BruceVC

You make some good points and it adds to an overall better understanding of the US political machinery to listen to different political views.....we dont want to live in some echo chamber listening to repeats of any political view. Its really unhelpful especially when the echo chamber is wrong, like the last 2016 when I thought Hilary Clinton was going to win I learnt a big lesson that day about not bothering to understand all ideological views and general sentiment on the ground Anecdotal stories help to also understand the complex tapestry of the US political system and all the groups of people who live in the USA. Many members share anecdotal and its always appreciated. Like your very interesting post of your journey from Cuba, thanks for sharing that. I learnt loads and you can easily agree who someone has different views on certain topics but similar views on another topic For example I have always been concerned with the insidious risk posed by far left " political " movements that sometimes are vociferous but politically weak, for example in SA we have this one trade union who is unintentionally responsible for contributing towards our deep debt, erosion of labor working contribution and profitability and our massive, unacceptable public sector wages bill. Our public sector wages consumes 30 % of our total yearly taxes, 30 % of total taxes !!! And we have the second highest paid public sector relevant to GDP in the world.....yet we have huge failures throughout the country around municipalities who consistently fail to deliver services and all our SOE are basically running at billions of rands of losses each year consistently for the last 6 years. Yet this one union decides its going to create its own political party called the " Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party " and instructed all its members to vote for it in the last election in 2019...yet it only got 20k votes and was an epic failure..check there website https://www.srwp.org.za/ So modern day " socialist " movement have these incongruous, nebulous objectives around addressing inequality yet they are happy to benefit from the " evil, Capitalist " system when they demand bonuses and above inflation increases ...and you wonder why I think old school socialism and these modern day ideas of socialism are flawed And you coming from Cuba have direct lived experience with how ideological views like socialism can destroy economies and force citizens to leave there country to find livelihood elsewhere like the USA. I am glad many Cubans have found an new home in the USA and particularly Florida and the US Cuban community is an important community that contributes to the overall economy and growth in the USA In closing you can see how different people from different countries, like you and I , can easily agree on many issues like the risk and danger of socialism as we have experienced and seen its harm in different ways

This is no surprise at all and should be an effective incentive for the mayors in these cities to instruct the police to do there jobs and....stop people breaking the law The article contains the list of failures of law the cities have failed to enforce and it all looks reasonable. But the quote below summarizes the actual reason for this ruling " We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,"

Its very is controversial and I am very surprised the Swedish Central Bank is expecting not sharing the full information of the Blackrock as normal All the people raising criticism you will notice work for Swedish asset managers and financial companies that work in the bond market and they do understand how any normal purchasing of bonds and the value of the bonds must be transparent which is true in all financial purchase like bonds You can trust the Swedish Central Bank and you can trust all the Swedish companies to honor the bond value under normal circumstances but there is real risk that by not sharing the Blackrock report with the public when requested or more important the asset managers in the article you are creating real concern around the actual core calculation of interest bond and the values of the bonds Worst case one of the companies is not able to pay back the bond value at maturity date and in the case of these Swedish companies that realistically could only happen if the company has gone out business. In any normal time these companies would be fine but under the global virus economic shutdown we dont know how many companies are going to go into liquidation, its unprecedented in the history of our global economies So now the bond debt wont get paid by the company which means the payment burden falls on the Swedish Central Bank...which means it falls more or less on tax payers. So they need to share the Blackrock report just so the overall debt burden is understood. I must be honest I am surprised this is not mandatory in some Swedish financial transparency law?

This is valid point that I see as part of the current examples where numerous governments are expecting SM platforms to monitor and delete fake news and ideologically hateful comments...but who decides what is blatant fake news and hateful comments ....I bet you only right wing comments have been deleted but extreme comments from anyone on the left or certain offensive BLM will be left alone

But Cuba is a one party state, people dont vote there in any meaningful way so social media is meaningless.....you cant manipulate a system like a vote where there is only one party to vote for? But Belarus is different example of a deeply flawed Democratic outcome because in Belarus you had legitimate opposition parties and people voted for them but the actual counting of these votes was ignored so when they announced the " results " they lied about who voted for who and claimed Lukaszenko was the winner But fake news on social media is not the reason these elections are false or undermined

