Monzanator

Live football on my TV: Karlsruhe vs Darmstadt in 2. Bundesliga!

Civic Platform has pulled their presidential candidate Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska from the race after she tumbled in the polls over the last month. Her "let's boycott the elections" message was so weird nobody knew if she was boycotting them herself. They got postponed anyway but now could be held in late June or July. Anyway, this kind of nonsense is the main reason why Law & Justice remains in power. Civic Platform hasn't offered anything positive over the last five years and their bitching about Law & Justice has worn everyone down. Kidawa had worse polling results than literally all the main candidates including the far-right Krzysztof Bosak. CP's spectacular fall from grace reaches new lows every month and even their co-founder and knight on white horse Donald Tusk doesn't want to save them anymore speaking from the outside.

Word is, Warsaw president Rafal Trzaskowski will be the CP candidate now - literally one year after he won the Warsaw elections with 70% of the vote. However Warsaw is a liberal bubble that doesn't define the whole country. Ex-foreign affairs minister Radoslaw Sikorski wants to steal the nomination for himself but he's been relegated to second row years ago and can't be taken seriously anymore.

5 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

Sainz isn't as talented as his father, never impressed me to be honest. Don't think Ferrari made the right decision here. 

If they're looking for the new Barrichello, that's the absolutely right decision though.

Somewhere out there Nico Hulkenberg must be furious. He was shoved out for Esteban Ocon while Daniel Ricciardo wanted out of Renault all along

Just now, heywoodu said:

 

Too bad she never got close to her best results anymore after her injury period, it already is one hell of an achievement she somehow managed to pull an Olympic silver medal out of the hat after that.

Two injuries actually. She tore the ACL in her right knee again in January 2019 and she really struggled for pace last season. She was more or less competitive after the first ACL but no longer a consistent threat for the overall and basically quit doing giants slaloms after that.

Anna Veith (nee Fenninger) will announce her retirement very soon according to Austrian press.

2 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Katie Hill stepped down a few months ago after a vicious sex scandal that her husband started (He basically leaked everything about her private life, it so vicious that many Republicans came out in defense of her). The primary served as the first round for this special election, and for the federal elections in November. I don’t think the Democratic Party will win then either though.

Yeah, I remember that scandal. Several political careers have ended with a lesser issue. An affair with a staffer is something that Bill Clinton got away with but not someone like Hill who can be replaced much easier IMO.

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

Yeah, that’s the district next to me. It’s known for its far-right and far-left voters. Last time an ultra progressive won, and this time an ultra conservative won 

 

The Democratic Party did a terrible job of campaigning, but there that position will be up for election again in November.

In Poland when the council tenure expires within the next six months, the seat remains vacant until the proper elections.

Republicans can still win in California:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/13/california-election-winner-mike-garcia-christy-smith-katie-hill-seat

Just now, heywoodu said:

 

Yeah one might not have expected them to go for someone who would pose a very real threat for Leclerc, so Sainz would be a smart option indeed.

It's funny, Sainz owns his F1 career to Vettel who shocked Red Bull by choosing Ferrari in the summer of 2014. It happened after Red Bull said that Jean-Eric Vergne will be released from Toro Rosso at the end of that season. This meant Red Bull had to elevate Daniil Kvyat into Red Bull and left a vacant seat at Toro Rosso which Sainz filled on the rebound (the other option would be Vergne coming back but that would look stupid since they said he's out). Red Bull's original plan for 2015 was Vettel/Ricciardo and Verstappen/Kvyat in Toro Rosso.

Motorsport.com Italia claims Carlos Sainz will be announced as Leclerc's teammate within the next 48 hours:

https://www.planetf1.com/news/carlos-sainz-ferrari-4/

That makes most sense, watch Ricciardo become a front runner for the McLaren seat next.

45 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

I'm curious to see who will replace him - as are most F1 fans of course  

 

My guess is that it won't be much of a specifically interesting name, just someone from the current grid, but it'd be awesome to see one of the Ferrari Driver Academy drivers take the seat. I know it most likely won't happen, but it'd be cool. Arthur Leclerc shows promise, but is too inexperienced for now, all of Giuliano Alesi's wins came in sprint races where he started 2nd or 3rd due to the top-8 of the feature races being reversed. Marcus Armstrong was impressive in F3, until suddenly teammate Mick Schumacher got a magic car and beat out everyone in the second half.

 

Enzo Fittipaldi has the talent, but not yet the experience. Callum Ilott is absolutely growing year after year and deserves to be in F1 at some point or another and the same goes for Robert Shwartzman, but I don't see a strong team promote someone straight from something below F2/GP2/F3000 to F1 except for a very, very special level of talents. Mick Schumacher at least has the name and sometimes the speed, but much like Luca Ghiotto he is not exactly a consistent driver.

