Life after Arbeloa’s appointment. - possibly 11 points behind... - lost to 3rd division - knocked out of copa del rey - didn’t win in 9 games - worst win record in Madrid history - UCL qualifier & UCL quarter-final exit but hey, vini jr is happy again! 🥰show more

Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Junior has broken his silence... on one of the most debated chapters in recent football history Argentina’s 2021 Copa América victory and Lionel Messi’s subsequent Ballon d’Or win. “I don’t know what it is about Messi and FIFA but I feel like I’m being robbed. We were supposed to win that final but we all saw how the match was rigged. To be honest, Messi didn’t deserve the Copa América and the Ballon d’Or that year.” Vini said he was frustrated, gesturing animatedly as he spoke about what he perceived as favoritism toward Messi and Argentina by football’s governing bodies.show more

Arsenal can't beat Bayern ❌ Arsenal can't beat Leverkusen... ❌ Arsenal can't beat Inter❌ Arsenal can't beat Sporting ❌ Arsenal can't beat Athletico Madrid ❌ Don’t forget that Athletico/Simeone has never lost a knock out game to an English club❌ Athletico Madrid will go through at the Emirates ❌ Arsenal got the easiest routes to the final Arsenal can't beat either Bayern or PSG in the final ❌ Arsenal can't win the league ❌ Arsenal will drop points ❌ This is the worst season ever ❌ Corner FC ❌ Set-piece FC ❌ Haram FC ❌ Bottlers FC ❌ Let's wait till December ❌ January ❌ February ❌ March ❌ April ❌ City topped✅ Arsenal have bottled the league ❌ Manchester City will never drop points again ❌ This is the best season ever ✅ Manchester City dropped points ✅ If Arsenal wins the league, it'll be the worst season ever❌ Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal 🔴 Arsenal🔴show more

Ten years later, this is still one of the... greatest interview answers I’ve ever heard in sports. Moments after beating TJ Dillashaw, Ariel Helwani asked Dominick Cruz a revealing question. “You’ve had big moments in your life. Is tonight the greatest moment of your life?” Cruz responded, “The greatest moment of my life was realizing I didn’t need a belt to be happy.” Cruz didn’t mention the belt. Didn’t mention legacy. Didn’t seek validation. That hits deeper when you understand the culture within the highest levels of sport. MMA, like most elite sports, conditions athletes to tie their identity to achievement. Wins. Belts. Status. But when those disappear, so many of these athletes struggle. We’ve seen the depression. The battles with addiction. The identity loss. The overall emptiness after retirement. Cruz reached a place mentally where he separated achievement from fulfillment, a place most high level athletes unfortunately never reach. This is a fighter who tore his ACL multiple times. Who lost nearly four years of his prime to injuries. Who endured surgery after surgery while the division moved on without him. Who was repeatedly counted out. He fought his way back. Beat a prime TJ Dillashaw. Reclaimed the belt he had never lost. The belt was the reward. The mental freedom he gained before stepping back into the cage was the victory. (🎙️: Ariel Helwani X Dominick Cruz - January 17, 2016)show more

🚨 UPDATE: President Trump goes off on Thomas Massie... after successfully booting Sen. Bill Cassidy from his Senate seat “Tom Massie of Kentucky, the worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country, is an even bigger insult to our Nation than Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who suffered an unprecedented loss tonight by not even being allowed to run in the Republican Primary.” “This is the first time such a thing has ever happened to a sitting U.S. Senator! That’s what you get by voting to Impeach an innocent man, especially one who made it possible for Cassidy’s Senate win.” “Very disloyal, but Tom Massie, a major Sleazebag, is even worse! Kentucky, get this LOSER out of politics in Tuesday’s Election. He is nicknamed Rand Paul Jr., another real “beauty,” because of his absolutely terrible voting habits.” “Vote for Ed Gallrein, a successful Kentucky farmer, and American War Hero, who only ran because he thought that Massie was so disloyal and disrespectful to your President, ME!” “This is a great man, Central Casting, in fact, who truly deserves to represent the fantastic people of Kentucky, a Commonwealth that I am proud to have won all three times, in record fashion! ED WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP”show more

