BruceVC

Talking about AI and fake news, I thought Pokrovsk had fallen to Russia weeks ago? Didnt Putin himself claim this and a Russian flag was hosted The one thing I have learnt about this war is not to believe any of the " updates " from either side until its confirmed and thats weeks later But I am still surprised by the Pokrovsk false narrative because even several Western media houses were repeating this https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/12/19/moscows-narrative-wobbles-as-ukraine-takes-back-kupiansk

Merry Christmas everyone and happy NY This is my best holiday of the year

Im not trying to justify Trump removing Maduro because of the nationalisation\theft of American assets, that is a BS reason. But I support Maduro being removed because he has destroyed Venezuela and lacks legitimacy as a leader. If he had won the last election fairly then I wouldnt be supporting this regime change because my point would be " the people of Venezuela voted for him despite his policies". Removing Maduro is in the best interests of Venezuela as long as the regime change is done correctly with a new government that has support of Venezuelans and regional and international support. All these things currently exist or will happen once Maduro is gone But forced nationalisation can definitely be seen as stealing from a country, you could have a state owned global oil or mining company that gets nationalised from a regime And then even private sector companies generate taxes so you now denying the country that tax revenue But the main problem with forced nationalisation on any level is how it is implemented. All foreign investment works more or less the same way and it should be protected under all cost. The process is typically A government invites foreign investment the foreign investor has to spend large amounts of money setting up the business they hire local people which now have a job and spending power they create ancillary businesses associated with the investment they pay tax in the country on the revenue they generate That is how the country benefits and its massive. But then a government decides " we want to own asset " but they didnt setup it up and pay for the initial investment Its theft and there is no justification for it. Agreed on nationalisation is different because the investor agrees to the ownership change or a different revenue contract. Thats what happened in Botswana recently with De Beers and everyone is happy https://www.angloamerican.com/media/press-releases/2025/25-02-2025

Chavez did implement forced nationalisation of several US oil companies that had been invested in Venezuela for decades. And that is theft But I doubt that is the real reason Trump is threatening Maduro suddenly Here is a link about what Chavez did and how it contributed towards the collapse of the Venezuelan economy https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2017/05/07/how-venezuela-ruined-its-oil-industry/

The way it should work is the president should have no ability to literally phone the DOJ and say " you must prosecute this person " and this should apply to any president Prosecutions need to be decided on evidence and whats in the public interest if there are many potential cases because any DOJ will have limited resources Im sure this is how it works in most countries that have a separation of the judiciary from the state? You will still get criticism from the public because citizens have there own opinions around who should be prosecuted but that decision shouldnt come from the presidency

But that's a problem isnt it, the reality that the DOJ becomes politicized It needs to be independent of political influence, its suppose to be independent. Thats how Justice departments in any Democracy are suppose to function In South Africa we call it the NPA (national prosecution authority ) and during the years of state capture from about 2013-2017 we had no prosecutions of political wrongdoing and we went through the worst corruption in the public sector we have ever seen because there was no system of accountability or consequence

Yes, I think this is part of it. He tries to create a distraction from all the attention from things like Epstein and its for his MAGA base. But I also think he genuinely believes the DOJ was politicized under Biden and they targeted him specifically which they did in certain ways to stop him running as a candidate. But the difference is there was legitimate legal cases which he was found guilty of. His objective to prosecute James and Comey lacks the same substance so it just becomes embarrassing for the DOJ

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/justice-department-fails-twice-to-re-indict-new-york-attorney-general-james-ap-source-says I see for the second time a jury, this time in NY, failed to reindict the case against NY AG James Its embarrassing when the DOJ decides to prosecute someone and makes a sensationalized public announcement but the case doesn't even get to court Trump needs to rely on actual evidence and not emotion if he wants people to be successfully prosecuted

