13 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

No one is suggesting that the correct outcome was death or that he deserved to die .

   Point being that had he not resisted arrest and had he followed the Police  officers instructions then he wouldn't have been restrained and he wouldn't have died . 

He had not resisted and was handcuffed. He did resist, but only after being handcuffed. It did not justify putting a knee on his neck during more than 9 minutes. 

23 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

This man did nothing wrong except keep people back. He was doing crowd control, nothing more.

 

My belief and opinion of which I'm entitled is that the guilty verdict was in part fear of a backlash in the community if he was found innocent. 

You are making things up!

Watch the video. There was no crowd, only a few people. They were not threatening or trying to intervene. They were cautiously remaining on the sidewalk, and were just yelling Floyd was dying. There was no crowd control. The video even showed a cop watching it quietly with his hands in his pockets.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/george-floyd-three-videos-minneapolis/index.html

30 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

The timing of the court case is certainly political.

But what I don't understand, if Trump is such a loser, why are his political opponents so clearly frightened of him?

I mean, if I were running for president, I'd want the weakest possible opponent to fight the election against.

Another baseless assumption. The timing has certainly a lot to do with the fact that the Adult Survivors Act was passed in 2022.

In another country I don't need to mention, this guy would have likely carried an AR 15.

8 hours ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

I repeatedly read here that Biden is "paying down the deficit". Now why on earth would the US be about to hit the debt ceiling if the biden regime was in fact -as the fans claim - to be paying down the deficit? 

The debt level, in absolute value has indeed increased.

I think they were referring to the debt to GDP ratio, or maybe the budget deficit, which have both started to decrease.

3 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

Yes, such a Russian asset that Putin waited until Biden was president to invade Ukraine.  I guess Putin felt safe snapping up pieces of Ukraine with a democrat in power, as he did in 2014 as well.

Of course, according to you, no relation to more rational and fact-based reasons, such as the Covid crisis which resulted in low energy price, extensive contagion and high death rate in Russia (population fell by 997,000 between October 2020 and September 2021). 

1 hour ago, Stargeezr said:

So the USA is still a dangerous place to visit. There is the Mexican American, and this incident, and how many others

will happen in May? Top country for mass killings is not where I would like to live.

  Those thoughts and prayers that get offered, are wearing thin. Maybe the NRA

folks should take a bit of the blame. IMO

Stats about previous incidents in 2023 here:

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

28 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

...and more of the "but Trump..." without commenting on the facts. Just emotion and a bit of derangement syndrome.  Here is another fun fact- more Americans died of Covid under the Biden administration than Trump.

 

Never hear that in the media though. I remember the constant presence of the "Covid Death Count" at the side of tv screens throught the first year of the pandemic, yet they faded away afterwards....

Calculated by comparing 2020 and 2021.

Of course, nothing to do with the fact that the impact of Covid really started to be significant end of March, that the peak which occurred early 2021 was due to the start of a Covid wave in December 2020, that Biden took office on 20 January, so most of January was still under Trump, etc...

Not to mention that there were more deaths among Republicans in 2021, as a significant share of them was opposed to the health policy of the Biden administration, in particular to vaccination.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/03/03/the-changing-political-geography-of-covid-19-over-the-last-two-years/

11 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

He was truly a global force.  Also stopped Little Kim from firing missiles over Japan to almost zero, compared to his predecessor and successor.  Glad you can see the light finally!

And about missile test, they follow the development program of new missiles. The ones launched recently have started to be developed during Trumps mandate.

"North Korea displayed a larger Hwasong-17 ICBM at an 
October 2020 military parade and began test launching it in 
2022. The Defense Intelligence Agency assesses it is 
“probably designed to deliver multiple warheads.” Analysts 
point to the larger diameter and propulsion capability, 
potentially allowing it to carry multiple warheads."

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/IF10472.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjvg7qTzdP-AhV1VKQEHe3nBpUQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3XG-RgpaI0vVlyxaaSIqUv

5 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

He was truly a global force.  Also stopped Little Kim from firing missiles over Japan to almost zero, compared to his predecessor and successor.  Glad you can see the light finally!

Trump a global force, lol!. 

The global economic context was the same as during Obama's last mandate.