Bryson DeChambeau’s next event after LIV Golf Andalucia is... the US Open, where he’ll attempt to win his 3rd gold medal. He spoke to Flushing It Golf at Valderrama about his preparation ahead of Shinnecock Hills and whether he feels any pressure after missing the last 2 cuts in majors: “Well, Valderrama is a ball striker's golf course. So you have to control your golf ball and hit the right shots under the gun with a lot of wind out here. It really is a great ball strikers paradise. The same as, you know, in the US Open. I think this is a great test.” Bryson shot rounds of 70, 71, 71 and 70 to finish T11 at Valderrama. Does he feel any pressure to perform after missing the cut at the Masters and the PGA Championship? “No. To be honest, missed cuts are gonna happen. I might miss all 4 of them in majors this year. That's just golf. Like, I’m playing great. I just haven't shown up when it mattered most. But I've played well out here on LIV, and I’m working on my golf swing really hard, and, I feel like it's in a really solid place. It's very close to some of my best golf ever. “Last week (in Korea) I had a great opportunity to win for the third time this year and didn't close the door. And that's just more learning, you know, if I had a little bit more knowledge of what to do in the golf swing, to get the ball to go straight in a few scenarios. I could have taken that championship down too. “So, I feel like I'm actually playing the most consistent I've ever played on LIV, which is great. And I think it's attributed to the switch to four rounds. No question.” Bryson says he’s going to head to Shinnecock early to get some extended work in and thinks it will be a huge benefit after not playing the course since the 2018 US Open. If he were to win it, he would join Tiger Woods and Hale Irwin as the only players to win 3 gold medals. It would also put him just 1 championship shy of equalling the all time US Open winners record of 4, held by Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Willie Anderson. So, as he’s a great student of golf history, does he ever think about it? “I'm very blessed to have done what I've done so far. But I'm still trying to pursue as many wins as I can, and, with the time and opportunity, I’d love to have a chance to win some more.” Bryson DeChambeau Crushers GC LIV Golf U.S. Openshow more

🚨JUST IN: Nicki Minaj deletes Instagram account after appearing... with Erika Kirk at TPUSA event Did Niki Manaj in fact completely ruin her Career as a Recording Artist? The rapper, 43, deleted her account after facing backlash following an appearance at the Turning Point USA event, AmericaFest, in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday. Minaj lost nearly 10 million followers after speaking on stage with Erika Kirk, the widow of political activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September. During her appearance on Sunday, the artist urged young men to be more like “handsome, dashing” President Trump. “He has given so many people hope that there’s a chance to beat the bad guys and to win and to do it with your head held high,” Minaj told Kirk, 37, about the president. “What it’s shown me, personally, is sometimes even in the worst feeling times in your life, you think you’re never going to come back from it. But you do. And our president shows that,” Minaj said. “He’s been through every single thing a person can be through publicly – having to constantly be lied [about].” Slamming California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the songwriter added another piece of advice to men out there: “Don’t be Newscum.” She also drew comparison to herself and Trump, 79, explaining how they both grew up in Queens, New York. #NikiManajshow more

Alaska. Putin and Trump. The meeting that was both... awaited and feared. The outcome. By Roman Alekhin To discuss this further, the key point to understand is this: Two and a half hours behind closed doors is too little for leaders of nuclear powers if they are just starting a conversation—but too much if they were merely posing for cameras. This means the real work happened earlier—quiet, working discussions “behind the door” that never made it into the official communiqué. These are what stopped Trump from imposing secondary sanctions; this is where the exchange of conditions took place, terms that won’t be disclosed until both leaders decide the time is right. I suspect Syria was discussed, as well as the “Trump Bridge” (instead of Zangezur), the Middle East, and much more that isn’t yet visible to the naked eye. The public part? Pure theater. The point wasn’t to negotiate in front of the world or sign something, like Trump did with Armenia and Azerbaijan—minor players, important only tactically. The point was to send a signal: the presidents of Russia and the U.S. are shaking hands and smiling again, no knives behind their backs. This signals that a new reality has arrived, one that Europe, Ukraine, and everyone accustomed to building their worldview around the idea of “Russia’s isolation” will now have to reckon with—including those within our own countries. Trump’s comments on Fox News were deliberately vague—he’s a master at leaving room for maneuver. But the key takeaway is clear: the pressure will now shift from Moscow to Kyiv and Brussels. This is evident even in the final format—not a word about a “no-conditions” ceasefire, which was Europe and Zelensky’s main demand. This means the discussion on a final peace has been postponed, but within a clear framework: Zelensky must exit the war in a way that lets Europe save face. Russia’s red lines have long been clear: non-aligned status for Ukraine, return of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions within their administrative borders (not the frontlines), lifting of sanctions, and real democracy in Ukraine without persecution of the Russian language or the Orthodox Church. These conditions will prolong the conflict for some time. Zelensky will need to stage a fighting retreat to the administrative borders—this will allow Europe to save face. But the logic is already visible: Ukraine’s defeat will be framed not as a “crushing” but as a “peaceful settlement.” Six months—that’s the timeframe in which we’ll see the dynamics. If the front accelerates, the deal is working. If it stalls, not all pieces are in place yet. But the main thing is already done: Russia is back in the game, not through gray negotiating formats but through a handshake on American soil—even if it’s chilly Alaska. (Though we have warm ties to the region, as seen in the wreath-laying for the “Heroes of ALSIB” and the meeting with Archbishop Alexy of Sitka and Alaska.) For the world, this is an image where smiles are worth more than signatures. For Trump—a chance to show he’s the only one who can “make peace.” For Putin—a symbolic victory: Russia is not a besieged enemy but an equal player. For Europe and Ukraine—the beginning of a painful new phase where they’ll have to accept the inevitable. In these talks, there were no winners or losers in Alaska. In Alaska, both presidents won, while those who weren’t there—lost, or at the very least, didn’t win.show more

