TallGuyJohninBKK

BTW, another member posted the following in a related thread in late 2023... any one with an update on the following:

The Pink Line wasn't open when I last went to BKK CW last fall. But I have my annual trip coming up soon, and am planning to use the following all-rail method -- BTS Sukhumvit Line to its Wat Phra Sri Mahathat station, then walk a couple minutes nearby to the Pink Line's Wat Phra Sri Mahathat Station, and then onward on the Pink Line to its EN-named Government Complex Station (which the Thai speaking BTS staff only seemed to recognize by the corresponding Thai term "Soon Ratchigan." I couldn't find any clear answer online, but in a phone call tonight with BTS Customer Service in Thai, they indicated that I also could use my BTS Rabbit top-up card to pay for the extra travel on the Pink Line... But they said my Thai wife can NOT use her BTS monthly trips prepaid card on the Pink Line, for some unexplained reason. Given that the Pink Line seemed to be an MRTA developed project, I had instead thought I could use my MRT Plus top-up card on the Pink Line, but thus far, haven't been able to find any info on that one way or the other. There seems to be a relative dearth of EN language info re the fares situation for the Pink Line, at least that I could find. Google Maps below showing the connection between the Wat Phra Sri Mahathat stations of the BTS Sukhumvit and MRT Pink lines.

Rick, can you clarify, just what shuttle is the one you're showing above? (Never seen one like this before...) and where does it pick up and drop off passengers re BKK CW and the Pink Line? Thanks!

Republicans always used to complain about Joe Biden re this, particularly in later years... But in this case, it's some of Trump's own family members who are making this and other arguments why he should NOT be elected president. IMHO, that's a pretty telling sign... not that those are the only ones! Now look at who the OLD bumbling, stumbling man is in the 2024 presidential race!

Fred Trump has endorsed Kamala Harris for president August 20, 2024 Donald Trump is showing signs that correspond with his family history of dementia, according to Fred Trump III, the former president’s nephew. The “warnings signs” are evident, Fred Trump III said during an interview on The Dean Obeidallah show on Friday, accusing the former president of spewing “craziness” and failing to stick to the script during campaign appearances. “I know what I saw in my grandfather. I know what I saw in Donald’s older sister, my Aunt Maryanne,” Fred Trump said. “I just, I know the warning signs from both of my grandfathers,” he added. “Donald’s cousin, John Walters had dementia. It runs in the family. I’m not happy about it.” (more) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-nephew-fred-dementia-family-b2598666.html And a couple of rather apt reader comments re the above Independent news report on their website: --"That's a big warning sign when Trumps own family are publicly trying to stop him being President." --"The next stop for Trump: Sitting on his bed wearing a diaper, hasn't showered for weeks, mumbling something about a stolen election, stuffing down Big Mac's, throwing catsup packets at the wall while watching a looped video of the J6 insurrection." 🙂

Better talk to Riclag about that.... He's the one who first posted it above.

Interesting New Lines Institute article linked above...that starts out with the following introductory comment: 'Though far-right actors are the primary threat to the U.S. homeland (50 states and territories)..." And then goes on to further elaborate: Describing and Assessing the Violent Threat "In the 1970s and 1980s, far-left violent extremists were the primary terrorist threat confronting the United States. Currently, among domestic-focused actors, they are secondary in scale and scope to violent far-right extremists. For example, far-right extremists are known to stockpile large caches of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other weapons and regularly engage in attacks with the intent of inflicting mass casualties, such as mass shootings. These behaviors have not been commensurately observed among violent far-left actors..." And: "The general historical and contemporary trend of violent far-leftist targeting has been directed at property. To the extent that far-left violence is directed at people, it is mostly and intentionally non-fatal. This is due to operational and ideological preferences that favor inflicting economic damage (e.g., ending capitalism) and bringing attention to specific issues rather than harming civilians (though an exception to this trend is fatal attacks targeting police officers). Yet, as these authors have noted in previous assessments, there are also signs of possible growing intent to kill non-police civilians, suggesting internal constraints against generating fatalities are eroding." https://newlinesinstitute.org/nonstate-actors/operating-under-the-radar-violent-left-wing-extremism-is-becoming-more-dangerous/