4 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

I think you may have a point. Similar to the 2022 Congressional/Senate election. Democrats supported GOP candidates they thought were extreme, but unelectable.  Cynical but effective. 

 

 I dont want either of them to run again. The Trump years were very good economically- low inflation, cheap gas, cheap flights.  But he can't recapture the same unique feeling that he had in 2016.  

At that time there was low inflation worldwide, cheap gas worldwide, cheap flights worldwide, etc... I did not know Trump had such a wide impact on the whole world economy!

19 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Oh, please. Every news agency except for Fox was after Trump relentlessly, still are. But you continue with outlandish accusations.

Interesting. I read many times, in this forum, that Fox News was by far the market leader.

It also does not mean that your claim about other channels is true.

16 hours ago, sidneybear said:

All good points you eloquently make, although I'd differ on a couple.

 

Firstly, saying that you're aligned with the UK conservative party doesn't really reveal much, because the UK conservative party these days is merely a marketing machine that has no politics or ideology of its own whatsoever. It merely morphs parasitically onto whatever fads or band wagons it thinks will get it short term support, and I'd challenge you to name a single conservative thing that it's done in recent years, decades even.

 

Secondly, I do understand that liberal minded westerners are affronted by the way Thailand goes about its politics and its methods of ejecting bad actors from its political system. Many will cry foul and point to their own countries as role models, although they're not really role models at all, given that parties that call themselves conservative (see above) have themselves been usurped by the Left and are no longer conservative at all. What kind of democracies are these really? In Thailand's case, the end justifies the meas: yes, it's messy, but the outcome is a well ordered and safe society that we all enjoy living in, along with its charmingly preserved culture and traditions. 

 

Thirdly, we shouldn't underestimate the power of Thailand's institutions. There have been changes at the top, but Thais are fiercely loyal to the uniform and the sovereign, regardless of the humans who occupy these positions. Any dissent against this is rightly struck down, along with any politicians who tries to exploit such dissent and incite division for political gain.

About your "thirdly", It's likely not true any more. There has been a significant change of attitude since a few years and Thais are talking rather freely about it (Not publicly of course). They perfectly know the military are a bunch of crooks and are quite aware about other things I will not address here.

Thaksin, despite his flaws, opened Pandora's box and it will never be like before. The recent changes just amplified this phenomena.

Of course, appointed people still hold a significant power (possibly still more than elected people), and are still able to prevent an elected government they don't like from governing, in one way or another. However, it is unlikely they may be able to do that with a large approval from the Thai people.

19 minutes ago, onthedarkside said:

It does depend on the poll and sometimes who carries it out, that's why this site is by far the best. It takes the averages of dozens of the latest polls and gives a far better picture of the true percentages. Currently Biden has a 43% approval rating. Trump at the same time of his presidency was 38.6%

 

 

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/

This aggregator is also good. They have more features, such as electoral college simulations, and better graphics.

https://www.racetothewh.com/president/polls

Nothing to hide, etc...

20 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The same ‘Corporate America’ that was given a $1.3Trillion tax break by Trump.

 

Go figure.

Not to mention the pharmaceutical industry, which has been imposed lower drug prices, the gun manufacturers, the Koch brothers, etc... ????

3 hours ago, dotcalm said:

Stunned Anderson Cooper Cuts To Commercial When Trump Accuser E. Jean Carroll Calls Rape "Sexy"

ANDERSON COOPER: I think most people think of rape as a violent assault. It is not sexual--

E. JEAN CARROLL: I think most people think of rape as being sexy.

 

I don't suppose the judge, jury would hear this odd, peculiar and totally bizarre statement.

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/06/25/stunned_anderson_cooper_cuts_to_commercial_when_trump_accuser_e_jean_carroll_calls_rape_sexy.html

 

 

 

 

Thanks for confirming that Trump was lying and defaming her. Trump claimed that E. Jean Carroll, said that "rape was sexy" and "indicated that she loved it". It's not what can be read in the extract shown in the article.

It can also be further checked in the full transcript that she did not say what Trump claimed in other parts of the interview.

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1906/24/acd.01.html

There's a big difference in policies between China and India. The Chinese have been trying to control the size of the population, in order to make it manageable and avoid the chaos of over-population.

India's stance is different. The more Indian people on the planet, the more powerfully India will be. They don't really care if it generates inneficiences and it's difficult to manage it.