BruceVC

But the ending, wow. You never would have predicted that I know the official statement is no season 2 but hopefully that changes?

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3842074-economy-jobs-inflation-unemployment-report/ The US added 500k new jobs and inflation is down to 6.5%, it was an unbelievably positive showing with most analysts more cautious Man the US sanctions against Russia and its support for Ukraine is really crashing its economy

Sorry I am not sure what you mean, are you asking if white kids are being told they responsible for colonialism or slavery from a historical perspective?

For me its not a question of intelligence for any dictator\autocratic but rather egregious or myopic decisions made in the interests of nationhood or complete self-interests and the entire future of the country becomes part of those decisions for the good and bad There are lots of examples of educated and clever leaders who were brutal dictators and made terrible decisions in the running of there countries that led to years if not decades of economic and social decline and degrees of global isolation. Look at Zimbabwe, Mugabe was educated. He wasnt stupid but he made terrible decisions But I definitely disagree that any Western country would be able to do what Putin has done, there are checks and balances and more importantly political accountability and consequence when you want to invade a country if you a Democracy. Just look at the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US and their allies spent months at the UN trying to motivate the invasion and get global support. There was months of domestic " marketing " in the US and UK to win over public sentiment for the invasion Compare that with Russias invasion of Ukraine, within 2-3 months the Ruskies moved troops on to the borders of Belarus and Ukraine and said it was a " training exercise ", they even dismissed the reality of an invasion. You cant do that in a Democracy because you will be held accountable for your lies. The vote and winning popular support matters but its irrelevant in any one party state or autocracy because what can civilians do? And also if you prepared to ignore human rights, arrest and kill protestors and you have effective security forces then you can stay in power indefinitely. Even if your citizens suffer and your economy collapses. You cant do this in any Western country because you will be voted out Finally I agree echo-chambers are boring, I would prefer people are honest with there support for Russia but then you must accept people will disagree. But thats point of a debate, hopefully people wont take it personally but agree to disagree.

Interesting point, he would have been more or less safe living in the US. The Ruskie assassination influence isn't as strong there?

Thats an understandable bitter pill and one I think many people will share Very few people believed Putin would be myopic enough to invade Ukraine, I didnt, and this invasion has created understandable anxiety and instability in the EU and particularly East European countries. But its also united the EU and NATO in ways that werent possible before. Many people use to believe Putin could be reasoned with but its patently clear he only respects one thing, force and military strength that the likes of NATO\US provides. You just cant trust the Russians on their word But pacifism is a good quality, its just not feasible in certain geopolitical realities

Its happens to everyone, whenever I do I make it an instructive moment and try not to repeat my previous mistake or view What was your bitter pill because they vary from person to person?

His main predictions were mostly the economic collapse of the West due to sanctions on Russia and he was just repeating what ZH and other Russian propaganda website peddle. And it was wrong and inaccurate around most predictions

We have discussed this at length but the tacit support for Russia from some is more about anti-Western\NATO\US sentiment Russia was the " alternative " to Western hegemony and culture but even that is exaggerated because there is Western influence and dominance in some sectors but the global world is a complex place and democratic governments, not autocracies, mostly make decisions based on their own best interests around trade, growth and stability But also what is part of this is its hard for supporters or sympathizers of Russia to believe and accept that everything they have always criticized the West for Putin is now doing in Ukraine but its worse. Its a bitter pill to swallow

Sure but then we must very honest about things like the Atlantic slave trade and who was historically responsible for what . For many people they haven't studied the history so they think its all about white people\Europeans who were the only people involved in the African slave trade. Thats not historically accurate. There were black tribes who enslaved other black tribes and sold them to European slave traders and the Arabs were always prolific slave traders in Africa I watched an excellent true story mini-series about this, its called the Book of Negroes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Negroes_(miniseries) But the point Im making is I support historical education for kids but it must be accurate and not biased towards one race as if only " white people enslaved people from Africa"

I think both the radical left and far right hijack events like Florida to peddle their own fear mongering and hyperbole But the banning of woke material in Florida seems more about CRT and other similar types or revisionist education, here is link that discusses this and to quote 'The law restricts lessons and training on race and diversity in schools and in the workplace, particularly anything that discusses privilege or oppression based on race, or whether someone “bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” due to U.S. racial history. "No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race," DeSantis said in a statement on the signing of the bill. "In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/desantis-asks-state-colleges-data-critical-race-theory/story?id=96189743 I think its perfectly reasonable to not teach kids they are responsible for something, that in some cases, occurred hundreds of years ago or they are assumed to have a indirect responsibility for because of their race. In other words just because you white that doesnt mean your ancestors had anything to do with the terrible practice of slavery. Everyone should recognize historical injustice but that doesnt mean you responsible or should feel guilty

Yes, I have been exploring all the maps and do all the quests and taking my time to read and enjoy the lore But its 40 hours to Skyhold

