Walker88

"You can fool some of the people all of the time" When Abraham Lincoln said that, he must have had MAGAs in mind, because they sure get fooled easily. First, the eternally whining POTUS-elect, said yesterday he "is inheriting a terrible economy". Really? The clown passed on a Recession and 6.8% unemployment. He is inheriting a booming economy and low UE. Yesterday the equity market was surprised when data was released showing a much larger than expected number of job openings. THAT is how strong the economy 47 is inheriting is, but his goobers will believe his lies, not reality. Since 2020, the US has grown at 3 times the average G7 economy, and now sports lower inflation than most nations, The US produces more energy than it consumes. In 2024, both Consumer Spending and Consumer Savings grew, something more in line with the 1960s than the 2020s. It is the best of times, at least since the Clinton years, though admittedly the poorly educated MAGAs have been left out, as they lack the skills and talents to prosper in the modern economy. I hope you MAGAs are satisfied with the "Gulf of America", because prosperity is absolutely not in your future. The guy who couldn't make a business work where addicted people line up to hand you their money (casinos), and save for a Game Show spent his life flittering away his sizable inheritance, has no clue how to manage a $35 trillion economy. He blew it last time, when he had at least a couple of competent people around him, so absent the Steve Cohns, he is virtually guaranteed to fail. There is also a not-so-subtle change in the US, which MAGAs lack the intellect and insight to appreciate, or else they have fantasies and delusions about how their lives might become better under 47. The joke will be on them. As the US becomes Russia is almost every sense, save for its soon-to-be psychopathic leader lacks the intellect of his hero Putin, look who benefits the most: Oligarchs. Consider: Elon Musk put $250,000,000 into getting a convicted felon re-elected. Since the election, Musk's net worth has jumped $140,000,000,000. That's a 56,000% return on investment in 2 months. Eat your hearts out, Crypto Bros! Yesterday, META CEO Mark Zuckerberg, showing Girlyman fealty, announced his company would stop fact checking. That will save his company $5 billion. The guy had two reasons for doing that. One is that in numerous statements over the last few years, largely a result of FB previously banning 47 from it's site, Zuckerberg has been threatened with life in prison. The second reason is that cutting $5 billion in costs might juice company stock enough that Zuckerberg stands to see his net worth jump by $15-22 billion, if P/E stays the same. Funny thing....MAGAs, who suck up every utterance from their bloated messiah, love the term "Fake News". Consider reality: ACTUAL news and journalism is expensive. Sending reporters around the world, and then doing fact checking, costs money. There are, in actuality, precious few instances where legacy media has erred and produced something inaccurate or untrue. Usually, when an error is made, media corrects itself. Of course sometimes media lies and pays a price, such as Fox and its $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Machines. Actual "Fake News" is cheap, because anyone can make up anything. The POTUS-elect is an expert at creating Fake News, but as usual, he projects his own sins on to others. With META throwing in the towel and kissing the ring, Fake News is going to become even more prevalent, and this at a time when people increasingly get their news from hermetically sealed echo chambers, either places like Fox, or else places driven by algorithms whose goal is to manufacture outrage, as outrage=eyeballs + clicks=MONEY. Now for more Oligarchy...... Consider this: the richest 25 Americans pay an average tax rate of 6%. Their secretaries likely pay 4 times that. POTUS-elect wants to be accepted by the "cool kids" and people who were actually successful, so policy is geared toward oligarchy. One social media company---from which maybe 40% of Americans get their news---controls a massive percent of sm space. One search company controls 90% of all international searches. One online retailer controls more than half of worldwide online sales. Show fealty to the autocrat, and he'll not weaponize government against you. What will 47 do to better the lives of the MAGAs the modern world has left behind? As Edwin Starr sang, "Absolutely Nothin'", (say it again). Tariffs are going to help the average Walmart shopper? Hardly. Of course, if the incoming POTUS actually spends the $billions it will take to deport 11 million people, lots of strawberry-picking and janitorial jobs will open up, so MAGAs have that. Or maybe "patriotic MAGAs", like the terrorists who tried to hang the VP and overthrow democracy on 6 Jan 2021, can sign up for military escapades in Greenland and Panama. Lets see if their really have any testosterone. (I'll go with the Vikings and MS-13 over obese MAGAs.) I suspect there are a few multi millionaires on this Forum. I know one (me) and I know another (who has left the site after the election). Yes, we will benefit financially if taxes are cut. I'm immune to the stock market decline I see coming, so I'll gain in a relative sense, too. I'd prefer the economy not collapse, but I don't see any other possibility. If MAGAs think the Biden years were bad, they will soon be viewing them as the good old days. Yes, MAGAs, elections have consequences. I don't think you're going to like them. You MAGAs get disappointment; I get schadenfreude.

