ronnie50

Exactly. The criminal libel law is probably the best example of that. It's part of a deliberate stitch-up to shield the wealthy and powerful. Since both parties were mainly farang, it left the authorities with a pain in the neck. The farang with the Thai wife followed the Thai route of settling with police as conciliators. But there are many holes in this story. It's incomplete. For example, if the other side 'paid compensation' so why did the elderly couple sell their place to pay 'legal costs'. As someone else said they'd never end up in jail anyway (they probably had bad advice from someone who was bound to gain financially by giving the bad advice). The old guy's face looks like he took a kicking though.

You know what I mean. Move them out of the regular commercial sex trade areas to avoid confusion and trouble. So move them out of Walking Street area to the edge of Pattaya - call it Ladyboy Town or something. Get them off Bangla Road in Patong. Then in Bangkok move them out of Nana Plaza and the 2-3 bars of Soi Cowboy. Maybe send them to the gay soi in Patpong. Dunno. But move them.

Then why are the government departments discouraged from using the two words? Because you know as well as I do, that 'discouraged' means 'do as the fuhrer directs you'.

He has a point.

Or photos of the landing sites of all the Apollo missions that are no bigger than one pixel, despite all the advanced telescopes that can take vivid images of the Milky Way and black holes a billion miles away.

NYT story last week" it has 200 words that NYT has found from government memos etc., indicating which words are verboten. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html You can read it - it's erasing DEI wording mostly. But what jumped out at me is the erasure of 'woman' and 'female' - no restrictions on the use of 'men' or 'male' that I could see. How can they erase the words woman and female from government documents? What about birth certificates? What about other standard referencces? Weird.

They really need to move all these commercial sex ladyboy workers away from all these places - including Pattaya, Nana plaza and Cowboy - and give them their own clearly demarked area. Then the weirdos that like that kind of thing can go there and stop the ladyboys from bothering or fighting with everyone else.

I think I posted this story before - but it fits here: There useed to be a series on UK television called "Noisy or Nasty Neighbours" or similar. In one episode, one family complained to BBC/ITV about how their neighbour's dog was constantly barking at all times of day/night. It would be worse if he went away for a holiday and left the dog there - barking constantly. The family complained to him, but he did nothing. So they recorded the dog barking and put it on a loud speaker (looped), pointed it at their neighbour's home, and turned it up full blast when THEY went on holidays. Even after the dog died they kept playing it over and over.. 🙃

How many times have you heard: "I can only just apologize" - but they never fix the f'up or confusion? I came to believe that they were '(almost) always polite, but rarely helpful'

His companies have filed for bankruptcy six times, so no, he doesn't understand the economics of his actions on the electorate (and probably wouldn't care, even if explained to him using simple words). The fact he's a loud-mouthed loser, who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, and surrounds himself with those equally incompetent - well.. writing is on the wall. Thing that worries me more is if China or Russia, who of course fully realize this, decide now's their chance to make major moves..

Yes, it's almost a headline for The Onion, isn't it? "Trump slaps tariff on himself for signing 'unfair' US-Canada-Mexico Trade Agreement" (Washington, D.C.) United States' President Donlad Trump today imposed a 25 percent tariff on himself for signing the 2018 US-Canada-Mexico Trade Agreement. "It's a wonderful thing. Tariffs. I can't get enough of them," Trump said. "By introducing a 25 percent tariff on myself, I'm showing Canada and Mexico they can't beat me," he added. "America first!" The annual cost in dollars to Trump's self-imposed tariff amounts to $1 billion, according to the White House. A spokeswoman added Presidential advisor Elon Musk was expected to cover the costs, but would defer payments due to poor revenues from his SpaceX and Tesla sales.

Wanna 'bet'?

Now Trump hits Australia. Another "poke' in one of the 'five eyes'. Canada didn't blink. Instead it dropped its gloves and laughed in the face of the aggressor like every Canadian hockey player does. Aus should do the same - or at least teach Trump what real tackle football is like - without 100 pounds of padding on a fat guy.