Its not you, I am also confused but Achilles should clarify now .... its very rare I am confused by his points

Im confused by your point and how this applies to what GD is suggesting, Im sure he is saying that this fairly common view that exists in the USA that says " fake news through social media is destroying our societies due to xxx " has not so far lead to the collapse of our Democratic institutions " But then you bring up Cuba and the undemocratic rule of Fidel as an example of how countries can be broken or failed but they never were Democracies ? Is that what you saying? If so I dont see how the 2 are connected because the USA and its issue around abuse of social media wont crash or destroy anything unless government acts on it which is highly unlikely But fake news didnt cause the economic or societal problems in Cuba...there economy has been weak and problematic since Fidel came to power and they implemented a form of socialism and economic policy that had no logical or economic way to actually grow or sustain any economy ...it wasnt fake news but pseudo-economics and that means you are trying to create your own understanding of critical financial metrics that somehow will allow economic growth and sustainability What am I missing with your view ?

Yes I was just teasing, most people who dont live in the EU wouldnt understand the normal cultural nuances and complexities in differences between countries like Austria and Germany So for South Africans who go on skiing holidays we tend to think of Austria and Germany as very similar despite the cultural differences

This assessment of my views is very inaccurate and seems to be some some sort of outdated stereotype similar to thinking " white, male privilege " is the only reason for any example of inequality or success in our modern age I am not going to respond to this in any detail because even though I do like you, my disagreements with you are not personal, I dont mind what opinion you have of me but you are always welcome to ask me any question about my views I dont want to seem to be inconsistent in responding which is why I do respond to members like Gromnir, shady and Elerond But I was going to explain the reality of the Marikana massacre despite my view above because it is uniquely a SA reality and was created due to what happens when you allow violence to be acceptable in large, union protests. This type of union protest is unique to SA and not really similar to other protests we see globally like BLM so any lessons you could gain from what happened at Marikana I cant see any other country needing to worry about it? But I need a break and I have to work now so I can maybe explain it tomorrow if you want to understand the events that lead to that terrible day ?

As I mentioned to Shady you are another member who I like and I dont want you to misunderstand why I make certain points even if the above post has some truth to it I dont just support Western countries, I support any country that believes in things like Democracy, human rights, independent and transparent courts and freedom of speech as the best way to run any country because this leads to proven examples where countries have strong and growing economies and where most citizens have a good quality of life But there are also countries that arent these things but the citizens are generally fine with this so you cant change these things especially when you work or trade with these countries. So you have to accept the sovereignty of these countries especially when these countries are functional and not expecting economic help from others. This includes places like Russia, China and certain Middle East countries

