Dr. Gonzo

Whooooaaa if the UK ends up with anywhere near same shite system of healthcare as the US, that's not good news for anyone. American drug prices are an absolute fucking scam and the American pharmaceutical industry is so incredibly predatory. You couple that with private health insurance and the entire healthcare industry looks like an awful awful scam here. Here I get my health insurance through work, but I still have to pay a fraction of it out of my wages - I think I pay about 4% of my paycheck into my insurance. I have good coverage, but it still feels like a ripoff. And in the U.S., I think most people don't have their employers pay for their insurance (I think it's 51% have their own insurance) - for them the costs are higher because they're paying 100% of that bill. Right now even drug companies in the U.S. give preferential rates to Medicaid - their state run health system. For everyone else in the country, the rates are significantly higher for drug prices because they've negotiated with individual health insurance companies what the values of each drug costs. So @Stan is absolutely right, if the rate NHS pays for drugs is on the negotiating table, it is CRITICAL that the information about the pricing is made public. If drug prices in the UK get anywhere near what they are in the U.S. - the NHS is absolutely fucked. The austerity goons will point to how expensive it is to maintain the NHS after these new drug prices come into effect, and then all of a sudden there will be a huge push for the dismantling of the NHS and selling facilities to private caregivers. This is after a bus was driven around the city saying the money we pay to the EU will go towards the NHS - so this is a pretty big betrayal to Brexit voters who may have believed that load of shite, and surely by now must have come to terms with the fact that NHS would in fact probably be working with a smaller budget after Brexit than what as promised (although those people were fucking true). If we move to the U.S. model of healthcare, it's not going to be good for the working class - just like it's not for the working class in the United States (source: https://www.apexedi.com/medical-bills-the-leading-cause-of-bankruptcy-in-the-united-states/). It's also not good for business generally - there's lots of evidence that shows having a well working public health system (like NHS) means that employers don't need to provide expensive health insurance for their workers (because in a business perspective, a healthy workforce is a productive workforce - if you've got people that are constantly ill, that's people that you either need to replace, which costs money, or those workers are less productive because they're constantly ill, which costs money). And it's particularly bad for smaller businesses, as health insurance can be very costly - so that's a big chunk of capital that smaller businesses would be otherwise using to grow their businesses. So really two opposite ends that feel the biggest brunt of that... assuming that these pharmaceuticals are interested in having UK prices be closer to what they are in the US. And even if it doesn't come close to US prices and is just a minor increase, any price increase means a higher cost to maintain the NHS at it's current standards. As said above, the NHS should not and should never be a part of a trade deal with any nation. Especially not the one developed country with the predatory form of healthcare.

That's mental

I think the worst thing about VAR is now fans don’t have to deal with one idiot referee that doesn’t know what the fuck is going on. They’ve got to deal with 2 idiots now - and the one of the idiots gets to defy reasonable expectations of competence by getting to watch a replay to make the wrong decision

Yeah but now it’s very obvious when a ref fucks up and controversy is probably higher when VAR doesn’t fix the error. And what I saw with that James dive yesterday was totally fucking ridiculous. The referee correctly said no penalty, VAR stepped in and said “nah its a penalty.” After reviewing the fucking video! That should NEVER happen, it’s an absolute joke.

Isn’t that the new deadline. I want to know what the deadline after January 31 will be.

There’s a new deadline. I wonder when the next deadline will be.

Nike won the case. Not sure how I feel about it tbh - because I don't really buy kits. But the New Balance ones were really nice looking and fairly unique, imo. But the big criticism was that New Balance's distribution was crap so the shirts would always sell out and then it would take forever for them to be back in stock. Nike's unlikely to have stocking issues like New Balance. But the kits are probably going to look generic as fuck, because that's what Nike does - just recycles the same year's designs around for as many clubs and international sides as possible. They're also a pretty horrible company - though I'm pretty sure all of these kit manufacturers are as well. And we had Adidas as a kit maker before and they're just as bad as Nike.

Chicago does have very good beer and a lot of breweries. It's also actually the one place I've found where quite a few places had San Diego beers - and there are some really great stores just for buying bottles of beer from literally all over the world in Chicago. So yeah, Chicago might be THE beer Mecca - but I maintain that San Diego is probably the big beer capital west of Chicago. Virginia's supposed to have a few great local breweries as well. And as @Eco mentioned, Ohio's got quite a few big ones as well. Texas has some beer companies that are very popular in Texas... but imo they're shite beers - at least the ones I had. But I disagree on nothing wrong with Budweiser or Coors, other than... they're better than Miller (marginally). If I want a cheap lager, I'd much rather have a Stella or a Becks or one of the Mexican lagers than Budweiser/Coors - and if you buy your cheap beers in bulk (which you should) it's a marginal difference for a better cheap beer. But yeah PBR (I've not had the other one) shits on Budweiser and Coors imo. I don't drink lagers all that much though.

You’ve uh just quoted yourself there mate

Holy shit that’s fucked up

Apparently I can't give out any more rep thingies anymore today. So please imagine that I've just upvoted or given the heart rep thing to that post

Well if you do, let me know and we will get drunk as fuck

If I'm around let's get drunk as fuck mate

A lot of them don't. I used to feel the same way until I moved here and everyone was drinking craft beer at every bar and I figured "fuck it, I'll try one." A lot of these breweries I think are aware of that sort of perception of craft beer - so they usually have a few beers that are meant to taste a bit "normal." If you ever come to San Diego, you owe it to yourself to try some of the fucking beer here - it's ridiculous.

