Dr. Gonzo

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.

I think I must have remembered the story wrong, apologies - I can't find anything that he got human rights workers killed either. I did find this though: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/07/why-did-wikileaks-help-dox-most-of-turkeys-adult-female-population.html which is a pretty shitty thing for Wikileaks to have done. It included whether the women were AKP members, which could be pretty deadly for them in all honesty. But I guess we won't know if that got any of them killed or not.

If Assange wanted to truly use the "I'm a journalist" defense, he probably should have done things that journalists do like scrub names of people in the documents he was releasing so he wouldn't be putting people in harms way. Instead he just released documents without a care in the world for the people that were named in those documents, and many - like the human rights workers in Turkey that were listed - ended up getting killed. His part in helping Chelsea Manning be a whistleblower is commendable, but a lot of the other stuff he did while in charge of Wikileaks was dangerously reckless at best. Do I think he should be charged for espionage? Probably not, based off what little I know about him and Wikileaks... but I do think he's an arsehole that got people killed, so I do think he's getting a bit of karma coming back to bite him on the arse.

I wonder what would happen if a nation like Pakistan, Iran, or any of the many countries that doesn't recognise Israel changed their stance and said "okay we recognise Israel" but then added "as an apartheid state" - it seems that would be a halfway point between fully normalised relations and simply not recognising. It'd certainly make the impasse with the Iran nuclear talks a bit more interesting. According to Iran, the US rejected a deal Iran proposed that kept the IRGC on the sanctions list (which we have been told for months now, has been a red line for Iran considering the way the IRGC is meshed with so much of every day life in Iran)... but this time was rejected because the US insisted Iran recognise Israel. If that's true, I wonder what would happen if Iran said "we recognise Israel as an apartheid state." It's still a middle finger to Israel, but it's obviously a big step from suggesting they don't have the right to exist and that they are not recognised as a real country. And it sets a pathway for countries to actually have normalised relations should theoretically benefit everyone involved - particularly Palestinians and Israelis.

Israel's coalition has fallen apart - Knesset to disband & more elections coming soon. Could be Netanyahu's pathway back to power there, sadly.

Russian lawmakers have been saying increasingly insane shit over the past few months. Part of me thinks they feel compelled to sound as rabidly insane as they can because otherwise Putin might think they're disloyal and think they're good targets for purging. Part of me thinks it's because they'll show clips of it on their state media and get to pat themselves on the back for "showing Russian strength." And part of me thinks their politicians are insane arseholes who genuinely believe the stupid shit they say. So I really have no idea what to make of any statement coming from any Russian politician at the moment.

Yeah if I were you, I wouldn't watch it. It's just the tale of an egotistical man-child showing United (and now the world) how much of an irritating twat he really is. It's insane if he thinks it makes him look any better PR-wise. It makes Mourinho look completely vindicated - it's like he is on a mission to prove Mourinho was absolutely right about him. Also the complete lack of respect it shows towards your club and your fans is kind of mental considering he's made millions off the back of not even coming close to performing near expectation for years. And then the club makes him a massive offer despite him looking like dogshit for years... and he turns it down as a "nothing" offer. He was lucky the club was entertaining keeping him beyond his contract in the first place... let alone offering him that insane amount. You can tell he's a dumb cunt without even watching it though. He named it Pogmentary instead of Pogumentary. Smh. At least as a fan of a club that isn't United (and in fact, a massive rival of yours)... there's some entertainment value in watching this overrated dickhead act like the overrated dickhead he is. But if I were you watching it, I'd probably just be furious the whole time. He's probably made you angry enough, no use wasting that energy mate - it's not worth your time. Just know that it makes him look terrible. It is genuinely awful PR, I am legitimately surprised it's something he's actually put out there. If I'm Juve, or any club that's considering making him an offer, I'd have changed my mind just based off the show.

And Russia furious about it, saying it's illegal for Lithuania to act as though they're a sovereign country.

I think it's wrong to look at racism as a left wing v. right wing thing, tbh. I know it's easy to do that when some politicians are much more openly saying racist or xenophobic stuff than others... but it's not really accurate. There's a lot of immigrant communities that are probably a lot more conservative leaning than we'd probably first think & there's a lot of racist/xenophobic/bigoted views that are weirdly common among large swaths of the population regardless of anyone's political leanings.

Tbf what you said was funny

It’s incredible, he comes off as even more of dickhead than I could have imagined. United are so lucky he turned down that £300k a week contract he called a “nothing offer.”

My favourite bit of Man Utd news was the guy saying “I promise the leaks from the club have stopped.” In suppose the guys he told trusted him as he was actively leaking information to the club to them.

Big talk from Mr. “But does he improve them”

He doesn’t have to donate as much as he’s done though

How many shit "evolution" and "natural selection" jokes will commentators be making at the start of the season because we've signed Darwin? I've already seen 2 since he joined us - one on the BBC website.