Jump to content

BruceVC

Members
  • Posts

    5738
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    23

Everything posted by BruceVC

  1. " sometimes they do get the weather forecast and sports results correct " ...., good one Gorthfuscious your cynicism towards our modern societies is interminable and knows no boundaries But on a serious note if you dont believe any established media in any Democracy where do you get any news from that allows you to understand current events and developments?
  2. What a nickname and the link to the actual ship made me laugh
  3. https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/avoiding-virus-induced-cold-war-china Here is a really fair and balanced article around the future relationship with China, I agree with basically all of it
  4. This is an egregious suggestion from him and has been heavily criticized, no governor from either party should support this because of what this would mean to the actual control of the state going forward I hope he retracts this statement and clarifies. Why do you refer to him as "cocaine " Mitch?
  5. I find this argument incredibly difficult to understand from an intelligent person like yourself who has access to vast amounts of information that is unrestricted You seem to be suggesting that you trust the Chinese government over the USA government and the free media in the USA, yet the USA government doesnt control the news story unless it impacts on state security and laws which is normal in every country. For example no media in the world can openly report on lets say diplomatic cables marked as " confidential " or openly post secretive military strategies in times of war Countries like China Are not Democracies, no one votes so there is no government accountability unless the CCP authorizes it. A Chinese citizen cannot sue the CCP for example China controls its media and restricts the flow of information. Its always has and always will as they consider this necessary for the greater good of there society China does not have a transparent legal system. Chinese dissidents, who are rare, can easily vanish and the families have no legal recourse to find them The example of WMD in Iraq constantly gets brought up as an example of "how the USA lied ", yes I acknowledge we were not told correct information but Saddam Hussein did use WMD in the past and Iraq did indeed use to have them so the initial suggestion wasn't completely ludicrous. Saddam used chemical weapons against both the Kurds and Iran https://www.thoughtco.com/top-crimes-of-saddam-hussein-1779933 https://sites.tufts.edu/wpf/use-of-chemical-weapons-against-iran/ Interestingly enough the worst misinformation we were told about the 2003 invasion wasnt the WMD for the reasons I mentioned but rather that Saddam Hussein was part of Al-Qaeda, this was complete nonsense as he was a dictator and had no links to Islam extremism and would have been targeted by them in the same way that Saudi Arabia and later on all ME countries were because no ME country actually supports the twisted ideological interpretation of Islam that Islamic extremists support But going back to China, my question is why would you believe what they say about the true nature of the virus over your own country which has a free and independent media ....even if we accept the USA government has lied in the past this is not the same as the state controlled media of China. Surly you can recognize this, its a huge distinction and really important difference between the 2 countries ?
  6. I am taking full advantage of the HBO series available on our local DSTV and plan to watch all seasons of Boardwalk Empire, another brilliant and entertaining series
  7. SA has been on lock-down for 1 month and its time to share an honest assessment of how we doing and what the future possibly holds based on choices we have made and had to make and also the economic future Firstly based on the reality of the corrupt previous president SA before the impact of virus had a deeply problematic public healthcare system and our economy was weak and we had been downgraded fairly by the credit ratings for not addressing imprudent and egregious government spending, greed of the unions around salary negotiations and government not being able to deal with our growing debt to GDP ratio. Basically I was very worried we would not address the virus reality well due to past experiences But as a country and government we have done the best and most effective job we can do under the circumstances based on our reality .....but based on our reality is the key question. We absolutely made the right choice around implementing a proper lock-down " early" and I give full credit to our government for not equivocating around this. Some key developments Trump phoned our president to express solidarity with SA and chat about how we are addressing the spread...Im unclear what was the real reason Trump contacted SA considering his general disdain for how poorer countries do things but this call is welcomed nonetheless The W.H.O has recognized that SA is doing an excellent job at addressing virus spread and heaped praise on us. I think this is actually unhelpful and premature as we honestly have very limited proper testing equipment and we dont even have all the PPE we need, so we dont know the true nature of the virus spread. This is a global problem but worse in SA. I dont want W.HO. to create a false sense of success for SA which in the next few weeks undermines our efforts as we become lax in our efforts or the true spread of the virus becomes apparent We are deploying our ENTIRE army to address the lock-down rules and enforce important lock-down regulations, thats 70000 military personal. As I mentioned I absolutely support the deployment of the army in SA but it concerns me why government feels the unprecedented historical deployment of the army is necessary if things are going so well https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52387962 In summary as far as addressing the virus we are doing the most effective job we can do but our economic future is looking bleak...worse than ever before once the virus ends but that we will have to deal with that later
