BruceVC

Happy Womens Day for yesterday This is always a good time to reflect personally on oneself and ask if we are doing everything reasonably possible and logical to support and enable women in our lives

This made me laugh

Its my birthday today but the reality of the virus, the closure of certain venues and the fact alcohol has been ridiculously and illogically banned again in SA means my realistic choices to celebrate have been curtailed ....yet I have been able to plan a good week which includes A lunch on Saturday on an open area near the sea at an excellent seafood restaurant, this will be with my Cpt family. My stepmom has kindly offered to pay which translates to " its a good time to order anything you love eating but its normally a little expensive to normally justify paying for yourself " .....I can see meals like Lobster Thermidor , Abalone and imported whole Japanese crab in my future 🥂 https://www.harbourhouse.co.za/menus/ Then Sunday I have reconnected with a lady friend and we meeting for early dinner to catchup Today I have given myself the day off work and I will be gaming the whole day and will order "birthday celebration" meals for lunch and dinner

Before I start playing Divinity 2 I decided to do something very unusual for me and play a much older but very famous RPG, Daggerfall which I have never played before as I stopped PC gaming from about 1998-2005 so I missed out in certain classic RPG like Fallout1&2 Also I am also one of those games who embrace and invest in the advancement of modern games and I love the aesthetics, mechanics and structures of modern games.....Elder scroll games, Witcher series, RDR2. Modern games are great and offer us real and continued entertainment And sometimes the nostalgic allure of classic RPGs needs to stay in your memory because if you replay a classic game you must accept how your patience and view of certain gaming realities will have changed and you dont want to be unfairly critical of something that was amazing in its day but nowadays may be seen and more cumbersome than fun But of course the classic games can still be brilliant and I am playing Daggerfall Unity so it has lots of updates and graphic enhancements....its such a huge game and I am enjoying how little information you have in the beginning and how you just start in a dungeon. I am going to continue playing it and maybe I wont finish the final quest because the game is apparently super long but its a great way to see how classic RPG use to be made and I appreciate the details and depth

But Tik Tok is a security risk while under Chinese influence, if Microsoft buys it then it can be trusted to not corrupt the minds of our young children

Yes I was joking, sorry for the misunderstanding

So you and Gromnir are ethnically related, nice one It must be nice to have an automatic kinship and brotherhood with other forum members

" everybody "....thats definitely not going to happen and sets a very bad global precedent for other countries that also face immigration issues like the EU, Australia and South Africa

And I just finished Dishonored Death of the Outsider, I have always enjoyed the Dishonored franchise. I like the game mechanics and the narrative I ended killing the Outsider but I still dont understand who he was and why he did what he did but it was a great game anyway

Its quite a coincidence but after finishing RDR2 online I realized I miss the MMO experience and I have been seriously considering starting to play one again, Hurlshot mentioned the vastness of the LotRO and I have never played this MMO. I enjoy a large world where I can explore and maybe play on my own ...I join guilds if I make the MMO more permanent because I enjoy the social side....so I may be playing LotRO soon 🌎

I am laughing because its such a terrible description of a human being.....how do you justify that because it cannot have any real reasonable logic description Do the Aboriginal people still remember that as a offensive term or is it something people know is in the past?

That was a good read. But Malc what I dont understand is the protesters in the article talk about " not wanting Federal forces in there city " but they constantly provoke a reaction by damaging Federal property.....so why would the Federal agents leave? What am I misunderstanding because that doesnt seem like the behavior of people who dont want a reaction The mayor of Portland was on CNN and she is blaming Trump for the response as he is the one who has deployed the troops?

I wasnt aware of this thinktank, how does this align to the Guardian articles? But what is more interesting is you have confirmed what volo mentioned that the Guardian is a website that is known for some controversial articles. I didnt know this as I mentioned and I will be honest in SA these types of opinions would be challenged by people who dont accept this type of biased views on any race ....so we wouldnt consider this meaningful and or appropriate commentary

Of course he is doing that., it wouldnt be ktchong if he wasnt making these types of posts But I do find ktchong interesting because I have never met someone who consistently tries to suggest white people in a country like USA are actually the problem. And I would also argue he isnt trolling because he may really have an issue with white people and thats okay because I can have these debates without getting " offended ". Other members dont generally respond to him because they think he is trolling but sometimes he makes points that I have heard before so its not a waste of time for me to clarify where he is misunderstanding something But what disappoints me, as you observed , is he doesn't ever respond which normally would mean I shouldn't engage with him because that means he has no real interest in a debate ....but Gorthfuscious I am human and that means even I break my own rules in the interests of building better racial relationships, I should come to Oz and help you guys address racism right

A couple of weeks ago I posted that appalling, racist and inaccurate article written by an Arab women living in the UK from the Guardian where she basically was saying that white women who cry are seeking attention and its very false.....yeah right because suddenly if a white women cry's it cant be for any reason any other women She then proceeded on some tirade against white women being absolved of racism and how they need to be called out.....she is obviously insecure about her own race and gender and somehow thinks people dont know that any person can be racist....including white women.... In the same article she brings up how " Arab men are called sexist when its not reasonable or actually the reality" ....I remember thinking I wonder who she is trying to convince with raising that point. I worked extensively in the ME and I will never say " Arab men are sexist " because that is a generalization but in most ME countries women rights are very limited and women dont have the same legal rights that men receive under certain laws and crimes I was surprised that the Guardian would be fine with this type of article and I lost some respect for there overall subjectivity, not that I follow this website but its the principle ...then I went to the website today and noticed there are several articles that make the same uninformed and offensive comments about white people and things like " why are white people taking part in BLM protests " Here is the article that discusses the point " white people taking part in BLM protests are doing it for attention " and other similar comments. Its funny because I have never been able to read the minds of thousands of people and I would guess white people are taking part in BLM because they believe in the cause and think the police are being heavy handed.....but thats just me https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/26/portland-federal-agents-teargas-protesters-black-lives-matter

