Donga

The lack of historical understanding over the centuries and decades as well as ignoring Hamas barbarism, strategies is both breathtaking and dangerous. I’m not Jewish. 

18 hours ago, Srikcir said:

The UN didn't have stewardship over Gaza. The King of Jordon did but ignored by Netanhayu and former POTUS  Trump.

UNRWA provided the school systems, and the teachers that presided over decades of Israeli hate teachings. They knew of the tunnels, turned a blind eye to Hamas thuggery. They would have known of the command centres under and around the schools. It's a disgrace, and high time the western world reigned in the left wing excesses of this failed organisation.

Firstly, would posters cease stating MFP "won the elections" or attracted "majority of votes" as both are false. Btw, my large Thai family and I were supporters and still hope the reforms will come.

MFP gained around one third of the vote, and had the opportunity to lead an alliance. However they were the only party which made a big deal about lese majeste. Consequently they were unable to form government as were unwilling to modify their stance. That gave Pheu Thai the chance to snatch the reigns of power. Even my family, who were mostly pro MFP, were not so anti monarchy, as many have very fond memories of the last king.

So please let's not hear any more about MFP majority vote and won elections etc, unless you can show data to support. That they've been banned is bloody annoying, but such things happen here and around the world. Expect MFP will reform under a new banner to continue where they left off in the next election.

Secondly, how does the UN justify their righteous views about Thai democracy after decades of enabling Hamas to lead the Gazans into such destructive, vindictive, anti-democratic, anti-human rights misery. Shame on the UN and the UNRWA for their pathetic stewardship and outright hypocrisy. 

1 hour ago, WDSmart said:

An example of "extreme right-wing, Neo-fascist diatribe" is Turmp's threats to use the executive and judicial branches of government to "go after" his legislative branch political opponents and, of course, his claim that he will be a "dictator" on day one of his presidency.  

The attempt to "preserve their culture" is also an example of an extreme right-wing goal. Left-wingers, like me, are not only open to evolving their culture by welcoming immigrants but encouraging it.

I agree with you somewhat that "the left ...has lost its way," but that is because of the tremendous pressure it's being put under by Trump and his extreme-right, MAGA supporters. But it is my hope that the left will continue to have influence, like an expansion of inclusiveness and  "wokeness," in our schools and universities and will continue to expand our government programs until we truly have a country who's economy is based on democratic socialism, not plutocratic capitalism.

Trump to be a dictator, really? Even if he said it, chill. Biden said to "put a bullseye on Trump", but don't believe he meant it literally. As regards going after political opponents, Trump only be doing what this shower has spent so much $s and effort on. So silly as Dems don't even get that most people can see the abuse and Trump increases his lead. 42 counts of felony for paying someone (42 installments) to keep quiet - really. I liked Clinton, but his misdemeanor was far worse.

I love immigration - and the benefits, especially in Australia, are apparent. My grandfather was a Russian refugee, from a refugee camp. However immigration dictated by illegal people smugglers is abhorrent and should not be encouraged. Multi billion $ industry run by criminal networks, which crudely plonk anyone who can pay into a new country. You'd have to be very biased, like a bloody NGO haha, not to see the problems this is presenting in various countries of Europe.

Evolving culture - does that include female circumcision? Religious rule of law? Girls prohibited to play sport? No gay marriage? Do Americans want 8 million new immigrants, not properly screened, into their country. Why is Biden trying to reduce immigration now?

The problem with democratic socialism is it invariably ends in tears. Not saying the existing OECD model is perfect and some of the injustices can be addressed bit by bit, but don't kid yourself with democratic socialism. Please give me a good example in today's world. Norway comes close, but who knows what the country would be like without North Sea oil. Taxes invariably get wasted by bloated bureaucracies and bodies like UN (headed up by a previously global socialist leader) and WHO make outrageous decisions which upset many sensible, law abiding people. Responsible capitalism is the way to go and I appreciate the devil in the detail as to how you maximise the responsible bit. Reality is most people like capitalism and it is delightful to see how it works in Asia.

To think our schools and universities will pave the way to Utopia is romantic, but won't happen. Not enough proper debate anymore, group think, tribal symbolism, lazy in proper research, (like colonialism only started with shipping in the industrial age), surprisingly "poorly" educated in terms of independent thinking and basic logic & methodology.

What we urgently need is objective journalism, that actually challenges the narratives, instead of trying to compete with mongrel, social media click baits or constant doom and gloom stories.

