impulse

Unwelcome by who? The lefties that keep voting for these tragic policies? Sometimes, you have to be junkyard dog mean to snap people out of their bad habits. We call it tough love. Pointing out that you'll keep getting what you get if you keep doing what you do. Voting in incompetent DEI candidates that appoint incompetent DEI department heads who keep hiring incompetent DEI employees. At gobsmacking salaries, on the taxpayer dime. The LA Power and Water Department has MECHANICs that got paid $750K in 2023. Let that sink in. Gub'ment MECHANICs that makes $750K a year... Edit: And I'm only speculating here, but I'll bet they're still working from home, too.

I went to Seoul about 6 or 8 times during the 2008 Olympic visa debacle. China generally wasn't issuing business visas that year, so I did back to back 30 day tourist visas. Got to hobnob with dozens of int'l business guys in the same visa boat, some of whom even owned factories in China. It was a PITA, but certainly not a deal killer. I loved visiting Seoul. Highly recommended, for the shopping, the street food and the history/museums. (Shameless plug). But it gets COLD. And the normal hotels were a little spendy. I even got up to the DMZ and was detained by the military for wandering around where I shouldn't have been. Which turned out to be a fascinating lesson in recent (at the time) North/South relationship. I got a personal tour of the border railway station that, 17 years later still isn't activated. One on one tour by the head of the SK gub'ment's reconciliation committee. The Big Cheese.

At one of the smaller clinics I visited in Bangkok, they charged me 1,300 baht for the panoramic digital x-rays alone. Then they had me sit there for about an hour while they tried to find a qualified dentist to come in that day. They couldn't scare one up until the next evening (after hours) so I didn't mind paying a lot more at Bumrungrad, who got me in on the spot. In between those clinics, I went to another clinic that I'd used over the years and asked if they had anyone in, before I even let them do the x-rays.

I can't help but wonder if the cops were just getting rid of their competition.

This is big news around the Chinese blogosphere (especially Wang's case). After 20+ consecutive monthly visa runs to Thailand, my Chinese GF is begging me to consider going to Seoul from now on.

So you're not perturbed at all that an electric distribution mechanic is making $763K a year on the taxpayers' dime, then fails to provide water to the hydrants during a very predictable emergency? TBH, the thing that pisses me off the most is that when they can't afford to rebuild (because insurance companies quit writing fire insurance in California on account of bad policy), they'll be moving to Texas. And the Californians we've already got don't connect the way they voted with the results they got. So they're bringing the lefty disaster to Texas and Florida and... and... And then, the Federal gub'ment will spend billions of our taxes to rebuild the uninsured homes.

As easy as that is, some of us just don't like to lie.

What happened to the good old days when you worked for the gub'ment for the job security and the perks, even though it paid less than the private sector? Quiñones took the top job at LADWP in May 2024, landing a salary of $750,000, according to local outlet ABC7. LADWP Load Dispatcher Mark Chambers took home a whopping $857,458 in total compensation — which includes salary, overtime and other pay— in 2023, ...fellow load dispatcher Kenneth McCrank made nearly $787,000 that same year, according to OpenTheBooks. Gary Carivau, an electrical services manager for LADWP, raked in more than $782,000 in 2023. Elsewhere in the department, electric distribution mechanic William Santana made $763,675 in 2023, ...followed closely by LADWP Senior Electrical Repair Supervisor Jason Contreras and his $763,195 in compensation for the same year, according to OpenTheBooks. Gregory Martin — an electric distribution mechanic supervisor for the department — took home just over $740,000 in 2023, according to OpenTheBooks. LADWP Labor Supervisor Brad Weller rounded out the top ten list by making $606,095 in 2023. So there's no water at the fire hydrants while these gub'ment knobs are making around 3/4 of a million $$$ a year... LA Water And Power Officials Rake In Fat Salaries As Fire Hydrants Run Dry | The Daily Caller

