Swedish Election 2018

Boy oh boy, a four year chaotic period is finally over and the Swedish people have elected... yet another "no winner" set of parliament. And now even the Sweden Democrats (SD) can't be that happy with the result since they were well and above 20+ % and the spot as the largest or second largest party and instead they ended up third with just at 17% and the Moderat (M) party at 19% (close to 20). You could tell that all the fear and anxiety that have been building in all the parties pretty much died around 22:00 on election day. The Green Party (MP) didn't leave parliament, the Left (V) and Centre (C) parties had some really good results, but compared to the above 10% they were polling with 7-8% as the result are a bit disappointing. Contrast that with the Social Democrats (S) that expected under 25% and falling from 31% to 28% was kinda good. The only one genuinely happy would be the Christian Democrats (KD) that not only made their best result in 20 years, but also showed that even though they polled 2% in the beginning of the year you couldn't count them out. And us Liberals (L), well we gained 0,1 so we went from 5,4 to 5,5%. First time we got a better result than last election for 12 years. Gotta be happy for those small things.

So what happens now? It's to close to call (red-greens 144 seats (V+S+MP), alliance 142 (L+C+M+KD) and the Sweden Democrats 63 seats) so everyone awaits the recount at the County Administrative Boards of Sweden were all pre-votes, foreign votes and at first glance disqualified votes are counted together with every other vote and it might or might not change some swing seats. For example one seat I saw was only given to the Sweden Democrats from the Centre party with a margin of 7 votes. Usually the ca 50 000 foreign votes are leaning more heavily to the bourgeois parties so that could be beneficial. Not enough for a majority, but if the Alliance get more than the red greens and maybe snatch 2-3 seats to be the biggest block there is more likely that they can dethrone the Social Democrats. Which I would prefer anyway, but what are you gonna do?

So how will the future government look like? The alliance can't create a majority without leening on either the Social Democrats or the Sweden Democrats. The Social Democrats won't since they will not get the prime minister post and the Liberals and Centre parties have trouble getting support from the Sweden Democrats. So I think that the Moderats will create a minority government with the Christian Democrats and get the Liberals and Centre to support the budget and get passive support from the Sweden Democrats while making a deal with the Social Democrats on "fixing" the migration issue and get supported by the Sweden Democrats, and with it expelling the question and hopefully bring it back to economical reforms of the Swedish economy, workers rights and housing issues. Why do I believe this? Because if all the promises each party have done, that is the logical conclusion. L and C can't sit in government supported by SD, and they won't support a red-green government (S+MP), SD have also said they can't support a government with MP or C (and I would assume V and L, but that haven't come up). S won't support any other than themselves, MP is to small to support the Alliance and the Alliance don't want support from V and KD and M have said they will bring down S no matter the cost. And that is the reality. If no one breaks their promises we will have a M+KD government in a couple weeks. And I'm OK with that. 

And now to some trivia. I have yet again been able to be caught on camera by the Swedish Television as they filmed the local election night watch parties. So you can spot me on the Alliance Watch party around 23 seconds in, but I wont tell where I am so for those that doesn't know me have to guess:

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/val2018/inget-block-far-egen-majoritet-i-nykoping

Happy Post-Election Day and see you on the other side!

Reflections

Been reading through the blog from when I restarted it back in 2009 and maybe a year forward or so. It's rather interesting to see how I have developed, not only my writing style that was rather much ramblings, but also my political leanings and beliefs. For example, one of the recurring ideas I had was that my own party and the Social Democrats should join forces to break the bloc politics and do the best for Sweden, and if we had to accept the Centre party and the green party in to a coalition. The centre party and christian democratic parties I really seemed to despise for some reason (maybe hyperbole) and I seemed to tolerate the greens.

So who was I back in 2009?

That is particularly interesting since today I find the christian democrats and centre party actually be the heart and soul of the Alliance, the christian democrats being the ones that speaks of the bourgeoisie values and actually holds the liberal idea of limiting governmental interference in every day life while the centre party lies closer to the more liberal utopian ideas of free market and open borders. Compare for example with my own party, the Liberals that are discussing quotas in parental support instead of families choosing themselves. The only thing we seem to have is a more realistic view on the military, joining NATO, support the EU, pro-nuclear power. Real concrete ideas that we fight for and I agree on... but where is the ideological vision to tie this all together? The latest Almedal's speech our party leader held had some of those ideas, the free market, limited interference of the unions and de-regulation, but where is the proposals. It's a pity (according to me) that it would be more liberal to vote for the christian democrats in the next election. Really, back in '09 I would have jumped on the idea of kicking both parties out of the Riksdag, so what happened?

Well, obviously someone played the change of heart card!

So what happened? It could be that as I was studying more and more of social contract theories (which incidentally was spoken by the first liberal movements) I become more purist and strayed from earlier social liberal roots toward a more pure liberal identity (or neoliberal... or conservative liberal... I'm not entirely sure yet). This might have accelerated in 2010 when adding the economic ideas on growth to my D-essay taking an even more liberal stand. So I moved toward the Swedish political right, firmly fast in my believes. At the same time the Social Democrats plummeted in the polls, and my awe for them to strong arm smaller parties disappeared as they grew weaker and the coalition between the left party and the utopian greens left me questioning if they could handle this new landscape in order to work for Sweden's best interest (and with the answer today looking at the current red-green government, no, they can't). Not only was the social democrats going down, they went toward the left as well as the left party dragged them there and when the greens went even further left I cut the ties to that side for the time being (who knows, maybe the social democrats will do a blue or new labour). So my trust in the social democrats was damaged, didn't help that by studying economics I began to understand what had happen in the 90's. What caused the economic crash and what the social democrats did to hide the fact and blame the centre-right parties for something they themselves caused. 

All the burning bridges that's fallen after me

All the lonely feelings and burning memories

Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door

Burning bridges lost forevermore

Mike Curb Congregation

So here I stand, the parties on the left have burnt their bridges while the parties on the right is to non-liberal in some areas while excelling in others. The only one of the four that just seems meh is interesting enough the largest of them, and that is probably cause they are scared to anger the voters, incidentally forgetting why they became the largest centre-party in the 70's. Maybe it's time for a new leading party, and sadly it will either be the centre party or the christian democratic party. If the liberals don't begin packing hard punches and actually tries to be ideological liberal I don't see how they can even compete and it becomes more a struggle for surviving the 4 % line.

Wow, that felt good getting out of the chest. How long time ago was it I actually discussed politics on this blog? Even more wow, not since December before they cancelled the extra election? Well, I've been rather apathetic when it comes to the internal politics of Sweden since the current government is making an ass of itself while everyone else licks their wounds and prepare a 2018 take over I guess. What we lack is some fighting spirit I feel, but without cash and an ideological vision to answer the societal problems it's hard to feel victorious and with that, why would we win? I say it again, dare to be controversial and attack former golden calves that we didn't dare in government. The unions, the housing market and for god sake, at least try make a decent integration program so we can start undermining the Sweden democrats. Hell, I would even go as far as attacking most of the welfare state. Break the monopolies, be the radicals that were able to tell the people that more taxes doesn't equal better welfare and do the same with the rest of the monopolies. Do what we did in the 19th century to create the fastest growing economy in the world.

