BruceVC

I dont know who he is but here is another link on this topic, its originally from Bloomberg https://www.sharesbazaar.com/news-article/RT248ZDWRGG001

Absolutely but this forum is minor compared to other places and forums where certain people on the left and right have completely abused the definition of words like Nazi or Socialist. Its got to the point where people throw these words around when someone simply disagrees with you or supports a different political party. It does make me laugh depending on what forum I notice it I remember the first time I noticed how for some people they have lost the ability to disagree or engage in a constructive way and they dont engage in good faith It was on CNN in 2016 when Trump won the election and there was still shock from the Democrats. The CNN news anchor interviewed 2 people, a young black women Democrat who was from Africa but obviously American now and a white man, maybe 60+ or so, and a Trump supporter And the anchor asked " is Trump racist " and this is how the conversation went ( Im summarizing it ) Democrat : Yes he is Republican: No he is not Democrat : You have no right to comment on racism, you dont understand lived experience Republican : Oh, so now I cant comment on racism because Im white Now both of them were wrong and didnt debate very well. Firstly anyone can have empathy and comment on any type of bigotry, for example you dont need to be gay to believe homophobia is wrong. So of course a white person can comment on racism, its just got to be honest. So she was wrong to say that But the Republican ended up playing the victim card and saying " oh so now I cant comment on racism" . He should have just ignored what she said and kept his composure and he should have stuck to his views. So he was wrong in how he responded But the point is the entire exchange between them became this cringe invective and if you were watching you didnt gain anything from it

Pidesco aren't you generalizing now? In life you shouldn't label everyone with the same brush...thats EXACTLY what the radical left does

Geez GD, you cant use Fox News links on this forum. You will be called a Neo-Nazi or fascist

I doubt it, ideological statements are not the same as data and economic realities https://dailyhodl.com/2023/04/16/us-dollar-death-shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-says-people-should-get-over-de-dollarization-fears-heres-why/

I think the West\US will continue to support Ukraine for several reasons but support in the US will continue as long as internal political support continues. MAGA Republicans are more critical of support but even they just talk about " more scrutiny around spending " and not dropping Ukraine. But as @Gfted1 mentioned this is not Afghanistan, there are no body-bags and no direct " boots on the ground " and that makes a difference. This war has completely changed Russia's role in the world and weakened it immensely on numerous fronts so it makes geopolitical policy sense for the US to continue to support Ukraine for as long as Ukraine wants to continue fighting But end of the day this is not a war the US is directly involved in despite the rhetoric from some so why not continue to support Ukraine? The amount of aid Ukraine is getting is small compared to US budget and certain US industries are making money from increased sales And another consideration is the Russian sanctions\disinvestment will continue long after the war is over as long as Putins nationalism continues And then there is lots of economic grandstanding about " the $ being replaced" ... but what currency will replace it as the worlds reserve currency?The Yuan is only 6% of foreign reserves with currencies like the euro, Yen and Pound being more used as foreign reserves than the Yuan Because most of the calls to replace the $ are from Vatniks and anti-Western ideologues and they mention the Yuan but why would anyone realistically believe you can trust China more than the US to maintain the world's reserve currency? This is the same country that implemented " zero-Covid " and then dropped it suddenly. But in closing Ukraine will decide if it wants to end the war and I dont see Western support ending around military aid

I finished IWD2 after 100 hours, its a great game and scores a 70/100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system " I had one of the hardest battles I have ever had in any RPG with Iyachtu Xvim, I only defeated him on the 9-10th time and what made it so difficult is his natural resistances to certain magic, how only bludgeoning\crushing is effective and his AOE spells. So I adopted a strategy start the initial battle with my 2 x tanks and 1-2 summons then run away with any of my party members and let the summons do the fighting to get Xvim to use his AOE spells use more summons to get him to use spells use ranged weapons like sling and +5 bullets Engage him with my full party once the summons are dead And it was still very hard, I lost 1 party member and I had exhausted most of my offensive and healing spells but I had 3 x Lighting Bolts left and I used that to finally kill him And then the battle with the twins was fun but strategically easier because I just killed the wizards first and quickly and then focused on the twins Great game and definitely worth playing if you enjoy D&D ruleset and an overall action RPG design

@majestic good news, he is not part of the radical left but is apparently linked to right-wing extremist ideology He is clearly naughty

I meant to comment on this earlier but I have had work pressures I respect the fact that you have been able to change your initial and more sympathetic views towards Putin and the direction he is taking Russia. Because I do remember the original reasons you had sympathy for Putin and it made sense as he prevented Russia becoming a Communist country again or failed state under Yeltzin and I understand that Its sometimes difficult to change our views on these types of realities but it demonstrates integrity and ideological consistency to be able to do that

They need to throw the book at him and I hope he spends at least 20 years in jail This cavalier attitude towards national security from people responsible for protecting that national security needs to end

Nice and it makes sense, once the war is over some of the $300 billion of frozen Russian foreign reserve can be used to help rebuild Ukraine especially considering how the Ruskies have deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure

What I also found interesting is the $500 billion of Yuan assets Russia bought but they couldnt recognize this into liquidity when needed. I wonder what he was referring to?

