BruceVC

Another issue I have with the proposed gun control measures in the USA is you have US citizens volunteering to fight in overseas wars where its okay to use guns and automatic weapons but now you telling these same people that because of a few incidents of mass shootings, often caused by mentally unbalanced people, no one can be trusted to use certain weapons responsibly so everyone gets lumped together In SA we have very strict gun laws but you still see killings and crimes committed by a criminal element who dont care about gun control laws anyway and get access to weapons on the black market which is trenchant in the USA as well Owning a gun responsibly is an engrained part of the culture in many states where things like hunting are normal and when people want to implement gun control their is too much " stoopid rednecks who wont give up their big guns " unhelpful commentary from the left and liberals and not enough acceptance of the reality of the way many Americans see this intrinsically as a Constitutional issue and a right which has both historical and legal precedent So better mental health facilities and accessible therapy should be the first objective before we generalize and focus on the " banning " aspect of the understandable objective of reducing all mass shootings Thats why I dont support gun control anymore in the USA and the way it gets framed

This game is looking more and more like a rare day 1 purchase for me

https://www.petmd.com/dog/behavior/can-dogs-see-tv My mom and I are having a debate, they have these two cute little pugs and the one pug loves to focus and watch any TV shows that feature other animals or dogs and she actively barks and gets excited My mom thinks she is enjoying the TV but as the link explains dogs dont really see the images of a TV in the same way a human can so I believe dogs are captivated by some TV shows through sound and not the actual visual experience What do you guys think is the reason some dogs enjoy TV ?

You care about poor, impoverished African, Asian , ME and South American countries...really ? I have never known you or most people to talk about inequality in Africa in a meaningful way ? I apologize for not being aware of this , what debate have you raised around this popular subject because I hear a lot about perceived inequality in first world countries but not much about where the inequality exists at its worst in places like Africa ? Dark you need to come live in SA and then come live with me, we can do a tour of some African countries where I can show you real poverty and inequality that has nothing to do with Capitalism, The West or the US dollar but has almost everything to do with corruption and a failure of governance and zero accountability

Food for thought and you never know what the future holds but if I was a betting man I would bank ( excuse the pun ) on the system that the world currently uses by choice as the system that will continue to be used. This pandemic created an artificial global economic crisis....it wasn't structural and you normally only see the changes you are suggesting around structural economic problems ...not artificial

Yes I do agree the pandemic has changed or rather impacted how globalization works to ensure global trade and benefits. So no one can say with certainty " their cant be a new global currency" But once the vaccines are implemented we will go back to normal, pre-pandemic , policies where the world will continue to use the US Dollar in the same optional way it always has. I cant see logically why the global financial systems we currently have will change or need to change and even if it should change using China or Russia as an alternative would be one of my last options Maybe you can tell me in summary why you want to change the dollar as the worlds unofficial reserve currency, why do you think it needs to change is probably more relevant to this debate ?

Yes the US Dollar, and the USA economy, is considered stable and sustainable. You may not agree with it but the reality of how the majority of the worlds Central Banks and global Investment banks see it is that the dollar is the best currency to buy and keep in foreign exchange reserves To quote from that link I provided all these paragraphs below confirm what I am saying but the link also discusses the negative or reasonable ways to find alternatives to the US dollar According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. dollar is the most popular. As of the fourth quarter of 2019, it makes up over 60% of all known central bank foreign exchange reserves. That makes it the de facto global currency, even though it doesn't hold an official title. The relative strength of the U.S. economy supports the value of the dollar. It's the reason the dollar is the most powerful currency. As of 2018, the U.S. had $1,671 billion in circulation. As much as half that value is estimated to be in circulation abroad.Many of these bills are in the former Soviet Union countries and in Latin America. They are often used as hard currency in day-to-day transactions. In the foreign exchange market, the dollar rules. Around 90% of forex trading involves the U.S. dollar. The dollar is just one of the world's 185 currencies according to the International Standards Organization List, but most of these currencies are only used inside their own countries.3 Almost 40% of the world's debt is issued in dollars.4 As a result, foreign banks need a lot of dollars to conduct business. This became evident during the 2008 financial crisis. Non-American banks had $27 trillion in international liabilities denominated in foreign currencies. Of that, $18 trillion was in U.S. dollars.5 As a result, the U.S. Federal Reserve had to increase its dollar swap line. That was the only way to keep the world's banks from running out of dollars.