FREEDOM! FREEDOM! (ok, maybe a flower makes it sound rather silly)

Re-Election Time

So Sweden is in the unusual situation of kick-starting a re-election campaign just 2,5 months after the latest regular election. I say let bring it. I may be partial, but I hope the Alliance stomps the red-greens into the ground (unfortunately I don't have much faith in that we can stop or even outmaneuver the Sweden Democrats). As it looks right now we have a good position for it. The Red-Green government is seen as one of the most incompetent governments we ever have had. Only 2 % seems to like this combination, their policies have angered a lot of people across the country and the greenhorns in the Green Party have not been able to show some statesmanship worthy of a governmental party. Doesn't help that they are going to campaign separately, but on the same budget together that was co-written by the Left Party. All this have also cast it shadow on the Social Democratic party that is seen by many as THE Government party. It's a joke now. After some research I see that this will be the fourth extra election Sweden has ever had, the others was in 1887, 1914 and 1958. The only time the liberals came in top was 1887 when the free trade block won, the other times the liberals lost 6-8 %, hope it equals out. 

So why would we come out on top? The disdain for the current government. Also polls shows that a majority blames the government and the Social Democratic leader for this mess (with the Sweden Democrats on the second place) and if that view sets, the red-greens will loose. It doesn't help that when he speaks about responsibility and that he have reached out to the other parties it sounds more and more hollow when the last election campaign had its goals to push out the Center party from the parliament and this election opens up with a hope that the Christian democrats falls out. In government they go away from the deals made in the school area, they alone puts the green party in Pension group without asking the other members who all have veto and just expect them to agree with it since they are part of the government. They say they reach out their hand, but all I can see is a finger of Mordor's black frames and claws (this was a weak try to quote Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Chapter 10 The Voice of Saruman, but since I don't know where my English copy is I had to translate the Swedish one into English and we already know how weird the Swedish translation isso I don't know if its even close to the original, also don't take it to seriously, I just thought about this quote with all the reaching out).

Of course that might not be enough to topple the current government that they are worse than the alternative, to win you also need a vision to go with that people agree on. The Alliance must muster the strength to attack all other parties with political visions and solutions that resonate with the voters. The current economic crisis we will probably win on since we have the strongest economic policies according to the last election, but we need policies on housing, integration,the defence, law and order. If we manage that we might even stop the growth of the Sweden Democrats. And I know that the red-greens will attack us on that we make it worse for the unemployed and seniors, but counter it. Point out that even if the unemployment benefits grows it will not help the youth since they haven't worked enough, counter with a more matching working unemployment institute (either make it completely administrators and private alternatives focus on that or fix the current, less administrative). The seniors, just steal the Sweden Democrats talk from the budget hearings, if the economy goes down the pension lowers as well (which the red-greens budget even admitted). They must do this, otherwise we will loose, also dare be controversial. Attack the unions, they don't shy away from it so why should we? Even a poll yesterday showed that the union members of the largest one, LO, less than half is voting for the social democrats, but still they give money to the social democratic. The same poll showed that the Alliance parties have grown. Now is the time. Now or Never!. The Super-Election Year Goes Overtime!

(If you wonder about the flower its taken from Wikipedia on the Swedish Liberal Party, since I couldn't find a good picture on anything with the liberals concerning an extra election and the cornflower is the party symbol for the liberal party)

The Loser Election

Elections over... so what happened? Well, we apparently have the trickiest parliamentary selection ever. And all parties (except SD) is losers more or less. Wasn't unexpected though, although some things came as a shock. The greens are pretty shocked as they seemed to be around 10 % and fight for the third party place. They end up losing 0,5 %. A bit of Schadenfreude from my side. Everyone else expected them not to climb over 10 % since they have a history of rate good in polls, but fall behind at election. Yeah, and then we have the supposedly left wind that flows over us and was supposed to demolish the center-right government. The left party rose with 0,1 % (which coincidentally is what the whole red-green parties rose with since last election). To be fair the left wind probably was more akin to 2 % if you take into account the feminist party that got a total of 3,1 %, fell below the parliamentary threshold of 4 %, robbing the red-greens of a bit more stable governmental position. Always something good. And the last party of the left bloc, the Social democrats, up 0,5-0,6 % from the parties worst election result in a hundred years. Still, they are probably happy to become prime minister again.

The center-right parties then. Abysmal for all, except maybe the center party that just fell 0,5 %, but was pretty much seen as kicked out of the parliament 1-2 years ago. Also they are probably the party that will have the same party leader in the next election from the right-wing parties... with except from the Christian democrats (who fell 1 %) since they are a bit harder to guess what they will do, their last party leader sat for 30 years so who knows. The Moderat party then, the biggest losers this election with a drop of 7 % to 23 % overall (which historically is a pretty good result, but compared to last elections all time high is pretty dismal). Unexpectedly Reinfeldt left his party leader position as well at the election night and yesterday the finance minister Borg left as well leaving the Moderats without any leader so that will be interesting when the Center-right coalition is without any authority. How did it go for my preferred party? Minus 1,7 % ending on 5,4 %, which came as a shock as all polls suggested either unchanged result around 7 % or a bit lower and then we drops like that.Why did that happened? Should I make a guess it looked like when our party fell, the center party rose with similar numbers which could be seen as a reaction to the much more passionate Center leader that by all accounts made the best out of this election.

The last party, the Sweden democrats. 12,9 %. By all accounts they rose due to around 5 % of the Moderats changed sides in all elections (National, Regional and Local for those wondering). It doesn't matter in which municipality, Landsting or district, the moderats lost between 3-6 % and the Sweden Democrats rose as much. Best guess would be them abandoning their stance in defense issues coupled with a much more relaxed view on immigration and an unwillingness to challenge the Social Democratic ideas around unions and the welfare state. That's my guess at least (coupled with people feeling unsafe and lacking a vision to believe in).

So next discussion will be who will stay and who will go. On  the Center-Right parties Annie Lööf is the only one feeling safe. On the other side I would guess one of the green leaders will go, Åsa Romson who made an abysmal election and pretty much was pushed away for the final debate. Usually the greens rotate 50/50... except last week when she took Wednesday and Thursday on TV4 so that Gustav Fridolin could take center stage on Friday. Will then the Center and/or Liberal party join a Social Democratic/Green minority government? I hope not cause I would be one of those that would punish those parties on election day for "collaborating with the enemy". Making agreements in parliament on certain issues, yes sure, but accepting and supporting their budget? Never! The Center-Left parties can scream how much they want about taking responsibility for Sweden in this situation, but accepting a Social Democratic/Green budget with support from the Left party is not taking responsibility for Sweden.

