BusyB

Yes. And blatant cruelty.

Give that croc an extra steak for its dinner!

There are more involved than those two lowly soldiers ...

More and more it appears as if a dangerously large number of people in the 'West' have forgotten history altogether.

100%

The ignorance part is exceedingly important. In Germany the extreme right with its anti-migrant stance has the most support in those states where there are hardly any migrants. Ignorance and fear of the unknown. Understandable in some ways after being held in a kind of frozen cultural state of hostility towards the outside world since the 1930s. These traumas take more than a generation to heal. In many ways there's still a lot of hostile, authoritarian DDR culture bubbling just below the surface, as evidenced by the huge support for authoritarians who even quote the original Nazis there. I also know this having also watched one of my (successful after moving to the west) eastern German friends challenge the medical profession for malpractice there. She said, and showed me, how their entire approach was old-school DDR. She won, because the case was fortunately adjudicated on the enlightened, social democratic constitutional basis. They can't escape that. What functions as a kind of supreme court (the Constitutional Court) in Germany has just been made tamperproof after seeing what happened to SCOTUS.

Even I don't embrace my home culture 100%. In fact I loathe and despise some of it. In the country I finally made home I also rejected some things and became politically active. And helped get some serious failings righted. As a migrant. Like I said above: the 'arguments' never change. Only the targeted groups change. Your 'arguments' are no different. Heard them all before over 55 years. With every new wave of migrants. And all disproven in the very world I live in. Over 50 years now. All the way back to signs that said 'No Irishmen, blacks or dogs'. Haters gonna hate.

Disagree. Arrest. Charge. Punish. Deport. Blacklist. Just like the Philippines are doing now to the cretins who behave in a hostile, insulting fashion to their hosts. Who the hell wants this kind of trash on their streets? Let the Danes sort him out by confiscating or refusing a new (presumably) Danish passport. An Arab passport'll severely restrict his travels 555.

I don't deny there are inevitable frictions as well. But they are part and parcel of cultural development. Nothing ever stands still. Things are always changing. The same is true within cultures. It's how they develop. It works all over the world in the main, and is great fun like I said. Except of course for a few of the scared, intolerant, cretinous minorities you find in all cultures. Like the bozo in the OP. And also not in countries where those types take power and persecution of another group becomes state policy. Then it becomes misery for all. Now where's that happened recently? What would you define as 'successful' multiculturalism? Brits on Soi Buakhao? I prefer the guys who came from abroad to drive buses in my town which otherwise wouldn't run because they can't get enough workers. Nice guys. Gratefully building a new life for themselves and helping their families back home with remittances to rebuild their countries. Countries often destroyed by western military action. Worked with all kinds of immigrants and their descendants for over 50 years. Had quite a few lovers with migrant (including Muslim) heritage as well. Never had a problem. Great bunch. Mostly. Like every other bunch. Heard the same pathetic, fearful, hostile arguments as well for my whole life. The only thing that changes in that respect are the targeted groups. The arguments of the intolerant and fearful remain exactly the same. And are disproved generation for generation fortunately, because the vast majority of us get along with each other regardless of what the haters say. And as we say: haters gonna hate. What would you define as 'failed' multiculturalism.

Like Christopher Hitchens (sadly, sorely missed) said, religion poisons everything. Absolutely everything.

Utter rot. The guy's just another social media cretin like so many others. Arab, which is what you're aiming at, has bog all to do with it. Cretin is cretin. And plenty of cretins are white, western plebs also on display in Thailand for one. I can't stand their cretinism either - especially the sort that tries to demonize others and lump them together under negative labels for whatever 'reason'. In the main multiculturalism is a huge success and hey: it's great fun as well. Try it. Nothing to be scared of.

Purging the military of experienced and tested leaders on trumped up excuses. Wonder who else has done that recently before invading a close neighbor and threatening others.. Pun came naturally and inevitably ...

I get the impression $2k wouldn't even pay a family's health insurance for a month ...

The EU is also aware that unlike the US, China may be a tough and tricky rival (something which also has a lot to do with culture and history) but does not wish to destroy and dismantle it. Cooperation is already at high levels and there is a tradition of trade that doesn't involve 'cheap production' in China that goes back decades. The EU's cheap manufacturing was outsourced in the main to the new members after the fall of the Iron Curtain, where even now an enormous amount goes on. It's in a great place to capitalize on the high tech trade, and enjoys controlled but extensive Chinese investment which adapts readily to local culture. The 77 million in the US will be as sorry for their choices in 2024 just as the 17 million in the UK are now squealing and howling about the choice they made 2016. The effects will last at least a generation.

