Dr. Gonzo

To trick his brother’s wife?

The beers here don’t have enough alcohol in them unless I get shit like Heineken or Budweiser or other shit I don’t really like to drink - and those aren’t even high alcohol content beers. Baiju is what we’ve been drinking at our meetings and that’s all good for getting drunk but I’ve got to meet with people for work in the morning so I can’t really get as drunk as I’d need to be to not be pissed off at how this trip is just dragging on and on and on. The way things have been spaced out for work has just made this all the more unpleasant. It feels like it’s never ending

Yeah it’s shit

I cannot express how much I wish it were Tuesday so I could be on my flight back

Yeah if you only do business in Britain, Brexit will either have no impact to your business or maybe even a positive impact. But it's bad for British businesses that export goods and services - they don't really know where they will stand in the future and there's been no clarity for them really in the last 2 years. But one of the most prominent in the leave camp said "fuck business" so I suppose business doesn't matter... bollocks to the economy I suppose. It's also bad for foreign businesses that export to the UK for the same reasons. And it's also really awkward for the people who moved to the UK from EU member states. The referendum was stupid because it was far too vague for the general voting public. People were voting either for the status quo or a mystery option that was completely undefined. And Brexit meant different things to different people. I suppose a lot of people had a lot more faith in our political leadership than they really should have. A better option for the referendum would have been to lay out a plan for what Brexit would actually mean. And then the options would have been remain or leave under certain terms that were laid out. And then leave could have campaigned on what those terms actually were, rather than just making stuff up. Instead it was completely undefined and people made stuff up in the campaign and created illusions of what Brexit would mean.

Sweden's in the EU - maybe you mean Switzerland? Norway and Switzerland are both in the European Free Trade Association (there's 2 other countries, I forget who they are). They're part of the single market, but not part of the EU customs union. They're a bit different though. Norway is part of the European Economic Area (EEA). They adopt most EU legislation, except for the common agriculture/fisheries regulations, maybe more... I'm not sure though, maybe @Harvsky knows in more detail. They also have to pay the EU money in grants that doesn't go towards Norway at all. They get a lot of the benefits of the EU - namely the single market and are allowed to participate in certain EU programs. But they have 0 voting rights within the EU - so they have some legislation completely imposed on them... but they don't have a say in it. If that's the end result of Brexit, that's not so bad... but it does beg the question why we'd want to leave the EU, continue to pay into it, still have legislation "imposed" upon us by the EU, while losing our ability to have any say in what that legislation is. The Switzerland method is much more complicated and I'm a bit confused by it so I can't go into it with more detail. But it's unique in that the Swiss vote on whether certain EU legislation really applies to them. But the Swiss fucking love voting and referendums. I'm thoroughly opposed to the Swiss method here in Britain because I think people voting on things they don't fully understand is stupid and not the best way to run a nation (see: Brexit). It might work in some countries, but I don't think it works well with the UK (see: Brexit).

I just googled the temperature in Dubai in April and it’s averaged at 33 - so it’s fucking brutal

Guardiola’s first season at City was better than Rodgers seasons that weren’t the one good season. First season struggles were probably due to starting him implementing his own tactics into his new side. Rodgers shouldn’t have ever been our manager, there’s nothing you can say that’ll convince me otherwise. It’s his own fault he signed bad players and didn’t know how to effectively use the good players he signed like the man who came after him was able to. And he had the gall to blame the transfer committee for his ineptitude despite being on the committee and having the final say on all players brought in. And when you look at what the other big man in the transfer committee, Michael Edwards, and how he’s done since being promoted to our sporting director it makes Rodgers complaints even more bullshit. Again, the best things to come from his time with us is Firmino (who he also had no clue how to use) and Klopp coming in after him. Now let’s stop talking about the Celtic manager please

Markovic and Balotelli are dogshit, but Lovren and Lallana (arguably our best player in Klopp’s first season) aren’t that bad and yeah I think Guardiola would have done better than Rodgers because Guardiola is at least 10 times the manager Rodgers is. Sort of like how Klopp took his side and immediately we started playing better, even if the results weren’t great. And everyone can speak bullshit, it’s ridiculous to think you don’t ever talk out of your arse sometimes

How many of our matches have you even watched in your life? I mean no offense from this at all, but I read the first sentence of this and I thought “oh look it’s a long post and it’s all going to be fucking bullshit.” The only thing that wasn’t bullshit in that post is that Balotelli has always been overrated and that lazy turd should have never been brought to our clubs The fact of the matter is we only ever had one good season with Rodgers. He wasn’t cut out to be our manager despite that one season. The best thing about Rodgers is he signed Firmino (had no clue how to use him, mind you) and we got Klopp after Rodgers was binned. Not even that good but very flawed season comes close to what he did for the club by bringing in Bobby and staying on despite being out of his depth until Klopp was ready to join us. I still think he should never have been our manager. And I’m going to trust my opinion on my club more than I trust some outsiders opinion. But you’re gonna see things differently so let’s just agree to disagree

I agree with the sentiment, but Maduro is also fucking scum.

So it’s all emotional shit that doesn’t really matter and has fuck all to do with the well-being of the UK. Well I hope to fuck we do stay in the single market so the voters didn’t devestate our economy just because of their little feelings. Also I hope we don’t go the Swiss way if we do that because I don’t know if I can stomach giving the voting public more say on important matters.

