BruceVC

Nice one Gorthfuscious, it sounds like you going to have a good time Dont forget the red wine

Salutations All Its mandatory to have a Christmas post over this festive time. What is everyone planning for Xmas and NY, this period is not just relevant for Christians but its where we can hopefully spend the time with family, friends or just relax with whoever we consider significant I am having Xmas in Durban with some of my direct family, this year most of family are going skiing in Lech in Austria so due to logistics and leave we not getting together at out beach cottage. I am not going skiing due to leave restraints so this Xmas I will be with some of my family. We going to be eating Turkey and Gammon as our main meal and for NY I will be flying to Johannesburg to see friends, we haven't decided what we will be doing yet So what is everyones plans and just as important what do you typically eat for Xmas and what do you normally do on Xmas eve and or day, I am always interested in these types of events Either way I hope everyone has a great time and here is to a good and prosperous 2020

I hear you but I havent read the books so I can only realistically compare the series to the general narrative of the excellent games

I have also started on the Witcher, episode 1 and I am enjoying it so far. I could criticize parts of the story if I made direct comparisons to the grand saga of the game but I am not going too do that as I want to judge the series on the fact its a TV adaption...so Im looking forward to how it unfolds

Thanks for commenting, this has got nothing to do with me agreeing or disagreeing but rather I am interested in the views of US citizens and what they think about the Trump presidency and the events of the last 20 years or so. I have gained some new and pertinent insights from the comments of members on this forum and this made me see certain things that I was completely unaware of which is normal for any non US citizen Your criticisms of Trump are easy to understand as we have actual comments made by Trump but this is where I would like to make a suggestion on how you can see things or rather try to see them but end of the day it is hard. Firstly using Trump as the example of these opinions is in itself problematic because by his very nature he has several dysfunctional personality traits that he will never change....he is impulsive, insecure yet arrogant, capricious but he also connects with certain countries and his supporters. But Trump won the election in an almost unusual time in the USA, just one example of this is where many of his supporters quite simply believe everything he says.....no more critical thinking or perhaps balancing certain stories but they basically automatically reject any dissenting opinion of Trump. This for me is something I consider anathema, I cannot imagine living in a world where I just believe what any president says as absolute truth But what makes it worse in Trumps case is how he has very little knowledge of events outside the USA, for example just to add to what you mentioned he is really badly informed about the history of the ME and the Israeli\Palestinian conflict which made his interventions confusing and ultimately pointless. So Trump has bumbled away at trying to resolve the interminable Israeli\Palestinian conflict by trying something different that could have worked if the conflict was about economics or a better quality of life. Trumps approach was you recognize Israeli has certain historical rights to traditionally very disputed things in the ME ...like recognizing Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel ended up changing nothing as the rest of the world rejected this and of course the Palestinians completely rejected this but to be honest there had been no meaningful discussions over the last 10 years between the Israelis and Hamas so I was interested in seeing where this would go.....well the end result is Netanyahu has now reached political gridlock and his right wing supporters have met a political impasse so thinking Trump support would sustain all there endeavors met with failure So in summary we need to try to realize that some of Trumps antics and decisions will not only be bizarre and unusual but they will ultimately fail because sometimes the normal way of diplomacy using tact and decorum is the better way and sometimes the only way

