Kowabunga

I see you now as a keen follower of John Major.

Powerful speech. Nasty ending look and finger.

Isco and Asensio are not homegrown talents.

My favourite brazilian dud was Renaldo, me thinks. Just like Ronaldo, but with an 'e' .

Some fans compared his signing to Fábio Rochemback's, so, Arthur will easily surpass those expectations (probably he already has).

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

You like to tell yourself that.

A war and a US post-colonial puppet regime would be a bad scenario for South America. I heard the Venezuelan army is rather well paid, so, if it's true, an overthrow wouldn't be clean at all, but the contrary, rather bloody, and I don't envision Colombia really wanting a long conflict at their vicinity. In a better timeline Brazil could be already leading the continent towards bigger things. I've wondered about what role in Foreign Affairs a radical right wing presidency in Brazil could took. Rather bleak and depressing prospect, I think.

I CAME

Reports: UK, Ireland, EU strike border deal Britain's Brexit team has reportedly agreed for Northern Ireland to keep abiding by EU regulatory rules that avoid a hard border with the Republic. The final text is still subject to agreement by all sides.

Gilipollitas is a vastly better option.

If you like small personal stories, Paul Preston's "Las tres españas del 36" (I think the English equivalent for the book is ''Comrades: Portraits from the Spanish Civil War'', although it probably has less chapters) and "Doves of War" are lovely options. They are easy to read (first one is about men and women, while the latter about women). You can combine Preston (leftist) that with a right-wing take like Stanley G. Payne's (it's worth noting as the later has aged up, he's become close to an hagiographic approach with Franco in his last biographies about the Generalissimo). If you want to rediscover the much maligned (by Francoist sources) Juan Negrín under a positive light, Viñas, Moradiellos or even Preston could be good options. If a bit dense. Casanova is most sure to be in English. The last I've read is "Contrarrevolucionarios. Radicalización violenta de las derechas durante la Segunda República 1931-1936" about the radicalization of the right wing predating the 1936 coup by González Calleja. Personally, I find it very interesting, although I don't think it is apt for getting the bigger picture (as it only analyses one side). Don't think it is available in English.

But Gendarmerie has seized more than 10 million ballots. The ballot boxes are still on the run. The envelopes to be sent to the citizens that should be in the ballot tables have been seized. The web about the referendum has been closed and re-opened several times. The Catalan president twits about how to use proxies to evade ip blocks. Assange twits about Tianammen, get into feuds with Pérez-Reverte. Assange even gets into a feud with the Spanish TheOnion. A group of guardias civiles taking judicial evidence has spent a night in a building because an angry mob did not let them exit a building. The very same angry mob destroyed their cars. Despite all the seizures the Catalan Government says they have a plan B (and C, D) in advance to celebrate the voting. There are talks about a general strike in Catalonia for 3 October. Banderetes everywhere. Spanish police forces are gathering in THIS CRUISE in the port of Barcelona: There are talks about 13000 national policemen and gendarmerie from the rest of Spain in Catalonia at the height of the thing (in normal conditions national police presence is minimal in Catalonia). The command of the Catalan regional police (Mossos d'Esquadra) is said to be "seditious", depending on whom you ask. You can never know but they have been somewhat passive at enforcing the law. There are around 17000 mossos. Many wonder if using the Law of National Security the Spanish Home Office may take away from the Generalitat the control of the Mossos. A magistrate has asked for the arrest of two minions of the molt honorable Vice President, the inefable "I am a good man" Oriol Junqueras. After being handed the possibility of paying a hefty fine the electoral "junta" has dissolved like sissies. The official gazette of Catalonia has published the veredict of the Constitutional Court on the two laws passed by the Catalan Parliament being unconstitutional. If something goes wrong there could be literally hondonadas de ostias. https://www.cuatro.com/noticias/espana/joan-tarda-estudiantes-republica-catalana-universidad-barcelona-referendum-independencia-cataluna-arenga_2_2439705240.html The only sure thing is that angry people are not going to go away. What a time to be alive!

Bhutan, right...?

@SirBalon. Who knows? Ligue1 slowly building a bundesliga level competition is not a given but it is plausible. Now many French teams have brand new stadiums and it is very possible some teams may edge non-barçamadrid la liga teams in terms of income. The homegrown talent is also there.

Venezuela is most distinctly a violent country. What I don't really understand is the massive fuck up in managing the venezuelan economy by Maduro government. Venezuela may very well remain a viable country exporter of primary goods without being too oil-dependant (gold, coltan, et. al), primarily because they don't even have a particularly competitive oil to begin with. Maybe some expert can drop some light onto this. And lol at some so-called defenders of parliamentary democracy in here (Spain) vowing for the corporative chamber formed by Maduro. How we should called it in order to look acceptable... socioethnic guildism [sic]? Anyways, the lens through which we get the news about Venezuela in here are unbearable. I am sick of always reading here the news about Venezuela in terms of Podemos demonization.

Obviously fantastic deal for Bayern. If he bluffs (he certainly can, he has displayed signs of bad professionalism) €10M is controlled damage. No other downside than the longshot of creating a toxic environment in the locker room. The player has a glove in his left foot. A bit uneffective playing out of position for Real Madrid. If Bayern can give him extended minutes in his true position (10) good things may happen. Or not, we shall see.

Any thought or narrative about this X-Y graph other than "did Greece just become part of the legend?" ?

There's been some malicious portrayal of the saga as "karembeu 2.0" out there. Personally, I have admittedly seen very little of the lad, but he did strike me more as a young player with "peculiar talents" rather than as a "special talent" all the way , if you know what I mean. Therefore I tend to see all the next big thing fuzz around him as an overhyping campaign (glad to be proven wrong, though). What do you think? In any case, given his relatively low buyout and youth, he is a no brainer investment.

Good post. Some damn fine mullets above.

Could you bring an Atlético de Madrid badge to dress on Sundays?

Hating on the uber-religiousness of Semana Santa but you are cool with the short-grass fanatic cult espoused by Xavi. That's double standards.