sirineou

I agree that what led to ww1 ww3 and lets hope not ww3 ,is certainly an unfortunate set of missed opportunities. I hope I am wrong, and the good news are that often I am. But I dont think many of us though I hope we die of natural causes, would live long enough to see the end of Cold War part Deux. I am sure the military industrial complex is salivating at the prospects . Interesting , though a bit dated, book by by Gore Vidal ,Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace https://www.amazon.com/Perpetual-War-Peace-How-Hated-ebook/dp/B01DNESF9M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VXDFDN8HJ4Y1&keywords=perpetual+war+for+perpetual+peace&qid=1699345691&sprefix=Perpetual+War+for+Perpetual+Peace%2Caps%2C702&sr=8-1 and if you are interested in History I suggest you read everything by Gore Vidal , He mostly wrote (Has passed away now) Historical Novels where a fictional protagonist moves through real historical events. Creation was one of my favorites, I should be re reading it again. Julian was another. I particularly enjoyed "Burr" "Lincoln" and "Empire" . If you don't already have, get a Kindle.

That's a good point I guess time will tell. It was not a bad gambit on the part of the US,, but the US grossly miscalculated., Say what you want about all these players on all sides,but one thing for sure. They are not stupid. You don't get to that level of play by being stupid. After the fall of the USSR the US found itself in the enviable position of being the hegemon in a Unipolar world. But It could see the writing on the wall , There were three super powers. The US, China, and a distant third Russia. So What do you do? You take out the easy guy so you can pivot and deal one on one with your pier competitor You know what they say? Three is company LOL but in all seriousness two orbits are easy to calculate throw in there a third body and the systems starts to behave in all shorts of unpredictable ways. It is called the three body problem. So the US thought it could take Russia out on the cheap. Create a condition where Russia had no choice but react, use a proxy war that combined with sanctions would collapse the current regime in Russia and have it replaced with one that would be second banana to the US, The brilliant strategist Helmuth von Moltke is credited for having first coined the term "no plan survives contact with the enemy". The three body problem reared its ugly head , and unpredictable orbits aligned to create unforeseen consequences. As I said , without making any value judgments, the US plan was not a bad plan as far as plans go, It just has not worked as it should, And the worst part is that the Ukrainian people have paid for it with blood and territory. And all those who thought they were supporting Ukraine were actuary doing it the worst harm. Which puts meaning in the proverm "All the best intentions....

Not sure if Kennedy was the right man at the right time . Things need to be locked objectively with in context of the whole timeline So "JFK Was Completely Unprepared For His Summit with Khrushchev 'He just beat the hell out of me,' Kennedy said." "Just six weeks after John F. Kennedy’s botched Bay of Pigs invasion, the U.S. president hurtled head-first into another disaster: his first and only summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. “Worst thing in my life,” Kennedy told a New York Times reporter. “He savaged me.” According to Richard Reeves, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California and author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power, the main problem was that Kennedy wasn’t properly prepared to take on the more experienced Khrushchev at the June 1961 summit in Vienna."The Cuban Crisis occurred in October 16 1962 https://www.history.com/news/kennedy-krushchev-vienna-summit-meeting-1961 Do you think there was a relationship between the two? Like the Vienna summit Khrushchev played Kenedy like a Ukulele. "On October 26, Kennedy received a letter from Khrushchev suggesting that "if assurances were given that the President of the United States would not participate in an attack on Cuba and the blockade lifted, then the question of the removal or destruction of the missile sites in Cuba would then be an entirely different question." Was the locade removed? Did the US overtly attack Cuba again ? "Kennedy got another letter from Khrushchev, demanding removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey, the Soviet Union's neighbor, in exchange for removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba. " https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/fall/cuban-missiles.html So did the US remove their missiles from Turkey and Italy? "he biggest secrets of the Cuban Missile Crisis: the undisclosed deal between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in which the US would remove Jupiter missiles in Turkey (and by extension, the Jupiters in Italy) in exchange for the removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba" https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/jupiter-missiles-and-endgame-cuban-missile-crisis-matter-great-secrecy " U.S. Jupiter missiles were removed from Turkey in April 1963." https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis#:~:text=U.S. Jupiter missiles were removed,Kennedy's image domestically and internationally. So it begs the question. Did Nikita Khrushchev place the bases and missiles in Cuba to Threaten the US, or did he use it as leverage to achieve that which he had demanded in the past and accomplished later without losing anything other a sacrificial pawn . Ps: " Within a year, Kennedy and Khrushchev signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the first disarmament agreement of the nuclear age. Also in 1963, the first "hotline" between Washington and Moscow was installed." https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/fall/cuban-missiles.html Make want you want from all of this. As Far a Russia and Ukraine is concerned , in the end Ukraine will get , what it could have had at the beginning of the war, only minuses all the destruction that occurred to Ukraine, and the loss of the eastern 1/3 of the country. If you consider this a win for Ukraine, I have a bridge I like to sell you. The only winner is the US in that it has degraded russians millinery capacity, but it has precipitated the creation of the BRICS block (Saudi Arabia also just joined, and wants to ditches the US dollar for oil trade) so lets see if even the US comes out as a winner. One country is sitting pretty in all of this. China. https://www.thestatesman.com/business/brics-expansion-could-end-us-dollar-dominance-in-oil-trade-us-financial-experts-warn-of-dangers-ahead-1503231541.html

I never said that they hate them, please put your glasses on , I said " consider homosexuality to be sinful" Not sure what the " still tried to score a political point" are you mentally challenged?

