Walker88

Having experienced many Songkrans and Maha Thingyans (Myanmar), I can say that neither Thailand in general, nor Pattaya in particular, can hold a candle to Yangon. Despite being limited to 3 days, Yangon is absolute madness. The city sets up pandals (grandstands) near lakes or in major shopping districts. A thousand water-pump driven hoses are available for those on the grandstands. Every truck within 100 miles of the city is rented out, and folks jump on board and ride around the city, slowing down in front of each pandal they encounter, getting soaked or even blown off the truck by the force. Many cars have their doors and trunks taken off, so as to hold more passengers, and these follow the same pattern as the trucks. People sit on the roofs and the front hood. It isn't uncommon for some to fall off while the car corners, and accidents also happen because the (drunk) driver has his view blocked by people on the hood. To quote from the boy in the movie The Sixth Sense, "You see dead people". One year I was in Yangon someone put a bomb under one of the pandals and killed several people. Others die in fights, or else get run over after falling off a car. And on the 4th day.....the lines to enter a major pagoda for prayer are a mile long, all of the previous days' madness seemingly forgotten. Back in Thailand, what I have noticed is that most Thais, while having fun, are polite in how they douse people, and most seem to put the guns down at sunset. It's the foreigners, drunk from a day swilling beers, who keep it going until the wee hours.

One key to the trial is that trump has denied the affair, much less the hush money. He ought to tread carefully regarding the former, because if the prosecution has to produce testimony as to the fact of any affair, that will require calling both Stormy and Ms McDougal to offer "some kind" of proof of any dalliance. That would likely involve a description of trump's "supposedly" peculiar anatomy. In interviews, Stormy has used the phrase "funny mushroom shape" and the description "not quite freakishly small, but well below average". Should Stormy repeat such words under oath on the stand, the prosecution would also call Ms McDougal for corroboration...all, of course, in the interest of establishing the fact of the affairs. While law precludes trump's current wife from testifying, there is no law preventing any previous wife from being called to the stand, so Marla Maples would be fair game, if the prosecution was forced to prove the veracity of various affairs with Stormy and McDougal. While there are no cameras and sound equipment allowed in the courtroom, nothing prevents courtroom witnesses and media from detailing exactly what has been said. One suspects that trump will not like his physicality, or lack thereof, to be broadcast for all of magaland to hear. Part of his 'appeal' is that he portrays himself as some Alpha Male, but that gets knock back a bit, or significantly, if his cult learns he comes up short. Another thing that Stormy has mentioned, which may or may not be raised in the trial, is that during their assignation, trump insisted Stormy spank trump on his posterior "with a rolled up copy of a Forbes magazine that had trump on its cover, while he wore his tighty whiteys". That sounds.....kinky, and might not sit well with trump's so-called Christians, to whom he is currently trying to schlepp autographed copies of the Bible. So far, that demographic has either not believed an affair took place, or their peculiar moral code finds no fault with someone who dallies while his wife is home taking care of a new baby. Perhaps that changes. In Tweets and some public statements, trump---well known to give critics and adversaries nicknames---has called Ms Daniels "Horseface". Obviously she would be entitled to give him a nickname in return. Perhaps "Small Dick Donny" would be one such nickname, if she was intent on getting even. She probably has too much class for that, however.

Another foolish comment based on nothing rational. The JCPOA was incredible effective. Rather than repeat what I wrote elsewhere, it took Iran out of the nuke game completely. That and the Stuxnet virus Obama unleashed on Iran got their attention. The JCPOA was also designed to be used as a stepping stone to additional negotiations on, for example, halting support of Shi'a terrorism. trump abrogated the JCPOA for no other reason than that Obama had engineered it. Iran instantly re-started its U235 enrichment and nuke development. Obama and Biden knew the days of the mullahs was almost over. WAS. The youth of Iran want modernity and secularism. The mullahs are aging and will be gone soon, but they are now using external threats to rebuild the anti-Western theocracy. What should be an incredibly successful nation will remain undeveloped and an instigator of regional strife.

Calling it the start of WWIII is a bit of hyperbole. Iran has few friends in the world...a few fake and opportunistic ones like Russia and China, but neither of them cares enough to get upset if Israel attacks Iran. Israel also has few friends in the world, though the ones it has are pretty powerful. If Israel attacks Iran, the most the US would do is resupply Israel with weapons (which for some people is too much, for others not enough). The US is not going to commit its own forces, save perhaps for a Cruise missile or two if Iran moves to block the Straits of Hormuz. Israel is quite capable of neutralizing Iran by itself, and for the US, Ukraine is of infinitely greater geopolitical significance than Israel. Since the US cannot commit massively to both, it will choose Ukraine over Israel if push comes to shove. Russia might try to keep the fires burning, because as Eastern Europe's gas station, a closed down Straits of Hormuz is good for business. As a scary aside, Israel has thermonuclear bombs. If they dropped one on Tehran, people in a radius of 40 miles from Ground Zero would be sucked up in the mushroom cloud.

