BruceVC

Zora I want to give you some constructive feedback around how you seem to debate generally but specifically with Gromnir I have noticed you constantly bring up what Gromnir said years ago around the real weak state of the Russian economy and how "in 6 months the Russian foreign reserve would be exhausted ". So he was wrong with this prediction but this has very little to do with debates you have with Gromnir nowadays and has no relevance to what he is often right about. In life when we bring up comments made years ago in a debate it demonstrates an insecurity or lack of facts about the current topic. Lets focus on the current topic and not so much on past topics unless relevant All of us on this forum have been wrong about certain predictions and views around geopolitics, if we used this as a benchmark of the current veracity of our comments then there would be no point having any debates because all our current views would be dismissed Use links or cogent arguments to make your point and spend less time concerned when someone said something years ago that was wrong

Its always good to get real views by citizens living in any country that is going through the virus so we get a balanced view and the actual reality on the ground so thanks for sharing. I always try to follow overseas pandemic updates because we not doing a great job in SA and I want to understand how other countries are doing But why would your PM want to implement another lockdown unless it was necessary, the real and unquestionable damage to our economies and livelihoods cannot be ignored when considering this?

I am going to be starting D:OS 2 EE today, I am excited ....generally excellent reviews I am using some Mods, as usual, but not many

But who would pay for that

Yes I share your concerns around the dominance of 1 party in the House and Senate I know the Republicans in the Senate and I am use to there voting choices, I am not sure what a Democrat Senate would mean?

I think its exactly what it appears, Ukraine is dependent on the USA selling it weapons to fight the illegal conflict Russia has created around both Crimea and in eastern Ukraine So without realizing what it looks like politically for the Bidens Ukraine wants to stay understandably on the good side of the USA so they offered him the position as a good ally. Biden Jr wasnt someone who was unknown to the Ukrainian government as he had been doing work there for years As I mentioned he shouldnt have taken the board position because I dont consider him suitably qualified but it still doesn't mean the Bidens are " irredeemably corrupt and benefitted through illegal gains "

Yes he shouldnt have accepted the board position because of the political optics, that doesnt mean he is corrupt or a moron It just means his own sense of judgement around " corruption perception " is in question

I love adding different ingredients with my cooked English Breakfast, I dont deviate from the normal " bacon, eggs, toast and fried tomato " but I also add additional things to my breakfast. Today I am including chicken livers

This is one of the many things that concern me with getting Corona, we dont know about the long term consequence to our overall sustained health Also many countries in the EU are really going through a serious second wave of infections which doesnt bode well for the EU and the world generally. I see Spain is now saying that they have had 3 million people who had the virus or do have virus...3 times more than first thought https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-23/spain-has-3-million-coronavirus-infections-premier-sanchez-says As I keep saying to fellow South Africans, I cannot see our lives returning to a semblance of normality until we have vaccine

https://www.stltoday.com/more-than-55-million-people-watched-the-final-presidential-debate/article_02217bcb-f3d4-5645-a04b-a9853787b618.html More than 55 million US citizens watched this final debate so despite the general negativity reflected on this forum these types of debates clearly matter to many people I also dont believe Biden or his son have been involved in any corrupt activity and the accusations are just politically motivated And I must say I am excited about the final election, who will be the next US president ...its a big election and as usual with all US elections has global ramifications so it should matter to anyone who follows certain global events and their outcomes Is anybody else excited about this election?

I have to work this weekend so I wont be doing anything exciting but I do plan on going for my walks and making a cheese fondue on Sunday

Yeah the debate was more cordial ....Biden seems to have won overall from a " which candidate came across as the most presidential " Trump loves denying any Russian involvement but that is just part of the Trump script around Russia interference in the US electoral process

I wonder how this will impact the overall quality of the final game ?

Happy first year Its always a good sign when we make 1 year on a forum.

