MetalCaveman

That was a stupid decision, not surprising given who is in charge but still, you don't pull something like that without consequences, both short and long term. Also, Chile is on fire, literally: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50119649 Korea too, Spain, everywhere really.

It was the army that captured him, supposedly, local forces received little to no warning of what was going to happen. At least, that's what the governor said. That's what I was talking about too, how it was the president who gave the order to free him and how the army, national guard and local forces were powerless to do anything, that's what I've seen discussed, we assume other countries wouldn't just give in like that, however in his obsession to avoid anything that previous administrations did (or maybe there's something else going on behind the scenes), he doesn't want to face the cartels head on, ever, he'd much rather hand the country to them than call forces forward. I get it, between Tlatlaya, Ayotzinapa and the ever-present shadow of 68, there's some doubts and fear whenever the army is involved, but that should not prevent them from doing their job when they're actually needed. It should also never be a thing that armed people can simply stop a military convoy, take their weapons and vehicles, film it all, release the video, and then get away with it because the president wants "peace". I was talking to my father about this and we both wondered what's the point of all the helicopters, vehicles and weapons they like to showcase in the military parade of September 16, if when they're needed they're nowhere to be found? It's also been done before too, during the capture of Chapo, the army had helicopters flying around the city, and forces were ready to be deployed immediately in case anything happened, of course, that operation had a proper plan and strategy as opposed to whatever this mess was. We're now asking that Durazo, the defence minister along with the rest of the cabinet, resign due to their incompetence, negligence and general stupidity. But we also know the president will ascribe all criticism to "the conservative parasites, the neoliberal terrorists and the press mafia". And now there's some leaked documents (take these with a grain of salt though, all unconfirmed for now) with messages from generals and soldiers complaining about how things were handled, saying they were there, and were ready for whatever, until the president called them off just like that, they sound pretty pissed from what I've read. Also this is rather disturbing: The kids are chanting about how great an honour it is to have the president there, how he is the best president, the best for the children etc. BTW, he was at that ceremony while Culiacan went up in flames.

Yeah, that's been a topic of discussion here, the differences between how other countries, particularly the US would react to this vs how things went down.

Unlike mead, this is way more complex, too much for me.

Halo Wars 2. Though I feel like it had a bit too many "defend the base" missions, overall it was a pretty fun experience. I liked what they did with the last mission though, at first I was sure not having access to my own base would be annoying, but some careful management of reinforcements and placing units where they would be most effective ended up being more than enough. Except for Nightingales, those were flying all over the place. Thought the ending was rather abrupt, until that scene at the end, would love to see a Halo Wars 3 at some point. Are the DLCs worth it? They're not exactly cheap, but if they add some cool stuff I wouldn't mind.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50101739 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/major-gun-battle-in-mexico-pits-security-forces-against-el-chapos-son/2019/10/17/c28d174a-f149-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html International media covering this stuff, and most of their opinions aren't positive or optimistic, can't wait for AMLO to label them all part of the news mafia, the conservative power structure that will crumble in the face of the 4T. I remember back when Calderón escalated the war against cartels that Fox started, going outside and seeing army trucks, some full of troops, others with mounted guns, they were in every corner and there were even more just doing patrols across the city, things never got that bad where I live, but with the way things are going now who knows how long they'll stay like this. Supposedly the CJNG has been trying to move here, but they haven't been successful yet, I know they are active in some towns and cities not far from here, but this city remains a relatively safe* place to be. *Compared to other places in Mexico, I assume if we compare it to other countries it may fare that well.

As expected, this morning the president basically gave himself a medal, stating that they will not use force because that's a thing of past, conservative administrations. He's all about love and peace, because in his imaginary world a simple "what would your mother think if she saw you doing this!" is enough to turn someone who has killed hundreds without a care into a law-abiding citizen who wishes to do good. They're also tripping over each other trying to agree on a story, SEDENA says it was a poorly planned operation, the defence ministry says it was an accident that they found him, that it was a routine patrol that ran into him, etc. Meanwhile cartels now know what to do when they want something.

