newnative

Brick and mortar still seem alive and well in Pattaya. We just had a huge, new home improvement store called Mega Home open. Not to be confused with Mega Furniture, which also recently opened. We already have 2 Home Pro stores, Baan and Beyond, Thai Watsadu, Boonthavorn, Home Mart, and numerous smaller paint, lumber, plumbing, hardware stores, etc. My partner and I stopped in and checked it out; seemed to be doing ok business. Partner asked the sales staff and apparently Mega Home is owned by the same entity that owns Home Pro.

Prawit . . . Isn't he like the World's oldest living person? Or, just pretending to be?

Good. Brain apparently already lost sometime in the past.

They have a MAJOR GENERAL as their police spokesman??? Talk about over-the-top top-heavy with generals, good example here. Anywhere else it'd likely be a lieutenant.

I think they will not have a ruling until after the big APEC Summit in Bangkok in November. Prayut dearly wants to still be PM then and act as host because China's Xi is expected to make his first visit to Thailand for the meeting. The court needs to stretch it's research of what could easily be decided in a few days. Ok, boys, let's start our careful study of this issue by first taking a long, hard look at the font that was used. Then, later next week or the week after we'll move on to the paper that was selected . . .

Yes, I understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty. I also understand the concept of, in the immortal words of Warner Wolf, "Let's Go to the Videotape." In decisions on granting bail, a court is primarily determining two things: whether a defendant will appear at trial and whether he or she poses a danger to society. Supposedly the defendant is rich and could be a flight risk. The videotape of the 'alleged' brutal murders over a haircut complaint clearly shows he could be a danger to society. A Thai court is suppose to weigh, among other things, the gravity of the charge and the existence of evidence in determining whether bail is granted. I think in cases such as this, where there is actual videotape of the crime, and the crime is especially brutal, bail should not have been given.

It wasn't racist, either, in my opinion--unless Big Nose is a new race or ethnicity I haven't heard of. I would call it offensive, along the same lines as saying, "You're really fat so I guess you are from the USA." I don't think telling someone they are fat is racist, either. So, a comment about weight or having a big nose, offensive in my book, but not racist. I know many are of the opinion that the word' racist' can now be used for all sorts of non-racial offenses--we saw it bandied about with the debate on dual pricing. Thailand was being racist. In reality, Thailand was being nationalistic, favoring their citizens with lower prices than non-citizens. It might be considered discrimination by some but it's not racial discrimination--unless specific races or ethnicities were singled out for separate pricing among the non-Thais. But, people are lazy with language and we now have 'racist' applied to just about everything remotely offensive. Discounts for seniors are racist against the rest of us who aren't yet old--dual pricing of any sort is, apparently, always racist. Casting a non-gay actor to play a gay character is now racist. But, apparently, not yet racist to cast a gay actor to play a straight character. Or, a Black actor to play a White historical character--still ok. Racist to cast a non-Latino to play Castro. But, apparently not racist to cast a Mexican to play Portuguese explorer Magellan. Racist to cast an able-bodied actor to play any part involving a disability. A bit dizzying keeping track. Easy to see the popularity of using, and misusing, the 'R' word. Doesn't being called 'racist' sound so much more condemning than other, more appropriate words, like, say, nationalistic. Calling someone a sexist is now much too tame. Not enough impact. No, they are now a racist. They've been upgraded to a new level of disdain, however inaccurate. In my opinion, applying 'racist' and 'racism' to everything offensive lessens the impact of behavior, by individuals or entities, that is truly being racist in the original meaning of the word.

Brutally murder two people, in front of their daughter, no less, and get bail??? Outrageous. And, just 500,000 baht.

And, that's where the big money is.

I know it's an unpopular view but I don't think tourists should even be allowed to rent motorbikes. They don't know the roads, they likely have no motorcycle license or experience driving a motorcycle, their inexperience and unfamiliarity make the roads less safe for drivers and pedestrians, and, as shown here, they could care less for those of us who live here and need the roads for normal usage, not as a tourist amusement.

