BruceVC

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/republican-mayra-flores-flips-house-seat-texas-special-election-rcna33652 The GOP have flipped a Democrat House seat in Texas, Mayra Flores was born in Mexico and is another example of the reality of the success of the GOP which is often incorrectly portrayed as a party of and for " white men " (she is also smoking hot ) I predict this is a sign of the bloodbath that the Democrats will experience in the midterms I will comment more on this type of political change in the US after the midterms but their are two points I want to add about why this is occurring The Democrats focus on issues that arent what most voting Americans really care about, the party is too influenced and handicapped by the progressive Democrats and their pseudo-socialist policies and things like defunding the police and name changes I would normally be happy with a GOP victory in the midterms and in 2024 but I dont want to see another Trump presidency in 2024. But unfortunately the way things are going I am not sure this can be prevented And then I do think Biden is facing criticism for things that arent his fault like the global inflation, high cost of living and how the US withdrew from Afghanistan. But I suppose in all Democracies thats how it goes, the current PM or president gets blamed by citizens ?

No I still haven't found a credible school CRT curriculum (I dont actively search for it )yet people are still saying " we want to teach CRT in schools " and that sentiment exists now in SA Why would educators, outside Universities, want to teach something and talk about it if it doesnt exist? So Im still concerned about it . But if you can get people in SA to stop saying " we want to teach CRT in our schools " then I wont be concerned ...so please help me end this bogeyman because people clearly believe its a real subject

@alanschu I know you mean well so dont take this the wrong way but the moment you said KP was right with his exaggerated, spurious and generalized view that " a good rule of thumb to assume cops are lying in general" you immediately demonstrate you dont understand the reality of the good work that the police do in the US and more importantly the police dont lie all the time and often people are guilty of the crimes the police arrest them for Dont believe some of BLM rhetoric, yes their is racism in the police in the US and things like racial profiling can be abused But its not the majority of police and we should really not believe that Gromnir makes very good points in this debate and Im not talking about him bringing the "BruceVC" deride into the argument. I am talking about the reality of how the police function in the US and its not nearly as bad as some people maintain

You must defund the entire racist Canadian police, that will definitely solve the problem It can be done, look at how it worked in the US ....oh wait But on a serious note I dont have much confidence with these types of reports and more specifically their suggestions and outcomes if you look at the US and how certain states in the US that followed BLM recommendations and you now see the crime rate getting worse and politicians scrambling to reverse certain changes they made around how the police are allowed to operate in these states Your article mentions " officers to brace for a “challenging” public reaction ", what do you think that means? Do you know in the US that 70-80% of black people dont want to defund the police and never did. You can see this represented in the election victory of the new mayor of NY who is ex-police, black and opposed to defunding the police and thats the ticket he ran on https://reason.com/2020/08/06/81-percent-of-black-americans-want-the-same-level-or-more-of-police-presence-gallup/ https://www.newsweek.com/eric-adams-who-opposed-defunding-police-poised-new-yorks-second-black-mayor-after-primary-win-1607379 So this raises a question, who are these people that speak on behalf of " black people " because the reality is they dont represent what the majority of black people want The best way to get an accurate and honest view of what citizens think is to ask people. So in your personal lived experience do you find the Canadian police racist and what has been the overall experience that your family and friends have had with dealing with Canadian police Thats much more relevant than some report which doesnt represent the overall experience that most people have with the police

Good post Monty, Putin can absolutely end the invasion of Ukraine But he wont at the moment because he is an autocratic and sociopath and this egregious invasion of Ukraine has to be seen as some sort of success So if Russia is able to occupy eastern Ukraine I predict we will see a " peace solution " from Russia and the question is will Ukraine accept it? Their are so many moving parts its hard to know

Their is no such thing in life as real prognostication and economics is the same but you can more or less predict quarterly economic data accurately based on historical data when markets are stable and globalization is working and functional Thats not the case now so no one can say " the titanic is sinking " because thats just rhetoric but we all in for hard times on different levels until inflation subsides which is dependent on the supply chains working and the damage done by the 2 years of imprudent and severe lockdowns. And Putins War has exacerbated things definitely so we can blame Russia for making things worse But for me I dont ever to hear people say things like " globalization is a problem " because now we experiencing what happens in a world where globalization is dysfunctional and this includes things like oil sales, processors , global courier services and food exports So if their is one "silver lining " to this high inflation its that I doubt we will ever be subjected to people protesting at meetings like Davos and making irritating and meaningless comments like " down with globalization "

Nice, this game sounds fun

It depends where you live, we have different weather patterns in different parts of the country. Not as different as the US but it varies

Do you frequent Codex, whats your user name? The ridiculous hyperbole from some Codex members about the globohomo global control makes me laugh, I dont even know what people are suggesting most of the time. I just ignore it

Summers in Cpt I find very hot and some days its uncomfortably hot with average temperatures being about 84-89 Fahrenheit. But its not hot every day which is nice. We are now in Winter and today is the coldest day of the year so far, 53F in the daytime But I dont mind the cold, I dont really feel it. Its the heat that bothers me. I normally go for my walk when the sun rises which is now at 7:40 am and the temperature is 48F

Nice, do you not go for those walks anymore? I still do but I havent been for the last 4 days because we are going through a rainy spell at the moment

What.....gaming on a mobile is like being in a Vegas strip club and you realize you have lost your wallet !!! Its just cruel and unfair What games you playing on your mobile ?

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