Donald J Trump

19 minutes ago, JNLister said:

First cynics have already pointed out that "serve a year in the British Army or it's unpaid labouring for you" is, let's say, particularly problematic in large parts of Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is the garden full of rakes that Sideshow Sunak and his hapless party keep stumbling into. I don't expect they've thought much further ahead than tomorrow's papers, and they'll be desperate to take centre stage for the first Sunday morning interview circuit of the campaign, which they've probably secured in all fairness. I shudder to think what kind of desperate shite they're going to throw at the wall over the next few weeks. 

Been really enjoying NHL24 lately. Ive been playing it on and off for a few years now, and it's a sport that's particularly well suited to being made into a videogame. I've tried Madden and NBA etc but they just don't have the same enjoyment factor as gliding across ice, belting a puck around or crushing into opponents. At first it seems like there are more controls than a space ship but everythings quite intuitive and it's just a case of them detailing pretty much every manoeuvre you could do if you wanted to rather than having to get a degree to be competitive. Only slight downside is that it releases every year with minimal changes, but they've pretty much perfected the formula and most of the time they add a fun twist that doesn't fundamentally alter the core gameplay. Any other NHL players here, or any recommendations for other sports Sims that are worth the time and effort? 

No Escape (2015) Netflix

Owen Wilson stars as a salary man dad in a "trip abroad gone to shit" action thriller. Owen, his perpetually disappointed wife and two dopey kids have visited South East Asia on some business related jolly but as soon as the plane hit the tarmac the entire country became engulfed in a violent coup. It's an enjoyable enough film, but he should have left the children at home. Imagine a shopping trip from hell with the kids but instead of embarrassing you in the middle of a busy supermarket their central casting antics nearly get the whole family killed at every turn. Marauding, bloodthirsty mobs ruthlessly hunted any westerner they could find and brutally executed them in the dirt, but it was a full house of complete and utter bullshit from Owens pride and joy. It started with one of them doing their disappearing act just as the shit hit the fan (they'd decided to go for a dip in the hotel swimming pool on their own). There was a stuffed toy called something like Bongo, and of course bongo was carelessly dropped while they were being chased. This seemed to be more of a concern than being persued by a killer with a machete. One of them needed to "go potty" while they were hiding under a table from a room full of murderers but the mother wasn't having it, she basically told the kid they'll just need to shit their pants. It just went on and on, and when Owen had to get his hands dirty and bludgeon a bad guy to death with a lampshade to save everyones arses they all looked at him like he was a piece of shit. Apart from that it was alright. Pierce Brosnan popped up with his finest outing since Dantes Peak, even if it seemed like the character was written in about 10 minutes. Not worth seeking out, but if you're at a loose end it's not a disaster. 4/10

Nas - No Introduction 

Best song since Illmatic

I'm starting to think Sunak might be deliberately trying to crash the plane into the mountain at this point. Here he is with a crane coming out of his head on a visit to the TITANIC MUSEUM.

Why did nobody tell me about Airbus Beluga? 

4 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Being a good constituency representative goes a long way when it comes to voting. I know people who voted Tory because the MP is fighting their causes. As @Dead Mike said, local issues matter the most to the majority of people. 

That's true. I've had dealings with all the councillors in our area for one reason or another, and the Tory one is by far the most competent and most helpful. I like most of the others, but they're pretty hopeless and live in a bit of a fantasy world. The Conservative guy is actually quite good at what he does, and people have noticed. I still wouldn't vote for him though. 

1 minute ago, SuperBacon said:

I think he said he's not running or pulled out.

In time honoured tradition poor Paul failed to make the cut. He just can't get himself on the ballot can he? Some people appear to be able to waltz on, but the sausage machine just keeps spitting Mason back out again. I'm sure he'll pop up again in 5 years in another constituency he has no links to. 

4 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

On a more serious note, I think the SNP are fucked at this election. Leader got ousted, the current leader is an old sissy and Murrell is in trouble. I don't see people trusting them with their vote. I think this is Labour's chance to take their seats.

They're not completely and utterly fucked. There's still a sizeable constituency that see them as the only viable vehicle for independence, and they have a dedicated hardcore of supporters who will stick with them through thick and thin. They will suffer a drastic reduction in MPs, but I think it'll stop short of a catastrophic wipe out.

This isn't just a party that's been in power too long and run out of road. Domestically, it seems they've all but given up on trying to muster a convincing defence of their record. Whether it's quite as bad as some quarters would suggest depends on who you ask, but either way they've surrendered the narrative and allowed the idea that they've comprehensively failed to take root. 

