had been sanctioned (albeit ineffectively) for it's invasion of Crimea. And had been prepared for war because they'd... invaded a country and the two countries were actively fighting since the invasion (just not on the level of the current scale of military conflict). And Ukraine had been warning the West that Russia was preparing to attack as early as 2018. So yeah, Russia certainly knew they had to prepare for war and sanctions... because in the aftermath of their invasion of Crimea they were involved in a smaller military conflict, but still a military conflict, with Ukraine... and were facing sanctions as a direct result of the invasion of Crimea. It seems as though Putin thought that the West's reaction would be similar to how it was in 2014 or to the world's reaction to the US invasion of Iraq and that Russia was pretty unprepared for the West being seriously committed to support Ukraine in a fight against Russia while also putting far more serious sanctions on them.

Funny the reality some people live in. Apparently "80% of the US doesn't care about the attempted coup"... ... https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/poll-finds-most-americans-feel-the-jan-6-insurrection-was-threatening-democracy/ar-AASmxZA 72% think it threatened democracy in the US - with people feeling how much Trump & co were responsible very much falling along party lines (so nowhere near 80% of the population not caring )

Honestly, this might not what Chelsea fans want to hear because they've sort of been spoiled with an oligarch at the helm... but your squad is good enough to at least challenge for the CL this season without spending too much money bringing anyone in. It could be a good moment for a DOF to come in and get to work with the manager and current players to figure out what exactly the best signings for Chelsea in the long-term will be. I think if you get in someone like Edwards, even if it's in this summer, you'd be wise to not spend too much money right after bringing him in and giving him some time to make some detailed assessments about the state of the squad. You bring in a new DOF now and then tell him he's got 2 months or some shite to spend a load of money... and you could end up with a DOF that's made some panic buys and starting off his tenure looking a bit shit. Because if Boehly is genuine about wanting to copy the template we've worked with in the FSG + Klopp era... I think there's a lot of re-vamping of how Chelsea operate as a club. From the way players are valued, to the way contracts are structured (and that can mean it's necessary to have a lot of turnover at the club over the next few years, getting players who he deems are "overpaid" to agree to sign more incentive based contracts, and clearing out those players that aren't going to fit in at Chelsea long term), to the way academy players are valued (less as sellable assets to fund big transfers and more as squad players). I think if Chelsea genuinely want to adapt an approach more like ours, they've got to fundamentally change a lot about what goes on behind the scenes and above the manager's head. And that might mean being a bit patient in terms of waiting for new players to come into the side.

Chelsea reportedly want to sign Michael Edwards to be their Director of Football. Personally, I hope that doesn't happen as he's great at his job and I'd prefer Chelsea continue this new look of being a bit rudderless and confused in how to operate in a post-Abramovich world to carry on for a few more seasons. But he'd be a great appointment, although I think after so long with Abramovich controlling the club... I'm not sure Chelsea fans will have much patience for a man that thinks about things in the long-term in charge of their recruitment. But he'd be a great appointment for an owner that wants Chelsea to be competitive but also that wants to see a club with a long-term vision rather than just throwing money at problem positions then cutting bait once the problem hasn't been solved with an expensive signing. Could also be a risky appointment as his time with us and Rodgers indicates that with the wrong manager he's not the best fit - but I think Tuchel's miles ahead of Rodgers as a manager and would probably do really well with Edwards working with him to bring in signings to breathe some new life into them. So again, I hope it doesn't happen.

I don’t think he’s been unhappy, I just think Mane’s wanted a lot more money than we were willing to offer and he was interested in playing at another big club abroad if he couldn’t get the deal he wanted here. With Firmino’s injury problems this year, it’s probably harder for him to find a club to move to if he doesn’t just want to see out his contract. I don’t think the club or Klopp mind players seeing out their contracts if a new one can’t be agreed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakat#Contemporary_practice

Yeah, I agree with that fully. I think it's mental that some people expect things made decades ago to conform to modern day standards when really in the last 10 years alone there's been a lot of change to what's considered socially acceptable and what isn't. And it's also mental to just suggest that people not watch films, TV, or listen to music made decades ago because it doesn't comply with modern standards either.

Good - I agree with that. I think it's a bit weird to hold things from a different time to today's standards. The most these companies should do is put a notice that says "hey you might get offended by this because it's older and the world was different, just remember it's older" but... better worded than what I just typed out.

Looks like we're keeping Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for this season as depth in the midfield since we're not looking to make further additions to our midfield this season. I think he looks a bit past it now, but if he can get close to his best ever again he's a good option in the squad. I wonder if we'll be changing our midfield around a bit now that we've got a more traditional type of forward. Although I suspect Darwin won't be starting all that much at the beginning of the season unless he hits the ground running like Luis Diaz did.

Yeah but anyone with a brain could have told you tories would try pulling that kind of shit. Not my fault our electorate are a bunch of dummies At least they’re not invading neighbors and threatening to take Ireland’s sovereignty away again.

Good question, I have no idea… lemme check. It was owned by Murdoch until 91, like you say - it was sold to some company I’ve never heard of called K-III until the 2000s, when it was sold to a “financier” named Bruce Wasserman. He’s dead but his family owned it until 2019. Now it’s owned by Vox media. They also own Vox, The Verge, SB Nation, Eater, & Polygon. They seem pretty left leaning, by American standards. So they’re pretty firmly in the centre by normal standards, imo.