  8. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Charlottes-Web This reminds me of the famous childrens story " Charlottes Web " Basically a young girl develops a love for a piglet and persuades her farming family not to slaughter it for meat but then as the piglet gets older it naturally becomes a legitimate target for food .....but then a spider saves its life by writing words in its web to create the impression the pig is I suppose divine or special Its a good story because the pig survives being killed
  9. What an interesting link, I really learn new things on these forums
  10. Goats make excellent milk and cheese and if you dont like them they delicious and healthy to eat https://draxe.com/nutrition/goat-milk/
  11. Elerond !!!! Im shocked, disappointed and surprised ....I would never have thought of you as someone who uses bad language ....like cursing
  12. Elerond did you do military service or alternative service, I see Finland is on the list ?
  13. My comments around Ktchong was just making a point on his level of trolling The reality about conscription in the USA is its never going to be realistically implemented for numerous reasons but that doesnt mean we cant discuss its benefits because there are countries that nowadays practice, or offer alternative services, conscription that are Democracies and respect human rights However I then did some research and based on the list below most countries that have mandatory conscription actually arent Democracies at all or have appalling human rights records So in fact my point is moot because the majority of Democracies that I support dont have it or have stopped legalizing it which means you right overall about conscription not being a reasonable or feasible approach governments should follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription
  14. Gromnir I want to get the input from you and others who understand the USA constitution and the principle of freedom of speech and how it can be abused especially now in the time of this global pandemic and more importantly going forward how this can be prevented My point starts with Fox news, I watched the excellent series " Loudest Voice in the room ", which is about Roger Ailes and the creation of the channel. Part of the success of this channel is that Ailes identified that many Americans didnt want to watch legitimate and necessarily factual news but would be more interested in theater and news that confirmed there aspirations and biases. So the news from Fox news basically at times didnt need to be always fact checked. The reality is he was right as we can see from the success of Fox I also recognize that Fox News does have legitimate news so this is not a sweeping generalization and we also see theater and questionable news from other channels But then the evolution of Fox, or some would argue the erosion of Fox news, reached the point below where Trish Reagan in the early days of the virus and before it became unequivocal the true nature of virus claimed basically it " was a left wing conspiracy theory and an attempt to impeach the president " https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/media/trish-regan-fox-news/index.html Trump has definitely exacerbated the "alternative facts and fake news " dichotomy but this problem did exist before Trump which leads to my final point How did the USA, the most successful and influential country and economy in the world , end up at this point and how do we prevent this or reduce this type of media hyperbole so that it cannot lead to misinformation in a time like the global crisis where misinformation can cost lives? If the likes of Fox news can spread fake news like Trish Regan did under the auspice of freedom of speech doesn't this need to be somehow changed Constitutionally, is that even possible legally ?
  15. Also you assumed when I say I support conscription I meant deployment to military zones to see active combat like you did when you served your country patriotically I dont mean that and never did. The military has many other roles that are non-combative and people can serve there country in these other units as an exercise that could be both character building and constructive. I am not suggesting people need to fight wars Ktchong was trolling and race baiting as he normally does, I am not and dont do that when I make these types of points
  16. Thanks for spending time understanding the video and then responding, I am going to use some of these points to dispute what some of the my family members have been raising around this video and what they say is " compelling evidence the virus could come accidentally from a lab and not from animals " Also I see there is now an improved Corona antibody test which should be available in most countries soon https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/19/gov-cuomo-says-new-york-will-roll-out-antibody-testing-in-aggressive-way-this-week.html
