MicroB

You might be shocked about some of the so-called classes that American universities offer to earn degree credit. eg going to the gym., watching a slasher movie in the library. Mstly taken up by Americans from what I observed. Of course, they were being educated in doing all these things, in a way that their peers in a British university aren't. When you go to university, much of what makes you the person you are when you leave isn't the classes you attend. I think for most people it does open their eyes not only to different ideas, opinions, but a wider world. ICE are basically cops who failed the exam for the local sheriffs office. There have been so many reported cases that show they seem to lack basic common sense. Most ICE agent roles only require a high school leaving certificate and a clean record, ie, can you read and write.

Because overseas students pay higher fees. In State students are heavily subsidised by everyone else. The vast majority of foreign students are self funded, at the highest rate, or are supported by grants or loans from their own governments. In this way, US universities are bringing in foreign cash into the US economy. International students add $44bn to the US economy, and support nearly 400,000 jobs. https://www.aau.edu/newsroom/leading-research-universities-report/new-analysis-shows-international-students-contributed The US Department of Commerce, when it was run by the 45th President, had broadly similar numbers in 2018 https://www.iie.org/research-initiatives/open-doors/economic-impact-of-international-students/ Higher Education is the 10th largest US export. Not only that, its an absolute force multiplier for US soft power. Those international graduates, doctorates, MBAs return home, to assume senior roles in their countries, and most will have fond memories of their time in the US. The percentage staying (converting their non-immigrant visa to immigrant, which is very hard and mostly depends on an employer petitioning Labor) starts at 20% and increases with increasing qualification (as expected, viz. Elon Musk) Sometimes the revenues of US universities can be pretty screwed up. I attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. On the face of it, it had fabulous facilities. But the library was facing budget problems. Normally, US university libraries are open 24 hours for access; students need it for all nighters, or for the so-called open boox exams which are a peculiar feature of US Higher Education (and tougher than what it sounds). So, they were running out of money and were forced to curtail opening hours and lay off staff. But the Atheltics Department saved them The Athletics Department, mostly because of the football team and track, had fantastic funding. Everyone on the football team was there on a scholarship, and the football team was really a business. Own accomodation, own chefs, and a student carpark full of top end cars, despite the students being of amateur status. The department dug around and found the money to keep the lights on. But, its all the same university, and the library is a shared resource. A shortfall in foreign student admissions, particularly the more lucrative postgraduate level, will likely see Universities see falls in revenues, and pressure to cut services or increase fees. I expect the move will cause fees for American students to increase, perhaps rendering higher education out of reach for most. This is not good if the US is expecting to reindustrialise, unless its expecting sweat shop factories as the future.

American arrested and detained by ICE. He was walking and got lost near a border patrol HQ in Tuscon. Court documents say he was detained near Nogales, a border town. https://news.azpm.org/p/news-articles/2025/4/18/224512-us-citizen-in-arizona-detained-by-immigration-officials-for-10-days/ Some might say he should have been carryng ID. Most IDs, per se, short of a passport (which many Americans won't have), won't indicate your citizenship, just a confirmation where you live. I suppose this means the US is moving closer to a "Papiere Bitte" culture. If you can't prove you are an American, upon demand, you can expect to be detained, and denied even a call. I know there are some who claim this is the same person who had posted a bond. Doesn't make it any better for ICE, as surely that would mean his biometrics were in the system, and the issue would have been sorted out in a few hours.

Financial experts loyal to the 47th President are stating that in fact Wall Street traders are Communists, engaged in a plot to undermine the American President. She managed t get her GED certificate aged 34m so I reckon she must know what she's talking aboutt? Electors don't vote for uneducated buffoons, right?

Or its not a hankie, but he's using the top Bangkok tailor's tip of pulling out the pocket lining to give the impression of a snot rag. The irony is that people of his persuasion are the first to whine about "virtue signalling". Bet his pee stained boxers are stars and stripes, and his smelly socks are Old Glory. The whole Signal story is even more egregious because Hegsteth isn't a mere naive simpleton politician who has loose lips. Until recently, he was a serving officer in the US military, even if it was just part time, so was Waltz and, to an extent, Vance. In uniform, these men would have had it hammered into them the need for OpSec, and would have been aware of approaches adversaries and potential adversaries would take to gather data, that would shock the general public. For instance, we know about the fitness apps that were used to precisely locate secret US special forces fire bases in Syria. Now the UK MOD has banned Chinese cars being parked anywhere near bases, because of the data being collected by these cars. Oh, terrible Chinese, right? Well, Tesla cars are now banned from Chinese government car parks. We are all at it. Anyone who follows Bellingcat now how much data there is out there on us. Huge amounts. Hegseth, Waltz and Vance know all about this.