A pittance. Meanwhile, owner and his son quickly came up with 1.3 million for bail. Revoke the bail and pass the 1.3MB along to the victims--as a start on what they owe them.

Saw the video on Thai tv news with partner. Horrible.

Right. As I said in an earlier post, 58% of Dems voted by mail vs. 32% Republican. Trump almost carried Biden's home state of Delaware with election day only votes. This led to the false belief, Election Night, that Trump was winning the election. Trump, himself, even brazenly declared himself the winner. Meanwhile, a crucial state, Pennsylvania, had not even begun to count the mail-in ballots. I was born in Pennsylvania and I was following the returns Election Night and I remember thinking 'yikes' it doesn't look good for Biden to carry PA--Trump had a big lead. Disconcerting when broadcasters say something like, with 90% of the precincts reporting Trump has increased his lead in Pennsylvania, a crucial state for Biden. My goodness. Can Biden ever pull ahead with just 10% of the precincts left? You do look at the vote totals and tend to forget about the mail-in ballots. You do get caught up in watching the coverage and the networks want to be the first to declare a winner in this state or that state. It's gotten a bit out of hand, in my opinion. I think election coverage--and things like when a candidate is allowed to be declared a winner even with some polling places still open and some ballots not counted-- needs to be given a reset. I believe there's too much emphasis on being able to declare a winner on Election Night before everyone goes to bed. Everybody wants to see the winner at the victory party and the loser concede. Going to bed with the victor in doubt is unsettling--unfinished business. With so much voting now being done by mail, Election Night winners may no longer be the case in close elections. Now, if the US would just switch to Presidential elections by popular vote things might be easier . . . Who won? Biden, by 7 million votes.

Not the only one.

American with a Thai spouse, who has lived in the US in the past. We have a much better life here than what we would have in the US, for a variety of reasons. We do now have the resources to live in the US, at least in certain areas, but neither of us wants to; we prefer to just visit our relatives there.

The way I read it, the article should read 'internet cables NOT being moved underground'. Per the article: He said internet service providers would then have to rent these underground “telecom pipes”. As the internet firms might not be able to afford said rent, the project is not yet being implemented. Trials may, however, be carried out in certain areas.

I wonder who are 'these people' that you don't trust. Voting by mail is nothing new; it's just being used more. All 50 states have some mechanism in place for voters to vote without actually going to a physical polling place. Nothing new there, either. Voting absentee and by mail has never been a problem in the past with any election. Trump decided to try to make it an issue with his blatant lies, which he continues to lie about to this day. If someone chooses to believe his lies, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, well, nothing can be done about that. I would suggest, however, that Republicans get with the program and embrace mail-in voting as it is not going away and it proved to be a big advantage to the Democrats in 2020. Rather than trying to make it harder for Democrats to vote, they should focus on making it equally easier for Republicans to vote--they've got the advantage going for them with the cursed Electoral College that allows them to win even when they lose the popular vote--see the 2000 and 2016 elections.

