Walker88

15 minutes ago, twocatsmac said:

Why wouldn’t I want to go there? 

 

You got one of Trump on the Lolita Express?

 

 

The issue is the arrest of Maxwell. As others will no doubt add, Maxwell was a regular acquaintance of 45 over a number of years.

You are trying to imply that untoward behavior was only possible on Epstein's plane, when the now-charged pedophile enabler Ghislaine Maxwell is quite the good friend of 45, who happens to be the sitting POTUS.

Bill Clinton may or may not be worried. I suspect he is no more worried than 45 is right now, if anyone has any need to worry.

If there is dirt on Clinton, then let him suffer the full weight of the law.  I am of the same view on ANYONE who was enabled by this woman.

I'm going to opine that in about a year, ALL will become clear, and things about which I am still required to keep to myself will tie every string together. Can you guess what I am implying, Tovarich?

Veritatem Cognoscere.

26 minutes ago, riclag said:

 

 

If you recall the 2016 campaign, all the same characters above were throwing daggers and joking at his tweets, especially when he mention obama admin tapped his Trump tower phones ,after which NSA director Admiral Mike Rodgers told him to set up shop in another location. 

 

Finally depending on how Mr. Trump uses the Durham,Bass , Graham investigation results and the economy getting back to previous levels his allies will be right in step!

 

I'm not sure where you get your 'information', but you have a number of mistakes and false hopes there.

First, 'tapped' is kind of like the Betamax of SIGINT.  Second, nobody---well, nobody affiliated with the United States Government---'tapped' any phones associated with that guy.  Third, the sole purpose behind durham's investigation is to try to find out the 'sources and methods' used by the agency and the folks in Ft Meade who uncovered the Russian plot to aid and cooperate with 45's campaign. Sources and methods are the most tightly held secrets and since not barr, not 45 and not his son-in-law are trusted, as well as having no 'need to know', that information will not be provided. (Even in the PDB sources and methods are not revealed. Generally, intel will be given credence by labelling it as "coming from a highly trusted source whose previous information given over X number of years has proven to be highly accurate"). As case officers, we owe no higher loyalty than to the person working clandestinely with us, even to the extent we will give up our own lives before revealing identities.

barr is trying to manufacture a scandal by looking at the original drafts of intel reports and Contact Reports, which is particularly silly and misleading, because initial drafts are quite raw and their primary purpose is to be used as a stepping stone to ferret out more detail so that a finished product can be produced.

I'm just going to guess you know very little about intelligence collection or the clandestine services, nor how intelligence is gathered, collated, analyzed, added to, and how a final product is produced.

I do know that one of the things both sessions and barr have done is try to block intel from reaching those who should have had access to it. A great deal that would have aided Mueller and his team was prevented from reaching them, and strict limits were put on what they could investigate. It was the equivalent of not being able to study Jeffrey Dahmer's kitchen and cookbook, yet somehow find him guilty of cannibalism.  He'd still be following the same diet. Mueller was prevented from key intel and also key financial data, such as the capital structure of 45's business and his sources of financing.  Fortunately, all of that is preserved and will be used when rule of law is returned to the United States. 45's is going to have a lot of free time on his hands, without a phone or Twitter account, when he is no longer 'sitting POTUS' and can hide behind a poorly used OLC opinion.

Too late.

He has now lost even those members of the military who are obligated by Article 88 of the UCMJ from being critical of him. Bountygate has outraged all who serve and all who have served. 45's utter contempt for the men and women who voluntarily go into harm's way on behalf of the United States has eviscerated whatever tacit support he might have once had simply because of the title he assumed.

The officer corps despises him. That 45 has chosen to support the leader of a hostile nation over our own troops is beyond the pale. It replaces Benedict Arnold as the synonym for TRAITOR.

"All enemies, foreign and domestic"  THAT is the oath we took. We know who the enemy is. NEVER has the US seen such betrayal by a supposed Commander-in-Chief.  Absolutely disgusting.

Landslide is coming. Humiliation for the traitor. He will be lucky if the worst that happens to him is his 'brand' is utterly worthless. Indictment and conviction are more likely.

Obviously Thailand is free to make whatever rules they want. They may or may not extend the visa amnesty.

As for ‘getting out’, it is not quite as easy as many suggest, especially for anyone requiring a multi-segment flight to get home.  Sometimes one leg gets cancelled, sometimes the next leg is cancelled. Since there are few countries allowing tourists at this time, a traveler is likely to get stuck “Terminal” style part way home. Yes, that’s just tough luck for the traveler and of no concern to Thailand, but it is what has prevented, or discouraged may be a better word, some folks from leaving.

I have had multiple flights cancelled, and I have observed that even when a flight out of BKK did happen, the connecting flight did not run for several days. I would have been living in an airport for days waiting. Also, waiting in BKK for a scheduled flight, only to have it cancelled at the last moment, gets old after a while. It isn’t something one wants to do every day, packed and ready, so since there is the option of enjoying the kindness of the visa amnesty, that eventually becomes the option chosen. Yes, that’s my concern not Thai Immigration, but it is why I have done what I have.

