blazes

Sad. Clearly you have absolutely no knowledge of the history of Ukraine. But, more to the point, no awareness of what part Ukraine plays in America's (weird) obsession with a relatively weak Russia. Since 1917, and for 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, America has never quite managed to shrug off the nightmare that the "commies" might one day actually "win" the never-ending war that America has needed to "fight" ever since WW2. And in the never-ending war you need input from the Raytheons of this world....

Love the verb in that last sentence!! So, just so that a dimwit like me can "get the picture" now, you are saying, are you, that the "outside [American] aid" given to the terrorists of the Mujahadeen led to the locals overthrowing the Soviets and welcoming the Americans post 9/11???? How come the Afghans failed to show their appreciation of American aid when the Soviets had left and the Americans invaded (the 3rd occupying country in a century) ?? But yes, that does show that the Americans were only the latest in a long line of imperialists to fail to learn from history. So, I guess we agree?

Precisely. Well put, but surely you did not mean it as I have taken it?? That is, those who cannot remember America's defeats in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are condemned to repeat them ad nauseam.....

Dude, you need to cool down.....

Dr Jack, this is interesting, cos I was planning on staying for 180 days. Please let me know whether this plan is feasible: 1. Visa exempt = 30 days 2. Extension = 30 days 3. Leave for holiday in HMC or wherever 4. Re-enter visa free = 30 days 5. Extension = 30 days 4. Border run to (whichever border is nearest) 5. Re-enter visa free = 30 days 6. Extension = 30 days Phew, leave country. Looks "busy busy", but really only involving 2 simple exits, AND avoids any and all paper work involved in getting a tourist visa. PS do you have a link to where in the Immigration regs it says 2 land border crossings per annum are ok? Thanks.

So am I, I must confess. If I've had the two main vaccine shots, and subsequently had Boosters 3 and 4, does that mean that anyone without those two Boosters is, in effect, UNvaccinated, cos their (so-called) immunity has, quite simply, after a lapse of more than 12 months, just disappeared.......??? I sincerely look forward to being corrected as to the possibly incorrect assumptions in the above remarks.

See also: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Thailand.html and virtually every other country in the world. One thing your govt does not warn you about re LoS is: the extreme danger of fatality on the roads, especially (but not limited to) at night.

er, why not?

It really is not possible to comment on the sheer monumental madness this kind of observation conjures up.

All well, until inflation catches up with tourists all over the world and airfares become unaffordable. If I have to choose between Thailand (and all its remaining obstacles regarding visas) and Mexico, which has practically nothing obstructing the way of tourists for six whole months, which country am I going to visit when the rain and snow come along?

So, if (like you) I advocate for LAWYERS (rather than plumbers) being worthy of $300 per hour, considerations of Weimar inflation will not arise???? "Fascinating" comment on the class situation in the USA today!!

Dude, it should be the other way round: do lawyers deserve to pocket $300 per hour (an abysmally low estimate of what it costs to hire a lawyer these days) for a job that scarcely challenges anyone who's got a reasonably decent brain? And to answer your rhetorical question: yes, the labouring classes do indeed deserve $90 to $300 per hour for doing the $hitty jobs they do. How would you like to spend most of your working life on your knees as a plumber, only to retire early because your knees can't take it any longer?

As a Canadian, I would willingly pay an extra 10 baht on everything in exchange for 6 months of sunshine and heat between November and April...... But I sure wish those taxes on wine were lowered...

Best to take advantage of US$ strength in the next 12 months or so. As long as Powell raises rates, all will be well for those of us who want a weaker baht. But when US rates level off or (worse) float back down as Wall Street cries out for help, so will the exchange rate dollar/baht return to unfavourable (for us expats). Question is: does Powell have the balls to firmly overcome the present negative rates? US 10 yr at ~3.15. Inflation at 8.1%

Not sure about this hair-cut thing. I can well imagine my (much) younger self being distracted during a school examination by the long hair of a Thai beauty.

No doubt Yankee airlines will swiftly copy from Seattle, San Fran and LA.

This is an interesting meander through the maze of American non-thinking about important stuff in their "democracy", but is horrendously shocking in the way it concludes with a neo-Nazi call for the "disassembling" of one of the major parties in American history and modern reality. It beggars all comprehension that, outside totalitarian states like Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union, anyone committed to democracy and openness of thought would call for the disbanding of a political party in a democracy.

Too bad. There's probably a whole raft of intelligent people on this thread insisting that Trump should go to jail. What surprises me is the solemn (if naïve) belief shown by many on here that sending DT to jail would somehow - what?- heal the nation's wounds? provide grim satisfaction? And somehow the system would be cleaned up and we could all sleep well at nights? I'd hazard a guess that locking him up (but not Mrs Clinton??) would move the country one step nearer anarchy, if not intermittent revolutionary skirmishes.

Ah, SUIT???? !!! I was really confused there for a moment. But see how versatile the English language is: just add one little letter (e) to a word and you have my imagination rev into overdrive. There I was trying to imagine what it meant (but of course the man is rich admittedly) to provide a (???) hotel suite for your teen sweetheart. Silly me.

I never said or intimated that I was a Trumpist. I happen to believe that it matters very little who becomes (or became) the POTUS, because that person does not actually run the show (as Eisenhower warned us in 1960, regarding the military/industrial complex). As you can see at present, the likes of Raytheon and other armament manufacturers are profiting hugely from the weapons that the present administration are lobbing over to Ukraine at considerable cost to the American taxpayer.

This cosy analysis is really quite breathtaking in its naive assumption that ANY of the people mentioned above are worthy of the trust of the American people, especially the Clinton woman, whose contempt for the American people [the undesirables] is well documented.

I see no reference to wine, a commodity without which one's life is sadly reduced....