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Thanfully Manchester Uniteds terrible 2021/22 season is finally over. What a year it has been. The campaign started off perfectly, with a spectacular 5-1 win over Leeds, and expectations grew.

United could never match up to those heights, and the season has ended with the clubs lowest Premier League points total.

It is a season we all want to move on from and forget, to focus on new hope. But not before we take one last look back on the year which was, and pick out some of the most ridiculous moments we have had to endure.

And there are quite a lot. We settled on 13, but this could quite easily have been 20. Get ready to laugh, because crying is the only other alternative

Cristiano Ronaldos first Champions League game back for Manchester United started well when he scored in the opening minutes. A red card for Aaron Wan-Bissaka then sent United into meltdown.

United brought on an extra defender and tried to defend a lead for 45 minutes, which was asking for trouble, with Ronaldo too isolated up front.

It turned out to be a masterclass in in-game mismanagement from Solskjaer, who took Ronaldo off for Jesse Lingard, who ended up assisting Young Boys winner.

This game came just days after Ronaldo return against Newcastle, and completely crushed the momentum from that big moment. It wasnt the first time questions over Solskjaers substitutions had cropped up, and beginning the Champions League group stages with a defeat put the Norwegian under extra pressure.

Uniteds 2020/21 season ended with David de Gea conceding 11 straight penalties in the shootout against Villarreal before missing his own.

De Gea then reversed the trend of conceding every penalty he had conceded since 2016, to start keeping them out.

A memorable save from Mark Nobles penalty for West Ham ended up being the difference maker which secured Europa League qualification, ahead of the Conference League.

He then saved two penalties, one retaken, against Watford, although still couldnt spare United an embarrassing defeat (more later).

De Geas newly rediscovered penalty saving technique was good to see, but if he could have done that in Gdansk in May 2021, it would have been appreciated a lot more.

Only Manchester United could hire a specific set piece coach and get worse. Eric Ramsay was brought in and tasked with helping United in these specific situations.

While the defensive record from set pieces did improve, Ramsay became a punchline due to Uniteds failure to score a single corner kick between August and February.

Harry Maguire eventually broke the duck, nodding in a corner against Leeds. Cristiano Ronaldo went onto score a couple more, in hat-tricks against Tottenham and Norwich.

Ending up with Erik ten Hag is probably the dream scenario for Manchester United. But it still felt like United won a battle and lost a war when Ole Gunnar Solskjaers side beat Nuno Santos Tottenham 3-0 back in October.

This relieved pressure, temporarily, on Solskjaer, and was the final straw for Santo. Tottenham fired him immediately and went out and hired Antonio Conte.

This ended the building Conte to United links, and saw Tottenham kick on. Conte went on to clinch a Champions League place with Spurs, while United scraped sixth. Looking back, losing that game was a big win for Tottenham.

Watford have been terrible this season, so it says a lot that Manchester United only took one point against them.

One of the Hornets three bosses during the campaign was Claudio Ranieri, who only won one match. Of course it was against Manchester United.

Watford won it emphatically, with a 4-1 scoreline the final straw for an embattled Solskjaer, who was fired 24 hours later.

This sparked some indecision from United, settling on Ralf Rangnick as an interim boss, who could only draw 0-0 at home to Roy Hodgsons Watford later in the season.

A truly ridiculous moment in recent UEFA history had Manchester United at the centre of it. United were drawn against PSG in the Champions League.

UEFA then admitted they had made a mistake as not all the balls were in the draw, and a second draw had to be hastily rearranged.

United were then drawn against Atletico Madrid, and eliminated, and PSG were knocked out in the last 16 by Real Madrid.

Both teams probably would have been happier with a United v PSG tie, with fans denied one last Ronaldo v Messi clash.

United have made a handful of social media own goals this season, none more so than boastfully celebrating Donny van de Beeks 50th appearance for the club in January.

A closer inspection showed just four of these 50 appearances had been Premier League starts, and he was averaging 36 minutes per game.

He was shipped out on loan to Everton a fortnight later, and hopes to restart his Manchester United career next season.

By time the FA Cup began, it became obvious it was Uniteds only real chance of silverware. This was off the table by early February.

