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Everything posted by PaddockLad
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Introducing....Wicket the Wonderdog
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You might have to create an account to see this but for kit nerds itâs ace... https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/euro-2020-2021-kits-home-away-shirts-ranked-b1850768.html
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Generic small time football blather thread FOREVER
PaddockLad replied to Sonatine's topic in Newcastle Forum
If anyone's got time I recommend reading the link in the tweet, it's quite long but it's the best account of what the survivors and families has been through up to the end of the second inquest -
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The worlds greatest football fixture resumes tonight...
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Bring your tank mate, we'll need it at the back and it's probably more mobile than Hanley đ
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You'll get an approach before the weekend...a bottle of Glenfiddich & a poond o' square sausage đ
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Colin Hendie's mum would be better than that cunt On a side note, the Toontastic " Team Caledonia " for the Euros is shaping up well... 1. Myself (player manager obvs) 2. Yourself (rapier-like centre forward) 3. @Rayvin (cultured, cerebral midfield creator) 4. @Toonpack (travel manager,we're all staying in his caravan at Thirlestane đ ) 5. @Kevin Carr's Gloves (half time oranges)
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Fuck all like Piers. Ewerk didn't try to tie it all into 500 words demolishing Megan Markle
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Who the fuck is that cunt? đ€
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Generic small time football blather thread FOREVER
PaddockLad replied to Sonatine's topic in Newcastle Forum
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One thing Iâm taking from the semis & champions league final is that Mason Mount is the first name on Southgateâs team sheet in a fortnight. On this evidence heâs a big game player (and will likely fuckin annihilate Scotland on his own even if he was suffering from long Covid )
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Westminster Cathedral is kiddie fiddler denial & incense @Monkeys Fist Westminster Abbey is across the road, itâs HQ of parsons, vergers, beadles & slightly less kiddie fiddler denial
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The current PMs partner looks to me like an even worse version of that fuckin horror show Kirsty Alsopp...simpering, prissy, privileged and couldn't be arsed to take care of a fuckin dog
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https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1398242011761741824?s=19
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Generic small time football blather thread FOREVER
PaddockLad replied to Sonatine's topic in Newcastle Forum
This clip beggars belief... -
Yeah out in public I suppose it is but most of us had logically came to these conclusions ourselves. You're the best qualified to comment, you underestimated the numbers but you knew the reasons why it would be a fuckin disaster...
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Generic small time football blather thread FOREVER
PaddockLad replied to Sonatine's topic in Newcastle Forum
96 unlawfully killed but no one held responsible. ... -
North Tyneside back in lockdown...if youâre thinking that you missed this news then youâre wrong, the advice changed on Friday but no one from government bothered to tell local authorities because...? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57232728
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Israel continues its merciless pounding of the defenceless.
PaddockLad replied to Park Life's topic in General Chat
An eviction in East Jerusalem lies at the center of a conflict that led to war between Israel and Hamas. But for millions of Palestinians, the routine indignities of occupation are part of daily life. By David M. Halbfinger and Adam Rasgon May 22, 2021 JERUSALEM â Muhammad Sandouka built his home in the shadow of the Temple Mount before his second son, now 15, was born. They demolished it together, after Israeli authorities decided that razing it would improve views of the Old City for tourists. Mr. Sandouka, 42, a countertop installer, had been at work when an inspector confronted his wife with two options: Tear the house down, or the government would not only level it but also bill the Sandoukas $10,000 for its expenses. Such is life for Palestinians living under Israelâs occupation: always dreading the knock at the front door. The looming removal of six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem set off a round of protests that helped ignite the latest war between Israel and Gaza. But to the roughly three million Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and has controlled