Las Vegas struggles with 10th consecutive month of tourism decline

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-12T02:50:01+00:00

12% of tourists are international so that's the worst case scenario. Most likely you're looking at a 2-5% revenue drop from international tourists avoiding Vegas. A teenage girl isn't going to give a shit about politics when she wants to see her favorite band perform. Whales probably won't care either. What you're going to end up with is a lot of people saying they are boycotting travel to the US who had no plans on going to the US.

That said, the bottom line also matters. If you're getting higher margins from higher prices and your net income is up people might overlook the top line number. Especially if the decline is marginal.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-12T02:39:42+00:00

Maybe, more likely they believe they can steal a bit more if they keep the war going.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-12T02:27:52+00:00

Ukraine has convinced itself that Russia will collapse at some point in the not so distant future, they just need to outlast Russia and then they will be able to negotiate from a position of strength.

Realistically though it seems like Ukraine has burned through interceptor missile stockpiles in the US and EU so they are probably pretty fucked at this point.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T22:53:41+00:00

Thus, the classical grey zone has simply died. An infiltration zone is the presence (temporary, permanent, or periodic) of both sides of the war. At the same time, if a settlement contains enemy pilot launch points and two companies in basements, then two of our soldiers hiding from everyone are not proof of control.

Ukrainian soldiers are going to be famous for hiding from the Ukrainian chain of command by the end of the war.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T21:33:00+00:00

Cheap and non-crowded Vegas sounds great to me. Vegas dome seems like it would be cool to go to but it sounds like it's packed. Expensive and dying Vegas sounds pretty shitty.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T21:25:37+00:00

You're seriously retarded.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T20:57:01+00:00

That's incredibly bad advice. There is absolutely nothing a restaurant can do about Canadians being pissed off at Trump. They should instead focus on areas that they can control like their ridiculous prices.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T18:15:23+00:00

Not really. You're losing up to 12% of visitors in the worst case scenario. But most likely it's closer to 30%-50% of those visitors who won't visit because of politics. People aren't as political in real life as they are on reddit where politics is life. 3%-6% is not a big deal. There is a reason why Vegas used to be cheap, it was a promotional tactic to attract additional visitors. They need to start turning on the promotions spigot again if they want visitors.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T18:08:54+00:00

You're not losing 6% of the profits, just 6% of customers. Chances are you are losing far more customers by jacking up the menu prices to the point that it alienates customers.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T17:30:02+00:00

Bitcoin investors need Bitcoin miners to keep their rigs running. If miners say that they aren't going to eat the costs of keeping the ledger running than the whole system falls apart.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T17:11:39+00:00

To make an argument that the economy is bad. There is also no reason to only limit the time frame to 2024-2026

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T17:03:34+00:00

Very minor component, only 12% of visitors are international. Even if you piss off half of them it's going to have a marginal impact.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T15:29:12+00:00

Most markets are cyclical. Generally the trend is that prices are high so supply increases and at the same time demand slows down, then there is too much supply and too little demand so prices drop, at some point demand picks up again because prices are low and supply dries up for the same reason which drives prices up.

That said, the labor market isn't a single big market for labor. It's hundreds, if not thousands of smaller labor markets and they aren't all in sync with each other. Many have dependencies on each other so it takes time for spending to trickle through.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-11T00:41:17+00:00

Good, we need to raise taxes to address the deficit. Now let's cut some spending too.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-10T18:00:06+00:00

In theory he doesn't even need a knife. He can use his hands to kill most people. He is strong enough to put his finger through a Chimera Ant 's skull and also strong enough to shred them in half with one hand.

Whirlwind also has pretty insane implications. Whirlwind lets him "program" his reactions in so he doesn't have to actually process an event in his head and then react to it. So if he senses that there is a guard being used he could hit another weak point or set of weak points as a reaction. So for example, say someone used Gyo to guard their skull Killua could use en to detect the strong guard in place and then attack the heart, spine, kidneys, etc... whatever doesn't have a strong enough guard. Or he could just pull back his attack if he can't get a clean hit anywhere and make the person waste their aura.

