mfd101

Mmmm, big player, Myanmar connections, looking shaky ...

Yes, the problem is that some people (mostly undereducated Usofans) have no understanding of irony or its cousin sarcasm.

Are you completely humourless?

We can only hope.

Mmmm, well you may be right but some of her performances on the international front have not been reassuring. Perhaps that's a matter of style (as seen from a non-Usofan perspective) rather than of substance.

Joe needs a new running mate who actually looks like a possible President. Any rational voter leaning towards Joe has to be conscious that he may not finish his 4 years. Of course, when you see Trump up close with his war paint cracking, you'ld probably have the same thought in his case too.

So their 'revenue collection target' is only US62B this year? [I take it this is personal income tax?] And there's a 'corporate tax target' of US22B. Making a total of some US84B. Which doesn't seem much if that's the government's total revenue for 12 months. Wouldn't go far even at Thai prices and without corruption skimming off 1/3 ... ???

It's going to be fascinating to watch the hydrogen vs EV contest over the next 20 years. Too early to tell which will win. Both are in their infancy, though EV is clearly well ahead at this stage. Meantime - here in Isaan - I'm sticking with petrol.

What noone seems to have grasped is that the Arab states are - quietly & carefully - on Israel's side in any stoush with Iran. As we saw a couple of days ago as the Saudis remained silent (and regularly assist US aircraft) and the Jordanians (over 50% Palestinian population) helped shoot down Iranian drones & missiles (at some risk to the Jordanian autocracy). Iranian Shiites are much more dangerous for the Arab Sunnis than anything Israel might do. And as to the Palestinians (a VERY mixed ethnic group), the Arab states are notorious for NOT welcoming them in to their own states. And even Egypt - similarly ethnically mixed - does not welcome them. I have myself witnessed what the 'pure' Arabs of the Arabian peninsular think of the Palestinians. I was chairing in the mid-1990s a meeting in Canberra with Arab-state military, and Oz Foreign Affairs (DFAT) had the stupidity to send along a Palestinian Australian as their rep at the meeting. Things were going well until he entered the room and opened his mouth. Immediately the temperature dropped some 10 degrees ... In sum, the Palestinians have no friends. The only sensible solution is NOT a 2-state one (which everyone keeps yapping on about, ignoring the impossibility of drawing appropriate lines in the sand). The sensible solution - but only possible after 50 or more years of peaceful coexistence - is a one-state solution, with all parties - Palestinian & Jewish - Christian, Muslim, Jewish & secular - treated as equal citizens in a fully-democratic state. Won't happen in my lifetime but.

An interesting phrase.

speaking from experience? Well, in late 2011 I visited The Tropics and specifically Thailand for the first time in my life, places that before then I had flown over on the way to Europe. And I encountered a hansum young Thai Khmer man, many years younger than me. And here we are over 12 years later happily married and living in Surin. Clearly the rush to the head was both overwhelming and enduring.

It would certainly have to be in the future.

So you've really answered your own question.

I transfer money from Oz every month. I figure Oz is less likely to be 'disrupted' than most countries but anything's possible. No point in worrying too much about what could happen but probably won't, particularly if there's not much you could do about it anyway.

It's what happens when people from a cold climate & regimented culture come to a hot climate & shambolic society: Off with their clothes and everything rushes to their head.