LongTimeLurker

I am not sure why you think that contradicts what I wrote.

Worth remembering that western Ukraine used to be eastern Poland and that there were wars between Poland and Ukrainian nationalists in the immediate aftermath of WWI and to a certain extent during and after WWII. There is a significant segment of Poland's population that is anti-Ukrainian for various reasons and the ruling right wing populist party need their votes right now to win an upcoming general election.

Azerbaijan already won this conflict militarily back in 2020 and were pretty much on the doorstep of Stepanakert on its western outskirts by the time that all ended. If they had wanted to outright massacre the other side it could already have happened by now. Talking about the blockade of the Lachin corridor is only half the story. Armenia undertook to open a transport corridor across its territory to Nakhichevan at that point but that never happened so from the Azerbaijani perspective that voided their commitment to keep the Lachin corridor open. The NKR authorities have been clinging onto the hope that Vlad would intervene on their behalf like he did with South Ossetia and Abkhazia but he's kind of busy right now elsewhere so it looks like reality is finally dawning on them.

Was waiting to see if a Shire fan would answer this. My understanding is that is now firmly on the back burner after a proposed move to Little Kerse didn't work out. The problem with Firs Park where the youtube clip starts off ties into it being owned in dubious circumstances by their former chairman Alan Mackin. The land is derelict because the local council won't provide planning permission for any other use to make sure Mackin can't sell that parcel of land at a large profit.

Problem is Turkey are a member of said block and very much on Azerbaijan's side.

Try reading what I wrote again. At no point did I suggest anything was just deserts. What I pointed out was the cold hard military reality that the game was up for the Armenian side when they lost the conflict in 2020 and that means that NKR is clearly going to be part of Azerbaijan one way or another in future. Trying to keep their ethnic para-state going inside the de jure borders of Azerbaijan rather than negotiating whatever deal Baku was going to be willing to give them was delusional.

So was what the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians did back in the 1990s when seizing a sizable chunk of Azerbaijan they had no reasonable claim to. The Azerbaijanis could have easily finished off NKR/Artsakh whatever you want to call it three years ago, so intransigence on the part of the Armenian side subsequent to that such as the recent presidential election was unlikely to lead to it all ending happily ever after for them. Sometimes in life you need to take the hint that you don't hold a winning hand and need to take the best deal you can. Accepting that the de jure borders are where they are appears to be the price Armenia will have to pay to be able to break with Moscow and have more of an EU and NATO sort of orientation in future.

This has got to be a wind up. Who in their right mind thinks the US overthrew Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala to reverse his land reform policies because that would help the people there have better lives rather than to help the United Fruit Company?

Suddenly have visions of an irate mob of Highland League fans marching along the shores of the Moray Firth with burning tiki torches yelling "Jutes will not replace us". Donald Trump let the genie out of the bottle in a big way on that sort of stuff after all. Think what you maybe need to ponder is whether a Highland League aligned more on a Dundee to Fraserburgh axis in future rather than the more traditional Fraserbugh to Inverness to Wick one might start to look attractive as something to aim for where Roselea are concerned. Licensing should be a skoosh (albeit still very time consuming before the Rutherglen Glencairn guy chimes in) if Links Park is available.

Hope Banks o Dee didn't upset the Buckie manager again with any more of their raucous celebrations that only belong in junior football. What happened to Inverurie Locos between last season and this season? Don't think anyone saw that sort of decline in their fortunes coming.

Guess the wild boar population that now exists can be labelled feral pigs to avoid a similar official declaration and keep the fermers happy?

Guess the Burnistoun guys knew something about Russell Brand's reputation:

Swapping keepers and having the captain away on holiday with no experienced cover at centre back does tend to point to this game being taken slightly for granted. Wonder if Darvel were doing a bit of squad rotation because whatever the guy who needs to slow his engine down is claiming above there is every reason to think that Darvel should have been able to beat Gretna today,

Have to assume you are steaming and a-rolling after a post like that. Higher league status doesn't mean anything like as much as it normally would when it was obtained by application rather than promotion and the team in question have already conceded 53 goals after 11 league games.

Without reading any responses: Fu Stocious Steamin would be the more traditional ones.

Elsewhere:

Darvel are having a 'mare today as well though by the looks of things:

Obvious questions would be whether the Ukrainians taking over the oil and gas rigs yesterday helped make this attack possible in some way and whether the naval base in Sevastopol is now a viable option for the Russian Navy moving forward? If naval vessels can be destroyed once like this, then presumably, the only thing stopping a repeat is how many missiles the Ukrainians have access to? The Little Green Men taking over Crimea back in 2014 was all about stopping NATO from gaining access to the Ukrainian portion of Sevastopol's naval base, so having to beat a hasty retreat to Novorossiysk at this point where all the undamaged Russian naval vessels are concerned would be completely humiliating for Vlad.

Something appears to have hit the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol overnight: despite Elon's best efforts allegedly:

Calling square sausage and chippies anything other than their proper names would be top priorities if I was Scotland's answer to Xi Jinping.

Think you would be taking a big chance in a system like North Korea's to have fewer shells in your warehouse than you are supposed to in a several generations of your family out to cousins of the nth degree could wind up with a one way ticket to a labour camp sort of way. They are still in Stalinist purges mode by all accounts rather than something like the Brezhnev era of stagnation when the Soviet system started to become corrupt. From what I have read the knock against what NK can supply appears to be more its poor quality than anything else. Bizarrely though this was coming from the Ukrainian side: