Zoraptor

You'd have got very long odds on South Africa qualifying after that first match. Gone from absolute shambles to pretty decent.

Some interesting refereeing on show in the England v Ghana game. Can't help but think that if the shirt colours had been reversed Ghana would have been down to 10 and England would have had a penalty. Especially the Pickford one, even England supporters seemed to think he was fairly lucky to still be on the field let alone not giving away a free kick. If it had been Kane vs [Ghanaian keeper]...

They key take away about Starmer is, and always has been, that in his 'landslide' election victory he got half a million less votes than the 'unelectable' Corbyn. It was always about a Tory collapse and how First Past the Post works rather than Starmer/ Labour themselves being popular. Turning out to be Tory lite- which was not exactly a surprise, his slogan could have been 'status quo, but better!'- evaporated even that tepid support. Labour in the UK have the same issue left parties have in most places- spent so long pandering to the mythic floating vote in the centre and shifted so far right in pursuit of it that they've given their core voter no reason to vote for them. For 30 years in the UK, and 40 years here. Then get terrified of doing anything even slightly left economically, and start up with... weird social policies to compensate. For Starmer in particular in seems the only thing he actually capital B Believed in was unqualified support for Israel. Which was a particularly odd look, for someone who was a human rights lawyer. (As a contrast, all the right wing parties are hugely pro immigration here. Most immigrants vote right so adding a million new people give them ~700k new voters; and the 'anti immigrant' party needs something to complain about but not do anything about, of course, since they own houses as much as any other MP. It also inflates the housing bubble further which makes the economy look good on paper while our English Lit grad Finance Minister who has only ever worked in PR and politics runs the real economy into the ground. While spending more money per unit than Trump did on Air Force One buying helicopters and claiming those in social housing have 'won the lottery' (direct quote)- unlike her fellow ministers on struggle street practically donating their time on a paltry 320k salary and claiming 52k/ year accommodation supplement for living in their own houses. One of six in their portfolios. Mystery why NZ has no stamp duty or Capital Gains Tax, eh)

Group G now has the opportunity to do the funniest thing. Especially with Belgium having a player sent off. Just need another 3 draws and the NZ/ Iran qualification quinella is all on.

Don't see how even Iranian hardliners would be opposed, since that's basically who's in charge and who Trump was negotiating with even more so than before. The only 'concession' made was to disavow nukes, which they'd done repeatedly anyway; and had supposedly been months to weeks away from developing since 1999, ie 27 years ago now. All the big provisions Trump wanted beforehand and criticised Obama for not getting- eg no aid to proxies, giving up ballistic missiles- aren't in his 'agreement' either. And they can still shut the straits down whenever needed. There's essentially no downside for Iran.

..and their football team isn't great either. badum_tish.gif

So, how do you spin that to be better than what Obama achieved with no war? Even managing to get an explicit no toll on the straits provision isn't exactly victory, just not an abject defeat. No wonder Trump seems genuinely peeved with Netanyahu.

NZ top of our group? Say the line, Donald. Entertaining game and nice to have one where both sides were clearly trying to win, rather than just not lose.

The current english team itself is as likeable as most others. Their problem is, and always has been, the fans and press who are truly obnoxious whenever there's a modicum of success- or even just expected success. Not all of them, of course, but enough to make even someone who holds an english passport (ie me) hope that they lose in a way that generates the maximum amount of hilarity and over the top sky is falling reaction.

Breaking: Trump to fire Hegseth and replace him with Pochettino. US is playing very well. Paraguay though... kind of wish I hadn't burned the 'only just met' line on RSA's performance now. If it carries on this way it could be 10-0 by the end.

They should award the tournament solely to southern hemisphere countries if they want to hold it in NH summer. No need for 'hydration breaks' then. Rather enjoyed the ROK/ Czech match; would have been a rank injustice if it had ended up as 2-2 though.

Shame no one thought to introduce the South African players to each other before the first match of the tournament. At least the three red cards made it memorable.

Access to the matches for both sides' fans is part of the hosting agreement. ie things like the Iranian ticket allocation are mandatory, not voluntary. Infantino is just pathetic and the US knows he cannot pull the tournament; and that's it. All that ludicrous 'peace prize' told Trump was that Infantino would let himself be walked all over. Same as every other bit of appeasement Trump has received. It doesn't earn you credit, it's an admission you're a client and should be treated as such.

Eh, that's a bit too extreme. Even Trump- who makes threats reflexively and is a definite bully- doesn't think violence is the answer to every little conflict. Just an option to solve it (or 'solve' it). See his deal with the Taleban last time which he got a lot of stick for, but was certainly not the violent option. Trump is the only President dumb enough to try it on with someone like Iran though and think it'll all be a breeze and he can end it all on his timetable, his convenience and with him looking like a genius; unlike Sleepy Joe. For pretty much every war it's the combination of thinking it's doable/ winnable and problems tending to look like they can be solved with nails when you have the very large hammer that is your military.

If it were AI it wasn't sent without any human checking it for sure, since the german language version got edited due to someone noticing; though germans subbed to the english language version still got it. Could easily be that whoever was checking the english version just skimmed it without thinking what it looked like. Don't think there'd be much issue with the kolovrats/ sun wheel(s) in isolation since they aren't the overtly nazi black sun version. It's the double sowilo that is the problem and to be scrupulously fair to GOG, the sowilo is also 100% the rune for 'sun'. As well as having been appropriated by the SS. (Of course it's the germanic rune for sun, not slavic... but if you want a sun rune that's what you get)