Monzanator

9 hours ago, mrv86 said:

Well, some years ago I remember Mexican women used to play a lot in ITF tournaments in Tunisia and Turkey, but Europe is another league.

 

Sad part, is that the usual crooks are fighting for control of the Mexican federations, with two groups claiming power, one recognized by the government and the other by the Mexican Olympic Committee, so we're probably heading to a situation where no player will be able to ask for proper funding or represent the country at National team events.

 

Just hope she gets enough sponsors in the private sectors so she can continue improving her game.

Going back to Andreea Mitu I mentioned, she made 32 ITF finals of various sort - 15 of them in Romania You have to take advantage of the schedule and ITF points system. However ITF realizes how big the travel issues are for these second-tier players. There are tournaments played in Cairo and Sharm-El-Sheikh virtually all year. And countries like Italy, Spain or Turkey are doing the same. Hell, even Poland stages these ITFs with Czechs and Russians playing here all the time. Jelena Ostapenko lost to Oceane Dodin in the Zawada 25k final only 2,5 years before winning Roland Garros

23 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

 

I watched her against Tomova and liked very much her game. If she can manage to stay in Europe and be a regular at big ITFs and develop her game a bit more, a top 100 position is possible.   

Is Zarazua based in USA? As a clay speciallist it's gonna be very tough for her to crack Top 100 playing these clay ITFs in South America tbh. This is why some equally second-tier clay experts from Czech Republic, Italy or Spain have an easier path to Top 100. Someone like Andreea Mitu cracked Top 70 winning a bunch of clay 25k & 10k all over Europe back in the day

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

 

A crash-fest circuit for bikes. Right, I'm not even going to wait with crossing out Darryn Binder and Sam Lowes on my bingo card.

D.Binder has three crash DNFs in five races here

Lowes has stopped crashing this season save for the banzai move in Styria so he might yet spoil your bingo

Bendsneyder was 14th on the grid here last year so above average for NTS.

Catalunya is usually a crash-fest for bikes due to these sweeping bends that take away the grip so let's see if BB picks up a rare point just by staying upright. I wouldn't rule this out tbh.

Olga Vilukhina is reinstated as the 2014 Olympic Games silver medallist in the sprint.

Likewise Olga Zaitseva and Yana Romanova's results have been reinstated. However the relay & mixed relay DQ have been upheld

Zaitseva's life-time ban is also lifted.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-sports/54286190

8 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Yes, Patrick had her moments. And no, I'm not saying she was an elite rider in the top American classes, but she wasn't worse than a good amount of riders who are there. It's not like all of her good results, because she had some, were due to luck, and people often forget how incredibly often she was crashed out of the race by others. No, I'm not a fan of her, but "PR crap for ignorants" as answer to saying she had her moments is just ignorant in itself  

 

De Silvestro had her moments as well, in between mostly hanging around at the back, accomplished more than Calderon and Flörsch (duh, she's rather much younger). Calderon has never really impressed me much, neither did Flörsch, although she is still young enough and has at least shown enough resilience and mental strength.

 

In the end, it's not like every team can just choose everyone to race for them. I didn't check why De Silvestro wasn't in the car, perhaps she had other obligations or just wasn't an option for Porsche for other reasons than just performance. If Porsche was looking specifically for a female driver, they may have tried her, but in the end it's still simply a matter of trying to get the strongest and De Silvestro isn't one of the strongest overall riders.

 

Calderon and Flörsch had nothing to do with Porsche at all, they were in LMP2 and so are just entirely out of this discussion anyway.

I didn't say SDS should have replaced either Calderon or Floersch in that car since obviously it wasn't a Porsche. But in the Pro-Am days it doesn't take much to put these usless ride buyers out there and nobody has an issue with it while you seem to dismiss Simona as backmarker who can't do better than Danica frickin' Patrick.

5 hours ago, thepharoah said:

She represented Canada back then ?

That's why I said about the wording used. El Tabakh is Egyptian but simply doesn't represent Egypt anymore.

Well, very crucial wording about "representing" Egypt because Heidi El Tabakh did it a lot sooner already

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Most likely because their seats were already filled in. Suddenly coming up with comparing De Silvestro and Patrick out of the blue...it's a bit impossible to compare them. If you're talking about GT/Supercars racing, which Patrick hasn't raced in much, De Silvestro comes out on top (not too good, but at least pretty reliably in the back). Talk about NASCAR, which De Silvestro hasn't raced in, and Patrick comes out on top. They did both race in IndyCar and De Silvestro was simply mostly a backmarker, whereas Patrick had her moments now and then.

 

Oh well, this was about Le Mans and both weren't in the picture there, so it's all a bit senseless. Like trying to compare Tony Kanaan and, say, Gary Paffett.

Patrick had her moments? Please... that's PR crap for ignorants. Motegi win was all down to cars around her saving fuel. Plus she burned all the IndyCar bridges after she jumped for NASCAR money.

She was a total wash & a publicity stunt in NASCAR, she achieved 7 Top 10s in 191 races, her replacement Aric Almirola needed 16 races to match that total Tatiana Calderon hasn't showed much in ladder series in Europe and Floersch got more publicity due to her Macau crash more than anything.

