impulse

Don't forget the Dems' creamy dream... Free health care for any foreigner who can make it to the US border. Like that's going to end well.

Here's some more MAGA logic: He (Biden) trails among Hispanic voters by 5 percentage points, 39%-34%; in 2020 he had swamped Trump among that demographic group 2 to 1, 65%-32%. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/01/01/biden-trump-poll-odds-black-hispanic-young-voters/72072111007/ Could it be that unfettered immigration isn't what they really want? And not just pandering... Whaddaya wanna bet that seeing numbers like this, the Dems may decide to finally close the border?

Just keeps getting better and better... USA Today, a well known Trump mouthpiece. With polls from this week's news... Biden now claims the support of just 63% of Black voters, a precipitous decline from the 87% he carried in 2020, according to the Roper Center. He trails among Hispanic voters by 5 percentage points, 39%-34%; in 2020 he had swamped Trump among that demographic group 2 to 1, 65%-32%. And among voters under 35, a generation largely at odds with the GOP on issues such as abortion access and climate change, Trump now leads 37%-33%. Younger voters overwhelmingly backed Biden in 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/01/01/biden-trump-poll-odds-black-hispanic-young-voters/72072111007/

Did you hear that? That was the sound of Trump going up again in the polls.

I don't think extremists of either ilk have ever been capable of running the country, at any point. My belief is that the professional political class (who glom onto the gub'ment tit out of university and hold on for life) have made it so toxic to run. That selects extremists (in an evolutionary meaning of the word "selects") Normal, decent, competent people generally don't have the stomach for what will happen to them if they run, against either side.

3....2....1...

Death threats? Anyone testifying against Trump in 2016 could have had world class 24/7 security, compliments of the HRC election team. The whole Dem party for that matter. They'd have paid $millions to keep her safe and able to testify. Just had to to make it personal. Couldn't help yourself. Typical lefty. Referring to millions as deplorables probably cost Hillary that election. It wasn't the only thing that sank her (thank God), but it was close enough that it probably made the difference. Because lefties just can't help themselves, revealing their contempt for any voter that disagrees with them. BTW, the protest was Jan 6. You may want to calm down and take a breath before you post.

Did his accuser come forward the year he was running for president? And did his accuser drop the suit? As I said, it fails the sniff test on more than one level.

I'm sensing some negative energy there. And some denial. Problem with harboring negative energy toward someone is that the knot is in my stomach and they're blissfully unaffected. Often referred to as "rent free space in my brain".

To be factual, it would be "1/3 of voters, including 34% of independent voters". And around 9% of Dem voters. Hardly a small fringe group, don'tcha think? Good news is that, just like you, the Dems will dismiss them as "deplorables" and even more of those independents will go Red. Like the Blacks and Mexicans who are moving over in droves. Tired of being disrespected and left behind.

Catch me up here. Has there been any reporting (or even speculation) regarding the coast guard pilot in reference to his state of rest, how many hours he had flown/ slept etc? Not hard to imagine a guy involved in an earthquake relief effort getting dragged out of bed or exceeding hours and making mistakes.

You don't figure it's suspicious that she waited 22 years to launch a lawsuit during an election year? That flunks the sniff test on several levels.

Agreed, but that goes both ways. It's just as harmful to expend energy hating on the guy as it would be to take his advice seriously. I find his stuff amusing, with an occasional kernel to ponder.

Dang man. Good to know... I was actually considering trying it (supplemental oxygen, not 100%). Scratch one harebrain scheme.

Yeah, when you get a guy with 15 priors and 3 pending assault cases, repeatedly let out on zero bond because he's oppressed...

10% profit on revenue doesn't seem so greedy. 2100 baht ($60) profit per employee doesn't sound so greedy. 1.7 million baht ($50K) per location doesn't sound so greedy. Without knowing how much NCE (net capital employed), it's tough to judge how greedy it is. Looking at a typical Starbucks, I can't even imagine how much they have invested in each store's fixtures (assuming they rent space and that comes in as an expense and not an investment) If investors can make a better return somewhere else, they'll put their money somewhere else. And lots of retired guys in Thailand are living off their investments and quite happy to see the stock value rise. If someone has the give-a-poop, I'm curious what their return on investment (ROI) is. I'm not curious enough to do the info scrounging. Especially since it's a consolidated company and breaking out Starbucks would be a chore.

