Donald Trump is not afraid to file a lawsuit, and he certainly no stranger to being sued himself. Once in court, Trump and his attorneys are prodigious filers of complaints, appeals, and protests. In fact, his legal strategy is often “more is better.” But that strategy is suddenly hitting a wall—a federal judge in Florida ruled on Thursday that Trump and one of his attorneys, Alina Habba, are on the hook for $937,000, as punishment for a lawsuit Trump brought against a host of perceived enemies, including his 2016 presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump filed the lawsuit—which named a total of 31 people and alleged racketeering and a conspiracy to hurt his candidacy by falsely accusing him of colluding with Russia—last March. It was dismissed in September, but the defendants asked to be reimbursed for their costs in having to fight it.

It’s the second time in as many weeks that Trump and Habba have been rebuked by a judge for their litigation tactics. On Janunary 9, a New York judge rejected Trump’s request that a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, be dismissed. That judge went beyond simply denying the request and said Trump and Habba had engaged in “frivolous litigation.” In that case, however, the judge ruled that he didn’t need to punish Trump or his lawyers because they had learned their lesson. 

In the Clinton case, the judge was not so forgiving.

“This case should never have been brought,” Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks wrote in his order on Thursday. “Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it.”

Middlebrooks wrote that there were many, many problems with the lawsuit Trump filed against Clinton and her supposed co-conspirators. For starters, it was poorly written—repetitive, vague, and meandering—Middlebrooks wrote. When Middlebrooks ordered Habba to clean up her argument, what he got back was basically fiction, the judge said.

Marcus, Luke and Andy see in the weekend! We check in with Charlie Kane, struggle to translate a very unrelaxed and dehydrated Pep Guardiola, and bring news from Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut! Is that… Kasabian’s guitarist on the left wing?

Plus, Luke finally completes his long-anticipated transformation into Richard Keys and Andy and Marcus face off in a Jack’s Encyclopaedia that will probably go immediately out of date. STOP SIGNING PLAYERS TODD FOR GOD’S SAKE!

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In the summer of 2011, as Washington deadlocked over the once routine task of raising the nation’s debt ceiling, Kevin McCarthy, then the House GOP whip, decided to mix things up. At a closed-door caucus meeting, the California Republican cut the lights to screen a clip from the heist movie The Town, where Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner plot a violent act of revenge.

“I need your help,” Affleck’s character says. “I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me about it later. And we’re gonna hurt some people.”

When the lights flicked on, Allen West, a first-term Florida congressman who had become a conservative hero after firing a gun past an Iraqi detainee’s head, rose to offer a version of Renner’s response.

“I’m ready to drive the car,” West said. 

For McCarthy, his political ambitions have always come with a catch: To get where he wanted to go, he first had to hand over the keys. His elevation to speaker of the House in January on the 15th ballot was the culmination of his life’s work and a demonstration of his powers. In nailing down a belligerent caucus, McCarthy leaned on relationships cultivated over a decade-and-half on the campaign trail, at the Capitol, and on the fundraising circuit. But it was also a reminder of the compromises he made to get there. McCarthy won the gavel, but not the authority it traditionally brings, by ceding control to the insurrectionists and austerity-obsessed hard-liners who blocked his nomination 14 times. His victory was in many ways the story not just of his own career, but of the trio of Republican “Young Guns” with whom he rose through the ranks. McCarthy is the last one of them standing, because he already surrendered long ago.

Former President Donald Trump has given many denials to writer E. Jean Carroll’s allegation that he cornered her and raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. He’s called Carroll’s story “all fiction,” “a con job,” and “a big fat hoax.”

“I know nothing about this woman,” Trump insisted in 2019, when Carroll first made her allegation public in a New York magazine article. “She’s a liar and a sick person,” he repeated recently. “She made it up probably to sell a book or for her own ego.”

