Rayvin

This is worth a watch if people want an insight into the minds of the enemy.

It feels like Musk is starting to suffer now which is a huge positive. Looks like he might actually take Tesla down with him in full, but we'll see. Consistently this is something that the MAGA supporters generally don't get though - other than right wing billionaires, most of the spending power in global economies is with left leaning, liberal minded people (it's some big conspiracy that has something to do with being educated and listening to experts). There was always going to be a reckoning.

Not that I don't support the thrust of what we're trying to do here...

I love how we've gone straight for the long term injuries Either of them contracting covid would be enough at this point.

No dice, the rules are very clear on this. It's you. Short of you taking one for the team and incapacitating yourself, this is all on you. No pressure though

He's attempting to strongarm Ukraine - no one died I don't think? Probably also by design. Would have looked bad if several hundred people had died over it so Russia very considerately hit relatively unmanned areas. I honestly think we should be letting Ukraine fire missiles into Russia.

We have to stop rushing him back from injury ffs, it's ridiculous.

I thought the supreme court was already leaning republican though... so one of the republican ones rebelled?

That is really interesting - but makes me wonder if we're living in the moment when people in the future look back to and ask 'why didn't they do something to stop it before these guys had all the private militaries' and so on. Really is fascinating stuff. Essentially each cryptobro becomes his own sovereign.

Unsure about that one... What the EU can't do is quickly become that, but it's not as if it doesn't have the economic clout to do so. There is a reason that some of us have been advocating closer and closer ties with them, and it's not because we just enjoy visa free holidays. Strategically it makes a lot of sense and would make the collective a counterbalance to US or Chinese power in a way that clearly individual nation states in their own right can never be. The problem is that we're overrun by our own pack of (IMO) traitors voting against European interests at every occasion in favour of petty parochial nonsense. What is happening to Ukraine should be a good example of why nation states like the UK can't go it alone. The super powers, if they ever want to, can crush us. Where is our sovereignty god then? £800bn on rearming is not nothing, It's equivalent to US yearly military spend (although they also have to fund their various far flung bases and outposts, so in a consolidated Europe this figure is more powerful). Europe doesn't have to replace the US as a world police force, it just has to be compact and vicious enough to defend itself and its borders. It is absolutely capable of doing that. Diplomacy with Canada and East Asian democratic powers is a significant next step beyond that as the US plunges into isolationism. Ironically, all of this should be music to Trump's ears - but apparently he's throwing tantrums because he's meant to be centre stage and Europe wasn't supposed to be trying to find alternative answers.

Yep I agree fully on that too, I just wondered if on a technical level (i.e. within the games themselves) there was any recurring tactical deficiency or issue?

At the heart of it, what is going 'wrong' for the side at the moment? Do we defend poorly, are we low energy, is it individual errors, complacency? Have other teams just worked us out?

Tell you what mind, between Trump setting fire to the Western world and NUFC nosediving I'm finding it hard to remain emotionally invested in any of it Just gonna bury my head in work for a week or so I think.

Is that real...?

I feel like Starmer needs to leave the door open so someone on the EU side can continue talking to Trump if all other avenues shut. Of course it also suits him/us since we avoid tariffs that bit longer, but even so. The EU taking a lead on the rest of this is fine for now IMO. So it'll be pragmatism over principle ultimately, but that does mean he's not going to really 'lead' on the European front, so we're looking to France and Germany I suppose.

There are no words. There are just no fucking words. Get the US out of our politics, this is a fucking clown show. Drop the dollar, work on our own continent and our own problems. Ban twitter. Some of the most shameful stuff I've ever seen.

Where are these Reform voters coming from? Is it the red wall? I'm going to be fucking pissed if it is, since Labour supposedly abandoned all of their principles to seduce the fuckers. It doesn't look like it's coming from the Tories.

Yeah not gonna be too upset about that, 2-0 is nothing compared to the batterings we've had there over the years.

Is Botman injured again ffs? What is going on with him, do we keep rushing him back or something? So tired of losing to Liverpool, it always feels completely inevitable.

Agreed, big moment. At least we don't have the Tories in power for it.

Agree with Rents but I think the reality is that we have to surrender the initiative due to the US dropping the ball. Europe needs to consolidate and stabilise, and back itself to emerge stronger on the other side of that. We need to transition from a benign power to an active one. And who knows, maybe China will achieve more in the developing world than we did.

It is also what Trump wanted though. I don't quite know how I feel about all this - departing the US umbrella of security and the transatlantic alliance feels like a good thing but Trump is getting everything he seems to want here.

Agree completely, this is what the EU needed and what the AFD's failure permits. It's a good outcome, even if we have to run with the German Tories to get there. At least their conservatives still stand for some of the more reliable tenets of conservatism like national defense.

There is no chance Howe does this though, he wants to win every game. IMO we go in all guns blazing and if we get hammered then we use it as motivation for next time. If we hold our own, we use it as confidence for next time. No other alternatives.