JCauto
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Posts posted by JCauto
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9 hours ago, gunderhill said:
They should just accept the death rate and carry on, instead they'll lose more through the economic crash.
Let me just guess that "you're all right Jack!" Because that's the only way you can be that callous. I thought the "free market" was supposed to reward those who are prudent and punish those that are reckless. Instead it's rewarded the opposite behaviour, using public funds to eliminate private risk and abandoning those who need help the most. A trillion dollars in money as a "reward" to those who bought politicians was used on stock buybacks less than 2 years ago. Now they need another bailout? Maybe those corporations shouldn't have eaten all that avocado toast.
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3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:And we know why it's stalled too, don't we?
The Democrats consider their pet pork projects more important than the health of the citizens and the economy.
Oh really? So a blank cheque for $500 Billion for corporations without any oversight or reporting isn't "pet pork"?
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5 hours ago, Nyezhov said:
Ive paid to stay in worse. Euros would view that as five stars. I cant stand it when American wimpout and whine about hotel rooms in Third World Countries, what do you think Ryan and W, that you are in Kansas? You earn in a day what your maid at the hotel earns in a month. You are in a place where there are no such things as building codes, zoning laws, consumer protection and health and saftey laws unless its made up on the spot.
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Get a grip. Never would have won WW2 with this type of whinging.
Always find it interesting when our opinions coincide. But I am curious as to when you've come around to appreciate things such as building codes, zoning laws, consumer protection and health and safety laws? As one of the more ardent conservatives on the board (and one of the few able to make cogent arguments, whether wrong or right), how do you square this with your rabid support for the current administration and their absolute destruction of these policies? We're observing the direct result of the stripping of the USA's pandemic response capabilities and their inability to respond in a timely manner for example.
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On 3/2/2020 at 7:32 AM, Chomper Higgot said:Abortions always have happened, always will happen, the only real choice is are women allowed professional medical abortions are are they going back to coat hangers and poisons.
Exactly.
Another point which the fetus fetishists will duly ignore is that when education, birth control and safe abortions are available, the abortion rate drops precipitously.
Allow me to rephrase in a way the fetishists might understand. Making abortion illegal creates MORE abortions, not less. This is an incontrovertible fact. So do they REALLY care about abortion? If they did, then they would go for the approach that evidence has shown results in a far lower rate of abortions and far lower medical complications. But that's not the real issue.So what is really the issue? Religious or cynical men (and women) who want to control women based on their personal beliefs.
So, given the nexus between religion and the conservative political movement, do educate us liberals by answering the following question:
"If Conservatives are for freedom and less government, why are you so keen on dictating deeply personal choices and enforcing them with criminal punishment via the State?"- 4
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1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:Wonder if Truedeau will start whining about the extradition as the accused is Canadian?
No doubt he will. Canada doesn't have the Death Penalty, and would not send any of their citizens to a potential death sentence as a result as we think it is barbaric.
Don't feel bad though, he'd do it even for you if you were Canadian. Unfortunately, you were born in a less civilized country.- 3
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13 hours ago, allen303 said:Obama criticized the Supreme Court at his state of the union address, for a ruling against him. With them sitting in the front row.
Plus numerous other times at news conference and interviews. Did not realize he had such a hard on for the SC till I checked it on the net!
As for the British lad, glad you take so much interest in the US politics. How is the deal going with the EU?
Indeed he did, which was quite a rare thing for someone who has as much knowledge of constitutional law and precedent. You might ask yourself, "what was this decision of the SC that was so egregious that it prompted direct public criticism from a President who seldom did so?" It was the Citizens United case, the one that opened up US politics to unlimited amounts of dark money.
This single decision is what has led to this point, where there's a serious chance that two Billionaires will be facing each other for the Presidency. Politics will never improve so long as money is what drives it. You need people to drive it, people who have been inspired by ideas. Without huge funding for politicians, you actually need to gain support from large numbers of people, not small groups of rich folk who are also able to amplify their messages infinitely with their unlimited access to the press and social media, which again is facilitated by unlimited amounts of money.
Or are you of the opinion that the rich should be given more rights since they've demonstrated their merit by accumulating large amounts of material wealth?
