Sir Dude

Fine with me, have a military coup and watch the economy and currency collapse. However, there is only one person who can authorise a coup.

The BBC is not fit for purpose and has long strayed from its legal mission to provide unbaised content for all... that has long been cynically tossed to the side. The BBC should be restructured into a pay-to-view system rather than a politically biased and enforced thought-control experiement media that people have no choice over other than to watch (how out of date can you get)... make it pay-per-view/subscription and it will implode into meaningless nonsense as it is so agenda-driven.

Yeah, I agree with that sentiment, they were sat on the cusp of complete victory, only to snatch defeat through Xi's policies, and your last sentence in that response about Chinese leaders wishing it would go back to the early 2010s is very accurate indeed... guess it's a case of hindsight is 20-20.

The OP is completely correct as Xi has completely messed it up with his authoritarian policies, even the Chinese people are rebeling and the other Chinese "elders" are getting worried (people like Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao) and Zhang Youxia - who is head of the PLA - are taking back power behind the scenes. So many Xi supporters and military general loyalists have been purged... change is coming at the 4th plenum, scheduled for mid-late August or thereabouts. The Chinese economy is in free-fall, factories closing, joblessness rising, even college grads with MA/PhDs can't find a job and are becoming Grab drivers etc. in the gig economy. House prices are falling off a cliff edge, workers haven't been paid, banks are folding with savings disappearing with no response or explanation. The Chinese have something in their culture called "The heavenly mandate", which is that the people cede power to the CCP authorities if they provide employment and prosperity... and the CCP is in serious danger of breaking that contract. Expect some serious changes soon... although, it "might" (never can tell with Chinese politics) be a soft landing out of power for Xi, as the CCP elders will want to maintain social order but reverse many of his policies, which harken back to Maoism really, so as to save face and let the party survive. The CCP has got itself into this mess because of personality cult policies from Xi, a hopelessly corrupt system, debt and the way it runs its economy, plus local government financing vehicles selling land to developers that were actually operating a massive Ponzi scheme, which has now collapsed... can add on to that the grey economy and all that debt too. This is why companies are fleeing, including Chinese ones due to tariffs from the US and Europe too. China is in deep do-do but the CCP MO is to just suppress information on everything or just stop collecting data and pretend it's still okay. A house of cards at the moment waiting to fail... don't believe the CCP propaganda, it's shot.

Labour had 14 years to plan for being in government and this car crash is the best they can do. Starmer also has a public-perception problem regarding what his values are and what he stands for... considering all the flip-flops and contradictory statements he and his uncontrolled cabinet keep making, doesn't even know what a woman is. Don't even get me started on Rayner, Rachel from accounts, Lammy the clown, and eco-nutjob Milliband. The UK public also know they are being lied to on many things, which leaves a bad taste in the mouth... add to that eye-watering tax rises, bashing pensioners and the disabled, anti-business policies, wealthy people fleeing faster than you can say "socialism" (and these people pay huge amounts of taxes anyhow), and finally the idea that the illegal arrivals get preferential treatment over our own homeless/disabled/pensioners/veterans etc. There is no wonder that Reform is surging in the polls... might as well give them a shot, as they haven't had a go and couldn't do a worse job than the two main parties. Even the Illiberal Undemocrats are gaining support.

Got the first bit right, but failed after that. People and countries have the right to declare their own futures. Russia is nothing other than a neo-fascist state that wants to oppress through arms.

This is an interesting comment as it could mean multiple things depending on what you infer from it. It could mean: 1) That the government isn't in control of them 2) That the military brass can freely think (not dogmatically or in a conditioned way) 3) There are no rules for them, just whatever they "think" is okay 4) That somehow the military has changed and previously they were unable to do so Could probably come upo with some more if I gve it some thought, but that's enough to hightlight the ambiguity of such a statement (but then again, even as a statement, it gives pause for thought as to whether it's a fact or an opinion).

A bit rich coming from Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge district commander that flipped sides once he knew the writing was on the wall, and that the Vietnamese were coming for him... talk about someone with skeletons in the closet. As an aside, his wife looks like she is the female version of Ming the Merciless.

