impulse

I think the President has the authority to audit agencies under the Executive Branch. He's a little busy, so he delegated, conferring on his team all the necessary security clearances, as he is also authorized to do.

No. Her tribe stole it from a tribe that stole it from a tribe that stole it from the rightful owners. Euro settlers didn't do anything that the Nobel Savages hadn't been doing to each other for centuries. They were just better at it.

If they had put forth a decent candidate, they'd be in the White House, probably pushing through a green haired guy in a dress to be head of HHS.

Not half as shameful as the Dems who didn't put up a viable candidate, then swapped him out for an even worse one that had received not one primary vote. It was an own goal. Live with it.

I'd bet the cost per minute will be eyewatering until there's some competition.

Not necessarily, especially recently with all the razor stubble. What's that all about?

I've got my fingers crossed for a phone that has a Mini (Micro?) HDMI port and either USB or Bluetooth, to plug in a monitor, keyboard and mouse. But I don't claim to know the power required to drive video and whether that's feasible without overheating, battery drain, etc. I have several small cameras with Mini or Micro HDMI output, so it seems doable in a small device.

Sheryl posited some possible (quite valid) reasons a few posts above yours. I'd agree if there was no question about cause of death and the circumstances, but is that the case this time?

If I knew the guy, I'd be donating. If only to extend condolences to the family and make them realize that he was highly thought of. Not much different from spending money sending flowers to the funeral home, but a lot more practical.

Not meaning to be adversarial here, but how often do you really use that in real life? My take is that my smartphone is for casual shots. Works great. If I need serious photography or videography, I need to pull out the camera with lenses, optical zoom, a full range of controls, and more bells and whistles than a smartphone costing 2x what my DSLR cost. That's why I claimed there's no wrong answers. Some people may do serious photography with their phones... I'm genuinely interested in diverging opinions. (And more interested in why someone would choose a 40,000 baht iPhone than a 25,000 baht iPhone, staying away from the range war over Apple vs Android.)

Read the post I responded to. Here, let me do the work for you: Better stop replying with your maga visions, because they sound very foolish and uneducated. It gets old hearing how low information and uneducated I am. From lefties who have no clue what my IQ, education level, and finances look like. As I responded, there's a 95% chance I score higher in those aspects than they do. It's easy to look up where I fit on all 3 bells curves. There's this thing called the internet.

I think the more damaging reports will be the tax money that was spent to interfere with the US elections and support future Blue voters swarming across the border. The rest of the world will care more about the US tax money spent to interfere with elections in their country. And I don't blame them.

It's fixing to get good...

I'm not sensing they want to abolish it. It reminds me of Bush Jr when he reshuffled quite a few agencies after 9/11. It was a huge shake-up, but they were all agencies under the Executive Branch... Of course, W had a few advantages: 1) He was a uniparty insider, and a legacy at that. 2) He wasn't named Trump and 3) Americans were scare mongered into thinking there was a terrorist behind every tree and anyone who didn't get in line was a "threat to Americans" (Sound familiar?) Looks like USAID will just report to the Sec of State for some oversight, and won't be spending money willy nilly. I'm sure it will be fought out in courts at several levels and taxpayers will be hit with $billions in legal fees as one agency sues another (x 10). But I suspect that smarter MAGAs than me have mapped all that out. Trump learned from his last term.

Here's the smartphone I'd pay extra for... One where I can plug it into a standardized cradle and it takes the place of an NUC (mini computer), displaying on the big screen, taking input from a mouse and a keyboard. And there's compatible cradles and screens in hotels and Starbucks and airports and... Because no matter how powerful they get, the small screen and tiny little keyboard make them useless for most of the computing tasks for which I carry my laptop. And no matter how good the cameras get, I still need to edit the results (especially video) on a big screen. For one of those that would let me leave the laptop back home, I'd pony up the bucks. Or do they already exist? Edit: Just to clarify, I paid 17,000 baht for my recent laptop, so there's a limit to how much I'd pony up to leave it back home... Nothing like 40,000 mind you.

GSM Arena is a great site. Just be sure you specify which market. Because specs in one market (country?) are often different than specs of the "same model" in a different market. They have different Part Numbers, but they're marketed as the same model.

So you don't think he would have made more (a lot more) by toeing the Big Pharma line when he spoke? How many gigs and how much money did he miss because of his stance?

How can the topic not be "improving health care in the US" if we're discussing his nomination to be head of HHS? If the topic is RFK Jr sucks, then you'd have a point. That's what the OP is all about. I disagree. He'll be better than the fidiots who have given us high prices and poor results.

What you're really saying is "toe the line".

So you're happy with the spendiest (by far) health care system with mediocre (at best) results that led the USA with 4% of the world's population to 16% of the world's reported Covid deaths? And satisfied with the "don't look here" attitude when the rates of childhood autism (and other chronic childhood maladies) are spiking astronomically? I'm sure not happy with it.

I'm still hoping for input from posters that may be happy they spent the $$$. I recently had a Thai friend ask me if I thought he should repair his older Apple phone for 8,000 baht, or buy a new one for (I think) 24,000 baht. I conceded he was asking the wrong guy. Reading today, it seems Samsung has released the newest S25 (?) line in Korea, and the pre-orders are mostly around the top of that line. That's what led me to wonder if I must be missing out on something?

I think the Grassy Knoll was the start of the downward spiral(s).

And try to cultivate a sense of humor.

I just wanted full HD screen resolution, a well known brand (for a stable OS) and dual SIM slots for traveling monthly between China and LOS. I passed on NFC, an OLED screen, kick ass gaming, waterproofing and 5G. I'm trying to figure out what else I may be missing out on. I'm looking at the Samsung A16 as a backup/next phone. But I'm hoping that the A05s will last as long as the S2 did. It's still working 13+ years later and I use it occasionally as a video player. It's the last one I bought with a removable battery. If the A05s lasts as long, they'll probably have holographic phones or brain implants before I need to replace it.

I think the most telling statistic would be the percent of GDP consumed by the gub'ment back then, before we were funding illegals in hotels, generations of welfare families, and drag queen events in Lower Slobovia.