dean

But it will affect Trump’s prospects in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida. He needs almost all of those swing States to win the Electoral College election. The Democrats in those States didn’t vote for Trump because he is pro life, NRA supporter, immigrant hater and Court packer with McConnell’s help. They voted for Trump because, as a great businessman, he would bring back jobs from China. These people aren’t stupid. Few jobs have come back and now they have proof that he’s not the astute businessman that he claims to be. No, I don’t think the New York Times article will change any true beliver’s vote.

Cav, I think that you can replace violence with retribution, which is was the pod caster described. I’m more partial to limiting Juges to term limits. 18 years have been proposed. I would prefer 10 years. One thing you do have to admit. The process of nominating and approving Judges is broken and has to be fixed, or else 25 years old “scholars” will be nominated out of law school and Parties in control of the Senate with a President in power from a different Party will never take up a nomination under that President.

I thought that the Access Hollywood tape would put a stake in Trump’s election chances 4 years ago. Hopefully, the New York Times article based on 20 years of his tax returns finishes the job. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html

The 2008 Great Recession was caused, in large part, in the relaxation of banking regulations that allowed just about anyone, bed credit or not, to get a house loan. All recessions have been caused under Republican leadership as far back as the 1870’s. Clinton didn’t leave office under a recession but GWB did. Eight or nine months ago, the current bull market set the record for the longest lasting bull market. The American worker is left holding the bag. Foreclosed houses in 2008-2011 and lagging wages compared to gains made by business and the stock market. If there is a second Trump term, it isn’t going to be “Morning in America,” the Reagan slogan in the 1984 election.

I think that Trump’s base cares about the economy but mainly cares about appointing as many anti abortion and very strict constructionist to Federal judgeships and to the Supreme Court. McConnell will start again next month to ram them through, going through January 20th. Concerning how much credit Trump should receive for the economy, he certainly knows how to super charge it by gutting regulations and putting anti regulation and environment Cabinet members (Both appointed and temporary, which he prefers). Unfortunately, to do this and pay for a military increase, he took money from various programs, including agencies that prepare for pandemics and the attire needed to slow the spread of the virus. Ultimately, this super heated economy would have blown up like in 2008, except it probably would not have before the election (which would have made the next 4 years with Trump in charge a disaster). By the end of the year, we will be at around 400,000 dead. I just hope that Trump and Putin don’t decide to concoct some international incident to help Trump’s re-election chances.

He’s using campaign donations to his re-election campaign, to the tune of $58,000,000. Some of that money went to personal lawsuits. To contrast, Obama spent $10,000,000 on similar campaign legal fees.

Actually, you could go back to the Spanish flu/epidemic of 1918. It didn’t come from Spain but, more likely, came from western Kansas on a farm where not much hygiene was practiced. So, we could claim ownership of the two great pandemics of the last 100 years.

So, Donald Trump’s best friend was his younger brother? The younger brother that quit working for Trump when Donald lit into him with great prejudice when his slot machines had a malfunction at the Taj Mahal casino in 1992. The way that he treated his older and younger brothers is consistent with someone that wants to make sure that he is appointed his father’s heir apparent. Then, in the last stages of his father’s life, get him to change his will to the benefit of Donald. I used to like to watch “Dallas” because of the intrigue in the family and the antics of JR. the Ewing family has nothing on the Trump family. I can’t wait to read Michael Cohan’s book about how he acted as Donald’s enforcer.

Even if, as many “experts” are predicting, the Fall second wave hits the U.S. by Election Day and is much worse than the first wave, I’ll vote in person. Too many bad things (caused by Trump) can happen to my mail in ballot.

She would have been in my top 3 but not number 1. Hopefully, this energizes the black vote. I wonder if there was any consideration on what her being on the ticket does to Indian-American voters?

It’s Biden/Harris versus Trump/Pence.

Cav, you must have realized that Trump values loyalty over ability. And family loyalty most of all, which still has its limits. Don Jr. has told the story that, as a teenager, his dad was trying to impress the point that you trust no . But, Don Jr. said, “Itrust you!” Trump said, “No, you trust no one!”

Thanks for the quick response. I didn’t realize no commercial flights from the U.S. were going to Thailand. I’ve been checking dates and costs for flights in October and January and there are plenty of flights listed into Bangkok and a few into Chiangmai. I’m sure the $100,000 COVID insurance requirement will be in place for awhile. My Thai wife, who has a Green Card, would remain in the U.S., so only I would be the only one flying. Since I’m planning on spending $8,000-10,000 dollars on house, as well as a little money on my house near San Kamphaine, I’d prefer to buy a ticket in the $600-800 range, LAX to BKK or $200 more to fly to Chiangmai. I assume that your wife was living in Thailand and you were flying over to rejoin her. Since my wife lives in the U.S., I don’t know how that would affect the long approval process. As a tourist destination, Thailand will at some point revert to easier entry to the country, with the medical COVID detection procedures in place. I’ll just had to wait them out.

