retarius

A stupid idea. lots of spending on infrastructure means lots of money from corruption going to people with the power to influence who gets what contracts.

Netanyahu lying again. He must be the most evil, vile and unpleasant person in the world today. How can Jews vote for him? as he justifies the deaths of ca. 10000 Palestinian children...it's only the scale that is the difference, not the thinking behind it. He thinks Palestinians are sub-humans and can be treated anyway he likes. It;'s vileness however people try to justify it. You wouldn't like your totally innocent child murdered in this way.

I'm not missing that point at all. I read about it, it was extensively covered in the media, with a picture of him holding her hand. Again this sort of thing happens with 17 year old girls all over Thailand every single night of the year. It is BS to use the justice system to make examples of people.

I didn't say I always bought coffee in there. They do sell things that I like, for example chicken and mushroom pies, sausage rolls, and water. And sometimes it is just a place to meet people, so even though I don't like the coffee much, I am tolerant enough to allow my guest, partner or client to choose the coffee shop we go in. It is drinkable coffee with the extra shot but very poor value. And if you are a traveller as I am sometimes Starbucks is the only option. But I started going to Starbucks in 1985 so nearly 40 years ago....so perhaps I have wasted 750 baht a year according to you. Mea culpa, what a big silly I am. Luckily, I don't really care about the 750 baht each year going missing, I can afford to take that sort of loss without going hungry or shoeless.

But every bar in Thailand allows minors in.....go on Soi 6 in Pattaya and there are a lot of girls who look very young (let's say) and they engage in sexual activity. Of course police get a handsome payout, I don't doubt to turn a blind eye. I'm just shocked at 5 years closure for a single example of underage drinking which is what the article implies. In Pattaya when they raid any bar the police turn up dozens of teen drinkers, not one. Perhaps if there was sexual activity involving a minor, the sentence should have been a lot stiffer. But then again you can but fake proper IDs in Khaosan Road and I imagine every big town in Thailand. Come to think of it, I've never been in any bar here in 15 years that has asked anyone coming in for ID. I suppose I think that selectively applied justice isn't really justice at all.

Robusta isn't drinkable by itself. Mixed with some arabica, robusta adds strength and depth, while the arabica makes it less bitter and more drinkable. That's my opinion.

The land of aspiring wage slaves, I'd say. I got tired of those materialistic people.

I forgot about Black Canyon, it was a life saver for me when I first came here. Excel;lent cup of coffee, but I would have said a similar price range to Starbucks. The brilliance of Starbucks was that they in produced coffee at $3 a cup vs the standard US price of 60 cents for a cup of (not espresso) filtered coffee (that the whole world drank back in the 80s). Now in the US people rated highly Dunkin Donuts coffee, and it was ok. But suddenly the whole world noticed that you could make a bundle selling Starbucks-like coffee, ie like espresso-type coffee for prices close to Starbucks. I've no doubt they pinched the idea from some small West Coast coffee shop or shops.

Yes, hundreds of times. I have posted on here that I think their coffee is weak and insipid. I think it because they don't use robusta beans in their blend....but they might well be diluting the ground coffee with some non toxic brown stuff....I simply don't know. But what I do know is that I, and I am speaking for me, have to have an extra shot with everything...it cost 50 baht for the extra shot the last time I bought one. The stuff is very expensive, tasteless, and not as good as vastly cheaper Amazon. If you don't agree fine.

Starbucks claim to use ONLY arabica coffee beans. Arabica beans are usually more expensive than robusta coffee beans. Robusta as the name implies have a much stronger flavour. Good tasting coffee is usually a blend of the two types of beans, I suspect that lacking robusta in their coffee makes it insipid. When I came to Thailand in 2008, there was no decent coffee to be had except the revolting Thai 'sugar with a small amount of added coffee', so Starbucks was a relief, but pretty much limited to Bangkok. There were no espresso machines to be had either (or it seemed so). I splashed out for a Starbucks espresso machine which is a great machine, and 15 years later still working fine. I boungt some Starbucks coffee to go with it, but when 'esspressed' the coffee was weak and insipid. I changed to Bon Cafe and all was well. Good coffee at home.

