beautifulthailand99

I have watched a Thai man sit in squalor hunched with dirty hands wiping his nose and scratching his body, cutting up fruit and shrink wrapping it to look fresh. I wouldn't ever buy any of the food they bring to the loungers. Just stick to beer and coconuts.

Well the explicit policy objective of the attack on Gaza by Israel was to totally eliminate Hamas and looks to have been a spectacular failure. Future Hamas operatives will be trained and supported by Iran, Hezbollah the Houthis and others and Israel is going to have to occupy Gaza completely so we have a scenario now for endless war or a truly epochal genocide of Gazan Palestinians which will guarantee that moving forward Israel will be besieged and pretty much alone. I feel that "my Israel right or wrong" cheerleaders are spectacularly missing this point. Hamas explicitly refer to the woman and children deaths as martyrs and welcome the propaganda message their deaths and suffering bring to the world. I believe the ferocity and brutality of October 7th was to bring on exactly this response and Israel rage-stormed into it.

They fought an anti-colonial struggle to get the colonists from their land. They support the underdog. Haganah widely admired the IRA terror campaign against the British and made linkages with them during WW2. Indeed, Haganah terrorist later PM Menachem Begin had Michael Collins as his password ! https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/may/23/guardianletters

Well that carpet bombing of Gaza reducing it to rubble doesn't seem to have changed hearts and minds and has almost certainly acted as a recruiting sergeant for any loss of militants in the coming years. With an Israel facing much diminished global support from their 'friends' where do they go now ?

I tend to agree with the sentiments that said these atrocities have happened in France Nice, Batalan, Spain La Ramblas,UK Manchester Arena Bombing and many others and to say that Russia is unique in this intelligence fail and as a result of being distracted by Ukraine is a bit of a stretch and just Western trolling IMHO.

Every cloud and that. Some can't resist thieving land when the opportunity arises. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68650815 Just ask Daniella Weiss, 78, the grandmother of Israel's settler movement, who says she already has a list of 500 families ready to move to Gaza immediately. "I have friends in Tel Aviv," she says, "so they say, 'Don't forget to keep for me a plot near the coast in Gaza,' because it's a beautiful, beautiful coast, beautiful golden sand".

I think we can all join in with the applause and what amounts in real terms shorn of codacils to a vote of support from the US. Russia didn't clap though .....

A charitable reading at best - Israel has never looked more alone on the world stage than it does now, and cheerleaders for the rage bombing on Gaza have played their part in that outcome with applause at the Security Council outcome and an unprecedented US abstention.

I met Chuan at Trat Aiport a few years back by chance - sought him out, did a big wai and said he was one of the best PM's that Thailand had had. (lying of course) he and his party were greatly amused by a farang recognising and bigging him up and got a great photo with him as a result. He said you are a very clever farang - thank you !

Democratic reform and wise heads at the helm might have had a chance of doing that - instead it's full steam ahead to disaster. If you own Bangkok real estate you're on a 20-year lease at best and it's already happening at the fringes. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/01/just-four-pupils-left-how-the-sea-rose-up-on-a-thai-village

I say this with a very heavy heart, and it echoes what I am seeing in pro-Ukraine channels that I monitor, but if you want to see the fall of the Putin regime then more of these attacks will aid that end. It truly is Putin's 911 moment. I have no doubt that western intelligence is wargaming such scenarios because in financial costs terms they are cheap as chips. Whether they would aid them through proxies, I have no idea - but it would be in a menu of options. This is a terrifying moment though because if they continue a paranoid failing, Putin is a very dangerous global wild card indeed. When Putin came to power in 2000, he offered the Russians a bargain: to provide prosperity and security in exchange for surrendering their freedoms. A quarter of a century later, Putin’s national security incompetence has proved staggering. In 2022, his spies and generals assured him that Russian forces would sweep to victory and occupy Kyiv in just three days, grossly underestimating Ukraine’s fighting capabilities and spirit as well as the West’s response. In 2023, those same spies completely failed to predict or check a major mutiny by Wagner chief Evgeny Prighozin. And in 2024, they dismissed US intelligence on imminent terrorist attacks and failed to defend the Russian people. Putin has made Russia less secure and less prosperous. https://archive.is/m0rfR

I would draw the line at 30 like Logan's Run.