Simona de Silvestro doesn't have the PR stunt and has hang it out against the toughest without the lucky breaks. HVM was a low-tier team and the Lotus engine foray was a total disaster. But she had a 2nd place on merit in Houston.

I'm not saying she would be ultra successful at Le Mans but she's way more accomplished than Calderon and Floersch will ever be IMO.

In my 30 years of watching motor sports two women have shown the mettle to mix it with the big boys, Ellen Lohr and Simona de Silvestro. Everyone else is 2nd tier allthough I didn't see enough of Christina Nielsen to have a full opinion on her (btw, Nielsen was also missing at Le Mans, I suppose the fire at Daytona 24h literally burned down her season too?).

Guess the word "peaceful protests" won't be much used anymore. Unless of course BLM lobbyists support shooting police officers out of pure anger and call that peaceful?  

Cal Crutchlow picks up a new injury

10 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

I will say that maybe the officers aren’t completely at fault, but Breonna Taylor’s summary execution points out major flaws in our policing system. Not one officer was wearing a body camera, so there’s no actual proof as to what happened the night. The officers did not announce that they were police officers before attempting to enter. One officer just fired blindly, and at least they’re punishing him. Breonna was given no medical attention for up to 20 minutes; that’s unacceptable. I understand that her injuries were fatal, but at the very least someone should have checked, comforted her, etc. 

 

I think officers need to receive more training. “No-knock” warrants need to go. All police officers should wear body cams. Police should do their absolute best not to hit innocent people as bystanders during gun fights (it happens much more often than it should). Police should apologize when they do so, and not release a statement that says “I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night.” (Which is what one of the officers actually said this week).

 

That’s how I truly feel about this.

That costs money. And how do you want to push on with that when BLM lobbyists advocate to take the money away from police? Less money but hey, let's buy cameras for everyone That's zero economical logic.

Again, the main knock on police is they use guns when their adversaries use knifes, tasers or bottles - so they have unfair weapon advantage. Here is a guy who actually fires at the police from a handgun and it's still not enough to give the cops a pass. That's insane. Taylor's BF made a fatal mistake, he started firing when his GF was unarmed and there's nobody else to blame but him, period.

That's my final post on the matter and I'm happy the US law system agrees with me and no murder charges will be pressed.

The price of electricity will probably go up 90% if not 900% in a corresponding move

On 20/09/2020 at 15:00, heywoodu said:

More than excellent ride by Tatiana Calderon, Sophia Flörsch and Beitske Visser in the all-female #50 Richard Mille! Nothing too special in terms of speed, but very stable, they basically made no mistakes at all, didn't encounter any issues and finished in a very respectable 13th overall and 9th in the LMP2  

Why didn't Porsche enter Simona de Silvestro? She's the fastest and most reliable female driver of the past decade plus, way above the overrated Danica Patrick or the W Series graduates.

Meanwhile Zach Veach is out at the #26 Andretti Autosport entry (poor results and crash repair bill stacking up). If Sergio Perez can't hook up at Haas in F1 there's a solid IndyCar opening for 2021 right here. We know Andretti is more than comfortable fielding internantional drivers. Something for @mrv86 to watch out

5 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Well unless Breonna had psychic control over the actions of her boyfriend, I don’t see how her summary execution (which is what this was) is justified. I mean read what happened, this is ridiculous. I get officers were fired at, but that doesn’t justify just shooting blindly in any which way.

 

Breonna never fired a weapon, she wasn’t a suspect in the case; yet somehow, she’s the only one that’s dead. That’s unacceptable.

The fault lies with her boyfriend. If he thought he's the only one having a gun in this situation he made a fatal mistake. There's nobody else to blame but him.

Of course they cops fired back when someone fired at them first. What are they supposed to do? Get shot dead so BLM lobbyists could celebrate?

This is a classic-case of self-defense. No wonder no murder charges are being pressed because the boyfriend voided them by firing that first shot. Simple case for any beginner attorney tbh.

28 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Oh, they guilty as fuck for sure, but the Trumps are absolutely just as guilty, if not more.

Actually less. He's a businessman first and foremost and he doesn't hide it. The Kennedys, Clintons and all other political families are supposedly "servants of the nation" yet they got filthy rich doing this service. A fucking postman is a servant of the nation too and he's a beggar compared to these political bozos.

35 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

What a load of bullshit! I try really hard to believe in justice, due process, our legal system, our policing system; but damn is it hard nowadays.

 

Taylor's boyfriend admitted to firing the first shot. That's the end of the story. Even BLM lobbyists can't spin this around, when you fire the first shot you are NOT the victim, period.

59 minutes ago, NearPup said:

If you are trying to convince left leaning Americans that the Clinton welfare reforms were a disaster, or that Clinton was generally too conservative, you are selling way past the close.

I'm giving you hard numbers. You can't argue the maths.

And I'm not trying to convince the convinced. US society turned down the Clinton charm in 2016 without my influence

55 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Right, and that is a big fucking problem. 

