Walker88

Putin is just showing off in front of his own people, trying to pretend he's tough when it is becoming increasingly clear he's a loser, and likely unstable.. While many russians are likely behind the aggression, since they don't have access to factual information, the word has likely gotten out that russia is losing. At least 100,000 russian mothers have learned their sons are never coming home. Getting their butts kicked by tiny Ukraine shatters russias delusions about being a superpower, and since this is putin's war, the fingers will be pointed at him. russians always convinced themselves they were tough by remembering and embracing Stalingrad. This is an entirely different sort of thing. It isn't defense, it's aggression, and it is being carried out by guys who joined the russian military to get 3 square meals a day, not because they wanted to fight for mother russia. putin used to waltz into international meetings late, pretending he is so important he just couldn't get to the venue on time. In his last few meetins, xi and modi kind of gave him a dressing down. He is a small man, likely insecure, and getting dissed by people he believes should feel inferior to him would not sit well. So he comes out all bluster and smoke, both for international leaders as well as his own people. It's a bad way to try to show strength, because it reeks of desperation. He is wounded. That might make him dangerous, but it also makes him vulnerable. Oligarchs are losing everything from yachts to bank accounts to entry into places infinitely more entertaining than russia. They know it's putin's fault. A guy like Naryshkin, head of the SVR, who was dressed down by putin, is a clever guy who may have been making inroads with disaffected oligarchs and other leaders. I suspect that if it looks as if putin really does intend to use tactical nukes against Ukraine, he will be toppled. Hopefully it happens before he unleashes the first one.

The govt is not lying. Do you know how inflation is measured? A basket of goods is put together. The folks who assemble the basket try to determine what the average citizen spends on everything from rent/mortgage to gas to home electricity to clothing to medical care to the Standard American Diet (SAD, a perfect abbreviation) The basket should reflect the average consumer. Obviously some people consume way outside of the average, so they feel inflation more, or less, than this average. Lots of investment banks have analysts who also construct baskets of goods and services, and their numbers tend to closely reflect what the Commerce Dept puts out. Somebody sees milk prices rose, say, 20% and they extrapolate that increase over every single cost they have, deciding that inflation is 20% and the govt is lying. Maybe their rent, a much more impactful monthly cost, is only up 3% year-on-year. Maybe they spend $300 per year on milk, but $12000 for rent, yet they extrapolate the milk price rise, not the much less but more impactful rent increase. Human nature.

You play the market that way if you wish. Just don't put more in than you can afford to lose. The market is bearish not because of dems, but because of inflation,. If you think inflation is Biden's fault, you need to go back to school. Inflation doesn't arise instantly. The combo of money printing to save the system from 2008, plus the spendthrift ways of 45, and to some extent the putin invasion of Ukraine, all created the perfect storm that is WORLDWIDE inflation (as other economies also printed wildly post 2008). Look at how repubs overspend: tax cuts for the Donor Class. Look at how Dems overspend: infrastructure that benefits everyone. The data is accessible. Dems have historically been better both for reining in spending and a better performing equity market. As I remember Paul Tudor Jones saying back in the mid 80s, the Reagan economy was purely debt fueled and began a disaster in terms of the National Debt, Remember the total debt in 1980 was $1 trillion. (Paul happens to be a Dem and is worth $7 billion)

Point out anything that is untrue. I turned down both Wharton and Harvard Business School, and instead attended Stanford. Had several Nobel Prize winners for profs, along with a future Fed Chairman. Yes, got into all three. I have gathered all the data going back to 1860. I also know how to adjust for accounting gimmickry, which admittedly was brought to an art form by Robert Rubin under Clinton. Reagan got it started (accounting gimmickry to hide exploding deficits) When Obama left office the Nat Debt was about $19.5 trillion all-in (no accounting nonsense). When 45 lost and left, it was nearly $27 trillion. Too often the lie is repeated about 'best economy ever' under 45. That is quite far from reality, even before Covid. 45's average GDP growth was beaten by 71% of all Quarters since the end of WWII. After Covid he fell into the bottom quartile. He inherited 4.8% UE from Obama (who had inherited the Financial Crisis and a system days away from total collapse). 45 left Biden 6.8% UE and a Recession.

