MicroB

Aging in this photo

Would you sell your mother?

Someone going to tell JAG? I think you meant 57 million baht or HK $.

$1m is about what it took for the British to get Benedict Arnold to become a traitor. Ames took $2.5m to become a traitor. By the sounds of it, most Americans, at least those living in Thailand, would quite happily become a Mao suit wearing, little red booking waving member of the Red Army for price of an apartment in London. They must need the money it seems. How much do they want to perform in a donkey show? $20 should cover it. They won't be the donkey. Greenland since 2009 has Home Rule. They voted to have legislation where they retain full voting rights in the Danish Parliament. For independance, they need to hold a referendum, securing 66% of the vote, AND secure the support of the Danish Parliament. The Referendum will not be a Yes/No question, because the choices are 4-fold; stay with Denmark with voting rights, become an independent state with full voting rights, become a vassal state of the US with no voting rights (aka unincorporated territory) or become a state with full voting rights. Not only that, you have the issue of overcoming the 1917 Treaty between the US and Denmark, where it was agreed to give the United Kingdom the right of first refusal if the question of sovereignty ever came up. So you have to come up with a number for 66% of Greenlanders to go to the grave as traitors. Everyone has a price. For Americans, the price to become a raging member of the Red Hoard is $1m. Plus you have to bribe the Danish Parliamnet. then bribe the UK. Someone in the forum thinks $1000,000x56,000= $56,000,000. Not really. $56 billion not $56 million. And thats not including getting anything out of the ground. And then you find out the consultants bigged up the numbers. The global market for rare earths is about $4 billion. Its going to rise to about $8 billion in 10 years time. This is what Amazon spends on its Cloud computing services. The 2035 Rare Earths market in 10 years time will be worth about the same as the combined angle grinder and door bell market. Rare earth metals are not rare. This illustrates the sheer financial idiocy of those suggesting paying Greenlanders $1million. They are so much smitten with American Lebensraum, they forget America is a capitalist nation with corporations. They forget that Greenland sells mining licences. They forget that its public British and American mining companies who hold these licences. They forget that companies acquire other companies all the time.

Or Canadian ports to do rather well offloading those Chinese built container ships, then for the load to be trucked to railheads into the US. Won't avoid tariffs, but certainly avoids the barmy ship fees. Seattle will lose out, and it might finish off Tacoma as a viable port.

How can the US afford a military, nuclear weapons, space exploration etc when it has homeless and starving people. What benefits were there to the US by sending someone to the moon? I think it can be argued that the NASA programme has brought immense benefits to the US economy in a way that, say, if Russia landed on the moon, would not exist. Much of the India space program is aimed at better communications and better weather forecasting, vital if it wants to be independant of the 3 super powers. Why does the UK need FDI? Its a rich country. It doesn't need American, Japanese, German, Korean money... Why did the UK need American help in 1941. It ran an entire empire, outnumbering Germany. Why does the US need UK help, through the Chagos, Ascension, Menwith Hill etc. When the UK entered India, I believe India, in terms of GDP, was the richest spot on the planet. We robbed it. The UK gives overseas aid for the same reason you pop money in the tin for that Poppy. To derive a benefit. Aid doesn't go to the Indian government. The Indian government funds its space program. Aid, as you call it, goes to Indian companies and NGOs. Given that, and the UK has economic problems, do you believe that government should seize the assets of all charities, and foreign investments into companies, because this is money that the government should be using to fix problems. If there are no charities, then taxes can be raised. Mony to India creates jobs in the UK. Between 2016 and 2021, £2.3 bn went to India. £1bn of that is in investments in business, with a health return on that investment. A lot goes to churches, so nothing to do with the UK government, but maybe you are a atheist or muslim. Others goes to NGOs, which, if you are not sure what that stands for, means Non-Governmental Organisation. In India, these NGOs act to primarily promote British government policies, such as the freedom to train and recruit doctors in India exclusively for the UK. The Indian government's view has been to try and ban foreign interferance in Indian NGOs, but in a lawful manner. British organisations are constantly looking to get around this. But they are using your precious money. Your view, that's been fed to you, is that money goes to India out of generosity. The Indian view is different; they see it as a legacy of colonialism, and the British trying to impose their will on India. The truth, as ever, is somewhere in between. And £2.3bn is about 0.066% of Indian GDP. Its very little, but MPs like to scream how big it is, to makke out the UK matters. The current government is justifying its effective shuttering of the independant school sector, because it will raise £1.5 billion. Which sounds like a very very big number to dimwits, But it will barely cover half a teacher per school. Mere theatre played out to get you angry and agitated, and voting for them. Same as the idiots who believed £350m per week to the NHS.

