connda

Which I find equally fascinating.

I'm old enough to remember that the United States died with John F. Kennedy. It was palpable. It's been downhill since then, and what is passed off as successive governments have been freak-shows of ever increasing intensity run by megalomaniacs and fools, albeit, megalomaniacs and fools who will undoubted wipe the rest of us off of the face of this planet to maximize their own hubris and lust for power. In the West, diplomacy is dead.

I'm pretty sure BritManToo was making a point about being attached to "stuff." You're attached to that stuff that "I made it myself." Want real freedom? Real freedom is letting go as completely as possible. Then at the end of your life, you can even let go of your body too. That's freedom.

I emptied a 4 bedroom house filled with junk my ex-wife just had to have. A 14 year collection, some of the stuff with price tags still on it. I had an estate sales agent get rid of it all. The f***er even cheated me and I didn't even care, well, other than I dislike people who completely lack morals. The stuff meant nothing. If he hadn't taken it it would have gone to Goodwill. Had a yard sale and then let friends just take stuff if they wanted it for free. I left a few items with my aunt, gave her my desktop computer, packed a backpack and daypack, and left from LAX. That's my definition of letting go.

Boris Johnson? Yep.

Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with that at all.

Trump was elected and gained political support based on ending foreign wars. Yes. Now that he is getting more involved with continued funding of the Ukraine SMO, bombing Yemen, threatening to go to war with Iran, as well as China (and by extension all of the BRICS nations) - yep. On top of that it looks like the economy is going to turn into a cluster-foxtrot. He's going to lose a lot of his base - probably fairly soon. Prediction: 1. Congress flips Democrat after the mid-terms. 2. The POTUS flips back to the Democrats in 2028.

And I'm in 100% agreement with MTG.

Sorry forgot only reserved for foreigners pasty-white farangs. There, fixed it.

Obviously the luxury hotels don't hire 5 or 10 "security guards" to gang-beat the snot out of guests who skip paying their bills.

I've had my bank accounts of a long time. Wife has had those SIMs for a long time. Like I said, I'll fix the problem in short order if it comes up. Until then - we'll sail along as usual.

I'm not saying you're wrong. You're not. But I've got to admit, I could attribute those attributes to virtually every POTUS over the last 30 years. The proportions of those attributes may be a little different - more in some cases, less in other - and yet still, most US Presidents exhibit those same traits. Those traits are not unique to Trump at all.

I agree 100%. I've done my part. I left and the Native Americans can have it all back!

I order you to Levitate! juggle juggle juggle juggle juggle

Court Jester?

Although I've been accused of being a MAGA Trump supporter, I'm not. Didn't vote for him, didn't vote for Harris either. Some of his policies I support; many of his policies I don't support. However, I'm just at a loss at the level of angst, unease, dread, suspicion, worry, concern, disgust, horror, hostility, and hatred that people have for him. It's just the uniformity of these emotions between those who can not stop whinging about him that confuses me. It's like those who are triggered by Trump are part of a Star Trek Borg-Mind hive. There is so little that is unique about what those who dislike him are saying about him - It's like they all read from the same script. I find that fascinating! Don't get me wrong. Trump is a narcissistic megalomaniac with god-like delusions of grandeur, but for Pete's sake kids, most of the current crop of world leaders are narcissistic megalomaniac with god-like delusions of grandeur although Trump is beginning to out-trump them all. Literally, “I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice.", and “I run the country and the world.” Everybody wants to rule the world! -- Tears for Fears And Trump is convinced he's the ruler of the world. Freaking Amazing, 'eh? But realistically, Obama was a narcissistic megalomaniac, Biden was a narcissistic megalomaniac, "Dubya" Bush and is cabinet were narcissistic megalomaniacs, the Clinton's are narcissistic megalomaniacs. And no doubt, whomever is elected as the US President in 2028 will be a narcissistic megalomaniac. The third party candidates whom I vote for are not narcissistic megalomaniacs, but they don't get elected either. Go figure? Anyway, I digress. Here's the bottom line for me. Regardless of who is in office, I've never been so triggered as to completely lose my s**t and then spend the next four years consumed on social media or within my social circles being obsessed by whomever was selected to be the POTUS. Never! So watching it happen - for the second time - is just.....fascinating. So my terminally triggered Trump hating friends? What the hell is it that causes you people so much obsession and grief about this guy? I just don't understand. Clue me in.

I have a brokerage account that used to be Datek, then TDAmeritrade, and now Charles Schwab. I've got a couple of questions for those who still hold a US based account with a US residence address. Do any of you use your US address as your permanent physical address and your Thai address as a mailing address. The reason I'm asking is that I've obviously have had a brokerage account for a long time but I'm considering opening a bank account with them now too as I have to begin pulling money out of my IRA and I might as well bank it with Charles Schwab. Having a Charles Schwab debit card would be a plus with it's no foreign ATM fees. So I was curious to know if they would mail the debit card to a Thai address? Has anyone done that? I know I could open a Charles Schwab International account, but I don't believe you can assign a beneficiary with that account. That's important as I don't have a US "Will" and when I die those funds need to be transferred to my wife who is my beneficiary which is set up for my IRA and Individual brokerage account (TOD). So at this time I'm not looking at the International account. So just checking to see if anyone else with a US account and a US physical address has used a Thai mailing address to receive their debit card.

I seriously doubt it as I don't have a SIM in my name. The SIMs we have for our phones from True are in my wife's name, not mine. That has to do with the fact they are somehow linked and my SIM only costs like 100 THB/mo. No idea how the program works. I bank with two different banks but only use SCB online after they ditched their web-base portal. They haven't said anything about my SIM to date. As of yesterday, everything is working fine. If that changes, I guess I'll get a SIM in my name. I'm not particularly worried about it. If something breaks we'll make at trip to Big C and visit True and SCB to get it sorted out. I'd just shut up and let the wife do the talking. She's pretty assertive for a Thai gal.

bob smith has a new incarnation! 100%

Bondi strikes be as being Bill Barr 2.0. I'm not expecting much out of Trump's DOJ or USAG.

What happened in Canada? The Canadians were given a choice between "Dumb" and Dumber." The only winners? The wealthiest segment of Canadian society as well as millionaires/billionaires with dual citizenship and multiple passports. Who are their masters? That's anyone's guess. But they don't work for the benefit of the average citizens.

What's "democracy" in the West. Wealthy billionaire place a limited number of their candidates in front of the public to provide the illusion that they have a democratic choice. If a populist candidate raised their head, it is beat down with hundreds of million of dollars in "campaign ads" (propaganda) to make sure that the populist becomes worse than Hitler - and the average clones who vote suck it up with glee. Any visage of actual democracy is dead. It's probably better to simply have a system like China where there is at least long-term political stability. At least China doesn't pretend to be something it is not. Virtually all "democratic" Western nations are at best pretend democracies. Illusions at best. And judging by Europe, this trend is only getting worse as those claiming to embrace democracy actually are moving toward Fascistic autocracy, in the name of "Democracy" of course. Criminy - look at the US. There is no stability. After 6-8 months in office, virtually all candidate are focusing on the next elections in two years. The political system in the US is plain broken. Nothing of substance gets accomplish, policies change radically with shifts of power from one party to the other in two year elections cycles (General election, mid-terms, general election, mid-terms), and politicians are just proxies for their wealthiest donors. They system is totally unstable and beyond repair.

Their "All bars must close from 2PM to 5PM" don't help tourism at all. Tourist don't take alcohol breaks from 2PM to 5PM.

Highway Patrol cars in Thailand = VIP Escort cars in Thailand