Editing got messed up and time ran out Should be: If repubs win the midterms, I suspect the dollar collapses. Other than magats, few people in the world---the kind who might park wealth in the US---think the current repubs are anything more than a cult of personality, absent any platform whatsoever except unquestioning fealty to their messiah. repubs have slogans, but no policies, Historically, repubs are worse for the economy than dems. Not a single repub POTUS since Lincoln has NOT presided over the start of a Recession. Not one. Also, the equity market performs better under dems than repubs. repubs are also the spendthrifts, despite their claims of fiscal conservatism what The Village People are to cops and cowboys. That has always been a joke. repubs are to fiscal conservatism what The Village People are to cops and cowboys. repubs give tax cuts that wreck the deficit and benefit the Donor Class. Dems spend money on infrastructure that benefits everybody. No greater contrast can be seen than comparing 45's profligacy (an additional $7,000,000,000,000 to the National Debt, a 37% increase, in a mere 4 years) vs Biden already cutting the yearly deficit by $350 billion in FY2021 and $1.7 trillion in FY2022. A repub victory in the midterms would be a disaster for the dollar and the US.

I think the average IQ is dropping. So much knowledge is unnecessary, so people do not use their brains, and the brain goes fallow. It may no longer be necessary for a student to 'learn your tables', but that memorization aided the brain in areas other than simple memory or calculations, because people developed their own unique ways of doing arithmetic in their head. I suspect writing, rather than typing, also aided the brain, as writing involves thinking, coordination and spacial orientation (where to put loops, dot i s and cross t s). These things aid neuroplasticity.....neuron connections...which is the nature of intelligence. I don't know if it matters than IQs are dropping, as in terms of discovery and invention, the Pareto Principle has always been at play, albeit with % much less than 20-80. The best and brightest will continue to shine, while the masses will devolve into troglodytes, largely redundant and unnecessary. Also, since intelligence may be as much as 80% hereditary, and the brightest are having fewer children, the gene pool for intelligence is being diluted. Perhaps most of the heavy lifting has already been done, and what's left to discover is knowledge that merely fills in minor gaps. Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Einstein, Divac, Feynman and other noted scientists gave the planet the foundation for building just about everything we use today, as well as help us understand the nature of existence. What's left? Better batteries? Nuke fusion? Linking gravity to the other forces? Finding the last few subatomic particles? All of those are incremental steps vs the quantum leaps made by the truly great thinkers. Maybe we can afford to be dumber.

If repubs win the midterms, I suspect the dollar collapses. Other than magats, few people in the world---the kind who might park wealth in the US---think the current repubs are anything more than a cult of personality, absent any platform whatsoever except unquestioning fealty to their messiah. repubs have slogans, but no policies, Historically, repubs are worse for the economy than dems. Not a single repub POTUS since Lincoln has NOT presided over the start of a Recession. Not one. Also, the equity market performs better under dems than repubs. repubs are also the spendthrifts, despite their claims of fiscal conservatism what The Village People are to cops and cowboys. That has always been a joke. repubs are to fiscal conservatismrepubs give tax cuts that wreck the deficit and benefit the Donor Class. Dems spend money on infrastructure that benefits everybody. No greater contrast can be seen than comparing 45's profligacy (an additional $7,000,000,000,000 to the National Debt, a 37% increase, in a mere 4 years) vs Biden already cutting the yearly deficit by $350 billion in FY2021 and $1.7 trillion in FY2022. A repub victory in the midterms would be a disaster for the dollar and the US.

