rickudon

I sometimes grow real spinach. Not easy in Thailand. Only cool season and only successful sometimes. needs shade. hard to get the seeds, usually from UK.

Last time i had a credit card compromised was about 23 years ago, when buying a car in the UK! In Thailand, just use my card at larger stores (e.g. Lotus or BigC), or IN the bank (do a counter withdrawal), Most small purchases cash.

Met mine at a fishing lake.

so one person a day dies of Covid. I will worry about it when more people die of Covid than die on the roads.

USA didn't give them anything. Pakistan got first blood, but India's reaction did damage to airbases, command posts and involved an attack on Pakistan's nuclear deterrent - they bombed an underground nuclear weapons store, collapsing the entrance. With their nuclear deterrent compromised, Pakistan couldn't use it as a threat. India had more drones, Pakistan used most of theirs in a couple of days.

I think that is true. Why go to the expense of arresting them, getting them deported, and then paying to keep them in prison. As long as they are not actively involved in ongoing crimes. Thailand serves as a free open prison. I only knew one significant individual. I was playing cards with him when he got a phone call from Victor Bout, just before the DEA arrested him, minutes later.

The real problem is consumerism. People always want everything. But you have to pay for it one way or another. Dickens character Mr Micawber never said a truer word - "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." The more we spend, the more things cost. Capitalism drives inflation. We need to end this spiral and live within our means. Only buy what is necessary. Applies to individuals and governments. We do not need growth, just stability. When your economy grows, something, somewhere is destroyed to pay for it.

These days, only Employees/salaried people pay significant amounts of income tax anyway. In this digital age, the profits just get skimmed off to some tax haven, laundered and paid out as foreign dividends.

I just use my UK credit card, no fees (including taking cash), excellent exchange rate (as good as Wise), pay it off online. So no need to send money to a Thai bank account (just use Thai account for immigration).

Three issues for the people - Immigration, cost of living and housing costs. Immigration. Illegal immigration is a problem, but is dwarfed by legal migration - nearly a million a year. It only benefits employers. It makes the housing issue worse, puts strain on infrastructure and trying to find a job is not easy - graduates have to apply for about 50 jobs or more to get one. No migrant should be allowed in unless an employer can prove he cannot fill it from a UK resident. No benefits for migrants for 10 years. If existing migrants cannot find a job after say 6 months and run out of money, give them a plane ticket back home. Illegals should be housed in old army camps and forced to work for their room and food - until they can find legal work. No putting them in hotels. Cost of living. Probably the hardest one to fix. Cut energy prices, some subsidies. Housing costs. Driven up by immigration. cut that and house prices and rents should start to fall (or at least rise more slowly). More drastic, tax rental property owners or introduce rent cuts. More houses on the market, lower prices. Also, with a stable population, no need to forever spend more on infrastructure; could build houses instead you have an immigrant labour force.... A stable population will mean less pressure on the environment, water, energy. That would be a start, at least.

There is a touch of truth to the OPs story. Don't like the truth - well, you can find a nutter online who tells you it is fake news, Deep state, whatever. I remember visiting the USA (Florida) in the 90's and 2005; it was cheaper than the UK for many things and i did consider retiring there; conspiracy theorists i didn't meet. Now, motel prices in USA are about 2-3 times higher than 20 years ago, bread and eggs are cheaper in the UK and eating out costs about the same. Real estate and health costs in USA are astronomical. If i had gone down that route (although was not rich enough to get residence) i would be homeless by now. Mind you, UK is no paradise either. Supermarket prices may be higher than 20 years ago, but food is still relatively cheap - as long as you prepare at home. But you can no longer afford a home - prices have doubled in the last 20 years, while rents have trebled. council tax (local government tax) and energy bills also at least double. A one bedroom flat would consume my entire pension in the South of England if i returned, so would slowly starve (better find a food bank). My son and GF earn nearly 100,000 GBP between them, but cannot afford a house; they spend 25,000 GBP a year on rent for a small flat. Work commitments mean living in London. USA is going to the dogs, so is the UK. Not sure which will collapse first. Just hope that is still at least a decade away, doubt that i will be around then.

Presumably a technical problem, 50% of your solar panels are not going to stop producing power in 5 minutes nationwide. Presumably they monitor the weather and sunset, so would know about any expected drop in solar energy input. A grid issue for sure.

Laughable cherry picked data - it refers to about one month! ACTUAL storms in the 2024 season - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Atlantic_hurricane_season

So when did these rolling power cuts take place? Yes, in January they came close due to an interconnector outage, Last time i remember one was the 1970s! Obviously some power cuts do occur due to storm damage and maintenance. Nothing to do with renewable power. i agree that maybe shutting down the last coal fired station was a bit premature, UK does need to put some energy storage in place; the technology is there, just to tight to fork out the money for it. Gas is what keeps electricity prices high - the sooner we can get rid of it for electricity generation, those electric bills will come down.

Currently the war is at a stalemate, Without the help from Iran and North Korea. there would be no movement on the front lines. Russia has manpower, but precious little else in its favour. The first year of the war saw massive Russian incompetence, which resulted in the mauling of their experienced troops. They have lost 75% of their tanks, and significant amounts of Infantry fighting vehicles and artillery. This is why now most of their fighting is with Infantry (mostly untrained). Only the winter of 2022 gave them a breathing space. The Russian military industrial complex is broken. Massive corruption means that factories are inefficient and missing many of the more sophisticated elements they need. Production of complex weapons happens at a snails pace, and doesn't keep up with the rate of loss. Infantry these days attack in civilian cars, ATVs, motor bikes and even on bicycles. As long as they are available, drones, artillery and mines take care of most of them. Successes are rare, but Ukraine has insufficient troops to stage major counter attacks. Russian losses are now believed to exceed one million men killed or wounded - because casualty evacuation is rare, mainly killed. Men have been sent into the attack on crutches! Russian strengths are manpower, shahed drones, ballistic missiles and to a lesser extent, artillery. Glide bombs were a problem but are now less useful. Their 'meat attacks' result in heavy losses, but Putin doesn't care about Russian losses. However, the cost of this war is collapsing the Russian economy, inflation is at about 20%, and civilian infrastructure is not being maintained. If Ukraine can keep up its defence, Russia will probably run out of steam in 2026 - 1917 again? In 1916, Russia was having great success with the Brusilov offensive, which inflicted heavy losses on the Austrians and Germans. But it left Russia so weak that it's armies collapsed a year later. Ukraine is now fighting a war of attrition. In defence, their casualties are much lower, they can trade a kilometre here and a kilometre there, but are bleeding Russia dry militarily and financially. But Putin is greedy, he wants everything, he may end up with nothing if he doesn't do a deal. Tom Cooper's military blog on Sarcastosaurus has given a real insight to this war.