Wingate

And let's not forget the S&P under Obama...+181% in his 2 terms. Folks who road that wave aren't the types scrounging for 500 baht/night flop houses and 30 baht street food.

LOL! You corrected yourself...a little,,originally saying Obama was never under 5% Oh, and Trump left 6.8% UE in his wake, which is almost double your delusional figure of 3.5% And it was Biden, not Trump, who produced the best run under 4% in 64 years.

Bush left Obama ~9% UE and rising.

Always have excuses for Trump, but no credit for Obama, considering what he inherited, nor for Biden, who had UE under 4% for the longest period in 64 years. Job creation in Trump's first year was the lowest since 2003. Total job growth in 2025 (181,000) is less than Biden average per month over his 4 years (187,500). Job growth in Biden's last year of 2024 was 2,230,000, while Trump's for 2025 was 181,000. Manufacturing jobs grew 800,000 in Biden's 4 years. They fell in Trump's first year back, and spending on new factories and production facilities also fell, despite Trump's silly tariffs.

LOL! Look at the drop in UE under Obama. Look at the performance of the stock market under Obama. Imagine what would have happened if Trump and his Carnival People Administration had been in charge from January 2009, having inherited the Great Recession.

Don't let reality and facts get in the way. Be a good MAGA. Perhaps YOU missed it, but Obama inherited The Great Recession. UE was on the rise when he took over, peaked at near 10%, and fell to 4.8% when he left office, so <5%. Trump 1.0 inherited that 4.8% UE and left Biden 6.8% UE. Now what any of that has to do with climate change, I don't know. What I do know is that you are not a climatologist, and the vast majority of actual climatologists believe climate change occurring now is man made.

Let me channel Marvin Gaye here and ask, What's Going On? This is a chart of Repos from the NY Fed over the last 6 years. Why the sudden explosion? There are reports that JP Morgan had shorted 5900 tonnes of silver late last year, and the rapid run up does look like a short covering blowoff. Also, JPMorgan and many other banks had taken large long position in crypto. The bitcoin move from $126,000 down to $60,000 had to hurt. These banks also had loans to people speculating in crypto, so maybe a double whammy. There are a host of data that make one pause right now, the Repo jump just being one of them. Here's a chart of Total Stock Market Capitalization vs US GDP over the last 50 years, ending on 2-14-2026. Scary. Here's a chart of margin debt in the stock market over 5 years. All time high. While none of these on their own suggest a day of reckoning, they are concerning. Of course speculative bubbles can last a long time. Consider these numbers: Total US Federal Debt: $38.7 trillion, or $355,000 per US Taxpayer. Federal Debt to US GDP: 124% Foreign Ownership of US Debt: 25% of total (best not to alienate these buyers) Total Consumer Credit Card Debt Now: $43.7 trillion (=141% of US GDP) Median income in 2000: $31,656 Median House Price in 2000: $162.050 Average Car Price in 2000: $22,134 Median income in 2026: $51,697 Median House Price in 2026: $413.742 Average Car Price in 2026: $51,355 So what does it all mean? That is the question. It would seem that now would be a good time to be cautious, but bubbles can last a looooooong time.

Even coming from someone like you, that is a silly comment. The largest and most dangerous cults in history tend to be fascist, whether Hitler, Mussolini, In Turkmenistan or North Korea, or Trump.

Of course it's a cult. In 240 years before Trump, we never had supporters attacking the Capitol carrying banners with a President's name. We never had followers buying up whatever crap the President offered, such as threads from his suit he wore to get booked in Georgia, or playing cards.NFTs with silly images of something Trump could never be, or meme coins, or golden sneakers, or autographed Bibles, etc. We also never had a President who wanted to name just about anything after himself, and have a group of sycophants who support that foolishness. Here's a video contrasting another cult leader with Trump: Yes, it's a cult. 100%. Now let's wait for cult members to come and disagree, or claim non cult members suffer from some "syndrome", when the true syndrome is the cult itself. Trump is Jim Jones/David Koresh/RevSunMyungMoon, albeit on a national scale.

