Wingate

No doubt we'll be hearing all of those South Koreans taken by ICE are Jopok members. Probably tatted, too. Will they be deported to Venezuela or Uganda? Maybe the whistleblower was Trump's lover Kim Jong-un? No better way to firm up international relations and alliances than upsetting Seoul.

Sweet lemon, eh? Wasn't Trump the guy who claimed the Biden Economy was a disaster (best GDP growth since the late 1990s and best job grow ever, including a record # of months with UE < 4% in 64 years), and that only Trump could fix it? How does "fix it" involve a Recession? That's like calling yourself a "self-made" successful businessman, when you got a massive allowance, your father co-signed all of your loans, you declared 6 bankruptcies, and only began filing positive income tax returns after someone else turned you into a Game Show host. While Recessions are inevitable, it's an interesting historical note that not a single Republican President ever has NOT presided over the start of a Recession. Not even one. Democrats, OTOH, have a few Presidents who never presided over the start of one.

With the second downward revision to the June 2025 jobs number, June becomes the first month since December 2020 (who was President then?) with a negative jobs number. The new revised June 2025 number is -13,000. "Only I can fix it"---DJT On Thursday, before the BLS number, Trump held a luncheon with tech CEOs, who were groveling for tax breaks and to stay out of jail (Zuckerberg). He claimed "in a year" there will be jobs numbers "like no one has ever seen", suggesting that it will be new manufacturing. He said now this manufacturing surge can only be seen in construction labor numbers. Well, in the BLS release, construction jobs fell in August, so obviously Trump is just making stuff up, like his conversation with his uncle about the Unabomber or Trump's stopping of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Yea, Donny, and you're also 6'3" and 215 lbs and you never schtupped Stormy Daniels. The only thing coming out of the White House that anyone can believe is that whatever Trump says is either a lie or a dementia-driven fantasy.

And hey, let's borrow! I mean, it's not as if we already have too much debt, right? That worked after the dot.com crash....at least until 2008. Trying to browbeat the Fed Chief is probably not a good idea, as the entire world sees that, and foreigners still fund upwards of 30% of US Federal Debt. Of course, that is changing a bit, as China and India, inter alia, are selling some of their holdings of USTs. Maybe it's a bad idea to irritate our foreign paymasters? I'm sure Donny knows best, and "nobody knows more about debt than me" (Trump once said that.) And for those who might have forgotten, Trump once said on live TV (CNBC) that he would consider defaulting on USTs held by foreigners.

Best you put the shovel down and stop digging, because you are just making yourself look either clueless or incredibly lazy, maybe both. It seems you think the BLS report---which, to repeat is Nonfarm Payroll---is merely the single number of 22,000. That is merely the headline number. The actual report is extremely detailed. The report not only also indicates the 12,000 decline in manufacturing jobs, it notes the 146,000 decline in manufacturing jobs since August 2024, when Biden was President. The guy who ran on a promise of rebuilding US manufacturing---Trump---is actually failing in his quest. The changes in jobs in August is also quite detailed, not only noting in which specific sector jobs were lost (like manufacturing), but also where jobs were gained. In this August 2025 report, one can see that the key contributors to new jobs were: “Food Services and drinking places” “Amusement, gambling and recreation industries” “General Merchandise Retailers”, the largest subset being “Warehouse clubs, supercenters”, which would be things like Walmart and Costco. Those are unlikely to be high paying jobs, but hey, MAGAnistas have to work somewhere. Other data includes the Labor Participation Rate, which are people currently either working or looking for work. Discouraged workers, who have given up, are not included. Of course that slightly masks real unemployment, which would be higher if those who have simply given up were included. The employment/population ratio is 59.6%, having declined by .4% in 2025. (Note the denominator may well be shrinking, because of the deported, so that number might actually be worse.) The number of people not working, but who want a job is up 722,000 in 2025. The number of long-term unemployed (defined as jobless for 27 weeks or more) is up 385,000 in 2025. Oh, and the June number---whose massive downward revision upset Trump so much he fired the BLS Chief---was revised down even more, from the previous revision of +14,000 to a new -13,000. So that original June number, which was around +146,000, is actually -13,000. There isn't enough lipstick in the world to put on this pig.