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for Aug. 11 - 17, 2024: For the most recent week, the MoPH update showed continuing improvements / declines in all four publicly reported COVID indicators -- COVID deaths, new COVID hospitalizations, currently hospitalized COVID patients in serious condition and those requiring ventilation to breathe. The latest weekly update also marks a clear end, after five months, to the spring 2024 COVID surge that began in mid-March. For last week: --435 new COVID hospitalizations, averaging 62 per day, down 84 / -16.2% from 519 the prior week --1 new COVID death, down 3 from 4 the prior week --295 current COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (pneumonia symptoms), down 76 / -20.5% from 371 the prior week (dark purple) --122 current COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation/ventilation to breathe, down 31 / -20.3% from 153 the prior week (light purple) --------------------------------------- The 435 reported new COVID hospitalizations last week marked the first time that weekly figure dropped below the 500 level that occurred at the start of spring 2024 COVID surge in mid-March. The latest weekly total also is about one-seventh of the recent weekly peak of 3,256 new hospitalizations reached in late June. Cumulative officially reported figures since the start of 2024 are COVID hospitalizations (37,095) & COVID deaths (199). The one newly reported COVID death from last week was a male between the ages of 20 and 49. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main By comparison, Thailand's key weekly COVID indicators to start 2024 were 664 new COVID hospitalizations and 4 COVID deaths for the first week of the year -- meaning current levels are lower in both categories. For the comparable week last year in 2023, there were 389 new COVID hospitalizations and 9 COVID deaths. That means Thailand right now has more new COVID hospitalizations but fewer COVID deaths than one year ago.

PROJECT 2025: Unveiling the far right’s plan to demolish immigration in a second Trump term February 2024 Key takeaways The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is the policy playbook for a second Trump administration, and its impacts on immigration would be far more complex and destructive than previously reported. It isn’t simply a refresh of first-term ideas, dusted off and ready to be re-implemented. Rather, it reflects a meticulously orchestrated, comprehensive plan to drive immigration levels to unprecedented lows and increase the federal government’s power to the states’ detriment. These proposals circumvent Congress and the courts and are specifically engineered to dismantle the foundations of our immigration system. ... In preparation for a 2025 presidential transition, the Mandate proposes overhauls to nearly every federal agency and includes over 175 immigration provisions. Unlike in the previous years when immigration policy changes were relatively insulated, Project 2025 elucidates how the administration would halt legal immigration, centralize power in the federal government, decimate privacy protections, and risk American security and prosperity, all in pursuit of a political obsession with immigration. ... The far-right has a political obsession with immigration. While they wield it as a rallying cry and a scapegoat, the recommendations outlined in the Mandate are incongruent with the “safety” and “security” talking points. If implemented, the Mandate would pursue the destruction of programs and laws made to promote public safety. It would disadvantage our economy as competitor nations scoop up the top talent the U.S. abandons. It would block millions of Americans from higher education and foster a society that is inherently less safe and offers fewer opportunities. The Mandate’s suggestions are theoretical for now, but as we march towards the November elections and a potential Trump second-term, the threat of their enactment is very real." (more) https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Project-2025-Unveiling-the-far-rights-plan-to-demolish-immigration-in-a-second-Trump-term-1.pdf https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/niskanen-center/

How Project 2025 Turned Into the GOP’s Biggest Political Loser It’s also become a major liability for The Heritage Foundation — and staffers at the conservative think tank know it. August 16, 2024 There’s a good reason Donald Trump and his campaign are so desperate to distance themselves from the classified-sounding “Project 2025”: The Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second Trump administration is politically radioactive. A Democratic operative who has seen private polling on how a number of issues could move the 2024 presidential election — like health care, the economy and immigration — told NOTUS that, improbably, no issue was benefiting Democrats more than Project 2025. And, predictably, Democrats are capitalizing on the unpopular plan. Democratic lawmakers and campaign operatives are trying to attach Trump and Republicans to Project 2025 at every opportunity, which, it turns out, hasn’t been too hard. According to Rep. Jared Huffman, the founder of the “Stop Project 2025 Task Force,” one of the reasons they’ve had such success connecting Trump to Heritage’s plan is because voters intuitively believe the former president would institute many of these proposals if he gets another chance in the White House. (more) https://www.notus.org/2024-election/how-project-2025-turned-into-the-gops-biggest-political-loser https://www.notus.org/announcements/welcome-to-notus

Limited here by the forum's fair use quoting rules: How Project 2025 would change American life Jul 20, 2024 ... "Critical federal programs meant to support people experiencing economic hardship and children living in poverty would be significantly overhauled or eliminated under the plan." ... "The foundation wants to end another key federal program: Head Start, which offers free early childhood education, health and nutrition services to children from low-income families." ... The plan calls for caps to how much federal funding states may receive to help pay for Medicaid costs, though it doesn't specify how such caps would be determined. The caps would ensure that federal Medicaid spending does not keep pace with expected enrollment and health care cost increases, resulting in a significant cut to funding over time. (more) https://www.axios.com/2024/07/20/project-2025-trump-what-to-know