Yes I do have very comprehensive Medical Aid and I have a Medical savings account which pays for over the counter and GP visits So the reason I didnt go to the doctor was not because of money it was because I have some reservations around the virus at the doctors rooms and also I was just lazy but more I felt I could ignore the symptoms and I would get better

I have to share something , I am raising a valid concern around not going to a doctor early but 2 weeks ago I had Gastro which lasted 3 days which was the longest I have ever had gastro.....I should have gone to the doctor on day 2 but I kind of try not to go to Doctors unless I am very sick or I need a proper doctors script So even though you ailment was much worse than my 3 days of gastro I had real symptoms. I had no appetite, stomach cramps, restless sleep and nausea ....yet I just soldered on without going to a doctor So I am also naughty sometimes about going to the doctor

Gothfuscious I am shocked by this story. Its impact has not been one of a little toe injury and Im very surprised you did not go to a doctor sooner ....why you would put yourself through such an ordeal is beyond me but the most important point is you did finally go to the doctor but you did seem to leave it to the last minute , for example there must be other doctors you can see if your doctor is unavailable. I also have a view around "preferred doctor " but I would not wait for something this serious At our age Gorthfuscious its not worth the potential issue or possible physiological damage to ignore this type of health problem

Thanks for responding and I am glad you did because I am not explaining my point properly, some of what I need to share with you now you probably know and I apologize for repeating this but its important I respond with a series of points just so I dont create the wrong impression with you...and its not that I expect to agree, I would think you would agree because its the truth and you will probably know this already And I enjoy these debates because its good to understand different views. Also I can provide extensive links for any point if you want to do your own research? Yes you are absolutely right about there is no such thing as a " one fit " system around either political or economic polices for the world and this is by design. The world has regions that are important role players in the global economy and local stability is dependent on certain countries continuing to be functional and there current governments are necessary to allow these region to function. So we need to accept this and support this arrangement because this has been proven to offer the most sustainable and stable future for these countries .....we mustnt allow our personal and sometimes understandably biased views create a wrong view of this type of arrangement. Good example of this is Saudi Arabia and its influence in the region which matters on several important global realities, like the oil price and how OPEC directly can control this And then this is a good time to clarify something that many of us, including me, didnt explain or understand. The Cold War is framed, incorrectly because it creates ideological confusion, as a war of " Capitalism vs Communism " but it really was a war between " Democracies vs Dictatorships ..... Capitalism should not anymore be seen as a ideological policy but rather a series of proven economic policies. You need a typical functional government to implement polices that support the free market but this is normal and it is expected you follow governance and the rule of law and order And you are right again that you cannot assume this will always work ....you just need to understand and monitor the output and actual reality on the ground And finally the choice for any legitimate government to deliver services and allow for a quality of life for its citizens should be seen as mandatory.....in other words no elected government or psedo-leadership can decide that its citizens dont need access to things like education and ignore security. To be more clear " as a leader you dont have the right to loot resources from your country and only use them to benefit yourself "

Elerond I am concerned that you may have a misunderstanding of what myself and others raise as examples of far left politics or "socialist " policies. I may be wrong which is even better because then I dont need to worry but what is your view around "socialism " and how it can work or should work? And what would be your concern, if any, with the EU which is the worlds trading bloc Gorthfuscious I was thinking about that debate we were having around that poem " then they came for us " and I reread what I was trying to say and I think I was not making my point properly because it wasnt suppose to be about the poem but rather a view that sometimes you come across that really does suggest if you are concerned with inimical socialist polices like we have seen in Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba then you are supporting right wing views or you actually privately believe them But I shouldn't have quoted the poem which was just about why I was directly sharing my view around that a person is not necessarily right wing at all if they are concerned with far left influence . In fact ensuring the sustainability of the free market and understanding how we can incorporate more countries into the benefits of the global system IMO would not be possible for any right wing country that I know of ? And just to clarify, I asked Elerond a question around what do you believe is the best system that countries should follow around socialism or do you respect the current common structures that are about Democratically elected governments that all follow the same rules of the free market. ? Do you think countries like Cuba have had an unfair history and response from countries like the US And also we dont want to unintentionally conflate the success of the Nordic countries to believing Cuba could have been the same because the history and political decisions and outcome of what makes the Nordic countries success stories is very different to Cuba But I am always interested in peoples views on interesting debates around Capitalist countries and sometimes there internal issues around poverty or inequality and how a socialist system would somehow fix that ?

