Silencer

Phoenix from the ashes.....Trump wins. Amazing.

The undecideds and independents in a few states will decide the election, that is all that matters. Since both candidates are disasters, especially given the size of the US and potential pool, undecided voters have to look at these two and decide which can they tolerate more. If Harris wins, there is a chance she's in charge for 8 years, following a predictable domestic and foreign policy path. If Trump wins, much more unpredictable outcomes, but he can only govern for 4 years. Do they lean Trump and hope the next 4 years they survive, or Harris and same old same old for 4 years, and potentially, 8 years. How they answer that question for themselves will decide the election.

My home currency is the US$. My non-financial solution for all the ups-downs of the exchange rates is this. It was easy to remember (and calculate) when the dollar to baht exchange rate was near 30 during one of my pre retirement trips.. So, for many many years after that, up to today, I have used the 30:1 ratio for rough calculations for large purchases, and always come out ahead in what the actual USD cost was. When over 35 or 36...thats a major large transfer signal (last transfer in July at 36.5). This way I dont get worked up between the ups and down between the 31-35 exchange rate. This strategy might work for others (set your own bottom number that works for you) and it will save some heartache during the swings.

You are going to find few details from any candidate when you have two minutes to answer a question. High level goals, sure, not policy details, and therefore too little information to compare in this debate format. You can contrast yourself and that happened with (Abortion, Climate change, National security, Healthcare, Tarrifs, etc) but some details on policy can only be found on campaign websites and campaign literature. Besides, Harris had two major goals, to let the bombastic Trump out of the box (therefore missing all his opportunities to speak about things he should have spoken about instead) and introducing herself as a viable Presidential candidate who is still new to the majority of Americans. Trump had an opportunity to make this a policy discussion but people wanting to murder babies after birth, immigrants and their diet, crowd sizes, using Orban as a job reference, is where he went instead. You want policy details and comparisons, voters need to dig much deeper. Give them 5 minutes to discuss a topic, then yes. However, politicians will quickly shift to what they want to talk about. There should be some buzzer that sounds when they do! 🙂

Clearly Harris teed Trump up to fail in this debate and he did spectacularly fail. Actually embarrassed himself on severl occasions. That won't change any MAGA minds. There are about 200,000 undecided voters in several crucial states, those are the only votes that matter now. She may have put North Carolina back in play as well, especially with a very tainted Republicn candidate running for Governor and down 10% at this stage. So, Dems and Reps can piss into the wind all they want but its those 200,000 (+/-) undecided voters who will elect the next President. Score one for Harris but this thing is tight.

So the incident was investigated and the dogs said not to be in danger and well cared for and in good health. She found a humane solution to care for the dogs while protecting people from potential danger at night (read article above). Win-win for all animals, dogs and humans. This type of thing only highlights that when local and national laws are non-existent, or certainly not enforced routinely, then locals will come up with their own solutions, some good, some bad, or somewhere in between. It's unfortunate that there is not a local or national solution so individuals would not need to make their own solutions.

Let's see. Trump has...called former President George Bush (WW2) and former Sen. McCain (Vietnam) "losers" for being shot down. He called those who fought on D-Day "suckers" for participating in a war that had no personal gain for them and "losers" for being killed. Then he criticized Gen. Milley for having a wounded veteran sing the national anthem at his ceremony to become Chief of the Joint Chiefs asking "why would you have someone like that" at your ceremony. Lastly he avoided the cemetery (on right, it was the weather!) in Normandy (filled with losers) and avoided a photo with an soldier amputee. Tell me again how proud and respectful Trump is to soldiers and veterans? The Arlington Cemetery is blown up but his campaign were told no photos to be used for political purposes. -

Certainly vision was blocked for a bit but it also looks as if pickup was driving a little fast. He almost stopped in time. Whether he was distracted on phone, not forgivable, is unknown. Also, although these are just kids, you need to tell your kids to keep looking at oncoming traffic here, you can't assume vehicles see you and will stop whether at a zebra crossing or even a red light.

1.5 hours wait...that is not very long. I've had waits nearly as long for congested airports (lots of planes landing, few taking off), de-icing and de-icing again, and mechanical problems. US rule is up to three hours before plane must return to the gate. The airline should have passed out water as take-off was not happening anytime soon.

You have to wonder, the occasional familes you do see on Walking Street, or around the bars, is this what they expected when booking a stop in Pattaya or was it marketed as a close to Bangkok beach location and they had little clue what the business of Pattaya was.

I never knew arrivals had duty free (departures sure)....my goal is get from plane to immigration ASAP.

I think his name fits perfectly.

Film

The race has moved from a probable Trump win to a much closer race now. The 5-7% undecided voters in battleground states (Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michiigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, maybe another) will decide the election as always has been the case.

Opera