Fat is a type of crazy

Future doesn't look good. Record breaking pollution in Asia and people say oh well. You'd think when it affects peoples health directly on that day people might stand up. But no. So what hope for people standing up about the temperature increasing slowly over time. Oh well.

But the Trump stuff. Good idea? A smart solution to America's woes? He hasn't got a clue. Many are concerned.

Whether it's Biden or ' stuff happens' the economy has surged while inflation is getting better. Hard to achieve that. So what happens if Trump puts a 10 per cent tarriff on all imports as he proposes. What if he blunts the independence of the Federal Reserve to set interest rates as he and his advisors have suggested he might - see what happens to inflation when you do that e.g. Turkiye. If inflation is your concern Biden is the man.

Had a pizza at Jomtiem Night market the other day. Nice dough. Nice spinach and nice cheese. In summary it was nice.

It's colourful. Good pictures. Dramatic interactions. Fills up news all around the world. People can talk about it at home and by the water cooler at work. Sometimes wonder why it doesn't happen more where keys are still used. Not hard to cut a key and walk past inattentive staff.

Looks like not a concern re 10 per cent and non-residents. https://community.ato.gov.au/s/question/a0J9s0000001GV5EAM/p00039729

That's a good summary. Maybe I'm thinking too much but I wasn't sure that the 10 per cent tax offset would necessarily apply to a non-resident. Probably does.

I didn't mean lucky on the jail part. That he is only facing this one trial pre election.

Trump is very lucky - not hard to sell the idea of being a martyr to his supporters who pay the $ for this case while the cases with real substance started too late or are held up by friendly judges. No way he'll go to jail for this.

Not sure if Defence has the same super as the normal PSS - had a feeling there's might be separate - but the PSS call centre have been helpful for me on working out the exact tax when I hit 60. There is an Ultimate PSS series on youtube of around 50 videos which talks about everything from continuing to contribute for tax deductions even after you have stopped working to creating annuities etc. But nothing I found on non residency and how it works for that.

Do you guys think you are cool. I hadn't considered that being a Republican might be considered as ... cool. I haven't seen that in traditional Republicans and I certainly haven't seen that in Trump or his followers. Different way of looking at things I suppose ..

In my case - a federal employee - at 60 I'll pay a bit of tax because some bits are still taxable but there is the special tax offset they brought in for defined benefit recipients. But if I was a non resident you lose the tax free threshold and I am not sure if the tax offset still applies. Hard to find something clear on it but I recall one poster here noting he pays a decent amount of tax.

True. But it's Liz not dad.

What are their characteristics that make them RINO's - they seem pretty Republican on most things - economics, politics, etc etc - simply because they aren't loyal to Trump is enough these days I suppose

Not sure Trump could get over the way Vance eloquently described him back in the day unless he likes the fact that he now appears so well trained as a lap dog. What people will do for power is depressing and disgusting.

I have a defined benefit super which is a bit different. It has little tax if resident but as far as I can tell a lot more if non resident so it is a big deal.

I must say I do appreciate you. I too am sampling a kind of retirement for two month while on leave from my Australian job. I learnt from your mistake and mixed up Koh Chang and Jomtiem rather than all in one place like you did. Spent more too on a decent room in Jomtiem on Booking.com as compared to the jail cell type room you booked as per your other post. Booking.com even gave me an extra discount for no reason in particular. Thanks for that.

You blocked me. Wow - I didn't think anyone noticed me enough to block me. Thanks.

I wanted to book 3 weeks in Koh Chang from Australia recently. Agoda was always consistently cheaper - much cheaper for the same product. The odd thing now is there is little consistency - you get different prices depending on when you book i.e. prices continually are updated for the same dates, whether you start from Google or say Tripadvisor or other site then click the Agoda link, etc . But Agoda are often 20 per cent cheaper so they are fine by me. Never had a problem with the booking. Have contacted them a couple of times and no worse than other sites who have limited call centres. One minor thing - if you take the pay later option it is an extra 5 per cent they add without making it clear.

Thanks for taking over another topic sparky. I would argue most politicians in the two largest parties our home country of Australia are at least normal and close to either side of the centre and don't play games with extreme rhetoric. Clive Palmer tried a Trump, spent a fortune, but failed miserably. There are many things I'd do to reform the country, lots of new policies, but what we have could be much much worse.

It's his thing. Likes to express himself. Some may find it odd to play around with ham radio or whatever it is you are into. It's all communication of one sort or other.

Finally a sentence I can concur with from your 100's of posts. The point is, and I know it won't change your opinion one iota, few democrats think Biden is a perfect candidate or that he hasn't told a few porkies or that has implemented policy perfectly but they can see him as somewhat of a normal and acceptable candidate compared to the alternatives. Say what you want but the economy objectively is very good . Biden is normal and keeps to democratic norms. OK inflation has been bad but getting much better and hard to blame him only and not covid spending around the world etc. Point being no need to be so strident and argumentative when most will agree he's not the best option but for a range of reasons expressed by many others he is so far superior to the mess that is Donald Trump.

I put the dates in as a total of about 80 days and it seemed they assume I apply for the additional 30 days on arrival. I included a hotel booking for one week only and that was fine too.

I got a 2 month in Australia in March by applying through the Embassy Canberra here https://canberra.thaiembassy.org/visa-categories/ . Some say better to apply by the Sydney site as less officious - even though Perth people are pointed towards Canberra - but I had no issues with Canberra. It is now all online for $60. Don't have to send passport or muck around. Can apply up to 3 months before. Not sure if or when Australians can simply get 2 months on arrival as had been suggested with no application needed. Last time I saw not official but others likely know better. As detailed in other topics.

Yeah today is nice as I say. No pollution too. Nice breeze. If everyday like this happy. Might need to get used it a bit longer but some days hard to do much outside except morning and late afternoon unless inside. Not used to it I suppose.