jas007

They said that the rest of the money will be used to support continuing operations. So they'll need to borrow less each year while still passing some savings through to the taxpayers and reducing the debt by a lie amount. Simple.

Once upon a time, $5000 as a nice little bit of money. Not anymore. Today's $5000 is the old $500, so it's no big deal and I'm sure it won't bankrupt the country. Anyway, I will unfortunately owe taxes this year, as usual, so even little bit helps.

Taken to its logical conclusion, this seems to suggest that there will be no more retirees on any kind of O visa requiring money in a bank. Is that the desired outcome, I wonder?

Of course Europe should defend Europe. What kind of nuts would they be, otherwise? And yet, from what I'm seeing in the news lately, it appears as though both the UK and the EU want to put boots on the ground in Ukraine. Can you imagine a bigger screw up than that? And what do they think, that Section 5 of NATO is necessarily obligatory? There's only one word that comes to mind: delusional.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Maybe you're right, though. I've seen them at Central /festival in the major stores.

If they're banned, what are the Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses I see in the stores? https://www.siamphone.com/contents/news-52333.html

I'm pretty sure I've seen some of those. They're still around. Back then, though, they just shipped you the materials. Putting it all together was your problem. And I think there was a time when an aluminum was all the rage for building. One of the aluminum companies had a kit for all aluminum houses, if I remember correctly. I've seen one of those.

Surely, Thailand must have some tiny pre-fab home manufacturers. It would be a perfect solution for anyone who buys a 30 year land lease. Buy the lot, make sure utilities are available, and install your little house on some sort of foundation. When your lease is up, negotiate with the land-owner about renewal. And if you can't reach an agreement, pick up your house and move. I've seen condos going together seemingly made of pre-fabricated units. Haul each unit up with a big crane and bolt them all together. In America these days, I think you can even buy small little houses on Amazon. They come in a big box. And when it arrives, you just unbox it, unload the walls to expend it, and there you are.

What blows my mind is how a person can even ask such a question. Are people in Europe so brainwashed and so divorced from reality that they don't see what's going on? In the USA, the Democrats did it to themselves. They pushed their woke agenda and extreme views too far. And especially damaging was the push to cancel free speech. Of course, they didn't call that censorship. Nope. They just went with the official lies. Over and over. Anyone who didn't toe the line was peddling "misinformation" and had to be cancelled. Do you need a list of the official lies? Anyway, thanks to Elon Musk and his purchase of Twitter, and thanks to independent journalists like Tucker Carlson, the narrative cracked. Slowly at first, and then all of a sudden. The Democrats were bankrupt,,along with their entire agenda. And so the USA now has President Trump. As for the established economic ties and rules based international order? The country can no longer afford business as usual. Not with 41 trillion dollars of debt. The choice was clear: reform now, or lose America. Americans chose America. Of course, that may well prove to be a short sighted selection, but people were fed up.

Typical leftist tactic. Call something a lie over and over, and the brainwashed masses just might believe it. That little trick won't work too well any more. People are wising up. That's why Trump was elected. And he's keeping his promises. No more business as usual. Fortunately, it's just a matter of time before all the corruption, waste, fraud and abuse is uncovered. And at this point, there's not much the Deep State can do about it. Sure, the left can file lawsuits, and politicized lower level federal judges can issue crazy orders and attempt nationwide injunctions. That's won't work. Trump has excellent legal advice, and those people know how things work. If I had to guess, I'd say they just ignore the lower court injunction. Easy enough. I won't go into why the courts don't really have much power here. Anyway, wait and see. If I'm wrong and Musk has been lying, I'll admit it. Otherwise, I'm willing to sit back, relax, and watch the entertainment . This isn't the "crisis" the left would make it out to be. The country has been through this before.

If you make a few changes, there's no reason that two slices of bread with breakfast should necessarily be all that bad. Anyway, if your immediate goal is to lose weight, maybe you could give it up temporarily. No bread, no alcohol, no seed oils, no glucose no sucrose, no high fructose corn syrup. No junk food.. Just eat meat and eggs for breakfast. Give your body no way to get energy from anything but the meat and eggs. Maybe some cheese. And try a three day water fast, if you're healthy. Once a month. You'll lose weight. Once that's accomplished, then try to keep it off. Add some green leafy vegetables and so on.