You are probably not an economist or trader, as you do not understand what makes a currency strong or not strong. First, most everyone has oodles of debt. The entire world is awash in debt, now approaching $300,000,000,000,000. Some countries hide it better, account for it differently, etc. Ten years ago one could have looked at the finances of Japan, their debt service ratio, etc., and thought the yen should be a bazillion yen to the dollar and euro. Many factors, however, are at play. The draw for the US, especially now that sanity has at least returned to the White House, is that the US has both rule of law and massive liquid markets. Almost any amount of wealth can enter and exit US equity, fixed income, property, etc. markets, be safe while there, and exit just as easily without restriction or interference. That makes the dollar an attractive entity in which to hold wealth. The US also is a global manufacturing and military power. Toss in the fact that oil and many commodities are still quoted in and paid for in dollars is another part of its strength. One more key point: the US banking system, despite the OBS derivative portfolios, is quite strong and stable, particularly because of what Obama forced on it back in 2009. He made banks recapitalize, sell bad assets, and markedly lower their leverage rations. The entire US banking system represents about 80% of US GDP, while in a country like Switzerland, with two major banks, the banking system is about 350% of Swiss GDP. That makes the entire Swiss economy vulnerable to the credit quality of the portfolios of the major banks. The entire EU banking system is about 200% of EU GDP, and the EU solution to 2008 was to have both sovereign debt and banks lean against each other to remain standing (Dragi printed money, gave it to banks with high leverage, told them to buy EU sovereign debt, thus both lowering EU nation borrowing costs and adding "profits" to EU banks.) As for all that debt...$7 trillion of it, or upwards of 35%, came just in the 4 years of 45. That is a rate of profligacy never seen before under any POTUS. Fortunately Biden cut FY2021 deficit by $350 billion over 45's last year, and another $1.7 trillion in FY2022. The money printing the Fed did to stave off financial armageddon after 2008, combined with the wild spending and deficit spree of 45, is what finally let the inflation genie out of the bottle. Obama had to clean up the repub-created mess under Bush II, and Biden has to clear up the mess created by 45.

The economy was great? Even before Covid, the economy under 45 was in the bottom 30% (in terms of GDP) since the end of WWII. After Covid hit, it fell into the bottom quartile. It was also worse than under Obama, the POTUS who inherited a financial system days away from collapse (because of the 2008 Financial Crisis. 45 inherited low UE (4.8%) and a growing economy. He left Biden rising UE (6.8%) and a Recession. Spending was in check? Oh my! The National Debt was $19.6 trillion when 45 took over, a debt built up over two and a half centuries. When 45 lost and left, Nat Debt was $26.8 trillion, a 37% increase in just 4 years. 45, along with the repubs, was doing to the US what 45 did to his companies. Under Biden, the yearly deficit fell by $350 billion in FY2021 and will fall by $1.7 trillion in FY2022. Plus, Biden's spending bill will actually do something useful: rebuild infrastructure, rather than just put tax cut money into the hands of the Donor Class. I guess---in bringing this back to the OP---if I had a concern it is that too many of the delusionists who think 45 was anything more than a self-serving, willfully ignorant, woefully insecure Narcissistic bozo whose greatest desire was to make the US an autocracy with him installed as dictator for life, come to Thailand.

Either he doesn't know the exchange rate, or the 1 baht figure is wrong. Just to get some som tam from a street vendor he'd have to sell about everything sitting in front of him. Forget about getting a room for the night, even in a flop house. What he is trying to do was a common method of travel in Medieval times and how a lot of small scale trading was done. A bit more difficult in the days of Lazada, Shoppee, Amazon, etc. Perhaps he should try his luck as crew on a tramp steamer.

