JAG

Fornicate with my ancient military footwear, talk about clutching at straws @JonnyF!

It was the cows, they came and took it back!

A lot certainly do; mind you, we don't put mayonnaise on them, or go around sticking fingers in dykes...

I think back to when the Dutch soldiers came into town from Soltau barracks after payday, back in the old days in West Germany. Running battles in the streets between the Cloggies, the German Civil Police, the Koninklijke Marechaussee (Dutch MPs) and the British RMPs. Most of town was put off limits to the British troops the weekend the Dutch got paid! Luckily they were conscripts and so were not paid very much, or allowed out very often. Mind you, there were some really good deals on electrical goods at the Dutch NAAFI!

@ChumpChange - a couple of brilliant responses lately!

Last time I was there ( pre COVID) there was quite a nice ice cream shop with a very pretty girl working there - I smiled at her and she gave me an extra scoop. That is about as wild as it got!

But made the effort to take off his "security uniform" first? It rather suggests that the guard made a premeditated attack, perhaps the inevitable "loss of face". No matter, the Pattaya Constabulary will be unable to find him - to everyone's surprise!

Shall I predict, if he is not well received by "the great British public", tantrums, late night brainfarts on Twitter (or whatever it is called now), and the inevitable demands for tariffs?

As I recall, the initial weeks of the Russian invasion were marked by the deployment of Russian special forces teams to attempt to hunt down and assassinate Zelinsky. For that reason he took to dressing in "military sweatshirts" , much more inconspicuous and easier to move him about, and practical in a city (Kiev) under rocket bombardment. That threat diminished because the Ukraine armed forces proved to be very effective at hunting down, capturing and killing these teams. Subsequently he continued it as a "trademark look". Same sort of idea as wearing a red baseball cap at every opportunity!

What an apposite phrase!

I wonder if the "Trump baby blimp" will make a reappearance, it was a magnificent idea last time.

I was a soldier for quite a number of years. Spent considerably more than than 3 months on various "front lines". None of my post involved puffy chests. My long, if not particularly glorious service equipped me with a couple of handy skills. One was the ability to identify a bull<deleted>ter. Trump and Vance are two such. Mind you, they're not exactly unknown on this forum!

I'm (relatively newly) retired. I don't want to see the world, and the western liberal democratic society in which I was raised, and in which I lived and served most of my life destroyed on the altar of one man's amoral intolerant ego, for the benefit of a small handful of extremely rich, and wanting to be yet richer, people. If the damage was limited to the United States, the perhaps I could watch in a more detached manner, but the events of this week, together with his (Trump's) previously expressed intentions towards Greenland/Denmark, Canada and Panama raise global concerns. There is much to find fault in with Western Liberal Society, but of one thing I am certain, it is infinitely better than the alternative proffered by Trump and his MAGA movement. Less philosophically perhaps (?) I have a 19 year old daughter, and I want her to live in a better world.

I think ---- it is a bit suspicious...

Yes, I think, but am not certain, it is some sort of sponsorship deal with one of the Thai Football League teams

Young girl went up to receive Communion at Mass this morning wearing a tee shirt with "Porn Hub" emblazoned on it. Blissful ignorance on her part and her parents.

Of course Trump is a Russian asset! As for IQs, leaving aside his self proclaimed status as a "stable genius", whilst not clever - he was stupid enough to walk into a certain urine stained honey trap after all - he is cunning!

They stopped off at a nearby McDonald's to get the same meal but without having to start with a helping of humble pie.

You mean like the one which "evacuated" from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan? Tell me, is it standard operating procedure that all US overseas deployments take with them a recording (these days it is an MP3 I suppose) of Bing Crosby "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"?

"Zelensky - what possessed you?" He knows that Trump intends to carve up Ukraine for his mate Putin. The rump state which will be left will be run by someone put in place by Putin, as the necessary precursor to his next moves, on the three Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Knowing that he was not prepared to be browbeaten by Trump or his sidekick, Vance, in what was obviously a planned and rehearsed ambush.

True. But only one side put their biggest donor in the government.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Mr. Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Pass the sick bucket!

Of course you are. You, or more accurately your multi billionaire supporters, want to get your paws on Ukraine's mineral resources, a significant amount of which lie under the territory which Russia has seized.

What differs is that the United States has a Federal Government and a Federal Legislature. Dismantle the former and emasculate the latter (as rather appears to be a work in progress) and you are left with a collection of separate States. If that becomes the case, what will for example New York and California have in common with Alabama and Wyoming - politically socially and economically nothing at all.