mfd101

We can only hope.

Mmmm, well you may be right but some of her performances on the international front have not been reassuring. Perhaps that's a matter of style (as seen from a non-Usofan perspective) rather than of substance.

Joe needs a new running mate who actually looks like a possible President. Any rational voter leaning towards Joe has to be conscious that he may not finish his 4 years. Of course, when you see Trump up close with his war paint cracking, you'ld probably have the same thought in his case too.

So their 'revenue collection target' is only US62B this year? [I take it this is personal income tax?] And there's a 'corporate tax target' of US22B. Making a total of some US84B. Which doesn't seem much if that's the government's total revenue for 12 months. Wouldn't go far even at Thai prices and without corruption skimming off 1/3 ... ???

It's going to be fascinating to watch the hydrogen vs EV contest over the next 20 years. Too early to tell which will win. Both are in their infancy, though EV is clearly well ahead at this stage. Meantime - here in Isaan - I'm sticking with petrol.

What noone seems to have grasped is that the Arab states are - quietly & carefully - on Israel's side in any stoush with Iran. As we saw a couple of days ago as the Saudis remained silent (and regularly assist US aircraft) and the Jordanians (over 50% Palestinian population) helped shoot down Iranian drones & missiles (at some risk to the Jordanian autocracy). Iranian Shiites are much more dangerous for the Arab Sunnis than anything Israel might do. And as to the Palestinians (a VERY mixed ethnic group), the Arab states are notorious for NOT welcoming them in to their own states. And even Egypt - similarly ethnically mixed - does not welcome them. I have myself witnessed what the 'pure' Arabs of the Arabian peninsular think of the Palestinians. I was chairing in the mid-1990s a meeting in Canberra with Arab-state military, and Oz Foreign Affairs (DFAT) had the stupidity to send along a Palestinian Australian as their rep at the meeting. Things were going well until he entered the room and opened his mouth. Immediately the temperature dropped some 10 degrees ... In sum, the Palestinians have no friends. The only sensible solution is NOT a 2-state one (which everyone keeps yapping on about, ignoring the impossibility of drawing appropriate lines in the sand). The sensible solution - but only possible after 50 or more years of peaceful coexistence - is a one-state solution, with all parties - Palestinian & Jewish - Christian, Muslim, Jewish & secular - treated as equal citizens in a fully-democratic state. Won't happen in my lifetime but.

An interesting phrase.

speaking from experience? Well, in late 2011 I visited The Tropics and specifically Thailand for the first time in my life, places that before then I had flown over on the way to Europe. And I encountered a hansum young Thai Khmer man, many years younger than me. And here we are over 12 years later happily married and living in Surin. Clearly the rush to the head was both overwhelming and enduring.

It would certainly have to be in the future.

So you've really answered your own question.

I transfer money from Oz every month. I figure Oz is less likely to be 'disrupted' than most countries but anything's possible. No point in worrying too much about what could happen but probably won't, particularly if there's not much you could do about it anyway.

It's what happens when people from a cold climate & regimented culture come to a hot climate & shambolic society: Off with their clothes and everything rushes to their head.

Yes, indeed. More of another hub-dream than anything real at this stage.

Yes, the whole point of nuclear weapons is to HAVE them, not to USE them.

Not in Prasat sth Surin. We're always awaiting the promised thunderstorms but so far there's only been a mild one - about 1 hour at most - about a week ago.

I look forward to the day - in about 10 years? (if I'm still on my feet by then) - when the walk from my hotel in Asoke to Terminal 21 becomes a pleasure rather than an obstacle course.

Just a younger man performing appropriate New Year greetings to an older man. 🤓

Policemen - like politicians - have to deal with the real world as it is - dirty, grey, impure. Dealing with it on a daily basis involves compromise, not purity. In politics the unrealistic longing for purity produces fascism. Trump is a product of this longing in a naive electorate. In law enforcement, every day a policeman has to decide what is worth pursuing (because bad enough and provable enough) and what isn't. Adults understand that.

So even before the event there was an expectation that violence was likely ...

I am what is ridiculously called 'white', meaning a person of European origin (born as it happens in NZ of parents of English & Irish descent). I have the impression that the use of the term 'Caucasian' to mean 'white person' is mostly a Usofan euphemism. It derives from C19th theories about the historical origins of Europeans (not that the Caucasus is very far from where modern prehistory and archaeology would place our Indo-European ancestors of over 4000 years ago).

Ditto Oz.

Nope, here I am at your service. The proper word in common language is farang. I was satirizing the use of the word 'Caucasian' to mean 'white man'. If he were really from the Caucasus, his likely first language would be hard to find here in Thailand or indeed anywhere outside the Caucasus, and his second language would likely be Russian.

Imagine his military predecessors doing anything like that ... I think the contrast is to Srettha's credit. The common touch is an indication of egalitarianism which, in this country, is a welcome step forward. In public life even little gestures count.

Caucasian? Gosh, it'll be hard to find anyone here with a common language.