impulse

Good points. Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating that we stick US inmates in CECOT in El Salvador and let them rot. But if El Salvador was willing to build prisons that meet US (and international) requirements for humane treatment and could do it for a small fraction of the operating cost of a US prison, I wouldn't object to sending them there. Of course, they'd still have to have access to their attorneys, and libraries, and contact with relatives, but that could all be facilitated online. The US could probably also arrange visitation by relatives by air and still come out way cheaper than the expensive (and corrupt) contracted prison systems around the US. Besides, if the inmate was from Florida, El Salvador is closer to home than being put in a SuperMax in Colorado or California.

It's been awhile since I was interested, but it is fascinating to me how retail stores decide what products are given which (and how much) shelf space. Lots of books about it back when people read whole books, which is when I looked into it, 30 or so years ago. Powerful companies can force retailers to absolutely shaft their competitors, making sure that competitive products get crappy, if any shelf space.

EST.

It's happened in the past when Nazis that escaped into the USA became naturalized citizens. They were stripped of citizenship and deported (or extradited, depending on the case). Besides, what's wrong with housing inmates sentenced to death or life in prison in a country that is contracted to house them for a tiny fraction of the $$ 10's of thousands a year that it costs the US and the States to house inmates? Even if they're citizens... They will have gone through their due process and sentenced to incarceration. Seems like housing them in a cheaper country would save the taxpayers $$ billions.

True. And I believe that a powerful family could get 7/11, Lotus, Tops and all the other "Thai outlets" to give Nescafe zero shelf space if they want to carry the rest of that powerful family's products. So Nestle would have the rights to the name, but zero chance of selling any in LOS. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen. I don't claim to know what it will look like, but I'm predicting Nestle will take it in the shorts in Thailand. Winning the battle and losing the war. Like Pepsico did.

Let's summarize, shall we... BLM: (Police Chief's MCCA Report) Your link says 70 went to prison? That's 1 for every 29 cops that were injured. Jan 6 (according to NPR): 140 cops injured. 720 went to prison. That's 5 for every cop injured. 150x as many as the BLM'ers. That's referred to as a dual standard of justice. Protest on the side of the Angels, and you can get away with arson and looting and attacking cops. Protest on the side of the Bad Orange Man and we will hunt you down for months and sentence you to prison. You figure maybe the J6'ers would have done things differently had they seen over 10,000 BLM'ers going to prison? (2037 injured x 5) Had they enforced the law during the Summer of Love, January 6 would have looked completely different.

I would characterize a 0.5% chance of going to prison even if we do arrest you as an utter lack of consequences.

I've got this vision of Nestle winning the battle and losing the war. Like, for example, if they get rights to the Nescafe brand, but no Thai outlets will stock it on their shelves. Because they don't want to mess with the family. We'll see...

It's more like light beer. I love a cuppa, but I can only drink one a day. Decaf still gives me the jolt, but I get to drink several before the nerves protrude from my fingertips.

If I was her, I'd be contacting the DHS to see if someone hijacked my e-mail address and is using my name. I'd also be looking at my bank statements to see what other info they may have hijacked from me. But she's not going to bother, hoping it goes away. Makes perfect sense to some, but not to me. Or maybe she's just fear mongering about the Bad Orange Man. You have a nice day, too. Even if you just can't help the personal insult. I don't blame you. It's the syndrome.

The US gets 15% of China's exports, but is responsible for 46% of their world trade surplus. ($404B/ $878B in 2022) I don't blame China for that. They're just doing what's best for them. It's just that the rest of the world has always had better trade negotiators than the US. Until now.

I recall reading about a scandal where a company was importing fully assembled cars and all the Thais were doing was adding the hood ornament. I'm not sure if that was real, or an urban myth. But that's a good example of a "zero dollar investment".

I could scrape by on 500 million baht.

I'm still betting Nestle takes it in the shorts eventually.

