BruceVC

I hear you guys and this call to " defund " the police is a reaction to the heavy handiness of police due to specific cases like the George Floyd death But a police department is not generally considered an institution that has a target and must be profitable, of course it shouldnt run at a loss. So even though I can understand your examples the practical outcome of cutting any budget\defunding is less revenue in the beginning of the year will be allocated to that department which means either police will be retrenched or you will reduce other expenses like overtime or training. This will obviously impact morale and make the overall department less effective. Is it fair that all police in any station now have to suffer because of some bad actors? And there should be a level of real police training before we outsource any task to other groups like you guys suggested ....in other words surly you have to have real police responding to disturbances because until the police arrive how does anyone know that the issue is just " people using fireworks " and not an actual violent criminal encounter ?

Can you provide links or can you explain further ? And the USSR invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980's and the role the CIA played is not the same thing as that was a proxy war and part of the Cold War

I find any suggestion to defund any police department counter productive and will just add to more crime and general instability

Thanks for sharing, one of the reasons I was interested in Melbourne is that is where my cousins on my moms side, they not in finance as that is my dads side of the family, immigrated to in 1996 after Apartheid ended . These cousins played an important part in my early years being raised by my mom so I am concerned with there well being and the virus spread in Melbourne The irony is I dont have much a relationship with them anymore so its sometimes just easier to ask a non-family member who lives in Oz information about Oz ...like you, I hope this makes sense

Gorthfuscious what is a summary of what is happening in Melbourne ?

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russians-offered-taliban-bounties-kill-us-troops-military/story?id=71495576 There is a new development that Russian intelligence have been paying bounties to Taliban factions for any USA and coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan I have been researching this appalling story and even though it cannot be corroborated I believe its true. This needs to be heavily condemned and of course Trump is denying he knew anything about it which I believe .....but it doesnt change that it is ongoing

So examples like this will undoubtedly lead to virus spread but so will some of the BLM protests where people disregarded masks and safe distancing And its not unique to USA, I see similar outcomes in SA and other countries

Absolutely nothing wrong with some drunken revelry,,,,,it should be mandatory in all countries at least once every 2 weeks

Yeah, I tend to agree. It wasnt necessarily what you would have expected considering the huge increase in virus spread and actual people being hospitalized but this is what happens in a world where somehow something like a virus becomes politicized ....but at least Pence was " acknowledging " how the virus is still a real threat, he did display those charts that clearly showed how the increase was now in Southern States.....thats progress considering past comments and attitudes Trumps general comments and views during this virus for me have been by far the worst part of his presidency, nothing he has ever mishandled in the past is overall as bad as this. Its worse than his normal world of " alternative facts " because now his views are literally both directly and indirectly contributing towards deaths due to the virus. The worst part is I honestly think he believes some of his utter ignorance around understanding the virus .....its not his typical " twitter theater ", hyperbole and grandstanding which has characterized his presidency and in many cases you can basically ignore it as it doesnt define some of the real successes of his policies which his clever advisors create and implement For example he keeps going on about " if we werent testing as much we wouldn't have as much sick people, ergo lets slowdown on testing " ....its almost like he believes that when the reality is its obviously not the testing that is responsible for virus spread but rather lack of consistency on behavior around how to prevent the actual virus spread. But I do think he thinks the testing is somehow linked to the increase of people in the USA with the virus

You have no idea how much I miss things like that but in a more social environment which we not encouraged to do until we have the virus beaten

By the way, I just watched the latest and first in 2 months of the White House briefings around the virus Trump was absent but Pence ran with it with Dr Fauci as usual playing the voice of reason or rather consistency around the facts I recommend everyone watching it to understand the new seriousness the Trump presidency is taking around the latest increase in the USA. The one criticism I do have for all people who spoke, including Fauci, is the constant comments like " we not blaming people for wanting to get after the lockdown and we understand how young people think they invincible " ....I get that kind of comment made once but you dont have keep justifying appalling rejection of facts and science that most people worldwide and in the USA are well aware of

Yes then you right, that is a " negative " outcome of masks because some people then disregard other virus spread factors

How do masks make virus spread worse? Masks can lead to complacence because people assume they protect you from the virus....they dont So how based on the actual purpose of the mask do they make the spread worse ?