Election Time

Since I am a political scientist, maybe I should discuss the election in Sweden this Sunday. I think there must be someone out there that find it interesting? Anyone? Well you will still get my analysis of the situation. For the past couple months it looked like the race was over for the ruling coalition. The polls showed a gap of 10 % or higher in favor of a red-green coalition, often even with there own majority. During these four years it even looked like the two smaller parties, the christian democrats and the center party, took turn being below the dreaded 4 % line to enter parliament. The stage was set to change government to either a social democratic - green coalition with support from the left party and/or feminist initiative (this was the speculations after their alright showing in the European Parliament election in June) or a red-green minority coalition that later during the term would negotiate one of the former smaller Alliance parties to join. That was until Friday.

Friday night the Swedish newspaper SvD published a poll showing that the gap between the blocks had halved to 4,5 %. Yesterday evening the Swedish channel TV4 released another poll also indicating a halved gap, this withbthe numbers of 5 %, but the interesting thing to note was that during the last two days of the polling period (Friday to Sunday or how they measured that) the gap was only indicated to be 2,5 or 2,9 or something like that. What happened during that period? Three different debates. I didn't see any of them since I haven't felt excited about the election until now and that is why I'm writing about it now. What I saw reflected was that the Social democratic leader is failing to be the strong leader the party wanted. What caused it seemed to be his inability to answer yes or no to renew the nuclear power reactors that are in dire need of replacing being to old. It's further complicated when he as a former union leader in the industry sector where he was outspoken in favor of new reactor in order to secure the Swedish industry that is heavily reliant on electricity. The final straw is that he plans to form a government with the green party that have clearly stated that they will close one or two reactors during the coming term. So the people want to know, what does he want? And he fails to answer that question. It doesn't help that the left party has clearly stated they will not back down on closing private schools if they form a government (people even talks about expropriation) even going as far as sending a letter to those companies that they should be prepared to leave signed by the party leader.

The green party then? Well, lets say that they have in their manifest a part about abolishing economic growth since it push forward the destruction of the planet due to its limited resources (not taking into the fact that economic growth often is more about refining resources or create substitutes for the resources due to technological progress). In theory it is an important issue, but if you also claim to make sure the welfare state works as is you are pretty much lying. The welfare state and obligation need growth otherwise it collapse, it also goes for the pensions and if you don't have a plan for that or are upfront with it you will pretty much scare away potential voters. From the social democrats that is, the green party seems to live on them. So all in all, the social democrats falls below 30 % while the potential coalition partners rise toward 10 % coupled with inability to show a direction, I actually believe that the middle voters (or the social democratic right.wing) actually jumps ship to the Alliance since they feel that that is a much more reliable alternative. Had the Social democrats still been around 35-40 % I think they would have stayed since the weight behind the party could pretty much force most crazy ideas out of the way, but not below 30 % and what appear as a weak leader.

The Swedish democrats will still make sure there isn't a majority government, but most people probably don't care at the moment.

Election update

Was some time ago since I discussed politics, I even missed to write about the European Parliament. Well, thats over so let put or gaze upon the most important political battle this year in Europe, I'm speaking of the Swedish national election. Doesn't look good for the current government. I think all polls have showed a loss, the difference is if the red-greens get a majority or not. So if hope is the last thing to leave us the small ray lies with that fact. At the moment they have a small lead, but the feminist party has winds in their sails and pulls around 3 % (more like the most extreme left party of them all) and if they enter parliament both the green and left party has stated they want them in the government incase of victory. Meanwhile the social democratic party doesn't even comes above 30 % leaving them extremly weak against the greens 13 % and left 7 %. The hope lies that the right wing of  S together with the unaligned middle will be scared towards the center-right Alliance pushing all parties above 4 % and around 43-47 % together leaving the sweden democrats the kingsmakers.

This is a real political analysis (real compared to idealistic), not my prefered outcome (prefered is own majority for the center-right, moderates bigger than S and the liberals at 10 % and the rest divided between the others). Why would this be possible? The moderat leader Reinfeldt has already annonced the largest block to elect prime minister, the kicker is that the red-greens doesn't act in a block, they all enter seperatly and all S have mentioned is a prefered coalition partner in the greens (before they went bonkers with their anti-growth politics and so on) leaving us with the fact that if they can't get their own majority, Reinfeldt can sidestep them without breaking his word. This scenario will of course fail if either the christian democrates or tye center party leaves the parliament. This is the current situation and lets hope it goes all well

Shadows of Doubt

Well, might be time for a sporadic post to commemorate over 10 000 views on the blog. If they are all one of the same person reading I don't know. So what should we discuss today? Well, we can write about the latest meltdown of Swedish politics that went down last week. The last couple of months the four oppositions parties had made a full-scale frontal assault and banded together to stop the raising of the state income tax (I've learned afterwards it was something down annually to counter inflation and all that although it was a bit higher than usual). These four parties were the left party, the social democratic party, the green party and the Sweden democrats. To achieve this, since they haven't planned on putting forward a single budget, was to break out this bit from the governmental budget and get a vote on it. This is seen by many as a break against the compromise that a budget must be voted as a whole as to avoid political chaos when it is a minority government and no one can muster a majority for an alternative. The opposition try to justify it with that it is allowed in order to ensure the finances of the state (which open a real can of worms since what is seen as the best for the state differs greatly and could lead to a social democratic minority government see their budget picked apart, and then we are not even disusing the implications for the red-green parties as they made a deal with the Sweden democrats)

This is the back-ground, the vote was last week and everyone expected the opposition to win since they have a majority. THEY LOST WITH ONE VOTE! The vote was cast and the result was 154 with the government and 153 with the opposition. How was this possible? First of the Sweden democrats had one member in New York for a political meeting and since they aren't involved the weighing principle he couldn't be done with. But the opposition still would have had a two vote majority. The second problem was that the party leader of the left was in the south of Sweden debating the school minister and a communication miss between the left party and the weighing committee failed to take one person away from the government side. They opposition still would have had one vote majority. Thirdly, two politicians from the social democratic party was in the area, but in the wrong building and missed the vote. Not anyone either, the party's stand in for their party leader who isn't voted into parliament and one of the veterans. After 1-2 months of boosting speeches they fail to deliver, becoming the laughing stock and showed some immense incompetence and failure to organize themselves. If the governmental parties are lucky this will throw such big doubt about the oppositions fitness to rule that the center-right parties win for a third time.

