Marcos looks forward to working closely with POTUS

Fred is just a four letter word. - @mugtech
and it starts with an F
- @Fred
And it ends with a d
- @mugtech

No. It ends with very annoyed extremists who dislike opinions that don't match theirs

mugtech said . . . . Fred is just a four letter word.

***********************************

FreD FinD  FooD he was FonD of without a FeuD.

@Fred

the only dangerous person is you Fred with your constant insults and name calling.  Trump is now the US president and was elected overwhelmingly. His recent actions have been very popular in the US and he has majority support. I am tired of non Americans such as yourself getting involved in US politics. I suggest you concentrate on your own countries issues first!

Morgacj200424 said . . . .
the only dangerous person is you Fred with your constant insults and name calling. Trump is now the US president and was elected overwhelmingly. His recent actions have been very popular in the US and he has majority support. I am tired of non Americans such as yourself getting involved in US politics. I suggest you concentrate on your own countries issues first!

*****************************

Don't pick on Fred he is comic relief born to amuse us common sense folks.  It's a Beautiful thing.

      The US Supreme Court ruled a few years ago that freedom of speech does not include the right to yell "Fire!!!" In a crowded theatre. As Abbie Hoffman reminded us a few years later it does include the right to yell "Theatre!!" at a crowded fire.
- @mugtech

This is not actually true.  The original ruling that was used to support the 'You can't yell fire in a crowded theater' comes from a 1919 ruling which upheld a conviction for someone hanging anti-war flyers in violation to the Espionage Act.  It is actually a quote from one of the Supreme Court justices.  That ruling, incidentally, was overturned later.

@Fred
the only dangerous person is you Fred with your constant insults and name calling. Trump is now the US president and was elected overwhelmingly. His recent actions have been very popular in the US and he has majority support. I am tired of non Americans such as yourself getting involved in US politics. I suggest you concentrate on your own countries issues first! - @Morgacj200424

Ah, xenophobia

When Trump stays out of international politics, thus is no longer a danger to expats, I really won't care what he does to his own country

   The US Supreme Court ruled a few years ago that freedom of speech does not include the right to yell "Fire!!!" In a crowded theatre. As Abbie Hoffman reminded us a few years later it does include the right to yell "Theatre!!" at a crowded fire.
- @mugtech
This is not actually true. The original ruling that was used to support the 'You can't yell fire in a crowded theater' comes from a 1919 ruling which upheld a conviction for someone hanging anti-war flyers in violation to the Espionage Act. It is actually a quote from one of the Supreme Court justices. That ruling, incidentally, was overturned later. - @kjwilde

So you can yell fire in a crowded theater.

@Fred

His first week in office brought threats to take over three friendly countries with a refusal to rule out invasions - he's clearly a blithering idiot

The world is changing quickly; China and Russia have not been standing still. The USA was until Trump was sworn in. Now it's time to catch up to Northwest passage trade routes, rare earth and other needed resources in Greenland, Panama who gave control of both sides of the canal to China and the use of tariffs to stop an invasion of illegal aliens.

If your time to you is worth savin’

And you better start swimmin’

Or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin’

       Glad I got my free flu shot again last October.  Found out it will not protect me from bird flu.  However my money is protected from bird flu since I eat neither eggs nor birds.

If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’ - @danfinn

         Always good to read classic Dylan.   Just the other day I saw a classic circa 1968 written for Joan Baez called Love is Just a Four Letter Word.

So you can yell fire in a crowded theater.
- @mugtech

I would certainly hope so...if the theatre is on fire

So you can yell fire in a crowded theater.
- @mugtech
I would certainly hope so...if the theatre is on fire
- @Aidan in HCMC

Or not

The world is changing quickly; China and Russia have not been standing still. The USA was until Trump was sworn in. - @danfinn

Please expand on how the US is catching up to China in trade and manufacturing.

Please compare China's ability to wage war outside its own area against The US's ability to do the same

Please explain what is wrong with Russia and why they are nasty

LMAO. Time for the comfy recliner and some pop corn, as said more fun than a circus.

Fred while many disagree with Trumps tantrums and vindictiveness remember a clear majority put him back in power, right or wrong the people spoke and will live with the outcome it seems without choice now, aside give it a few years (not a few weeks) and we will see lower food and gas prices, no illegal migrants and no one to pick the cabbages or clean the house.

Migration will open the doors to those happy to graft in the end, seen it all before in Australia. You Fred have witnessed the same in the UK.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl said . . . . no illegal migrants and no one to pick the cabbages or clean the house

*********************************

(1) The world production of cabbage 72,000 kilotonnes.

(2) US grown cabbage one kilotonne.

(A) China, India & Russia are the major growers of cabbage, over 50% world wide, so they use local help.

(B) When living in the US I never knew of anyone employing illegals or legals to clean their house.

I had enough pop corn but I'll play the game.

May haps the deportations are because no one will pick your cabbages or clean house?

Do the menial work that is beneath many citizens living in the US?

I fully agree that undocumented infiltrators should be deported or simpler still denied access. Border control.

The US is not the only country facing this problem and now the cleanout, Australia has been there with what were labeled "boat people" Nipped in the bud 30 years ago. Do it correctly or don't waste your time. Australia copped flack from many countries the way it was handled but the influx stopped.

I do hope the current administration can clean out the criminals and blatant abusers of a system that has been ongoing for decades and is no one governments fault.

Hope the coleslaw keeps flowing Bob.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

@mugtech

Just the other day I saw a classic circa 1968 written for Joan Baez called Love is Just a Four Letter Word.

