Walker88

Like their messiah, MAGAs don't read books. Green eggs and Ham scared the bejesus out of them, and since then, it's only been comic books. The quintessential character trait of a MAGA is willful ignorance. Somebody has to be way to the left of the mean on the IQ Bell Curve, and it's MAGAs. The OP was a truck driver. I'm just going to guess he wasn't in my class at either Harvard or Stanford.

You know 47 is all about "America First". We don't need any foreign criminals. That's a job for 'Merikans, dammit. Since he closed the southern border, he probably and irrationally fears a crime gap (migrants, even illegal ones, are involved in far less crime than native born), so releasing those miscreant lowlife felons means good old domestic-driven crime.

You really live in an alternate reality. Is that lifelong, or is it a function of advanced age and declining cognition and rationality? The guy stole classified documents and put US nat sec at risk. He called his goobers to DC for 6 Jan 2021 Tweeting "It'll be WILD!", and then used "fight" 37 times in his rant on the Mall (but "march peacefuly"l just once), and they beat 140 cops, <deleted> on the floor, and searched for the VP to hang him on the gallows they set up. He was directly involved in the Fake Elector scheme. He pressured the GA SecState to "just find me...11,780 votes". Going after ACTUAL crime is not "weaponization", except in the fever swamps of MAGAstan and the brain addled fanboy cultists who try to live vicariously through 47.

In the old days, Bangkok had far more agency guys than now (as noted in another post, there's only two ex-spooks now, so rest assured nobody who saddled up to you in a bar and claimed he was agency is telling you the truth, unless maybe he worked in the Credit Union or 1st floor gift shop). I have been told by the old guys, before they passed, that the hangout used to be Mississippi Queen in Patpong. There were ops officers, Phoenix Program guys, Air America pilots, and liaison who worked together with the Free Thai movement (remember the Domino Effect was big back then, so the Thai Army had groups geared specifically to keep Thailand from falling). Bangkok was an R&R spot not only for mil, but also agency folks. Some of the old guys ended up being used as extras when The Deer Hunter was filmed, in the scene when Christopher Walken goes out drinking.

Well, then the President either was mistaken or he simply lied again in his silly Inaugural speech where he made some bogus claim of some deity saving him so he could save 'Merika. He's only stuck at 34 felony convictions because of the pity-appointment of Garland as AG. I also think it's kind of dishonest when he claims crime was up under Biden when 47 and his terrorist goobers almost single-handedly account for all the crimes.

Are you talking about the President? You left out misogynist, willfully ignorant, corrupt, a convicted felon, civilly convicted se offender, Narcissist, brain-addled, psychopath, and obese. Hey, but he's not all bad...he's helping keep the makeup industry in the black with all the goop he lathers on his face every day. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't yet tried to schlepp a foundation in Mar-a-Lagorange shade, or given rumors about a certain former softcore porn model and the poolboy, Cuck l'Orange. Always happy to help!

As part of his "America First" policy, the new President has closed the southern border, "to prevent those rapists, murderers, and criminals from coming into the US of A". He also pardoned 1500 convicted insurrectionists and terrorists for their violent actions on 6 January 2021. "We don't need any foreign criminals coming into our country; we have plenty of our own American criminals right here. I won't let foreigners into to country to steal American jobs! And NOBODY knows more about crime than me. Heck, I've got 34 felony convictions AND a civil conviction for sexual assault." /sarc

Energy Emergency? The US under Biden produced more energy than it used, and had 9000 approved drilling leases that nobody saw fit to take and begin drilling. Do try to keep up.

You're sure (the BOLD text)? Are you Edgar Case? I suspect if someone made a similar assumption about Thailand, you would take exception. As for bribes, 2024 was the first year I wasn't hit up for a "fee" that would clear up an "issue" with my 150+ page Business Visa renewal, a tome the IO doesn't even look at, but just "knows" there's a problem. I know other business owners also have the same experience. We come to accept it's just a cost of doing business. In that section of Imm, I don't know for sure, and would need "Bob" to educate me, but I think those might be real Rolexes on the wrists. The highest I had to pay to "expedite" an issue, "which otherwise might take a month to clear up", was 85,000 baht. They size up the applicant, look at paid-in capital plus P&L of the business, and seemingly decide how far they can go. On the plus side, which the OP noted in detail, Thailand has fully and usually quite competently embraced all of the new technologies the outside world has developed, from wifi to cell signals to medical care (at least in major hospitals) to payment systems (these are actually kind of slow everywhere in the world, as residents here would know if standing behind someone at 7-11 trying to use their phone to pay...cash is much faster.) The banking system is mostly secure, and I make most all payments---staff and suppliers---via a combo of laptop and phone (to receive a OTP). Electricity in generally good, and tends to survive thunderstorms (unlike a residence I have in a European country, where I receive an alert on my phone during storms to unplug my wifi and TV boxes, lest they blow out). When the power does go out in my BKK area, I'm impressed technicians can go through the rat's nest of wires at every junction and determine where the fault lies. I've lived in many countries, and have chosen Thailand for the time being to be my port of call. I am well aware every nation has its particular issues, and I simply accept what they have here. All in all Thailand works quite well, and its pluses outweigh the minuses for me.