Bit of end of cycle / start of year... testing AKA gym yap Front Squat 140kg: Very happy with this given I've only been back squatting for 9 weeks, and that's the longest cycle I've been able to string together in like 5+ years. I can technically call this a PB since it was beltless, sleeveless and less fat bodyweight so over the moon here. Backsquats of any nature keep tweaking my lower back so gonna stick with fronts for the rest of the year. Bench 140kg: Ive done this a lot in the last 10 years, but I was always 105kg bodyweight or more. So to do it at 97kg is a big win. Pressing power has been feeling horrible for the last year or so and I couldn't figure out a good programme, so happy that it's finally clicked again. Deadlift 200kg: Tweaked my lower back 3 times last year and put a lot of effort into fixing it up and strengthening it. 200 was easy so I did attempt 220kg but as soon as it left the ground either I would have failed or had a 10 second grind on my hands so decided to just not risk it. Goal for last year was to get healthy enough to be able to train the deadlift again and I achieved that so despite being far from my best of 262.5kg I've very pleased Ive been able to get to a position where I can train it again without headaches or lower back tweaks. OHP 80kg: Haven't trained OHP in a year or more, and stopped doing behind the neck press 3 months ago when I started benching more, so just wanted to do this for fun. Bit off my best of 95kg but its funny how much strength you retain without even doing a vertical press. Cutting down to 90kg again over the next 2-3 months then will see where I can take these over the rest of the year. No real numbers in mind, just happy to be able to train hard.show more

Signed arguably Leeds best player in Gray Signed arguably... West Hams best player in Kudus A reject right back for us, playing reguarly for West Ham in KWP who is still one of our own, helping to save their club and would probably start ahead of Porro for us A Manager we sacked after 12 weeks in Nuno because he wasnt good enough leading West Ham to safety Tried to sign Nottingham Forests best player in MGW but messed up by approaching illegally One of the best stadiums in World football which could almost fit the entire capacities of Forest and Leeds stadium combined into ours alone Years and years and years of calling for Levys head for him to then finally leave Gifting West Ham their first win in 10 weeks of Premier League football Losing 6-0 to Nottingham Forest on aggregate this season Losing multiple players to reocurring serious injuries through misdiagnosis and rushing them back with almost every injury requiring surgical repair Our then Manager coming out at the start of the season saying Tottenham will 💯 lose games, but Arsenal wont £13m net spend in January to save the club from a financially catastrophic relegation. The fans could see the red flags of relegation, but Vivienne, Lange and Vinai couldnt Not getting a single penalty all season An entire squad of failing relegation players somehow still being selected for their national sides and playing brilliant whilst away on duty The Sporting Director we'd have rathe kept in Paratici, leaving instead of the other Sporting Director we all despise in Lange We are living and breathing witnessing the worst season in the entire history of Tottenham Hotspur as a football club. I do not understand how weve had the worst luck and the most jarring situations happen this season and what it is that we as fans have done to deserve this. Its as though weve sold our souls by winning the Europa League and now the clubs being banished to the fiery pits of hell to be incinerated into oblivion If we didnt have the injuries and had everyone fit and available, we probably finish top 8 with complete ease I wish the season ended tomorrow and we just get it over and done with and see where we play the rigged fixture against Lincoln on the opening day of the Championship season, home or awayshow more