Yet perhaps the most quoted of all Trump’s defenses is his insulting insistence that Carroll is “not my type,” as he told the Hill in an Oval Office interview shortly after Carroll’s story went public. The New York Times, USA Today, and many other outlets promptly ran his insult in their headlines. The Atlantic broke down the quote’s inherent misogyny: how it reduces an “unruly woman” to a sexual commodity, then dismisses her. Carroll, meanwhile, filed a defamation lawsuit over Trump’s denials, including the “not my type” quote, saying the president smeared her when he called her a liar. 

But a newly unsealed deposition from that lawsuit has thrown Trump’s “not my type” defense into question. According to the deposition transcript, when Trump was shown a picture of himself with his then-wife, Ivana Trump, talking to Carroll, Trump misidentified Carroll as his second wife, Marla Maples. 

“It’s Marla,” Trump responded when Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan presented the photo, as he pointed to Carroll.

Florida’s ongoing war against so-called “wokeism” has reached a new low. On Wednesday, 28 presidents of Florida’s state and community colleges announced that they would seek to eliminate policies and academic programs that are viewed as forcing a “belief in critical race theory” or subjects related to intersectionality.

“Our institutions will not fund or support any institutional practice, policy, or academic requirement that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality, or the idea that oppression should be the primary lens through which teaching and learning are analyzed/ improved upon,” the Florida College System presidents wrote in a joint statement.

The alarming move comes weeks after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered Florida’s colleges and universities to submit comprehensive reports outlining spending data on programs related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory, prompting fierce condemnation that the move would pressure universities to simply cut such programs from their budgets. The request builds on Florida’s “Stop WOKE” Act, which aims to restrict race-based teachings in Florida schools and colleges.

Speaking to WFTV 9, Jonathan Cox, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida, said that he stopped teaching classes on racial inequality thanks to the “Stop WOKE” Act. 

“A lot of the proponents say they want to help develop critical thinking skills and not indoctrinate them, but they’re really doing the exact opposite,” Cox said. 

Where else to start this week but in Naples! After Napoli steamroll Juventus, Dotun, Lars and Andy explore just how Napoli have become the most exciting team in Europe – the secret is all in the midfield and one former Fulham man…

Elsewhere, Barcelona’s young guns prove why they can edge Real Madrid’s trophy juggernauts in the title race, even if Joan Laporta is up to more antics. Plus, how are Bayern placed without their key man between the sticks as the Bundesliga returns – and why have a team in Italy rehired their manager after 36 hours?!

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Soon after Elon Musk purchased Twitter in late October, the tech mogul reinstated Donald Trump’s account, which the company had shut down permanently after Trump used Twitter to help instigate the January 6 insurrection. The twice-impeached ex-president hasn’t tweeted again yet, instead sticking to posting on his own far less influential and financially shaky Truth Social platform. But he is planning to use Twitter again soon and his presidential campaign is actively seeking his reinstatement on Facebook, according to news reports this week.

As Trump eyes the White House in 2024, his desire to once again exploit social media platforms with vast reach is no mystery. A tsunami of political advertising and misinformation deployed by his 2016 campaign on Facebook was widely credited as key to that year’s election victory. He later used Twitter not only to galvanize a delusional movement to overturn his 2020 election loss but also to distract from and dominate news cycles throughout his four years in office.

Trump’s influence is comparatively tiny via Truth Social; he has under 5 million followers there, versus more than 88 million on Twitter and 34 million on Facebook. Yet, that has not prevented him from further stirring random extremist violence with lies, deranged conspiracy theories, and demonization of his alleged enemies. Trump long ago honed this incitement technique, known to national security experts as stochastic terrorism. It is a destabilizing and ongoing danger to the nation—and one certain to scale back up with Trump’s return to mainstream social media.

Political violence provoked by Trump and extremist allies who now mimic his playbook has indeed continued ever since the attack on the Capitol and Trump’s banishment from Twitter and Facebook. Central to the phenomenon, of course, is the endless lie from Trumpworld that the 2020 election was supposedly stolen through fraud. (Many official investigations and court proceedings proved it was not, and Trump knew so.)