More or less yeah, a poorly planned operation against a high value target, which resulted in the city turning into a warzone, at which point in an attempt to appease the cartel he was freed, the official version is that they let him go in order to both preserve the lives of those who captured him as well as to ensure the safety of the people in that city. Of course, this did nothing to stop them as shootings continue and streets have been closed off with burning vehicles. Who knows how things will go tomorrow given that they also broke into a prison, setting all prisoners free to increase the chaos/violence. It's going to be a fun weekend.

So yeah, today has been a day (content warning I guess, nothing graphic, but may be a bit too much for some people): The other day 15 officers were killed in an ambush, following that, an army patrol ran into a group of armed men, 14 dead, many other similar events happened in the last couple of days. Today, Sinaloa is a fucking warzone, but of course the worthless sack of shit that's our president insists that everyone is happy and that there's nothing wrong. By now, it's become somewhat obvious that he has some sort of truce with the cartels, else, how to explain that they can do shit like that and the official answer is always "think of your mothers! They would be so disappointed!" and/or "there's nothing to worry, don't believe the conservative media that wants to stop the fourth transformation, we're doing well and everyone's happy!". So yeah, the country's undergoing a fourth transformation alright, soon we'll be placing large signs on the border that state "Abandon all hope ye who enter...", assuming there's anyone alive to do so.

Halo Wars 2. Fucking kill me, two of these "defend your base from endless waves of enemies" missions, fucking hate these kinds of missions, and two in a row is just torture. I'll happily take 10 tank missions from VC over this BS. Other than that, the rest of the game is pretty fun.

Halo 5 Yeah, normal is way better than Heroic, didn't remember much about my first playthrough until I got to the first Warden fight, there I remembered how that fight was hell the first time I played. Used this chance to collect all intel thingies on each mission. \m/ \m/

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/23185888/regarding-last-weekend-s-hearthstone-grandmasters-tournament Blizzard has issued a statement. It's one of those non-apology apologies. Among the things mentioned: 6 months suspension for both the casters and blitzchung blitzchung will receive his prize money and other stuff The claim that the company's relations with China had nothing to do with anything Needless to say, people are not happy with this response, nor with the timing of it. If anything, this just made things worse.

Sangria Señorial (sangria flavoured soda), with melon and vanilla ice-cream. Take the melon put it in the fridge for a couple of hours, slice it into small chunks, put them in a glass of your choice and muddle them a bit, then carefully pour the sangria in, top with a scoop of ice-cream. One melon should be enough for several servings. It tastes way better than it has any right to. I was originally trying to make this: But I ran into a couple of issues: No store around here sells cream soda Even the smallest melon I could find is way too much for one person/serving Didn't want to wait for the melon to freeze So I improvised a bit, happy with the result though. \m/ \m/

Waiting was worth it, got it for $30, which is considerably less than the $72 it normally goes for (yay for Mexican prices! ).

I was kinda interested in the new Modern Warfare, but even then, it's kind of an easy skip for me, and with Doom Eternal delayed, I can now spend the rest of the year focusing on my backlog. CoD mobile was fun but again, it's not hard to switch to something else.

Yeah, when I heard it was orchestral only I was a bit on the fence, after listening to the tracks they've released so far, I'm sold, way better than expected. \m/ \m/

They also fired the casters that interviewed that player, one of them was set to cast an Overwatch tournament too. Not only was it a cowardly act, it was also a pretty stupid one and I hope it blows in their faces, which it may already be. A team from the collegiate series showed a sign in support of Hong Kong, Blizzard immediately cut the feed. Now people are trying to turn Mei from Overwatch into a pro-Hong Kong character, which, considering what has happened with other characters who were used in anti-China images, may have some interesting repercussions. What happened was bullshit, but if the result is that more people learn about what's going on and start doing something (or even just talking about it) then it may not be all bad. As for Blizzcon, I believe they'll simply have any livestreams with a severe delay, to be ready in case anything happens, all Q&As will involve pre-screened questions to ensure everything's in line and they'll probably kick anyone out that so much as tries to bring the topic up. Ideally though, it'd be such a shitshow that they'd be forced to at least say something about it. I've uninstalled battle.net, and though I'll miss it, I think I may switch from StarCraft to Dawn of War, even if it's not quite the same. Unlikely as it is, I'd love to see Serral bring it up during WCS, that'd be cool.

