Dr. Gonzo

But what is the end goal? Is it just a reverse of the Nakba with the shoe on the other foot? If we were alive at the time of Israel's creation, I would have been against it - punishing Arabs for Europe's centuries of crimes against Jews in the wake of the Holocaust, taking their land and committing atrocities to get that land. But it was created in 1947 - so we're talking about 4 generations (boomers, gen x, millenials, and gen z; 5 if we want to include gen alpha) of Israelis who have been there too. Their ancestors might be guilty of horrible atrocities, but I don't think it's reasonable to paint all Israelis as active and willing participants of all of these atrocities. Beneficiaries of these atrocities? Sure. But if we want to start punishing beneficiaries of all atrocities, the west certainly has a lot to answer for as well. If the ultimate end goal is unlikely to be achieved because it's just righting the wrongs of the past by the other side doing the same thing that's been done to them... it's not going to create any sort of lasting peace. And if it's unlikely because the geopolitical reality of the situation just means it's basically impossible... then it's not an avenue worth pursuing. The end goal should be creating a lasting peace and a situation where Palestinian human rights aren't being trampled on a daily basis. This means not supporting further escalation of the conflict and taking steps to actually create a lasting peace. This was literally inevitable. We both know how Israel fights, and given that the strikes hit Isfahan we should be thankful it's only military sites that have been struck, and not a populated neighborhood or a significant historic and cultural site (which Isfahan is full of).

When you say "the US" you're either making a sweeping generalisation about a massive country, or you're referring to the government. I assumed that, because you were highlighting how US citizens protesting against Israel were being silenced - you'd been referring to the US government. But again - are these instances of shutting down legitimate criticism of Israel? 1.) sacking people for damaging company property and threatening people who work for that company - that really has fuck all to do with why they were protesting and rather the manner they've gone about protesting; 2.) school shutting down protests getting increasingly violent due to the radical idiots on both sides; 3.) the commencements are the only thing I would concede that yeah maybe that's shutting down legitimate protesting. But again, I'm sure wanting to avoid causing division amongst students graduating is a bigger concern for the university than the right to allow them to make political statements that look like they're being endorsed by the university. So, at best, you're talking about 1/3 of these examples being legitimate protesting being shut down. The other 2 were pretty legitimate reasons to sack someone, shut down protests. The Columbia protests could have been legitimate... if they hadn't turned violent. Violence in protest is only legitimate when the protestors are subject to violent oppression for what they're protesting - students living in the US are free from the dangers of being around Hamas/IDF, there's no legitimate reason for them to have made a university campus unsafe. I'm glad you found something laughable, it returns the favour of me laughing at some of the bullshit you came up with last week. But honestly, at what point do the actions of certain protestors you agree with actually cross any sort of line? Violence and threats of violence, from people (and directed at people) that are so fucking far removed from this conflict, are obviously not crossing a line for you. At what point do you draw a line where you can say "I support Palestinian human rights, but I don't support this bullshit." And what exactly do you see as an acceptable resolution to this conflict? I would have thought anything that restores dignity and preservation of Palestinian rights would be seen as a positive step in the right direction for this conflict. But that doesn't seem to be the case, because you've cheered on escalations and been in support of this growing into a wider conflict. Which doesn't really do much for Palestinian human rights or lives generally, other than keep them in the IDF's firing line. So what do you see as the "end goal" for "your side" - I genuinely want to know, to try to understand your perspective.

Those google workers were fired for defacing the google cloud offices and shouting threats at their coworkers, more than they were fired for protesting. Columbia University had to send in riot police because pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protestors were kicking off and the school had to close it's campus because it couldn't guarantee safety of students. The commencement speakers thing is probably the most egregious of those 3 things... but really is a graduation ceremony the appropriate avenue for making highly political statements on an issue that's incredibly divisive? Either way, none of those examples demonstrate anything the US is doing because 1.) google isn't the US government, 2.) Columbia and USC aren't the US government, 3.) even the state funded universities in the US aren't the US government - they're funded by the states they reside in. Is there any limit to the sort of bad behavior the zealots amongst the "globalise the intifada" crowd will tolerate for their cause? Is it not enough to call for perpetual bloodshed in the Middle East?

I wonder how long it'll be before this pursuit of constantly chasing cash just has people not giving a fuck about football anymore to the point where they're losing money.

