CygnusX1

Most countries in South America have visa free access to the Schengen zone.

Schengen Zone in Europe visa free entry for citizens of certain countries is 90 days in any 180 day period. Might be a good idea for Thailand, would let snowbirds stay for a reasonable length of time, and provide reassurance for frequent visitors that they wouldn't be accused of visiting Thailand too often by an immigration officer.

After the tens of trillions of dollars the US has spent on defense against Russia since WW2, a hundred billion or two assisting Ukraine fight the Russian invaders, with no risk to the life of any American soldier, is a spectacular bargain. Trump should be thanking Ukraine.

'Putin is made to be seen as a warmonger' - that's not hard to do!

If you banned Airbnb and similar services in Croatia and Montenegro, you'd destroy their summer tourist industry overnight, as most accommodation on the coast is in privately owned apartments. These people have been renting out their apartments in high season long before the internet existed, let alone Airbnb, and without all of the controversy currently in Thailand. It's true you run the risk of your stay being cancelled at the last moment, but it's not yet happened to me after dozens of successful stays over several years. The monetary savings are huge, and you have the advantage of a kitchen.

As I’m against DEI, am an advocate of free speech, and despise Wokery in general, I’m regularly called a right wing looney. However, had I been a US citizen, I would have voted for Harris, as 4 more years of Wokery would have been far preferable to Trump’s unconscionable support of Putin, together with his insane trade war. So for me, it’s a case of righty tears, especially considering the enormous long term damage Trump’s inflicted on the Republican party.

I’d love to see a fight between Putin and Klitschko. See how far Putin’s supposed judo skills would get him.

Letting your unrestrained dog roam public areas and attack people is a minor offence?

Yes, from the viewpoint of “an anthropologist from Mars”, Homo Sapiens is a very strange creature indeed.

To avoid unnecessarily panicking some people, when quoting the 183 day rule you should always add the rider that this is just the first test in determining Australian tax residency. If you satisfy further tests such as ownership of assets and social ties in Australia, you may still be a resident for tax purposes. The 183 day rule is still only an initial test even under the proposed new legislation, which may state that if you're not in Australia for at least 45 days, you're no longer a tax resident, with no further tests possible. In fact, on June 14 last year, you yourself posted a useful summary from a law firm of the proposed new legislation - "If you are inside Australia for more than 45 days, but less than 183 days, there are some secondary tests that are not too difficult to meet, but some may have some difficultly meeting them. Also, Labor has hinted at changing the 45 days to possibly 60, maybe 90". I'm well aware that the above is of little comfort to those who have cut all ties to Australia, maybe or maybe not most on this forum. With regards to reporting of assets to Centrelink, I report mine every 2 weeks, on the day my superannuation pension's credited to my bank account, and would panic if I forgot to include a small reinvested dividend. I'm reassured by the more lackadaisical approach of some posters!

I’ve just discovered that I can log onto my Apple account with the short numeric passcode I use to lock my iPad. I was under the impression that the account was protected by my 20 pseudo random character password for my Apple account stored in Bitwarden. Seems to me that Apple have no concern whatsoever over the security of their users.

So, as long as the sex worker involved is renting her condo long term, and just inviting two or three guests to her place each day, no problem? Better than an ordinary tourist illegally renting the condo for only a couple of weeks?

Yep, they’re not going to remain high quality tourists for long spending that amount on booze. Was just reading today about “Nyepi Day’, or ‘Silent Day’ in Bali, on which tourists are forbidden to leave their hotel. Now THAT’s an inconvenience.

I’ve been one of those tourists at Jomtien beach for the last couple of months, though with a minimal amount of sunbathing. The smoke hasn’t been pleasant, and on a few mornings Koh Larn has been invisible from the section of the beach closest to that island, but 200m visibility is a bit of a stretch, to say the least. On the worst mornings, I’ve still been able to see Reflection condo from the Dong Tan section of the beach, 5km distance, albeit very hazily. Reminds me of the story here a couple of days ago about the driver who failed to take a bend, allegedly because he was blinded by the PM2.5 particles in the air.

I get my annual flu and China virus shots every March when I'm in Australia. They're entirely free of charge, and if a couple of tiny jabs with a needle even only slightly reduces my chances of feeling miserable with a flu or cold for a couple of weeks while I'm holidaying in Europe, why not? I think we'll never know if the China virus originated from a lab or a wet market, partly as a result of CCP secrecy. I've always found it strange that many of the Woke were outraged by the lab leak hypothesis - I would have thought that a wet market origin would provide far more ammunition for someone racist against Chinese people.