Fat is a type of crazy

Based on the small sample of Republican voters here it looks like they are ready to dump Trump and go all in on De Santis. My guess is the democrats will retain the senate with Arizona looking good and I think the more scrutiny of Herschell Walker the better for the Democrats - both morally and intellectually. He's the perfect example of a dud candidate and if I was a Republican I would be embarrassed that he was picked to represent my interests.

I take your point but it's one thing if you simply don't post on the topic but it's a different kettle of fish if you do.

Fair enough but your posts do seem to lean away from supporting democracies and you seem loathe to criticise the likes of Putin. Just saying that you could appreciate the freedoms you have in New Zealand.

Not sure about UN but as an Australian Public Servant I can tell you perks are few and far between. Not even free tea and coffee or a biscuit these days. No time for Christmas lunch. Nice to get something a bit nice for once.

Kamala is deciding senate vote so worth her weight in gold

Watching a bit of fox today indicates they see it as a huge disappointment too. Strong outcome based on comparison to post World War 2 midterms. Saw 5 minutes on Tucker and he tried to spin it and blame media and hint at other stuff but he had nothing.

A little bit but obviously staff need to be in a good hotel with professional facilities, central with good communication, and decent security. If you are there for work you don't expect to be in a 500 baht room out of town.

In defence of Australia. Pro muslim? Maybe just not anti muslim. The one thing I'll concede it is hard to have a debate about immigration without someone pulling out the racist card but only by the small minority. Pro gay? I see no problem with that - do you think they are faking it or should hide? Transgender? If they do their thing who cares. There's a fair debate about medical treatment etc that is had in Australia and it has recently become easier to debate this. See Media Watch recently where they took the ABC to task on this. Who hates middle aged men - we are more likely to be invisible. Who believes there should not be prisons? No one. Some stuff is the young being young - no need to be concerned in my opinion.

So you don't think New Zealand or the UK are democracies? I think that is an excuse to throw out the baby with the bathwater - it's not perfect so I'll call it a "democracy" and deny it is a thing - and a good thing. Everyone is corrupt and bad and elections aren't fair so I'll give a pass to non democratic authoritarian leaders - at least they admit what they are. Straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Next thing you are defending the indefensible but who cares because they are all bad. Fight to fix democracy not accept authoritarian overlords.

As has been pointed out it is many of the Republicans looking back stating election fraud was thing. Looks like it didn't prove as much as a winner as they hoped.

A good sign Republicans haven't done well is when the election fraud stuff comes out. If you are correct it looks like, not for the first or last time, Putin got it wrong.

There are much worse aspects of human nature on show than things you have mentioned. Thankfully the Democrats did much better than expected - many Democrat policies are to the right of Australia, and the key point is they accept election results, and have decent people running as candidates. Not all bad for Republicans - they'll probably take the house. The prison release thing is not as simple as you think - America has more prisoners than China compared to population and many people held in prison are due to minor things like bond issues - nearly all democrats believe those who do serious crimes should get serious time. The saying sorry thing is a tiny minority and hey - open up to the fact that bad things happened. Young men hugging bunny rabbits - a bit of fun. You note YOUNG girls want mass migration - young uni students tend to be lefties but before social media you never saw them. Most people have commonsense on transgender stuff but if you want extreme opinions you can find them. You are Australian - you might remember a feminist group in the 80's protesting against ex servicemen - I don't agree but it's good to live in a country where you can have your say. Soldiers do do bad things.

John Oliver can be a mixed bag but you might like to watch his show tonight on youtube to get the gist of the risk of what is happening if you genuinely do not see it. So many candidates denying Trump lost and shouting about voter fraud that never happened. There's a difference between a few democrats raising issues once or twice after Trump won and such a widespread disrespect of free and fair elections based on such dodgy conspiracies in this case. The irony is that Republicans would probably do well on Tuesday without the lies and nonsense. Inflation is a b i t c h.

I attempted to give you a couple of points and personal experiences. You are fairly selective in your choice of statistics and I showed that a key fact on saving had little importance given the longer term shift. There are other good news stories coming that can have an effect such as plans by the government to intervene in the market to reduce domestic gas prices which will have an impact on inflation and benefit consumers and business alike. I am not saying there is no problem, there is around the world, but over the years there's been lots of doom sayers and there's the opportunity for rates to rise significantly if required. The fact that interest rates have NOT jumped as high as other countries isn't all bad, or a sign of some sort of corruption or retardation in the reserve bank as you put it, but is in fact a boon to the economy and we are still getting 24 cents to the thai baht so let's see what happens.

