impulse

Gosh. Last week, the lefties claimed Trump was going to cancel Social Security for expats. Do they ever get it right?

Here's my forecast. When it's all over, Mexico and Canada will acquiesce and protect their borders with the USA, there will be no additional tariffs for products actually made in North America, and Canadians, Mexicans and Yanks will all be better off. Or they can be reticent and pay the price. Not that anyone wins a trade war. But Mexico and Canada stand to lose a lot more, just by the numbers.

That's another way to go. But I like to have a home base to retreat to, with a relatively solid community of people to hang out with. I've never been a social butterfly, nor a horny hound dog. What I'm really saying is that I could easily live happily in Thailand on my $2K (+/-) a month Social Security even if my nest egg evaporated tomorrow. I couldn't do that in the USA without dipping into my loved ones' inheritance every month.

Valid points, but mine was more of a tongue in cheek comment. One of the things I like about Thailand is that I can walk down dodgy looking areas that would scare the poop out of me back home, and my biggest fear is an errant feral dog. But I would be nervous about having the mansion on the hill. Not that security cameras would deter a resolute thief, gang, or rapist. They're more for catching them later.

This one says Thailand produces more bananas per hectare than Vietnam... 22,000 kg per hectare vs 17,000 kg I have no clue whether it's correct. World Banana Production by Country - AtlasBig.com I wonder what the economics are to switch over to bananas, including lagtime, the cost to swap over, and the cost of production and logistics. Not to mention, bananas are perishable, while rice apparently lasts over 15 years in a warehouse. So if the price of either collapses sporadically, I'd rather have my warehouse full of rice.

That was my first thought. A'la Epstein.

I'm just curious. I was hoping someone from the UK who GAF would respond. More accurately, GMoAF, which is "Gave More".

Seriously? CNN disagrees. They actually had to walk back their erroneous fact check. The receipts are in the OP. Add up the numbers. It's over $8 million on research that required mice to be subjected to hormone (and other) treatments that mimic treatments on humans to address gender dysphoria. Duke University, allegedly received $455,000 to examine how HIV vaccines function in male mice exposed to female hormones At the University of Michigan, an NIH grant of $2,588,000 was reportedly used to study the effects of hormone treatment in mice to replicate gender transition. Meanwhile, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, $300,000 was allegedly spent investigating breast cancer risk for transgender individuals by examining tumors in mice. Emory University also received NIH funding, with $735,000 reportedly allocated to evaluating how the gut microbiome interacts with gender-affirming hormone therapy in mice. At the University of California, scientists were allegedly awarded $1,229,000 in NIH funding to examine the effects of male sex hormone treatment on female mice. a study at Indiana University, backed by $3,100,000 in NIH grants, investigated the impact of feminizing hormone therapy on the lungs of rodents. According to Justin Goodman, senior vice president of the group, “over $250 million has been spent on transgender animal experiments over the last couple of decades.” He also noted that “there are over two dozen active federal grants funding transgender animal experiments, worth a total of $64 million.”

I love Thailand. But if I had absolute F-U money, I'd retire to the USA and maybe have a 2nd home in Thailand. But since I don't, Thailand offers much better value for the same (limited amount of) money. But not the same quality of life.

Trump Bows to Economic Reality With Tariff Delays and Exemptions He's not "bowing to economic reality". He's giving them time to think about their reticence. It's in "The Art of the Deal" if you don't understand what he's doing. And if Canucks and Mexicans don't read their opponent's playbook, that's their bad.

Out of curiosity, is she also on the dole, freeing up "her money" to fight the gub'ment? Noting the following from the OP: Despite not speaking English or being self-sufficient, the couple will now live in the UK at taxpayers' expense following an immigration tribunal’s ruling. One of the big sticking points in the USA is the newcomers taking gub'ment benefits and sending the excess to their relatives back home. It may be "their" money they send back home, but they're getting that money at taxpayer expense. I wonder if it's the same across the pond?

Am I allowed a good security system with lots of cameras?

Projecting much? We haven't even seen what's going to happen. If the new PM is reasonable, the temperature of the relationship may change immediately. Perhaps that's why Trump has postponed the tariffs. Which he really doesn't want. That's just his negotiating strategy. Do what you want north of the border. But don't expect the USA to let it creep south (any more). Like illegals, fentanyl and unequal trade.

