Sir Dude

Thailand is pretty high up on the trade imbalance list with the US (number 10 or 11, I think), so can see incoming tariffs for Thailand when the US gets round to it... plus a lot of Chinese goods are starting to flow through places like Thailand and Vietnam in an attempt to dodge the tariffs. However, Thailand can't really complain as anything imported here has huge tariffs on them already, think cars/wine/food etc. etc. (few are as protectionist as Thailand) and would simply be the Thais getting a taste of their own long-dished-out to foreign goods medicine (fairs fair)... can't have it both ways. Simple answer Thailand is to devalue the currency a bit and then your goods will still be bought tariffs or not, but that won't sit well with the uber rich here with all their little foreign business shenanigans.

Well, imagine that... Putler doesn't want peace. Just moronic to even think it's possible.

The government are morons... the demogrphic that spends and buys stuff is the 25-45 age group, and they are they ones left to the end. Couldn't make it up how inept and ill-informed these people in government are... huge facepalm.

I think it originated with a Labour MP (or MPs/Unions) but here's a couple of links from the Guardian and BBC... https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/24/bank-of-england-unreliable-boyfriend-interest-rates https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44068508

Oh dear, a banker with little, if any, political experience in charge of somewhere like Canada... I remember him being nicknamed "The unreliable boyfriend" when in charge of the Bank of England.

I don't understand why antisemitism is being normalized but Islamophobia is being cracked down on hard. Isreal, despite its faults, is a secular democratic country that tolerales others from all religions, creeds and persuasions... which can't be said for the other side. Try to remember who kicked off the current round of hostilities by instigating a wave of killing that took 1200 people's live and more hostages. Also, if Hamas were truely Islamic, they they would have followed the teachings that to do something that causes great damage to themselves is unIslamic... that's Hamas for you... blood-thirsty fanatics. The reason no Arab countries will let the Patestinians in is because of what happened to Lebanon and Jordan when they did... was chaos. If the Arabs won't let them in, then why should anyone else? Only the far-left idiots in the West can't see reality.

Complete morons... looks like the hub of stupidness on this. Why aren't you protecting women and their space? I guess because you don't care. Not really much point having "women's sport" anymore as it will just be full of hateful violent dudes now. Can't say what I realy want to here as the thought police will chime in.

Best thing to do in any bar is to not run a tab, just pay for each beer as you get them (be organised with lots of small notes when you go out)... tip is discretionary at the end. Should have learned this long ago .

Well, imagine that.... corruption finds a way.

More debt-trap nonsense from China.... always attractive funding for countries that have nothing, but Beijing gets the infratsucture and control if there is default... look at SriLanka. I guess it works with weak hopelessly corrupt countries where the politicians have no accountability or intention to make the country better... just want to swell their Swiss bank accounts.

Talk about inconsistant and strange, but Trump says that Israel has a total right to defend itself against Muslim aggression (which I agree with), but somehow Ukraine doesn't... the optics are bad on this one. Best thing Europe can do is to man up and make itself militarily very strong, and then it can just tell everyone to take a running jump off the nearest cliff, rather like Russia, China, and the US does. If you are militarily strong you can do what you want and gives your country massive diplomatic leverage... a lesson Europe has forgotten. Time to wake up Europe.

Just cube the worst offender's vehicles instantly on the side of the road at inspection stops.

With the birth rate and demographic problems Thailand has, it's going to have to let go of this nationalistic and self-righteous nonsense on work in the kingdom... not going to fly. It's not just the falling numbers of younger people and workers, it's all those in the informal economy that don't whant a job that you pay tax on and just prefer to sit around being a micro-seller of convenience food or tat.

Funny, justify your existence... okay in goverment positions as much incompetence is perpetuated into the system through defaut these days... but will surely rile the freeloaders.

Not sticking up for Epstein, but he clearly knew too much and was silenced once the game was up for him... the story we are handed to regarding his death stinks of freshly laid brown steaming stuff.

The BBC knew exactly what it was doing and who was involved and, as usual, is pushing their far-left social engineering agenda through subliminal messaging and outright bias. The BBC should be put behind a paywall and then we'll see how many people want to watch this dross... certainly not your average taxpayer that is forced into an involuntary tax to have a TV. Such out-of-date nonsense.