I disagree with another poster who says lots of money doesn't equate to happiness. While it may not directly make one happy, it removes the primary stress that most humans have. It gives one lots of flexibility to do whatever one likes. I do think it is better to earn money than inherit it, as the effort and discipline it takes to become wealthy carries over into every aspect of one's life.....eating, exercise, coming up with new challenges, etc. There is also a certain amount of satisfaction knowing that if one has any material desire, one can just go acquire whatever it is. One can also see a problem somewhere and go fix it. (One thing I learned about charity it that it is better if one builds his own, controls all the money and spending, takes no donations---as they often come with religious or political ideologies---and makes all the decisions. I learned to distrust virtually every major charity or organization, as the waste is incredible, whether it's the UN or United Way or almost any entity save for Doctors without Borders.) REALLY huge money---like Bezos or Musk---would be the only thing that would materially affect my lifestyle, as I would fund my own trip to the moon or maybe build my own carrier group and attack countries that irritate me (just kidding). For about $3-5 billion one could go to the moon. For maybe $70 billion one could commission a carrier group....fully fitted aircraft carrier, Trident carrying sub, battleships, destroyers and cruisers. Of course one could also buy a small country like San Marino or Trinidad and Tobago, get a seat on the UN, issue passports, declare myself President for Life, etc. Actually, don't really want any of that, save for the trip to the moon.

So one person's comment was 'disgusting racism', and a post of yours says 'farangs' aren't liked here' That second one sounds....what's the word??????.......racist. I wonder if someone feels a little insecure, as those 'don't like farangs' comments come up in someone's posts on a regular basis. Apparently that 'someone' speaks for all 70 million Thais. Of course, there does seem to be some Thai affection for all the heavy lifting the 'farang' have done, producing such things as electricity, airplanes, computers, medicine, phones, etc. That kind of creativity, invention and discovery must be called Farang-ness. "It's all positive" to quote another of 'someone's' posts. Perhaps, just perhaps, we should judge each individual on his or her merits, not his/her ethnicity or place of origin. Generalizations are unpleasant. Just a thought.

No notes. I had an eidetic memory when I was young, and still have flashes of it. Galloway used an example (for online dating) of 50 men/50 women, and said the women all go after 4 of the men. Other times he used higher numbers. 96 was an error. Like I said about Galloway, he is often controversial but he has many interesting views. He was spot on when TikTok first came out, predicting it would soon dwarf Facebook et al, as it is the fastest way to satisfy the Narcissistic urge, and short videos are about the length of the attention span of Millennials and teens. I understand your point about working from home/office distractions/time with friends, but a lot of people lack the discipline to work as hard when there are no colleagues or bosses viewing them. Also, once school/university slips into the past, most people build their social network among colleagues in the office. Finally, Zoom meetings can never be as effective as office meetings. People in office meetings do 'read the room'. They read the reactions of people who are not speaking. They read the body language of their colleagues. People structure their own responses to what they perceive will be effective in making a point. It doesn't work the same way in virtual meetings, at least in my opinion. Also, ideas can pop into one's head at any time. Get an idea, go to a colleagues office and spitball it, or go direct to the supervisor. With work from home, one has to wait for the next Zoom time, or send an email or message which might not be read for hours.

I'm not sure it takes 'guts' to have an Incel as a guest. Guys like Maher are self-made and successful. They always accepted responsibility for their own failings, and worked to improve themselves. For Maher, that meant getting booed off stage for years trying to be a stand up comic. He learned from his failings and developed 'game'. Incels have no game and yet accept no responsibility for their own failures. Even unattractive men can end up with lovely women, or at least can find a partner, because they better themselves in ways that make them attractive. They don't blame "Chad". An honest person assesses himself, sees where his skill set lies, and goes about making him the best 'him' he can be. He doesn't make up excuses or join a demographic that is nothing more than a victim club, like Incels. In one sense the internet has done great harm to the Incel type of man, because it has rationalized and legitimized being a failure with the opposite sex. Guys no longer have to self-reflect, identify their weaknesses, and improve themselves. Incel becomes an excuse. Why would Maher or anyone else want to have losers as guests? That's what Jerry Springer or Maury Povich's shows are for: to have losers as guests to make others feel better about themselves.