It always fails because the countries involved arent consistent with their own rules around adhering to various global financial regulations and having transparent legal systems like China So to repeat what I said earlier, you will be waiting a long time if you think the "evil, Capitalist , Western ,Banking " system is going to be replaced by " open, transparent , non-greedy, socialist/Communist " banking systems of China and Russia Sorry Dark, its not going to happen. You need trust in a currency and stability to make it the worlds unofficial reserve currency

Not sure how you would remove the dollar from your international trades as so many things are fixed on dollar being the agreed on currency and measurements like the price of commodities like oil. The dollar is the worlds chosen reserve currency for several reasons but mainly because of its stability https://www.thebalance.com/world-currency-3305931#:~:text=Another name for a global currency is the,of all known central bank foreign exchange reserves. Secondly if China and Russia want to create their own global banks and not deal with the likes of Western banks or the IMF they are perfectly entitled to. You can arrange finance from any legal source you want as a government But both Russia and China have attempted this before and it was an epic failure, that was one of the original objectives of BRIC and it didnt go anywhere https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/can-bric-countries-move-away-from-the-dollar/ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/BRICS-bank-launched-in-China-as-alternative-to-World-Bank-IMF/articleshow/48160116.cms Countries still get loans from the IMF and World Bank and very few people will stop using the dollar as the unofficial global currency so this view from Russia and China is meaningless and just a response to the valid new sanctions against China and the current sanctions against Russia

https://www.journalgazette.net/news/world/20210324/israeli-election-too-close-to-call Exciting outcomes for the Israeli latest elections, its still to early to call a winner but no party will get a majority which means coalitions and political compromises will be created....it will just be interesting if the winning party is more moderate or like Likud, Netanyahu's party, leans more towards right wing nationalism

Look at you girlfriend, you little modder you But you only can be considered " hardcore" modder when you use Romance Mods effectively But small steps, small steps

Oh yes Trumpism will be remembered for many things, more negative than positive Im afraid But it will definitely be remembered as that arcane political movement where " it was expected and praised for flipping flopping and being inconsistent on what you say in public and the word hypocrisy confirms your commitment and understanding of the general Trumpism doctrine "

Yeah, Im used to that happening in games like this . Things like hunting and sky-diving, FC3, dont become as much fun anymore but I just then focus on the main quest and finish the game

I have decided to play Far Cry 4 next, it will be a nice forced break from Fantasy RPG I updated my Ubisoft client and Im good to go

I have been following this natural disaster in Oz and it has serious consequences with the potential loss of life but worse is the damage done to infrastructure. Worse floods in 60 years and it still could go on for another few days Terrible news Gorthfuscious, my thoughts are with your country and its citizens

Yes its been both gastronomically and scientifically proven that you cannot have enough garlic and as you mentioned it would have to be mountains of pepper to ever be considered reasonably " too much "

Comrade you sound upset? Do you want talk about it?

Its not really hate, more like friendly cultural and nation rivalry Hates too strong of a word IMO ?

We know Stalin was a racist, no mystery their?

I completed Fable Anniversary and it really was just a fun and thoroughly enjoyable 50 hours. You dont overthink anything and the game world entertains me with its characters and idiosyncratic personalities. And once on certain skill levels most combat becomes primarily fun and easy and a little mindless. But that is part of the enjoyable side of some controller based games ...I like repeating my combat strategy ...attack with time slow spell, use rolls and ducks in combat and use damage enhancement spells and then just go wild with swings and inflict mass carnage on enemies So it gets a solid 60/100 on the much respected " BruceVC gaming barometer " scoring system But that means I am at that exciting moment where I decide " what to play next ". I have to force myself this time to not play a fantasy RPG so that means I am going to trawl through my Steam and GOG for action, FPS, adventure or even RTS games to see what should be next. I may post my choices and ask people opinions