"sense of proportion and reality" MAGAs are just sooooooo good at that! Equate looting a pair of Nikes with trying to hang the Vice President and overthrow 250 years of American democracy and prevent the peaceful transfer of power. VP Harris, on Monday, gave an example of how adults and true patriots act. 47 is incapable of such mature and patriotic behavior, and had to get his ignorant goobers to do his wet work. The Chief of the law enforcement agency protecting the Capitol and other DC Federal buildings---a career officer, not a political appointee---commented yesterday about the promise 47 made re "pardoning" the 6 Jan terrorists: He asked "what kind of message" does it send to all, including law enforcement officers throughout the country, that violent assault on LE officers is okay ? I wonder if some LE officers will take it upon themselves to engage in some frontier justice and go after any of the felons released by 47? Perhaps the names and addresses of every one of those miscreant scumballs will be published online, allowing patriots who take exception to their violence to pay a visit.

Not sure either you or the felon will survive 4 years, but if you do, expect, at best, abject mediocrity....and at worst, a Depression and double digit unemployment. Who is the Infallible One going to blame that on? Maybe Hugo Chavez? Wind turbines? Electric boats?

Elections have consequences? Tell that to the Danes, Panamanians, and Canadians. They didn't vote for the convicted felon, but he wants to invade their lands. No doubt all of you Never Served armchair warriors will volunteer to take Greenland and the Panama Canal...well, unless those pesky bone spurs kick up.

To borrow from Groucho Marx, I'd never live in a country that would accept me as a resident.

At a presser Tuesday, 7 January, at Mar-a-Lago, the President-elect said he would not rule out military force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal. Your hero, right, MAGAs? Oh, and he threatened economic force to annex Canada, plus he wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico. It's 1700 again; do you know where your Colonial Master is? (Plenty of videos of his presser, for those who want to see their hero pretend he's a warrior.)

Yes, so nice to see a person act like an adult and a patriot. In contrast, 45 whined like a 3 year old and tried to overthrow democracy and stop the peaceful transfer of power. Harris is a patriot, 47 is a traitor. I guess you like cowards and traitors. No doubt you have things in common.

"even African women, with their "bad features" and skin colour, earn substantial sums." Heck, even vertically challenged, corrupt Sino-Thais can earn substantial sums. Fair is fair, no? Anyway, we all can't be a looker and babe magnet like that little guy. I can say that, right? After all, free speech. Plus, it isn't like he is royalty, except in his own mind.

......and the "Men in Black" trilogy is actually a documentary. Not sure if Ghostbusters is the same, but could be. All those are proof that those Socialists say "conspiracy theory", as if that's a pejorative term, we have to scream FACT and offer up experts like Victor David Hanson. One has to be truly "awake" and done his research to get to the bottom of all of these Marxist/Stalinist/Socialist conspiracies. Personally, I think we are all incredibly lucky that there are people out there willing and able to ignore reality, engage in fantasy and delusion, embrace "alternative facts" (Kellyanne Conway), know that "truth isn't truth" (Rudy Giuliani) and get to the bottom of what these dastardly libs would do to stop the Second Coming from making 'Merica great again. ("Great" defined as a Recession and 6.8% unemployment.) What kind of world would it be if a man COULDN'T try to subvert elections, cooperate with hostile nations (Campaign Manager Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik), engage in attempt to defraud the voter (Georgia, on tape), steal classified documents, and foment an insurrection to stop the certification of a free and fair election. And what's so wrong about sexual assault? Charity fraud? Bank and insurance fraud? Don't nip these evil Socialists in the bud and soon they'll be telling us injecting disinfectant can't cure Covid-19. It's bad enough 45 was cheated out of a Nobel Peace Prize, but he should also have gotten the Nobel in Chemistry, too, for his novel solution to the pandemic. Come on, all you folks "awake" and full of goal-seeking confirmation bias! Plant you flag squarely a std dev left of the mean on the IQ Bell Curve and make yourself known.

