MeaMaximaCulpa

And for all those admittedly nice and sophisticated character traits in the OP, both Britain and Europe are sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss as we speak. So the stiff upper lip and the British humour isn't really working now is it? And hey, I love the UK and the brits (well I used to...). So for now, I will stick with orange man bad, warts and all. And yes, the Epstein saga is deeply disappointing and worrying, unfortunately there was way to much overpromising and underdelivering, and now blatant lying. Sad. I fear that this case is so big and so ugly that it will not ever be released officially (but parts may be leaked). Is Trump himself compromised? Possibly, but I hope not. I hope this case will not derail all the good things started and still much more yet to come, and reverting back to the "normal" we have seen over that last few years.

Thanks for responses. I still have the problem, cleared cache and cookies, tried Opera, Safari and Firefox browsers. Either it just keeps churning or it says unsafe connection or similar. I did try it on my phone (no app, but in safari browser, but no VPN) and it loaded immediately. Strange, but since I can order using a VPN and I know the site is still not blocked, I have to live with that for now.

I cannot get on to iHerb.com anymore in Thailand, but it works fine via VPN. Not just once, but for several weeks. I ordered some stuff recently and the order was delivered as usual, 3 days only now since it seems they have a fulfillment center in South Korea. Anyone knows what's going on?

What he said, my experience also. If you have trouble with retirement extensions, it is mostly of your own doing. Yes some minor issues and friction can occur, but if you have your stuff in order, seldom a problem. I cannot comment on other types of extensions or visas. Now I hear that things may be changing recently and going forward also with retirement, I cannot comment on that until I see the real fallout. And finally, I also totally agree with OP that if Europe had done a similar border control pluss no handouts to immigrants, then we would not be in such bad shape. Not magic really.

Is the reason we still are not allowed to use the AirPods Pro 2 as hearing aid in Thailand the obvious one, or is it for a good, legitimate reason? Most other countries, both first and third world alike has approved this super feature, but of course not Thailand. Any idea when (if ever?) we will see approval? I fear the same problem will arise if/when Apple cracks the blood glucose monitor feature for the watch...

@LosLobo, Please stop making so much sense, your last two posts just add insult to injury for the trolls. You should probably be on a forum with a slightly higher level of discussions. But again, thanks for the effort.

The first sentence is a good beginning. 2nd: Yes, initially, but some have turned 180 degrees quite fast. And may turn again, nobody knows. The last one: "Permanently" is a very long time. Why not say: "Too early to call"?

As much as I am an avid Trump fan-boy, I can also recognize a coherent, factual and logical argument. Well done!

Perhaps not the most accurate geopolitical analysis around, but at least lets give the OP an "A" for effort for this lighthearted take on a very serious situation. A lot more fun to read than the drivel of the usual suspects we see in most other threads on political issues.

Who is the arbiter of BS? Confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, "trust the science" are but three issues to contend with. Start with an open mind. Good luck! 😀

Nothing else even comes close to the mother of all problems facing the US: Slowing the growth of the national debt and eventually reducing it to a sustainable level. Can and will Trump do that? I don't know. Probably not, but I hope I am wrong. Can anyone else do it? Same answer as above. Any other issue is just noise in comparison.

Your loss, I don't really care

Thanks, I appreciate your response. I do not have any accurate figures, but having followed this situation for many years, my impression and opinion is that the number is huge, somewhere in the several of tens of thousands. During my time there (1990s), what was most in the news was the inter-tribal, black-on-black killings. They were horribly bestial, with bodies hacked to pieces or “necklaced”. I lost several of my factory workers to these senseless killings. There are 8 or 9 “officially recognized” tribes in South Africa, and many of them hate each others’ guts. So this goes far deeper than skin colour. Take the time to watch the video I posted, also the one by Katie Hopkins posted by @merck (I know she may be too much for some with her flippant sarcasm, but in this one she is very serious and not out for cheap points). Better yet, find articles and videos from sources you trust, because it is in the nature of documentaries to only show one side of an issue, and they are usually very persuasive. My impression is that killings of white farmers happen on an “industrial scale” is not a controversial issue, but the South African government will of course tone down the seriousness and numbers to fit their narrative. And to add insult to injury, the moral underpinnings of the taking back white owned land and redistributing it to blacks have not exactly yielded stellar results. Neither in Zimbabwe nor in South Africa. In many cases the land was used as rewards for supporters of the government, people already wealthy who had no idea how to farm, and the end result being massively reduced output and starvation as a result. Sad but true. From breadbasket to basket case. I came to this discussion mostly driven by my close connections to South Africa, and not so much to discuss Trump, but being an avid fanboy and proud of that, I will make a couple of comments around that too while I’m here anyway. Firstly I was impressed with your long post regarding tariffs and China, a bit off-topic as such in this particular thread, but with lots of facts, details and substance. More of this please! Now I cannot speak for Trump nor read his mind, but I would venture to guess he would mostly agree with your situational description of China having risen to dominate manufacturing and more and more also the science and technology underpinning this. How did this happen? With good help from US and other companies out to save money by moving their operations to China. And also by the CCPs policy of stealing intellectual property and copying. But that is water under the bridge now. As I understand it, tariffs is Trump’s preferred tool to break this vicious circle and bring manufacturing and R&D back to the US. And that is why he initially goes very hard and deep, to get attention, scare and sometimes (economically) force companies back to the US. And also to level out very unfair trade protections from trading partners. During negotiations positions will be adjusted and an equilibrium will usually be found, hopefully with very few/low tariffs, to let market forces decide. It is a very risky game to play, and only time will tell if it will work. And will it be enough to counter China going forward, who knows? Perhaps the US has already fallen too far, much like Europe, the latter really is a basket case at this stage, beyond saving in my opinion. Very sad indeed. Finally in closing, I am really shocked to see the abject hatred of Trump coming from many posters here, totally dominating their opinions and blocking for a constructive discussion. Often based on nothing but emotions. I do not agree with all Trump does or says, and of course he also lies. Allow me a bit of "whataboutism": Show me any politician who doesn’t lie. But I will go out on a limb and say that in my opinion Trump engages mostly in hyperbole (and ad hominem and other not-so-nice tactics as well), but more often than not is he not outright lying, but actually “directionally correct”. No, I cannot give stats or evidence of this, just my “informed fanboy opinion”. So there!

