thaibeachlovers

Same. Plenty of bad guys around in 1980. Yes Definitely worse. The world just is. Humanity is getting worse, but IMO only till we kill ourselves off with overpopulation, pollution, man caused diseases and wars over resources like water.

Well said. However, IMO you missed that the world is now openly ruled by greed and the love of money- algorithms are IMO used by the rich to make money.

I'd also never have had a live together relationship in a western country, and would not have got married in Thailand. However I doubt I'd have got rich as I'd have spent all my money on women in Thailand on holidays. As for the rest, I would still join the military as I had a great time in it and saw a lot of the world including Antarctica which was the absolute best time I ever had in my life. I wouldn't go nursing, but I would go work in the Aussie mines as I would have minted it there, and close to LOS. I'd still have gone to work in London for 10 years, but as a tube driver- loads of money, holidays and free travel in London. I'd have done it anyway, but i was too old when I found out about how good it was.

I've given money to a BG that was a long term GF, but other than that, the only person that got money out of me was my Thai wife ( but not as a "wage" ). I "loaned" her family money for mother's funeral, and "loaned" my wife money for a business deal, but got divorced before got the money back, so will never know if I would have or not.

With nuclear winter to follow. Fallout is non country specific. BTW I doubt a "limited" pre emptive nuclear attack is possible. Any nuclear attack would need to destroy the country's entire nuclear arsenal to prevent a nuclear retaliation ie MAD.

Where do you get 5% from? My savings have earned less than 1% since they used the 2008 crash as an excuse to stop giving us interest on savings.

That can be changed by politicians in parliament. Nothing is forever.

They can target even the rich through indirect taxes like GST/ VAT etc. Though even the NZ government had to back down from imposing a capital gains tax, that is something I'd like to see imposed, as long as it was targeted at the wealthy and companies profiting from real estate speculation.

If I remember correctly, post WW2 the Americans were developing atomic shells that could be fired from large guns for use in a battlefield conflict. To my knowledge they didn't follow through, perhaps because of the risk of escalation to MAD.

Because......................................? Do you have some inside information on Putin's health?

Greed has no morality.

That is not something I could be expected to know, not being in the Russian halls of power. Do you think that NATO should take a chance on Russia not retaliating in kind if attacked by a foreign power? They may lose a non nuclear war, but at what cost for the rest of the world? Let's remember that most of the non European and northern American nations have no part in this continuation of the West vs Russia conflict. BTW, if we actually consider that Russia could even be defeated by the West/ NATO, what then? They couldn't run a small country like Iraq after it was defeated, so how could they control a vast country like Russia which stretches from Europe all the way to the Pacific?

Assuming all NATO countries agreed to use that as a reason to carry out an attack on Russian soil, surely that means NATO is at war with Russia, which is probably not a good idea IMO?

Err, won't everyone die in the nuclear winter to follow?

The premise of MAD is that if one nuclear armed country carries out a nuclear attack on another nuclear armed country everyone dies. Surely one doesn't want to see if Russia is actually prepared to retaliate by sending a nuclear tipped missile into Russia?

Under what mandate would NATO be able to send cruise missiles into Russia in support of a non NATO country? If individual countries want to declare war on Russia by attacking actual "in Russia" facilities that's a different scenario.

Exceptionally easy to avoid if like me one doesn't go on sites such as twit or f b. Far as I know, it's not compulsory to do so. Even on this forum it's quite easy to avoid certain poster's hate posts if one chooses to do so, with the use of the ignore function.

LOL. So who decides what is acceptable- the woke, the PC, the busybodies looking to be offended? Why should everyone suffer because of the current minority woke desire to make everyone conform to THEIR version of what is acceptable? I'm not saying that private companies like twit and f b and this forum can't regulate what is said on their platforms, but it shouldn't be government poking their political noses into everyone's private business. That leads to such as McCarthyism.

Yes, with the proviso that if one causes actual harm by doing so one can be prosecuted eg if school bullies cause someone to commit suicide or someone maliciously shouts fire in a crowded theatre and someone is injured. Most of the time if one doesn't like something, one can choose to not read it, not click on it, or turn it off. Too many out there looking to be offended IMO.

My comment was not related to opposing, but to the apparent desire of some to get NATO involved militarily, which would have negative consequences for the countries not currently with troops in Ukraine, or do you think Russia would not escalate if western countries did in fact send troops in?

Do tell! https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-bans-ads-deny-climate-change-rcna25707 So much for free speech.

My partner had an attractive daughter that had a string of "boyfriends". I had a code of number of rings to answer the phone if my partner, as it was always some boy lusting after her, so stopped answering the phone. My partner had her on contraceptives at 14, and she managed to avoid getting pregnant till she was 18. Married the father of the child who was a right nasty piece of work. Lost track of her then, so don't know how it worked out for her.

When I lived off Buakhao there was an internet cafe that was full of bargirls chatting to the beloved overseas that was sending her money. That was before phones that used the internet. I had a couple of bargirl "girlfriends". one for 4 years and one for 8, but I never sent them any money from overseas. When I wasn't there they worked in the bar again, just like all the girls that get sent money not to. Actually, the last couple of years with the second one she went back to Buri Ram, but she'd stay with me when I came on holiday. I still had to pay her, but no bar fines.

Can't understand why any guy would want an inexperienced prostitute. We don't pay to educate them.

Known as "coyotes" in LOS. Just there to dance and get lady drinks, share of tips etc. There used to be a coyote bar behind the Lucky Star bars on Walking Street. I'm sure there will be a chorus from all the guys who bonked them though. There is always an exception to the rule. The night market in Lamphun used to hire some to dance on a ute with a sound system, and the best coyote dancer I ever saw was at the Bangkok motor show back in the 90s. There was a huge crowd of guys gathered around to appreciate her moves.