Rayvin

Dude... You and I are never going to agree on anything

Are you serious? Compared to what?

I'm actually impressed that Short has given up on viewing this from a short term perspective. He seems to have accepted relegation with the view that chopping and changing has kept them just above the line but can't move them on. And that's fair enough. Had he done that 5 years ago I think they'd be in a far better position than they are now - the downside with doing it now is that it's going to cost them at least a season worth of the new PL deal money, and the club is living way outside of its means.

Have to say I agree with this, but not so much because Moyes is a poor manager. He's not right for a rebuild job in the championship because he's now tainted by this failure, and has lost the patience of the fans (and possibly the belief of the players). Allardyce might have had them a few points better off but remember that Moyes did actually destroy Allardyce's Palace a few weeks back. They have played well this year, in spells. Even in their loss to Man Utd, they had some decent spells from what I gather. The players just aren't good enough. They lost too many key performers over the summer and replaced them with shit. Plus they've had Cattermole injured all season - as much as I dislike the guy, he really does make a difference for them.

Laurie Penny https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/10/trump-man-aggression-towards-women-us-election#comments You're either a Trump man or a decent man, apparently. There is no inbetween - and she's even using alternative facts to support her argument

Really? Have you seen their squad I'd say it's rivalling Villa of last year's for how bad it is. Rodwell has been a mainstay of their midfield and until a few weeks ago hadn't been in a winning Sunderland side for 36 games or something. Who are the players that you think are good enough to keep them up under better management? Defoe, Pickford and...?

Wasn't Allardyce making noises about being undermined before he left though? He needs a fair budget to stay up IMO, not capable of doing it on a shoestring like Moyes has been able to previously. I think Short has killed them this season. Well, maybe not even Short. This season is really just the legacy of crap management throughout the club. That Alvarez saga sums up Sunderland's incompetence.

Chemical weapons would be a red line for me personally, and you're right that if the West is involved for purely humanitarian purposes then STW have no cause for complaint. I suspect they'd argue that much of what is happening in Syria is of the West's making though. But I basically agree at this point - if we wanted to be embroiled in that war we would be. The fact that we aren't suggests that concerns at this point are indeed largely humanitarian.

Agreed, not remotely concerned about the title and it'd be a bigger deal for Brighton than it would be for us anyway.

I'm not tbh, I just think that much of the criticism levelled at them is strawmanning. Their aims are to prevent Neo-imperialism, not to moralise about war, dictators and strife in other countries. Also, everyone involved in that conversation was an SJW, given how the Syrian chap started complaining that they were 'oppressing' him.

Palace have a far better team than Sunderland though.

Yes, but, Margot Robbie's arse makes a good case for the movie.

Agree with you on protesting dictators fwiw.

Aye but they're not doing what they do to stop people like Assad, or even because they're overly concerned about Syrian people. They do it because they want to prevent the British government from being embroiled in something they see as neo-imperialism. You can disagree with the morality of that, but they are being consistent here.

I read somewhere that they're on the brink of an all time PL record with the not scoring thing.

I actually thought DA2 was playable - solid 7.5/10 DAI I couldn't even bring myself to finish. Gave up after about 30 hours as there was no compelling narrative to keep me invested in it. Haven't gone back to it. So for me, it's been more of a steady downward trend. ME2 and DA:O were the highlights, top tier stuff. ME3 and DA2 were good (and I'm doing ME3 a disservice here as it's actually far better than DA2 IMO; just not as good as the top tier) DA:I and apparently ME:A. I haven't played Andromeda yet though, will be getting it over the weekend. Just feels like they're going in the wrong direction (for my tastes, at least).

Some of them still haven't given up - this one has posted a scenario wherein the mackems would "stay up on goal difference" with his set of results across all the teams in the mix to go down. https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/is-a-miracle-that-far-fetched-look-at-these-fixtures.1349990/ Aside from the fact that he's envisioning them winning 5 games despite having not even scored in 6, he's worked it out wrong and they'd actually still be relegated even with his wildly optimistic scenario

If it kicks off a trilogy as good as the first one, I won't mind. I wasn't all that impressed by ME1 and have only played through it once, but it was a gateway to far better games in 2 and 3. If the same is true here then fair enough. My big concern though is that Bioware have started fucking up a bit too often, probably because they're now under the watchful eyes of E-fucking-A.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/10/trump-missiles-putin-home-front-us-strike-syria-russia Guardian editorial on Trump's missiles potentially becoming a domestic problem for Putin. This definitely rattled Russia, in a way that, I would argue, they've been rattling the West for a decade.

7.5 is low in my book. 2 and 3 were 9/10 games for me, and I think that's why this is disappointing for people. If it was a standalone game then sure, decent enough. But considering what it has to live up to, 7.5 is a poor attempt. EDIT - just reflecting on this, you've cited combat and gameplay as being superior, which they presumably are. The story is and creative aspects of this are supposed to be what lets it down more than anything. How do they hold up?

It would, but I think they're trying to wipe out the branch of this concerned with people who buy and sell ready-made boxes.

What has happened to Mbemba though... he looked like a really good bet initially but seems to be really struggling atm. Is it just a lack of match sharpness or has he just fallen away?

Agree with ewerk. How would it even work? The US has no ground troops in Syria, so it's not as though the Russians have anyone to attack.

Having a shit life can change you as a person like. Also wouldn't say most people are arseholes... Idiots maybe. But aye, what you're saying doesn't paint a great picture of the bloke.