Walker88

There seems to be some lack of knowledge about what "evidence" means. In the interest of educating those who clearly need it, here is an example of evidence. It relates to a guy whole stole boxes of highly classified documents and put US national security, as well as the identities of foreign clandestine assets, at risk.

Those Repub Talking Heads sure do have an odd definition of "disgrace". Consider: 45 left office with a Recession and 6.8% unemployment. 45 was the first POTUS since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he entered office. Biden will leave office with a booming economy, which has grown 3 times higher than the average G7 economy since 2020, 4% unemployment, and a stock market that bolted upward....but is now having second thoughts about who is taking over. While the entire world has seen inflation since the end of Covid, the US under Biden has slashed it from 9% down to 2.5%, all while maintaining a growing economy. Even Carter/Reagan and Volcker couldn't pull that off. Manufacturing jobs are +800,000 under Biden, an actual bipartisan Infrastructure Bill was passed (as opposed to "Net Week is Infrastructure Week" [and the Arrival of Godot]), prescription drug prices for things like insulin are down, and the US produces more energy than it uses. Most Presidents would love to be such a "disgrace". Admittedly where the two men are equal is that Mexico paid as much for a border wall under both Presidents, $0 The fact that Biden's performance could be so far superior to 45, despite Biden's age issues, is both a testament to Biden's strength as well as a reminder of just how incompetent the 6-time bankrupt, now convicted felon and civil convicted sex offender is, convicted bank and insurance fraudster, and charity fraudster is. The true disgrace will take office again 20 January, no doubt doing an even worse job than his first attempt. Flags will be flying at half staff to honor Jimmy Carter, but likely also to mourn the carnage to come under 47. I suspect 2025 will see at least a 20% decline in the S&P, unemployment rising to somewhere between 5-6%, and the start of a Recession. It will be tough to blame Biden, but 47 and guys like Jennings will try. And ye shall truly know the meaning of disgrace.

Was Will's joke too subtle?

Like every year, there's good and bad. I wouldn't have it any other way. Life should be full of challenges. It's the only way one can test himself and discover the true extent of one's skills and talents and strength. Perfection is wildly overrated. The Paradise of various religions sounds like Hell to me. Boring. I greatly enjoyed 2024. I've immunized myself from the mayhem and economic decline I expect in 2025, so I will enjoy next year, too.

I'm sure you'll be raising a glass Tuesday night to Joe and Kamala, who helped make 2024's massive S&P gains possible., by helping lead the recovery from the Recession the last guy left in his wake. I suspect at the end of 2025, the only thing you'll be lifting toward the new guy is a middle digit.

I'm not sure you are aware of the nature of reality. In another post you thought you were making a valid point by saying if gravity is strong enough to hold water on the planet, how can a tiny little bird fly? Well, easy. Water is made up of very tiny, very light things called molecules. I'm sure you've heard of them. Of course even those are made up of smaller atoms, which are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons, some of which are made of quarks and muons. Anyway, gravity acts on individual particles, and despite gravity being a weak force, it's strong enough to attract the extremely light molecules. As I noted in an earlier post, each molecule is on a force vector aimed at the Earth's center of mass, and these force lines are not parallel. Thus, bodies of water can stay on the surface of a spherical planet. Sometimes a photon smacks into some water molecules and has enough force to break the bonds between atoms and molecules, and you get something called evaporation. Heated air, which means the air molecules are moving quickly, can also hit H2O molecules and have enough energy to break bonds and cause evaporation. A tiny bird is also made up of molecules, but they are joined together by other forces of nature, so gravity cannot pull any of them away and disintegrate the bird, nor can photons or rapidly moving air molecules, unless the bird is moving through air at extreme speeds. The bird, however, has muscles that create lift, so that it can essentially make itself 'lighter than air', and fly, overcoming the weak gravitational force. Birds have a service ceiling, just as airplanes do. Once the air is too thin, their wings and efforts cannot overcome the force of gravity, and they fall back to where the air is dense enough so that controlled flight is possible. Sometimes aircraft end up going into a flat spin, and can never regain lift after exceeding their service ceiling, and gravity brings them crashing to Earth.