Silly comment from a guy who supports a clown who was unaware India and China share part of a border (over which they fought a war), and that near India are countries called Nipple and Button.

Interesting chart, and no doubt influenced by these events. However, there has been massive turbulence over the mountains of Turkey since Wednesday, and many Gulf flights were diverted over the Sinai and then across Saudi since a few planes over Turkey had some wild rides.

Too late for my deleted post (where I assumed everyone had read the news by now), but here's the link: https://www.9news.com.au/national/major-incident-declared-at-westfield-in-bondi-junction/0d713266-ca1b-449d-8dd5-cdf422ea092b

TRT is not a good idea, unless absolutely necessary. The body produces testosterone as it produces sperm. With TRT, the body stops producing sperm (and possibly reduces desire for doing the deed). Also, when the body finds it has sufficient testosterone, it stops producing it, and may lose its ability to produce it. That means people who go off TRT might not be able to produce their own anymore.

So many bits of accepted wisdom were never put to the test. Today's current billionaire class seems to want to maximize the time they get to enjoy their billions, so they are funding all sorts of research. Researchers try to isolate for different factors, kind of like doing a laboratory regression analysis. Surprising to many has been the decreased importance of diet, within reason. Yes, limit sugar, limit processed foods and foods with pesticides or polluted with industrial metals (like almost all seafood), but heavy exercise seems to come out as #1. Look at photos of Bezos, Zuckerberg, even Musk from few years ago, and today. Bezos in particular has gotten sculpted and buff. Zuckerberg less so, but he's more cut than before. Same with Musk. They paid for the research, and they're paying attention.

The life extension stuff is secondary to healthspan extension. The #1 thing folks can do to extend healthspan is resistance training, using heavy weights. Under physical stress the body produces more testosterone and more HGH. AN added benefit is one will feel good and look spiffy if there's still definition. #2 seems to be good sleep. According to lifespan researchers such as Peter Attia, #1 accounts for maybe 50% of the positives, #2 about 35%. Diet seems to have a lesser impact, unless one is currently consuming too many calories and in particular, too much sugar. Supplements might make a few percent difference, so they're best for someone already exercising, sleeping well, and eating decently. Avoid obesity or Type II diabetes, avoid smoking, and limit booze intake, and one is mostly already there in terms of extending healthspan. The research indicates the best supplements are: Creatine (the body's first choice of fuel, and something the energy-hungry brain just loves) Omega-3 (helps repair the blood-brain barrier, which deteriorates with age and allows nasties to get into the brain) Vitamin D and Vitamin K in MK7 form Collagen (for both skin and tendons/ligaments) Magnesium (involved in over 200 differnt body chemical processes) After that, there is anecdotal evidence about things such as NAC-Glycine (allows the body to produce Gluthathione, which is an anti-oxidant that aids liver repair and cleaning up from pollutants, but which if taken as a supplement just gets broker down, hence the precursors). Hyaluronic Acid might have the same benefits as collagen. Some form of Ashwaganda helps reduce cortisol, an inflammatory (but don't take it after a workout). Taurine might have benefits. One that is weird but which might also have a host of benefits (as it turbocharges mitochondria activity and seems to be an enemy of Tau protein and amyloid plaque) is methylene blue (an industrial dye). With the right mental attitude, life is great fun, so those who enjoy it can pay the price for increased healthspan by doing the needful in the gym and the bed, as well as the dinner table. The last thing: choose your parents well.

Caffeine and other methyl xanthines are vasoconstrictors from the neck down, but vaso dilators from the neck up. That is why coffee helps people focus.

