Lacessit

You think Putin would suddenly become pacifist if his neighbors were not armed? He thought the NATO countries were weak and disunited, that was one of the factors in his decision to invade Ukraine. It's called a deterrent, weakening the NATO alliance would be like sending Putin a postcard, come and invade us as well. Why do you think Sweden and Finland want to join NATO? It certainly isn't to drill with broomsticks.

I take it you like Atlantic City and Las Vegas as well. The central bank in Russia has dropped the interest rate from 20% to 17%, Australia is sticking with 0.1%. I guess that's a measure of the stability of each currency.

I am all for free speech when it is supported by facts and data. I do find the number of outright lies on this thread quite disturbing, Here are some facts. Japan lost World War II, Russia won it and in doing so acquired Eastern Europe right up to half of Germany. Japan has almost zero natural resources, Russia is awash with them. The surface of Siberia has barely been scratched. Japan's GDP is 5 trillion dollars. Russian GDP is 1.5 trillion. The GDP of California is double that. If that does not tell you how badly Russia has been misgoverned under Communism , followed by Putin, nothing will. Even if Putin wins in Ukraine, which I seriously doubt, the Russian economy will be a basket case for decades. It's called a Pyrrhic victory. Here's a real-life conviction test for you and other posters who seem to think Russia's claims have even passing merit. Put your money where your mouth is, go out and buy rubles.

It does baffle me why a couple of posters on this thread, having established their credentials quite convincingly, are still being given oxygen.

As other posters have noted, your generosity may end in an outcome where you lose the friend. Is the friend Thai? If so, the odds are fairly high any arrangement will be treated as a gift. Are you buying a friendship, or attempting to reinforce it?

Same trend in Australia, SUV's and pickups now dominate the market. Some serious taxing on the basis of vehicle mass is needed to reverse the trend. I bought a Honda Civic in 1974, it weighed 690 kg. The 2022 Civic is nearly double that weight. In California, smog is exacerbated by many households having two, three or even four vehicles. Exempt the first vehicle, and progressively tax the rest, and IMO it would go a long way to making the air there more breathable. Cue outraged Americans claiming I am infringing their personal freedumb. Large pickups in Thailand serve two purposes. The first is transporting large quantities of goods or people. The second is to bull their way back into queued traffic, or intimidate smaller vehicles occupying the fast lane.

My guess is Putin could reactivate a gulag or two.

They can't be too high around Los Angeles, orange soup. I was horrified when I drove up to Big Bear Lake, and looked down at what I had been breathing. The world's cleanest air is at Cape Grim, Tasmania. However, it is named Cape Grim for a reason. I don't have a problem with air quality here, I have my API monitor and turn on my air purifiers at 75.

The kleptocracy in Russia has diverted funds from the military. An example is Russian pilots who have not had adequate combat practice in the air, or the T-90 tank, which is a T-70 refurbishment with barely any advances in technology. A M1 Abrams could probably slaughter a platoon of T-90's without raising a sweat. Remember the Kursk in 2000? Putin was president then. A four-page summary of a 133-volume, top-secret investigation revealed "stunning breaches of discipline, shoddy, obsolete and poorly maintained equipment", and "negligence, incompetence, and mismanagement". It concluded that the rescue operation was unjustifiably delayed ( on Putin's orders ) and that the Russian Navy was completely unprepared to respond to the disaster. Given the history, I do have to wonder how much of Putin's nuclear arsenal is actually operational.

Er - no. In point of fact, my celibacy usually lasted 2-3 days in that period.

My Thai GF has been given what I wanted to give her, no more, no less. We both understand the contract of mutual support we have entered into. The longer I live, the better off she is. I guess the mistake some guys make here is falling in love with a gold-digger a week after they get off the aircraft. It took me 4 years to decide what I wanted out of what was available, and that after several covert tests of honesty. I still have 70% of my income-earning assets in Australia, some people can live here without losing everything.

