BruceVC

GD I appreciate this is a form of a coping mechanism but you cant reasonably compare Trump and Obama ....you need to separate there presidencies and have honest and separate views on them Bruce you can have different varieties of bad. Obama knew what he was doing and it involved seizing power away from Congress and State Governments as well as curtailing individual liberty of citizens. That is bad. Trump does not seem to know what the heck he's doing. He's jumping from one thing to the next and in much of it he's acting on power the Presidency does not have. That's bad. So yes, it is totally comparable because it is all rooted in the same thing: extra-constitutional power. Would you rather be stung by a hornet or bitten by a venomous spider? Not really the same thing but neither is desirable. Get the idea? I do see your point but you can ask anyone on this forum from outside the USA who follows US politics and updates. I can guarantee you they will say Trump is seen as much more controversial But as I have mentioned his foreign policy decisions have been mostly prudent and reasonable rather an active participant in it that advances their own ends. GD I cant stress enough how important it is when people like you who encounter this type of sentiment immediately address it and challenge it Yes after Trump faith in the media should return but at the moment the media is constantly attacked and criticized by Trump or his campaign team. Remember this is about free speech and I think we both value this Faith in the media will not return. Here is why. Suppose in 2020 Trump is replaced by a rabid, freedom hating left-winger like Elizabeth Warren. The "media" will do an immediate 180 and President Warren will be the benefactor of their fawning praise and forbearance against reporting anything negative even when they should. I will be honest I have never really understood some of the criticism towards the Democrats or people like Warren but after the Clinton presidential loss I now take these comments very seriously and do use them in the my overall paradigm of US political predictions The old BruceVC would have ignored them.....hence one of the reasons for people like me getting the 2016 election result wrong

GD I appreciate this is a form of a coping mechanism but you cant reasonably compare Trump and Obama ....you need to separate there presidencies and have honest and separate views on them Bruce you can have different varieties of bad. Obama knew what he was doing and it involved seizing power away from Congress and State Governments as well as curtailing individual liberty of citizens. That is bad. Trump does not seem to know what the heck he's doing. He's jumping from one thing to the next and in much of it he's acting on power the Presidency does not have. That's bad. So yes, it is totally comparable because it is all rooted in the same thing: extra-constitutional power. Would you rather be stung by a hornet or bitten by a venomous spider? Not really the same thing but neither is desirable. Get the idea? I do see your point but you can ask anyone on this forum from outside the USA who follows US politics and updates. I can guarantee you they will say Trump is seen as much more controversial But as I have mentioned his foreign policy decisions have been mostly prudent and reasonable rather an active participant in it that advances their own ends. GD I cant stress enough how important it is when people like you who encounter this type of sentiment immediately address it and challenge it Yes after Trump faith in the media should return but at the moment the media is constantly attacked and criticized by Trump or his campaign team. Remember this is about free speech and I think we both value this

Oh, thanks for this. I'll mention this as its relevant from the principle. It never ever gets checked but all debates are recorded and you never can be too honest So I'll say exactly what you said above but still use your general view

Strangers will soon be speaking to each other on buses and all hell will break loose. Also, people will stop eating surströmming. I like you guys, keep us updated on serious social changes you feel Sweden is going through....I am using your views on a radio show debate I am having on the success of immigrant integration. Your views are considered " Swedish anecdotal evidence " and it is important as some people prefer to hear the opinions of actual citizens

GD I appreciate this is a form of a coping mechanism but you cant reasonably compare Trump and Obama ....you need to separate there presidencies and have honest and separate views on them Bruce you can have different varieties of bad. Obama knew what he was doing and it involved seizing power away from Congress and State Governments as well as curtailing individual liberty of citizens. That is bad. Trump does not seem to know what the heck he's doing. He's jumping from one thing to the next and in much of it he's acting on power the Presidency does not have. That's bad. So yes, it is totally comparable because it is all rooted in the same thing: extra-constitutional power. Would you rather be stung by a hornet or bitten by a venomous spider? Not really the same thing but neither is desirable. Get the idea? I do see your point but you can ask anyone on this forum from outside the USA who follows US politics and updates. I can guarantee you they will say Trump is seen as much more controversial But as I have mentioned his foreign policy decisions have been mostly prudent and reasonable

GD I appreciate this is a form of a coping mechanism but you cant reasonably compare Trump and Obama ....you need to separate there presidencies and have honest and separate views on them

