newnative

The fact that there is even a discussion of the amount of time Trump spent in an important presidential campaign spouting penis envy of Palmer's 'driver' size shows the depth Trump has sunk American politics. I mean, seriously, talking for any length of time about someone's penis size to a crowd that I assume included women and children in such an important election? Am I the only one feeling I am getting deeper and deeper into the Twilight Zone? American voters should be outrageously offended by his crude, grossly inappropriate, and totally unpresidential remarks and behavior. Instead, we've all become numb to this disgusting creature and his supporters end up, not outraged, as they should be, but focused on the length (small pun) of Trump's bizarre comments. Well, it wasn't the whole speech, so what's the big deal? I'll focus, instead, on all his big, beautiful lies that make me feel better. Go away and let me stick my head deeper in the sand. Sad.

High floors can have louder road noise than lower floors since, in many cases, there are no buildings to help block the noise. I've been 30 stories or more up in Bangkok and still heard road noise from loud motorcycles, ambulances, and trucks.

Room with a view--sea view preferred--would be my first choice. Fortunately we were able to have both view and relative quiet a number of times.

Musk is literally trying to buy the election. In the swing states, but only the swing states, he is giving away a million dollars a day to a lucky winner. The catch? You have to be a registered voter. Never mind if you live in a non-swing state--he could give a rat's ass if you register to vote. His focus is buying the election for Trump by insuring Trump wins the swing states. He is also paying $100 to registered Pennsylvania voters who sign a Mickey Mouse petition he's ponied up. Again, no voter registration, no $100. With both schemes, he hopes to attract voters who like him and like his conservative agenda, and his support of Trump . Sad--and disgusting--for America that a billionaire in a close election could buy himself a president. Yet another reason to ditch the Electoral College--which has become a nasty farce that completely ignores the majority will of the voters and can be manipulated in a sick, perverted way such as this. Is the million dollar giveaway legal? One legal expert consulted in the article I read said the voter registration requirement makes it illegal. Does Musk care? Absolutely not. By the time he might get his hands slapped by the courts the election will be long over and the damage done. With the election so close and likely a few thousand votes making the difference in some swing states, he could succeed. I find it telling that, once again, it's a Republican presidential supporter, closely linked to Trump, trying to subvert election integrity--as Trump illegally tried to do in Georgia. At the same time, its Republicans always loudly complaining about election integrity, as they stomp all over it.

In an election this close, likely nothing will be decided 'about 10pm Nov 5th'. That was Trump's problem on Election Night in 2020--he was too dumb to realize that tons of mail-in ballots still had to be counted. If I remember correctly, Pennsylvania, a key swing state, could not even start counting the mail-in ballots until Election Day. Trump stupidly thought he was winning because he was getting more election day votes in some places, since he had even more stupidly told his supporters to not vote by mail.

Ah, yes . . . 'the new tap from Thaiwatsadu was faulty.' Dollars to donuts, it was not faulty, the installation was. We just finished building a new house. When the plumbers installed the outdoor shower, it did not work. Water came out of the shower and then didn't. Brand new shower, supposedly 'faulty'. No, it wasn't, but bought a new one anyway. Likely problem, the initial water was full of debris and clogged up the shower when the water was first turned on and ran through it. 5 identical bum guns installed in the 5 bathrooms, 3 or 4 leaked. 'Faulty'. (If I had ten cents for every bum gun I've had to replace in the 20some properties we've had I'd be rich but still cursing the damn things.) Back to Boonthavorn to have them checked. Nothing wrong with them. Reinstalled, not leaking--so far. 5 toilets installed, 3 leaked and various parts of them had to be reinstalled. 2 of the 4 identical indoor showers leaked and needed to be fixed. At that point the 'plumber' had stopped calling all the hardware faulty.

You're not confused. Trump is still America's Hitler. Just ask Vance, who called him that yet has so little in the way of morals and integrity that he went to work for someone he views as America's Hitler. How could anybody do that and look themselves in the mirror? I've posted several times that Trump is a dead man walking. Hugely overweight, he is a very old 78, way overdrawn on borrowed time. I doubt he'll see 80, which leaves the super-scary thought of Hitler-worshipping Vance as president at some point should Trump win. Voters need to recognize the danger of both Trump and Vance anywhere near the presidency.

We were told that we could have a model in black by the end of this month--apparently we were one of the early bookers in Pattaya--but we like the higher end model that comes in gray so we will likely wait for that model and color. No word yet on when one of those will be available.

I think good movies are still being made, you just need to look for them. In the age of streaming and Netflix, though, some stories that might have been two hour theatrical movies are now, instead, being made into limited series and given an expanded treatment. Chernobyl, for example, could have been a movie but I thought it worked very well expanded into 5-parts that allowed extra time to delve into the story. Ditto for others such as Godless, Band of Brothers, Catch-22, Fosse/Verdon, The Queen's Gambit, Dopesick, All the Light We Cannot See, Lessons in Chemistry, and many others.