tl:DON'T r Oh, it’s not so simple. EVERYTHING is connected. There are always poor and always will be poor. The world has lifted billions out of poverty, so that in most countries being poor is a lot more comfortable than it was 500 years ago. The gimmick the world collectively agreed on was fiat money. Print money now, and it lifts people up, either through a social safety net or because an entrepreneur borrows this printed money and starts a business that employs people. All well and good. The problem arises when debt has to be repaid. The way the world addressed that was to gear economies to an “acceptable” level of inflation, which for the US Fed is 2%. That allows debts to be inflated away, or at least get serviced, which is good enough. Nobody thinks sovereign debt will ever be repaid. Now that system requires lots of fine tuning, along with a good deal of luck. Absent a Black Swan event, or else leaders who abuse the privilege of conjuring money, it works for a long time. Covid was a Black Swan. Folks can argue it was handled poorly, but the fact is as it arose, nobody knew how severe it might become. Once nations decided to shut down, money printing had to go into overdrive. That has resulted in inflation, exacerbating the abuse of the money printing privilege leaders have. In the US, we had both. The tax cut for the wealthy---about the only “accomplishment” of the two years when Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House....just added debt. In the 4 years from January 2017 to January 2021, $8,400,000,000,000 was added to the US National Debt. That equates to $25,000 for every man, woman and child in the country, or $1000 for every person on Earth. That is a lot of spending power, and all those trillions chased goods and services, resulting in the inflation the US experienced. Most of the rest of the world did the same thing, so inflation was worldwide. Politicians or wannabe autocrats know the average person is dumb, and nether understands economics nor that correlation does not equal causation. If inflation is today, then the blame goes to whomever happens to be in charge today. Also, when someone claims “only I can fix it”, people want to believe. There is precious little link between anything Biden did and the inflation that was present when he was in the White House, nor does the POTUS elect have the slightest clue about how to address it. Now sometimes things settle down on their own, or with a boost from Fed policy. US inflation peaked at 9%, and is now running about 2.7%, less than most nations. Inflation, however, is a measure of ALL prices, and the index is based on a theoretical basket of goods and services the average consumer might use. People tend to see only one thing---such as the price of eggs---and extrapolate that over everything to arrive at a false idea of overall inflation. Yes, egg prices are up, but guess what’s down? Fuel. Rent, at least rent relative to home ownership, is also down. In fact, it is now 35% cheaper to rent than buy a home in the US. A good deal of inflation results from cheap money chasing assets. The last decade or so has seen the elite accumulate a much higher percent of assets in all economies. The qini coefficient is on the rise everywhere. That puts pricing power into the hands of the elite, who can then impose their own wants on to the masses. I am not of the opinion that things will get any better, because society has much less need for the number of people it has. Many of the things that have benefited economies in the last few decades have been stopgap solutions to an intractable problem. Debt soared in order to make work for the masses. In the US, access to home equity allowed the middle class to live above their means. That also required key asset prices like homes to remain stable. In 2008 a bubble burst, and that threw everything into a period of madness and decline…until ZIRP, or free money for years on end. That ran its course when inflation finally arose. The can has been kicked down the road for years, and maybe it can continue to be kicked. I think not. Human labor is increasingly losing its pricing power, and there are fewer stopgap measures to support those who need support. Debt levels are too high, and central banks are stuck between a rock and a hard place: if rates stay low, inflation will jump….if rates rise, debt service becomes more difficult. Each 1% upward shift in the US Yield Curve adds $360 billion per year in the budget deficit. Despite the US being viewed as the worst offender of debt, very few major economies are any better, and most have a worse debt-to-GDP ratio. Japan is the worst. In Europe, maybe only the Netherlands has a decent ratio; the rest top the US'. Hard choices must be made, and those making the choices tend to think of themselves first, so it isn’t going to get any better for the masses. Cut government spending, and the masses suffer. Keep spending, and inflation hurts….the masses. So inflation has not been a “tax on the poor”. It is a consequence of measures taken to lift the poor from poverty, in contrast to what the poor experienced from Oldavai Gorge until maybe the Marshall Plan or Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