  17. Yes I did, in 1993. One year before our Democratic election, I did my basics in 1 SSB which is an armored car regiment and then I was transferred to maintenance which is a non-combative unit that involved drivers, stores and other supportive units. But SA wasnt at war anymore as the Cold War has ended in 1989 in Africa so no one was fighting actively but we had real violence in the country as numerous groups wanted to prevent our first Democratic election
  18. First time I agree with you on something, this could be beginning of a beautiful relationship If I ran the USA conscription program you would definitely be one of the first type of citizen I would conscript, I cant think of anything more beneficial to improve your general views than 2 years in Afghanistan or the ME...trust me you would thank me afterwards
  19. Thanks for the detailed post , you have provided me information to ponder on Would you agree with GD that the police overall for you are more problematic than constructive in making society better through ensuring the rule of law and order is enforced?
  20. https://biblehub.com/context/leviticus/11-13.htm " These, moreover, you shall detest among the birds; they are abhorrent, not to be eaten: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, and the kite and the falcon in its kind, every raven in its kind, and the ostrich and the owl and the sea gull and the hawk in its kind, and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture, 1nd the stork, the heron in its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat. " I came across this when I was reading about the practice of globally eating bats, in both the Bible and Torah they basically mention people mustn't eat birds and bats. I was wondering what insights older civilizations of man knew that made them come to this conclusion..similar to views both Jews and Muslims have about not eating pork ( I love pork and its my favorite meat ). I would guess they would have experienced in there time period what we have now proven through our understanding of medical and scientific empirical evidence that people became sick and did contract diseases and viruses like Corona I am interested in what others may think is the reason these religious texts mentioned you mustn't eat animals like birds, pork and bats ?
  21. I agree, nothing worse than having the webcam on and seeing my face
  22. In SA we had a major security breach in government using Zoom recently, this was probably due to the individuals not following normal software security protocol Personally we use Microsoft Teams during the lock-down, my customers are mostly in the financial sector and they have also adopted it as far as weekly updates meetings are required . I am very happy with it and its collaborative functionality, it allows me to share files, make calls and we can have our online meetings up to 50 people
  23. So this particularly theory is not the normal fake news around the origin of the virus, it is interesting and some credible scientists have ostensibly supported it. If you want to believe the science and the absolute truth about the origin of the virus I am not sure we will ever know with 100 % certainty. I personally believe it absolutely comes from bats and from Wuhan animal market for the reasons below. However its incorrect to say " its well known that bats werent sold at the wet markets " , bats have been a stable form of food in Asia and some African countries and I have seen documentaries that were filmed about the Wuhan market made before the virus and you can clearly see bats and many other animals in cages about to be sold for food Its is well known that bats were and still eaten in Asia and Africa as I mentioned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/bats-delicacy.htm We know form the science and understanding of the genesis of viruses that bats are indeed carriers of many of these diseases https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/29/health/bats-viruses-coronavirus-scn/index.html So Im not saying you wrong, I am suggesting the most likely reason for this Zoonotic disease is the still the reason most believe which is the Wuhan market because of the many viruses that have been proven to come from animals like bats Finally the most important question is really " does it matter the true origin of the virus" because if it was accidentally created in a lab or transmitted from animals to humans we know 2 things with certainty it comes from China it can now spread from human to human and has become a global pandemic which needs to be addressed and this is the most important point
  24. Tell your wife thats a classic " middle class problem " ....Im sure that will make her feel better
  25. These type of factors also have a influence on my sleep patterns and this has been raised as a real issue causing insomnia or bad sleep So the virus has created a reality where many people are not working temporarily or have been retrenched or they work in the informal sector and this type of work has evaporated due to the lock-down so most people are just sitting at home and dont work which adds to the problem around not being " socially active " as you mentioned which adds to bad sleeping patterns
×
×
  • Create New...