BruceVC

https://www.politico.eu/article/robert-habeck-wants-germany-to-rebuild-ukraine/ Interesting story about Germany helping to rebuild Ukraine Some people might be cynical about this but obviously reconstruction projects have to go to someone so why not include Germany as one of those countries?

My bad, it was the wrong link. That was another attack on US forces but Iranian proxies were responsible for US embassy attack and they acknowledged it , to quote your link " A pro-Iranian group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization took responsibility for the bombing in a telephone call to a news office immediately after the blast. The anonymous caller said, "This is part of the Iranian Revolution's campaign against imperialist targets throughout the world. We shall keep striking at any crusader presence in Lebanon, including the international forces."[8] The group had earlier taken responsibility for a grenade attack in which five U.S. members of the international peacekeeping force had been wounded.

Its not that complicated to understand the sequence of events In summary Israel attacked an Iranian embassy in Syria : Iran is outraged Iran attacks Israel with missiles and drones : Israel is outraged Israel attacks Iran : Iran is outraged But all these are limited attacks in a reality of Iranian proxies attacking US interests and destabilizing the ME like the Houthis and the Red Sea terrorist attacks Also an attack on an embassy doesnt mean you " have to respond because its the same as an attack on the sovereign country " In 1983 the US embassy in Lebanon was attacked by Hezbollah\Iran and dozens of US citizens were killed and the US didnt attack Iran because of that. But saying that an attack on any embassy is unacceptable and embassies should always be off-limits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing And the international arms trade is a legal business and every country in the world has the right to buy military equipment, I dont think there is a single country in the world that doesnt have some sort of military budget Its not the selling of weapons thats an issue, its what states and governments do with those weapons thats a problem

https://missouriindependent.com/2024/04/17/u-s-house-gop-rolls-out-aid-for-ukraine-israel-votes-planned-on-tiktok-border-security/ I see the House will vote on Saturday on the Ukraine package and other aid I dont know if the aid was ever guaranteed because this type of funding always needs approval from Congress and the political vacillations of representatives can delay or change things And thats influenced by American citizens so very few things are " guaranteed " unless the US is actively involved in its own war But the whole inconsistent MAGA ideology was part of this delay and pushback at least for some of the GOP Anyway we still need the vote to happen so lets see how that goes

Yes I agree but for me I have never played a porn game before, Romance in games is different to this and its part of expected party interaction if you on some epic quest to save the world. I always think of Conan and his interaction with women on various quests . Thats typically how I RP my character and its CG if you compare it to D&D alignment If I want to watch porn then I will watch legitimate adult movies, I wont use a game for that but I realize everyone has different interests

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-israel-house-republicans-3f6f6af81c860eb8ce4104e61728a0fb So it looks like US Congress is finally going to put the various aid packages to the floor for a vote and this includes the Ukraine $65 billion Johnson is not worried about threats to remove him because he will survive a vote of no-confidence with Democrats help

Im have no problem with savescumming when its necessary because of bad design or because of laborious respawn mechanics that force you to repeat the last 1-2 hours Time is limited in this world

So we know more about the Iranian attack on Israel and its objectives So the Iranian hardliners had to " respond " due to domestic pressure after Israel attacked its embassy in Syria but they want to avoid a war with Israel and the US which they know they will lose but any country that attacks Iran will suffer consequence because Iran is not a pushover So Iran makes it unofficially known they will attack Israel and 99% of the missiles and drones are destroyed and no real damage is done to Israel which was the Iranian calculus but they have also satiated the domestic nationalist fervour for a response And the US unofficially makes it known they wont support an attack on Iran which ostensibly had an influence on the Israel war cabinet decision Because the reality is the US has leverage on Israel and not the other way around which is what most of the Israeli\Jewish conspiracy theories misrepresent And the US doesnt want to be dragged into a war with Iran especially if its not justified and IMO you cant justify a war with Iran considering no real damage was done to Israel and Israel did attack the Iranian embassy with was the reason for the Iranian response We dont know what Israel is going to do but I doubt they will attack Iran without US support so maybe Netanyahu is hoping Trump will win in November and that Trump will support a military attack on Iran. But thats also not a given because we dont know how Trump will respond considering his capricious nature

But with all the domestic political issues in the US are large numbers of people really going to vote because of the Israeli vs Palestinian conflict? I know within some US media circles this gets raised as a " possible " influence on election outcomes but I will be surprised if that will be an important factor or influential factor I have also never seen a single current poll that includes this current war or even Israel as a main reason that people vote for? I have seen R vs W, border security, increased crime and inflation\economy as the most important reasons that will decide the election But I might be wrong, do you know anyone who will cast there vote based on perceptions of how the US is dealing with this latest war in Gaza?

