BruceVC

Hi Pidesco How do you feel about the Swedish experiment to control the virus? Most people say it was a failure ? How do you think it went and who is responsible for the failure . Azdeus feels its citizens but maybe you feel its government because in SA they are suppose to manage the policy and they were inconsistent and allowed SA citizens to travel and spread the virus What do you think Sweden is going to do to now ?

This made me laugh because I have experienced through the years " bank bashing " where people do blame banks for things that often not their fault yet I promise you Bernie Saunders has mentioned he would still like to penalize the big banks for 2008 because people lost their homes and the banks got off with no real changes And his supporters seem fine with that idea except the banks did suffer after 2008, they implemented the various changes they had to make and by 2012 they had paid back the loans. And the same banks acknowledged that regulation is important So Bernie doesnt need to punish any banks because they accepted the new changes and more regulation.....we should be happy and feeling proud the US has such patriotic banks that care

What I meant to add is this happens to me when I play any game but I always use the Default setting. So this is the recommended setting You must know what that always means....rule 3249 of the hardcore game ideology guide : You cannot under any circumstances reduce the Default setting, you may raise it only And of course you right, it must be for fun....but thats a cliché and should be obvious because you come across as a gamer who has not forgotten its all suppose to be about fun....but Its much more fun than that and we tend to embrace other things like You ended making a choice to sponsor Bard Tale 4, you contributed towards the vision and InXile created a worthy legacy to the classic series. Did you end up playing the original series so you wanted to support this new version. When are planning on giving Bard Tale 4 go, are you good at puzzles or do you have the patience ? And you have never given up on Bioware, it matters because I understand the fact many of our gaming collogues decided to make a decision to not support them anymore because the game design has deviated so much I think. And yes Bioware games did change and they made a real effort to include Romance which I felt always get unnecessary criticism around how intrusive it is But it is optional and that is the main thing. You really can have a good gaming experience with their games but its different from older games. But very rarely I get angry and stop playing a game and immediately and this happens only with RTS, you know when you playing a fantasy RTS like HM&M and suddenly the AI starts cheating and you cannot win any battle !!! So if the AI starts cheating you cannot allow it be disrespectful...so you immediately delete it from your PC and that teaches the RTS a lesson

Dark how you feel about the end of the Trump presidency? Once I understood how Hilary Clinton lost I had to start understanding what was it about Trump that connected with people and once I started ignoring certain habits Trump had I then did see what he did right and what people liked about him or at least believed

I know this may sound like a silly question but how do you personally and emotionally feel about this incident and generally the people in your state, do you feel angry or very upset or is it more disgust of how Trump contributed towards this. Or maybe people are just glad its over and see this an isolated incident And I know this is obvious but can you imagine this ever happening under Obama or any other president. This is reminder you must have a career politician becoming president and not a citizen who connected with the base but had no understanding for the importance of political decorum and what any president should or shouldnt say

Wanting to impeach him again seems like an overkill and a waste of the principle of being able to impeach ....I was under the impression it should be done under specific circumstances? Of course Trump didnt think this was about overthrowing the senate and seizing marshal law Gromnir I want to clarify something around your views on the what many people believe is the way Democrat controlled cities seemed to ignore violence committed during BLM protests. Sorry if it seems I always ask you these questions but its because you are lawyer with years of real work experience Do you personally believe that its not reasonably acceptable that every time their is a shooting of an African American immediately groups of BLM take to the streets and assume the police are guilty. This is before any investigation is concluded It makes no sense how this could be considered a reasonable way of understanding legitimate police brutality? I am trying to understand this inconsistency with how citizens respond to any possibly illegal act committed by police anywhere ?

Unfortunately Trumps usage of Twitter became one of the real issues with his presidency You cannot have a president of the USA using Twitter to communicate his personal thoughts, or his real views or just a silly comment It added to the confusion and over analysis which tended to be wrong about what Trump was thinking or would do next The only positive was it absolutely unnerved and confused the countries that we generally considered adversaries of the USA like NK and China because they couldnt read his intent

It definitely wasn't a coup and I am glad you observed this because I tried to make this point to Elrond and I dont think I convinced him We see this type of hyperbole from both sides on certain developments and hopefully now there should be less of it Trump started it but the Democrats also did it sometimes or refused to call out and anarchy from any BLM or Antifa . Politicians must be more consistent with their concerns and outrage because it leads to citizens thinking they can do the same as the law no longer matters

I am impressed you actually remember that....it was a long time ago and became very controversial. We have a had a few of those moments in our history but SA is a new Democracy so sometimes we make mistakes ......this was one of them but normally people outside of SA dont remember it or raise it So I'm impressed, also you being from Sweden this point matters but maybe your dads generation would be aware of this but Sweden and other Nordic countries ,mostly during the Cold War, have always supported movements that were fighting for Democracy and true freedom on the African continent. And the Nordic countries were and still are very consistent in this type of funding and support for a better world.....except that meant if you a white person living under Apartheid Sweden was seen to be funding the " Communist enemy " ....I was young but remember some of the misplaced anger from some of my older family members with Sweden's supporting " terrorist groups " But they were confused as Sweden wasn't supporting terrorist groups because the ANC was fighting the illegitimate system of Apartheid that accused the ANC of being a terrorist group Some of my family members had been fighting Communism for years , but real Communism, as they went to the Angola Border and some came from the Rhodesian war and there was years of battles with communist trained groups, plus the Cubans had a large military presence in several countries and a Soviet presence in Angola. But the ANC wasn't really Communist, they were just trained by them in some techniques but compared to Apartheid and its immoral reality Communism would have seemed better But Sweden wasn't the problem, it wasn't promoting any true Communist or Socialist. It was always supporting the true values of any sustainable Democracy But how come you remember that statement?