I'm one of those guys that everyone hates that sets the cruise control at 5 mph over the speed limit so I don't worry about Big Brother. I can drive for hours on a US freeway without ever reacting to another driver. (I also ignore the ones giving me the finger as they blow by at a high rate of speed.) Not so in Thailand where defensive driving is such a necessary skill. And yes. I do drive in the slow lane unless I'm passing an even slower driver.

They asked for my passport when I topped up some cards (MRT and BTS) after I'd been MIA as a Covid refugee for about 2+ years. I've got 3 or 4 Rabbit Cards and 3 or 4 MRT cards because I bought them when I forgot mine at home or at the hotel. (Only one Elder Card. I suspect they'd prevent someone from buying a bunch of them to sell on the black market, but who knows?)

A few months ago, I posited a question pondering the black market value of an MRT Elder card. Seems like they could be worth something... FYI, I've topped mine up a few times since they quit offering the discount to foreigners and that didn't trigger any changes.

I don't disagree it will be more crowded than the status quo, but there's a difference between free rides and 20 baht rides. (And it's not just 20 baht) People were probably riding on a lark when it was free, even if they didn't need to go anywhere.

I was still grandfathered in last month using my old Elder Card on the MRT. I was curious so I checked. Half fare. But they apparently won't offer it to foreigners who buy new cards. What I don't know is whether foreigners can buy Elder Cards even if they just qualify us to sit in Elder seats. Just to be clear, I always offer up my seat to old farts and kids. But sometimes I'll sit in an empty Elder seat just to open up a normal seat for someone else who's reluctant to sit in an Elder seat. BTW, I didn't ask for an Elder Card. I didn't even know they were a thing. That's just what they gave me when they saw the DOB on my passport. It's nice, though...

And I still contend that Thailand ranks that high because it's at a precarious economic point where so many people can afford scooters but can't afford cars. Any poorer, and they'd be walking or bicycling. Any richer and they'd be in cars with seatbelts and 2 tons of steel. In either case, traffic fatalities would go down. I didn't enjoy driving as much in Thailand because the habits and etiquette are so different than back home in nanny land, but I rarely felt at higher risk on a per km basis in my pickup with 2 tons of steel and seat belts.

So you don't figure one of her clients gave the DHS her email address as a contact point and she can clear this up in a phone call? It is clickbait. Micheroni says she won't be reaching out to Homeland Security, and figures this is an administrative error. She hopes nothing more comes of it. That's a responsible response, eh? For an attorney, no less.

Neither did the J6ers. You can tell because they left their guns at home. Had it really been an insurrection, they could have been armed to the teeth. But it doesn't surprise me that people believe it was an insurrection (it wasn't), or that there was $2.7 billion in damages (there wasn't). That was the narrative of the MSM and Dems out to get Trump. Repeated 10,000 times. The worstest thing to happen since the civil war, right up on 9/11 level. Hogwash. It was a day of protest with some stoopidity thrown in that did about $2-3 million of damage. And a lot of that damage was in reaction to the cops that went full Rambo on the protestors. Not an entire season that did well over $2 billion of genuine physical damage. That was the BLMers.

Mea Culpa. It was $1.5 million in actual damages. Not the $1 million I claimed. Jan. 6 by the Numbers: 775 Arrested, $1.5M in Damage to Capitol Jan. 6 by the Numbers: 775 Arrested, $1.5M in Damage to Capitol – NBC4 Washington Here's Buzzfeed, appalled that the number is $2.5 million (not billion) if you include the booze that was pilfered. Capitol Riot Damage Estimated At Over $2.5 Million You're only off by a factor of 1000. (I wish the links would work)

Sham trials are expensive. How much physical damage was done? How many cop cars and buildings were burnt down? Maybe a $million in honest damage? And $2.699 billion chasing down and prosecuting grandmas who walked through doors being held open by cops...

As I've stated above, they required me to enter a phone number that started with +66. Which I didn't have at that time. To be fair, I probably didn't try every one of the half dozen (or more) options. I'm just not that bound and determined to get free wifi.