leicsmac

Yeah, Purple Man identified the problem ("the universe is finite, its resources finite") succinctly enough, but his solution was both morally horrific and actually did nothing to really solve the problem he highlighted. Ozymandias from Watchmen also comes to mind in that regard.

Imagine if Russia, China or (gods forbid) a Muslim-majority country was doing the act of siphoning off another nations economy as blatantly. There would be an international outcry. I remember a line from the Bond movie Die Another Day where the main North Korean villain talks about studying at Oxford and Harvard and, as he put it, "majored in Western hypocrisy". Now, he's clearly a villain and the NK's are hardly good hombres themselves, but...

Legacy of the past, more's the pity. It appears that there are many who don't want to let bygones be bygones, on all sides of that one.

https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-administration-launches-effort-isolate-international-criminal-court-2026-07-13/ And so we arrive at another loggerhead between those who think to do as they want in the name of nationalism, and those who think no nation should be unaccountable. Unfortunately, the balance of power remains in the hands of people like Rubio, for the time being. That needs to change.

I made a similar argument a while back in the Unpopular Opinions thread and apparently a lot of people see him at least behind Ramsey and Robson, based on his mediocre club record. Speaking personally and purely looking at the England job alone, given the state of things before he took over I think he did a pretty decent job.

No matter, lots of Francis Drake and Elizabeth I instead.

Goodness only knows what he'll be like when it's presentation time on Sunday and Infantino and Felon#47 are front and centre...

Can't be criticising big powerful American figures or Infantino, can we, Mr Matterface?

Thanks to Root and Dawson we could be in for a total that's at least possible to defend, if unlikely.

Fair point, however there are terrible and terrible ones. (Like, for instance, the difference between between showing off your box of cigars in the Oval Office and allowing the secession of a good half of your nation. Or, indeed allowing and/or inciting an attempt to subvert the democracy you are sworn to defend, at the place and time it was due to be affirmed.) Equivocations really are not required here.

That's a not unreasonable shout too tbh.

Likely the worst since James Buchanan.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/maine-ice-shooting-death https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2rm66xd17o Continuing to be the best and brightest in the US, clearly, then.

Sam Neill, agreed 78. Goodness me, it's been a busy week for the Styx ferryman.

Mowbray and Shearer are leagues ahead of practically anyone else in terms of commentary partnership quality right now IMO. Both professional but get involved in the emotion of the game where appropriate.

...I think that's understating it a bit. Ukraine was about the only area of his foreign policy view that wasn't entirely bloodthirsty for its own sake. And like a lot of other spineless Repubs, he rightly denounced Felon#47 in the wake of inciting a coup on January 6th 2021 but then pledged loyalty to him three years later because he feared for his position.

And people thought Tuchel would be a failure in terms of man management and team understanding and spirit.

His influence may not be. But yes, point taken about current quality of life... however, don't say you weren't warned

...sounds like really good grounds and opportunity to get out of Trump's America tbh.

Brook in the mood again.

Spain have the midfield most capable of nullifying France's threat going forward, given how good they are at retaining possession. Make this one roughly even.

Curtis Yarvin. A great deal of what Musk, Thiel, Trump, Draper, Vance etc believe in and follow in terms of repressive and horribly unequal human sociology for the future can be traced back to his initial ideas.

It's enabled those lunatics to assemble, organise and vastly magnify their message, even in the face of it being overwhelmingly shown to be false. That has far reaching consequences.

It also highlights just how destructive the Internet has been to the very idea of established truth. "No one is invalidated, but no one is right..."

This is a superb example of Poe's Law. Bravo.