impulse

If you listen to the lefties, simply electing the bad orange man would mean the end of democracy (small d). (That's pretty much a direct quote from old Joe, BTW). Yet they won't allow the same literary license to the other side... See how that works?

Someone who knows, please catch me up. Is the Foxtrot Network home grown, or mostly recent arrivals?

+1 20.7% of sex workers in Bangkok have HIV. Not very good odds even with doxy-pep. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23512512/ Funny how the same guys who wouldn't think of going unmasked, or miss their vaccine, would take a 1 in 5 shot of getting HIV for lack of a condom. Their right, I guess. But then they pass it on.

New word for the day... Constructive receipt. From former head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, Eileen J. O’Connor: https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/28/former-doj-official-explains-how-hunters-cash-transfers-could-land-joe-biden-in-legal-hot-water/ https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/28/my-jaw-dropped-former-doj-official-reacts-to-malfeasance-in-hunter-biden-probe/

Doesn't seem so unreasonable to me, as long as they're not free to wander and pee up and down the aisles. In my hometown, people can bring their support animals into stores. Stores aren't allowed to challenge whether that's actually a trained support animal, or if the person is even entitled to a support animal (by some medical criteria), without fear of a lawsuit. There's some pretty mangy "support animals" traipsing in the stores, with no way they'd fit in a trolley.

Whenever I'm entering a fraught situation, I say a little prayer, "God, don't let me be the butthole here". Sometimes, he lets me down.

Good point. I kinda assumed they flew in, they can fly out. But... Still, sad to see 747's and A380s parked up like that.

How can we tell how qualified they are if their faces are pixelated?

Pretty sure they were blues, because I don't remember ever seeing a green. But I'll admit I'm not sure. I just bought what was available because choices were slim after the flood. Had 2 of them in each of 2 Dell servers and lost 3 of the 4 within a year or so. Fortunately, the HDD's that came from Dell are still working 10+ years later. If yours were from 2009, they were pre-flood. Edit: I'd already had my run of bad luck with Seagates, so I am sure they were all WD's. Still have them in storage on the outside chance I'll figure out there's some data there that I'm missing so badly that I'd pay to have them recovered.

You must have lucked out, because I had a real bad run of 3-1/2" WD's of about that vintage. Especially after the floods that shut down HD production for awhile.

Assuming this isn't just a windup, I suspect the pump will have a dedicated circuit breaker. When you don't need water, turn it off. If he gets real angry, you'll have your answer.

Please somebody tell me this is a windup.

You're confusing hatred with tough love. There's a reason we don't allow kids to smoke or drink, to get tattoos, drive cars, have sex with adults, or sign legally enforceable contracts. And it's not because we hate them. We do it to keep adults from taking advantage of their forming minds.

Actual uptick in flight bookings, or just wishful thinking? As I've said in other threads, I'd expect an October increase due to 2 overlapping holidays in China next month. But whether it will last or not probably depends on how they report back to their friends and interweb followers back home.

I witnessed a few myself. Even stopping taxis at red lights and pulling the foreigners out for ID checks. But that was all pre-Covid. Maybe they've started it up again now that the pickings are getting richer. More short time tourists who wouldn't know to ask for a ride to the cop shop to straighten it out.

Had one that clocked 350,000 miles before the odometer cable broke (probably rusted from driving it in high water). Then continued to drive it for a few more years, probably over 600,000 km. That was a US Ford Ranger, not one of the Thai models. Great little trucks, all of them. But if you're claiming that driving through floods isn't deleterious to auto longevity, you're wrong. Edit: And I don't talk about reliability until it's 10 years old and has at least 150,000km on the clock. Until then, it's still a new car.

I've no reason to doubt the veracity or accuracy of the OP's warning. These threads crop up occasionally, though usually it was the cops around Asoke. I actually witnessed some shake downs around Asoke years ago where people were stopped on the sidewalk and others were pulled out of taxis at red lights for ID checks. Got so prevalent one time that one top cop came out and stated that carrying a copy of your passport was acceptable, followed by another who said it had to be the original. Given the stories about cracking down on foreign workers and increasing security in light of the new visa free policy, it wouldn't surprise me if some local cops were either being over-zealous or downright crooked at the end of the month when rent is due. And that's assuming they were real cops. Also had a recent story about fake cops holding a lady for ransom...

Rust never sleeps. It's more reliable in the long haul if you don't drive in floods.

Some people just aren't cut out for living outside the nanny state.

You may enjoy it, but your Ranger will suffer in silence until one of the bearings rots out, the brakes corrode away, or its electrical system starts throwing error messages.

The options are simple. Spend $Trillions to make the city floodproof, spend $Trillions to move it all upstream, or spend a few $Million to clean up after each flood. I'm sure they could do a better job of keeping the drains open, but 5+ inches of rain in one day in a city no more than a few feet above sea level is always going to cause problems, no matter how much money they throw at it.

It is. You suggested they buy more airplanes. I pointed out where they could find a bunch of used ones that seem to need a new home.

Should stick to the hotel pool if not a strong swimmer... the ocean doesn't take any prisoners. Can't disagree, based on results here. But the idea of flying halfway around the world to an internationally famous beach resort, then not getting in the water... In fairness, we often swam in surf much rougher than anything I've ever seen in Thailand. But it's the deceiving rip currents that probably lead to tragedy.

Please post back your experience. It may help others on here. Myself included, though I wear coke bottle lenses just to see.

Quick tip for any TikTok'ers wanting a video of a cheating taxi driver for their Bangkok holiday feed... Approach a stationary taxi, especially one sitting in a queue in front of a touristy hotel. I rarely had a problem flagging down a moving taxi. Rarely found a stationary taxi who wanted to turn on the meter. Almost never in front of tourist hotels. I get the sense that they pay the hotel bellhops or security for permission to be in the queue, but that may not be true.