BruceVC

Im unsure what you suggesting? Commodities prices are directly influenced by supply and demand and sentiment So of course the Ukraine crisis is effecting the Nickel price and the oil price but thats sentiment and nervousness Its not the same concern as thinking we can only get those types of commodities from Russia? Unless Im misunderstanding your post but you said " Ask yourself, where do palladium, nickel, natural gas, oil, uranium, grain, fertilizer and a bunch of other goods we depend upon come from " And Im saying they come from all over the world and they traded on an open market ?

Nice one....Im surprised you would enjoy GTA V? Its an excellent game, have you been to any strip clubs or picked up any hookers and you MUST go on a random killing spree or drive a car at high speed into pedestrians. It was one of my guilty pleasures. Also you can escape the police easily even on Wanted Level 5 by using a motorbike and escaping into the train underground system

Sure but no one said anyone is going to war over Ukraine and yes sanctions are the only realistic option. Only Russia has been going on about war when Putin has suggested that NATO and Ukraine want to attack Russia and similar gaslighting. And sanctions can cripple an economy and force change and negotiation. They slow but they work if you look at countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe or Iran

Nah, we will be fine with sanctions because their are different levels of sanctions. For example sanctions that would prohibit Russia from selling all those commodities would have to be enforced through the UNSC and that obviously wont happen because Russia and China would veto it And all those commodities can be bought in other countries, I doubt they can only found in Russia? For example Palladium is found in countries like the US and South Africa So no need to worry about that but I appreciate the concern. Sanctions are a very good idea and will be implemented. The only question being " what level of sanctions "

Putin is seriously hardcore, you dont want to mess with the Russian bear

I miss Oby, he use to make me laugh but he was one of the very few people who use to be able to really annoy me because he would post these ridiculous old school pictures of " me " dressed like a colonial hunter wearing these outdated safari suits sitting under a tree in the African bush with black people carrying all the luggage on their backs. Similar to Colonialism in David Livingstones era Do you remember Qistina ? I am sure she was an alt-account because she claimed to " like " me because I reminded her of her Scottish friend, yeah right like I believed that one

Yes, I agree and thats where I am going. Because their are different degrees of sanctions that the West can implement and some of them are so severe I dont think this recognition of these separatist states would justify them but with an invasion of Ukraine I would support severe sanctions And one of the tools the West can use is freezing Russia out the Swift financial payment system and this will have devastating consequences for the Russian economy but it will also hurt aspects of the global economy and anyone trading or invested with Russia. So these types of sanctions should only happen if Russia invades Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT

I have to say your post a few days ago about Putin recognizing these regions as independent was correct Its hard to predict these things so nice one. Do you think he will invade Ukraine outside of this?

Elerond I watched an interview with your president on CNN about Ukraine , he comes across as reasonable and articulate. I like him and how he makes his points Does he also go to night clubs like your hot prime minister ?

Not anymore as far as Putin is concerned, my understanding is the separatist states according to him are independent from Ukraine but I may wrong ?

@Chairchucker Do you guys learn to speak English at your schools

China did mention " respecting the borders of Ukraine " but what that really means is almost impossible to discern when it comes to the ideological views of the CCP

Both I think, tanks and infantry and its in the eastern separatist states

You did Gorthfuscious. I am going to base my views on this on international definitions of borders and what the UN defines as the sovereignty of any region and no country can unilaterally change this. You can change borders with international and UN support like the creation and recognition of South Sudan Its the same as Chinas definition of the South China sea and its encroachment on OZ fishing waters and its right to operate in these territories irrespective what international law says https://thediplomat.com/2020/12/pacific-island-nations-wary-of-chinese-fishing-fleets/ So you right, Im biased in that regard and I admit it

Interesting post, thanks for sharing

No need to justify Putins speech Zora, of course its true. Putin would never lie about anything

Its interesting how the majority of countries wh But havent you heard from Dark and Zora and other Russian apologists , of course all these things are. We know they true because Putin said so and especially wiping out the Russian Orthodox Church and how Ukraine is going to use WMD against Russia The endless misinformation, gaslighting and state control of the Russian media means it doesnt matter within Russia what is true or not because that is who his rambling, revisionist historical speech was aimed at. Its just about convincing the Russia people the recognition of these regions is justified. It was never going to be accepted by most of the rest of the world anyway. Im surprised Putin didnt say " The West is using actively implementing genocide of all Ukrainian separatists " But their is always a positive. We now stop constantly raising how the justification of the invasion of Iraq was the greatest lie we have heard in the last 20 years or so . So Russia has once again surpassed the US in its behavior that typically would illicit criticism and " outrage " from some political commentators

Yeah, Im just joking. Besides you part of the Commonwealth, you dont want to give that up

Malc this might be the right time for Canada to become part of the US, I suggested this years ago and you shot the idea down but it looks like Canadians may be more amenable to the idea? Maybe a referendum ? It has lots of benefits and if you become the next US state you dont have to worry about that pesky border ....

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/crimeas-technically-flawe_b_4992908 How did he give the the people of Crimea a choice, the "referendum " didnt have a option that said " we want to keep things as they are ". To quote from the link Crimeans were offered only two alternatives: independence or greater autonomy. Maintaining the status quo was not an option. Thats not a referendum Elerond and thats apart from the other issues about it mentioned in the link?

Yes I would upgrade because memory isnt a huge cost compared to a video card or motherboard and it makes a significant performance difference if your PC is highly utilized I am not sure how familiar you are with Windows performance metrics but an easy way to monitor performance is run all your apps and games together and then right click the Task Bar at the bottom and go to Task Manager when the menu pops up Go to the Performance Tab and you will see all your main hardware measurements like disk, memory, CPU and other things. From that you can determine if you have a hardware bottleneck and what needs to be upgraded. I have included my work laptop in the image below and from this you can see I would benefit from both a memory and CPU upgrade but the laptop is for work purposes so I dont need to

I wouldnt frame it as a spin off of the Gothic series but an evolution. PB took everything they learnt from the Risen and Gothic series and used that prodigious knowledge to create the ELEX franchise And its more a hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi

Okay..thanks for the information but I was just asking where you were because I was worried about you? I was joking about you joining the Russian military, I wasnt being serious

You guys wont believe this but one of the Codex members who is also an ELEX fan had a raffle for a free copy of ELEX 2 and I said I want to participate because obviously I love PB games. About 30 people also entered and guess what ....I won So I am getting a copy of ELEX 2

I am not sure if you did miscalculate, in what way do you think you miscalculated because you have done very well to have the same laptop for 7 years I have a laptop but its for work purposes and owned and payed for by the company and we not suppose to load games on it. Generally in SA company owned laptops gets replaced every 4 years or so and you return the older one So I have always had a dedicated PC for gaming and personal activities but I only upgrade it every 5-6 years due to the cost