Im now about 45 hours into DA:I and I have reached Skyhold. I am enjoying this game, my experience has improved as the game progressed. I will raise the negative things I dont particularly like about it first map markers mean there is no real challenge or excitement around exploration. its console designed which limits the combat complexity and strategic choices in combat like in BG1&2 and D:OS2. I end up relying on AI for battles because its not really worth it managing each party member. Saying all that there are still fun and difficult battles like the Alexius quest with the mages and then I enjoy closing the Rifts and the various strategies around this I am using both DAI and Frosty mods and the overall stability is not great in the sense I have to constantly delete the Frosty mod data folder and do other minor troubleshooting every 5-6 times I play. I also had to troubleshoot a major mod bug when I got to Skyhold that caused a white screen when you cannot progress Now what I like about it I like the overall narrative and political machinations that exist in the game world between factions and people. I am enjoying the fact I am the Inquisitor and can encourage\force people to support my ideology to save the world. Any traitors or non-believers must be arrested,converted or killed Its a beautiful game, I have maxed the graphic settings with my video card and I like the aesthetics that Frostbite creates I enjoy the crafting and how you need to constantly find materials, like elfroot and iron, to improve items. It makes exploration worthwhile there are hot women in the game like Leliana and Josephine. I am avoiding any Romance arcs with Cassandra but she is an effective combat asset I do appreciate parts of the combat like Fire Mine to deal AOE damage I like the various party members and there side-quests So overall a good experience and I will provide another update after 40 hours or so

One of the funniest animal attack videos I have ever seen

Dark for me became too hard to believe and understand with all the time travel paradoxes, I watched it halfway through season 2 and then stopped But Im hooked on 1899 and season 2 ......sadly I see season 2 has been cancelled https://readysteadycut.com/2023/01/02/will-there-be-a-1899-season-2/

Im really enjoying Last of Us, I havent played the games so I dont know the lore or what happens in the narrative The last episode got some criticism, for me it was sincere and emotional but I am watching this series to see fungus creatures get killed and life in this post-apocalyptic world. I dont want to see 50 minutes of relationships when it can be condensed into 20 minutes

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/01/europe/ukraine-soldiers-fighting-wagner-intl-cmd/index.html Really informative and evocative article about fighting Wagner Group and how they use " cannon-fodder " tactics It sounds like hell, imagine being part of the Wagner Group

It wouldnt surprise me at all, we know the Ruskie airborne forces suffered huge casualties. There are several accounts of this from different sources The acknowledgement is a bit of a surprise but if there are not sufficient airborne forces on the ground it becomes hard to justify why if you not being honest because the obvious next question would be " why are we not deploying more of our special forces "

I love this story, I was reading how he ended up getting reunited in the comments because Belarus to Spain is a long way. But the QR code in his collar helped track his owners and kind people in Belarus also made it possible I like how they say " Russians kidnapped the cat " Dont they mean catnapped? Bad Russians, bad bad Russians

I did read Paradise Lost, I love those types of deep and evocative poems But that quote I remembered from the movie The Crow, its one of my best lines in a movie

https://newsunrolled.com/economy/170541.html The Ruskie economy is in a much worse state than I thought, they are now classifying Q4 economic data Go Putin, what a way to show confidence for investors

I do the same thing in DA:I, I am a mage and I use range combat and then let the AI mange 80-90% of the battles . But thats also a design problem because I find the battles too numerous and frenetic and the combat mechanics too limited to want to disable AI. Its not like BG1&2 or D:OS2 where you want to manage the battles because its interesting and you want to decide what each party member does and it creates strategic value

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-slams-german-tank-decision-escalation-conflict-betrayal-history-2023-01-25/ This is a little old but its still relevant around Germany doing the right thing sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine The Russian response was the normal cringe propaganda with an attempt to " shame " Germany's decision. To quote from the link " More than 80 years after their country invaded Soviet Russia and Ukraine in World War Two, some Germans recoil at the idea of sending tanks into a new conflagration there, out of a sense of historic guilt that the Russian embassy statement directly tapped into. "Berlin's choice means the final refusal of the Federal Republic of Germany to recognize its historical responsibility to our people for the terrible, timeless crimes of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War, and the consigning to oblivion of the difficult path of post-war reconciliation between Russians and Germans," Nechayev said" Lets be honest and clear, no country has done more to address and recognize its historical past than Germany since WW2. And I think its way overdue for Germany to become more militarized and involved in relevant conflicts if it decides its the right thing for Germany or the EU. They should have the same international military investments as the US, France and the UK And as far as what the Ruskies are saying, once again if Russia hadn't invaded Ukraine these developments wouldnt be happening so Russia has no one to blame but themselves

Transparency International ranked Ukraine as being the second most corrupt country in Europe with only Russia being more corrupt. This is well known. Any steps to reduce corruption in Ukraine I support and is good news for the country Here is another link about this https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/25/oleksandr-novikov-leading-ukraine-fightback-against-corruption Also more importantly the war in Yemen is a civil war not an invasion and its primarily a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. They need to end this conflict, the West cant change this. And you wont find either side in Yemen saying " this is a war against the US\West\NATO" like the Russian propaganda so apart from the obvious geographical proximity the Russians claim to be war with the West even though they not but the natural outcome of the invasion of Ukraine is the West will support Ukraine for the reasons I mentioned which is not the same as other wars or conflicts like Yemen, Syria or Ethiopia

Absolutely, its an example of the insidious control of our societies by two of the WORST f words..." fatcats and fascists " Its obvious and there is one thing we can, we must protest and protest hard