Ah, somebody has to educate the MAGAnistas, but the BLS release is "non-Farm Payroll". So your hypothetical illegal workers on marijuana farms, even if they existed, would not enter into the BLS number in any way. Sorry to embarrass you.

MAGAnistas simply have no originality. Meds? I bet it took every neuron in your noggin to come up with that "slaying" comeback! Cyrus McCormick, he of the eponymous combine, was used by me just to note the change in farming techniques from animals to machinery. Had the animals been as weak as Trump, fields would never have been plowed, food not planted, and humanity would have either stayed with foraging or more likely slashed the population to the point of extinction. I'll admit the attempt at humor was not particularly grand, but the fact you did not even get it is undeniable proof that you're in that demographic far left of the mean on the IQ Bell Curve, which is to say in the heart of Trumpistan. Those of us with quality educations and who inherited a good set of genes often forget that not only are half the people of below average intellect, but those who make up the MAGAs are a std dev or more below the mean. Scary, but the world still needs a few janitors and truck drivers. In the future, when I believe any reference, joke or irony I write will be a puzzle to MAGAnistas, I will put footnotes or something similar to help the remedial demographic.

Tonight is the BLS release of the August jobs number, after Trump installed a lackey at the helm. My guess: 1.4 trillion jobs created in August, with July revised upward to 1 x 10^14

These guys caused more fear, death and destruction than all the trans in existence, but reality = an inconvenient truth in the fever swamps of MAGAstan: Michael Estes, Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, Patrick Stein, Adam Purinton, Jeremy Christian, Wade Page, Edgar Welch, Sam Woodward, James Fields, Dylann Roof, Robert Bowers, Ian David Long, Cesar Sayoc, Gregory Bush, Stephen Paddock, Christopher Hansson, Patrick Crusius

Just because Trump says something, that doesn’t mean it’s true. That’s patently obvious to sane and rational people, but MAGAnistas apparently can be fooled all of the time. Snorting the vapors in the MAGA fever swamps, MAGAnistas believe that If their messiah spews it, it must be gospel. Well, on Wednesday in the Oval Office, Trump lied this: “Now it’s considered a totally safe zone (Wash, DC)…restaurants are open, they’re bustling, Restaurants, you have to see, restaurant were dying, nobody wanted to go out, they didn’t want to be attacked, they didn’t want to be mugged, they didn’t want to be attacked even in the restaurant, and now you take a look at what’s happened, friends of mine” blah blah blah. (a likely fictitious story of a 'friend' who has gone out to eat 5 times in the last 2 weeks, after having not gone out for a meal in 4 years) The truth, according to OpenTable, is that restaurant reservations in DC are down 30% from this time last year (Note: at this time last year, the President was Joe Biden). With all of Trump’s tens of thousands of lies, I sometimes wonder if he got the Pinocchio story a little mixed up, thinking “something else”, and not his nose, will get bigger if he lies.

On the plus side re brain aging, there's some interesting research published in the last few weeks about the benefits of lithium orotate. Patients with dementia and Alzheimer are found to have low levels of lithium in the brain. Apparently that simple atom works against amyloid plaque, breaking it down and preventing neuron death. There is some evidence that in patients with early stages of dementia, taking lithium orotate supplements (~5mg/day) lessen the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer. It's still early, but since the supplement seems to cause no harm, those susceptible to dementia or with a family history of Alzheimer might benefit from taking it.

Is Sukhumvit in the US? Since the Obama Administration, the US has built an ever-improving relationship with India, especially in terms of intelligence sharing with RAW. Even during times of surface difficulties, the CIA maintained excellent relations with India, and often worked behind the scenes to diffuse tensions between the two nuclear powers of India and Pakistan. The US also got lots of intel re various radical Islamic terror groups as well as Iran-supported Shi'a terror groups. That's now dead. Trump messed it all up. He tried "making friends" by sending Uday and Qusay Don, Jr and Eric to try to license the family name in RE projects, but Modi didn't bite. Trump really blew it when he tried to intervene publicly in the recent Kashmir scuffle. Modi has always been vehemently against any outsider getting involved in the Kashmir issue, so Trump's claims of having solved it drove Modi crazy, which is likely why Modi turned so quickly toward Putin and Xi. (OTOH, Pakistan played its own hand, seeking US money, and flattered Trump by lying about his influence and suggesting he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pakis are clever enough to see how easy it is to manipulate the woefully insecure Trump.) US influence is dying across the globe. Trump passed on traveling to the Quad Summit (the Quad includes the US, India, Japan and Australia), so that alliance is dying. The US is also now reviewing its place in AUKUS (US, UK, Australia), which is likely to really irritate Australia, as it was retrofitting the port in Perth to accommodate US submarines.