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12 minutes ago, Tug said:50 50 at best imo I’d rather see Biden for his experience or Bloomberg for his financial savvy I think he would do a competent job love Bernie but we can’t afford him trump has the economy going on borrowed money and giveaways to the wealthy it’s not the right time for Bernie’s ideas
Don't fall for the corporate fear-mongering. Bernie will wallop Trump in 2020. Reason #1 is the same reason Trump destroyed his Republican opposition - he's the only one who actually inspires people to get out to vote and he has a huge base of incredibly loyal voters who WILL go to the polls. This is the whole reason Hilary lost, she inspired only disgust. Not only that, the people who go to the polls for Bernie usually DON'T go to the polls, so this will be new votes on top of the anti-Trump vote. Reason #2 is that the coronavirus is going to screw the economy that was Trump's only real accomplishment other than gutting environmental, education and health care systems and stacking the Justice system with anti-abortion judges so they can further oppress women. Oh, and guess who shut down most of the US' ability to respond to pandemics? If you guessed the same guy who's telling everyone "no problem!" then you're correct. Bernie will make Trump own that and that will be the final nail in the coffin.
And why can't the US afford health care like we poorer countries have? Are they incompetent? Trump gave away $1,000,000,000,000 to the one percent and corporations and has built the deficit to levels never seen. Can you afford more of that? What would happen if the government actually walked away from massive handouts to corporations and building even more military capability and directed some of the funds to address health care, education and climate change? That's what we're talking about. If it sounds like it makes sense, that's because it does.- 7
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2 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:Wondering how it will work for civilians working overseas not being able to have their own health Ins, or retired military on Tri-Care. Will be a mess if Bernie does pull it off.
The same way it works for us (Canadians). You buy overseas health insurance separately (Blue Cross, for example) and go home if you get something serious. Also depends on your status though, if you're an expatriate, then you don't get health care until after you've returned for 3 months to make sure that those who don't pay Canadian tax, don't get benefits. Of course, American expatriates are still subject to tax, unlike we Canucks. After all, freedom!
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38 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:That's what you get when the Supreme Court is staffed with Afirmitive Action individuals such as Sotomeyer.
She's clearly not qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice.
So you don't believe that Sonia Sotomayor's judicial record was sufficient? On what basis? She was eminently qualified based on her judicial scholarship, experience and the weight of her opinions as considered by higher courts.
Sorry to have to explain this to you, but political opinion does not either count as a qualification or as a disqualification. If you have a substantive reason (in other words, one that questions her legal expertise) why you believe this, then you should enlighten us!- 9
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On 2/14/2020 at 3:55 AM, blazes said:
Just to take up one of your points, about "tree maintenance". I have not myself been a planter of trees, but many of my students in British Columbia spent long summers earning good money planting seedlings of pine, spruce, fir and hemlock in areas that had been clear-cut. A year later, maybe the same student would go out and inspect the condition of last year's planting. (Seedlings would, left unattended, be threatened by weeds.)
I remember one student describing his second summer's work checking for the seedling's health. He said he had to fill in his map of the planted hectares as 80% NFG. Puzzled, I had to ask him, NFG????
No fking good.Okay...so there is a certain survival rate among replanted trees, something you would expect. As I don't work in replanting, I don't know what the typical survival rates are, but I'm quite sure they're well known - this is why they were going back and measuring the survival rates. This is normal.
Do you have any other minor quibbles with my points?- 1
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1 hour ago, blazes said:“Planting trees is good, of course, but it is nowhere near enough of what is needed, and it cannot replace real mitigation and rewilding nature,” Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg said in Davos last month.
Ah, such mature wisdom out of the mouths of babes.....let's hear it for "mitigation" and "rewilding".....
As someone working in this field (forest conservation), allow me to provide my input.
Yes, Greta is correct. We are facing several crises with respect to the environment, one of which is carbon sequestration. Another, which receives far less attention, is biodiversity conservation. I would expect that they would address the carbon issue through a technological fix - think drones dropping tree seedlings rather than people with feet on the ground. And indeed, this would be a pretty good idea as trees don't require a lot of maintenance and this would be far more efficient in terms of costs and in terms of reaching remote and difficult areas to access.