through decades of failed peace talks, the story was exceptional only because it attracted an international spotlight. For the most part, they endure the frights and indignities of the Israeli occupation in obscurity. Even in supposedly quiet periods, when the world is not paying attention, Palestinians from all walks of life routinely experience exasperating impossibilities and petty humiliations, bureaucratic controls that force agonizing choices, and the fragility and cruelty of life under military rule, now in its second half-century. Underneath that quiet, pressure builds. If the eviction dispute in East Jerusalem struck a match, the occupationâs provocations ceaselessly pile up dry kindling. They are a constant and key driver of the conflict, giving Hamas an excuse to fire rockets or lone-wolf attackers grievances to channel into killings by knives or automobiles. And the provocations do not stop when the fighting ends. Home on the Edge No homeowner welcomes a visit from the code-enforcement officer. But itâs entirely different in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians find it nearly impossible to obtain building permits and most homes were built without them: The penalty is often demolition. Mr. Sandouka grew up just downhill from the Old Cityâs eastern ramparts, in the valley dividing the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives. At 19, he married and moved into an old addition onto his fatherâs house, then began expanding it. New stone walls tripled the floor area. He laid tile, hung drywall and furnished a cozy kitchen. He spent around $150,000. Children came, six in all. Ramadan brought picnickers to the green valley. The kids played host, delivering cold water or hot soup. His wife prepared feasts of maqluba (chicken and rice) and mansaf (lamb in yogurt sauce). He walked with his sons up to Al Aqsa, one of Islamâs holiest sites. In 2016, city workers posted an address marker over Mr. Sandoukaâs gate. It felt like legitimation. But Israel was drifting steadily rightward. The state parks authority fell under the influence of settlers, who seek to expand Jewish control over the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Citing an old plan for a park encircling the Old City, the authority set about clearing one unpermitted house after another. Now it was Mr. Sandoukaâs turn. Plans showed a corner of the house encroaching on a future tour-bus parking lot. Zeev Hacohen, an authority official, said erasing Mr. Sandoukaâs neighborhood was necessary to restore views of the Old City âas they were in the days of the Bible.â âThe personal stories are always painful,â he allowed. But the Palestinian neighborhood, he said, âlooks like the Third World.â Mr. Sandouka hired a lawyer and prayed. But he was at work a few months ago when someone knocked on his door again. This time, his wife told him, crying, it was a police officer. The Night Raid The knock at the door is not always just a knock. Badr Abu Alia, 50, was awakened around 2 a.m. by the sounds of soldiers breaking into his neighborâs home in Al Mughrayyir, a village on a ridge in the West Bank. When they got to his door, a familiar ritual ensued: His children were rousted from bed. Everyone was herded outside. The soldiers collected IDs, explained nothing and ransacked the house. They left two hours later, taking with them a teenager from next door, blindfolded. He had taken part in a protest four days earlier, when an Israeli sniper shot and killed a teenager who was wandering among the rock-throwers and spent tear-gas canisters. Al Mughrayyir was one of the few villages still mounting regular Friday protests. They began after settlers cut off access to some of the villagersâ farmland. The boyâs death became a new rallying cry. The army says it raids Palestinian homes at night because it is safer, and ransacks them to search for weapons, in routine crackdowns aimed at keeping militance in check. But the raids also inspire militance. Mr. Abu Alia seethed as he described seeing his son outside in the dark, âafraid, crying because of the soldiers, and I can do nothing to protect him.â âIt makes you want to take revenge, to defend yourself,â he went on. âBut we have nothing to defend ourselves with.â Stone-throwing must suffice, he said. âWe canât take an M-16 and go kill every settler. All we have are those stones. A bullet can kill you instantly. A little stone wonât do much. But at least Iâm sending a message.â Settlers send messages, too. They have cut down hundreds of Al Mughrayyirâs olive trees â vital sources of income and ties to the land â torched a mosque, vandalized cars. In 2019, one was accused of fatally shooting a villager in the back. The case remains open. A Family Divided For Majeda al-Rajaby the pain of occupation never goes away. It slices straight through her family. A twice-divorced teacher, Ms. al-Rajaby, 45, is divided from her five children by the different ways Israel treats Palestinians depending on where they are from. She grew up in the West Bank, in Hebron. But both her ex-husbands were Jerusalem residents, allowing them to travel anywhere an Israeli citizen may go. The children were entitled to the blue IDs of Jerusalem residents, too. Hers remained West Bank green. Both her husbands lived in Shuafat refugee camp, a lawless slum inside the Jerusalem city limits but just outside Israelâs security barrier. West Bankers are not allowed to live there, but the rule is not enforced. She had thought she was marrying up. Instead, she said her husbands âalways made me feel inferior.â After the second divorce, she was left on her own, with her green ID, to raise all five children with their blue IDs. The distinction could be life-threatening. When a daughter accidentally inhaled housecleaning chemicals, Ms. al-Rajaby tried to race her to the closest hospital, in Jerusalem. Soldiers refused to let her in. As a teacher in Shuafat, she had a permit to enter Jerusalem, but only until 7 p.m. It was 8:00. Her children are older now, but the distinction is just as keenly felt: Ms. al-Rajaby allows herself to be excluded from joyful moments and rites of passage so her children can enjoy advantages unavailable to her. She stays behind on the Palestinian side of the security barrier while they head off to Jaffa or Haifa, or on shortcuts to Hebron through Jerusalem, a route forbidden to her. âWest Banker,â they tease her, waving goodbye. One daughter is 21 now and engaged and goes on jaunts into Israel with her fiancĂ©âs mother. âI should be with them,â Ms. al-Rajaby said. Last summer, Ms. al-Rajaby moved out of Shuafat to a safer neighborhood just outside the Jerusalem city limits, in the West Bank. That means her children could lose their blue IDs if Israel determined that their primary residence was with her. âIâm not allowed to live there,â she said of Shuafat, âand my daughters are not allowed to live here.â Constrained as she is, Ms. al-Rajaby wants even more for her children than freedom to move about Israel. In 2006, her daughter Rana, then 7, was burned in a cooking accident. An Italian charity paid for treatment at a hospital in Padua. Mother and child stayed for three months. The experience opened Ms. al-Rajabyâs eyes. She saw green parks, children in nice clothes, women driving cars. âIt was the moment of my liberation,â she said. âI started thinking: âWhy do they have this? Why donât we?ââ Today, she urges all her children to see the world, and holds out hope that they might emigrate. âWhy,â she asked, âshould someone keep living under the mercy of people who have no mercy?â Working for the Occupation Try as they might to make their accommodations with Israel, Palestinians often find themselves caught in the occupationâs gears. Majed Omar once earned a good living as a construction worker inside Israel. But in 2013, his younger brother was spotted crossing through a gap in Israelâs security barrier. A soldier shot him in the leg. Mr. Omar, 45, was collateral damage. Israel revoked his work permit just in case he had ideas about taking revenge â something Israel says happens too often. He sat unemployed for 14 months. When Israel reissued his permit, it only allowed him to work in the fast-growing West Bank settlements, where workers are paid half as much, searched each morning and supervised by armed guards all day. Which is how he came to be the foreman on a crew that remodels Jewish homes and expands Israeli buildings on land the Palestinians have long demanded as part of their hoped-for state. In a small way, itâs like digging his own grave, Mr. Omar said. âBut weâre living in a time when everyone sees whatâs wrong and still does it.â The Checkpoint Violence is often sudden and brief. But the nagging dread it instills can be just as debilitating. Nael al-Azza, 40, is haunted by the Israeli checkpoint he must pass through while commuting between his home in Bethlehem and his job in Ramallah. At home, he lives behind walls and cultivates a lush herb and vegetable garden in the backyard. But nothing protects him on his drive to work, not even his position as a manager in the Palestinian firefighting and ambulance service. Recently, he said, a soldier at the checkpoint stopped him, told him to roll down his window, asked if he had a weapon. He said no. She opened his passenger door to take a look, then slammed it shut, hard. He wanted to object. But he stopped himself, he said: Too many confrontations with soldiers end with Palestinians being shot. âIf I want to defend my property and my self-respect, thereâs a price for that,â he said. His commute is a 14-mile trip as the crow flies, but a 33-mile route, because Palestinians are diverted in a wide loop around Jerusalem along a tortuous two-lane road of steep switchbacks. Even so, it ought to take less an hour â but often takes two or three, because of the checkpoint. The Israelis consider the checkpoint essential to search for fleeing attackers or illegal weapons or to cut the West Bank in two in case of unrest. Palestinians call it a choke point that can be shut off on a soldierâs whim. It is also a friction point, motorists and soldiers each imagining themselves as the otherâs target. Idling and inching along, Mr. al-Azza compared traffic to blood flow. Searching one car can mean an hourâs delay. The soldiers are so young, he said, âThey donât feel the weight of stopping 5,000 cars.