newnative

If Trump had a lick of sense he'd get himself down to Home Depot, buy a roll of duct tape, and use it liberally to cover Vance's mouth--and, perhaps his nose, as well. Fortunately, he doesn't have a lick of sense so Vance will likely remain non-duct taped to prove what an idiot he is every time he opens his mouth--which is greatly helping Harris. Remember, people, Trump is 78, hugely overweight, and a massive heart attack just waiting to happen. No thinking person could want Vance a heartbeat away from the presidency.

My Thai spouse and I have booked a new Sealion, scheduled for delivery sometime in October. He drives, I don't in Thailand. We took a test drive and he was impressed with how it drove. I liked the ride comfort, the seat comfort, and the excellent seating position and view out the front. The back seats were also comfortable and there was a lot of leg room for the Thai family members we sometimes have in the car. The ride seemed fine to us but I would suggest taking a test drive to see how you like how it drives. We both liked the beautiful exterior styling and the very well-equipped and nice-looking interior, including the interior color combination--it was nice to see an interior that was not all black, as we have had with so many cars and are bored with. We decided we wanted PHEV because we wanted to move into electric but we felt we were not ready for all-electric yet. We think that with most of our driving around town we will be able to just use the electric mode and save on buying gas. Probably 75% of our driving is around town When we travel, about once a month, we won't have range anxiety and we can fill up quickly at a gas station and not have to wait around for the the electric mode to recharge--although we do have the option to recharge if we stop somewhere that has an electric charger free and we are going to be having lunch and won't mind the wait. We have a new house and we had an electric charger built in the carport as part of the build, so we can easily charge the car at night. I'm not sure we would have selected PHEV if we still lived in a condo project--and certainly not if there wasn't charging available on-site. We currently own a 2018 Honda CR-V. It has been a terrific car and we would have liked to buy another one but, frankly, the 'new' model looked very dated--especially side-by-side with the new Chinese models we looked at. I have posted before that it looks like it should have been the 2020 or 2021 model, with little new that we could see except a refreshed front and back. The 2024 model should have been a really new blank page design. Another big minus for the CR-V was the price--over 1.7MB for the model we were interested in. As you have noted, the Sealion, about the same size as the CR-V and better equipped, is less than 1MB. We could not see what made the Honda cost 700,000 baht more--enough to buy a second BYD like the Dolphin. We will likely buy the upper model Sealion but even that model is only 1,039,000 baht; tremendous value, we feel, for a very nice car. We thought it looked as nice, or nicer, than some car models we looked at costing 2MB or more. We are getting 600,000 baht for our Honda trade so our outlay for the new car is 439,000 baht. One of our concerns is buying a Chinese auto for the first time and how good service will be. We'll see. We realize that resale will likely be much lower than with a Japanese model but, hey, we have already saved about 700,000 baht. We like that BYD has a Pattaya dealership. We know we are taking a bit of a gamble with the Sealion vs. buying another CR-V but we added up all the pros and cons and the Sealion won--for us. Good luck with your car search and your decision.

If I was a Japanese, German, Korean, or American car maker I'd be worried. One new vehicle after another coming from China with very impressive, fresh styling, features, and technology at very good prices. And, as previously mentioned, the list of 'trending' cars left out some other equally impressive Chinese models, including the one my spouse and I have ordered.

Well, it's a big joke no matter how you look at it, that's for sure.

My first visit to Thailand was in December 2009. I took an extended leave from my college job and had the whole month in Thailand with my Thai partner, who was returning to Thailand from the US. Every day was absolutely perfect--blue sky and sunny. I hate winter and it was such a wonderful contrast to what northern Virginia can be in December--cold, gray, and dreary. It didn't rain a single day until the very end, when there was some rain just before I left to return to the US, to finish out the school year before retiring and moving to Thailand in June 2010. When I got off the plane at Dulles on my return to the US, I was greeted by bone-chilling cold and a slushy mix of sleet and snow. Yuck. My favorite months for Thailand are November thru March, but love living here year-round.

I am 72. I still enjoy reading--mostly fiction--and I still enjoy movies and tv shows. However, like you, I don't listen to music like I used to when I was younger. My spouse will sometimes have music on when we are swimming or eating at home but it's usually just instrumental background music stuff. We do still listen to music in the car. This whole lack of interest was brought home to me when my Thai brother-in-law retired from his job in the US and returned to Thailand. He brought with him 3 big binders of CDs of mine that I had left with him when I came to Thailand in 2010. Hundreds of CDs that I had collected and enjoyed when I was much younger. Looking through the CDs, it made me realize how much more time I had spent with music when I was younger, compared to now. Spouse has mentioned that we could put some of the CDs on a flashdrive. Might get around to that at some point but not a high priority.

I'm very surprised, too. I really thought he'd accept another debate--what does he have to lose? It's very unlike Donald to ever turn down being in front of a camera. Maybe you are correct regarding his self-confidence. In any case, a big win for Harris. She looks young, strong and willing to debate. He looks old, weak and scared.

Umm. Why in the world is this nothing story headlined as one of the top two stories of the day? Oh, wait. It has a Pattaya angle. Never mind. Meanwhile, this Aussie should decamp for northern Virginia, where I used to live. According to my brother-in-law, who ran a pharmacy there, police will not respond to store thefts unless the amount of merchandise stolen amounts to $150. Bottle of Vitamin C? Good to go.

As long as it stays 30 or above I am happy. At this point I am not sending any money to Thailand and spouse and I are living off money we already have in Thailand, which should last for sometime.

