BruceVC

Have you heard from GD lately, he hasnt posted in ages? I hope he is okay

Interesting, lets see how things unfold

Juice media video hilarious and convincing as usual But I have mixed views on the second one and I was vacillating between is it a supportive message of the Oz recruitment drive or is making a mockery of this prudent initiative? I did laugh at the " can I push this button" Its only a good thing for a country like Australia to increase the size of its military, you face real potential risks as mentioned like Chinese hegemony and the Russian militancy in Ukraine. Of course Im not suggesting Oz should go to war with China but along with other Western allies you need an effective local army because we dont know what the future holds Anyway was the second video suppose to be supportive or critical, I think it was supportive? But Gorthfuscious I was very impressed when they mentioned even people with skills in their 40's and 50's can join the military. Once you have your citizenship you should join, with your our software knowledge you would be a huge asset IMO. I wonder if the Oz army uses your Microsoft ERP system?

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bloomberg/news/2022-11-07-elon-musk-rehires-twitter-workers-after-some-were-laid-off-by-mistake/ Musk is rehiring dozens of staff that were fired on Friday because of their skills and significance to the business. It was a stupid thing to do to just fire staff without understanding their contribution Not a very prudent start, lets hope he does better as time goes on

Its true and this is the " advantage " about being an autocrat and controlling the country through security forces and an iron fist. Putin doesnt have to be concerned with the lives of Russians because citizens cant do anything to change the reality of his leadership and there is no free media to significantly criticize his decisions and their outcomes

Agreed, I am expecting comprehensive GOP victories but once the midterms are over then we can analyze why and where the Democrats are going wrong

Im not surprised, its a Californian dog and you probably allow it to protest?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11390737/Xi-Jinping-warns-Putin-not-use-nukes-rare-rebuke-Ukraine-war.html China has rebuked Putin with his comments of using nukes, to quote "President Xi and I agree: nuclear threats are irresponsible and incendiary,' Scholz said after the meeting. 'By using nuclear weapons, Russia would be crossing a line that the community of states has drawn together " Guess Putins threats have become less concerning?

One of my brothers is DM in D&D 5E for his daughters and friends. D&D has changed since my time of 1E\2E but they still having great fun and thats what matters the most He also uses 3D printing to create amazing figurines and characters from this website https://cults3d.com/en He used the designs and then printed and painted the following figures for the party and they are a Tiefling fighter, half-orc barbarian, dwarf rogue and a human paladin

It sounds serious Barti, cant you write a script?

Im 50 hours into Exanima and Im still loving it, I have just reached level 3 and Im fighting my first skeleton Some feedback on the successful way mechanics and design is implemented The combat is by far the most realistic and exciting I have ever encountered. The combat design is all about physics and you have to learn how it works to be effective I love how hardcore the game is. It took me about 8-10 hours to find a compass on level 1 and I only found a map on level 2. This game is definitely one of those experiences where if you love making your own maps it would be useful and advantageous I take my time and explore every room and its always rewarding to find a good weapon randomly. You really appreciate resources and the lack of them I have only found 2 x healing potions\salves and I used one of them on my NPC. I do use save scumming because its a hardcore game and Im not that hardcore Because you dont want to get red injured every battle is meaningful. Its a unique experience for me to be wary of getting hurt because you cant just " heal " easily ( I even tried a healing mod which doesnt work anymore ) I dont know if Sui Generis, the full game because this is a dungeon crawl, will ever get released but I can tell you one thing. The developers have created one of the most brilliant, RPG survival games I have ever played and I recommend it to anyone who wants a challenge and is tired of Carebear and hand holding RPG that are fairly common nowadays Exanima is definitely the game for you https://store.steampowered.com/app/362490/Exanima/

No one is saying that but when it comes to things like blowing up nuclear plants, creating dirty bombs and blowing up dams its not convincing and it doesnt make sense to the Ukrainian military strategy especially when they have the advantage and Russia is pulling back Im just surprised that you still believe anything that comes from Russia?

