connda

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by wealth." -Lord Acton "The only way to deal with corruption is to shine a light on it." -Bill Moyers "Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country." -Karl Kraus

Golly gee whiz Sammy, where'd you get your $30 million from on a government salary? Being the head of USAID seemed to be a lucrative gig? "President Trump and Elon Musk exposes the EX-USAID Chief Samantha Power who accumulate a $30 million of net worth over a matter of years with a $180k annual salary." placeholder: "Nothing to see here, move along, move along!!!"

But they ARE NOT cracking down on cigarettes to "protect the children." Imho, the move has less to do with "protecting the children" than it does to protect a connected monopoly. As usual, hypocrisy reins supreme.

If you haven't noticed, the is a conservative voter backlash among the public. In Romania Călin Georgescu took 22% of the votes and the courts annulled the election, because? He wasn't supposed to win. He's the wrong candidate. He's like conservative. All conservatives are in the EU are not branded "Far-Right Wing Extremists" as well as "Putin's Puppets." It's all nonsense. The status quo does not want change via the ballot box so they are willing to upend democracy and call it "saving democracy." The status quo IS the problem. So the betting pools are not betting that Călin Georgescu will now take 40% of the vote in the upcoming election. Why? Because the voters are rebelling against the move to upend democracy in the name of "saving democracy." People aren't stupid - they was though it. That's now the state of the EU. Talk about banning the German AfD, banning France's National Rally, and banning anyone who threatens the "status quo" which has worn out its welcome - and the people are rebelling: at the ballot box. That's what happened in the US. Same same, not different. The vast majority of European voters are about to vote into office the candidates and the parties that they are being told by the status quo are "dangerous." People are tired - they want change.

There is nothing secret about it. Its just abandoned.

The "humanitarian programs" are in themselves a grift, no different that the corporate welfare programs. They are just another conduit to "wash" money then funnel it for other purposes.

Really, those making the most noise since Jan 20th are like babies whose mummies took away their rattles. Ya'll did this from 2016 until 2021, and now your whinging and crying again - for 4 more years? Gawd! I sort of have pity on those of you who melt down into the pool of goo and rant and rave. Trump didn't throw you all in concentration camps his first term and he's not going to throw you into concentration camps his second term either. Ya'll are suppose to be adults. Lord, act like it. This hyperbolic over-reactions to a second Trump term (and everything to do with Trump and conservatism in general) is exactly what has turned off those voters in the center and left-of-center. Every rational voter is simply tired of the far-Left's histrionics and hysterics. It's old, give it a rest.

Your welcome!

Make me seriously wonder how many of the most vehement AN critics of the efforts to rein in the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse by the permanent Washington DC bureaucracy weren't on the USAID payroll. Now they are mad because their paychecks stopped? Maybe.

Trump Declares Himself Chairman of Kennedy Center, Immediately Bans Drag Performances Good.

That's to bleed off all the fuel. Sounds like the pilot thought there was the potential for a crash. Glad all worked out well.

I'm glad you remade yourself bob, but "Elvis from Tupalo?" Well, whatever works!

...wonderful.

They have a funny idea what "good air quality" is. I guess they are now just lowering their expectations. Moderate Air Quality??? 👇 Sure! 🙄 In Vietnam maybe?

Fyi, I've driven though that much water in Korat back in the day. Korat floods too.

Move back to Ayutthaya.

Nothing new under the sun here.

Most of the ones I know hit it for an hour or so after work and then go home.

Like they do every year for Makha Bucha Day and a bunch of other Buddhist holidays to boot. Go to Makro tomorrow and stock up. Not the end of the world. Visit a park or a cafe. Read a book.

Unless the target bombs back, and you just articulated why a targeted nations might decide it's in the interests to arm up, nuclear and otherwise. To a hammer-like nation as the US, every other weaker country looks like a nail. As we said back in the 'Nam days, "Fighting for Peace is like Shagging for Chastity," (but we didn't say "shagging.") "Peace Though Strength?" Same same.

Wonder what his side of the story is. Probably will never find out now that the witch-hunt has begun.

Maximize

"The most dramatic narrative shift in this post-lockdown period has been the flip in the perceptions of government itself... How deep is the corruption? There are no words to describe its breadth and depth. Who is regretting this? It’s the legacy news media, the legacy academic establishment, the legacy corporate establishment, the legacy public-sector agencies, the legacy everything, and this regret knows no partisan or ideological bounds. And who is celebrating this or, at least, enjoying the upheaval and cheering it on? It’s the independent media, the genuine grassroots, the deplorables and nonessentials, the pillaged and oppressed, the workers and peasants who were forced to serve the elites for years, those who have been truly marginalized through decades of exclusion from public life. No one can be sure where this ends up – and no revolution or counterrevolution in history is without cost or complication – but this much is true: public life will never be the same for generations to come." - Jeffery Tucker, The Brownstone Institute https://brownstone.org/articles/the-most-dramatic-narrative-shift-in-modern-history/