What you note is part of a much larger problem, although it might be slightly off topic. What could Thailand do to wean itself from Tourism? The world is awash in productive capacity, and production is getting increasingly efficient and less human labor intensive. Thailand should build another auto plant? TV plant? Good for robots and warehouses to store the unnecessary production (China is filled with these warehouses, a lot of which is steel). Nothing is needed that doesn't already exist in the world in spades. If there's any plus side, it's that many nations are self-culling, at least not making copies. South Korea's fertility rate will be about .8 this year, which means not even replacing Mom or Dad. Thailand might drop to 1.3, which takes away one or the other, but not yet both. The downside of the self-culling is that most nations have at their core a Ponzi Scheme that requires an ever-increasing population. I would not want to be a not-self-funded retiree around age 50 or so, because that govt pension is by no means guaranteed. There won't be enough workers paying into the system so that old people can draw out. Expats in Thailand living primarily on a govt pension had better "hope" they die sooner rather than later, because whether it's a UK, Aussie or even US Social Security payment, it is either going to be cut or inflated away via printing. As AI kicks in and obviates yet more people, two things happen, neither of which is good. 1) Govt is going to have to take care of more redundant people, further straining budgets 2) Self-serving autocrat wannabes on the right are going to spew out a siren song of false promises and lies to give the obviated and redundant some form of hope, even false hope. Anyone who is paying attention can see it happening already. Finally, I wonder if those of us who never felt the urge to propagate our gene pool might realize we might as well take all the limited resources we feel like using, rather than save them for people who popped out copies and expect us to leave resources for their spawn and their spawn's spawn. Maybe the childless will just become selfish and fill the gas tanks in our Lambos and Cigarettes boats, plus aircon our McMansions and use the resources the progeny who will never exist would have used. Strange times we live in.

What would those results be? Joel Cauchi? Blue-eyed white guys?

Only an idiot thinks the idiot trump could have prevented 7 October or any war that might come between Iran and Israel. Please enlighten us, WWtD?

Actually, Iran was 100% in compliance with the JCPOA. High speed centrifuges were smashed, imports were monitored, nuclear reactors filled in with cement, and UN inspectors allowed full access. The earlier Obama use of Stuxnet put fear into the mullahs that the US could do just about anything. The JCPOA had two goals: to put Iran out of the nuke game for a decade or more, and be a stepping stone to further negotiations on a host of matters, including support for Shi'a terror groups. All was going well, but the childish trump was intent on undoing everything Obama accomplished, so he abrogated the treaty. Iran immediately began to rebuild its nuke program, by getting new HS centrifuges and enriching U235. Later, when trump ordered the assassination of Gen Soleimani, Iran decided the US was eventually going to attack it, so they upped their support for terror proxies. You think trump would have solved Hamas? Gaza? Iran? Child. trump is an idiot with zero understanding of anything.

I guess trump, who has no clue nor care about how the US system is supposed to work, forgets that the job of the House is to legislate, something it is not doing in any way under the whackadoodle Talibangical Johnson. trump probably doesn't even know that Presidential Executive Order isn't the only way anything gets done, but rather most Bills originate in House committees. Those 435 Reps are not Performance Artists, though anyone watching the antics of the Freedumb Cockups and the rest of the dross in the House majority Party might be forgiven for thinking otherwise. I suppose trump's use of 'good job' relates to Johnson leading the block of the bipartisan Border Bill, because trump needs the border issue around which he built his campaign, and if anything is solved, all trump has left is empty slogans and hyperbole about all the 'bestest, unbelievable' ideas he supposedly has, despite his 4 years in office proving he has no ideas at all except family grift and vindictiveness, and then insurrection when he loses.

trumpers have this great ability to completely ignore reality. They always seem to 'forget' that in his first week as Campaign Chair, Paul Manafort was sent to Spain to hand GRU asset Konstantin Kilimnik detailed internal polling data from trump's campaign. "Somehow" that data reached the GRU's Internet Research Agency in St Pete, who then produced fake stories about HRC or other Dems and fed it to the social media accounts of specific voters in key Swing States. Sadly, the then-coopted AG Barr controlled the narrative when Mueller completed his investigation, and also redacted key portions of the investigation. Later, however, the Repub-chaired SSCI issued a 1000 page report that carried the entire Manafort-Kilimnik link. Much later, when the so-called Durham Investigation of the Investigators was ongoing, Durham 'decided' not to pursue the link, despite it being raised repeatedly with his team. As for trump being a paid spy, that accusation did not come from Democrats, but rather from an open-mike chat between then-Speaker Paul Ryan and future Speaker Keven McCarthy. Dems used "witting fool", not paid spy, as the Kilimnik connection, inter alia, showed the cooperation between trump and Russia.

You trumpers are an endless source of amusement. "ruining the country" Record job creation, robust GDP growth, rebuilding infrastructure, new chip plants, lower prescription drug prices... Maybe you should try to ruin your own country as well.