Antifa is normally different people to illegal immigrants because most illegal immigrants wouldn't draw that kind of attention to themselves, they dont want to be arrested in a protest for violence

I dont see much of a change with the likely GOP control of Congress, just more oversight on aid but it wont stop. 70% or so of the US still support Ukraine. And this also because of Putin's propaganda because he turned this into a " this is war really about the US\West and Ukraine are just puppets " when its about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the US\NATO is not involved directly in the fighting. They provide resources and aid, thats not the same as saying " the US is at war with Russia " https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/three-four-americans-say-us-should-support-ukraine-despite-russian-threats-2022-10-05/

But neither is BLM, it has no recognised leadership or hierarchy. But BLM has a message and many people support them in different ways You dont need an official " group " to create something that people can ideologically align with and protest in that " groups " name. But having a structured leadership is irrelevant when you protest, most US protests are generally peaceful and even in the violent and disruptive Portland protests not all the protestors were involved in the criminality. But if you break the law in a protest you should be prosecuted, thats how you end violence in any protest No one gets arrested just saying they part of Antifa, they get arrested for breaking the law. But they still claim to be part of Antifa

I am not sure what you think the general criticism towards the unacceptable Portland protests was about? As usual there was culture wars hyperbole from both sides. My view is based on what happened and its not a conspiracy theory Protests went on for 3 months unabated in a Democrat controlled city, as usual the Dems lacked action or consequence for protests like this related to BLM Some protestors attacked and vandalized federal buildings, this is a crime irrespective whether people like that or not which is why the federal security were deployed. But the main reason for this deployment was due to the failure of the Dems to address the anarchy and disruptions. https://nypost.com/2020/08/19/protesters-burn-government-building-during-riot-in-portland/ https://www.newsweek.com/portland-protesters-damage-cost-federal-buildings-1566821 Antifa is a left wing extremist group that openly says "violence is justified due to xxx " so it espouses criminal conduct but its based in the US. Its not global and its separate to global BLM movements which are normally legitimate and legal

And you wonder why Ruskies avoid the draft, it sounds horrendous

Thanks for sharing, thats a good link and Im glad its exaggerated

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2022/11/03/russians-hack-american-delta-command-control-system-complete-battle-plans-for-ukraine-revealed/ Ruskies may have hacked US command system, they must change military plans if true?

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/iaea-finds-no-evidence-of-possible-use-of-dirty-bombs-in-ukraine/ar-AA13HlPG Zero evidence of the Ukrainians creating a dirty bomb. Of course its no surprise, you get use to the Russian lies and propaganda

Well Im just glad you got through it, I can only imagine how traumatic it must have been to create a script

Im not as clever as you guys and I dont use words like realpolitik because its confusing so I focus on what is happening now . Russia invaded a sovereign country and because of the Western sanctions and inefficiencies of the Russian military campaign Putins plans of conquest is failing. Putin decided to throttle gas to Europe and vatniks cheered " Europeans freezing to death ". The consequence of gas blackmail wasnt initially hyperbole because of the European dependency on gas from Russia so Russia could directly impact the lives of millions of people in the EU because he decided to invade Ukraine ....the EU didnt invade Russia The primary responsibility of most governments is the wellbeing of their own citizens so the EU was forced to find other markets for gas, they didnt do this until Russia used gas blackmail as a response to sanctions Apart from the fact I have family and friends who live in the EU there are also loads of people who live in the EU on this forum and Putin's War and actions directly impacts them. This is not some hypothetical debate about Realpolitik. This is about something that directly influences people's lives I know So no, Im not blaming the EU for responding to Putins War and the consequences of it

Do you agree that these are the main issues people will vote on and if not what issues do you think will influence peoples votes? Also what are issues in your state? I know you guys mostly vote Dems but what are the local issues

That makes sense and the state owning certain amounts of stocks ensures that strategic decisions are not badly by certain companies and boards. Its the same reason Majestic mentioned in Austria I support that for certain companies. But you need an effective government for that to be sustainable and acceptable. In SA the PIC doesnt get involved in the decisions companies make even though they are minority shareholders We have far too many examples of rampant corruption in the Public sector for them to get involved in corporate decisions. But if this was reduced the reality would be different for this type of joint corporate influence

What you and Gorth is saying is interesting but I want to clarify something. In SA we have universities that are also state funded, most are. But we also have private sector funded universities. But even in the state funded universities you have to pay for your degree unless you can qualify for NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid System ) but this only applies to students whose parents dont earn much money So in Nordic countries is all university access free? And then when you say " State only owns percentage of stocks in several companies" that means they minority shareholders but is it still tax payers money that pays for this minority shareholding? What is the reason the state owns stocks in private sector companies? Is it a standard percentage of shares across all private sector companies like 20%? Im not criticizing this model because it clearly works but its interesting. In SA we have the PIC (public investment corporation) that invests the government employees pension funds and they own shares worth about 14-18% of the total SA listed companies but it varies from company to company and our PIC is considered a normal pension fund investment company but its public sector owned. So maybe thats the same as the Finland model of government owning stocks, is that what you mean?