BruceVC

I completed Oblivion two nights ago, I spent about 240 hours on the game and it really was a worthwhile experience with mods changing the game from fun to superlative Maskars Overhaul really addresses all the initial design flaws like level scaling and then Ultimate Leveling makes exploring and questing meaningful because level advancement is based on XP and completion of quests and tasks and not just endless repetition of skills The game gets 80/100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system " I also learnt how to properly mod this specific game and what mod managers to use. That took about 25 hours but I did waste some time by not following a logical troubleshooting approach Now I am having a break for a few days before I can decide on that question that all us gamers love ...what do I play next? So I am just having loads of fun in my modded RDR2 SP game, I have added some undead mods which adds zombies and undead camps to the maps. Its not working properly but I will fix that. After getting Oblivion working with all my mods I will never ever be daunted again by any game and any mod incompatibilities

Thanks, I will go through some of these links ( not all of them )

Thanks for explaining, now I understand what you mean. And some of what you saying is correct. I am opposed to old school socialism\Communism or how countries like Cuba and Venezuela are governed and the idea of forced nationalization by any government And I absolutely believe all listed companies must be profitable or they will collapse or have to restructure I dont have an issue with the role of banks in all our economies so thats also true And I realize I have created the wrong impression because I am not just concerned with left wing extremism but all extremism But their is no reason we cant have debates on these topics and sometimes agree to disagree. We dont have to automatically dislike each other because we dont have the same ideological views because you will find many things we all have in common. This is one of the main factors that feeds the unhelpful Culture wars in the US and other countries like SA and the UK One of my concerns in this era of debate is where sometimes there is intolerance and assumptions made around opinions that are different to ours. Lets ask what people mean instead of jumping to conclusions and assuming people are racist or fascist because we dont agree or are not sure what the person believes But thanks for responding because now I understand

Sorry I dont know what you mean, can you clarify?

This is the second time you have raised this that I can recall , can you post a link so I can understand the criticism?

This is a great link, very thought provoking

But Im not just singling out BLM, my view is consistent with all protests and civil disobedience where criminality exists. For example I said the Canadian truckers protest was unacceptable and those truckers blocking national highways should be arrested. Which again "surprised " people because Im a WASP and "why am I not supporting my fellow WASP " And to answer that question is the same as my view on BLM, I am a WASP but I dont support anyone who breaks the law. My views are very simple to understand

I like the new Pope and he genuinely means well but he is not an economist or a politician and he has said things in the past I dont agree with or are not accurate For example he has often made comments that Capitalism just creates inequality and profitability is about greed when in fact profitability is a measurement of good corporate governance and is critical to both a country and any business being sustainable. For example if every company runs at a loss you wont collect much tax and your economy will collapse so profitability is not a bad thing but it cant be at the expense of labor laws and basic human rights Would you also agree with the Pope when he said a month ago that the Russian Orthodox Church " mustnt become Putin's altar boy" and Francesco also criticized Kirill for "approving the stated reasons of Russia for the occupation of Ukraine"? https://www.txtreport.com/news/2022-05-04-pope-criticizes-russian-patriarch--do-not-become-"putin-s-altar-boy".B1JHr1g89.html Would you agree he is right about those comments about Putins War?

Thats good news because the US funded Afghanistan for 2 decades and if the current spending on Ukraine is not as much as I thought then its more sustainable than I believed Good to know because its puts less pressure on "how long can the West continue to fund Ukraine " if the amount of support is not that great compared to other historical funding examples

I do think you raising valid concerns, I think your initial comment wasnt framed correctly when you mentioned " punishing Russia " which is why most of us responded in a more critical way to your post What surprised most people is the perception that you think the Western response is about punishing Russia when the reality is its the Ukrainians who are suffering and having their country destroyed by an invasion. Thats the main reason for the Western response and general anti-Russian sentiment. Its not personal but due to the actions of Putin But I agree the idea of the West of funding the Ukrainians indefinitely is not realistic which is why we all want to find a way to end this war

Hurlshot ....tsk tsk....you failing the " Californian liberal code " because you potentially saying something that could offend and hurt my feelings Thats not very nice, what are all the other liberals going to think? Remember its always about the feeeeeeelzzz

Please do when you have time because this is a worthwhile debate

And their is also no typical socialist systems in those countries, they hybrids of socialism and Capitalism but they still Democracies which is what "normal " socialist\autocratic countries arent like Cuba, Russia, Syria, China and Venezuela So the take-away and success of the Nordic countries for me is not " socialism works " but rather " hybrids of socialism and Capitalism works " when you have a stable Democracy and a government that is effective Historically by design most socialist\Communist countries are not Constitutional Democracies which is why they inevitably fail

No those examples are not the same as Putins War and Im surprised we still honestly debating this Russia invaded a sovereign country, their are many examples where wars end where an invading army is defeated or stops its invasion. The obvious solution to this Ukrainian crisis is Putin ends the war and pulls all Russian forces back within the borders of Russia. Thats the first step to end this war, its not simplistic at all because this will end the carnage