Here's 2 snippets that connect the dots that are going to make this explode. “The people in charge, she took over and she put on her bio that her priority, my highest priority is inclusion, diversity, and equity. That is my priority. And somebody forgot to fill all the reservoirs, I guess, with water because when I was getting smoke alarms, there was a fire truck parked in front of my house, but they couldn’t pump any water because there was none, because they didn’t put them in the reservoirs,” Woods said. That's actor James Woods. James Woods Smacks Down ‘Blithering Idiot’ Gavin Newsom For Dropping Ball On Forest Management | The Daily Caller Eight of the top ten highest-paid city officials in Los Angeles work for the LADWP, according to OpenTheBooks’ analysis. The department saw “scores” of the fire hydrants in its purview run dry overnight as firefighters tried to contain raging fires that have destroyed hundreds of buildings and continue to be out of control, according to The Los Angeles Times. Quiñones took the top job at LADWP in May 2024, landing a salary of $750,000, according to local outlet ABC7. LADWP Load Dispatcher Mark Chambers took home a whopping $857,458 in total compensation — which includes salary, overtime and other pay— in 2023, ...fellow load dispatcher Kenneth McCrank made nearly $787,000 that same year, according to OpenTheBooks. Gary Carivau, an electrical services manager for LADWP, raked in more than $782,000 in 2023. Elsewhere in the department, electric distribution mechanic William Santana made $763,675 in 2023, ...followed closely by LADWP Senior Electrical Repair Supervisor Jason Contreras and his $763,195 in compensation for the same year, according to OpenTheBooks. Gregory Martin — an electric distribution mechanic supervisor for the department — took home just over $740,000 in 2023, according to OpenTheBooks. LADWP Labor Supervisor Brad Weller rounded out the top ten list by making $606,095 in 2023. So there's no water at the fire hydrants while these gub'ment knobs are making around 3/4 of a million $$$ a year... LA Water And Power Officials Rake In Fat Salaries As Fire Hydrants Run Dry | The Daily Caller

In 25 years of traveling to and working in Asia, I have filed about half a dozen claims under travel insurance. So far, they're at 100% in denying the claims for something down in the fine print. Usually on about the 43rd page. So I'm not a big believer in travel insurance. Even so, I usually tick that box, hoping that someday I'll be proven wrong. I don't hold out much hope of that, especially if the claim is a whopper. I guess you've never sent flowers to a funeral home, or brought a covered dish to a memorial service. It's a way to share the grief and show some humanity and compassion and support for the family. If interweb fundraisers were available back then, I'd have donated cash in addition. It's a lot more useful, and generally less expensive than sending flowers. If you don't want to donate, fine. But don't demean those of us who do.

For years, we've been seeing lefty fact checks being treated as gospel by the lefties. Same with the lefty websites that rate the reliability of news sources. I can't count the number of links over the past 5 years. Now it's all unraveling. They're paid shills. Even the Zuck has come around.

Sure. He hasn't done anything yet. Strategic ambiguity is what kept Putin out of Ukraine and Hamas out of Israel on his last watch. He's negotiating from power. Not weakness and indecisiveness. It's funny how Biden (and Obama) got a pass for crap that actually did happen on their watch, while Trump keeps getting called out for crap that hasn't even happened yet. And never will.

For information purposes only, I paid 8000 baht to get an emergency complex extraction done at Bumrungrad. I went to some small clinics before I ended up there, but none of them had a qualified doctor on duty and I wasn't going to wait a day or two with that pain. Bumrungrad got me in on the spot. And I was happy to pay. If you have time to plan, great. I didn't.

I don't guess it had anything to do with the DEI mayor cutting the LAFD budget by $20 million (need more $$$ for the newcomers, after all) and the LGBTQ fire chief focusing her efforts on diversity and not on competence (and the upper body strength to haul a >100 pound fire hose).

You've been watching too much election year coverage by CNN and MSDNC if you think the economy is in good shape.

