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Martin Calladine

@uglygame.bsky.social

7.4K followers 800 following 4.6K posts

Writer of books, most recently: No Questions Asked: How Football Joined the Crypto Con (amzn.to/42aKE0w). Investigative pieces at http://theuglygame.wordpress.com/

theuglygame.wordpress.com

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · Jan 22

🚨 Out now 🚨
NO QUESTIONS ASKED
How football joined the crypto con

What happened when football got into crypto? It's a tale of fraudsters, ghostship firms, bogus investments, pyramid schemes, gigantic losses and organised crime.

Get your copy here: amzn.to/42aKE0w

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 19m

Bumping this now Kogan has been officially confirmed at football's first regulator.

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · Apr 25

Very interesting interview with inaugural football regular David Kogan from August 2022, talking about regulation in general and a football regulator in particular. Listen from 18m25s onwards.
www.buzzsprout.com/1055806/epis...

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 25m

Seems to me that if you're trying to see off populist opponents, then ending profiteering by a universally unpopular industry, with the potential to reduce water bills and clean up our rivers and beaches, might've been a big, popular thing to do.

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 28m

Extraordinary that the government is going to go into the next election having spent tens of billions of pounds on an ID card system that will be unpopular *and* produce no noticeable improvements to everyday life instead of renationalising the water industry.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Millions of households face jump in water bills after regulator backs more price rises

Competition watchdog agrees requests from Anglian, Northumbrian, Southern, Wessex and South East to raise household bills

www.theguardian.com

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 14h

...original: the absurd, vitriolic, self-righteous, preening anger of people overreacting to something minor. (This group would doubtless be furious about being called keyboard warriors.)

I guess context is everything, which is a bit unfortunate when we're talking about social media.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 14h

That's a good question. I can speak only from my experience, but I think there are two uses.

One, increasingly the primary, being a rote response line commonly used by people with a public profile to try and dismiss and delegitimise those who criticise their actions.

The second is the...

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 14h

He ends by decrying those who judge "the motives of those who choose to travel there."

No one is saying he's a bad guy for visiting Saudi. They're saying he a hypocritical, bullshitter for calling out the theocratic oppression of women in Iran and then taking money from MBS to play Riyadh.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 14h

But perhaps the worst piece of sophistry is this.

Almost no one is "judging the region [and] its people". They are judging the cruel, despotic regime, a regime whose chief victims are the ordinary Saudis routinely denied civil and political rights and subject to oppression, torture and execution.

One American comedian not invited to the festival wrote of the comedians who went to Riyadh, "your hypocrisy will never be not noted." Another American who turned down the offer was reported to have said, "I said no because I won't do a show in a country responsible for 9/11." Two funny guys I like very much. But maybe go there first before judging the region, its people and the motives of those who choose to travel there?

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 14h

People criticising Djalili are, of course, keyboard warriors - or his dressed up euphemism for them; presumably because he considers himself too sophisticated to just resort to that kind of cliched ad hominem.

There's a saying in the Middle East: "It's not about what you hear, it's about being here." And the truth is, if you're sitting behind a keyboard on the other side of the border lecturing on a social media site owned by a billionaire, then your capacity to contribute to positive change might be somewhat compromised.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15h

100%. He was one of the few that people actually expected better of.

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15h

Me, too. Ironically, he was actually dropped from the line-up when he defended his participation by saying, in effect, "the US government murders journalists too."

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15h

It's the most insanely idiotic argument, isn't it? A three year old could see through it.

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15h

There's a good pod from It Could Happen Here that hammers the comedians for consistently trying to elide the distinction between playing in Saudi and playing for the Saudi government.
podcastaddict.com/it-could-hap...

podcastaddict.com

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15h

Still, I suppose it's a dream for comedians to be able to do the same material for seven years and still be paid handsomely for doing shows.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15h

It think it would be really helpful if Omid could produce a ranked list of indicators of female empowerment showing where the right to drive is and how many items he thinks there are above it.

Because the way Saudi hirelings harp on about it, they must think it's top three - or at least top ten.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15h

That's it. It's actually insulting that he thinks people would buy this bullshit.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 16h

How come is it that, if things are changing so rapidly and significantly, Saudi shills are still pointing to one thing that happened seven years ago?

I think we're all ready to hear about all the huge social advances for women that have happened since then.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 16h

It blows my mind that apologists for the Saudi regime continue to trot out the "women can drive now" talking point as if that's remotely significant, let alone the first link in a chain that leads inevitably to the granting of basic human rights, bodily autonomy and a measure of genuine equality.

One significant sign of progress in the Middle East is how women are treated. In Saudi, women were not even allowed to drive until 2018. Seven years later I am on stage in Riyadh doing jokes about it. A routine at the expense of the men who get frustrated with women who actually abide by the traffic laws went down well

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 16h

I see Omid Djalili wants everyone to believe, among other things, that rich people don't do things for the money and that accepting a big cheque to play in Saudi from the Saudi government doesn't amount to endorsing the regime.

Very droll.

The perception that we, as comedians, were all being paid to be silent was as laughable as the idea that Dave Chappelle, a hugely successful comic with an estimated worth of $70m (£52m), was doing his show in Riyadh for the money.

Going to Saudi Arabia is not about endorsing a regime. Performing is not selling out. Rather it is about sharing laughter and a chance for cultural exchange as a force for social transformation. And we underestimate the transformative power of comedy at our peril. So I went.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 16h

The last and next ten years of British politics.

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 16h

It's the golden rule of grievance politics: you will never be happy. You are a permanent captive to the infinity goalpost.

Reposted by Martin Calladine

Max Colbert @mc00.bsky.social · 17h

I feel like if you had to ban social media for any group of people for their own protection, you should probably start with people over 60.

Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 1d

🚨🚨 #Denmark aims to ban #socialmedia for children under 15. PM Mette Frederiksen says "We have unleashed a monster" to Danish lawmakers. 🧵https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-mette-frederiksen-partially-ban-social-media-children-under-15/

Denmark aims to ban social media for children under 15, PM says

“We have unleashed a monster,” Mette Frederiksen tells Danish lawmakers.

www.politico.eu

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 21h

True. He only ever wanted to be able to say he'd been Prime Minister, so he'd achieved everything he wanted to politically on day one in Downing Street.

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 21h

Everyone's looking forward gleefully to Badenoch's ousting, but, like Johnson and Truss, because she has a reality distortion field, while there will be some schadenfreude there won't be any admission of failure, any self-reflection, any apology. It will just be complaints and self-justification.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 1d

If your team cannot function at all without your star quarterback, then you likely have problems beyond just the injury to your QB.

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 1d

This is the Bengals all over. Knowing they can't any longer get away with doing absolutely nothing, they use a draft pick to move up from the 40th best QB in the league to the 36th best. It's not designed to save the season; it aims only to defect criticism for a few weeks.

Dianna Russini @diannarussini.bsky.social · 1d

TRADE: The Bengals are acquiring Joe Flacco and a sixth-round pick from the Browns for a fifth-round pick, sources say.

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 2d

...differently to football?