MetalCaveman

Oh boy, it gets worse. Someone should tell out president that one of they keys to a successful dictatorship is to keep the army on your side, and you don't get that by throwing them under the bus at every chance you get and then putting them and their families in danger by doing the shit he just did. During a press conference he washed his hands, denied any wrongdoing on his part during the Culiacan siege, placed all blame on the army and then proceeded to have the secretary of defence name the Colonel who was in charge of the operation. In other words, he painted a HUGE fucking target on that guy and his family, without giving a shit. Then, when confronted about all the lies, inconsistencies and other BS that was said via official channels, he proceeded to claim that he and his administration did nothing wrong, that they responded with truth and in time to all questions and when a journalist pointed out how this wasn't true, the president tried to shift the topic to other things. Except this guy was having none of it and kept pressing, kept asking about all that, eventually other journalists joined in and the president, not able to take the pressure got pissed, said that journalists were "biting the hand that feeds, the hand that removed the gag placed on them by previous administrations". Funnily enough, the journalist that started that whole thing announced that his credentials had been removed and he was banned from attending further press conferences. When other journalists asked about it, the president resorted to his usual thing of blaming the opposition, the conservative media, the Thing, anyone and everyone is to blame, except for him. Earlier in the week, a speech made by a General was "leaked" to a newspaper, in it, the General is addressing other officers, soldiers and defence officials, saying that he and others are dismayed, offended and angry at the way things are being handled, that the army has enemies in the administration, ensuring they are not allowed to serve their duty, he ended by asking for support for another General, who "was fighting hawks that threaten to sink the country into chaos". The president responded by saying "Of course that guy would disagree with our approach, he was secretary of defence during a previous administration, he misses those old days". In other news, the Dos Bocas refinery, a project of dubious legality, was shown to have essentially destroyed the shit out of the surrounding area, turning it from a green place full of life into a fucking barren desert. Cool. In Chiapas, Lacandones are worried about a possible war with the Tzeltales and the Choles, because, while the Lacandones honour their traditions and live in harmony with nature, protecting the jungle and basically never taking more than needed, the Tzeltales and Choles have burned down their parts of the jungle, destroying everything to make room for farms. Now the're trying to take over the land that belongs to the Lacandones, who, though outnumbered, claim they will do everything they can to defend their land. BTW, this land is pretty much the last remaining "lung" of Mexico, home to a huge number of species of plants and animals and where some important archaeological sites are located. Of course, because there's no political or economical advantage to doing anything for them, it's unlikely the government will step in, which may also lead to the extermination of the Lacandones, ethnic cleansing, to call it what it is. Oh, and to top things off, MORENA, the party of our current president, is slowly taking over the INE, the institute in charge of elections and all the stuff related to them, essentially ensuring they'll remain in power for as long as they want. The president: Introduces the concept of impeachment, promising to make it so that if a president does not act with the benefit of the people in mind, they can be removed from power. Also the president: Ensures he and his party control every possible institute/office/secretary/cabinet/system that could be used against them.

Thanks, it helps to get an outside perspective. I'll see where I am by the end of November.

Happy Halloween!

Days Gone, it just did that thing where it goes "You know all the stuff you've done so far? That was just the first half of the game!", except that unlike some other open world games *cough*Ubisoft*cough* this time I'm actually happy about it, I'm looking forward to exploring this new area and seeing what stuff I can find here. It also looks like the camps here have some pretty cool upgrades for the bike and weapons so I assume there'll be new/stronger enemies to deal with.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6Z7jp3MKzJhzwHCvEauLPl In case embed doesn't work. It's the new Insomnium album, Heart Like A Grave. This is that time of the year when happy songs make me feel like shit and sorrowful songs make me feel at ease, and there's nothing better than Insomnium for sorrowful winter music. \m/ \m/ I lied, turns out, Airbourne just released a new album too: https://open.spotify.com/album/3exqV2MhKWetLhgfc7RPBO HELL YEAH! \m/ \m/

Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but for me, the issue was not that it was rushed out, or that it competed with the previous, more developed entry in the series, the issue is that Ubisoft added so many of their "innovations" (their words, not mine ), that it ended up not feeling like a GR game at all, the loot system, the side missions, which had issues from Wildlands that were made worse this time around, the lack of customisation options for both weapons and characters, or rather, the way they locked things to make them work with their new loot system, the MMO(ish) stuff, all of the microtransaction BS, etc. All that made me go from "HELL YEAH a new Ghost Recon game!"! to "Well, I guess I have more time to go through my backlog". They have delayed some of their other games to give them more time, and they claim they'll still support GR: Breakpoint both sound good, but we'll see.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ubisoft-targets/ubisoft-cuts-targets-as-ghost-recon-breakpoint-fails-to-impress-idUSKBN1X323C Part of me hopes they'll use this chance to improve the game, it has some potential but way too many things drag it down. Part of me knows they'll just shelf the series like they did with Splinter Cell.

When it works, it's really cool, and the details behind it are interesting, when it doesn't work... It's something fun to try, and maybe show it to other people, see how it goes.

\m/ \m/

Looks kinda cool, never read the comic, but it could be a fun movie. Maybe.

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/