impulse

It's only a problem if you're not rich and powerful. For them, it's working exactly as intended.

According to the info posted above by Expatoilworker, they exceeded the legal maximum interest rate by 143,464,822%. I checked his math and that is the correct annualized rate for a loan costing 50% a week. I'm assuming he has correctly quoted Thai law regarding the legal maximum at 15%. So while I can accept arguments that a black market loan network charging exorbitant interest is a necessary evil, it's still evil (and illegal) nonetheless. In most advanced legal systems, she'd qualify for a bankruptcy and the usurious lenders would qualify for a prison sentence. Edit: Rechecked the interest math and he did put a comma where a period belongs, so the correct annualized rate is a little over 143 million percent. Seems a little bit more than the legal rate in any case.

Dems better be careful what they wish for. If all it takes is one activist judge (and no conviction) to kick someone off the ballot, a case could be made that willful failure to secure a border against an invasion is "insurrection". That would be just as wrong, of course. As would getting kicked off a ballot for evidence of bribery with no conviction. But what a mess we'd be in if one activist judge on either side could negate the will of millions of voters. Or even further down the road, 12 extremely partisan jurors...in DC for example, where the majority of people polled want Trump found guilty even before the trial starts. Which is really a gift for Trump, because that's gonna give him a change of venue.

Comfy seat, check. Popcorn, extra butter, check. Smart BMW, let the bashing begin.

I wonder if they can't find him because some of the locals got together and buried him in the hills once they found out what he did?

Maybe. But what's it say that your guy is polling neck and neck with a guy who's been charged with 91 felonies? I'm still betting Biden will have a health care incident and will not make it to Nov, 24. Trump is 50-50 whether he'll survive the legal battles to become the candidate.

If there's any justice, a judge should wipe her slate clean and prosecute the people charging her 50% a week for interest. Sadly, she'd still have to leave town before a hit squad finds her, or 18 of them.

It may be a good idea to make it free for an introductory period. If they still lack customers, that should stick a fork in it. (Assuming they make a reasonable marketing effort, which seems to be lacking based on some posts above).

Do you have a link for how many arrivals and how many departures? That would be an interesting one... My favorite resort in Jomtien catered to Russkies, Ukrainians and East Germans. I thought they were generally delightful. Maybe because the place charged a lot more than the average Cheap Charlie hotel in Pattaya. Lots of families and some of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen. Along came 2014 and Eastern European tourism scaled way back. Then the place was predominated by Chinese tourists. They were different, but still pretty easy to get along with.

https://www.rt.com/business/582398-chinese-travel-boom-oil-prices/

Do they still have the piano player in the lobby? I used to get a kick out of listening to him when I went in for follow-up to my heart surgery (getting a second opinion, after surgery at Bumrungrad). Made the place feel more like a fine hotel than a hospital. I have nothing but praise for both hospitals.

I'm not saying Western economy has collapsed, or will collapse. I'm saying leftist cities are collapsing. And businesses are fleeing the crime and homelessness in droves. Seems like a good opportunity.

Thanks for your detailed info. I think a lot of the folks tuned in here don't understand that if needing 100K baht to start, difficult access to small loans, needing a dedicated paperwork shuffler, and spending $10K USD a year to stay in compliance are barriers to entry, their business is probably not the BOI's target demographic. It's sad for someone who wants to bootstrap. But BOI isn't for bootstraps, though it can be doable. On the topic of Thai employees, most of ours (BOI Corporation) were extremely competent. So we paid them enough that the key people rarely left. Even if they looked around, they'd find out that our competition wouldn't match what we were paying. And if one did leave, we always had plenty of candidates hoping for a slot with us. Personally, I think Bangkok could be an International hub with a little tweaking. Especially when you consider the virtual collapse of some US cities like New York, San Francisco, Portland, etc. And Europe doesn't seem too far behind with all the immigration strife. My first suggestion would be to turn the BOI and the One Stop's focus from compliance to advocacy. Instead of forcing the companies to dot the I's and cross the T's, (sending them away if every page in that huge folder is not spot-on) why not have people on staff to actually help them?