Just look at that Biden-Harris economic boom! That's what's called "an inconvenient truth" to MAGAs. Let's not forget Biden-Harris inherited a Recession and 6.8% unemployment from 45, the architect of real American Carnage.

The mere mention of "Quality" or "Elite" tourist brings out howls from......folks who chose to live here. I don't get it. If Thailand is so bad..... Also, many feel the need to speak of what the truly wealthy really want, as if the wealthy are uniform and all cut from the same vicuña. The priciest rooms at the Mandarin Oriental go for 540-690,000 baht per night. There are restaurants in Bangkok where one can get a bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Monopole Burgundy for 400,000 baht per bottle. Those are not budget tourists, nor are they likely to be mere millionaires. They aren't flying into Thailand on AirAsia. There are few genuine "paradises" on the planet, so no matter where anyone chooses to travel, they might run into bad air, crime, barely hidden poverty, or poor infrastructure. Maybe the Pebble Beach area of California or Telluride or Lanai is close to paradise, but most everywhere is kind of a mixed bag. NYC has plenty of billionaires, but frankly, it's kind of a dump. So is Paris and much of London. Santorini has uber wealthy and backpackers. Menlo Park and Palo Alto have billionaires, but El Camino Real has the usual assortment of Taco Bells and McDonalds. Thailand has a lot to offer. It should come as no surprise that some of the things that attract the divorced pensioner also attract the uber wealthy. That quiet fellow sitting near you in the agogo may well have flown into Thailand on his own jet. Despite the constant utterances from TAT about "quality", they actually set the bar pretty low. A visitor who spends 77K baht is hardly a high roller. No matter what TAT does, there are always elite who will come visit Thailand. It's on lots of folks' bucket list, whether they are backpackers, weed aficianados, families with young kids, or billionaires. Concentrate on smooth entry and exit at the airports, patrol the roads better, and do something about air quality and the tourist numbers will stay in the 30-40 million range.

No wife, but when I told my Thai GF my bison back home on the Colorado ranch was sick, she ponied up for the vet. Heck, she even paid for the Jet-A in my Gulfstream and covered the FBO fees at Don Mueang, so I could fly back and tend to Bessie the Bison. You just can't buy that kind of heartfelt care. Bob, I think you understand.

Well, Lewis Carroll, only curiouser to the MAGA cult. Others know all those weapons cached at the Motel 6 across the Potomac, it's owners waiting for 45 to tell them to cease "stand back and stand down", were pure MAGA terrorists. Let me remind you it was 45 himself who Tweeted for his goobers to come to DC on 6 January, because "It'll be WILD!". What is WILD! about a pro forma certification of an election every State and territory had already certified? Why did he tell his goober terrorists (DirFBI Wray's term is "terrorist") to "march to the Capitol" and "fight like Hell"? He said "peacefully" once, but fight 37 times. Which word do you think his Camp Auschwitz scum paid closer attention to? It wasn't "FBI informants" beating and bear spraying cops, injuring 140 law enforcement patriots. It wasn't FBI informants who shat on the floor and rubbed it on the Capitol walls. It wasn't FBI informants who set up gallows and chanted "Hang Mike Pence". Those terrorists are pure scum. They should rot in jail forever. 47 says he will pardon them. SO threatening to hang the Vice President is a pardonable crime? Okay, then Biden should pardon Ryan Routh, since all he did was carry an AR-15 near where the chief insurrectionist and coup plotter was cheating at golf.

Yes. People are simply fed up with robust economic growth, a soaring stock market and low unemployment. Let's bring back the carnage of 45's first term! We need another Recession and 6.8% unemployment. We need lots more Las Vegas (2017), Parkland HS, Sutherland Church, the Pittsburgh Synagogue, El Paso Walmart. 45 was paradise. 47 will be paradise turbocharged. We'll have a Recession, a 20% stock market decline, and if we're lucky and he does what we all know he's capable of doing, double digit unemployment.

What's the point of being King of the World if you cannot impose lese majeste laws and put other "nobility' under the same umbrella? Monarchs like Musk and 47 are even more infallible than a Pontiff (kind of like the redundancy of the term "very unique"), so they cannot be accused of hypocrisy.