You are making valid points and the protestors were a diverse group with different motives on some things but united behind the spurious allegation that " elections had been stolen " But they were not quite the same as the various right wing groups that descended on Charlottesville even though some right wing elements were involved But going back to there so called known objective of " taking back the election " how could this violence have achieved that? They might have delayed the acceptance of Biden as president but their actions actually made things worse and ended Trumps presidency on a worse note than I thought possible because Trumps refusal to accept legitimate defeat I assumed was how his legacy would be remembered...this just added a new low The " perception on the ground " is a metaphor for people justifying certain extreme actions in some cases from both the left and right. It is real in the sense I can give you examples and you can comment but lets have that debate later because its been an intense few days and I would rather raise it later

Yes, that was the risk I also think could have happened. They could have killed members of the senate or been responsible for any other violent attack But you also raising my main view of the overall strategy of this group, they didn't think much through and as others mentioned the storming of the Capital was spontaneous but lacked any real long term planning or thought

Thanks for responding because I was hoping American members would comment as this occurred in the USA Firstly it did create a bad image throughout the world and I have been following global commentary most of today. But the good news is the countries that matter basically realize this is about the Trump presidency and most world leaders accepted years ago that Trump was an unorthodox and very different president to other US presidents so this violence will be seen as part of the end of the Trump circus I always get annoyed when the leaders of countries like Venezuela and Turkey jump on the bandwagon and claim " this was an attack on the principles of Democracy " ....how would they know what a Democracy is? But when you say they could have succeed can you explain what you mean by that ? What could they have succeeded in doing as people have mentioned something similar but I am not sure what the protestors clear objective was ?

Yes I agree with you around peoples motives in a normal coup but the definition of a coup is where a group seizes power in country and takes over running that country. Like a military coup That wasnt what this was about as far as I can gather, the group that marched to the Capitol wanted to support Trump and raise attention to how the election had been " stolen " I would be very surprised if they honestly believed they would be running the country somehow? So I am not saying they shouldn't be judged and prosecuted in certain cases. I am saying to think they wanted to " take over the country " doesnt seem accurate? Its just been framed like that on some news channels that this was a coup ?

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-01-04-anc-ethekwini-councillor-says-5g-towers-spread-covid-19-and-whites-have-vaccine/ Here is an example of what we deal with in SA around fake news and virus denialists The good news this is unusual in how ignorant and racist the councilor is .....I get annoyed by these comments from people in government because we pay there salaries and how can he be trusted to do his job with this type of ignorance ? But its rare and is not the official view of the our government

Is anyone concerned that for many of the people who participated in the violence they genuinely believed that they were doing the right thing and that the the 2020 election " had been stolen " and this meant that the entire foundation of what defines the USA was in jeopardy ? I was watching this on Sky and it made me pause and consider what is the difference between a real coup, because this wasnt a real coup, and this group who felt they were actually protecting the integrity of Democracy? I am not expecting anyone to feel sorry for them because they made choices and as with choices in life there always are consequence But it goes back the post I made earlier about " perception on the ground " and how would any country ensure this type of thing doesn't occur again Its also important to separate people in this protest carrying Confederate Flags who are normally linked to right wing groups and protestor who are not racist but felt they were defending the USA ? I am just wondering if anyone is prepared, and I would understand if people aren't interested, in looking at them in less critical way than what we saw in Charlottesville which had many real right wings groups? So does this type of real ignorance matter to their actions and how you feel ?

But he is everywhere...in most photos My family in SA send me a Cosplay joke about him

Its symbolic because 7 Republican Senate members still tried to block Biden after the violence. They will be marked for all time as " the group that still supported Trump " And I absolutely believe the GOP can move away from Trumpism, in fact it will easier than most think once Trump is gone

Guys I honestly believe this is not the end of the Republican party, I firmly believe we should see this as the " realignment of the GOP back to its core values before Trump " Even Lindsay Graham distanced himself from Trump

To be honest in all the years I have known you to comment on politics this is probably the most concerned and or upset you have ever been on a development And I am not criticizing you at all, we all upset on different levels about what happened Its just an observation

Mamie !!!! Why arent you playing any DS.....what is wrong ?

Giuliani is trying to squirm his way out of any responsibility for the violence and how he was also one of the instigators He used the words " trial by combat " and violence ensured and people died. He definitely doesn't get a pass ...ever https://news.yahoo.com/lets-trial-combat-over-election-164935300.html

That is interesting, so an educated man is responsible for the failure and the decades of the Cold War where the Soviets and China, mainly, tried to spread the deeply flawed Communist ideology around the world Im disappointed a truly educated man could think of such a terrible system for people to live under ....but lets accept its true

No BLM protests have been around on and off since about 2013 and certain events, like the killing of Floyd, can lead to additional protests and resurgence of anger and recognition of the movement . So the BLM protests didnt start after the virus spread at all?

There have been 1 or 2 BLM protests, there was one about 3 weeks around over an alleged killing by the police, I dont know if its true or not but at the moment the virus spread has been keeping many people off the streets

Interesting post Zora, interesting I have absolutely noticed this today on all the international news channels I watch and especially CNN where most commentators are framing this as a civil war type of event and the greatest attack on the USA kind of thing....there are really degrees of embellishment and no real " lets unite as 1 country " at the moment But Trump is still more to blame than the media sometimes mischaracterizing events ...he could have toned down the rhetoric and accepted the election results and this wouldnt have occurred Oh and I really love and enjoy both Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo but they guilty of this at the moment on CNN