Zora are you saying she should win and if isnt going to win why not? I never knew NZ had a women prime minister but from what I have seen she has handled some serious issues in the country like that craven attack on Muslims by that Internet attention seeking so called " right winger " ......he was wearing a camera if I am not mistaken Also the way she dealt with the overall pandemic is impressive....yes NZ is an island and theoretically easy to control but there are islands out there where they have been hit relatively hard by the virus like Madagascar A couple of months the president of Madagascar claimed he a " cure " for the virus based on a known African herbal tonic. ....it had not gone through any live trials yet he was making these ridiculous claims. When the WHO politely explained it cannot be a cure until it has been verified through proper clinical trials.....he then played the classic " because its from Africa and not Europe people dont want to accept it " ...... https://nypost.com/2020/05/08/madagascar-coronavirus-herbal-mix-draws-demand-from-across-africa-despite-who-misgivings/

Do you have any polling data to support this view ? I only ask this because it is very difficult at the moment to read accurately into what the current numbers are telling us around early voting ....what we do know is there are unprecedented numbers of citizens using the early voting system in certain states, this is to be expected considering the pandemic the general view is most of these early voters are Biden supporters as many Trump supporters believe these systems allow voting tampering we are also seeing a much more galvanized and committed Democrat " coalition " that did not exist in the last election where certain groups that were suppose to vote for Clinton and the Obama legacy , which should have mattered for various reasons, simply did not vote for her.....this lead to the expected Democrat support base not having all the numbers they should have had I do have some concerns with some of the general views some Democrats make .....they can be a little condescending if they suppose to win people over

Yes I must add these forums have never been that for me generally but you do learn interesting things all the time and certain members have excellent knowledge of games and historical games which is always interesting for a gamer

Well a break is never a bad thing Barti But who has left this forum that you miss, I noticed volo has been very absent and I am worried ?

You make a good argument here but its very unfair to blame the UK for the terrible loss of Soviet lives This was about Stalins initial terrible strategy of sending literally unprepared and ill equipped soldiers to face certain annihilation from the vastly better trained and equipped Nazi onslaught.... The movie " enemy at the gates " offers a window into this reality

I appreciate you going into the details around what I said, I was hoping you wouldnt comment because I know my statement was a simplification of what both these outcomes meant and I generally avoid discussions around the law unless it is about obvious rulings I never had a shared opinion about either of these rulings until the outcomes except for what was obvious, the Russians had interfered in the 2016 election But I was just stating what the outcome of these cases was....but yes I agree that there is more nuance and relevancy to what this means for Trump. On CNN there was an interesting interview from one of the lead Mueller prosecutors, Andrew Weissmann, who just wrote a book on the Mueller report and things he feels they did wrong, like not calling Trump to testify. Weissmann comes across in a very articulate and reasonable way and literally wrote this book in the interests of the correct historical context. I imagine you would buy this book and read it https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/13/media/andrew-weissmann-book/index.html I also dont consider the Mueller report a failure and it was definitely necessary. Several people were arrested and jailed and it correctly identified that Russia had interfered which as I mentioned was never a debate for me But its still not the same thing as saying Trump had directed colluded with Russia about there involvement And the impeachment was an unlikely objective from the beginning because one of the technical charges Trump was accused of was " The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" But Trump made the phone call that was ostensibly evidence of this in a room full of advisors. He saw this as just an example of his normal transactional way of doing business and his intent was not criminal but just a lack of understanding or protocol around what a US president should or shouldn't say I would not expect a Republican senate to impeach because of this, I wouldnt have voted for that if I was in the senate