spidermike007

While I think tariffs on highly subsidized commodities like steel and aluminum are likely a good idea, I question how wise it is to impose such horrendously high tariffs on EV's from China. As far as I'm concerned one of the most dangerous, reckless, and poorly thought out policies that Trump has proposed, are even higher tariffs on many classes of imported products. Who ends up paying for this? American companies who are manufacturing in China, and the consumer, that's who. In the end huge taxes may encourage companies too pull out of China, which is a good thing, but how long will that process take, and what will the economic consequences be in the interim?

There's no question that many major cities on the coast, at sea level will suffer from storm surges and rising tides over the next decade or two, around the world. We all know what's causing it, but many are not willing to admit it. However prognosticating that Bangkok will be underwater in less than a decade is a bit silly, and likely unscientific. There's no question that there will be more flooding and there are certainly some areas that are more vulnerable than others. Thailand could be engaging in the kind of flood controls that the Dutch have become experts at, over the past several decades, but they still seem to refuse any foreign expertise. That is on them.

I sure hope they find these guys and I hope they are alive and well. Digging tunnels is not for the faint of heart, my brother-in-law is working in South Korea right now digging tunnels for a major highway. One of the top guys on the totem pole, a local engineer, was recently killed in a tunnel collapse.

So the real question is who is at fault here? Is is the planning department, is it the department that issued a license to cut down the trees, or is it the officials who did not prevent the trees from being cut down? Phuket is a very rainy area it's notorious for having heavy rainfall so something like this could have and should have been easily anticipated. Why was it not foreseen? Pure sloth? Pure greed? Or total negligence?

Do you think letting the Russians and Chinese take over Korea would have been the preferable path? One can argue South Korea has become quite a dynamic nation. I realize it is a very complex argument.

Shocking stuff and unbelievably pathetic. Such depravity. Such moral bankruptcy. The Prophet would no doubt roll in his grave if he knew how perverted his teachings had become. I was in India a long time ago and a Muslim man asked me if I had gotten with any of the local women, and I had said no. He had told me about an American woman that was visiting who he had gotten with. He then went on to proceed to tell me how depraved and immoral she was and I said to him well how do you feel about being immoral and a whore? He was utterly shocked and he said a man can't be a whore. I said of course he can be just like, you are a whore. He just could not comprehend anything I was saying. Total brainwashing and male dominated thinking. So sad to see.

Though largely correct, it has nothing to do with this topic. I do agree, but the Korean war was something different. An argument can be made for the Korean war. Should the Korean War still be called the “Forgotten War”? Ask the people of South Korea. They have never forgotten the sacrifices made by the thousands of UN forces who helped save their country and are still standing guard today. I saw an example of just how thankful they still are to the United States and its UN allies. https://www.legion.org/honor/259643/why-korean-war-matters The war broke out on June 25, 1950 when North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel, invading South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Il-sung launched the attack once he had received a promise of support from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In January 1950, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson haddelivered a speech in which he said South Korea and Taiwan were not part of the American "defensive perimeter," which seemed to indicate the U.S. would keep out of a Korean conflict. And it's clear that Stalin only agreed to support the invasion after being convinced the U.S. would not get involved. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bomb-korean-war/

Somebody should lock him up, or end his miserable life.

I think Putin is desperate. And badly humiliated. He is very unpredictable. It is impossible to say. I hope Russia is defeated by then and surrenders. But, I don't see Putin ever doing that.

Putin is likely insane, he is a homicidal maniac, he is totally without anything resembling a moral compass, and his thirst for power and wealth knows no limits. His intentions are heinous. Fortunately, other than their nuclear arsenal, their armed forces are broken down and outdated. The war has inflicted heavy losses on Russia’s military. By the end of 2023, nearly 90% of the pre-war troops had been lost, with estimates of 120,000 killed and 200,000 wounded. Equipment losses have been equally severe, with thousands of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and artillery pieces destroyed. In response, Russia has reactivated many outdated Soviet-era tanks and artillery pieces, highlighting the desperate need to replenish its arsenal. Predictions suggest that by 2026, Russia may face severe challenges in maintaining its combat power and effectiveness due to resource depletion and unsustainable practices. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/the-troubled-russian-military/

Just smart people with a tiny bit of morality, abandoning an increasingly incoherent man, who is declining cognitively, and is 78, going on 88. He is a failed man, and a felon, who is piloting a sinking ship.

China is behaving very poorly in the entire region of the South China Sea. Their claims are beyond ridiculous and have no basis in law. They simply want to expand their power base, and eventually control movement of all shipping in the region. All efforts should be made to reign them in. Their aggression against the PI is intolerable. The CCP is beyond heinous. Fortunately, their population is dropping dramatically, and their economy is imploding.

I've offered wondered about that exact point, what kind of a civilization forces their women to endure such a level of subjugation, hiding behind veils with their entire bodies covered head to foot? And what would happen to a man who was exposed to a woman's skin, can you imagine such a thing? If he saw a woman's ankles would his head explode, would he lose all sense of self-control? Where does all that fear come from, what is that all about it? It would make quite a sociological study, granted it's very not PC, and it would probably be canceled by the mob, but it would be quite a fascinating thing to analyze. From certain imams insisting that earthquakes are caused by women not wearing a hijab to muftis excommunicating Muslim women who do not consider wearing the hijab as a religious duty, the intellectual level of discourse that surrounds Muslim women is excruciating, and is more or less concerned only with notions of modesty. This gives a gloomy insight – the obsession with the hijab is, in fact, a form of sexual objectification. Objectification, after all, involves the lowering of a person to the status of an object. By reducing Muslim women to their bodies and pretending that modesty is their primary religious duty, we strip them off their personhood and rob them off their agency as human beings. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/11/muslim-man-i-am-sick-our-obsession-hijab

I could not possibly agree more. Psychological research suggests that the super-rich, as a group, aren’t necessarily the role models we collectively need if our goal is to advance the common good and build a more decent society. In particular, one reason to be skeptical involves a constellation of interlinked personality traits — Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism — that psychologists call the “Dark Triad.” The originators of the term summarize it this way: “To varying degrees, all three entail a socially malevolent character with behavior tendencies toward self-promotion, emotional coldness, duplicity, and aggressiveness.”

