Every quote from the Venezuela brass in that article is pure gold, but... "You have to be very naive to see this as an isolated incident." Has any leader ever so serverely denigrated their military forces?
“A cruise ship filled with mercenaries” Lol. And pretty ballsy ones too, attacking and invading an entire country under the cover of a blue and white Portuguese cruiseliner.
Anyone who doesn't read that, the naval vessel that rammed it sank. They didn't realize it had an ice-reinforced hull and fucked themselves. Then they went off to sink while the cruise ship hung out nearby in case they called and needed assistance (they didn't call). Then they accused the cruise ship of not offering assistance. When I read that article I thought it was a joke at first. Something straight out of Three Stooges.
Also, Venezuela accused the ship of violating territorial waters, which extend 12 miles off the coast. It never got closer than 13 miles. Plus there's video. At first, when it said the naval vessel fired on the cruise ship to warn them, I figured they meant by using one of those badass naval vessel guns the crew had been itching to use. Nope. They used ak-47s fired from the fucking hip.
TMZ reporting Kim Jong-Un may be dead. https://www.tmz.com/2020/04/25/north-korea-dictator-kim-jong-un-dead-dies-heart-surgery-reports/ edit - never mind. Was expecting to see the breaking news in the WDT haha
Watching the news last night, and seeing stories about record unemployment followed by footage of food lines backed up for God knows how far, it occurred to me. This kinda feels like another Depression, at least on the surface. I get that there’s safeguards built into the banking system to prevent another like 1929, but, damn if this doesn’t feel like one in many ways.
So, what’s with the US women’s team lately? Do they hate having fans because they seem to be putting in effort to chase them away. Before they say anything else that buries them more, perhaps they should remember they legitimate lost to a boys under 15 soccer team so.... they aren’t very good, are they? However when it comes to playing themselves...
Wasn’t even aware they had fans outside of the final game of the World Cup / Olympics. Which is probably why they don’t make money for their organization. Which is probably why they don’t and shouldn’t get equal pay.
Except the metrics of viewership is basically a trade secret for FIFA like Netflix streaming numbers they don't share with anybody. Worldwide men's soccer probably does much bigger numbers but as far as US women's vs. US Mens. My guess is the numbers are much higher for women's given their success in the World Cup but this latest suit was more of an arbitration suit than anything. The player's contracts were renegotiated a few years back and they took the safer route agreeing to a higher year to year base salary with less bonuses for winning tourneys. The men's is the other way around. Doesn't help their argument the men get paid more because of this pay scheme since the Men's team turded out to Trinidad and Tobago and missed the World Cup entirely last go around. They lost out on a lot of potential money. Now the women's team is saying their pay scheme they negotiated is unfair compared to the mens and want a do over(edit:and wanted back pay based on the men's structure). Judge disagreed. Im still waiting for the big money sponsors to step up and give the same mega deals they give Alex Morgan than they do the 3rd stringers on the team. They have thrown their support behind the women's team getting equal pay. No Lebron deal for them?
They lost to an under 15 team of boys 5-2. Their starting line. The captain of the boys team send they tried to go easy on them because they’re girls.
I mean that was scrimmage game at a teaching event. It wasn't like the women's team was putting in World Cup play against 15 year old dudes and lost. Yes men are physically stronger and men's soccer (on the world's scale) brings in a lot more eyeballs. Again the core of the case was they wanted the deal the men's team got but should have pushed for that two years ago when they were making new contracts.
Yeah, they pushed for and got the contract they wanted a couple years ago, and now they want to go back and redo it based on hindsight... sorry, that's not how it works...
Do they make their team/league/sponsors equal money as the men's team? Because they should be paid in accordance with what they earn their employers. This isn't an equal rights thing. It's an employee performance thing.
Of course it should be an ROI thing... but that doesn't have the social leverage of "misogyny" in contract negotiations. When you can't win with facts, you try social/peer pressure.
What's the Canadian perception of this? Y'all follow the sport a lot more than we do, I think? For us, we're fans every 4 years. And they're a complete joke.
Every sport works the same way: the more popular you are, the more you make. Sports that fill giant stadiums and arenas make money. Sports that sell tickets and PPV buys make money. And those athletes make money back if they don’t work for Dana White. If you’re not a draw, you don’t deserve to earn. You can’t get pissed at the fans if they never existed in the first place and now, they’re just chasing fans away with this attitude. Play soccer, not victim.
There is a huge following for the men's world cup... as it's usually driven by nationality. We're a huge melting pot, and you'll see trains of cars blasting their car horns down the road at 3am after <insert country here> beat <insert other country here> 1:0. Women's soccer? Other than coming up at the yearly Canadian sports awards for "best female athlete", when the speed skater from Calgary isn't in the running, yeah, can't say there's much of a following. Junior hockey, even women's curling, beat the shit out of it in ratings.
“Oh, they won a medal today? That’s nice. When do the sports we like start again?” The only time we noticed them is when they got screwed over in the Olympics (or was it the World Cup)?) while playing the US.
Women’s curling gets ratings because their hotness factor challenges beach volleyball for some reason.