BruceVC

Well if you want to intentionally conflate things that Russia is not responsible for then yes Russia is behind this Its not really a serous point to make and it doesnt change the long list of things Russia is responsible for but you can do that

Russia accusing Finland of " human rights abuses" You couldnt make this up if you tried, thats about as sincere as ISIS wanting the ICC to charge the US for violations of the Geneva Convention

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/15/poll-us-israel-support-hamas-war#:~:text=Four per cent of respondents,ceasefire and try to negotiate”. Interesting polling data about how US public sentiment is turning against Israel and its obviously because of the heavy handed Israeli response and high numbers of civilian deaths. To quote " US public support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is eroding and most Americans think Israel should call a ceasefire to a conflict that has ballooned into a humanitarian crisis, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Some 32% of respondents in the two-day opinion poll, which closed on Tuesday, said “the US should support Israel” when asked what role the United States should take in the fighting. That was down from 41% who said the US should back Israel in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on 12-13 October. The share saying “the US should be a neutral mediator” rose to 39% in the new poll from 27% a month earlier. Four per cent of respondents in the poll said the US should support Palestinians and 15% said the US should not be involved at all, both similar readings to a month ago. Some 68% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they agreed with a statement that “Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67459141 @xzar_monty and @Elerond I see Finland is closing its borders to prevent the weaponization of illegal immigrants from the Russian border Thats an effective strategy, lets see how long Russia continues to abuse the plight of immigrants when they cant enter Finland

Zora dont undermine the outrage, remember we support the ICC now because several countries want Netanyahu to face ICC charges The ICC matters and we must all support it when it has just jurisdiction or a member country is involved But on a serious note, the ANC has demonstrated probably its greatest example of political and ideological flip-flopping around foreign policy I have ever seen. Literally 3 months ago there were many ANC politicians saying things like "the ICC should be ignored, SA must leave the ICC again " or " the ICC is irrelevant " and that was because the ICC had issued the warrant for Putin Now those exact same politicians a mere 3 months later are saying the ICC is credible and significant and suddenly the ICC "matters " but of course Hamas shouldn't be charged at the ICC You couldnt make this up if you tried

Really interesting video of the history of Bethesda and how the evolution of technology has influenced what Bethesda can create and the success of games Lots of small things I didnt know like Todds first game was Terminator at Bethesda...I didnt even know there was a Terminator game And Morrowind saved them after the sales failures of Redguard. Todd always comes across in such a likeable and sincere way Needless to say for all fans of Bethesda this is indubitably another " BruceVC must watch video "

I completed KOTOR 1 after 45 hours, it was a much shorter game than I was hoping for but it was great fun. It gets a solid 70/100 on the globally followed " BruceVC game rating system" I enjoyed the SW lore and the game provided classic Bioware fun around how you can do quests in your own order and I appreciated the companion interaction. I ended up Romancing the hottie Bastila and I saved her from the dark side Most combat became easy from level 14 or so with some exceptions but the battles on the Star Forge were challenging and I only succeeded by using my Jedi Powers strategically. I had Canderous and Jolee in my party for the final stage And I had to adopt a " cowardy " approach for the final battle with Malak, I used my Jedi speed to run away from him and destroyed the Jedi healing pods. Then I used Throw Lightsaber to wound him from a distance and killed him in normal lightsaber combat when he was on his last health But Im enjoying the SW universe so I have decided to play KOTOR 2 next

Its not the same analogy and you know that A house is a personal space and land in this case represents a state for both groups and both sides need to accept they going to be living next to each other, neither side is going away Also the Jews and Palestinians both can trace their ancestry to the region going back thousands of years. So both sides have valid arguments to want a state in the region

Sure, not all the offers were great but did you did you read the first one ? "After the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, following World War I, Britain took control of most of the Middle East, including the area that constitutes modern Israel. 17 years later, in 1936, the Arabs rebelled against the British and against the Jewish neighbors. The British formed a task force, the Peal Commission, to study the cause of the rebellion. The Commission concluded that the reason for the violence was that two peoples, Jews and Arabs, wanted to govern the same land. The answer, the Peal Commission concluded, would be to create two independent states, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs, a two-state solution. Rejection number one. The suggested split was heavily in favor of the Arabs. The British offered them 80% of the disputed territory, the Jews the remaining 20%. Yet, despite the tiny size of their proposed state, the Jews voted to accept this offer. But the Arabs rejected it and resumed their violent rebellion"| It seems like the Palestinians had no interest in sharing the disputed territory because that was a good deal

Yes they have also refused several offers for a state and some really good peace deals https://besacenter.org/palestinian-rejectionism/

Thats fine, then Finland can make a reasonable demand that Russia can absorb them? One of the main problem with the US and SA immigration crisis is countries allow illegal immigrants to pass through and the immigrants dont want to immigrate to these countries SA is currently overhauling its entire immigration laws because of massive flaws with how local laws integrate into international laws and the unsustainable resource burden this places on SA https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-aaron-motsoaledi-release-white-paper-citizenship-immigration-and-refugee We basically tired of being told you have to accept illegal immigration and no other African countries want to take any responsibility Oh and I just did a quick check about what countries take the most immigrants and Russia is not on the top 10 list? And Im talking about countries that people want to immigrate to https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/10-countries-that-take-the-most-immigrants?slide=10

Yes and you need to strengthen your border security because of course Russia will take advantage and abuse the reality of immigration And Russia is lucky because very few immigrants want to immigrate to Russia. The main immigration destination is always Western countries An idea could be UN funded refugee camps or Finnish\EU funded refugee camps like we see throughout Africa and the ME? People are safe but they cant leave unless they have resources.

