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But would you give an adult with Downs Syndrome the chance to clean toilets? Do you feel that Down's Syndrome adults can make any sort of meaningful contribution to society, pay their way etc, or should they be killed before birth? Or do you prefer that they become a burden to society. Are they human?

Clint Eastwood, you might was to read this document: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/Order_3930.3C_withCHG1.pdf Note, the FAA employs about 45,000. Opportunities in that organisation are wide, from toilet cleaners, binmen, janitorial staff through to the ATCs that keep you awake at night. ATCs have to meet medical requirements outlined in the document. If you sincerely think that the FAA are actively hiring mentally impaired personal, such as cretins, Down Sydrome adults, into safety critical posts, then I assume that right now you are conducting a writing campaign to your political representatives, the interim head of the FAA, and other officials, the President, every US and foreign airline with destinations in the United States, imploring them to immediately halt all air operations over the United States, including military deployment missions, because of the extreme risk to life and limb. And if you are not in the US, you are planning a placard campaign at your local embassy. If you are in the US< then you should be driving or taking a bus to the capital, to demonstrate to raise this important issue that you have uncovered. If you haven't done any of that, then clearly you are just looking for likes on an irrelevant forum created for alcohol soaked old blokes sitting in bars in the SEA moaning about women, lady boys, gays, your wife, your ex-wife, your boyfriend, your ex boyfriend, the increased costs of prostitutes. None of it matters. Refer to the section Page 25

In 2022, I thought a Putsch by the military was possible; an unecessary war with Ukraine was threatening to degrade their carefully cultivated empires just as the new professional military was emerging, with new kit genuinely comparable to the West. I thought the relative non-involvement of the Russian Air Force meant something; you would have thought the war would have been started by Russia first dominating Ukrainian airspace, removing the need for much conflict between ground forces. The airforce, even now, largely operates from Russian air space, preserving its capabilities. Compare that to 1990 and 2003, where the Western coalition utterly pulverised Iraqi ground assets from the air, resulting in a quickly concluded groundwar and routing of the enemy. I had thought that the emerging Generals of the 2020s, following decades of close observation and genuine working with their western counterparts would have left a mark. But these Generals didn't get promoted because they were good at teir jobs, but because they were loyal to the boss (a process happening in the US now). They genuinely don't care about their commands, their men. They don't care that instead of T14 Armatas, their tank crews are now using 70 year old hulls with scallding bolted to them. and that battle buses are literally that; UAZ-452 Loaf vans, with all the literal sophistication of a 1959 Ford Thames Van, are now the main mode of transport into conflict. When Wellington said his army were the Scum of the Earth (in response to a Fremch comment that French soldiers were all highly educated), it was said as a source of pride. When a Russian talks of their army, its with much fear (when they go back home). Putin has taken a hybrid-Gaddafi approach to holding power. He knows that the Russian Revolution started among the Russian military (the Imperial Russian Navy I believe), so he has created an internal network of rival militas, such as the National Guard, reporting to him, not the Defence Ministry, meaning that makes any of them too weak to overthrow him. But the Wagner Mutiny showed that internally, Russian forces were paper thin, with, ironically, only the air force under a central unified command. I wish the Russian would stand up like they did in 1991.

Its happening to both sides sadly. Part of the motivation of Putin's aggression was demographic certainty. Putin has always bewailed the loss of the Soviet Union. and it being a great tragedy. But its a Russian saying that. The reason he sees it as a great tragedy is not the loss of fraternal relationships with other Soviet people, but the fragmentation of Rus people, who are left scattered. He couldn't care less about the other peoples; they existed to serve the Russian people. He feels a sense of injustice at the end of the Cold War, and we might think, like the Versailles Agreement, there is something in that. Hitler felt great injustice with Versailles because it left Germanic peoples fragmented. Like many others before him, Putin has misjudged the winds of change, just as those misunderstood the words spoken in 1918, 1945, 1988, 1990, 2001, 2003. Whether it was the end of WW1, the defeat of Nazi of Germany, the Polish shipbuilders strikes of 1981, the 1991 collapse of the USSR, the defeat of Iraq, 911, 2003 Euromaidan, what Putin has failed to understand is that history is the product of movements, not individual people. In his positoon as an isolated autocratic ruler, he believes he wields great power, as an individual, and we see that in Russian government footage of him hectoring officials, and the basis of his supposed expertise in many areas. He thinks this is how the world is run. I suspect Trump thinks this as well, because that's how he ran his dad's companies. The United States is in the midst of a struggle between two peoples with differing visions for the US. I'm not sure how that will play out. It may well end up in a transformation of the settled status of North America, like Europe after 1918 and 1988. I wouldn't say that means a bigger US, but a different US.