In the past few weeks, that false narrative apparently motivated a series of shooting attacks at the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The alleged ringleader was 39-year-old Solomon Peña, a defeated GOP candidate for the state legislature, who, according to court documents detailed by the Washington Post, is accused of hiring several gunmen as well as participating in the drive-by attacks. No one was injured in the late-night shootings, but bullets that pierced through drywall at one house narrowly missed a state senator’s sleeping 10-year-old daughter.

There is something odd about the relationship between GOP fabulist George Santos and Andrew Intrater, a sophisticated and wealthy New York financier, Republican donor, and cousin to sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Intrater was one of Santos’ top political donors. At Santos’ behest, he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars with a firm where Santos worked. And even after this company was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of running a Ponzi scheme that threatened Intrater’s investment, Intrater and his domestic partner continued to pour money into Santos’ political campaign. What’s the explanation for his curious and sustained support for Santos? Intrater, Mother Jones has learned, the wealthy head of a sizable investment fund—seemingly as savvy an investor as they come—has told associates that he, like others, was conned by Santos. 

The bizarre tale of Santos, the world-champion Long Island liar and conniver who’s now in Congress, has myriad subplots: his alleged criminal past in Brazil, the mysterious origins of millions of dollars he claims to have earned in the past three years, his suspicious campaign finance shenanigans, and much more. One of these involves his interactions with Intrater, who hit the headlines in 2018 for having hired Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, as a business consultant after Intrater made a whopping $250,000 contribution to Trump’s inauguration committee. Intrater ran an investment business then named Columbus Nova that had deep and direct ties to Vekselberg’s Renova Group conglomerate. In April 2018, Vekselberg and the Renova Group were sanctioned by the Treasury Department for assisting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “malign activity around the globe.” After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Spanish authorities seized Vekselberg’s $90 million yacht at the request of the United States.

Intrater has been one of Santos’ most generous patrons. During Santos’ first congressional bid in 2020, Intrater and his girlfriend, Diana Pentinen, each donated the maximum amount of $5,800 to his campaign. In 2022, they went much further, sending over $67,000 to Santos’ campaign and political committees backing Santos. Though Intrater made donations to over two dozen other Republican House and Senate campaigns that year, Santos, by far, received the most support. Intrater also donated $100,000 to Rise NY PAC, a New York state political committee connected to Santos. (Santos’ sister, Tiffany, was paid by this PAC.) Pentinen donated to no federal candidates other than Santos. Intrater and Pentinen each also donated $60,829 to then-Rep. Lee Zeldin, the GOP candidate for New York governor. 

And there’s more: Intrater had a significant financial connection to Santos. 

In 2020 and 2021, Santos worked as the New York representative for a Florida-based investment firm called Harbor City Capital. But on his financial disclosure forms covering those years he listed no income from the company. (Santos, though, did receive some form of payment this firm.)

Two managers have defined football in the 21st century more than anyone else. And luckily for us, they have also both absolutely hated each other! Across two special Ramble Guides, we’re exploring their influence and their hatred in all its glory. 

In Part 1, Marcus, Andy and Vish look at the career of Pep Guardiola. We discuss how he built Barcelona and simultaneously pissed everyone off, how his rivalry with Mourinho at Real Madrid almost broke him, and his unrivalled influence on English football.

We’ll be back next Tuesday to discuss the fallen angel himself: José Mourinho!

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How do you build a football team from scratch? That’s exactly the dilemma today’s guest has had to overcome!

Lutz Pfannenstiel is the only footballer in history to play in all six FIFA continental confederations. And now, he’s sporting director of St Louis City, a brand new football club entering MLS next month. We asked him what it’s like to build a squad - and a fanbase - from nothing and how he’s drawn on one of the most unique playing careers in the sport to guide the club forward.

Who would you like Kate to speak to next? Tweet us @FootballRamble and email us here: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Marcus, Jim, Vish and Pete react to a huge weekend in the Premier League! Arsenal and Arteta exorcise their demons at Spurs, while VAR categorically does not in Manchester where Marcus Rashford set the record for the world’s longest dummy. 

