thaibeachlovers

According to Al Jazeera they are on their way! The news article said there will be an announcement on Wednesday ( today ), so not official till then. As with all new equipment training is required, ammunition, spares and maintenance in place before they can be used, so don't expect them in use next week. IMO the Russians will advance their expected assault to get in before the Abrams and Leopards are ready, and no doubt they will be increasing anti tank weapons to counter them.

While off topic, to answer your question, socialism ( with a small s ) does that, at least real socialism does, not the pathetic version in countries like the UK. I grew up in one such country and it was a lot happier before it went all in for greed.

Farangs can get Thai citizenship- it just isn't easy.

Trump is not any part of this thread. Deflecting?

IMO there is no meaning in life. If we believe in God we believe in an after life, and if we don't then this is all there is. What was our life after we are dust- after the last person that knew us dies we are as nothing! In cosmic terms the planet and everything on it are nothing but a minute speck in the universe. We exist for just a small fraction of a cosmic second, and came from nothing and to nothing we return ( unless we believe and return to God ). BTW, I saw the movie and remember nothing of it.

If it comes to that, I don't want to be around to suffer the aftermath.

Don't get too excited. IMO no country is going to send more than it needs for it's own protection. BTW, does Ukraine have hundreds of trained tank and maintenance crews waiting?

Lots and who is to say that they do not support the invasion?

What they said so far is not quite the same as giving permission. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-signals-shift-veto-leopard-tanks-ukraine-2023-01-23/ WARSAW/BRUSSELS Jan 23 (Reuters) - Germany is not blocking the re-export of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the European Union's top diplomat said on Monday, after Poland vowed to send some as long as other countries did too. If they do send some, I expect they will have to supply all the spares and carry out training for the Ukrainians, not the Germans.

No, what I'm saying if the bad man threatens you, you better be bigger and stronger than them. MAD has kept the west safe since WW2 ( but not a lot of smaller countries ).

She made her reputation based on the covid response. But for that I suspect she would have been out 2 years ago. Took a while for the penny to drop, but it did drop. I'd have liked for her to stay on just to see her after getting owned by National in the next elections. I suspect she realised the game was up and got out early, so she didn't look as bad. For now, I worry about what they will do before the Labour ship sinks in November.

There isn't much money for the farmer in sheep any more- wool makes little return. The price paid to buy lamb is not reflected in what the farmer gets. That's why my sheep/ cattle farmer friend has reduced the flock size by many hundreds if not thousands and diversified into Kiwifruit.

Do you actually know any NZ farmers? Seems not.

Unless Thailand is going to give them refugee status they will have to leave when their visas expire ( unless on indefinitely extendable visas ). How is that going to work out for your friends?

Well said. IMO countries would benefit if there were half the number of politicians and 2/3 less bureaucrats.

Alas, governments and bureaucrats need to do something/ anything, else the populace that pays them might wonder why there are so many. Just paying people to have babies doesn't qualify as requiring so many.

If DT had only 26 classified documents, would the poster that you responded to accept the same excuse for DT? I suspect not.

Well they won't invade any country in NATO, will they?

They must be expecting a very long war. https://military-wiki.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-ukrainian-pilot-to-master-the-f-16/ After 2 years of training with the F-16 fighter, the pilot basically mastered the fighter, but could not participate in the war, but needed to undergo a training course in air combat.

and where would that money come from? Every yen given to parents is a yen less to spend on other things. Anyway, women are coming to realise that having children is not the only thing in life. I suspect it wouldn't make much difference. I heard somewhere that the Chinese birth rate is falling, despite the restriction on having more than one has gone.

Why should people who choose not to have children subsidise those who do. Rats to that. It's bad enough in my country. Not really controversial, IMO just common sense. Singapore tried that a long time ago, but I don't know if it was successful. Many career women just don't want to get married and have children, and I don't blame them.

I never said it would be cheaper. The point is that there are less people to look after them now and even less in future, so if the government isn't going to let carers in, they will have to go where there are carers, or do without. As for being picky, LOL. Beggars can't be choosers.

They used to be subservient, just as Thai wives were. I said "they have emerged", so I'm not surprised that they are not now.

I fundamentally disagree. Have to go back a few years to when societies were more equal, but people were happier. Some people being really rich and loads of poor people does not make a happy society.

IMO the answer is not ever more people- planet earth is being destroyed by too many. If we were able to build a rocket to go to the moon using slide rules, we can find a better way, if we want to- I suspect we don't really want to deal with it- so much easier just to breed more people. Just a thought, but if Japan doesn't want to let in more immigrants, send the old people to other countries with high unemployment to be looked after. More people are retiring and fewer people are paying into the social safety net. I suspect that Japan is very wealthy, but most of the wealth is in the hands of very few, as in most countries. Let's redistribute the wealth then. Problem solved.