AlexRich

I guess they do it because everyone around them does it. As do people in the West. An “expression of individuality” is no more than the age old “following the crowd”. My Dad had them because he was in the military, and they all did it for the reasons above. He had them before they were fashionable and got embarrassed about them in later years. I’ve never had a tattoo and never will. It’s like buying a patterned sweater and wearing it every day for the rest of your life. When I see them on women I cringe.

Says a guy who spends his life here defending and promoting serial liar Donald J Trump - who has pardoned many criminals, including his father in law, who is now up for a role in his Administration. Hypocrisy.

I'm all for it, and live by the mantra: "If it f*cks, flies or floats, rent, don't buy"

The question really is how much Sin Sod she should pay you?

I suspect you are someone who looks for "issues" when there are none? Be a little more patient with your girlfriend and try harder to understand her. From reading your post it is obvious who the problem is - it's you.

I'm an advocate of getting your retaliation in first, at the first signs that someone intends to hit you. No point in waiting to get hit before you act. Bullies are wary of kids who hit back because they are fearful of the humiliation that comes from getting beat. So they go for the line of least resistance - the kids that don't hit back. A lesson I learned in my first two years in school. Even if you lose it is still worth the effort, as a bully doesn't want to put the work in, they will avoid you. I've never been inside a jail, but I understand that the same rule applies if you are incarcerated?

I think my point was that the technology will catch up with you eventually. And it is an offence to make a false claim. They are likely to want to recover any excess payment, and impose penalties. You are right that it is not means tested but I’m seeing articles in the media more and more that suggest that a Government might eventually go down that route for what they deem “wealthy pensioners”. You can’t rule that out in the future.

In a digital world with more and more connectivity between Government institutions like customs and benefits, combined with Artificial Intelligence, it is going to be much more difficult to claim a pension in the UK whilst living in Thailand. At some point they will catch up with you. They will run a programme that searches for people who have left the UK and not returned (or have been away long enough to be non resident) and compare that to people claiming UK pension as a resident of the UK. The you will get a "nudge" letter asking you to explain yourself. Only a matter of time.

I try to break the time into chunks, and have something to do during these periods. Two chunks involve eating - normally a lunch/dinner followed by a breakfast before the flight comes into land. That covers about two hours at least. The other time chunks are taken up by a movie, a documentary or tv show. The rest of the time I am on my Amazon Kindle app reading a book, or jumping between two books. I might also buy a couple of magazines at the airport. I break up time with trips to the bathroom, and use that as an excuse to walk around and stretch my legs. I'm not one for engaging with others but occasionally you get an interesting person sitting beside you, but not always. So you might talk for an hour over the course of the flight. I drink plenty of water but try not to eat too much rubbish as it doesn't help. I pretty much avoid alcohol. I envy people who can sleep, because I never can, but occasionally you get an hour or two if your body is just too tired and you nod off. The happiest part is actually disembarking and getting to walk to the baggage hall.

I think there is some truth in that. In the US there are US religious groups who think that after the return of Jews to Israel a clock starts ticking that leads to a seven year Armageddon, after which Jesus Christ will return. Referred to as "the rapture". Unfortunately quite a number of them make up an influential part of the Republican Party base, and many of whom sit in Congress. People who make predictions want them to come true. A nuclear war may not be triggered by "madmen" like Putin and Kim Jung Un, who are more calculating and pragmatic than mad. It is more likely to be due to some religious nut trying to fulfil a prophecy.

The nuclear genie has been out the bottle since the 1940's, and only the US has ever used them. So the theory of mutually assured destruction has worked fairly well in preventing a nuclear event, although there has been a few near misses over the years. I think we have been lucky so far. Putin doesn't intend to use a nuclear weapon but his rhetoric is particularly dangerous as words and actions could easily be misinterpreted. The advent of Artificial Intelligence will most likely tip us all over the edge. You won't be immediately affected in Thailand but the chaos and environmental damage caused will make life unbearable. And when that happens the usual norms of society goes out the window. A foreigner in the land of smiles will be fair game for some harsh treatment, because it will be people who look like you that have caused the problem. Something to look forward to in your old age?

