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Cobra Gold 2025: Strengthening Ties in Troubled Waters
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27
Being black in Thailand
Arabs unnerve me greatly too but I don't know them well, just bad vides. These guys however are very charming. I think they're from rural Pakistan. -
0
Where to by shoes for walking with a toe injury?
Hello everyone, I hurt my right big toe. It's mostly healed, but I'm having problems finding stiff-soled sandals, a stiff/rigid shoe insert, or a walking boot for post-op recovery to walk without aggravating the injury. I must avoid flexion (bending) of the big toe for several weeks, and walking in normal shoes is causing the toe joint to flex and become swollen. My preferences in order would be... 1) a stiff sole hiking sandal (but nobody understands the question when I call to ask. And the requests to "just come to the store" are a problem because I have to avoid running all over Bangkok with my toe injury. 2) a hard (rigid) shoe insert meant for this purpose (like this one from Amazon USA) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D4DRG6RQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A10U4HUD9UI9ND&th=1 **I've been calling around and nobody understands the idea that stiff soles must be used to protect a toe joint injury. You can't just put in a gel pad. Most sellers didn't even know what I meant when I explained the idea. 3) a post-op walking boot (not at massively inflated expat hospital prices) Any suggestions would be appreciated. -
32
Hamas Sinks to New Lows with Hostage Body Swap
It is lunacy to continue to negotiate with terrorists for 2 or three people at a time. Does Israel really intend to do this for the next decade? Hamas can never return all the hostages because they know they will all be killed at that point. The problem is the policy of never negotiating with terrorists should have been declared and adhered to. But with rewarding Iran for returning hostages, trading an arms dealer for a basketball player, trading terrorists and getting some loser that joined the other side in Afghanistan. Etc. was all a sign that we will bargain at any cost to save just about anybody. Kill them all and declare if you ever take a hostage again you the only negotiation is how you are going to die. There is no other end game when somebody wants to wipe you out. There is no compromise or off ramp. -
27
Being black in Thailand
I'm in the "don't mind the term Farang camp". I understand there's thousands of years of history between us and we're very different people. We can meet on our common ground but I have no illusions of being accepted or even accepting them like I do my fellow Farangs. Race is not skin deep either I would argue. It is what is it, they don't mean harm they just see us a single group, which in many ways we are. -
57
A few friends of mine have made the move to Africa...
If you have ancestors who came from ITALY, regardless of melanin content, no, that would not be rayciss. Were there BLack italians? Sure, just ask Netflix 'bout Cleopatra. As for Wakandans, they can claim kinship to Septimius Severus. If you have no ancestors from the country in question, but are granted DEI points for skin color, well, dass rayciss, dawg. -
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Trump and Elon Musk
The computing system error seems to be the source of the Social Security issue; of course cases of fraud will be found, but no where near on the scale suggested. Defence spending is an issue. The DoD has been told to make 10% cuts every year for the next 4-5 years, which will mean, based on projected GDP for the US, that at the end of Trumpf's term, the US will be spending about 1.5% of GDP (at most, because Trumpf expects his policies to far increase GDP far and above analyst projections) on defence, far below the NATO current target of 2.5%, and far below Trumpf's own stated target of 5% of GDP. But leaving defence spending at about 60% of its current level might be an acknowledgement of the dire asset control in the US military. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/pentagon-audit-2666415734/ The DoD can't account for 60% of what it buys. If it can't account for where 60% of its tanks, those tanks might as well not exist. They've been p*ssing money up a wall, possibly resulting in the exageration of capabilities In Europe, the UK MOD is probably the largest defence organisation (even if it doesn't command the largest forces). Recent audits also reveal lost assets https://www.libdems.org.uk/news/article/machine-guns-ammunition-mod-reveals-list-of-almost-200-stolen-items But its paltry in comparison. So European militaries, organisationally much smaller, are leaner, and probably get more bang for buck. The EU states, which covers NATO, more or less (Cyprus and Ireland are not NATO members), has about 2 million full time troops, with a collective spend of $340 bn. That will round up to about $400bn with the UK, and its not including Norway and Switzerland (plus not including Canada). The US Defence budge is $850bn, so on paper, much bigger, and it is bigger. But 10% of that is maintaining the nuclear stockpile. But once you get past 500 nuclear warheads, who actually cares. I wouldn't like to live in a world where the UK and France have just spunked off the 500+ nuclear weapons they have. But accounting for a disproportionate nuclear arsenal, and assumed wastage rates, (and assuming far lower levels of corruption in European defence procurement), then the effective US defence spend is more like $460bn. Suddenly the defence spend gap is not so wide. Additionally, most European countries don't have anywhere as near non-NATO commitments as the US. If the new Defence Secretary does want to achieve the cuts in his ministry, he probably will want to talk to a few past UK Conservative Defence Secretaries to see how Options for Change worked out. When they entered it, it was all about smarter defence procurement, but that crystal ball gazing proved impossible, eg HMC Ocean. And defence cuts ultimately included firing men and women in uniform; not just the brass with their big pensions, and Captains/Majors who could easily segway into nice roles in the City, but it mean cutting a lot of NCOs; men in their 30s and 40s, sometimes 50s, who don't have skills that necessarily translate to civvie street (no, they don't all pick up gigs as PMCs in dusty parts of the world, many ended up in the manual trades, and frankly struggled until they qualified for pensions). sacking faceless bureaucrats is easy to get a big cheer in the bars of America, But its hard when you start firing people a week earlier you were calling "Brave Warriors", and greeting with the empty phrase "Thank you for your service". When the DoD is asking for 10% cuts, which ships get scrapped or sold off to some 3rd world despot? What Americans will wake up to is the realisation that the Cold War was a close run thing, much closer than they think. It was a contest of budgets, with both sides effectively bankrupting each other. Post Cold War, the European nations adjusted; the levels of spend were unsustainable. The GWO was a very bad thing for defence spending. We ended up with a lot of kit that is basically worthless. All those MRAPs developed for Afghanistan? Worthless. Until the Ukraine War, most were waiting their turn at the scrapyard. In reality, leaving all those armoured lorries in Afghanistan probably saved the US military money (The military estate that was over there was staggering, and the full pull out actually took 10 years). Those MRAPs were better than nothing for the Ukrainians, and certainly a step up from the 20 year old MOT failure L200s and Rangers being brought up on Ebay at the time). The Americans need to approach cuts very carefully, otherwise they might find themselves suddenly without an entire capability that will be hard or impossible to reaquire (eg CBRN, that's a one time only skill set).
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