jas007

Jeez. Where do you thin the idea of America came from? And isbn't that the discussion? America. The idea of America. Otherwise it's just a place on the map.

I'm an American and I'm currently in Thailand. I've been retired for almost 20 yers and I've been living all over. Since July of 2022, in Thailand. Why am I in Thailand now and not America? To make a long story short, I became aware of what they were doing with the COVD jabs and the digital "passports" not too long into the whole pandemic scare. I wasn't about to be one of their depopulation victims. And that's what it was. A Psyop and a killer "vaccine." Scare the hell out of the population and then murder most of them with a killer jab. I can spend all day telling you how I know that, but let's just say I do. I've seen the receipts. And so, as soon as travel opened back up in 2022, I got rid of my USA junk any way I could and I bought a one way ticket to Thailand. I've been here ever since. Would I go back to the USA? Sure. Just as soon as I see a bunch of the culprits in orange jumpsuits and behind bars for the rest of their lives, or hanging at the end of a rope. Until the happens, why would I go there? I can be anywhere I want, and, all things considered, I feel safe in Thailand. For anyone not of that mindset, don't be afraid of America. There's a lot of fear mongering about the economy, but it doesn't have to be so bad, especially in the middle of the country. You might not like the weather, but you'll survive.

I think they'd both like for the war to end in Ukraine. It's in everyone's best interest. The bigger problem, and the problem no one seems to want to talk about, is the potential bombing of Iran. Trump supposedly has low yield nukes on standby, and Netanyahu is egging him on. This can't end well. It's not just Iran that will be responding. Trump will be attacking Russia, China, North Korea, and all the aligned parties if the USA bombs Iran. It's going to be a mess, all because Israel wants to continue its genocide in Gaza. Maybe Trump makes a deal with Putin? Trump backs out of Ukraine, and Putin leaves Iran to its own devices? That makes some sense, I'm sure, in Trump's mind. He's no Globalist, and he understands "spheres of influence." That's enough to drive the Neocons crazy, hut maybe we'll get lucky,

But you're taking that quote out of context. The discussion was about America, the greatest place on earth and all that. And I commented about its formation, over time, and the idea of America, and I said this: Capitalism was the name of the game and government was to be limited. At least that was the idea. In other words, the discussion was about the IDEA of America. As originally envisioned. I won't ague the fact that many immigrants arriving during the "heyday of immigration" were uneducated peasants. And that's why they came to America. They wanted something more than to be uneducated peasants. And for many of those people, the American dream came true. For them, America worked. Is there some reason the idea of America should be abolished? Would that make you happy? "Don't worry kids. You'll own nothing and you'll be happy." "And here's your meal of bugs for dinner."" All while the elite have their steak and caviar and fly around in jets or float around on their yachts.

So your point is that the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the people attending the Constitutional Convention were not educated? Sure, many immigrants were not educated, especially those who came during the "heyday of immigration," but the ones that founded America were certainly educated. And, as I recall, we're discussing the idea of America. Why it's important for the world. What's America without that Idea? Another bunch of dirt for human beings to inhabit.

But did they write the Declaration of Independence? Did they participate in the Constitutional Convention?

The 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean only released about 1/2 of the pent up energy on that fault, or so they say. Quakes like that don't happen very often, so the next one could be a hundred years from now, or, tomorrow. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. I would, however, familiarize myself with the tsunami evacuation routes. The have signs posted everywhere along the Phuket beaches.