There is an odd sense of entitlement that I see in these threads where some seemingly disgruntled people on various Thai visas such as retirement or spousal seem resentful that a few thousand tourists, who didn’t ‘jump through hoops and do 90-day reporting’, have been able to stay around. Why that should bother anyone is a puzzle, but it does seem to bother a few people. If anyone resents that, they can take their complaint to Thai Immigration, since that is who made the rule.

I don’t think the amnesty has been a total waste for Thailand, as those who have benefited from it have spent money. Though I suspect I might even be one of those weird ‘high quality’ tourists Thailand claims to want to attract, I have been averaging about 300,000 baht per month spent inside Thailand on lodging, food, a little shopping, and some donations. I’m sure there are others who spend similarly.  In the overall scheme of things my million baht since amnesty might be a drop in the bucket, but during a drought even a light sprinkle is welcome. I am also grateful for what Thailand has temporarily granted me.

45 follows his impulses, as he seems to lack even a modicum of self-control or personal discipline, and that continually sets his acolytes scrambling. They now have it down to a defined set of excuses and explanations, like:

-He didn’t know (this video he re-Tweeted)

-He was joking (Bleach/Lysol, Covid-19 testing)

-Nobody told him (Taliban-Russia)

-He meant “wouldn’t” (Helsinki)

All of these, of course, are of questionable veracity, but what makes it worse is that 45 often gets in the way of his own excuse-makers, as he did last week with what was first described as a ‘joke’ (cut back Covid-19 testing), but later 45 said “I never kid”. Acolytes then have to re-spin what they've already spun.

In any event, even this latest excuse (he didn’t know) is not the least bit comforting, because it says that someone with the theoretical power one has as POTUS doesn’t take the time to properly vet something he is going to send out to the world in his name. The now-deleted Tweet contained a video where, at the very beginning of it, a man in a golf cart, the focal point of the video, raises his fist and yells “White Power” clear as day.

As someone who occasionally had input to the PDB and had access to it on many occasions, 45's excuse is ludicrous.

The PDB used to be put together by the agency, but after 9-11 and the establishment of the DNI, the PDB came under the DNI's purview. Each day all the intel components put together their top items and forward it to the ODNI. A dept there then sifts through the intel and selects the most important and critical pieces and puts together the PDB. A briefer then presents it to the POTUS. Sometimes the briefer is the DNI, sometimes the DCI, and most often a designated PDB Briefer, who is usually an analyst at a GS-15 or above level with a wide range of knowledge.

An item such as Russia offering bounties to the Taliban on killed US and UK forces would have been Item #1 on the PDB and the first topic of verbal briefing. It also would have elicited phone calls between POTUS and the UK PM, since both nations were named as targets in the intel. As more intel was obtained on the matter from various sources the topic would have been repeated in subsequent PDBs, perhaps dozens of times over the span of a month or two. Members of the National Security Council, the entire intel community, the State Dept, and the Defense Dept would then have put together a list of suggestions and options on how to address the matter, ranging from calls to Putin, a diplomatic demarche by the US ambassador in Moscow, or even covert action plans or sanctions to be imposed against Russia.

There is absolutely zero chance that both 45 and the VP would not have been repeatedly briefed on the matter. No chance whatsoever.

Key (just in case):

PDB  President's Daily Brief

DNI  Directorate of National Intelligence

ODNI  Office of (above)

DCI  Director of (the) Central Intelligence (Agency)

I read the associated article, with its comments about the 'white paper' looking into ways to bolster the economy aside from tourism, and it does not seem to be anything more than grabbing words and pretending they have meaning. There is not any apparent external demand for the industries and services the white paper recommends, yet the island economy would need to draw external sources of capital and demand to make any of them viable. It is also nay on impossible to re-invent an economy admittedly "80-90%" dependent on tourism, at least in any proximal time period. As for 'going back to basics' re tourism, that again is just empty words with no actual meaning.  Visits to abandoned tin mines?  I'm going to guess there's a very short waiting list for that.

The current problems are not going to be solved in any way if the thinking is limited to what appears in the article. They might have to accept that the best they can hope for is to bring back as much as possible whatever it was that produced their revenues in the past. All of these tourism types are fad-ishly focused on the same target market of 'high value' tourists, apparently completely unaware that they have abundant competition around the world for what is a small, and likely shrinking (due to Covid), demographic.

The article is yet another reminder of how Covid has irrevocably changed the world, and economic recovery is going to be years---maybe decades---in the making.

Pence:  "We're flattening the curve*"

*vertically flattened

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Given the hatred for Trump and his base I'd have thought y'all would have been really keen for the rally to go ahead in hope they all get Corona and die, especially Trump.

However, you all seem very keen to save their lives. How good of you to be so concerned about Trump and his followers and don't want any harm to come to any of them.

I never thought you'd be so civic minded, but good on y'all.

Frankly, there's little to be done for those who are purposely and willfully ignorant, and sympathy is best reserved for those deserving of it.

