TorquayFan

How did I get that so wrong? It appears that Trump may be immeasurably worse than I thought he was. Thanks to Stephen for this - "No facts will emerge since there will be no investigation". I fear you are right Stephen - it will be an almighty task to get any independent evaluation, given the state of the Trump DoJ. At first I missed the Trump tweet about the tariff suspension - "A good time to buy". Trump's USA looks more of a mess every day.

Youre welcome Henrik. BTW Samet Dang has some Villa - one with a swimming pool. It's next to the Restaurant but still private.

JAS and Cam - for a laugh, here's a comment I just saw on the ADVFN website:- "China will target US farmers until Trump squeals like a hormone-grown stuck pig. They also just need to sell off a few bonds and he'll be forced to kiss their ass. Terrible humiliation coming for the Sunbed King." Yes indeed - genius ? LOL

Cam - I looked in the mirror, thought about it and made suggestions as I had previously posted. Genius ? Poppycock ! You think in a Trumpian dreamworld. None of what you wrote stands up to examination IMO.

(Sophomoric - 'intellectually pretentious, overconfident, conceited, etc.') JAS I commented before : "the mess Trump created will take a lot of clearing up - there will be many discussions before matters are repaired. Meantime, many will have suffered losses, some relationships will take years to repair and some may be irreparable. The unfortunate fact for Trump is that the US deficit is caused by citizens wanting to buy goods made abroad - that problem is still there! Most would have agreed with measured and specific actions to address the deficit, with targeted tariffs for a few, interest rates and taxation - because, in the end, as USA manufacturing will take aeons to regenerate, citizens still want to buy and the USA still has a deficit." JAS - I reject that accusation. ATB

Nice try Ivor 🫢 However, Trump is the living proof that your assertion, is NOT true.

Very droll Frogs ! Yet another brainless Trump speech, (observed not by a 'hater' but judged on merit). Ready - yes the mess Trump created will take a lot of clearing up - there will be many discussions before matters are repaired. Meantime, many will have suffered losses, some relationships will take years to repair and some may be irreparable. The unfortunate fact for Trump is that the US deficit is caused by citizens wanting to buy goods made abroad - that problem is still there! Most would have agreed with measured and specific actions to address the deficit, with targeted tariffs for a few, interest rates and taxation - because, in the end, as USA manufacturing will take aeons to regenerate, citizens still want to buy and the USA still has a deficit.

Whilst some will have benefitted from these market movements, and some will have lost, I don't go along with this theory of conspiracy. Is Trump actually bright enough to have manouevred such a matter? I mean, a 6 times bankrupt, 34 times felon, with a wife who seems to dislike him etc. Plus Trump liberation day was 'so simple' but Trump didn't understand it at all. The theory looks unlikely to me. But if Trump told anyone before he reversed on the tariffs, the possibility exists. Let's see if any facts emerge.

Frogs whilst I admire your blind devotion to Trump - it IS blind ! When you write, "trump's tariffs are not exactly "reciprocal" the truth is they ARE NOT RECIPROCAL AT ALL. As for 'exaggeration' that's an irrelevant and incorrect word in this context. As for "negotiation tactic" - that reminds me of the Goon Show years ago - "it's all part of a masterly plan". Now we have a 'Goon Show' in the USA !!!

Frogs - my glance was enough to see that the formula to calculate these non-reciprocal tariffs was pure nonsense and that the tariffs are NOT reciprocal. The Trump numpties were looking at the balance of trade between the USA and other Countries, NOT the tariffs rendered by each side FFS. YOUR glance tells that you don't "know for sure what he's doing" but you have a theory, (apparently based on blind hopes). You're 'aving a 'larf' surely. "Reciprocal" is NOT this - the EU was charging 1-5% on US Imports and got a reciprocal of 20%. Or this, Switzerland was charging c.0% and got 31%. The 'liberation' was bullocks ! To quote the Master, (Trump), "they all rip us off, it's so sad, so pathetic" and "it's so simple, can't get any simpler than that". The joy in this is, even though it's SO simple, Trump's liberation doesn't get it at all !! What does that say about Trump? Explain that Frogs !

To 'Save the Frogs' and others who support this Trump idiot - hang your heads in shame. Lawless before he came to Office and Lawless now, this convicted Felon and Sex offender should NEVER have been elected. I am not a 'Trump hater' - (Trump followers like to describe those with rational doubtsabout him as 'haters'). Not so. It's obvious at a glance that Trump doesn't think things through and he ends up in a mess, dragging the USA with him. Trump has been a stain on and a disgrace to the great USA from the start. Let's see how this latest nonsense goes down with the Republican hierarchy. God save America. And save us all from this idiot.

