beautifulthailand99

Oops this much vaunted loan has run into difficulties. The problem with the rule of law is just that, the rule of law. That and US war profiteering. AKA we will build the war and make Europe pay. “What Washington is proposing is, 'We [the U.S.] take a loan, Europe takes all the risk, you [Europe] pay the interest, and we [the U.S.] use the money for a U.S.-Ukraine fund,'” said one senior European diplomat. “We might be stupid but we’re not that stupid.” While EU officials are receptive to these concerns, they’re reluctant to agree to something that comes at the expense of their own taxpayers. As Ukraine struggles to pay for its war effort, the U.S. has been lobbying European allies to look into ways to secure cash for Kyiv. “If it was the other way around, they would say we are crazy,” said an EU official about the U.S. proposal. https://www.politico.eu/article/us-eu-war-in-ukraine-loan-russian-assets-negotiations-g7-us-election-western-support-joe-biden-olaf-scholz-emmanuel-macron/

Yup he should have faked them better or like China one of main trading partners abandoned them altogether. Which is what Zelenskiy has done but he would say paused. Had the Maidan demonstrators accepted the 2010 election result and not gone out on the streets with violence then maybe none of that would have happened. It was January 6th on steroids. I'll hazard a guess Ukraine was corrupt , is corrupt and will always be corrupt. Hence their main anti-corruption czar and a hero of Maidan has resigned in disgust at the corruption he has seen whose tentalces go to the very top. https://www.oscepa.org/en/news-a-media/press-releases/press-2010/international-observers-say-ukrainian-election-was-free-and-fair

https://unherd.com/2024/06/why-ukraines-counteroffensive-failed/ It's going to end in a Korean armistice scenario. Experts assess that, at current rates, it would take 757 years to fully demine Ukraine. And while the speed of clearance would increase if the war ended, it is for the foreseeable future an immovable fact on the ground. And in this lies probably any – at least interim – political solution. The model here is North and South Korea, which are technically still at war and separated by a demilitarised zone and hundreds of thousands of mines. In reality, while relations are not rosy, they have not been fighting for decades. It remains politically impermissible for Zelensky to talk about any territorial compromise. Just as no British Prime Minister could agree to give an aggressor Manchester and Surrey, so Zelensky can never publicly accept the loss of Donetsk and Crimea. But you can talk about a “ceasefire” — and those, if agreed with an honest partner (which Putin is not), can last for decades. It is, of course, an imperfect solution. But as things stand, the alternative may well be far worse.

Here's the deal, as Uncle Joe would say, if you aint got jack-sh!t then we ain't interested in your democracy or yoiur human rights.There's no such thing as a free lunch. If Ukraine was to pivot to China they would have the benefit of getting Russia off her back , get massive help with the infrastruture rebuild and wave two fingers at the west that gave them only just enough to continue the fight but not win. Oleksiy Arestovych, a former advicer to Zelenskiy and now a dissident in fear of his life jokes just that. This war plays perfectly into the hands of the long term US strategists. What better way than to use a former USSR country to systematically degrade Mother Russia’s military capabilities, by funding a long and protracted war right on their doorstep. It’s almost as if they goaded Putin into initiating his own tragedy. That would be a ruthless play by America if intentional, but admittedly takes military aged men out of play for a least a generation depletes weaponry and degrades their economy at the same time and destroys Ukraine. It's borderline evil genius but the actions of a bad faith actor. https://unherd.com/2024/01/oleksiy-arestovych-zelenskyys-challenger/

Old people believe in war more than the young people that will have actually have to fight it shock. No wonder, it's usually the younger generations who dies in war while the older ones are sitting at home in safety, or indeed in Thailand enjoying the fruits of a life lived under peace. And then we have the tech, the younger generation gets their information from other sources than the Ukrainian state media which for older folks is the only thing they have and the young regard as being heavily censored and propaganda. That said theycurrently don't want elections and have virtually no beleif in their Parliament., Far worse are assessments of the Verkhovna Rada: only 13 percent of Ukrainians are even somewhat satisfied with the legislative body. This is far from unusual in Ukrainian politics; approval ratings for the Rada have historically been low over the past decade. The overwhelming dissatisfaction with the current Rada is particularly unsurprising given its growing dysfunction, perhaps best evidenced by the arduous process of passing a new law on mobilization. As it happens, young Ukrainians matter because they, unlike retirees, are the future of the nation https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/06/ukraine-public-opinion-russia-war?lang=en

RU Telegram channel "Fighterbomber" confirmed the kill and the obvious solution.

I'm absolutely baffled how on Earth can these strikes be happening. The drones used are so slow even WW2 AA should be able to take them out with ease. Yet they don't seem to bother to defend the airfields at all? They also should be detectable from very far away, especially by military radars, yet they let them fly freely all the way to their targets. It just make no sense to me and makes the claims about Russian incompetence believable. But it would appear radars have filters to filter out all the noise. If they didn't they'd be swamped with data and you wouldn't be able to see anything at all. So if you want to shoot down jets you tell the radar to ignore things that are tiny and slow so you can see the big, fast things.Well, guess which category $200 Alibaba drones with an RPG taped to it are? They need hardened bunkers which will no dount happen so that drones are no longer a bother. Similar to the cope cages / turtle tanks. It will happen and quickly.

