theblether

No farmer would allow a dog that attacks livestock to live. It's an instant death sentence.

Ridiculous comment - no one that keeps livestock would allow an aggressive dog to run riot. The idiot brigade that thinks it's a wee shame for the dog would weep when they see the damage done to literally defenceless animals. Here's the result of a dog attack in Scotland. If you think Noem is mental then there's something wrong with you.

Snakes don't bother me unless they are in my pond. I don't see cobras that often ( never in my pond ), but I do see rat snakes and banded kraits on a regular basis - and I've seen both in my pond.

Great photos. I'm always amazed at how comfortable many Thais are handling these guys. A juvenile cobra found its way into the kitchen at my local pub and one of the rescue service guys just walked in and picked it up. The Thai ladies with me set a new land speed record when he offered them a closer look.

Not a chance it would still be drawing breath after biting me three times. And its capable of biting you mind your conscience when it rag dolls a five year old kid. Put it down.

Yes, I have and the rescue dog was young enough to be retrained. Unfortunately I had top put it down as it developed premature arthritis due to being overfed as a pup, causing immense stress to its developing skeletal structure. Noem was not wrong to shoot a dog that worries livestock. I was brought up on farms and with the hunting fraternity. They would have no hesitation in shooting problematic dogs, especially dogs they owned. Some dogs are born mental, certain collies are born defective with a condition called NCL5. This can turn them aggressive. As soon as its noticed they will be shot without hesitation. ps - your boast about the English being 1000% more humane ( utter garbage ). What do you think happened to all the racing greyhounds? Dredge the rivers and ponds and you'll find thousands of skeletal remains.

The OP mentions that age group - no one reading that OP cares about people that age. They know they are going to have their pension frozen.

ps - I should add - some of you will remember a few years ago that the Thai government requested the UK government validated your income for retirement visa reasons. The UK government flat out refused, they weren't prepared to share that info with another country. It would have been a catastrophe for many pensioners. First, for those who were cooking the figures to qualify - second, those who were claiming they were resident in the UK. So while some of you spend all day growling like bulldogs chewing a wasp, never forget how close you were to being dragged under the radar by Thai government policy. And who knows what the unintended consequences of the new tax policy will be.

One of my ( very ) close relatives is an HMRC tax investigator. I posted this years ago but now time for a reminder. The government has an internal system called ICE. My relative only needs to submit your national insurance number and it spits out reports. If he adds a last known address and ( god forbid ) a passport number, twenty-three government agencies spit out everything they know about you. First, I haven't read the whole thread - the Thai government has a report of every time you have entered the kingdom. Do not kid yourself that the British government does not have every single entry you have made to the UK in the last 20 years. Second, the UK government has access to every flight manifest for passengers of any nationality entering or leaving the UK. By the way, some of you will be unaware that the HMRC investigation period has been extended from the previous six years to twenty years now. Second - HMRC can demand every financial transaction linked to your UK account and the banks cannot deny access to the records. So every time you have used an ATM drawing from a UK bank in Thailand it's recorded and accessible by HMRC. Equally every bank transfer overseas is recorded but no one is that stupid that they don't know that. Third - DWP are part of the ICE system, that should be obvious to everyone too. Fourth - one that you likely don't know - council tax records are part of ICE so if you are declaring that you are resident in the UK to bypass the pension freeze it will take the DWP a press of a button to discover your registered address. Another press of the ICE button will uncover your banking records, flight manifests etc. You cannot defeat ICE. After the bad news, now the good news. HMRC etc are far too busy to be chasing up every pension claimant. The people that get caught usually have an unexpected change in circumstances ( such as the person who they are registered as living with dying ), or the housing association discovering that an "unknown" person is living in the accommodation, or the "registered person" coming to the attention of social work support due to illness. Otherwise, someone would need to grass you into the authorities. There have been absurd cases where, for example, people sublet their own council house and use the profit to live in Thailand, then the council catches them out. You must be beyond stupid thinking you'd get away with that. However - this OP is approaching trolling territory. Mentioning the 55 year old and 61 year old is another absurdity. Who cares? They are nowhere near being affected by the pension freeze. And this forum has been tortured for decades by people moaning about the pension freeze that knew before they retired it applied in Thailand. An utter waste of time as the governments ( including Labour ) have no interest in increasing their pension burden for people who choose to live overseas. They are delighted you have made the move and saved them a fortune. So sad, too bad.

Google is rolling out a core update and it's not going well. I saw a hack last week ( can't find it again ) that indicated searching for results before 2023 often provide better results.

First, not every Russian in Thailand is fleeing the war. Just the same way as not every Irishman was in the IRA and not every Muslim is a member of ISIS. Plenty of Russians were emigrating and traveling the world long before he war started. Second, far too many Russians are being harassed and bullied over an issue that they have no control over, or, in many cases, agree with. This is done by a coterie of idiot farangs that start firing into this stupid conversation as soon as they discover their nationality. It's from the same rancid low IQ stable as talking to Germans about the war and Argentinians born in the 1990's about the Falklands. By definition, the vast majority of Russians in Thailand want no part in the war so making it a topic of conversation ( which they hear all day every day by farang strangers ) is rude and foolish. Give it a rest. Treat them as individuals. The Russians I talk to breathe a visible sigh of relief when I refuse to engage in any form of controversy or war talk. I've found them to be good, and interesting company, although I have no doubt they have their fair share of a**holes. Give them a chance

I'm not mixing them up. I mentioned content spinning, I mentioned plagiarism, I mentioned unnatural AI text. They are separate issues.