The Forgotten Election

We return with the forgotten election as a precursor for the following elections next year, the church election of 2013. First of, I didn't vote since... it's kinda pointless and I don't know anything about what I'm voting for, which parties are in it (of the eight parliament parties there is only three that goes by there own party name, the other is just members of the party in the swedish church) or what they stand for. Doesn't help that I personally think that politicians should not have anything to do in the church to begin with, especially since there only tactic seems to be that people must vote to keep the Sweden Democrats away or when the youth leagues says that Jesus would have been voting for this party or that party (in this case it was SSU, the social democratic youth league). That doesn't really help me to go vote, more likely push me away... you know, rebel against society. But it's over now and the result is in... almost. As of writing there is still two districts left to count, but I wonder what takes them this long since there is just above 690 000 voters in the whole country (out of a voter population of 5,5 million people, also a decrees of over 200 000 from last election) and it was 19 hours ago the election closed, we finished counting the regular election at 1 AM. So people talks about a heightened voter participations, but it's probably more due to a lowered population than the actual 20 000 extra voters. Also the news was all over yesterday about more people in the booths than before and so on... which I call statistical bullshit die to the actual number of voters. My personal guess is that there is less voter booths (or whatever it's called), in the regular election there has to be at least 2000 voters in that booth (I guess to keep the election result secret) and with a loss of 200 000 members that probably means mergers to keep the numbers up in some of them, therefore the belief that there is more voters.

So result is SD doubled, the right-wing parties fall back, unaligned party lists goes forth while the red greens goes slowly upwards. What does that mean? I have no idea. I hardly even care. The only interesting part that this election showed that politicians and political scientist appearing in media doesn't know the routines of the election. How can they not? Should I be surprised when a local politician in Karlstad pressed charges of election fraud on my polling station (HA now I remember) and didn't understood the normal procedure of the election. In this case is the high number unqualified votes that later can be deemed as qualified. Why are there so many? Probably due to people writing the official party names like Folkpartiet, Moderaterna or the Green party, who all three isn't part of the election, but free liberals in the swedish church, burgios alternative (which changed earlier last year which could cause problems for the voters) and green party members of the swedish church. They are not qualified, but in the higher instance people understand what they attempted to vote for and will put that vote there. This was not understood by one of the more prominent professors in political science. How is it not? Has he never worked with the very foundation of the electoral system? This is why there exist conspiracy theorist that believe that we who manage the votes change the outcome by throwing away certain party votes and so on... when not even an educated political scientist bother to know this and all you need to do is sit down when the votes are counted since they are public. That simple! It  might be boring waiting to midnight watching people count paper notes, but that is all. It might even strengthen the democratic foundation due to someone even thinking of doing it would have been caught red-handed. I might even say it's more important than go vote since this at least would strengthen the belief in the system compared to everyone feeling unsatisfied due to the election results.

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead

This will not be about the passing of Margret Thatcher. Personally I don't know much about her work as a politician, I respect her for how she broke a union out of control and brought the country out of a devastating deadlock in the economy, although her non-compromising necesseities might have been to harsh, but since no one else did anything until it was too latedid they pay for the consequences? But enough about Thatcher. The title is refering to the witch in our DnD game. 

So we headed for the witches house in the middle of the town. We enter and the bard finds the kitchen and some bread he begin to eat. We find the door which leads to the witches study were she reads a book. Our battle minder leader kicks down the door and charges at her while she wants us to pay for a new one. All roll initiative and I'm number 2. The damn wizard is before me. He casts a magic missle. My turn and I do twin strike, rolling a natural 20 and a succes on the other, racking up 30 in damage. The pixie only does 5 damage, but diminish the witches attack roll with 6 for this turn. The bard follows up with vicious mockery, calling her ugly. The battle minder strikes and she is bloodied. My heart starts to race as it is now our never. In the meantime the witch is pleading for mercy and that she would gladely give us the control of the dragon. Since we believed we needed to kill them we ignore her pleads. The wizard cast a fire fountain leaving her with 18 hp (which I caught a glanse of behind the GM screen). So I can end it and uses Sure Shot. First roll a 1. I got to reroll, 10, not enough. Elven accuracy, 6. Action Point, 2. God dammit, so I use my second and last Action Point on a second attack, Spikes of Manticore giving me two shots, I fail the second one, but the first one deals 2 weapon damage plus all the bonuses ending on 28, slaying the witch. The bard finds a letter explaing the detail about the curse. Not having time to stand around since my arrows put the house on fire so we leave after releasing her cats. In total I put two houses on fire.

We return to the dragonborn and ask him about these news. Our action gained us +1 evil point. He on the other hand had taken up drinking with our dwarf friend while a messanger arrived with orders from Lord Neverember to assassinate one noble Roy Siegfried. We head over to the next town, but stop at an inn on the way... an inn filled with dead corpses, all slain by drows, leaving arrows and poison to tell the tale. After searching the house the bard finds some jewellery in the celler, after the dragonborn cleared it out from the spiders. My cousin the battle minder preperead the vodies for the after life and we took turns keeping watch until dawn. The following day we follow a river seperating us from a forest, we reach a sign warning intruders to enter the drow territory belonging to the lord that shot me all that time ago. I saw the drows positioned in the trees so we had a staring cintest until we disappeared.

Arriving at the new town the bard, dragonborn and pixie seperates from the rest of us and head for the inn while we go for the appointed house in the letter mentioning some supplies. We find a box in the house containing... Baldur's Gate uniforms. He want us to commit another false flag operation. Distraught we head over to the magic tower in the town were we check for some items and I find some info on dragonslaying, appearently this Siegfried noble slew a dragon. Tomorrow I need to speak with him. While this goes on the bard has a plan to gather information on our target. A great man only serving the true king, which is the reason Lord Neverember wants to off him. The bard heads over to the noble proposing an idea. The noble goes in hiding, spreading the rumour that the Neverwinter Nine under Lord Neverember killed him of, giving the bard his bloodied clothes as a proof. All so that they can organize a rebellion and the plan is executed immeadiately, meaning there goes my chanse to talk with him and this completely screw over Neverembers plan. The dragonborn on the other hand has a  duel with a Tiefling from a Asmodeus cult, probably the same guys as the first  time. He got around 3 platina for the trouble of one shoting him. Damn. We meet up and due to the bards plan has to leave at once since the town will probably murder us when the rumour will start to spread. And thus our quest to overthrow a tyrant has gone so far that we can't back down. Until then we are seen as his personal mercenary assassin team. The bard is alread planning his big battle, lets see if it work.

Return to the Sea of Madness

Maybe I should pick up politics again cause it's a sea of madness once again. And yet again it started from the social democratic party. I love it. They hade their congress last week and as I have speculated this is where we will see in the future as the most likely deciesion point that effected the outcome of next years election. The good news is the left is pretty much damaged, the bad news is that this will only lead to a very tight election. What went wrong then? Well, for starters there were talk about three major issues that had been lifted by the subgroups of the party that went against the party leadership. In an effort to probably look as a listening leader they took these issues and adopted them. Whitout a debate. In some way this probably has a good strategy in that it puts away the internal strife in the party that stabbed themselves in the back before. The negative is, and I'm sure we on the right will exploit it heavy, is that doesn't show a strong leader if he can't even fight the subgroups of his party. Easy explotable when put into the equation of a coallition government which they need to form if they are gonna win the election. Especially with two partners that a lot of people despise (the left party and the green party). Hopefully we can trigger the same reaction as last election.

