jas007

I support Trump, as the lesser of two evils, I suppose. Harris would have been a tragedy, and so the alternative was Trump. Do I like all of his policies? Not by a long shot, but I don't have much to say about it, at this point.

Believe what you want. I think you miss the bigger issue, though.

It's not abut "stopping" viruses, is it? The question is whether, on the whole, the population of kids are better off not being jabbed at all. Lots of people have a vested interest in lying to the public to boost drug sales. And those people can't be trusted. Were you not paying attention during COVID? They had the trial results, but they tried to tell everyone it would take 79 years to sort through the data before release. If that's not a joke, I'm not sure what is. Some judge ordered the information release, and so it was released. But some people didn't get the message, apparently. Be careful where you get your information, especially int this era of censorship and government control of the media. What you read in the mainstream media is what they want you to read. Don't make the mistake you're reading the "truth." If you ask me, some people need to be in jail for life.

Online communities? it's more or less just something to do. I feel like I'm talking to myself, mostly but I post anyway. But if it all disappeared tomorrow, I'd surely find something else to do. There was a time when the Internet didn't exist, and everyone survived. I read a lot. On X, I never post anything because my account is private or whatever, so anything I post would be read by about no one.

You get to think what you want, of course. Did you catch the part of the original post about "peer reviewed"? Not one, but 10 peer reviewed studies. How do you explain that? Or do you just brush it aside because the truth is inconvenient for you for whatever reason. Do you own stock in drug companies? Or are you just brainwashed? Or, maybe both? That would be my guess.

That's makes sense, in Thailand, in a tropical climate, at the beach. I once lived at the beach in California, and I could totally get by with shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops, so long as I didn't leave the immediate beach area. Long pants not necessary. I did work occasion, and I did have to look somewhat presentable at times, and so that's when shorts would no longer work. I notice people in Bangkok are more inclined to wear long pants, especially at night. Some places might not let you in if you're wearing shorts.

I've had jeans with holes in the knee areas, but they didn't come that way. I actually wore them out myself. That takes some doing. It was a sad day when I finally had to throw them out. Levis 501, button up fly.

Wrong. On the whole, the vaccination schedule benefits only the drug companies and the doctors, not the kids. What ever happened to informed consent? Do you think it's right that they tell parents the jabs are "safe and effective" when they're not? You'd probably be singing a different tune if it was your kid.

I never thought of jeans as having a "poor design," but I have had my favorite pairs over the years. Once they get broken in they can be great to wear just about everywhere. When I lived in NYC, though, it seemed like people were a little more dressed up there, but the last time I was back, that didn't seem to be the case at all, with a few exceptions. Maybe there are still restaurants that require a dinner jacket? I've run across that before in that city. Of course, California always did seem to be more casual, so jeans and a polo short would work just about anywhere. The middle of the country? Wear whatever.

Sounds like some payment systems that some of the banks have already set up for tourists. K bank has a card or account you can get by depositing foreign currency. It's for tourists. It's an account that you can use to pay bills and whatnot, but the money in the account is foreign currency, and is subject to fluctuations. So, if you put in US dollars and the value of those dollars is somehow cut in half, there goes half your money. What I need is some simple way to pay utility bills with just the QR code. I would like to use Thai baht, and I would like to do this from an account that is separate from my main Thai bank account.

The country is already in a recession, I think, whether the official statistics show it, or not. If that's all that happens, that's a good outcome. Recessions always end. Life goes on.

So far, three pages of posts. People arguing about Trump, egg prices, and inflation. How long has Trump been President? Things don't happen that fast. Whatever is going on doesn't have much to do with Trump. Consider the big picture. Why not give it a year? See what the trend is. My guess: some things up, some things down. Overall, maybe stagflation. Higher prices but a recession, so the Fed won't want to raise rates. But over time, adjustments will be made. The economy will survive. It's not as if America hasn't seen this before. And that's the best case scenario. At least we'll all still be here.

Believe what you want. If, in your world and the world of the WSJ, we have more than a correction at this point, fine. Go with that. Go hide in a basement somewhere. In my world, everything is still relatively normal. I'm not worried too much about the stock market. I do, however, worry about the bond market and the "everything bubble." The bond market is the Big Kahuna of the financial world. As you must know, it dwarfs the stock market.

So, what's your point? You keep posting the same thing, as if it proves your point. What's your point? That things couldn't get any worse? Believe me, things could get a lot worse. For some of us, things are going great. I just looked at my main account. Up 5.12 % YTD and up 182% for the last 12 months.

I'm still trying to figure that out. He started out with a NASDAQ chart and questioned whether "winning" could get any worse. I replied that the stock market was in a correction and that the real crash, if it happens, will be in the debt market. So yes, things could get worse. The debt market has yet to crash.