United were eliminated at home to Championship side Middlesbrough, amid more penalty shootout heartbreak, after Cristiano Ronaldo had put one wide in the first half.

The teams finishing was awful all game, with United attempting 30 shots at goal and only scoring once. Boro had a helping hand from a farcical refereeing decision for their goal, but this was a defeat where Ralf Rangnicks team had to look at themselves.

United were beaten into submission by Liverpool and Manchester City in the four games this season, by a combined score of 15-1.

What makes it worse, is if you watch the performances back (we recommend you dont), United got off lightly in every match.

Liverpool were 5-0 up with half an hour to go at Old Trafford and eased up, while Citys win at Old Trafford was a capitulation where the team had just one shot on target.

Under Ralf Rangnick, the return fixtures were no better. United were passed off the ball by City at The Etihad, with substitute Jesse Lingard managing only two touches in 30 minutes.

Suicidal defending against Liverpool at Anfield saw United conceded four more goals in another embarrassingly one-sided game.

The perfect epitaph to Paul Pogbas Manchester United career came as he walked off with an injury 10 minutes into the away game against Liverpool, with the team 1-0 down.

This turned out to be the Frenchmans final game of an immensely disappointing six year spell at the club, in which he did not win a single Champions League knockout game he played in.

Pogba at least lasted a couple minutes longer than at Old Trafford against Liverpool, when he was red carded shortly after coming on at half-time.

Edinson Cavani was the mystery man of Manchester Uniteds season, rarely available. If he wasnt having extra-time off in Uruguay, he was passing himself not fit enough to play.

His continued absences in the second half of the season left United short-handed, and the fight to keep him at Old Trafford hardly seemed worth it.

He ends the campaign with just two goals to his name, a substantial dip on 17 in his first season. In two seasons at the club he did not play a single match of five games against Manchester City, and never managed to score in front of a packed Old Trafford.

Playing second fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo wasnt what he hoped for, but he proved this season he was not reliable, and Ronaldos addition seemed more like a necessity after his repeated unavailability.

Notably, he was always available whenever Uruguay needed him.

United did not do right by Jesse Lingard this season, keeping him and then deciding not to play him. This repeated itself last summer and in January.

The 2021/22 campaign was a waste of Lingards time, but its possible the player did not help himself, failing to get on with interim boss Ralf Rangnick.

His situation was not helped by Lingards brother blasting United on social media after the clubs final home game, angry that Lingard had not been given a farewell appearance at Old Trafford.

Rangnick responded by not picking Lingard for even a minute of Uniteds last two games, failing to even make the bench against Palace.

In a season of low points and ridiculous moments, United fans hoped the worst was out the way by May. Unfortunately not.

One of the worst results of the post-Fergie era saw Manchester United beaten 4-0 away at Brighton, and it could have been more.

The players looked both disinterested and completely lacking in ability, and it was truly shocking to see how low they had sunk.

When United began the campaign with such an enthralling opening game victory over Leeds, winning 5-1, nobody could have imagined a 4-0 loss away at Brighton would be just months away.

Dan is still wondering what would have happened if United had kept Juan Veron...

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13 most ridiculous moments of Manchester Uniteds terrible 2021/22 season - United In Focus - Manchester United FC News

Joe Cullen sealed the latest night of Premier League Darts action after seeing off Jonny Clayton in the penultimate week in London.

But ahead of a crunch clash with Peter Wright next week which will decide the final spot, former World Champion, Mark Webster has told Cullen to be careful.

If Joe gets in those play-offs, what an achievement it would be, Webster told Online Darts TV. [He can take] a lot of confidence into it [the match with Wright], but be careful with it.

Gerwyn Price [who lost to Clayton to extinguish his play-off hopes], I thought he would crack it. I thought he was back last week [after winning in Sheffield] and he succumbed in the first game.

Joe has got to be careful next week, ride the storm, enjoy it, but get ready. Its a big game. Its as good as a knockout game. Peter Wrights got to find some form, its a massive match.

On who he thought he would win, Webster leans more towards Cullen. I think he [Cullen] does. Hes come out tonight, with the pressure on. Hes going to be under loads of pressure next week. Its probably a bigger game for him than Peter.

