JAG

1 hour ago, Eligius said:

I could not agree with you more, Z42. To be honest, I am just sick and tired now of the way the Thai people - yes, the Thai people - have all this lunacy deluging over them day after day - and do not utter a peep. Not a whimper. Not a little gesture of defiance. Nothing.

 

I'm sorry - but my patience with the Thais is fast running out. When injustice is this blatant and on a daily basis and the bulk of the people do not even make a symbolic, tiny gesture of defiance or protest - well -     let the Thais enjoy the fruits of their acquiescence. It's quite obvious to me now - the evidence is overwhelming, both from all my personal conversations with Thais from different social strata and from simply observing their national behaviour - that the mass of them don't really care all that much about losing their freedom and rights. Yes, sure, they don't much like it - but they don't care enough. There is no sign anywhere, in the vast majority of them as far as I can see, of incandescent fury at what is going on. So they will get more and more of the same from their delighted Masters - delighted at what a doddle it is to dominate the Thais.

 

The English have a pertinent saying which applies to the supine Thais: 'You've made your bed - now lie on it!'

 

1 hour ago, Eligius said:

There are nearly 70 million Thais in this country. Just a little sign of defiance and resistance - even on a symbolic level - would be most welcome. Even the junta cannot shoot even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that number.

 

But there is nothing. The Thais are mute, acquiescent - and not really all that bothered by the situation. If they were - they would act. Are they even flooding social media with outrage over what is happening to Thanathorn and his party? No. Selfies and pictures of their food are much, much more important.

 

Let them get on with it, then. Let them continue to take everything that is going on and will go on, more and more. But don't let them complain later.

 

I'm sorry gentlemen, but I am going to take issue with you over this.

As anyone with significant military experience will tell you, being on the receiving end of sustained fire is f###ing terrifying. Modern bullets do not sing, they crack viciously as they pass at supersonic speed. When the man next to you is hit he does not cry out and fall, he is literally bowled over. If a limb is hit it is often ripped off. If the bullet hits bone it tumbles and comes out through a hole the size of a soup plate. He loses control of his bowels, everything is splattered with blood, guts and shit, literally. You die, suddenly, painfully, without dignity and probably without anyone to comfort you.

If you are a trained soldier then hopefully your training, and if you have any rank your responsibility takes over and drives you on. If you are a civilian protestor you are frightened, more, you are terrified. Ask those who survived in 2010, ask those ( if they lived) who were seen being herded into busses back after the Thamassat University massacre.

Yes I am being dramatic, it is a (darkly) dramatic business.

The Thais know this, they know the track record of those running the current regime.

Off course they can't shoot all of them, personally I think that the army and paramilitaries would fall apart if faced with sustained opposition. But they will shoot the front few rows first. That is a lot of blood, guts and shit. That will be in the front of the minds of those contemplating protest. Would you want to be in the first few rows? I know I wouldn't!

When I was a professional soldier I knew the risks, and took them by following the profession. I am a civilian now, with a wife and daughter, I know the risks and I would not take them, or more accurately it would take a lot more than these posturing comic opera buffoons to make me contemplate taking them. The Thais will need an equally high threshold. We're nowhere near that, yet.

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

If it rains too much then it will flood. The End.

 

 No, the committee will stop it.

Those natty new windcheater jackets, with the logos, new I-Pads and meetings in resort hotels are remarkably effective you know...

7 minutes ago, rumak said:

well,  my cost of living is still  about 70% less than my daughter who lives (modestly) in North America.

 

eat simple ,  live simple,   live healthy          that is my retirement plan

can't think of another country that can compare  ( for me, that is)

many threads on leaving and going to laos or cambodia or phil,  or vietnam .

if YOUNG maybe worth a shot.   but for retirees seeking a modest but comfortable lifestyle

i think thailand still wins.   

I'm not (yet) retired. I teach part time, teach online for a few hours a week and have a small occupational pension. I can live in rural northern Thailand, in a pleasant, comfortable if not luxurious (paid for) house, on about 4 rai of land, on which we grow almost all our fruit and vegetables - well actually my wife does, I just offer advice, which she ignores! I have a wife and daughter. I can afford to run an old but adequate pick up, which I can replace with a similar vehicle if necessary.  I can have a night out with a few beers and a curry every couple of weeks. I can afford to eat out with my wife and daughter every couple of weeks. It is a comfortable lifestyle, and I am very content. 

There is no way that I could live like this, in the UK, on my income. And it rains too much. Thailand wins.

47 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

The entire country is built around incompetence and mediocrity. No place for talented people. 

Oh dear, and I feel quite at home here...

15 minutes ago, tifino said:

the dimensions of the beak and eyes (shape and angles) appear to differ a little...

Could that be down to the fact that he has just had a "head on "with the window?

?

Seriously, I'm impressed. Sometimes there are some real gems on TVF!

39 minutes ago, ChidlomDweller said:

Huh? No one is dictating to the UK what to do.  Brexit is barely mentioned outside the British press.  We've long moved on.  You should have just planned for a WTO deal since June 2016 instead of wasting all this time.  It's the Brexiteers who promised to the public that they would be able to negotiate a better deal than Norway/Canada/WTO.  Unless things change in the last minute, those promises will have been false, in which case a second referendum seems fair.  

 

I don't buy that holding a second referendum means disregarding the public's views.  Enough has happened in the past 2+ years that their views might have evolved.  If their views are unchanged, they can vote leave again.  Let's be honest, the hardcore Brexiteers wouldn't have given up either if the vote had gone 48/52 against them.

 

Personally I think it's a shame, but whatever, your decision.  If the British working classes want to hand over the country to the Tory right, so be it.  "Democracy is the theory that the public know what they want, and that they deserve it hard and good."

The irony is caused by the two arguements which I quoted, deployed by the remain camp within the UK. Nothing to do with the actual position taken by the EU or other member states.

For what it is worth, I rather agree with you and the author of post #124 that we should have planned from the start for the "WTO" option.

11 hours ago, sandyf said:

This is where the brexiteer mindset cannot see the difference between treaties and policies. Treaties are drawn up between member states and then ratified in parliament of each member state. They are very complex and not easily amended.

Brexiteers want to forget that the UK signed up to the treaties that they now claim are EU intransigence. A bit like some one driving on 3rd party and then complaining when the claim for their own car gets rejected.

1 hour ago, whatsupdoc said:

You really do not seem to understand how the EU works. Their replacements would be bound by the same guidelines as defined in EU treaties and have (in the case of Mr. Barnier) the same mandate as given by the governments of the 27 EU countries. It wouldn't make any difference.

It is quite ironic really.

The EU is bound by treaties etcetera which of course cannot be amended or reinterpreted.

The view of the British Electorate, as expressed in the referendum (and confirmed in the subsequent general election) can, of course, be junked, because you don't like what they decided...

Well now, a lot of us, myself included, have always maintained that the UK will not extradite her. I still believe that to be the case, but of course I may be proved wrong. 

Certainly, if I am wrong, and she is returned to, and imprisoned in, Thailand, that will add an element of spice to politics here...