RL End of Season Tour

GRRM's comments about people not being influenced by stupid ads made me think of some classic NZ attack ads.

The Taxathon Ad from 2005 and the Dancing Cossacks Ad from 1975 (don't bother watching after the first minute)

Both seemed to work pretty well. The National Party won the 1975 election and nearly won the 2005 one (after having their worst ever election in 2002)

But since this thread has seemed to completely derail I might as well go full tilt.

Trump has claimed that he's been endorsed by Patriots QB Tom Brady and their coach Bill Belichick in a pretty transparent plea to appeal to New Hampshire's 4 fucking electoral votes.

He claims that Belichick wrote this letter.

“Congratulations on a tremendous campaign. You have dealt with an unbelievable slanted and negative media and come out beautifully. You have proved to be the ultimate competitor and fighter. Your leadership is amazing. The toughness and perseverance you have displayed in the past year is remarkable. Hopefully the results in tomorrow’s election will give you the opportunity to make America great again.”

Based on the prose, I'm guessing that Trump wrote this letter himself. This campaign is nuts.

How long have you been waiting for Doors of Stone/Winds of Winter tryasta?

*Sigh* I have been waiting for both longer than it is healthy to remember... Suffice to say I started playing travian again just to make the wait more bearable.

Then I got in the same loophole as ever with travian and somehow I came up to BlackoutRugby.

Now that I think of it, I remember one password I had: "WindsOfWinter&2015". It was a hope, that it be released before the end of 2015...

*sigh*

Then things have not got better this year with all the people watching the series and doing their best not to spoil anything. Comments like "Hold the door" and "Sansa in the North" were spoiling enough. Not to mention the confirmation of what everybody was guessing about the death of the most famous bastard... We all thought we knew but seeing them confirming it...

But to be honest, what I really am looking forward is the release of the Doors Of Stone. In hindsight I think the second book could not live to the expectations of the first one and the story stays pretty much flat. I still like it, but I fear the third one might be flat as well, even if I have many questions in my head about the Amyr, the Maer, the killed king, Auri, the Loecloss stone, the door in the library, Kvothe losing his powers, the real origin of Baast...

And by reading his blog it is clear we are still miles away of having it available any time soon...

PS: Ah, and the cthaeh. More than anything, about the cthaeh.

I remember randomly picking up the Name of the Wind in a Borders bookshop (back when that was a thing), I'm not sure what drew me to it but it turned out that I was just one of many. Anyway, that was 2010, the next book came out in 2011 and I started my tumble into fantasy novels. Read all the ASOIAF books in 2011 when the show came out. Spent the next few years wondering when the next was coming out.

I pretty much ignore these fandoms now. Way too much nonsense, every time Patrick Rothfuss posted something on Facebook there was a barrage of awful comments. So I'm sure the internet will blow its collective wad when these books get released so I figured I wouldn't miss anything by not engaging. Plenty of other great books, fantasy or otherwise, to read in the meantime. No point expending energy being angry at it.

Bren wrote:I remember randomly picking up the Name of the Wind in a Borders bookshop

You cannot know how many people have told me something similar. I had the recommendation from a friend back in 2008 or so. Then I was in an airport transfer, I looked for it in a shop and the girl told me "Ah yes, I remember I loved the title and it stuck"

ivelostmysparky wrote:It's the year of upsets. Trump to win

Next on the 2016 upset list: Hopmans to win the England NT job.

Hopefully not followed by Italy to beat the NZ.

Hopmans for President

Bren wrote:Hopmans for President

He is no Geert Wilders.

tryasta wrote:

This will be the best doco series ever

While I don' t exactly dislike The Rolling Stones, and that song is amongst the best things they created, I prefer NIB      

Scary.

What I have been saying and thinking today is different, though. I hope, and actually believe, that a Trump presidency won't be as devastating as one could fear. He will have to handle a bureaucracy, a "deep state", he will have advisers (hopefully others than Breibart people), he will have a senate and congress populated with mostly sane persons to work with.