Flown both on long haul Biz Class trips. Both are good. One recent problem is that one books a Qatar flight specifically because it's a Q Suite, only to find a 'late plane change' when arriving at the airport. Non Q Suite Qatar Biz Class is not particularly special, while the Q Suites are the best Biz Class option in the sky. As for stops, the Doha airport is massive, and the Biz Lounge might be the largest in the world. Generally it's easy to catch a shower, and the food is pretty good. There's a sleep room is one has a long layover, but invariably there's at least one guy whose snore is louder than a Saturn 5 rocket. Qatar also has two paint issues that lead to plane changes and no Q Suite. They had a problem with the paint on their Airbus 350s, and some planes are being repainted for the World Cup. The A380s are nice, but usually they are not Q Suite-fitted. Generally Q Suites are on Beoing 777s and Airbus 350s.

I'm going to take the other side of that bet. China has spent much of the last few centuries finding new and unique ways of shooting itself in the foot. It was a major power a few millennia ago, but then was largely irrelevant when the real heavy lifting that produced the modern industrialized world was being done, Over the last 500 years it was the West that produced Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Einstein, Bell, Marconi, Poincaire, Planck, Feynman, Kilby, etc., even Jobs and Wozniak. It's a lot easier and definitely not any sort of miracle to build a country buying technology off the shelf, or stealing it as China has done. One consistency across time and across all of humanity is that the fruits of success often contain the seeds of failure. China's debt burden is not sustainable, nor is its massive population likely to continue to fall in line as the expectations they built up are continually dashed, and the self-appointed, answerable to no one CCP can even make tens of millions stay locked in their homes. Humans have a few things that burst out from time to time. One is a desire to be free, The US was the nation that first introduced the new concept that all are equal, and set that as a goal. That led to the decline of monarchies and other privilege-by-birth, and even in autocracies---which are merely monarchies in another guise---the masses eventually rise up. Another thing humans evidence is a desire to control their own destiny, not have some external force impose a destiny upon them. That trait brought the eventual end of Colonialism and Imperialism that existed from the time of Genghis Khan until the collapse of the British Empire. China's BRI devastates environments and imposes that burden on people who did not ask them to come in. In Myanmar, under SPDC and now under the new junta, China raped Myanmar of its natural resources, engaging in slash and burn timber harvesting, damming rivers and exporting 100% of the generated power, polluting the environment with things like cyanide recovery methods for precious metals, or strip mining for industrial metals. China even 'steals women' (led by the PLA) so that China's own demographic problem (30 million more marrying age males than females) can be addressed. Just as SPDC was falling, Myanmar---specifically Kachin people---began fighting back against China by killing Chinese engineers and workers. China's success is quite recent, perhaps no more than 30 years old. Some are projecting that into an endless future, while others maintain that whatever the traits of that nation are that left it out of the post-Renaissance progress will rear their ugly head again.