Assimilation and integration seem to be things important to a certain segment of first time expats, not so much career expats. Lots of folks boast about how much a part of their new culture they have become. They're not really a part of it, and never will be. About the only country I can think of that truly assimilates newcomers well---and this is now declining under a growth in the silly "Replacement Theory"---is the US. The UK government has actually held talk with counterparties in the US (before Trump, not during) asking Americans how they have integrated outsiders, and especially Moslems, into the US so well. I've had the pleasure of residing in a host of countries, with not only differing cultures, but including all the major faiths. "Professional expats" learn how to behave, as there are absolutes that work everywhere from Japan to Saudi Arabia to India to Thailand to Israel. Just be "nice". Be polite. It works everywhere. Plus, understand you might always stand out because of your appearance, such as being a tall Caucasian in an Asian land. Most countries and cultures will never allow an outsider to truly integrate, though some people like to believe they have. Yes, learning the language helps one better understand the culture, but it isn't always a necessity. Speaking French is more useful in France than speaking Thai is in Thailand. I haven't bothered to get fluent in Thai, as it is unnecessary for where I live (Bangkok). In the past, I have learned at least 5 languages, but usually that was overkill. Speaking Arabic aided my work, as did speaking Japanese, so I spent some time getting skilled in those, including reading and writing. I added a few other languages just because I liked the sound, and once you learn one language you understand how to learn quickly and efficiently. One can associate with common folk or the elite in a place like Thailand, but they will never truly accept you as one of them. If you're polite, respectful and kind, you "assimilate" as much as is humanly possible.

Is that your best anti-David Ricardo impersonation? A couple things that are funny....800,000 new manufacturing jobs were created under Biden. So far, manufacturing jobs, as well as construction spending on new facilities, have fallen under Trump 2.0. It seems corporate America didn't get your message and doesn't think it is economically viable to make current "imported crap" in the US. You also say "even if quality costs more". I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that if a Dem POTUS enacted your policy, and "quality costs more", you would scream INFLATION !

Let's see if the Supreme Court rules in Trump's favor after his temper tantrum against a former Swiss official. Trump raised tariffs on Switzerland from 30% to 39%, "because I didn't like her attitude". That sort of childish behavior is unlikely to be given credence by the court. It may well be used against his entire tariff scheme, which has no real basis in anything economic. All were just his "whims".

I'm going to guess that as of this writing, you didn't actually watch AOC's speech in its entirety. While I may not agree with all of her policies and beliefs, I can see she is head and shoulders above Trump in terms of her intellect. In House Hearings, she is always well prepared and often gets right to the point, embarrassing unprepared members of the Administration. Contrast her to the "Pennywise" Bondi. Laughable angry clown. If you're a salad kind of guy and need a fix, your boy Trump is a true pro when it comes to word salad. Many people are saying nobody does word salad better than him. I don't think you'll get your wish in 2028, even though a Harris/AOC ticket probably would beat Vance and whomever. Vance has the charisma of rotting Melba Toast. The Dems will put up people like Newsom or Jason Crow or Elisa Slotkin or Josh Shapiro or Wes Moore.

While Europe can no longer count on the US in any way, and thus must take total responsibility for itself, it is difficult to set some sort of % of GDP number for defense spending. Efficient and practical spending, yes, but a target number, no. The US has a massive defense budget because of a number of things, including cost overruns and having constituencies that favor pork for their district, even if the defense weapons produced are useless. Then there are the pointless wars in which the US has engaged, such as Iraq and Afghanistan (beyond just taking out the al Qaeda training camps subsequent to 9-11).

The Summit needed a ration of truth, which Rubio is incapable of delivering, so AOC stepped up to the plate. It seems Chancellor Merz believes similarly.

Your view is based on what? Far too many people need bogeymen, and many have decided it's the WEF....or Bilderberg....or Bohemian Grove....or Skull&Bones...or The Council on Foreign Relations....or 10' Shape-Shifting Lizard People from the rogue planet Nibiru. All have equal validity...which is zero.

I think the mentally challenged guy is in your bathroom mirror. Sane and rational people know Clinton, Obama and Biden did not commit treason or sedition. On 6 January 2021, Trump, however, did. Sedition.

The AG is supposed to be independent of the President. Obviously Bondi is Trump's personal attack dog. While Bondi closed the case on Epstein back in July, not thinking there was any crime worth pursuing, she has used her office to go after many non crimes, which tend to involve people who had criticized her boss Trump. Her list of failures keeps growing, mostly because she couldn't actually find any crimes. It not only makes her look bad, and fascist, it makes her look dumb, as if she doesn't even know the law. She went after Senators and Congresspeople who reminded military personnel of their duty. She went after Comey, even when her star witness said Comey did not leak. She went after NY AG James, despite her mortgage application stating specifically she could rent out the property, provided she did not use an agent. James rented to a relative...directly. She even told the House that they shouldn't care about Epstein and the rapes of girls as young as 9 years old, since the Dow was---not anymore---above 50K. Here are folks Bondi thinks are more deserving of investigation and prosecution than men who fiddled with underage girls:

Dubya is okay, though he got pushed into Iraq and Afghanistan. I happen to know the folks who briefed a few Presidents daily, delivering the PDB. Funny story about Dubya. The briefer had to travel with him when Bush II went back to his Texas ranch. Bush woke early every morning and drove out to different parts of his ranch to clear brush and other such things. Bush asked the briefer one day that the briefer should join him on his morning drive. The briefer woke early, got dressed, ate breakfast, and went out to the pickup truck, taking a seat on the passenger side. Bush came out with his dog, opened the door, looked at the briefer, and said, "In the back". The dog then took the passenger seat.