I watched the Peter Zeihan video, interesting insights and he makes several points I agree with like how this invasion is about one thing only, an attempt to recreate the old Soviet borders. Not a very positive view of future of Russia, interesting prediction about it breaking up into smaller states and how Putin is responsible for pruning capable leadership

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/8/ukraine-children-returned-from-russia-after-alleged-deportation Russia has started returning some of the Ukrainian stolen children, amazing how quick ICC war crimes charges can change Russian attitudes

And what would your idea be of a reset in 2023?

Sure and I agree Western governments should be consistent with real human rights abuses. But you need to adopt things like quiet diplomacy when it comes to certain criticisms of different world leaders Biden made several public statements about the killing of Khashoggi that included saying " we would assess the Saudi relationship " and " several senior Saudi's would be punished" but he was killed in 2018 when Trump was president so Biden was also playing politics and grandstanding And now people are surprised that MbS doenst care what Biden thinks and wont increase oil supply when asked

@Malcador I dont get the outrage, these facilities are to house asylum seekers. Its better than refugee camps or being sent to Rwanda isnt it?

So that is not accurate about the historical relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US Saudi Arabia doesnt hate the US, the US built most of Saudi Arabia and it was Saudi Arabia who insisted on US military intervention in the first Gulf War. Funding of Islamic extremist groups like AQ was done by individuals within Saudi Arabia and not the Saudi royal family because Bin Laden was already expelled in 1991 by the Saudi's because he criticized the US relationship, here are the timelines around 9/11 http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/bin.laden.timeline/index.html The first country Trump visited was Saudi Arabia and this respect shown to the Saudis was also the reason why Trump could say " increase oil supply " and they did But Im not suggesting Saudi Arabia is an example of moral compass and human rights. No country in the ME is but you need to balance how you criticize them if you the US if you want to influence oil supply Thats what Biden misunderstood and how he handled things like the killing of Khashoggi

https://silk-news.com/2023/04/05/world/chinas-ambassador-to-the-e-u-tries-to-distance-beijing-from-moscow/ Interesting interview from the Chinese ambassador to the EU, originally from the NY times. To quote Just three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine Presidents Vladimir V. Putin and Xi Jinping signed a joint statement declaring “no limits” to their countries’ friendship. But Mr. Fu said China was not on Russia’s side on the war and that some people “deliberately misinterpret this because there’s the so-called ‘no limit’ friendship or relationship.” He added, “‘No limit’ is nothing but rhetoric.” Mr. Fu said that China had not provided military assistance to Russia, nor recognized its efforts to annex Ukrainian territories, including Crimea and the Donbas.

https://www.reuters.com/world/saudi-crown-prince-says-do-not-care-if-biden-misunderstands-him-atlantic-2022-03-03/ I have raised this before but this is a consequence of the mishandling and public vilification of MbS over incidents like the Khashoggi assassination from the US and particularly the Biden administration. Trump handled the Saudi's much better and he understood the respect they expected Its not the end of the world but it does mean the likes of Saudi Arabia wont increase oil supply if asked by the US like they would do under a Trump presidency and Saudi Arabia also have influence with other OPEC countries I think this type of rift is easy to fix but it will require some effort from the US but it wont happen under Biden who has been given bad advice around dealing with the likes of the Saudi Arabia

https://minfin.gov.ru/ru/press-center/?id_4=38438-o_neftegazovykh_dokhodakh_i_provedenii_operatsii_po_pokupkeprodazhe_inostrannoi_valyuty_na_vnutrennem_valyutnom_rynke Latest Russian ministry financial report, they've earned 39 billion Rubles less of oil and gas revenues in March than was predicted in the budget. And from April 7th until early May they'll be dumping 3,7 billion of foreign currency every day to prevent the deficit from skyrocketing.

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That is one of the most interesting reads I have seen about Putin and the inner workings of his private life Interesting he didnt tell his parents when he left but what insight. And very candid, if he doesnt know something he says " I dont know " He also believes Putin isnt expecially sick but the isolationism and paranoia is real

I was 45 hours into IWD2 and about it go into the Underdark when the game crashed on that loading screen I then spent about 5 hours troubleshooting it by removing mods and reinstalling mods and the game and it just made things worse. None of my save games would load. It was very frustrating and I was about to quit the game but then someone on Codex mentioned that you must loads mods in the same original order because IWD2 is a buggy game. I decided to try one more time to fix the issues and I did the following I uninstalled the game completely from GOG I then deleted any folders or files that were left over that were mostly mod related I reinstalled the game I then used my normal windows download folder to guess which mods I would have installed first And it worked, I could load save games and go into the Underdark

Its grandstanding, no need to take it seriously. I would think after years of Trump and Trump supporter rhetoric everyone would be use to it now and just ignore it