Dr. Gonzo

Wow Chinese propaganda has gotten crazier

I'd give it to Smith-Rowe, for no other reason than I think he's going to stay at Arsenal for a long time and wind up a club legend.

I recently learned that feral children are a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child

Don't worry @nudge I haven't given up drinking permanently. I just don't think I can quit smoking and drink at the same time - I think I'll need a few weeks off alcohol before I can drink without feeling the urge to smoke

I doubt Hilary ever runs again. She's politically damaged goods - pretty unpopular amongst democrats (partially because of the way the DNC fucked over Bernie Sanders & partially just not campaigning in areas she probably should have campaigned before losing to Trump & I think even more democrats just don't like her simply for losing to Trump) and she's absolutely hated amongst republicans. If she goes again, I think it's nailed on that a republican (whoever it is) ends up the next president.

I've stopped drinking and smoking (well, stopped smoking cigarettes). That should be good for my health, probably.

Tbf, I don't think any US president gets an easy ride in the media. The big media outlets in the US are pretty staunch in their support of either republicans or moderate (but only moderate lol) democrats. But even Biden has been getting a hard time from the moderate democrat media outlets. And while Trump was constantly berated for his shit personality by these outlets, I'm not so sure that he really caught anywhere near enough flak for his brazen corruption. Tbh, I think the criticisms of Biden are a lot more similar to the Corbyn ones. I'm a labour voter and I couldn't really stand Corbyn, but I don't think he's an anti-semite or corrupt (I just don't think he's a really good leader, even if I have a lot of policy agreements with him - he's just rubbish at messaging and conveying his point across, I imagine him as PM would be a shitshow). Fox aren't exactly known for "fair and balanced" coverage and often hammer bullshit down onto democrats - similar to the treatment Corbyn (and Miliband before him) got. Corporate media has the incentive to push hyperpartisan bullshit in politics, both for ratings and also to get agendas that are in their interest. I think Trump will be the next US president after Biden as well. I don't think democrats have done well since Biden's taken office in terms of getting an agenda out quickly and getting anything big done and optimism over his presidency has sort of died down. At this rate, I think republicans are due to win big in the midterm elections and regain control of the house & senate - at worst this'll see Biden impeached by a republican house (I think as "revenge" for the Trump impeachments) and they'll certainly not pass any laws that he can sign and put his name on before the next presidential election. Trump's hold on the republican base is very strong. Probably the best contenders are: Ted Cruz, who I think nobody outside of Texas likes (and even those in Texas might like him much less once he tried to fuck off to an all-inclusive resort as his state froze over) & Ron DeSantis - but much of his base overlaps with the Trump base and I think at the end of the day Trump is far more popular among the American right wing. Democrats' best hope is that Trump not being on twitter doesn't make people forget how divisive he was & that moderate voters will go for a "middle of the road" kind of candidate like Biden/Harris. America is quite conservative, so I don't think anyone more to the left of the middle has any hope at this sort of election. But I'm not sure Biden will even run again. It could be a Harris/Buttigieg campaign vs. Trump/whoever - and I think Trump will win that contest quite easily.

90k HK residents have applied for the new British resettlement visa

He's probably more of a football nerd than any of us, tbh - if he can end up saying in his career he was a successful director of football for Liverpool and Real Madrid, that's pretty massive. And maybe, despite the potential options for money, he'd have other reasons for not wanting to go to Newcastle. It makes sense for Real Madrid to want him, considering their financial status has slipped a little bit after COVID. They're a bit like us in that they're definitely a very wealthy club, but financially they can't really compete with the likes of City, PSG (and now Newcastle) - but are expecting to compete. And his time with us has honestly been brilliant - I'm a bit worried for what happens after he's gone. His replacement has got really massive shoes to fill.

Yeah their military strength is really in its rocket/missile capability. They are fairly accurate and the ones they fire from vehicles can fly under US missile defense systems. From Iran’s perspective, yes they are annoyed the US backed out of the JCPOA and imposed the harshest sanctions its ever imposed on the country. It’s why domestically the reformists in Iran have lost all political capital - the hardliners said that the US would break a deal. They don’t want to renegotiate the deal that they didn’t break, they want all parties to go back to those terms. The US wants a more thorough and limiting deal that includes rocket/missile restrictions - something the Saudis and Israelis also both want & don’t want to give the guarantee that the next president won’t just scrap the same deal again. Neither side trusts each other for a split second & I think the diplomacy here will fail, unfortunately. The other parties to the agreement, the EU, UK, Russia and China, can’t really do much to convince either side to change their stance.

