John Drake

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.

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.