Im close to completing my absolutely enthralling and entertaining experience with RDR2 Online, I am on level 80 and the maximum level is 100 for meaningful gaining of things. So I have started thinking " what next " and I have decided to play Divinity : Original Sin 2 ....I have heard only good things about it and Im excited to start playing fantasy RPG again as I havent for about 6 months

We do laugh at these types of comments but the sad reality is there are people out there who have no real knowledge of the virus and do think things like " wearing masks " is a bad idea .....there willful ignorance should be criminalized because you absolutely increase the risk of virus spread when you dont wear a mask. This is not even remotely a debate anyone should have

I also want to read this particular book, there have been many books written by White House insiders under Trump who left his campaign and use to be supporters who now share " the dirt " but Boltons views are of particular interest to me

You wont believe this, I have just bought this game on Steam....very good price and since its the EE I am excited about my journey

I know we not suppose to respond in any irate way to Ktchong posts because he constantly seeks to troll people but this is a video created in the USA that is suppose to be about a real concern around something that is suppose to be an indication of I guess " how the lockdown is another reason for inequality " and only the super rich can become ....billionaires I am hope I am misunderstanding the intent but its very inaccurate and is based on irrelevant "data that tells us this is unacceptable because the virus has devastated the worlds global economy " ....thats the only thing I can honestly agree on but that is also what makes this rant so hypercritical. I would appreciate if anyone else can watch the video and tell me what I dont get......for examples is this suppose to be legitimate channel for sharing valid economic information....I am assuming its not considered a serious channel ? The reason I ask this is the 2 commentators make the most bizarre and unhelpful comments about what this means ....and I am not sure if they trolling. Its like some antithesis of a extreme Fox News show but on the left....its impossible to really understand what they suggesting this means in a way we can quantify in a normal economic definition that matters to people who have really lost jobs and how all of the worlds economies have been devastated by the necessary but artificial shutdown the global economy I am sure everyone is aware how serious this is but I want to share something with you guys that you not necessarily get expose to because its newly created and it considers many things never in the history of mankind and economics have been impacted. I saw most of the SA data from one of my customers who are a bank ,similar problems will exist in all your countries but I doubt it will be as grim as ours...in summary I cannot understand why people want to support conspiracy theories around certain topics, for example you sometimes hear people bemoaning the reality of globalization...yet there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the concept except the certain countries that can afford to subsidize local goods and sell them cheaper in countries that cant afford it ...its seems unfair and China has dumped serious textiles and steel on SA which erased those sectors for us but China will do this not with malicious intent but governments need to obviously factor in tariffs or similar protective measures. Anyway apart from this there are many more positive things about Globalization but the virus global lockdown has ended this system in most areas...you should consider what this means to your country, for SA this is about the low oil price caused initially no one buying oil and we mustnt think the low oil price was a positive ....in dropped so low no country was making any money from oil and this has a huge impact on all energy companies and there share price and also no one is buying our commodities. China normally addresses both these points so we need them to come back online Our taxes across all relevant components is down never seen before levels. income tax, corporate tax and VAT is all down and those make up 83 % of our tax Finally some people think GDP is an inaccurate measurement of economic progress and or health. Thats inaccurate and should tell you the person is not serious about the discussion because GDP has clear logical meaning to a very important part of all economies. You can see which sectors in any diverse economy contribute the most and which ones are slowing down....you then investigate further because the reasons may be very relevant and need to be addressed. In SA we do have a diverse economy which consists of the following finance, services , tourism, mining, agriculture , trade , government , manufacturing. transport ,construction and electrical but every one of these has been hit hard by the reality of the lockdown and that means we have no real idea what that means until the official government statement end of the month And the irony is the only people that have had no retrenchments or salary cuts is the entire public sector and everyone in government and at the moment these sectors are all running at a loss for about 8 months and we pay there salaries because if run at a loss you dont contribute