Wow Times Radio reporting the corruption scandal at the heart of goverment and NYT. How much of our foreign aid been trousered ? Answer - given the alarms being raised in MSM , is quite a lot. My view, given the increase of cricial artlces in key western media is we are being prepped for a change in narrative. We did all we could but corrupt officals stymied our aid. Mr. Nayyem’s resignation made for awkward timing, coming a day before a major donor conference on reconstruction in Berlin. Ukrainian authorities had excluded him from the delegation, upending meetings he said he had scheduled with foreign officials about donations for Ukrainian reconstruction. By evening on Monday, Mr. Nayyem and the government were in open disagreement about why he had been excluded from the delegation. Government officials told the Ukrainian media that the prime minister had scheduled a meeting with Mr. Nayyem for Wednesday, while Mr. Nayyem said he had never received such an invitation. https://archive.ph/4sGAQ

It's a lot more nuanced than you suggest re Viktor Yanukovych as this article from the Brooking's Institute reported at the time (2011) and when we talk about Maidan you cannot ignore the armed militancy of a not insignificant far-right element that went quickly to violence and fanned the flames of insurrection. Ukraine has always been murky at the centre and it still is. Yanukovych took office in early 2010 after defeating former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a hotly-contested presidential ballot. At the time, many in Ukraine and the West worried that the supposedly “pro-Russian” Yanukovych would turn Kyiv back toward Moscow. In fact, he has pursued a far more nuanced foreign policy. True, the president extended the stay of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea and ruled out pursuing membership in the NATO military alliance. He has made clear, however, his goal of concluding a free trade arrangement with the European Union while fending off Moscow’s persistent entreaties to join a customs union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Military cooperation with NATO continues, as evidenced by the June Sea Breeze exercise. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/can-ukraine-join-europe-as-yanukovych-moves-away-from-eu-values/ Nearly a decade on, the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, as it’s known in Ukraine, remains one of the more widely misunderstood episodes of recent history. Yet understanding it is critical to understanding the ongoing standoff over Ukraine, which can largely be traced back to this polarizing event — depending on who you ask, an inspiring liberal revolution or a far-right coup d’état. https://jacobin.com/2022/02/maidan-protests-neo-nazis-russia-nato-crimea As to election corruption ; International monitors on Monday described Ukraine's presidential election as free and fair, putting pressure on Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to concede defeat despite a tight vote count and charges of irregularities. But international observers said they detected no serious faults in Sunday's polling, a reversal of the position they took in the Orange Revolution five years ago when Yanukovych was accused of fabricating votes in his first Kremlin-backed bid for the presidency. Joao Soares, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the election was an "impressive display of democracy" and called on politicians to honor the outcome. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020803583.html

Yes but no but..... JFK was, actually we now know prepared to destroy the world, and lest we forget the only country on earth to have used atomic weapons on cities. Thank God Russia backed down. But keep on whistling Dixie and looking out for those reds under the bed.

And this was the recruitment.

I mentioned nothing I posted an article and a qoute from the article. The Russian deal apparently open to all, was 6 months and death or freedom (well released into Putin's Russia which isn't the same). Prigi didn't get that deal but got executed for his sins.

The Kraken awakes.

https://archive.ph/F7T2c Yatsenko says other prisoners told him they will see how he and other convicts fare before deciding. On a recent visit to their prison, bored-looking men stood in courtyards smoking. Some labored under a hot sun making concrete obstacles known as dragon’s teeth for the military. “But prison life is like a summer holiday camp” compared with the front, said Barandich.

2 great links I hadn't read the cable before but it was all there years before. The US has been fully cognisant at to what they are doing all along. Hell can't be hot enough for Victoria Nuland the chief artcictect of Ukaraine meddling - like Paul Wolfowitz or Henry Kissinger they have been responsible by their drving of US policy for millions of deaths. But at that level it's just about global chess and power not principles. They get pasted on after the event as required then comes out the flags and sloganeering. Democracy,freedom and human rights. Russia is trolling right back in their own backyard , everyone is playing with fire here. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/07/russia-nuclear-powered-submarine-kazan-to-visit-cuba

Phibun was no angel but I respect post 1932 he tried to carve out a new Thailand , imperfect as it was sandwiched beween rapacious colonial powers. That said the real hero with Seri Thai was Pridi Banomyong - the greatest Thai who ever lived bar none. But that's another story ......

Yup and cooked up Bin Laden in that toxic stew, that worked out well. Unintended consequeces from a hegemon that doesn't give a sh!t about the chaos they leave in their wake. Can I hate them all for their perfidy and lies is is it just Putin who needs to be the object of my wrath ? Yeah , Meet the new boss , same as the old boss. I won't get fooled again.

I not criticising your spelling and English might not be your native language if so then you write brilliantly I struggle apart from English. But there are some commentators best avoided I would say Col Douglas MacGregor, Judge Napolitano, Scott Ritter , The Duran ,Tucker Carlson , that ex CIA bloke, the Hindustan Times, Lord Bebo (though he is a useful hub of info and misinfo) and others they are right wing shills for Russia probably paid for. They maybe right sometimes but they are generally arguing in bad faith rather than seeking out the truth, which lies somewhere in the middle and if you seek it out, is certainly in the "free" western mainstream media.

Salvador Allende is on the other line calling from the 1970s do yo uwant to take his call ?

I have an AI tool which can analyze text and determine a signature. I may dust it down !

Welcome to the forum Ted I look forward to your well argued and sourced opinions. I never did figure out how to do the visitor block on my profile but looks like you fgured it out straight away.

Naah you didn't ask nice enough - I'll think I'll take your content free micro post privilges on this one and express an opinion without having to gold plate it.

Having seen what has happened to Ukraine Georgia is very wary about upsetting her next door neighbour and with good reason. It helps noone if the US and others stir that pot.