Good news for diabetics.

Thank you. I lived in the US and Americans say it. For some reason it drove me up the wall. Our COO said across instead of across. But they say some other stupid things like: 'I could care less', where English would use a logically correct 'I couldn't;t care less' which for some reason didn't;t bother me.

Yes the word was coined by blacks to advance their cause, and BS claim that all whites are racists.

It is a different 'tack', not tact. Tact is about being inoffensive. Tack means direction, as in tacking a different tack, and it derives for sailing terminology, so that when you adjust the sails you are tacking moving in a different direction.

No Ivor, I don't believe in God, Judgement Day or an after life. I think it is simply a superstitious reflection of man's solipsism that they think they are so special so they don't die like other animals but go to heaven our are born again. I remember doing an exercise once to look at foundation myths of various old religions...virgin births (or impregnations by Gods) are very common in Greek and Roman religions; December 25th is also cited often as a special day, and was a Roman Holiday, the birth of Mithra, the sun god; and there are many other very close correlations between Christianity and many Middle Eastern religions. Eastern religions exceptions Zoroastrianism, which follows the Christian tradition, tend to be dominated by Hinduism and Buddhism that originated in India. These have a pantheon of gods, some sort of judgement and a rebirth denominated by how you have lived your life. IO think belief in some sort of divine God upstairs and eternal life are deep archetypal needs in humans which is why all religions have these common superstitions and are so universal. I am very wary of religious people and dislike any public forms of worship, because all religions are divisive and exclude anyone not from that particular faith. Having said that....if we take organised religions out of it, and focus in the philosophy underpinning religions, then I have to say that Jesus' sermon on the mount crystallises for me, the moral imperatives of the human race. I dislike intensely all of the 'Christian' faith, because they all totally ignore the philosophy of Jesus and focus on the ten commandments and the vengeful God of the OT. The vast majority of Christians are hypocrites.

Good god man, flavoured coffee. Ugh. Hazelnut, caramel, chocolate or whatever other crap they dump in the stuff is vile. Coffee is supposed to be bitter, not sickly sweet.

Quite, there is a joke about Starbucks' customers lacking taste buds and being stupid, but I can't remember it.

'N***a' is not a term hated by blacks (sic) it is used extensively by blacks in public, to refer to themselves. One can therefore say it is not offensive at at all to them. Personally it is not a term I have ever used much, and was offended when I moved to US where it is used quite widely, until I became used to hearing it. Fundamentally though, I dispute the legitimacy of laws making any given word, hate speech if one race says it eg whites, but nor hate speech if another group uses it eh black people. On another note I see the common capitalisation of the 'Black', in 'Black people'. We don't write 'White people' do we? No, we write white people. And I never used the cumbersome term African Americans ( or african americans :), which is typical US butchery of a perfectly good language. Overall I am against using the term 'earth moving implement' for the term 'tool'.....there are enough tools in the woke movement already without adding to them.

Seems a very stiff penalty for a very minor (sic) offence.

I must say Move Forward seem to be doping a decent job of holding this shower to account. Digital wallets indeed.

I dislike Starbucks coffee. I go when we travel as it is the same everywhere and the food is reasonably priced. I find Starbucks coffee really weak and insipid, but that's a personal opinion. I always have to get an extra shot costing 50 baht to even get a coffee taste. Amazon's coffee is much better.

Good news.

Bit all the unused money has to go somewhere doesn't;t it, and I know that a lot of noses are in the trough already. Thing is most poor people are excluded so you have to live less than 4 kms from the shop participating in the scheme. There's a reason it's called a scheme, there will be billions of baht left floating around for the elites to get their hands on. Sadly there will be no protection.

The do it all the I=time in the US whenever there is a stimulus needed....both parties do it....but much greater amounts than this $2000, $3000 ie 60000 baht to 100,000 baht.

I always liked lard arse, but American don't usually know what an arse is.