I regularly work in India. The changes in the last 10 years are quite significant, but there is still enormous levels of poverty. The caste system entrenches this. Britain could have left India in 1947 at the same level of economic development as Australia and Canada. I would say development in India does not proceed in the same way as the West. There are leaps and bounds. 10 years ago, my driver would be in a battered Indica (a surprisingly robust little car, that can take a beating), in a sea of mostly motorbikes. Now, he drives a smart looking Toyota SUV. There are still a lot of motorbikes, but now the cars are new, and increasingly prestige brands. The taxi rank at the airport are no longer Ambassadors (though, I haven't seen one of these for 10 years now), but rows of new electric MGs. The monorail that looked for years like a shonky bit of half finished crumbling concrete, is now looking quite 21st Century. But the buses are still heaps, there are still cows in the roads, and the pariah dogs look unhealthily skinny, unlike the fat soi dogs. The key metric for India though is the rate of urbanisation. In the west, about 85-90% of us like in cities and towns. Chian is about 30% now. In 10 years time, China will be about 80% urban. India is also about 30% urban. In 10 years time, they will still be 30% urban. What that means is that 70% of the population still don't have access to modern amentities we take for granted, like a hospital. I suspect its largely unsolveable.

But, America and the UK both have serious problems with homelessness, and even pockets of malnutrition among kids. Grannies lie on trollies in hospital corridors. Ex-soldiers apparently living like tramps selling matches on street corders. We have all these Indian doctors and nurses taking care of our sick. Using this logic, should the MOD and DoD be defunded until all these issues are sorted out? Close down NASA, quit subsidising SpaceX etc. Its about soft power. The Indian government told us to stop sending them aid in 2015. Aid goes to India, but not to the government. But about 45% of that "aid" is actually investments in Indian industry. I suppose the UK also sends aid to the US on the same basis.

https://economynext.com/pakistan-and-india-have-been-fighting-for-centuries-trump-claims-219406/#modal-one If you think about it, America has been fighting for almost 2000 years. 1981 years to be precise, maybe longer, depending on what kind of American you are (measuring from Claudius, and what he did). Dramatic representation of English-speaking proto-Americans fighting circa 180AD. I hope it's actually not the case that America had only "just heard about it", but in fact had been monitoring and anticipating Indian preparations for weeks, because isn't that's what Space Force is for?

Tackiness grinds my gears. On top of turning the Oval Office into a golden boudoir, it seems the golden accessories come from Chyna, tariff paid. As the Miami Russki says, Gold is Best.

https://news.sky.com/story/pete-hegseths-order-to-cancel-weapons-to-ukraine-caught-white-house-off-guard-says-report-13362950 Sounds like a "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" style of government (famously, when Kin Henry II muttered these words, 4 knights took that as a direct order to murder Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The knights, realising afterwards they had screwed up, went on the lam to Scotland).

LEATHILITY? A marine in drag

I thought it was Kylie and Jean Claude

A well developed national grid with lots of reduncancies. The RuAF has been pretty absent. Russian pilots get 120-140 flying hours a year. USAF piilots- 300-400 hours a year. RAF is similar; 360-400 hours. Armee de l'Air and the Luftwaffe barely make the NATO minimum standard of 180 hours a year. https://www.japcc.org/articles/russian-air-forces-performance-in-ukraine-air-operations-the-fall-of-a-myth/

What, 100 years ago? The Dirty Harry series was set in San Francisco, and was all about Harry Callahagn cleaning up scumbags from a crime ridden city over 50 years ago.