Remind me...who was President in December 2024? Oh, and if January 2026 was the best since Dec 2024, who was President in 2025, because it looks like a pretty woeful year?

LOL! In Biden's 4 years, around 9,000,000 jobs were created. That averages to 187,500 per month, which not only dwarfs the yet-unrevised January 2026 number, but exceeds the entire first year of Trump 2.0. And in Biden's last full year, the Non-farm job creation number was 2,230,000. Trump only got 181,000 for all of 2025. Trump is lucky many Americans are fat and out of shape like him, because just to pretend January was good, he needs those 82K in health care.

In one of the released Epstein files, a woman reported to the FBI that she had been raped by Epstein and Trump "in a fancy hotel". This document was raised during the Hearing this week with AG Bondi by Rep Ted Lieu, where he asked why Bondi had signed off on the entire Epstein case as "Closed" at the end of July 2025, rather than pursuing such evidence as the FBI report of the alleged rape. Bondi had said earlier in the Hearing that there was no evidence against Trump for any wrongdoing, though when Lieu reminded her of the FBI document noting an alleged rape, rather than answer as to why that charge had never been pursued---just to be sure---she verbally attacked Lieu. The woman alleging the rape, whose name was redacted, was later found in Kiefer, Oklahoma with her "head blown off" (in the Epstein file document). Police who investigated said it was a criminal act, as she could not possibly have done it to herself. The coroner somehow concluded it was suicide. Despite having the documents detailing this alleged rape and the subsequent "head blown off", AG Bondi determined "nothing to see here".

There's a part of the WSJ report that's a bit risque, where they report Noem's plane has installed a "Mile High Room" that she and Lewandowski share when flying. I'm not sure what Lewandowski's position is in the Federal Government. Missionary position?

Nobody knows more about "Hate and Stupidity" than Donald J Trump. Somebody get the clown a Thesaurus, too! He uses "deranged" and "radical" in almost every rage Tweet. As for stupidity, he's certainly in the running for Stupidest President Ever. I'm willing to bet even George W Bush scored way more than 820 on his SATs. Certainly Clinton and Obama did. I believe he exonerates himself a bit too much, too. Russia Russia Russia is real. Even Marco Rubio said so, when he chaired SSCI and released the Russiagate report. Konstantin Kilimnik, Donny? Why did you send your Campaign Chair Manafort to Spain to give GRU asset Kilimnik detailed internal polling data? If it looks like cooperation, it is. And a million times, so far, in the Epstein files might make people wait before declaring him innocent. Let's check all the docs first. And of course yesterday's action in the equity market begs the question: AG Bondi asked why anyone should focus on Epstein when the Dow was above 50,000. Now that it's below 50,000 again, are we free to focus on the rape of 9 year old girls again?

It was very bad Performance Art. Rotten Tomatoes would give it a 0.0. Remember "I've got the Epstein client list on my desk". And then she had some sycophants hold up fake binders with supposed Epstein documents. That's very poor forward thinking. Perhaps she believed the entire matter would just go away, and nobody would ever call her out on the client list thing. DoJ is still slow rolling the mandatory release, where totally unredacted files were supposed to be handed to Congress by 19 December 2025. Now, they released a tsunami of 3.5 million of 6.5 total files, yet not only have they not un-redacted everything as required, they un-redacted nude images and victims' names, but kept co-conspirators' names redacted. Also, they have the material on 4 computers, which House members must share, and they are monitoring what House members search. They must be upset that Rep Raskin searched the name "Trump" and found it appears over 1,000,000 times in just these 3.5 million files. When the other 3 million files are released, one wonders just how all over them Trump is, too. Even if he did nothing illegal (we only have his word at this point), being mentioned over a million times in a pedophiles documents is a bad optic. The initial House members who viewed those files also found that the youngest victim was age 9, and that there are victims 10 and 11 years of age at the time of their abuse. That isn't a teenager. That isn't even a female who entered puberty. Yet Bondi barks during her Hearing that we should focus more on Dow 50,000 (no longer >50K) than on the Epstein matter. Not a good look.