JAG

A profound and clearly reasoned explanation of your political viewpoint, @illisdean, and one which rather explains why US politics is unravelling as it is!

No of course not. Neither, may I point out were you. The widely broadcast footage of the incident however seems pretty clear that she was not a threat.

True perhaps, certainly I have a problem coming to terms with the freedom of policemen to fire baton rounds at TV reporters who posed no threat whatsoever to life or property. I understand that the Australian Government are furious about the incident, but they come from a tradition where the right to fire baton rounds 'willy nilly' is not a 'freedom'.

Perhaps so, but shouldnt there be, at least be a formal public declaration or finding that that has actually happened, rather than a late night posting frenzy on the President's own social media channel, principally characterised by referring to the Governer of California by derogatory nicknames based on "puns" of his name? You know, dignity of the Office of President, gravity and magnitude of events which threaten the country and so on? One other point, should such steps be taken after deliberate attempts to manufacture the initial crisis by various Federal agencies, operating together to undermine the settled municipal and state authorities, municipal and state authorities which have, after all been elected! It might be deferred in "child speak" as picking a fight, we are after all dealing with an administration which is often compared with children having tantrums!

Thank you for your observation. It has no relevance whatsoever to this discussion.

Given the "nationalist antics" weirdo Trump is stoking in the USA, many of those who your ancestors left behind view the prospect of such a divorce rather amicably!

I have taken the liberty of running your post through "Google Translate" but I'm sorry, it still didnt make any sense!

"Banging up your political opponents forever"! Now where have we heard that before? Drawing comparisons between peoples political views and genetics also has a dark, ominous precursor...

The ones I have known, met, socialised with and worked with over the years always struck me as being pretty happy people. I'm not so sure one can say the same thing about the Americans, many, particularly the ones adorning these forums seem rather angry!

As far as I can see it is the Governer of The State of California who has the right to initiate, direct and control the deployment and use of The National Guard, and retains primary responsibility for law enforcement in the State. Now, whilst I understand that there are certain legal steps which will empower the President to take over those responsibilities, it is far from clear that those legal steps and requirements have been met. The questions of legality, and with them criminality, seem to lie with the Federal side.

Why should Honan arrest, or even be able to arrest the Governer of a state and consign him to a military run concentration camp outside the USA? There was a regime in Europe in the last century which had a "plenipotentiary" who was able to do that sort of thing (his name was Heinrich Himmler). The Communist/Bolshevik regime in Soviet Russia had similar ways of operating! In fact, funnily enough (well probably not funny if you found yourself in a cattle wagon en route to the gulags) the guy in charge of such programmes for a while in the 1930s was called "Yagoda" - Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda!

It does raise an interesting point; if the population of the USA is 340 million, then 1 in 340 a year is an infant death! Off topic perhaps, but if that is the case how on earth can they justify cutting funding for various health care and health research programmes?

Well they do say imitation is a form of flattery!

They call anyone who holds and/or expresses an opinion contrary to theirs "a liar". They have no concept of debate or discussion, have nothing but contempt for any view which does not follow their "truth"; at times their bigotry and hatred is almost hysterical. Maybe they take their lead from the man child in The Oval Office?

It's his (wet) dream of America! "Armed citizens", live ammunition and dead (brown) bodies.

Yes, that is absolutely what you want to see isn't it!

Oh gracious me, here we go again, the inevitable accusations of lying because I say or point out something you dont like! When my daughter was 6 she used to shout liar whenever she was told no; she grew out of it after a year or so. Some people obviously never do!

So who was the fat bloke in the black overcoat who stood outside the White House on January 6th 2021 and told the crowd to march on the Capitol and fight?

Pattaya: Huge Landfill (effectively) - check. Ramshackle hotels - check. Airstrip nearbye with charter flights from the Indian Subcontinent - check. We're in business!

I dont want to appear pedantic but I think the locals are hear to stay! Anyway there will always be tourists, one smile from a 7/11 girl and they (you?) will be rampaging around Pattaya, waving their trousers in the air and shouting " bring on the ladyboys!"

They have Taxis, and of course the Airport Limo's. As ever at all airports (something to do with the jet fuel in the air?) the meters are broken!

As far as I know it has stopped running. It stopped during Covid. They did try to resurrect it but it didnt last long.

I joined this forum 22 years ago (goodness me am I old and smelly!) The first post I read was to the effect that tourism was dead in Thailand. The second one was complaining that Pattaya was not a patch on what it used to be!

Thai Baht (not bad), Laotian Kip (dirt cheap), US$ (pricey) or UK£ (very pricey?

In my younger days it was so much simpler: in Europe "Reds under the bed", on posting to Hong Kong, "the yellow peril"!