Details emerging of Ukraine's Sidewinder-armed drone boat that shot down a SU-30. A reminder that when the USSR fell apart under the weight of its own oppression, the brains behind Soviet defence lay in Ukraine. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/05/first-image-of-ukraines-sidewinder-armed-magura-v7-surface-drone/

Modebadze is also a Georgian name. I wonder if the deceased 47 year old Israeli is the same as the 47 year old form Olympian Aleksi Modebadze Another Modebadze, also a former wrestler, was murdered in 2016 https://dfwatch.net/former-georgian-mp-shot-dead-in-kakheti-44355 The usual profile of an illegal immigrant is a younger man; they have more drive, and are predisposed to taking most risk (its a medical fact; as men age, we become more risk averse, an evolutionary response to avoiding being the aging Alpha male getting killed by the young cubs). The suspects are aged 38 to 52. LAPD report the suspects were found with $60k in cash, and firearms. They also report they had prior business dealings with the deceased/ https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-02/valley-killings-911-calls-response-investigation Post Soviet blood feuds being settled perhaps. The headline of "Israeli businessman" is a red herring. His naturalized citizenship was nothing to do with his death. This is organised crime at work. The 3 men were probably thugs back home. What the US has to accept is that its organised criminal gangs, that include Americans, facilitating most of this. The President knows all about this. https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2019/09/trumps-mob-connections/176871/ He repeatedly accuses other countries being complicit in illegal immigration, when in fact the most troubling part of illegal immigration, the thugs, is facilitated by home grown American organised crime. Its easy to round up illegal immigrants who's only motivation is to find work for their families. Its a lot harder to round up the real criminals. Actually, there is one country deeply embedded with organised crime, Russia. https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Mark-Galeotti-Gangsters-at-war-Russias-use-of-organized-crime-as-an-instrument-of-statecraft-GI-TOC-November-2024.pdf

Construction is his world. He knows all the best people where the money should go to. He used to buy concrete from Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. He understands how to grease the right palms. Before, he had to work with the Mafia to get Trump Tower built. Now, he needs to make sure those who bankrolled his bid for the Presidency are rewarded. Waiting to see where the federal pillow contract goes to.

Money? It is all about the money.The US government has lots of money to dole out to industry, to bring the prison up to spec. Of course , it doesn't mean there is a long term future for the new prison. The construction companies landing the contract, through some sort of bidding process, aren't responsible for that.

Swamp News: https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/45029383/trump-names-rudy-giuliani-son-2026-world-cup-task-force-leader

The US Government steps up spying activities in Greenland. The US government is spying on NATO allies as part of a plan of conquest. https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-spying-us-intelligence-809c4ef2

Kleptocracy or croneyism? https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/05/nih-cronyism/682713/ And when you cancel other research grants, you are not saving money, but wasting it. 477 NIH grants were canceled. These grants represented $2.8 billion in committed investment. More than half of the pot had been spent. To save $1.3 billion, $1.5 billion was thrown away. Yes, thrown away, the research is all for nought, Well, maybe not quite, because the research would have generated an army of now out of work scientists with $1.5 billion's worth of Know How, and they could take that Know How and offer their services in Germany or the UK Biotech Triangle. Someone investing in the FTSE100, probably not an American, will now benefit from that US Largesse of 2-3 years ago.

Now at war. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwyneele13qt Restraint these days includes launching ballistic missiles at a neighbour.

US deleting evidence of Russian War Crimes. The Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Lab has compiled of the thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children sent to Belarus for re-education. Funding for the Yale HHL has been terminated and its feared the evidence collected to date has been destroyed. https://d12t4t5x3vyizu.cloudfront.net/landsman.house.gov/uploads/2025/03/Landsman-Ukrainian-Children-Letter-Final.pdf

Taste, or a lack of it, can grind gears. His gaff Every President redecorates the Oval office https://www.ahs.com/home-matters/lifestyle/the-evolution-of-the-oval-office-decor/ The 47th President has gone a bit mad with the gold leaf https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/trumps-tacky-gold-plated-oval-35163585