rudi49jr

While the official Mae Sot border may have been closed for three years, I’m sure there have been many ‘informal’ border crossings to get people and goods across.

I always wonder why so many southerners (especially Texans) wear those ten gallon cowboy hats indoors. I can understand - to a certain degree - why they wear them outdoors, but why on earth would you wear a huge hat like that indoors?

Putin orders new commander to seize Donbas by March. So I’m guessing we’re going to see another change in command at the beginning of April…

Almost all Americans that I ever met can not stop talking, they just talk all the time, about the most inane and trivial things. I was on Ko Phi Phi once, and some people had gathered on a hill overlooking the sea to watch the sunset. It was rather beautiful, it was quiet and peaceful, and when someone said something it was in a very low voice or a whisper. Then two young American women showed up and they sat down, didn’t even look at the sunset and just continued their loud conversation, that we had already heard coming towards us for a couple of minutes as they made their way up the hill. After about five minutes of them yacking it up I asked them, very politely, if they could please be quiet, as we were trying to enjoy the sunset. They looked at me as if I had insulted them deeply, immediately got up and left in a huff. Don’t get me wrong, I have several American friends and I love them dearly, but sometimes I wish I could tape their mouths shut for just a little while.

Where did I say that I support coups over voting? Stop making things up. All I said was that if Paetongtarn becomes PM, her daddy will be very happy to be able to milk that cash cow again, and that it will not be good for the people of Thailand.

I met my Thai wife around that time, so I can vouch for that….

“Paetongtarn Shinawatra says she is ready to be Pheu Thai’s PM candidate.” Of course she is. And when she becomes PM, her daddy will have another puppet in power, just as he did when Yingluck was PM. And they will be laughing all the way to the bank. And the people of Thailand, again, will be left holding the short end of the stick. But that’s probably going to be the case anyway, no matter who becomes PM.

What you call ‘straightening the news’ is spinning the news to suit your narrative. And as for not supporting the war (the Russian side of it, that is): almost all of your previous posts suggest otherwise.

So firing missiles at an ‘energy equipment’ is perfectly okay with you? Millions of people having no gas, electricity or heat in the dead of winter is perfectly okay with you? And you wonder why the Ukrainians hate Russia so much….

And Putin said the military operation in Ukraine is going well and has gained positive momentum. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-launched-missile-strikes-against-ukraine-saturday-2023-01-15/ "Everything is developing within the framework of the plan of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff. And I hope that our fighters will please us even more with the results of their combat," Putin said. If anyone needs either a bullet between the eyes or a quick trip to the ICJ in The Hague, it’s Russia’s number one war criminal Putin. It’s incredible that countries like China and India are still not condemning Russia, and it’s still ‘business’ as usual, as far as these countries are concerned.

It hasn’t been called the war minister in any Western European country since WWII, but the minister of defense. In Russia, though, it is literally the ministry and minister of war. See the difference?

Looking at all the war crimes Russia is committing in Ukraine, this is arguably one of the more heinous ones: That’s 2,000 kids abducted in just over 10 days. Makes you wonder how many they took last year. Must be in the tens of thousands. Russia really is a terrorist state and needs to be treated and isolated as such.

You can’t compare Vietnam and Ukraine, that’s apples and oranges, two completely different kettles of fish. Vietnam was a war that the USA ventured into knowingly and willingly, they chose to do so. Ukraine is a war started by Russia, nothing to do with the USA or NATO or whatever. No one forced Russia to invade Ukraine, not the USA, not NATO, not the EU. This is Russia’s war by choice, and the West has every right to help Ukraine defend themselves And please spare me the crocodile tears, because if it were up to you, Ukraine would have had to sign a ‘peace treaty’ with Russia long ago, giving up significant parts of its territory to Russia. But as has been repeated many times in this thread: you can not negotiate with a lunatic, and that ‘peace treaty’ would have been worthless. Putin and his clique have made it abundantly clear that they want to restore the old USSR, so it would only be a matter of time before they made a move on the rest of Ukraine, and then the Baltic states, and then Poland, and so on and so forth. The only way to remove that threat is to defeat Russia, and unfortunately for Ukraine they’re going to have to do that. With as much help from the West as is necessary. So please quit your whining about Ukraine not having to pay back for all the aid they’re receiving, because they are doing you and the rest of the world a huge service.

Was just about to post the exact same link. This would be a game changer, especially if other countries followed this example. Like Germany is apparently considering supplying Ukraine with Leopard II tanks. Hopefully Ukraine will get the tanks they need to kick the Russians out.

Go to any holiday town on the coast in Spain and you will see that the vast majority of those drunk out of their skull (and misbehaving as a result of that) are the best and finest of Britain, both men and women. They just drink to get drunk.

It would probably take more than just a couple of missiles. Other than that I totally agree with you.

Freedom comes with a price. But the US and EU are getting their money’s worth: https://www.csis.org/analysis/united-states-aid-ukraine-investment-whose-benefits-greatly-exceed-its-cost

Is that all you got? Like arguing with a six-year-old.

So far there’s zero evidence for Russia’s claim it killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers with a strike in Kramatorsk: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/moscow-ends-self-proclaimed-ceasefire-vows-press-ahead-ukraine-2023-01-08/

You’re going to have to spell it out for me, cause I really don’t know what you mean.

Why does it matter where he was before he went to Washington?

What’s all this talk about blank cheques? If the US government were actually signing blank cheques, we’d be talking seriously different numbers from what the US has done for Ukraine so far.

Not only did he insist that his Secret Service team stay at his expensive hotel; the prices of the rooms were then jacked up to double or triple what they usually went for. His whole presidency was just one big money milking scheme to him.

Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief, said Russia is preparing to mobilize an extra 500,000 conscripts. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/russia-preparing-mobilise-extra-500000-conscripts-claims-ukraine And the little Kremlin gremlin will no doubt gladly sacrifice 10 million more men if necessary, just to save face. And this man said he is willing to ‘negotiate’. Yeah, right.