impulse

Is the presidential election the only one that Dems care about?

Birgitta Partanen says the industry is trying to hire domestic laborers to cover the vacant positions, but not enough are willing to take the jobs, as the pay is low by Finnish standards. I wonder what the labor component is of a cup of berry yoghurt? Maybe a few cents? Seems like a reasonable solution would be to increase wages to bring them in line for domestic workers, and charge a few pennies more for a cup of berry soup.

In contrast, arriving this past Monday afternoon on a flight from Chengdu, China, there was virtually no queue at BKK immigration. So I guess it's luck of the draw. Like the OP, we were shuffled past the first immigration section and onto the 2nd. And like the OP, it was a long walk... Over 1/4 mile according to the signs we passed. I did get passed by a few courtesy golf carts but I'm not sure whether that's a strictly paid service or on offer to all old farts. I'd also add that, now that China is visa exempt (same queue as me), I scooted along to get in front of the scrum. The downside to the fast immigration was having to wait a long time at the luggage carousel... Oh well...

Did he get booted, or did Musk just stop funding him? As I understand (correct me if this is wrong), Lemon will still be on multiple venues, including X. But Musk won't be a financial backer as had been planned. I'm a big Musk fan, not because I always agree with him, but because he recognizes the need for free speech and conflicting opinions in a free society. And he was willing to put his money where his mouth is. Edit: Not to mention the risks he's taking to his fortune and his person.

I'm not sure that backpackers are a great target demographic for luxury cruises on the Chao Phraya. Not that they aren't a formidable chunk of foreign exchange. But if I were going after their money, I'd focus on getting them around the city by boat. I love that mode of transport around Bangkok, but it's not nearly as well advertised as it could be. And I never seem to pay the same amount on each jaunt, depending on what color flag and what style boat. And it's not as if they give me a choice when I'm buying a ticket on the pier. Edit: Unless, of course, they could paint one of their boats green and do a dedicated weed cruise... Though I don't know if safety regs would allowing firing up onboard.

I'm not claiming that there's no antisemitism. There has always been... Just that a lot of what's recently being called anti-semitism is actually legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. But rather than debate the merit of the criticism, the response is to scream anti-semitism in hopes of shutting them up. They're doing the same with "racist", and with "mysogynist". Rather than argue on the merits, the standard response on one side is to shut down all discussion with a veiled threat of being cancelled, or fired, or arrested, or attacked for being (for example) anti-semitic.

So what you're saying is that any company that tries to hire 50% female pilots has a tiny pool to choose from? And, as a consequence, would have to hire not only the good ones, but the bottom of the barrel- the lowest rated? And still wouldn't be able to get close to 50%... And that's not about the quality of the female pilots, it's the quantity. That's how numbers work. But DEI "experts" aren't strong on numbers.

And it keeps getting better. For all who have claimed that illegals can't vote... Apparently, they can... A federal judge on Thursday tossed a conservative legal group's lawsuit against a controversial Washington, D.C., law that allows noncitizens — including illegal immigrants and foreign embassy staff members — to vote in municipal elections. And the citizens of DC have no standing to sue to stop them because reasons. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/federal-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-challenging-dc-noncitizen-voting-law

Hard to teach your kids anything if they already know everything from having their face planted firmly in their phone watching their preferred "experts", and ignoring all the old fart experts telling them they really can't have everything right now. Neither could the boomers. We just didn't have influencers.

I love the fact that Texas filed a Bill of Complaint with the Supreme Court in December of 2020 outlining a plethora of irregularities in the 2020 election, even though it wasn't heard by the SCOTUS for reasons of standing. Though the SCOTUS specifically stated they did not evaluate the merits. Just the standing. Then, 126 legislators filed an Amicus Brief in support, as well as 18 states filing an Amicus Brief in support. So the evidence of irregularities was known in 2020. That's public record. And the last time I checked, of the 21 cases that had eventually worked their way through the courts, 14 of them agreed with Texas (and 126 legislators and 18 states) that election laws had been violated. But obviously not in time to do anything about the tainted election. So the idea that Trump, unilaterally and out of nowhere tried to "steal an election" is ludicrous. So is the idea that there's no evidence. There was a plethora of evidence known by December, 2020. It's in the Texas complaint. And that doesn't include the evidence that's come out since then... https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/texas-v-pennsylvania/

Thanks for that!

Thanks for the update. Can you summarize? It's behind a paywall for those who have exceeded the Seattle Times free limit...