I want to specifically respond to this because similar to last time when you asked me a questions around my interest in BLM I dont want you to think less of me based on a misunderstanding of what you believe are my motivations. This is not the same as you having a negative view of my opinion based on my actual view And since you have raised this type of question twice I do believe you are misunderstanding me. Also there are people who will have issues with the protests around BLM but they arent really concerned with the violence and its real impact but they just want to undermine BLM on all levels or its purely a political view so its about weakening the Democrats and there support for BLM. Now its almost impossible to know the real intent of anyone on a forum because what I have raised as a concern about the protests is the same argument others may make but there motives will be different to mine So I initially framed that question " I am surprised so few members are fine with the violence protests " incorrectly and I should have added better context because it can add to the view you mentioned that " their is a narrative " . Just on that point there are real narratives that exist and these can be true and then there are false narratives which is not what I am part of What would help me understand your question based on certain narratives that do exist around BLM is what would think would be my reason for being concerned about the violence outside of the actual reason I will explain? For example I could be part of a right wing group that is racist and is just using the examples of real violence to undermine BLM because they represent certain real societal issues around unfair and illegal targeting of African Americans? I am not suggesting this is what you think I am saying but because I am not a US citizen and I dont vote I honestly cant think of a valid reason why I would what I say outside of my explanation which will come The reality of fake news and propaganda is real but its normally when people are directly involved in the country which I am not so its confusing for me to understand which " narrative " you are referring to So in summary, I am concerned with the level of violence in some of the US cities because it has been allowed to continue and this leads to some groups believing that violence and lawlessness to be justified or it leads to pure criminal activity like looting, and this criminal element hides behind the view "we care about structural racism " but they dont care about racism and just use this as an excuse for there own illegal agendas So for anyone who believes in the legitimate right of anyone to protest based on the true objective you dont want people being part of these protests who dont really care about the objective And then equally important is the reality of how violence that is not stopped leads to the violence becoming normalized and it will continue in future protests. A good example of this is occurred a few years ago in the UK where a drug deal called Mark Duggan was killed by police in a legitimate shooting but there were accusations of police illegally killing him or he had been unfairly targeted because he was black. This was before BLM but the nature of the protests were the same. There were several days of normal protests but also looting started and that grew and many shops were damaged and vandalized ....the police were caught off guard and in come UK cities there was both fear and anarchy. But after a few days of the police not arresting anyone they changed there entire approach and started arresting anyone who was caught breaking the law, they arrested dozens of people over 2 nights and most of these people were both charged and prosecuted. Almost immediately there was no more criminal activity but peaceful protests continued which was fine and supported I want to specifically respond to this because similar to last time when you asked me a questions around my interest in BLM I dont want you to think less of me based on a misunderstanding of what you believe are my motivations. This is not the same as you having a negative view of my opinion based on my actual view And since you have raised this type of question twice I do believe you are misunderstanding me. Also there are people who will have issues with the protests around BLM but they arent really concerned with the violence and its real impact but they just want to undermine BLM on all levels or its purely a political view so its about weakening the Democrats and there support for BLM. Now its almost impossible to know the real intent of anyone on a forum because what I have raised as a concern about the protests is the same argument others may make but there motives will be different to mine So I initially framed that question " I am surprised so few members are fine with the violence protests " incorrectly and I should have added better context because it can add to the view you mentioned that " their is a narrative " . Just on that point there are real narratives that exist and these can be true and then there are false narratives which is not what I am part of What would help me understand your question based on certain narratives that do exist around BLM is what would think would be my reason for being concerned about the violence outside of the actual reason I will explain? For example I could be part of a right wing group that is racist and is just using the examples of real violence to undermine BLM because they represent certain real societal issues around unfair and illegal targeting of African Americans? I am not suggesting this is what you think I am saying but because I am not a US citizen and I dont vote I honestly cant think of a valid reason why I would what I say outside of my explanation which will come The reality of fake news and propaganda is real but its normally when people are directly involved in the country which I am not so its confusing for me to understand which " narrative " you are referring to So in summary, I am concerned with the level of violence in some of the US cities because it has been allowed to continue and this leads to some groups believing that violence and lawlessness to be justified or it leads to pure criminal activity like looting, and this criminal element hides behind the view "we care about structural racism " but they dont care about racism and just use this as an excuse for there own illegal agendas So for anyone who believes in the legitimate right of anyone to protest based on the true objective you dont want people being part of these protests who dont really care about the objective And then equally important is the reality of how violence that is not stopped leads to the violence becoming normalized and it will continue in future protests. A good example of this is occurred a few years ago in the UK where a drug deal called Mark Duggan was killed by police in a legitimate shooting but there were accusations of police illegally killing him or he had been unfairly targeted because he was black. This was before BLM but the nature of the protests were the same. There were several days of normal protests and then some protestors started looting and damaging shops in numerous UK cities, the police initially were not suppose to intervene and suddenly citizens were faced with the potential of criminal attacks and this created a view that the UK government weren't applying the rule of law and order But then the police approach changed and they started arresting anyone who was found breaking the law during any protest in any city. Dozens pf people were initially arrested and prosecuted over 2 nights but then the actual violence stopped but the protests continued https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots The UK story can be used to support my overall point that can be proven in other examples throughout the world where there are protests. Most modern societies understand the importance of protests but if you allow violence to be ignored during these protests this criminal activity will continue and often gets worse Finally the way you achieve real and meaningful changes in any society is you need most people in that society to support and agree to these changes. What we see in the USA around these latest BLM protests is because there is a perception ,that is real and embellished, that criminal activity is being ignored is that you lose the support of many people who could be part of the reasonable changes people talk about because the moment most movements are linked to anarchy they lose much legitimacy and just add to the current ideological divide we see In summary my view on this " narrative " is clear, if the police allow criminal conduct you undermine the core and understandable objectives of the movement. And a good way to understand this in the current US reality is ask yourself a simple question " can you think of one positive outcome that the days of unabetted protests have created in cities like Portland" I honestly would like to know one positive outcome from allowing any violence to be part of any protest ?