What a nothing burger. Trump had existing business, with employees, payroll, customers and expenses. What was he supposed to do, kick out his customers, and fire his employees? He's the only modern president that actually left office with less net worth than when he entered. $2.4 billion less (if you believe CNN). That's quite a sacrifice. Makes that $7.8 million look like chump change. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/05/politics/donald-trump-net-worth-forbes-billionaire/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/forbes-400-donald-trump-wealth/index.html https://blog.cheapism.com/what-presidents-are-worth/ Contrast that to Biden, whose family had no businesses, no product (other than "the big guy") and took in $24 million from foreign sources. (That they know about so far) Mostly from unfriendly nations. https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/28/biden-family-associates-more-than-24-million-foreign-business-dealings/

Don't sugar coat it... How do you really feel about Starbucks?

How many average Joes could get on Facebook or Instagram, call out hundreds of thousands of protestors, and actually have them show up?

It'll be interesting to see if the increase sticks (and whether competitors follow suit). Wouldn't be the first company that raised prices to increase per unit profit, only to find out they lost so much volume that they had to reverse themselves.

The key word is sitting... Generally, when I'm in a Starbucks, I'm renting a nice place to sit for awhile, and they throw in a coffee. Sometimes, I rent a cheaper seat and they just throw in a water. I could get the water cheaper at 7/11 but they don't have nice seats.

All good info. Getting into EV's, fuel cells and green energy in general, what worries me is them passing laws dictating policies based on forecasts that there will be more wind, and more solar, and how much more. And how much it will cost. I read stuff like this, and I wonder how that will impact that future... https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/01/us/orsted-wind-energy-canceled-climate/index.html If they mandated EV's expecting these projects to be online in 10(?) years, will there be a shortage of charging capacity when those EVs come online and the wind farms don't? Or if they shut down wind farms during eagle migration season when a different group of greenies protests all the eagles killed, or when yet another group protests the waste when solar panels reach the end of life and need to be disposed of? Or too many whales are dying... All surmountable challenges, to be sure. And tying it back to hydrogen fuel cells, the energy has to come from somewhere. I just hope they don't mandate our way into a crisis based on forecasts that don't come true in the real world.

Good question. Recently living on the butt end of Galveston Island in a community that started out as a bunch of fishing shacks (that's slowly morphing into a high end community), I only witnessed it a few times a year. Usually on the other end of town where the services and hospital are, but sometimes with AirBNB'ers in the neighborhood. I don't drink, for decades, and I'm pretty sure that shields me from a lot of f*ckn*ttery in the bars I no longer frequent, but that's not a new woke phenomena. My sister and her daughter both live near Houston downtown to be closer to their lucrative oilfield jobs. They are constantly telling me horror stories of things that have happened in their neighborhoods and the park they walk to for exercise. And in my niece's case, stuff she witnesses from the window of her high floor condo. Makes them afraid to go out shopping after dark., and a lot is related to "catch and release" by the popo.

All pretty much corruption-free, and all far more prosperous, Join the dots,,,,,, But they didn't start out that way. In each case, a ruthless (corrupt) strongman started them down that path. I'm not saying Thaksin's that guy for Thailand. I don't know that much about his reign. But I sure don't see anyone else that could. And a small glimmer of hope is better than no hope at all.

Congrats on having a reasonable discussion. And thanks. Sadly, rare here on TVF. Hydrogen (and batteries) are storage mechanisms to store energy produced externally. To charge a battery, you have to add energy, in the form of electricity. The battery, by itself, just stores the energy. To break water up into H2 and O2 (Its 2xH20 -> 2xH2 + 1x02), you have to add energy. That's an endothermic reaction. It requires energy. Contrast that with natural gas (or gasoline), which has intrinsic energy that's released when burned. That's an exothermic reaction. It gives off heat. Which can be converted to work in the cylinders of an ICE. Huge difference between space flight applications and automobiles is that in space, all you're trying to generate is enough to run the systems. You're not using the hydrogen for propulsion. It's the difference between running lights and computers and some life support vs driving a 3000 pound vehicle for 500 miles. One requires a few pounds of hydrogen and the other requires a lot more. I'm sure we could be a lot further along with hydrogen fuel cell technology. I'm equally sure there will be technically and economically valid applications for fuel cell technology. I'm not convinced that automobiles will be one of them. At least not until they figure out how to safely store more H2 molecules in a smaller volume. BTW, one of the things I'm also interested in is what Amazon plans to do with the 02 component (H20-> H2 + O2). Will they sell it into the welding (industrial) market or the medical market, find an internal use, or simply vent it? Knowing what little I do of Amazon, they may pump it into the warehouse offices to keep their employees more alert and productive.