So how does "Mechanic Jack's Team" post their videos of car shut n cuts? https://www.tiktok.com/discover/mechanic-jacks-team?lang=en Its all Chinese content. Douyin and TikTok are both owned by ByteDance. Content from Tiktok cannot be shared to Douyin, but content is shared on an industrial scale from Douyin. Hence cat videos. Essentially, its semantics to differentiate between the two.

Hmm, maybe one should not read too much into the fact that the Pope doesn't wear ties, and he gave Vance a souvenir tie from the Vatican gift shop. Vance sat there mansplaning while he met the Pope, probably the only time in his lifetime that he would have that opportunity. Crass wearing of the USA lapel badge. Cheap yellow VC bro tie. He's supposed to be meeting the Pope as James Vance, a devout member of his flock, not JD Vance, Vice President of a political construct.

Hopefully Vance, a Catholic convert (and we know how tiresome that mob can be, eg Anne Widdecombe) isn't sitting there wondering if he said anything he would regret. He even made money telling the world about his conversion. He even said that growing up, he was convinced the world would end in 2007 and the Pope was the Antichrist. He's been a Baptist, a Pentecostal, an Atheist, now a Roman Catholic, married a Hindoo. Probably needs a word with Ronnie O'Sullivan about things of the heart. Caqtholic converts suddenly think they are experts on things theological. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ordo-amoris-jd-vance-b2694111.html We know he had "an exchange of opinions" with a Cardinal before meeting the Pope, and one wonders if even a meeting with the Holy Father by the Official Spare was even originally on the cards, or pushed for by Vance. How on earth does someone who's only been a Roman Catholic for 5 years get an audience with the Pope. Catholics wait their entire lives for just a glimpse. Vance is not even a World Leader. Constitutionally, he's actually a nobody. We know Vance and Cardinal Pietro Parolin talked about Immigration and International Conflict. Which makes me think it was the Vatican who set the agenda. Why would Vance want to talk about the plight of prisoners. It's obvious the Vatican picked him up on controversial issues relating to deportations to El Savadorian concentration camps among other things. The original plan was for a formal meeting with the Pope, but the Pope opted to skip that meeting, sending underlings instead, and reducing the meeting to a meet and greet. Evidently Vance's professed Prayers for the Pope didn't work. His actual meeting itself seemed to have all the depth of someone meeting Mickey Mouse in Orlando. A rather inappropriate pat on the arm, and patently not enough grovelling. One wonders if he will ever take that Vatican tie off. He got a gift set. True Catholics right now would be feeling immense sadness. Some Protestants will probably be thinking less charitably of the Pope (not this particular Pope, but any Pope). Some, particularly Americans, will now get obsessed about conspiracy theories, Illuminati, and all that other nonsense. Do Catholic converts divorce themselves from such thoughts? If Vance is a real Catholic, this letter should have caused him genuine angst. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2025/02/11/0127/00261.html

And don't forget where the profit goes. A distributor will pay a sell-in price. The consumer pays sell out price (the distributor's profit) plus taxes. The distributor might be American owned, it migt be Chinese owned. Either way, if statements are to be believe, local, state and federal government is profiting from slavery, abuse, genocide etc.

Cue people complaining now about too much religion on their TVs, given the Pope has now died.

This is a statement by an idiot.

I think there must be a global conspiracy against Thai Buddhism. The BBC skipped over Songkran.

Why paranoid? You used, perhaps unintentionally, the paranoid fruit loop's favourite term "mainstream media" which is a bit of a red flag. These paranoid fruitloops, despite leading most of their (usually) 50-60 years on this Earth not giving a damn about the God Botherers, suddenly think there is some conspiracy to silence "Christianity". Usually, they reach that conclusion because they read someone telling them that was happening. Tosh. Its a normal Easter, except for the slightly unusual fact about Easter in 2025, which you probably aren't aware of. From the BBC, given your google-fu is limited;

Peak idiocy. The Communists of Wall Street.

In reference to 737 Max; http://www.boeingzhoushan.com/en/aboutUs/

Old people remember the good times, hardly the bad. It's a medical fact, related to how the brain retrieve positivie imagery as it ages.