Yup and that's #1 reason I don't believe social inequality will ever be fixed. That wealth gap will only grow.

And this is the USA chart from 1989-2013. The spike starts in 1996 so I suppose this is the effect of Clinton's 1996 Welfare Reform Act? But this actually widened the gap as the rich got richer more then the poor  There's politics and there's reality. 2008 was of course the global crisis which stopped the growth for a while.

15 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

No, they are not.

 

Trump’s never ran a successful business. Dude must have the Guinness World Record for bankruptcies. He runs the U.S. government like a mafia boss; for his own benefit and profit.

Of course they are. The 2,000+ world billionaires own more than the rest 4,6 BILLION people combined! Forbes ranks Trump as 700th something so he's in this club and doing very well.

World Economic Forum says so and you're gonna question them?

https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/worlds-billionaires-have-more-wealth-46-billion-people

As for Trump running USA as his own company I told you the federal system makes it very possible and he takes advantage of it. He's not tied to any party groups or lobbyists so he can put his ego in front of everything else like he's done his entire life. Bankrupt 7 times? Who cares? You voted him for President and Hilary Clinton wasted 20+ years of holding onto Bill's coat-tails for this clown to smoke her in the elections

1 minute ago, NearPup said:

Lol what is this nonsense? The way Trump acts is a huge outlier within the US business world and a huge outlier in the world of old money. He’s famously a giant oddity within the NYC elite.

In terms of business he's doing it right, China and EU are the two biggest rivals, he openly declared war on China and lets EU crumble under it's own weight as Europe deals with the illegal immigration, lack of cheap labour and rise of political anti-establishment forces.

6 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Neither will coal, it’s not a renewable resource. 
 

California’s plan isn’t just to rely on solar power though. We will use solar power, wind power, and hydro power to fuel our great civilization.

In 50 years time half of the California land will be covered by solar farms or whatever that's called. The price of land will rocket sky high and actually a land sold for wind farms will most likely be higher than for housing. Because you will be dependent on the solar energy alone. It only takes something to gain a total monopoly. Once renenwable energy gains monopoly, the prices will go go sky high, ecology is pretty expensive already and that's when there is coal & nuclear plants competition. Imagine what happens when every single coal mine & nuclear plant gets closed like it's happening in Germany right now. You get the renewable energy but Germany is straight up to become tied to Russian gas for decades to come.

They tried to do the same with auto industry and energetic cars but OPEC ain't gonna lay down for ecology and they won't let electricity to replace crude oil. All these energetic car rentals are going out of business faster than an internet bubble years ago because you can't sustain a cheap market anymore.

Btw, California's wind market has been called 'moribund'. And all the talk here is about the money, what else. It's not about the ecology, it's always about the money. Wind is the new coal.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/justin-california

Texas has overrun California in this department and if things looks bleak now, then it can only get worse from here on unless you're cool with covering half the state with windmills.

1 hour ago, Agger said:

I'm in no way the right person to consider the mental health of the presidential candidates, but there are some major problems about Trump's personality.

When even the "leader" of Danes for Trump says that he's an idiot it does say something (he likes his political ideas and results, though).

A man who really seems more like a child when told that he is wrong (and fires everybody who aren't ready to lick his boots).

Whenever somebody challenges him, he answers with either lies or claims about fake news, he has an obsession with how people see him and has no trouble treading on others.

 

Biden certainly isn't without weaknesses and I would hope for a stronger candidate 8though I'm without doubt more positive than most others in this thread). He does have his gaffers (but he has for a long time, not just after getting old) just like Trump (who certainly don't correct them either).

 

Though it's a clear sign of the way things are moving in the US (and sadly several other democratic countries) it is saddening how little things become about politics and so much about a single person.

Trump is a member of the lucky sperm club. A guy who has never heard "no" as an answer. He acts exactly like someone from high-upper class. These people think they're entitled to own the world and they are correct. People like you still judge Trump as a politican, he is not. He's a businessman who always does things his own way. That's how business and successful business works. He runs USA like a major corporation he owns. It sure helps USA is a federation, most of the stuff Trump doesn't even care about is handled by state politics and he can focus on the "bigger" things. The US President office is set up ideally for someone with a huge ego like Trump and he takes full advantage of this setting alright.

Monday Night Football just ended and Las Vegas Raiders beat New Orleans Saints 34-24!!!

Brees can't throw beyond 20 yds anymore, Michael Thomas was out and his YAC were missing. Without them it was a dink & dunk show to RB Kamara. Thankfully we had this all covered and shut the Saints down in the second half minus one up-tempo drive late in the 4th when Saints had to chase the scoreline.

On Sunday several big name players got injured and are lost for the season: Saquon Barkley, Nick Bosa and Courtland Sutton tore their ACLs. Meanwhile the Jets look like the worst team in football now. 49ers lost Garoppolo, Bosa and Mostert and Nick Mullens still outplayed Sam Darnold and the pitiful Jets offense. At this rate Jets will be in line for Trevor Lawrence in the draft. HC Adam Gase is a dead man walking there.