impulse

So Trump's really cleaning out Bidenvilles. It's not as if we're in a depression. The camps had become permanent fixtures. Degrading the quality of life of everybody that lives and works in DC. (And SF, and LA, and NYC and... and...)

Washington, D.C. crews began clearing out homeless encampments Friday, just two days after President Donald Trump warned Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser to do so. Another win for the average American. Unless you're living rough near the Capitol. Even they're probably better off. Tough love. DC Begins Clearing Out Homeless Camps Two Days After Trump Issued Ultimatum To Mayor | The Daily Caller He needs to do San Francisco next, then LA, then NYC, then...

They call that strategic ambiguity. A lot of knowledgeable people claim that's how Trump kept Putin from invading Ukraine on his watch. Putin couldn't predict what the hell Trump would do. Obama and Biden were super predictable.

Though you're a lot more likely to fry your phone than electrocute yourself, I always tested my USB chargers and adapters with one of these: This is a Lazada ad (85 baht), but they're all over online. (Very hard to find in bricks and mortar shops, though). There's a wide variety with different price points. I like the ones that record mA-hrs like this one so I can see how much it's taking to charge up the batteries over time. And some cables are wienie and charge up much slower. Some only show volts and amps. My favorite was the Uni-T brand, but that's just because I have always had good luck with their multimeters in China and Thailand. TBH, I don't know if these will test for a direct short to the mains, since they're designed to test from one leg to another. Maybe someone in the know can chime in?

It's already imploding after Trump won 2024. Now some high profile Dems are claiming Musk rigged the machines. The absolutely invulnerable machines that cannot possibly connect to the interwebs.

I don't have an opinion of its value, but I suspect it's a lot lower today with all the other options that they have opened up in the past couple of years. In fact, I recall a couple of fairly recent threads where some Elite Visa holders were rather angry that they had paid so much and now the masses have easy and cheaper options. Still, for someone that golfs, likes massages and gets a lot of use out of some of the other perks, it's probably well worth it. I hope the OP can connect with someone like that. Seems like a win-win.

And then a few months later, someone in a Georgia court proved that Fox were basically right. The machines can be hacked. Fairly easily. But that's the nature of settling before trial. I'm sure they agreed to not ask for their money back.

Not that I'm in the market for a mansion in the boondocks, but could he rent it out, even for a pittance? Or has entropy taken too stiff a toll? I'd rather rent a place out for next to nothing than let it sit empty and decay. And I'm sure there are Thai people who would facilitate that for a commission. Or some expats in the area...

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...