As of November 2024, the number of long-term unemployed people, or those jobless for 27 weeks or more, was 1.7 million, up from 1.2 million a year earlier, according to the BLS. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people in November 2024 was 7.1 million, up from 6.3 million in November 2023, the BLS reported. Job seekers also have faced increased competition while applying for jobs. In 2023, job seekers had to send an average of 254 applications to get a job, compared to an average of 294 applications in 2024, according to Pathrise. A Workday report published in September 2024 found that competition is growing in several industries, with the most competitive being media, technology and communications, which had an average of 30 applicants per offer. Numbers Don’t Lie: Data Barrage Shows Just How Hard It Is For Americans To Find Jobs Under Biden | The Daily Caller Yeah. Big win there. Averaging 294 applications to get one job, with 30 applicants per open position. If you want an unbiased look at the actual job situation, quit listening to the MSM and the politicians. (Especially in an election year). Head over to the St Louis Federal Reserve data and drill down. It's not pretty. Except for foreign born workers and gub'ment employees. They're seeing growth. The foreign born jobs aren't increasing nearly as fast as the foreign born population, though. They're going to put the illegals into the labor pool once Trump gets in, and it'll look like unemployment spiked. It didn't. They're just not counting them now as "unemployed". https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

Where he'll be shedding his load. Repeatedly.

What I remember most about Charlie Hebdo is a couple of weeks later when 2 armed Islamic thugs tried the same at a convention in the Dallas area. They didn't make it out of the parking lot.

January 6 itself won't live in infamy except in the minds of those with the syndrome. The aftermath will rate up with (and possibly exceed) the infamy of McCarthyism for the injustices and the one sided prosecutions. The senior fellow additionally cited the number of charges brought against attendees of the Jan. 6 attack compared to those not charged during the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots. They didn’t tell us how many people were charged. It ended up [with] 1,500 felony charges. It was [an] almost 75% conviction rate. That never happens. Compare that with the 14,000 people that were arrested in 2020. Almost 90% of them were never charged or indicted. They were released. So there was a lot of things that they want to suppress.” In 2020, BLM was linked to nine in 10 riots. The country experienced 637 riots between May 26, 2020, and September 12, 2020 “A lot of the things they said, Laura, were abject lies,” Hanson said. “There were not four officers killed. There were not 10 people killed. There was only one violent death, we think, and that was a Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt Victor Davis Hanson Explains Why He Believes FBI Is ‘Afraid’ Of Trump’s Return | The Daily Caller

Speaking of VDH, where is he wrong here? The senior fellow additionally cited the number of charges brought against attendees of the Jan. 6 attack compared to those not charged during the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots. They didn’t tell us how many people were charged. It ended up [with] 1,500 felony charges. It was [an] almost 75% conviction rate. That never happens. Compare that with the 14,000 people that were arrested in 2020. Almost 90% of them were never charged or indicted. They were released. So there was a lot of things that they want to suppress.” In 2020, BLM was linked to nine in 10 riots. The country experienced 637 riots between May 26, 2020, and September 12, 2020 “A lot of the things they said, Laura, were abject lies,” Hanson said. “There were not four officers killed. There were not 10 people killed. There was only one violent death, we think, and that was a Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt Victor Davis Hanson Explains Why He Believes FBI Is ‘Afraid’ Of Trump’s Return | The Daily Caller Trump and his new team can't get in fast enough.

That's if you subscribe to the rehabilitation theory of incarceration. If you believe in the isolation from decent society theory, they can't possibly rob an Apple Store if they're in prison. Just spitballing, but it seems a waste that the UK already paid for so many idle beds in Rwanda. Or, here's a thought... For about 10% of what it costs to house and feed an inmate in the UK, Thailand could become the hub of penal tourism. Win, win. (Except for the bad guys who would have to acclimate to fish head soup and sweating a lot).

Perhaps that's because there is no threat presented by Trump. Except to screaming lefties. Canada's threat comes came from within.

To call out the machines that were then hacked by a BIC pen and a $5 USB chip in an actual court of law?

Excellent point.

Here's a question for you... What do you have to make to qualify on an average mortgage in Canada, and what percentage of the population makes that much? Here's another... How many healthcare facilities across the border in the USA would go broke if Canadians didn't need them?