The US Taxpayer had to pick up all of those bankruptcies, as stiffed junk bondholders used the losses against other gains. Some loans from NY banks, on other properties, had personal guarantees. He had a payment due on one which he couldn't pay, so his daddy walked into one of his NJ casinos and bought $3.2 million in chips and walked out. The cash was then used to service the NY loan. (MAGA fanboys can Google that.) "Self made man" LOL The only things self made about the clown are his giant belly and butt.

Should have babbittized every last one of those terrorists. No mercy. The treasonous repubs like Boebert are offering to give them guided tours of the Capitol, including those who beat cops and wanted to hang the VP, Republicans are the enemy of law enforcement. We used to get authority to take out jihadis in the tribal regions of Pakistan---this was done under 45, too---who represented far less of a threat to the homeland. I suspect some patriotic law enforcement officers are going to hunt down the scum after the convicted felon pardoned them, and sent them to hell.

Actually, it is Dems and Libs who accept democracy. It was the far right, plus their boys clubs like Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who---along with their messiah---refused to accept the will of the people. 45 still claims he won, though privately he said many times he knows he lost. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I did not see any Dem groups storming the Capitol, beating and bear spraying cops, <deleted>ting on the Capitol floor and rubbing their feces on the walls, nor erecting gallows to hang the Vice President. Neither did I see 148 Dem House members voting not to certify the election results of 2024. So it seems Dems believe in and accept democracy, unlike the far right. One of the beauties of the US is that we are not required to like whom the people have chosen, and so far the US lacks lese majeste laws, so we can call a spade a spade. I am of the view 47 is a self-serving clown, willfully ignorant, he could no longer care less about the common folk whose votes he needed, and he will manufacture an abject disaster, even worse than last time, when he left a Recession and 6.8% UE. Oh, and if the CA fires are Biden's fault, as 47 said Monday, then the bungling of Covid is his fault. And while I accept the result, I am reminded of H. L. Menckens quote from 100 years ago: "On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." As for Musk, he's just weird. Oddly, he is given credit for being an expert on everything, when that is hardly the case. He hires well, that's for sure, but why anyone thinks he should know how to run a government bureaucracy is beyond me. Should we also ask him for a beef bourguignon recipe and how to do the Japanese Tea Ceremony? The guy shifts with the wind, and if 47 begins to fail---as he most assuredly will---Musk will start courting Democrats for the midterms and beyond.

Two kinds of people in the US.... 1) Traitors who think it's okay to beat and bear spray cops, plus try to find the Vice President to hang him And.... 2) Patriots who think all the pardoned terrorists should be doxxed, their names and addresses posted online, so that real Americans and angry law enforcement officers can go pay them a 'visit'.

You have to learn to "think" like a MAGA....and I use the term think generously. Look at it like the Wave-Particle Duality in Quantum Mechanics. For example, in the stolen documents case, the FBI planted them AND 45 had every right to take them, because he had declassified them with his mind (a lie corroborated by soon-to-be Himmler-wannabe Kash Patel). So it's simple re the 6 January terrorists...they're true patriots AND Antifa.

Yo, Mr Dealmaker, let's make a deal! We'll trade you---Central America---a million obese, binge-watching, SSDI-collecting MAGAs for a million of your folks willing to work hard and better their lives. Heck, our new leader knew the value of undocumented workers, as he employed dozens at both his Florida wedding planning facility and his Bedminster Golf Club.

Come on, fella. MAGAs need work, too. Far too many of them are parasites, living off of SSDI. Red States lead in that. For a migrant, strawberry picking is a stepping stone to a better career, but for a MAGA, it’s the pinnacle of their working life. You can probably tell by now that MAGAs are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Heck, they got fooled by a conman clown who claims to be “self-made”, despite having been gifted more than half a billion dollars by his actually successful dad.

You don't understand MAGA "Family Values". Consider the former buyout artist Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap. He bought productive, ongoing concerns and sold them off in parts. That's the Homan Plan. Take whole families and sell them off in parts. You expect a higher morality to come under the auspices of a serial philanderer and convicted business and charity cheat?

Personally, after seeing another of his "Executive Orders" yesterday, I'm glad we finally know beating and bear spraying cops, plus threatening to hang the Vice President, is not a crime. Lots of defense lawyers will be using that to convince juries of the innocence of their defendants.

