BruceVC

This is good news for Serbia and the world as we have shortage of vaccines, I assume you just producing them but you dont have the IP for how they are created? Like India at the moment

Yes its very necessary in this era of vaccine hesitancy that if you Russia or China and you promoting your own vaccine to other countries that you publicly demonstrate confidence in your vaccine. So even though I trust these vaccines and I would use them, but I trust all the main vaccines and test data , the optics matter A president of any country publicly taking the vaccine is theater but its important to those people who still distrust taking vaccines

Also Putin only took his own Russian vaccine a few days ago, in this time of vaccine hesitancy it doesnt say much when the president of your own country wont take his own vaccine that is being distributed towards other countries and you expecting countries in the EU to accept https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/23/europe/russia-putin-vaccination-intl/index.html

Fair enough, I thought you were upset with the success of the UK vaccine rollout and were playing the "EU Nationalism " card because the EU has been slow in its vaccine delivery This by the way is one benefit of BREXIT for the UK. I have never supported all the reasons for BREXIT but I can see in this specific example it has made sense

Elerond the EU mustn't deny the UK access to vaccines, remember its not the fault of the UK that the EU has been so disorganized and bogged down with EU red tape and bureaucratic hurdles that is has failed to order enough vaccines expeditiously And you know I support the EU on almost all matters but its normal organized legal structures have been responsible for this vaccine slowdown for EU citizens Lets not blame the UK for its successful vaccine rollout, lets rather address systemic problems within the EU and how it has fallen short of its vaccine response

You asked a good question that is definitely worth understanding which is " how do all these weapons end up in the black market for sale on the streets " Each country that grapples with this problem will have similar reasons for this scourge. In SA because of Apartheid their were and are these hidden arms caches setup back in the early 1990's that right wing groups thought would be used in the assumed civil war. Some of these have been accessed nowadays But the main reason is the smuggling of illegal weapons into the country and then corruption within parts of the security forces that sell weapons directly to criminals and gangs https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-01-01-revealed-ex-cop-who-sold-guns-to-gangsters-is-in-witness-protection/ https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/durban-dealer-who-sold-guns-to-western-cape-gangs-has-case-postponed-cae7c0e8-e0d2-4b72-9fb7-67acabb1d131 In the USA I would say the ease of availability of weapons is smuggling and then similar to SA people within the security forces selling weapons illegally to a broader criminal element

Im a few hours into Far Cry 4 and its been, as expected, a fun experience that is reminiscent of previous FC games and other games from Ubisoft with a similar game design like Assassins Creed Lots of fun things to do like crafting and hunting, freeing up areas under enemy control and then a non-linear primary quest which you can do when you want when you want the game to progress I have used only 1 Mod which allows early access to all weapons and all areas of the map, its a good Mod and just improves the gaming mechanics https://www.nexusmods.com/farcry4/mods/26

Amentep please stop being captious, yes of course you will be trained in counter-insurgency and the art of warfare when they pass the same law in Georgia. No need to worry

Geez thats one way of ending any gun control debates, make everyone part of a state militia ....extreme but effective

This is extremally relevant, gun control supporters understandably use examples of the UK and Oz as where their are very few examples of gun violence because of gun control laws and banning of the usage of most guns but you cannot implement the same type of policy in any country that has a thriving and established black market where its easy to get guns illegally In SA and the USA this is sadly the reality in many cities. So you " ban " guns but you dont really because criminals, societal reprobates and mentally unbalanced people will just get them on the black market which is a reality you cannot deny I will give you a similar example, during the lockdown last year our government decided to " ban cigarettes " for some illogical virus spread related reason ( this only lasted 3-4 months ) Do you think anyone actually stopped smoking? No one I know because everyone just bought cigarettes in our establish black market and we paid 3x as much initially for cheap, inferior, illegal cigarettes' imported from counties like Zimbabwe So when you decide to ban things you need to consider questions like " is their a way for citizens to access these banned things illegally " ....if their is then you wasting your time in most cases

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