So... That microtransaction store sure is a thing yeah? Yeah there'll be the usual excuses in defence of it, "it's just cosmetics", "it's not pay to win", "don't buy it if you don't like it", etc. But I feel that in cases like this none of that applies as the amount of stuff locked behind real money is just stupid. Then there's the fact that you can't just buy what you want, you need to buy the "Ghost Credits (or coins or whatever)" in bundles which obviously means spending more than you need. Also, from playing the beta, even if some of that stuff is unlockable, it definitively feels like the game is designed to increase the amount of grind needed to get what you want, it's made in a way that really encourages you to pay to unlock the stuff you want early. Oh well, the open beta got me interested once more, but seeing how this stuff is being handled pushed me away, far, FAR away.

NNNOOOOOO.wav I try to stay legit and use Netflix, Prime and CR, but then stuff like this hits and it makes me consider just getting a bottle of rum, blast some Alestorm and raise the black sails...

I played it for a bit, it's fun, though I've only tried the 50cc cups. Tried looking into the friends menu, but it says it's locked until ranking is available. How/when do I unlock that?

It's amazing, and frankly quite scary, how easy it is to manipulate public opinion in your favour simply by telling people what they want to hear, whether you can back that doesn't matter as long as you present your words in a pleasing manner. Our president got elected in large part because he promised to end corruption (never said how though, just through "honesty and morals"), when he took seat, some people believed him as he did go after some big names from previous governments. What everyone ignored, and is currently ignoring (or we've all given up, which isn't hard to believe), is that his administration also brought back several big names that were either being investigated or already had formal charges against them for some rather big corruption scandals. Further, many of his closest people are currently engaging in similar acts. Say your uncle is a senator, and he knows someone who knows someone, couple of weeks later you find yourself in your new job, doing what? No one knows, no one cares, but now you're making more money in a month than most people will see in their life, and hey! Maybe you know someone, a friend, a relative, anyone that could use a boost to their income, so now you bring them in as well, what do they do? Who cares! The best part? Because you and your family are supporters of the current party you have nothing to worry about, you are untouchable. The worst part is that now we're seeing much more serious shit going on, in a couple of states, senators of MORENA (the party of our president) have put forth a motion requesting "disappearance of powers", this means that the governor and other officials will be removed from their positions and replaced with individuals selected by the president himself. The senators argue that this is due to the levels of violence in those states, meaning the current officials have failed and thus should be removed, conveniently ignoring other states with similar issues which just so happen to be ruled either by MORENA or their affiliates/supporters. Other members of MORENA have also made clear their intention to remove the law preventing re-election and some have asked that the president be allowed to remain in power "as long as the people want him there". There's also been some other stuff being passed or modified, including a law that would allow the government to seize whatever property it wanted for the sake of "national security", as a result of an ongoing criminal investigation or for any other reason the government deems appropriate. Some members of MORENA have also called for violent action against their opponents, fuelling that brand of nationalism that says that anyone who doesn't support the current regime is a traitor. The president managed to sell a lie to many people, his "Fourth Transformation" which was meant to fundamentally change Mexico, lead it into a brighter future free of corruption, crime and violence. He never, not once, explained how he would do this, but by virtue of selling himself as a sort of messiah, an agent of change that would, just through virtue and "strong morals" do what none before him could. Any who stand against him are vile agents of the old ways, any who disagree with him are clearly blind supporters of PRI or PAN, who wish for their corruption to return, and his supporters blindly accept whatever they're told.