khunjeff

He and his party believe firmly in states' rights, except when they don't.

This is a highly imaginative interpretation of these rulings. One involved venue, one involved standing (something the Supreme Court itself seems fairly unconcerned with these days), and the third was a disagreement over the application of the Administrative Procedure Act. All of these are quite ordinary matters that are routinely hashed out in appeals courts in all types of cases. And in the case involving venue, the court unanimously struck down Trump's attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act as a way to avoid giving due process to deportees - I would hardly call that a victory for him no matter how he tries to spin it.

No, Thai citizens will enjoy the discounted fares. Have a Thai passport, but lived abroad your entire life? 20 baht! Have a foreign passport and lived in Thailand since childhood? Full fare for you! And in typical Thai fashion, anyone who isn't Thai can only be a tourist...

I've never seen any "routine check" of an arriving passenger's pockets at any airport in Thailand, ever. Or did he literally hand the passport containing the drugs to the immigration officer? And if this all stemmed from this magical "routine check", how had they organized a "joint operation" to arrest the guy?

These buses are either safe or they aren't. If they're safe, allow them everywhere, and if not, ban them completely. This "compromise" solution makes no sense at all.

The VN e-visa system now covers visitors from all countries and territories (though of course it will be irrelevant to people who are visa exempt). https://vnembassy-canberra.mofa.gov.vn/en-us/News/EmbassyNews/Pages/Vietnam-Introduces-E-Visa-for-All-Nationalities-from-August-15,-2023.aspx

My transfers normally take under 10 seconds, but the one yesterday ended up taking 90 minutes. I have no idea what the reason was, but it was still fast enough that I'm not going to worry about it.

Those are Electronic Travel Authorizations (ETAs), which are what Thailand announced last year and then completely stopped talking about. What is being discussed in the OP is an electronic arrival card, akin to what is being used in Malaysia, Singapore, and Cambodia. They're not the same.

This is exactly correct. The person you dealt with at the Revenue Dept is misunderstanding the difference between a Social Security payment and a pension paid for being a former government employee. How (or if) you can get him to admit his error, though, will be the real challenge.

Price gouging by both the retailer and the suppliers... https://youtu.be/Z8-wqv9_-Ac?si=-REDODgQiTgqWw29

I'm having trouble understanding exactly which type of "shady" massage parlor they're trying to crack down on - the ones that are really just providing sexual services, or legitimate massage shops with poorly trained staff? Micromanaging the pricing structure of thousands of massage shops seems like a pointless endeavor, and one that they'll never be able to enforce. Not only Chuvit - a former Minister of Commerce came from the family that owns the huge Poseidon Entertainment Complex on Ratchada. And you're right, many of these establishments have folded for economic reasons - there are more valuable ways to use the land that they sit on - but the ones that have been closed down by authorities were accused of illegal use of ground water or employing minors, not of offering sexual services.

That's the perpetual Thai response to tourism in general.

That's fine, but then they can expect leasing aircraft from overseas to become more difficult - many of the leasing companies want to have their own personnel operating their planes.

That was a separate law that was passed earlier this year, but has yet to take effect - the article below says that it "could come into effect by October". https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2940490/house-passes-bill-to-free-up-liquor-production

It's actually surprising that they released anything at all, and the reason has nothing to do with who he is or which family he comes from: "Visa records are confidential under INA 222(f) and are generally not releasable under FOIA or the Privacy Act unless the document was submitted by or sent to the requesting party." "It has been determined that visa records and information contained in a visa applicant's file are statutorily exempt from release under FOIA provisions." https://fam.state.gov/fam/09FAM/09FAM060302.html

No, it doesn't - it "resonates" with a desire to continue a purely performative response to a tragic incident which the response would not actually have prevented. Not "past incidents", but one single incident. The "inebriated man" was not a passenger and did not buy alcohol on the train, so the prohibition could not possibly "prevent[] similar incidents". Problem: drugged-up railroad employee commits a terrible crime. Solution: prohibit passengers from drinking alcohol on trains. Wait, what? 🤔

You're not missing anything. It's completely nonsensical and illogical, as is the fact that it's the tourism industry that's pushing to make it more difficult for tourists to come... And here's more illogic: Let's see, it's legal to rent out condos for over 30 days, but illegal to rent them out for less than 30 days. So how do we solve the illegal rental problem? Why, limit people's stays so that only illegal rentals are possible! (Though of course the reality is that the THA would prefer that all condo rentals be banned, and that all visitors be required to stay in hotels.)

That commitment would be clearer if they had investigated these issues before issuing the licenses...

I wish media outlets would include a map with reports like this so we could better understand exactly where the bridge in question is located 🤷

Since I've never seen Highway Police "patrolling" any road, and have never seen any police show the least interest in "unusual" vehicle behavior - of which there is an enormous amount everywhere in Thailand - I have to assume that in reality the police had been tipped off about the smuggling operation and were acting on that tip.

This is the project that was "just one step away from a Cabinet decision" in February 2018... https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/thailand-approves-high-speed-rail-link-connecting-three-international-airports ...and for which CP already signed a contract in October 2019... https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1779144/cp-led-consortium-signs-three-airports-train-contract ...so please forgive me if I don't rush out to buy my tickets just yet.

Maybe, but that seems unlikely. Since this is being promulgated by the NACC - not the Interior Ministry - and applies only to state officials, it appears to be addressing some specific way in which officials were carrying out corrupt activities. Perhaps some people were purposely avoiding marriage registration so they could put assets into their partner's name and claim it wasn't theirs?

"Trafficking" a substance that can be bought and sold legally - crime of the century for sure.

Considering that we know its name, number, designer, builder, launch date, and purpose, I would say that it isn't terribly mysterious.

Unless they know something that the rest of us don't (which is certainly possible), this has all the earmarks of a boondoggle. I was in Nan a couple of months ago, and the current terminal looks quite new. And given that there are very few domestic flights going there, it's hard to imagine why there would be any demand for direct international flights to a province that is very scenic, but has limited infrastructure for mass tourism.