Dr. Gonzo

Yeah but centrists like Manchin and Sinema don’t come off looking much better. They look owned by the same businesses and rich people as the GOP.

I agree with him... and with you. American politics is an absolute shitshow. Republican states are passing restrictive voting laws, with the goal of preventing ethnic minorities and poor people generally from being able to vote as easily, Biden's administration is being held up by a democrat in the senate that thinks his party should move more to the right to meet an increasingly radical GOP in the middle. And a concerning amount of democrats are doing nothing while American democracy slowly eats itself alive. The GOP is so far away from what it was not that long ago, and it is scary how much of the party's establishment have moved more and more radical with their base.

That's shit pal. Hope you feel better ASAP.

Iran’s upcoming elections are a bit of a massive shitshow. Only one serious candidate (Raisi) and all other candidates are extremely unpopular. Ahmadinejad is running again and he’s the next most popular candidate , but Raisi’s popularity is almost double his according to surveys taken. All 7 candidates that were approved to run are hardliners - no real moderates or reformists. Which I think was to be expected because Iran’s democracy isn’t very democratic as all & all candidates are picked by lifetime appointed hardliners… and reformists have basically expended all of their political capital. The JCPOA falling apart was very damaging for them politically, but Soleimani’s assassination & the numerous Israeli terrorist attacks within Iran domestically have killed their limited support with the people who hold all the power. The public’s faith in these elections is probably at an all time low - and Iran usually has pretty high voter turnout, despite many people believing elections are fixed. This year is different though as many people are just saying they will not vote at all.

I went to a museum exhibition once about "the history of beer" and they claimed Egypt had invented it - but now I'm going to take some of the info I learned at that exhibition with a handful of salt given that there's evidence of beer fermentation earlier. With the knowledge that beer led to humanity settling down from hunter-gathering... I'd like to think that the first buildings ever made were the first bars

Wasn't beer invented for the pyramid workers? Hands down one of the most important inventions of all time. I just started reading "Squeeze Me" by Carl Hiassen yesterday because I've heard it's a very good book, and I read "Bad Monkey" (another of his books) a while back and I enjoyed it.

I'd want a lot of fucking cash to go along with Tammy, if I were Dortmund. Not that Tammy is bad - but I do think he's miles worse than Haaland.

Lol that's not a fair swap at all.

Naftali Bennett is most likely going to be the man replacing Bibi. I hope Bibi faces justice for the corruption scandal he's embroiled in. And I hope that one day he faces justice for the war crimes that have taken place under his watch. But Naftali Bennett is also a horrific person to be running Israel. He's not interested in peace, he's a leader in Israel's illegal settlement movement (so probably good pals with Chelsea's Roman Abramovich), and is firmly opposed to any two state solution. His base are made up of a bunch of ultra-religious ultra-nationalistic dickheads. So they're really just replacing one right winged ethnonationalist, with another right winged ethnonationalist. And this guy may be even less interested in making the Middle East more stable than Bibi, and Bibi had 0 interest in stability in the Middle East.

It looks fun

I've been playing Knockout City over the weekend. Pretty fun little game - looks like Fortnite... but it's not like Fortnite at all. It's best out of 3 (well in most game modes) unrealistic as fuck dodgeball and it's great. Reminds me a lot of Rocket League, tbh. Simple game that's easy to get into, but there's a pretty high skill ceiling so the ranked competitive mode is really great if you're into that sort of thing. I don't think it's quite like Rocket League where the skill ceiling is absolutely outrageous... but I'm not sure because I've been playing Rocket League for years but this game I've only played for a few days. Probably never would have tried it if it wasn't on gamepass and my friends weren't playing. But I'm glad I gave it a whirl because it's pretty fucking fun.

I expect at least 2 Balon d'Ors in one season, and anything less will be immeasurably disappointing Yeah, he's not really had much stability in his career tbh... so two years at one club is big for him. He's a very talented, but still very far from perfect player - so expecting him to be a key player for Brentford is probably unreasonable. But this is a big moment for him in his career, hope he seizes the opportunity. I don't think he's the best Iranian player around - but I think he's got the potential to be the star of the Iran national team. If he can build on last season, which is a HUGE ask I realise - because he's been promoted a division, it'll be massive for him. And for Team Melli. And probably Brentford as well!

I just hope Ghoddos does more in the league than Jahanbakhsh has done so far (because that's been a bit disappointing). But very cool to have 2 Iranians in the league now.

I think we could do with the £50m more than we could do with a player with noted back issues

Welcome to the premier league!