Pity there isn't a brief bullet point summary. These guys talk too much 😅

18 hours ago, Donga said:

Love the way Mainstream media has portrayed the 2nd round as a "lurch to the left" and ignores that New National Front won far more seats than last time and scored the highest number of overall votes of any party this time.

Also, how MSM refer to "far right" - what policies deem they are far right? Like applying the law for illegal immigration is now far right? NPF are nothing like the KKK, nor screwed up on Palestine, and have more sensible economic policies than the Far Left.

Meloni was also cast as far right, so too Orban, and now they are becoming senior leaders of Europe.

Macron would be better ignoring Mélenchon, his party and policies being far less popular than NPF, and try to grab a coalition with Le Pen. She is likely to win the Presidential race after all, especially if France gets a taste of what the Far Left has in mind.

Apologies, in my post I mixed up NPF for the right wing RN National Rally. RN 37% attracted nearly 50% more votes than the hastily formed left group of four parties, NFP 26%, even if RN didn't win as many seats as NFP did. RN won a lot more seats 142, than their 89 seats in 2022 and National Rally NR attracted ted four times the votes that loud mouth far left Melenchon's France Unbowed, more like Unhinged 😅 https://www.politico.eu/article/france-election-results-2024-map-constituencies-emmanuel-macron-marine-le-pen-live-new-popular-front-national-rally/

Good to see Macron today has ruled out working with Melenchon and hope France can move forward peacefully.

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

You lost me when you called the activists extremist, claimed Exxon keeps the world moving and the Exxon research was meaningless.

Didn't say it was meaningless. Btw do you drive a car? Does it keep you moving? Most of the 8 billion people on the planet with drive a car, travel as a passenger or use a motor bike.
 

If you walk or cycle everywhere, that’s great but unfortunately most serious commercial transport uses oil for fuel.
 

Without it the world economy goes back to pre industrial times. 

Love the way Mainstream media has portrayed the 2nd round as a "lurch to the left" and ignores that New National Front won far more seats than last time and scored the highest number of overall votes of any party this time.

Also, how MSM refer to "far right" - what policies deem they are far right? Like applying the law for illegal immigration is now far right? NPF are nothing like the KKK, nor screwed up on Palestine, and have more sensible economic policies than the Far Left.

Meloni was also cast as far right, so too Orban, and now they are becoming senior leaders of Europe.

Macron would be better ignoring Mélenchon, his party and policies being far less popular than NPF, and try to grab a coalition with Le Pen. She is likely to win the Presidential race after all, especially if France gets a taste of what the Far Left has in mind.

13 hours ago, placeholder said:

I think a pretty good case could be made against Exxon:

ExxonMobil: Oil giant predicted climate change in 1970s - scientists

One of the world's largest oil companies accurately forecast how climate change would cause global temperature to rise as long ago as the 1970s, researchers claim.

ExxonMobil's private research predicted how burning fossil fuels would warm the planet but the company publicly denied the link, they suggest.

The academics analysed data in the company's internal documents.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64241994

 

The Heartland Institute

The Heartland Institute is a free market think tank at the forefront of denying manmade climate change...

From 1997-2006, the Heartland Institute received at least $686,500 from ExxonMobil- $140,000 of which were specifically earmarked for climate change programs in disclosure reports by the corporation.
Heartland has received over 21 million dollars from Donors Trust and Donors Capital Funds.  Both organizations are conservative nonprofits that advertise the ability to anonymously give by moving grant money through them.

https://climateinvestigations.org/heartland-institute/

 

It’s been seven years since journalists first revealed Exxon Mobil Corp.’s decadeslong efforts to undermine the scientific certainty around climate change, despite knowing how serious a problem it was.
Now, a new analysis demonstrates exactly how much the company knew — and how its public disinformation campaigns sabotaged the warnings of its own scientists

https://archive.ph/D83vs#selection-771.0-775.157

That's fine, so then the extremist Green groups, and left wing NGOs can start suing individuals for driving oil fueled vehicles? Exxon doesn't drill for the fun of it. It keeps the world moving as EVs evolve.

Very few people rely on Exxon for the their views about climate change.

Meanwhile Greens, NGOs and mainstream media have consistently lied about the folly of relying too much on renewable energy. Even when anyone with half a brain can see what carnage it has brought Germany, and increased energy prices in so many countries. They twist data to show how much renewable energy is being used vs idle capacity, e.g. China. They persist in terming the burning of US imported wood chips, "renewable biomass energy", exaggerate the risks of nuclear energy (2 died from radiation in Fukushima), even deceive about polar bears haha. They overstate the capabilities of battery technology while largely ignoring why OECD, IEA, WEF state, and even UNIPCC let's it slip occasionally, that emission targets have no chance of being met without a substantial increase in nuclear energy plants.