Yes, Peter will expect to get there. With Joe, will he be back next year? Maybe not. This might be his one crack at the Premier League, so go and grab it, Joe.

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Webster tells Cullen to 'be careful' ahead of Premier League Darts knockout clash: "Hes going to be under loads of pressure next week" -...

Rapper Nipsey Hussle died as he had started to branch into entrepreneurship. Although he has been gone for over three years, the fruits of his labor are still being reaped. Next month, The Marathon (Collective), a THC and CBD retail store, will open in Los Angeles and a documentary has been released in anticipation of the grand opening.

According to an Instagram post from The Marathon Clothing, the documentary (see below) was released one month before the grand opening of the family- and friends-owned business, led by his older brother, Samiel Blacc Sam Asghedom. The retail establishment is scheduled to open its doors June 18 at 7011 Canoga Ave. in Los Angeles.

The Marathon (Cultivation) documentary is live on YouTube.

We will be having a grand opening for its first official The Marathon (Collective) flagship dispensary Saturday, June 18.

7011 Canoga AveCanoga Park, Calif. 91303United States

Mark your calendars!

According to Complex, a screening of the documentary took place last week and Asghedom spoke.

This is something we always spoke about, he said. Nipsey, Fatts, Adam and I had a goal to get a legitimate licensed store and have our brand in other stores across the state. Were so honored to be able to fulfill the dream.

The 33-year-old Hussle was killed in front of his Marathon Clothing store, located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. A petition was started to rename the intersection of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard near Hussles store to Nipsey Hussle Square. On the day of his funeral, the City Council announced it was set to be renamed Ermias Nipsey HussleAsghedom Square to honor him and his contributions to the neighborhood.

The trial for Hussles murder suspect, Eric Holder, Jr., 32, is slated to begin June 2.

Read more here:
Documentary by Nipsey Hussle Released Before the Opening of The Marathon (Collective), THC and CBD Retail Stor - Black Enterprise

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past six years or so you have heard much about the Trump-Russia Collusion and that the Russians helped Donald Trump steal the 2016 Election. The allegations were breathtaking: if indeed a presidential candidate had colluded with a foreign adversary and thus won the White House, our whole republic would be in jeopardy. Without the guarantee of free and fair elections, our system collapses.

Even though Trump proved almost all the pundits wrong by pulling off an historic upset and beating Hillary Clinton that November, the accusations filled the news airwaves and newspapers for months and then years. Of course, fighting off those charges hamstrung President Trump and much of his staff for most of his one-term administrationbut those charges also distracted the entire country for years.

In other words, this was no victimless crime. While the yapping media kept much of the national conversation torqued up about the collusion that had never taken place, we Americans were distracted from focusing on truly important issues: the economy, education, national defense, secure borders, a reasonable immigration policy, poverty, healthcare, infrastructure, the environment, energythe list goes on and on. Plus, the collusion hoax sucked most of the oxygen out of the room from 2016-2019, so when a new virus came out of East Asia, we were truly caught flat-footed.

Now, with the passage of timeand Joseph Robinette Biden conveniently ensconced in the White Housemore of the truth of the matter has trickled into the light, bit by bit.

Well Ill be a Moneys Uncle. It so turned out, the whole Trump-Russia collusion narrative was a colossal lie.

The spider web of intrigue surrounding this whole scandal is so complex, intricate, and involves so many people and interactions, time and space do now allow us to even attempt to discuss it all here. And of course, the intricate web of deception was by designto make tracks so faint and byzantine, and then to cover those tracks, so they would never be discovered.

The Epoch Times deserves a hat tip for digging deep into this sordid tale and doing their parts as journalists to make their findings public. Their diligence stands in stark contrast to the bias and I would say dishonesty of so many of the other media channels. Overall, most of the legacy media have beat the drum that the collusion story was a proven fact, and then when evidence to the contrary came out that it was a hoax to help drag Hillary Clinton across the finish line in 2016, many of those same media voices all suddenly developed serious cases of lockjaw.

(As I write this, it has finally dawned on the people at NBC that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was real all along. It only took them a year and a half to admit what the New York Post tried to alert us all to in the fall of 2020, when the news would have made a difference, before the election.At this rate, maybe by June NBC will tell us if King Henry VIII got his divorce or not.)