Happy birthday @CaaC (John)! Get nice and drunk pal

Looks like Gini’s making the move there, as has been long suspected

Afghanistan’s a multi-ethnic society, sure - but it’s also a country that’s been fractured with instability and warfare pretty much since the Soviets invaded. It’s only going to get worse in the coming months, I’m fairly certain. I don’t think the Afghan government itself is up to keeping things safe and stable. They just play into the ethnic and religious divisions.

Yeah, so I tagged Naftali Bennet in this

@nudge

Pretty shit ceasefire: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/21/jubilation-in-gaza-as-ceasefire-takes-effect-palestine-israel-live

You two should decide what exactly you mean by "another lockdown" - because if it's a full lockdown... I'm liking @Stan's odds on this. If it's a partial lockdown to bring things closer to how they currently are... I could see that happening. It'd need to be a variant, like @RandoEFC and @Stan (Stando, if you want to combine them) have said, that the vaccine isn't effective against. And I don't mean just that it can cause enough of a viral load to cause a positive test, but not necessarily be enough for someone to feel symptoms or easily transmit the disease. And at that point, we may as well call the variant COVID-21 (that's not based on science, that's just my opinion ). And sure, there's a possibility of that happening. But thankfully (at least for the mRNA vaccines), any boosters for any new variants should be able to be developed much quicker than any of the vaccines initial developments took. You two could make it a "water bet" - loser has to take a video of them pouring a full cup of freezing cold water over your heads - or charitable donations bets. Or betting an amount you'll contribute to keep the forums up...

Hamas will shoot down the drones for playing Western music probably A big part of the issue is combating extremism - Palestinian extremism and Israeli extremism (which, I admit, is less extreme than say... Hamas... but also leads to stuff like those anti-Arab riots and lynchings. The people of Gaza have turned to Hamas, a group of dangerous nutjobs who don't actually care about ordinary Palestinians, out of desperation and failure to see change after Fatah governments were proven to be ineffective... and very corrupt. And Hamas are a lot like the IRI, which ruined Iran - ask my mum or any family member about what happens when you let hardcore religious extremists take power in a country... and they'll tell you, with personal experience, that even after it's been realised the government doesn't care about ordinary people, is corrupt and steals the resources of their people, and is only interested in fighting it's ideological battles rather than improving the life of the people who live there... it's not easy to get rid of them. The best example of this is Iran's first President after the 1979 revolution - he was against the clergy's power-grab of the political apparatus. And, in the middle of his first fucking term, he had to smuggle himself out of the country because his chances of being killed for his political views went through the roof. Hamas are cut from the same cloth as the IRI (they're an Iranian proxy, tbh) - stability and equitable treatment of Palestinians in these occupied territories will weaken their grasp over Gaza. Whereas, I think all of the recent bloodshed only serves to strengthen Hamas's grip on Gaza... which is pretty important for them because they've got an upcoming election (although, I have huge doubts as to how free/fair those elections will be). But they will paint their opposition as silent and weak in the face of Israeli oppression, whereas they can claim they were the only Palestinians in Gaza ready and willing to fight back. I have no idea what to do about extremism on the Israeli side, though. It's a bit like the rise of nationalist extremists in the West - they're dangerous... but I don't really know how to stop the growth of that extremism. It's been a problem for quite a long time... considering the last PM Israel had that seemed genuinely interested in a lasting peace between their neighbors... was killed by a far-right Israeli nutjob. And since then, the PMs they've had have largely been more in line with the extremists of Israel than the more moderate Israelis. Throughout human history, I think extreme religious zealotry typically ends up with horrific atrocities. So it's not really a "new problem" - but it's something that needs to be addressed for lasting peace to be achievable.

Some good news coming from Israel & Palestine, finally! Although it's a bit of a mixed reaction: with Hamas reportedly firing rockets even after the announcement of the ceasefire, a snap poll indicating that 75% of Israelis do not support a ceasefire and would like to see the attacks continue... and Netanyahu making claims about an Iranian drone flying over Israel (he didn't mention where though) which was shot down. I think the most disheartening thing is the news of how unpopular the ceasefire is and how so many Israelis believe the collective punishment of Gaza (which, imo, is inhumane) should continue. Hamas are scum and Israel has the right to defend itself - and I think they've done a good job defending themselves looking at the casualty count in this conflict - but both sides look to be targeting civilians and it's unacceptable from either side.

That's shit, he's a fun player to watch. Hope he makes a full recovery.