‡ Yet Another Dubious Stewards Decision There is a... long-standing complaint relating to stewards decisions that is shared by virtually all horseplayers: they should be more consistent in their decision making. Such complaints are legitimate, and consistency should always be a goal, not only in the officiating of horse racing. But it seems to me that the problem illustrated by the DQ in Del Mar's 11th race on Saturday is, in some ways, even more frustrating. I am referring to what seems to be a far too common inability of stewards to watch replays carefully, and thoughtfully process what has been seen. While I credit Del Mar for having edited together all three views of the incident in the embedded clip, it would have been better if they had (also) slowed down the drone view, which, as is so often the case, appears to be the definitive view. I have extracted the salient drone view portion and zoomed in on the action, so that readers might more easily see the crucial incident that the stewards apparently failed to take into account. The dubious decision to DQ the winner (#3 red and white silks) was made on the basis that nearing the wire, it drifted out, and caused the eventual fourth-place finisher (#5 pink silks) to steady, possibly costing that one a better placing. But I would argue that a careful, and reasonably thoughtful viewing of the drone shot, clearly shows something different. Just before the incident referred to by the stewards, the #5 horse (pink silks) and #9 (yellow silks) made contact, and it was that contact which initially caused the former to steady. The winner did subsequently drift out, but that was incidental, and did not, at least on its own, cost the #5 a placing. In fact, that the two even came so close was arguably a direct result of the #5 briefly losing its hind-end as a result of the bumping with the #9 horse. Had it not been for that initial contact, causing the #5 to angle in towards the eventual winner, there almost certainly would not have been any meaningful loss of momentum. Parsing it even more finely, it appears, again from the drone shot, that the #9 was not at fault, and it was, ironically, the "victim" in the questionable eyes of the stewards (#5), which angled in and lost its hind-end as a result of that earlier contact. Given that the rider of #5 had understandably steadied more sharply after the initial, far more dangerous incident, the most important momentum loss had already occurred before the rider again steadied slightly, due to the winner drifting out. In summary, there were clearly two incidents which contributed to a loss of momentum on the part of the #5 horse. Equally clearly, it was the initial incident, not even mentioned by the stewards, that caused the greater loss of momentum. In my view, the incident that the stewards used to rationalize the DQ was trivial, relatively speaking, and given the broader context, there should not have been any change in the order of finish.show more

HOW I WAS SLAPPED, ASSAULTED BY STORMERS SC GENERAL... MANAGER, MR. LEKAN KELANI. It was a horrific experience during our FA Cup clash against NNL side Stormers SC at the MKO Abiola Stadium today. Throughout the match, several provocative incidents occurred, but one stood out as particularly shocking. At a crucial moment, the referee issued a second yellow card to a Stormers SC player and correctly followed it up with a red card. However, after intense pressure and discussions from Stormers SC officials on the touchline, the referee inexplicably overturned his decision, despite having confirmed it twice before issuing the red card. Another disturbing incident unfolded in the closing minutes of the game, when the Stormers SC coach aggressively confronted the assistant referee and went as far as slapping him. He was shown a red card. The match eventually ended 3–2 in favor of Stormers SC, but what followed after the final whistle was even more alarming. Stormers SC players began chasing and physically intimidating our players, most of whom are under 17 years old. Seeing my team, especially my captain, being manhandled, As the Media Officer, I rushed onto the pitch to protect them. I also attempted to record one of the Stormers SC players, who was being restrained, to prevent him from attacking one of our players. In the midst of the chaos, I was suddenly slapped from behind by the General Manager of Stormers SC, Lekan Kelani. My phone was knocked out of my hand and smashed to the ground, thankfully, only the screen guard was damaged. The situation escalated further as he charged at me again, grabbed my trousers as if I were a criminal, and held onto me for several minutes. During this time, some Stormers SC players also threatened to beat me for trying to break free from their GM. I eventually managed to break free but had to be escorted out of the stadium for my safety. It was only after I got outside that I realized I had lost some of my personal belongings, including my face cap and EarPod. Violence has no place in football. Incidents like this tarnish the spirit of the game and endanger lives. Individuals like Mr. Lekan Kelani should have no place in our football if the sport is to grow with integrity, safety, and respect. I am calling on the Ogun State FA, the NFF, and all passionate supporters of the game to speak up and take decisive action. This injustice must not be allowed to slide. The NFF 🇳🇬 Man of Letters. Ogun State Government - OGSG Ogun State Police Command Radio Friendshow more

