John Drake

You're correct, but it's more fundamental than that. We have too many generals and admirals. Too many military golf courses and country clubs. Too few government contractors, because of mergers, and thus less competition in bidding for armaments. And of course the $650 toilet seats and $7500 coffee makers. Whatever the excuses, they still paid stupid sums of money for pedestrian items that can be got for a tenth or less of those prices.

Notice the Re in Reconquista. It's there because it was a Reconquest of Visigoth Christian lands taken by Muslim invaders.

Should have gone along well with the "condor cuisinart" windmills that chopped up all those birds in California.

A self-confessed murderer should already be under arrest, not merely banned or under investigation.

If the US says no, then Ukraine will not become a member. End of. Membership is by consensus. Each member country of nato has a veto on new members.

Kasparov lives in New York City, although he has Croatian citizenship. Why doesn't he go live in Europe if he doesn't "need the US at all?"

But these are benefits going to providers outside the country. Enrollees aren't the ones who get paid. So what I'm wondering is if this is money going to subcontracted outsourced labor, such as foreign diagnosticians who read x-rays and other tests in places such as India and then send it back to US hospitals.

Why not? Canada has already adopted the EU's let'em all come immigration policy.

If you fear being a target, move out of the target area. Leave those foreign ghettoes where so many Americans seem to reside. Plenty of nice places exist but they're not next to where expat condos, bars, and feed stores proliferate.

The Philippines is central. Without it, the US might as well retreat to Hawaii. Taiwan I'm not so sure about, because the opposition KMT wants a Hong Kong-style deal with China. I would hate to see a vast amount of advanced American weaponry given to the Taiwanese only for them to hand it over to the PRC.

Trump is going to fold on China. Is he now working a deal that will remove US naval forces from around China in return for a reduction in Chinese "coast guard" activity in the SCS? If he does, that means the Philippines will be lost to China accommodationists. Does he want to run up the white flag everywhere?

I can't figure out Nepal. Correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't it already ruled by a coalition of the Maoist-Marxists and Maoists Center Party?

Had the government not extended and eased visas for Chinese and Russians, would this even be a problem?

Simple to start. Prohibit any state or local funding from going to non-citizens. Meanwhile, proof of citizenship or a doubling of property taxes becomes mandatory.

And this is one of the reasons I don't trust Trump, despite the things I've seen DOGE undertake that I like. Trump folds too easily internationally. He did so with China in his first term. And now he's looking incredibly soft by taking up Russian positions on the war in Ukraine. I don't mind reducing US military aid to Ukraine. In fact, the US needs for the Europeans to make Ukraine their project, not America's. But the US needs to stand firm against Putin for no other reason than he is China's foremost ally. In reality, the US needs to focus on East Asia and China and redeploy as much as possible to the Philippines and Japan. The Euros have made clear that they'll not help us in the Pacific, with the Germans, French, and British already moving to accommodate China. So maintain sanctions on Russia and provide some minor material support to Ukraine until Russia loses. But the Europeans need to step up themselves.

After what China built in Cambodia? This? Why does Thailand need or seek the approval of a foreign leader to build a casino in their own country? Unless, of course, their country isn't really theirs.

That depends. What do they export to us? And what do we export to them? If we send them pork, oil seeds, cardboard boxes, uncut timber, and other natural resources, while getting back rare earths, drone components, pharma ingredients, machinery, and electronics, that means we, the USA, are in more of a colonial mercantile relationship with a "mother" country than an equitable trading system. We are dependent. They can get soybeans, corn, timber, meats, and other raw goods elsewhere. We can't replace what they make. Thank you, Bushes and Clintons.

China has the advantage of a mostly homogenous population. They've also had the US and the West give them the keys to the cookie jar for the past 30 to 35 years. And the Chinese population enjoys a high IQ, is disciplined, and geared towards being competitive. I dislike their government. But do not sell them short. Except for the tip top elite they don't suffer from a sense of entitlement--and they will not be charitable and kind when victorious. But it's not Trump that has put the US at a disadvantage. That started a long time ago. Trump didn't create a public school system that resembles a mental asylum. He didn't incentivize shipping American businesses to China and flooding them with American FDI. He didn't push China into the WTO naively thinking that they would become just another game piece in the New World Order. And most of all, while China was building up its infrastructure, military, technical capability, and educational competitiveness, the US allowed trillions and trillions of dollars to be drained into Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East and Central Asia. That wasn't Trump. That was primarily the Bushes and the Clintons, with Obama and Biden along for the ride.

Taylor Swift's puffy, lined cheeks is one thing. But what the heck is "crip walking." This is the first I've heard of it. Another degenerate lowlife variation on twerking? I don't know. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-02-11/serena-williams-super-bowl-kendrick-lamar-drake

Americans were primarily concerned because 5 or 6 million people came into the country illegally and were given money, living, accommodations, and health care, while nobody even bothered to check what their backgrounds were. Americans don't like that and did something about it. Apparently, Europeans don't care who comes into their countries and lives freely off them.

Swift is getting chubbier and uglier quickly. Imagine that face in another 20 years.

Replace it with a chorus line twerking. Ought to reflect real American values.

Can you still get a ploughman's lunch?

Ambivalent

Thai fashion is easy. Just have hiso men and women wear suits two sizes too small for them. Hip, stuff.