But back to the Russian collusion hoax:

According to The Epoch Times April 22, 2022 story, Where Things Stand With John Durhams Probe, in the spring of 2019 prosecutor John Durham was assigned the task of investigating the connections between Trump and Russia. Was there truly collusion? Or, was Trump being framed and the whole thing was a set-up?

To quote The Epoch Times: [Durhams] first indictment, in August 2020, targeted former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmithfor altering a CIA email to say that former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was not a source, when in fact he was providing information to the agency. The message was then used as a part of an application to extend surveillance of Page. FBI Director Christopher Wray later admitted that the surveillance was illegal.

Clinesmith pleaded guilty and in January 2021 received a year of probation and 400 hours of community service. Prosecutors demanded six months in jail. His license to practice law in D.C. was reinstated after less than a year.

I dont know about you, but I think if you or I tried to falsify an email between the FBI and CIA, wed get more punishment that just 400 hours of community service. This is just one more example of what many decry as a two-tiered justice system in our country.

This week, another big trial in this Russian collusion hoax scandal opened. The defendant is Michael Sussman, who is 2016 was a top lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign. That same Epoch Times article indicates that, evidently seeking to create an October Surprise with which to blindside Trump and make Mrs. Clinton president, Sussman went to the FBI and, posing as a Good Samaritan, told the FBI he had secret information linking Trump to a Russian bank.

But instead of being a true Good Samaritan Patriot who was concerned about his country, it so happens that Sussman was billing the Clinton campaign for his services. In other words, Sussman was feeding a false narrative to the FBI. He lied to the government, and then with some well-placed leaks, some government officials then planted the false story with some major news outlets, who were all too happy to jump on the bandwagon and spread the (false) story like wildfire.

In sum, you could say that Sussmans lying to the FBI in September 2016 was the initial tap that knocked down the first domino, that then set off the chain reaction.

As further evidence of what some see as a two-tiered justice system and particularly a Washington DC court system that some would label incestuous, there are numerous connections and relationships among the judges hearing these cases and many of the defendants.

For clarity, here are the last four paragraphs of that Epoch Times piece, and I ask you to ask yourself: does this sound like impartiality?

All three current cases of Durhams have highlighted the tight-knit nature of the federal judicial and law enforcement community in the D.C. area.

The judge in the Clinesmith case, James Boasberg, sits on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that approved spying on [Carter] Page based primarily on the Steele dossier and partly on the false information provided by Clinesmith.

The judge in the Danchenko case, Anthony Trenga, presided over the Mueller-brought case against former business partner of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump. Trenga threw out the conviction in that case for a lack of evidence.

The judge in the Sussmann case, Christopher Reid Cooper, used to be a colleague of Sussmanns at the DOJ. His wife, Amy Jeffress, is a lawyer for Lisa Page, formerly a high-level FBI attorney whos now suing the DOJ. Page was deeply embedded in the Russia investigation. She was also a mistress of Peter Strzok, former head of FBI counterintelligence operations and a point man in the Russia probe. Cooper and Jeffress also have close ties to the Democratic Party. Cooper served on the 2008 transition team of President Barack Obama, Jeffress spent 20 years at the DOJ and was a national security counselor for Obamas Attorney General Eric Holder, and their wedding was officiated by Merrick Garland, the current Attorney General.

You cant make this stuff up.

Ponder that last paragraph. The judge in the case that began this week, Judge Cooper, used to work with the defendant, Sussman, at the Department of Justice. Does it strike you as odd that a judge would preside over the trial of a former colleague? And Judge Coopers wife is a lawyer for Lisa Page? Hmmm. Page you may remember is a huge Hillary fan, Trump hater, and was having an affair with Trump hater and FBI colleague Peter Strzok, who helped exonerate Clinton from her email scandal.

Page and Strzok were the ones who were texting each other about the icky smelly Trump voters they saw at Wal-marts in Southern Virginia.

This week the trial has focused primarily on calling jurors. As pointed out in PJ Media, since Washington DC is a city where about 92% of the residents vote Democrat, that makes finding a bipartisan, impartial jury challenging.