Next issue was how they handled who should be in the "board". They have the problem with geography, etnicity and gender. Why not settle with competence and experience cause that is what they lack at the moment. Since they couldn't agree they expanded the standby list from 7 to 8. In the last minute and those who were supposed to vote about it didn't get the list until the vote was supposed to be cast. Undemocratic procedures anyone? The third issue then is tied together with this one cause one of those that got voted into the "board" has gotten himself into a lot of trouble. Not only him but his whole party. He is muslim and the head for some islamic organization so qualified guess they wanted him in to broaden their appeal in that group as well as keep the youth leauge at bay who began talking about the "whiteness of the party". That bite them in the ass. Apparently this young man had a habbit of inviting rather homophobic and antisemetic speakers, and those who complained he attacked as islamophobes. Yeah, not that good. During this time no sign of the (recently voted on) party leader. Not good crisis management. He apparently just now got the foot, but this will haunt them for a while and a party that needed some peace and quitet has yet again found themeselves in the eye of the storm. I hope they stay there until after the election so they might fall below the 30 % voter base.

I know shadenfraude isn't the best feeling to have and it will bite us all in the ass in the end anyway. Cause what will be the consequences? The swedish democratic will probably be the one to gain from the last issue and that is a bit worrying. They seems fairly stable around 10 %, but it all comes down to if it is a midterm votera dismay and it might disapear during the actual election, or that might be a blind fools hope. Also, eventhough all the trouble S has, they at least have their potential coalition partners safely above the 4 % line. The center party is very near the magical numbers when support voters doesn't even give them a chanse since it's hopeless. At the moment they stand at 2,7 %. Might the magic line be around 2-2,5 %? Anyway, it will be a damn intersting election year.

Every Golden Promise Broken

Since I haven't written anything about politics for quite some time there is some issues that have surfaced that I will now share with you. Today we gonna discuss the pension system. Yes, the story is that for a couple of years now the system have diminished its returns to the seniors since, well, more are taking out there pension than people are putting in to the system, forcing the break that are put in place to balance it out by cutting the costs (aka lowering the pension). As a theorist I completely get it, better a small pension that keep the budget balanced than something that threatens to bankrupt the whole society (which is actually happening in the municipalities if I was informed correctly). I also get why the seniors are a bit upset. Unfortunately, the solutions they give pisses me of more or less. The senior organizations demands that the break is terminated (creating a financial crisis for the future, good work there) and putting it this way that "if the break hits to many times the future seniors will also take damage" therefore the current system shall be abolished and be given to the AP-funds instead (therefore pushing up the pensions of todays senior). That's nice and dandy isn't? Except that calculations show that future seniors (like me, that is in 40, oh excuse I mean 50 years since we are expected to work 10 more years than the current seniors) will have toward 16 % pensions with the proposed changes. Thanks.

Do you know why this pisses me of? Because the current system was put into place due to the older system failing in the long run with to high costs. Guess who got a free ticket to ride on both system? That's right, the current seniors. Oh, it does get better. The system is also a warning sign for politicians that if you don't  get the job market to work with people paying taxes, the seniors will have your head on a platter. Although if we take away the break, guess what will happen? One generation will probably suck it dry since no politician dare to cut the pensions when it goes up or down. This system has taken the cowardice and populistic option out of the hand of them and displays it for all to see, but if they so want to wreck it for the future go a head, make my day.  Then we have the messengers, one of them being PRO. An organization closely tied to the Social Democrats (even though they call themselves politically independent), the same party that created the system that failed, yeah much confidence there (to be fair, S also was responsible for the current system together with the centre-right parties, so kudos for realizing the mistake of pushing a system that was voted on in a referendum and didn't gain 50 % of the voters). Although that's probably a low shot and don't shot the messenger and all that stuff.

To summarize, not only do I have to work 10 or more years than the current seniors, they want me to get less in pension... I'm not OK with this. Really, it feels like they backstabs me. I can FEEL the anger growing inside of me. If they go through with this make no mistake, there will be BLOOD (well, probably not since I abhor violence if its real, but hyperbole is supposed to do wonders for agitation). This proposal is breaking one of the foundations on which the welfare state is standing on. "From the Cradle to the Grave", apparently when the seniors that got it all (child benefits, higher education without high student loans, apartments, subsidized loans and an inflation that reduced the debts as well as living through period of unseen wealth and job creating in the history of mankind) are ready to give it up they SCREW the following generations over. How nice of them.

And then we have the discussion of the the tax gap between seniors and workers. So, these seniors have during most of their life voted for a party (or parties) that wanted higher taxes, they got it, 102 % enough for you? So they got it and now they finally begins to leave the workforce and the political centrum and a new era begins when we diminish taxes on hard working people so that they will spend more, creating a stable internal market since the export market is pretty much stale due to all financial crisis in the world. And they DARE complain? Did we heighten the taxes? No, we LOWERED them, 4 times now? Are they happy with that? NO, now they want MORE. They created this society and laid the foundation of the woes that I faces together with 20 % other youths today with the unemployment, the lowered school. results that are hitting us year after year... and they DARE ask for lowered taxes now and lowered pensions for the rest of us? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? This greed... it's INSATIABLE!

ALL OF THIS, is a direct ATTACK upon the social contract between citizens and government or society. They are ready to make us pay for THEIR mistakes as if they didn't have anything to do with this. The government paid for their apartments in the 60's and 70's, their jobs in the 70's and 80's and their loans in the 80's and 90's. And they put it on the tab for ME and EVERYONE ELSE to pay for all OUR lives. HOW F***ING GENEROUS. This is a generation war, and I say, bring it on and the government will burn (in a figurative way since it more deals with a reshaping of the social contract to a more liberal view where the taxes are cut and the people get to care for their own savings in the pensions and the like so that we don't have to have these sort of discussions again)!

*Waring: This text above shall not be taken to seriously. I quite understand that many are having a hard time, the problem being that too few pays into the system and many seniors having financial difficulties. Is the system to blame for all this? No, it works as it was supposed to, it's failing being politicians that created the financial meltdown together with the financial institutes. Looking at it that way, we don't solve anything, we hide the problems until the next crisis which will be as I mentioned when the politicians once again don't dare to diminish the pensions after an all time high, they never do if it not happens in a state of crisis mentality in the populace... and then it's often to late to avoid it and people will feel the consequences. A better solution is to continue scaling back the taxes with the workers first since they, at the moment, are the wheels of the economy (the other positive side effect that it might keep people staying in the workforce a bit longer balancing the pensions in the end). The most important though is making it easier to create more jobs and lowering the cost to hiring new personal. Here we are still lacking, unfortunately my economic studies don't give me the answer to that question, but it at least shows a more healthy and long-term solution or awareness if you like. So excuse the more harsh and hyperbolic wording, I just wanted to get it out of my system and it feels good sometimes to act like a more left-leaning emotional type. Have fun everyone. And yes, the title is referring to Breaking the Law. It suits very well my feelings toward the social democrats in general.*

