Dr. Gonzo

News has always been biased and been written to push a particular slant - that has never been new. It's written by people, after all People need to get better at thinking critically about the news they see, read, and hear... because as there's been a greater access to information/disinformation, people have stopped thinking about the sources of information they get. And that's how you end up with people getting their "news" from idiots just making shit up on YouTube.

I agree with you that neither of them are good guys for what they're doing to innocent people. But I do think it's a bit fucked up when the side that's got access to the most advanced military tech in the world blows up things like schools and residential buildings in Gaza, they hide behind "well they're launching missiles from civilian areas." Yeah, no shit they're launching missiles from civilian areas. It's Gaza. There are a lot of people living in a very small area (360 square kilometres, for 1.1 million people to live in). They don't have non-civilian areas to mount operations on and from the perspective of the Palestinian refugees living there - they've been civilians that have been deemed fair targets by Israel for so many years. I think it was stupid of Hamas to fire missiles at a time where Western media has probably been the most sympathetic to the Palestinians it's ever been in my lifetime. I think them doing launching rockets, which might be understandable for typical Middle Eastern relations, does not do much to spread their message of: "End Israel's Apartheid!" Because it's hard to get people to back you when you seem to not give a shit about whether or not civilians get killed (unless you buy weapons from the US, UK and EU - then the West will usually turn a blind eye to your civilian killing). It's fucked up to say this, but I think in order for Palestinians to get justice... they have to market themselves to the mainstream western media consumer, in a way that makes them look sympathetic and not scary. Because seeing bearded men praising Allah firing rockets into residential neighborhoods isn't sympathetic to the cause of them ending the shitty treatment they get on a daily basis from Israel. At the end of the day, non-bigots - both Arab and Jew in Israel/Palestine (and Christian, Palestinian Christians are often forgotten, and face discrimination from BOTH sides as well - but can also be guilty of discrimination themselves; the Middle East is truly wonderful in terms of how many different people can abuse each other) are the biggest victims of all this.

I think those videos are actually catching a lot of the chaos that's been happening. They do show Bat Yam, which is where an Arab was lynched in the aftermath of this video. But at the beginning of the video you can also see Arabs punching a guy with an Israel flag. I think a Rabbi urging for calm and peace in Bat Yam was also beaten up by his fellow Israelis so, Bat Yam seems to be a place where calmer heads are definitely not prevailing.

Jordan Henderson next please

I can relate with this - if you ever want to talk about it, just send me a PM

Lol do you know anything about Pakistan or Indian diplomatic relations? I think it's pretty safe to guess the answer to that one is "no"

@Mel81x plz confirm

What do you mean? Do you mean the sheer difference in the number of cases and number of dead people? Because India's got a population of 1.4 billion (roughly) and Pakistan has a population of 216.6 million (also roughly). Do you mean because they're so physically close together geographically? Because that means fuck all tbh . If you look at the ratios, I think India might be underreporting the number of dead from COVID cases - but they also might not be (or the stats haven't been updated fully to account for the horror the virus has caused there)... but I don't think there's anything overly unusual about those numbers.

But how's that not possible. Even if they're underreporting the number of cases and deaths... the ratio actually does fit many countries.

Why's that not possible? I do doubt the full accuracy of the extent of the virus in India and Pakistan... but those death-to-confirmed cases ratios are pretty much right in line with most countries.

I can understand why so many governments have tried to deflate their COVID numbers. But it logically doesn't make any sense that they'd pump up the numbers to make the situation look worse. Even if they had some sort of reason, like keeping everyone at home in order to: prevent tourists from coming in and shut down businesses... why on earth would they do that? They can't just tank the economy because they have some "nefarious reason" and expect everyone to just sit there and take it. It also doesn't add up that they'd release something like 0 new cases in the UK yesterday if they were trying to pump up the numbers. Because that is directly contradicting the idea they're trying to inflate those numbers. So my guess is: they aren't. The video you posted is from Israel, it's one of the most COVID vaccinated countries where they've got less care about COVID because of how well they've managed the virus. Why the fuck would they try to boost the covid numbers? Their ministry of tourism is trying really hard to get people to visit again. You can't do that if you're also running a campaign of trying to convince the world that COVID is still running rampant.