It would be interesting to see how much of the Russian oil industry is dependant on Western tachnologies. How much was built or upgraded, to replace Soviet era infrastructure, and then we get a better idea how much can Russia repair. Ryazan Refinery There was a contract awarded in October 2021 with Italian contractor Maire Tecnimont to construct a vacuum gas oil hydrocracking complex, but I guess that never happened. Kstovo Refinery Maire also won a 2018 contract here: https://www.enerdata.net/publications/daily-energy-news/maire-tecnimont-upgrades-lukoils-kstovo-refinery-us527m-russia.html Chevron Lummus Global, McDermott's joint venture with Chevron, also won a 2018 contract at this plant https://www.mcdermott-investors.com/news/press-release-details/2018/McDermott-Awarded-EPC-Contract-for-Delayed-Coker-Unit-for-LUKOIL-Refinery/default.aspx Volgograd Refinery Tecnicas Reunidas (Spanish) did work in 2013-15 http://admin.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2013/02/lukoil-picks-tecnicas-reunidas-for-upgrade-project-at-volgograd-refinery/ I suspect there are a fair few people on this forum with quite a high level of understanding of the oil refining industry, maybe specifically in Russia, or can provide a general assessment. When these works are bombed/attacked, it always seems there is a lot of damage. Is this damage more superficial than it looks, or is it genuinely significant. Its probably not that much different to a fire breaking out. When damaged by fire, what sort of parts are replaced? Are parts typically "off the shelf" or custom made, fabricated For controllers and electricals/electronics; is it easy to substitute one type of part for another type of part. eg. American components switched out for Chinese/Indian parts. (not to get into a debate about quality; can they be straighforwardly subsitituted) Knowing which parts are ciritcally dependant on foreign parts would help Ukraine plan how to use drones strategically. It also wouldn't catastrophically damage the Russian Oil Industry; these aren't being degraded in a way that would utterly cripple the Russian economy post-war, which is perhaps an off-ramp for Putin's Oligarch backers who might want to stop all this nonsense coming from Putin.

For balance, since you are actively monitoring the media, what is the Eastern MSM telling you, and do you believe those reports. Are you a Russian hospital administraor or health ministry employee. Because I'm not sure how you are in any position to discount Russian losses of "thousands of troops a week". The other way I suppose is to analyse death notices placed in Russian media. I suspect you are automatically discounting any source West of Minsk, on the basis of perceived bias, and instead have built your own spreadsheet of KIAs, to effectively counter Western claims. Care to share that, to get the "truth" out, or are you only trusting of the Russian government? The same Western sources were probably compiling losses in Iraq etc that you probably seized upon immediately as the ruth,

So what religion do these WEF bankers/globalists follow? We had the same arguments from your lot 90 years ago. You change the words, but we know what you mean. Canada has no control on the people US Immigration authoraties allow to enter. You actually mean Emigration policies. America is much the same. When you enter the US, a passport officer scrutinises your paperwork, lets you in or not. When you leave, there is no contact with a passport officer. They check you have left, but the US doesn't care where it exports terrorists to. One examples of a terrorist the US let leave its country is John Crawley, a former US Marine who joined the sectarian terrorist group the IRA to murder soldiers and civilians. He got q0 years for being a terrorist. He now lives in the US profiting from his time as a terrorist by pulblishing books and charging at speaking engagements. He celebrates being a terrorist, rather than being contrite. Another, Californian, William Quinn, known in the IRA as Joe the Yankee, was part of the Balcombe Street Gang, a murderous group of cut throats who carried out at least 10 mass murder attacks in England. He got life for murdering an unarmed off-duty policeman who was bravely trying to arrest him. I could also add the well known examples of US politicians, of both parties, who have hosted in their homes and official offices terrorists. You want an example of an illegal immigrant from Canada? Elon Musk. He came in on a non-immigrant F-visa, as a student. He transferred his visa to Stanford. Didn't study a single dayn there, instead, used corrupt officials to fix it for him. Not Canada's fault they let in the Grandson of a US-born Social-Credit-Technocracy Nazi from Apartheid Sud Afrika. You are an Apologist. You are literally spouting that you want the US to overthrow the governments of the collective democratic west. No wonder we all think you elected a Russian stooge. Where does it end if we refuse to comply. You will nuke Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe?