Aside from delivery of services it's been a complete circus. Ive done a bit of work with the SNP over the years and met most of the characters involved, and I'm not surprised it's descended into farce. I expected it to end badly for Sturgeon. Probably not this badly, but for me the question is how she managed to maintain a relatively positive profile for so long as opposed to "where did it all go wrong?". I don't feel sorry for her. 

The biggest problem the SNP face is that it's impossible for them to draw a correlation between returning a high number of MPs and moving closer towards Independence. They won 56 out of 59 seats in 2015. It will never get better than that yet they were unable to capitalise on it, so people will ask what's the point of sending them to London in large numbers, especially when it makes a Tory government more likely. Even though Independence is still a big issue for a lot of people, they know it's not going to be on the ballot at this election. Rightly or wrongly getting the Tories out will be the priority, and constitutional matters will take a backseat for now. 

You could argue the SNP deserve some credit for ensuring the topic of Independence remains relevant, especially given the matter was supposed to be settled for a generation. I believe that's happened despite the SNP and not because of it. A long spell where the SNP are on the sidelines may even do the cause good. There are a significant number of people who will never vote yes, but I think theres a group who could be persuaded but are put off by all things SNP. Some separation between the cause and the party isn't the worst thing that could happen, as for many people Independence just brings to mind domestic failings and all the SNP personalities they don't like. There is a way back for the SNP, but I suspect it will be a completely different party that emerges from the ashes. On many issues, Scotland isn't nearly as progressive as some believe, and I think SNP 2.0 are either going to reflect that in the form of a very large church or there'll be a split. The current situation is largely a reflection of the fact that it's been impossible to manage that political reality and it's finally caught up with them. 

59 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Pretty sure Devon was being sarcastic there mate.

Yes, there was no breach of Poe's law there. My post was aimed at the type of people Devon referred to rather than Devon himself. I'd be surprised if there were any such individuals on the forum, but you never know. 

20 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

All those people telling us "Let's just get the Tories out and Starmer in power and let's work from there - you can't achieve anything if you're not in power!"

Here we go. No pressure.

You might share this view, but there isn't going to be a drastic change of direction from Starmer once elected. In terms of the realistic options for Prime Minister being presented to the country today he's the least worst, but if I do vote for Labour it will be because it's an ugly baby contest, and not on the promise of some progressive utopia further down the road. If he is masking his intentions so as not to appear completely toxic to parts of the electorate, it's progressives he's taking for a ride. He isn't exactly flavour of the month just now, but I've a feeling they're going to like PM Starmer even less. The real bait and switch was the Labour Leadership Election.

2 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Fuck it, I'm willing to take the hate.

I'd never vote Tory in a million years, and I can't stand his politics, but I think history will be far kinder to Rishi Sunak than we are currently.

Possibly, I think it partly depends on what comes next,  you only have to look at the reaction to Theresa May stepping down to see that even a short amount of time has a way of putting events in a different context. He's bright, but probably not in a "common sense" type way. He looked a right plum yesterday, partly because he hasn't hired somebody astute enough to put a stop to it. His main problem though, is that he is to quote Dusty, a "follow behinder". Hes been tinkering with some pretty extreme stuff. I don't think he's a true believer or that he's particularly badly motivated, but in an attempt to position himself where he thinks the country and the party are he's allowed himself to get swept up in the Tory psycho drama bullshit. He had a chance to show real leadership and turn the page, and I think people would have been receptive to that. Instead of rising above it though, he's been up to his neck in it from the start and it's hampered him at every turn. 

Poor Rishi. Everything the man touches turns to shit. I wouldn't be surprised if the miserable bastard has been putting his own letters in to Brady, this is not the look of a man that's up for a futile, humiliating campaign. 

I like it, but I have a hard time buying anything with Jonathan Seagulls face on it. That could be a fun pub game with darts actually. 

18 hours ago, BomberPat said:

6. Everyone should get a designated number of "the weather's bollocks, I'm not coming to work" days - if you look out the window and it's absolutely pissing it down, nobody should expect you to trudge through it to work. Conversely, if it's 30+ degrees and bright sunshine, there should be an equivalent number of "the weather's great, I'm not coming to work" days too. 

I like this. It's similar to an idea I had years ago and I'm resurrecting it for the manifesto. Every employee gets one "fuck it" card a year. If you don't want to work, you cash in your card and there are zero ramifications. It can be through the course of the day too. Working in a call centre and got an absolute fucker on the phone? Just take your headset off, put the card on your managers desk and go home. Meeting from hell?  Just toss your card on the table and leave without saying a word. 