Will some bad things happen? Probably. But in four years the US, and the world, will still remain largely unchanged.

George W Bush managed to turn the World upside down a bit in 8 years, including creating the biggest ever debt in the country's History, pissing off traditional allies, and leading the country into the 2007-2008 economic crisis.

Trump can surely better that.

That is true. The other day I was thinking something along the lines "what if Gore had won in 2000, what would the world have looked like today? And if Trump wins, what will I be thinking in 15 years time?".

The difference is in the (open) agendas. With the neocons surrounding Bush, with Cheney, Wolfowitz & Co, there was a clear, outspoken agenda to form a new Middle-East with the use of armed force. "Democracy building", they liked to call it. More like state-building, Rambo style. We know how that went.

But you know that, of course.

Trump seems to be an isolationist. That gives me hope that the damage he will make will have less and shorter lasting impact than the above. Hope, being the key word here.

If one is being pessimistic, looking at Trump's obvious psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies, he could also declare après moi le deluge, and push the button (either figuratively or literally). I guess that would top Bush. But I don't really believe that will happen.

He'll do a good job at fucking the environment with quotes like:
“the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive” (what?)
“Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax!” (that is called weather, not climate change, you massive retard)
“people in the 1920s thought the Earth was cooling, now it's global warming” (way way more cumulative CO2 emissions since the 1920s and we have orders of magnitude more data now, and stop calling it global warming you thick prick. The term is climate change)
and my personal favourite “I believe in clean air, immaculate air, but I don't believe in climate change”. Can't help but wonder how you get immaculate air if you are vowing to open up coal plants on top of the already plentiful transportation and industrial/commercial/residential emissions, and climate change isn't going to go away just because you don't believe in it.

Yeah, I know. And some years ago, he co-signed a warning about the effects of climate change.

I just hope that a lot of what he says is just wind coming out of his mouth, and that he will be somewhat managed and contained by people around him. We shall see.

My main worries with Trump are:
1) Affect on international climate change approaches (I've already blocked a few arseholes on my Facebook feed who started loudly crowing about how they've always known climate change was a myth)
2) Laws the ENTIRELY right-win government is going to be able to push through over the next 2 years given that the President, Congress & Senant are now all Republican-led - in particular rulings such as marriage-equality could be in serious danger which would be devastating for LGBTQ in USA but also for humanity, not to mention it would appear to legitimise the sections of Australia that continue to oppose marriage-equality over there. Trump has also come outs saying that he believes the vaccination-autism link and we could potentially also see a rise in anti-vaccination sentiment which we bloody well don't need.
3) Finally, his victory will cause a rise in racist, bigoted viewpoints coming into the open as people who share those views will feel vindicated and indeed supported by the decision.

Pantherus wrote:2) Laws the ENTIRELY right-win government is going to be able to push through over the next 2 years given that the President, Congress & Senant are now all Republican-led

Don't forget the Supreme Court. The Republicans can now fill the empty seat with a Conservative, two of the liberals are 83 and 78. Anthony Kennedy is a conservative but could often swing to the liberal side is 80. The Republicans now have the opportunity to stack the court for a generation should anything happen to these three.

A lot of changes against Italy.

It will be interesting to see if this forward pack can impose themselves against an inexperienced Italy. Dixon, Luatua... many eyes are on them.

https://video-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t42.4659-2/15045151_1465250663503308_2196991538452496384_n.mp4?oh=0f48dc57429e66a96586ad87bf94f11a&oe=5824DEF8

Just wanted an excuse to post one of my favourite Simpsons moments.

On The Simpsons, worth pointing out that they predicted President Trump back in 2000.

FYI, Trumps pick for the head of the Environmental Protection Agency is a climate change denier who once wrote an article saying that even if global warming is true, maybe it won't be that bad.