The favourite to replace Trudeau, Mark Carney, would be interesting to listen to. Dr Carney; actual economist. Its generally said tariffs only hurt the consumer, as the increase is passed on. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 caued the Great Depression. The Great Depression allowed Hitler to come to power, and ultimately the impact of the US raising tariffs caused World War 2. But not strictly true if the consumer has a choice. That's Trump's imaginary solution. 80% of Canadian oil is exported to the US. But why does the US need Canadian or any foreign oil if it can drill baby drill. https://www.fuelstreamservices.com/why-the-u-s-cant-use-the-oil-it-produces/ For cars, its utterly dependant on imported oil, or expect sharp increases at the pump, and ultimately, in the supermarket (eg price of eggs). About 80% of medical equipment is imported, albeit made by US companies. Trump should ask his mate Putin how he got on onshoring the Russian medical industry post-2022. Russia has a lot of technical knowhow. They put a man into space first, They have nukes. They have incredible scientists. That's probably what Putin thought when he formed a panel to look at what medical equipment and medicines coud be Made In Russia Again (medicines and most medical equipments are not sanctioned, but they are now much more expensive in Russia, since 89-90% were imported). The response was not much. Its not just about know how; that will take years to develop, but in healthcare, doctors generally don't want to kill their patients with some hokey solution. A lot of politicians, East and West, don't understand this. They think its just about Will and Ingenuity. This was played out during COVID and Ventilators. With good reason. there was expected to be an increase in demand for Emergency Ventilators, only they weren't mass produced, generally only made, quite slowly, to order. We didn't have enough ventilators. So there was a worldwide, and unseemly scramble for available inventory. Anyone remember when Putin made America a gift of Russian ventilators, and other medical equipments in March 2020, to help out in New York. The President at the time thought it was a big deal, and he was very thankful. None of it made it anywhere near a US hospital. It went straight to the scrap heap. No American doctor was willing to risk their patients being hooked u to a shonky bit of kit that could actually kill them. Lots of countries had lots of people from industry to rethink how to make ventilators. In the US, Trump got GM and Ford, in a WW2 style effort make 50,000 ventilators in 100 days. In the UK, the government got the military involved, formed the "Uk Ventilator Challenge", lead by defence contractor Babcock to take the same approach as we did to Afghanistan, with "Urgent Operational Requirements", think out of the box, how to make a back to basics ventilator, war style, after thats what made the Sten gun brilliant.... James Dyson put in his awl, saying ventilator makers were idiots, and he was a genius rethinking the concept of the ventilator, in the same was he reinvented the hoover and changed how we dry our hands. Pretty sure Elon Musk pitched in. Trumpf must have loved this, all these fellow geniuses getting things done, a can do spirit. Only no one spoke to the doctors. For the same reason they didn't want Russian ventilators that catch fire anywhere near their hospitals, they didn't want ventilators screwed together by someone a week earlier who was screwing together a F150, nor a ventilator designed by a hoover maker using coke bottles and chicket wire. And this is what Putin found. Russian doctors wanted to have the same medicines as before, the same ultrasound as before, the same IVD tests as before. Not Russki knockoffs. The Healthcare supply chain is complex; I am working with certain national agencies to understand the supply chain landscape supporting their healthcare needs, using their own data that they can't understand. They were worried about the stresses revealed by COIV. They are genuinely worried about another COVID. But they are worried about the effects of Typhoons, Hurricanes and other natural weath events, and how that impacts supply. They are worried about financial failure. Did you know, there is a influenza testing device sold in the US, by a top US makers, it provides rapid and accurate testing for a battery of viruses. They assemble some of it in the US, they assemble another bit in their China subsidiary (the consumable, because they need that to be really cheap if scaling it up for population level usage). They don't know much about electronics, so they use a US contract manufacturer to design and make a reader. This CMO farms that out to its Singaporean subsidiary, who ultimately get it made in their lower wage Malaysian factory. Meanwhile, this test,, is worthless if it doesn't have reagents. Luckily, they can do that inhouse, except for the Control. Control is something to prove the test works. Its an inert derivative of the virus you are trying to detect. It can only be made in a laboratory that is growing active virus to actually quite large amounts. Its a lab that needs particular containment measures, of the sort seen at the Wuhan Virus Research Institute. This major US manufacturer sources its killed control from a little Dutch sub-contractor, from their little Dutch BS3 containment facility. The manufacturer operates with a 8% margin; it squeezes its suppliers because its responsibility is not to provide cheap tests for patients, but to provide return to its shareholders. For this US manufacturer, about 40% of volume goes to the US. It has a leading market share in the US, but is more pressured in the EU and China thanks to less strict regulatory oversight. It has to pay the tariffs. It could pass all of that onto the providers in the US, or it can try and squeeze its suppliers some more, raise prices in non-US markets. Or it might say, Fk It, the cost of business in the US is already quite high, lets reduce our exposure there, and focus of expanding market share in those fast growing markets in APAC. Revenue is revenue. With less competition in the US, prices rise, but also device/medicine efficacy falls; manufacturers have no incentive to improve things. Its US companies that have largely created the global ecosystem of trade that Trumpf rails against ("the globalists"). US sales are very important to them, or course but so are non-US sales. That proportion varies by industry. In the traditional industries, lke cars, American car makers still sell most cars to Americans, and that will always be like that. Its in the Tech industries where its very different, the same tech industry that Trumpf is pinning his hopes on with the US re-industrialization strategy. Its going to work for traditional industry. One outcome is your frying pans (skillets) will no longer be mostly Chinese, but American. They'll be more expensive, but American. But guess what, people don't use skillets so much any more. Its all about air fryers now. Tech firms have the largest proportion of revenue from outside of the US. Now Trump wants then to reshore their operations, making them less compeititive in the markets they have always existed in. He'd have to devalue the US Dollar to do that. Oh wait, he doesn't want to do that, because the USD is strong.

