Dr. Gonzo

I hope we had a sell-on clause

Good player, so it's sad to see him go to Chelsea. I'd prefer they do another Mudyrk type signing - less injury prone, but also less good.

Seriously, fuck these people. These people are probably most directly responsible for the fucking state of the UK in the modern day - but they don't want to face facts that the dickheads they voted for are why the country's dogshit now, and would rather blame people that have a different skin colour. Too bad they can't be fucking deported, because it's what they deserve and what the rest of the UK deserves.

Put the top flight back into the football league.

Kick both Manchester clubs out of the football pyramid entirely.

Farage being an MP is an absolute disgrace. Him being an MEP was embarrassing - but MEPs aren't really all that important. Him actually being in parliament though speaks volumes - and it doesn't say anything good.

Doubt it gets canceled, especially with it basically being a giant cliff hanger of a season all setting up the 3rd season.

Our slip was pretty bad tbf & in the competing with Man Cheaty era of the prem you basically can’t afford any slips that last longer than 3 matches or they’ll fucking win the league.

I don’t think he’s brain dead, to be honest. I think he knows he’s being dishonest. He’s being dishonest to embrace the mob violence to further political talking points. The people who tend to use this kind of stuff don’t care too much about honesty. And tories complaining about how the mess they made is someone else’s fault is par for the course for that fucking party. To try to blame far right thuggery on the new labour government is nothing short of a joke. The people to blame for the riots are the rioters and the people who’ve manipulated their soft minds to be so full of hate.

This

How do they have no capacity to fight a war. Venezuela has no real capacity to defend itself from the US & there’s already US & UK naval presence there since Maduro’s threat of war. I think it would take a lot going wrong for Venezuela to be another Iraq. As much as Putin and Khamenei would like their pal Maduro to sow as much chaos as he can… the guy is still a dictator, he’s driven by self preservation. It’s not the Middle East, this is a continent the US has been meddling for almost as long as it’s been a country. They’ve got far more influence in the Americas than they have in the Middle East.

Transferred to Fulham

Yeah @Spike is right - sanctions often don’t have the effect the west is hoping for. It makes regular people suffer, but those at the top manage to insulate themselves from the economic effects. The people with power to actually profit off a black market, domestically and internationally, in times of economic collapse absolutely do so. Western sanctions also tend to push countries closer to other countries under western sanctions. Who are happy to trade with each other. And the China is all too happy to be the economic powerhouse of that group and use their position of “well I have more leverage than you” to really maximise what the get out of these partnerships.

Wouldn’t worry much about the Endo offer. Marseilles made an offer and we basically immediately rejected, which is reasonable because he’s our only senior player in midfield that really plays the way he does. Doubt Newcastle would be willing to let Gordon go unless Gordon really agitates for the move, which I don’t think he will do. With Gomez, I’d be sad to see him go. He had a true comeback season last year and showed how important it is having someone of his quality that can play anywhere across the back.

Sad, pretty young. RIP

NYT saying it wasn’t a missile that killed Haniyeh and in fact a bomb that was planted in that guest house months ago. Which is a bit sad because that means Israel probably can’t just blast Khamenei from miles away. Back to the drawing board on hoping for a better future I guess.

The entire interview is absolutely wild. I don't even think the Kamala Harris campaign could have had an AI generated Trump video trainwreck make Trump look quite as bad and unhinged as this interview managed to do.

lol everyone with this surname turns out to be crazy as fuck

He's the fucking Minister of National Security, what are you talking about? He's the head of: the Israeli police, prison service, fire rescue, border security, and community safety. He has an extraordinary amount of power.

Hamas are terrorists masquerading as a legitimate government - of course they don't recognise the Geneva Conventions. Israel's an actual country, not a terror group, they are rightly held to a higher standard when fighting against a terror group. I'm not sure the pure numbers reflect very reserved warfare in Gaza - just take a look at this: There were an estimated 24 million people in Iraq before the US invaded. There were 2.1 million inhabitants, roughly, in Gaza on October 7th. So even if the numbers of civilian deaths Egypt and Israel are reporting are more accurate than Hamas's civilian death count... think of the proportionality. And Israel's dropped about 10x as many munitions as the US did on Iraq in under a year as the US did for the entirety of the fucking war. If your war is making the United States invasion of Iraq look relatively humane and demonstrating more care for civilian populations... your war is a fucking absolute abomination and you deserve international condemnation.

Hamas & Ben-Gvir both share a belief that rape is a justifiable weapon of war. Maybe both sides aren't so different after all.

lol "the pro-Israel crowd" - yeah I'm super pro-Israel, that's why I've called them war criminals and said their leadership are deliberately acting in a way that is set up to keep this conflict raging eternally. Mate, please go learn what the fuck nuance is. There are some people I think aren't capable of understanding what nuance is... but you, I know you're capable of it. But I'm sorry if I mistook your thoughts on Israelis - I'd based it on when you'd said the deaths of October 7th were justifiable because "it was like a slave revolt;" to me that seemed like a justification of the kids who were kidnapped and/or killed because of the history of the region that these particular kids are not guilty of. And for the record, I've never taken the position of "look what they made Israel do" - I've taken the position that "everyone knows how Israel would react to October 7th" particularly because Israel is run by far-right psychopaths. And I have been very critical of the way Israel and the IDF have fought this war in a way that is guaranteed to breed more extremism. FFS look at my last post lol.

