h90

I never even had a confrontation. I threat people "normal" the same way I would like to be threated. Had only positive experiences in 20 years. But also I don't discuss with locals about politics....Would I be a tourist in USA I would not tell them that I think that either Republicans or Democrats are better. It is normal behavior to avoid such topics with people who aren't close friends. But I have seen lots of Foreigner who explained me loud and in English in public places how bad Thai people are in various versions. I guess 99% of the Thais will think "let that idi*t talk, it doesn't matter", but if there is alcohol around some may freak out. I have heard multiple shootings...almost daily in Nakhon Si Thammerat during Thaksins war against drugs....that why I oppose his party so much. We had money stolen in the company. But such things happen not only in Thailand...also in Farangistan.

no because he would have his AR-15 to self defense himself

Yes I agree 200%.....in the last 20 years I have never seen any kind of problem myself....not even an ugly word. Of course this can be an exception and all the racist anti Finnish Thais were concentrated at this place. BUT it could be also that he was one of these Farangs who always claim how incompetent Thais are and how superior their country is...and that in a loud voice....and often not forget to also insult religion, country, history and royalty. Might not be the case here......but I have never seen some unprovoked violent against foreigner Thais, and I have seen a lot trash talking Farangs.

I tried to find Starter Spray in Thailand. Maybe it is called different in English.....spray into the carburetor while or before starting. It burns much easier than gasoline. So it helps to start engines with low compression or in cold weather. I have a volvo that has a problem and I want to use it to diagnose the problem...see if it starts with the help of that

I see the bigger risk in having an email from your bank which looks OK and the statement.pdf.exe file name is not shown full or I am just too quick in clicking and open a file which isn't a pdf by mistake

yes because I would be unable to get it opened ???? (just had the problem that I could not connect a linux machine to connect to Wifi....because of some bug)

I think controlling what information the people of the country can see is a bigger problem than when the oligarchs and elites put themself in jail....not fanboy of any...they surely have all enough crimes done. But cutting people from information is really bad. The few cases of lese majeste cases are in a way, you would go to jail in every other country without these laws as well. I recall that Thaksin portrait himself as hardest protector of these laws...and also blocked lot of foreign newspapers because of it. I don't think there is any hope that any party does something on it. All equal bad. I recall after the previous coup all internet censorship was abolished (That Sonti general) in the first few days. But it didn't last long. In discussions I actually never find anyone in Thailand who agree to my no censorship approach. It seems people love censorship when you explain them that also opinions must be allowed which they don't like.

I would not open unknown .pdf on my office computer. And I saw attachments like filename.pdf.exe which on a quick look in Thunderbird could trick someone. But can do a .pdf opened in for example sumatrapdf do some harm? I think not but still would not risk it.

I guess they senators will have it difficult to explain if they vote for a small party. In the last elections he got the most votes so they could justify it. And I could not imagine a coalition when he really only get 13%

and the virtual machine can not access your main computer (you are not sharing your files with it)

We have a laptop...if there are doubts I copy the attachment on it, disconnect it from the network and open it there. But first we look the email.....If the bank does not know my name it is most probably not my bank, if the attachment is not ending in .pdf and there is no very clear reason why not it will be deleted.

Theoretical the immigration can count the tourist on the visa type they get. I don't know if they do but it would be easy. But I would not trust any numbers, when you read how many percent tourism is from the GDP you find numbers from 5-25%. Government can't even control the Taxi driver in Phuket to not rip off the tourists.....

Maybe an additional point: I recall during Thaksin all internet traffic had to pass a state censorship server and you got sometimes an error message when it could not keep up with it. And he boasted that he hired 10.000 people to check/block/censor internet and I frequently saw foreign newspapers blocked. I am sure they still block some gambling or p*rno but I can't remember to ever again saw any message. It was a bit Chinese style. Don't know when it ended, but for sure it is not worse than before. But agree every bit of censorship is bad. Don't know for TV and local newspaper as I don't own a TV but on Internet outside of Thailand I don't see anything blocked in my usage

I did not see a decline (beside with Covid), but I don't see any improvement as well.

I am already OK if they don't make things worse.....but I am cynical

I agree on that.....But it is a different topic....I am total on your side with it, I am a free speech absolutist.

Ah OK, I did miss that.....if it is true, than it is clearly corruption and I have to agree that better away with him.

yes it is pretty much a disaster

I don't like Prayuth but I have seen much worse...Thaksin, Samak, Abhisit, Yingluck. I complete agree with the household debts. Tourism....yes that could also be done better. I don't see the problem with THB. droughts and floodings.....The worst floods I have seen...and two were with Yingluck. There are great solutions...plans in the shelf since the 1960s and no government did something. For the corruption I disagree I am not seeing that. For the freedom of speech I do agree. Unfortunately that is a worldwide problem and Thailand is rather on the bad side. And I admit a lot silly things, like a ban on online ordering of beer....what silly law is that.... But look at the others......I rather take the bad choice that I know already instead of some others which are most probably much worse. In my opinion Prayut most of the time did just nothing and that is already the best I expect from a government.....

I can not remember the prices but I think the Chinese vaccine was cheaper. It does not work well, but as we know now the other vaccines the same don't work well. That homebrew AstraZeneka is most probably something he had no choice, not his fault. I hope the ganja won't be overturned, but I worry that you are right and it will....For one time Thailand is modern and understands that putting people in jail for smoking ganja is no solution. But I see how it angers many of the hardcore shoot first ask later right wing narcotic hardliner.

I think the decision to use a proved vaccine technology over a new one, was good. I think all the shutdowns were wrong, I agree on that...that was very bad for many companies. But that handing out money worked very well and easy. People I know loved it. Yes on the crony manufactures, but I think in this case he had no choice. I would blame someone else for that. Now when you make me remembering things I have to agree more with you. I just remember the disaster when he decided over night that on the next days only vaccinated people are allowed in, than dropping it at 9AM. That was really bad from every aspect. But still many other countries were worse. If I ignore his stupid talking, I give him a medium performance. When you look at other Asian countries, you saw some extreme idiotic things. My worry is that the other parties find someone far worse.

Polls looking really not good, but still 3rd strongest party with 13%.

What is disastrous? He gave Kratom and Marijuana, which is an outstanding thing. Beside talking a lot nonsense during Covid, Thailand didn't do too bad and prevent the extreme split in society other countries had. I wouldn't call his management good, but I wouldn't call it disastrous as well. Disastrous were his comments, if he could shut up sometimes he wouldn't have been that bad.

because there are enough people who really think so, I recognized it only at the second time I read it

a) yes of course the opposition criticize the government, that is there job. Would be the Future Forward be in power Prayut would find 100 things they did wrong. State owned TV shows the opposition against government. Is also a good sign b) Thailand lost some opportunities is not the dead of a country....Look at Sri Lanka or Myanmar or Haiti....that is the dead of a country, not loosing some position in the competitiveness index. Afterwards it always could have been done better Specially the Covid-19 management was not that great. But it is not the end of the country