Specifically what core competencies and identities? As far as I can tell the single market is what makes the EU most like a nation state. Freedom to travel and work without a visa, trade without tariffs among member nations, shit like that. And obviously they can mandate binding laws onto member states. There’s also plenty that doesn’t make it a country. It doesn’t have a unified “domestic” policy - because it’s made up of member states. It doesn’t have a unified foreign policy at all either. And the fact that all member states do recognise each other’s sovereignty is another big factor. Either way, my point was if leaving the EU means leaving behind the single market and thus leaving behind mutually beneficial multilateral trade agreements... it’s going to hurt us on trade. And if we’re to remain in the single market, we will lose still be subject to EU mandates... while losing our ability to participate in deciding what those mandates are.

It’s an economic and political union - not just a trade block and I never said that. NATO has a flag too, but it’s also not a country, same with ISIS and they have an army too. The single market is part of what the EU is. If we cannot remain in the single market like Norway or Switzerland Brexit will definitely mean we leave our multilateral trade agreements.

Each year under Klopp we made steady progress. Can’t say the same about Rodgers.

It’s literally the only time he’d ever shown any tactical flexibility and he only did it, as proven by his lack of tactical flexibility in his tenure with us, because he would have been so stupid not to use two players who were scoring for fun in a way that kept them scoring for fun. And that’s why I think he was forced into it. I’ll give him credit for showing that tactical flexibility that one solitary time... but I do think any other decent manager could have done the same and probably given our side a shitload more balance at the back. And his inability to find any balance is what ultimately cost us in his one good season with us. To highlight his infuriating stubbornness with tactics, just look at his time as manager without Suarez. He didn’t want to deviate from his original setup until he was forced to with a Sturridge starting the season on fire and Suarez being an incredible striker. I might be harsh for criticising the one thing he ever did well as our manager, but he was also a manager that routinely pissed me the fuck off and I genuinely dislike him for how he was so stubborn tactically that he essentially wasted our last season with Gerrard. And one good year with major flaws doesn’t paper over the cracks. And the fact that he’s got the personality of David Brent with the ego of Mourinho makes me feel much more justified in being harsh with him.

Unless one of those changes is signing a prime Luis Suarez, or uprooting the club to Scotland where you’ll be the best side in the league, I wouldn’t have high expectations.

It’s impossible to say how good he is at transfers. He wanted credit for all of the good signings, but wanted to blame players that didn’t perform on the transfer committee (that he was a part of). Many players that were signed under him that didn’t look so great initially ended up looking much better under Klopp. Firmino, Lovren, and Lallana in particular. Tactically though he only had one year where he looked like a great tactician. And he was pretty much forced into using those tactics - switching from his preferred 4-3-3 to the 4-4-2 diamond, so Suarez and Sturridge both played up top (rather than him forcing Sturridge out wide). It was never his preferred formation - he just used it because playing those two up top with Gerard as a deep lying playmaker turned out to be devestating. And even then, he still could never learn how to defend. And then once Sturridge was constantly injured and Suarez was sold, he couldn’t figure out why the side couldn’t score, or why Gerrard as a deep lying playmaker with literally no movement ahead of him didn’t work. Meanwhile he still had no clue on how to organise a defense. So as someone who watched him every match of his career as our manager, I think it’s safe to say that as a tactician.... yes he is that bad.

It was a hypothetical example, but I disagree that the EU is not a trade block. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_bloc https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-Relations/Japan-and-EU-form-world-s-largest-free-trade-bloc2 The EU is not a country, trading with the EU means by definition means trading with multiple countries, you can’t just call it bilateral trade because you don’t want it to be a multilateral trade agreement. I fundamentally disagree the the EU has the competencies of a state. And if it does, it’s even more ridiculous we elected eroskeptics to the MEP who instead of representing us decided to take a fat EU salary to just stick 2 fingers up to the EU. That’s why you’ve got Fox demanding we replicate existing EU trade deals, because otherwise we’ll have to start trade negotiations over bilaterally from scratch and we simply do not have the same bargaining strength.

If we leave the EU, we abandon existing trade agreements we have that were negotiated with the EU - new trade deals will need to be made by necessity, but getting as good of a deals in hypothetical counterparts is significantly less likely. A trade deal with Japan & the EU (multilateral) vs a trade deal with Japan & the UK (bilateral). There are a lot of advantages to multilateral trade agreements that facilitate more trade between nations. Avoidance of tariffs is a big one & they facilitates trade between more nations (because more nations are parties). Bilateral trade agreements are easier to negotiate (fewer parties), but for Britain’s case it stands a good chance of making us a less appealing trade partner than trading with the entirety of the EU. So if we leave the EU, we are leaving our multilateral trade agreements.

Right, so how does leaving participation in multilateral trade agreements that allow for the facilitation of transactions help us out economically?

Yeah that’s why leaving the EU and leaving behind mutually beneficial multilateral trade agreements is really just Britain punching itself in the balls while insisting that we can still have good trade deals - because what we really have to offer to the world is financial services and not a lot else. Oh and Dyson is fucking off to Singapore

I’d rather sell oil refining equipment to Iran or Venezuela than sell weapons to the Saudis. And I’m fairly certain the only people who think ISIS has been defeated are Trump and the simpletons that parrot everything he says.

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/4ovmboa1iw/Internal_190108_Brexit_web.pdf only 56% of people know what No Deal actually means. It’s so much worse than I thought, very depressing

Harbin is cold as fuck but I’ve just had the best Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life