Postecoglou on Kulusevski: "He should be ok. Just talking to him after. The medical team are not too concerned about him. It was just a knock." https://t.co/0MFdUyltf8
The President of the United States taking the piss out of a mentally ill man who died just a couple of days before.
Frankly, I expected nothing less from this sociopathic arsehole.
Hey @realDonaldTrump and @KatieZacharia is bullying people with special needs part of the Republican Party manifesto? I didn’t see that in the policy documents
Xavi Simons does an innocuous calf scrape... INSTANT RED CARD! Why? Because “it’s Spurs so f*ck ‘em!”
Bruno Fernandes commits a dangerous ankle stamp on JP van Hecke, but VAR don’t care. Why? Because “it’s Spurs so f*ck ‘em!”
And @prorefofficial will still try to claim there’s no bias in their decision-making 😂😭
Have you all seen Trump’s announcement of his SUPER PUTIN DEAL? Russia promises to immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the market, including the US, followed by another 500,000 tonnes in November. Then come promises of EVEN BIGGER volumes. Because the deal has to be HUGE. At least in the post.
OFAC, of course, wasted no time issuing a temporary waiver until April 7 to accommodate the president’s latest “GENIUS” deal.
Except the BIG DEAL is not actually that big. More of a stage prop. Very Trump.
Let’s do the maths. Actual numbers. TERRIBLE, I know.
300,000 tonnes is roughly 2.2 million barrels of diesel.
500,000 tonnes is roughly 3.7 million barrels.
In September, Russia managed to export just 0.1 million barrels. Basically none, as there is export ban.
So Putin has already “sold” Trump a volume 22 TIMES larger than Russia’s entire September exports. Making promises is, of course, easier than rebuilding refineries after Ukrainian strikes. MUCH EASIER. SOME SAY THE EASIEST.
Meanwhile, Russia’s diesel export ban remains in force until October 31: the fuel is needed domestically, and Ukrainian drones have significantly reduced Russia’s ability to produce it. A VERY SUCCESSFUL phone call with Trump is unlikely to have fixed those problems.
Now for another comparison. Russia’s average monthly diesel exports last year were 18.3 million barrels. The promised deliveries amount to just 12% and 20% of that volume, respectively.
So we have a promise that Russia still needs to find a way to fulfil, given the state of its refineries. And even if delivered, it looks considerably less impressive than the presidential CAPS LOCK. Not quite THE GREATEST DEAL IN HISTORY.
The political logic is clear. The war with Iran and high fuel prices are a bad backdrop for the elections. One would hope politically FATAL, at this point. The administration desperately needs a story about how the president is about to FIX EVERYTHING. Preferably IMMEDIATELY. Preferably without explaining how we got here in the first place.
So perhaps the main product of this deal is not even diesel. It is another attempt to calm the market with a BIG, BEAUTIFUL ANNOUNCEMENT. Let’s see how much credibility these announcements still have.
Russia, of course, will sell this as a HUGE VICTORY. And why wouldn’t it? Promise diesel you still need to find somewhere, get a sanctions waiver UPFRONT. Plus another opportunity to tell the world that it simply CANNOT MANAGE WITHOUT RUSSIA.
But what worries me most is that this spectacle could weaken our European partners’ resolve. Trump’s latest “breakthrough” must not become an excuse to ease sanctions pressure on Russia — precisely when that pressure needs to INCREASE.
Of course, this decision will benefit Russia by generating additional revenues. We’ll be watching how much of its export capacity Russia actually manages to restore. One thing is CLEAR: Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries need to INTENSIFY.
This is the video Fox News refused to air. They are complicit and Trump-enabling Republicans want to erase this from history.
Continue to retweet and share the truth about January 6th. #NeverForget
Guilty, guilty, sham and shame. How on earth can Manchester City appeal a verdict as devastating and damning as the one passed down by the independent commission investigating breaches of financial regulations? City will appeal, of course, and it’s their right under Premier League rules. They clearly will appeal, claiming the verdict is “unsafe” but they are surely simply delaying the inevitable punishment, making themselves even more unpopular, damaging their club and the game further.
For justice to truly prevail in this case, punishment has to be swift. For City to start the long journey back on the road to redemption, they have to take their medicine. These are dark days in the history of the Premier League and they are darkest at the Etihad. City's owners have to see the light, accept their guilt and begin the process of rehabilitation.
An appeal involving deny, deny, delay, delay, shreds any sporting integrity this season has. The thought of this taking years to resolve – doubtless via the High Court - feels potentially ruinous, certainly deeply damaging, for the sport. How many people will be turned off by a league stained by a constantly updated asterix, by a sport effectively run by lawyers. City have to take their medicine now.