I might be on the wrong side of this issue, but here goes.... In 2023 there were 217 high school male sprinters in the US whose times were faster than the 2020 Women's Olympic 100 meter Gold Medal Winner. That is just in the US. When I was sprinting in university, I could have qualified for the Olympics in the 100-meter.....albeit as a female. As a male, the officials would have been in my way on the track as I finished or already be setting up for the hurdles. "Oh wait! There's one more guy coming!" I am not of the opinion that trans is a mental illness, as the human brain is wildly complex and can develop in different ways depending on a host of factors. Random chance should not be held against anyone, as they had no more control over their mental identity than one has over eye color or race. (I do think, however, that there is currently a fad element to the discussion, as pendulums do what pendulums do, sometimes swinging farther than reality dictates.) I love competition. I love fair competition. It seems to me a bit unfair to women that a guy who can run 10.1 in the 100 meters---not good enough to be elite in the Men's Division---can undergo procedures that allow participation with women who are world class if they run 10.8 Here are the qualifying standards for the 2024 Paris Olympics, by gender. https://olympics.com/en/news/athletics-paris-2024-entry-standards

What trumpers fail to realize is that many Biden supporters are most interested in the continuation of US democracy and rule of law. Whether Biden survives 4 more years is secondary to US democracy surviving 4 more years. Under Biden, that will happen. Under trump, it is the end of the 250 year US experiment in democracy. Biden supporters take trump at his word. We believe he intends to destroy the system we have served, and that because he is a self-serving, childish, vindictive, dictator-wannabe scumball criminal. One of the fascinating aspects of trumpism is that he has drawn losers from around the world to his siren song of retribution and false promises. Oddly, those non-Americans spend infinitely more mental energy focusing on trump than trying to do anything in their own country. THAT^ is when one knows trumpism is a cult.

Point out what Free Speech Biden has censored? Of course you can't. All you have is hyperbole and empty accusations, kind of like Comer and Gym "That's Strauss" Jordan. Incidentally, Biden did not try to take the one who engaged in insurrection in violation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution (you heard of that? The US Constitution is the document trump wants to eliminate, as he has stated) off any ballot. It was the AG of CO and SecState of ME. trump stated last week that he will jail all of the members of the January 6th committee. They broke no law, but they must go to jail because they offended childish trump, the guy who DID break a number of laws. One of trump's henchmen---Bannon---said last week that "The Accountability Project" begins on Day 1, and Democrats "are going to prison". Bannon didn't mention any crime, since he has none. Fascist scum. Hey, can you point out any election loser who called his goobers to DC for the election certification day and told them "It'll be WILD!" and to "fight like hell" and "march to the Capitol"? For what purpose? A pro forma certification of an election that 50 States already certified? Only trump. Oh, and anybody else ever take TS, SCI, SAP, SITK, Codeword, HCS qand RD documents to his country club and wedding planner facility, and then lie about returning them all? Only trump.

To paraphrase Kipling, it's the sane man's burden. Sometimes it takes 'tough love' to get through the vapors surrounding trumpsters....point out the reality about which they have no knowledge nor association. All those folks who were losers, weren't the cool kids in school, weren't at the top of their class, nor the football hero, couldn't get a date to the prom----they try to live vicariously through trump. trump, a loser himself with his 6 bankruptcies and dozens of failed and shuttered stat-ups, a guy who inherited half a billion dollars from his dad and had dad co-sign all his loans, understands them, and---despite the fact he thinks they're losers and wants nothing to do with them but get their votes---tells them what they want to hear. Rather than work to improve themselves so that they can take advantage of the Booming Biden Economy, trump gives them excuses. EVERYTHING is somebody else' fault. trumpers never have to face themselves and accept responsibility for their own failure, because trump gives them an out. trump exploits their weakness. "I am your retribution" appeals to trumpers, because it FINALLY gets back at all the cool kids from their youth. trumpers want a dictator. They hate democracy and they hate Capitalism, because that forces them to compete with everybody, and trumpers know they come up short, plus they refuse to accept personal responsibility and do anything about it. Like trump himself, his goobers demand to win when they lose.

It takes an honest person to admit it. It could be 'cured' just by looking at the data contained in the myriad of USG websites, detailing employment, job creation, GDP growth, etc. One can also compare the endless "Infrastructure Week" that never happened under trump, but under Biden a bipartisan Bill was passed that is improving things even in Repub districts. The Chips Act resulted in the first new chip plants being built in the US in decades. There are 800,000 new manufacturing jobs since Biden took over. You can be cured of your claimed mental disorder just by looking at reality. Leave the vapors of trumpistan, apply for a visa to the Land of Reality, and all will be well.

There is more than enough public exposure of trump for any psychiatrist to make an educated assessment. It isn't as if trump has been invisible and made no public appearances, done interviews, etc. Batsh!t crazy is he.

Empty comment. Zero to back it up, which is so typical of trumpers. Have you noticed the US GDP relative to your country? How about inflation rate? How's your infrastructure? Any new chip plants under construction in your nation?