Far right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer may well be the shadow President of the United States of America. Various media has reported that Loomer has been responsible for the firing of many people in the government, and this has been corroborated by her own social media postings, where she takes full credit for telling Trump or agency officials to do the firings. In a very public bit of interference in Congressional responsibility, Loomer nixed a meeting Senator Mark Warner was to have had with the Chief of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The meeting is a typical part of Congressional Oversight, as Sen Warner is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, or SSCI. Such meetings are classified, even that they are happening, yet “somehow” Loomer was aware of the meeting. She does not hold a security clearance. Not only did Loomer take credit in a post on X (former Twitter) for the cancellation, but she demanded that the Chief of NGA, Vice Admiral Trey Whitworth, be fired simply for agreeing to meet with Senator Warner. (Note: Adm Whitworth does not have a choice, if an elected official requests a meeting, he must do it, so Loomer wants him fired for doing his job). Loomer’s influence goes far beyond one meeting with NGA. 37 people at CIA who were associated with the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election had their security clearances removed at Loomer’s request. Many of those people still work at CIA and some had been posted to overseas positions as Station Chiefs or domestic positions as Mission Center Chiefs. Their loss of clearance---for doing their job---means the position cannot now be theirs. That is despite current DCI Ratcliffe, appointed by Trump, having already signed off on their assignment. (I happen to know the agency is being drained of its top and most talented ops officers and analysts, as their skill level allows them to find private sector employment at a multiple of their current salary; no point in hanging around a failing and increasingly irrelevant institution, where simply doing one’s job gets you fired. The same seems to be true at FBI, DoJ and CDC, inter alia. Talented folks are leaving as they see loyalty to POTUS beliefs trumps loyalty to the US Constitution or the US Taxpayer.) What Trump calls “Russiagate” or “The Russian Hoax” was very real, and it would have been a dereliction of duty had it not been investigated, and the 37 agency employees whose clearances Loomer had revoked might have merely been on distribution lists of the incoming intel. In other words, they lost their clearance because their eyes saw something. Remember that there was never any denial by the Trump campaign that Campaign Chief Paul Manafort traveled to Spain to hand GRU asset Konstantin Kilimnik detailed internal polling data from the campaign, which subsequently went to the GRU’s Internet Research Agency, who then microtargeted voters in key swing States with disinformation adverse to Democrats. Even Republican-led SSCI, at the time chaired by Marco Rubio, noted this as fact in the SSCI report. No explanation was ever given as to why Manafort would travel to Spain simply to hand-pass this polling data to Kilimnik. That fact is, for Trump, an inconvenient truth and certainly suggests cooperation with Russia. Sadly, anyone who read in on that Manafort-Kilimnik meeting at the agency has now lost his or her clearance and is effectively out of a job, save perhaps for the agency food court, credit union, or 1st floor gift shop. There are additional reports Loomer’s influence goes far beyond, and that she also dictates Pentagon policy, judicial policy (she claims to have gotten judges removed) and even US policy regarding Gaza. (Loomer is a virulent anti-Moslem, posting frequently about her contempt for Islam and all who practice it.) As Trump’s mental capacity continues to deteriorate (nobody can deny his fantasy “remembrance” of discussions with his uncle regarding the Unabomber, taking credit for stopping the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, forgetting who his 2024 opponent was, forgetting who the Speaker of the House was, along with the word salad continually spewing from his mouth), it should concern all Americans---indeed all world leaders, too---that a raving lunatic like Laura Loomer has so much influence, even control. Rasputin comes to mind. (An aside: the National Security Council has been marginalized in Trump 2.0, allegedly because Loomer has decided she and Trump already know more about the world than the 23 combined intel agencies of the US. CIA analysts now just brief NSC staff, albeit merely as an academic exercise, as the intel has no impact nor bearing on any policy or policy action. DNI Gabbard found this out the hard way, as before the Iran strike, she informed Trump that intel analysis was that Iran was as much as three years away from developing a nuclear weapon. That ran afoul of what Trump---and perhaps Loomer---wanted to believe, so Gabbard was sidelined in the period leading up to the strike, purposely left out of Situation Room meetings and briefings. She now toes the line and tells Trump---and perhaps Loomer---what they want to hear, not what 23 intel agencies conclude.) So is the United States of America, a nation with thousands of nuclear warheads, whose launch is subject solely to the order of the President, now led by a man seemingly suffering from dementia and a lunatic conspiracy theorist? One shudders to think.