They didn't get very far, no thanks to the Biden admin. They were stopped by the Texas guard, after Biden did his best to force them to stand down. And continues to try to force Texas to stand down. Which has EVERYTHING to do with the topic. Without Texas asserting their authority to detain them, they'd be on a bus to Chicago or NYC by now.

This would be what they call a clue... Video Shows Illegal Migrants Overwhelming Texas National Guard, Storming Border Wall Of course, the Biden Administration would have Texas authorities step aside and let them in... https://dailycaller.com/2024/03/21/video-shows-illegal-migrants-overwhelming-texas-national-guard-storming-border-wall/

You may want to divulge which immigration office you'll be dealing with. Some offices are tougher than others.

That's partly true. But a large component of the recent increase in antisemitism has been the redefinition of the word to include any criticism of Israel and its response to the atrocities. Agree or disagree with either side, legitimate criticism isn't antisemitism.

Funny how the benefits are always in the forecast, but the downsides are in the day. Like Bidenomics. The bestest economy ever. But only on paper, and in the minds of the spin doctors.

There's a huge difference between divesting company owned stations and closing them. The linked article isn't very clear whether the stations would close, or simply change ownership to be operated by others. For Shell, divesting would mean less capital employed (assets), increasing RONA, with a bonus that they shed the carbon footprint for others to pick up. Sounds more like financial and ESG shenanigans than shutting down stations. Bet'cha some management types at Shell figured out how to increase their bonuses.

I'm liking the suggestion to carry treats for a long term, around home solution. But I'm often accosted away from home and I've always found bending over to look like I'm picking up stones has been effective. And if I know I'm walking into a pack's territory, I pick up a stick before I get there and toss it away when I'm past them. Not even a big stick, and I've never made contact. That's always worked for me and I anticipate it will tomorrow when I'm walking to my hotel in Kanchanaburi, past the same mongrels that I walk past every time I stay there. Regarding those who suggest dogs key in on fear, so what? Fear is normal in those situations. Whether I turn that fear into flight, or fight is the unknown. The fear itself is a given. And, I propose, smart.

Interesting that the first time that the USA has ever dropped out of the top 20 for happiness is on Joe's watch.

While I agree with that, I've opened .xlsx spreadsheets and .docx documents with the freeware and the formatting can take a looong time to fix. It may seem petty stuff, but I just don't want to spend an hour fixing the formatting. It's especially bad when I open a document from someone else who uses strange formatting like adding line breaks when they really didn't need to. That's what margins are for... In fairness, my conventions may be just as bad, but I know what they were.

The first thing I'd do is get a shower drain plug with a built-in P-Trap. That keeps fumes from backing up. Many Thai plumbing systems don't have P traps or S traps that keep smells from backing up. Edit: Also, look under your bathroom sink and see if there's a trap that keeps fumes from backing up. If it's a straight pipe into the floor, that's another source of the sewer smell. I'd add that I've stayed in quite a few hotels with that problem and the simple short term solution was to soak a face towel and put it over the shower drain and/or the sink. The purpose is to keep the fumes from backing up into the room.

Linux is great if you know how to root the flubus when things go haywire. Because that's the advice you'll get on the Linux blogs. They seem to assume all the users are wizzes already. Windows blogs and help resources are usually geared toward luddites. I stick with Windows because it supports the software I've been using for over 30 years. I've got tens of thousands of hours into the learning curve on programs like Excel, CorelDraw, etc. That's more valuable to me than saving a few $$ on the OS and freeware versions (like GIMP) that are probably just as good, but have their own learning curve. As much as I missed Mac OS when my company switched to Windows in the '90s, I won't go back to Mac just because of the learning curve. Even if it is a better OS, and I'm no longer hogtied to Windows by a job.

Most of that "building" came long before the welfare state where a crafty individual can go from cradle to grave without ever working a day. GOP'pers aren't anti-immigration. Just anti free-for-all. We prefer our newcomers do it legally, which means vetting to make sure they're not in MS13 (or worse). We can attract the best and the brightest immigrants from around the world. But the educated ones are inclined to vote conservative when they get legal citizenship. And that's a problem for Dems. Edit: Living and working for over 20 years in Thailand and China has given me a whole new appreciation for the difficulty of legal immigration. That needs to be fixed to make it easier, and make the numbers bigger. But opening the border to anyone that shows up isn't the way. I've got too many Chinese and Thai friends with degrees and advanced degrees who would make more money in the USA picking fruit than they do at home as accountants, etc. Those are the guys I want to let in...

Is that true, or an urban myth?