jaywalker2

If you haven't seen Pale Rider or The Outlaw Josey Wales, both are highly recommended.

According to Integrity Legal, this is a tempest in a teapot because nothing has actually changed and people are being stirred up for no reason.

Today, I went to withdraw money from the ATM at the SCB branch at Central Chidlom. The first thing I noticed was that the fixed withdrawal amounts had changed and the highest amount now was 5,000 baht. After that you have to press the withdrawal button and then specify an amount. So I typed in 20,000 and imagine my surprise when the amount appeared on the screen already converted using dynamic conversion. Down at the bottom of the screen, there was the option of continuing without conversion but when I pressed that button, the transaction was automatically canceled. I tried this twice so it was no mistake. I spoke with a bank employee but it was obvious they didn't know what was going on. Next, I went to K Bank. The fixed amounts did go up to 20,000 there but when I made my selection once again the amount appeared already converted. This time I was allowed to proceed without the conversion and make the transaction but I wonder if this is a foretaste of what's to come, if perhaps banks are testing this to see what kind of reaction they're going to get from foreign customers and in the future you won't be given the option. The conversion fee by the way is 5.50 percent, highway robbery. Clearly, a lot of tourists who don't have experience with foreign ATMs could easily be taken in by this trick. After all, when it says continue without converting it does sound like you could be voiding the transaction. Moreover, most people probably wouldn't even understand what was happening unless they had knowledge of dynamic conversion. It just seems like this sort of thing should be illegal since it offers no benefit for the consumer.

Some things I've watched: The new season of Lioness is very good in my opinion. Jo continue to be annoying but the action is hot and heavy and the two lesbian helicopter pilots are coming into their own. Yellowstone has recommenced without Kevin Costner. First episode was rocky but it's strengthened since then. Looks like Kayce is going to step up, which I'm happy about because I quite like that actor. It seems that the cowboys and ranch won't be playing a big role though. Cobra Kai. The second third of season 6 is out. Five more episodes to go. This one is worth watching just for the karate brawl in the final episode. Outlander. Last season for this long-running series. Jamie and Claire are grandparents by this point so the days of steamy sex scenes are over. The first two episode are out and I still don't know where this headed. Cross. I didn't have high hopes for this one but it improved as it went on. The acting was good and the pace never flagged. The plot was absurd but it made for compulsive watching.

That's all they've been talking about. Do you read the news? It's almost 17 percent, first of all, worth almost $50 billion, which is on par with the amount of tourist revenue they generate. Even that percentage is misleading because that's only direct exports. It doesn't count exports to other countries that are used to make products that end up being exported to the US. Moreover, tariffs would not just affect Thai exports. They would also further accelerate imports from China into the Thai market, which are already harming local businesses.

Theyre worried about Trump's tariffs now. If tariff's on Thai exports go up anywhere from 10-25 percent, the export market will be crushed. Corporate profits will plunge and government revenues will follow suit. And they can't stimulate domestic consumption anymore because of the debt burden borne by the middle and lower classes. They should be thinking about strategies to ameliorate the wealth gap in order to stimulate broad-based consumption but of course that's untouchable so all they can think about is how to attract more "foreign investment."

So now it's only 2 1/2 times the cost in its home country instead of 3 times. Great. That's why we have so many posts on this forum that go something like, "What's the cheapest wine I can buy without throwing up."

Because when deciding where to live the cost of living is a major consideration

VAT is a regressive tax -- it favors the wealthy. So you lower the tax on the rich to 15 percent and to pay for it you raise the VAT, which hurts the poor and middle class the most since they have to spend most of their income to live. This is a blatant play by the rich and corporations to steal even more of the economic wealth of the country. And don't bother trying to say it will stimulate economic growth. This has already been tried in other countries (like the US) and they're all drowning in debt.