Heading For Disaster

Maybe it's time to do something I haven't done for a long time, talk about politics. Yeah, hard to think that I actually have a degree in political science when all I'm writing about is DnD and entertainment. So where do we stand in the political landscape? Well, it looks bad for the Alliance. Two of the parties, the Centre party and Christian Democrats, are walking on the edge of the 4 % while the liberals are at the (somewhat) healthier numbers of 6 %. Doesn't help that C was in a media storm couple of weeks backs when they released their idea program that was ridiculed and quickly thrown out of the window. Most people was upset about the "extreme" liberal ideas that had been the foundation for that paper. If I recall correctly it was the ideas for making it possible too have more than one partner in a "marriage", taking away the law that requires all the children to inherit from their parents (you read that right, what's left from the parents are divided to the children according to some set standard and the rest above those standards can be divided as the parents see fit, meaning no one can be disinherited in Sweden, making british murder mysteries plots absent in the swedish detective novels) and finally free immigration. All three criticized for different reasons. They could actually have worked if they taken their time explaining how they were supposed to get them to work and stand by them, they didn't and now they pay the price. Do I have any thought on those subjects? No, they are more or less poisonous to touch if you don't have a plan with you. A fact that I try to bring to the work with the Green Liberals in Värmland. Always explain how you are supposed to reach those goal and ideas you have.

So with this imminent crisis behind us, what will happen in 2014? We don't know. Looking at the statistics shows that polls only get accurate around a year before the election. So it's still time to fix this, but I'm not optimistic. At the moment it looks like the Sweden Democrats will take on the third largest party title from the Greens, there will be no clear majority and still peddling is the question who will be the largest party, M or S. There is still a possibility that M and my party the liberals will have the governmental power if we can get the Greens to join us or we (the liberals that is) could make a deal with the red-greens to work with them for a majority in the parliament. Really, everything looks bad and it is such a huge uncertainty that no one knows what's going on. The best guess we can do is which parties are still in the parliament after the election. The easy one is the Left, S, the Greens, the Liberals, M and SD. The last two, what will happen too them? They might make it, C is known for making good spurts at the end of the race so to speak and CD probably have a secondary support from M making it in the final round (especially now when M has began stirring its members abandoning the defence). If I have to say one that will fail, I would guess C. They try to be more liberal than us, but when the storm is brewing they abandon ship and their more old-fashioned voters have already left due to the "liberal" attachment they seem as nothing for them. CD have better potential to siphon M for votes and are probably seen as more loyal toward the Alliance or the centre-right parties overall compared to C who has supported S as late as the 90's. 

Of course, since I'm a member of the liberal party there wouldn't be a surprise that I would prefer them getting the boot (mostly due to their nuclear power policies). It could also be a perfect opportunity for us to launch the declaration of the Green Liberals to take over their green profile so that we can jump toward 10 % with their voters (as well as more liberal inclined Green party voters) and then following up with a much more profiled pro-defence side so we can stave of SD as well as siphon a percent or two from M (integration questions already lies on our table and we really need to push that to take the fight with SD if we want to win a majority for the Alliance next election). How? Well, wait till we finished the policy program that are set for debate this autumn, preparing us for the grand election year of 2014. 

Sea of Poltical Madness

I don't know what's happening with the views on this blog. Really, mostly there is just 1-2 people "reading" it, at good times 10 or something around here. Now, then a month or so back and there was a huge spike in about 100 (if I remember correctly) views and then the same 1-2 views in a day until today, when another spikes occur with 50 or something like that views. Is someone binge reading these post? What makes ramblings from an incoherent person that can't keep to one single subject seem so interesting that 50 people (or just one person reading 50 posts) decide to stay? I must do something right, a pity I don't know what that is.

Anyway, since there will be no DnD this weekend either I might just use this time to discuss the current scandal in Swedish politics, SD-gate. Yes, that's what they call it. Watergate ruined all political scandals forever. At least it isn't as bad a name like "nannygate" back in 2006. So what is SD-gate? It's the scandal shaking the newst parliamentary party in Sweden, the Sweden Democrats when one of the major newspaper got it's hand on a video concerning the behavior of 3 of their parliamentarians (with 2 of them being quite high-ranking) shouting racial and sexistic slurs culminating in them picking up iron bars to use against some drunk 2 years ago. If that wasn't enough, when confronted about this they denied the chargers until Expressen posted the video. So as consequence they have at the moment lost their economical and judicial spoke persons and today they kicked out their youth party leader (who, compared to the rest of the parlimentary bransch of the party, is seen as rather radical) from their parlimentary staff when he published a debate article urging the party to rethink their line with one of the parlimentarians. This, of course, shall be seen in the light  that the youth radicals and more ideological bransch are fighting against the progressive/compromising leaders who try to avoid the tarnish of full on racist and nazism outburts within the party. Also, it is a consequence from an earlier statement by the party leader keeping a zero tolerance against inappropriate behavior.

Question is the following, how will this affect the public opinion and the election of 2014? Before the scandal SD was on the verge of becoming the thrid largest party and crawling toward 10 %. Will this stop that? Maybe, it might at least stop them from growing anymore and might push them back from the current (if even correctly) 8 % they have in the polls toward stabilizing around 6 %. So it might have damaged them for 2014, but then again it's 2 years till then, a lot can happen and peoples memory are short. So it doesn't matter, the trends shows that if the underlying problem that this party are nurishing from aren't addressed, they will continue to grow and become a main player, maybe not 2014 after the scandal, but they will probably be a threat for the other parties again in 2018. What is more damaging on the other hand are the internal fight between the radicals and the party leaders in the parliament. It looks like the same that happened in the social democrats are happening here. When one of the two sides take over or tries to stage a coup heads will roll. It also happened with the Christian Democrats. If the radicals feel left out they might leave the party for some more extreme one and that could very well push SD down the 4 % line and let them be kicked out of the parliament. Or they might even win ground and make thenselves impossible for the common man to even think about casting a vote for them. And finally, let not forget, how did the newspaper get their hand on the video? Someone inside the party that felt that their leaders were to weak, someone wanted to climb higher on the ladder by pushing away some competition or someone that felt cheated out in something or another? That's at least the internal strife angle, but it could also be that someone hacked in or stole a computer with the film and released it to the press. The interesting one (for me at least) would be the former. Putting it together with the internal strife speculation and we might yet see another party running toward a political suicide.

American Presidential Election 2012

First of all, I didn't follow the presidential election that close this years more than I got from the news because... I frankly didn't care that much for it. it was just an event "over there". Or it could be due to be not much interesting politics being discused that could hook me. Or it was due to every debate and even the election itself was 4 AM in the morning. ON A FREAKING TUESDAY! (Or more correctly on a wednesday). I'm not made for all-nighters.

So the outcome then? Obama won, but Congress stills in the hand of the republicans while the Senate keeps a small democratic majority. What are my opinions about this? Well, I have not much to say. Mostly leaning toward the Democrats I'm satisfied, wasn't that impressed to be honest, which you might guess. Republicans hardly any alternative due to the social issues, economic issues I might prefer in certain extent, this time nothing like that.

The saddest thing is that I actually miss being there when it happens. The enthusiasm, the joy, the emotions. And that it was over at midnight and could wake up like normal. Really, the best way to experience this would be gathering some friends, get snacks, food and drinks for an all nighter... but then the problem is that it's on the night between tuesday and wednesday. It's a freaking workday for godness sake. Think about us political scientist, put it on a friday or saturday (ignoring that we in Sweden has our election days on sundays). It would be deeply appreciated on this side of the pond. You have 4 years to fix this so are we clear?

The Story of Vorsilder Wolfhunter (part 1)

Since one of the players is sick (the one that house the sessions as well) there will be no game today which at least makes it easier for me since I now don't have to miss the most important event of this year... the political debate between the eight party leaders of the swedish parliament. What? It's really interesting to see them debate with all their budgets out... OK, maybe mostly for the political scientists. So what should I write about for this week? Maybe I should describe my character for the DnD-game, Vorsilder Wolfhunter. Yes,the name could probably be better, but that's what it is. If we look at Vorsilder, the name is a cross between Draco (latin for dragon with the c and a thrown away) and Silver and looks a lot like Isildur. When did I invent that name? Somewhere around 4-5 years ago for a character that was supposed to be a silver dragon (get it? Silver Draco? Yeah, I've never been good with fictional names). Wolfhunter then? A spur of the moment random name when the other players wanted some extra backstory info about my character. It actually works pretty well even though it's pretty cliché. Why? Well, if I got it right,my character is supposed to be from Baldur's Gate, where there is a forest in the vicinity with werewolves. Talk about random family development by accident.

So who is this Vorsilder? He's a 150 year old elven archer ranger trained since birth to hunt and avoid danger in the woods. His first hunt at 20 (yeah, maybe to young according to elven biology, but that's what you get without proper research) ends with him hunting down a puma/panther on foot. Forward 10 years and his little brother is maimed by a bear on his first hunt when Vorsilder was in the city leaving his brother alone. Vengeance is sought as Vorsilder hunts down the bear across the land for 1-2 months, ending in a Predator-like trap scene in a forest following it up with an elf with a dagger on bear fight. Of course the bear is slain (imagine an epic melee combat scene between the 6´ 11´´ or 2 m 10 cm tall elf and a huge bear which end with the elf stabbing the bear in the heart with his dagger) and he drags the body back and turns it into his hide armor. Recycling when it's at its best. 

Still, although blood has been spilled the blame haven't left so he set out on a trip, traveling south to the Forest of Mir meeting a dryad named Cybele and an elven druid by the name Shane Stargazer. The next 26 years is just Vorsilder guarding Cybele while Stargazer is traveling the world and returning from time to time to teach Vorsilder together with Cybele certain abilities as Bridge of Roots, a magical way to make a bridge. How otherwise would an elven ranger learn such a thing? So then the Spellplauge happens turning the Forest of Mir to the Spires of Mir, turning Cybele into stone. Misery is a great way to forward character development is it not? Anyway, Stargazer returns from his travel and take Vorsilder back to Baldur's Gate. 4 years of therapy and it's of again with Stargazer to the east, the Dalelands. What adventures awaits them there? Check in the next post.

Turning Tides?

Maybe time to update what's happening around here. Seems like I'm back in a one per month posting. Well, I can blame it on not much happening. Until now that is. Suddenly everything happens at once. It all started some day in May. I said to myself enough is enough about this unemployment stuff so I joined... a political party, the Liberal People's party to be more precise (I know what a shock). Thought about it a long time, but I finally took the step. Sure enough, everyone welcomed me with open arms. Not strange since I appear to be the youngest in Värmland not counting the Liberal Youth of Sweden (Liberala Ungdomsförbundet in Swedish) and I'm pushing 25 in a couple of months. Take note, that was 4 months ago, I went to some activities and found it stimulating and all and this week I'm contacted by the district president (?) about an opening as a reserve in one of the municipality committee's (nämnd is the swedish word) and asked if I was interested. Sure enough, so now I'm part of the democratic institutions and that took me just 4 months. What happened to the bureaucracy that strangles all the newcomers? I'm quite frankly shocked, I at least expected 1 year quarantine to test me. Do they pick first best from the street? That would of course explain people like the green party member who think the CIA is spewing toxic on Sweden from airplanes.

Anyway, it at least give me something to do with 5 years of university studies in political science and more (plus a huge debt from all that). So I might walk the path I tried to avoid, the one in where you go through a political career and have no touch with "reality" (even if it is relative). At least I get some experience to put in my CV. The other thing that happened is that I was asked to join a group playing D&D and I couldn't say no to that. So tomorrow I'm to put on the persona of Vorsilder, the elven ranger of... The background story isn't that well developed since I know nothing of the world and the other players so we shall see what comes of this. I might even have a new topic to write about. Hopefully I'm not the first to die. At least I know the first rule of D&D:

A New Dawn

Some songs really make the most mundane things in life a bit more epic. For example The Touch  by Stan Bush when you are sitting in the buss on your way to your work place. First day at the bank is over and it feels really good. I haven't been this calm for a long time. The sun is staying much longer and lights up the world once more and the same can be said about my life. Hopefully there is no dark clouds on the horizon.

Other things that have happened since the last time? The new social democratic leader has been elected and it, to everyones astonishment, actually went to someone who really can be classified to a blue-color worker, or at least once. He is probably most famous for being the head of the industry union the last six year. I'm of course talking about Stefan Löfven. And suddenly a sound of relief was heard across the left and a sound of interest and small optimism from the right. This is a man that has talked favorably about nuclear power and EMU. A man the social democrats pin their hopes upon to deliver from their current position as opposition and back to the governmental power. Frankly, due to his past actions and statements even I could vote for him, if I wasn't so influenced by the liberal ideologies. Of course, I'm also a bit pessimistic about how he will be able to turn the party toward his ideas that I support. The first day he was already "threatened" by some of his party members that he can't stand for his own ideas, but must always express what the party congress has decided. Although yesterday he seemed to express the use of a loophole in the text they wrote so maybe he could change the party that way. The consequence of this however is that his own members are putting him in a very bad starting point. See, every time he has to talk about an issue that he has already expressed that clash with the party, we know if he lies, but if he speaks for himself and what he sees as the best course of action he will put himself in front of the knives that already cut down two party leaders. Will he be able to survive that or is it just a matter of time before the circus starts anew?