Hi. The 'Natural Beach Resort' and 'Nisasiri' are both decent and quiet LS resorts, the first on and the other close to the best part of Laem Sing Beach. Yes parking & privacy and you're unlikely to be bothered by tourists. Budget sub THB2K I think. LS is quiet except at long weekends. Plenty of Restaurants fronting to the beach. Our favourite is Au Samet Dang, a few km away, looking back towards LS over the sea. Good luck

Save the Frogs - "Most people are still getting a lot of crap information from fake news sites". Yes Frogs, maybe you and maybe Trump too . . . as an example, I use Trump on Canada. Net of a US surplus with Canada on exports of 'Services', the overall trade deficit with Canada is $30-$40 billion. The claim of 300,000 people being destroyed by Fentanyl permeating the US border with Canada is ridiculous - official sources say the Canada border accounts for 1/5 of 1% of Fentanyl arriving in the US - (extrapolating that would mean that the USA has 150 million people being destroyed by Fentanyl each year). The trade deficit with Canada totals about $70 billion p.a. for goods less $30-$40 billion of US services in surplus. The US benefits enormously from the goods it imports from Canada, i.e. crude oil delivered by pipeline direct to the industrial mid-west, cheap aluminium because Canada uses hydro-power, timber etc. There is NO $200 billion imbalance and it wouldn't be a subsidy anyway. Trump is quite MAD. Clueless !

Hoorah for that ! To me, it seems there is a lot of resistance in the Judiciary to Trump's wild attempts to 'walk past the Courts'. Good luck USA, labouring in confusion under this sad looney !

Yep this is 'woke' madness, continuing a trend of decades. Whilst it's not just Starmer's fault, is he the Man to turn the tide? MMmmm Even more alarming is the current drift toward 'two tier' sentencing and 'two tier' Policing. The UK and the World is largely, atm, going quite potty !!

Just seen a video on Fab Pattaya News 103 - you can clearly see that the top floor started collapsing at the side where the crane was sited on top?

Re. 'planks of wood' - I can't see them . . . The outside of the Building looks to be insulation material between the floors and starting to install cladding at the lower level on one side?

I stand corrected.

Thanks Mike and thanks all for some constructive discussion, (a nice change on this Forum). Simply, the price paid for the structural concrete at this site should be easy to find and conclusions drawn from that. Naive again, to me, it's unconscionable that the wrong grade of concrete would have been used. The consensus seems to be that the building collapsed from the top initially. Mike, re the Chinese and straw curing, I wonder what their record is with highrise structures and building collapses. Thanks again all.

Bizarre posting again Riclag. I love Ray Charles and have listened to him for 50 years, so I am qualified to comment. I wonder if Ray would sing, "America the Beautiful" these days??He seems to have been a well balanced and decent Guy, so I doubt, in the extreme, if he'd want to sing it now. Anyway the premise of your post is so weak it is desperate. What Ray sang aeons ago is bigger all to do with bigger all.

Hi Mike - maybe I'm being naive - does anyone know anything factual about the existence of lower grades of concrete at lower prices ? Maybe I am being naive, but it seems unconscionable to me that sub-spec material would be used in a 23 floor structure. It will be a shame if we are not given the truth when investigations are completed.

Riclag your usual (IMO) mindless posting. You should revise these words - "The left wants to destroy the Greatest country on Earth" to, "mad Trumpties are wreaking havoc in the USA, a once prosperous, great and widely respected Nation". There's a hundred other ways to express rational revulsion at the antics of Trump, Musk, Maga and Co. and you. History will show Trump, (and you), in such a light you will hang your head in shame.

I agree with that Dinsdale - let's wait and find out what was wrong . . .

Gott - it would be amazing if the concrete supports did not have reinforcement steel as usual ! Quite unbelievable ! Armoured steel ? Never heard of it, except in military applications. IMO, unlikely that the concrete was below spec. We'll see . . . .

I'm always amazed to see how 'flimsy' these buidings under construction look. But surely it's the Architects for the project who specify and monitor construction and their necks may be on the line. The THB 258 million reduction in the project quote could of course be connected to some criminal corruption. Perhaps the structure after investigation, will be found to be in line with normal standards. Or maybe unbeknown, the structure of the ground deep below made that spot, is particularly vulnerable to earthquake disturbance - not everywhere shakes to the same extent during an earthquake . . . . Pity and R.I.P. the poor souls caught up in this.