Carbo-phobia is way out of hand. Individual metabolism varies, as does the amount of exercise people do. I eat a ton of carbs---pizza, pasta, French bread---though I also aim for 2 gm/kg/day of protein. I hit the gym 6 days a week for resistance training and cardio/HIIT. I just had a complete physical. HbA1c is 5.2. Tryglycerides are 66 mg/L, while thyroid and liver readings are normal. HDL-C is 68. Body fat is 11%. Doctor did not say to lay off the carbs. Carbs do not seem to be the bogeyman those chiropractors claim.

The joke's on you. You might think your little greeting card looks impressive, but the reality paints a very different picture. Guess where 62% of total US GDP is generated? (Hint: It's blue on your greeting card.) You should say 'thank you' to those blue areas, as it is their skill and hard work that pays your government pension. Red areas are mostly all net takers from the Federal trough, while blue pays the bills.

While I appreciate the good intentions of those who want to use the 14th Amendment to do the needful---those true American patriots---I'm kind of looking forward to the abject disaster 47 is going to make of things. The best way to crush MAGA forever is not to make a martyr of him, but to let him do what he does best: fail miserably. Rational people know that if not for his Game Show and the fantasy manufactured by Mark Burnett, the guy would still just be the laughing stock of NYC and Atlantic City business. I've immunized myself against the certain economic fallout he will bring about, so I'm just going to grab the popcorn and sit back watching his sycophants and cult members get disillusioned with the clown to whom they've pinned their false hopes and delusions. I think Vegas has long odds on him surviving his 4 years, but I do hope he stays above ground long enough to utterly destroy every last delusion his cult has of him. Only then will the US get on track to an actual recovery of rational political beliefs and ideologies. The US needs at least two genuine political parties, not a cult of personality, especially when the messiah is as terribly flawed of a human being as 47 is. To repeat again that old haiku from Basho: Go ahead cricket Chirp away I know it's Autumn

47? At 12:00:01 on the 20th of next month. Of course, that won't help him in NY and GA, as the GA charges and the NY felony convictions are State, not Federal matters. I guess after that, he'll be rather busy trying to get the price of bacon down, though as yet he doesn't even have the concept of a plan on how to do that, and even admitted---albeit AFTER the election---he doesn't know how. He did say he could end the Ukraine war in an hour, so I'm going to keep the TV on at US Eastern time of 13:00:01, ready to rejoice over Ukraine's freedom. Is that too optimistic? I'm waiting for him to finally say something truthful, such as "Nobody knows more about mendacity than me."

Aaaah, that's Suki on the left. I think she has had a variety of careers, but I got to know her when she was working as wait staff at a restaurant on Silom in Bangkok, before Covid. Lovely woman. She was born with many natural gifts, but decided to enhance some of them...which was totally unnecessary, as the Universe had been quite kind to her. Absolutely stunning in person, though it doesn't quite come through in the image. Bob, if she gives you a call and asks you to visit, best you take her up on it. Mrs. Neville would quite understand.

Water cannot be round, whatever than means? Each molecule of water has a gravitational force line that is a vector to the Earth's center of mass, along with lesser forces to other water molecules. On a spherical Earth, the force lines of adjacent molecules that are equidistant from the Earth's center of mass are not parallel. Water molecules on exact opposite sides of the world are aimed at each other, just as a guy standing somewhere in the US has his feet violating a Thai rule by having the soles of his feet facing Thais directly (Fortunately there's ~8000 miles of Earth blocking the view.) If you've ever watched a boat sail off into the distance, especially a tall ship, you will note the hull first moves out of sight, while the masts remain visible. That is because your line of sight cannot follow the Earth's curvature. I'm really a little embarrassed for the species that anyone is still having this discussion in 2024.