(Maher's HBO show runs Friday nights East Coast time in the US, currently 9am Thai time, and is sometimes streamed on YouTube.) His Friday show this week was one of the best in a while. His interview guest was the jazz great Wynton Marsalis, and his panel was NYU Biz School prof Scott Galloway and writer/journalist Matt Welch. Galloway is a follower of trends and is always interesting if not sometimes controversial. Galloway has a view that the greatest threat to any society is lonely males. On Maher's show and in previous comments, Galloway notes some disturbing trends, such as in 2008, 8% of men under the age of 30 were virgins. In 2022 that number is 35%. That's a lot of unsatisfied guys full of hormones and lacking a legitimate release. Certainly it's behind the Incel movement. Galloway also notes that online dating is great for 4% of males, but a disaster for 96% of men whom women ignore. 40% of college grads are men, 60% are women. Women comprise 70% of all HS Valedictorians. Educated women want an educated male partner who has the potential for success. Too many men fall short of those criteria, and remain unselected by women. Certainly 45 exploited that Incel and loser demographic to virtually bring the US to the brink of autocracy, as the men left behind want both a messiah figure and a demographic to blame for their own failures. Galloway also said that 'work from home is a disaster'. A good quote: "A job that can be outsourced to Boulder can just as easily be outsourced to Bangalore." Also,a work environment allows people to 'learn how to read a room', engage socially on a regular basis, and it promotes personal discipline by forcing someone to get up, clean up, and get to work each day. Maher chimed in that the phone has also ruined society, making people less socially adept. Galloway added that since 2011, hospital admissions for female self-harm like cutting have jumped 80%, and that's only hospital admissions. Being confronted with one's possible shortcomings 24/7 is difficult for a teen female, even if most of what they see on Facebook or wherever is deceptive, and not everyone else is beautiful and living a hi-so perfect life. Maher discussed something I never heard of called 'quiet quitting', where people do an absolute minimum amount of work so as not to get fired. All panelists agreed that in a world becoming increasingly competitive, working one's tail off is the only way one will succeed. Galloway said that the US is a fabulous country if one is rich, but an ugly and rapacious place if one is poor. Maher did a funny piece on the latest apps on the new iWatch, which actually has an app to tell women when they are ovulating. His funniest was an app that changes one's pronoun every 90 days so that one can be perpetually offended. (Maher hits both left and right extremes). Another one (Bill is not a fan of tatts) was, 'this app can scan any tatt and tell you exactly where a woman's parents failed." Galloway also went on a rant about TikTok, an app developed by the Chinese Communist Party that is now more popular than all other social media combined, and that people shouldn't just trust that the CCP isn't cleverly using social media to mold + attitudes about China or communism/socialism or authoritarianism, as well as dissing the West or democracy. That might be a little over the top, but as the past few years have shown China and Russia are exploiting social media for their own benefit. The GRU/IRA used the polling data given to it via manafort and kilimnik to target voters in key swing States with false stories about HRC or dems. Also, China makes sure TikTok is everywhere, while they ban all kinds of social media inside China. I used to think of TikTok as 'that app for people without talent to make content for people without taste', but maybe Galloway has a point worth considering. Finally, Maher's "New Rules" used the movie Maverick to show just how divided the US is now. (I haven't seen Maverick). Maher noted that the enemy in the movie is just 'the enemy'. They are never shown nor is their origin ever mentioned. Maher says, we cannot even agree on a common enemy. We took sides on a epidemic, among other things, and a popular t-shirt was "I'd rather be russian than a democrat". Maher suggested even a Martian invasion would not unite us. Some would cheer if Martians blew up the White House, Alex Jones would call it a false flag and say people whose heads were melted off by Martians were 'crisis actors', Marjorie Taylor Green would criticize the Jews for not using their 'space lasers' to shoot down the Martians, and AOC would tweet "Stop demonizing the Martianx community", and Lindsey Graham would volunteer for the anal probe. Funny and interesting stuff.

Evergrande is just the beginning. China's boom was funded by debt, despite their 'trillions of dollars in reserves'. You can fund via debt when you have pricing power or markets everybody wants in on, but when you are the world's low cost producer---and you have excess productive capacity that makes Lizzo's body look like she grew up in Biafra---debt is an albatross. Property is a rocket ship to the moon, until it's the Titanic (yes, mixed metaphor). Debt on debt, collateralized by already indebted properties---kind of like what Michael Saylor did with his crypto cache, or Three Point Capital---eventually blows up. It did in the US in 2008, but China is worse and doesn't have systems in place to address it, other than an iron hand of the self-appointed govt. Here's one example: China added more steel productive capacity since 2011 than existed on Earth before that. The problem is there's precious few more China's to build, so who is the market for all that steel? Then there's SOE, State Owned Enterprises....virtually all lose money (except TikTok). China built warehouses to store the produce of SOE's who cannot sell what they make. How long is/was that sustainable? China also tries to knock down legitimately successful people, like Jack Ma. Around the world China started its BRI, Belt and Road Initiative. It took much of their reserves, and it isn't turning a profit and never will. It garners resources, sure, but to use in products that end up stored useless in warehouses. Also, BRI smells of economic imperialism and Neo Colonialism, and even if that isn't true, citizens of a country reached by the BRI will see it that way, and they also see their leaders took all kinds of tributes from the Chinese so as to allow China to rape their country and take its resources. The Covid lockdowns have only two conceivable purposes, one perhaps conspiracy-driven, the other more likely. The first is that maybe China knows something about Covid nobody else knows. More likely is that China is testing its ability to control a populace that is likely to get more angry when the Mercedes in a picture on the wall of a house is never going to be a Mercedes in the garage of one's condo. Dashed expectations when hope was fomented are worse than hits to people who never had any hope.