These are good questions which is where I was going with Alan and I dont have all the answers but I can respond around research I have done. Also I keep making the same points around my ideological views, I believe exactly what I say. I dont have a hidden agenda and we all guilty of confirmation bias at times. Thats part of the human psyche, who doesnt like people agreeing with us? What I would appreciate if you could be clear about what you think my agenda\narrative is because I honestly dont know what people are talking about because I say exactly what I believe albeit with diplomacy so I dont offend people. And I cant respond if I dont know what you mean by "unknown narrative " or similar questions But going back to your broader point which is " what defines a legitimate labelling of any protest as criminal " So their are 4 main types of people who participate in BLM protests. They are well meaning ideologues who believe in racial justice, protest peacefully and are committed to the positive outcomes of BLM well meaning people who do believe in racial justice and will support most BLM protests and protest peacefully but they not deeply committed people who believe in racial justice and some of the BLM objectives but will damage property, burn cars and commit other acts of criminality people who say they believe in racial justice but use the protests to loot and commit acts of criminality in the same communities they claim to care about The first two groups are not guilty of any criminal behavior but the last two are. So you cant say " all BLM protests are about criminal behavior " because the majority of people dont commit crimes during protests. But you also cant say " their is no criminality during BLM protests " because their are clear cases of this from the last 2 groups And this applies to all other examples you mentioned that include politicians and groups like the Proud Boys, individual who commit crimes must be arrested but we shouldn't generalize and label a legitimate political party like the GOP as criminal just because some of their members have been linked to corruption or have broken the law Unless the group is a known criminal syndicate like Mexican cartels, The Cribs and the Bloods, Neo-Nazi groups or the Russian mob and these groups can be linked to RICO. Then you can generalize So in summary, their are acts of looting and criminality in some of the BLM protests. We shouldnt deny this but that doesnt mean BLM is criminal movement. I hope this makes sense?

Can I tell you what always surprises me. That you still read my posts, care about my grammar and you even comment sometimes to the point where you prepared to spend time finding old posts of mine..that effort is nice to see I dont really do that with your posts but like I said with Alan I always enjoy debates and you and I have had some interesting chats. So lets turn over a new leaf and lets start engaging constructively ...I will always try to respond if I can But the most important consideration if we are going to debate is we are not going to agree on everything. Its okay to disagree on things. Who wants on echo-chamber anyway Oh and something you and @Gorth should find interesting, a few people on Codex have also noticed my misusage of their\there and commented so you not alone and I always appreciate the constructive criticism and how some people respond to it is hilarious

No I was just asking if you think some of the BLM protestors are involved in criminality. I was going to add that many of the BLM protests are not about criminality but as usual in culture wars many people in the USA, and other countries, tend to generalize which shuts down debate in the US which is one of the reasons you have this political dichotomy and endless left vs right invective which is represented in both Congress and on the ground amongst many Americans Many people seem to have forgotten that a debate is about different opinions and its important that we dont forget that. For example if I think Johnson didnt lie we can have debate about it, no need to insult me and call me a racist or fascist or guess about my political motives. You can ask me any question and I will respond Lets try to be better than the politicians we say are useless. Lets keep the art of debate alive and healthy and lets accept that we can agree to disagree I enjoy your opinions even if I disagree with some of your views, thats why I asked you about BLM And I wasnt being defensive with @Gorth, we have many debates and somethings we agree on and somethings we dont. Thats just how I debate I hope this makes sense and we can continue to have constructive debates

Alan do you believe that their has been no violence and criminality during any BLM protests from some of the protestors? And I consider looting of shops and businesses as criminality

Okay I see your point but the main reason for the Ukrainians fighting back is that their country was invaded and they literally face an existential threat. They would be fighting back even without Western resources? I doubt they would stop fighting even if the West said " stop fighting" because the Russians are within their country and killing their citizens. So the concern that the Ukrainians are on a Western lifeline I dont think makes sense I think if Russia is able to defeat the Ukrainians in the east they will offer their definition of peace terms, the question is will the Ukrainians accept it

Yes I agree, their would be many variables and metrics that define corruption and create these scores But I dont think its racist, its looks more or less accurate

You have a very strange definition of an invasion and people defending their country from destruction The West is not forcing the Ukrainians to fight. The Ukrainians will be the ones to decide when it ends one way or another Not sure how you think this is about punishing Russia. A better question is " when will Putin end his invasion and return to meaningful negotiations " ?

Elerond this scoring seems racist, its putting lots of African and ME countries as the most corrupt...are you sure its not racist ?

Mamie are countries like Slovakia and Hungary consider more corrupt generally than other East European countries like Poland, Romania and Czech?

Interesting, what do you guys who live in the EU think? I dont think it should be rushed and my view is similar to the quote from your link below from Macron In recent weeks, some leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have suggested that it would be more useful to grant Ukraine some sort of interim status that strengthens its relations with the EU. Macron has said that even if Ukraine is recognized as a candidate country, it would take more than a decade under existing accession procedures for Ukraine to join the bloc.

You right, I do believe that the US would be very unhappy with Mexico allowing Russian military bases within Mexico But just remind me where in Ukraine are the US military bases and when did the US say they were establishing military bases in Ukraine, I am not an expert in Ukraine so I probably missed that? But lets say for argument sake Russia did setup military bases in Mexico, I doubt the US would invade Mexico because the US would win that war at the expense of the collapse of Mexico and that would only exacerbate the immigration crisis to the US So the point is the US would not invade Mexico unless its security was directly threatened, meaning the US is attacked first like in 9/11 Putins War is not about NATO, Nukes or Neo-Nazi...those are the famous lies and exaggerations Its about recreating the borders of the failed USSR as much as possible and Putin believing he can decide what other countries can or cant do. He doesn't believe that countries like Ukraine's democratically government should decide the future of their country And we should all be opposed to this because we all believe in Democracy