Its an interesting view to have that the Trump victory was caused by the failure of Obama, I am interested in what you define by that statement if you dont mind going into more details with examples so I understand what you mean For example yes there some things Obama did or tried to implement that became the foundation of some of Trumps rhetoric and were the political target of some of his policies but I would argue other historical and societal realities that existed in the USA played a much more relevant part in the Trump victory. I could if required give you examples of where Obama succeeded or what he did was well meaning and positive but it wasnt appreciated or was just done in the wrong way but its hard to believe anyone being objective would consider the Obama presidency as a failure ....considering the numerous examples of failed states that do exist due to bad leadership decisions like Venezuela and Cuba ? I never really understood any valid criticism towards Obama until Trump won and I spent 4-6 months trying to understand how so many people had assumed Trump would lose. The good news is I now understand how some people like myself had become blinded to certain developments in the USA and the free world and how some parts of the normal SJ narrative had become corrupted and we were unintentionally just believing certain things instead of engaging in debate and seeing some things as complex and unhelpful to label them in a pejorative way. For example attempts to implement gun control I no longer support because a lot of the push back is from reasonable people who have equally important reasons to be against reform but not because they not aware of the scourge of mass shootings but rather they see this as a slippery slope and in some cases this is how the Federal government starts to force changes to culture and or tries to erode the independence of the individual states and Constitutional rights that matter to many Americans I still truly believe in most SJ objectives but for me there is often nuance and certain realities that need to be understood before we expect people to just agree, for example I always initially supported Merkels offer to integrate 1.5 million Syrians but as time went on it was wrong to tell all countries in the EU they had to accept large numbers of refugees. This should have been optional and not mandatory....however we learn from our mistakes I now also understand Trump and how he engages and what he believes. Interestingly enough once you accept how Trump is it is much easier to see his successes and failures. If you are someone who wants Trump to be defeated in 2020 then this is critical because if you just see Trump in his normal either controversial or offensive mannerisms you could easily see Trump in a one dimensional way, for example some people will understandably say " Trump is racist and or sexist " and this becomes what people assume all he represents. But then to defeat him politically you could focus on the wrong things and that would be to his advantage as right now I see the Democrats as having the more extreme candidates who may hold some common and supported social and political policies but if somehow Warren gets the nomination once she goes one on one with Trump I believe her views will be easily undermined by even moderate Republican commentators. Ironically the rise of Warren and her IMO well meaning but unrealistic policies are mostly an outcome of Trumps perceived divisive presidency .....its a weird political reality but that is where we are. In the unlikely event Warren becomes president what do you guys think will be the consequence for the USA ? For me it will be much worse but in a different way. But in closing I would prefer if Trump didnt win in 2020 because I do believe his 2016 victory lessons have been learnt and another 4-5 years of Trump would be unnecessary but I am not convinced there are any ideal Democratic candidates with Biden still being my best candidate considering the history of the last 20 years or so I am also very interested in all comments, but especially our US members , around these 2 questions How do you see the overall outcomes of the Trump presidency, ideally we must be fair as there are some positives Do you think Trump heralds the beginning of how politics is going to be, I dont at all. Trump is more of an anomoly to me and I doubt we will see anyone quite like him again.

I have good friends of mine from JHB coming to Cape Town for about 10 days and they staying with me this weekend which Im really excited about I have several things planned and will also see what they feel like but definitely tomorrow morning Im taking them to an artisan farmers market. My friend and his wife enjoy drinking and eating out so I expect much revelry and boisterousness awaits us https://www.capetown.travel/the-oranjezicht-city-farm-market-at-granger-bay/

Sounds horrendous Barti, you lucky to be alive

Yeah, happy Thanksgiving to all our American members

This is a good post and makes sense to me on numerous levels but here is what I dont understand Why is posing next to ISIS dead bodies such a bad thing? ISIS is the most barbaric, murderous and dysfunctional group the world has seen since the Nazis I dont feel even the slightest remorse when I hear " ISIS fighters have been killed " and you cant possibly add to the anti-Western ISIS propaganda that has always existed and at times has evolved during the time of the false ISIS Caliphate era ..which is now over. So I dont see how posing next to dead ISIS fighters will in any way change how ISIS feels about the West So is it fair to want to prosecute or penalize Gallagher for this considering the important facts that he was acquitted on previous serious allegations around war crimes ?

