impulse

Yup. It takes months to mobilize. And Putin invaded 13 months after Biden took the reins. Plenty of time after Trump left. Are you sure you're qualified to engage in a debate about quality of life in a country that you've never set foot in?

You mean the ones that had gub'ment issued haircuts and earbuds and all wore the same khaki pants? Never would have happened had the DOJ cracked down during the summer of love and mostly peaceful city burnings. Dems even raised money to bail out the looters and burners. Not hard to imagine that emboldened bad behavior on Jan6. Don't you think it's strange that a grandmother who simply walked through a door held open by a cop got more prison time than someone who burned down a city block during the summer of love? Or that cops who restrained a drug addled criminal (Floyd) while he died with a lethal dose of fentanyl in him got sent to prison, while a capital police officer who shot an unarmed woman (Babbitt) wasn't even investigated? Don't even get me started on how Pelosi made Jan6 happen, deliberately. By refusing Trump's offer of Nat'l Guard protection. Because for her cause, Jan6 had to happen.

I'm not going to guess at motives or schedules. I'm just pointing out that Putin behaved pretty reasonably under Trump. Full stop. So, no risk of WW3 while Trump was at the helm. That alone makes his tenure better for the entire world than Obama's or Biden's.

Not the ones I knew. But they are anti-crime. Which seems to be construed as racist by lefties. I'm against criminals, so I must be against black people, (obviously because black people are criminals). And that, itself is racist. But lefties don't see it that way.

But he didn't do it when Trump was at the helm. Just Obama and ObamaJr Biden. And that's what this thread is about... Was the USA better off under Trump? No risk of WW3 under Trump. That alone answers the OP question.

But that's what lefties do. They scream racism every time they disagree with someone. Just wanted you to feel at home. You still haven't answered my question about the last time you actually met a MAGA person or darkened the shore of the USA. Or are you relying on the MSM for your characterization of MAGA?

That explains the reasonable gas prices. How about beef prices, and why did Putin take Crimea under Obama and the Donbas under Biden, but crickets under Trump? What's going to take decades to recover from is 8 million (and counting) illegal border crossers and the prospect of WW3.

The polite term is "lefties". You'll never hear or read me referring to them in that derogatory way. You racist...

And yet, there they were. Pickups with Trump flags delivering groceries, hauling neighbors to doctor appointments, fixing broken pipes... Corolla drivers with Biden stickers? They stayed on the porch and thanked the nice MAGA guys. BTW, when was the last time you met a guy (or gal) in a MAGA hat? Or do you just believe what the MSM says about them?

Nope. When there's 2' of salt water over the roads, the only viable option if you want to help your neighbor is a redneck pick up truck. EV's just catch fire in salt water.

Tesla's don't do very well in floods.

I live in a neighborhood in Texas surrounded by guys in MAGA hats and Trump flags in their yards. They're the guys who were out helping their neighbors that summer when we had 4 tropical storms blow through and flood the whole neighborhood 4 times in a summer. They're the guys cooking brisket, sausage and fish at the church barbeque. They're the guys who organize the neighborhood holiday golf cart parades and the Easter egg hunt for the kids. They're the guys offering the elderly shut-ins rides to go shopping and to get their jabs. So don't pretend to lecture me about the behavior of MAGA people. I live with them. It's especially rich coming from a crowd here, 75% of whom haven't even been to the States since MAGA came into being.

I made my own sausages living in Thailand and now in China. At first, I stuffed them into casings, but eventually decided to forgo the casings and just cook them as paddies. Cumberland and Italian. Looked up the recipes on the interweb and went to an amazing spice shop in the little alley next to Wat Mangkon (sp?) MRT station in Chinatown. Selected the pork to be ground up (in the shop) by fat content. For Italian, a little bit of red wine... Much better than anything I found pre-made, and no preservatives or concern that they may not be fresh, as occasionally happens with frozen food in Thailand that's been re-frozen too many times.

Is that the same intelligence community that pinkie swore promised that the laptop was a Russian concoction?

Let's see... Filling the car was relatively affordable, the border was secure, Russia was behaving, I could afford the nicer cuts of beef, the strategic petroleum reserve was pretty full, and.. and... But there were mean tweets...

What seems to be lost in this discussion about mask effectiveness are the downsides. Like long exposure to elevated CO2 levels, toxic chemicals used in the masks themselves, and the devastating effect that covering their faces has had on child development. Not to mention adult interactions. I still remember how great it was when we pretty much quit wearing masks in Texas, and you could actually divine facial expressions and see smiles again. And I get the biggest kick out of the guys and gals still wearing their masks driving alone in their car... CO2 exposure: Fresh air has around 0.04% CO2, while wearing masks more than 5 min bears a possible chronic exposure to carbon dioxide of 1.41% to 3.2% of the inhaled air. Although the buildup is usually within the short-term exposure limits, long-term exceedances and consequences must be considered due to experimental data. US Navy toxicity experts set the exposure limits for submarines carrying a female crew to 0.8% CO2 based on animal studies which indicated an increased risk for stillbirths. Additionally, mammals who were chronically exposed to 0.3% CO2 the experimental data demonstrate a teratogenicity with irreversible neuron damage in the offspring, reduced spatial learning caused by brainstem neuron apoptosis and reduced circulating levels of the insulin-like growth factor-1 There is a possible negative impact risk by imposing extended mask mandates especially for vulnerable subgroups. Circumstantial evidence exists that extended mask use may be related to current observations of stillbirths and to reduced verbal motor and overall cognitive performance in children born during the pandemic. A need exists to reconsider mask mandates. https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(23)01324-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2405844023013245%3Fshowall%3Dtrue With additional data now coming out regarding the toxic chemical exposure from the materials used to make the masks: Titanium dioxide particles frequently present in face masks intended for general use require regulatory control https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35169246/ Just like the vaccines, it may be years before we have a full understanding of the long term effects of the mask and vaccine mandates.

Over a million Americans died with it. We'll never know how many actually died from it.

McCarthy said he would remove the $300 million for Ukraine currently in the Pentagon appropriations bill and hold a separate vote on the funding.“It would be out and voted on by itself,” McCarthy said when asked about the Ukraine aid in the Pentagon appropriations bill.

I don't have your answer, but you may want to specify whether it has to qualify to hold your 400/800K immigration moolah.

I think the scientific term is "Derangement Syndrome". Edit: And I've always wondered who would object to Making America Great Again?

Hey, it may go that way under a dedicated vote on the topic (though I hope not). But at least nobody will be able to duck responsibility by claiming they always hated that part, but voted for the bill as a whole.

None on my automated list, but several that I just don't respond to. And read only their first sentence. I miss the good ol' days when you could hover over the feedback emojis and know who posted them. (or maybe that was a different forum?) I took a 2 year +/- hiatus from TVF (AN) when I was a Covid refugee with no prospect of coming to Thailand. Decided it didn't improve the quality of my life, especially with respect to time management and the number of brain cells I was losing reading all the gems. Sadly, it's gotten even worse...

Those are Aid Commitments. Kinda like all NATO countries committed to spending 2% of GDP on defense... Does anyone have a link for how much has actually been spent?

So what, exactly, is undemocratic about stripping that spending out of a bill and voting on it separately?

Putin never wanted Kiev, Karkiv, or Kherson. He went after Kiev and Karkiv in an attempt to scare Zelensky into fleeing to one of his many ill gotten mansions around the world. Kherson is on the wrong side of the Dnieper. Have a look at CNN's map(s) Lots of pink and very little blue in the 4 oblasts that Putin promised to "liberate". That's pretty much what Putin has. He's stated that's all he wants, so is it any surprise they're not expanding west? Ukraine isn't getting Russia out of that pink area without NATO boots on the ground, and that means dead Brits, dead Germans, dead Americans and probably WW3. They just don't have enough soldiers, no matter how much money the west throws at them. (sans Poland, because they're done...) https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/09/world/ukraine-war-counteroffensive-maps-guide-dg/ https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/08/06/Kremlin-says-it-only-wants-Ukrainian-territories-included-in-Russian-constitution