I hate it when you think so negatively about yourself, you mustn't ever let other people tell you what you thinking when they make a generalization about something you cannot generalize about. You cant accurately make a convincing argument when you say things like " one race is more racist than another race "......ironically that is an unintentionally racist statement, easy to accidentally perpetuate the racism you are concerned about ...and I know how these things concern you But in the interest of making a good example, lets take your own reality which you obviously will agree with. If I remember correctly you live in the Netherlands but you from Japan or another Asian country. Either way its not an unusual country to live in, I dont consider Japan or the Netherlands places that are notorious for being " structural racist " examples ...so already you concern is mitigated....unless you do think you racist but that would your view and not about your race

Thanks for taking the time to make this post, as usual I find you make important points using sensitivity, reasonableness and valid criticism of both sides which always helps. Most people on this forum wouldn't take so much time to make an important observation of the state of the USA but its not because they dont care ...its just they have shared there views in others ways so dont think because no one responds its pointless making detailed posts or some people have a negative view of Trump due to real comments and to be fair its not going to change For me I always try to read detailed posts on any forum if the issue is real or there is different views on the topic which often happens in politics because what I learnt specifically from this forum and members views was the importance of lived experience and or anecdotal stories that helped me understand certain sentiments that I had never come across from family or work colleagues who live in the USA but share my views on the importance of the free market and how it works globally. Now we may be technically correct but you cannot ignore perceptions that majority or many citizens feel and once I understood what some people were meaning it has sometimes changed my view in a good way and that is something I always appreciate because a subject like Trumps legacy and or successes does matter for several reasons so nuance and context are part of this view. So your post raises this type of introspection Why is this important to any non-American you may ask, its sometimes gets raised by our American members in a polite way that it seems unusual so many people would be so concerned or have a certain opinion on the USA but they dont live in the USA...yet this would differ from person to person who is not American but for me and others the sustainability and influence of the USA is of critical importance to what I believe will lead to a better world for all,the USA is defined by both ideologically and its mostly positive objectives it has made in the world So in other words a world where the USA collapses or is not able to intervene globally would create a much darker and uncertain future for the whole world on numerous levels....there is no viable alternative to the world as the USA provides a real role as "world leader " despite some of Trumps bizarre foreign policy decisions he has not broken the real important connections I am going to make the next part of my point in another post as its fairly detailed and I would to respond to some of your points, I only realized this after the Trump victory where I was absolutely stunned and shocked that he somehow won despite real " data " to the contrary but the reality is those of us who had valid concerns to Trumps general comments and lack of normal political decorum did not understand the real reasons Trump connected with many Americans who have both real and irrational concerns around where the country was going. I can honestly say we were manipulated by his abrasive words only and not what he also stood for which was real and pertinent to many people And Trump created this confusion because he acted in a certain way that was just unheard of in any Democracy, it worked for him and vindicated the strategy some of his clever advisors suggested as he won the election but it also added to the normal political dichotomy that exists in all countries and people become more partisan and read certain things into the Trump victory that was more about perceptions of what it really meant to the future of the USA ....for example you could see this on both the left and right. I will cover this more in my more detailed post but Trumps victory was immediately seen as irrefutable proof of the so called " end " of liberal Democracies by the likes of Nigel Farage who associated this with the same reasons as the BREXIT vote and that the EU was about to collapse due to rise of more anti-EU poltical parties ...yet the reasons people in these countries voted for both outcomes are very different and dont mean the idea of successful and economically strong Western Democracies suddenly become false In the example of the EU despite populist parties attempting to change the acceptable views of governing parties they mostly lost in local EU country elections. Also the real reasons for the creation of most of these populist parties was based on valid concerns by citizens who had real issues around the immigration policy of the EU and how it tried to force all countries to accept refugees from mostly Muslim countries who had failed governments ....there is nothing wrong with diversity but not at the expense of how citizens feel undermines there ability to meaningfully participate in what defines being a citizen and it created a perception that suddenly you had to just accept tens of thousands of refugees from countries that have real issues