Oh and my favourite breweries off that list would have to be: AleSmith (if you like ales of any sort, check them out - my favourite is a Pale Ale, Alesmith .394; it's got something to do with San Diego legend Tony Gwynn but who cares about the backstory - it's good beer). Karl Strauss (probably SD's first "big" craft beer brewery - all of their shite is great imo. My favourite's an IPA called Aurora Hoppyallis, it's fucking great) Belching Beaver (hilarious name - their "normal" beers aren't my favourite, but they have this peanut butter stout and it's fucking fantastic - forget the specific name of it) Societe Mikkeller It might be harder to find those away from San Diego though - although maybe not Karl Strauss, I was able to find some of that the last time I was in San Francisco. But it might be harder to find that out of California. The easier to find San Diego beers would be: Stone - probably our biggest brewery; I think they opened a brewhouse in Germany as well. Balast Point - they got bought out by the people that own Modelo, I think. Their quality though, has gone waaaaaay south since they're no longer independent though. But if you like IPAs, Sculpin (and the variants of it) are worth trying. If I go to the store though, I'm either going to grab myself AleSmith or Karl Strauss 9/10 times though. But yeah, American beer is only shit if you assume that Americans only drink Budweiser, Coors, and Miller. But the craft beer scene in America is otherworldly - Americans like beer and they like things that taste good, so America's got some really great beer.

San Diego is a beer MECCA. For instance, you listed Goose Island as a fantastic beer - but here it's considered a "meh" beer because the city has so many breweries and is subsequently full of beer snobs. Just look at this fucking list: https://www.sandiego.org/articles/breweries/san-diego-breweries.aspx It's also the drink driving capital of California. I'm sure it's related

Who's responsible for the insane developments in solid state amplification & digital signal processing? Because oh my god... I don't think anything in the music world has come as far as cheap amps sounding good & amp modeling/effects modeling all of a sudden being great. That's another area where you can get astounding quality for fairly fucking cheap as a musician or music student. I remember when I fucking started... my amp was absolute shit - and I knew it because my dad had (still has, actually) a nice Marshall that sounds great. I had a MFX unit by Zoom, it was FUCKING CRAP - especially compared to like... any modern day MFX unit. Although it was cool for figuring out what effects I liked and didn't like... it just absolutely pales in comparison to what I'd have available to me at pretty low prices today if I'd been in the same position. Tbh, a used Squier/Jackson RS line and a Focusrite Scarlet... and there's a shitload of free amp sim plugins, effects, and IRs would give me a setup that tonally blows away what I started with - and it'd be cheaper. There really has never been a better time for wanting to learn how to play guitar.

I think the most shocking thing about the Classic Vibes is that the fret work is... pretty fucking good and they use nice pickups in them. And they're really fucking cheap. CNC machines are magic with how they've transformed "low budget" guitars into actually really good options for people at a cost that isn't fucking mental.

I think Vloggers in general are cringey as fuck. Blogs too, but at least those promote reading...

Yeah I've heard if you get a Squier with the gold Squier logo (didn't you buy a Classic Vibe recently?)… they're pretty solid guitars. I got my dad one because his guitar had a terrible accident and the repairs were really expensive and I thought that was a bit shit that he didn't have a guitar. And he loves it. And his guitar was an old Japanese knockoff Fender that was REALLY nice (RIP to that guitar), and he says his Squier is just as good. It's a good time to be a guitarist in terms of buying gear. Because there's a ton of stuff that isn't anywhere close to "top tier" in terms of price that can compete with more expensive gear. Maybe not the best time to be a guitarist if you want to be a Rockstar that makes a ton of money off their music though

I think the player series is the old MIM “Standard” line. But they had quite a few models made in Mexico other than the MIM Standards. Even some of the signature guitars are made in Mexico now. But yeah the Player Series and a few other of their product lines are Hecho en Mexico - and I played some recently that I thought held their own compared to their more expensive American cousins. In fact, that Charvel I loved was made in the Fender Ensenada factory!

Have you played the new MIM Fenders though? At least the higher end ones... are ridiculously good. The Fender Ensenada factory is actually fucking great at quality control now though. Do Fender still make guitars in Japan? Because I know in the 90s Japanese Fenders/Jacksons were legendary - but I think they're a lot more rare now. I've never played a guitar from Indonesia that didn't have sharp fret edges though, which I hate.

@Mel81x have you ever played a guitar made in Japan that wasn't great? Because in my experience... that shite is just top fucking tier, regardless of whatever brand I've played. I know they've got to have some shit budget brands somewhere... but I haven't seen them. I've always though it's weird to praise a guitar based on where it's been made - because I've actually played guitars made from places that are supposedly "shite" and they've been actually really good guitars, just not as nice as some of the more expensive things. But the stuff from Japan has always impressed me.

Oh the Fireman is the Paul Gilbert signature... I've seen this before!

Mate in the future... don't vote on shite that's that important without researching. It's better to not vote than to make an uninformed vote. Granted, a shitload of people probably voted without being informed. But that's their own fucking fault and the country has to pay for it. But ultimately, the massive and complex impact of Brexit really meant this should have been a decision for our elected representatives (who are supposed to be more informed than the fucking public, but... lol I don't think that's true) rather than the public at large. So... massively irresponsible and stupid from Cameron really, but we all knew that. Lib Dems are the fucking worst. They serve the purpose of sucking away votes from people that rightly dislike tories, but then fall for the bullshit tories and the media push about Labour so they feel they can't vote Labour, so instead they'll vote for lib dems. Who really just serve the economic interests of the tories. And we saw the last time they formed a coalition, lib dems will fucking fold when their ideological positions challenge tory positions - just for a bit of power. Fuck em.