"There are only two genders." Okay, which one is that bulbous thing? With all that makeup, he makes the Kardashians jealous.

He read the teleprompter incorrectly. He meant to say: "The Golden Sneaker Age begins right now. See www.griftinglosers.com for how to order your pair."

What a miserable and useless life you must lead! You support violence and the pardoning of terrorists who beat and bear sprayed 140 cops, <deleted> on the floor of the Capitol and wiped it on the walls, set up a gallows to hang the Vice President, and tried to overthrow the elected government. Perhaps karma will pay you a visit.

I hope he deports that former softcore porn model who lied on her Einstein Visa application and then used chain migration to get her parents into the US.

Nonsense. Maybe there was a time when "they didn't talk about it", but those days are long gone. Now they talk, write books, appear on TV offering analysis, etc. They are trained, but not supermen. They aren't even as special as they think they are. Also, there haven't been many special missions in the last few decades. Plenty in movies and books, but few in reality. Lots of training, but little actual action. Yes, most of the clowns in Patts and BKK are lying. They likely never served, much less in any special ops group. That being said, we had a joke in the agency that went like this: "How do you know a guy is a SEAL?" Answer: "He tells you." SEALS and SAS do fancy ops with lots of support and commo and everything. The real tough guys are the agency SAC Ground Branch. Most of their ops are done alone, with no backup....just a guy, maybe with a weapon and definitely a wad of cash. The first guys into both Iraq and Afghanistan were not SEALS; they were agency Ground Branch, gathering intel, meeting assets, calling in air strikes. Even agency ops officers, when working in hostile environments, are operating as lone wolves...no backup and mostly just their wits and street skills, when going at terrorists or other bad guys. SEALS and SAS guys would make terrible spooks, and spooks would make terrible special ops guys. The mentality of one is the polar opposite of the other. Soldiers follow orders and are disciplined and team players; spooks are anti-authority loners whose talent is the ability to manipulate, to think on one's feet, and having the general view that life is just one grand game. In the current vernacular, SEALS/SAS are Alpha Males; spooks are Sigma Males. The original head of the OSS (Wild Bill Donovan), which became the agency, sought highly intelligent and educated elite folks, who had a cavalier attitude and an odd sense of invincibility, which gave them a false courage. Most of the originals were Ivy Leaguers. As for ex-agency spooks in Thailand, there are only two former ops officers, and I know the other one. Neither of us is going to mention it to anyone in person, though that is less for classification reasons and more for the fact there are some bad guys in Thailand. Plus, nobody cares. so no need to mention it. Nothing to gain. By the way, a certain Bangkok hotel used to be al Qaeda Central, and let's not forget Hambali was caught in Ayutthaya. Might as well remain anonymous so long as jihadis walk freely. I once had a guy, a kind of fat Norwegian, saddle up to me in a bar and tell me he was some special ops guy who had been "following me for a long time" and was now there to arrest me. Obviously he was BS-ing. I looked at him and said, "If you're telling the truth, then you know who I am and what my skills are, and you should be worried I will rip your throat out right here." He stood up and left. I have had one or two others over the years "open up" to me they were agency or something similar, having no clue that they had picked the wrong guy to BS.

Maybe you should ask 47's buddies like Mnuchin and other oligarchs who gobbled up houses and raised rents.

Americans are arithmatic and financial morons, so take any individual's claims of inflation with a grain of salt. They see one price rise and extrapolate that one price over the entire economy, oblivious as to what inflation actually means. They also think inflation starts in a second, rather than being a result of factors happening months or even years before. Inflation is based on a basket of goods and services it is assumed the average consumer buys. Price rises and falls are matched against the weight any one good or service has in the overall inde. These are then weighted and averaged out, and a number results. The government has a basket it uses, but private sector companies construct their own basket and come up with a number. These numbers tend to be close to each other. Inflation peaked in the last 4 years at about 9.5%, and is currently running about 2.5% +/- .2% It was never close to 20%. That is nonsense. As for its cause, numerous factors contributed. The tax cut and funds handed out during Covid were a good portion of it, as 45 ran up $8,400,000,000,000 of new debt in his first term. Since the nominal GDP change was $trillions less than his new debt, that means printed money was chasing goods and services, and even the meager growth was totally debt fueled. Boom! Inflation. His debt equates to $25,000 for every man, woman and child in the US, so it is hardly any wonder that would lead to inflation. Biden also doled out funds during Covid, so he shares some of the blame. Other contributors were the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as that resulted in sharp rises in first oil, and then fetiliizer, which impacted agricultural prices. Bacon was hurt by an outbreak in the EU of Swine Flu, which is hardly Biden's fault. Americans are stupid enough to blame Biden for inflation, but they will soon learn their chosen one has absolutely no clue how to bring any price down.