I've never understood fat. It takes a deliberate lack of effort and discipline to get bloated. Nobody goes to bed svelte and wakes up bloated. Why not nip it in the bud? Whatever the pleasure one gets from overeating, I would think that has to be "outweighed" by the general uncomfortable-ness of being bloated. I understand for some people, having diabetes, looking like sh!t, having joint issues, being out of breath, facing the distinct possibility of an early death or a miserable end of life with sores that won't heal or extremities amputated is less of an issue than foregoing an extra slice of cheesecake or a bag of chips, but I would guess everything would change when that first heart attack, stroke, knee replacement, or amputation intrudes into the lifestyle. It's then too late for "should have" or "shouldn't have". I understand it might be tough to put down the fork or spoon. I also know firsthand that exercise is time consuming and can be painful. Doing both, however, pays enormous dividends. It feels soooooo good to be in shape. It doesn't look so bad, either. Despite the current woke attitude toward "fat shaming", a fat body is NOT beautiful. It even saves money to be in shape---if that is a concern---because one need not replace the clothes as the waist balloons. I see many expats, and now plenty of Thais, who waddle down the street, occasionally with a grimace because the baggage they carry has put strain on the joints. Was unfettered gorging worth it? Was binge watching some TV show on Netflix preferable to hitting the gym and feeling full of energy? I guess for many people, that answer is "Yes". I think many pretend "It won't be me...I've seen fat people live to 90, blah blah blah". Yes, and one person wins the Megamillions jackpot. The odds do not favor a long and comfortable life if one lets himself go. I'm over 6', weight about 185 lbs, and have a 30" waist. I do 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, in the gym, resistance training and cardio. I'm kind of ripped, and un-roided. I have no affection for confection, as I long ago stopped eating sweets and have no urge to consume them. I don't miss them. I do eat plenty of carbs, but I need the fuel. Yes, it's a lot of work to stay in the shape I'm in, but it feels so good. I can run up the stairs to catch the BTS, can go shoot baskets for hours or get in pick-up games, have no aches or pains, haven't been sick in years, and can wear the same suits I bought back when working in a career requiring a suit. When I get into it with a girlfriend, it kind of gives a bit of an ego boost when she seems to enjoy what's in front of her. Of course I could still get cancer or get hit by a bus or slip in the shower, but I'm playing the odds. I eat plenty, but know when to stop. I aim for a caloric balance. Do that for a while and one's body knows what can be eaten and how much, so it becomes autonomous. I see Thais giving it a shot at the gym, but I can look at someone new and quite accurately guess how long they will keep their membership. The fatties do not last long. They lack the discipline. They let it get too out of hand. If I go into 7-11, I also see what the average Thai is buying....sweet and highly processed. Given what my eyes see strolling around Bangkok, the obesity % quoted by posters here does seem a bit high, but give it time and undoubtedly Thais will "grow into" that number, because the trend is visually undeniable. I do still suffer whiplash turning to look at lovely women, but I think the numbers are decreasing as obesity increases. As for Western expats, I would guess the obesity % tops 70. Fat IS my problem to some extent. I pay more for health insurance because the actuarial tables say I have a chance of bloating up and acquiring all the maladies that come with obesity. Healthcare costs, at least in the US, are also higher because not all fat people pay their treatment bills, so hospitals spread that loss over what healthy people pay. So yes, obesity is a serious problem, albeit one easy to solve if only there is will.

One thing that always puzzles me.... Lots of our world leaders hate each other, but for some reason, guys like Putin and Xi and previously Saddam and Muammar---even the mullahs of Iran and that little chubby guy with the bad haircut in North Korea---all agree to keep word of the flat Earth secret. I guess we'd all panic if we knew walking or driving too far in one direction, and we'd fall off. I assume Earth isn't the only flat celestial object, and maybe Jupiter and Uranus are also flat. I fear Zeus and Bokonon and Thor and Allah are just lining up the pieces in order to play a giant game of Tiddywinks, with the Big Dipper the cup.

From what I understand, there's a Starbucks, a McDonalds, and a recently added weed shop. Otherwise, it's prime real estate. You need a visa to visit, however. The problem is your visa application is forever falling off the Immigration Officer's desk.