Trump claims not to know who is behind Project 2025. A CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved July 11, 2024 ... Six of his former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on the 900-page playbook for a second Trump term published by the Heritage Foundation. Four individuals Trump nominated as ambassadors were also involved, along with several enforcers of his controversial immigration crackdown. And about 20 pages are credited to his first deputy chief of staff. In fact, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to “Mandate for Leadership,” the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch. Dozens more who staffed Trump’s government hold positions with conservative groups advising Project 2025, including his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and longtime adviser Stephen Miller. These groups also include several lawyers deeply involved in Trump’s attempts to remain in power, such as his impeachment attorney Jay Sekulow and two of the legal architects of his failed bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Cleta Mitchell and John Eastman. (more) https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/trump-allies-project-2025/index.html

August 15, 2024 ... Trump has publicly rejected Project 2025 as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has sought to tie him to some of the plan’s most extreme proposals. But in private, Vought said that those disavowals were merely “graduate-level politics.” Vought said his group, the Center for Renewing America, was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump’s plans if he wins, describing his work as creating “shadow” agencies. He claimed that Trump has “blessed” his organization and “he’s very supportive of what we do.” “Eighty percent of my time is working on the plans of what’s necessary to take control of these bureaucracies,” Vought said. “And we are working doggedly on that, whether it’s destroying their agencies’ notion of independence … whether that is thinking through how the deportation would work.” (more) https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html

This is what the NY Times article above was referring to: Trump talks with white nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago dinner Nov 26, 2022 "Former President Trump dined and conversed with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Why it matters: Trump's direct engagement with a man labeled a "white supremacist" by the Justice Department, one week after declaring his 2024 candidacy, is likely to draw renewed outrage over the former president's embrace of extremists. ... Behind the scenes: A source familiar with the dinner conversation told Axios that Trump "seemed very taken" with Fuentes, impressed that the 24-year-old was able to rattle off statistics and recall speeches dating back to his 2016 campaign." (more) https://www.axios.com/2022/11/25/trump-nick-fuentes-ye-kanye

The above excerpt from the NY Times article posted earlier in this thread.... Trump musing about terminating parts of the Constitution and dining with a white supremacist and outspoken antisemite.... Which gives cause to ask, with a heaping serving of sarcasm... Why would anyone NOT want a guy like that to be the next president of the United States???

Two Republican candidates doing their best to alienate suburban women at every chance they get... "Political strategist Jay Townsend told Newsweek that the new FAU PolCom Lab survey suggests that Trump not only has a "woman problem," but "a very serious one with well-educated suburban women." "It may not be enough to sink him in Florida, but it would behoove the Trump campaign to take a hard look at how this may be affecting him in key swing states," Townsend said. "If it is, it would also suggest they have had a negative reaction to the bombastic assaults on Vice President Harris." Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, has come under fire over comments he has made about suburban women and reproductive rights that even conservatives have warned will alienate female voters from the GOP." https://www.newsweek.com/florida-women-becoming-problem-donald-trump-kamala-harris-1939784

Aug 15, 2024 Florida women are becoming a problem for former President Donald Trump's White House dreams, a new poll shows. A new poll released by the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab (PolCom Lab) on Wednesday found Vice President Kamala Harris with a 10-point lead over Trump among female voters in the former president's home state, with 53 percent supporting Harris and 43 percent backing Trump. In April, 48 percent of Florida women supported President Joe Biden. Dr. Kevin Wagner, co-executive director of FAU's PolCom Lab, told Newsweek on Thursday that part of the reason Harris has seen a boost among female voters in the Sunshine State is because her candidacy has united the traditional Democratic coalition, which includes a gender gap where women are more likely to vote Democratic and men are more likely to vote Republican. (more) Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/florida-women-becoming-problem-donald-trump-kamala-harris-1939784

He's not:

Doesn't change the fact that RS has a better rating/reccord for factual reporting than sources like Fox News or the New York Post. NY Post - mixed, borderline questionable: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/new-york-post/ Fox News - mixed, questionable source: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fox-news-bias/ Rolling Stone looks quite good in comparison.

And Factual Reporting rating "High" -- which is a lot better than a lot of the right-wing media sources cited here.

Dredging back to 2016... Had to look hard for that. Here's what I look at: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/rolling-stone/

You're citing a press release source from a very partisan, Republican led House committee. If you actually read the 2022 CBO report that they're citing, AFAICT, there's nothing in it that compares economics under the Trump presidency vs. economics under the first couple years of the Biden presidency... Nor are the CBO's actual findings quite what the Republicans claim them to be. https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2022-09/58426-Inflation.pdf How Inflation Has Affected Households at Different Income Levels Since 2019 "CBO found that the effects of inflation have changed over time and varied by income group and income measure. The two income measures have followed different paths. Total adjusted income after transfers and taxes increased more than prices in 2020 and 2021, [emphasis added] but such income is projected to fall in 2022 in real terms (that is, after the effects of inflation are removed), primarily because temporary fiscal policies related to the pandemic ended. AND "Using adjusted income after transfers and taxes to measure the effects of inflation, CBO found the following: • From 2019 to 2022, the share of such income that households would use to pay for their 2019 consumption bundle decreased, on average, for households in every income quintile because, over that three-year period, such income grew faster than prices. [emphasis added] • In 2022, as inflation accelerated, the outcome differed from the outcomes in the previous two years. The share of such income that would purchase a 2019 consumption bundle increased, on average, for households in all income groups, primarily because temporary federal fiscal policies enacted in response to the pandemic ended, reducing households’ income." https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2022-09/58426-Inflation.pdf