A true trailblazer. Her story reminds us that strength... often grows in silence, and the trail can be a path to freedom. 🥾 🌲 Born in 1887 in rural Ohio, Emma endured over 30 years of severe domestic abuse from her husband while raising 11 children on a farm. She survived broken bones, lost teeth, and near-fatal beatings, yet she raised her family with quiet strength. After divorcing in 1940 (rare for women at the time), she found solace in long walks in the woods. The Hike That Changed History In 1955, at 67 years old, Emma told her grown children she was “going for a walk.” She didn’t reveal her full plan. With almost no gear—just a pair of cheap Keds sneakers, a homemade denim bag, a shower curtain for shelter/rain protection, and minimal supplies—she set out alone to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, a rugged ~2,168-mile path from Georgia to Maine. She became the first woman to solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in one continuous season. No fancy backpack, no tent, no support crew. She foraged, slept on leaves or in shelters, and pushed through mountains, weather, wildlife, and exhaustion. She completed it in 146 days, summiting Mount Katahdin on September 25, 1955. Her Lasting Impact Emma hiked the A.T. again in 1957 (becoming the first person to complete it twice) and a third time in sections by 1964. She also walked ~2,000 miles of the Oregon Trail in 1959. Her story, covered widely by the media, helped spark renewed interest in the Appalachian Trail’s maintenance and popularized long-distance hiking for everyday people—especially women and older adults. She proved that resilience, determination, and a simple love of the outdoors have no age limit. Emma passed away in 1973 at age 85, but her legacy lives on in books (Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery), the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame (inducted 2012), and as a symbol of survival and freedom. The TikTok perfectly captures the spirit: At 67, after a lifetime of hardship, she kissed her children goodbye and walked into the mountains—not just to escape, but to reclaim her life, one step at a time. Her journey showed the world that it’s never too late to start walking toward healing and adventure. “If those men can do it, I can do it.” ~Emma Gatewood~show more

SCOTT RITTER is an external Contributor to Energy Intelligence.... He is a former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer whose service over a 20-plus-year career included tours of duty in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control agreements, serving on the staff of US Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War and later as a Chief Weapons Inspector with the UN in Iraq from 1991-98. “Just so you know, I have a little bit of background in the Philippines. In 1986, I was deployed there as a platoon commander to reinforce the Subic garrison. After the fall of the Marcos regime, there was concern about the new people’s army. “So I have a warm spot in my heart for the Philippines. Let’s build upon what Colonel Wilkerson had said earlier. The United States is incapable of fighting a sustained conflict against a peer-level force. “The United States cannot fight and engage China and win. We will not beat the Chinese. We cannot beat the Chinese. “And we know this, and yet we’re using the Philippines to create the conditions of potential conflict with the Chinese. Please understand that for the Filipino people, this is a recipe for disaster. You think America is your friend. “So too did the Ukrainian people, and they are dying by the hundreds of thousands. Friends don’t let friends die in those quantities. The Ukrainians have been displaced by the tens of millions. “Friends don’t let friends have their cities destroyed in this manner. Friends don’t let friends have families separated, have mothers and children destined to a life of refugee status in perpetual poverty. That’s not how friends behave. “America has never been the friend of Ukrainians, and we are not the friends of the Filipinos. We don’t like you. If we did like you, we wouldn’t be doing this to you. “We are using you. You are a tool, nothing but a tool. And when the tool ceases to be useful, we will discard you. “And discard you means usually after a war that devastates you. We are using you to gain some sort of momentary leverage over the Chinese. We will fail. “The Chinese will win, and you will be destroyed. End of story. It’s high time the Filipino people pressure their government to start sitting down and engaging the Chinese government responsibly. “China is not your enemy. China is your neighbor. China is your friend. “China doesn’t want war. And if you would engage China in diplomacy, and as we’ve all indicated here, America has long since lost the skill set necessary to carry out diplomacy. But the Filipinos, the Philippine people can reignite this, to relearn it, to use this skill to prevent a war. “But if you continue to behave as colonial subjects, and I know that’s a sore, sore, sore subject of the Filipino, because you were the colonial subjects of America. We still view you as our colonial subjects. We don’t like you. “We don’t care about you. We just want to use you. Grow up. “Grow up and act responsibly. Take control of your own future. America is not here to help you. America is here only to use you until there’s nothing left. And then we will discard you on the trash heap of history.”show more

🚨🚨 Read this if you care about Gaza and... haven’t forgotten it—and for anyone who wants to understand the true value of a “human life” in Gaza! First of all, hello to everyone after more than 5 days of internet blackout! Secondly, during these days, I gathered my courage and went to wait for aid. With the internet down, I couldn’t withdraw any money to buy even a single kilo of flour. I was forced to risk my life in hopes of getting a bag of flour to feed my children. But I returned home injured , without I can get a bag of flour. Five days of sleeping on the ground among tens of thousands of other civilians who, like me, were also waiting for that one bag. Five days sleeping without a blanket—just the sky above us. No mattress—the ground was our bed. No lullabies to soothe us to sleep—the sound of shells and gunfire above our heads was enough to commit dozens of massacres at once, in one place. Let me tell you something: they treat us like animals. They allow in a bit of food and flour, and then make people fight each other over it. Imagine throwing food to chickens—how they would pounce on it. That’s exactly how we were. I saw things I’ve never seen before. I saw a father crying because a thief took the food meant for his children. I saw a pregnant woman pushing through the crowd of men to get food for her kids who had lost their father. I saw an elderly man pushed from behind by younger men, knocked to the ground and run over by the truck’s wheels. Conflicting emotions overwhelmed me: confusion, fear, helplessness, and betrayal. How can the world not see what’s happening? How can it not see us at all? For the first time, I felt like my life meant nothing. How could I be worth less than a bag of flour? Even now, every time I close my eyes, I see crowds of people swarming the flour trucks like beasts. Every time I sleep, I have nightmares about chasing that bag—and I wake up terrified. I won’t go back to that trap again. I don’t want to leave my family alone, at night, in a tent, unprotected, unsafe—just to chase after a bag of flour that might cost me my life. Nothing is more precious than life and family. Yesterday, I might not have returned to them. My wife and children didn’t sleep after hearing about the horrific massacre at the location I had been in. They heard I had run toward the trucks, right into the evacuation zones and areas of fighting. This madness must stop. I will try to buy the flour—it’s not worth more than me. Please, don’t stop supporting us!show more