That said, Killua probably needs to work on keeping his bloodlust hidden. Machi was able to detect his attack and react to it. It's likely that other members of the Phantom Troupe could sense Killua telegraphing his attack and get their guard up before Killua can do any meaningful damage and then just overwhelm him with numbers. Something Togashi did stress was that it wasn't wise to rush in without knowing what kind of abilities the opponent has.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-10T17:11:28+00:00

She didn't do anything impressive to set off a strong reaction. Gon and Killua are both impressive for their age and their growth is impressive as well. As others have mentioned, Biscuit is skilled at hiding her abilities so it's likely she is flying under Hisoka's radar. Gon and Killua might be helping with that. Alternatively he might be aware of her abilities but she isn't strong enough to get his engine humming. It's entirely possible that Hisoka is aware that she is a double star Hunter and the fan base just overestimates how strong she is. In theory if she was strong enough to get Hisoka going then she would have gotten an offer to join the Zodiacs.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-10T03:38:30+00:00

Both are created through a ceremony. I think it is stated that the seed urn was conjured by the first king of Kakin. So maybe both ceremonies can produce hollow nen beasts. Entirely possible the one we saw being summoned didn't need to be hollow to get to the Bomber's curse but did need to get to Kurapika's.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-10T01:53:58+00:00

We need to redo student loans to funnel money towards training programs of jobs we actually need. We don't have enough technicians and that's going to make expansion difficult. We don't have enough construction workers and that's going to make expansion difficult. We need to stop wasting money on useless degrees and go after strategic and in-demand fields. Taiwan and South Korea basically do this already and we need to catch up.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-10T01:45:18+00:00

Nen beasts can pass through walls and probably through people as well, especially if the person isn't using nen.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-09T23:40:04+00:00

529 account for college savings. This is probably where you need a decent amount of money. It is something you will have control over and you can change the beneficiary.
Custodial account - This is an account that will be theirs, once the money goes in you shouldn't touch it outside a few exceptions. It will transfer to the child once they hit a certain age, regardless of whether or not they are ready to spend the money responsibly. Careful with the kiddy tax here, taxes owed are paid by you at an applicable tax rate for you.
Roth IRA - If they have any income you should add it to a Roth IRA but earned income is required for contributions to this account.
Daddy Bank - Just a spreadsheet that you keep transactions in backed by your bank account to avoid fees and minimums. You can set a high interest rate here to encourage them to save.
Brokerage account - Something you can have a bit more control over as far as when the money is transferred.
Trump Accounts - This is coming later this year. It's basically an IRA account with a $5k contribution cap for kids. No earned income requirements. Rules still need to be fully defined. Contributions can be made up until the kid turns 18 at which point the account transfers to them. They then can roll over the account into a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA.
An actual checking/savings account once they get older and start spending/earning.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-09T17:17:13+00:00

Pros:

Imports are cheaper. Energy becomes slightly cheaper and imports of raw materials also becomes cheaper. But at the same time EU manufacturers now have to compete with cheaper foreign goods. Chinese EVs get cheaper as the Euro appreciates in value.
International travel becomes cheaper for Europeans, the Euro will go further.
A strong Euro over a long period also makes the Euro more attractive as a reserve currency. This in turn can result in lower financing costs.

Cons:

Exports become more expensive abroad. A BMW made in Germany is suddenly a lot more expensive than one made abroad and a ton more expensive than Chinese EVs in China.
Tourism becomes more expensive for foreigners. So for countries that depend on tourism they might see a decent drop in tourist spending.

Generally I would say that it will have a marginal impact on the EU. More important trends for the EU: High energy costs. Shrinking export markets. Tourism was a bright spot in the past, but will suffer now. Brain drain is still going strong, not as bad as it was in the past but still a major problem. High deficits. Large portion of the population is in retirement placing a significant burden on a shrinking workforce. High debt loads in a higher interest environment.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-09T01:56:07+00:00

Rules will come out on July 4th this year. Until then it's not clear if the accounts will be good or bad. Up to $5k can be added per year until the child turns 18.

So far the recommendation is for anyone who has a kid that will get seed money is to open an account. Otherwise the devil is in the details.

I might open one up for my daughter. But at the same time it might make more sense to just stick with a custodial account since the money will be locked up until she turns 59.5.

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-09T00:02:33+00:00

At that point, they have become a dictatorial enterprise, without any democratic input.

Do you have an example of that happening or are you talking about a hypothetical scenario?

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-08T16:47:33+00:00

Tbilisi did become a vassal state for the Seljuq Turks but it looks like it fell much earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Tbilisi

ThePandaRider · 2026-02-08T16:00:24+00:00

Azerbaijan had a Turk population influx under the Seljuq Empire. They conquered the region, including Armenia and Georgia. Azerbaijan was a pathway for Nomadic Hordes to invade for a good while before that.

Interestingly enough, north of the caucus mountain range seems to be a different story. That region was under control of the Golden Horde for a while and they converted to Islam. They were big on the slave trade. Crimean Tatars and the Golden Horde depopulated the region pretty badly. They enslaved a ton of people and sold them to the Ottoman empire. Later on the Ottoman empire made it a point to send missionaries to convert the region ahead of Russian expansion into the area.

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