Marx has been misunderstood by many and sometimes on purpose. There is indeed some relevant lessons to be gained from his works.

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

My choice as far as domestic policy goes would be Bernie Saunders but I do not know if he has the global skills.  Bernie Saunders is a socialist ad that will hurt him if he is nominated.  Socialism is still a bad word in the USA.

Speaking of global skills, i dont remember an american president after JFK that did any good globally. Its like the president of the US has no say in global politics, its the military that does the talking.
I liked Clinton, but the military aggression against Yugoslavia and the Rwanda "chronicle of a genocide foretold" happened under his reign and with his blessing.
Obama is definitely a "good guy" but he was not able to stop the mad crusade against the arab nations, on the contrary, i listened to his speech recently and he stated that even without Isis there are still a lot of countries that are "unstable" and "have to be dealt with"....i was frightened.

My point is that the last american president who really fought for peace was JFK, all the rest indulged (willingly or not) in pursuing the path that lead to America turning into the evil empire it is today.

JFK? Really? I guess we could credit him for not escalating things during the Cuban crisis but he was the one who got the US mired in Vietnam by sending the troops in.

Have you read what Obama has to say about the British and the French? I'm not saying he is wrong but but he never puts into question US foreign agenda which makes all that criticism of US allies sound a bit smug and disingenuous. What he has to say about Saudi Arabia is a bit hypocritical since the US have been supporting that regime forever. It's far too easy to say these words now that his term is almost over.

I remember Obama's speech in Cairo and how he pretended to understand Muslims and I can say nobody was fooled.

Clinton is responsible for the financial crisis so I find ironic that he is so popular in the US.

By the way I don't subscribe to Reagan's "Evil Empire" notion whether it is applied to the USSR, the US or any other country (like Bush's Axis of Evil). Reality has a lot more to do with big businesses, greed and that brand of pragmatism that people like to call Realpolitik. That Evil Empire rhetoric is just a ploy to feed on nationalism and misdirect the public's attention from big multinational corporations that are busy destroying our planet.

He also approved the Bay of Pigs invasion but...JFK came to power in an era of cold war paranoia and panic. Given the circumstances, i consider him a big peace fighter. His aversion for cold war escalation, the intention to pull out of Vietnam and his envisioned strategy for peace is probably what got him killed in my opinion.

As for the evil empire...the US has a military presence in 70 countries, it is actively involved in most major unrest, civil war and government overthrow around the world.
Now it has "allies", not because they need military help, but for legitimacy.
Now that the most important economies joined, the US (and allies) can attack almost any country around the world with complete disregard for international laws.

So how do you feel about the biggest military power(s) in the world rampaging around with total disregard for laws? If not evil empire, how would you call that?
How come the citizens of these allied countries put up with such a situation?

As for the large corporations (and banks) they are only evil when left uncontrolled, and they elude control in just two easy steps.
Step 1 is political. The neoliberal "starve the beast" strategy. A smaller, money-starved government will not be able to control large corporations. Of course you could add the lobbying and corruption but thats just secondary.
Step 2 is ideology. Somehow they inoculated into the minds of people the ideas that governments should not control, that markets will regulate themselves.
Too many people believe that government intervention is bad, public companies are bad, social programs are bad, unions are bad, taxes are bad.
Too many people think that the interests of large corporations should be supported because they are good for the economy and they give us jobs and bring prosperity.
As Cao Xue Qin said, when false is taken for truth, truth becomes false.

Politicians don't care that they're supporting terrible regimes as long as it serves their interests but they're willing to go to war if it suits them and they will pretend that it's done for lofty ideals and to free the locals.

War was waged in Libya without any respect for international law or the sham that they call the UN. Might makes right and there is nothing new under the sun. Nobody cares that they left the country in shambles, that's a pattern that keeps repeating itself and that's why I'm worried about Hilary Clinton becoming president.

In the meantime we're wasting our natural resources, making entire species extinct and threatening the future of all mankind just so that less than a hundred people can own as much as the rest of the world's population put together. If that isn't batshit crazy then I don't know what is.

Last night I watched several videos on Deliverance, Kingdom come. The release date is now in 2017 and it does need work. If they can get it working without bugs it should be a very interesting game.

Mount and Blade, Banner Lords also looks great. This game also needs work though. The release date is scheduled for 2017.

I have been playing Grand Ages Medieval. They updated it Nov 2015 and improved it. Combat is better not so long and the bandits not so bad at least played on normal. I learned a new word -Trebuchet (think that is spelled correctly) I had to look it up. A french word for a seige machine used in the Medieval times. Used by Europeans and Muslims.

Games can be educational as well as fun.

Indeed, the trébuchet was a sort of catapult that basically looked like a giant sling. I've spent way too much time during my teenage years obsessing over medieval siege engines.

Good to know they've improved Grand Ages Medieval. There is so much that can be done with combat in medieval times it would be a pity to miss out such an opportunity.

Hi, Cara. I had a feeling you would know what a trebuchet was. The combat so far isn't that great but at least it is better than it was at first.

I am still looking forward to M&B Bannerlords or Kingdom come Deliverance. Now the release date for both games has been set to 2017.

Me too Nakia, this new M&B game looks like it's going to be incredible.

I agree!

We are due for a tropical storm that may be a hurricane on Sunday. It is expected to hang around for several days so we will probably have power outages. If so I won't be around for a few days but don't worry I will return.

Oh by the way the doctor says I have a strong heart. A couple of minor issues I have had for years get checked every year but otherwise everything is fine and there has been no change.

Yeee! That's good news Nakia!

Good luck during the storm Nakia and great news to hear your heart is strong.

Tr and Sue. the heart info is good news. I do expect a power outage since our electrical system is outdated. Don't know if anything was upgraded after the last big storm that devastated NJ. Our area has a lot of trees near the lines so with big winds tree branches fall on the lines.

All depends on where the storm heads. Outside of being bored I should be fine though.

Good luck with the storm.

It's obvious to us that you have a good heart, we didn't need a medical degree to know that!

Thanks, Cara.

It seems the fearsome storm headed out to sea and today was a beautiful sunny day. We did have slightly higher winds than normal but nothing drastic. All is well in NJ.

That's a relief.

Good news Nakia

Thank you, Sue.

M&B Bannerlord video.  
Cara you may have seen this already.  This video just shows some snippets of what the reviewer really likes.

I haven't seen this one Nakia, thanks for posting! It looks amazing.

Most of the videos I have seen focus on combat. Pretty much repeating the same thing. This one was different.

I wonder how much this game will cost. It appears that a lot of work is being put into it.

Games are more and more expensive these days but it's not a AAA title. On the other hand they know that people have been waiting for this game for ages and they could get away with a AAA price...

There will be deals though so we may get something like 20% off from some stores on day one (more with a little wait).

I'm not preordering. As enticing it may look it's a foolish thing to do. If it lives up to our expectations it will be worth full price though.

Pre-ordering is very tempting but the discount isn't that great and the two games that I did pre-order were a disappointment to me. Although I did get my money's worth in play time so I won't complain. So far I think the videos are based on what the devs have released and no one has had a chance to actually play a game.