I think your timeline perhaps needs to be adjusted? You seemed to have left out at least 100 years. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention and all that (the formation of the American Republic) took place well before the "heyday of immigration" you're talking about that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That's when most of my relatives showed up. Like yours, I would suspect. The idea that was America existed from the beginning. I'm not too sure about my mom's mother's side of the family. I saw one photo of some of them once, taken in upstate New York sometime around 1850 or 1860. English and French Canadian and German. How and when they came to North America, I'm not sure. My mom's father? Italian. From Calabria. His father immigrated to the US in the late 1880s, to work as a kid. The Erie Canal or maybe on the railroad. He returned to Italy and later brought back an entire family around 1900 or so. A wife and five kids. I think all of the kids died as millionaires, back when a million dollars was a lot of money. So, from poor in Calabria to wealthy and very well educated in America. Not bad. Harvard Law. MIT, that kind of education. Give people an opportunity, and they'll take it. That was America. On my father's side, all Italian. Rome for my father's father and Sicily for my father's mother. They met in America. Lots of uncles and cousins from that side of the family, and they all did very well in America. I'll skip the details, but again, you probably couldn't make that kind of progress anywhere else in the world.

Have you ever been to America? It's not a homogeneous place, if I can use that term. There are over 300 million people in America, and just as many "Americas." People immigrated there from all over the world, including many Europeans. They brought with them ideas and talent and money from just about everywhere. And they were educated. Capitalism was the name of the game and government was to be limited. At least that was the idea. Anyway, people who talk about "Americans" is if they're all the same obviously don't know what they're talking about. To be sure, a mob mentality can sometimes take hold among large groups of people. People who think what they're told to think and vote how they're told to vote. How many people voted for Harris? LOL. And now they've convinced those same people that Elon Musk is one of their enemies. A Nazi. Fortunately, many people still have some sense. America still has a pulse. Before for the current group of nutcases (Lefties) who seem to think everyone needs to listen to and consume the same propaganda and march to the same tune, America was a great place. If you wanted to do something, you did it. And unless you were breaking the law, it was all good. Want to travel? No problem. Go. What to speak your mind? No problem. Anyway, that America hasn't been completely eradicated. It's still there, although deeply wounded. Do I agree with everything Trump does and says? Hardly, but he was the alternative to what would have become a real tragedy. And fortunately, Trump is now President once again. Perhaps there's some hope.

I just pulled these out of Perplexity: I've played with the WebMD symptom checker, for sure. As for the other ones, I don't really remember what I was looking at but the ones geared towards medical professionals might be interesting to play with. -Docus AI symptom checker -Symptomate -Isabel Symptom Checker at Isabel Healthcare -Patient.info Symptom Checker -WebMD Symptom Checker -HealthDirect Symptom Checker -Ada Health And there are probably more out there.

I played with a few online. I might be able to find the links again. One was more for consumers and the other was aimed at medical professionals. I'll see what I can find.

The Chat GPT thing is just a toy at this point, I think. Have you ever looked at some of the current Medical AI diagnostic bots? The few I've looked at seemed pretty good. At a minimum, they point you in the right direction. I was just trying them out, but I wasn't about to "subscribe" to anything, so I didn't play with them too long. For one, you input symptoms and it goes from there, asking you questions. That continues and it eventually comes up with probable diagnoses, by percentage of probability. I assume that's all based on peer reviewed studies and the data shown in those studies. As always, asking the right questions is the hard part. Finding the answer is simple. Another one I saw was slightly different, and seemed a bit less intuitive, but the results were similar.

So you think the USA is finished before the end of 2025? I hope not, or we're all in trouble. Between the economy and all the wars that are getting ready to happen, you might be right, though.

Miami Beach seems to be a world of its own. Sort of like Palm Beach, but condo ownership there now presents a new set of problems with required re-inspections and mandatory upgrades if necessary. Higher insurance rates, as well, if you can find it available. A lot of the real estate in Miami Beach is foreign owned. Money "parked" there from South and Central America., mostly. I'd say that area is sustainable, at least the high end properties. As for all the regular people in smaller older condos and houses? Maybe not so much. Your friend's $4500 a month condo fees and taxes sounds about right. Half of that is probably the HOA fee.