Someone supposedly leaked the details of Trump's position on the Ukraine war. It''s a leak, so take it with a grain of salt. According to leaked details reported by Ukrainian outlet Strana, Trump’s alleged peace plan for Ukraine includes several key elements: 1. A phone call between Trump and Putin in late January or early February 2025. 2. A Putin-Zelensky summit in February or March 2025. 3. A ceasefire along frontlines by Easter Sunday (April 20, 2025). 4. Ukrainian troops withdrawing from occupied territories in Kursk, Russia. 5. An International Peace Conference mediated by global powers like the U.S. and China. The proposed terms for Ukraine include: • Declaring neutrality and renouncing NATO membership aspirations. • Receiving guarantees of EU membership by 2030. • Maintaining its current army and continuing to receive U.S. military support. • Recognizing Russian sovereignty over occupied territories. For Russia, the plan suggests: • Gradual lifting of Western sanctions over three years. • Allowing pro-peace political parties in Ukraine to participate in elections. The plan also proposes special duties on Russian oil and gas imports to fund Ukraine’s restoration. However, it’s important to note that Zelensky’s office has denied the authenticity of these leaks, and the details cannot be independently verified.

The way I see it, Trump doesn't want to spend too much time fooling around with Ukraine. He's got other fish to fry, and continuing a the delusion of a New World Order, American exceptionalism in every corner of planet Earth and never-ending wars for the sake of money laundering isn't one of them. If anything, Trump is pragmatic. He's well aware of the fact that Russia has a legitimate security interest in not having NATO on its border. All one needs to do is look at Trump's current plans for the Panama Canal. Panama, within the American sphere of influence and nothing that should concern Russia. That's the reality in the Western Hemisphere for America. Likewise, Trump certainly recognizes the reality of Eastern Europe. Much to the chagrin of the Neocons and the corrupt Deep Spate warmongers, Putin will get a guarantee of no NATO in Ukraine and, in exchange. for a cessation of hostilities, Russia will keep whatever territory it currently occupies. And, Ukraine will pull its troops out of the small section of Russia it currently occupies. I could be wrong, but if things turn out any differently, I would be surprised.

I subscribe to some of these Thailand channels. Mostly, though, once I subscribe I never really look at them. Anyway, sometimes I pick up some useful travel information. Places I've never been, hotels that look interesting, and so on. Otherwise, I don't spend any brain cells worrying about any of it.

It almost sounds like the real thing. Anyway, if nothing else the Trump administration is providing great entertainment.

I got mine the first or second week of January. I wasn't expecting that. Anyway, now I have no excuse for procrastinating on my taxes.

I think you have to do a side by side comparison. Maybe there are some features you don't care about or would never use. I can't say I've ever really done that, though. I just buy a high end phone. I tried a Samsung once, but I missed the Apple ecosystem, so I ended up giving that phone away and going back to Apple.

I guess I'm somewhat of a sucker for electronic gizmos, especially phones, so once in a while, I'll buy the latest iPhone Pro. I bought an iPhone 15 Pro ;last year. I don't go for the high storage, though. Just 256GB. I've used it for a year and it still only used 62 GB of storage. I don't remember what I paid for it. I use it for photos, and streaming music to my Apple AirPods when I'm out at the pool. Those Airpods will also connect to the computer and my iPads and the Apple TV, so it all works together. And when I had a car, I could stream music to my car radio. So I kept some playlists on Tidal and Qobuz. And there's also Apple Play on some cars.

Today will probably be a good day to go shopping for some of your favorite stocks. The markets always overreact and today will be no exception. And even if the downturn lasts a while, so what?

Let's put it this way. If the trade war actually continues into the foreseeable future, the USA has the staying power, not Canada,

Why not just take it at face value? Why should the USA be supporting Canada? And why should the USA not be concerned with the continued flow of illegals and drugs across the border? The USA needs nothing from Canada. And Canada is already in trouble, economically. So they either change a few policies or perish. Why wouldn't that be Trump's thinking?

That may not be the case. I think I saw an article today somewhere about someone running DeepSeek on a Rasberry Pi (a small little computer).

At this point, we're just seeing the beginning of the AI revolution. But they're making. progress faster than ever. Anyway, people might as well get used to it. Any business that doesn't utilize AI will run the risk of being left behind. It will also transform health care, governments and the military. Everything will be streamlined and more efficient. Not only does that make sense, it's becoming a necessity. Governments around the world are going broke trying to support business as usual. As things progress, people will lose their jobs. That much is obvious. On the bright side, if AI adoption is deflationary, maybe all the displaced workers can be taken care of, one way or another. Governments won't be wasting so much money on bloated bureaucracies, waste and fraud, and will be better able to handle the needs of all the displaced workers.

In my condo, I occasionally see signs in the lobby about condo renovation in certain units. They apologize for any noise or inconvenience, and they say the construction will be done between 9 AM and 5 PM. Something like that. That seems reasonable. It goes with living in a condo.

That will never happen. A few planeloads at a time? Imagine how long that will take. The bad guys will be gone. The rest will eventually get sone sort of amnesty.