John Drake

I am surprised that Trump's so-called Napoleon quote on X hasn't received more attention. Just to remind, this is the quote: "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-stokes-alarm-view-presidential-power-apparent-napoleon/story?id=118898574

His stated desire for a cheap dollar will have an effect on expats. I only hope the inflation that results will be good for my SSA COLA.

How about Grok, which is superior to every other competitor. It's not even close.

Wild Don Trump is scaring the bejeebers out of everyone. Including me.

I asked about this in another forum topic yesterday. This article still seems sort of vague about the particulars.

I don't know what it is about the Shinawatras. But they seem to attract both natural and fiscal calamities. Floods and earthquakes. Economic mismanagement and budgetary emergencies. Currency crises. I don't see how the baht isn't at 40 to the US dollar.

Yes!

If the Chinese firms sold substandard, faulty steel, then they should be held criminally responsible.

Thanks for the info. I feared that would be the case. What would be the result of a fast high speed train running along fake steel rails and components? I can guess.

Question: are the same Chinese companies involved in the building collapse also involved in building Thailand's high speed railway?

The US should not go for any military purchase deal with Thailand. The Thais will simply commit without paying and then when it finally comes time to pay up and take delivery, they'll cancel. They're just hoping to string things along with this type trick.

“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”--Lord Melbourne

They should have bought the F16s

In the past, access to markets was part of American foreign policy. In return for supporting the US in the region, Thailand was given preferred access to US markets. Thailand decided to thumb its nose at that through: laundering Chinese investments and companies through Thailand to help China escape tariffs and sanctions, allowing Chinese goods barrier free access to Thailand, providing Russia with cover for eluding sanctions, voting with China and Russia against the US in international forums, and then turning around and buying from the EU, China, and Russia--see Gripens, for example. What did they expect?

For several years, Thailand has advertised that it is doing this. They were warned repeatedly, just as was Vietnam.

Thailand has been the laundry room for Chinese companies to get around US/Western sanctions. https://www.voanews.com/a/more-thai-firms-turning-up-on-us-sanctions-list-for-trade-with-russia-/7987637.html

Why not? Because it's the British who build up the body counts in Thailand.

Maybe Pattaya will not be a safe place to be.

I don't know. My wife and her family are very aware of the US dollar/Thai baht exchange rate.

This is the perfect opportunity for US companies to reshore and create fully robotic AI operated factories.

US biofuels using corn for SAF are already netzero and a renewable resource. The supply of used cooking oil, OTOH, is difficult to collect and easy to deplete. Need another source than used cooking oil, which street food sellers are already using over and over anyway.

Opportunity? Hub of Tariffs, of course.

You lift up a rock and all sorts of creepy crawly multi-legged things scurry out and try to find another place to hide.

It's clear. Look at the list. Southeast Asia is the target. Central and South America essentially got a pass. So did Mexico, Canada, Australia, UK, and New Zealand. I expect in those latter instances that negotiations will quickly lower them to negligible amounts.

During his tariff announcement Trump specifically mentioned Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia as tariff abusers. He is targeting Southeast Asia. To the extent he is doing that and not going after Canada and Mexico and most of Central/South America, I support this idea.