The US didn't go to "conquer Afghanistan". They went to support the Northern Alliance against the Taliban. They successfully instilled a Northern Alliance government. Subsequently, Afghanistan had several elections and changes of government. The USSR actually went to conquer Afghainistan in 1979, using Spetznatz to wipe out the existing presidency. Putin;s war aims were to topple the Kyiv government and take over Ukraine as a client state. During the original Russian debacle, Russian supply convoys were intercepted containing, of all things, dress uniforms, intended for a victory parade through Kyiv. Russian officers had also placed dinner reservations in the city. Among the troops captured in that invasion wave were OMON and SOBR troops. OMON is a gendarmerie in Russia, used for riot duty. Back in those days, we thought this nonsense would have been ended, because among these POWs were a pair of pretty sensible OMON officers, a grizzled Colonel (Lt. Col. Astakhov Dmitry Mikhailovich) and a wounded Major. Both were clearly police professionals, who had been deployed to Belarus with Russian troops to support an exercise, so were somewhat puzzled about what subsequently happened. Among the kit captured was OMON issue riot gear, with Russia anticipating the need to suppress civil unrest. The full plan by OMON and SOBR to decapitate Kyiv is remarkable (https://thedebrief.org/know-no-mercy-the-russian-cops-who-tried-to-storm-kyiv-by-themselves/) Putin fully intended to conquer Ukraine. You are an Apologist.