I just don't see how Israeli intelligence can be so good in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran... but not Gaza which is right fucking there and where they've been fighting a war for nearly a year. I truly do feel that, especially under Netanyahu's times in power, that collective punishment of the Palestinian people has absolutely been a part of the tactic in trying to keep Hamas and Fatah in check. I don't think this has been a particularly effective tactic in any respect other than fueling extremist hatred towards all things Israel (and by extension the US and the West) among Palestinians. This is what US politicians warned Israel of before the invasion of Gaza: don't make the same mistakes the US did while hunting for revenge after Sept 11th - you don't win hearts and minds of a population by bombing the shit out of them and treating them like they are all terrorists. There is a generation that has been brutalised by the IDF, yet again, what will happen when they grow up? Look at Lebanon - the country is split between Sunnis, Shia, and Christians. Between the Sunnis and Christians... Hezbollah, Iran's proxy, is absolutely hated. Yet Israel is hated even more due to how Israel fought their last war against Lebanon. A lot of Lebanese think that Israelis view their lives as next to worthless - because that's what the IDF's way of fighting seemed to demonstrate. Lebanese people are scared shitless of Hezbollah pulling Lebanon to war because they remember things like unreasonably large civilian casualties, or their very tourism dependent economy being set back for years (and arguably never truly recovering) by having the Beiruit international airport destroyed in response to Hezbollah's attacks. I just don't see how Israel expects to have a meaningful and lasting peace without demonstrating the same kind of precision and restraint the recent attacks in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran did in Gaza. Palestinians are justified in saying things like "Israel/the IDF don't care if I'm not a terrorist, they'll treat me like one" due to the decades of collective punishment and the optics of callous disregard for their lives. Islamicists will use these justifiable feelings to make propaganda that says "Israel is at war with Islam and all Muslims" as a result of the lack of precision and the lack of restraint. We know this because Islamicists have done this and still do this. This conflict isn't new. Hamas knew how Israel would react, Israel knew Hamas would leave Gazans vulnerable to massive civilian casualties. So why the fuck's Israel bombed refugee camps? Why've they opened fire on people at refugee camps trying to get food? Why do things that have been done for decades that don't actually bring about peace and just keep the status quo of hate and human rights abuses coming? I think the answer is for certain groups in Israeli politics, there's a political advantage to drawing this conflict out for as long as possible and there's a political advantage for keeping the conditions of Gaza in a state where extremism is destined to be borne out of it. If Israel truly wants peace and a more secure future for their future generations, they are the ones in a position of power that can actually extend the olive branch to Palestinians. To me, the targeted strikes in Syria, Lebanon and Iran all demonstrate one thing: Netanyahu wants to go after the leaders of Iran's proxies - but they don't want to risk this turning into a 2 front war for them, or worse - a full blown regional conflict. But when it comes to Gaza, he sees no such need for restraint because he doesn't fear the blowback of extremism from Gaza. I think if anything, he's expecting it.

You praised the Houthis and Hamas for acting on behalf of Khamenei (not Khomeini, he's been dead since the 80s) for doing shit like: killing people at a music festival & firing missiles at ships carrying cargo from China to Europe, all while Khamenei, Hamas, and the Houthis are content to let regular Palestinians and Yemenis feel the brunt of Israeli bombardment in response to these things. I'm praising Israel for using pretty precise strikes against specific people, while simultaneously condemning them for not showing that same kind of precision and restraint on the Palestinians who they subjugate. I think it's a pretty false equivalence to equate the two. You praised actual terrorism - I'm pointing out that Israel has once again demonstrated they can retaliate to terror attacks and actually target leaders of terror groups without causing anywhere near as much catastrophe for civilians as they've managed to do in Gaza. Even that strike in the "civilian area of Beirut" you posted about demonstrates a precise strike with restraint because only Hezbollah members appear to have died, namely a top commander. Either way, Israel's never going to actually help cause a more peaceful middle east by actually doing something about the regime in Iran - I don't think they, nor their newfound Arab partners in the region, have any interest in a stable and rational acting government in Iran in control of the country's natural resources. Too much economic competition for the western friendly countries of the Middle East is probably their viewpoint - which is why many in Arab nations, especially the leaders of these countries, aren't particularly keen on the idea of Iran actually having a government that works for Iranians. In any case, I think you should reconsider your total absolutist position with regard to Israelis. They are not all Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir. Yes, they're a democracy - and yes, Israeli voters do bare a huge amount of culpability for the human rights abuses Israel has carried out. But look at the people who were victims of the attack on Oct. 7th - many of them hated (and still hate) Netanyahu and actively worked to try to have better ties with their Arab neighbors in Gaza. Do these people deserve to die simply because of where they were born and because of the actions of their ancestors? You should be hoping for a better world for Palestinians, Iranians, Syrians, the Lebanese, etc., as well as Israelis. Human rights are human rights. They don't apply to some people and not other people. Palestinians absolutely deserve a restoration of their human rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank - and they absolutely deserve statehood. Does this mean Israel shouldn't exist? Some people obviously think so - but I don't see how you can punish modern generations for the sins of past generations. Their crime was being born in a certain part of the world as a Jewish Israeli? They're still entitled to human rights and to not be talked about like they are fucking animals deserving a trip to the slaughterhouse. Tensions in the Middle East will subside if enough civilians in all of these countries can feel like they're not living their lives under the barrel of a gun and the constant threat of warfare and instability. Israelis, Palestinians, legit any Middle Eastern ethnicity you can think up - there's a good chance there's a large group of them that feel like they live at the end of the barrel of a gun.

Well they're not really using precision on Gaza, they're mostly just blasting civilians and then saying "oh yeah, got some Hamas too"