The issue, however, is that 45 fans will take the virus home and infect innocent people. For THAT, there is concern and empathy.

31 minutes ago, checkered flag said:

Yea, outside until they smashed windows and went inside to join the fire sale.

Very few of the protesters engaged in any sort of violence.  Also, according to the FBI, much of the violence was carried out by white supremacists pretending to be with the protesters. Both Twitter and Facebook had to remove posts and fake accounts of white supremacist groups trying to incite protester violence.  In Ohio, a BLM protest was met by hundreds of counter protesters carrying AR-15s and other weapons. Peaceful protesters exercising 1st Amendment rights in Lafayette Square were hit with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets by Texas Prison Guards and Secret Service, just so 45 could do a photo op holding up a Bible in front of a church. At first the AG and WH denied such weapons were used, but subsequently admitted they were, particularly since video evidence proved it.

45 has called all protesters "antifa" and "lowlifes" (see his Tweets, even yesterday), albeit when Tacticool Mall Ninjas in Michigan showed up in camo and carrying AR-15s to protest Covid lockdown restrictions, 45 called them 'good people'.

Yes, mostly it's a lifestyle choice. To each his or her own.

According to the CDC, the average weight for an American woman age 20+ is 170.6 lbs on a 5'3.7" frame with a 38.2" waist (77.4 kg, 161.8 cm, and 97cm).

The average American man is 197.9 lbs on a 5'9" frame with a 40.2" waist (89.8 kg, 175.3 cm and 102.1 cm).

None of those women went to bed last night a svelte 105, nor the men a ripped 170. It took a conscious lack of effort and zero care or discipline over an extended period to reach that girth, plus too many calories and not enough movement.  Also, the calories chosen are bad ones:  sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Those 'rewards' apparently mean more to many people than free and comfortable movement and fewer health complications on average.

Personally, I prefer being in shape, having few self-inflicted aches and pains, and wearing out, rather than 'horizontally outgrowing', my wardrobe. I would enjoy life less if I couldn't run up a few flights of stairs without getting winded, or being unable to enjoy the beauty of sport and athletic movement into old age. Other people have other preferences. So be it.

So long as those overweight are fine with their self-made self, no problem.

On 6/18/2020 at 2:37 AM, TopDeadSenter said:

Can you explain why Trump's upcoming rally is in a corona alarmist headline, yet 2 weeks of rioting, looting and mass gatherings by the left was never(that I saw) mentioned that it would be worsening corona?

 

 Rather than wait for an answer or diversion, this is why.

https://ktul.com/news/local/800000-people-reserve-tickets-for-president-trump-rally-campaign-manager-tweets

"More than 1 million ticket requests for Trump rally, campaign manager tweets"

 

 

Most of the protesters were young and fit, which is to say those least likely to suffer the worst of Covid. Most also wore masks.

Cult 45 are mostly older, obese, and avoid masks like the plague, since to them Covid is a Dem Hoax.

The factories are busy churning out Darwin Awards at a record pace for those attending 45's Hate-in.

I'm not sure I would want to come to Thailand and wade through the 10 million street beggars thrust into abject poverty after TAT drove all their employers out of business by catering solely to the wealthy.

People who siphon off the public trough seem oblivious to what actually drives their economy. Besides, how will leaders grift off a mega project like an airport when it's built merely to handle a couple of Gulftreams rather than 40 million arrivals per year? Suvarnabhumi 2.0 or U-Tapao will only need to be the size of a 7-11.

23 minutes ago, Blumpie said:

That's a pretty early study.  

Yes, it's early, but the disappearance of antibodies after 2-3 months has serious implications. It's not as if they miraculously reappear. Gone is gone.

Right now at least 100 companies and many govt orgs are working on a vaccine that this early study suggests will be essentially useless.

It may be that the treatment option, as with HIV, will be the way to go longer term. Of course that should excite Big Pharma to get to work on it, because there's more money to be made in treatment than cures.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0965-6

According to this article, based on a Chinese study of those infected earliest with Covid-19, immunity gained via antibodies may only last 2-3 months.

The figure for SARS is 1 year and for MERS 34 months.

If this initial research is correct, the idea of 'herd immunity' is almost pointless, and even a vaccine may be of limited short term value, since the purpose of a vaccine is to have the body produce antibodies.

The negative implications of this early research are staggering.

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

Well, aren't we lucky that neither the very small group called Antifa nor 45 don't have things like access to the nuclear codes that can launch upwards of 7800 weapons with a combined megaton capacity to wipe out all life on the planet.

Oh, wait!

Easy to see why the vile fascist 45 would champion a Nazi symbol. 45 told Xi that putting Uyghurs in Concentration Camps was a good move.

One can easily imagine how 45 would have been right there with Heinrich Himmler putting other 'undesirables' into Concentration Camps in the 1940s.

A psychopath by any other name......

History does rhyme:

Fake News= Lügenpresse

"Enemy of the People"....used by both Stalin and Hitler