Spreading unsubstantiated propaganda is not funny IMO, I fact check it and the only reference to it was from the unbiased source of the Times of Israel. Of course that's not to say that Many Muslims do not consider homosexuality to be sinful.Which IMO is in it's self a sin against humanity. But that's a different story.

True that I never said that food could not and should not be grown organically. I just said that it is not the solution, perhaps it is part of the solution, but certainly not the solution. IMO a good start. Kids diets in school and elsewhere contain way too much sugar in the preparation, it is not balanced and is high in carbohydrates and low in protein.and the "soft drinks" they drink are simply sugar water with artificial flavor.

Sure. if it is intended for export it is subject to destination requirements. But I remember reading somewhere , wait I will google it, "64% of all vegetables tested in varicose markets in Thailand , contained a high content of pesticides" https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1366435/64-of-veggies-unsafe-due-to-pesticides

It is not that prices will ever go down. The tare of inflation is the rate by which thet go up, They are now going up by a slower rate , but still going up

And how does one certify "Organic" in Thailand? I can just see it, a poor farmer has his crop eaten buy pests , But would rather starve that spray ! Sure it could happen LOL

It usuals does. LOL If it only has the year , then it is not a DOB for obvious reasons. I can not believe that a Thai ID would not have a DOB on it, but TIT nothing surprises me here. Has your wife tried to report that the card was lost and as a new one was being issued complain that the card was wrong and it did not display the DOB which would be the date she was registered,. Do not even mention the discrepancy between birth and registration. which will make her 6 months younger, What woman does not want that LOL. The problem of course would be that she would have to wait six months later to retire. or use a different form of identification, (check with the Australian authorities to see what is acceptable)

Certainly not, but it would be a start.

Why shouldn't it be?

Sure , the true inflation rate is always suspect. It also concerns the basket of goods, they use to determine the inflation rate, and the percentage value that is assigned for each Inflation rates are so easily manipulated that they are meaningless to the average person.

Unless the laws of physics change. Usually water. But I guess any liquid substance whose displacement weight is equal or greater than that of my boat and beer weight.

I agree But the gray market existed before also , so it affected the rate before as it affects it now. So if there is a change between the two admittedly faulty numbers . then the rate has changed.

If there is one thing worst than trying to stop a cat fight between women, it is trying to stop a fight between transwoman Of and alpacas !! alpacas spit at you!! Not very polite if you ask me. This is what you get when someone calls you 3 am from the US and you can't go back to sleep.

They are obviously rice challenged. I don't even know why any of us stays here. I often considered moving to India just for that. And I would had if it wasn't for the tigers. I hate it when I get eaten by tigers, they are such slow eaters.

Watching the farmer grow is even more boring, 🥸 Unless of course she is the farmer

Because those who have the money and control the narrative will not allow it , since they don't want others to see what they are paying or more likely not paying

Ok I am convinced People will not be charging after coming home during peak they all will be doing it later when the rates are lower and ll those people charging later at low demand will nit raise the demand . How fullish of me to think otherwise. Apologies

Trust me m being from the US also I too had my issues with them, Some are unreasonable but most are nessacery. . Unlike here ,in the US when you buy a house you are assured that it is built to code. In order that you get a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) Permits have to be acquired, and inspections made, before anything is closed up. Here , do you thi k there is an Steel inspection before you pure columns and beams? So How do you know they put in the required steel? You don't. etc etc, which is why I would never buy a house build by anyone else here. The concern I bring up concerning the ability of the grid to handle EV charging demand is a reasonable one , The utilities are aware of the issue, and I am sure are working on ways to mitigate it. They of course could not possibly work out contingencies without knowing who is using what and where , This is also a reasonable proposition .Nothing out of the norm. In fact it would be irresponsible if they were not

As JBChiangRai posted two posts below yours, The UK. In the US you need a permit,

But not if you need it earlier.

IMO most people would want their ride juiced up and ready to go, some might wait until later when the price is lower, but if everyone waited until later to charge wont those be higher demand hours and wont the electric companies charge accordingly?

When i did a search I also got the plant from which opium was derived. So I also just learned a new thing Picture below from our 2022 vacation