BruceVC

https://reason.com/2025/04/02/the-senate-just-passed-rand-pauls-bill-to-block-trumps-tariffs-on-canada/ The Senate has passed a bill to block tariffs on Canada, it probably wont get through the House but Rand Paul has summarized accurately why tariffs on Canada make no sense "In remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon, Paul outlined the many reasons for America to avoid a trade war with Canada. Perhaps the most important is also the most straightforward. We're not at war with Canada," Paul said. "They're an ally that buys more of our stuff than almost any other country in the world. Indeed, it is quite insane to believe that the $400 billion in goods that crossed into America last year from its northern neighbor are some sort of threat. It is simply untrue that those imports constitute an emergency of some sort that demands dramatic executive action. And it's just silly to think that higher taxes on those imports will improve life on either side of the border. "

Its a completely inaccurate understanding of " tariffs " that Trump is suggesting Its actually about the trade deficit and the percentages are all about the overall differences between exports and imports to the US from each country, that has nothing to do with the word tariffs. So its just Trump doublespeak

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-set-report-drop-q1-deliveries-weak-demand-musk-backlash-2025-04-02/ Tesla is seeing some real sales and share price pressure and it seems largely influenced by his new political position in DOGE " Tesla shares were down early on Wednesday but reversed course after a Politico report that Musk was planning to step down from his role as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump soon, as administration insiders increasingly view the billionaire as a political liability." The WH is denying he will leave DOGE so it will be interesting to see what happens

Because of the complexity of the ruleset and because I am not familiar with Pathfinder ruleset I set Kingdom Management on Automatic I read some Beginners Tips and this was recommended and also Im playing this game for the RPG element and other mechanics, I dont have an interest in spending hours micromanaging my kingdom because this seems to a point of real criticism about the game

I decided to play Pathfinder Kingmaker I have never played any of the Owlcat games so I I know nothing about the IP, mechanics or ruleset Im about 6 hours into this game and I can tell its going to be a fantastic PC " Table-top " rules based RPG experience It reminds me of D&D which is obvious because I assume some of the Pathfinder mechanics are similar? And since D&D is my favourite ruleset that works for me I am still learning a lot and I have adopted the TB combat system and because this is my first playthrough I selected Gimar as a pre-made protagonist. I generally always choose magic users anyway

All those old Sierra games are such iconic and classic adventure games I replayed KQ and QfG a few years back and I must replay PQ and Space Quest

One of the requirements for his role was " put on weight " https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/aug/28/north-water-bbc-amc-colin-farrell-stephen-graham-jack-oconnell-andrew-haigh " Drax’s sheer presence on the page demanded a startling physical transformation from Farrell. “Colin reminds me of Bluto from Popeye,” Graham observes accurately. “A colossus, a monster of a man.” Farrell, all brawn and heft, explains: “I ate a lot and lifted some heavy weights. I looked at Victorian boxers and dockers, trying to get the belly and the muscle. It was not done under the supervision of medical professionals at all and was really ill advised.”

Trust me on this you wont be disappointed, find a way to watch North Water if you dont have normal access to it Its absolutely gripping and captures the harsh reality of that era and its very historically accurate around language and how the characters are portrayed. Apart from the main narrative, which is very dark, the protagonist Jack O'Connell has a side story as a British soldier who fought in India that is a big part of the events of the main story Its one of those series you can easily binge watch once you start

I am also watching AMC series at the moment The Terror s1 is excellent and s2 is good but not as good as s1. And they busy with s3 I am enjoying Mayfair Witches and I started on Interview with a Vampire I would highly recommend this series if you want a good Victorian era drama, its not a horror but if you want to see hardcore life of a whaling ship in the 19th Century this is a must. The characters really make this series especially Colin Farrell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Water_(TV_series)

I came across that a fair amount, when I was doing research after the game lots of people mentioned " this idea was never completed " The whole Raven Romance apparently only initiates if you an elf and on certain dialogue options I was a half-elf

I didnt come across any Romance arcs with Companions and Raven was in my party, I must have missed that dialogue option The only Romance was in Madame Lil brothel and the orgy in Stillwater with the priestess of Geshtianna But sadly no long lasting and real Romance

Thanks, I appreciate this objective feedback from someone who has completed KCD2 I like all honest views both good and bad

What do you mean by " not sure how I feel about it "? What didnt you like about it, can you provide details?