On the other hand, you just end up with a large monoculture plantation forest, usually acacia or eucalyptus or some other fast-growing species (in the sub-tropics, that is). If you've ever been in any of these sorts of "forest", you'll already know how barren of life and lacking in ecological services these "forests" are.
The problem with biodiversity conservation is that once it's gone, it's not coming back and you can't artificially recreate it. This is a critical issue, but one that is very difficult to explain to laypeople. Why should you care if some exotic beetle dies in a rainforest? As we observe the start of the next great extinction event, this casual attitude to the environment ensures that Greta's generation is going to be deep in the stuff we've left for them.- 6
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5 hours ago, mercman24 said:this wouild have been thrown out at a proper trial, you cannot ask for witnesses after you have presented your case, this is a total farce, TRUMP has done more for the American people in 3 years than the democrats had in 8 years of doing sfa. this lot is just as bad as the LABOUR party in the UK, its a vendetta, anyone can see this, this will hurt them big time at the ballot box, serves them right, talk about clouded judgement.
You...you mean that the previous 20 impeachment trials should have been thrown out? Including Clinton's? Because they all had witnesses after impeachment in the House.
It must be difficult to ignore all the cognitive dissonance of Right-wing positions over the last three years. Before - Obama is turning the US into an imperial presidency! Now - Trump should be allowed to do anything he wants if he sees himself being re-elected as being in the best interests of the USA. Before - the spend spend spend Democrats are running up the deficit! Now - largest deficit spending in US history. Before - we're against big government and welfare! Now - increase government power by allowing the White House to ignore all rules and regulations and turn farmers into welfare queens.
Let's face it - you don't care about "rule of law", and you never have. You investigated Hilary for years and spent millions doing it and nobody was convicted, yet call this impeachment investigation a vendetta when several of the co-conspirators have already been convicted of crimes and dozens are on record including under oath to what happened, yet the Republicans refuse to allow any testimony from those directly party to the events or to allow anyone to hear the so-called "perfect" phone call. This is a cover-up which is notable only for its brazenness and lack of any attempt at coherence.
But remember - when the next Democrat President starts using these imperial powers, this is what you wanted!- 5
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7 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:
I tend to think that claims of anti-semitism are greatly exaggerated. Any supposed increases are due to nuanced changes of the definition of anti-semitism, to limit criticism of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.
I lived among Jews in the US for many years and had no problems at all but I am tired of all this PR which is basically used to give Israel a free pass to continue with atrocities and land theft in Palestine.
It is time to stop looking constantly backwards to the Holocaust and to look to the future. High time for Israel to get out of Palestine and give these poor folk their territory back.
This is an example of what we are speaking about. Conflating Jews with Israel is classic Anti-Semitism. Should we be blaming Christians in general for the actions of the Lord's Army in Uganda or for the actions of other oppressive Christian-majority countries? The "I lived among Jews...had no problems" - you missed out on "I have many good Jewish friends". Again, a line you will hear from practically every Anti-Semite. The majority of Jews live outside of Israel and have never visited the place. We don't vote in Israeli elections, we don't follow Israeli politicians and we don't agree with Right-Wing governments in general (majority of non-Israeli Jews tend towards the liberal end of the political spectrum).
This "PR which is basically used to give Israel a free pass" - so it didn't exist prior to Israel and didn't substantially lead to the Holocaust? Or are you of the opinion that the Holocaust wasn't so bad?You are presumably not Jewish, so would have very little idea about experiencing Anti-Semitism, just as I would have very little idea about the day-to-day experiences of a black or transgendered person in the USA. But I certainly would not presume to doubt or denigrate their experience or dismiss it out of hand especially if I were a member of the demographic that they identify the majority of the oppression coming from.
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5 minutes ago, hansnl said:The result of antisemitism in the 20th century, 6 million murdered.
The result of Islamophobia?
No camps, no slaughters, nothing.
The result of Islam hundreds of thousand of Christians murdered, displaced, raped.
Rather a difference, I think.
Hence the reason for Islamophobia.
I think you might research into the plight of the Uighers before you claim there are no camps or other terrible things happening to Muslims. It is literally happening as we type.