Gromnir I am going to respond to this shortly because my concern around the violence and protracted strikes around current BLM is being misunderstood, this is partly my fault and how I framed a previous question around " I am surprised so few members are fine with the violence protests " ( or something I said similar ) But since you also raising this I will clarify this in the proper way but just to summarize what I was really meaning is " the violence and protracted nature of some of the ostensibly BLM protests should be condemned by all in civil society but more importantly it needs to addressed legally by the police and preferably state security, federal intervention isnt necessary unless the state resources are overwhelmed " I will explain this properly later, I just want to respond to Shady first but I want to add I am glad you raised this because I consider you someone who understands and more importantly respects the etiquette of a " normal debate " , what I mean by that is I assume you will read what I will say and then either agree or disagree based on the actual argument and is it true based on your own views. But what I dont like is spending time responding to someone's question but the person doesnt want to debate as they already have an incorrect and biased view of me based on an assumption of why I say what I say...and to be fair no one wants to spend time in a meaningless debate The exception to this is when someone I like misunderstands my view or I think they misunderstand my view but I will still spend time trying to make my point even if they dont appear to read my posts which explain my motivation

We will be coming to Czech for a day or 2 so we must meet for a drink if you keen?

We may be living in times of pandemic and tumultuous social disturbances but when you can have some fun like this with D&D and its so enjoyable ....you realize its going to be okay

I am glad you are responding because I am concerned with a lack of ......solutions and concern with the last 100 days of violence we have seen? I dont support the way the CCP has handled HK, its must be one of the worst examples of how any country could incorporate HK...the China really dont know HK needs its own independence and they will be responsible for the collapse or huge weakening of the HK economy ....and that will he on the China But lets not use HK as an example of how you should address any protest....its so bad we dont to even consider it. I am talking about the normal application of riot police and security , in Portland, to show citizens that the governor is in control. You cant believe this impasse is acceptable? The mayor never seemed to take responsibility and seemed more concerned with federal agents being provoking protestors Maybe Portland is a one off but I dont believe it is ...we may be dealing with BLM protests on an ongoing basis? I do have some ideas which I can share with you ?

Holy smoke young grasshopper ....the way you rejected being German you would assume I was suggesting you might be ....Russian?? Sorry for insulting you You do know that Austria is considered part of Germany by most people? Austrian dialect is basically the same and you guys have very close history and friendship ? Thats why your meal you posted seemed so familiar, it was an Austrian cooking school....Ostrich seemed a bit decadent for Germans but not for Austrians But on a serious note I didnt know you were from Austria, thats a huge distinction for me because Austria is where our families go skiing....it is our favorite EU country outside of UK because we have spent the most time their on holiday. And you how each EU country is brilliant in its own way and could easily become a tender for "favorite " country so well done for being the best EU country !!! And for South Africans there seems to be a competition between Italy, Switerland or Austria for best skiing destinations ....we always go to Austria and we stay in Lech. Switzerland is amazing but far too expensive ....staying in Zug is just ridiculous to justify If you want I can tell you more what I like about Austria but only if you interested because you will know these things so its more about discussing things in your country if you keen? Do you snowboard or ski ?

You will not believe this, I was just about to respond with about an 8 paragraph post and I accidently shut down the session.....sorry Orog, I will respond later...I will respond because I wanted to say several things because your post has got interesting questions I didnt know where to respond But later I will redo the response in a better way

Hi Achillles Can you summarize your point around this again as I would like to continue with this debate ?