Ironically, one day this week a woman, identified as Juror #5, explained that her daughter and Judge Coopers daughter both plan on the same high school crew team. The woman added that the daughters are not friends, are at least three years apart in age, the crew team has over 40 members, and that she had never before met Judge Cooper or his wife. The woman claims she can be an impartial juror, and lets all hope and pray they all are. Still, that connection among the two families via their teen daughters seems emblematic of the complex, compromising relationships in that city.

No wonder many call it The Swamp.

Scott Dreyer

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SCOTT DREYER: Trial Regarding Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax Began This Week - The Roanoke Star

The two most powerful politicians in Washington, D.C., are President Joe Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

Our checks and balances system built into the Constitution limits the power of each of the three branches of government, especially the presidency. Indeed, James Madison and his colleagues were preeminently concerned to vest power in the legislature and prevent the kind of autocratic power associatedwith the British Crown and European monarchies in general.

President Biden needs Congress to advance virtually any major agenda item he has, and Congress given its current composition can be prevented from passing major legislation if one U.S. Senator refuses to side with 49 other U.S. Senators from his own party.

Biden and his Capitol Hill allies will take another stab at passing some version of the Build Back Better Bill,even as the Russia-Ukraine War and the likely prospect of Roe v. Wade being overturned dominate attention in Washington.

The saga alsoillustrates how you can come from one of the smallest, least economically powerful states in the country and be one of the most powerful politicians in the country: Delaware and West Virginia are two such states.

Only in America do we see such a wide distribution of power and only in America do we see a federal government as incapable of implementing major change. In parliamentary democracies, the executive and legislature are, in most cases, from the same party. When they want to move left, they do; when they want to move right, they do.

Democrats in Washington todayare still fighting over whether to be moderates or progressives:They are stuck.Some prominent swing state U.S. Senate primary races such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina have seen progressive rather than moderate candidates elected, but no one knows if this will pay off in the general election, especially against Trump-aligned Republicans.

On Capitol Hill,insidershave beensaying that prospects of a Biden rescue of core elements of the Build Back Better Bill, including extending the child tax credit, child care subsidies, and lower prescription drug costs, are slim. This is the caseso long as Manchin,whose popularity in conservative West Virginia soared 17 percent during the last year as he blocked the Biden agenda, has a vote in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is also an impediment, but less of a challenge.

Its time forSenate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to advance one or more bills that will transcend the moderate vs. progressive battle.The national Democratic Party needs to be reset, even though most individual races will lean progressive or moderate. At some point, the entire party needs to move forward toward a new center for the entire country.

If the party cannot heal itself, it cannot heal the nation.

One place to start is family policy. Democrats want paid parental leave and major child care subsidies. Republicans have not budged.Democrats need togive in: Give the Republicans something that would interest them, notably a tax credit for stay-at-home parents.Give hard-working middle-class parents a choice between such a tax credit and child care subsidies after a period of paid parental leave.

Providing this option would speak to the massive cultural conflict in the country that is typically submerged in family policy debates: the side that wants to give women the path back to work after giving birth, and thesidethat wants parents toreceive the choice to have one of them to stay home for several years with a newborn, actually mom or dad, or one of the moms or dads if it is an LGBTQ family.

Since the 1980s, Democrats have failed to pass paid parental leave and major child care subsidies at the federal level;its time to adopta different strategy.

Even if offering the tax credit for stay-at-home parentsfails to convince Manchin, it would help many of the Democrats running in November get reelected or elected for the first time because there are millions of voters who would respect a candidate who wanted to offer them or their adult children this choice.

It could help Democrats running for office begin to transcend the moderate vs. progressive battle within the party.

Dave Anderson is the editor of Leveraging: A Political, Economic, and Societal Framework (Springer, 2014). He is also the author of Youth04: Young Voters, the Internet, and Political Power(W.W. Norton & Company, 2004) and co-editor of The Civic Web: Online Politics and Democratic Values (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). He has taught at George Washington University, the University of Cincinnati, and Johns Hopkins University. He was a candidate in the 2016 Democratic Primary in Marylands 8thCongressional District.

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Democrats need to break out of struggle between moderates and progressives - The Hill