Lacessit

Your second sentence contains a logical absurdity. If America is self-sufficient with its fossil fuel reserves, how does adding in green energy make it less self-sufficient?

Most countries are re-energizing their industrial bases. COVID taught a harsh lesson on supply chain vulnerability. America is self sufficient in energy and food. China is dependent on imports of both. On balance, I would say China is the more vulnerable.

The interesting part will come if you go to Immigration and they demand a TIN as part of the extension process. You will then be able to use a very common Thai expression, "mai mee".

You would qualify to vote next year? How's puberty going?

How many more times will you change your mind before the election?

Why not go the whole hog, and euthanase us all? You know you really want to. Oops, doesn't Trump get a President's pension?

It depends on your point of view. Without that kind of naval power, the high seas would be rife with piracy. The US navy facilitates world trade. Ironically, China is the chief beneficiary. Close off the Straits of Malacca, China would starve to death.

It depends on the circumstances. I have had 20,000 baht cystoscopies here. OTOH, I also developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. 3 weeks for the results to come back at a private hospital in Chiang Rai. Back on a plane to Australia. 6 months' infusion therapy, one year's worth of targeted inhibitor orally. Three CAT scans. Cost of the targeted inhibitor $7.50/month. AUD. I am reliably informed the cost in the US would be $7000/month. USD. I don't even know if it is available in Thailand. Could you afford 3 million baht for the oral medication alone, let alone the rest of the treatment?

Walker 88 post ring any bells?

Yet you get very upset if someone does the same to you.

The point of having private health insurance in Australia is time. And expertise. For example, in Thailand I had an inguinal hernia. Quite painful. I flew back to Australia. In one weeks' time, I had an appointment with the surgeon. A week later, I was on the operating table. With one of the top surgeons in Melbourne. In the public system, I might have waited 3 months for the initial appointment, and another 3 months for the operation. I would have got whatever surgeon the system decreed. Emergency care is not the same, it doesn't make any difference if you are a public or private patient. I do know a former work colleague who needed a hip replacement. He spent 18 months living on painkillers, heaven knows what that did to his kidneys and liver. IMO retaining my private health insurance is one of my better life decisions.

I take it you have watched " Dr. Strangelove" a few times.

I don't think American white supremacists are comfortable with one black woman. Two would do their heads in.

Thanks for your contribution.

You seem to be very familiar with the bar patois.

Anyone can say whatever comes into their head without coaching. You know, electric boats, sharks and so on. Any day, I'm expecting a dissertation on the mud people being the forebears of Indian females.

Er - left wing and fascist is an oxymoron.

The submarine count is misleading. Who has the most nuclear-powered submarines, capable of staying submerged for extended periods? Who has the best noise-suppression equipment? Who has the best detection gear? Those factors change the balance. As does Russia. Thanks to corruption, it is questionable how many of their subs are operational. I am not saying things cannot change. The use of drones in Ukraine has every military in the world scrambling for defenses, and their use on the high seas is presumably in naval thinking as well.

Not much use having a high literacy rate unless one is taught to think with it. Russia has a literacy rate of 99.7%, look where it has got them.

It depends on what metric is used. Militarily, there is no question America is the most powerful country in the world. Best logistics, best equipment. It's arguable who has the best soldiers. What makes America a stand out is its ability to project power all over the globe. It does that with aircraft carriers, satellites, and aerial surveillance. That kind of power at the command of any single human should give anyone pause.

Not often I agree with you. Some white supremacists will have a touch of the tar-brush in their ancestry, and compensate for it with extra fervency in their expressions of racial hatred. I understand the same applies to homophobes.

They look pretty tragic to me. So many stupid people in the same room.

Trump is as funny as root canal therapy. His "humor" is about drawing attention to himself. DA of San Francisco 2003, AG California 2010, Senator for California 2017, VP 2021. Usual racist sh!t about her ethnicity. Who cares? You wouldn't recognize experience if it bit you on the bum. Go away, you're boring.

AFAICT the names Harris is getting called are stupid, thick, laughing, inexperienced, black blah blah blah. Pretty heady stuff. Mostly untrue. You can't say that of the Trump labels. He's all of that. I didn't know it was a crime to laugh, but the right seem hell-bent on making it one. Miserable sods.

Yesterday, I went to a cardiologist in Chiang Rai because I had an issue with edema in my ankles, and possible cellulitis. After reading my ECG and CAT scans from Australia, he checked me over carefully. Asked questions about my medical history, and medications I was on. Very professional. He said the edema was minimal, and he did not think I had cellulitis. However, he would prescribe an antibiotic as a precaution. Come back in a week to check progress. I was absolutely gobsmacked by the bill, 250 baht including the antibiotic. The equivalent of AUD 11. In Australia with the same specialist, I would be charged at least AUD 150.