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England is literally in ‘The United Kingdom’. You’re a fucking bootlicker when it suits you, a spineless parrot that has no idea what he is posting, just the confidence to do it. The amount of contradictions and double-think in every single post of yours is maddening. You don’t have a single conviction of belief in your entire body except whatever suits the point you are incoherently making. I’m sick of reading the diarrhoea extending from your fingers to your keyboard.

If you're referring to the first Gulf War, I'll have to remind you that: the US led coalition did not remove "the head of the snake" - they stopped Iraq from taking over Kuwait's oil fields, they didn't remove Saddam Hussein from power. If you're referring to the second Gulf War, they removed Saddam Hussein from power - and then the remnants of the Baath party of Iraq into the eager arms of the Saudis and unleashed ISIS on the world. Wahhabis and Salafists teach and force others to accept a poisonous form of Islam that is as dangerous as the Shia extremist crap the IR pushes. And with Hamas, they're not even Shia, they're just extremist Sunnis being backed by Iran because Iran views them as useful pawns in it's proxy war with the US and Israel. It's Qatar that's more similar in ideology and dogma. But either way, referring to either Gulf War in this instance is a bit weird. Neither war accomplished much in terms of combatting extremism, in fact the second war led to the spread of radicalised Islamic terrorists. Most, if not all, of the US's adventures in the Middle East have been abject foreign policy failures that at best don't affect the status quo too much and at worst just ended up enflaming an already enflamed region. The Houthis won't be crushed easily, it's just a conflict that would inflict more Yemenis to be caught in that brutal battle between Iran's puppets and Saudi Arabia's puppets for years to come. It's pretty clear that Russia and Iran (and probably China too) are hoping to pull the US into more open conflict in the Middle East. With Iran, they've learned from the US invasion of Iraq, Syria's civil war, and Yemen's civil war is that instability in the region gives them greater influence. It's why they've encouraged their proxies to kick off the way they have - stability was leading to peace between two of their geopolitical enemies. Iran's banking on the US being unlikely to invade and occupy them. Russia's banking on the US getting involved in expensive Middle Eastern conflicts means they'll care less about Ukraine.

UK is the abbreviation of United Kingdom, the official name of the Netherlands is "Koninrjik der Nederlanden" which translates to "Kingdom of the Netherlands" That's two faults of yours in only one sentence. Actually 3 as England isn't a sovereign state. Try googling more. To be opionated is an insufficient substitute of factual knowledge.

I think it's wild to think Yemen's been given "soft hands" at any point in the last decade. The Houthis withstood the Saudi led coalition (that included the US Navy) waging war, deploying Al Qaeda as a proxy fighter force, and even use of famine and disease as weapons of war. Yemenis generally have suffered immensely due to the civil war between the Houthis and the Saudi puppet government that came before the war broke out. I do think the US and UK have demonstrated a lot of restraint in responding to the Houthi threat to international trade and sooner or later, I do expect the US Navy to dust off some of their more impressive weaponry against the Houthis. Regardless, I think the US and UK have demonstrated a commendable amount of restraint in not acting how Israel almost certainly would - refraining from seriously pummeling Yemen and avoiding further collateral damage while trying to strike the Houthis. There are a lot of people in Yemen caught in between the evil game Iran and Saudi Arabia have been playing in their country. What the Houthis are doing is causing more trouble for the international community than it is for Israel and the more they escalate, the more likely it is that they bring more death to Yemen. But I don't see how anyone can give the US or UK any shit for what they've done in response to the Houthis latest (and largest) attack, tbh. They managed to protect the ship that was being shot at by making the Houthi munitions 100% ineffective and without causing loss of life to any innocents. This conflict has already grown so much since it started - a more bloody response from the west almost certainly guarantees a further escalation of the conflict. Do we really want the worst of the Yemeni civil war to be reignited in 2024? I don't think so.

Is their shipping company named "Lucky boats" by chance?

One of my favourites I took recently.

