37 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Turns out that some wag or wags in the ISW fiddled their maps to win big on Polymarkets. Naughty naughty but then the ISW is literally a think tank that profits from war and promoting wars but rarely so blatantly. 

 

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/isw-polymarket-ukraine-war-map/

 

According to tech outlet 404 Media, just before the market was resolved, someone at ISW edited its map to show that Russia had taken control of a key intersection in the town, despite the lack of indications that Russia had made any such advance. After Polymarket had paid out the winners of the bet, ISW’s edit mysteriously disappeared by the following morning.

 

PS - On our morning walk along Jomtien promenade passed the country tents for the various countires in the World Jet Ski competition and Russia had a huge presence , decked in flags and slogans next door to the minnow US which made do with it's merely provided name board. Jomtien residents may like to go along and cheer on those opposing Vlad in the spirit of friendly resistance. 

 

Just lead the way....

Just now, nauseus said:

 

Just lead the way....

It's too hot and the VIP's get a tented roof and fans while Joe Pleb has to take on the baking sun - plus my missus won't go. So that's that. 

3 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

It's too hot and the VIP's get a tented roof and fans while Joe Pleb has to take on the baking sun - plus my missus won't go. So that's that. 

 

In that case then I suggest a frosty frothy beverage or four.

1 minute ago, nauseus said:

 

In that case then I suggest a frosty frothy beverage or four.

I'm trying to keep to the 6 o'clock sun down on the yardarm rule lest I slip into expat perdition. 

The great Owen Matthews cuts through to the chase as ever.

 

Owen Matthews - Only the US is taking peace seriously in Ukraine - THE SPECTATOR

 

https://archive.ph/S36eE

 

At base, the Europeans are arguing for a world as they would like it to be, while their US counterparts are dealing with the world as it is. ‘Now is the time for peace,’ Chancellor Merz said this week. But of Ukraine’s allies it’s the Americans who are actually talking about ending the war by Christmas while Europe continues to look for ways to fund Ukraine’s war effort for at least another two years. As Bismark observed, ‘politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the art of the next best.’ And when it comes to security guarantees, the best possible is going to be a formula acceptable not just to Ukraine, Europe and the US but ultimately to the Kremlin too.  Anyone who disagrees can go to war with Russia, defeat Putin, and impose terms. Any takers? 

1 minute ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

The great Owen Matthews cuts through to the chase as ever.

 

Owen Matthews - Only the US is taking peace seriously in Ukraine - THE SPECTATOR

 

https://archive.ph/S36eE

 

At base, the Europeans are arguing for a world as they would like it to be, while their US counterparts are dealing with the world as it is. ‘Now is the time for peace,’ Chancellor Merz said this week. But of Ukraine’s allies it’s the Americans who are actually talking about ending the war by Christmas while Europe continues to look for ways to fund Ukraine’s war effort for at least another two years. As Bismark observed, ‘politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the art of the next best.’ And when it comes to security guarantees, the best possible is going to be a formula acceptable not just to Ukraine, Europe and the US but ultimately to the Kremlin too.  Anyone who disagrees can go to war with Russia, defeat Putin, and impose terms. Any takers? 

Well it isn't Trump or Putin, as Trump is not the USA...........🤗

13 minutes ago, transam said:

Well it isn't Trump or Putin, as Trump is not the USA...........🤗

The deep state isnt running the USA any more mate. Its Trump in the drivers seat now. Thank Dickens.

1 minute ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

The deep state isnt running the USA any more mate. Its Trump in the drivers seat now. Thank Dickens.

More like king Trump is in the back of an ambulance...........😬

8 minutes ago, transam said:

More like king Trump is in the back of an ambulance...........😬

A king that allows free elections. So, not a king then - as you well know😅

4 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

A king that allows free elections. So, not a king then - as you well know😅

I could have written "wannabe" king just for you, and notice the non-capital 'k'................😉

The utter BS that the msm are starting to vomit out. The narrative shaping by Europe terrified by Trump tunring his back on NATO and Ukraine collapsing is something to behold. They are gagging for bloated defence budgets and boots on the ground whilst our welfare state , pensions and beloved NHS are collapsing. But wait a minute haven't 1.2 million Ruskies died in Ukraine ?

