Patong2021

I again thank myself for leaving Patong.

At 2ndary screening for some high risk individuals, otherwise for 99% of people, NO.

Not a question of love, but of being fair, and recognizing that much of what he is blamed for is neither merited nor supported by the data for that period. No, PM Blair did not open the door to mass migration. On the contrary, it was the gross incompetence, the ineptidute of successive Conservative administrations coupled with crippling court rulings since 2010 that have rendered the UK immigration policy a farce. Chemical weapons ordinance continues to be found up until this time. Some of it is left over from the first Fulf war, others are from depots that were previously unidentified. So yes there is chemical warfare ordinance to be found in Iraq. This is well documented. Yes, yellow cake Uranium that can be used in dirty bombs was discovered and disposed of by the US government in 2008. The resulting mess is a reflection of the Arabs themselves. When Europe was liberated from the brutal dictatorship first from the Nazis and then from Soviet barbarism it fluorished and did not descend into chaos. When South Korea and many latin American countries rid themselves off military dictatorships, ofen after civil wars, they evolved into functiong free states. The Arabs have to take responsibility for their own hatreds and feuds. Also, the undeniable fact is that a large part of Iraq's mess today is because of Iran and its promotion of sectarian strife turning shiite against sunni. Yes, my comment on the risks facing military personnel speaks volumes about me. Don't join the military if you do not expect to face risk and to have the potential to be injured or die. The military is not a holiday camp.This has been impressed upon me by successive generations of family members who volunteered for active service and it was made clear to me at OTC. What do you think the military is? A place to ride around in big vehicles and to play with things that go boom? Everyone who serves knows the risks and also knows that their life has value and will be valued. That's why safety protocols are repeatedly drilled into personnel. More people die in vehicle accidents and from general health related conditions than battle injuries. There were a total of 135 combat mortalities in Iraq since 1984. That's 40 years and multiple actions, some of which predate and occur after Blair. In any given year there are 60-75 deaths in the UK military. In 2023 there were 73 deaths. The three leading causes of death in 2023 among the UK regular armed forces were cancers (25%), other accidents (22%), and land transport accidents (16%). Even suicide, which is problem with young people today is at a lower rate in the military than it is in the general population. Do we blame PM Thatcher for the loss of 255 personnel in the liberation of the Falklands? Some do, but I do not.

The thread reads like a discourse on the merits of enemas. The mentally ill collective. I have only put one name on ignore, Gamma, as its content of nonsense was just so annoying and idiotic that it caused me to log off. The reality of Covid. It killed off multiple members and caused many others to go home. I still can't believe that we lived through that horrific event. I remember Keene's mustard from my childhood. It was real mustard. Not like the watery yellow coloured Heinz stuff we see today.

Your unit is more exposed to weather damage. The winds off the ocean during a storm can be intense. Nothing says fun like debris crashing into the windows.

And a most unpleasant way to celebrate Christmas for the deceased's survivors.

Tales from a world I have never seen, nor experienced. And one I do not wish too. This is just so low end and hillbilly.

Nice way to spark a civil war. The reality is that Trump won the election and the people have spoken. They can speak again in 2 years and vote to give the Democrats control of the House and Senate. Then they can impeach him.

President Biden is being Presidential. This is how Obama behaved after Trump won his election. It is not how Trump behaved after he lost his election. It is an exercise in showing someone how to do the right thing.

Not on one operative's information, but on a long history of Iraqi use of poison gas, chemical agents, torture and a nuclear R&D infrastructure. What we see now is a campaign of disinformation and misrepresentation driven by a political agenda. You hate Blair, so you come up with an interpretation of events that supports your bias. Blair was a very thoughtful and morally circumspect man. He was given to over consideration of moral outcomes, and agonized over the decision to support the USA. It was not a decision taken in isolation, and relied heavily upon pressure from Gulf Arabs. Iraq was the nation which had previously invaded Kuwait and ruthlessly looted the nation. It had not reformed. Your concern for dead service people would be touching if it was not so insincere. All military personnel were volunteers. They all knew that there was the potential to die when they enlisted. People die in service. That's part of the reality. Militaries are not NGO's nor conveyances of good tidings. The reaity is that the removal of the Baathist tyranny, liberated the Iraqi people from a regime which tortured, raped, sodomized, and brutalized it's own people. It singled out ethnic Iraqis such as the Marsh Arabs and Kurds for ethnic genocide. Hundreds of thousands of them died at the hands of the Hussein regime, and one never heard a word of condemnation from the likes of Corbyn, Galloway, Abbott and others.

With that logic, why limit yourself to one gender. You should try all of them.

Waiting for my friend then we are off to the fish strip at the night market in Hua Hin for seafood. I am craving a grilled fish.

I expect that the impeachment process will start next midterms once the Democrats win back control of House and Senate.

Thatis one heck of a dad joke.

And for all that you write, you have no data, just specuation. Until the economic results are there, one can not claim a failure occurred. In respect to your example from Pimlico Plumbers, the man has been whinging for years. He was so patriotic that he sold his business to US VC fund KKR sometime ago, didn't he? More recently his firm lost a key case where it tried to keep tradespeople from their earned vacation wages. https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/pimlico-plumbers-loses-landmark-uk-holiday-pay-case. Hardly the type of person who can is taking care of his workers is he?