I have never heard of this term " escape velocity " , you can reduce the spread and you always can but at a cost . You dont need to think the virus spread is inevitable

You dont need to be so concerned about the future of the USA due to the appalling rejection of virus best practice by several groups that include the response from many governors, the vacuous mask denialist and also the BLM protests which were the most disappointing reaction to how the virus is spread. I appreciate your concern as it demonstrates patriotism But no country in the world will ever return to normal until we have the vaccine but you can definitely reduce the spread and prevent unnecessary deaths by following the proven virus rules like the EU and Japan have done But the real damage to the USA is going to be the same as all other countries that have failed to follow the correct advice, most people will get better but 3-5 % of the total effected population will sadly end up on ventilators and will die. Hospitals get overwhelmed due to lack of beds and ventilators and some people die because of this so this adds to the real negative information because now its seems the virus mortality rate is greater than it really is but the reality is its always the same small group that succumb to the virus. This is almost always the same demographic, its people older than 65 and people with a compromised immune system. Herd mentality is indeed an illusive goal because as you said we know from the comprehensive Spanish studies that the corona anti-bodies dont last but this was never a guarantee so the vaccine is the only real way to return things to normal But the spread in the USA wont continue once you flatten the curve, you just need to accept it takes time but it is proven science, of course this also assumes citizens will follow the best virus practices like wearing a mask and avoiding any place that is a confined area like a club or open restaurant. My fear is certain groups in the USA may still reject the science but then you just legislate mask wearing and ensure you prosecute anyone who refuses to adhere to the law Also this will slowdown the economic recovery of the USA which in turn impacts the worlds economic recovery

volo do you mind if I raise some constructive criticism around your general views ....Im not sure if you being serious about raising the same issues that most of us accept. Of course any violence committed by any group needs to be condemned and that includes unprovoked violence against white people You seem to keep suggesting that someone like Gromnir doesnt care about this, he has never suggested this and he keeps disputing your generalizations But why would you honestly keep posting links that will generally support what we all know? In a world where this was a reality that would have to be addressed ....but its not a legal reality And Antifa is a problem for me personally because they have no recognized leadership and the spokesman I heard blatantly admitted that he believes Antifa is justified in damaging property and being involved in violence. Here is a good link that summarizes my core issues with them, please watch the video of the Antifa activist who thinks the violence is just a game ....its a slippery slope as violence begets violence. She thinks its okay to be armed with weapons to kill but she is laughing during the interview which makes her view worse as its so out of touch with what the potential risk is to this type of response https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/14/us/what-is-antifa-trnd/index.html So for me in summary Antifa is not BLM and we shouldnt conflate the groups or generalize

This is exactly what concerns me and you have already seen this as one of the reasons some people supported Trump as you mentioned And the Democrat " extreme left " like Warran and Sanders can sometimes really come across in a condescending way that creates its own real problems because you sometimes feel people in the USA( who have created success in the USA through hard work, prudent choices and understanding real opportunities....yes of course some people have resources given to them by family and they dont really deserve it but generally people have worked to achieve degrees of success and this should never be dismissed or ignored ) will be expected to fund social projects and massive ideas to address what they consider are examples of unfairness and inequality ... But Biden is more of a centrist and not likely to want to implement potentially unhelpful policies that .....Im just raising this because ideally you want people to learn lessons from the past so we dont repeat them. And both parties can be better at how people react to each other and how objectives get framed....its about diplomacy and I do believe the words matter to many of us and how respond

It seems highly unlikely that Biden could somehow do something that will make people support Trump over him...but I do have a concern. Biden will win because of the virus impact and the mismanagement of the virus in certain states but the main reason is the economic lockdown has ravaged all economies and wiped out the last 8 years of US economic growth. Once there is a vaccine the USA will recover but some businesses have permanently closed and there will be real residual economic damage that will be addressed through normal economic growth....the point being its not really Trumps fault or the Democrats brilliant, reasonable polices that have changed this election outcome....it does change the real reasons Trump wont win and this does have an impact for how people will view the inevitable Biden victory Personally I still think its better we dont go through another 4 years of the Trump circus but what concerns me is a new US political reality where the Democrats want to over compensate for some Trump decisions and inadvertently the Democrats are seen as extreme left or they end up just alienating normal citizens who end up believing there normal way of life and culture is being undermined ....then we go back to another future where a Trump candidate wins on making claims that are exaggerated or similar comments like " I am going to drain the Washington swamp " Anyway I doubt we will ever see another Trump candidate but I am concerned about what changes the Democrats will implement that could be well meaning but just add to the current, unnecessary political dichotomy. And the reality is the actual political intransigent that currently exists between the left and right are mostly ideological and certain issues I wouldnt expect to see

You need to stand your ground Barti, why dont you make a citizens arrest and end this vile injustice?

You raise some valid concerns, it is a slippery slope when you allow the Federal government to just intervene when they deem fit. The states do need to decide this...but those mayors should not be reelected due to their failure to ensure the general law

This is an important point and I would also like clarity from the legal people on this forum like Gromnir and GD

Would you support the changing of the law to support the deployment of federal agents under these unusual circumstances?

Sorry Amentep but if Dp is correct, and Im sure he is, than the protesters were damaging federal property and I would also argue in some cases provocative when it comes to the police and federal agents So it still seems justified to deploy a federal response