impulse

I usually start nodding off at the 2nd or 3rd paragraph.

Oh, I don't know. Getting out of the way of a crazed psych patient making all that noise is probably a good idea too. Too many of them seem to have machetes.

You mean the guys and gals who got us $35 trillion in debt? Something had to give. And it seems that around 70 countries already have delegates on planes and meetings scheduled to renegotiate tariffs and trade agreements.

I'd have just gotten a new tube.

When I first started working in Thailand, one of the old timers warned me that the best paid, most secure job available for a lot of Thai women was "mother of some expat's kid". Those wise words stuck with me. I had a couple of colleagues in their 50s and 60s who were raising their 2nd surprise families.

But that's not unique to Thailand.

Like it or not, English is the language used in the vast majority of international trade. For that reason, it's probably the second language of more people than any other. I'm always amused in the airports and hotels when I see 2 people conversing in English and neither one is a native speaker. But it's the one language they both know. France can accept that, or loose bigly in the global trade world.

Where did you hear the tariffs are delayed 90 days? That was in the news, debunked by the Trump admin. The wingnut conspiracy guys are claiming it was fake news released to create a momentary uptick in the markets which the Banksters could then short.

I've had my fingers crossed for that since the USS Liberty. They'll keep fibbing, then backpedal when the evidence comes out in spite of their Herculean efforts to suppress it.

That's the optimism of Americans now that Bidenomics are in the rear view mirror.

That's what I used to think, until I bought a couple of phones that looked good but had wonky operating systems and real crappy batteries. My current phone is a Samsung A05s which costs around $150 nowadays, 1/4 of what I paid for my first Samsung S2 smartphone, and that was almost 15 years ago when $600 was a lot of money. The idea that a 50% tariff will drive up the cost by 200% is another example of the syndrome in the media, especially when the tariffs are only levied on the transfer price, which is a fraction of the selling price. (And Apple doing what Apple does)

Sounds like the victim only gave the wife a ride to her ex's house. But I do pretty much need a program to keep up.

You forgot the 70 year old guy pushing a baby stroller with his bouncing baby "surprise".

That's the problem. Too much of a chance of mistake, misunderstanding and general fooknuttery as idiot influencers get involved. They'd grass up their Mom for a few clicks, even if she did nothing wrong. If they did the deed, string them up by their 'nads. But don't go creating circumstances that may go sideways, when nothing would have happened had you not created the circumstance.

They weren't "mistakenly entered" into a database as having a trade surplus. They're listed in the USITC HTS code as discrete exporting entities, and have been since long before Trump. Who's being lied to? Here's from the 2011 version:

I gave up on finding reasonably priced, decent quality Thai beef and went to making pork and chicken burgers. I ground my own at home with a $15(USD) meat grinder and had excellent burgers. I added condiments and veggies to the burgers in lieu of putting anything into the ground meat. I also made my own Italian and Breakfast sausages using the same materials plus spices available in several marketplaces and online recipes. I didn't use a sausage stuffer and casings, I just fried them up. BTW, I also got a few bad batches of ground pork and that's why I started grinding my own at home. I bought a patty press from Lazada to keep them consistent and froze some for cooking later.

It's not just tariffs. It's also IP protection. Imagine Thailand having to actually pay Adidas, Nike, Apple, etc. even a tiny royalty each time someone buys a (usually fake) branded product. That would result in $billions remitted to US companies. Which would go a long way to balancing the trade numbers. Thai companies can protect their trademarks through the courts in the USA. US companies can't in Thailand.

I'd expect the gub'ment to be the ones publishing the lists. There may already be lists published in Thai, but I wouldn't have a clue where to look. In the meantime, I'll bet Thai social media is going wild with photos and videos of damage. That could be even more damaging than a vetted list of actual inspection reports. Some damage is just cosmetic in nature, but looks horrible.

Not true at all. He implemented tariffs to prevent some countries that would abuse the zero tariff zones and trans ship goods through those islands to avoid paying any tariffs.

I don't get that the criticism is aimed at the site as much as some of the posters.

Me too, but sadly it takes longer and longer to filter through the junk to get to the good stuff. I quit participating when I became a Covid refugee living in the USA, and came back now that I'm visiting Thailand monthly. My 2 pet peeves: -There doesn't seem to be anyone deleting curating wrong information like they used to. Even totally wrong posts about simple visa issues are argued back and forth ad nauseum. Which makes the input harder and harder to trust. -We always hear about cool Thailand events after they happen, rarely in time to attend.

Not true at all. He just doesn't like getting bent over the table like our so called trade negotiators since the end of WW2. Americans have been taking it in the shorts on unfair trade agreements, for decades. That stops here.

Interesting that they didn't mention her name.

Looking at the grooming gangs in Europe and the apartment complex takeovers in the USA, who can blame Thailand for actually enforcing their immigration laws? Not me, for sure.

Doesn't matter what color. Either she had the cash to pay the fine and get sent on her way, or she didn't. She had over 6 months to phone the family and friends back home and ask them to front her the 20,000. During which time, she also spent at least 2 or 3x that on travel expenses like food and lodging. (I'm a tightwad and I'd have spent 281,000 baht in that time just on my cheap hotel and meals) Letting her go without paying would just embolden the next overstayer to show up with no cash and try it on.