"We understand how you, too, hate that Western construct called 'democracy', having taken power by force, as well as how accommodating and supportive you are of your coup d'etat brothers to the west. Your concept of allowing other to save face, knowing as well as we do that how we justified our aggression against Ukraine is a lie so silly (get rid of the Nazis) no person with an IQ higher than a turnip would believe it, makes us realize abject immorality, wanton brutality, and heinous barbarism still has a place in this world."

Because of a reputation for telling his lawyers to lie---for which they can be disbarred---and because rarely does he pay them, 45 has had a lot of trouble coming up with a crack legal team. This is his team: ---a Florida insurance lawyer who never handled a federal case ---a former host on the far right network OAN ----a past general counsel for a parking garage company Not exactly top shelf talent when you could be facing the rest of your life in jail, or if DoJ brings a charge of 'conspiracy to commit espionage', execution.

While the silly special master temporarily stops the intel community from doing a damage assessment---which additionally jeopardizes US national security (fine with magats)---any new material seized can be assessed instantly. DoJ should go to bedminster and 45 tower and search for documents that the initial assessment show are still missing. Also, the FBI can continue to interrogate sources who either acted as informants, or else other people now under investigation because they aided the criminal 45 in stealing highly classified documents, which is a felony. The bureau may learn that 45 moved docs or copies of docs from MaL to another of his properties. If 45 continues with his lie about having declassified everything, he will have to assert that in court before a judge, and since zero record exists of him having done it (there would be a paper trail and signoffs by other agency heads plus the White House Counsel), if 45 asserts that before a judge he would be guilty of yet another felony.

Security is so lax at MaL and 45 is so easy to manipulate that a guy successfully passed himself off as a Rothschild and got to go around the golf course with 45. A Chinese intel agent was able to purchase a membership to the club. Imagine the folks who got into the place, recruited the undocumented alien staff so as to secure access to all the rooms, etc. The Secret Service's job is to look after the ex-POTUS. They have no responsibility for looking after files. If 45 goes golfing or goes out of town, folks have virtual free reign of MaL. Imagine what hostile intel services would pay to make copies of the nuclear capabilities contained in the docs. The nukes might be an adversary of some nation (e'g', what India might want to know about Pak nukes), or it could be russia or china wanting to know what the US knows---and doesn't know---about their nuke capabilities. Unbelievably dangerous. I'm actually getting a little frustrated with the FBI and DoJ for not raiding the thief's clubs earlier. They should be in bedminster and 45 tower today.