Israel is always looking to bomb Iran and always on the side of pressuring the US to invade Iran for them. It's a bit similar to Iraq, Israel pushed the US to invade until they finally did - even manufacturing evidence for the US to present to the UN to justify the war. Since 1996 Israel's right-wing has been saying Iran is "under 7 months" from getting the bomb. The time table constantly changes, but each year if you pay attention you'll see either the Israel PM/FM/Defense Minister/Head of Mossad come forward with a statement saying Iran is "months" from acquiring a bomb. So this concern of Israel's is really nothing new - although, I think at this point after pressuring the US to abandon the JCPOA... they've probably pushed Iran closer than ever to getting the bomb And while negotiations are ongoing, recent news suggests that the efforts to revive the JCPOA are likely going to fail as the US wants to add additional terms to any nuclear deal, whereas Iran's unwilling to re-negotiate terms unless there's more concessions made to them & the US can guarantee any deal will survive a change in presidential administrations. These points leave no room for the other side to truly negotiate. Iran will never agree to give up it's long ranged ballistic missiles AND stop progress towards it's nuclear capability. Like Israel, Iran is surrounded by unfriendly neighbors and will want the ability to defend themselves. Long range ballistic missiles have proven to be an effective deterrent for foreign invasion into Iran. The US will never agree to concede more to Iran, because of how Obama was slaughtered by the American right wing for making a deal with them, and simply cannot guarantee a deal can survive beyond Biden's term unless a formal treaty is signed and ratified (and the treaty would never pass the US senate). I suspect if Iran does get close to a nuclear bomb, Israel is ready to attack. I don't think flying over other countries would be a major issue for Israel, tbh. They have normalised relations with Jordan, so I'm sure they'd be able to use that airspace. Then they'd have to fly into Iraq (perhaps landing if they need to refuel) and considering the US controls the skies in Iraq, I am sure they are able to do that quite easily. But this would likely cause Iran to have it's proxy in Lebanon mobilise and make constant attacks in Israel, as well as open up Iranian forces in Syria to launch missiles into Israel. It will probably be a very ugly conflict that likely gets the west involved into another full on invasion of a Middle Eastern country... which I'm not sure the West really has the stomach for. Iran would be a bigger scale conflict than the Iraq invasion was - it's a country with a much more varied terrain, a lot more people, and a military that's gained substantial experience in the last 20 years.

I think corruption is pretty understated in the west - and I'm sure there's at least some truth to Biden/his family being corrupt. Having said that, I think this piece does a fantastic job of ignoring the widespread corruption in the US under the last guy who was in charge for 4 years - because the corruption there was staggering and brazen. US taxpayer money was funneled into the Trump organization for 4 years, family members who were unable to pass security clearances were given jobs negotiating with famously corrupt countries on behalf of the United States. It seems weird to just go after one US president, particularly one not anywhere near as corrupt as the last one, for corruption in the US. But I think a bigger issue with corruption in the United States is the unfettered amount of lobbyist money that "influences" (which really should say "bribes") lawmakers - it is why both parties in America, aside from the societal distraction issues - are pretty firmly in the pocket of corporate interests. It's why billionaires keep getting massive taxbreaks while the working poor and middle class are asked to fund the US government.

Cruz and DeSantis both went to Harvard for law - they're very smart people with a very strong understanding of the rule of law that they're trying to subvert to grasp for power. It's hard to believe, but sadly true, that a lot of people just don't care about anything political (even when it impacts them) and a lot of issues that would benefit most people have been put behind social issues that are really divisive - they're sort of like distraction political issues to stop people from wanting to change the status quo.

Meadows has been charged with contempt of congress as well. The people that need to be getting this news though won't be - they'll be watching Fox News as these same people who were texting Meadows will now pretend this is a political witchhunt. And it'll be effectively suppressed to half the US.

Yeah - but see @nudge for my answer

That’s fair

Even people who’ve gotten 2 jabs and then the 3rd booster are testing positive for the new variant. I’m moving this fixture pileup is also probably just going to create another pileup of fixtures in the back-end of the season. I don’t think it’s any real benefit to Spurs.

While I think everyone should get a Covid vaccine if they’re able, I don’t think the government should necessarily be forcing people to get vaccinated. It’s a very slippery slope and it puts way too much trust in governments. Temporary emergency measures like temporary lockdowns for stopping a virus there’s no vaccine for - that’s fair and reasonable. But taking away peoples’ choices on what they put in their body? That’s pretty authoritarian. Letting governments act authoritarian “for good reasons” is giving governments a power that will be abused sooner or later.

Tbh mate, I don’t think there’s a set standard for what’s a “right” decision except for… you know, the very basic stuff in human morality where (like don’t kill people, don’t steal, don’t rape people, etc.) - there’s crimes that are crimes for good reason. But take eating meat for example. Some people think it’s unethical or immoral to eat meat. Some people disagree. But you wouldn’t expect the government to ban meat entirely ever, would you? I think that’s a sort of extreme example of what’s happening with smoking in NZ. I think it’s right that governments have rules that make it so food gives nutritional facts, or that smoking kills, etc… warnings about what can happen. But there they’re just requiring the public has the information out there to make decisions based off, whether it’s to stay healthy or because they don’t want to eat certain ingredients… or if people just don’t give a fuck… they make the choice. So yeah, I absolutely think it’s government overreach.

I think smoking is bad, but I don't think this really does anything valuable for New Zealand in the long run. I think making cigarettes more taboo for kids makes kids want them even more. And like with drugs, when there's a demand for something illegal... it just creates a black market which encourages organised crime. It says something about where the world is at societally. Governments no longer trust that people can be informed to make good decisions, so they make the decisions for them. In the long run, I think that's bad for everyone.

Nah, just reference posters that have not once ever posted on here - especially if you're responding to them directly and we are provided 0 context whatsoever.

I want to know what forum he's copy-pasting from and if they're as seriously deluded as he is. You'd think a seemingly older Chelsea fan wouldn't talk about the "dark days' when they were absolutely loaded and in the CL considering in his living memory there were far darker days of the club

TIL shrimp and prawns aren't the same fucking thing

They released him because they got the wrong person in an identity mixup. And given how zealous France is with Islamophobia, I actually think that's pretty concerning if you're just an Arab guy who wants to visit France tbh. The incident is more of a stain on France than Newcastle, tbh. Not that it makes Newcastle fans twerking for MBS any better.