Unfortunately, human beings will likely skew the AI algorithms for various reasons. They're already doing that now for political purposes, and I'd be willing to bet the drug companies will have a say as to suggested treatment protocols. The problem is bigger than just drug companies, though. Consider the food industry. Look at the mess that's in, at least in the USA. Processed and ultra-processed food. Seed oils. Chemical additives, poisonous dyes. The "food pyramid." It's all driven by money, not health. I'd be inclined to possibly trust AI for diagnostic purposes, but I'd stop there. Treatment is another matter.

I never thought about it, but off the top of my head I'd assume they don't much care one way or the other. They aren't stupid, though, and they have excellent advisors, I'm sure. They probably thought the Tesla stock collateral was more than sufficient, if that's what was used. They probably also thought Musk was a good bet.

I hope you're not serious. Musk's social media is about Free Speech. He spent 44 billion dollars to buy Free Speech. Or do you prefer censorship and propaganda? Does that give you a sense of security? Being told what to think by the propaganda machine? Lots of people apparently need to be told what to think and so that's what happens. It's obvious from reading this forum. Propaganda works well and people are lazy. Why think for yourself when all you need to do is watch mainstream media? The same stories with the same spin are everywhere. It's well orchestrated. Like it or not, there's a lot of data floating around. And someone somewhere will be using that data. It's already happening. But I hardly think the Trump administration has any intent right now to misuse that information. They're focused on streamlining the government. Cutting out waste, fraud, and abuse. And if the Trump administration goes after people who have committed real crimes, why should they not? Why is stealing money from the taxpayers a good thing? You're right to be concerned, though. Big Brother will eventually control everything, I'm afraid. Who comes next, after Trump?

Does that include watches? I have an Apple Watch that can be set up with its own number. You can go out and about with just the watch. Make calls, buy things with the Apple Wallet, etc. It can be loaded Wirth all sorts of apps.

But the mere amount of data isn't really the issue, is it? Without more, a pile of data isn't very useful. Look at Palantir and how they're becoming so successful. For them, data is just a commodity these days and isn't necessarily that useful. What's more important is the relevancy of the data and how that data is synthesized and put to use. While other companies are compiling data, putting that data to good use is another matter, especially across multiple platforms and systems. Palantir has an "operating system" to integrate all data stacks and put it to use. The company has been developing the software for years and they have no real competition. Their software is available now and it works. A revolution in transportation is a big deal. Huge. Tesla will be very valuable because of FSD, which will be in use around the world, and not just in Tesla cars. The software will be available for rent to companies like Uber. Tesla's FSD computers are "edge" computers. Each car has one. They function independently from the cloud, which is better for several reasons, but the Tesla car computers are periodically updated with new algorithms as the Tesla fleet continues to add and learn from new data. Machine learning speeds up the process, and the hardware is getting better more quickly than many people thought possible. There's a big fleet of Tesla cars, and they add more data every day. Tesla doesn't just have data. It has very valuable data and the accumulation of that data is exponential. And there's only one focus: driving cars better than humans. I wish I knew more about this stuff, but I sort of get what they're trying to do.

I certainly wouldn't be selling Tesla here. FSD, Optimus robots, Robotaxis. All worth much more than the current Tesla stock price. I should have bought Tesla a long time ago, but I did buy a bunch when it was around $150 and more recently added a little to that. I should probably buy more, and it looks like I might get a chance to add if the market keeps correcting. People will be selling everything, including stocks they probably shouldn't sell at all.

Next, will we see Tesla buying them both? It might be a good idea to buy some Tesla stock at these levels. Bookmark this post

You still don't understand. That's OK. Maybe you never will. It's not your fault.

I'd consider it, if the price was right. But what's the right price? Normally, it doesn't make much sense for an expat to buy a condo. The numbers don't work out, no matter how you do the calculations. But on occasion, maybe a purchase would be OK. I remember back when they had the Asian financial crisis in 1998. Foreign currencies were soaring, and the Thai condo market was in the dumps. Expats with foreign currencies buying then probably got a deal.

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.