Israel’s tried slapping down Hamas and Hezbollah with military might and it’s not really done much for Gaza, the West Bank, or Lebanon other than keep people radicalised and keep the conflict going on forever. Expanding the conflict makes Israel less safe in all honesty. Israel couldn’t beat Hezbollah the last time they tried, it ended up in a stalemate that just left Lebanon in dire straights… but did nothing to change the status quo of the conflict. Expanding the war to 3 fronts for Israel just means they will need the US and UK more than ever. Hamas, Houthi, and Hezbollah all just want to escalate this conflict as large as it can be because that’s the worst case scenario for Israel and their allies & the best case for the allies of these terror groups - Russia and Iran. Escalation doesn’t really benefit anyone in Israel other than Netanyahu who needs the war to go on for as long as possible so he puts off his trial and prison sentence.

Hamas is a legitimate government, they were voted into power in 2006. Mate you should get checked out at your local GP, I’m worried about you because if they gave you a CAT scan the prognosis would come back ‘dumb cunt’.

Most likely. I've admittedly only got this on Wiki, but Naughty Dog shows as having 400+, while EA shows as something like 12,000, so you can see the comparison straight away. As you mentioned, that's more than likely why they can only do one game at a time (which, you could argue, is good as it means everyone is focused on that one game, rather than having multiple games being worked on and stretching teams).

I remember playing it a while back shortly after it launched and I thought "what the fuck is this bullshit?" and considered it the worst Fallout game I'd ever played. Since launch though they've added a lot to it... and in the process made it feel like more of a Fallout game. And now I think it's quite a good Fallout game. It's obviously not a "traditional" Fallout, partially because there's no way to make it a traditional Fallout while keeping it an online game... but it's a pretty good game and I think the improvements they've made have taken it from a total piece of shit into something that's quite enjoyable. Particularly if you need to scratch an itch that only a Fallout game can scratch. I'll give Cyberpunk another go when I'm less busy. That game was very time consuming and my god... so many fucking cutscenes.

edit: bit long. Summary: Left second job in 6 months. New job = good. Never updated this interesting year. As previously mentioned in the thread I gave up a permanent (basically lifetime gig) position at end of last year due to outright bullying and nepotism, to move to a 12 month contract at another school. Which started well… was given literacy (lol) leadership opportunities through a range of amazing professional learning. However as the weeks ticked along, the more and more shambolic the place is. It’s in a huge transition and they have a lot of high end behaviours. Easily the toughest school behaviour wise I’ve seen. My particular class was chaotic. So many issues. So sad, and so underfunded. Honestly out of the 24 students I had identified at least half with a difficulty or learning disability. The behaviours were intense, I was told to lock out students, a student was hitting teachers (never me but had a lot thrown at me) and these poor kids are only…6. Anyway, having tried to raise points about certain dynamics in the class the support system was quite shitty tbh. Parents in their droves complained to the principal about behaviours (I urged them to talk to leadership), and eventually they found an education assistant to help most days. Didn’t help, I ended up trying so many things. It was seriously draining. Realising this was a pattern across the school I applied elsewhere. I managed to win an interview and subsequently a position in the private sector at an incredibly high performing school. I told my school at the time of this news and they said that’s great etc etc and then 3 hours later made the decision to pull me from my class. I ended up taking a week stress leave as this was quite a fucked thing to do. I was then the “relief” and was in one of the other most challenging classes for a couple of days a week for the last 4 weeks of the term. The teacher that took over my initial class is now already leaving. She’s more experienced and has been at the tough school for years… The behaviour support for this year four class? A tick chart and lollies and chocolates if these students stay in the room, don’t fight etc. fucking stupid systems. Anyway, loving the new job. Long hours and on the other side of the city, and with after school expectations. Very different. But sometimes you’ve got to move and take risks!

Well done Mel on a brave decision. Enjoy the 30 days surging and trekking. Hope the weather's good wherever you are!

Oh absolutely. They're a very 'old fashioned' bunch. At the end of my degree I will have the last laugh, but you're right, this mob loves exploiting people.