Still above 24. Savings rate still historically high but lower than during the period people were locked down getting huge government support so not a surprise. Property is struggling but after 2 huge years though. I have noticed a lot of food prices going down or staying the same. Things aren’t too bad. Petrol is an issue for some because high but so far not seemingly inflating further.

Should have could have but no

My local train station in the 90's at Balaclava is uplifted off the street and there was a dirt area underneath. Someone found $200,000 in a drum under the station. Took it to the police. Made the news. A walk from where I lived. A week later someone looked for more and found more money - $450,000 in total. Apparently they were allowed to keep it. Should have looked after the first one. Or just crims cleaning their money. Hiding it and finding it. Big finds of the past (theage.com.au)

When I first thought of retiring in Thailand, and based on my relationship at that time, I saw myself in a rural setting with fruit trees hopefully not too far from a city and a beach. But in reality I think I want somewhere with western comforts, reasonably priced good accommodation options, gym and swimming pool available, walking along a beach nearby might be nice even if not so good for swimming, other beaches and a big city not too far away, food and fun close by. Pattaya isn't somewhere I'd go for a holiday but it seems to tick boxes as an option as somewhere to live at least for six months at a time.

Different sites have different aims. I have found some news threads unreadable lately e.g. conspiracies about the Paul Pelosi attack, based on the notion of 'could be', or the fact that there is some trivial point that the police may not have explained yet. You may prefer total freedom but I like having posts where there is something to debate - an idea, an event where the actual evidence may point to two different possible scenarios, not just lots of posts showing preconceived hatred of one party or another. I don't like it because it is boring and there's nowhere the discussion can go if the opinion is based on hearsay or some remote possibility. That may seem like shutting down free speech but maybe there are other sites where posters can wax lyrical about whatever they have read on some other obscure websites or what comes into their head.

I opened a 19 Crimes Cab Sav last night and it is pretty good for a cheaper wine. Saw Xylophone recommend the brand and it is not too expensive in Thailand at 600 baht. Half decent Australian wine at the lower end. It is 300 in Australia but that’s how it is. Sold widely in the United States too. I like a YouTube channel Gas Station Encounters where this guy catches thieves at his service station and they always have a prominent stand selling it there. Last point irrelevant but fun fact.

This is a sense of lightheartedness and lack of clear cut condemnation on recent topics like this that makes me wonder what sick stuff some who post here get up to.

When I go to Thailand my kind of girlfriend doesn't want perfume now - she wants a kilo of almonds. Interesting points you make - I eat a lot of nuts and carbs and it's my feeling that exercise, sometimes strenuous is necessary, offsets concerns. Chocolate will be my downfall - eat a lot but not the Hershey sweet <deleted> they sell in Thai 7 11.

Topics like this are tiresome. The commonsense approach is surely to say the likelihood is 98 per cent plus that the story as told by the police about who the assailant is and what happened is correct. Available evidence backs this up. Therefore no need to waste space on this site turning your mind to alternative theories or stating that further evidence is needed before you can make a reasoned likely conclusion. Otherwise there would need to be a similar discussion on each and every news story about the possibility it is false. Tiresome. If there is some actual fact down the track that raises a real sense of doubt then speculate away at that time.

That's a fairly high bar. Absolutely. No one's perfect and they may do things that you consider a betrayal but to them is just their take on things or not too serious. Trusting people mostly and you can retain faith in human nature somewhat.

Like the show but I've been disagreeing with Bill Maher a bit lately. I agree with his overall sentiments on political correctness but I feel he is getting too cliched and even closed minded on some topics such as covid, the attitudes of young liberals and even this topic. He can sometimes use extreme examples to make fun of the left, and sometimes the right, that are not representative of their overall views. It's like the punchline is king. He gives obvious examples where costumes are of course fine. Call me old fashioned, but I do not think it is cute, fun or ironic for kids to dress as an appalling serial killer or as Hitler. Not saying ban it but having a line in the sand is sensible and not being a wowser.