This is a very good update, its an overall positive view and this is exactly what I was hoping I like the way Sweden supports and believes in human rights and equality, I admire your commitment. I heard people saying things like " the immigrants will destroy Swedish culture and create chaos and instability " That type of crime is very normal so it shouldn't be seen in a serious way

That was in 2015. The system never did collapse, although huge delays became the norm in a bunch of state departments. In the the mean time, the numbers of asylum seekers coming to Sweden have already diminished significantly. https://www.migrationsverket.se/English/About-the-Migration-Agency/Facts-and-statistics-/Statistics.html According to the migration service in Sweden 2015 was the peak when over 160000 refugees requested asylum. That's double the 2014 number. In 2016 the number fell to 30000. Unless something new happens, in 2017 the number of refugees should continue to decrease. What is the general view towards refugees from the average Swede, are you guys generally still supportive?

By international agreements that Russia has signed, legality hacking that targets computers in USA is determined by USA laws. Which of course don't necessary mean much as Russia isn't in habit giving its citizens to USA to be tried. Nah, not if it's the Russian State doing it. Even for private citizens extradition itself requires the crime to be illegal in Russia as well, albeit that can be waived. The direct equivalent would be Russia saying that CIA hacking in Russia is illegal. Well yeah, it may be in Russia, but it isn't a crime in the US and there isn't merely no chance of an extradition whatever reciprocal treaties may say there's no chance of, well, anything except incredulous laughter if they complained about it. It's also particularly problematic when you have the NSA rather obviously hacking/ intercepting the Russian Ambassador's communications- completely against the Vienna Convention, of course, but you'd be naive if you thought it didn't happen. Well, if all the intelligence communities want is a compliant leader who does what they want I guess it's all good then? If one were to be facetious one might mention that all Putin wants is a compliant leader who does what he wants, as well... That kind of thinking is far more sinister than Trump being a blowhard, because Trump is both limited in power and is an actual elected official who will be gone in 4/8 years. These guys are neither elected nor are they limited in their power or in the time frame of their power. You don't get any less limited than trying to kneecap your country's leader as there isn't any higher target to go for. And if they get away with it once they'll do it every single time, it can hardly be claimed they'd stop at the President either since- and I know I'm repeating myself- there is no greater target to go for. (I don't give an asterisk if Putin tried interfering here, that's expected and the best defence to that is having a proper democracy where his potential influence never rises above margin of error level. If our spies tried interfering though? I'd have a hard time describing that as anything less than a clandestine coup and outright treason, and would be tempted to suggest actual hanging for anyone caught doing it, pour decourager les autres. Hi GCSB/ SIS, hope you enjoyed my post) Russian state don't do anything, it is people employed by Russian state and those people are committing crimes in USA if they are hacking computers that locate in USA. But of course them to face consequences of their actions is slim to none as there is quite minor change that Russia will ever hand over them to USA even if USA would be able to actually give Russia prove that those people committed such crime. It is like CIA agents that commit crimes in other countries in order to ensure that USA's interest will come true or USA's soldiers that commit war crimes who will not ever face international courts because USA protects its own people when they commit crimes in its name. But that don't make what these people do any less crime or any more legal in places where those acts have been committed. Like for example there is Finnish hacker that USA wants to try for crimes he committed, but we haven't yet decided if we actually want to give USA our citizen. And there are people in Europe that have committed such crimes like rape in USA but European courts refuse to give them for USA official for trialed there, because their crimes aren't serious enough to warrant such actions. Intelligence communities want compliant leaders that isn't new thing, neither is their power plays during administration changes. Trump just seem to be from weaker end of leaders when it comes to handle such actions. But like you said it is USA State actions there is nothing to worry about it is perfectly legal . But more seriously bad behavior from intelligence communities domestic or foreign don't excuse Trump's actions as leader of US executive branch and leader of US intelligence community. His actions give room for corruption in agencies in US executive branch and it is his job to keep those agencies work for people of USA. Meaning that if they leak information that they should not then that is Trump's fault, because he is the boss and he carries the responsibility for actions done by his agencies addition to those done by himself. What comes to Putin he is leader that puts Russian's interest first, although for him it usually means his interests first, because for him they are same thing even if all the Russians don't agree. Which is important to remember in any negotiations with Russia and speculations what Russia may do. Putin is mastered art to say one thing and do another thing and same time point finger to third thing. He also has somewhat similar attitude towards international agreements as Trump says he has, if they don't benefit Russia then following them is optional. http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/16/news/economy/russia-cash-reserves-depleted/ I see Russia has more reserve currency than I initially thought, this is a good thing for the West. I'll be honest, I do think Russia committed egregious human rights abuses in Aleppo but they are helping end the war.....we need them to defeat ISIS and allow Assad to rule I know this sounds like a contradiction but I am tired of the war, I'm tired of Syria and the protracted, interminable and insurmountable end goal, Im tired of the endless carnage, lost souls of child survivors and the utter uselessness of the ME to actually end the war ....they really are a useless group. I thought the ME would eventually want to intervene instead of just leaving the war to continue...again I gave the ME too much humanity, they would have just let the war continue to the end of days So now Syria becomes a major resource responsibility for the West, we dont want or need to this. So Russia became the perfect country to intervene and effectively help end the war. Russia has very little moral compass or sense of empathy for collateral damage so they were ideal for this type of carnage and barbaric warfare Once its over maybe many Syrians can go home