You make me laugh because this is something I have considered explaining on talk shows in SA. Sometimes we have some strange debates in SA around race and racial identity and these debates are not common say maybe 2-3 month on some talk shows or sometimes in a University on a specific public holiday and the topic could be something like " Were we sold a lie about our Democracy by Nelson Mandela " or " Unpacking the reasons for Whiteness" and in these debates they normally last about 1 hour or so and the panels would normally be people who I consider more activists than people who have studied history and economics and this generally includes panelists who are also white. So you generally accept that the topics and responses are sometimes not based on real historical context or actual data around something like economic inequality. But I try to watch them on TV because they interesting and you can learn new things, you just learn to ignore any uninformed or anti-white generalizations And sometimes someone brings up " how offensive it is to be called black" or sometimes even more rare " its offensive to be called black by a white person " and people insist they must be referred to as " African " and not black Now what always happens is 99 % of all people after these debates go back to the normal way of referring to each other as black and white because actually black people dont really mind calling themselves black as its just a collective term because in SA we have different black tribes and it would be impractical and basically impossible to know the actual correct name of the tribe or ethic group by just looking at the black persons appearance so people just never do it. So we understand their is no such thing as " black " as its just a way of making a point that is around all black people in SA...it is not suppose to be seen in anyway as offensive But in closing their is also no such thing as " white" either. We are different ethic groups as you mentioned but the reality even the Europeans would mostly refer to themselves as white in debates. So almost all my descendants can be traced to the UK, not all English as some come from Ireland and Wales, and France. But we all actually Anglo-Saxon by real ethnic group. Now imagine what would happen in SA, and most of our countries, in one of these debates where people are expressing " outrage " about white people calling " black people black " if you stood up as a white person and demanded that all people "stop referring to you as white person because it is equally cultural insensitive to be called white because you are Anglo-Saxon " It would create real bedlam and chaos because many white people I know dont know their ancestral tree, and its easy to find out if you want to, and are happy to refer themselves as white So I do agree that their is no such thing as white and we can argue this point and say I am Anglo-Saxon but the reality is its just a collective way of describing all white people in a normal way we debate and refer to ourselves so I would always encourage any white person to not get offended or think its something that we need to clarify because it just leads to more confusion or unnecessary invective when we all could be debating more substantive issues

https://news.yahoo.com/russia-wants-apology-u-biden-083815591-222819179.html Putin has asked Biden to a live debate due to Biden calling him a "killer " Its something that should not be entertained in any way because this is a good example of the contempt and disrespect Putin has for Biden and the Democrats. The Russians have realized and seen Bidens ....mental challengers and Putin is taking advantage of this. Its pure theater the request but obviously the debate would be real and end up embarrassing the USA and making Biden look much worse Putin is a very formidable debater when he is comfortable with his opponent so it would be a very unfair debate and not create the right impression when Putin " wins" So you just reject this invite in some diplomatic way as its not about a sincere debate

I have studied and introspectively looked at my own prejudices and biases for years, for me I can generally control the ones still prevalent. But what was easy for me was my core fundamental views on the rejection of common bigotries which are sexism, racism and homophobia. And what made it easier to address these things was raised by my mom and gran and we never experienced these things because my mom doesnt practice these things And in SA this for some white people, my age , their parents were bigots in some ways so they have had real examples of being exposed as racist or sexists and they have had to suffer the consequences. So in other words your parents behavior can inculcate certain views that you sometimes may not be aware of Nowadays I still sometimes create wrong impressions in RL because I frame things wrong or make someone think Im condescending and I try to learn to not do it again. But my problem is not being a bigot but rather been seen as " white, male, privlidege " ( I think this is the best way to explain it ) @ Rjshae I meant to ask you this earlier but what race are you? It makes no difference to how I enjoy your posts but I use to think you were African American but nowadays I think you white and because I engage with you I always like to know these things if you dont mind sharing But for me my agreement with peoples views is not about what race they are but rather the substance of what they say

Only you could post something like this Also I can only imagine how much people have bullied and been racist with you, how is racism in the Netherlands ?

You are so right and you revealed a real deep contradiction within the so called event. And the people who created this event arent racist and didnt think about what not being racist means because they assumed white people are inherently sort of racist So they think this event makes sense but the truth is a person who is not racist is never racist because its part of their value system and what would a week mean of people going around saying " I am not racist everyone ...look at me " Well spotted, you added a whole level of additional criticizing to this idea. Try to comment in future if you can on this type of discussion because you dont normally get involved and you have good instincts And now I am not going to escalate this to anyone because its too inconsistent to take seriously