People tend to completely underestimate the ability and sheer power and agility of the European Union to adapt and respond to changing circumstances, environments and threats. That is because the vast majority, especially Brits and Americans, fail completely to understand exactly what the EU is and how it actually works. Trump is an utter bozo bully and coward 'leading' a dreadful regime of sycophants and non-entities. But right now he is pursuing the agenda of some extremely nasty, hate driven and intolerant people behind him. They want to destroy the EU. They hate what it stands for and how it works, just like Putin didn't want a democratic, prosperous and Russian speaking nation on his impoverished, colossally corrupt and crumbling doorstep. The EU will prevail against both I have no doubt, even if it gets hard. As EU citizens we know what we've got, and it's not only universal health care. Except of course the 20-30% residue of fearful, orally flatulent, largely ignorant and manipulated malcontents in the Dunning-Kruger Club that you get in any society (who don't know what they've got till it's gone) - like Reform, the AfD, Maga etc.

That's the first time I've ever read anything like this 555

Sad. Never to come back to Thailand because of one experience of a few days in an Isaan village? Sounds to me like you didn't do proper due diligence. What you describe is a part of village life as far as I can gather. Are you serious? Or Bob Smith? Even in Hua Hin city at Xmas the temple next to my peaceful residence becomes a rock'n'roll/mor lam/EDM stadium. 10 long nights long through to New Year. Although there is another condo building between mine and the seismic epicenter, it's like someone has stacked the subwoofers outside my bedroom. Fortunately the noise finishes at one am so sleep is possible after. And I enjoy morlam and intelligent EDM as well so I went along a couple of times. The atmosphere's great. Food as well. Shame you didn't go along to see what was up. On a tangent, are you by any chance a digital nomad? I'm curious because you said you're a day worker, yet living way beyond the boonies. Just wondering what kind of day job is available to a village farang that's all. There are no noise complaints or possibly even noise bye-laws in Isaan - because what you experienced is what your idealized cow herders and monks and tight-knit families actually all want. It's their lifestyle. May have something to do with otherwise sparse entertainment in the village. Excitement being restricted in my experience (I have a little, but wouldn't consider living there till I'm perhaps 80 or so) to the mom'n'pop shop, perhaps with a tinny radio offering a quiet sound track, and the daily migration of the cattle to and from their grazing ground. Oh yeah, and the odd pig squealing as it gets slaughtered. And TV. Lots of TV. Top volume lakhon - screaming, murders, gunshots, fights and appalling 'dramatic' mood 'music'. Top volume. All day. Most houses. Thailand is actually an extremely noisy country in the main wherever you go. Something to which the Thias seem impervious as it's their culture. It makes it almost impossible to find the type of bucolic paradise you seek here, except perhaps as a forest monk ... and even then ... As you mentioned, even the cockerels will wake you up after the dogs have finally gone to sleep.

Surely there must be a money trail?

Au contraire ... the resemblance is intentional. They know exactly what image to project.

Actually, the underlying strategy is less to do with the removal of millions of foreign 'criminals' than it is to terrorize the rest of the population and anyone who rejects Trump.

Totally agree. I hate touchscreens - they force you to take your eyes off the road to accomplish a task. Potentially fatal and/or lethal. Loathsome. Buttons and switches are better because tactile and you can keep your eyes on the road whilst navigating around the dashboard with your fingers.

That is a potential solution I've considered using for the first time after a potential problem popped up in recent threads concerning the validated 65k income letters and international transfers.. But it is only one of several options for me. And so far I've steered clear of agents. I'm also uncomfortable with the idea of using them if immigration effectively coerces me into it. Just a matter of principle.

I was required once to produce a police record in order to spend some time as a monk in Thailand lol ...

Good. I think people should definitely not want to return to jail or regard it as a kind of rite of passage. People should be frightened of jail. But no rehabilitation is a recipe for recidivism. Anyone seen how the Japanese run their jails? Watch a documentary on it. It's a real eye opener. It ain't Wandsworth Toto. Having said that, one of the few things I agree with US justice for is 'life without parole'. Or multiple life sentences to be served consecutively lol. There are some who are not reachable for rehabilitation or whose crimes were beyond horrific and I simply want them off the streets. Don't want to run the chance of me or a loved one suddenly bumping into them when they've had a skinful and the girlfriend just dumped 'em and they can't find any gear and isn't life so cruel and I'm so angry. Sod that. Every country should have an Angola.

Probably by streaming child abuse footage.