John Drake

Just finished filing my tax return this afternoon. I'm a peon and don't make enough to be double-taxed. But I sure hate filling out that FBAR every year.

I think this is a good idea. Glad to see it. Calling it "Stargate" sounds sort of dopey and doesn't do well to remind us of the last time Trump came up with a silly name, "Operation Warp Speed."

I agree with everything you write. Biden did quite well as far as energy production goes. But I wanted to single out biofuels and SAF because that is one area that Biden let linger with very little development. I'm happy to see Trump include it as part of his "favored" energy areas. I've also been skeptical of windmills (I think they used to call them condor cuisinarts a few decades ago in California). I also think that solar is important but needs to be scaled back from vast solar farms that corrupt eco sensitive areas as well as farmland (put them atop buildings and parking garages and houses). But, yes, the US is in fairly good shape already with energy production.

At which university?

The Trump coins were sleazy. The immigration orders look good, except for the H1B thing. And I'm surprised to see that the energy emergency has a number of excellent ideas as well, including biofuels and SAF.

Until the late 80s and 1990s, this was the way of things. I grew up in Texas and it was not unusual for migrant (true migrant) workers to cross in late August/September than go back late November/December and do things over again in the spring. They sometimes brought their older children with them and they were enrolled in classes at my public school, where they came for a few months, left, came back and left. They had their own schedule. This was the normative system for decades in Texas.

Yes, that's true. But it shouldn't be. My point is that you should not need to be on the managerial track in order to get a livable wage. In the 1960s, someone working at a gas station could own a house (not a big one), own a car, have a family, and afford a decent life.

There will still be H2A farmworker visas to bridge the gap.

Automation can easily replace individual workers doing harvesting. Already, USAID has helped farmers in Central America with automation. It can be done in the US as well. For the present, however, it is cheaper to hire illegals and have the local taxpayers support them with educational and health services. Arrest, fine, and RICO those hiring illegals. Make them operate honestly. You'll see a turn towards more automation. What workers are needed can easily be supplied through H2A visa program.

American prosperity was built on the availability of cheap land and a demand for labor that resulted in high wages. Deporting illegals reduces the demand and prices for housing and makes laborers better off. Win-win. American citizens working as a cashier at McDonald's deserve to be able to own a home, afford transportation, buy groceries, pay for school, and have a family. Illegals destabilize the entire economic construct for family building. All so the Musks, Kochs, WGA, and Chambers of Commerce get rich.

Prayuth was better

Sort of looks like a crash to me. https://www.binance.com/en/price/official-trump

Face saving gesture. That ain't gonna happen.

Essentially, you're correct. Musk is the one pulling the strings, now. And Musk is pro China. Anyone who doubts it should go over on X today and see how many China accounts have suddenly popped up directing people to Chinese social media sites. What did I think was going to happen? All of this that is happening. I've been saying as much for over a year. At the end of the day, with things that matter the most, there will not be much difference between Biden and Trump. Maybe we get some relief from illegal immigration. OTOH Presidents Trump and Musk have said they want to increase "legal" immigration. So, bottom line: going soft on China, finessing and reorienting the immigration issue, going to "drill baby drill" when it's already going 100 percent.

Is this sort of thing becoming a habit? https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40036391

Going soft on China. First the Tik Tok guy is seated in the front row at his inauguration and now the promised tariffs on China "will now be assessed."

And . . . he's gone!

Bitcoin does offer itself on the market as an investment, while, as I quoted above, the Trump coins use a disclaimer that argues they are little more than Beanie Babies. The last person holding the bag is wiped out.

This is the very definition of a ponzi scheme:

Trump is trying to avoid claiming it's an investment. He's trying to sell it as more like a souvenir, because it's a scam as an investment. Read the sixth paragraph down in the link to the article:

Presidents should be focused on reducing grocery and house prices, making preparations to prevent industrial and infrastructure sabotage. They shouldn't be spending time scamming people out of their money for his trash coins.

Sleaziest sob ever to be in government. Never underestimate Trump's ability to engage in creepy, greedy, unethical self-enriching schemes. Not even president yet, and he's already starting with the scams. I've said all along he would be so incompetent in government and betray his base so badly that there will be a Democrat landslide in 2026 and 2028. Now, we have Trump and Elon pushing H1Bs, Trump going kissy-kissy with Xi on the phone, Trump and Elon desperately trying to go around the law and save the Chinese government's social media, which most in the US government say is spyware. Now, he's out selling sh*tcoins, pumping and dumping. I've seen more respectable Carnival acts.

Starmer is safe. The UK seems a placid country to me. The English in particular exported all their adventurers and dissidents to America. They sent the people violent enough to defend their interests to Australia. And they sent their most entrepreneurial risk takers to India.

And as I kept saying, he's turning soft on China. Not just the Tik Tok reversal from his previous stance but all his "we will solve problems together" talk on his latest phone call. Trump is going to betray his base. And he's going to govern so incompetently that the Democrats sweep congress in 2026 and AOC becomes president in 2028. Unless by then Trump has a Chinese praetorian guard occupying DC. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/17/xi-jinping-trump-call

Lost to humanity for all time.