newnative

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.

I was not debating the electric power costs, my son. I was simply giving my experience, with my electric bills, in a variety of different housing sizes, with a variety of different sun exposures, and with none of my bills ever reaching 5000 baht a month in the 11 years I have lived in Thailand with my partner. No guesthouses, by the way. That's not to say that you can't run up an electric bill of 5000 baht or more. Of course, you can, especially if you never turn the AC off, as shown in your example. But, I think for a lot of folks it's less than than 5000.

My partner and I have lived in all sorts of housing in Pattaya--from studios to 1 bedroom condos to 2 and 3 bedroom condos, as well as a pool villa of 3 bedrooms. We always run the AC at night and during the day when we are home and it gets too hot. We don't, however, run it 24 hours a day or when we are not at home. We also use a clothes washer and a clothes dryer and usually do a load of laundry each day. We've never had an electric bill of 5000 baht, even when we've had family stay and had more AC units going. I think our biggest electric bill was around 3000 baht. Most bills are around 1500 to 2000. I should mention we don't keep it super-cold. We have the settings at 26 at night and 24 or 25 during the day. Our first house had solar panels which helped with the bill. We have just moved into another similar-size house with a pool, but no solar. We'll be curious to see what the electric bill is each month running the pool equipment and everything else.

About sums it up. Anybody else?

Yes, how sad, depressing, and disgusting. But, on the bright side he did lose by over 7 million votes. Loser.

Ah, yes. If I remember correctly, this was Trump lie #4059 of the 30,573 lies the Washington Post tallied while Trump was in office. Lord knows what the figure is now.

Well, he did lose by over 7 million votes last time around . . .

Absolutely true. Things are topsy turvy here. I could never afford a house in the US when I lived there. The biggest place I ever owned was a 2 bedroom condo, most were smallish 1 bedrooms. Even a townhouse was priced out of my financial reach. Single family? Forget it. This year, my partner and I sold a 79sqm 1 bedroom, 1 bath seaview condo in Pattaya for 9MB. Turned around and bought a 3 bedroom, 4 bath pool villa in a nice, gated project by Lake Mabprachan for 7MB. We'll do some improvements and be at about 8MB. Still a million less than the 1 bedroom condo. Plenty of other single family homes available for less than what we paid--and less than lots of condos. Topsy turvy--in a good way if you prefer a house.

Seriously? Trump did more good in 4 years than any other President???? You've got to be kidding. His Presidency will go down in history as one of the worst. In a nutshell, he passed a great big tax cut for himself--his only goal in running for President--and then pretty much lost interest. Never got around to much of anything else, including his big, boastful pledge made many times to replace Obamacare with something much better--and, in his words 'beautiful'--whatever that would mean with health care. Maybe free boob jobs. We'll never know. Instead, he spent his time playing endless rounds of golf at his golf courses, while grossly overcharging the American tax payer--always a big, fat, grifter at heart, our Donald. When he wasn't teeing it up, he spent his 4 years tweeting countless lies and other assorted unhinged nonsense; believed, unfortunately, by far too many.

Well done, JP. But, at the same time, I'm thinking of those poor fire victims getting far less.

Correct. Trump only said Pence 'deserves' to be hanged because he disobeyed his asinine, unhinged order to break the law for him. That's sooo much better, innit?

Yes. And, even though she won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, she didn't act like a spoiled crybaby like Trump, didn't spout the Big Lie at every opportunity that the election was 'stolen' from her, didn't call state officials and demand they find more votes for her, didn't ask Vice President Biden to nullify the election and declare her the winner, didn't institute over 50 unsuccessful lawsuits trying to overturn her loss, and, yes, didn't urge her supporters to storm the Capitol.

Yes, and that's what I find most disturbing.

Lock him up already.

No. Just one of the joys of owning.

Totally agree. I have a large, extended family and everyone, except my youngest niece now just out of college, has wanted, and has managed to, purchase a home--in states ranging from Pennsylvania, to Colorado, to Florida, to North Carolina, to New Jersey, to Virginia. I think they all saw their purchase, as I did, as both an investment and a home--with all the personal things involved with "home" that make a home investment something different than investing in a stock, a bar of gold, etc.