I wrote the other recent tatt piece calling tatts a passing fad. Tatts were fringe, despite 'being around for thousands of years'. Then they suddenly went mainstream. If it smells like a fad, it's a fad. Of the tatted here, whether age 20 or 80, when did you ink up? I would guess 70% within the last 5 years and 90% within the last 10. That kind of says “fad”. Let's come back in 5 years and take a second look. I will submit that in 5 years clear, un-inked skin will be all the rage. Maybe I'll be wrong, but I think not. EVERY appearance trend cycles. I also wrote my piece because I read new research showing many of the solutions and inks used to tattoo are carcinogenic. If dying for the sake of fashion gives a person's life meaning, so be it. As for being 'judgmental', the only people who are not judgmental are already in the box or in the urn. Anyone claiming otherwise is either a liar or deceiving him or her self. We are human; we cannot help liking and not liking. We see, hear, smell, taste and feel things that we either like or dislike. For better or worse, that includes what we think of people. “I’m not the least bit judgmental” is a falsehood. “I try to be non-judgmental” can be honest. Another oft-spoken falsehood is, “I don’t care what anyone thinks”. Be honest: if someone says they don’t like tatts, you do care, otherwise you wouldn’t post on a forum. All that being said, we need not judge someone based on appearance, but the fact is, we all do that to some extent. We judge people based on a host of factors...appearance, beliefs, manner of speaking, civility or lack thereof. Anyone who says they don't is a liar. The term ‘first impression’ didn’t spring out of nowhere. Maybe we try to overcome whatever demons lead us into judgement, but nobody nowhere no how is free from having an opinion based on things that are often inconsequential and don’t define a person, like tatts. Ideally, we do not let our tendency to make judgements affect how we deal with someone, but if we are honest, we have to admit many things influence our judgement. Example: if I see someone with a MAGA hat on, I cannot help but have an opinion of that person, and for me, it would be negative. Yes, I don't know all the facts, but that one thing hits me in a way where I am incapable of not forming some opinion. Becoming the sort of 'mind your own business, non-judgmental' saint is always going to be a work in progress. Anyone who thinks they have overcome that basic human tendency is deluding him or herself. While becoming that saint is a noble goal, nobody ever truly achieves it. So re tatts, I cannot make myself like them. I cannot see an otherwise stunning woman with randomly placed tatts or massive tatts that cover most of her back or body and not think "why"? Yes, I know she thinks they look great or have special meaning. Good for her. I wonder if she'll think the same in a few years, or when her skin ages and sags. She can wear in-fashion clothes and toss them out when she tires of them; the tatts, however, are forever. Also, I see many chubby and aging expats who have embraced the fad and tatted up. I cannot help but think it looks silly and is likely a manifestation of midlife crisis. No doubt the wearer probably thinks it makes him a babe magnet, so good for him. Much joy in life comes from deluding oneself. We all suffer a bit from the Dunning-Kreuger Effect. I can do my damn-dest to not let it impact my view of someone, and I actually can toss in the old saw 'some of my best friends are tatted'. Still, I have an opinion that nobody looks better with tatts, and that the recent explosion denotes "fad". Some of your opinions may differ. That's why we have Forums.

I can come to no other conclusion except that the cult lacks the intelligence to even begin to understand the threat 45 represents to the US, its national security, and its very form of govt. It is not only clandestine assets who will be hesitant in the future to work with US intel and provide what is often life-saving intel. Now, even our allies will be much less willing to share intel with the US. They know that a reckless, irresponsible and self-serving clown like 45 is either unbelievably cavalier with extremely sensitive material, or else is actually using it for personal financial gain. There is simply no good reason he would steal and hide, then lie about those docs. Only the woefully naive would not consider the worst case scenario. Foreign allies now know the US cannot be trusted. They will be hesitant from now on, and that will hurt the US. The damage 45 has caused is impossible to measure, but it is severe. The world also sees that there is still a sizable cult who supports the bozo no matter how reckless or idiotic he acts.

At this point, the cult represents a greater threat to the security of the US than any terrorist group. It was the cult that tried to overthrow the government on 6 Jan. It is the cult that threatens FBI agents, DoJ officials and even election officials. It is the cult barking about 'civil war'. We take out minor members of terrorist organizations living in the tribal regions of Pakistan, thousands of miles away from the US. They are unlikely ever to do much harm to the US homeland, while the cult is now a proven threat. 45 is an obvious threat to both US national security and the continuation of our democracy. He should, and likely will, die in jail.