Panto_Villan

It was certainly established fact that the Earth revolved around the sun before Gallileo challenged that. And the overwhelming scientific consensus was apparently against the lab leak hypothesis in the early stages of the pandemic, it seemed - the idea seemed to be classed in the same category as climate change denial where you could find some people advocating it but it was considered a crackpot theory. And it was only presented that way because it was politically convenient for major international organisations and scientific bodies to not be seen publicly blaming China for it, imo. This whole issue is a difficult one really. You can't let people spread literally any falsehood unhindered, but choosing how it should be policed is extremely difficult. I mean, society has been having this discussion in various forms for centuries. I'm a bit uncomfortable about people attacking the platform for presenting the information rather than the purveyor of the information, though. Alex Jones is as big a waste of oxygen as anyone on the planet and he's rightly been pursued through the courts for the horrible lies he's spread about Sandy Hook. But a situation where people start refusing to be on a service that he has also been on doesn't seem to end well to me. Losing the artists / podcasters in question wouldn't really bother me whichever way this is resolved, but as the Spotify CEO suggested I don't really see why the same moral argument couldn't be made by a consortium of female or LBTQ artists about the attitudes expressed towards women or the gay community in many popular rap songs. And I don't see why the same argument couldn't be applied to say radio where they could only play songs from one camp or the other, etc. Feels like a class action lawsuit on behalf of the people who have suffered harm from the misinformation would be a far better solution. That's what has effectively bankrupted Alex Jones.

On the whole Invermectin thing, there is actually good evidence it works - but only in one quite specific circumstance. However genuine data did exist to suggest it improved the survival rate of patients; it wasn't all crackpot science. Turned out it was very useful in parts of the developing world because the existing covid steroid treatments would suppress the immune system and their parasitic worms would sometimes kill the patient as a result. Taking Invermectin killed the worms and therefore stopped this happening, increasing the survival rate of patients. It doesn't do anything for you if you don't have parasitic worms though.

To be honest I’m happy for the bloke, and I hope he has a great season for them. If he scores 6-7 goals in half a season and looks consistently effective I’d like to see him be given a cup run here too. I just feel he’s never really been given a chance here. And if he doesn’t show enough for us, I think there’ll be plenty of interested buyers in the championship. This loan puts him in the store window at the very least - really we should have done it a season or two ago, because I think he needs the game time to finish developing his game.

Haha, yeah, I guess I shouldn't be using that shorthand in a transfer window! And thanks, that explains a lot. For some reason I'd always assumed that the most of the political articles on mail online were drawn from the print edition but I guess it makes sense that they're not, as the audience is probably a little younger and more moderate online. Especially given they're one of the biggest celebrity gossip sites on the internet.

So interestingly enough the DM has been absolutely laying into Boris over the course of most of the scandal. Quick look at their website headlines suggests they still are - although I think I read (in the Guardian maybe) that there'd been some kind of sea change in opinion at their office when they realised that there's a good chance Starmer will win the next election if it carries on like this, so they took their foot off his throat a bit. I guess their objective at the moment is just to force Boris out to get someone else more capable of winning the next election in instead.

I think loaning him out to Newcastle without an obligation to buy would be madness, tbh. We'd be the first PL team to willingly sell / loan a player to Newcastle as well, right? So much for our principled stand on things like the breakaway league, etc.

It's worth remembering that even if you had a contract with a break clause (and I'm pretty sure all professional footballers have contracts that can be cancelled if they commit a serious crime anyway) that you wouldn't get the transfer fee back from Brighton. It does seem to me based on the limited evidence available that he's probably not going to get convicted of a crime, but if he was then the club would have broken their transfer record (~40m) and then almost immediately burned all that money. The fact we could cancel his contract when he went to jail would not be much comfort in that situation.

Greenwood was arrested a few hours after the police got involved. Bissouma has been allowed to leave the country, which makes me very sceptical the alleged offences are on anywhere near the same scale.

Maturing? He’s only been on loan about three weeks - I think it takes longer than that!

I like this new Keinan. Come summer we can recall him to fix the Ings / Watkins problem.

Not keen to sell to Newcastle, and not keen to sell Targett until summer at the earliest. Digne might break his leg next game - or turn out to be shite for us (he’s only played two games for us so far).

People on here also thought Gerrard was a joke of a manager but it seems he’s doing a good job so far. I’m not writing Lampard off just yet - although if he doesn’t do reasonably well here, I imagine his career as a PL manager might be over.

Also - aren’t Leicester on exactly the same number of points as us right now?

Yes, but you’re saying we won’t be able to get the people we need to strengthen our squad - and our squad is much stronger than it was last year, and will continue to strengthen I’m sure.

All that except Newcastle was true last season too, but our upward trajectory has still continued.

Yes, but claiming that you wouldn’t want a player who did that in the team is a bit strong imo, as are suggestions Brentford now have to sell him. People put up with all kinds of shite off the pitch if they deliver on the pitch. Applies to us just as much as it does Brentford. Toney is definitely a tool though.

Let’s be honest, if Grealish had said that a couple of seasons ago and then came out and said “sorry I was drunk, I didn’t mean it” I doubt any of us would be calling for him to be thrown out of the team. The fact he was a bit of a tool never stopped us wanting him playing for us.

Mitrovic must have a hell of a time at the optician then, with all those eyes he has!

It'd be a mistake to lose Cash this window, but if he was leaving in the summer it's just a question whether the recruitment team thinks we have attainable targets we could buy that would improve us for that money. I'm kinda ambivalent either way. I think he's pretty good but if we could trade him in for someone better I think that would be good business too. As others have said, it's nice that other teams are interested in our players these days. Gives us options if we want to use them.

Tbh Villa would probably be pissed off at Percy if he reported “Villa will snap up Chambers in the summer” as it gives any potential rivals a heads up on our plans. He’s likely expected not to post that sort of stuff.

Someone posted a journalist a few pages back saying we’d just opened contract talks. But if we have been trying and he’s been refusing to sign, I’m even more surprised we’re not accepting the offer.

I’ve never been fully convinced by Luiz. I think £35m seems a good price for him tbh. Must admit I’m surprised we’re not letting him go at that price if we didn’t value him highly enough to get him signed up on a new contract before now.

It’s not intended to, no. I agree with you. I just thought it should be a moment of self reflection about your own biases (something I have to do frequently) because I’m sure we can all agree that acting like the guy in the story isn’t helpful.

I mean, sounds like he’s a mindlessly “go team blue” person. His viewpoint makes sense if you view everything Labour do in the most negative possible light. There’s plenty of “go team red” people around too. Anyone who is willing to give one party their unconditional support is a blight on politics in my book, irrespective of their political persuasion.

Was it just her, or was there a bigger delegation including security etc?