Dr. Gonzo

Boris is a Tory, which makes him a total cunt

So if I’ve got this right the United States has: 1. Lots of oil and natural resources 2. Right wing and religious extremism 3. WMDs 4. An autocrat rejecting the results of an election refusing to leave power. ... ... Where are Bush and Cheney? It’s their time to shine.

Mike Pompeo said there will be a smooth transition... ... into Trump's second term. The GOP seems to be getting more and more into the idea of doing what they can to claim they won the election despite what the state vote counts might say. A bit worrying, tbh.

Now that he's got his job back and we don't have to be upset at Arsenal for sacking someone during a pandemic (which is extra cunty)... I'm going to say something that might be unpopular. The guy is paid way too fucking much for a man who's just in a dinosaur costume for, at most, a couple days a week. Also... I hate mascots for football clubs. I'm glad he's not unemployed during this COVID crisis, because I really sympathise with anyone that's lost their job (or their business) because of how the economy has slowed down. But holy shit, if Arsenal didn't give him a serious pay cut... well done to him he's fleecing them and making a mockery of anyone that's got a harder job that gets paid less than him (which is a shitload of people lol).

I've been riding my bike a lot more in the past few weeks, which has always been my favourite way to get exercise.

Armenia got pretty fucked by the world being distracted by a pandemic... and by concepts of realpolitik hitting them hard in the face (nobody wanting to send their troops to "help" a small landlocked nation with limited natural resources + the regional powers having a more vested interest in Azerbaijan's oil pipeline). Also the fact that Putin doesn't really like Pashinyan because he rooted out a lot of Putin allies from Armenia's government did not help them with getting Russia involved. Russia sells weapons to both sides and while they did provide military support to Armenia... I think the only thing that stopped Azerbaijan from steamrolling Armenian/Artsakh forces (because the last few weeks of the war have been utterly brutal on the Armenian forces) was Azerbaijan shooting down a Russian military helicopter. I think otherwise, Azerbaijan probably could have overrun the contested territories and won the war outright. I think the only reason they're agreeing to Russian peacekeepers is because they've pissed Russia off. A lot of people in Armenia are very pissed off at Pashinyan... but I really don't know if he had a choice other than throwing more men into the meatgrinder. But both sides were suffering casualties at around at 1:1 ratio... with Azerbaijan having much more men to throw into battle. The fortress city of Shushi/Shusha (I think it's funny the difference between the names of the city for Armenians/Azeris is just one letter) fell and was cut off from Armenian supply lines - so the troops there (where there was still fighting going on as of a few hours ago) would likely have all been lost. Reports of Turkish forces being used in as "peacekeepers" has many Armenians particularly outraged. I've seen mixed sources on whether Turkish forces would be involved (the Turkish government isn't a signing party to the agreement, so there is that... but I do know Aliyev was making demands during initial negotiations for the peacekeepers to be Russian and Turkish). I wonder what will happen with Shushi, which is the home of important cultural sites for Armenians - will they safely be allowed to return to the city if they lived there. Will ethnic Armenian tourists be allowed to visit those cultural sites? I hope the peace holds beyond the 5 years of peacekeeping. This isn't a great situation for Armenia, but it's essentially the two countries agreeing to the terms of the conflict resolution the Minsk group negotiated... just with a heavy cost of human life. Hopefully all parties can be content with how things have panned out over time - Artsakh still exists (although a much smaller territory now) & Armenia retained all of its sovereign integrity. Azerbaijan has substantial land within it's internationally recognised borders restored. Turkey gets a land route uniting "all Turkic peoples" (plus their pipeline doesn't have to pass through Armenia now). Russia gets more influence than it's had in the Caucasus since the fall of the Soviet Union (plus the pipeline).

I like the second song better... I think cuz there's more Serj on it and it feels more "old school" whereas the other one sounds like the guitarist's other band.

That goes along with what that "sports medicine" guy on twitter predicted when Trent first went down injured. I'd never seen him before up until that point, would be interesting to see how accurate he at "predicting" this kind of shite based off the clips of injury.

Looks like Armenia is surrendering Nagorno-Karabagh, a bit sad tbh. There's now reports of gunfire in Yerevan... and an explosion in Baku. So looks like nationalists on both sides are disappointed by the terms of the Russian negotiated peace deal.

At least for an injury prone guy, he’s got one important quality - he typically slots back in like he’s missed no time.