Stutter is the wrong thing to bring up. Biden stuttered as a child, as many children do, but he worked hard to overcome it. His mental faculties were in decline, but I think Trump is worse. Trump "remembers" lots of things that never happened, like discussing the Unabomber with his uncle, stopping the 1994 Rwandan genocide, dealing with Nikkei Haley as Speaker of the House, or running against Barack Obama in 2024.

But you're the "angryguy". Seems to me those leftists are WINNING.

He hasn't had 1% of the lying practice Trump has had. Maybe at Trump University they have a remedial course in mendacity? Of course, nobody can lie like Donny. Many people are saying he's the best liar since Pinocchio.

If he's as strong as an ox, humanity would have become extinct before the arrival of Cyrus McCormick. Maybe you mean he's as strong as those sick oxen bargirls are always barking about to weasel money out of gullible farang?

You seem very angry, but also extremely knowledgeable about both this French fellow and Eden Club. Had a bad experience there, did you? While you show disdain for Marc and his ways, you seem to hold a civilly convicted sexual assaulter---a guy who is on tape boasting of being free to grab women by their private parts--- and man guilty of everything from charity fraud to bank and insurance fraud in high regard. Oh, he also went and schtupped a porn star while his 3rd wife was caring for a newborn infant. That seems hypocritically selective of you. If moral depravity is wrong in one person, isn't it wrong in all?

Kind of curious how far this White Man’s Burden thing goes…. It seems you have decided, for all people, that the lifestyle preferred by predominantly white nations is the way to go. All of the material benefits of those nations are the source of happiness, are they? I guess you would also suggest that major Caucasian nations should colonize Thailand, because so many rural Thais, especially in Isaan, live the way folks in the UK, US or Australia did a hundred years ago. Dirt floors, poor sewerage, extremely basic electrical grid that's often ungrounded, poor healthcare relative to Bangkok or the West, lots of kids with scabies, even sepsis from infections gone bad…..shouldn’t whitey come in and make it all right? I mean, how can anyone be happy living like that? Isn’t part of the White Man’s Burden to come in and give them the same happiness you have, act all paternal in spite of their inherent inferiority? Isn't all of life's happiness the same, as defined by how you live? Of course, material comfort is only one part of existence. There is also spiritual and moral comfort. I wonder if, say, the Taliban shouldn’t go to Australia and impose upon godless or misdirected Aussies the final truth and revelation from the one true deity, revealed through his prophet, peace be upon him. Isn’t that the Moslem Burden? Wouldn’t the Taliban be doing that for your own good? Does not superiority, whether in material comforts or spiritual comforts, come with its own responsibility to impose that on inferiors?

I've been to Bangkok and Pattaya a few times and see fat old Brits and Aussies and other Empire and Commonwealth types sitting around drinking beer outside of 7-11 in the early morning. Sad.

Thanks, Rudyard. That eternal White Man's Burden thingy. Curious what value you have added to this world, other than trying to steal valor because some people with your skin color have done something. I'm guessing precious little, despite the advantage you had because of an accident of birth.