My faith journey! I grew up Baptist but was... disfellowshipped from the church I grew up in in 2014 due to being in an interracial relationship. We went to different denominations until the missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints knocked on the door. I had been studying anti-Mormon and anti-JW literature and apologetics so I was ready to debate. I did fairly well, missionaries left discouraged but left me with a Book of Mormon. I decided to read it and underline mistakes or doctrinal errors. I was heavily convinced by the time I reached 2 Nephi 25:26 that this was true and I needed to reach out to the missionaries, so I decided to get baptized and my fiancé did too. We were married a couple of weeks later in the chapel. We received a blessing that next year and ended up with twins but we went inactive before we could be sealed. In 2020, my wife and I separated due to my ego and selfishness. I wanted to experience the world. I wanted the fast life; the women, parties, and recognition. It was empty happiness. The happiness always faded and I went to bed alone with no kids or wife. The alcohol always wore off. We ended up getting back together in the fall of 2020 before we finalized the divorce. She was a believer, I considered myself agnostic. She couldn’t attend church because we lived 40 minutes away from the chapel and it was a huge burden to carry 3 kids to church by herself (our 3rd child was born in 2018). On February 1, 2024 one of my best friends took his life. I was devastated. I had nothing to lean on. This guy was very strong and we worked out together all the time. He showed no signs of depression or self-harm. If someone that strong could get so low that they’d take their own life, what hope was there for me? I gave my life to Christ that day. I didn’t go back to church until a month later after his funeral. We went to Little Rock on the Saturday of his funeral. We stayed the night and went to a park with the kids to play. A stranger walked up and started talking to us. He asked if I was a member for some reason. I told him I used to be, but struggled to reconcile science and religion. He was a scientist! He studied non-Hodgkin lymphoma at UAMS. He really helped to increase my faith and I started reading scripture again. We went back to church that next week and was baptized about a month and a half later, rejoining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m preparing to receive the Melchizedek priesthood now, and ultimately to receive my endowment and be sealed to my family. No matter how far you’ve strayed, or how far way you get from God, he is always waiting with his outstretched arms ready to welcome you home. Check out my new TikTok: mglunsford #LDSx #Christianshow more

Not just saying this coz cr7's stans are hilariously... triggered and running maliciously edited agendas on here - this is just a pure truth nuke: When you actually watch them both play across dozens of full games, Henry in his prime years was generally more unstoppable, more unpredictable, more dominant, more threatening, and more capable of carrying lesser teammates. It's fairly obvious too tbh Cr7 is clearly an all timer of course (nowhere near goat tho), has his own advantages (technical consistency in certain actions/areas, predatory goal-scoring), and deserves a bigger legacy due to immense longevity, skillset, adaptability, records - but he has also benefited massively from selfish main character syndrome + spending his prime stat-padding in two of the most expensive, dominant super teams ever - not to mention the 2 biggest global brands. After Penaldo (+Tevez) left and were replaced inadequately, Utd got a bit worse. Yet they still won more leagues, and got to another CL final shortly after. Real Madrid kept churning big titles no problem. After Henry left, Arsenal went 20+ years without sniffing the same heights. Of course Henry leaving is not the only, or even biggest reason for that - but it is indicative of the environments they operated in. Henry carried Arsenal to their 2 biggest milestones - the invincibles+06 CL final run - far more than Ronaldo has ever carried anything Both at their best, Henry makes you a bit more likely to win football matches in most scenarios. Virtually every defender who played against both around their primes, says Henry was better/tougher, and the tape backs it up. While Henry gets slated by his countrymen, he was better for France than Ronaldo was for Portugal. You can throw all the cherry picked out of context stats and all the ballon d'ors and all the dishonest edited fail comps - or you can extensively watch the actual tape. Henry has bullied and spanked every goat level defender multiple times - not sure Cristiano on his own wud make Carragher sweat much. As a pure individual, a good defender generally locks him up more easily, he's more reliant on elite service (this is all relative, and a matter of degrees ofc) It's also hilarious that Henry legit eats more negative, lazy narratives than cr7 does, despite Cristiano having a much bigger profile, much greater longevity - and still having equivalent black marks (forget world cup or euros record, dont look at his record vs Chelsea or liverpool, especially away, never mind his actual performances which his stats usually inflate) - people seem to lowkey understand in the back of their minds who should be held to higher standards + Henry is hit with bad faith agendas by every modern PL fan cuz they think he's 'gettable' (salah, kdb, cr7, even the odd hazard/drogba stan) Henry was legit a big part of Arsenal becoming a global superbrand, big part of why they have a cultural stranglehold. In his prime, rivals across England would regularly chant his name as he destroyed their teams, just coz of how outrageously good he was. Nothing manufactured. Despite all that he adjusted his role and deferred to Zidane for France and Messi for Barcelona, for the good of the team. Pendu on the other hand got botox, fillers and does buttlicking sycophantic interviews with Piers Morgan for the same reason he fouls his own teammates to statpad another tap in, shamelessly takes his shirt off for the cameras after an invisible performance + penalty to make it 4-1 in a CL final, performatively 'coaches' in euro 2016 (the players who actually won the game didn't notice), and tanked every team for the last 5+ years with his burdening presence: to bolster his own brand/legacy no matter what. Homelander is an unfair comparison, he cannot compete with CRkelly Google 'Cristiano Ronaldo Las Vegas' for more infoshow more