With all the ongoing deceit and falsehoods ad nauseam, some from supposed scientists - the more extreme in views, the better for mainstream news - you really think Exxon is the big bad wolf?

Santos in Australia recently won a landmark decision in the High Court over Indigenous claims of sacred sea beds for their mega LNG offshore project. The judge castigated the federal government funded Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) for their lack of transparency and general strategy. Santos is now going to sue some of the antagonists for the substantial costs in delay that their case caused. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/santos-wins-court-battle-on-edo-funding-quest-20240704-p5jr5b

These groups need to be very careful of their activism at a time when the world needs gas for the transition to low carbon energy. As usual The Greens and their useful idiots are either very naive and/or hypocritical.

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

Selective quoting much. This is also from the 6th IPCC report:

 

Fire activity depends on weather, ignition sources, land management practices and fuel flammability, availability and continuity (Bradstock et al., 2014). Increased fire activity in southeast Australia associated with climate change has been observed since 1950 (Abram et al., 2021), though trends vary regionally (medium confidence) (Bradstock et al., 2014). In New Zealand, there has been an increased frequency of major wildfires in plantations (FENZ, 2018) and at the rural–urban interface (medium confidence) (Pearce, 2018). 

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/chapter-11/#:~:text=Our regional climate is changing,western New Zealand%2C more extreme

 

 Increased winter rainfall is projected over Tasmania, with decreased rainfall in southwestern Victoria in autumn and in western Tasmania in summer, fewer tropical cyclones with a greater proportion of severe cyclones and decreased soil moisture in the north (medium confidence). 

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/chapter-11/

So, cyclones may decrease in frequency but increase in strength.

 

Virtually no climatologists are predicting Armageddon. What denialists generally aim to do is conflate the predictions of some climate activists with the predictions of climatologists. Or they cite the double standards of various prominent people, as though this has anything to do with the science. Apparently, they believe that People magazine and similar sources are scientific journals.  That said, as the latest report of the IPCC says, the destructive effects of climate change will be far greater at 2.0 degrees average increase than 1.5. And 2.5 will be even more severe.

 

As for your claim that "Time to condemn media reporting on extreme events being caused by Climate Change...generally the media reports that climate change is making such events more likely, or more severe. But not that each and every event can be absolutely attributed to anthropogenic climate change. Which is the correct way to report the findings of attribution science.

 

Have a number problems with the plethora of Climate Change studies:

1. They usually fail to provide context or historical comparisons
2. They invariably conclude even more studies are required
3. It is a huge industry of usually government (inc university) sponsored studies which does discourages funding for scientists who might contradict the doomsday scenarios.

Mainstream media is very selective in what they publish and do tend to overstate the extreme weather events being caused by climate change, and data that contradicts their narrative e.g. ignoring most recent Great Barrier Reef condition which you might research, i.e. GBR is in good condition, which Prof Peter Ridd summarises in 90 seconds, see below. This summary has been somewhat confirmed begrudgingly by the various Reef monitoring bodies. 

On Aussie fires, there is heaps of historical information over the past couple of hundred years, which is not recognised in these "scientific studies" and there are three factors which undoubtedly have exacerbated damage in more recent events:
1. Much more human habitation in fire prone areas
2. Less backburning
3. A lot more arson.

I could go on, but that's enough to help explain my frustration with extreme weather events coverage and I reiterate what the new Chairman of the IPCC said: “If you constantly communicate the message that we are all doomed to extinction, then that paralyses people and prevents them from taking the necessary steps to get a grip on climate change.”
 

4 hours ago, connda said:

I thought Thaksin was pretty well on his death-bed.  Now - miraculously - he is mediating talks with Burmese rebel groups in Thailand's name without the prime minister knowing that Thaksin is now the de-facto "ambassador" for rebel affairs between Thailand and non-government ethnic groups in Myanmar.

Amazing recovery.  Amazing Thailand.  Simply amazing! 

Plenty of ex leaders do this sort of thing, comes with the ego. Aussie, Keating embarrassingly with the Chinese foreign minister recently. Trump, Clinton, Blair, Boris J, all guilty.

And never saw Thaksin as acting in Thailand's name, just as Keating's meeting wasn't on behalf of Australia.