but not because of the EU. And then there was unreasonable concerns but not uncommon that the immigration idea would lead to the " Islamification " of Europe is never going to happen because fundamentally the majority of refugees were leaving Muslim countries because of the absolute failure of economic transformation and because of internal wars ...these people are not going to expect Sharia law in normal Democracies because there countries have failed them so why expect other countries that dont believe that to become like them? Last point before my larger post is I can absolutely understand why many Americans voted for Trump, its not if I personally agree but rather based on other realities I will discuss later. But several years later Trump has delivered on certain things like making the USA economy stronger and restoring a sense of global respect around how some countries feel about America but he also will fall short on what he use to say as a fact is now not true ....his initial rejection of the virus impact and how it can spread was shared by many world leaders primarily as the world has never dealt with this type of pandemic that needed the global economy to shut down...so it was almost impossible to ever justify why you would ever need to do this as it has created real and additional economic problems for all countries and that cannot be ignored. But Trump did initially reject concerns about how the virus could harm the USA and unfortunately that is on him as he publicly expressed what many of us assumed would happen....the Chinese will deal with this virus like all other examples of viruses that did originate from there animal markets But intrinsically Trump has always relied and believed that his general views will be vindicated by the actual policy success and I have to agree he did make the USA even economically stronger which was how he and his informed advisors could justify all the other controversial comments and at times blatant statements that are untrue, so comments like " his assessment of the number of supporters who attended his first gathering was the most people who have ever attended any gathering in the USA " This may seem trivial but it created a constant negative view and was repeated by Trump around his view of the facts or rather the absurd usage of " alternative facts " which is anathema to a normal debate based on the actual truth. This added to the general anti-Trump sentiment yet his supporters didnt concern themselves with his cavalier way of stating the reality because for many of them they are more understandably concerned with the outcomes and not the actual theater or how Trump still frames things. Also which didnt help is how many Americans dismiss certain comments as example of media bias and or propaganda. This is a more uniquely USA reality where many people just ignore any commentary that doesn't support there view and this leads to real perceptions that exist within the USA that are not always correct and when it is proven something is wrong, but not always wrong, this seems to then undermine what people believe is the truth or rather is what people used to believe is a valid political position My suggestion to how to address this unnecessary negative view of what is real is use common sense on all issues raised by the left or right because both sides can be right and wrong in different examples. Trump really believes in the importance of legacy but the virus has come along and unfortunately wiped out his greatest success story, the strength of the economy. He deserved to win the election in 2020 because this was a salient and positive story but now you are probably right and that will effect peoples views because his grandstanding at times becomes almost impossible to ignore when the economy has been so adversely impacted. And the real risk with how Trump achieved political success is you assume the real success will be what people remember....and normally that could easily be believed by any Trump supporter as a reason to vote for him again but now it becomes much more difficult to be convinced by many citizens If I was a Trump supporter I would still vote for him because the virus impact is not his fault ...you can still have faith in him if you think about the importance of getting the economy stronger does mater which I assume it does ?

In SA at least 30-35 % of adult men I know have licensed and legal firearms I dont keep one but in SA a gun can literally save your life due to our high crime and murder rate

I tend to agree, Comrade is at times studiously " controversial " but its all Cold War ideology so its a little outdated. Debates like " Capitalism is the scourge of modern societies " and how "Mother Russia and Red China " offers a better way of sustainable, happy living than " Western " countries Anyway he doesnt deny he likes to engage in this type of debate in the interest of robust debate so its not done surreptitiously IMO

Nope sorry but now you really making spurious corollaries and economic\social assumptions, its hard to believe you being serious ? Capitalism is just an economic system, its not " anti" anything and its not personal and or emotional...its absolutely cannot be racist because that suggests it has the cognitive ability to be " biased and or prejudiced towards someone of a different skin " ( that is the global definition of racism ) Of course you still need labor laws, regulations and Constitutional mandates to ensure Capitalism isnt abused but that is the responsibility and or success\failure of the government that is elected ....you cannot blame the economic system for perceptions of inequality and or " structural racism "

Tonight Im cooking myself delicious mutton sausages and buttery mash potatoes

Geez it must be nice coming from white, male privilege .........oh wait