I completed Arcanum after about 45 hours, its definitely worth playing as a CRPG Overall its gets a solid 70/100 on the globally followed " BruceVC game rating system " Things I enjoyed and loved about it lots of interesting side quests good map system of how you need to find things around quest locations really humorous and quirky Easter Egg developments like the Stillwater Giant and Virgils story complex customization around different builds different ways to complete quests, the main narrative is clearly not linear and you can be good or evil. I followed the good path Worthwhile main narrative with several twists and turns around who is really the bad guy The combat is not a highlight, I ended up just attacking with my main character in almost all battles. I only used spells a few times and that was just to disarm tough opponents like the Cursed Paladin and some healing. So overall combat doesnt require much strategy or thinking But still the combat shortfalls dont detract much from the overall fun experience of the game

This EO could have some beneficial outcomes, I read this link and there are several points that make sense " It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing. Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history. " Outside of the rhetoric of this statement I think its a good idea to end this selective and revisionist view that the US is a country founded on injustice, slavery and oppression. And there are people who believe this and ignore the history of the US in its entirety and yet this history is well documented and easily accessible. For example most of the first immigrants to the US were fleeing European oppression, poverty or they were indentured slaves They came to the US to create a new life and in the beginning that new life was very hard But this EO also has elements of culture wars garbage, so its a mixed bag EO

DOGE is very questionable and specifically the methodology Musk has been adopting Many Americans have been saying for years they believe the Federal government is bloated and ineffective but the way Musk is carrying on is not the right way to make legitimate changes

Trumps losing degrees of support from certain MAGA circles because of perceived failures to deliver on certain policies, the Musk relationship and Israel support Many of the disillusioned MAGA supporters expect certain results immediately, which is unrealistic for any new presidency , and then there is the real annoyance how he ostensibly is more concerned with MIGA (make Israel great again ) and not MAGA. His targeting of Thomas Massie has also alienated some of his supporters So it could be any of these reasons but there is real pushback compared to when he won, its very evident on Codex

Time for some humour, I hope no one minds this mockery of Trump

But is that true? Part of the justification for DEI is because of that historical perspective Its similar to South Africa and the justification for BEE but it really doesnt make sense in our case because white people make up 7 % and we have a black government Im not convinced that is a necessary reason for DEI because what happens when DEI programs themselves become racist and discriminate against white men? You not fixing fixing any historical injustice or making things better when you repeat the same thing you claim you opposed to Lots of countries use merit based policies and I think thats the best overall system

The main legitimate criticism towards DEI and similar programs is why cant everyone be hired on merit? It doesnt matter what race or gender you are if you the best candidate for the job then you should get the job And then there are real examples of the abuse of DEI and white men end up being discriminated against which is also not what DEI is suppose to be about I have posted this story before in the UK, its just one example and you can see how well-meaning DEI policies can get horribly abused https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2023/07/u-k-s-royal-air-force-admits-it-discriminated-against-white-males-to-meet-diversity-quotas/ The inquiry report found that the Royal Air Force had discriminated against white males. The RAF was trying to hit diversity standards by advancing women and minority candidates and kept some white men from joining. The inquiry report found that the RAF’s diversity standards were not scientific or realistic.

My advice is dont get emotional about these things, avoid the whole cultural wars garbage that influences people on both sides around what makes a good game End of the day sales numbers will define if a game is successful and sustainable It doesnt really matter what you and I think because it has no outcome on sales Veilguard ended up being a sales disaster and Bioware missed there target badly and faced mass retrenchments and sadly Bioware may never release another game again What difference does it make if give you my opinion on this sales failure? If I say its because Veilguard ended up a woke disaster we dont know thats true because we dont know why it failed to sell, there are lots of opinions around this I only want to focus on games that are successful and have a future

There are several mods you can load to change how Saves work in KCD if you dont like the default system I loaded one that made a change around the Schnapps usage or something similar

Well done Wormie, it sounds like you being the perfect gentleman with Theresa I was worried you were going to assume this was another sordid and lascivious Viconia type dating arc .....and I didnt want you to get disappointed

Wormie have you initiated the Romance arc with Theresa? Be a gentleman, take your time and say nice things

That inconsistency seems better now, Virgil focuses on the main character but also heals other companions. Its just important he has enough fatigue But I also use my healing potions and items to heal companions in battle Dont wait, it will never become too old because its a CRPG and it has lots of features and designs that are very worthwhile Just make sure you install the UAP (unofficial Arcanum patch). You can run it at high resolution with wide screen with this mod as well Use these install instructions for this patch https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2311393823