BusyB

Yeah, I was thinking with your first post here: it seems like a hangover from colonial days. When the troops went in and said sod local laws, we rule here. We have impunity. You get the same with far too many tourists and expats nowadays, including posters here who you can tell look down on Thais and their laws and traditions like colonial conquerors and have little respect or understanding for them. And when the Thais respond then whinge and howl and suddenly they're victims. Most 'western' tourists have grown up in countries with exactly this kind of entitled mindset. Not the majority, but a big enough minority then become a problem abroad. And with cheaper fares and budget hotels they can run riot on Thai streets instead of back home in Brentford or wherever on a Saturday night at 10.30 chucking out time (my age showing there). Noone, least of all the Thais regards tourists like in that picture at the top as a 'problem'. But they do regard work without WP, overstaying, violent disorder and other breaches of THEIR laws as a problem. In fact I get the impression they're far more lenient than they should be, and probably a lot more lenient than what many of the primitive wazzocks who disgrace the rest of us would face back home.

Same here. It also pays to read your own country's DTA. A source of comfort for most pensioners.

🤣🤣🤣 As I figured. It was only a matter of time. TIT. But it's generated some record breaking threads full of pure speculation.

Hawk tuah!

I wonder how many of the other dancers are still around today ... Those are some pretty sharp moves. Wow! I don't remember seeing it like that as a kid. CCBB ... a happy childhood memory. Not only the film. The church choir I sang in as a young soprano (yes really 555) put on concerts from time to time and we did all the family films when they came out: CCBB, Mary Poppins, Jungle Book, Oliver Twist ...

You mean you don't like it or agree. Fair enough. It's not the best of my posts but the evidence is surely out in the open. At least Hotnsticky went for the content rather than an insult.

If the US wants them for wire fraud they could have a very long and unhappy future ahead of them in some very unpleasant places with some very unpleasant people.

There has been a takeover. It's the white collar version of January 6. And yes, 70 odd million Americans actually voted for it despite the Shaman and the Proud Boys. A national outbreak of Dunning-Krugerism as far as I'm concerned. But this thread is about Trump's 'relationship' to what he considers art. Art being usually one of the first targets of people like him and his supporters because it expresses free thought and genuine freedom, which is anathema and a threat to them and their project. It's uncontrolled which inculcates fear in those who need to control everything. It puts people beyond their control. That's why the Soviet Union and the Nazis (the two most well known examples) suppressed all forms of art and dictated what was acceptable and what not. The Great Dictator (watch the film, the whole film, from beginning to end: perhaps Charlie Chaplin's best) decides what is 'in' and what is 'out', who is 'in' and who is 'out', according to his own fear based and philistine, tiny minded taste. 'In' is usually retrospective, 'folksy' and utterly phony representations of a supposedly better, 'cleaner' past. Like now in the Kennedy Center. Cheered on by the sycophants, acolytes and the lying excuse makers in TV. Kennedy himself would probably puke. There is indeed another America somewhere - we just can't see it right now and it seems to have caved. Possibly permanently, it's too soon to say. But we can hope. In the meantime: enjoy the show folks.

MODS: I confused this thread with the Kennedy Center thread. I'll leave this here and hope you don't edit any of it because it's all relevant to Hotnsticky's comment. But I'll also weave it into the Kennedy Center thread where it more properly belongs. Up to you ;D