Is it so hard to believe that, in a country that's probably more diverse than all of Europe combined, there are some factions that want us to give up our cars, open up our extra rooms to homeless strangers, and eat bugs? And other factions that are not going to let that happen... May as well say, "So, Europe, the enemy is..... Europeans".

US workers probably owe their 40 hour workweek, paid holidays, and collective bargaining rights to the 2nd Amendment. Had workers not been armed when management (and gub'ment) sent in the goons to break them up, the strikes would have been over toot sweet. https://www.history.com/news/strikes-labor-movement To anyone who claims that an armed populace can't defeat the military, you're right. Nor does anyone want to. We just want them to think twice about the consequences before slapping on the cuffs and dragging the workers out.

Xiamen Air, mostly.

If I called the police on a murder in my neighborhood, they'd descend on the location in droves. In about 15-20 minutes. I trust our police. I actually like our town's police. But they're generally nowhere near us. They can't be. There's not enough of them. What I don't trust is that the people who commit crimes will be punished when they're caught, or isolated from polite society when they're caught again and again. And I also don't trust the statistics about how many crimes (including murder) are stopped by a good guy with a gun. Partly because the crime that didn't happen rarely makes the news, and partly because there's an agenda on the left to take away our ability to protect ourselves. Edit: And the politicians who want to take guns away always seem to have their own private, well armed security.

Stop with the coup rubbish. I don't know. Maybe he should have just said "rinse and repeat". It's worked so well, so many times.

Never gonna fly because there's no place to build a Central Mall (and parking) under the ground.

Yeah, but that's just one of many dots. Taken individually, they could all probably be explained away. But in totality, they paint a pretty crooked picture. The one incident that's going to hang him is bragging about using a $ billion in tax money to get a prosecutor fired. The one that was investigating the company paying his son a $ million a year. Followed by an FD-1023 alleging he and Hunter each took away a cool $5MM, from the CEO of Hunter's employer who was being investigated by the fired prosecutor. Add that to Hunter's email to his sister complaining about having to give Pops 50% of his income, and you don't need anything else to prove Joe was up to his eyeballs in corruption. With that e-mail, he provided the direct link implicating his father. Even if Joe declined to be "The Big Guy", of course he doesn't want a paper trail when he's already getting the benefit from his kid. Obama was right about Joe's ability to goober things up. He certainly doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut. Which has nothing to do with anything. But I still bet Joe doesn't make it to November, 2024. He's going to have an "episode" to make the impeachment go away. And part of the deal will be a pardon for Hunter.

On a per km basis, studies in Aus and the USA say you're 20-40 times (2,000-4,000%) as likely to be killed on a scooter than riding in a 4 wheel vehicle. Those same studies indicate that helmets reduce motorcycle deaths by 40%. So you really cross the safety Rubicon when you throw your leg over a bike instead of fastening your seatbelt, safely ensconced in 4 wheels, doors and a roof. Given, of course that's even an option based on economic factors.

+1. For the past few years, conspiracy wingnuts seem to be getting it right a lot more often than the so called fact checkers. But the lefties keep confusing "debunked" with "squelched"

One of the reasons I'm grateful for the right wing coconut telegraph is that, even if they occasionally botch up connecting the dots, they publish the dots. The "dots" being the evidence. Like bank records. https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/09/house-oversight-hunter-biden-millions-russian-ukrainian-oligarchs/

Maybe it's me being pedantic, but there's a huge difference between free visa and visa free. I wonder which one they're actually proposing?

Before I worked in Thailand, I used to go to Seoul or Hong Kong. And I loved it. But now I have friends to visit in Thailand. Costs more, and the flights are longer, but so far it's worth it. I am open the the possibility I may get tired of it and go back to Seoul. Or Hong Kong.