I usually don’t get involved in the political threads on the forum, but I must admit I am drawn to them like a moth to a flame or to the proverbial slow motion train wreck. For shock and entertainment. But I will make an exception today, because the above comment I saw from @spidermike007 just cannot go unanswered. This also includes a lot of his “mates”, but I shall not bother to name them here, we all know who they are by now, as do they of course. Either they are pure trolls, they participate in the inane “post-count competition”, or they are just grossly uninformed, willfully or otherwise. On the flip side, there are also many well informed commenters here. We don’t have always to agree, but we should discuss issues and facts. So when faced with a serious and complex subject like what is going on in South Africa, the best you can come up with is a sad little attack on Trump, and a very unfunny “joke” about the price of his suit. Really? Really? Pathetic. Have you ever even been to South Africa? Have you studied the background and history? Anything at all? Do you even care? This will be a bit long, but hopefully worth reading if you care about the world around you. It is a parallel to the Russia/Ukraine debacle, where I am met with “Russia attacked, so nothing more to discuss”. Well a lot actually, because history and context matters. A lot. But just for the record: I am NOT condoning apartheid, nor am I a Putin apologist. So just don’t bother to go there. I am not claiming to be an expert, but I did spend five years living and working there (in Pinetown, outside Durban), and travelled extensively around the country, talking to people everywhere, from all walks of life, including my own employees and people in squatter camps and “black townships”. Man did they have tales to tell. South Africa was a great country, with great natural resources, geography, infrastructure, climate, people and a promising future. I wish I could write “is”, but I am not sure if the situation can be turned around before it is too late, before we have “Zimbabwe V2.0”. I still hope to be proven wrong! I was there in the 1990s, during the time that Madiba (Mandela) was released from prison, the first free election held, and the setting up of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was a time of amazing energy, hope, and good will. The highly troubled peoples finally seemed to have some sense of a common purpose and vision of better times to come. And with a stellar statesman like Madiba at the helm, what could possibly go wrong? Well, too much was resting on Madiba’s shoulders, and when he died, things started to unravel. I shall not bore you with details, read up for yourself if you care. But the short story is that without competent and strong leadership infighting, corruption, greed and hatred started to get the upper hand. There are many articles and videos on the interweb to study, one I found interesting and scary was Lauren Southern’s “Farmlands” (from 2018): I can promise you the situation has not improved in the 7 years since then. We also now have the collapse of Eskom (national electricity utility), where it is so run into the ground that it can no longer provide stable power to consumers and businesses. I remember hearing about the government of Zambia reaching out to the white Afrikaaner farmers (from South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe) and inviting them to settle in Zambia. They got cheap/free farmland to help move agriculture forward to modern standards so Zambia could feed its people. A very smart move indeed, because these people know how to farm! I will not engage in a mudslinging contest, and therefore not answer any responses unless they are showing genuine interest and curiosity, and is contributing to a better understanding of the issue. Then I’m all yours!

I have a yellow book and a pink card. Yellow book issuance was like pulling teeth, ended up with several rounds when they asked more and more irrelevant info, also about my long deceased parents. This is done for one simple and obvious reason, which I resisted and in the end they gave in, exhausted. The pink card was quite easy in comparison. Yellow book for me is only accepted at immigration as proof of address. NOT at Land Transport Department (Pattaya), there it is a hard no, tried several times over the years. Even an agent I use as hand-holder there said the same, yellow book not accepted. So I have to go to immigration, use the yellow book to get a CoR, which I then take to LTD. Circular anyone? But still, always someone saying I'm wrong, they use it there, and I must dress wrongly or be drunk or obnoxious in some way. Yeah, right. Same with the pink card, it is never accepted in any bank I try it, neither in any hotel. Again, I look and act normal. So unless you have opened your account based on your pink card, why would counter staff accept anything less than your passport? Nothing but downside for them and no upside. I am not saying these dissenting voices are outright lying, but I find it hard to understand that for them it is so easy and convenient, but for me it is close to impossible? Anyway, this is just my experience and opinion, and I am not picking a fight, just trying to understand. But after 28 years here, I should know better I guess, and just suck it up.