Is that on Mars or Jupiter? Because it certainly doesn’t happen on planet Earth.

Good to know you have done your homework on Finanicial Times Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton … with access to all the past and present power brokers in Moscow. For anyone that really wants to understand Putin’s Russia I’d recommend this book, Putin’s People. For anyone who just wants BS that suits your political views check out Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, Tucker Carlson, QAnon … and last but not least Hulk Hogan.

1.2m homes sometimes come with mortgages.

Trump’s a natural born criminal, always has been. It will be fun watching the country get looted by the Trump crime family and their associates. It will be like the Putin regime - it’s okay to extort, corrupt and engage in wide ranging malfeasance - just as long as a “tribute” is paid to the Big Guy. In the book “Putin’s People” by Catherine Belton she told a story about Putin being unhappy with an official he promoted because he was not on the take. He was unhappy he wasn’t stealing - which meant Putin wasn’t getting his share. The problem for these people is greed - they steal so much they can’t risk giving up power, because they are scared the assets will be taken off them once their power is gone. So they have to stay in power forever. Will be interesting to see whether Trump seeks a 3rd term, with the help of the bought and paid for Supreme Court. And when it happens all the MAGA morons will be on here defending the move.

The US is soon to be a transnational crime organisation run by traitors, crooks and fraudsters. Looks like God didn’t bless America.

The same old "leftist" nonsense. The funniest interview I've seen was between the UK's Andrew Neil and Ben Shapiro. As soon as Neil asked him a question he didn't like he referred to him as a "leftist", the usual old trope rolled out without any thought for whether it is accurate or not. Neil replied "if you only knew how ridiculous that statement is you wouldn't have said it". Everyone in the UK knows Andrew Neil, because he was an employee of Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News, and he is clearly right wing. Same old garbage from MAGA morons - nothing ever changes with cult members.

If there was only one allegation against Trump, you might be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. But as we all know the convicted felon Trump has multiple accusers over decades. His Access Hollywood “pussy” tape is an admission from his own mouth. The accumulation is damning. As already said above, not one of his supporters will acknowledge his criminality or depravity because it reflects on them … they are hypocrites. The only saving grace is that they are about to get what they voted for … chaos, criminality and the end of democracy. When Elon starts tearing apart the benefits system and Stephen Miller starts deporting people’s parents the base will understand what FAFO actually means. Time to get the popcorn.

You have simply illustrated my point. You ask for a reference, you get one, and then you go into denial about it. All the MAGA crowd were calling for the Epstein files to be released, not realising that their hero is up to his neck in them. In prison no one would ever support or talk to a chomo ... but on Thai Visa many vote for one, and defend him from every accusation that is ever made against him. Even the so-called Christians ...

The source that I have for that is a book by Barry Levine about Jeffrey Epstein called "The Spider". In a 2016 lawsuit a woman by the name of Katie Johnson alleged that Trump raped her at a party in Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan home in 1994 when she was only thirteen. Johnson's real name has never been revealed. Trump regularly socialised with Epstein in the 1990's. Funnily enough the book was published, and I have no record of the highly litigious Trump ever suing Levine or his publisher. Go figure?

What I am saying is that they are happy to vote for one. And what does that say about them, as people? Good guys?

The reason is pretty obvious. An admission that they are happy to vote for a paedophile, rapist, conman and criminal is an admission about who they are deep down. I like the Maya Angelou quote: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them …” They don’t want to admit that is who they are.

There is no link you’d be happy with, it’s just a ruse to waste people’s time.

It’s a disingenuous request. The person asking for a link will rubbish any link that is provided, even if it was from a prestigous medical journal. So why would anyone waste their time?

The demand for a “link” is simply giving you work that they won’t even look at after it is provided. A way to waste people’s time for fun.