Surely you should know this by now but the reason Trump was leading on election night when you went to bed was that thousands and thousands of mailed-in ballots had either not been counted yet or added to the vote tallies. Some had not even arrived yet to be counted as some states allow mail-in ballots to be postmarked on election day. Pennsylvania law in 2020 did not even allow the mail-in ballots to start to be counted until after the polls closed. Obviously, mail-in ballots take much longer to tabulate than automated voting machines. In the run-up to the 2020 election as part of his Big Lie, Trump, at every opportunity, spread the falsehood that mail-in voting was fraudulent and could cost him the election. He urged his voters to shun mail-in voting and vote on election day--which they did. Trump won more election day votes in many states--he even almost won more election day votes in Delaware, Biden's home state. That gave a false sense of him winning the election because the mail-in votes in many cases had not been added to the vote totals on election night. When they eventually were, Biden took the lead. Trump suspected he might lose and the Big Lie plan was put in place well before the election. If he lost, he had already done the ground work with his mail-in ballot lies. When he did lose, he could immediately claim the election was 'stolen' from him--by fraudulent mail-in ballots. So, the plan was, spout the Big Lie loud and at every opportunity that the election was 'stolen', the Biden electors illegal, and send the election to the Supreme Court to decide, as it had done in the 2000 election. Didn't quite work out but, to this day, as evidenced on this thread, there are still the gullible who believe the Big Lie, despite overwhelming evidence that Biden won fair and square. Funnily, most of the few instances of voter fraud I have seen uncovered have been by Republicans, not Democrats. But, nothing that would have altered the outcome of the election. To use one of Trump's favorite words, the 'beautiful' irony is that Trump could have actually won the election if he had believed in himself and played fair instead of using his usual idiotic scheming and lies. Instead of spending so much time and effort spreading lies about mail-in voting, he should have embraced it wholeheartedly. He should have, like Biden, urged his voters to get registered and vote early by mail, while encouraging their friends to do the same. I'll never understand why he allowed Biden to get so far ahead in the race with early mail-in voting while he urged his voters to not get into the race until election day. Biden had months to get his voters out, Trump the few election day hours. Wouldn't you do a better job of something with months rather than a few, frantic hours? By election day, Biden's lead was too much to overcome. I can't find the article now but I remember reading at the time the number of voters who intended to vote on election day but didn't actually vote. Something came up. Baby sick, had to work over-time, bad weather, unexpectedly called out of town, had to pick up the kid at band practice, couldn't remember where to vote, car wouldn't start, having a bad hair day, whatever. They certainly had every good intention to vote, but . . . Since Biden got 58% of his votes by mail-in and Trump just 32%, it's likely Trump left more potential voters uncounted than Biden. Biden would have still won the popular vote by 7 million or so but, had Trump gotten out his voters early with a big, splashy push for them to vote by mail, he might have gotten just enough extra votes to win the required 270 Electoral College votes, and the Presidency, in the states that he lost by only a few thousand votes. After all, he had managed to win the Electoral College in 2016 even though Clinton easily won the popular vote. Instead, he made the crucial error of going with the Big Lie and trashing mail-in voting. A Grateful Nation Thanks You, Donald, for being such an idiot.

Well, of course they don't want to pay! Surprise, surprise! Make the requirement that If they want to continue to do business in Bangkok they must bury their cables.

Had he not been born rich and not had his father's large fortune to squander away, he likely would have been an assistant manager at a Burger King or McDonald's. Daddy was right--he is a loser, in so many different ways.

Oops, typed my post before I saw yours with the 5th Avenue quote.

They're LCs. Lost Causes. No amount of evidence is ever going to change their minds. Nothing Trump says or does, no matter how despicable, will dissuade them. Trump, himself, said he could stand on 5th Avenue and shoot someone and not lose support. He's a serial liar but this one time he was, sadly, depressingly, and disgustingly, telling the truth, at least with the LCs.

Maybe the most laugh-out-loud post of this lengthy thread--and that's saying something considering some of the others.

Liked your post. Some examples on this thread of the lost causes you talk about. No facts given, no evidence presented, nothing at all now or in the future is ever going to change their minds. They've accepted the Big Lie. You tell a Big Lie often enough and loud enough and with enough fake authority behind it and a certain percentage of the population will eventually come to believe it--especially if they are predisposed to want to believe it. Sad but true. As you say, they're a lost cause. Truly. They'll go to their graves believing Trump won in 2020, despite massive, overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Not a thing can be done to change their minds. Every piece of evidence presented, every election challenge court case thrown out, just hardens their belief. Once you've accepted the Big Lie, you're pretty much compelled to accept all the other lies. No going back, I'm afraid. So, no problem with any of the literally thousands of other Trump lies. No problem with anything at all that Trump says or does. So, Trump says his own Vice President should have been hanged for not breaking the law on his behalf, no problem. Think about that. When you're at the point where you readily accept something as despicable as that, well, on the subject of Trump it's all over for you was a rational, thinking individual capable of fairly weighing information and making an intelligent assessment.

Sounds good. For me, that's one of the big pluses of living in Pattaya; the extremely wide variety of housing available in all price ranges, both to rent or to buy, depending on one's preference. That's certainly not the case in the town where I used to live in the US.