BruceVC

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article313261442.html Maduro has been given an opportunity to leave Venezuela safely, he should take it. He can go to Russia and become neighbours with Assad Its the best outcome for Venezuela and the region. It would be nice to see Venezuela start to rebuild its economy and create a sustainable future for its citizens and Im sure lots of Venezuelans will come home like we seeing in Syria

I have decided to make an important and strategic change with my companions in LoreRim, I have left Viconia at an Inn and I have recruited 2 new female companions, Katana and Remiel Both these new companions are part of LoreRim and they very extensive, they have several side-quests and hundreds of lines of dialogue Viconia is a mod I added and she is limited in things apart from the same dialogue, combat skills and some sexlab options Katana has very interesting bounty hunter quests and is a good stealth asset Remiel is hilarious, she never stops talking and always has something to say. She is a Dwemer expert and she has already made a spider construct to help in combat called Scratch I also have a dog called Meeko Whats interesting is none of these 3 new companions is unbalancing combat and they get defeated more in combat than Viconia use to by herself. This must have something to do with how these are official LoreRim mods But by recruiting them I added a much more lively and interactive gaming experience for my travels and of course more quests

I doubt its got anything to do with that conspiracy theory I would assume its mental illness created by PTSD and it slowly got worse in the USA for various reasons and these National Guard were the target and he did it in DC because its symbolic

The way and the reasoning how and why Trump implemented tariffs was always a risk It was also unprecedented even though it had some "logic " behind it Trump used the fact that the US has a trade deficit with most countries as a reason to justify these sweeping tariffs which was the first time I can recall any government implementing tariffs for that reason As you mentioned tariffs are typically about sectors or one type of goods like steel. And the reason the US has a trade deficit with most countries is because it has the strongest consumer driven economy in the world so its an organic outcome because of overall strength of the US economy. So Trump and his advisors on this decided " its not fair " and we must tariff these countries. Having a trade deficit with a country is not automatically a bad thing because you need to understand the overall reasons and sometimes its by design, for example if you import oil you would typically find you have a trade deficit as opposed to surplus with oil producing countries which would be expected And then if you going to mass tariff whole countries then you must have alternative markets for these goods of you will see price increases and inflation rising But for me the tariffs based on Trumps reasoning didnt make sense and now we seeing the negative outcome. You see he has reversed certain tariffs on goods

https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker Economist has just released its approval ratings for Trump and its not good, its because of the real and perceived failures around the economy and inflation. And as we all know these were the 2 main voting issues for most Americans who voted for Trump I have also personally noticed a general anti-Trump sentiment on places like Codex which use to be mostly supportive of him in the dedicated thread. This forum is one of the few places where people still generally respect Trump and will sometimes give him the benefit of doubt My view on him hasnt really changed, he has had hits and misses but his misses are clearly undermining any good he has done. Of course it also doesnt matter what I think because Americans will decide his future and legacy when they vote. But he really needs to reverse things like tariffs which have negatively impacted the economy and inflation and the strict migration laws are also impacting domestic productivity in several states " Once the honeymoon is over, presidents tend to lose popularity quickly. But no recent president has fallen so low so quickly as Donald Trump. At the start of his second term public opinion was nearly evenly divided between those who approved of the president and those who did not. Things have since changed—his net approval is now lower than at any point in his first term. Rather than rebounding after the end of America’s longest ever government shutdown, Mr Trump’s popularity has continued to sink. Americans are particularly dissatisfied with Mr Trump’s handling of inflation and the economy, two issues which were key to his re-election last November. Young and non-white voters, many of whom abandoned Democrats because of concerns about the cost of living, are now souring on Mr Trump faster than other groups. It was those voters who fuelled Democratic victories in governor elections in Virginia and New Jersey—an ominous sign for Republicans before next year’s midterm elections. "

Im about 80 hours into Skyrim\LoreRim and its time for some feedback as I have learnt loads about the game and the LoreRim mechanics Its still the best experience I have ever had around an open-world and sandbox RPG I have ever played. But a couple of points outside of previous posts LoreRim and Requiem basically address and fix every complaint you have ever had about Vanilla Skyrim. No more level scaling and massive overhauls of classes, skills, magic, factions and dozens of new quests and NPC I installed a mod called Levelling Freedom to increase XP gain for each level which you can change anytime to increase or decrease the amount of XP for each level, I set it on 1400 for each level. I did this so I can explore more of the world without levelling up too fast because exploration for me must be rewarding and worthwhile I have an NPC adult companion mod , Viconia from BG, which joined me from level 5 and she has helped me a lot in combat but she doesn't unbalance the combat because she often gets defeated in hard battles I haven't started the main quest yet, Im going to do that on level 40 because of how hard dragons are and Im on level 31 ATM There are some excellent quest mods added that include 4-8 hours of additional time just on each of these quests. So LoreRim is a massive Mod collection if you want to complete most of the game. Im talking about potentially hundreds of hours of gaming Because there is no level scaling I do have easy battles now that end in seconds which is by design but there are loads of very difficult enemies that can kill me quickly if I dont prepare and plan my strategy and that is normally something you do in isometric, party based games like BG, PoE or Pathfinder For example last night I ended up fighting a Vampire Mage and I only beat him on the 5th try by taking several buff potions, enhancing my weapon and using Summons to distract him. And combat challenge in ES games is important to stop the game becoming boring So its been an overall excellent experience with LoreRim. Further updates to follow

We already know how people are trained and prepared when they engage with Trump but its always weird to see it in action. This leak is from Witkoff to the Russians and what they need to say to him Two key points, its embarrassing how insincere and expected this type of engagement with Trump is but it creates results. Witkoff seems very close to the Russians but you could argue he just wants to get agreement on the latest deal and he knows how mercurial Trump can be and how you need to engage with him