Well, eating raw food is asking for it.

Well, kindnapping mothers and babies, then allowing them to die or be intentionally killed is, well, about as bad as it gets... then they can't even return the right bodies and put on a freak show in the process. Hamas/PLO is evil, no doubt about it... and if any of you are wondering why no Arab states will allow them in, then you just need to learn the history of what happened to Jordan and Lebanon when they did so back in the day, it was total chaos and resulted in years of war. Always makes my laugh when deluded people in Europe protest in their favour that have no idea who they are supporting... remember the protests with "LGBTQ+ supports Palastine" and they would be the first ones thrown off the nearest building. Idiots! Also, Arafat could have ended it as Clinton and Barak offered up the two-state solution, but he declined it in favour of a continued cycle of violence. Any country that lets in Hamas/PLO into their country is asking for trouble, hence no-one wants to do it.

The trouble with Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa is that most of these countries are teetering on the brink of being either hopelessly corrupt or just failed states (think Zimbabwe etc., was the bread basket of Africa and prosperous until Mugabe took over)... even South Africa is getting there after years of mismanagement, especially under Zuma, and you have political parties becoming popular led by dangerous racists like Julius Melena etc. Don't get me wrong, much of Africa is stunning, probably is party/nightlife central, and reasonaly priced... but politically stable and safe? No way for anyone really and crime is out of control in many places... just the MSM refuse to report on it as it doesn't fit their agenda.

China's MO is anything we can't buy, we will steal through espionage or coersion. Hiring ethnic Chinese scientists is dumb as if they have relatives anywhere in China, then the CCP will just threaten/detain them until the scientist gets onboard and does its bidding. Reseach labs in the West need to be much more wary and security-minded... the Chinese are sly and sneaky.

Well, that's a prize for Moscow, hence why it goes to very long lengths to garrison and supply the area known as Transnistria, a Russian enclave in Moldova. This place is one of the gaps in geography that allows access to the Russian interior or steppes and anywhere you can drive a division of tanks through, the Kremlin wants control over. That's what this Russian aggression is all about, the access points to the Russian space... there are 7 of them, and when the Soviet Union was around, they controled all of them, but when it fell they lost control of most of them. This is why we have had the Chechen/Georgian wars because that is one access point that Russia has been historically attacked from, Moldova is another gap but is on the other side of Ukraine, Poland and the Silwalki Gap to Kalinningrad is another, Estonia and the Baltics are more. Russia is paranoid about this and wants natural barriers as defence (which are offered next to these gaps when you check the geography), then can just plonk a division or so in the gaps, and ta-da, it's fixed. When you look back through history, the Russian steppes have all been invaded through these access points, from the Ottoman Empire to the Nazis etc. That's what they really want and why they are so pissed that Nato has expanded so far as it places some of these gap out of reach (and Putin wants to roll things back to the Soviet times). This should explain their paranoia about security... all about these strategic points/access gaps.

What you have to understand is what Putin wants, and that is the access points to the Russian interior that facilitate invasion, there are 7 of them... and Moldova is one of then, hence why Putin wants to go through Ukraine. There is another in the Causcuses, hence the Chechen/Georgia wars, another in the Baltics like Poland and Silwaki gap/Estonia etc. During the Soviet time they controleed all of these places that you could drive an invasion force through, but lost them when the Soviet Union collapsed... why do you think the Russians are so interested in Trandsniestria and has troops there? It's all about securing these points and the Russians want the natural mountain barriers alongside them as defences, all they have to do is put a division in the gaps and good to go. Look at how easy historically it has been to invade Russia once you get to the vast open steppes etc... they don't like that.

Not worth it.

On page 2 of this thread, I mentioned that the only way I can make sense of this is if the Kremlin has some serious dirt on Trump that could bring him down. Today, whilst drifting through many different media sources, I came across this article (yes, I know, the DM), but it goes down the same avenue I was suggesting with much more detail... and in Russian they call it "Kompromat", worth a read if interested. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14416393/Why-Trump-putty-Putins-hands-Rumours-Russian-kompromat-dismissed-fake-news-president-real-reason-hes-cosying-Putin.html

Not big deal, even if it hit, then places like India or Kenya etc. could lose tens of millions and barely even notice it.