Since the OP is "clearly" a biochemist, probably a PhD, he must already be fully up to speed on MHC-I proteins vs MHC-II. Yes, each of us has a unique protein structure around every cell in our body. While within an individual it's always the same, between individuals it's unique. Proteins are large and complex molecules, so there are slight variations in the bonds each protein has as well as the way it folds. The lucky ones among us might have gotten a certain HLA-B*15:01 allele from one of our parents. Really lucky people got one from each parent. That allele has the ability to bind with certain peptides that result from the breakdown of the Covid-19 virus as it enters a cell, which turbo charges killer T-cells and B cells to block that virus from infecting more cells and destroying the ones it has infected. Such individuals are 2.5 times more likely to suffer no symptoms from Covid-19 infection (if they have one HLA-B*15:01 allele from one parent) and up to 8.5 times more likely to suffer no symptoms if they got that allele from both parents. Luckier still are those folks who inherited the Delta 32 gene, a gene which not only protected one's ancestors from the Bubonic Plague, but also makes it unlikely the carrier can become infected with viruses such as HIV or Covid-19.

1 "witchhunt' civil sexual assault conviction + 1 "witchhunt" bank and insurance fraud conviction + 1 "witchhunt" charity fraud conviction + 1 "witchhunt" indictment for "defrauding the United States" (his Jan 6 and fake elector scheme, plus 1 "witchhunt" State charge in Georgia for (just find me...11,780 votes), plus 2 "witchhunt" defamation suits, plus 1 "witchhunt" indictment for stealing hundreds of documents classified TS/SCI, Codeword, SAP, HCS, RD, RH, etc. somehow equals "Hitler's Concentration Camps" that resulted in the deaths of 6 million people? Wow, the insanity runs deep in the MAGA cult. Is it possible that the guy is just a career criminal? I know that's sacrilege to cult members, but if I took even one TS/SCI document out of Langley o any of my overseas Stations, I would be in jail awaiting trial, even if I did it to work at home and had a safe to store it. I'm still trying to figure out how the guy even got his hands on HCS documents (Human Clandestine Sources). Even his lackey DNIs (Ratcliffe and Grenell) did not have access to HCS, nor does any POTUS normally (POTUSs are just told "a source with direct access whose previous reporting has proven highly reliable"). Also, no way Gina Haspel would have given him those. It seems to me now he had a source inside the agency. THAT guy should be in jail.

Maybe Khan Academy or some other site offers a course on Marxism, so one day you might actually know what it means. By the way, if 47 actually intends to pardon the terrorists who stormed the Capitol, injured 140 cops, and engaged in wanton destruction while hoping to hang the Vice President and overthrow democracy, Biden should pardon Ryan Wesley Routh. Seems fair.

Safe for foreigners. Most murders are Thai on Thai, save for the occasional German who stores frozen "meat" in Patts.

ARMY? You mean like battle hardened soldiers? Or are they all rapists and murderers and escaped convicts......and BROWN ! Do you know the demographic breakdown of migrants and illegals in the US? One guess as is which nation is represented the most in the last 4 years...... China. People escaping the Middle Kingdom and all that paradise. While I appreciate the need to have some sort of filter system for migrants, it’s best not to forget how much of a part dumb luck played in what you are and where you are. Do you think all of what you are is because of some special skills and talents you have, or just an accident of birth? Those born in the US, especially as a white male, materialized on 3rd base with the pitcher passing out on the mound. Easy to score, relative to the other 125 billion or so home sapiens who have lived since Oldavai Gorge or when Eve had a hankering for fruit. Because you were whelped in a developed and prosperous nation---of which your contribution at the time of your birth was ZERO---you are allowed to move yourself into an alien culture and reside as long as you want. You’ve now chosen Thailand. Good for you. Folks can tell you’re not native, and a good many of them might prefer you go home….NOW. Tribalism does that. It makes us see "others" as bad or potentially dangerous. Frankly, a little humility is called for. I happen to be a multimillionaire and graduated from top universities, an Ivy and Stanford. I turned down Harvard Biz and Wharton for my MBA. Am I special? No, just lucky. I never forget that. Can I say with certainty that some young woman who walked 800 miles from Central America, dragging two kids the whole way, trying to escape gang violence and poverty, would not have achieved far more than me, if she had been born as I was to smart and athletic parents in the US? I cannot. No contrafactual data. Yes, life ain’t fair. At the same time, I understand why the systems each bordered land has established needs to have some means of vetting all those who might want to come. Frankly, if up to me, I’d prefer that woman who walked 800 miles than some beefing, moaning MAGA on SSDI in a Red State, sitting on his bloated butt binge-watching the Kardashians or Fox. I suspect that woman will be grateful and work hard to add value to both her family and society, whereas the SSDI MAGA is a drain, as are the vast majority of Red States. Humility. Empathy. Those are attractive human qualities.