We also discuss whether both Antonio Conte and Jurgen Klopp have lost their magic touch and Everton sink deeper into the mire. But anyone up for a Lampard-Moyes Freaky Friday body swap?

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Arsenal has the best chance of winning the Premier League title in 18 years this season. After 17 games, the Gunners have 14 wins, 2 draws, and 1 defeat, putting them at the top of the table with 44 points.

Arsenal are favourites to win the Premier League title this season, but there are some doubts. One major question is whether they have what it takes to beat Manchester City.

Manchester City trail Arsenal by five points, but they are far from out of the title race. The good news is that Arsenal has an excellent opportunity to deal with City. The two teams have yet to meet, but Jamie Carragher believes Arsenal can handle the defending champions in this game. The Liverpool legend believes Arsenal will beat City in the two key games that he feels will decide the Premier League title.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher said: “Watching Arsenal the other night (against Newcastle), I just felt they needed to relax. There so long to go in the season and when you’re talking about Man City can win so many games in a row, that’s what Arsenal have virtually done in the last sort of two or three months before the World Cup. I think they’ve only dropped points in three games, that is some going.

“I think a lot of it will come down to the two games against Manchester City. If Arsenal want to win the title, they have to take four points off Manchester City I’d expect, and that would put them in a great position.

The debate over whether Eddie Nketiah is ready to lead Arsenal’s attack in the months ahead before Gabriel Jesus returns isn’t going away any time soon, at least not while the transfer window is still open.

Some believe Arteta simply needs to go out and sign a reliable striker to lead their attack in the absence of their injured number 9. So far, all of Arsenal’s attacking transfer links have mentioned Mykhailo Mudryk as a possible new signing. Is Mudryk a natural striker? He isn’t, which raises the question of whether Arsenal signing him will fill Jesus’ void.

Arteta looks for Nketiah and gives him a massive hug 🫂 pic.twitter.com/UX27FQFtOf

— Gilles (@_Grimanditweets) December 31, 2022

Other than Mudryk’s swoop, there’s a feeling Arteta may need to move for a striker. Some transfer links name Atletico Madrid striker Felix as a player who could join Arsenal on loan, but Felix’s links are fraught with uncertainty, leading one to believe his swoop won’t happen.

In 2019, Arsenal was certain they needed to sign a reliable winger, so they scouted the market and returned with Nicolas Pepe, whom they paid Lille £72 million to sign.

It is worth noting that Pepe had 22 goals and 11 assists in 38 league games the season before joining Arsenal, and many wanted a piece of him, but Arsenal won that race. Unfortunately, we all know the story: Pepe never lived up to the expectations placed on him at Arsenal, and until he left for a loan move to Nice last summer, Arsenal fans were still waiting for him to recapture his Lille form.

Arsenal may need to pay a lot to bring Mudryk on board, just like they did for Pepe. Two “mega” bids from the Emirates haven’t sealed the deal, and with Chelsea now in the picture, they may need to break their £72 million expensive-buy record to bring Mudryk from Shaktar.

Looking at the figures being floated for Mudryk’s potential transfer to Arsenal, Dean Jones has hinted that Arsenal must be careful not to repeat a Pepe-like signing in which they pay big money for a player who fails to find his brilliance at the Emirates. “They’re in a situation where they’re being forced to pay over the odds for a player, and they’ve got to be very, very careful here,” said Jones on Give Me Sport.

“I think for a long time, £65 million has generally been the figure I’ve been hearing that Arsenal wouldn’t want to be going over for this player. And I think we have to make comparisons to when they bought Nicolas Pepe, and they overpaid for him, and it didn’t work out.

Arsenal Women’s 2023 squad is starting to shape up rather nicely by Michelle

The January transfer window started on 1st January and runs until 31st January.  So far we’ve had Jordan Nobbs leave our Gunners, opening up a midfield slot ahead of the announcement that Dutch international Victoria Pelova’s signed for Arsenal and only today another signing confirmed.