 

Russia massing 100s of thousands of troops near NATO border as Putin 'plans next move'
Hundreds of thousands of Vladimir Putin's troops are being amassed on NATO borders as 2026 shapes up to be a 'critical' year for European peace, ex-German army official Roderich Kiesewetter said

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-massing-hundreds-thousands-troops-36412158

2 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

The utter BS that the msm are starting to vomit out. The narrative shaping by Europe terrified by Trump tunring his back on NATO and Ukraine collapsing is something to behold. They are gagging for bloated defence budgets and boots on the ground whilst our welfare state , pensions and beloved NHS are collapsing. But wait a minute haven't 1.2 million Ruskies died in Ukraine ?

 

Russia massing 100s of thousands of troops near NATO border as Putin 'plans next move'
Hundreds of thousands of Vladimir Putin's troops are being amassed on NATO borders as 2026 shapes up to be a 'critical' year for European peace, ex-German army official Roderich Kiesewetter said

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-massing-hundreds-thousands-troops-36412158

The UK got over it after WWII, we help others from being taken over by an invading tyrant........🤫

 

Where are you from........?  🤔

1 minute ago, transam said:

The UK got over it after WWII, we help others from being taken over by an invading tyrant........🤫

 

Where are you from........?  🤔

My mum same as you.

US lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill in the US Senate that would impose sanctions for purchasing or facilitating the import of oil and petroleum products from Russia.

This was stated by Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Olha Stefanishyna, according to her Facebook post.

 

In her post, the ambassador specified that the bill, titled the Decreasing Russian Oil Profits Act of 2025, was introduced by US senators Republicans Dave McCormick and Josh Hawley, along with Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons.

 

Stefanishyna wrote that the bill’s authors stressed that purchasing Russian oil finances the war against Ukraine and that any countries, companies, or financial intermediaries facilitating such trade should be aware of the consequences, including the risk of losing access to the US financial system.

 

US Senate introduces bill on sanctions against Russian oil - Ukraine's ambassador to US

 

 

She noted that the legislation creates a legal framework for increasing sanctions pressure on Russia’s oil revenues. If adopted, US President Donald Trump would be required within 90 days to impose sanctions on individuals involved in importing oil from Russia.

 

 

 

 

46 minutes ago, transam said:

The UK got over it after WWII, we help others from being taken over by an invading tyrant........🤫

 

Where are you from........?  🤔

 

Zelensky is corrupt as hell. He can stop the war, just give Russia some land. 

I wish my country would do as Trump has realised, and let Ukraine fight it's own selfish battles.

There's genocide ongoing in Gaza, the EU are not sending military aid to Palestinians, which they should.

1 hour ago, JimCM said:

Zelensky is corrupt as hell. He can stop the war, just give Russia some land. 

I wish my country would do as Trump has realised, and let Ukraine fight it's own selfish battles.

There's genocide ongoing in Gaza, the EU are not sending military aid to Palestinians, which they should.

You'll be joining me on the naughty step ignored by the ladies who have had a touch of the vapours ! btw Russia is using Thailand as currency laundromat which keeps both the Ruble and the Baht higher than they should be - "strategic tolerance". The place seems to attract quite a few wrong uns. 

 

1 hour ago, bannork said:

 

 

 

It looks like "Tendar's" posts are all similarly biased and erroneous.

There is a rot at the core of the Western power machine darker, more cynical, and more ruthless than its public sermons about democracy and human rights could ever admit. It is the same rot that saw Cheney facilitate the flow of chemical weapons precursors to Saddam Hussein, because at that moment Iran was the designated enemy and principles were expendable.

 

Today that same machinery grinds on in Ukraine: an avoidable catastrophe deliberately incubated, escalated, and sustained by forces that posture as protectors while they provoke conflict, harvest profit, and feed endlessly on bloodshed. And orbiting this system are the useful idiots self-anointed moral crusaders who mistake obedience for virtue, who preen about righteousness while wading knee-deep through a world reeking of deception, hypocrisy, and moral corruption they refuse to see.