If I were a gambling man, I would take wagers on how much laughing takes place behind the scenes, when Interpol sees a red notice from the Thai Authorities. Just another formality guys. We know they are not serious men.

I've known a lot of Iranian people over the years and I find most of them to be rather cool, nice people, so it's definitely not the people that we have a problem with. It's their heinous government, the Ayatollah, and the religious Council, the hackers and the Qud forces. These guys know nothing of spirituality, they know nothing of a higher calling, all they know is death, destruction, hatred, division, oppression, and how to strip their people of joy and prosperity. A pox on their houses.

Chinese businesses and above all the CCP cannot be trusted, they've been engaging in subsidizing businesses for decades now, to the point where they undercut nearly everybody that they compete with. The only solution is either sanctions or heavy tariffs on certain Chinese imports, like steel. Never trust the CCP, they will always stab you in the back, that's just their nature.

Donald Trump. Just 24 years, please.

The only thing that's been mishandled here is the way Thai culture embraces the privilege of wealth, and the fact that if you have enough money you're above the law. Nothing will be done with this guy, his family is wealthy to the point where they're above any and all laws, so whatever is going on here, is just a silly smokescreen. If they wanted him, they would have gotten him long ago. They don't want him, and they don't want to mess with his family. End of story.

There is no doubt he's running scared and he's looking for an excuse to pull out, however Harris should not be trying to change the rules midstream like this. The mute button is a good idea, that rule was put into place for a very good reason, as Trump loves to interrupt, so keep the mute button in place. And even better idea would be to have a side panel on the TV which does fact checking live, and calls out a lie on the spot.

Well, his supporters certainly don't want to look at this, but I believe Trump started this hyper inflationary cycle when he declared an insane trade war on China and Huawei, with hardly anything to back him up, other than hollow threats, and sanctions, which only hurt the US economy, and US consumers and businesses. The Chinese sensed sanctions coming and went out and cornered the world market on rare earth, chips, motherboards, circuit boards, and other materials. Companies started ramping down production due to Covid. Later, when they started to order these elements and parts, none were to be found or the price had skyrocketed. It started a massive supply chain issue with cell phone, computer and automotive components. Then the shipping issues came later. Few want to look back at where this started. At the time I said it was the single dumbest thing a politician had done since Chamberlain denied the bad intentions of the Nazis. Trump created hyper inflation, singlehandedly. He added $2 Billion a month in tariff costs to the American consumer. He had a net-negative jobs creations for his administration. He decreased corporate taxes, passing the tax burden to the workers. He added $ 7.8 Trillion to the deficit - a full 25% of the total deficit. Thanks, Don. Stick with the blame game. Losing the election is on you. See ya!

It's relevant to a lot, she's not in the system, meaning she's undetected, meaning she's unknown, meaning she's not a person of record. End of story. You are referring to the letter of the law, I am referring to practical steps that one likely may be able to take.

Nobody really knows what was spent in Afghanistan. The US figures are fake. Cheney had a resolution passed, back in the day, that essentially allowed the US to fight the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq "off the books". The real number is likely several trillion in Afghanistan, and a comparable amount in Iraq. For what? Though the intentions for Afghanistan were reasonable, in Iraq they were diabolical. So, what has been achieved? And why does the US continue with it's foreign policy blunders, and why does it not seem capable of learning from history? Sheer hubris? Arrogance? Ignorant neocon ideas? So many lives lost. Few like the Taliban, and fewer liked Hussein. But, this? The blame has to be distributed equally. Bush Jr., (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and the other spectacularly ignorant men in that regressive group of idiots) Trump and Biden. At a minimum, it would have made sense to leave a few thousand specialists and some equipment in and around Kabul. After all, decades later, the US still has a presence in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. The Taliban are cowards. And they believe in a perverted form of Islam. It has little to nothing to do with the Koran, or the original teachings, and it is likely most of them are not religious anyway, but are in it for the money, the ability to be a heroin dealer without any of the legal consequences, the power, the girls, and the ability to kill, rape, steal or maim at will. That can be a heady amount of power for a young man without much direction in his life, nor any ethics.

My woman, like a lot of Thais has never paid taxes in her entire life, so how is she a tax resident? And if she is not a tax resident how is she liable for any proceeds from a gift from her husband?

I've been saying that Thailand desperately needs transport alternatives for a decade and a half now, they have a 70-year-old rail system, and the highways are choked to the point where it makes a quick trip impossible. They need to work on alternative transportation methods for cargo and a passengers and the situation is desperate. I think they should get the Chinese involved, have the Chinese cough up tens of billions of dollars, and get it done quickly. And then just default on the loan like all the other countries in the Belt and Road initiative are doing. Thailand could then be a great contributor to humanity by slowing down China, and helping to stop their heinous expansionist plans.