Trump increased the drone campaign in Yemen though? He also had fake peace talks set up so he could blow up another country’s general (which I’m pretty sure is a war crime if you’re not the US). And if he wasn’t so beholden to Erdogan for his hotel, maybe he’d have been able to do something to stop the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. Tbh he did US foreign policy pretty “standard” compared to most US presidents, but also managed to piss off every one of his allies, while palling around with dictators. Biden’s probably just going to be an “ordinary” president, which means he’s probably going to be awful for a certain part of the world. But every US president is awful for that part of the world unless you’re the Saudi government or the Israeli government... And I think having a president that can read and understand what he’s read, as well as understanding general concepts of diplomacy, will be more handy for the US & the people in the world that try to deal with the US.

@Eco are we still streaking across the USA and meeting in the middle? God bless Atlanta, the jewel of the south.

I wonder how bad he’ll fuck things up before Biden is sworn in

For everything Trump has done as President, there is a tweet from before he was President that criticises what he's done

He also said he's day-to-day but Klopp won't say what game he'll be ready for until he can first at least return to first team training - which he can't just yet.

Nice!

Georgia is so fucking close holy shit

69 million apparently... ... it's pretty disheartening tbh, that more Americans turned up to vote for him this time - after 4 years of sitting through this bullshit - than they did the first time. I would be surprised, but like I told Eco yesterday... I've seen the same shite happen in the UK too. But Trump's a bit different to Tories just running the country into the ground over a decade and then still having the country's support - it's the same thing... but just done so much faster and chaotically. It's genuinely hard to believe that he got as many votes as he's getting - I believe it because, by most accounts (other than from Trump and his supporters) it's looking to just be an election with fairly high turnout from the US and there isn't voter fraud going on. But one of his claims from that absurd statement he made doesn't reconcile with his claims of voter fraud or being cheated. He's claiming there's widespread voter fraud to steal the election from him. He's also claiming the results of the election where his party won seats or survived bitter reelection campaigns are valid. I'm not sure you can logically hold out that an election is valid in some respects, but not valid in others... just because you don't like the opinion. It's either a fraud stealing it from him and any other candidates that lost, or it's not and he's just got to face the facts that he's less popular than other shitty members of his shitty party.

Murdoch's the worst person on the face of the planet, it'll take a lot to convince me otherwise.

CNN's "headline" under it saying "Without Evidence, Trump Claims Election Stolen" made it pretty fucking amusing. I'm hearing Fox news is now pushing back on his statement. That's probably a good thing, this is really Murdoch's mess to clean up.

@Eco - I didn't know where to put this... so I figured this was the closest thread So my question is... can the House of Representatives investigate a Senator?

#1 is a bit fucked up. All of my family in Iran are probably more impacted by who is the US President than most actual Americans. Americans might not realise the scope of their vote (sadly), but they're a super power so who their leader is makes a big difference to the rest of the world. The sentiment from #2 is all fine and dandy, until you consider the arsehole's going to be demanding we accept meat that would be considered substandard in the UK currently in any trade deal and are wanting to NHS in jeopardy over a future trade deal. I think there's a question on whether America deserves to be as important as it is to the global economy based off the views of their voters... but there's no question this decision is going to make a huge impact on a lot of people around the world outside the US. Arguably, a bigger impact than it will for a ton of people living in the US.

I've just been googling "US Election" and it's got a pretty good thing keeping track. But New York Times has a slightly different one that's been free (at least in the US) for people without subscriptions. I've been flipping between both. It's important to note though, Google is using Associated Press for it's results - Associated Press & Fox called Arizona for Biden on day one - even though it's pretty tight in Arizona. Most of the media in the US (other than Fox news) is using a hybrid of AP & Edison Research (which hasn't called Arizona yet) - so if you go to New York Times or Washington Post. If we go with AP though, Nevada would be enough to decide it for Biden. But it's looking unlikely that we'll get the final results from Nevada today (although Biden widened the slight gap... a bit).

Every time I check, Georgia gets closer and closer.

If our 3 keepers are locked in as Southgate's top 3 keepers for England... we may a bit of a problem if Pickford's poor form stops him from playing regularly for Everton and if he might need replacing in the national team. Pope was one of the better keepers in England last season - but right now he's at the bottom side in the Premier League... so I can understand if there's big reservations starting Pope for England. And then, like you say... Henderson doesn't play anymore. I also agree with this. Tammy Abraham's not playing well and for the "squad" options rather than the main starters for the nation team... I'd rather go with people who are in form than just pick players signed to big clubs but don't play very much.