Odd crimes being the reason all these non-Pattaya folk are 'fixated' on Pattaya? I highly doubt that's the reason--although it's true that Asean Now seems to delight in using any Pattaya crime, no matter how minor, as one of it's two lead stories far too often. However, I'll pass your idea along to the Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club and, perhaps, they'll chew on it a bit at their next meeting. Also, an application to the club is on its way to you!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. More teeth gnashing for Trump and his idiot running mate--who certainly should not have done 59 interviews.

Complete waste of time--Trumpets do not care about either truth or fact. The whole issue has been investigated to death with no evidence found. I think there was a Republican who voted his dead wife. There are always a few of these in any election.

Sometime you might explore the Darkside area of Pattaya, if you haven't already. That's where my spouse and I have ended up and we are liking it. Wide variety of housing available and there are still some rural areas. We are near Lake Mabprachan but can be places like T21, Index, Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, Central Festival, etc., in a half-hour or less, non-rush times.

Another 'stop the presses!' story--just as I predicted the other day. Likely another one will be along tomorrow--we haven't had a breaking headline 'gold necklace stolen' story in awhile.

Another misleading headline--read it and thought, great, 'completion by 2025'. Somewhere in the headline 'paperwork' needed to be added.

Jesus 2 here. And, many of my friends. Save the frogs is just totally clueless--especially with his utterly ridiculous statement that 92% of the women in Pattaya are bargirls. Guess he missed all the women working in the thousands of retail establishments, in all the hotels and tourist businesses, in the hundreds and hundreds of restaurants, in the 4 or 5 large hospitals Pattaya has, plus its numerous optical stores, pharmacies, general and dental clinics, etc., etc. Yet another one who visited Pattaya and, from his laughable comments, never left Walking Street.

Grinds my gears, too. And, I've asked myself the same question. Why such an interest in Pattaya? Do they also read and post on the Peoria Forum? Heck, we even have posters who have never even been to Pattaya coming on and posting. Don't they have anything better to do with their time? Apparently, not. I finally decided the answer is, they just can't quit Pattaya. Wherever they ended up, likely some cold, dreary, boring, spot that leaves them with plenty of free time on their hands, huddled by a space heater, they hanker to be in Pattaya. Don't they ever. And, don't they just so envy those of us who are here--usually in the form of extreme sour grapes, brought to us time and again with disparaging, usually clueless, often woefully outdated, and sometimes just plain mean Pattaya posts. The closest they can get to Pattaya seems to be the Pattaya Forum. That is, until I took pity on them and created the Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club. Now these poor, unfortunate folk have a club all their own, where they can meet on-line--or perhaps in person if they are both living in the same godforsaken place--and commiserate with each other about not being where they really want to be--Pattaya. No charge, of course. My only remuneration is the satisfaction knowing I've brought some small comfort to these folk living their lives of quiet desperation--somewhere, alas, not Pattaya. But I digress. One grind remains Pattaya allowing a relative handful of cars to continue to park on some of the major, very busy roads, instead of creating more traffic lanes from the parking spaces that would, instead, benefit thousands of travelers on these roads.

Yes, there's debate regarding the compact--I side with those who believe states have the power to manage their electors--but I find it encouraging that 17 states, both with large populations and small, have voted to recognize popular vote as the way to elect presidents in the 21st century. Also encouraging that other states are looking into it.

There is an on-going effort, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, to modify the Electoral College in determining presidential elections. If enough states ratify the compact to represent 270 EC votes, the national popular vote will be used by those states to determine the presidential winner. So far, states with a total of 209 EC votes have ratified, with legislation pending in states with a total of 50 EC votes. I don't think you are quite correct when you imply that small population states, the supposed beneficiaries of the EC, would never vote to eliminate the EC. Surprisingly, of the states that have ratified the compact, there are six states with 5 EC votes or fewer. You would think these states, being some of the smallest in population, would have turned down the compact but each voted in favor of the importance of using the popular vote to determine presidential winners.

Not just your opinion, that's exactly what is happening. Republicans want to make voting as difficult as possible. Donald Trump, himself, said if voting was made easy, Republicans would never win another national election. So, difficult is the Republican game plan--oppose mail-in voting, oppose absentee voting, oppose same-day registration, oppose convenient places to vote, make registering to vote as difficult as possible, intimidate voters with armed 'election observers' at polling places, remove legitimate registered voters from the voter rolls, gerrymander districts to favor Republican candidates, etc., etc.

Maya Angelou, the American poet and author, famously said, 'When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.'. Donald Trump has shown us who he is, in both his words and actions, and now it is up to us to 'believe him the first time'. It's that simple. It's all there for anyone to see and process and, no, I will not be wasting my time putting it all down here because it will, indeed, be a complete waste of time. Trumpets don't want to believe the real him the first time--or, any time for that matter. I will say my 'first time' was when Trump arrogantly stated: 'I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters.' I was, and still am, incredulous that someone could make such a statement. He was certainly showing me who he was--arrogant, deeply flawed, dangerously egotistical, with no respect for the law and, indeed, saw himself as above the law. Taking Maya Angelou to heart, I believed him the first time--and have not been proved wrong. He ended his presidential term ranked the worst in history, and rightly so, culminating in his illegal efforts to overturn the election. At 78 and with nothing to lose, he is even more dangerous this time around.

The houses, from the photos I saw, look like the Silk Road project in Pattaya.

Turning America into a third world country.

Horrible individual. Trump and Musk--separated at birth.

Another nothing story akin to yesterday's bar fight. And, likely another one will show up tomorrow. All pretty much the same. Someone posts something minor and the newspaper picks it up and gives it a bit of oxygen. I seriously doubt there was 'widespread outrage'--but quite a lot of widespread hype by the newspaper, and Asean Now.