Inside the Worst Three Weeks of Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign People around the former and would-be president see a candidate knocked off his bearings, disoriented by his new contest with Kamala Harris and unsure of how to take her on. Aug. 10, 2024 ... The fund-raiser came amid a stretch of flailing and self-harm that began after President Biden’s July 21 withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Ms. Harris to succeed him. Close Trump allies have described this as the rockiest period of Mr. Trump’s campaign — and easily the worst since a late 2022 spree in which he mused about terminating parts of the Constitution and dined at Mar-a-Lago with a white supremacist and an outspoken antisemite. Since then, Mr. Trump has picked fights with allies publicly and privately, including a broadside against Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia at an Atlanta rally — the kind of meanspirited public attack on a popular Republican that his own allies believe helped sink two Senate races in Georgia in January 2021 and could harm Mr. Trump in the state, a vital battleground in November. ... As Ms. Harris — long ridiculed and underestimated — has transformed the contest, campaigning energetically and drawing roughly even with Mr. Trump in many polls, Mr. Trump has responded with one unforced error after another while struggling to land on an effective and consistent argument against her. (more) New York Times https://archive.ph/qa2dR

He’s had yet another horrible week. The old tricks aren’t working. Kamala Harris does not fear him. And it’s showing in the numbers. August 16, 2024 It continues. Six days ago, The New York Times ran a story under the headline “Inside the Worst Three Weeks of Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign.” Usually, when the country’s most important newspaper runs a story like that, the candidate pays a little attention and the ship begins to right itself. But in this case, it’s just gotten worse. The ship is capsizing, and the captain is losing his marbles. Right after that story ran, Trump came out with his wild accusation that Kamala Harris’s crowd of thousands at a Detroit airplane hangar was fake. The next night, he did that weird, to borrow an au courant word, interview with Elon Musk, where he made more WTF comments than I can recount, capped by his vow to move to Venezuela (a country ruled by a corrupt autocrat who just cheated massively in this month’s election) if he loses. On Wednesday, he gave a rambling speech at a North Carolina rally. ... You know how they say in sports that an opponent has gotten inside the other team’s head? Well, Harris and Tim Walz have certainly gotten inside Trump’s head. Walz’s “weird” comment, which Trump has also responded to in a, well, sort of weird way, was just the start. Harris has also smartly refused to take the GOP campaign’s bait, like when Trump attacked her race and J.D. Vance tried to make her childlessness an issue. Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz campaign trolls Trump in its press releases with snarky language I don’t recall Joe Biden’s or Hillary Clinton’s campaigns using. It sends the message, which must drive him nuts, that they don’t fear him at all. (more) https://newrepublic.com/article/184951/donald-trump-flailing-harris

U.S. weekly COVID deaths top 600+ for the most recent week through early August, up from a low of 302 in early June. The COVID testing positivity rate increased, as did the share of U.S. deaths due to COVID. The share of emergency department visits due to COVID declined slightly according to sampling data. There was no new update for sampling data on COVID hospitalizations. From the CDC: CDC COVID update for August 16, 2024: "Many areas of the country are continuing to experience increases in COVID-19 activity, though other areas are experiencing declines in COVID-19 activity following increases this summer. COVID-19 test positivity, emergency department visits, and rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations remain elevated, particularly among adults 65+ and children under 2 years. Surges like this are known to occur throughout the year, including during the summer months." https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00 With the absence of any comprehensive COVID infection testing and reporting program in the U.S. and reduced reporting of COVID hospitalization data, public health officials increasingly have turned to wastewater monitoring of COVID viral content as a primary forward-looking indicator of COVID activity and trends in the country, as follows: "Wastewater (sewage) can be tested to detect traces of infectious diseases circulating in a community, even if people don’t have symptoms. You can use these data as an early warning that levels of infections may be increasing or decreasing in your community." https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-nationaltrend.html https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-currentlevels.html Current Epidemic Growth Status for States "As of August 13, 2024, we estimate that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 25 states, declining or likely declining in 5 states, and are stable or uncertain in 17 states." https://www.cdc.gov/cfa-modeling-and-forecasting/rt-estimates/index.html