The fact was that there were biological compounds intended to be used in weapons. The invasion forced the Iraqis to destroy them before the. Coalition forces arrived. Yellow cake uranium was discovered and documented. Iraq had a stockpile of chemical weapons and had been used against Iran and the Kurds. Yes, there had been some destruction of the stockpiles, but Iraq refused to confirm that it would no longer use them. On the contrary, the Iraqis were given to boasting of their capability to use them. It is easy in hindsight to condemn the conclusion that there were WMD, but it was a fair conclusion based upon the previous Iraqi use of WMD and ongoing R&D.

It is reported that Musk made sure that the restrictions that would impact his China investments were stripped from the legislation.

I was expecting you to include a penis, without a noticeable adam's apple or big shoulders while you were at it. What about child bearing type hips? A flat head to balance your plate of crisps and Leo?

Let's see if Iran can buy him off. He had to fight Iran, Russia and Hezbollah to get rid of Assad. Arabs carry vendettas for generations. In the region, their loyalties can be purchased. Other times they cannot be.

The lively atmosphere and friendly interactions among passengers turned the flight into an unforgettable adventure. Creative revisionism at its finest. I expect it was more like; The shouting and alcohol induced chaos of the cabin turned the flight into an unpleasant experience for those who did not wish to experience the lower caste Surat lifestyle. Why would anyone want to promote this embarrassing event? It's like celebrating the drunkards on the Ryanair flights to Ibiza.

UK was still a signatory to the Treaty. Leaving EU did not abrogate the UK obligations under the treaty. Nonsense. A barrister and/or solicitor is expected to represent the best interests of their client. In government policy, a government must decide based upon the impact the law will have on national interest and the potential for harm to UK nationals. Sometimes a bad outcome is accepted if it prevents a precedent being set that could harm UK national interest of government policy. Sometimes the decision is made for political reasons to placate important voter blocks. In this case, the government is obliged to respect the ruling because of its being a treaty participant. Conservative government could have given notice of leaving the treaty, but did not.

He wasn't as bad as claimed. His period marked a period of sustained prosperity for the UK unseen in previous Conservative administrations. The UK’s performance was pretty good during the Blair era. The UK’s growth of GDP per capita – 1.42% a year between 1997 and 2010 – was better than in any of the other “G6” countries: Germany (1.26%), the US (1.22%), France (1.04%), Japan (0.52%) and Italy (0.22%). in 2010, the UK had a level of GDP per capita 17% higher than in 1997; over the same period US GDP per capita had grown by 14%. The UK‟s high GDP per capita growth was driven by strong growth in productivity (GDP per hour), which was second only to the US, and good performance in the jobs market (which was better than in the US). The UK‟s relative economic performance appears even stronger in the years prior to 2008 before the Great Recession engulfed the developed world. Source: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/uk-growth-and-productivity-1997-to-2008/ And yes, part of the initial success was due to the great Maggie Thatcher's rescue of the UK economy. However, it took a solid Bank of England performance and a responsible fiscal policy to ensure the long term success that the Blair administration delivered. Most of Blair's detractors are from the Jeremy Corbyn school of chaos who hate Blair for some of his administration's foreign policy decisions. The Blair fiscal policies were far more responsible and conservative than the idiocy that characterized successive Conservative administrations that followed.

If you hate Israel, just say that. No need to try and cover with nonsensical claims of being beholden to Israel. It is a well documented fact that the UK has more money invested in the Arab world than it does in Israel, and that the UK financial system, particularly its London bankers' prosperity is very much dependent upon Gulf financial interests.

Do you have any data to back up these claims? I am no fan of the Labour fiscal policies, but Labour was given a mandate to manage the economy as per the Labour economic platform which was well documented as being what I would term as F-ed up craziness. Who are the wealth creators who have fled and how much has it actually cost the UK economy. I offer that there are not many and that most if not all were already engaged in an aggressive tax minimization strategy. Maybe the UK needs to get really bad before it can get better because the UK electorate are so stupid and selfish that unless they feel real pain they won't think things through. Most of the loudest complainers are financial parasites. The UK is a nation of mob rule where taking a handout is the norm. In FYE 2023, 52.6% of all UK individuals were net recipients (living in households receiving more in benefits than they paid in taxes). That's a rather disgusting statistic and a rather grim reality for the UK. Laziness and ineptitude is rewarded. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/19/more-than-half-of-britain-receives-more-in-benefits/

I have a feeling that the sanctions are being felt in Russia now, even with the wealthy. The Russians I am seeing in Hua Hin are some of the nastiest, meanest scowling group I have seen in years. Gone are the young friendly under 30's. It's the government appartchiks and military people type. Cheap and angry at everyone. Last night I am out for dinner with my friends, and this Russian guy is staring at us in disgust the entire meal, just looking like he wants to start a fight. Never experienced that before. There are not as many in Hua hin compared to previous years, and they seem a lot more antagonistic and lower income. The other day, I see a Russian buying a beer with his family at 7-11. He goes outside, scorfs it down and then goes back to buy another, like real low class mongrel behaviour. Never ever have I seen a Russian act like that previously. They were always quiet, and kept to themselves. Unlike last year at this time, I don't see the Russians in the higher end restaurants anymore. I do see them at the food courts and the open market stalls more frequently.