Total liar--just like Trump. Ridiculous to boldly lie and say the 2020 election was swayed by the Hunter laptop, of all things. What rot. Trump lost by 7 million votes. Nobody gave a rat's ass about the laptop and Hunter wasn't running for anything. Scary this lying jerk could be a heart beat away from the presidency if dead man walking Trump wins.

Zero

Starting to hear some thunder.

Nothing on the important issue of health care in that long list--guess he's given up on his mythical 'beautiful' health care plan--which never got done in his first term in office, along with most of the above that isn't focused on lies in the first place, such as 'secure elections' and 'end weaponization of government'.

Beat me to it. The actual voters in 2016 rejected Trump for president. They didn't want him. No way, no how. The Electoral College thought otherwise and awarded him the presidency, going against what the actual voters wanted. The actual voters wisely chose Clinton by 2.8 million votes but were ignored. 2020 election. After the worst presidency in history, Trump is once again rejected by the actual voters--this time by 7 million votes. Actual American voters are smart enough not to want Trump--and have loudly said so twice at the ballot box. 2024 election. Likely the actual voters will once again prefer the Democrat candidate to Trump. Once again, the actual voters will likely be smart enough to know what's best for the country--as they also did in 2000 when the actual voters wanted Gore, but the EC appointed the Cheneybush disaster. My fear for 2024 is a repeat of 2016. 63% of Americans prefer to get rid of the cursed Electoral College. But, as with too many presidential elections, their preference is ignored.

We've been getting plenty of rain in my area of the Darkside--especially late afternoons and several in the middle of the night. Nice to get to skip watering the garden on the days it rains.

On the plus side--being a glass half-full guy--they'll die nice and clean after all that water has cascaded over them.

Yet another totally misleading and inaccurate headline designed, I imagine, solely to get AN readers to click on this time-wasting, utterly irrelevant article.

I'm one of the lucky ones, with an increasingly rare traditional pension and social security. My salary was low the 30 years I worked for the state of Virginia but the traditional pension has certainly been good in retirement. Along with the SS, I make more retired than I did working. And, the COLAs for both are keeping up with inflation, at least here in Thailand.

He died in a plane crash.

Back in August the Finance Ministry was predicting that 90% of the gamblers in the casinos would be local Thai gamblers. I thought that was claptrap when I read it and even more so now, when it is proposed that Thais pay a 5,000 baht entrance fee, while foreigners get in free. There's some dual pricing for ya. With the steep fee to secure a casino license, plus the steep annual fee, and the added costs to make the casino complexes also entertainment complexes, as well, I think they are going to need more than 10% of the customers to be foreign, especially if the aim, per the article, is to have these complexes 'bolster tourism'.

Earlier in the year the same trend was noted with hotel bookings--high-end hotels were doing better than lower-end hotels. So, that trend is continuing. Several posters on AN have repeatedly claimed that high-end tourists have abandoned Thailand due to the numbers of lower-end tourists that visit. Nice to see that is actually not the case.

Tiny baby step with the odd-even parking. Still way too timid in making the decisions that are really needed--like eliminating parking altogether on the major roads and adding extra travel lanes--North Pattaya Road the best example of a road that needs it badly. On some of these roads eliminating parking would also allow some room to plant trees and improve sidewalks where needed--parts of Pattaya Second Road have very narrow or no sidewalks at all. Also needed, a crew of Meter Maids on the major streets to ticket illegal parking. And, more public parking garages built, partly funded with parking fees, street parking meters and parking fines.

I mostly buy online items that I can't find anywhere else, or don't want to take time to shop around for. My last online purchase was seat cushions for my dining room chairs. They needed to be a specific size, thickness, and color--I could not find all three in any stores but did find them online. Recent online purchases have been solar outdoor lights, a desk mat, decorative picture hanging hooks for Japanese wall scrolls, an Asian art print, throw pillow covers, and protective sink mats for kitchen sinks.

I'm noticing the sidewalk and the beach looks clean.

There's a huge number of restaurants all over Pattaya with about every type of food you could want. You don't necessarily need to give up western food, just order judiciously depending on your budget. You can certainly spend 899 baht for a meal but you don't have to. My spouse and I don't eat red meat so we mostly order chicken, pork, or fish. Central Festival and Terminal 21 malls both have food courts with a variety of different meal choices at reasonable prices, plus lots of other restaurants. Specials are out there if you look around. If you eat lunch at Fuji restaurant you get a free drink and free fruit cup for dessert as part of the meal. We like their chicken teriyaki meal that's less than 200 baht. In addition to the chains, there are lots of local restaurants and it's fun to try new places. Spouse and I have a favorite local restaurant on the Darkside of Pattaya with very reasonable prices. We often order a chicken dish that comes with two grilled breasts of chicken, a choice of gravy toppings, small salad, and a choice of either french fries, mashed potatoes, plain rice, or garlic rice. 100 baht, served in a nice, air-conditioned restaurant. We also like their large ham and cheese pizza, 245 baht.