Hanaguma

England was one of the first countries to legally END slavery. The Royal Navy fought the trade, and lost 2,000 sailors in the process. Ditto piracy. "Colonialization"? Not sure what that is. But yes you can see how terribly some of the former colonies are doing- Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong...

As a far right conservative myself, I am getting sick of this political theatre. Fully 90% of the GOP supports McCarthy, that should be enough to get him into the big chair and let him run the place. Then get on with the business of holding the Biden administration accountable for their actions. Letting petty personal grievances get in the way is what the Dutch call "ant f...king". Spending waaaay too much time on insignificant issues. Embarrassing.

Like the space and light, but... Is it just me, or is it weird to have a toilet directly accessing the kitchen? I have visions of toilet sounds (and even worse, odors) wafting into the kitchen as someone is preparing a nice meal. "Darling, could you pass the...BRRRRRAPPPPP!" Maybe better to use the space as a pantry.

Lovely. Now, is there infrastructure to support them and the increased drain on the grid? Where does the electricity come from? Are there facilities to deal with old batteries? Are emergency services equipped to deal with the toxic fumes and mess caused when the batteries rupture?

Embarrassing. I wonder if his district has any kind of recall mechanism that could be used? Failing that, other members of Congress should simply shun him. No chats, no greetings other than a curt nod and one word "morning", "'night". Certainly no socializing or buddy-buddy time. Remove him from the perqs of being in Sodom on the Potomac.

Yeah, poor Harry probably can't head down to the local Rub n Tug for a little stress relief without being noticed. Megs was just another mid-thirties childless unmarried woman seeking stability and fame. Her acting career was going nowhere, she was getting perilously close to her "sell by" date by Hollywood standards. So, hook up with helpless Harry (even though she was still living with another guy), throw him some quality horizontal happiness, and the rest is history.

She must be one helluva tornado between the sheets...

Like so many times when a despot leader is in power, the question arises, "now what?" Say Kim is "removed" from power. Who takes over the North? His lunatic sister? Next, what happens to the economy/society in the North? If it descends into chaos, it will inevitably flow over the border into South Korea. That will shatter the South's economy as they struggle to deal with untold numbers of refugees streaming in from the north. From what I have read, the South Korean leadership really doesnt want that to happen. They are hoping for a gradual end game where the North finally succumbs and some pragmatic leaders emerge.

...or perhaps they are undercutting the wages that a legal resident would have to be paid? Which does nobody any good. ...and is also why my solution would be effective. Simply keep people in detention until their final status is determined. Don't let them wander the country freely. Remove the financial incentive.

If Kamala won't go to the border, then the border will come to Kamala.

Nice try, won't fly. The problem is that Afghanis can't change the system themselves, and won't accept outside aid to change either. A real no win situation. Similar to when police arrive at a domestic violence call. A man is beating a woman so the police peel the guy off of her. Then, she starts hitting THE POLICE, screaming "let my man be!". You can't drag people into the 21st century from the 14th unless they are at least somewhat willing to be dragged. If you want to get through to the Taliban, perhaps cutting off international aid for a start? Or at least make receiving aid conditional on meeting certain human rights targets. Half the national economy is foreign aid. Farmers can't feed themselves. The only viable industry is 'poppies'. Nobody knows where aid goes- there is no accountability or clarity. Until there can be some progress on this, the place will remain a basket case.

Not Bangkok but Chiang Mai if it helps you (or someone). Bangkok Bank, Siam TV branch. No fuss no muss no bother. Nice staff and very professional. My wife and I were both on visa exempt status. What we did was contact an agency to help us get us Residency Certificates. We got TM30 forms from our landlord (we stayed in an AirBnb for a month) and sent them to the agency. Think it cost 3000 baht altogether. We did have to try 2 bank branches though. One wanted us to buy some bogus insurance for 5,900 baht each in order to open the accounts. But the Siam TV branch was smooth as silk. Just hinted that we needed the accounts for a future transfer of a large amount of cash for visas, condo purchase, etc. Dressed well, showered, had all the paperwork printed and neatly sorted.

I have to be honest, you may be right. It may not be for the name change. But then, what is it for? I have tried to find out, the trail has only been opened for 4 years so it obviously doesnt need renovation or improvement. So where is the money going? Devilishly hard to find out how or why Congress is spending so much. Just one rather egregious example of waste that was packed into this bill. It is a <deleted> process that both sides gleefully take part in. Fie on the Republican senators who voted for this- wonder how much in earmarks THEY each got?

You might want to ask Rep. Hank Johnson about it. He is the member who had the earmark added to the bill. Then again, he is also the guy who thought that the island of Guam would tip over if too many extra military personnel were stationed there.

The federal government managed to run a deficit of $250 billion in NOVEMBER alone. The national debt has now hit $31 trillion. With a "t". It is sad that the only time there is any bipartisan agreement in Washington is when they are trading financial handjobs.

I agree. Fair enough. Neither country is free. Better?

Not defending Russia at all, the place is a cesspit of corruption. Just saying that holding Ukraine up as a beacon of democracy and freedom is simply not accurate. A not free country invades a partly free country and....

Exactly. Like Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard...

Defence of freedom and democracy? Please. Ukraine is not exactly a haven of either one. Freedom House rates Ukraine as "partly free", below countries like Brazil and bulwarks of democracy like Tunisia. Ironically, also below Hungary, a nation that gets a lot of stick around here.

This is classic, trying to tie skepticism of spending on Ukraine to Trump somehow. Typical.

What else could it be for? The trail was built in 2016, so obviously it was not in need of repair or renovation. And you can find lots of pictures of happy people standing beside new signs proclaiming the new name. Just admit that it is ridiculous and move on.

Newsweek seems to think so... DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson led the resolution to rename the trail after Obama, saying he was inspired by her "Let's Move" anti-childhood-obesity initiative and passion for physical fitness. The decision to rename the trail was unanimously approved by the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners in late 2016, according to a news release. https://www.newsweek.com/michelle-obama-trail-funding-omnibus-bill-republican-fury-1768635

I would have volunteered to paint the signs and groom the trail myself! How about not naming it at all? Or keeping the perfectly acceptable name "South River Trail"? She has no ties to Georgia that I can see, so it is pointless. But only four million bucks, who cares, right?

Ah, Congress. Release a 1.7 TRILLION dollar spending spree. At 130am on Tuesday. With all of 72 hours to read the 4,000 plus pages. j One last chance for the outgoing Democratic majority to take another deep slurp from the neverending trough of money that is Washington DC. But hey, Christmas is coming so just vote it in and go home. Ain't democracy grand? No doubt stuffed with more pork than a Jimmy Dean sausage. But all is good, now that Michelle Obama will have a trail named after her in Georgia, for the low price of $3.6 million.

On that point we can agree, Trudeau's gun policy is a sad joke. Not sure if I would call $80 billion a "rounding error" though. As I said before, in Canada it amounts to $800 per family.