And if you believe that the history of war between Christians and Muslims is a one-sided slaughter, then you've got very little knowledge of history.
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So let me get this straight - the guy was studying for a post-graduate degree in modern Korean Literature at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, then for whatever reason they decided he was being subversive, arrested him on trumped up charges, then eventually let him leave after a few weeks.
And this is something that he is being condemned for, called an idiot, and otherwise being insulted on this forum? If you were going to study modern Korean Literature, why wouldn't you go there to study if it had something of interest? I don't get it. -
On 1/12/2020 at 9:05 AM, Sticky Wicket said:
Silence from the Democrats who have been crying their little eyes out over the death of a terrorist.
170 civilians in the plane + 40 trampled at the funeral = silence
Despicable undemocrats of America
So where's the evidence of this? There's none of course, you're just following the rantings of the same people who used the same tactics to fool you into the quagmire in Iraq. Show us one (1) Democrat who is crying about the death of this guy. You can't? Didn't think so.
Now is it a valid and relevant debate to determine whether this was wise strategically or whether there was an imminent threat such that the President could go around the constitutional powers of congress? That's to be determined but is worthy of argument. But nobody from the Left is arguing that this guy was a good guy or crying now that he's dead. Scumbags are scumbags, and at least we on the Left are consistent.
For example, I'm ALL for ALL of Epstein's buddies going to jail, including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, and any Hollywood actor, rich industrialist or scion of the Royal Family. I don't care where the fallout hits, just want the guilty punished regardless of their political affiliation, connections or wealth. You see, that's the thing with principles. If you stick to them, life becomes actually pretty easy to understand and you can quickly figure out what is right and what is wrong, you don't even have to know what political position the person has. Must be terribly confusing to be on the Right these days, having to parse your decades of moralistic preaching and supposed principles with supporting someone who violates each and every one on a regular basis. I think that's why Clinton was ultimately so damaging to the Democrats, they bought his BS and only afterwards realized they were compromising their core principles in doing so. That's why Hilary was unacceptable, she carried the taint with her. I really hope Bernie wins the nomination so we can see whether following your principles and being a consistent and decent person matters regardless of the political philosophy or whether it does not. -
On 1/12/2020 at 9:55 PM, Ireland32 said:
Sounds like USA bashing to me, you cannot think of another country that’s made a mistake, Ridiculous this bashing in this forum
Well, it's kind of relevant since in both cases a civilian jetliner was shot down by the military in the same region with the loss of all civilians on board. Both no doubt were tragic mistakes, and the sorts of things that happen when you have increased military tensions with civilian aircraft flying around. A similar thing happened in the Ukraine, you may recall.
I guess the difference is that the Iranians admitted that they made the error, clearly feel badly about it and apologized. This still has not happened to my knowledge with the USA shooting down the Iranian civil airliner or Russia shooting down the Malaysian airliner. Interesting about who can acknowledge and accept blame, and who cannot. -
djjamie for having finally been proved correct in all of his assertions about the Junta. Or not.
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23 minutes ago, saakura said:
OP, why don't you have a go at the Ladyboy ? Your insecurity about being touched by a LB suggests that you might be harboring a hidden desire to do a ladyboy, go for it.
Seems not that uncommon according to...Thai Visa!
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7 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:
My wife wouldn't ever deal with the problems I had with her family. Her method of choice was to ignore me, and my feelings, and do nothing, and she certainly realised how I felt.
It came back to bite her though, when we got divorced because of them.
That's rough, and a sad experience to have to go through. You have my sympathies.
On the other hand, I do know numerous Thai-Farang marriages that are strong and have lasted quite some time. Certainly one aspect of that is that the bond between husband and wife is strong and enables the communication that avoids these sorts of misunderstandings. Another aspect I've noticed is that many of these Farangs came here from a development aid background, hence received advance training in terms of cultural acclimatization and language, and met most of their wives through their work experiences as opposed to bars. As a result, they were more attuned to and cognizant of the differences in the family culture and were better able to carve out the kind of personal space required while maintaining good relations with the Thai family. Certainly they needed to be a bit tough sometimes, but so long as the communication and commitment was there, there was a solution to be found.But it's kind of like the situation where certain people are having fights with everyone in their family or work group. At some point you realize that the common denominator is that person. When you find yourself continually at odds with Thai people, the Thai family, the Thai way of doing things and you're living here in Thailand, you might want to step back and readjust your compass.