Well, he's not a doctor anymore. He lost his license to practice. https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/mandel-ontario-doc-loses-licence-for-anti-vaxx-disinformation

That explains Joe Rogan, I guess

An interesting tidbit is that the Cochrane Review that was used to disparage the use of masks had ties to the notorious Brownstone Institue, the ultra-conservative libertarian "think tank" that has devoted itself to attacking all government measures to mitigate the pandemic (Jay Bhattacharya, Trump's choice to head the NIH is one of its writers): "Readers will recall that Brownstone’s Tom Jefferson was First Author for John Conly’s now discredited anti-masking study at the Cochrane Institute (actual scholarship here), and that Brownstone’s Carl Heneghan was functionally an Unlisted Author, though he didn’t list himself in credits. Neither disclosed their Brownstone affiliation. All this violated Cochrane’s famously strict standards, although when Cochrane Library editors “engaged” with the authors while writing their “Statement,” these matters never came up. Suffice to say I don’t have a great deal of confidence in how Brownstone, or its authors, do business." https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/12/jay-bhattacharya-trumps-pick-to-head-the-nih-is-a-eugenicist-charlatan.html

If they're work correctly and consistently, it appears masks are effective in reducing transmission of respitory diseases, including Covid 19 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00124-23

Sorry, never even heard of them

It did bring back a lot of memories though. Beatlemania is something that's never going to be duplicated.

Just finished The Count of Monte-Christo, a French remake of the famous Dumas novel. It's quite well done, great acting all around, particularly by the actor playing Edmond Dante. At almost 3 hours, it's quite long but never gets boring. I got it at TGX and it was a fairly fast download.

What's interesting to me about Trump's Cabinet choices is the lack of any sort of ideological consistency. Trump is well known for his support of traditional Christian values (appointing some of the most conservative Supreme Court justices in years) and his attacks on "woke" ideologies. His attacks on transgenders have been particularly notable. His selections for Cabinet posts haven't necessarily reflected this conservative ideology. Scott Bessent is an example of this. To the Maga community, Soros is the devil incarnate so to have one of his acolytes as Treasury Secretary is intolerable. Bessent also was a big donor to the Democrats before he swtiched his loyalty to Trump. Plus, he has been an open advocate for gay rights, which is likely to inflame the Christian right supporters. RFK Jr himself ran on a platform of traditional Democratic principles, which he felt the party had deviated from in recent years. His surgeon general choice was a strong supporter of the Covid 19 vaccine, which has the anti-vax crowd on Twitter up in arms. His Transportation Secretary is a union supporter. Trump cares less about ideology than he does about personal loyalty. His first cabinet was stacked with billionaires and that appears to be the case with his second Cabinet as well. Despite his campaign rhetoric, he is completely comfortable with the current social regime dominated by financial elites. Loyalists, elites, and Fox news celebrities. That's the Trump Cabinet.

Treasury Secretary candidate Scott Bessant is the founder of the macro hedge fund Key Square Capital Management. Bessent was once the top money manager for George Soros. Another top pick from the world financial elite. He's actually a gay gobalist (he'll be the first overtly gay Cabinet member if approved) and was a big donor to the Al Gore campaign.Look for him to try to mitigate Trump's pledge on tariffs. Commerce Secretary? Billionaire Howard Lutnik, the chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald, another big global financial firm. Drain that swamp, baby. These guys will working their butts off for the working people, I'm sure. Surgeon General? Janette Nesheiwat, whose main claim to fame seems to be that she's a frequent contributor to Fox News, which is where Trump seems to be getting his a lot of his Cabinet ideas. She was also a big advocate for the vaccines, anti-vax lovers. When it comes to hawking supplements, of course, no one beats Dr. Oz, who's created a $100 million empire promoting dubious supplements and fake cures like homeopathy, psychic medicine, conversion therapy, green coffee extract for weight loss. He will now be in charge of the Medicare and Medicaide programs. He'll probably cut funding and tell the elderly to buy his supplements. Surprise pick? Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican house member from Oregan and big union supporter. The Teamsters have even approved of her.

So basically you would be shacking up with a human sex trafficker. Is that right?

The zeitgeist is certainly changing. Where it's headed is anybody guess

His father, Fred Trump, was a rich real estate developer and Donald inherited a huge amount of money -- how much is in dispute. Some have put the figure at $450 million but Trump has claimed that number is way too high. Whatever the case, he's not a self-made man. He was helping run his father's real estate business when the DOJ sued them for refusing to rent to black applicants.

Trump said during his first term that he tried to get rid of carried interest but "they" wouln't let him do it, thus admitting he's working for someone else.

That doesn't mean they do it. I didn't do it for the first 14 years I was here.

Yeah, like the Burmese and Cambodians run down to immigration and report every 90 days. Or maybe they do it online with their laptops, huh?