Paranoid

I'm on fire. It was quite a long time ago since I actually made this many posts a week. I would guess new inspiration with all that is happening at the moment and that I feel my situation looks brighter in comparison to the time right before christmas. So, lets look closer on the current political events in Sweden. As you all probably know Juholt has resigned and the Social Democrats is free-falling in the polls as well searching for a new leader to lead them over next election in 2014. Juholt fell due to a combination of back-stabbing in his own party as well as several mistakes made from him, mostly a constant flip-flopping on issues as well as bending the truth. Now this doesn't suit those who sided with Juholt who blame the media for hunting him down due to him being a "hillbilly" or something like that (excluding the fact that of all the other seven only two comes from the capital, the rest is as much "hillbillies" as Juholt). Also, they try to neglect all the mistakes he did by comparing it to Reinfeldt. Fair enough, but there is some mayor differences. One site published all 18 mistakes Reinfeldt done since 2009 (believe me, they would have published more if they could). Then look at Juholt's track record, 13. Oh and that is during a span of 10 month, and 1 month he had a vacation not showing up in media. This is probably something those who are blinded don't quite grip. Juholt constantly did those mistakes. People makes mistakes, we all make them, but he did it more often then anyone, in areas that was supposed his specialty (defence if anyone wonders). And they still defend him and complain about unfairness from the media. Do they not see a pattern here comparing something like 4,5 faults a year compared to 13 in LESS than a year? Then again, social democrats have some problem admitting their own fault since they always do the right thing.

Edit: Yeah, I can't really count, first I thought it was 5 years, when it closer to 4 or even 3, but you know I had trouble with the economics and math so I will blame that.

Star Fox

Rumors has it that Retro Studios (the studio that breathed new life into Metroid with the Metroid Prime-trilogy and Donkey Kong Returns) are gonna revive the Star Fox-series with a game to the Wii U. Would be nice with a new entry for the series since the last true new game was back in 2006. I probably can give a better run-down of this series compared to Fire Emblem since I actually played all the games in the series. And I have a hunch you don't actually care about the circus that is the social democratic search for a new party leader, especially since everything that comes out is "we want Wallström" and "No".

The first game was Star Fox, or as it was called here in Europe, Starwing. Just pure coincidence that we got it in the family since we bought it second hand on a whim, or we, my oldest little sister did. i guess it was the funny animals on the box. Didn't play it that much since it took me a long time to get how you played it, but I actually finished it on the easiest route. Today I feel a bit sadness that I don't have it anymore. The music was wonderful although the graphics aren't that good looking today. A bit blocky if you asked me, but it was a fun ride.

Next game is the one from Nintendo 64 in 1997 called Lylat Wars in Europe. I didn't get this one, I wanted it, but never got it until they rereleased to the Wii VC and 3DS. The one to the 3DS was much better since the controls didn't feel that awkward. A more advanced version than the original, but the music wasn't that awesome. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I missed the beat from the first stage of Corneria from the original.

Next one was probably the one I really delved into and absolutely love of the Star Fox games. Star Fox Adventure by Rare, the gods of video games during that time. They mostly seemed to have fallen pretty deep at the moment. I didn't care if it was a Zelda knock-of, it was fun in its own way, nice music, gorgeous graphics and a story that didn't feel that far-fetched. Although, since I didn't play Star Fox 64, I had some trouble knowing how to kill Andross since I never fought him like that before. In Starwing it was just shoot the eyes, no one said anything about his hands. Although I can probably agree on that Tricky can be kinda annoying some times. I actually waited for this game since the N64 days, but then titled as Dinosaur Planet. It was pushed forward all the time until the GameCube came out and then it was changed to a Star Fox-game. Funny enough the same happened to Retro Studios Metroid Prime (pushed forward to Gamecube that is). Another funny thing to note is that this was one of the games we won by pre-order it. The other one was Super Mario Sunshine. Yes, we won the games in two different drawings. That is really lucky.

After Adventure I was pretty muck hooked on the series and waited patiently for the next game, Star Fox: Assault. Now you could actually use your blaster. This was a confusing game for me the first time I played it. It had similar control scheme as Lylat Wars, but since I never played it I had some trouble getting used to it compared to Adventures Arwing-controls. Most notable that in Adventure you could just keep the A-button down to fire at the enemies, but in all other games you had to push it. I know, not much, but it caught me of guard. Then we have the plot, which basically feels like a Star Trek Borg episode. The biggest issue was that I didn't know any of the characters beside the main six that appeared in Adventure. I still enjoyed the game and finished it, but it felt rushed. The first chapter for example didn't have any voices in the intro until your team shows up and just made it feel... unfinished.

So after that less of a stellar game, what happens next? Star Fox Command for the DS. The worst game in the series. Controls felt awkward which made it a bit of an ordeal to finish. Especially fly through the circles over and over again. And it felt it was just two different sorts of missions. Shot everything and then fly through a couple of rings or fly through rings destroying missiles. No, I really hope they make a fun new game that ties the knots story-wise. If it gonna be only flying and/or walking? It doesn't matter really, if it works for the story go ahead. Just don't make it gimmicky like this last game.

Sad Wings of Destiny

Nice album cover right? I'm just using the picture as a symbol, showing the current events in Swedish politics. Yes, Håkan Juholt has stepped down as the social democratic party leader. He hold the position for 10 months, that is probably the shortest time any swedish party leader has sat on the throne. The only ones that comes close is Maria Leissner from the Liberal Party and Karin Söder from the Centre Party, but they at least sat for 2 years and left due to personal problems (Leissner's husband died in a car accident she survived in while Söder left due to illness). This also illustrates the fall that the Swedish social democrats is in, traditionally the party leader sat a minimum of 10 years (you can read about it in an old post), but the latest ones have only sat for 4 years and now 10 months. There is a new dawn they are witnessing.

Of course, the party members are now looking for a scape goat. The blames falls often at media due to almost constant barrage of news centering around Juholt during the years. It began sadly the same day as his installation when the news broke that the pension reform he said he coordinated together with the unions was nonexistent, they didn't know what he talked about. Then it followed with his spouses criminal past, his constant flip-flopping on the Libyan issue and probably peaked with the deduction scandal in October last year. Didn't help when he declined to participate in the party leader duel due to him standing beside the Sweden democrats and talking about a written paper which both the green and left party signed. None of the others knew what he talked about, all they had was a mutual agreement that the greens broke, but no paper. And then the final straw was probably how this week began with the obvious blunder. Is media to blame? Only in the sense that they reported it, but would it not be against the free press to stop them reporting on constant failures of the party leader of the current biggest party in the parliament? This has the stuff to turn into Stab-in-the-back legend that will make the climate inside the party much more uglier when the left and the right sides while start the attack new for the price of power. We have already seen the current left-wingers purge certain right-wingers and will probably be more bloodshed to come.

Still, the fault isn't in media, it lies in the fact that they decided upon a party leader that didn't keep a straight course for a party desperately in need of one. It doesn't help that many of them appears as sect members that see no fault in anyone from S, especially the left supporters that doesn't hesitate to use names as betrayers, fifth columns and so on. They will probably not stand silent, although they usually forget how the media has hunted down not one, not two but three ministers from the right-wing government. If you would you could probably put the last liberal party leader as one as well. Do we on the right complain? Some, but I think most agree that that was necessary due to the problems they brought with them. And still the left complain that "all media is owned by the right", "they are hunting for us" and so on. A bit childish, don't you think? A bit sad actually.