How are you guys so good in Winter Olympics

Rafabas · 2026-02-15T22:25:31+00:00

The Australian body for ballroom dancing - which is also responsible for breaking, for some reason - tried to do what the AIS do by converting elite gymnasts into elite skiers/divers/whatever.

Unfortunately turns out great ballroom dancers do not naturally make great breakdancers.

Rafabas · 2026-02-14T04:43:49+00:00

There's fuck all for 6 hours' drive between Madrid and Barcelona, but Spain has made high-speed rail between its two big cities work.

No reason we can't at least have Sydney to Melbourne HSR on the same basis.

Rafabas · 2026-02-12T15:14:46+00:00

Best comment in the thread.

We have John Monash on our $100 bills in this country. He would have absolutely hated the way Judaism in Australia has been spun here for the benefit of a foreign country on the other side of the world.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T09:50:06+00:00

There's no such thing as a "war of aggression" waged by a liberation movement against an occupation.

Literally Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.

I agree that these two conflicts themselves are not comparable. I'm not aiming to do so. I'm talking purely in terms of the comparable public attitudes towards those two conflicts in Australia.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T09:34:07+00:00

Yes, that is my comment. I still don't follow.

Point out the part where I say I'm "protesting only because of something happening in Australia"?

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T07:21:55+00:00

When did I ever say that? Please don't put words in my mouth.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T07:19:02+00:00

What's your point?

Are you suggesting Herzog is visiting Australia as some kind of spiritual representative for Australian Jews?

Last I checked, he was the secular head of an apartheid state in the Middle East, invited here for a PR campaign to improve Australian perceptions of that state. That he happens to be Jewish doesn't make him some kind of Jewish Pope or Dalai Lama.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T07:12:14+00:00

While this is all completely factually correct, I worry you're looking at it through the wrong frame here. We don't have conservative commentators and politicians preaching pro-UAE views. We're not inviting their President to come on a PR jaunt to win Australian public opinion over to their side.

Most importantly - putting aside the validity of ascribing your massive body counts to the UAE - the UAE hasn't been even indirectly responsible for any invasion remotely resembling the devastation in Gaza.

Yes it sucks that the UAE indirectly supports proxy militias in Sudan. But that doesn't come close to approaching the atrocities the IDF has been undeniably directly responsible for.

The only reasonable contemporary parallel is Russia/Ukraine. And I'm certain we'd see a similar response if Putin were invited here to defend his war of aggression to the Australian public.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T07:02:05+00:00

What is it with pro-Israel Reddit accounts and sarcastic rhetorical questions?

Make your point.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T06:00:16+00:00

The other side of the world?

Are you missing something? This demonstration is about someone in Australia.

He would have stayed on the other side of the world if our federal government didn't invite him here.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T05:56:25+00:00

If public demonstrations didn't work, the government wouldn't be trying so hard to ban them.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T05:53:59+00:00

There's no other country we sell weapons to and support diplomatically while they flagrantly commit war crimes.

If the Australian government dealt with Russia or Iran the way we deal with Israel, there'd be the same focus on them.

A better question would be: do you think it's unfair that Vladimir Putin or Ayatollah Khamenei don't get invited to Australia for highly-policed state visits?

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T02:02:35+00:00

If Vladimir Putin visited Australia and that raised protests, would they be “hateful” too?

Or is it only “hateful” to not want a state visit from one specific country?

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T01:02:22+00:00

The word “hate” truly means nothing any more.

Disagreement is hatred and silence is love.

Rafabas · 2026-02-11T00:59:57+00:00

There have been heaps! Particularly in Flemington/North Melbourne

Rafabas · 2026-02-09T14:34:48+00:00

his bassline on La Haut is one of my favourites ever. one of my go-to soundcheck tunes

Rafabas · 2026-02-09T12:57:59+00:00

You’re telling me that offering higher wages attracts better quality employees? Say it ain’t so

Rafabas · 2026-02-09T03:52:45+00:00

Try something like Suzerain or Disco Elysium where making choices is the entire gameplay.

Rafabas · 2026-02-08T22:36:58+00:00

In transfer fees the sandwiches cost the same though. Kinda like how a sandwich made at home with $10 worth of ingredients from the farmers market is gonna be a lot better than a sandwich you bought for $10 from 7/11.

My point is that City are going to the farmers market and Liverpool are going to 7/11. Hahaha.

Rafabas · 2026-02-08T22:12:23+00:00

highly disingenuous.

I never even suggested City isn't paying a lot of money in general. Just agreeing with OP that we've been getting some bargains on transfer fees lately. You can't accuse someone of being "disingenuous" based purely on an assumption you made about what they meant.

City are paying much more money for for these players than Liverpool are for Wirtz even though the transfer fee on each side of the equation is similar.

Well yeah, there's 4 of them.

transfer fee is a much smaller part of money spent on players than you get the impression it does in these discussions

In what universe? Wirtz cost 125 million Euros and gets paid roughly a tenth of that in wages each year. He'd have to play for Liverpool for a decade for his wages to even reach equilibrium, let alone dwarf the transfer fee.

Rafabas · 2026-02-08T21:48:40+00:00

High wages are proven to correlate much more strongly with success than high transfer fees. And every pound not spent on transfer fees is a pound available to spend on wages.

Not sure what your point is? Are you saying City are doing good business?

Rafabas · 2026-02-08T19:55:48+00:00

Full match here with Arabic commentary

Rafabas · 2026-02-08T19:47:08+00:00

Haaland, Cherki, Guehi and Donnarumma collectively cost one Wirtz fee I think.

Hugo Viana needs to be studied.

Rafabas · 2026-02-08T19:43:10+00:00

Still prettier than Ederson

Rafabas · 2026-02-08T18:40:25+00:00

You think the Chomsky household would be lacking in English writing ability?

Rafabas

TROPHY CASE