Maybe the big clubs in England should stand up to FIFA and UEFA for their changes that add more matches to a season for top players, rather than punishing the smaller clubs which are ultimately the lifeblood for English football. They probably can't afford to make this statement, but the football league and national league clubs simply refusing to participate in the FA Cup until replays are reintroduced would probably get a fire lit under the FA's arse to save the cup. Getting rid of replays ultimately directly impacts the finances of smaller clubs that get premier league clubs as opponents... hurting their finances means those clubs are less likely to be able to put up any meaningful fight against richer clubs in higher leagues. This means big upsets and "the magic of the FA cup" will become less and less likely over time. Stupid decision from stupid and greedy people.

It was probably very fun, from what I saw it looks like a very fun city. Most of the time I've spent in Mexico has been in Baja California - mostly Tijuana & Ensenada. Both are great.

I did, but barely cos I was only there for a few days and one of those days was the wedding we were attending. I'll have to go back to check out a shitload of the stuff I missed. But with CDMX I'm planning on staying for more than just 3 days and I'll get to plan out all the shit I'll be doing, instead of just doing whatever my pals planned out for us while we were out there for his wedding.

It'll be a hell of a lot less gringo than a resort

My Mexico City trip (which is just in the planning stages, nothing set in stone yet) should be a far less gringo experience than my recent Puerto Vallarta experience which was the most gringo experience I've had in Mexico by far. But honestly, every trip to Mexico I've had has been pretty gringo because I am a gringo - I'm not sure actual Mexicans from Mexico have to deal with things like getting pulled over and told you've broken some traffic law you haven't broken... but really you're just in a rental car heading towards the border crossing. They'll tell you they have to take your drivers license unless you pay a "fine", but if you tell them you want an actual written citation and you'll go to the station with them to pay the fine they'll tell you to fuck off and go on your way. I'm pretty sure that is something that only happens to gringos.

Uh oh

Anyone that fucks over Guardiola actually gets a special place in heaven

Think again

Tbf I was in that resort that was very much designed for gringos. I also wasn't talking shit about Mexican food, I was just saying loading a burrito with rice and beans is bullshit.

I didn't eat burritos in Puerto Vallarta tbh. Tacos, fajitas, and quesadillas though, which were all so good. Like I said, I've only had burritos twice in Tijuana - and I probably won't have them again.

Send them my way, and I'll call them pinche gringos.

Yeah but they're Mexicans in the US - so they're gringos at this point.

Not in my experience, at least with burritos I've had in Mexico. Granted I've only had them in one city and from 2 different places. The burritos I've had in Mexico were in Tijuana and they were very different to the burritos people would typically picture. They're much thinner and the only filling was meat. Thought it was a bit strange and between tacos in Mexico or the types of burritos I've had in Mexico, tacos win hands down. In Southern California and Texas, I think rice and beans are just filler to make burritos look fatter, cos gringos love big fat burritos. It's why the California burrito took off, adding chips to the burrito was a low cost way of stuffing a carne asada burrito to look much fatter without actually adding more meat. You go too far north in California and the burritos start looking like absolute monsters but that's because it's 80% rice and beans and barely any of what it's actually supposed to be - these burritos are absolute bullshit. In San Diego if you see a burrito with rice & beans, it's a bullshit burrito and you shouldn't get it. But Mexico's a big country and culinary styles change from region to region in any country, and Mexico is no exception, so I'm sure some Mexicans do put rice and beans in burritos. But most people worldwide when they're thinking of burritos, they're thinking of Tex-Mex style burritos. And a lot of those do have rice and beans in them. But too much of that and I think it's absolute bullshit just to inflate a burrito and use up less of the more expensive ingredients.

Yeah I have. They were ok, not the worst tacos I've ever had... but also pretty far from the best tacos I've ever had.

Tacos in a holder & rice and beans in a burrito = bullshit Mexican food

It’s close but baja style tacos are basically unmatched so I have to go with tacos

I'd love a slower burn if we got more episodes per season. Are we only getting 8 because there was that Hollywood writers strike? Because I really really hope the next season features more. Honestly a bit cruel to have the show be that good in this era of bingewatching... and now that it's over, I'm all out of new Fallout content. At least remake Fallout 3/NV in the Fallout 4 engine or something like that, Bethesda.