In 1941, Singapore wasn't a country. It fell after a lightening campaign by Japan through Malaya, with a bit of Thai help. It mattered not a jot that it was protected by what was then the most powerful passport in the world. At the start of WW2, the Philippines was an unincorporated territory of the United States. The Japanese kicked your arse there as well, but Thai help wasn't needed to achieve that. If I'm on a plane that's hijacked by neck cutting terrorists, there are two passports I really wouldn't want. The current state of the world is due to people like your boy. Him and they created it, and are part ocf the problem. This is what happens when you have a drift to technocracy. The so-called experts (Trump the bankrupted businessman, Putin the spook from a failed state) turned out to be complete, and this is an under used but missed word, plonkers.

So that's also your price to betray your country. Lot of cheap wannabe traitors in Thailand.

Its a 25th Amendment tactic. You remember Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Trump is Prince Ruprecht. The Art of the Grift.

$1 million is not a life changing amount of money. If you are 65 years old, it buys yiu an annuity of less than $49,000. Given the average Greenlander is wealthier than the average American, that's your price to betray your country? $1 million is all it takes you to become pro-Chinese Communist/Pro-Russian. You're cheap.

And yet the average Greenlander already gets paid more than the average American. It seems Americans should become more like Greenlanders, and so get paid more.

If a member of the Chinese Communist Party gave you a sack of $1 milion and a Mao coat, would you happily put on the Mao coat and yell "Death to the American Running Dogs"? If not, what is your pice to betray your country and country and values, because you suggest loyalty can be brought. Average income in the US is about $37,500. Average income in Greenland is about $43,500 which might surprise MAGidiots who think they are negotiating with Eskimos who can be brought off with some herring and whale blubber. Americans frequently complain about foreign ownership of US land. \

I think a forum member who supports the policy said the offer would from Trump would amount to $1 billion per inhabitant. If the Americans are offering 1 million or 1 billion per person, they are low balling. Raise it 100x and a US state or two in exchange, maybe based on area. Do a population swap. Danes and Greenlanders can go live in Florida. MAGA supporters can brave the new North East Frontier. If this is a business negotiation, then Trump's offer will be low. Denmark should counter with a high offer, meet in the middle, with the US ceding coastal territories along the Gulf of Denmark. American industry could just buy land in Greenland. Using Iceland as a proxy, the cost of a square KM of Greenland is $1.3million. Greenland is about 2.2 million square kms. Trump made back his Daddy's wealth that he squandered on hookers and gambling through property deals. He understands that. The value of Greenland, based just on the land is $2.86 trillion. I'd probably double that due to mining value. About 57,000 Greenlanders. With a fair discount, Uncle Sam owes each Greenlander $100 million.

And maybe some people didn't have their minds on the job after getting this email: https://www.opm.gov/fork The only diversity hires, if any, among ATC, will be transgenders, minorities and disabled veterans. All are required t pass strict medical tests. All are supposed to report changes in health. All have annual exams. All have to be approved by the Flight Surgeon. As said before, if he really believes that the ATCs are mostly halfwits, why isn't he using his Presidential power to order an immediate grounding of flights in the US, until all 500 ATCs undergo rigourous healthchecks? The Governor of Michigan says this. We are going to have 4 years of foot-in-mouth from this President.

Trump is the first disabled pensioner with Propecia to be elected to the Whitehouse, which makes him a sort of DEI hire. No doubt he picked up a few sympathy votes due to a scabby right ear. Trump has a physical disability, deformed feet, that precluded him from military service. So him and FDR both had physical disabilities, but FDR wasn't of pensionable age. Makes you wonder who originated these fabrications: https://www.newsweek.com/washington-dc-plane-crash-jo-ellis-trans-helicopter-pilot-wrongly-named-2024149

Except FAA policy has never been about hiring medically unfit people for ATH roles. Each ATC has be cleared by the flight surgeon. Epilepsy rules you out. As does poor eyesight and hearing. Any history of bipolar disorder will exclude you. No history of a heart attack, a cardiac valve replacement, a permanent pacemaker or a heart transplant. BP of 155/95 or less (which is a bit high). If you have had any blood alcohol test of more than 0.04 in the previous 2 years, you are fired. Its all in this document, dated 2023. https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/Order_3930.3C_withCHG1.pdf The numbskulls defending his remarks are, like him, under the impression that toilet cleaners, binmen and tealadies are getting jobs as the ATC. If he really believe that, then he has no choice but to ground US airspace, possibly for months, to purge the FAA of these one armed, Pickaninny lipped, deaf and blind, ginger haired dwarf toilet cleaners from jobs in air traffic control. The FAA employs 45,000 people, of which no more that 500 are ATCs. About 30% of ATCs are veterans, and if there are disabled ATCs he wants fired (like those in a wheel chair, or with a limb amputation, as a result of that IED in Fallujah) who he regards as losers anyhow, he should make himself plain. The bloke is a liar.