1st January Transfer window commences

5th January Midfielder Jordan Nobbs leaving Arsenal for Aston Villa

6th January Dutch international midfielder Victoria Pelova signs to Arsenal from Ajax

Giving Benjamin White his Flowers by Taku

Paying £50 million for a relatively inexperienced defender, from a recently promoted club is rarely ever a bargain, even when so called ‘British Tax’ is taken into consideration. However, with every passing match, it is increasingly looking like Edu and his team may have made out like bandits.

Suffice to say, there were a fair number of skeptics who—quite reasonably—questioned the wisdom of spending such a large amount of money on a defender who was, and perhaps still is, largely unproven. This article will go into the reasons why Benny Blanco is well on his way to proving the skeptics wrong.

Whilst it is important to take an insightful look into his statistics to further back this claim, it is worth mentioning the eye-test. And as the adage goes, ‘do not lie to your eyes.’

Whether it has been teaming up with Saka to torment Tottenham’s left-hand side with fantastic ball control, line-breaking passing, and intelligent movement; strategically sinister little trips to nip a potential counterattack in the bud on a couple of occasions; or throwing his body in the way of Reid’s stinging shot heading for the bottom corner, he has quietly become one of our most consistently exceptional players. All this, by the way whilst playing ‘out of position’.

There is obviously massive problems with Arsenal’s pursuit of the Ukranian winger Mykhaylo Mudryk, and according to the most recent news it looks like the Gunners have hit a brick wall according to Mudryk’s agent, so surely it now makes sense to concentrate on other more realistic targets, because the fact is that Mikel Arteta still needs a much bigger squad to continue challenging on all fronts.

The other big rumour involving Arsenal at the moment is the possibility of getting Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix, who may be very expensive but is a more experienced and proven performer than Mudryk at the moment, and the Arsenal oracle David Ornstein thinks that Mikel Arteta may move on and try and complete this deal first.

“It will be interesting to see if Arsenal look to bring forward some business or get some other business done first,” Ornstein said on NBC Sports.

“They are interested in Joao Felix at Atletico in a loan deal. If the numbers come down significantly from where they are now – and that’s why it’s not happening right now – then perhaps they’ll try and get that one in first. And that will take the pressure off them in the Mudryk pursuit.”

It is probably a very good idea for Arsenal to take a step back and reassess their options in the light of the latest news, and one thing is for sure, Joao Felix would also be an excellent addition to the squad for the rest of the season….

Arsenal Women 2nd incoming international confirmed – Danish international Kathrine Kuhl by Michelle

Arsenal have just confirmed signing 19-year-old Danish international midfielder Kathrine Kühl from FC Nordsjælland. She is recognised as one of Europes greatest young talents. There has been a tough battle for her signature, including interest from Chelsea FC.

Still only 19 years old, Kuhl has 21 caps for Denmark and has been touted as Denmark’s next superstar with former coach Everton Women’s Brian Sørensen saying on analyticsfc I have not met anyone who is as determined as Pernille Harder. But compared to the tools that Pernille had at that age and that Kathrine has now, I think Kathrine is better technically. She has the potential to be one of the best interiors in the game.

Let’s take a look at Kathrine in action below.

Arsenal Women target 19 year old Danish midfielder Kathrine Kühl

There have been millions of column inches dedicated to Arsenal’s attempt to persuade Shakhtar Donetsk’s owners to let Mykhaylo Mudryk move to the Emirates for a reasonable price this month, and now the agent of the Ukranian star has publicly reported that there is very little chance of an agreement being reached.

He says that the two clubs are so far apart in their valuations that he has practically given up hope of Shakhtar listening to reason in January.

His agent Igor Kryvenko has spoken to Footboom about the situation and the news is not positive in the slightest…

When asked what the chances were of Arsenal getting the deal over the line, he said: “Minimal. Shakhtar won’t let Mudryk go for the money they (Arsenal) are currently offering.”

He then heavily criticized Shakhtar for their totally unreasonable valuation of Mudryk. He continued: “A player from the Ukrainian championship cannot cost more than, for example, a player from the Netherlands. You have to look at things realistically. There is a market value, and Shakhtar seem to be taking figures from the ceiling.”