There is nothing unusual or difficult to believe about your views, I would argue its not uncommon and is what most people believe or aspire to achieve

What an enemy, imagine having to actually suggest meaningful and sustainable policies and or laws to defeat " the neoliberal corporatist establishment " Can we at least identify this foe so we all on the same page, who exactly are this group that we need to win against. For me this is just another sweeping statement that is common in populist groups, anarchists and anti-establishment people but when it comes to reasonable outcomes and strategies these comments lack constructive suggestions

I dont understand this analogy as an example of inequality, I dont think there are many cases of the actual miners being shareholders in any mine. Therefore no miners generally own the wealth of any mine because the owners are technically global, multinational companies who are all listed companies so shareholders are the owners And you cannot ever say with certainty who all of the actual individual shareholders are because no one openly puts there name behind buying retail shares, its done through an intermediary like a stock broker who would know your details for things like dividend payouts but this is confidential unless you publish it Then asset managers, Investment banker, public sector investment corporations and general investors buy large blocks of shares and this is done through a company as a stock investment. So its not as clear and cut as saying " person x definitely owns the wealth "

Last night I finished Metro Exodus and it was definitely a fitting and worthy successor to previous Metro games The game was graphically brilliant and I was able to run everything on maximum settings which added to the overall positive experience. But it also has those components I have come to enjoy about Metro games. For example you have to deal with numerous murderous human factions and there are those frenetic battles in the dark with mutants which are always both exciting and brutal You also learn how to avoid certain battles because of the scarcity of ammunition and general resources that exist in this post-apocalyptic world . But overall it was an excellent game and I give it a solid 75/100

2133 to quote the erudite Jordan Peterson, " Capitalism can lead to both wealth creation and increase inequality but communism\socialism leads to just one thing.....inequality " You know its true, history doesnt lie

Well said Gromnir, support for our armed forces in such tumultuous times always makes sense .....in most Democracies you would assume people would always support there military in the majority of reasonable initiatives and or strategies. But unfortunately its not always like that

Interesting post, Im glad you clarified what you mean because its true people like me tend to respond to certain terms around what we define them to be globally or even symbolically, yet their is nuance and also more importantly different definitions to what we all consider " left and right to be" And this definitely can have both different and or similar meanings but we need to look at the actual country where these terms are being used to understand there colloquial meaning

I am still considering buying a console for the same reasons, I dont want to be denied playing certain games because they dont have a PC version

Great and convincing endorsement of this style of gaming, I like and I can appreciate the balance of sometimes you need to take " normal " notes and hand written observations but the game must also assist in its own way so the experience isnt frustrating in the interests of time For example I like in some RPG where you first need to discover the teleportation device before you can use them like in the Gothic games

The good news is I have a very high end relatively new PC, I invested in the Geoforce RTX 2080ti and I very keen to push it towards maximum performance where possible in games like this Wasnt one of the reasons you invested in a console was to play RDR1, how would you compare the games?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/evo-morales-of-bolivia-accepts-asylum-in-mexico/ar-BBWBCSk?li=AAnZ9Ug Sorry Zora but there are many articles from many independent sources that support my view, Morales was a bad leader at the end who tried to cheat and undermine one of the core principles of what defines any Democracy. And quite simply that is " where you accept defeat, if you have indeed lost, through the Democratic electoral process as a governing party and step down " ....this is on him. No need to blame bad leadership on the USA

Scandinavian countries use a successful hybrid model, yes they have working socialist institutions in there public sector. But they still have an independent private sector, banks and the economies are driven by interaction with " free markets\Capitalist" rules and laws of global trade So the Scandinavian countries aren't true socialist countries compared to what was attempted in numerous failed examples of the " success of socialism " like Venezuela and Cuba, you always have to have an independent private sector for sustainable and effective economic growth ( the exception being China which is not a Democracy so they have different measurements and outcomes )

I am very keen to start playing RDR2 for PC which has some enhancements, what do people generally think about this game?

I have to mention since South Africa won the Rugby WC most of the country has been gripped by understandable " Springbok fever " and we have been celebrating in different ways on an almost daily basis but its coming to an end now but what a victory

Oh please Zora " military coup in progress in Bolivia " is one myopic and biased way of framing this, sure you can see it like that Or rather how about " president of country x admits to vast irregularities in last election and concedes he has to have election again " ....its about the principle of a transparent and free and fair election. Surly you can understand this ? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/10/evo-morales-concedes-to-new-elections-after-serious-irregularities-found