We had a business improvement feedback process at one of the places I worked where you could raise suggestions and a dedicated member of staff looked into seeing if they were viable. Despite presenting it slightly more professionally than I have here, unsurprisingly this suggestion was not deemed viable and didn't make the cut. 

Im an absolute shitshow when it comes to glasses. I've only got one pair, and I need them to go about my day, but I've been playing it fast and loose with my ability to see for weeks. I regularly fall asleep with them on, and inevitably they've broke in two different places. No, no. I haven't used sellotape, but you can see the glue from 10 paces. I haven't done a very good job. I like to keep them clean though. I find industrial strength Dettol wipes are just the ticket for removing dirt, grime, and any protective coating that might have been there initially. I should really get round to ordering a new pair seeing as they cost me less than £20 from some spex2u site. 

9 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

 

And if you ever need to sort a trip to China, I can do the thing with the eyes and my impression of that Benny Hill character.

22 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

11yo has just told me I have zero rizz and she is the Rizard Of Oz. I'm gutted.

I've said it before, but this is why "Generation Skibidi" are already outperforming Gen Z. 

I was on the motorway with the family and without this sounding like a motoring phone in on LBC, some bastard wildly careered across multiple lanes and nearly wiped us all out. It would have been bad, and I thought that was it. 

I'm a boring, unremarkable middle aged bloke and my family see me as such. Today though, I was able to execute a skillful, split second manoeuvre that avoided certain catastrophe, and I've essentially gone from being a dull galoot to a dialled-in ice cold assassin. They know I've saved their arses, and while they screamed and braced for impact I was as cool as a frozen cucumber. 

Obviously I'm milking it with the "I'm no hero" routine and there's a palpable sense that my stock will never be higher than it is now. The fact that I spent much of the weekend playing Forza Horizon 4 and WRC Rally possibly didn't do any harm either. 

Someone told me Wrestling was fake when I was very young, and I didn't understand what they meant. For a while, I was convinced that Wrestling was some form of cartoon. 

I know he's got a fight to promote but anyone that gets through a build with a clown like Fury and demonstrates their dignity has my respect. I've not seen everything, and I'm sure in time honoured fashion something will emerge that bites me on the arse, but from what I've seen he's been a class act. I've not seen much of John since his antagonistic buffoonery stopped serving any utility. 

I've tried to niavely cling to the belief that you're all jaded, cynical curmudgeons with terrible stories about everyone, then I seen something somewhere that supports everything posted here so far, and made me feel as sick as a pig. 

It's about Edge and Christian, and they've been summoned to wrestlers court for giving a writer an action figure. 

"and then they brought The Undertaker a bottle of Jack Daniels, and the boys popped so hard that the case got thrown right out of court."

I might be very late in getting on this bandwagon but I think I'm through with the pathetic old bastard. 

27 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

I'm pretty sure the Saudi money more than makes up for anything lost in the UK, and then some.

That's true, even if it was a fight that had appeal beyond Britain. I'm not sure it would be either or though. I think there would have been enough scope for a fight between AJ and Fury and the Saudi fights, even for the loser of that contest. Saudi money has already starting creeping in back then, so that fight in Saudi would have been pretty lucrative. I'm not suggesting it'll keep anyone up at night, just that the fight as a generational attraction feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. 

20 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

What was the deal with that Russo/Sunny thing?

Vince Russo told a story that suggested there were two versions of the magazine cover, one featuring Sable and the other Sunny. Sunny was unhappy about this, I'm not sure whether it was on the principle of sharing the cover or because she didn't like the picture they chose for her, it could be both. I don't know how Vince suing her fits in to the equation, but she threatened to sue him over it. It was a weird magazine, even back then it didn't really serve much of a purpose other than for something Wrestling related to read. I always preferred WCW magazine to either of WWFs efforts whenever I could track down a copy. 

5 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Yep. Fury, AJ and Wilder should’ve all fought each other years ago yet they fucked about so long Usyk’s gone and mopped up all the gold from under their noses. 

There were bumps in the road but there was a window when that fight would have been an absolute juggernaut. I wasn't particularly obsessed with seeing it, but it would have made a hell of a lot of money. That money's been left on the table now, and Usyk has pissed all over the British fight of the century fever dream.

Despite his previously unblemished record, I'm never quite sure what we're going to get from Fury. I always feel that he's as likely to fall apart completely as he is to win reasonably comfortably. He actually gave a decent account of himself against a guy that has the makings of an all time great. He wouldn't be completely outmatched in a second fight, but if he's beating Usyk he's going to have to do it the hard way. Guys like him aren't prone to off days, bad luck and chaotic training camps. He's going to have to be better than him, and at the moment I don't see it.