I listened to it again. As you said, he wrote it for her. Both are still alive today.

Philippines troops to get Typhon missile training next month

By Michael Punongbayan - Agence France-Presse - January 29, 2025

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/01/29/2417661/philippines-troops-get-typhon-training-next-month

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine platoon will be trained in using a US mid-range missile system next month ahead of joint drills, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said yesterday, in a move that will further fuel tensions with China.

The US military deployed the Typhon missile system in northern Philippines last year as part of an annual joint exercise, but it was not removed after the war games ended.

The system’s presence has angered Beijing, whose forces have confronted Philippine vessels in recent months over reefs and waters in the South China Sea.

Last month, the AFP said it was planning to acquire the Typhon system as part of a push to secure its maritime interests, sparking warnings from China of a regional “arms race.”

A new platoon from the AFP’s Army Artillery Regiment will receive “orientation and familiarization” training on the system, starting in the second or third week of February, Army spokesman Col. Louie Dema-ala said at a press conference.

The weeklong training will involve troops from the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force of the US Army Pacific, Dema-ala said.

“This is a continuation of what we’ve learned in the first (training) iteration. New units will be involved in the training and a continuation of the previous platoon that was trained last year,” he said.

“As long as MRC (mid-range missile capability) is here, we maximize its utilization to train our personnel in new technology,” he added.

--

Dema-ala said the training is in preparation for this year’s Salaknib, an annual joint exercise between the Philippines and US armies.

The training location cannot be disclosed, he told reporters, noting that there will be no firing of the Typhon system.

Philippine military spokesperson Col. Francel Padilla said moving the launcher from its initial location to a different part of the country is a test “to see how these logistical trains can be transported to certain locations, to certain salient points.”

Philippine military officials have said the Typhon system could protect vessels up to 370 kilometers or 200 nautical miles off the coast — the limit of its maritime entitlement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Last week, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning renewed calls for the Philippines to “stop going further down the wrong path.”

          Meanwhile Putin wants to be back ln the US back in the US back in the USSR.  You don't know how lucky you are boy, back in the USSR.  Ukraine girls  really knock me out, they leave the west behind.

         Some good history this week, today is the birthday of Bill McKinley, of note as of late for a mountain and tariffs.On Tuesday, 1/28 it was the 77th anniversary of the plane wreck at El Gato, inspiring Woody Guthrie to write Deportee.  Heard Dylan do an electric version during the Buy Centenial..

        Was sorry to see the religious stampede in India resulting in at least 14 deaths.  Seems this happens every couple years in India, but they do not hold the record. Since 1990 Mecca has had 8 such stampedes resulting in over 4,800 deaths. They usually happen during the stoning of the devil ritual. So you expats might want to avoid Mecca during that particular event.

          Happy Lunar New Year!!!!  Looks like it gonna be one heck of a year.  Enjoyed the celebration in 2018 in Singapore and the Eagles won the Superb Owl!  Too bad Kenny Stabler is not playing this year, it is the year of the snake.

On Tuesday, 1/28 it was the 77th anniversary of the plane wreck at El Gato, inspiring Woody Guthrie to write Deportee. Heard Dylan do an electric version during the Buy Centenial..

Wasn't that around the time of Cesar Chavez and the grape boycott? Cesar was a union man born in Yuma  AZ and a hero of the progressive movement at the time. He was also very opposed to illegal aliens who worked for far less money than his union workers and who were used as a tool by agribusiness to bust Cesar's strikes which led to the grape boycott. Quoting:

"Congress ended the bracero program in 1964, and the next 15 years were the salad days, as it were, for farmworkers — until illegal immigration became so pervasive (despite Chavez’s efforts) that workers lost all bargaining power.

"... Chavez fought illegal immigration tenaciously. In 1969, he marched to the Mexican border to protest farmers’ use of illegal aliens as strikebreakers. He was joined by Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Senator Walter Mondale."

Over time, this would seem to put an impossible schizophrenia over how legal Hispanics' political thought would view their illegal alien brothers.And at the time anything Woody Guthrie would have expressed would not relate to them at all. It was a food-at-the-kitchen table issue. The rest of the story is:

Yes. Agribusiness corporate untimately won. They They got their cheap illegal labor by hook or by crook. And the rest if the country accomplished acquiring immigrant slave labor. The middle class got cheap maids and grass cutters, the most notorious example being the last 4 years under Biden.

But, most recently it seems the older sixties thinking od Cesar Chavez has taken hold amongst the Hispanic voters and the majority of everyone else. Trump could not have won without their support.

There are other issues about illegal immigration where supporting such is a moral hazard For example, think of the unfairness to immigrants who have wanted nine for ten years for legal entry. Or, forcing local taxpayers to pay for medical, for food supplements and schooling of the uninvited guests. That is a moral hazard too, not to.mention the problem of violent criminals. For me it is totally understandable how the US voters, whites, blacks, Asians abd Hispanics alike voted in Trump in 2024.

On Tuesday, 1/28 it was the 77th anniversary of the plane wreck at El Gato, inspiring Woody Guthrie to write Deportee. Heard Dylan do an electric version during the Buy Centenial..
Wasn't that around the time of Cesar Chavez and the grape boyco - @danfinn

          Boycott was 1965-1970.  Plane crash was 1948.  Big thing was for Woody that they were not listed by names, rather just deportees.  Trump spokesman said today that only 1% of all farm workers are illegals.  Government says it is 40% today, claims it was 49% in 2020.  Let's just wait and see what happens, then we will know.