Disgusting comment given the facts that are arising, and your lack of insight what went on in the control tower. You are literally an apologist, which is different from a defender of Trumpf. Defenders will at least attempt to rationalise the President's words. Apologists react with a Knee Jerk. And like you, blame disabled people for the deaths of dozens of people. Technically Trumpf is a DEI hire; he's both elderly and disabled. That ticks a few boxes. He got a sympathy vote as well for a scabby ear. Some, like my old departed dad, reckon he has a screw loose someplace as well. The FAA employs 45,000 people, of which 500, at most, are air traffic controllers. Like any big organisation, they will have toilets that need cleaning, cafeterias that need scrubbing down, and bins that need taking out. About 30% of ATCs are veterans. If you are a disabled ATC, ie in a wheelchair, there is a good chance you lost a leg, hand, nose, through serving your country, and that you are highly proficient in your trade. We've heard the logs from the ATC. Enunciation was clear. All ATCs must be cleared by the Flight Surgeon before working. Epilepsy is a disqualifying health condition, as is poor eyesight, hearing. Their seated BP must not exceed 155/95. But I see already the anti-DEI lot are out to blame the military pilot for being a woman. He might say the name of the helicopter type is also "Woke".

I don't think they don't value human life, but look at it differently than a Westerner would. My wife gets very sad when she talks about her dead parents and dead brothers, though its about how she is an orphan now, all alone. Her older brother had apparently gone to Malaysia to work as a fisherman but came back with HIV. When I ask her what happened to him, she doesn't know, but presumes he died. A friend of hers had a a Swedish "husband". Not really a husband in the Western sense, we would probably say "partner", but to her, he was her husband, and they were together for 5 years. He went home, and died of cancer; I suspect he went home to try and get treated. Apparently he owned a house in Sweden, so I would suppose he had a bit of money, as he had a nice house in Thailand, and got his wife/girlfriend set up with a nice business inside a Tesco/Lotus complex. She's not moved on to find another western "husband". Her husband has taken care of her even in death. His siblings gave her THB500,000 from his estate, and she seemed very happy with that, though I suspect they scammed her, because if she would have been living in Sweden, she probably would have had more Rights. She has his photo, pride of place, in her lounge. And every year, gets the monks to come in to do a little ceremony. Another has a living occasional British "husband". She was a bar girl, not too bright. He's apparently a builder from Yorkshire, and says he has no money. He sends her 5000 bht a month, and banned her from bar work. He comes over, when he come, has a fine time playing pool with his mates, while she makes sure his beer is kept topped up. She really doesn't work, because I've seen her begging in the street, or helping out at the noodle stands. She pesters my wife for a job, you won't give her one, as she's no good. She's obviously hanging out for this brickie to come to Thailand to live, to take care of her, and she would take care of him. Thats a pretty simple contract. Westerners, even non-religious ones, complicate it with vows, even made up ones. The complexities of Thai parental relationships are irrelevant here; they didn't kill her. They are sad she has died. Their religion gives them solace in a way Western religions don't. We don't know what happened about Sin Sod. Did Armitage look this up, and say no, because his wife was "spoiled goods". And I don't really understand what becomes of the Parent-Daughter relationship if Sin-Sod is paid (my wife's parents are long dead). I think its not the same as for a Westerner.

