BruceVC

I am reluctant to believe that the Biden presidency will be more worse than good....but the focus must be on the pandemic because I am unclear on the Democrat policies after that .... What would your concerns be for that type of outcome, I am happy with unlikely outcomes ? Comrade you not helping with the whole objective of " uniting the USA " . You have never liked Trump which is your prerogative but maybe try not to make assumptions about his supporters if you want to reach out to Trump supporters? Things will only get ugly if the Democrats decide to ignore the preferred way of bipartisan support for new policies and rules . Its good to now reach out to the normal GOP members and look for ways to work together ? Never forget Trump came to existence due to unhappiness many Americans felt with the reality of the USA and how core values and things that matter to culture seemed to be criticized. I wonder if anyone cares about this lesson? The last thing we want is you liberals to create another Trump monster

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/02/captain-sir-tom-moore-dies-at-100-after-testing-positive-for-covid Captain Tom....an amazing man, a great and patriotic career and a true friend to the UK NHS where at the age of 99 he was still raising money for them RIP Captain Tom

You see Gorthfuscious, this is what happens when you have a problem with your necessary additional security...but imagine what you would be going through without the important quarantine hotels...the virus would be spreading in a terrible way And the article says its the UK strain, no the SA this time. But concerns with the origin of strains will become inconsequential as time goes on because of the high number of homegrown and foreign strains we will see until the vaccines start working

Wait you right, I need to add a caveat. I love waking up to the sound of rain but not if I have to drive to work or a customer 🌧️

Have you watched Ragnarok on Netflix, if so what did you think about it ?

I agree about the soothing sound of rain, I cant comment on snowfalls of course but rain ....ah yes, I know rain As I mentioned earlier I can think of nothing better than waking up to the sound of persistent rain , not necessarily hard rain 🌧️

I also enjoyed Black Sails, I didnt love it but I enjoyed it Do you know it was filmed in South Africa and in Cape Town specifically. It had some beautiful scenery and I didnt know this until I moved to Cpt https://americanprofile.com/articles/where-did-the-black-sails-series-film/

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2021/02/mcconnell-slams-marjorie-taylor-greens-loony-lies-and-conspiracy-theories-as-a-cancer-and-she-shoots-back/ McConnell again is doing the right thing and calling out the fake news and offensive comments from Majorie Green This is exactly the type of action I expect from the GOP and look forward to its, hopefully, new identity free from Trumpism and the last 4 years of " alternative facts " Well done McConnell

The difference between the US election and the Russian election is the actual political environment and were candidates allowed to campaign without being intimidated or arrested . In Russia this is demonstrably not the case Yes of course in the USA, like all Democracies, their is influence from lobby groups and Super PAC but you dont get arrested and journalists dont get killed by the US government because they support opposition parties The original point of this debate was when Comrade suggested the majority of Russians support Putin, I pointed out that you cannot say this when their was massive voting intimidation and their is a reality in Russia where the political landscape is not free or fair You have decided to create your own definition of what constitutes " free and fair " and how that will impact the overall transparency of the electoral process Sorry but you dont get to do that outside of echo chambers like forum debates and your own circles that believe the Russian elections represent the will of the people ...how can they when not all the people get to vote or campaign in the same way ?

I thought we were discussing the principle and importance of a free and fair election? The US election was free and fair and the candidate that won did so because of the number of votes they received. Candidates and opposition politician also had the ability to campaign in the US without being arrested or poisoned I could have gone with many other examples of Democratic elections but why not use the US as just one example of how you can implement transparent political change without trying to control the outcome and or narrative like we see in Russia

Yeah Vietnam, that was also the time where we saw the genesis of the Hippie movement and extreme far left liberal ideas that threaten to destroy our happy and prosperous ways of life Hurlshot we must always be on watch for well meaning but harmful socialist policies ....never forget the lessons from the Cold War

GD you still need to discover the events that lead to the greatest injustice the world has ever seen since the Dark Ages We need to know who decided to blame " white, male privlidege " for all the woes of the world and the perceived general benightedness of our societies That is the real question !!!

You make some good points and I dont dispute Putin has his supporters but do his supporters have the mandate to allow Putin to legitimately govern Russia as in the " will of the people " like we see in most Democracies? The Russian elections under Putin have almost never been free and fair, to quote from your interesting link After intense efforts to promote turnout, citizens voted in significant numbers, yet restrictions on the fundamental freedoms of assembly, association and expression, as well as on candidate registration, have limited the space for political engagement and resulted in a lack of genuine competition. While candidates could generally campaign freely, the extensive and uncritical coverage of the incumbent as president in most media resulted in an uneven playing field That is not free and fair by any reasonable definition. If Putin really had the greatest support base than he would have no issue with a normal election and the best candidate would win. Like we witnessed in the USA, Trump and Biden put everything into the election and their supporters turned out in unprecedented numbers ...but Trump lost the popular vote and the electoral collogues Apart from Trumps appalling and petulant failure to accept the results that is how you win an election..free and fair and the people decide You dont see that in the reality of the Russian election environment because you not providing the same resources to opposition parties , like equal TV coverage, so the entire legitimacy of Putin elections should be questioned

So you admitting you have been very naughty ?

Mmmm....that is an interesting and nuanced argument But in all Democracies the currently elected party is the legitimate government and also both politically and internationally represents the country globally in most things, like representation at the UN So globally and legally its the same thing, the government represents the country ?

I see The Medium did get good reviews but I am not a huge fan of investing in games that are interactive stories so I will give this one a skip. Thanks for the opinion because your post made me do some research , I might have bought this game without knowing what it is and ended up wasting money like I did on that one Bloodlines interactive story

You seem to believe that any country in the world doesnt have a right to demand and have confidential and secretive information about their own security institutions ? The USA is not asking for anything that any other country in the world would expect so it has nothing to do with " have all the information " ....this is about its own security and information

Its well known Snowden betrayed the USA and went public with news of PRISM when their were other legal avenues he could have followed . We dont know if he technically " sold " this information to China and Russia but he still broke his NSA contract and told the world something that was a US state secret Its not slander if its true, Snowden betrayed his country. No reason to question the facts

What a surprise but I suppose its not like Myanmar wasnt always really controlled by a military junta

How would you know the majority of Russians support Putin when they dont have transparent elections ....like ever? Oh wait, you say that because RT says that. Got it, I always forget to check credible sources of information like RT

https://www.gematsu.com/2021/01/the-medium-launch-trailer The Medium, this game looks amazing. Its out now as a " psychological horror game " Check out the trailer in the link at the bottom

After about 6-7 days of stifling heat and the near end of summer I woke up this morning to rain.....lovely, glorious, cool rain 🌧️ I love waking up to the rain when its so rare

You right of course, the Russians have a great and sustainable military strategy. Bomb the city to the ground and it doesnt matter if their are civilian casualties ....great approach, just tell the people of Aleppo and Grozny that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1999–2000)

GD dont get upset, I generally agree with you? You make lots of sense in many discussions

Imagine waking up every morning and actually believing that