Paranoid posting. Telly line up is pretty normal for an Easter Sunday. The Holy Joes have The 10 Commandments over of Film 4. The kids have a choice of Peter Rabbit, Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, and Oliver! Had Easter Sunday Service followed by Messiah on the Beeb already. Normal Easter Sunday footie.

The plane is made in USA. The paint job and seats are added in China. I assume you have been in a coma for 30 years and just woken, so understandably you have no idea what the Comac C919 is.

Supporters like this, who thought long and hard at the ballot box?

Too Big Too Fail. But its not just Boeing. There is a huge supply chain. This supply chain impacts other industries. For instance, a well known US medtec manufacturer uses an aerospace parts supplier to also carry out assembly of some of its key products. If that company goes under, that Medtec company no longer has a CMO. And they can't just pick up the proverbial yellow pages and find another. They have to find someone else who does medtec, and has capacity. They need a lot of work transferring production. The FDA has to reapprove their product before it can even be sold.

Not brand new anymore. How complete are these aircraft? Do they have fitted out cabins, Contrary to the photo, the 3 planes that have come back were built for Xiamen Airways. From what I can gather, Zhoushan completes the livery and interiors. I assume most of the cabin wiring is done in the US, and in China they are bolting in seats, laying carpet, hooking up entertainment systems, all in Chinese. These were built with business and economy class cabins, so zero interest from Ryan Air unless a big discount, as they will likely need complete rework. Ryaqn Air, and other similar airlines don't do business class.

Maybe sliced his finger on one of those clockwork skeleton money boxes kids used to get in the 70s. As I recall, if you looked inside, they were made of recycled film canisters, mostly Fujifilm. Lethal adges on those tin toys.

Not necessarily good for the ROTW. CCP won't be replaced by Westenr liberalism. Its replaced by Chinese Imperial Nationalism. The Wumao army ("50 cent Army") are online trolls paid to spread CCP propaganda, but loyal to the party line, whatever direction that takes. But now there is Ziganwu. These are not CCP loyalists. They are rabidly anti-Western, and view us as corrupt and depraved. They attack issues such as feminism, human rights, multiculturalism, democracy. Of course, its possible the Ziganwu are playing a double game; they are employed to create an impression that there is political opposition to the CCP, but this opposition is frightening, expansionist, apocalyptic, so it becomes better the devil you know, because at least the CCP is predictable, rational. Taiwanese attitudes to Hong Kong, in my opinion, are complex. Yes, they don't like the Communists, but they put the British below the Communists.. When HK was returned to China, Taiwanese people were pretty happy that now Chinese people govern Chinese people. The Taiwanese I know despise Hong Kong Chinese, as they feel they have too many "white" values. When Chiang Kai Shek arrived in Taiwan, after the Japanese were ejected, he ordered all the graves containing Western POWs to be emptied. They didn't even allow a memorial to be erected until 1997. And yet, this is supposed to be the solidly pro-Western part of China.

I know. It costs about $6m per year more to flag a US vessel. A container ship will typically have to pay $3-4m per US port call. There are 200 US flagged container ships, of which 30 are US made. Vancouver Port and Manzanillo are going to do really well out of this. Los Angeles and Long Beach account for 40% of trade into the US by sea. I forsee the effective end of the US flagged merchant fleet. The two main west coast ports have a combined revenue of $1.5bn. The two ports handle 4000 vessals a year. Call it $400k per ship. Fees are now increasing 10x. Canadian and Mexican stevedores and drivers are going to earn a lot of overtime. Increase truck traffic at the border will ironically result in increased illegal migration, and further increases in the cost of border patrols. It will be like the mess after Brexit, x100, when the UK had 30 miles of stuck trucks at the border because of insufficient numbers of inspectors. And that will impact traffic both ways. Containers going in have to go out, loaded. Ports in Europe are now congested with Chinese shipping transferring cargoes. With a $3m charge, it might become worthwhile to transfer the cargo to some crappy clapped out American made ship to avoid the charges. Make sure that American made ship sails in with a red flag on the stern.

The 47th President's office has released a series of images mocking Senator Christopher Van Hollen for meeting Abrego-Garcia, and crudely altering a New York Times headline., along with a photo of the President holding an unverified photo of a tatooed hand allegedly of Abrego-Garcia, with an exaggerated scowl. Commentators have compared this posed photo to the well known meme, known as "Compo Face", commonly employed by British tabloids concerning parochial matters. Commentators have accused the President of trying to trivialise the court decision and gang violence.