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29 minutes ago, mogandave said:
When your buddy gets drunk does he fondle your butt?
I think there is a big difference between an affectionate hug, squeeze on the arm or shoulder, and a squeeze on the butt.
In any event, the ladyboy is not touching him to show affection, he is doing it for no other reason than to antagonize him.
First of all, the OP talked numerous times about how it's the arm grabbing that riles him, he only mentioned being touched on the butt once, and that was possibly incidental. So no, it's pretty much the same thing.
I can understand that some people are very uncomfortable about physical contact with others, even those of the opposite sex. My experience with people like this is that this is quite deep-seated. So I can sympathize in that respect. My question was more to the point of whether this was a general aversion to physical contact or whether it is connected to the sexuality of the person touching them as it narrows the issue.
In any case, I see this as more of a culture clash than anything else. I don't think he specifically intends to antagonize you, that's just his nature and I've seen it often in the way Ladyboys tend to behave. Whether this is a societal norm or one that people of that gender tend towards I don't know. But certainly his wife ought to be a bit more sensitive and should intervene if she understands how much this annoys him by taking the brother aside and letting him know how to better behave around her hubby. Perhaps there is some lack of communication in that regard such that she doesn't realize how much this is bothering him.
As to the neanderthals suggesting that he ought to play Billy Big Balls and bash the brother, I wonder how often these internet warriors act on these juvenile impulses? Getting into a physical confrontation with Thais of any stripe tends to lead one to becoming the subject of a Thai Visa thread of your own, with accompanying blood and video. And as to the mighty "my way or the highway" Alpha Males ruling their castles with an iron fist, just remember that this is merely one of the steps of a long-trodden and well-worn paths that ends with a sob story about divorce, betrayal and loss of your assets.
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Quick question - if the BIL were a macho kind of guy with lots of girlfriends, but also still a bit touchy in terms of liking to grab your arm when you catch up, would you have reacted similarly?
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On 2/16/2017 at 1:27 AM, Bassosa said:
What's your opinion on all the people in the blog post comments and their, quite terrifying, experiences?
They're making it up?
Entitled backpackers who wouldn't hesitate to spice up their stories to gain traffic. Klueless Kate and Muppet Mark. Their observations on the local people and culture demonstrate that they don't know what's going on around them, hence they'd make perfect targets for the ill-intentioned.
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On 9/2/2014 at 2:32 AM, davidst01 said:
Hi mike2011 do you own a bar or do you have a vested interested in snookeyville? It sounds like you do.
I was sober and got whacked by 3 guys on a beach at 5pm trying to rob me. I ended up having a 7 hour operation on my face.
It is a dodgy place. All you have to do is to google it and look for evidence...
Yes davidst01, he owns a bar - pretty much all of us who haven't been mugged do. In fact, it's one of our sources of income, robbing patrons after they leave for home.
Look, I get it, you had a bad experience and got robbed. It's unfortunate and no doubt quite unpleasant, especially if you had to get a 7-hour operation on your face. Yet there are thousands of people who have gone to SHV and never even had someone be rude to them, never mind threaten them. I have been dozens of times, no problem ever. Mind you, I've been all over Southeast Asia and never have been threatened or had a fight or got robbed or anything else of the sort. It does seem to happen to some few unfortunate souls who for whatever reason are more prone to this. Perhaps they might ask themselves "why?" if it has happened more than once.
And I'll admit that my being a large farang doesn't hurt in this regard, but I've seen more than enough videos of large farang who thought they'd be able to crack a few Thai skulls who discover that being Billy Big <deleted> doesn't work out so well when the opponents don't care to engage one on one. My MO is being nice to people and speaking their language, it's never failed me yet.
Pakistan worshippers clash with police trying to enforce coronavirus lockdown
in World News
Posted
I guess they will be given a cruel introduction to the "theory" of evolution. Perhaps they ought to look up the meaning of "Darwinism".