 

Pranked Biden official exposes lie that Ukraine war was inevitable

She isn't the first to admit — after the fact — that taking NATO off the table to avoid Russian invasion was considered, and dismissed -RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT 

 

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-nato-sloat/

 

“We had some conversations even before the war started about, what if Ukraine comes out and just says to Russia, ‘Fine, you know, we won’t go into NATO, you know, if that stops the war, if that stops the invasion’ — which at that point it may well have done,” Sloat told the pranksters. “There is certainly a question, three years on now, you know, would that have been better to do before the war started, would that have been better to do in Istanbul talks? It certainly would have prevented the destruction and loss of life.”

When asked moments later if Ukraine and its Western partners could have avoided the whole war and if they had “made a mistake somewhere,” Sloat again suggested, unprompted, that addressing Russian concerns around NATO’s expansion into Ukraine may have been the way to prevent the war. 

 

None of this is accidental. The architecture of the present catastrophe was mapped out in advance, in plain sight, by the very institutions that later claimed surprise. It is all there in the 2019 RAND report Extending Russia: a cold, technocratic blueprint for provoking, stretching, and exhausting a rival state by exploiting its fault lines, weaponizing economics, information, and proxy conflicts. What followed was not a tragic misunderstanding, but the foreseeable outcome of a system that treats entire nations as pressure points and human lives as variables in a strategic equation. The significance of this report is not that it predicts events, but that it exposes the mindset one in which escalation is abstract, suffering is externalized, and responsibility is endlessly deferred.

 

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR3000/RR3063/RAND_RR3063.pdf

 

 

Sir Keir Starmer has warned Roman Abramovich that “the clock is ticking” for him to donate the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea FC to Ukraine.

 

The Prime Minister told MPs on Wednesday that ministers have issued a licence allowing the proceeds from the sale of the Premier League football club to be transferred to a new foundation for humanitarian causes in Ukraine.

He said: “My message to Abramovich is this: the clock is ticking. Honour the commitment you made and pay up now, and if you don’t, we are prepared to go to court so every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin’s illegal war.”

 

Mr Abramovich sold the club in May 2022 after he was sanctioned following Vladimir Putin’s invasion earlier that year.

The oligarch had pledged to donate the proceeds from the sale to the people of Ukraine, but he has so far failed to reach an agreement with the Government on a way forward and the funds remain frozen.

 

Starmer tells Abramovich 'clock is ticking' to send Chelsea billions to Ukraine

 

 

Downing Street said Mr Abramovich has objected to the Government’s insistence that the money be spent exclusively in Ukraine.

Wednesday’s decision to grant a licence for the transfer is an effort to force Mr Abramovich to fulfil his promise before the Government resorts to legal action.

Trump admitting Witkoff's knowledge of Russia is minimal

 

The US Senate on Wednesday, December 17, passed a $901 billion defense policy bill for fiscal year 2026. The 3,000-page document includes $800 million in funding for Ukraine, according to CBS News.

 

The legislation provides $800 million in assistance for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). Kyiv will receive $400 million per year over the next two years. The funds will be directed to US companies supplying weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

#

The bill also authorizes the Baltic Security Initiative and allocates $175 million to support the defense of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. It limits any reduction of US troop levels in Europe below 76,000 and prohibits stripping the commander of US forces in Europe of their role as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander.

 

US Senate passes $901 billion defense bill, including $800 million in aid for Ukraine

According to this video, "Russia's Army Is Breaking From Within"

 

https://youtu.be/A4Zr6CJ-IAo?si=ka-ZTd7ulCAwHbyK

 

 

 

 

Russian authorities reported a wave of overnight drone attacks across at least seven regions, triggering power and heating outages and sparking a fire at one of the world’s largest ammonia producers.

On 8/28/2025 at 4:11 PM, Stiddle Mump said:

Prior to 2014 coup, it was shown regularly on western TV, especially the BBC, how ingrained Nazism was in Ukraine. But when the drive to join the west started, all the archives went missing. Fortunately some are still about. But not on You Tube.

Well, Israel has a Nazi ally called "Ukraine" then. Could Ukraine become the enabler in the long-awaited reconciliation of the Jews and the Nazis?

On 12/15/2025 at 7:16 PM, gargamon said:

US guarantees are worth nothing. They never do what they say they are going to do. The EU needs to provide the guarantees. Trump needs to go back under the rock he cane from.

But the EU lacks the military to provide any security guarantees.