Politics

[spike.t]

And now mandatory for SA....

https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/865152/new-mandatory-travel-rules-for-anyone-entering-or-leaving-south-africa/?__cf_chl_f_tk=nkUoKE3RlsMkX_9rEsG16cpKogYPn.gi2eQZbdOgzX4-1782908203-1.0.1.1-YSIev5qmTiHFIclsmWvd2oHlNHXrh6cufqSdSoBfoRA

 

[Brent in Az]

 

[steve white]

Take your folding camp stool if going to Europe any time soon....lovely EU balls up.....

Call to suspend new EU border system in peak holiday period as planes leave half full

Airlines and airports say passengers are struggling in queues of up to five hours for biometric checks

www.theguardian.com

"When passenger volume exceeds border control capacity" my A$$!! In Frankfurt, the clustered situation resulted in a line to have passports visually inspected in excess of 100 meters long, and then there had already been a requirement for facial recognition.
BUT THE REAL bottleneck is federal officers in the kiosks--one third were empty!!! Grrrr. Inexcusable, so much for German precision.
And that is after delays getting around the airport due to signage problems and personnel ignorance/unhelpfulness.

My solution? I am contacting the vendors in the airport and telling them about the tens of thousands of euros they are losing because passengers have NO TIME TO SHOP! Let THEM bring the pressure. I know I had a lot of euros to burn.
Better schedule longer layovers. Three hrs just wasn't enough!

 

[spike.t]

Well I never thought this asshole would spout ant sense....am amazed

 

[Doug3006]

"When passenger volume exceeds border control capacity" my A$$!! In Frankfurt, the clustered situation resulted in a line to have passports visually inspected in excess of 100 meters long, and then there had already been a requirement for facial recognition.
BUT THE REAL bottleneck is federal officers in the kiosks--one third were empty!!! Grrrr. Inexcusable, so much for German precision.
And that is after delays getting around the airport due to signage problems and personnel ignorance/unhelpfulness.

My solution? I am contacting the vendors in the airport and telling them about the tens of thousands of euros they are losing because passengers have NO TIME TO SHOP! Let THEM bring the pressure. I know I had a lot of euros to burn.
Better schedule longer layovers. Three hrs just wasn't enough!

Or…….fly through Doha or Dubai.

 

[Tanks]

Or…….fly through Doha or Dubai.

Unfortunately one has to transfer through RSA and deal with their firearms check-ins etc. if one is going to Namibia. Lufthansa, once I drop my guns off at LAX, I don't have to deal with them until I arrive at Windhoek.

I prefer traveling through Doha or Dubai but the stop at RSA is a non-starter for me.

 

[Big_Easy]

Big Easy, and the daily garbage dump of b.s

What's the name of this delusional fantasy land you live in? It sounds amazing.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Lufthansa offers a Munich to Windhoek direct flight, in addition to the FRA-WDH flight. The Munich flights are W, F and Su only. I had a nightmare of a flight, both coming and going through FRA. If I were to give Lufthansa another try, I would try to go through Munich instead of FRA.

 

[Brent in Az]

What's the name of this delusional fantasy land you live in? It sounds amazing.

Not the leftist dystopia that you wallow in.....

 

[deewayne2003]

"Food for thought though, more Europeans have died from heat in the last month than all USA firearms deaths for all of 2025"

don't know if that's really true.
It's mostly older people who die from the heat. Don't they die from it where you are?
They're probably splashing around in the pool around the clock.

Yes it is true... More europeans have died from heat in the last month than all US gun violence in 2025.

No we don't have elderly people dying from heat stroke by the thousands, because we are not so pretentious as to live without air conditioning; the concept of hospitals without air conditioning is flat out ignorance - Especially because the first public building in the world with air conditioning was the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast 1903.

But then again as you said "it's mostly older people"..... so who cares, right?

 

[Scott CWO]

Lufthansa offers a Munich to Windhoek direct flight, in addition to the FRA-WDH flight. The Munich flights are W, F and Su only. I had a nightmare of a flight, both coming and going through FRA. If I were to give Lufthansa another try, I would try to go through Munich instead of FRA.

Please explain

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Think a certain person should have listened to him with the volume turned up....

"A healthy dose of skepticism..."

It's hard to have that when you think everybody's going to do what you want just because you want them to do it.

