thaibeachlovers

Perhaps that is why NZ is not prospering at this time. Karma is getting us for sending so many children to die in foreign wars. As we have basically abandoned having an actual fighting military, and now just send people to watch other people kill each other, perhaps karma will be kinder to us in future. I'm not holding my breath though.

I am extremely fortunate to live in a country that has not itself ever bombed another country, though many citizens have gone overseas to bomb other countries on the behalf of other countries. I suppose that is the advantage of being in a country that is just too far away from everywhere else.

NZ has no problem attracting LEGAL overseas workers to come and pick fruit. I have ZERO problem with LEGAL workers on a temporary basis. I have a problem with ILLEGAL workers.

I'd rather suffer watching VDOs and movies. The visual is so much better than my imagination.

You are 100% correct. It's a sad comment on the human race that we are best at killing each other and when we are not killing each other we are stealing and doing bad things to each other.

Ah, apologies and thank you for explaining it. I agree with you. All our countries should be places we want to live in. Unfortunately, we humans are incapable of living in peace. IMO we humans are a terrible species, using our intelligence to make war, when we could be making the world a wonderful place to live. Frankly, I see no hope for the human species, and we will continue on the path of destruction till we cease to exist.

Sending them all to Rwanda will work. The Aussie solution works. As for stopping legal immigration to Thailand by making the UK a more attractive place to live, importing a few million Thai girls might work. I lived in the place for 10 years and there is nothing that makes me want to retire there, despite being able to do so. I doubt it's all down to the governments inflicted on the long suffering populace- some of it is down to the class system as well, IMO. If the poor and transient made their own country a <deleted> and then abandoned it to repeat the destruction in a different country they are not wanted. It's not a case of feeling good about it or not.

Should that not be "If the aborigines had done more to make Australia a better place to live they would not find themselves in the situation that they find themselves now"? Apologies if I got it wrong.

Second question. If one lives in an apartment or condo, where does one put the solar panels needed to charge the batteries? I'm talking about enough to replace mains electricity, not a couple of lights.

Seems you change your mind on polls every time the wind blows. The only poll that counts if the big one in November.

Yes, the Trump haters are drawn to any thread with Trump in the title, to see how many insults they can cram into multiple posts. If all mention of Trump was banned there would likely be only half as many threads on this sub forum.

They should have kicked them out the day that tv interview was aired. Backstabbing in public should not be tolerated.

She lost any support I might have given her with her warmongering performance on the debate post October 7.

Scraping, bottom and barrel comes to mind.

Ah, yes, you are probably right about that. He may have been right, but there was no way a war weary nation would have accepted it. He may have been a great general, but had, apparently, not much common sense, if he thought starting a war against a country promoted as an ally for 4 years would have been acceptable to the public, and especially among the boys that would have died in it. A politician he was not, period.

IMO a country that would elect Biden/ Harris as POTUS deserves Trump. again.

and the longer the conflict drags on the more Palestinians die and the more Palestinians die the more people all round the world turn against israel. Israel may succeed in once again suppressing Palestinian resistance to the oppressors, but will IMO have no friends left, other than leaders in certain western countries ( they won't have the support of their citizens though ).

Are you then claiming that all 2.2 million Gazans should be treated as Hamas? No way they will get away with that, or at least I hope not.

I did answer your question, but I fail to see why your question was any less speculative than mine.

I assume the reference to external parties refers to such as Iran, Yemen etc. I'd be happy to see them bow out, as long as American does likewise. It would be somewhat irrational to expect no other country to support the unfortunate Palestinians while allowing America to continue it's one sided support of Israel.

You misunderstand the context of the quote, but never mind- it's not important.

The Israelis have always been clever at adapting and improving military vehicles. The end result is usually better than the original. It was one of the reasons I respected the Israeli military in the past. Many tanks were designed to be built quickly in a time of war, but were not very good in practice eg the Sherman, which was easily mass produced, but earned the German nickname of "Tommy Cooker", for unpleasant reasons. The Israelis improved the Sherman as seen in this from Google Isherman The Sherman M-50 and the Sherman M-51, both often referred to abroad as the Super Sherman, were modified versions of the American M4 Sherman tank that served with the Israel Defense Forces from the mid-1950s to early 1980s. The M-51 was also referred to as the Isherman (i.e. Israeli Sherman). The Centurion was an impressive beast of war, but very thirsty.

No dispute on me with that either. I am familiar with the M113 and it is certainly a versatile and adaptable vehicle. The person/ people that invented it were genius, IMO. It's not often a piece of military kit lives on as long as that one.

No dispute from me on that. However, those "reservists" all have jobs in real life, jobs that are now going begging for workers, jobs that are now not paying taxes etc and all need to be paid out of state financial reserves. They apparently called up 300,000 for Gaza alone, and if they decided to back up the rhetoric with action and invade Lebanon, how many more reservists will be required? To cause Israel maximum damage without an actual war against Lebanon, Hezbollah only needs to pose a threat with minor attacks, which disrupt northern Israel life and economy, brings reservists into service, and make Israelis stressed and unhappy. The longer this conflict goes on, the greater the financial penalty to the Israeli state.

The propaganda war is not falling well for Mr Netanyahu, IMO not only is it not "falling well", but it's failing 100% except in the case of israeli apologists. He's not doing well, with apparently a large segment of the Jewish israeli population against him for various reasons, several neighbouring countries very "annoyed" with him, probably the entire Arab citizenry of israel against him, definitely all the Palestinians against him ( even his tame puppy Abbas has muttered something he shouldn't have ), and now the once upon a time ignoring people's of the world are turning to support Palestinians against the israeli war machine. It'll be interesting to see how long he survives past the end of this tragic conflict.