The Flat Earthers are correct. Check out this photo I took of the last lunar eclipse. What I can't figure, is how the sun darkens the US and Canada when it's daytime in Thailand. Is there some giant celestial curtain? Maybe there's a matador dangling a cape in front of Taurus, and that blocks light for half the planet? Still, the sun rises slowly, so sunrise, and dusk, really puzzle me, how it is so gradual, and one man's sunset is another's sunrise. The logistics are tricky.

"only liable for sexual assault" Well, if that's the case, let's get the Pope on the phone. Time to start the process for beatification!

Since you seem to be an expert on 6 January, can you tell us who directed all those videos of terrorists beating cops, setting up gallows, looking for the Vice President to hang, smashing windows and behaving like wild animals---all after the election loser told them to come to DC on the 6th (Tweeting: "It'll be WILD!"), then telling them to march to the Capitol (where all that was taking place was a pro forma certification of the election results already certified by every State), and telling them to "fight like Hell"? Was it Christopher Nolan? I'm thinking with all that wanton and gratuitous violence, it might have been Antoine Fuqua, or maybe Sam Peckinpah (who could have risen from the grave along with Hugo Chavez, the guy who wrote the code uploaded to Italian satellites that altered Dominion voting machines, per the loser's lawyer Sidney Powell).

Who else will be there? I'm guessing Mr Dunning and Mr Kreuger.

I can speculate. When I've heard him ranting about Greenland in his recent speeches, he's forever noting how BIG Greenland is. Given what Stormy has told us, plus his obsession with Arnold Palmer's junk, I do think big has something to do with his fascination, as the impish Universe seems to have withheld big from him, save for his belly. Could be wrong, but it's as good an explanation as any. It isn't as if he's claiming the Northwest Territories or Antarctica or Baffin Island, all of which are not particularly well explored or exploited.

Pointing out reality and getting a good laugh at 45/47 isn't bitter; it's joyous. I probably would be bitter if I had failed to benefit from the Biden Economic Boom. Sorry you missed it. The pathological dislike of Biden caused lots of the MAGAs to miss out on some of the easiest wealth-building opportunities in a long time. For those not self-hobbled, the cash register was ringing almost continuously for 4 years. Thanks, Joe and Kamala, for the embarrassment of riches.

Yes, the memory is pretty sharp. Why I can remember a time when someone who tried to start a coup d'etat would be prosecuted, not get elected POTUS. Those were the days, back when America was on a path to Great. Next month, the decline begins. As for Biden being a hero, no, he's just infinitely superior to the guy he trounced by 7 million votes in 2020. 45 inherited a growing economy and 4.8% UE, but left Biden a Recession and 6.8% UE. Today the US, under my non-hero Biden, is growing 3 times faster than the average G7 nation, experienced the longest period of UE below 4% in 64 years, and has lower inflation that the vast majority of the world's nations. Oh, and it produces more energy than it uses. Not bad. Your hero, I predict, will mess things up, just as he did last time. Failure is what he does best. Absent his allowance, daddy co-signed loans, and inheritance, he'd be pouring Slurpies in a 7-11 at a truckstop on an Interstate in Keokuk, Iowa. Mark Burnett made him a hero among the forlorn and poorly educated, which is the only reason he is where he is.

I don't know...I think the apex of slapstick absurdity was when 45 walked up the steps of Air Force One with a long strand of toilet paper stuck to his shoe. 45 also does a good imitation of a 3-year old drinking from a glass, needing two small hands to hold the vessel.

Maybe Aussies of your socio-economic class, but most world leaders wish they could have had the economic growth the US enjoyed from 2020 until today, along with massive stock market gains. People of every ilk, however, did laugh at 47 and his "sharks circling a sinking electric boat", "Arnold Palmer's junk", "that great guy Hannibal Lecter", plus a supposed billionaire schlepping golden sneakers, Chinese-printed autographed Bibles, or NFTs of a bloated fat guy pretending to be an astronaut or fighter pilot, in spite of his bone spurs.