Fat is a type of crazy

It's not so simple - the Republicans are not one voice - centrists, right wing, far right - so if they want something to get through they prefer to have a large majority to be sure they can get enough Republican votes. So if it's close it's not so easy - Democrats found that in the Senate with Joe Manchin and others causing difficulties. What's taking so long to count? That seems to be the Fox News narrative - sort of vaguely hinting to anomalies but having nothing much. New numbers in Arizona look good for Senate and Governor vote for democrats. Hobbs Kelly looking good. So sad for Kari Lake. Love it. She is so appalling. Though she still has a chance though.

Look at all the free stuff people get in Australia. I don't get a cracker. That's because there's more of the type of people that get the free stuff than people like me. So the system is working somewhat. Not sure what made you feel that way but the government does spend a lot of money on stuff that benefits a lot of people and, though the rich may get some benefits and concessions we don't hear about, they pay higher taxes and don't get much compared to the many who get the free stuff.

That's a big claim. I talked about feelings and you dismiss them as open to manipulation. But is your belief in spooky overlords based on much more than a feeling. A lesser claim might be that many people are motivated by money and power and conflicting forces, governments, media, large corporations impact what is seen. We can get manipulated but learn to trust some things more than others. Some people are trying to do good things and report the truth and put their reputations on the line to do so. Do you believe that or do you think everyone is flawed beyond redemption - either as an evil controller or a manipulated sheep. Those who give up on all government, media, etc can run the risk of giving up on human nature and fall to even more manipulative forces, authoritarians or the even more cynical, who tell the distrustful things they want to hear.

Come on Simon. You're a man of the world. Myanmar Laos Thailand Turkey Mauritius Don't believe the hype. Wake up.

There are some who may be a bit wokey. But most people feel stuff when they see people being treated badly and bullied or killed indiscriminately and would like to see it rectified. It can be a strength and to feel otherwise a weakness. If you feel nothing you might consider that something has gone amiss. In the case of Ukraine of course it has real life impacts on all our lives.

If you don't like reality turn to fantasy.

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.