I just completed the dragon fight with Delphine against Sahloknir in LoreRim It was a good indication of what I need to do to win these types of battles and it was predictably hard I used this strategy used potions to buff against his breath made sure my companions had good arrows, I dont use archery. They hurt Sahloknir in the beginning and then they were defeated but they played an important part in initially hurting him used summons to distract him I ran away a lot and used the stone pillars to shield myself from his breath I used my Wabbajack wand to finally kill him when he had less than 800 health, its a Daedric artifact I got from the Sheogorath quest and its very effective but unpredictable. Sometimes it does damage and sometimes it can change the enemy into an animal or even strip armour but that effect doesn't apply to a dragon I ended up using loads of healing magic and healing potions so I need to stock up on those But it was a good and difficult battle I also had started a quest called Laid to Rest where the end monster was a Master Vampire trying to control the town of Morthal. I couldnt defeat the Master Vampire and I gave up after about 4-5 tries, I ended up wounding him when he chased me to the dungeon entrance but he teleported back to his area of the dungeon so I left. I will come back later to fight him but in LoreRim this quest also starts the Dawnguard DLC. So its a good indication if you ready to fight that level of Vampire and Im clearly not I love how LoreRim has no level scaling and there are many enemies you simply cant defeat and you have to run away until later

I decided to start the main quest in Skyrim\LoreRim I mentioned before that LoreRim uses the Alternative Start mods which creates about 10-12 different beginning outside of whole Helgen vanilla dragon attack and these alternate starts vary from shipwreck survivor, Vampire\Werewolf clan or bounty hunter so you can start the game with nothing if you want but they all have the same result. The main dragon quests dont initiate so you can explore the world and advance in levels without any dragon interaction. And then when you want to start the main quest you travel to Helgen, which obviously hasn't been destroyed, and you rent a specific room from the Innkeeper and when you wake up you go into Helgen and you witness the executions and the dragon attack and then normal Skyrim starts Sounds simple right? I had spent 120 hours on the game and I was on level 38 and I decided to do this but I encountered a major bug, I go to Helgen but there were no NPCS outside of Imperial soldiers and that means no Innkeeper so I couldn't initiate the main quest and the Innkeeper use to be in Helgen I spent about 2 hours troubleshooting the alternate start mods because they control this but I had no luck so I just restored back to a game before I discovered Helgen and then started the main quest because the Innkeeper was there, I lost 2 levels and had to redo some quests but it wasnt a major problem And then I had another bug finding the first dragon stone at Bleak Falls Barrow, I had already been there and defeated the Draugr and I couldn't access the dragon stone so I just used console commands to progress the quest to finish so I could advance The point of these stories is LoreRim can create some issues but now that I have started the main quest its progressing well, I am learning dragon shouts and I have killed 2 dragons so far. Easy ones and other dragons are still too tough unless its a scripted battle like the first one outside of WhiteRun. So I need to progress in levels more before I will be able to defeat tough dragons by myself with my companions But Im glad I have started the main quest, it adds an overarching level of excitement around what I need to do and I still can do dozens of normal quests I am also deciding who I should support in the civil war but Im leaning towards the Stormcloaks. There cause seems more reasonable and I dont like the attitude of the Thalmor. Also I have made so many friends amongst the Nords who are Stormcloaks I cant imagine them becoming my enemy?

Its almost impossible to predict what China will do but I doubt they will invade Taiwan China is not a warmongering country like Russia that believes invasions create hegemony, they use there economic power to influence there geopolitical aspirations and they have been successful at this They have had massive success throughout Africa by rebuilding infrastructure and then getting substantive mineral rights concessions. You wont find Chinese mercenary units in Africa or directly involved in wars like the Russian approach to Africa. Countries dont want to be on bad side of China not because China will invade them but because of the economic consequence

But you dont have an issue with ships being attacked in international waters? You support what the Houthis are doing in the Red Sea and that terrorism had been ongoing for years No need to pretend you really outraged. You fine with this type of military activity, irrespective of the legality, if a country you like is doing it

Yes, Gothic like ES scrolls are expected to have bugs when first released This feedback about how buggy it is comes from Codex and people playing it but I never take that too seriously You much more objective and you not prone to hyperbole and drama around how stable it would be But Im interested in what you think after 10 hours because the one guy listed about 10-12 bugs around quests and he had clearly played it for a while

I heard its got massive bugs and its almost unplayable . Im sure thats an exaggeration? But I would expect some issues with a first release anyway

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article313261442.html Maduro has been given an opportunity to leave Venezuela safely, he should take it. He can go to Russia and become neighbours with Assad Its the best outcome for Venezuela and the region. It would be nice to see Venezuela start to rebuild its economy and create a sustainable future for its citizens and Im sure lots of Venezuelans will come home like we seeing in Syria