Probably drunk. Recently a well known UK Youtuber posted a farewell to Thailand video with him getting leathered in a VIP lounge prior to boarding a flight home at BKK. Attracted lots of thumbs up and positive comments. Lets not pretend public urination is confined to a particular ethnicity or gender, as some of the more disgusting posts claim https://nypost.com/2024/08/23/us-news/fired-for-piss-worker-sacked-after-taking-medically-necessary-leak/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/san-diego-police-launch-investigation-after-officers-seen-repeatedly-punching-n1267323 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-27069611 https://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/25/us/san-francisco-pee-proof-paint/index.html https://www.salon.com/2023/03/30/lauren-boebert-husbands-past-comes-back-to-haunt-her-amid-public-urination-fixation-at-hearing/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyxxeg9zgxo https://n-somerset.gov.uk/news/man-prosecuted-anti-social-behaviour-weston-super-mare https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv22gp97gdno https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/05/the-war-against-wild-toileting-stop-weeing-street-urinating

It has.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-hostage-release-thai-28c08783c4fc6113632470ed5a591299 "Fair" to "Fairly good health". They will travel when the doctors clear them to travel

The good people of the EU already fund the world's largest overseas humanitarian aid budget, about $50bn a year. The USAID provided about $27 billion. Total non-military aid was about $40bn. Per capita, the US was the lowest donor in the OECD, a bit behind France, but at least ahead of Turkey, a slightly backward near-Middle Eastern nation, so a win there. There is an interesting with Trumps views of NATO being a protection racket, with member states not ponying up "enough" (some arbitrary number), with the US not ponying up in Overseas aid. Defence and overseas aid are inextricably linked. If the US, and others, had spent a relatively small sum not letting Afghanistan descend into some sort of Mad Max hellhole, 911 and the GWOT might never have happened, and 10,000 Americans (WTC, Afghanistan and Iraq dead) might still have been alive, and the US would have about $6 trillion extra in the bank. There also would be less of a refugee crisis. Arguably, if Europe reduced its aid budget, the US might see its threat level rise. A correct balance needs to be sought. "Aid" through military spending is pretty expensive. All that kit is top end. I worked for many years as a defence contractor, and saw the sums frittered away by the US and UK, driven mainly in the belief that their militaries should never have anything off the shelf, with the defence departments of both countries pouring vast sums into private enterprise to fund programmes that mostly fall by the wayside because they failed to achieve the unrealistic fag packet requirements of years earlier. At its peak, military spending in the British Empire, ruling most of the globe at the time, was about 2.5% of GDP. The British Army was about 140,000, with 70,000 at home, 30,000 in India, and the rest around the rest of the Empire. Of course, they were supplemented by good value colonial troops, which barring the odd mutiny, could be assured of keeping the restless locals in check, and provide gainful employment, maintaining Pax Britannica. Remarkably,, estimates for the Roman Empire give about 2.5% of their GDP on spending on Legions etc. Like the British, there were not that many actual Roman legionnaires. Rome cultivated armies among their vanquished, no doubt with a mixture of carrot and stick, with the carrot being money pumped into the defeated state (call it overseas aid). The stick being decimation. If you go to Hadrians Wall in England, you will see the Dacian legacy. The Dacian Cohort largely built the Wall. Dacia had been conquered by Rome in AD100, but by AD200, they formed most of that northerly defence in Britannia. Dacia is on the shores of the Back Sea, where modern Romania is. The spends about 3.4% of GDP on defence, but some of that is not spent on Americans, but is things like 2000lb bombs for Israel. Trump wants to raise it to 5% and for Europe to match it. Trum is a p*ss poor student of history, because Pax Americana has been pretty shakey of late. USD go much further outside of the US than inside the US. He's giving away US made bombs to Israel, paying full price for them. Instead, he could have paid to have a bomb factory built in Israel, with lower wages etc Probably would have saved money, with the same result, maybe even better, because Israel has more jobs. Which might have helped a few Arab Israelis, which might have persuaded some of them not to go on a rampage. Who knows. Instead of giving the Afghan money for a surely Afghan Army, you go to Afghanistan, and you raise an American Army made up of Afghans, who will lord it over the locals. because the Americans pay well, but way cheaper than a GI. No need to persuade an Afghan to go fight for an Afghan government that never cared for them, because instead, he's fighting for Uncle Sam, who is benevolant, and does care. You just a US military full of Colonel Kurtzs, willing to go full native for years on end. The British used to call these Indian Old hands, colonial officers who had never really gone back home in decades. Anyhow, we are where we are.