Every civilization that worships progress is already walking to... its grave. To believe history climbs ever upward is the delusion of a people in decline. Victory comes by remembering who we are. Modernity lives by the noxious falsity that history is a straight ascent, a line rising toward liberty, material security, higher knowledge, and an ever-advancing mastery of the world. Christianity once gave this expectation its sacred form in the promise of salvation at the end of time. The Enlightenment stripped away the divine horizon but kept the same conviction of progress, recasting it as the unfolding of reason, the spread of science, and the emancipation of man from what were once called superstitions. This doctrine, ideological-cum-religion, is now repeated as if it were a law of nature, and those who doubt it are accused of perversity. Yet for most of mankind history was not imagined as a line but as a cycle. The ancients knew that whatever rises must also fall. Hesiod spoke of the decline of mankind through successive ages, from gold into iron. Heraclitus declared that “war is the father of all things,” for creation and destruction are one. Thucydides wrote his account of the Peloponnesian War with the conviction that future wars would resemble it in both their causes and their ruin. Polybius conceptualized the notion of anakyklosis (recurrence), the perpetual rotation of constitutions: monarchy degenerating into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, democracy into mob rule, and from collapse into monarchy again. To them the fate of empires was as certain as the turning of the seasons. Even Machiavelli, on the threshold of modernity, still echoed Polybius when he wrote of the recurrent fortunes of republics. It was into this older vision that Oswald Spengler breathed life in the twentieth century. His great work “The Decline of the West” gave to cyclical history a new form, drawn not from metaphysics but from the morphology of nature. Cultures, he argued, are living organisms. Each is born in a moment of spiritual awakening, grows with an inner law of development, creates great art and form, and then enters upon its winter, when energies are spent, forms petrify, and death becomes inevitable. For this he used the distinction between Kultur (culture), the spring and summer of a people, marked by faith, inward form, and organic vitality, and Zivilisation (civilization), the autumn and winter, marked by intellect without soul, mass life, technical routine, and exhaustion. The West, in his judgment, had already passed from Kultur into Zivilisation. The inner principle of the West, its soul, was what Spengler named Faustian. Every great culture, he held, has a prime symbol that shapes its creations. The Magian world of the Near East saw existence as a cavern, inward and enclosed. The Classical world of Greece and Rome saw the finite, bounded body as the measure of form. The West saw infinite space. The Gothic cathedral, its arches soaring upward into height without measure, was the first revelation of this soul. The sagas of Arthur, Parsifal, and Siegfried, the restless knights of the Grail, and the march of the Crusaders all bore witness to it. The voyages that opened oceans, the maps that encompassed the globe, the infinitesimal calculus of Leibniz and Newton, the endless counterpoint of Bach and the vast harmonies of Wagner, all were the expression of a will to the infinite, a yearning without rest. This Faustian spirit was not content with the near or the familiar. It sought distance, transcendence, and mastery over what lay beyond. It was both creative and dangerous, for it drove men to triumphs unmatched in history but also carried within itself the certainty of overreaching and exhaustion. Spengler’s vision was therefore tragic. The same will that raised Gothic cathedrals and revealed the law of gravitation would in the end dissolve into sterile technique, into cities without form and masses without destiny. For him the West had already entered this stage. Spengler was, in this sense, a Nietzschean. He shared with Nietzsche the rejection of teleology and the denial that history tends toward progress, and he likewise held that life itself is bound to conflict, the agon, in which both rivalry and the will to power are revealed. He spoke of cultures as organisms that arise, strive, and perish, not unlike Nietzsche’s affirmation that life is bound to conflict and that creation and destruction are inseparable. A bit of an aside, when Spengler was buried in Munich in 1936, he was laid to rest with Goethe’s “Faust” and Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” placed in his coffin. He saw himself as heir to both, the one the poet of form and destiny, the other the prophet of will and strife. The roots of this