ronnie50

Ha! So did I!

Good to know. What 'testing' was required?

I'm 90% sure of that too. This was pre-planned, a manufactured crisis to enable an eventual coup. The demand by the People's Party (formerly Move Forward) to disolve parliament and call an election is, in my view, the only way to head off the ultra-conservatives' plan for a coup and more right-wing dictatorship in Thailand. But there are rumblings that Thaksin may be trying to do yet another deal with the conservatives to avoid an election (which PT Party would clearly lose, but so would the conservatives).

Notice how there's video footage of the aftermath, but none of the actual strike? Even though there is a clearly visibile, apparently, unscathed CCTV camera in footage showing damage at the hospital. Let's see CCTV of the rocket landing..

I also wonder whether China has any designs on Russian territory. It claims to be in lock step with Russia on 'comrade' grounds, but I do wonder.. Then there is Kazakhstan - which could be an even bigger prize for China.

That's what I was told too, at the main DLT license renewal desk at Chatuchak. I went 9 months early and was turned away with that explanation.

Yeah, the toaster image is hard to beat. I had a boss once decades ago who told me that he and his wife had been to the local hospital maternity ward to visit a friend and her newborn. As they were walking past the other rooms, a door was open and a woman was in labour and they heard her yell 'don't let in be Chinese!'

My TM30 has my passport number on it (the form says "Informed" with a green checkmark at the top). I started doing my own after the landlord gave me the user/password (I rent a condo). It only takes a few minutes to do - so IMO, whether or not a new one is 'officially' needed, I find it's just easier to do a new one when I come back from abroad (3 times a year usually is max for me). I can see it might be a hassle for those traveling a lot more though. I haven't updated the TM30 when returning from a hotel somewhere else in Thailand though.

Possible not if it's just a poor translation from Thai. But possibly yes if it's not a translation error and they are supposed to be taken seriously as an 'authority' on driving licensing.

Dramatic aftermath footage from the PTT/7-ELEVEN explosions. Also video aftermath of the alleged rocket attack on the hospital - with a CCTV security camera still in place, seemingly undamaged - yet no footage of the actual explosions or rocket strike. I wonder why that is.

Okay, but these would be a small minority of renewal applicants. Also, Even if you had 15 months left on your extension, and they give you a 2 year license, doesn't that defeat their presumed reason for doing this in the first place (i.e. assuming you will leave Thailand when extension expires and come back on a tourist visa and drive a car using it without being a resident?). In that case, they should give only year to year renewals.

Don't they know it's called the "Land Transport DEPARTMENT" not 'Agency'

How could anyone have more than a 1 year visa extension in their passport at time of license renewal? (noted abut the Wealthy Pensioner, 5 year, etc. but that's a tiny minority of those renewing licenses - vast majority are foreigners working here, regular retirees, etc.).

The fear of nations calling out Israel’s fascist leader and his foot soldiers in Gaza and fascist settler violence in the West Bank is a mirror image (very ironically) of how world leaders remained silent about Hitler’s rise and human abuses until it was too late. Tens of millions died as a result of that war (WW2). You see the same timidity to speak about against Trump. The alarm bells couldn’t be louder - but they’re being ignored.

Really? I am from one of the visa exempt countries. And I wouldn't even think about traveling to the United States now, given the current state of things with its ICE impunity. Millions of others - visa exempt or otherwise - feel the same (in case you haven't been reading past the headlines - do keep up). So anyone actually needing a visa and all the other hoops to jump through and the chance of being detained just because they're Latino, etc., is going to think much harder about traveling to such a place. Get it now Skippy?

You pro-Trump guys are missing the point. The extra fee - how much it is or isn't - is not the point here. It's just one more disincentive to jump through all the hoops to go to the United States for a holiday or watch football there or go to Disneyland or whatever. Be truthful now. If you knew that a country that was hostile to foreigners and could arrest and detain you (or your wife or daughter) on any whim of the guy at the immigration counter, would you really want to take the risk of going to that country? It's just common sense. You can go somewhere else that's easier.

Not sure. Maybe they would just use the same venues they already have in Canada and Mexico - but not sure if that's enough, or if they are already booked on the additional dates. Would be a welcome windfall for them though. I guess foreign fans wouldn't just come for the matches, but would use the opportunity to have a vacation there too..

There are concerned (leaked) rumblings - though nothing official yet - from FIFA about next year's World Cup venues. Most are in the US, with Canada and Mexico hosting the rest. Contractually, it's probably too late for FIFA to move more of those matches away from the US to the other two countries. But you really need to wonder whether such a big event like this is even on Trump's radar screen, or that of his incompetent 'cabinet' members.

This is just the latest, but a crystal clear, example of no coordination within policy-making whatsoever. Given that visits and foreign tourism to the United States are already lagging - due to American's xenophobia drummed up the Trump "administration" and the understandable fear that any foreigner could be detained by ICE without any reason given upon arriving at a US airport from abroad - throwing in another demand for USD 250 on top of a visa fee in advance is bindingly stupid right now. If this is still on the cards for next year - World Cup year - and since matches are also being held in both Canada and Mexico (the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a 3-nation affair) wouldn't many fans just choose Mexican or Canadian WC venues instead of US ones? Occam's razor really.

EFKN Fast-track Lane (Elderly Farang Kee Nok Lane)

This is likely the main reason the Thai-Chinese oligarch families are so opposed (read 'afraid') of the Move Forward Party (now called the People's Party) because the latter's calls for opening up the lower-middle class to medium and SME enterprise ventures is a clear threat to the oligarch's present and future financial/capital growth. The oligarch's actions to ensure blockage of MFP in Parliament probably never had anything to do with the LM proposals - that was a convenient, but 'patriotic' false flag (and maybe that's why MFP never dropped the demand/platform because they knew it was not a real concern of their opponents).

Why don't Thai media reveal who owns most of the 20,000 weed shops? Because you can bet your last roach that it is precisely the big industrial players that already own most of the shops - not thousands of 30-something entrepreneurs.. Everyone is pointing fingers over the casino special interests in Thailand. It's a joke to think that big money isn't also behind most of the 20,000 weed shops.

What? Are you drunk?

The 'lie down' CEOs and COOs of these big media companies... bowing at the Trump alter..

Unless Trump was shagging underage girls at an Epstein chicken ranch on his island, then this will be a dead-end. Lots of ultra-rich guys throw lavish parties with models-cum-hookers working the crowds of the wealthy party-goers, and every bedroom constantly occupied. Nothing new there - unless Trump was having some more of his signature 'showers' with the ladies.