newnative

Incorrect headline. They were her spoken thoughts to friends. The headline writer might have used 'private thoughts'. After some 70 years on the throne, and having met thousands of people, I suspect the Queen was a good judge of character, or lack of it. She definitely had an accurate take on Donald from the get-go. Pity she was forced to spend time with him. But, for crown and country . . .

I believe the scientific term to describe Trump is 'totally wacko'. Only someone totally wacko would go out of their way to both badly insult and alienate the Republican governor of Georgia, one of the very important swing states he needs to win. Only someone totally wacko would go out of their way to alienate the huge and dedicated fan base Swift has, riling them up so large numbers of them will likely get themselves motivated to vote for Harris. I, for one, am quite happy he is totally wacko, unless he somehow gets elected--then it gets scary awful.

Saw the headline and my first guess was that complainers would be thrown into public stocks in front of parliament.

Someone planning to retire to Thailand could wait until more than half the year is over and then transfer both the 20 million baht and themselves to Thailand. No tax on the money since they have not been in the country 180 days, so not a tax resident that year.

I've been here since 2010. In those 14 years, the only change was the requirement for health insurance with my type of visa. You can get around this with a different visa type. My country, USA, has a DTA with Thailand so I don't expect to pay any taxes, if the whole tax thing even ever gets off the ground. One improvement made was on-line 90-day reporting. This means only one visit to Immigration a year for the annual renewal. It would be nice if 90-day was eliminated altogether but, still, not bad. Looking at neighboring countries, Thailand still seems like a good choice for expats, especially when things like health care and housing variety are factored in.

Fun time getting beat up in the wee hours of the morning in the sleaziest part of Pattaya. Whopee!

Yes, indeed. And, he can star in the sequel to 'Orange is the New Black'.

Stay off motorbikes if you place any value on your life. Your accident was your first, and likely last, warning.

Why were the husband and wife on Soi 6 in the first place?

Not falling short for me on any of the issues you mentioned.

Let's hope they all get so mad at each other that they all decide not to vote in protest.

are not Republicans.

That makes a lot more sense than the ridiculous 'innocence' take.

Well, if I recall, he did compliment Pattaya's beautiful, clean beach . . .

Ben and Jen are divorcing--for the second time. Clearly, long-term doesn't work for them. But, also clearly, they have a strong attraction to each other. They would be better off hooking up now and then for short-term meetings to scratch that itch--and then move on to the very different--and incompatible--lives that they live.

The only two I liked were Princess Diana and Princess Margaret.

Every election gets more expensive than the last one. It's obscenely out of control, with huge amounts being spent even for Congressional elections.

Yes, throw the book at him. I was wndering why he was allowed to wear a uniform since he's an ex-con, even with the pardon. Apply the same standards to all, not just FFP and MFP.

Big problem everywhere and definitely a safety issue. Any stray dogs running loose without ownership collars all need to be rounded up and put down. We have at least 6 stray dogs in our neighborhood. We wanted the municipality to come and take them away. Instead, they came and got them, neutered them, and then returned them--even though we protested that nobody owned them and we didn't want them back.

He didn't see much of Pattaya with his visit. I suspect large numbers of expats who are not 'loners' do not spend there time in the small part of Pattaya the OP visited, including this expat and others I know.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but the map has North Carolina light blue for Harris but the box shows pink, with Trump in the lead there. Also, Virginia is light blue for Harris on the map when the box has it gray, for no polling data.

I consider myself a liberal Democrat and I am in favor of strong border security and preventing illegal immigrants from entering the country. I don't see this as a Democrat or Republican issue at all, but, rather, a national security issue. From the article, this also seems to be the case, with majorities of both parties in favor of using US troops at the border. This should be one issue that both parties could work together to solve. Unfortunately, politics has become so fractured in the US that even issues like this languish for years, from presidential terms of one party to terms of the other party, with not enough getting done, for fear one party or the other will receive credit.

The only solution is to eliminate parking on all the major roads, starting with North Pattaya Road. Three lanes instead of two allows more cars to get through busy intersections. The road right now is majority red-striped already, so only a small number of cars can park, anyway--but thousands of cars are inconvenienced for those few. Lots of things can be done to improve flow. At the North Pattaya-Sukhumvit intersection, 3 lanes instead of 2 could be striped for right turns from N. Pattaya on to Sukhumvit--drivers are already making a third right turn lane as the backup is often so long. All the major intersections need to be examined for ways like this to improve flow. Narrow side streets should be red-striped to allow parking on only one side of the road. There's lots that could and should be done, but likely won't happen--just meetings like this to 'collaborate' and go through the motions.

Only extremely bad publicity might possibly get anything done. But, don't hold your breath.

We might have considered the Corolla Cross if it had PHEV available, although it's a little smaller than what we want--our current car is a CR-V and we like its size. Instead, we have booked the BYD Sealion 6 PHEV. It's a bigger SUV, about the size of the CR-V, comes very well-equipped, and the starting price is actually less than the Cross. We might opt for the top model, but even that one is only 1,039,000. The Japanese need to do some catching up with the models on offer here.