Likewise, Canada can find another buyer. No one wins at this game. It will send the US and the world into a recesion. That means most people except the rich end up poorer - again - engineered by a guy who only has respect for the rich, oligarchs and other dictators.

Sure have.

They're just palying the game with him. This is going to hurt everyone sooner than later.

No it won't 'make US products more attractive and save and create US jobs' - at least not in any substantial way. There is a reason US industries and companies import products, particulalry raw materials from Canada, likw steel, aluminium, minerals, copper, etc. It's because US manufacturers of raw materials closed shop when everything was cheaper to make and ship from China. Canada was the next best choice (for steel/aluminium), so they imported from there. The US steel/aluminium manufactures cannot quickly upscale production to meet demand, so while they try hard, and hire a few more hands, imports are still needed at 25-50%. That doesn't make US final products more attractive at all. It makes them more expensive. Finally, on the notion of filling US (treasury) coffers with more money. Sure, that will happen. And where do you suppose it will go? To rebuild the US's 1950s infrastructure (Interstate highways, bridges, airports, schools, etc. or better social security and public health care)? Of course not. Trump will turn it into more tax cuts - which mean little to nothing to the majority if they're making 15-20 bucks an hour in some service sector job.

Trump just doubled the tax on Canadian steel and aluminium. Quebec's up next. Turn off the lights to the eastern seaboard of the US.

Oh that is hilarious.

You mean kinda like the non-tax-paying billionaire oligarch mafia in the United States?

Yes, it's true that post-war years saw the greatest take up of union members. But it was only down 5%, according to your graph by 1980 - the year Reagan was elected, and look at it after that. Conservative brainwashing/misinformation from Reagan and his buddies about unions was partly to blame - so was offshoring of their jobs, a big mistake (as you will surely agree). Or would you disagree with that? The guy who made $35 an hour in a unionized auto parts assembly line in Michigan, was lucky to be washing rental car returns at Hertz for $12 an hour 10 years later. No health insurance or pension of course. But Bill Clinton was also to blame for the offshoring. no question about that. I reckon Trumps' gutting of the US federal service is more about union-busting than it is about gutting essential services. He's just doing the same this to the entire federal government that Reagan did to all the unionized air traffic controlers. That's most likely what this is. He'll hire them back at half salary and fewer benefits - and no unions of course. Why people can't see the forest for the trees. Pulling some down pulls everyone down and the spiral down the toilet continues for all.

In case you missed it, the trade unions created the middle class from 1950's through early 1980's. The Reagan Movement all but destroyed them.

Nice try. Thats was February 2024 - LAST YEAR - under Biden (275,000). https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osec/osec20240308 This February (2025) the labor force added 151,000 jobs. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Oh, sure. Harris' campaign was a ridiculous replay of Hillary Clinton's - all Hollywood weirdos and wealthy celebrity luvies. No real people. Didn't work for Clinton and of course didn't work for Harris (I don't think there was anything wrong with Harris 'herself' actually, but she and the Democrats ignored working class and middle class voters - again! - bad campaign). But let's be honest, the erosion of the American middle class and the betrayal of the working class voters began with Reagan. That's clear. But for decades following him all Presidential administrations - Republicans and Democrats - continued the sell out of the middle/working class. Bill Clinton was more than happy to pick up where Bush left off and send the remaining factories to China. So I get that part of Trump and his followers (try to reverse the erosion and bring back good jobs). But so much has changed since then - the country is now run by a handful of oligarchs and Trump seems okay with furthering that. Getting rid of entire government departments won't fix any of this, nor will pandering to the libertarians. Otherwise everyone should start buildng their bunkers - if you can't beat them...

Yup, but they don't want to discuss that. They are fans of Ayn Rand and think the novel Atlas Shrugged is being played out now in real time and the conclusion is being delivered by Trump and his clowns.