 

Then again, this is all for nothing since it'll just be a current F1 driver  

No way Ferrari puts anyone from F2 or their Academy straight into their F1 team. They like the guys to show their skills in one of the satellite teams. They can either bring Giovinazzi from Alfa Romeo or maybe Ricciardo who apparently is frustrated at Renault. Or perhaps Sainz from McLaren which would then allow Ricciardo to move in his place.

Thanks to his name Mick Schumacher will be in F1 sooner than later. Quite frankly I see him at Alfa Romeo as early as 2022 or maybe 2023 pending on the superlicense points.

Yeah, it's only taken Leclerc one season to show supreme speed compared to Vettel. One can only wonder if Vettel would have signed with Ferrari but for Jules Bianchi's death in first place.

Cigs and alcohol were one thing, there was also Penthouse & Durex sponsoring F1 back in the day:

Guy Edwards & model Suzanne Turner at the Hesketh car launch in 1976.

Rupert Keegan during 1977 Canadian Grand Prix.

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

Democrats are just as guilty as the Republicans. It’s like “The Juice Media” (a famous political satire group) said in their rebuke of the two party system. You can vote for “shit” or “shit lite.” 
 

For the record, the Supreme Court ruled that Gerrymandering is legal under the Constitution. Neither party is going to change that. People seriously don’t realize how much power a third or fourth major party gives people.

I told you before both Dems and GOP will NEVER accept a third major party in USA. Two-party system is perfect for them, either you're in charge or the chief critic. No third door. And the society thinks it's all about liberalism, conservatism or some abortion rights. BS. They hold the power and they won't let it go. And of course they tell the entire world how the US democracy is the best in the world and everyone should learn from them

So you're telling me Democrats can bypass or bend the system just like the Republicans are accused of doing? That's a brand new information! 

Though I understand Bernie's loyalists remain in a tunnel vision overall.

15 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

This is true in states that ban unions, or don’t have strong labor laws. Democratic states have much higher required minimum wage requirements (closer to Denmark) generally between $12.50 and $15 USD. 

Liberal left has moved away from classic labour blue-collar workers though. It's all about ideology now. Industrialization has given way to environementalism and the production has been shipped to cheap labour markets in Asia. Capitalism & free market is more important than democracy in the Anglo-Saxon world IMO

It was a much simpler time.

Photos? Who wants photos?

Like smoking cigs was still common. I believe only Kimi Raikkonen is a smoker from current drivers and then Fernando Alonso from what I know.

Vic Elford

Brothers in-law

Alfonso de Portago. You won't see a cigarette this close to a fuel tank in 2020!

Jose Froilan Gonzalez (left) would probably have a very hard time fitting in a modern F1 cockpit too!

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

Logic would suggest the larger country would have a larger economy (which it does), and therefore be able to pay its workers more (which it doesn’t). The larger country (population and land mass) should also have a better social support system since it has more resources (which it doesn’t). 
 

I also just realized the LA metro area has twice the population of Denmark 

What Vic Liu said, basically a bigger population means you can find immediate replacement if one complains over a lower salary. So you hold onto a job or else there are like 15 ppl ready to take it. It doesn't work that way in less populated country.

An uncle of my friend worked on the high cranes in USA back in the 90s. He said even African-Americans didn't want to work for the salary that was offered and also Mexicans (Latinos). This was a job for people from Eastern Europe like Poland who accepted lower pay that was still huge if counted on Polish money. And that was over 20 years ago (in Nevada and Arizona).

3 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

 

Denmark's population is roughly Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx combined I don't believe even such a left-wing tube like New York Times can be that ignorant to compare a country of 330 million to a country of 5.8 million. Or maybe they are? If Denmark had a population of 330 million I bet the McDonald's job would be paid less than 7 bucks/hour

League announced it's schedule yesterday. First game is Chiefs vs Texans so a rematch from last year's AFC Divisional Game where Texans blew a 24 point lead in like ten minutes.

As usual teams make some funny videos that reveal the schedule. Jacksonville Jaguars who are widely tipped to have the worst record in 2020 have produced this gem:

53 years since Lorenzo Bandini's crash at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix. He passed away three days later from severe burns

1 minute ago, hckosice said:

The Slovak football league may probably be arguably one of the least attractive and least interesting competitions in the world, but according to this ranking, it is in the first place in the world in one thing....

 

our league field the most players under 21 years...

 

well, that´s also a way to enter the world news

 

https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2019/wp294/en/

On the other hand just about every Slovak player - not named Ondrej Duda or Jan Mucha - who arrives in the Polish Ekstraklasa is at least 30 years old

Earl Thomas might be the best free safety in the league since Ed Reed but well, this is how he bid farewell to Seattle Seahawks in 2018:

Laura Robson's slut-o-meter would probably say "true"