Jingthing

America actually is a brand. Not surprised that you don't know that. www.thewrap.com/trump-trade-war-ken-griffin-damaging-american-brand/

Worse but it'll take maga cultists rather longer to realize that their totally incompetent dear leader has damaged the American brand permanently. Nobody trusts the US any more even very long term close allies and they're right to not trust us. I suppose Americans collectively deserve the pain we're in for as somehow he managed to take power again.

There were some very strong clues that this film was going to be shambolic but I gave it a go anyway. Trastevere 1971 Italian comedy (but not funny) One time director -- never another. No reviews at all found. Was heavily cut in editing. Trastevere (film) - Wikipedia www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trastevere_(film) Oddly, it held my interest enough to watch it. It's named on what was back then a newly trendy bohemian very old district in Rome. Still there of course but no doubt gentrified by now. Although not a documentary it felt a bit like time travel. It showed various 1970's characters like drug addicts, hippies, alienated Americans, delusional locals, fake artists, deliciously filthy language, a mildly predatory middle aged queen, a boatload of old religiously fanatic though sinning Italian grandmas, a vain actor with a lost dog named Mao. I guess there was a little bit of a Fellini factor as many of the obvious non professional actors were kind of freakish and fun to gawk at. Story line and plot very weak. But overall a satisfying enough escapist experience. A bad movie but a better than that experience. So you really never know until you have a look.

An interesting aspect is that this proposed BS plan won't ban recreational use. Hope it doesn't happen it all, but that part is encouraging.

Thailand's government IS on the right wing side of the spectrum. I'm not Thai so it doesn't really bother me. It would if I was Thai. As far impact on immigration, well, I'm not an immigrant so it's a matter of following their visa rules which I've been able to handle up till now. If later I can't, there are other countries.

Oh I get it. You're just a hater of Israel who is LYING. Sneezing, huh? Don't be absurd. It wasn't a robbery. DUH! Again, I don't approve of murdering diplomats of any country anywhere, but the key question here is whether the killer knew they were Israeli officials or was just targeting likely to be random Jews. The former is arguably a politically motivated act. Just killing Jews for being Jews is another thing entirely.

Not in any way a common reaction to cannabis even at very high doses. I don't believe it was in this case either. Perhaps the guy was mentally ill and/or took something stronger.

Yep. The criminally corrupt grifter has damaged the American brand PERMANENTLY. Americans will be much poorer nation because of our moron president. Except for his billionaire cronies of course. Enough to make all decent Americans VOMIT.

The sneezing part. If this wasn't directly targeted at known Israeli officials, then it obviously WAS an act of antisemitic terror. Murdering random assumed to be Jews -- what else could it be?

What are you on about?

Yeah sure but if the killer didn't know they were Israelis more than likely he would have killed AMERICANS. I'm certainly that most attendees at Jewish museum in Washington D.C. are NOT Israelis.

So they were murdered for being suspected Jews or did the killer actually know about the embassy connection? Both horrible but at least for the latter you can see a political motive.

Up to you, but very early in my long standing stay in Thailand I made the decision to actively filter out negative stuff here as much as possible, and also to bend over backwards to try to avoid conflict with Thai people. That has worked for me and I ain't changing. I sincerely beieve that being the first reviewer on that horribly bad restaurant and being honest about it would have made me very vulnerable No thank you! You do have to consider the context though. It's doubtful in a case of a place with many reviews if you said something like the kangaroo sauce on the pigeon was different to what I expected would be a problem. I also reckon the apps are probably complicit in deleting very negative reviews anyway.

You can't publicly be honest about bad experiences with businesses in Thailand without justified fears of legal consequences. All expats shoud be aware of that if you aren't already in order to protect yourself. But the downside of that lets keep everything harmonious is that people are deprived of good information and true competition which raises the standard for all surviving businesses suffers greatly. I totally realize this is a big part of Thai culture. But I also know that Thailand in theory wants to move up the ladder economically. I don't expect this to change much. It's deeply ingrained in Thais from an early age. I don't think it's expats place either to suggest that they change. If they ever do change, it will need to come from within. Anyway, a recent experience highlighted this problem for me. I saw a new to me restaurant on the Grab app but it had zero ratings and zero reviews. I had a bad feeling about it but the menu looked interesting and the menu pictures were inviting, So I risked an order. Surprise, no surprise, the food was below par, very different than the descriptions and pictures, and the portions very tiny. Of course, for me, never again. But did I rate or review it, possibly helping other make an informed decision? OF COURSE NOT. If I had I would have been the very first reviewer and if I had given an honest review, I would have been a legal target of that business for harming their livelihood. So I did nothing. This issue may be less for places that have 20 reviews, mostly good or OK though. But even then, a while back a restaurant that I had ordered from occasionally called me and starting talking very angrily to me about my low rating. This was very crazy because I didn't rate or review the place. So the owners are definitely watching you and they have your phone number!

Beer daily, weed every 3 nights like clockwork Neither Wide range of food nationalities, mix of healthy and unhealthy Fruit from fresh markets, mostly supermarkets City life No massages (Thai massage is for masochists) Delivery from restaurants dominant, restaurants. and home cooking Pattaya baht buses, bolt taxis, walking

Of course SELF employed people pay for all of their SS contributions. There is never going to be a SS system that is fully fair. As stated before minority groups (collectively) get totally screwed by the system as statistically they die younger and disproportionally never live to claim one penny. How unfair is that? Of course there could be a pollical remedy for that which of course will never happen. Anyway, this article goes into a lot of useful about who will benefit from the current proposed plan, and who doesn't. As said before the lower income SS recipients ALREADY pay no tax so nothing would help them related to taxation except to raise their benefits! Do you have Social Security and other savings? You are possibly one of the hardest hit by the GOP tax bill

Of course you do.

Robinhood? I don't get it. Steal from the rich to give to the poor. Who are the rich and who are the poor in this relationship?

He's crap on just about everything else, but he is a genius marketer and propagandist. Fitting for a corrupt cult leader.

Thanks for the correction. It doesn't change the fundamental situation at all except for number of people impacted. Relatively lower income people already pay no.tax on SS.

To clarify Trump's promise was popular but bad policy. The republican congress not Trump is working on an alternative policy that is better. There is no perfect policy possible in human affairs

The trouble with that is that those taxes help fund the program. Speaking of unfair things. Minority groups die younger so disproportionately never live to claim a penny after paying in for decades.

As many know, one of Trump's very loud campaign promises was to end federal tax on social security benefits. This was a stupid and damaging promise for a number of reasons -- Most social security recipients don't make enough total income to owe tax on it already! So cutting taxation out for all would help ONLY higher income people and do absolutely nothing for the majority lower income people. These taxes are put into the FUNDING for social security benefits so cutting all taxes for all accelerates the time when the entire program will need to make a major cut to benefits for all. Currently estimated at about ten years from now unless there is a reform bill passed. Instead of the broken promise the big bill proposes to increase the standard deduction for elderly people. This is MUCH BETTER because it helps more lower income people stay in the no SS tax bracket and does not cut out the vital funding source entirely. Higher income people will still owe SS tax even with the higher standard deduction. Of course the congressional bill with this new provision needs to pass first. However, it seems clear to me that the total elimination of federal taxes on SS will not happen. A broken promise that is GOOD NEWS.

All decent Americans would prefer a random Uber driver over Trump.

Yes Trump is a traitor.