I think more governments have cooked the books the other way actually, underreporting the figures.

It’s disturbing

That high school bombing in Kabul is pretty fucking horrific. Religious fundamentalists are absolute scum, and the Taliban are up there with the worst of them. They target kids, especially young girls, to control the population with fear... truly disgusting people.

CIA should release a series of educational videos of all of the times they've undermined democracy around the world and ended up making the planet a bit less stable and a bit more unsafe next.

Tbf I can understand people being skeptical of an entirely new type of vaccine being used on humans for the first time (which is what mRNA vaccines are) - and I'm pretty certain the ones that aren't mRNA. I do think that people being afraid of the vaccine being rushed aren't really considering that work was done previously with SARS and MERS (two other types of coronaviruses) - so it's not like these vaccines have been rolled out in less than a year from when we're seeing this global rollout of the vaccines. But mRNA vaccines have been around for a while, just because they haven't been used in humans (or at least regularly) doesn't mean they can't be successful viruses. I think mRNA vaccines are probably the future of vaccines for the foreseeable future tbh. I'm vaccinated and I made up my mind pretty early on I would get the vaccine. But that doesn't mean I didn't have worries that I think were legitimate - and yeah, we really don't know the long term effects. But chances are we wouldn't know many long term effects (if any) in just a few years either. And I don't think I'm anti-vax at all, I just think sometimes it's good to be skepitcal. At the end of the day, I do believe the pros of getting vaccinated outweigh the potential cons (which may be completely unfounded).

They'll always go forward because they've got the tacit support of the US and EU.

It’s finally starting to get more coverage in the Western media, which is good - although irritating, but not surprising, that they’d be slow to react to this news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/21/leaks-show-chelsea-owner-abramovich-funded-israeli-settler-group - this always blows my mind. I’ve known Abramovich is a shitty person for as long as I’ve known about him, but I do think this makes all of his “anti-racism” campaigns with Chelsea fans look like a bit of a hollow joke

The trial’s ongoing and he hasn’t been able to form a government since their latest election. I feel him increasing tensions over Palestine is his way of keeping his trial out of the news - which is shamelessly horrific… but that’s what you get from an apartheid state tbh

It's probably better if shit like this happens during testing, better to have something worked on that considers all potential possible potentially fatal flaws then thinking you've got something perfect and overlooking it and killing someone (or more than someone).

It doesn't look so bad tbh: https://markets.businessinsider.com/indices

I always thought Gattuso and Pirlo were a perfect midfield pair. I wonder if it's the same with them as managers. Gattuso, the general, should be manager. Pirlo should be the assistant. Get Carlo Ancelotti in as Director of Football, and I think that's a guaranteed recipe for success. *edit* Get Clarence Seedorf in as a coach or a scout or something too

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/4/if-i-dont-steal-your-home-someone-else-will-jewish-settler-says I don't think shit like this is really condemned enough by the international community. Also friendly reminder that Roman Abramovich funds a lot of these illegal settlements.

Tbh that’s probably the kind of attitude that keeps Tories in power, even when they’re not all that popular. Labour are just completely inept - I do think the media plays a part in tearing down all Labour leaders after Tony Blair… but you couple the ineptitude in messaging & an unfriendly media and it’s no coincidence that they always struggle. The party’s tendency to always fall into infighting and NEVER having a strong opinion on any of the UK’s most pressing issues until they have an idea of how most people feel, also just leave them looking weak. Tories have infighting and then come election time they close ranks - Labour just keep having internal power struggles, while seeming like pandering to swing voters. It really is a bit shit because I’d never vote Tory and if I’ve learned anything about my voting preferences is I’ll never vote for Lib Dems again after that Clegg-Cameron coalition. Never felt more betrayed by a political party and in recent years I think they’re just dishonest Tories. But not voting basically guarantees Tories continuing their free run at seeing how badly they can fuck things up before more people notice.