Its been a serendipitous time for me when you returned because I am very glad to say you represent a group of Trump supporters that I had no information on before the last election .....we were told that most of the Hispanic community would vote for Clinton because of how racist Trump was and how he wanted to deport all Mexicans and people from the region.But he actually only said illegal immigrants must be deported and had no issue with people arriving legally So if I can guess about your journey in the USA, let me know what I am wrong about Your family was forced to leave Cuba by the Castro regime....what was the reason so many Cubans were forced to leave Cuba...political persecutions ?That is why you have such a dislike of socialism ...it played a huge part in forcing many Cubans to leave there own country and you are part of the Florida Hispanic and this group is loyal to Trump Would you go back to live in Cuba if Trump was gone because it may that simple because you are an American now. How are Hispanic community in Florida feeling about the virus and how are you guys personally? When Trump won in the last election I was shattered and really upset because this was not suppose to happen ,,,,,everyone said Trump would never win. Anyway a couple of days later I was much better and went off

I had to reply quickly to this post because its a relevant but very unusual question....what do you know about Rhodesia? If I had to guess I assume you joking about Rhodesia being a racist country ? But my connection to Zimbabwe is partly historical and ties into the Rhodesian War .....SA shares a border and when the Rhodesian war started SA secretly supported the Rhodesian forces as the UN had declared that SA must not interfere in the affairs of its neighbors meaning no helping its neighbors in fighting against liberation movements which were Communist based, this applied to Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique Of course SA always ignored this as they didnt want a hostile neighbor on its border so special forces and infantry units were sent secretly to Rhodesia and other countries But I do have a connection as we had Rhodesian family who came to SA after the war ended in 1980

No I am not suggesting prison time unless its warranted ...but I would like to get your opinion as another non-American. You live in Germany right...where do you live in Germany if you dont mind sharing?

Yes this is the impression I picked but what do you mean guy who started it ? But also I am aware you guys dont live in Portland.....but what has that got to do with being concerned about a protest lasting 100 days, I know people are limited around what you can realistically do? In SA we deal with some violent protests that have been going on for years and it started in the mining sector 2008 and it to a massacre where police were thrown under the bus .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marikana_massacre You realize that prolonged violent protests need to be addressed and not allowed to continue as it becomes worse and I am interested in why were most members werent too concerned about the length of the protests, some members did comment. Hurlshot basically said in his town the protests were not violent so he wasnt too concerned. That isnt an answer I was expecting but its a valid answer

Hi Gromnir, can you comment on my general question below, its come up as a SA outcome and I just need some input Thanks for sharing this information, I consider you a very knowledgeable and authentic reference for understanding the history of Native Americans and its not just your lived experience but what you have studied and have been involved in And that brings me to a question, I have watched several TV series where the reality of life on the Native Americans reservations is portrayed and in some tribes there seems to be a debate around "what is the most effective way reservations should be utilized to ensure culture is preserved but there is also economic transformation " Some tribes have built casinos as a source of legitimate revenue generation and I always thought this is genius and makes sense. I use to be a gambler and casinos offer restaurants, movie theaters, shows and become conference centers ...apart from the gambling which is great fun but there are rules about not abusing gambling which must be adhered to Yet I have seen there is some push back from some tribal spokesmen because they see casinos as undermining culture and basically corrupting the tribe And this surprises me that a legitimate business could be seen so negatively. A casino creates jobs and income and has much ancillary business benefits. For example this also leads to transformation like people that own or work in casino restaurants Whats your view on the benefits and or negative of casinos on reservations ?

I must say you make me laugh sometimes But I am enjoying our chats since you have got back and if you dont mind me asking where did you go and are you prepared to share your voting choice and why, I would guess you voting Trump? Dan is voting Trump and his reasons make sense, Dan feels Trump is better at ensuring law and order. I have to agree with that considering the protracted and violent levels of strikes we witnessed for months ....I am truly surprised how very few of our American members were concerned about this event and how long it went on for? Then he is concerned with Biden going a far left and or socialist path.....last year I would have said " its not possible " but I have become more aware of a real risk from far left polices What do you think is the best way forward to address groups like Antifa, would you arrest them. Surly the law needs to be enforced?

I mentioned to you I also purchased this game, I like gelatinous cubes, there is a Mod for Skyrim that creates a cube as a monster..this particular Modder is a genius and he has created dozens of interesting mods https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/102874 ...I use to DM about 12 years in the AD&D 2nd Forgotten Realms....it was my favorite world so you can imagine my love of any PC games in this world So I have updated and bought the EE edition for BG1&2, NWN1 &2 and IWD 2 ...what should I play first, I am thinking IWD because its more action based