spidermike007

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

The maga cult celebrates the destructiveness, corruption, cruelty, and idiocy of their dear leader Trump as a badge of honor.
It's more like a badge of horror.

With many people, once they got attached to a theory, it was hard to get them detached. They’d screen out unhelpful facts, invent favorable ones, and ignore contradictions in their own claims. Look at those Sandy Hook, multiple fraud convictions, and Jan. 6th truthers, babbling about false flags and crisis actors and all the rest. When people were motivated enough to believe something, they were going to believe it no matter what. There was no such thing as a bridge too far.

The biggest thing that surprises me is that after two decades here I still love every single day I am in Thailand. I love the people, I love their attitudes, I love their sense of humor, their playfulness, and their ability to laugh and smile. I love the food, I like the weather.

When I go back to the states which I do two or three times a year, towards the end of the trip I'm counting the days from departure, and I am so thankful when I get back here. 

Rogue capitalism is what we have with Trump & his Project 2025 band of robber barrons. They will feed on the people, robbing them of even life’s essentials and then they will turn on each other because they are predators and don’t know any other way to be in the world. Why? Because they are ruled by ego and it’s greed.

We will NOT forget how they voted to throw grandma out of the nursing home, deny a newborn and it’s mother any health care under Medicaid, rip away health insurance from up to 17 million Americans and put the burden of paying for their health care needs on us, the payees of employment health care benefits because our premiums WILL go up.

The Center for American Progress previously estimated that Medicare enrollees eligible for two MSP programs—the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) Program and the Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB) Program—would be hit especially hard. These programs benefit Medicare enrollees living at or just above the federal poverty level (FPL). A couple on Medicare who are eligible for but no longer able to enroll in the QMB, making a combined $21,000 per year, could see their out of pocket costs skyrocket by $8,340. A single Medicare enrollee making only $19,000 per year and eligible for SLMB could see their out of pocket costs jump by $3,300 per year if they are unable to enroll in the program as a result of the bill.

Despite voting for the OBBBA, six Republican members of Congress wrote a powerful letter raising concerns and seeking answers on the indiscriminate enforcement. The letter states, “Every minute that we spend pursuing an individual with a clean record is a minute less that we dedicate to apprehending terrorists or cartel operatives.”

Under this bill, the Trump administration will have vastly more power and resources to swell a deportation force that makes no distinction between cartel operatives or those with violent criminal records and hardworking people. Seeing this legislation as a license to continue this sort of reckless overreach, the administration will continue to act lawlessly, ignore the Constitution, and chip away at American democracy.

The OBBBA’s “qualified small business stock exclusion” allows wealthy venture capitalists to claim $10 million in income tax-free for investing in certain startup companies. The Treasury reports that over 75 percent of the benefits of this provision flow to millionaires. Outside analysis finds that it is a frequent target of abuse by investment companies. Republicans could have addressed abuse in this program or canceled this tax-free giveaway, as bipartisan groups have called for. Instead, the OBBBA increases the amount millionaires are allowed to take home tax-free to $15 million per investment. Subsidizing these investors will cost taxpayers $17 billion.

That’s not even to mention the $3.3 TRILLION the OMB has calculated this horrendous monstrosity will swell the national debt.

“We will look back on election night last November, on what just happened this week, culminating with this vote today, as the beginning of the House majority for Democrats,” Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania told CNN.

“After this vote, every time you wait longer at a doctor’s office or get a higher utility bill in the mail, it’s gonna have a ‘brought to you by MAGA’ disclaimer to go along with it,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who has worked on House races.

In the mind of many of us the big ugly bill was all about benefiting the ultra rich, at the cost of those that needed the most. Even many Republican Senators and Congress people have been quoted as saying they wish they had more time to examine the thing, but as usual Trump put a deadline on it, so that it couldn't be examined properly. Had they examined it more closely they would have realized what a destructive monstrosity it was. 

A few quotes are from this source. 

https://share.google/3m6zqcAeuqcFV6ouR

Truly a man of the people.

Truly a man of great accomplishments.

4 hours ago, howlee101 said:

Biden or Harris is your answer? You live in a delusional world 🤨

Unlike a lot of Republicans I am man enough to admit that we had a horrendous choice of two terrible candidates I hated Harris but I hate Trump even more. Had the Dems fielded a qualified candidate, with a wiser and more popular message, there's no doubt Trump would have lost by a wide margin. He was not the right man for the job, and you can dress a circus clown in regal garments, but he's still a circus clown. 

We should be very worried, one has to take into account the fact that Dick Cheney got a resolution passed that allow the entire Afghan and Iraqi campaigns to be conducted entirely off the books, so that's an extra 5 to 10 trillion that has to be added to the figures that they're already admitting to. The last  Trump administration added seven to eight trillion to the deficit, and he's probably going to add another 7 to 10 trillion this time, with 3.3 trillion alone just from his ridiculous ugly big bill. And that's what they're admitting to, the man spends like a drunken sailor. 

We dismiss election results, we bomb our people at random slaughtering tens of thousands, but our economy is booming. Everybody wants to do business with us, tourists are flooding into the country, and investors are lining up, everybody wants a piece of Burma. 

A friend of mine just spent a week in Pattaya, and the stories that he told me were quite astonishing. First of all he told me that prices have doubled in the last 18 months, so if business is slow it makes me wonder why?

Secondarily he said that he's never seen a larger group of fat, ugly and old women at the bars and massage shops in his entire life, and he's been going to Pattaya at least once a year for the last 15 years. 