https://www.enca.com/south-africa/anc-calls-for-sanctions-against-banks-found-guilty-of-colluding Guys this is the result of when you have a nosy and unreasonable government interferencing in the banks, this whole thing is geting completely excessive in SA. People want to enforce jail terms and there is HUGE anti-bank sentiment. My brother in law is involved and we getting audited and people are stressing.....and it should not be seen as such a big deal because the manipulation benefitted the country but people always want the banks to suffer You guys are lucky Sanders wasnt appointed as this would have happened in the USA

Sorry Bruce, but in this case you missed the target by a few light years. AQ (and ISIS by extension) is rooted in Saudi history, or rather in the history of the house of Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The founder of modern extremist Islam was Sayyid Qutb. I'll leave it to you to study the history of those people, it's quite enlightening and leads directly to the modern day conflicts I appreciate your input on this topic but we may be misunderstanding each other. I am interested in your view AQ the specific terrorist organization came into existence because of the USSR Afghanistan War, check this timelines http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/17/al-qaeda-core-a-short-history/ Its quite possible if the USSR had not invaded Afghanistan another extremist group supported primarily by ideologues in Saudi Arabia could have been born but AQ under the leadership of Bin Laden was an extension of the USSR invasion If you disagree what is your view on how AQ was formed ?

Years of delays? It's been available as early access for over a year now, so people that worry about that stuff can see it in action. To be honest, anyone that thought the game would release in 2014 was not paying attention. I believe Kickstarter actually only lets you set a date so far in the future, so that is why the majority of these games do not hit their targets. This was what, a 4 year development cycle? That doesn't sound that much longer than your typical big RPG. PoE started in 2012 and launched in 2015, so Torment basically took an extra year. When you take in consideration that its pre-production period was increased nearly by year because inXile making Wasteland 2 Director Cut / console port it isn't really taken that much of time from them to actually develop it. Elerond believe me when I say " you cannot rush quality or try to equate a monetary value to it " when it comes to a good game and its development cycle

Thats actually a good point, we cant seem to avoid politics

Well this is not a bad start, thanks for sharing your plans for Valentines

Nah, it's still Saudi Arabia. Plenty of incompetent/ malign/ ignorant western interventions outside the ME which haven't resulted in religious extremism. Rwanda, Vietnam, Guatemala etc may have been negatively effected by interventions, but they haven't ended up with the blight of a wahhabi extremism equivalent. Nah its not Saudi Arabia, its some Saudi citizens who have certain extreme ideological views that have made a major contribution towards extremism We need to stop generalizing about the entire country of Saudi Arabia as if they are some monolithic entity, they not and its unhelpful to the general debate " where do we equate blame to the rise of Islamic extremism "

Happy V-day all I know how romantic and sentimental this forum is....so what are all your plans ? Did you spoil your respective partner ?