I really don't know what you're talking about. I'm not a mind reader. My guess is that the stock market is merely correcting at this point. The crash, if one happens, will be in the debt market. That's the scary scenario. You don't want to be around when that happens.

For what it's worth, new houses are the worst. If you're looking for value, the last thing you want is a new house in the suburbs. Usually, they're made of the cheapest construction materials money can buy, by builders who cut every imaginable corner. I know people in that business, and that's how it works, usually. To be sure, there are builders who know how to do it right, but that's not the mass market.

Excuses for what?

At this point, what is America? Mostly an idea and a dream, I think. It's there and will always be there, but the so-called American Dream may be largely fantasy. Much of the rest of the world doesn't realize that, though. Maybe that's why it works so well.

What, exactly, do you mean by that? I don't "make up" anything. I read the same junk everyone else reads. I just try to make sense of it.

It's probably a mistake to try to make much sense of what goes on in the Middle East. I gave up long ago. As for Trump's support of Israel? Blame Rubio and the Neocons. Blame the Israeli lobby, which apparently controls US foreign policy. Unfortunately for us all, it's not the Ukraine situation that will likely end civilization, it will be the situation in the Middle East. Perhaps Trump has made a deal with Putin about Iran and its nuclear program? Putin gets his way in Ukraine ad the USA can bomb Iran into submission. A win for Putin and a win for Trump. Just speculation on my part, but it sort of makes sense. Peace in the world, for a change.

I'm not sure what more I can tell you about Trump, the US economy, and the US dollar. If you're old enough to be collecting Social Security, you're surely old enough to have lived through what has been done to the value of your US dollar over the years. Or were you living on another planet beginning in 1971, when Nixon closed the gold window? How much did your parents pay for their house? What about the family car? Or the groceries your mom used to buy? Have you ever seen a brand new $3000 car? Or a house that only cost $25,000? Did you ever buy gasoline for 49 cents a gallon? How about education? Ivy League tuition was only around $3000 a year. I remember seeing a new Toyota Corolla in a Toyota showroom in 1973. The bare bones cost? $1399.00. I could go on, but I'm sure you lived through the destruction of the US dollar, just like everyone else in America. And yes, wages have risen over the years, but they haven't kept up with inflation. Even the official figures, which everyone knows are garbage, will tell you that dollar holders were losers, over time. Inflation. That's the culprit. Not Trump. Not Musk. And that's the problem, in a nutshell. Will you continue to receive your US dollars? Sure. They can print those up, no problem. But, and this is a big but, what will you be able to buy with those dollars, going forward? Why are you so eager to label Trump as some sort of Demon? Trump and his team are trying to keep the banksters and the fraud artists from stealing any more of the value of your dollars. The billionaires don't need to make more money. They're already sitting on top of the world. They're trying to save what's left of America. You should probably hope they're successful.

Does anyone know which six buildings have been declared uninhabitable? Someone must know. I think my days of thinking about living in Bangkok are officially over. At least not in any high rise.

Financially, Trump now has some room to maneuver, at least for the rest of this fiscal year. Remember, the tax cuts he wants are part of a plan. In Trump's mind, they don't exist in a vacuum. Will Trump's plan work? Who knows? Reagan tried the tax cut thing and the thought was, originally, that with less revenue, the government would have no choice but to cut spending. "Starve the beast," I think someone called the plan. Well, it didn't work and Reagan himself quickly changed his tune and wanted to raise taxes. But the tax cuts were politically popular and so they stayed. And so did the government spending spree, fueled by debt. The spending spree has been going on for decades. Debt, debt, and more debt. When Reagan took office, the government debt was 800 billion. Something like that. Today, trillions and counting. All that debt is inflationary, and is tantamount to a cruel tax on the people who can least afford it. The poor and the middle class. And you think that should continue? You think Trump wants to "destroy" the economy? You have it backwards. What would he want to do that? Why would any American want to do that? Someone scared you with nonsense and propaganda and now you think the Trump team is your enemy. One way or another, business as usual can't continue. Maybe the debt market will collapse and that will be the end of everything you know as "normal." Or, maybe Trump will have some success and we can all live out normal lives with some degree of comfort. Either way, there's some trouble dead ahead.

I disagree about Trump wanting to "destroy" the US economy. He may well mess things up, but so far he hasn't been in office long enough this term to do much of anything that would be damaging, long term. I think he means well, as does Musk. To be sure, there are those embedded within the government that want him to fail. They want him to fail and they seemingly want the country to fail. However well meaning they may be, the country simply can't live on debt, debt, and more debt. It would be nice if that was the case, but it just doesn't work. It never has in history, and it never will. It's not a long term solution. In any event, consider the alternative. Harris was your only other option, and that would have meant the destruction of the USA, for sure. That was the goal and they almost accomplished it, but for Trump. Perhaps there's some hope. I have my doubts about the eventual outcome, but it's not like I can do anything about it.