I've read a few articles over the years here that say/imply that HIV and other STDs are quite unreportedly problematic in late-teen and university students (other sections of society too). Why? Ever heard of "Sideline girls" and a pretty casual attitude toward sex as a means to acquire status symbol items? Where does all the money come from for all those iPads/expensive clothes etc.? On top of that, many new infections predominately happen in the gay section of society as that type of sex is way more risky on this front. Also, throw in the massive surge of Russians and Indians (which both countries have high infection rates, even if figures are suppressed) and it shouldn't be a huge suprise what's in this article. As an aside, yeah, the stigma and fear is outdated but peoples' and society's attitudes (along with the law) are always slow to change for the better, as old people are generally in charge of much, and in favour of either keeping it how it is or turning back the clock to some golden time that inhabits their nostalgic fantasies... hence the phrase "There are few things as dangerous as the nostagia of old men."... look no further than the dictators around the world. I guess the way to fix these problems is to make the PreP drugs widely and cheaply available, but that cost a lot of money, and fuddy-duddy old conservatives would just bleat about it ecouraging promiscuity etc., and thus were are back to slow change again (see above paragraph).

The US and Israel are just doing the world's dirty work for all, that others don't want to do because they are frail and weak worms that are scared of their non-native immigrants and scamming arrivals, that have managed to pollute our societies and culture. through lies.

Most tests are designed to give an averge IQ score of 99, think that's the accepted technical average... so, 89 seems slightly low, but not by much and could entirely be true in a society which has an outdated and flawed education system. Also, however, due to social media and the proclivity to just mindlessly stare into their phones whilst often displaying a shocking lack of emotional intelligence, then I'm not surprised if such levels are becoming more general in many societies, not only Thailand (Ideocracy film here we come in the not so distant future - "Welcome to Cosco, I love you"). There are many different types of IQ tests, but I think some of the better ones are the sequential grid pattern types that want you to figure out what the next grid pattern will be to continue the sequence, as it also tests your problem-solving skills too.

I remember reading a quote from a Cambodian official in an article recently on this matter, which went along the lines of "This is all happening because the Thai government is unable to control its army." Funny.

The nonsense posted on this forum knows no bounds on the BS front.... just Russian and Chinese bot accounts posting propaganda (and if you think they don't do this everywhere, then you are deluded). You are all going to feel the wrath of the West soon... China is collapsing interally, through CCP fascism and debt, and Xi J is done, because he messed it up big time, with Wen Jaibao + Hu Jintao and the other "Elders" taking control now, as Xi has effed-it-up so bad. Expect a new Chinese CCP president to be soon announced after the 4th Plenum, which is going to happen very soon. Putler is on borrowed time... and will soon fall too. Russia can't even take Ukraine after losing a million soldiers and spending hundreds of billions of dollars... they have been exposed as an all gas and no trousers paper tiger. If Russia takes on a Nato country, it will have a second hole ripped... just nonsense what these Kremlin-paid stooges say, it's complete BS and Russia is just a playground bully, all threats and no substance. Russia also has to worry about the Chinese desire to get back the territory Russia annexed long ago in the far-east that China considers as historically theirs. It's not as simple as some people think.

I read a funny article recently that said it's all about the Thai government has no control over the Thai army... and it does what it wants to, lol, how true.

Many people are asking why the Chinese visitor numbers are going down. Well, if you dig a little deeper, then you will find that part of the problem is that the Chinese authorities are making it harder for Chinese citizens to leave the country, and I've read lots of articles about them having passports confiscated/cancelled for no reason, people being stopped from boarding flights for the slightest reason... almost as if the are actively trying to stop people from leaving/fleeing. Internally, China is in deep do-do really at the moment due to a collapsing financial system/debt and many are trying to get out, including the rich that want to take the new American Gold Visa offer for $5 million which starts soon. Also, as mentioned, Thailand has had a bad rap recently about not being safe with all the scam centers and kidnapping etc., but what they fail to tell the Chinese people is that it is Chinese scam gangs that are doing this... so, Chinese kidnapping and enslaving their fellow citizens.