Lacessit

So, you don't think those peaceful MAGA folks will be at polling booths and counting rooms, attempting to intimidate voters and electoral officials. Just how deluded are you?

I am fully aware of the concept of tipping points, having read a short story by Friedrich Schiller when I was a kid. The story introduced the concept of the butterfly effect, over 200 years ago. If I mention tipping points as part of climate change, I get drowned out by a wailing Goethian Dies Irae chorus of deniers, calling me an alarmist. To me, the tipping points are albedo and clathrates. What's yours?

Some billionaires get to thinking because they are a genius in one field, they can be a genius in others. There's no doubt Henry Ford was a genius, inventing the concept of mass production. He came unstuck with Fordlandia, a self-sufficient rubber plantation in Brazil. It was a colossal failure, abandoned in the early forties. History repeats itself.

He's p!ssed off because X has been losing money hand over fist ever since he bought it. He adopted Murdoch's dumbing down model. Catering to the lowest common denominator. Now, just like Trump, it's everyone else's fault.

Following your logic, Musk can sue me and millions of other for not coming on X, reading the garbage he allows others to post in the name of free speech. Please tell me who on earth looks at advertising on social media. It's like the Communist propaganda on Soviet Union TV, everyone just tunes them out.

Gaslighting, more likely.

IMO this is Musk's business model for X........

I can buy at least three things here I cannot buy in Australia. A bum gun, kratom, and a mosquito racquet. Nanny state regulations prohibit all three.

Your post really reminds me of the old classic, " I'm all right , Jack". You know damn well we will both be dead long before it gets really uncomfortable, for everyone except billionaires. Here you go, then.

Apparently the interview with Musk was a disaster, with some viewers calling Trump Daffy Duck, and wondering if he had forgotten his dentures. If that's his performance with a guy lobbing him soft-ball questions, how will he do when Harris comes after him with a scalpel?

You may be right. However, one has to take the good with the bad. I don't try to change any part of my GF's culture, even if some of it is objectionable to me.

The Russian economy is soaring because it is a war economy, and every ruble is being pumped into producing armaments. Its military spending is 5.9 % of GDP. The US is 3.4%, with an economy 11 times the size of Russia. The ordinary Russian is struggling with 8.6% inflation, if official figures can be believed. What does an interest rate of 16% on bank deposits tell you? True, Ukraine's spending is 37% of GDP. They are fighting for survival. No one seems to remember the Vietnam War almost bankrupted America. IMO history will be repeating itself with Russia. Slow learners, the lesson of Afghanistan did not sink in.

True. Anyone who can convince rubes to buy gold sneakers he has never worn, or Bibles he has never read, is a really good grifter.

I don't recall saying Jews were super intelligent, just pretty smart people. Although I suppose I could point to Albert Einstein. IMO Russia can't afford the war now. It's going to take decades to rebuild their economy, and even if Trump lifted every sanction ( which would probably get him impeached again ) there's no Western company that will invest in Russia again, or allow their engineers and technicians anywhere near the permafrost oil wells that are freezing as we speak. Why do you think Russia, a major oil exporter, has banned the export of gasoline? Who is going to replace the Russian domestic aircraft fleet, which is half the size it was prior to 2022? Boeing and Airbus won't be interested in getting their products seized a second time. These are just a couple of examples. Russia has made itself a pariah, restoring trust will take a long long time.

I can remember in Australia a split in the Labor Party on religious grounds back in the fifties. The Democratic Labor Party ( DLP ) coalesced around Catholic hardliners. They played havoc with the Labor vote by splitting it. The schism cost Labor a chance at government for more than 20 years. Perhaps history will repeat itself with the GOP, because MAGA is very like a religion.

Perhaps you know KhunPa, near the defunct traffic lights in San Kamphaeng. Excellent pork tenderloin, not expensive.

You could say Trump is good at delay. Most other guys, doing what he has done, would be behind bars by now.

Australia and New Zealand did pretty well, although the lockdowns caused a lot of angst. IIRC Thailand was not too bad too, which may be explained by the mask culture.

It's inevitable the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans should start crowding out Jews in terms of Nobel Prizes, they have the numbers and some pretty smart people too. In fact, South Korea has the highest percentage of scientists/researchers, IIRC 1.2 %. The world average is 0.5%. It's also worth pointing out Israel's focus is on survival, and has developed weaponry even America is copying. You don't get Nobel prizes for armaments, even if Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. The only way I can see Trump and Vance could end the war in Ukraine is to reach agreement with Putin on what he can keep from his illegal invasion, which will have as much validity as the agreement Chamberlain had with Hitler. Please don't get me started on lawyers.

What help do you think Trump needs? The options are limited in addressing cognitive decline. IMo Haley would have been a much better pick, even though she a shapeshifter just like Vance.

Careful now. The EV acolytes are watching.

What is this "stolen valor" garbage? AFAICT, Vance spent most of his time in Iraq behind a desk writing press reports, then bailed after one tour of duty, ending as a corporal. Walz did 24 years and finished as a master sergeant or command master sergeant, take your pick. Another example of Vance throwing sh!t, hoping some will stick. He'd do better sucking up to the female vote he has alienated.

Mine won't let me. If I try, she says " I can do ".

The only thing I miss about Australia is a grass-fed eye fillet steak from Gippsland.

My dishwasher is 5 feet tall, and 41 kg.