Agreed. But it underlines something and needs to be said. There has been a takeover. It's the white collar version of January 6. And yes, 70 odd million Americans actually voted for it despite the Shaman and the Proud Boys. (We note: boys not men.) I'm sure they're not all as thick as two by fours. But the vast majority I've seen and heard and read had no clue about just about anything. Anything at all. And the ones who get on mainstream TV are blatantly dissembling grifters and fake fact purveyors. Political flat-earthers. A national outbreak of Dunning-Krugerism. But this thread is about Trump's 'relationship' to what he considers art. Art being usually one of the first targets of people like him and his supporters because it expresses free thought and genuine freedom, which is anathema and a threat to them and their project. It's uncontrolled which inculcates fear in those who need to control everything. It puts people beyond their control. That's why the Soviet Union and the Nazis (the two most well known examples) suppressed all forms of art and dictated what was acceptable and what not. The Great Dictator (watch the film, the whole film, from beginning to end: perhaps Charlie Chaplin's best) decides what is 'in' and what is 'out', who is 'in' and who is 'out', according to his own fear based and philistine, tiny minded taste. 'In' is usually retrospective, 'folksy' and utterly phony representations of a supposedly better, 'cleaner' past. Like now in the Kennedy Center. Cheered on by the sycophants, acolytes and the lying excuse makers in TV. Kennedy himself would probably puke. There is indeed another America somewhere - we just can't see it right now and it seems to have caved. Possibly permanently, it's too soon to say. But we can hope. In the meantime: enjoy the show folks.

They were too frightened and servile to face off against the system as it was. You don't think they'll grow enough spine or nous to face off against this lot do you? Much less admit they might have just been a teensy weensy bit wrong? Funny, dictators always fancy themselves as artists or connoisseurs of such. And then enforce their taste on the population.

Semi-literate, hate fueled servile goons don't like liberal democracies or 'libtards'. Hadn't you noticed? Exhibit 1: I offer you the proud President of the US of A. Exhibit 2: His supporters - visible on YouTube for your daily delectation.

'Course he will. He thinks they're the pinnacle of fine arts. I wonder what his Spotify playlist is like (retch, choke ...)

He's getting off to a flying start. Soon he'll be banning 'Degenerate Art'.

I wonder how long it'll be before the philistine bigot bans screenings of Some Like it Hot.

Doesn't really matter if you're in the here and now.

They are enemies of everything you claim to stand for. Claim being the operative word in that sentence.

File it under freedom of speech ...

This barfbag is the biggest coward on the planet. Proven. Time and again.

Nope.

Welcome. You'll be popular on AN 🤣

This is one of the things I really hate about Thailand. That you can't wander along 2 or 3 abreast with a couple of friends, enjoying the scenery and watching what's going on around you. You can rarely walk even 2 abreast, and either way have to keep your eyes firmly a few meters on the 'sidewalk' ahead. It's become so ingrained in me now that back home I deliberately avoid manhole covers, drains and grills - I just don't trust them any more.

They don't have to listen to the people with the electoral system and constitution as it is. They remain in power whoever you vote for. That includes 'Reform'.

We can but hope. I've said all along the basic plan is to install Vance after a 'respectable' period of time. Trump is essentially stupid (literally) besides being immoral and conniving. It's the people behind him you need to really worry about. The US can recover from a Trump Mk2 'presidency'. Recovering from Project 2025 could well be impossible.

I don't know about the SAS, but I do know from personal experience that virtually all army training at the time was tailored to 'IS', or Internal Security. It was essentially police training, months of it before deployment, basic law including arrest grounds and techniques, riot control and so on. All under the motto of 'minimum force required to do the job'. I can honestly say that in '74 my unit lived by that. I'm not denying by any means that there were many awful egregious and deadly failures on the part of the army on the ground and policy makers. Maybe that's an inevitable side effect in civil conflicts like that where deadly force is being used on both sides. I also understood back then that if I'd been a young catholic man brought up on the Falls Road, I'd have been looking down the sights of a rifle in exactly the opposite direction to the sights I was looking down as a young Brit soldier. That's what these young guys were doing. It looks like arrests were possible after a lot of experts have had the chance to sift through all the evidence for months on end. I'm sure none of them wanted to come to unfair conclusions and were interested only in the truth of the situation. It has nothing to do with 'woke' or any such garbage. I don't think the SAS is a gang of executioners. I have known some. The article doesn't say but if those guys were carrying small arms as well as that .50 sized monster then I can't guarantee I would have attempted an arrest either. At least those PIRA operatives were acting like soldiers and must have been aware of the risks. I have immense respect for that even if I basically don't like the idea of people running around blasting off on Somali type 'technicals' and would certainly be prepared to kill to prevent it. My deepest consuming utter hatred and contempt is most definitely reserved for those who plant bombs in public places.