I might also suggest that you stop breathing. That's for your own good. Scientists, as well as chiropractors no doubt, have found that air is filled with lots of heavy metals in Thailand, as is most locally grown produce. Seafood is even worse, so take that shrimp off the barbie. What's the data say on people who stop breathing vs those who continue to harm themselves by breathing air filled with heavy metals? By the way, there is increasing evidence that naming a son "James Taylor" is highly correlated with baldness. You can't argue with facts. Plain as day. Don't do that to your own kids. Please. AT least throw in an extra initial, as the former lead singer of Kool and the Gang still sports some hair, but his parents were prescient enough to name him J. T. Taylor. Whew! Lucky.

Come on, he's an expert. We're lucky to have him sharing his well-researched wizdumb. Why, from that guy I'd take advice on how to raise kids, what my asset allocation should be in terms of equities, fixed income, cash and physicals, my exercise protocol, and hair growth. As a bonus, he could teach me how to take dramatic selfies with eyes that scream "Do you know what THEY are trying to do to you!"

I'll risk it and take you seriously. Bangkok is a great city. It is quite modern, has good commo technology, great healthcare, and a wide range of restaurants covering every taste, from Thai to Japanese to Italian to Chinese to Indian to French to burgers and wings. Grocery stores carry lots of Western staples, if one wishes to eat those foods, you can find most any clothing or electronic item you might want (except if you have large and narrow feet, like my 12 B, best your bring shoes from home). If one is an exercise fanatic, good gyms are everywhere and inexpensive. Transportation is convenient (BTS Skytrain and MRT underground), and even if taxi drivers try to cheat you, rides are still cheap. Nightlife is whatever you want it to be, from nightclubs to bars to the things for which Thailand has a reputation. For a Westerner, especially one who hasn't traveled much, the city can be somewhat exotic. It's also safer than most major Western cities, almost on par with Tokyo. Suvarnabhumi Airport is a major hub and one can catch a flight to almost anywhere from there. The downsides are that it is crowded and the air is not the best, especially during the field burning season. Also, there are really only two seasons: really hot, and rainy & really hot. One gets used to the heat, but it can take time.The bureaucracy can be frustrating, too, but a little patience and a polite manner get one through that. I've lived in many countries, and I find Thailand and Bangkok to be a place where one can easily and quickly adapt......and enjoy. What I like is that each little neighborhood in Bangkok becomes like a village: everybody knows everybody and gets along really well, both Thais and expats.

You talking about Mali (where 45 told one widow "Get over it, jeesh")? Maybe Irbil, where---according to 45---"nobody was hurt" (the response to the killing of Gen Suleimani)? Oh, you're talking about the servicemen killed by some of the 5000 jihadis 45 ordered released in Afghanistan, the guys who now run Afghanistan. So how would you MAGAs have handled the withdrawal, whose time table was set up by 45? In a protracted withdrawal, maybe 45 would have sent Proud Boys to supervise, since the Taliban would have had much more time to go after servicemen and contractors?

Silly MAGAs, riddle me this.... If NOLA is "Biden's America (sic), then is 47's America Las Vegas (2017), Sutherland, TX, Santa Fe HS, Thousand Oaks, El Paso Walmart, Virginia Beach, Parkland HS, Tree of Life Synagogue, Plano, TX? Is 47's America Cesar Sayoc (Google images of his truck), Robert Bowers (Tree of Life Synagogue aided new immigrants to the US), Christopher Hansson (whose spreadsheet of assassination targets used all the nicknames 45 coined, such as "Pocahontas"? Here's another question...and this from someone who is not a fan of any superstition such as Islam...? When a white military guy goes crazy, the first reaction is "PTSD", but if the military guy is Moslem, he's a fanatic jihadi. Maybe he's just crazy, like the white guy Green Beret who rented the Tesla Cybertruck used in the recent Las Vegas incident? Oh, and how is 47, or his picks like Hegseth, Patel and Gabbard going to solve the issue of serving military types going crazy? How will they all solve crazies who shoot up schools or Walmarts whose majority customers are Hispanic? More guns? Teachers with a handgun and minimal training expected to go against a guy with an AR-15, or a 70 year old Greater at Walmart expected to do the same?