jerrymahoney

I don't leave 800K in a Thai bank account. I just transfer 65K+ every month.

Yes -- I was there for 2 weeks but not a surfer.

As I said, "I go along in spirit" with the FCPA in that I prefer not to get involved in bribing foreign government officials.

While one should never say never -- as an American, I go along in spirit with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA 1977) against the bribing of non-US government officials.

Vice-President Harris in some (many?) ways has a situation similar to Vice-President Harry Truman in 1944: How the nomination went to Truman, who did not actively seek it, is, in the words of his biographer Robert H. Ferrell, "one of the great political stories of our century". The fundamental issue was that Roosevelt's health was seriously declining, and everyone who saw Roosevelt, including the leaders of the Democratic Party, realized it. If he died during his next term, the vice president would become president, making the vice presidential nomination very important. Truman's predecessor as vice president, the incumbent Henry A. Wallace, was unpopular with some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, who disliked his liberal politics and considered him unreliable and eccentric in general. Wallace was the popular candidate and favored by the Convention delegates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944_Democratic_Party_vice_presidential_candidate_selection

Florida’s First Lady, and Second in Command Casey DeSantis has advised her husband on media strategy and taken on some of the state’s big issues. The presidential campaign trail is next. Ms. DeSantis, 42, is widely seen as perhaps Mr. DeSantis’s most important adviser. In the governor’s mansion, she advised on media strategy and helped vet personnel. Now, as Mr. DeSantis enters the presidential contest, people who know Ms. DeSantis or who have encountered her on the nascent campaign trail expect that she will play a vital role in his most important race yet, seeking to shape perceptions of the campaign, build relationships with party stakeholders and to illuminate the personal side of her hard-edged husband, who sometimes struggles to connect https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/us/politics/casey-desantis-strategy.html No paywall: https://archive.is/MmWLZ

This story was on the digital 'cover' page NYTimes a few days ago 25MAY Bangkok time The Strategic Fashioning of Casey DeSantis With an eye to the Kennedys, and the Trumps. Sometimes, a wardrobe is a strategy. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/style/casey-desantis-fashion.html no paywall https://archive.is/NVLv6

And in 1972, at age 21, I voted for McGovern-Shriver against Nixon-Agnew.

The problem was, after Melania DID have something interesting to say, Michele Obama had already said it: Trump Speechwriter Accepts Responsibility For Using Michelle Obama's Words July 20, 20161:15 PM ET https://www.npr.org/2016/07/20/486758596/trump-speechwriter-accepts-responsibility-for-using-michelle-obamas-words

This Bangkok hospital offers fixed priced hernia packages but, as always, barring complications. No hospital will give you any definitive answers until one of their own doctors examines you in person. https://www.petcharavejhospital.com/en/Package/package_detail/laparoscopic_surgery_hernia

Debt ceiling news: 'An agreement in principle' is reached https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/live-blog/debt-ceiling-live-updates-rcna86529

I just don't get excited about sea or gulf waters with pout waves. (Pulau Nias Sumatra Indonesia)

I have lived at or near both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans California (Pt. Reyes) and Florida (Melbourne). I don't need to be near (as some insist on calling it ) the Thai Ocean. A minimum 25 meter salt water pool does it for me.

You could fill the next 50 pages with mistakes Kissinger has made.

Thank you. Maybe Mr. Hitchens would be relieved to know that -- in his absence -- all people have to do now under the current topic is click on his URL for an answer.

I used to say the same living in rural Florida as living in Isaan: If you didn't bring it, it ain't there.

Not seeing your point. Perhaps it would be easier to make out if you had one. Simple: Christopher Hitchens would have been able to respond to Kissinger's turning 100 himself if he wasn't dead.

That don't happen on here.

In the original 34 count indictment "Statement of Facts", it mentions 'CFO' about 20 times. CFO is Allen Weisselberg.

Treasury Expects to Run Out of Cash by June 5 The latest estimate is a slight extension from the previous June 1 deadline and comes as Republicans and the White House are trying to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a crippling default. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/business/yellen-treasury-x-date-us-debt.html no paywall https://archive.is/7gQNg Letter from Dr. Yellen: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Debt-Limit-Letter-to-Congress-Members-20230526-McCarthy.pdf

Henry Kissinger is turning 100. A long-running meme wishes otherwise. In the left-leaning precincts of social media, the elder statesman’s longevity is no cause for celebration https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/05/26/kissinger-death-memes/ no paywall correction https://archive.is/MZYAT

Mar-a-Lago Worker Provided Prosecutors New Details in Trump Documents Case The day before a key meeting last year between a lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and officials seeking the return of classified documents in Mr. Trump’s possession, a maintenance worker at the former president’s private club saw an aide moving boxes into a storage room, according to a person familiar with the matter. The maintenance worker offered to help the aide — Walt Nauta, who was Mr. Trump’s valet in the White House — move the boxes and ended up lending him a hand. But the worker had no idea what was inside the boxes, the person familiar with the matter said. The maintenance worker has shared that account with federal prosecutors, the person said. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/us/politics/mar-a-lago-trump-classified-documents.html So shades of the 1972 Watergate break-in where a night-time security guard, who saw a taped door, helped lead to the capture of the Watergate burglars/wiretappers. So this break in the Mar-a-Lago documents case maybe comes from the janitor.

A remarkable life story. I only avoided being sent to Vietnam by having a high draft lottery number so I know who he is.

Without getting into war criminal politics, all I will say today is that Hitchens smoked and drank himself to death from oesophageal cancer at age 62. Kissinger turns 100 tomorrow.

From 1970 Ed Sullivan Ike and Tina Turner Revue: