John Drake

Better Chinese than Indians, IMO.

Prayuth was better. Now, you're all seeing what real authoritarian rule looks like. Hun Sen model of government on its way to Thailand.

Musk and Vivek now catching hell on twitter/x for wanting to open the doors wide open to Indian H1bs. Waiting for comment from Trump. Who's running the show?

More inflation means a higher cola on my SSA. Fine with me.

Bob Hope Christmas Special 1966

China isn't anyone's friend. They steal/stole technology, dump their overcapacity at below price costs on their trade partners, engage in a mercantile concept of trade dominance, and have made clear they want their political system to dominate worldwide. Maybe you prefer to live in China. I don't. Welding people inside their apartments, without food, access to medicine, and no ability to seek help during Covid is Xi's dream for the future. Not mine.

I sort of like it.

Eight years to prepare for this sort of thing, and the US has done nothing about this and other rare earths. Politicians just a bunch of rogues looting the treasury and hoping things hold together before they shuffle off the stage. Don't care about what happens in 10 or 15 years.

Remain a member so as to do everything possible to create havoc within the organization. But cut all funding. Do the same to the UN.

Just lease out the half empty bases to China.

It's worse than the old Soviet Union. Look at all these ancient, incapacitated old people who have been in charge of the US government. She hasn't visited her office for the past six months, but she has still been issuing messages on Twitter/X. Feinstein, McConnel, Pelosi, Biden. All non-functioning people still directing the government.

Looks like these F16s work well enough. No need to buy new jets.

I think he's talking China, here.

For the "confused" emoji who reacted to my above post, please read the following. https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2022/8/5/us-kicking-russian-rocket-engines-to-the-curb

I saw elsewhere on X that a Saudi girl living in Germany reported the man to the police in September 2023. He promised to kill random Germans. The problem is a Christmas market isn't random. It's a Christian centered event. Who knows what this guy is really all about? It doesn't even matter. It's clear he's a violent nutcase. So why import violence prone loonies into your country?

He's supposedly an anti-Islam activist. But his targets were Christians, not Muslims. It's not as if there is a shortage of Muslims in Germany or Europe. "Why" seems a perfectly good question to ask.

Why would someone critical of Islam conduct a terror attack on a market celebrating a Christian event? Why not attack a mosque or muslim gathering?

I think there's a great deal of truth to this. Trump likes the parties and international meetings. He also likes having adoring audiences. All of which is interesting considering what I just saw in the British press. It seems the UK is sending a new ambassador to the US who has publicly insulted Trump several times. I see the British speculating their man will be frozen out. I don't think so. Trump, for some reason, is an Anglophile and allows all sorts of slights and insults from the UK. I'll bet he let's this pass too. I remember when he spent his first term angling for a reception from the late queen. This is what the man likes, not the nitty gritty of hard political work.

It's not a very good image for a president in waiting to be threatening members of his own party 30 days before he takes office.

Might be a good idea. Nasa has been inept. Without Musk, the US would have still been relying on Russian boosters to get anything into orbit.

One of the things I feared. He's following the same pattern he did last time. Talks big on controlling immigration and restoring American industries. Then the first thing he does is a tax cut for billionaires. All the other stuff is subsequently ignored. Same as last time in office.

The Democrats are just sitting back. Biden, too. It's like nobody is in charge. And the Republicans have hived off and Trump is already threatening to primary congressmen who don't vote on the latest budget extension. It all looks nutso.

Musk has the right as a citizen, of course, to make his views known and influence as many people as possible to agree with him. But I agree that this latest action is clumsy and oafish. Right off the bat, before Trump even takes office, Musk has minimized him. This is pure ego at work. If he really wanted to target government spending and inefficiency, he would build up a case for each of his criticisms. This could end up backfiring and removing him as an influencer altogether. And to blow all your influence on a 3 month budget extension seem ill thought out to say the least.

It's hard to figure out who the Bidens dislike more at this point, Team Trump or the Democrats who abandoned him?

Democrats seem to have disappeared. So who is determining things?