And thirdly, he said it was very slow, and he saw a few foreigners here and there drinking beers in the bars, but he said there was very little business anywhere he went. Wonder why? 

There are so many doctors in this world that really have no idea what they're talking about, and though they've spent quite a few years at University they just don't seem to know much about medicine, other than how to write a prescription. 

This sounds like quite a lot of nonsense to me. I've been to very simple massage shops and they always have clean towels, they never use reused oil. How do you reuse an oil, do you scrape it off somebody's skin and put it back on the bottle?

This numskull needs to go back to school, or quit medicine, or just keep his ridiculous mouth shut. 

If the cheapo's at the TAT had spent more than 5,000 baht designing this website they likely wouldn't be having these issues right now, but they always seem to be cutting corners in the wrong places.

Spend 100 million baht promoting the scheme but then limit the budget for the website to 5,000 baht, smart, very smart. 

No. All forms of AI, at least at this point, are a poor and a very sad substitute for human interaction. And I consider AI to be a huge threat. My guess is that the negative effects of it are going to far outweigh any positive things that will come from it, especially when we are referring to regenerative AI. 

It takes a certain a very special level of unconsciousness to enter a highway using an exit. My guess is that this is the last time he will ever make that mistake. 

It takes a certain level of desperation to place snakes in your pants right next to your own anaconda. Quite bizarre. I'm sure it's going to be one of the stranger stories that we will hear today. 

18 hours ago, bannork said:

I haven't noticed Ukraine launching massive drone and ballistic missiles into apartments where people are living, in other words deliberately targeting civilians.

However, Russia does on a daily basis.

Genocide and the serial killing of women and children seem to be a sport for Putin. My guess is that he actually enjoys it. 

1 hour ago, ZigM said:

I'm an owner of a BYD Sealion 7 AWD (SL7). I've done around 3,000km in it, that is, my wife actually does most of the driving. I started looking at EVs almost 5 years ago, and the brand that keeps on coming up as the winner is BYD.  For a while, some misinformed friends strongly recommended a hybrid vehicle (petrol and electric), but they practically all suck, mainly because the electric range in hybrids is between 90 and 180 km depending on the brand. Why buy a stinker ICE if you want to go 100% green? It makes no sense going 50-50. I'll be installing a 15kW solar system on my roof shortly which will give me free travel forever.

 

I did look at (and sat in) a Haval H6 PHEV and a BYD S6 and a few others, but in terms of quality, features, luxury and comfort, the SL7 s**ts all over the competition. Thailand has over 3,000 charging stations. Yes, you need an app to charge, but many apps are in English, and depending on where you live, you might need to book a station. My wife and her son, who's a mechanic, wanted me to buy a crappy and overpriced Toyota hybrid until I put my foot down and said I'm going all electric. The LFP battery likes being charged to 100%. I get around 500km + out of it. In a few years when batteries have a 2,000km or 3,000 km range, I'll swap it out. 

 

So far, I've had zero problems with the car except for the BYD dealer who was racist until I jumped up and down and made them look at me. They are still having problems issuing a passcode to access BYD Auto app remotely. Also, BYD's after sales service and warranty is pathetic. During an unauthorised installation of window film to the sky roof, they damaged the retractable soft cloth. The dealer and BYD can't get their act together and decide who will repair it. While this sounds distressing, and it is, similar issues happen with any Thai car dealership or car brand. I blame the dealer for not properly disclosing the damage to BYD because they don't want to lose face.

 

Other than that, the car is a dream to drive. It is very comfortable, very safe, it handles well and despite the 2.4 tonnes weight, my average consumption is only around 18 kW/100 km. If you want better consumption, go for a go-go mobile sized mini car. They might only consume 14kW/100 km. With solar panels, I'll rarely be using public charging stations.

That's a good looking car certainly much more handsome than either an MG, or the super ugly Teslas. 

1 hour ago, ZigM said:

The BYD Sealion 7 dropped by 150,000 baht a few days before we picked ours up. It was 1.4 million baht. We got the discount. Now it might be 1.2 million baht - not sure. As with all things, prices will drop. So did Tesla. TVs, guitars, white goods, they are all getting cheaper.

Who would want white goods when black is so beautiful? 

22 hours ago, proton said:

Chinese rubbish, why support the CCP anyway? You wont see many of these cars around at ten years old

Build quality on Tesla's these days is pretty poor, the interiors and exteriors seem to get uglier and cheaper looking each year, while China continues to improve their design. In addition at this point in time it's kind of fun to support China over the US. And I say that as an American who never thought he would be saying such a thing. I too hate the CCP. But, less than I hate the Trump administration. Some forces in the world are so dark and so repellent, that it just drives the planet in another direction. 

Let's go China! 

On 7/2/2025 at 5:50 PM, jerrymahoney said:

Kristi Noem is on it:

Noem's language suggests the administration may explore prosecutions for aiding or abetting interference with law enforcement duties. and

Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff, said in a post on X: "CNN is openly helping invaders and insurrectionists sabotage ICE."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday: "Certainly it's unacceptable that a major network would promote such an app that is encouraging violence against law enforcement officers who are trying to keep our country safe."

https://www.newsweek.com/kirsti-noem-iceblock-deportation-immigration-app-2092878

I think anarchy, and public resistance can be a beautiful thing, when the government is completely out of control, as is the case right now with ICE. 

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I've made several pals on AN, mostly dead now.

Bit tired of my pals dying on me.

It is an incredibly rude thing to do, and I always seem to resent my friends when they buy the farm and depart this world.