At some point, I’m coming over for 2 months to supervise the renovation of my wife’s house in Chiangmai. I think that there is a ban on International travel to Thailand, that expires July 31 unless it is extended. Rumors that I’ve heard is that there is. 14 quarantine for International travelers, plus possession of a hefty health insurance policy that covers COVID-19. After waiting 4 months for American Airlines to refund the $3,800 for 5 round trip trips to Chiangmai this Summer, I have no desire to buy my ticket far in advance. I’m thinking Mid October to mid December, or more likely, the first part of January to the first part of March. I normally fly into Bangkok and fly up to Chiangmai after a day or 2 in Bangkok but would fly directly to Chiangmai to avoid quarantine in Bangkok. At least in Chiangmai, I can quarantine in my own house or my wife’s house while work is being done Does anyone know the latest rules governing travel into Thailand? I’d like to assume that my January date would be safe to plan around but with a possible second wave, I wouldn’t bet my house on it.

If Trump loses, he has 2 and a half months to pardon whomever he wants. I’m sure that he will use that time justly.

There are 3 things that have to happen in November to put the Republican Party in disarray. First is Trump loses. Second, the Senate flips. Third, enough Democrats have to win Governorships and state legislatures to put Democrats in control of redistricting after the results of the 2020 Census are in. If that happens, the Democrats should be in good shape for the next ten years.

Can, the type of pardons (Marc Rich) that you mention happened days before a President left office. For normal pardons, there is a vetting process to follow. For Trump, there is no vetting process. If the accused, or a close relative, can get on Fox News and plead his case, that increases a chance for a pardon 1,000%. If a convict has been on The Apprentice, like your former Governor, that increases their chance for a pardon. If Trump loses the election, there will be a massive amount of pardons granted by him, mainly to his cronies and his friend’s cronies.

I’ve got that bottle, a bottle of Middleton and, of course, Jameson

The lady that is the caretaker for my house has my Schwab ATM card to withdraw money for either things like a water pump for the Lawn sprinkler system or services like mainly yard work. I trust her with it but never transfer money into it until the day before she needs to use it. I usually check the ATM reimbursements at the end of the month and they are usually in the 7 dollars plus change range. The last transaction was for $104 for 3,000 baht (before ATM reimbursement), so maybe she is using a bank that doesn’t charge the 3.9%. If the Coronavirus last up, I plan on coming over for two months next winter to supervise work on my wife’s house with her ex husband, who died last January. It’s in the Hong Dong area of Chiangmai and looks like a typical house in an average sub division. Except that it has Thai toilets and a partial roof. I’ll be using the Schwab card to pay for materials and labor to fix the house up to rent out. If I’m going to be charged 3.9% on top of the 220 fee, I’ll wire the money or carry $9,000 on me when I come over.

The point with Social Security was if enough people on SS die from the Coronavirus, problem fixed (at least in the short term).

Trump has been saying since he announced his candidacy in 2015 that he had a plan to fix Social Security. I think that he found it through the Coronavirus

The bottles were finally removed from their hiding place. The dogs didn’t get to it but the insects did. Eight of the bottles were in wooden boxes, which were eaten enough to make it unsafe to keep the bottles in them. No damage to the actual whisky, though.

The Florida official that ran the department that handled the coronavirus statistics was fired last week, allegedly because she refused to “adjust” the statistics to show that Florida’s reopening of the Florida economy was within Federal guidelines. I wonder how many other fed states have cooked their coronavirus numbers to allow their states to open up their economy? It doesn’t set up an optimistic picture when the second wave hits.

If I had known that in the last 3.5 years, the U.S. would end up where we are at now, I would have retired to my house in Chiangmai in January, 2017. At least Kansas has a sensible Governor that approaches Coronavirus for the long term, and has not opened up the economy full tilt, like other States (notably Georgia). We are looking at a second wave of the virus this fall, which could be as bad or worse than the first wave. I have no faith in 30-40 % of Americans following any kind of social distancing. The Presidency is my main concern. My vote won’t mean anything because I live in Kansas and Trump is a lock there. My second concern is the Senate. McConnell has pushed through a lot of Federal Judges, many unqualified. The only litmus test is that they are anti abortion and radically strict Constitutionalists. And they have to be around 40 years old, so they serve 30-40 years, as they are appointed for life. McConnell is sticking his nose into Kansas politics. With Kris Kobach running, the Republicans have a decent chance of losing the Kansas Senate seat that is up for grabs in November. McConnell has, for several months, been urging native son Mike Pompeo to run for that seat. Publicly, Pompeo says he will remain at the State Department. With the alleged investigation of Pompeo’s improper use of appointed officials as errand boys, I hope that he still stays at State. It will be for only 7.5 months. As our Senator, he will be there for at least 6 years, or until he decides to run for President in 2024. The deadline for filing to be a Senate candidate is June 1, so I guess that I have to sweat out the next 2 weeks.

The locks were the first thing that I changed. They settled for 5,000 baht because I was going to have to spend 15,000 to 20,000 to clean house and grounds. It turns out only one of the coconut trees died, along with an older mango tree, so I got off relatively easy on not having a working sprinkler system during the hot season. I have a company come by once a month to spray for insects, mainly termites, but the renter was not letting the company inside. Most of my windows are teak and 2 of the windows have been eaten by termites. With no one staying there, the house will get a spraying throughout in the next couple of days. I asked the lady that takes care of the house to check to make sure that my secret stash of 17 bottles of whisky and tequila are still there. I’ve got one bottle of 33 year old whiskey and a bottle of 1803 cognac that list for $500=600 apiece. It would be virtually impossible for the renters to find the stash but I’d be really unhappy to find out that he had unexpectedly found it.