I think you need to review Thai custody law. You'd be amazed at how often "remote" fathers destroy the best laid plans of mice and men. Request sight and get this document translated before you get a shock. And you better make sure its recognised and not written on the back of a fag packet. ps - I hope I'm wrong but I personally know four examples where the spouse prevented removal of the child. That includes one former high profile member of this forum.

Make sure you have a copy of the document where he signed away his parental rights.

I live in the UK and have assisted several Thai students to navigate Masters degrees. I have watched them walk away embarrassed by the lowlifes they meet. I also know many middle class Thais that avoid other Thais like the plague. The UK Thai community is bedivlied by rotten-hearted hookers often married to oil & gas workers who spend their lives crowing about money. I have witnessed this, I know Thais who have witnessed this.and here you are making up stories about "middle class communities" in the UK. The community is overrun with illiterate, alcoholic prostitutes. You've as much chance of encountering this fantastical "middle class" enclave as tripping over Brigadoon.

Is the father still living? Is he okay with his children being removed from Thailand?

Do not, under any circumstances, seek an area with a "substantial Thai population." They are overrun with a demographic that any decent Thai family would avoid like the plague. "Thai rak Thai" is a nonsense in the UK. No decent Thai woman flies 6000 miles to consort with rotten-hearted hookers.

This is on my daily playlist - I'm gonna take a freight train Down at the station, Lord I don't care where it goes Gonna climb a mountain The highest mountain I'll jump off, nobody gonna know … Can't you see, whoa, can't you see What that woman, Lord, she been doin' to me? Can't you see, can't you see What that woman, she's been doin' to me? I've gone to buy a ticket now, as far as I can Ain't a-never coming back Ride me a southbound, all the way to Georgia now 'Til the train, it run out of track

Copy and paste this in the search bar - it will take your straight to the article. "Aussie soccer fans slam veteran SBS commentator for sending them to sleep with boring call of one of the best World Cup games ever played: 'He ruined the match'" That's just google in action. The major players, for example Apple and Amazon, have superb content checking AI. Your idea of a personal AI assistant checking the news will be available to you as an individual within a couple of years max. I read people objecting to using AI - it makes as much sense as the blacksmith refusing to drive a car - it's here to stay.

This is why Musk is close to demanding subscription only access to Twitter and this week threatened "engagement farmers." As usual, he is ahead of the game.

It's clearly fake. No serious author would write - "The crowd erupted in cheers as noodles rained down like confetti." And that was just one among many absurd lines. Anyway - AI - if prompted - admits its unable to create nuance - and human's are not as consistent is style - hence experienced eyes can see it's fake in a couple of lines. Also, there's a reverse text search available that tells you where the original text was originated - hence how many students are being captured using AI. Plagiarism-style checkers are very advanced. While I accept that some people would read that and think it's true, others will uncover the truth in moments and until AI learns how to write like humans and defeats plagiarism software these articles will be called out. Now, if you are having a go at certain "news" outlets who have gained a reputation for using AI - they are content spinning to avoid legal consequences including accusations of copyright theft. Content spinning was the scourge of the Internet at one time and it appears to be making a comeback since AI exploded.

If you enjoy some light reading, have a look at he anti-passport bro movement in Colombia.

A married friend went to Koh Samui in January. He said it was an atrocious experience. Roads were mental and dangerous, prices more expensive than London ( in his own words ). He hated the entire vibe in Chaweng, says that daytime it was a concrete jungle, night time a cattle market full of drunk, rude and obnoxious tourists of all nationalities. Phuket is boycotted by a large number of expat types, it's a rip-off hellhole. IMO Sukhumvit has lost the little bit of plot that it had, and that wasn't much. Pricing is laughable, the vibe poor and many a weird or dangerous thing happens after midnight down there. I know too many people who have either been robbed or ripped off by taxi drivers in Lower Suk. Walking the streets is like walking through the bar in Star Wars, literally full of creatures of all shapes and sizes, a surprising number either mentally ill or outright dangerous. I haven't been to Patts for a while, the received wisdom is that town is going backwards fast. I was shocked at the level of passive aggressive and outright aggressive farangs in HUA HIN of all places, I wasn't shocked to read of serious assaults. Hua Hin police that I know told me they were delighted that the Patts ferry stopped, but the damage is done, the headcase brigade is already polluting that town. Pai, high season, is laughable. CM, high season, is creaking under the weight of unsustainable tourist numbers. Crossing the road is a genuine heart stopping experience and when events take place the numbers are crushingly busy. Others can comment on other locations. My opinion is that residual bad behaviour from isolated people re Covid is causing a lot of problems, and the hotspots can't handle the traffic. I know no one of experience who thinks that Thailand is in any way, shape or form a better destination than ten years ago. Maybe we are jaded. My opinion is that we can see the evidence with our own eyes - the country has unleashed a dragon - and I don't know how they will slay it. Bringing in more tourists isn't going to be the answer, that's for sure.

I gave the specific answer to the incident mentioned, including the length of sentence. Now you are diverting to another despicable incident in a pitiful attempt to win Internet points. No sane person can forget what happened in Koh Tao and no person with class would descend to use that to win brownie points. Truly pitiful post. Pitiful.

If you are referring to the assault in Hua Hin in 2016 where the older Scottish lady was kicked in the head and left unconscious along with her husband and son, all four were arrested and eventually jailed for two years each. Further, they were excoriated by the Thai media, in this case the Thai populace was appalled. This is the second time in two days I've seen people referring to old and near ancient videos on this forum. The one posted yesterday was around 16 years old. You're an experienced guy here, you should know better than to post without context and the insinuation that it was memory-holed is blatantly false, it was national news.