impulse

I'm looking for an improvement in quality of Americans' lives, whether that's reducing prices or increasing employment opportunities and wages. Not an expensive sugar rush like Biden gave us to buy the votes and donations.

For my first 8 or 10 arrivals post Covid (Monthly starting April 2023), they required a clean Covid test to even get on the airplane. That went by the wayside in late 2023 (I think). There have always been facial temperature (health) scanners just before getting to immigration. Totally unobtrusive. About a year ago there was another short scare that had me getting a throat swab test on arrival, but that didn't happen for more than a month. My past 10 entries have been extremely routine. About 1/3 of my transits have been through Shanghai Pudong (great airport), with other layovers in about 8 other airports. Their signs may be scary, but they're pretty reasonable. No scarier than the signs at Swampy...

I've been dealing in China on and off since 2000. It's really not that much work to implement. It comes out in the HTS update and it's done. I've been caught out several times when the rates changed during the middle of an order. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (https://hts.usic.gov) Edit: Take a look at that link if you wanna see how convoluted it is to import/export.

As long as it's not over 25% more, sure. American voters understand that.

Conspicuously absent is any mention of manufacturing jobs that would be brought back to the USA if the tariffs work...

I'm actually favorably impressed with AN recently. But it doesn't matter what I think. What matters is the Powers That Be in LOS. My post wasn't a slam of AN. I fear they could be liable for the lunacy coming from The Mail (and other sources) because they do curate their content, and select what they include.

Isn't she from Yale?

The important thing was to get Mexico to concede that they need to take action on the border. All those migrants traipsing from south to north across Mexico are not just America's problem. How they eventually handle it is anyone's guess. It's still early days. Edit: Trump doesn't want a trade war. But he's signaled that he's not afraid of one.

2 articles recently posted on AN are both: a) detrimental to Thai tourism and the public image of Thai law enforcement b) of questionable veracity because they're using the exact same photos to depict 2 different cases. IMO, that opens AN up to liability for falsely harming Thai tourism.

Just spitballing trolling here, but maybe they're working on the principle of removing the food source so as not to attract the inflatables?

Which would bring us to that 2nd part. It's only a 30 day reprieve, pending results. If they're still assisting the migrant caravans, we'll be right back at tariffs. They have 30 days to clean up their act.

I seem to recall reading something about Mexico and Canada each sending 10,000 troops to defend the borders? And that the tariffs are only suspended for 30 days, pending results.

See Mexico? Was that so hard? (Channeling my dear, departed Mom there...)

Not necessary. CNN and MSDNC will tell him everything he needs to think.

That's how you know you're dealing with a Master. Takes the win and still the other guys feel good about it.

Let's see. Canada produces 4.6 MBOPD, refines 1.7 MBOPD and has the capability to export 0.89 MBOPD from their left coast. Up until recently, mostly to California. Now some to China. The rest, they sell to the USA. They don't have the infrastructure to sell to anyone else. Thank the Greenies for that. So they'd have to find a new home for 2 MBOPD, or they'll be swimming in their own oil in a few weeks. I'm wondering where Trudeau thinks they'll store it? Sources: Canada's crude oil has an increasingly significant role in U.S. refineries - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) TCI Energy Brief: Early TMX Pipeline Expansion Data Reveals China’s Emerging Role as a Significant Buyer of Canadian Crude, Offering Some Diversification From the U.S. Market | The China Institute

Canadians will get over it. They're only momentarily angrier at the USA than at Trudeau.

Yeah. Pretty sure. I did the math Canada produces about 4.6 million barrels a day, and they just increased their west coast export capacity to 890K BOPD. They're hosed if US refineries decide to buy their heavy crude elsewhere. At least until they invest hundreds of $$ billions and wait decades to permit new pipelines to increase maritime export capacity. They have no way to sell it anywhere else. Because they can only refine 1.7 million BOPD in Canada. What's 4.6 MBOPD - 0.89 MBOPD - 1.7 MBOPD? Haw many days can they go on and still have a place to store it? TCI Energy Brief: Early TMX Pipeline Expansion Data Reveals China’s Emerging Role as a Significant Buyer of Canadian Crude, Offering Some Diversification From the U.S. Market | The China Institute Canada's crude oil has an increasingly significant role in U.S. refineries - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Could be... With the banks paying 0.1% on checking account deposits, all I kept there was working money and a little emergency money. I wasn't what they called a "whale". BTW, the OP's dilemma is why I always keep a few thousand in cash, just in case. Enough, at least, to get things in order and to head back to the USA to find out WTF.

That's been the trajectory for about 20 years now. Some banks have been stricter than others. I always reported my residence address honestly, lest I be accused of (and possibly prosecuted for) laundering money if I fibbed. Blaming it on a guy that's been in office less than 2 weeks? (Not you... That other guy) I was amazed at how many hoops I had to jump through to open a new checking account when I became a Covid refugee back in the USA after not being a resident for over a decade.

I could write a book on everything that the media gets wrong about the oil and gas industry, having worked in the biz as an engineer for around 40 years. Sometimes, just out of ignorance. Sometimes, it's more deliberate. Edit: And in fairness, a lot of it is trying to explain complicated technical topics to a non-technical audience.

The office of Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, said the operation “reinforces the strong security partnership” between the two countries in “combating extremist threats.” In a post on X, it said Somalia “remains resolute in working with its allies to eliminate international terrorism and ensure regional stability.” US military strikes Islamic State operatives in Somalia | AP News

Not as a recommendation but a point of information... I had 2 root canals done on an emergency basis (a couple of months apart) at Bumrungrad and they each cost about $1000 USD all in. But they were emergencies with a lot of pain, so I gladly paid because they got me in same-day. That didn't include any permanent crowns because I wasn't in Bangkok long enough for the 2-3 sittings. You can obviously find cheaper root canals. This is just a heads up for anyone in a dire rush...

That misses a few key points. Heavy crude is available from all over the world, and it's a (relatively) fungible commodity. If US refiners no longer bought our heavy crude from Canada, we'd buy it elsewhere. (Venezuela comes to mind, but there are others) And that would free up Canadian heavy crude for other markets. Except Canadians don't have enough shipping capacity to sell most of their crude anywhere but the USA. Only about 25 percent of their production can move by tanker. The refineries set up to process heavy crude could be adjusted to process sweet light crude, but that generally doesn't work in the other direction. It's like buying an 18 wheeler to haul goods vs buying a pickup truck. Anything a pickup can haul, so can an 18 wheeler. Just not economically. But you can't haul 20 tons in a pickup. Still, refineries are optimized for a specific crude and there would be some pain on the US side during a transition to a different mix. But Canada would be hooped with no outlet for 75% of their exports. Not enough ports. Natural gas is similar. Canada exports natural gas by pipeline. Look at a map and see where that leaves them. They'd have to spend $$ tens (hundreds?) of billions to develop LNG export capacity. (They haven't needed to...) The US would have less gas to process and profit from the additional exports, but Canada is the more vulnerable party. Don't get me wrong. I'm against a trade war. But the idea that it'll be the USA that suffers most is ridiculous if you just look at the trade balance of NAFTA.

My bank accounts got canceled for lack of a US address about 4 administrations ago.