Dr. Gonzo

When Mossadegh nationalised Iranian oil and the US & UK took out the democratically elected leader is the start of where things went wrong. The Shah was an idiot politically, he alienated the left and the right - the upper middle class and wealthy loved him - but basically nobody else. He also tied himself very closely to Nixon and when Nixon’s administration ended in disgrace... he didn’t keep good graces with his new, more left wing puppet masters. Carter grew increasingly irritated with the Shah, and was actually... not on that bad of terms with Khomeini https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter's_engagement_with_Ruhollah_Khomeini?wprov=sfti1 Western media initially portrayed Khomeini in a pretty positive light too, painting him as a wise old eastern mystic. But it all stems from the installation of a shitty dictator puppet in the 50s imo.

Iran’s signed an economic deal with China to last for the next 25 years. A huge victory for Iran’s hardliners and a bitter defeat to reformists in Iran that had hoped for easing of ties with the west and the belief better relations with the west, and western influence, would to gradual societal reforms. But its big news for ordinary Iranians in Iran. It should bring about a bit more stability to an economy that’s really been squeezed by US sanctions and it opens Iran and Iranian goods open more to the world economy. I think it was inevitable after the JCPOA completely broke down after Trump pulled out, and then the Biden administration went back on its statement that the US primary goal with Iran was a swift return to the JCPOA. I’ve got mixed feelings on it because, I am glad for my family members in Iran that their lives will get a bit more stable. But I don’t think this does much for my hopes of ever getting to go to an Iran that isn’t under authoritarian rule, much less under an authoritarian theocracy.

I agree with you, but nothing will happen most likely because politicians are seldom held to the same standard as ordinary people. Usually the way politicians feel the sting of accountability is getting voted out for doing a shit job. That’s probably a part of the reason why partisan politics has pushed so many into believing support for a political party is just like support for a football club. So many people can overlook shite “their” politicians do “because the other side does it too” - without realising that it doesn’t matter what political party you’re in, at the end of the day we’re all British and politicians fucking Britain up is bad for the team we are all on. Tbf though, as an expat in a country that handled COVID much more terribly than the UK, I think there’s a lot wrong with Boris policy-wise, but I’ve been in constant contact with friends and family and he’s handled the pandemic better than many politicians that handled it elsewhere in the world. And places that aren’t facing the same kind of looming economic issues as the UK as well. But that’s more a damning indictment of leadership around the world than it is any praise of BoJo and his government

Same injury made Harry Kewell a constant sick note 15 years ago (probably longer than that but I don’t want to feel too old). Bad news for a player that’s so important for us.

Henderson’s likely out for the season

Nice, Southgate might not even pick him for the Euros. Hopefully that creates a nice rift between them and if Southgate doesn’t get sacked maybe we stop seeing him play for England for a while. Trent might not like that, but it’s a lot better for us

I think it’s pretty clear they didn’t have a plan, or at least didn’t have a good one

Erm... North Korea?

I mostly use extra virgin olive oil for cooking, but with some food I cook with grapeseed oil (it has a higher smoke point, which can be useful if you've got to cook at higher temperatures).

You can tell the US is closer to recovery as mass shootings start to show up again

I used to think Michael Oliver was our only good ref. Now I think he’s dogshit too, he’s had an awful season as a referee.

It’s much easier to take a referee error or a decision where I can’t agree with the ref when you can at least hear their reasoning.

I agree with this. I still think referees should explain themselves after a match because I’m pretty confident if we got actual truthful answers from them they would be “lol I’m just shite” But VAR’s basically removed all my confidence in the officials entirely.

I think after the original trilogy, they sort of continue on from their "present day" story in a way that can stand alone by itself as a story without too much knowledge of the other games. For me, personally, the main story with the synchronisations/simulations and all that is sort of secondary to the "historical" story of each game though so me not being fully cued in on the lore isn't that big of a deal to me.

Trying to buy a new Xbox Series X (and I imagine a PS5) online is some of the most irritating shit I've ever dealt with. I get a notification they're back in stock, immediately click the link... and click the add to cart button. Then the store tells me "oh our add to cart button only sometimes works if it's an item in high demand, try again" so I try again two more times... and they're fully out of stock. Ridiculously annoying.

I haven't played all of them. I played the Pirate one and the Paris one, but missed the American revolution stuff & the London industrial revolution (I have that downloaded, somehow, though) - or any of the ones in between those and the current one. I used to love the series, but after the Black Flag - the Paris one (I can't even remember the game) sort of wore me out (although I still think it's a good game - it just drags on because there's a lot of repetitive content). So far, Valhalla seems way less stale to me now. Probably because the world is gigantic and there's quite a bit of diversity in the quests it's had me do (so far). A lot of people think Odyssey is better, so I'll probably pick that up at some point after I finish this one. But maybe after I play a few other games so I don't feel burnt out on the series, because they're quite long and they do have a lot of stuff in them.

I’m fine with Southgate never picking any of our players again, tbh. Long may England selections look like this

Enjoy it pal, I'm I think close to halfway (I think, I've got no idea) and I've been loving it.

If any of you play Assassins Creed: Valhala, I don't want to give away any spoilers because I really like the game... ... but I hate the main character's brother.

Best game ever, imo. I've been playing for 5 years off and on. It's timeless - I feel like I'll always come back to it. One of the better competitive multiplayer games out there. The only thing I don't like is now that it's F2P, they're a lot more strict on the amount of shite you can type out to the opposition. Which is probably to stop people from being racist - but getting banned for small while for typing out "if I'm bad you are shit" was a bit shocking, especially because it censored the word "shit" - but it does seem a lot less toxic as a result. My friends and I used to see racial slurs on there CONSTANTLY, so them being more harsh with the word filter is probably for the best.

I think it's weird he's made a comment about him not being picked for not being in form, when he's actually looked like one of our better players in recent matches. Whereas he was picking him earlier in September and Trent was waaaaaay out of form then. But I don't think anyone's ever accused Gareth Southgate of being a smart man Probably would have been better for a player that looks like he's struggling with confidence to not have publicly mentioned his form. Especially having stood by him when he was in the worst form of his career - and he's picked and played other players for England without real consideration for their recent form. But international managers do that pretty frequently for players that have performed for them. I don't think it's particularly good man management from Southgate. I also think he doesn't really like playing Trent for whatever reason, tbh. He's preferred Walker and Trippier even when Trent was in better form than the both of them. It's better for us that he's not selected, I think it's just a bit weird he's brought up the players' form for the reasons I listed above. Especially when he's got an easy and non-controversial answer built in to not selecting any of England's right backs: "we've got a lot of good right backs at the moment and I can't pick all of them all the time."

I would like to ask AlanSimmonsCFC if he thinks the issue or toxicity in the Chelsea squad is something that will pop up again?

Good, maybe he’ll stop picking our players and returning them injured

Southgate’s confirmed he’s been dropped because of his form. Bit weird to publicly say that after calling up Dier and Trippier (how good has his form been serving that match ban?) - could dent Trent’s confidence as he’s actually coming back into form, in a season where I think he’s struggled for confidence. But that’s Southgate for you. But at the end of the day, I prefer to not have him be risked - especially this season.