Dr. Gonzo

I think this news about the army being woefully unprepared for war is a signal to the UK, and to the rest of Europe, to expect Russia to invade a NATO nation sometime soon. Probably means the UK is anticipating a Trump victory.

One of the countries on that list with the joint lowest age of consent is China, a permanent member of the UNSC... which doesn't dictate a bloody thing to the west since all it takes is one of the western members of the UNSC to simply veto. The UN doesn't dictate anything to anybody, it's only purpose is serving as a platform of open dialogue between nations to prevent international conflict from spreading into anther world war. But it's a common libertarian view to conflate the two though. It's only been done because so many libertarians have advocated for a lower age of consent or simply doing away with the age of consent. A core component of the ideology is protecting individual rights and removing regulations imposed on individuals and businesses. This includes rolling back workers rights to where they are virtually non-existent. Getting rid of "pesky" health and safety regulations that get in the way of profitability. And for many libertarians, they've been quite vocal about consenting humans (note, they make the distinction between adults) being able to make decisions regarding their own bodies, including when they should have sex. If you take issue with it, don't take issue with @Rucksackfranzose highlighting the contradictions of what you've said and the ideology you're peddling - take issues with the diehard believers of this ideology being absolutely vile. Most regulations on business exist for good reasons, most workers rights exist for good reasons, having an age of consent exists for very good reasons. Children don't belong in mines, children don't belong in sexual relations with adults. If you don't like being called out for peddling a horrible ideology, don't spread that shit around.

Qatar has probably been Iran's most reliable "partner" Arab nation (other than Iraq after the ISIS cleanup shit, but that's just them taking radicals and further radicalising into controlled proxy groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen) - they were actively targeting anti-regime Iranian fans during the world cup and arresting them before turning them over to Iran. That's pretty complicit in oppression of Iranians. The UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait have no reason to fear Iran invading them - Iran's not done any invading since the Persian empire, the last wars they've been involved in have been: getting invaded by Iraq (with the support of the west, the east, and other Arab states - all complicit in Iraq's war crimes) and being invited in by Assad to fight ISIS (and keep Assad's shitty government in power). The other conflicts Iran's involved with have all been proxy conflicts, mostly with Israel but sometimes with the Saudis - so again, no real threat of invasion. Just the threat of spreading their horrible ideology. The other Arab states have played more indirect roles in supporting Iranian extremism when convenient, but always being against Iran approaching the west or creating normal diplomatic relations with the US over the decades. And that's because they've had the most to gain with Iran being cut off from normal economic activity with the west, and the most to lose if Iran does have normal relations - or worse for them, another revolution. They have been consistently opposed to any regime change in Iran - other than floated plans to break Iran up into smaller ethnostates (because Iran's got a ton of different ethnic groups in it). I have family and friends suffering under this autocratic rule, so I will always resent the other autocratic nations in the region that have played their part to slow down the necessary change for people in Iran to have better lives. I think part of it is because they economically benefit from Iran not being a normal participant in the global economy and another part of it is anti-authoritarian movements scare autocratic monarchs.

I agree with the last paragraph and that’s why I haven’t been supporting Iran when they play even though I’m half Iranian. But when it’s Iran up against those gulf states it’s very hard for me to not want Iran to win because of how I feel about those countries. Except Oman, no strong feelings towards them. And Iraq because I feel a lot of sympathy towards them. I disagree that you can’t compare them to Russia tbh. While these countries haven’t exactly been friendly with Iran in the last decade, they’ve all played a big role in the decades of oppression Iranians face on a day to day basis. So for as long as they’ve got their absolute monarchs sitting pretty, I’ll always dislike the hell out of them. Nothing against the ordinary people who live in these countries - but like you say, by playing for a national team you’re basically part of their nationalist propaganda.

yeah it comes up all the time. “I’m not a pedo, but I’m a libertarian and my beliefs on individual liberty mean I should be allowed to fuck kids.” It’s a widely common view amongst the ideology. Couple that with their belief that human rights aren’t truly universal, that regulations on business (and remember, most labour regulations are written in the blood of workers who died on the job) aren’t necessary because they cut into profits… it’s really just an ideology that serves as an on-ramp towards to fascism. So “proto-fascist, possible kiddy fiddler” is what I think when anyone tells me they’re libertarian.

BoJo doesn’t genuinely care about Ukraine, I’m pretty sure he was just giddy a war in Europe broke out so he could pretend to be Churchill for a few days. He only cares about what’s good for him.

Libertarians are just nonces that don’t want to pay taxes

Hasn’t Azmoun assisted all of Taremi’s goals - but yes Taremi’s the best Iranian player. Also VAR wasn’t correct for those disallowed goals. Taremi’s a dickhead too though tbh because he’s very pro Iran’s terrible government. And I just don’t like the UAE as a country - the same way you’d probably want Ukraine to beat Russia.

lol Ghoddos can barely speak Farsi when he says "individual awards" Taremi says "individual? what? Speak Farsi man" - my takeaway from this is that Taremi knows more English than I would have thought he does though

Yeah, no I was thinking of one of the teams that's a lot stronger than Syria. On paper Iran's team is still one of the better Asian sides, it's just the manager is out of his depth imo - no real tactics other than just relying on Taremi and Azmoun. Which tbf can get them pretty far at this level because this level isn't that great.