Losing? The fat lady hasn't even started warming up yet. And, I would add, it's not Trump vs Canada. It's Trump vs Trudeau and the woke mind virus that would freeze bank accounts of the truckers. That's just evil.

No large encampments, but I walk by a dozen Thai homeless sleeping on storefront stoops on my 1 km walk from the MRT to my usual hotel. That's at night and right on a main road. Half a dozen are sleeping there even during the day. No telling how many are sleeping rough where they aren't visible from the road. They usually have a pile of what I'd consider garbage that they've collected to scrounge through and either resell or recycle. Not to mention the literally hundreds of beggars I pass getting in my 10,000 steps a day in Bangkok.

For the same reason you'd prosecute them if they were taking money to advertise someone selling cocaine. They're taking money to advertise an illegal service that they should know is illegal. All they'd have to do is require their advertisers to submit their hotel permit for rentals of less than 30 days. No hotel permit? No AirBNB ad. Otherwise, AirBNB, Orbitz, etc. are complicit.

I get that in cold climes. But I wonder which is more likely to kill you. Is it the one in a million chance of drowning, or the one in ?? chance of overheating in the tropical sun wearing a heart insulator that keeps the heat in while you're exerting yourself paddling to beat the band? Years ago in Texas, I made the personal decision to keep the life jacket at hand, but not wear it because they're too hot in the scorching sun. If it's cooler out, I wear them, pre adjusted because they're mine. Added to that was the absolute sweaty stench of a typical rental life jacket. I used to rent canoes on the Guadelupe River and the rental life jackets smelled like they'd never been defunked of BO. It was enough to gag a maggot. In Thailand, I always carried my own when kayaking (and even to rent a canoe at Lumpini and QSNCC), but that's because I lived there. Edit: I'd add that the one place I did wear a life jacket kayaking in Thailand was Kanchanaburi by the famous bridge. The guys who ran the hotels told me that they enforce that law strictly. But I never found out...

Only federal offenses. I wonder if he paid his California state taxes? Or broke any state firearm laws? Or any state drug laws?

Now that he can no longer curry favor with the VP or the President, nobody wants what he's selling. Hunter Biden revealed in a court filing that he sold 27 pieces of art for an average of $54,481 each during the early years of his father’s presidency. But since December 2023, Biden says he has only sold one piece—for $36,000—a dramatic decline that raises serious questions. My heart goes out to him having to join the mass exodus from California by people who can no longer afford to live there. Sensitive Young Artist Named Hunter Discovers His Paintings Were Always About Access To His Father | The Daily Caller

Good luck with that. Between greenie regulations and just plain gub'ment incompetence, they may be done in 30 or 40 years. They should have built those (and the west coast) pipelines and ports decades ago. Canucks should be thanking Trump for lighting the fire under their gub'ment's feet to git 'er done. Finally. Meanwhile, refineries in the USA will rebuild at their next normal scheduled turnaround, adjusting to a slightly different mix of crude from other sources. That's a normal part of that business.

You're probably more accurate. But you'd need a stopwatch and a very fast camera to time how long it stays there before it's hijacked to pay for current spending needs. Which, as others have pointed out, makes it a Ponzi scheme.

Out of curiosity, do all airlines have access to your travel details by PNR, or just the airline you're booked on?

The USA is actually a net exporter. And if we quit importing oil from Canada (to process and export), we'll import it from somewhere else. It's a fungible commodity and Canada's nasty, heavy, dirty crude can be replaced by Venezuela's nasty heavy crude. Or any one of a dozen other sources. But Canada hasn't bothered building the pipelines and ports they need to export the vast majority of it anywhere but the USA. They recently built a pipeline and port to handle a small amount on the Pacific side, but most of that is going to California anyway. So who's got who by the short and curlies? Not that Trump intends to disrupt the flow. In fact, they're resurrecting Keystone Pipeline. He's just negotiating from strength. Not from a desire to be liked. When it's all said and done, Canucks will make more money, and Americans will spend less to fuel up.

I'm not sure which is more disturbing, leaving the body in his seat (or row, at least) or drag a dead body down the aisle for everyone to see. The former inconveniences one or 2 other passengers. The latter? Everyone on the plane.

I must have missed that. What $ billions were those? And were they tax dollars?