For sporting competitions to survive and thrive, there has to be a willingness on all parties to play fair on and off the field. That may sound naive, an outdated purist principle, but it matters to many. A few engaged in the game will take short-cuts but one of the reasons why the Premier League is so followed around the world is because of the perception of its essential honesty.
Players give everything from first minute to last. Promoted teams can occasionally trouble the established order. But industrial-level cooking of the books highlighted in the independent commission’s report, effectively allowing City, regular champions, to spend more on players will shake confidence in the competition.
City’s owners have to think very carefully, not least about their own and their famous club’s reputational damage. Read the room. Read the statement. How can they possibly answer the powerful, damning language used in detailing the offences devised to circumvent FFP. Others were playing by the rules, City were bending them, the commission found. City fans can argue that FFP/PSR/SCR rules are anti-competitive, and protect the “cartel” as they see it, but City signed up to the rules.
And, then, in the words of the Premier League CEO Richard Masters, “systematically broke” those rules for “nearly a decade”. Masters deserves to feel vindicated for his quiet, firm leadership of the league in this long, tense case against such a wealthy, self-confident member.
Many of the 40 pages of findings in the "core decision" contain blow after blow to City. If the Premier League versus Manchester City were a boxing bout, the referee would have stepped in. “Sham contracts”, “misstated accounts”, “concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”. “Egregious acts of non-cooperation”. Basically, deception writ large.
A phrase that will now pass into the annals of footballing infamy is the “Disguised Funding Scheme” whereby companies “were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees. The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd”. ADUG. City’s owners. The “Disguised Funding Scheme” basically overstated sponsorship income by £830.69m. A staggering amount.
This is now not about Manchester City the club, but Manchester City the ownership, including the chief executive Ferran Soriano. They have to stop embarrassing the club and the sport. They have to stop letting down their fans. City’s owners have to consider the relentless abuse coming the way of fans, players and coaching staff in games to come, starting when entering what will be a bear-pit at Anfield on October 11.
Soriano, assuming he attends, can expect a particularly uncomfortable afternoon in his seat and in the Liverpool boardroom. It’s hard to see how he keeps his job – if City’s appeal fails. Fit and proper person?
In continuing to protest their innocence, City claim they have “irrefutable evidence” to defend themselves. If so, why weren’t three independent judges persuaded? City have had long enough, employed exceptional briefs, and still lost.
Having been found guilty of doing the wrong thing, City now have to do the right thing and that is accept the inevitability of sanctions and seek some form of settlement with the Premier League. They will not, of course: too proud, too defiant, still too convinced of their innocence despite the weight of this report. They will become outcasts even without yet being cast out. That is to come.
City's owners have to acknowledge the impact their activities had on other clubs, and accept the considerable compensation claims flooding their way from other clubs they pipped to trophies, possibly even from players. If they’re sensible they will look for a settlement that includes substantial compensation, running into hundreds of millions of pounds, to aggrieved clubs who missed out on trophies, on prize money. Maybe that £830.69m should be the figure considered in any settlement. Fitting.
City's owners have to see sense. The alternative is years and fortunes spent in the courts. Nobody wins. Except the lawyers. Football loses, because the game remains on hold until City are punished.
I made a prompt that turns any idea into a plan using Walt Disney's three-room method.
One of Disney's animators said there were three different Walts: the dreamer, the realist, and the spoiler, and you never knew which one was walking into the meeting. He kept them apart on purpose, the story goes in three separate rooms, because if the critic is in the room while you're dreaming, nothing gets dreamed.
It works just as well on a business idea, a trip, a house move, or the side project you keep not starting.
Paste this into your AI and answer honestly.
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You are running Walt Disney's three-room method with me.
My idea: [describe it in a sentence or two]
Take me through three rooms, one at a time, and don't let the next room in until the current one is finished.
Room one is the Dreamer. Ask me what this looks like if it works completely, with no budget, no rules, and nobody saying no. Push me to go bigger twice.
Room two is the Realist. Ask me what it would take to make the dream real: the steps, the people, the money, and the first thing that has to happen.
Room three is the Critic. Ask me what's missing, what could go wrong, and who would hate it, and make me answer each one.
Then give me:
1. The dream in one sentence, the biggest version
2. The plan in five steps, with a first step I can do this week
3. The three biggest holes the critic found, and a fix for each
4. Which room I spent the least time in, because that's the one I always skip
Rules: never criticize in the dreamer room, never dream in the critic room, and if I start arguing with the critic, write the objection down and move on.
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The separate rooms are the Disney part. Most people run all three voices at once, and the critic always wins, which is why the idea stays an idea.
Bookmark this for the next idea you've been carrying around for a month.