This is terrible, they are saying mass casualty now. I'm no engineering expert but surely this shouldn't happen in this way, is this a tragic example of the US's crumbling infrastructure ? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-maryland-ship-collapse-latest-news/

Trump's running on I will stop all wars ticket. Bibi apparently didn't call him when he lost the election, and he's still smarting about that. His daughter has converted to Judaism through Jared's connection and he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and offed Soleimi so he feels particularly aggrieved his "world leader" status hasn't been acknowledged ! I had though he would offer unconditional support unlike Ukraine, looks like I called it wrong. I can't vote in the US election, but on his stop war stance alone he would have my vote - at arm's length and holding my nose otherwise he is a walking disaster. https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-warns-israel-losing-support-for-gaza-war-with-public-relations-in-ruin/ “You have to finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done,” Trump told the Israel Hayom newspaper in an interview the freesheet said had been recorded over the weekend. Part of the interview was published on Monday, with more expected later in the week. “And I will say, Israel has to be very careful because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job done. And you have to get on to peace, to get on to a normal life for Israel, and for everybody else.”

Have a look at that channel it is produced by Ukrainian supporters to give an insight into the Russian propaganda sphere - by carefully curating, translating and highlighting exactly what it is. It is done for a purpose to expose Russian lies not promote Russian propaganda, which is why I hope it stays and folks that are interested in the conflict can add it to their list of useful sources. .

The excellent Russian Disinfo Channel that monitors Russian TV has clipped up a chilling segment from Sokolov's rantfest which gives an insight into the propaganda line Russia are taking on this. "Everybody hates us and Ukraine and their Western backers are to blame." If this is a one off then they will hammer this and move on, but if ISIS-K has the ability to conduct repeated outrages particularly in Moscow this will be a huge impediment to Putin's narrative that he can hold the line. I have to say if you want Putin to fall then probably reluctantly and with a holded nose like some of the Ukrainians channels I have read then you may welcome them as my enemy's enemy is my friend. The sad individuals that did this and scuttled away don't look like your usual run of the mill suicide bombers but then that might be down to the brutal beatings and torture they were subjected to.ISIS hate Russia for the hammering that they did to them in Syria when they were fighting alongside a ragbag of different head choppers against the Assad regime. The US was there aiding some of the groups. All very murky stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_intervention_in_the_Syrian_civil_war

Oh I see - yes he surely is.

The proprietor tried to kick out my wife and I when we went to eat there in 2003. I showed her my business card and there were huge apologies and a fine table was found. I lived just don the road at Soi Ruam Rudee. It was quite a place.

He was part of the old Thailand like this place now fading into obscurity. I used to buy the Nation and Bangkok Post every day - religiously, and consume them like a ravenous creature. Those were the days.

Blimey, the things you learn. Probably asked to have it done himself so he could crawl back here, tail between his legs. Cap doffing on the way.

Ditto

Slightly different, the monks are fed by their local populaces and don't as such get public money or have any direct representation in the Parliament and don't fight (a few corrupt bad apples excepted). And yes Thailand is occupying the 4 southern provinces 'gifted' by the British for a railway from Singapore to Burma and the unrest has elements of that in it to this day, but it's relatively quiet at the moment , I visit there regularly as my wife is from Yala so know it well. I don't hate the Haredi far from it and why would I - they are Torah scholars who refuse to fight and have the good fortune that the Israeli state keeps them in clover to study their ancient texts. Harmless enough but can an Israel fighting for its life support this burden particularly with their large families that keep ever growing ?

He's got to keep his alliance of nutjobs together. They won't work, and they won't join the army but can probably tell you how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. https://archive.is/Zvp5t Even before the war with Hamas erupted last year, the almost complete absence from the military of the fast-growing Haredi community — who make up an eighth of Israel’s population and are expected to account for a quarter by 2050 — had long been a point of contention among the rest of Jewish Israeli society, where at least 24 months of obligatory military service is a rite of passage. But with Israel fighting its longest war since its foundation in 1948, Yosef’s comments sparked criticism from allies and opponents alike, and laid bare the simmering tensions over the issue in Netanyahu’s coalition, which contains both ultraorthodox parties such as Shas and hawkish ex-soldiers determined to abolish the exemption.