Yes but you can be informed about the conflict and have an opinion and it would echo what other recognized negotiators have raised. It does require understanding of the conflict so I definitely dont think becoming informed about something is preposterous or means nothing, its just an opinion based on historical data and what other people have suggested through the decades And thats better than a lot of what I hear which is unhelpful or unrealistic suggestions like " the Israeli are Colonialists "or "Israel doesn't have a right to exist " or " there is no way a 2 state solution can work " which doesn't help in the interests of compromise Your opinion also doesn't have to be deep, for example the obvious way to end the war in Ukraine is for Russia to end its invasion. Then they can start discussing things like NATO or Crimea But in the Israeli conflict there are real points of contention and compromise that need to be made like Jerusalem, the ending of the building of illegal Israeli settlements, Israel's right to exist and the borders of a 2 state solution None of these dont mean anything, they all relevant because they have been raised through the decades So Im asking what is anyones suggestion to a long term solution to peace based on the numerous issues that both sides have?

Gorthfuscious what's your view on a sustainable solution to this decades long conflict? I am not sure if you have noticed but generally most people only get involved or have an opinion when there is an active conflict like what happened on 7 October and then the views are just about the responses that both sides make because we are dealing with symptoms But what should leadership on both sides agree to in the interests of peace? Lets say you were in charge of negotiations, what reasonable demands would you raise?

Yes and that's a ridiculous and unhelpful suggestion from far-right Israeli politicians and no one's going to take it seriously. You notice they suggest "the West "must take them in Israel definitely cant expect anyone to absorb 2 million Palestinians, who is going to take that economic and social burden? The only realistic solution to sustained peace is a 2 state solution But leadership on both sides isnt prepared to compromise and there is a lack of political will. I predict the Palestinians will stay in Gaza but it needs to be rebuilt

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bbc-apologizes-over-israel-hamas-120525521.html Here is an example of the misreporting going around in this conflict but this apology was towards Israel

"We " was used as general term because I have made several posts about what the stated Israeli military objective is and they have publicly mentioned it on many occasions. They want to wipe out Hamas in Gaza and destroy there operating bases. I also assumed you have been following this conflict and the Israelis have never said they want to end the Hamas ideology because you can't kill an ideology

Rather ask me to explain my view than making assumptions about what you think I mean

No its not naive if you understand what the Israeli military objective is and we have discussed this many times before We all know you cant kill an ideology, I know that, you know that and the Israelis know that. But you can absolutely remove all Hamas bases in Gaza and destroy there tunnel infrastructure especially in the north of Gaza. Then you ensure that Hamas doesnt govern Gaza anymore so they cant plan another 7 October. They will still exist in other countries and the ideology will exist but they wont be on the border of Israel with resources . But it adds a real geographical obstacle to future 7 October attacks Its an effective and obvious strategy that can work and its no different to other examples where Islamic extremist groups like ISIS operating bases were destroyed and that vastly reduces there operating capability. So there is precedent for it as well But I dont agree with the heavy handed approach the Israelis are following and using missiles strikes that kill Hamas and civilians. Thats why I have mentioned they should be using ground troops only at this stage of the offensive

I was just teasing you, there are lots of legitimate reasons to object to digital IDs and most of them are around what the definition of personal freedom means and why must you have one just to function in a society It reminds me of something in SA, my bank has an app and you cannot get a new card without your cell phone because you need to accept the SMS. But what if you dont want a cell phone and even if you go to the bank with your ID they cant give you any new credit or debit cards without you accepting the automated SMS There is something wrong when you as person or your ID arent as credible for security than an app

Yes the main issue with anonymous sources is how we selectively believe them when they suit our ideological views or biases Its the same as the media, when they post articles we like then we believe them and use them as confirmation of the "truth" . On Codex there are people who posted the Washington Post article as "evidence " of Ukraine being responsible but on any other issue or story the WP is considered deep state\CIA\Jewish propaganda and you cant believe "anything they say "

Well its assumed that Palestinians will return to northern Gaza once the war is over but not until its rebuilt. There are several things that the Israelis haven't thought about or didnt care about . I mentioned this before but they should have used a bombing campaign only in the beginning and then used ground troops only. This would have vastly reduced civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure. I realize they want to avoid unnecessary IDF deaths but in this type of urban warfare you need to consider the consequence of targeting Hamas when they embedded within civilians Because even though the global PR outcomes dont necessarily change military decisions in wars, look at Russia in Ukraine, it does matter in this war because you seeing both anti-semitic and Islamophobia on the increase in many countries. And most of us dont want to be dragged into that because of a war in the ME where leadership on both sides are intransigent and refuse to compromise

Keyrock dont be a luddite, technology is designed to help you. How is government supposed to effectively track you if you dont have an updated digital ID?

Hamas does use hospitals and other civilian structures as operating bases. And this is denied or ignored by many people so thats the purpose of this type of article Israel will generally always lose the PR war or at least the war of Internet "outrage " But they will win the main war and Hamas will no longer be able to operate in Gaza The real questions are going to be " who will manage Gaza once Hamas is gone " and " who is going rebuild Gaza "

Yes, they do matter because I do still place significance in overall gamers feedback and reviews from certain gaming journalists But not with every game and my personal views are the most important. For example I didnt enjoy Disco Elysium despite being highly rated by many But I have certain rules, for example I never play Bethesda games until 6-9 months irrespective of any initial positive reviews