Not even close. Perhaps you are fooled when you see a Thai woman with guy who is Asian. Pay just a little bit of attention when you're out and about, such as eating in a restaurant. When the Thai woman puts down her phone and stops watching TikTok videos, note what language the "couple" speaks. It's not Thai. The gender problem in countries like China and South Korea has left males in great surplus. Males from those countries are not going to find a prom date back home. When you see groups of East Asian men strolling down Sukhumvit heading to Nana or Soi Cowboy, they aren't just looking for a little fun for the night, but will eventually go back home to find a "good woman". There are no women for them back home. Males are in great surplus. Even Japan has a bit of this problem, though the genders are more equal in number. Japanese women do not seem to want relationships, as far too often the traditional deal is "bath-meal-sleep", where the female is pretty much a slave. Thus, plenty of Japanese men have Thai girlfriends. I couldn't tell you if these Asian guys are sociopaths or narcissists; I think many are just lonely or horny or whatever it is that prompts them to meet Thai women. Now it is often said no decent Thai woman will tie up with a foreigner (not sure that is true in 2025), but from what I observe in these "Asian" couples, the Thai women may well have been met while working in a bar or agogo. I'll add that the concept of a "decent" woman has also changed. Go to a club like Sugar or Levels, and one can find Thai office women or nurses or accountants....and they are not looking for money. Many are looking for a partner for the night or one that might turn into something longer term. Also, so-called normal Thai women working in everything from dentists' offices to clothing stores will come on to a patient or customer they find appealing. People of all stripes seek relationships, and whatever the "rules" might have been a decade or two ago have been rewritten. Now I'm sure all the guys here who married a Thai woman married someone pure as the driven snow, so it might come as a surprise that the virgin demographic is a lot smaller than it used to be. Some women had sex for money, while others had sex because they were horny. Not sure if there's any difference or moral high ground, but those two motivations now capture a very high percent of marrying-age Thai females. Women across the world, not only in Thailand, feel a new sexual freedom. I would guess that bothers insecure males, who deep down fear their woman might have been schtupped better by another guy. So the issue the OP raised is a lot larger than his post suggests and has a lot more variables (though I suspect the OP's intent was just to have some fun). I suspect his post would have made sense 20-30 years ago, but today it might only capture a tiny percentage of relationships. The old guys on this site might be unaware the world has changed.

There is a responsibility that comes with being both intelligent and successful. For some on the left, that might create stress. For others, we just accept the responsibility and try to make things better. MAGAnistas are lucky in that they lack the burden that comes with intelligence and success. For them, they find all they need being Betas in a Cult of Personality. Even more, they are handed folks to blame for their own failure in life. That is what autocrats do: give the weak and mediocre an excuse. Trump innately knows that, which is why he gathered the gaggle of mediocrity to worship him.

Perhaps you missed these guys: Michael Estes, Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, Patrick Stein, Adam Purinton, Jeremy Christian, Wade Page, Edgar Welch, Sam Woodward, James Fields, Dylann Roof, Robert Bowers, Ian David Long, Cesar Sayoc, Gregory Bush, Stephen Paddock, Patrick Wood Crusius, Christopher Hansson The last terrorist---Hansson---set up a spreadsheet of people he planned to kill, and he used certain nicknames, like Pocahontas, "somebody" made up, so we know who and what inspired him. Bowers was both an antisemite and someone inspired by Trump's constant disparaging of "rapists and murderers" from south of the border. The synagogue where he carried out his slaughter was aiding SA migrants. Crusius carried out his Walmart massacre during Trump 1.0, inspired by Trump calling all SA people "murderers and rapists", so even US citizens who happened to be of Hispanic ancestry, were gunned down. And let us not forget the "good people...we love you" (Trump statement) on 6 Jan 21 who include Mr Camp Auschwitz. Then there's the pardoned terrorists who attacked the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021, where only one of the terrorists got what she deserved. Oh, and during Trump 1.0, his own Homeland Security and FBI produced a report stating that 75% of all domestic terrorism since 9-11-01 was carried out by far right and white nationalist groups. During a Congressional Hearing, that inconvenient truth was brought up to the then-Chief of Homeland Security, who tried to change the subject, as she was blaming Moslems and "lefties" for domestic terror.

While I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I do have to consider these possibilities...... ---He is looking for his tax returns he promised to publish 9 years ago ---He's recovering from a threesome with Laura Loomer and MTG ---He's in Turkey trying to end the Armenian genocide, the same way he ended the Rwanda genocide in 1994, or so he claimed 2 weeks ago ---He's having an extended sit down lie down with Jimmy Hoffa ---He's trying to make up this coming week's jobs numbers, in order to avoid the fiasco from last month's BLS report ---He went back up on the White House roof, but nobody thought to check there ---There's a Code Pink protest on PA Ave, so he's hunkered down in the WH bunker, just in case one of those post-menopausal grandma's gets feisty. The good news is that if he dies, he can prove to his Talibangical cult followers if he really is the Second Coming, by walking into the Oval Office on the 3rd day, or on the 2nd day if he wants to be Jeebus record. "Nobody can resurrect better than me; some say I'm the best resurrector ever."