John Drake

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.

It will remove the blinders from many people's eyes who make US policy in the region. Many of them still think of Thailand in friendly and favorable ways. A reality check needs to be followed up with sanctions and tariffs that at least match those the Thais apply to the US.

I would think so. This situation has the added benefit of raising awareness of the degree of Thailand being compromised through its links to China.

The newsman states this is for "working class" areas. So I guess not for Pacific Palisades. People in Altadena don't have the money to rebuild and, I guess, had their insurance cancelled like so many others. Palisades OTOH has people wealthy enough to rebuild and even relocate until their rebuilding is done. A crackdown on single family homes for middle class people, while the Hollywooders maintain their zoning laws.

Fires will make it possible to enact zoning reform, replacing single family homes with duplexes, apartment high rises, and increasing housing density.

Out for a year, for repairs. Also down in 2022. Bad incompetent history of maintenance. And, yes, it made a difference. Newsom himself says,

This is not going to happen.

Who wrote this? The Communist Party Central Committee?

How many of the active insurers in LA are still going to be in business after this?

Back in the US, I used to get oranges from Australia at very good prices. Always wondered how this managed to happen, without any illegals to pick their crops.

Incoming from Trump and the US: new tariffs on 19 billion baht x 2 for Thai exports to the US.

I started first grade primary school in 1961, the same year JFK began a drive for physical fitness in the schools. Seemed to work pretty well for most of that decade. Nowadays, I don't know if it's safe to let students go outdoors for PE or other activities. No wonder they look like little whales.

Do you believe that an American working as a cashier at, say, Kroger's deserves to have a home, a car, a family, and maybe take a one week vacation to somewhere different once a year? Or must they live like illegal aliens, ten or fifteen to a house built for a family of four?

Every now and then I'm happy I brought my wool lined winter shoes with me to Thailand.

Forget odd and even SSA numbers, just shut down some departments entirely, such as Education. Keep energy, however. Need to go through the State Dept. and ferret out whatever ngos have set themselves up there. Lots of military reform to cut--way too many generals and admirals. Whatever is going to NPR and PBS can be scrapped too.

If we're going to get a monarch, let's give citizenship to Nayib Bukele, currently the president of El Salvador, and make him king.