Maybe but IMO this is definitely not the right time to bomb Iran back to the stone age and definitely not because Israel was attacked, if the US was directly attacked by Iran that would be a different story but Iran uses its proxies with the dozens of recent attacks on US interests If the US is going to go to war with Iran there has to be a legitimate reason to justify it and I agree with Biden on this

Update the Iranian attack and what we know majority of drones and missiles shot down, I dont think any casualties. Several countries helped Israel which include France, UK and the US and ostensibly some ME countries The US intelligence gathering was correct AGAIN and they warned the attack was imminent Iran wont launch further attacks unless its attacked by Israel US wont participate in a direct attack on Iran We now need to see what Israel does and will this lead to further escalation?

Iran doesnt have nukes yet, no need to worry

Im about 6 hours into Sons of the Forest and Im absolutely loving it The game starts with ZERO hand holding and Im just exploring and using my GPS. I dont know what Im supposed to do except for find the " family " which is great I havent really explored caves yet but thats clearly where the main quest needs to be but I did go to one cave and it was terrifying experience with strange mutants but lots of resources to find I appreciate the complete randomness of the design and the rewards for exploring , I went down to the beach and swam to a raft and I found a gun !!!! But I assume bullets will be a scarcity so Im using my bow in combat and I will only use the gun in critical battles I had a disappointing moment where I came across this attractive blonde women lying in some bushes and I thought " nice, possible Romance arc with an NPC" but then she got up and ran away ...and she had 4 legs !!! Mutants just dont do it for me so major Romance interest destroyed Forest 1 was my favourite survival game of all time and this sequel could deliver the same experience

Its easy to align my personal gaming experience with Obsidian games because NWN2 and PoE2 are in my top 10 games of all time

Im also going to add something. My love and passion for gaming goes back a long way even though I didnt game from about 1995-2007

Gorthfuscious, you know what I would suggest? Start at the beginning and when you get to the end then you stop

This is an accurate view of Hogwarts, there is no real choice and consequence except for the end of some side quests where you have an option to not return the item that you were sent on the quest to find in the first place. It seemed a bit silly that type of choice and I dont think there were any consequence for not returning the item

I see the game is created by a single developer, thats impressive I am playing Sons of the Forest, I loved the first one and it was the best survival game I have ever played Im only 4 hours in and Im doing lots of pausing of game and using google around " how to make a fire " There is almost zero hand holding but its coming together with the mechanics

Are you planning on voting this election? Your vote counts, never forget that

I hear you but is that enough to not vote for him? He believes in other things that most of us would agree with like he is pro-choice https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/presidential-candidates-2024-policies-issues/robert-kennedy-jr-abortion/ The point Im trying to make is one disagreement on a certain policy enough to not vote for a politician? What about the other things you agree with him on ?

Thanks, the interview on CNN I was talking about is the Chris Wallace show which is a weekly 1 hour show and he has 4 journalists on and most of them are anti-Trump and generally support the Dems and Biden but 1 journalist is always a moderate Conservative and they were objective about RFK Jr and most of the 4 journalists were saying things similar to you They raised an interesting question about " does a vote for RFK hurt Trump or Biden more " and they were saying it depends on the state that he appears on the ballot on or it hurts Trump more in the long term and Biden in the short term but Im not sure what that means because there is one main election But the main point they made is he is an alternative with certain views that resonate with people and thats more than enough to make him a viable choice for those tired of the theater of Trump and the inconsistency and frailty of Biden because Bidens age keeps coming up as a concern Exciting times ahead for you guys in the USA

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk-jrs-ability-sway-2024-election-depends-ballot/story?id=108753511 @Keyrock I was watching on CNN the support that RFK Jr has gained and how some people definitely like him. The news anchors were saying he appeals to certain voters for different reasons and one of those reasons is he isnt " much of the same " What do you like about him and would you vote for him? I am looking for a summary about what he stands for outside of the political rhetoric and exaggeration because he clearly resonates with people?

Yes but with a caveat, like I mentioned it doesnt have adult themes but that doesnt mean you wont enjoy it and it does have engaging components. I didnt get the thrill of exploring and risk vs reward like in normal RPG For example the beasts are all cute and you dont really feel like you MUST kill the monsters because they truly diabolical like a Daedra or Baatezu with the exceptions of spiders which I hate in any game. And almost all your companions are teenagers and kids which was a bit weird and unusual for me but thats how Hogwarts is suppose to be by design And then as you mentioned the books are written for a younger audience but adults do read and enjoy them which is the most important thing, adults are reading. And you dont want to shame people to suggest " why you reading a children's book " But Hogwarts is light-hearted fantasy game and you will enjoy it if you understand its narrative limitations compared to " adult " RPG

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-withdraws-most-ground-troops-southern-gaza-spokesperson-says-2024-04-07/ I think this is a really positive development, the IDF is withdrawing most of its forces from southern Gaza Is this the beginning of a permanent ceasefire and real negotiations between both sides or is it something else? I also think the mistaken killings of the Kitchen Aid Workers was the " final " straw for the US and the Biden administration around the egregious IDF military strategy and continuous and callous killing of Palestinian civilians

Maybe you sleep walking at night and gorging on food then? Have you checked the fridge and food stocks in the morning?