 

[deewayne2003]

Any thoughts on gold or silver from our resident bulls of a few months ago? Hopefully no one jumped on the bandwagon at over $4K. It has been a very nice run, but perhaps reality is starting to reassert itself?

I wasn't a bull, I was looking to liquidate(some not all) of my silver, I happened upon a local Jeweler/Silver smith that was in need of silver and traded me gold for silver @ 1:50 which was the actual spot price ratio at the time.

So I diversified by trading off silver I bought in 2015 for $17toz for gold and ended up with unrealized capital gain of 500%+ at that time.

Now the gold silver ratio is 1:67.5 and I'm happy as a lark.

 

[Rafiki]

Trump is a dick. I dont think many people will dispute that. He's often a dick when being a nice guy would have gotten him more of what he wanted, which appears to be one of his fatal flaws..

Ya know saying someone is a dick without knowing them really doesn't further any discussion. Yes Trump shows many signs of diskishness in public. It is interesting that the consensus of many that have had that same opinion then actually met the guy on a personal level have quite the opposite view; Bill Maher is a good example. Trump displays many distasteful traits publicly, and he may in fact be a dick, but all I've heard is that on a personal level he's actually pleasant. That's hearsay of course and largely depends on a persons definition of being a dick.

 

[Wheels]

The Warren court scoured the archives to find evidence of a right to privacy, which exists nowhere in the Bill of Rights, then based their Roe vs. Wade decision on that newly discovered right.

It wouldn’t be surprising if long after we are gone a different court will view Trump v Barbara in the same way we view Roe v Wade or Dred Scott.

Mollie Hemingway has written about this.

 

[Wheels]

Any thoughts on gold or silver from our resident bulls of a few months ago? Hopefully no one jumped on the bandwagon at over $4K. It has been a very nice run, but perhaps reality is starting to reassert itself?

The run up was exciting! In December I made the comment the silver chart reminded me of 1979/1980.


I don’t consider myself a metals bull. However I do think every portfolio should have a percentage of physical metals. My positions are still well in the black and I hold them for an inflation hedge, end of an economic system, end of the world scenario. I have no plans to ever sell. If all goes well the kids will deal with it.

Silver looks to have some support around 50. It might be a place to buy. Gold I haven’t really looked at lately. Long term they should both do fine. The key is not to buy during times of FOMO.

 

[Altitude sickness]

https://www.tipranks.com/news/china-is-shutting-down-retail-gold-trading

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Panetta: Putin ‘not quite sure what to do’ after Ukraine drones strike Moscow

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not quite sure what to do” after a Ukrainian drone strike hit Moscow earlier in the day. The d…

thehill.com

From the story... the hypocrisy is beyond words.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov slammed Ukraine’s attacks, saying three civilians were injured and a six-month-old baby was killed in the attack.

“We would like once again to bring the international community’s attention to this criminal conduct of the Kyiv regime,” he said, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. “Civilians have been affected, and children have been dying as a result of actions by the Kyiv regime. And everybody should know and remember that.”

 

[Foxi]

Yes it is true... More europeans have died from heat in the last month than all US gun violence in 2025.

No we don't have elderly people dying from heat stroke by the thousands, because we are not so pretentious as to live without air conditioning; the concept of hospitals without air conditioning is flat out ignorance - Especially because the first public building in the world with air conditioning was the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast 1903.

But then again as you said "it's mostly older people"..... so who cares, right?

Europe has a population of no less than 745 million people.
I ran a quick AI search and found that between 10,000 and 20,000 people die from heat-related causes in the U.S. every year.
The reported numbers in the U.S. are much, much lower.
Who cares about all your homeless people and those who can barely afford rent and electricity?
All in all, a truly stupid comparison.
You’re probably just bored.

 

[spike.t]

Panetta: Putin ‘not quite sure what to do’ after Ukraine drones strike Moscow

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not quite sure what to do” after a Ukrainian drone strike hit Moscow earlier in the day. The d…

thehill.com

From the story... the hypocrisy is beyond words.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov slammed Ukraine’s attacks, saying three civilians were injured and a six-month-old baby was killed in the attack.

“We would like once again to bring the international community’s attention to this criminal conduct of the Kyiv regime,” he said, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. “Civilians have been affected, and children have been dying as a result of actions by the Kyiv regime. And everybody should know and remember that.”

Standard shite from them all along....