There's a huge chasm between the rich and the poor in Thailand. The rich would probably laugh at the concept of actually paying taxes. The health services are free to Thais, but they are fairly ineffectual when a Thai gets to the end of the road. Palliative care consists of dispensing paracetamol, Xanax and sleep medications. Effective opioids are prohibited.

I agree, with the proviso I always ask my son for technical assistance with computer issues. Since I paid for his tertiary education, I consider that's fair. That is in a Western society. In Thailand, rural families must support one another, because the level of government social support is laughable. 600 baht/month when one hits sixty, rising to 800 baht /month at 80. I spend more than that in a single day. My Thai GF will be well provided for when I die. The support I get from her in my last years beats the hell out of being stuck in an aged care facility in Australia, and fed pig slop.

The ones who spend most of their time on bar stools probably do.

I am investigating whether I can fit extendable sword blades on the wheels of my scooter and car, similar to what Stephen Boyd had in the film "Ben Hur". I consider they would be particularly useful when cretins come rocketing up on the road shoulder, then bull their way back into the lanes of traffic waiting at lights or police checkpoints.

I don't know who first came up with the concept of Carbon Capture and Storage ( CCS ), IMO it certainly wasn't a competent scientist or engineer. CCS is a hoax promoted by the fossil fuel industry, a perfect example of the Second Law of Thermodynamics at work. They may as well be trying to build a perpetual motion machine. The proof of my assertion is at any CCS facility worldwide. There is not a single CCS plant that is operating successfully to its design parameters. Not one. It would be possible to compensate for CO2 emissions by planting enough trees to absorb it. However, the human race seems to be more pre-occupied with deforestation.

If you happen to snuff it, I would like to have a certain part of your anatomy, please. I envy the success with it you are reporting on various ASEAN threads.

Why do you think I am here? The Royal Commission into Aged Care in Australia has had a parade of horror stories and failures. It would be appropriate to put some of the owners of these hellholes up against a wall, and shoot them. I have no doubt in the fullness of time, the government will act promptly. Meantime, my aged care plan consists of my Thai GF and her family, who have good reason to take care of me

I have no fears of fresh produce here, it's easy to pick the imported stuff. I know the local fruit and vegetables are chemical-free, because the villagers that grow them can't afford the chemicals.

You're quite right, I'll be gone too. Having said that, I get irritated with posters who probably never attended a thermodynamics class, and go on social media digging for any BS that will support their confirmation biases. Scientists are normally conservative in modelling, it's the politicians who exaggerate. In terms of impact, fairly conservative modelling of the glaciers of the Tibetan plateau is predicting the flows of water to the Ganges and Mekong will be halved by 2050, assuming no more Chinese dams are built. There are 1 billion people dependent on those rivers.

The evidence is there for anyone who cares to look, it started with the Industrial Revolution. Carbon dioxide levels have been rising ever since. Second step change was mass transport via the automobile, third was the energy demands of a new middle class in China and India. And the American penchant for 2 or 3 cars in every household, of course. If you want to see what CO2 really does as a solar radiation absorber, check out Venus. The atmosphere there is hot enough to melt lead.

It's years since I did the trip. The road may have been widened. You will usually be OK if there is a demarcation line on the left shoulder, or it is a divided road. It gets very iffy when it is a narrow road going both ways, even on a scooter, but I guess you know that already. TBH, I mostly remember going along the Mekong from Mae Sai to Chiang Saen.

It's a bit like 71% of Dutch people being able to speak German. IIRC, the Dutch are not particularly fond of Germans either.

Dentures would be way cheaper than implants. The human head has 32 permanent teeth, even if one goes back to 20 primary teeth at the cheapest rate it is still well north of half a million baht.

The keys to surviving on Thailand's roads are defensive driving, and threat awareness. Just assume everyone else on the roads is trying to kill you. After 2 years here, I got sick of tuk-tuks and songthaews. Been driving here for 10 years, scooter and car. One accident, got shunted on the scooter by a woman who was profusely apologetic. No damage to myself or the scooter.