â He thinks only of those delayed. âWhen they impede your movement and cause you to fail at your job, you feel like youâve lost your value and meaning,â he said. A few nights each week, delays force him to sleep at work and settle for video calls with his three children. On weekend outings, the checkpoint takes a different toll on his family. âI try to keep my kids from speaking about the conflict,â he said. âBut they see and experience things I have no answer for. When weâre driving, we turn the music on. But when we reach the checkpoint, I turn it off. I donât know why. Iâll see them in the mirror: All of a sudden, they sit upright and look anxious â until we cross and I turn the music back on.â Deadly scenarios constantly play out in Mr. al-Azzaâs head: What if a tire blew out or his engine stalled? What if a young soldier, trained to respond instantly, misconstrued it as a threat? âItâs not possible to put it out of mind,â he said. âWhen youâre hungry, you think about food.â In the Bubble No Palestinian is insulated from the occupationâs reach â not even in the well-to-do, privileged âbubbleâ of Ramallah, where Israeli soldiers are seldom seen. Everyone Sondos Mleitat knows bears the scars of some trauma. Her own: Hiding with her little brother, then 5, when Israeli tanks rolled into Nablus, where she was raised. In the dark, she said, he pulled all his eyelashes out, one by one. Today, Ms. Mleitat, 30, runs a website connecting Palestinians with psychotherapists. Instead of reckoning with their lingering wounds, she said, people seek safety in social conformity, in religion, in the approval gleaned from Facebook and Instagram likes. But all of those, she said, only reinforce the occupationâs suffocating effects. âThis is all about control,â she said. âPeople are going through a type of taming or domestication. They just surrender to it and feel they canât change anything.â After her uncle was killed by Israeli soldiers at a protest, she said, his younger brother was pushed into marriage at 18 âto protect him from going down the same path.â But a nation of people who reach adulthood thinking only about settling down, she said, is not a nation that will achieve independence. âThey think theyâre getting out of this bubble, but theyâre not,â she said. Homeless Mr. Sandouka earns about $1,800 in a good month. He hoped the lawyer could quash the demolition order. âI thought they would just give us a fine,â he said. Then he got another panicked call from home: âThe police were there, making my family cry.â Khalas, he said, enough. He would tear it down himself. Early on a Monday, his sons took turns with a borrowed jackhammer. They almost seemed to be having fun, like wrecking a sand castle. Finished, their moods darkened. âItâs like weâre lighting ourselves on fire,â said Mousa, 15. âThey want the land,â said Muataz, 22. âThey want all of us to leave Jerusalem.â In 2020, 119 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem were demolished, 79 of them by their owners. When all was rubble, Mr. Sandouka lit a cigarette and held it with three beefy fingers as it burned. His pants filthy with the dust of his familyâs life together, he climbed atop the debris, sent photos to the police and contemplated his options. Moving to the West Bank, and sacrificing Jerusalem residency, was unthinkable. Moving elsewhere in Jerusalem was unaffordable. A friend offered a couple of spare rooms as a temporary refuge. Mr. Sandoukaâs wife demanded permanency. âShe told me if I donât buy her a home, thatâs it â everyone can go their separate ways,â he said. He turned his eyes uphill toward the Old City. âThese people work little by little,â he said. âItâs like a lion that eats one, and then another. It eventually eats everything around it.â -
Can you explain how the public vote works for us mate? Graham Norton was a couple of bottles in by then and couldnât be arsed ...
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Three Commonwealth countries didnât give UK a point Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Israel (theyâve just finished murdering the people they keep in an open prison but still got 100+ points ) etc didnât give UK a point Nothing to do with Brexit, UK sent an atonal potato to croak along to a backing track that sounded like a three minute cry for mercy just before a lethal injection. Try sending someone with talent, charisma and a decent song next time Having said that, it was the first time Iâd watched it since I was old enough to drink and it was better than all the Newcastle United games Iâve watched this season put together Voted for Ukraine. Liked Azerbaijan very much indeed. There was about 10 very decent acts/performances, including the winners Italy who looked a bit like extras from Velvet Goldmine whoâd recruited Lenny Kravitz to play guitar. Switzerland song was insipid wank, liked the French Edith Piaf girl though.
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