Lacessit

The purpose of a question is to learn, do you have a problem with that?

I knew you could not resist a virtue signal long-term.

You actually eat Burger King and Texas Chicken? How much extra pressure do your tires need?

I am aware of that. I am also aware it is clients who determine how well lawyers live, not the colleagues they play golf with. You are not posting a response to my question - who are Trump's big-time lawyers? I forget the circumstances, but one of his lawyers is defending a case where his expertise clearly does not match the trial material. Something like a criminal law expert defending a divorce case, or whatever.

IMO the ATO and Centrelink have the Robodebt debacle as a glaring example of what eventually happens to people who think targeting the poor and vulnerable is fair game.

Alternatively, big-time lawyers could also shy away from having their reputation tarnished by a big loss, or having Trump throw them under the bus for failing. IMO sensible lawyers would not touch a Trump case with a barge pole. Who are Trump's big-time lawyers, who are not indicted as co-conspirators? IIRC he has a motley bar of lawyers defending him in fields where they have no court experience.

I think you are confusing the pension qualification requirement with the tax residency requirement ( one of them at present ), one is Centrelink, the other is the ATO.

Have I got this right? A Trump PAC is paying PI's to investigate lawyers who Trump hired, and praised to the skies. They were then hampered by the fact he would not listen to them, and had to stand by while he tried to turn courtrooms into political speeches. I understand irony, but this is ridiculous.

IIRC the 2 year prison term only applies to those who are waiting to qualify for the OAP. It does not apply to retirees who are already receiving the pension. The kicker for many will be the requirement to stay in Australia for 183 days to be considered as resident in Australia for tax purposes. Some will be able to do that, although most would want to be in Thailand.

I simply don't know. I do know discussion papers are a few streets away from actual implementation. To quote Jack Reacher, hope for the best, plan for the worst.

The full OAP in Australia is $1002.50, not including allowances which are only paid when actually in Australia. Equals $26,065 pa. It seems to have escaped the notice of most posters the tax rate is reduced from 32.5 % to 30 % after July 1, 2024. Tax on the above is $7820. Less SAPTO at $2230 = $5590 On current exchange rates, pensioners in Thailand would lose about 11,000 baht/month from their OAP, assuming the change ever happens.

As a point of interest, how much of the braking is derived from the engine itself, and how much from the hydraulic discs? Which takes the brunt of an emergency braking situation?

Size is no guarantee of success. History is littered with examples of company behemoths that no longer exist, or have been digested by more agile competitors. Kodak, Rootes Group, Studebaker. Toyota built its reputation on reliable, boring cars with bulletproof engines. It still has that reputation today, Ford does not even make it into the top ten. Chinese auto manufacturers are nowhere in the league, it takes time to build the kind of reputation Toyota has. No doubt the Chinese will be competing very strongly on price, but if I were buying an EV, I'd still be wondering which company will be around to service my car in 10-15 years' time.

I see quite a few BYD EV's around Chiang Rai, the comments in the video cannot be reassuring to BYD owners. China is in a financial fix, their largest property firm ( Evergrande ) is insolvent. I am reminded of the situation in Australia back in the 1970's, when we had 5 carmakers. Holden, Ford, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Nissan. Simply too many for a population of 15 million people. Those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat it. IIRC Nissan was the first to go, ironically they were probably making the best quality vehicles. Holden and Ford were garbage in comparison, yet they lasted the longest. All gone by 2018. 91 EV manufacturers? IMO 5 is just the tip of the iceberg, it's possible three-quarters of them could go under. Which begs the question of what brand of EV a customer should buy.

Alina Habba has backed off because she was facing sanctions if she continued on that path, including disbarment. She failed to check a dubious report to determine there was a credible witness to what she alleged in her letter. She was repeatedly admonished by the judge during the trial for her combative attitude, and lack of knowledge of court procedures. She said in an interview she would rather be pretty than smart, she could fake smart. Not true, and she's about to become more Trump roadkill.

The family home is exempted from the assets test for the age pension, although it is factored into the amount of pension a retiree gets.

It would appear there are 19 women, apart from E.Jean Carroll, who have come forward to say Trump sexually assaulted them. Victims of a sex predator can feed off each other too. Carroll has set the precedent. It's hard to say which is smaller, Trump's d!ck or his brain. The same probably goes for his supporters, although they are clear winners in the knuckle-dragging area.

Americans spell aluminium as aluminum, and pronounce the element that way. Words of more than 3 or 4 syllables are too taxing. They could rename all the metallic elements with an "ium" suffix, e.g. sodum, calcum, potassum, radum, following that precept. Just trying to protect the honour of English, and it has nothing to do with my keyboard.

My last flight from Melbourne to Bangkok was with Thai Airways, mainly because I had had enough of Jetstar, for a variety of reasons. It was quite a pleasant experience, if they can stay competitive on pricing I'll be a repeat customer.

IMO it's part of Asian culture the woman manages the household finances and pays the bills. OTOH, in Western culture the male usually pays.

You are correct. However, it is still a matter of fact some rural dwellers became fat deficient on a diet of rabbit meat, although entirely possible they were eating kangaroo too. I prefer rabbit meat over kangaroo, unless roo is young it tastes musty to me. Myxomatosis made less of a dent in the rabbit populations of the hotter regions of Australia, it needed moisture and mosquitoes to spread it. Conversely, calcivirus ravaged the hot regions, and did not seem to be as effective in colder areas. Before calcivirus, if you ordered chicken chow mein at an inland Chinese restaurant, there was a fair chance you were getting rabbit instead. Bones in rabbit never bothered me. I would get 10 or 20 in an evening's hunt, and only ate the hind legs. The station dogs were happy to eat the rest.

I turned 80 in May 2023.

If the passenger was a trained professional pilot who was qualified to fly the aircraft he was transported on, he might have a point. On balance of probabilities, it's very unlikely. Given there are flight factors aircrew have to deal with passengers are blissfully unaware of, it would be foolish to be second-guessing their actions.

I can only hope you are not drinking like him when you post, although it may explain your typos.

Latin has a real gift of being able to express concepts simply. In some instances, also brutally. Monkeying with it to produce feeble puns is an insult to a language which, while dead, has given so many words to English. If you ever post the word "irregardless" I will send a mob of emus to kick your dunny down.