Yeah tbf social media shouldn't be used as the gauge of whether something is legit or not. Fortunately, this graffiti's been on various legitimate news sources - including the BBC, DW, IranIntl, and I assume others. I also do think one useful thing about social media posts in Farsi is, because they're generally so rare compared to much of what else you see on social media... it does give you some insight as to what some of the views coming out of Iran are. With 1/3 seemingly just regurgitating government propaganda, and 2/3 people just shitting on the IR and sharing clips, images, memes that reflect how they truly feel of the government... it sort of warms my heart. Shame about the 1/3 population of bootlickers.

Most people in Iran don't want war with the US or Israel. People are fed up with the ridiculously bad economic conditions and the negative sentiment surrounding the government from that human rights movement that led to mass imprisonment and executions hasn't gone anywhere. There's a huge portion of the country that views their government as the enemy (cos they are) and the rumblings of war as nothing more than something to distract people to keep the government firmly grasping to power. People haven't forgotten that the shadow of the war with Iraq led to the IR consolidating its power and purging out dissenting and more moderate voices post-revolution, they know how the IR operates when it is at war. When you've got football crowds chanting "marg bar diktator", "marg bar Khamenei," and "marg bar jomhooriye islami" (death to the dictatorship/Khamenei/the Islamic Republic) every week, it really does give a finger on the pulse of how ordinary people in Iran feel about their government. There's obvious division in the country though. In the more rural communities, support for the IR is strong. Amongst the elite of Iran, unsurprisingly because the reason they are elite has to do with their close ties to the government (if not being actively involved in governance), support for the IR is strong. But in the cities among normal people, I suspect the feeling is more common to what you see in the streets of Tehran or in the football stadiums of the clubs of the big cities. The increasing sentiment that the IR is not a legitimate government and one that only has its "mandate" to lead by the brutality they inflict on their people. All you have to do is look at Iranian posters on twitter/instagram, look at the ones that are actually coming out of Iran... and take a look at what they have to say about their government and sepahis (members of the IRGC). You might have to run it through a translator, but you can see the Iranians that are using their VPNs to express their thoughts to the outside world absolutely hate their oppressors. And you can't really blame Iranians for not having any appetite for a war with Israel. First, there's a huge number of people that have bitter resentment towards Palestine. Iran's economy is in dire straights and the government funnels money to Hamas and Hezbollah in the name of ending oppression of Palestinians. A lot of Iranians think that money would be better spent on Iran. Inflation is out of control in Iran - tens of millions are struggling with the cost of living, wondering if they will be able to afford their homes & buy food at the same time. This escalation, which now is likely to bring further US sanctions as well as a military response from Israel, is the last thing Iranians needed in this difficult time for them. The US sanctions have been largely ineffective because while they tank Iran's economy... it really only negatively impacts normal people. The elite keep their money flowing by using Russian and Chinese networks to skirt sanctions as well as simply selling oil on the black market. So further economic hell for the people living in Iran, along with the ever present threat of Israeli strikes. It's why I find the calls from non-Iranians bellowing for Iran to throw itself into full blown war with Israel so offensive, tbh. These are already struggling and suffering people, to call for them to put their lives on the line to end the "oppression" of people other than themselves, while the international community largely sat back and didn't give a fuck about Iranians pleading for the international community to end their own oppression... it's just insane. Iran has it's own problems and it's own oppressors to worry about before going to war with anybody else. And like Israel, is surrounded by countries that are either openly hostile or full of people that think less of them because of their religious beliefs and ethnicities - so the prospect of a greater regional war is the prospect of Iran going headfirst into an existential battlefield. Anyone with any interest in peace and stability in the region should be against this conflict escalating to Israel and Iran's cold war truly heating up.

Graffiti in Tehran that says "Israel, strike Khamenei's house"

I thought the pacing was pretty good for an 8 episode series tbh. And I think they did quite a good job of taking various playstyles you can approach the different games and using different characters to reflect them. Lucy - the newbie, Maximus - chaotic but leaning good, Cooper - the callus bounty hunter, Norm - the playthrough where you read everything on every terminal (a slut for the lore). I think it was pretty far from a complete butchering of a franchise. I think the worst can be claimed about it is they've moved Shady Sands from it's original location to within LA... and considering how Bethesda's sort of really avoided going back to the story of Fallout 1 and 2 for such a long time, and even with some refusal of acknowledgement of New Vegas, long time fans can at least be happy that: 1.) they're re-touching on places from the very beginning; 2.) we're getting a new NCR storyline. I also thought it was cool seeing Robert House.