So I'd been wanting Iran to get knocked out ASAP because at the moment Team Melli is just used as propaganda for the shitty government. But seeing that we're playing the UAE, I am pleased to see we beat those dickheads. 3 controversially ruled out goals, so it probably should and could have been 4-1. Iran will go out the second they face someone decent in attack though. This yes-man manager they've put in has no idea what he's doing with this squad defensively.

That's not too surprising, tbh.

Wasn’t Antony someone the manager really wanted?

The legend returns!

Nice, hopefully Japan have an early exit so we get Endo back sooner

That's why he lowered taxes for the wealthiest and for massive corporations, but raised taxes on the middle and working class - Donald Trump doesn't support the interests of anyone other than Donald Trump and his campaign donors. Trump is hated because he's a brazenly corrupt dickhead who thinks because he was president, he is basically king of the US. He doesn't respect democracy, which is a bad quality for a supposed leader of a democratic country. He doesn't respect rule of law. And... These are all valid reasons why people think he's absolute scum when you couple that with him being a corrupt piece of shit who thinks he's untouchable.

Yeah there's some people online speculating Pakistan's army (but not the politician running the government) are coordinating with the IRGC so they can both strike at separatist groups without taking the blame for bombing their own land. But some people are saying an IRGC base was hit yesterday, and if that's the case... the mullahs will definitely be irate that their prize thugs were targeted in retaliation. Iran's state media's done very little reporting about Pakistan's retaliation, so piecing together what's actually happened is dependent on Pakistan's statements and from eyewitness accounts. But some reports are saying that none of the victims of Pakistan's strikes are Iranian citizens, which is in direct conflict with the reporting that a IRGC base was hit. Kind of hard to sift out what's real from the bullshit, unfortunately. But we do know that Pakistan's ambassador to Iran was summoned and I don't think that happens if the clowns in charge of Iran aren't pissed off about it.

Well they’ve just done something as a response. Now let’s watch what a bunch of irate mullah clowns pretending to be a government do next lol

Sounds like Pakistani’s army quietly supported Iran’s strikes without telling the politicians in control about it though. I doubt anything comes of it - at the end of the day both Iran and Pakistan agree they want the Baluchi separatists quashed. Both governments also are basically China’s testicle polishers in the region, so I can’t see China being too keen on them fighting.

What meltdown? Trump's been the front runner the whole time. It's no secret that he's going to be the GOP nominee. The others running for presidents are mostly seen as jokes, they've got as much chance of being US president as me - and I'm not even eligible to be US president.

I think calling Forest and Everton small clubs is absolutely stupid. Shows very little knowledge of the football of English football really - does he really think his breakaway league re-invented the fucking game in 1992? Tbf I'm not sure that he hates any club outside the top 6 will try to break the glass ceiling. There was a time it was just called the big 4 and now one of the leagues most hyped commodities that they try to sell abroad is one of those clubs that did break the glass ceiling... and did so emphatically in that they've changed the face of modern football in the process. And to me it seems like he is very much trying to protect that club that did break the glass ceiling - probably because going down hard on them in his eyes would be a source of shame for the league. I've got to be honest though, I've got a lot more sympathy with Everton - and I fucking hate Everton - than I do with Forest. I think Forest invited the scrutiny from the league - and I think it's more likely that other clubs got fucked by what Forest did in breaching the rules. Everton actually tried to fix their problem and ended up with the hammer coming down on them. It's just stupid.

I don't think he's failed at Roma tbh. I honestly don't understand why Roma have sacked him. He's taken them to 2 European finals with that squad and pennies to build it, and won 1. He's only 5 points off 4th place and they've sacked him after a bad run of fixtures when Roma have a nice easy run of fixtures coming up next. Most Roma fans online also seem to think sacking him was a stupid decision and that he should have at least been given some of these matches that on paper are easier to fight for his job. Now they're giving the job to De Rossi. Club legend and all - but he wasn't really great at SPAL. I'd be very surprised if he does more than Mourinho was doing with this squad in all honesty.

And the Houthis have struck a European commercial vessel.

Tbh few countries recognise the Armenian genocide because they don't want to offend Turkey. Some countries have had their legislature or executive body recognise it - but formal recognitions are pretty rare because Turkey offers more economically as a trade partner and as a geostrategic partner than Armenia does. It's one of those things where I think a lot of countries end up making themselves look very hypocritical and stupid - standing up on a soapbox and preaching about human rights is all well and good, but they're all too often eager to forget certain human rights violations when it's convenient. When Azerbaijan blockaded the Armenians living in Artsakh, which is part of the Nagorno-Karabagh region, the world was pretty silent as Azerbaijan starved Artsakh into submission. But Azerbaijan has become a key trade partner for Europe in providing natural gas now that Russia's cut itself off from trading with Europe - so Europe was eager to turn a blind eye to avoid another energy crisis. In other news, Iran's been busy with military strikes - many strikes in the Kurdish region of Iraq & also strikes in Pakistan against what they claim is a terrorist group.

I actually think I misread this article: https://josimarfootball.com/2024/01/15/endgame/ - 777 subsidiaries are taking out these 52.5% interest rate loans. It's arguably worse than what I initially thought when I read it incorrectly though. The article paints a bleak picture for 777's financial condition. I don't see how they can be considered "fit and proper" when Bermuda's got administrative control. I think Moshiri's got to go back and set a more realistic price for Everton - otherwise I assume the league will push this deal through in a couple of weeks and it won't be too long before we're seeing more articles about Everton in dire financial straights.