Lacessit

Trump resisted calling out the National Guard for hours, watching events on TV, despite the pleas of his advisors. Pence was the one who called them out. I understand this much, you are a liar.

Where did you get the idea a businessman who managed to bankrupt three casinos and a slew of his own branded products could run a country? Casinos are places where people line up to give you money. Going broke on three of them takes exceptional stupidity. It's in the DNA of intelligent people to have advanced BS meters. Obviously, you don't.

People like Turing, Newton and Werner von Braun excelled at school. Your claim "All geniuses failed at school" is bending the truth to breaking point. The word you are looking for is chrysalis. In Trump's case, a rectum is the more appropriate expression.

No, the difference between you and me is that I am sane, and you are not. I guess no-one was at the Capitol chanting "Hang Mike Pence" and erecting a gallows. That's the lie you tell yourself.

Not hard to understand why Trump caved. An iPhone costs $1350 to make. It sells for around $2300. With the tariff, $3500. America can't make iPhones, labor costs are too high. Even the dumbest supporter would find it difficult to swallow Trump's evasions.

It all depends on one's point of view. If there was any cosmic justice, Trump would be in jail, and posters like you would be in straitjackets

Quite so. A Swiss guy once told me the currency is best situated to weather financial crises. While he might have been somewhat biased, the latest trend in the franc vs the dollar bears out his observation.

I guess Dominion needs to refund Fox News $767 million.

Oh dear. Trump is always truthful?

You forgot having the highest prison population on the planet.

You're right, edited my OP accordingly. Islamic civilization detoured off into studying the Koran. Perhaps there is a parallel to be seen in the current American cult. It's certainly anti-science.

DeepSeek AI has stunned Western AI companies with its capabilities. China is the most advanced country into research of nuclear fusion. It makes EV's better in cost, quality, and technology than Teslas. China has 48,000 km of high speed rail. The USA has 80 km.

The OAP in Australia is 49,000 baht/month. I eat a mix of Western and Thai food, semi-keto diet. Most of my protein and all my cheese is bought in Macro. I don't choose to stay single. If I did, I could live on 40,000 baht/month very easily.

Saying I know nothing is the classic ad hominem putdown of someone who has a closed mind. With a $36 trillion dollar debt, the liquidity of the US is based on trust, which is evaporating. Questioning of the US markets has already begun. The decline of bonds in tandem with shares is an unprecedented event in American financial history. You ask where people would put their money instead. Gold and Swiss francs are obvious destinations. Americans think of China as a nation of peasants. It may surprise you to know China has a population of middle class people who outnumber the entire population of the USA. It's obvious you have drunk so much Trump KoolAid your capacity for logic and facts has been destroyed, so I won't waste my time with you any further. Bye now.

China has won the trade war with the US already. It spells the ruin of American farmers. US Treasury bonds and shares are declining in tandem, something that did not happen even in the Depression. Investors have lost faith in the US as a safe haven. I very much doubt China will try for Taiwan. The CCP has no doubt taken note of the performance of the Russian army across land when it tried to take Kiev. 80 miles of water is a different story, with American submarines and aircraft carriers lurking.

You mistake my meaning. Discard the OH&S and environmental protections, you become just like China. That's who I meant by the enemy. America has enjoyed what is termed exorbitant privilege since 1946. It has the world's reserve currency. Treasury bills traditionally have paid far less in interest than their overseas counterparts, resulting in lower borrowing costs. When a country pays America for a $100 bill, it does so in goods and services. The US Treasury prints one for a few cents. So what happens when traders lose faith in the USD as a safe haven? Check out the gold price and the cost of a Swiss franc. Most Americans don't seem to realize Trump is leading them into financial catastrophe. There is nothing to stop other nations trading with China in its currency, which is slowly being internationalized to prevent capital flight. If the Chinese take the brakes off, the yuan or renminbi could easily replace the USD. It's only because the Chinese are long-term thinkers it has not happened already. Empires don't usually fall from external forces. Incompetence, arrogance and corruption from within are the usual culprits. At present, I am 15% in blue-chip shares paying a dividend, 5% in a rare earth mining stock. The rest is cash. That's my strategy.

King parrots are quite mild. It's the sulphur-crested cockatoos that really screech.

It's unprecedented for bond prices to go down at the same time as share prices. Usually Treasury bonds are the safe haven share investors flee to in turbulent times. IMO it's a clear signal trust in the USD and Treasury bonds is declining. Meantime, the gold price is at all time highs. Truman's expression "The buck stops here" may now have a double meaning.

Brilliant. So you become the same as your enemy. An economics professor from New Zealand has published a detailed study of the effect of tariffs on the GDP of most countries. Guess what? The USA is the worst affected, even if no other nation reciprocates with tariffs of their own.

I have usually found Australian humor baffles Americans. Far too deadpan and laconic for them. Try this. To Aussies, it's one of the funniest interviews ever recorded. Whenever I feel a bit down, it always cheers me up.

My bad, the author is Thomas Hughes.

Thank you, looks interesting. Is it a spoof of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" by Matthew Arnold?

All of what you say is correct. However, mining and processing rare earths is not like other mines. Iron ore is simple. You dig it up, crush it into suitable sizes, ship it. The only known health effect from iron ore is that doctors in the Pilbara have never seen a case of anemia. Rare earths are an entirely different kettle of fish. Some elements, such as thorium and uranium, are radioactive. Miners are exposed to that hazard plus silicosis. Then there are the acids and solvents used in processing. China dominates rare earth production because it does not give a rat's rectum for its workers. There would be a whole new gamut of OH&S plus environmental regulations to be met if rare earths were mined in America. Unless Trump copied the Chinese in ditching them.

It takes on average 5-7 years to develop a mine, more if beneficiation is required. How cost effective it is, also depends on the ore body grades. No two mines are the same in terms of the treatment technologies required to make the mine profitable. That takes time in research. I was on the ground floor of the first iron ore boom in Western Australia back in the sixties, so I may just know a bit more about mine development than you do.

IMO I am inured to noise in Thailand. Now in the village for Songkhran. There will be announcements from the temple, loud music, roosters crowing at midnight, cats fighting at 2 am, dog packs howling at 4 am. Or vice versa. For the next 4 days, I will only travel in the car. Too risky on the scooter. I will be buttoned up, watching reruns of REBUS and Foyle's War. Occasionally dropping into ASEAN to observe.