nausea

Thailand is pricing itself out of the market, used to be very competitive, too much greed. Personally, I'm very wary of using the private sector here nowadays. A decade ago didn't even think about it, so cheap.

Underestimating the Russians is a recipe for defeat. How long have I been hearing this. The Russian MIC is quite capable of running this long term. The West needs to get its act together. They're going nowhere. If you can't stop Russia, then your credibility tanks. God knows what happens with China. We're leaking countries. People are looking and they see who is the top dog.

I can understand why. Thailand seems very chaotic, whilst Japan is very ordered. Even natural beauty is ordered in Japan, see Bonsai. It's like the ideal many people would like to see in their lives. The fact it's a stagnating, dying, society seems to escape their notice

Weird you quote my three favorites. And I am by no means a well educated man, you just fall on these things by accident. Anyway, I'm sure German, French, and Russian, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Roman literature has similar claims to fame. Doesn't make them a world language.

The Western Market will be dead, I think. Too many people dealing with cost of living problems. Russia, India, and China, I don't know. For example, my nephew was doing a tour of Asia when covid hit. Luckily he got back to the UK in time. When he! and his partner will return is anybody's guess. This whole take some time out and tour Asia thing is no longer viable.

Weird, people abandoning their babies and others desperate to have them.

Good is the smell of money, from wherever it comes (Juvenal).

Probably bed sores. Once you get sick things compound. Anyway, good someone is taking care at last.

Not colonized so no English, or French, language skills. It's a plus and a minus. Anyway, the world's changing, Mandarin Chinese may well become the new Lingua Franca. I know at least one woman who is honing her language skills, and it ain't in English. Whatever, one reason English became rhe Lingua Franca is cos it's easy for adults to learn, depending mostly on sentence structure rather than cases and inflection, so I don't suppose it's going away anytime soon. Personally, I'm just grateful I was born into it, and can enjoy Shakespeare and Keats with no effort at all.

Plan A failed - collapse the Russian economy, plan B failed - destroy them through an influx of Western weapons. We're now into plan C. Whatever you say, the Russians seem to be in it for the long haul, an existential crisis for them. And the Russians are not so good at controlling the narrative but very good at war. They did defeat the Germans after all. Nobody with any sense goes up against the Russians militarily. This is basically a civil war, look at how the Slavic Ukrainians are absorbing losses, then transfer that to the Russian side. These are hard bas@#rds on both sides. Your average man bun man with a handbag ain't gonna cut it, 555. Thankfully, ain't my fight.

You know, I do wonder if the capacity to critically assess a situation still exists in the West. Like Putin isn't the Devil Incarnate, maybe we did inflame the situation by a few misjudged decisions, like the Russians have legitimate concerns. This Manichaean approach does nobody any good.

Too many Putin puppets if you ask me - Patrick Lancaster, Eva k Bartlett.

People will get pi@#ed off eventually. Personally, I just avoided the issue by moving to Thaiiland, and taking advantage of whatever the current system offered me. Yeah, I can see people going for something radical, not yet though. My family is still doing OK, not starving yet. Ha!

We'll see, winter 2022/23. I have no axe to grind here. I'm from the UK, it's in my interest to believe your stuff. Personally, I would hope for the best and plan for the worst. LNG is gonna deindustrialise Europe, you can't pay 4 times the price for energy and keep your competitive advantage. As for Olaf Scholz and the rest, if you believe what these guys say, I have a bridge to sell you. 555.

I understand that, but in a "shrinking cake" economy it won't work.

No one has a problem with invited migrants coming here, it's the uninvited hordes. Luckily we're an island. One has to say Cui Bono, who benefits. As a working class guy I can say it ain't me.

I've changed my mind. I don't think it's about guns per se, more of a mindset. At the end of the day you can get in a vehicle and mow down a ton of pedestrians; and knives, which are impossible to ban for obvious reasons, kill more people in the US than guns. Yeah, their are plenty of people who I felt intense hatred for, whether rightly or wrongly, but societal inhibitions prevented me from acting on my fantasies. That mindset breaks down and you have big problems.

Fake news really, they filled up the reserves with Russian gas. Winter 2023/24 is gonna be the cruncher.

Won't do any good, if the economy is <deleted>@#ed, wages are <deleted>@# ed. It's all about who gets the biggest piece of a shrinking cake.

Pretty normal behaviour for the fairer sex, if you ask me; logic goes out the window and emotions take over, vive la différence. If, as a male, you haven't experienced this at least once in you life you haven't lived, and you certainly haven't had a woman who loved/was infatuated with you, unless she's your wife, of course.

Why is the UK struggling more - the canary in the coalmine.

Not the best of comparisons, given the US withdrawal. Neither did the British. The point is you threaten Russia with an existential crisis, they aren't gonna sit on their laurels and cry. This was about destroying the Russian economy with sanctions. That failed. Now you're just reiforcing failure. Who's winning here?

The only thing I care about is the strength of the pound. Over the next couple of years. After which I'll probably be dead, being 67 and a heavy drinker and smoker. My favorite dog has died at 14 years, life is just downhill from hereon in. 555.

We'll see. Being a UK guy I hope you're right. I fear we're seeing the calm before the storm. The Russians are very good at war. They play a long game, very suited to the chess they're so addicted to, along with the odd judo move Putin is famed for. My biggest fear is that the UK, European, and US, leadership are losing the plot.

Just for clarification , was your Father "bought" to the U.K to work in coalmine's, or did he freely travel to the UK to find work ? He was recruited in Ireland and ended up marrying an Engish woman. Hence me. I can say being neither in one camp or the other wasn't really conducive to a good life but genetics won out.