But as I mentioned what surprised me was the reaction to this first " peace plan " as if it was a done deal And we have been through this before so its not unprecedented. I have stopped quoting Trump on Ukraine because of how many times he has said things and then backtracked, I got tired of being interested in something that didn't materialize (like the long range missiles ) The EU and Ukraine will always need to accept the terms and then it goes back to Russia. After those steps then we can objectively commenting on the terms

Educate me, how did Ukraine serve its purpose and who did they serve? I have followed this type of opinion before and it always has holes in logic and historical consistency and of course generally ignores the reason Ukraine is getting support from the West, Russia invaded a sovereign country that is on border of the EU and this country has direct cultural ties to several East European countries with a history of Soviet occupation. So a Russian invasion of Chechnya would not get the same interest or support for understandable reasons But go into details?

No it had stated goals that were basically about reducing Federal expenditure that was considered wasteful and unnecessary And Musk was brought in because he claimed this would be " easy " Musk made a unexpected mistake of assuming public sector restructuring is the same as private sector restructuring which he had successfully done within his own companies But DOGE had an understandable objective. There are lots of Americans who think the Federal government is bloated and ineffective They just went about it a completely heavy handed and unsustainable way Im not sure why you think it was about Musk's enemies?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-doesnt-exist-with-eight-months-left-its-charter-2025-11-23/ DOGE has officially closed 8 months early What a disaster, it was hyped and sensationalized and now its over Musk should have stayed in his lane in the private sector, his sojourn into public sector was an unmitigated failure

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-ukraine-news-11-22-25 "President Donald Trump said the US peace plan presented to Ukraine is not the final offer to end the war with Russia. “No, not my final offer,” Trump told reporters just now. “We’d like to get to peace. It should’ve happened a long time ago.” “The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened. If I were president, it never would have happened. We’re trying to get it ended. One way or the other we have to get it ended,” he added. " So despite all the drama and media coverage this is not the final or definitive peace plan that Ukraine " has to accept " Im just surprised people still respond to these types of Trump comments or leaked information. We have been through all of this so many times around the war in Ukraine

I watched most of the press conference between Trump and Mamdani and it was nothing like many people expected. I suppose by now we should be use to what people say on the campaign trail is not what they really believe Or rather people become more pragmatic if they want to succeed in US politics But even I was surprised how cordial and complementary both Trump and Mamdani were to each other, Trump really took a liking to him and it was obvious And its because they had this meeting before the press conference where Mamdani explained to Trump his vision and focus for NY and this vision is what Trump also agrees with for NY. Mamdani is very intelligent and articulate and he knew exactly how to engage with Trump so as to not upset him But basically Mamdani and Trump ignored all the sensationalism and SM rhetoric that was part of the NY mayoral race and just focused on what they agree on which was in summary crime needs to addressed in NY more low cost housing needs to be built NY needs to become more affordable for everyone Both of them skillfully side stepped or diplomatically answered certain controversial or divisive questions from some in the media that included To Mamdani : Do you think Trump is a fascist\dictator : Answer : From Trump " i have been called worse things, I dont care " To Mamdani : Are you going to cut the police force and replace them with social workers : Answer : No, the police will not be cut To Mamdani : Are you going to tax white areas more : Answer : We going to build new housing and focus on making NY affordable To Mamdani: Do think the US is guilty of supporting genocide in the Gaza : Answer : Human rights must always be respected To Trump : Would you live in NY under Mamdani : Answer: Yes, after this meeting I think he can do a great job to fix NY To Trump : Are you going to cut Federal funding to NY : Answer : No, we will be supporting NY because I support what Mamdani wants to achieve As I mentioned I have never seen Trump so friendly towards someone who he had been so opposed to But thats because Trump end of the day is pragmatic around what NY needs and Mamdani and him are aligned on what that is It was a good conference and I would encourage everyone to watch it to understand the art of diplomacy and how people with different political views can and do get on when its about a common good

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-announces-us-making-new-effort-end-war/story?id=127683382 Im more interested in how the Saudis have asked the US to get involved in Sudan around a peace solution. And we were just talking about Sudan and the intractable nature of the war Trump has agreed to this, its annoying and frustrating for me when this happens but I accept the most important point is the war in Sudan ending and it doesn't matter who ends it But what is frustrating is the complete failure of the AU to deal with African problems and how the UNSC is limited when someone vetoes a resolution like Russia did last year around Sudan I accept this is by design of the UN but you end up with inertia and paralysis if the UNSC doesn't agree on a resolution and then nothing happens Unless you get this example , the US is only getting involved because Saudi Arabia asked them. And once Trump is gone you wont see other US presidents being so responsive But we shouldnt be relying on the US or Trump to get involved in African conflicts to find a solution Saying all that as I mentioned the most thing consideration is this war ending, so Im " complaining " but I support the effort the US will be making

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/17/thomas-massie-trump-jeffrey-epstein-00654214?nid=0000018f-3124-de07-a98f-3be4d1400000&nname=politico-toplines&nrid=81406e35-5743-4c79-8a1f-03aae6892d3d Here is a really interesting summary of how Massie was able to get the vote around releasing the Epstein files to the House You can see the efforts how Trump tried to block it and how he failed Its been a fascinating and reassuring period for me this public pressure to release the full files and how Trump eventually acquiesced Its a win for Democracy and how citizen activism can get government to change course when initially they clearly didn't want to This would never have happened in autocracies like Russia or China where the states decisions are final and citizens have no way to influence or change that decision