I like Piers Morgan but it was misplaced to think he could fix gun control in the USA as a foreigner Its much better to lecture Americans on how to fix their perceived social, economic and political issues from the safety of a gaming forum ....like Obsidian

I was watching an interview around him, he was very arrogant and repeatedly made comments like " of course there is wide spread voting fraud that impacts the election results ....everyone knows this in states like New Hampshire. The Democrats bring busloads of people into NH to skew the voting results ". This is despite the fact no evidence has been produced about these apparent " busloads of illegal voters " http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/12/politics/stephen-miller-trump-voter-fraud/index.html

That's true. But te question has to be WHY such things can happen and are accepted. Which brings us pretty quickly to failed interventions.Bennie I want to you ask you a simple but relevant question, all that is required is an answer ...no real debate Do you agree that Russia and Putin are responsible both directly and indirectly for real human rights abuses and more than likely war crimes in Syria and places like Aleppo? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/25/russia-accused-war-crimes-syria-un-security-council-aleppo https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/07/syria-russia-war-crimes-inquiry-john-kerry http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/syria-un-pressures-russia-over-war-crime-of-aleppo-attacks-1.2805158 Yes of course. My turn: do. you agree that failed western interventions is one of the big causes that lead to the rise of fundamentalism and religious extremism? If you want to have a meaningful debate around the rise of Islamic extremism and how much blame the West has and how this has destabilized the ME, and many parts in the world, then we need to go back to when Islamic extremism was first seen and this can become fairly subjective but for me the rise of Al-Qaeda is the most reasonable and accurate benchmark for this ISIS came after AQ but in the last 30 years or so we need to look the reasons for the creation and growth of groups like AQ. Based on this and next few points I dont believe the West is largely responsible. So ask yourself these questions because the real question needs to be " how did AQ come into existence " ...so the main points are Is the West responsible for the USSR invasion of Afghanistan : At the end of this war Bin Laden believed in a world where his interpretation of Islam was the most effective, he believed in what later was known as Islamic extremism Is the West responsible for the First Gulf War : This was the invasion of Kuwait from Iraq and the failure of the ME countries to follow Bin Laden's flawed advice to not invite Western countries to help the ME. Bin Laden felt his ideological objective was being undermined when the West intervened 9/11 and the war on terror : Who do you think committed 9/11 The reasons for the Arab Spring: Do you think the West was behind this ?

I would expect nothing less than a Stalinist commissar from the People's Republic of Commiefornia. funny

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-flynn-idUSKBN15S0BR This is potentially a very big development and raises the whole issue of election promises, " post-truth " comments, hyperbole and general controversial views that some of the Trump staff have made Flynn misled Pence and I'm glad he resigned, this is good news. Russia is not the friend of the USA despite what Putin was hoping would be the outcome of the Trump victory. Sanctions wont be changed unless Putin changes Russia's strategy on issues like interference in Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea The path to Russian economic recovery lies firmly in the hands of Putin becoming a more reasonable player and contributor in the arena of global politics, its incredulous to think Putin believes you can behave in such a belligerent way and not find yourself the target of Western sanctions Trump needs to navigate a difficult political reality, he has some populist views in his staff who played an important role in ensuring his victory but now he needs prudence and reasonable outcomes and comments to deliver on some of the campaign promises. And he does have a some good people working for him like Mattis and Rex Tillerson who understand the importance of the role the US plays in the global world

That's true. But te question has to be WHY such things can happen and are accepted. Which brings us pretty quickly to failed interventions. Bennie I want to you ask you a simple but relevant question, all that is required is an answer ...no real debate Do you agree that Russia and Putin are responsible both directly and indirectly for real human rights abuses and more than likely war crimes in Syria and places like Aleppo? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/25/russia-accused-war-crimes-syria-un-security-council-aleppo https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/07/syria-russia-war-crimes-inquiry-john-kerry http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/syria-un-pressures-russia-over-war-crime-of-aleppo-attacks-1.2805158

Bannon would definitely be in my list

Kennedy praised Hitler, so there's that. Demonstrating Godwins law isnt an admired outcome , lets not play the HItler card at all ?

The "west"? Isn't the party line to trot out the ole "the majority of terrorism happens in ME countries". What did they do to deserve it? Oh yeah, slightly different interpretation of the scripture. I guess pretty much anything is a valid reason huh?Well you were bleating about Crusades and others so you weren't looking at the West? Isn't all that hard to understand things don't reach a point without a lot of hands involved. Ah well. No the West must take some responsibility for the rise of Islamic extremism, it would be disingenuous to suggest the West has played no part I would say the West is maybe 8-10 % responsible for Islamic extremism, the rest is other factors most Muslim countries are grappling with like implementing human rights and particularly recognizing the rights of minorities like women and other groups ... 8-10%? Yes I realize this may sound excessive but lets accept some historical blame ?