Faustian striving reach back beyond Christendom, beyond Greece and Rome, to the Indo-European warrior-aristocrats of the Eurasian steppe. These tribes of the Pontic-Caspian plain lived by horse and chariot, by the defense of herds, and by the honor of their lineage. They were ruled not by despots but by free warriors who regarded their leaders as peers, first among equals, whose authority rested on courage, generosity, and loyalty rather than command alone. Young men were formed in war-bands, associations of companions bound by oath, living by raid and by hunt, pledged to follow their chosen chief even into death. In such companies rivalry and struggle were ceaseless, for each sought to surpass the others in daring, in the ferocity of combat, and in the glory that could outlast life itself. Their poetry and myth remembered these contests not as accidents of circumstance but as the very substance of noble existence, where to fall without renown was worse than death, and to win immortal fame was the highest proof of life. To paraphrase the Hávamál cattle perish and kinsmen perish, but “the fame of a dead man’s deeds” will never perish. From this life issued the earliest epics of Europe. “The Iliad” tells of Achilles choosing immortal fame above a long life. The Mahabharata recounts the deeds of princes who waged war for honor’s sake. Beowulf sings of the Geat who sought a name that death itself could not erase. The Song of Roland praises the knight who dies rather than yield dishonor. The Nibelungenlied recounts the doom of Siegfried and the vengeance of Kriemhild. The Irish Táin Bó Cúailnge tells of Cú Chulainn standing alone against an invading host. The Icelandic sagas, from Njáll’s fate to Egil’s defiance, exalted the warrior who carved his name with blood and song. These were not works of peace or utility but of tragic greatness, affirming life in the face of fate. This ethos carried into the Greek polis, where the agon was institutionalized in public life, from the rivalries of the assembly to the contests of the games, from the tragedies on the stage to the hoplite phalanx on the field of war. The Romans transmuted it into a republic of conquest and law, turning the struggle for honor into dominion over peoples and the codification of order. The medieval knightly orders bound it to Christendom, when crusade and chivalry gave sacred form to ancient valor and set the nobility of Europe against the infidel. The Renaissance hurled it across the oceans, as Cortés in Mexico and da Gama in India sought renown and dominion in uncharted realms. The Scientific Revolution extended it into thought itself, when the telescope, the calculus, and the new physics opened infinite space to inquiry. Each age bore a new expression of the same striving for honor and mastery, the same will to overcome every limit placed before man. Spengler’s judgment was that this will, having conquered the earth, had entered its final exhaustion. What had been vital had become mechanical. The spirit of invention had hardened into sterile routine. The organic life of peoples had dissolved into the masses of world-cities. Yet the question remains whether decline is always fate. Nietzsche believed otherwise. For him life is not a store of energy to be depleted but a force that renews itself wherever men embrace struggle. He saw in the agon not only the cause of decay but the condition of greatness. If men retain the courage to live by strife, decline can be arrested, or at least transfigured into new creation. The Indo-European heritage shows that cultures are not born from comfort but from peril, not from harmony but from contest. The Greeks rose not by suppressing strife but by shaping it into ordered form. Their philosophers contended as their athletes fought, and their poets sought renown as their warriors did. Rome built its empire by the discipline of legions and the law of the strong. The West carried the same spirit into its cathedrals, its voyages, its philosophies, and its sciences. This is Faustian man, the refusal of limits, the yearning for infinity, the restless will to overcome. The cycle of decline may be unavoidable in form, but decline need not mean death. In the biological world exhaustion is followed by regeneration, decay enriches the soil for new growth, and death itself becomes the ground of life. If the West remembers its aristocratic origin, if it accepts strife as its element rather than yielding to the narcotic of progress, rebirth is possible. In Nietzsche’s vision every ending contains the seed of a higher beginning. If Europe wills it, the Faustian soul can be born again. A civilization dies when it abandons struggle; it lives again only when it embraces the agon as its lifeblood. REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.show more