khunjeff

1) The Bank of Thailand is independent, so the cabinet shouldn't be "urging" it to do anything - just leave it alone and let it do its job. 2) As others have noted, that inflation figure is as absurd as the sub-1% unemployment figures that the government here regularly publishes, so there isn't even a problem to address.

This seems like a fairly arcane topic, and yet 200 people were "studying" it from just one subdistrict?

Can anyone help me understand what this means? How would stopping at a checkpoint prevent overheated brakes? 🤔

So we haven't had bidding yet, and the contract won't be signed until April, but 500 buses will be operating by August? How is that even possible?

Yeah, that'll do the trick.

Don't they know that you can't sell these "illegal" vapes online? You have to sell them in public from vending tables on crowded streets, like everyone else does 😝

Aren't they ever embarrassed by bragging about these "operations" as though they had brought down the Sinaloa cartel? This was some idiots smoking weed in the street. And although they talk about "arrests", I'm pretty sure that the penalty for public nuisance - which is the offense here - is only a 500 baht fine.

"I'll take 'Things That Never Happened' for $400, Alex"

A country that is visited by 40 million people a year only has the capacity to take in 260 trafficking victims per month? Give me a break. The Chinese government brought in Chinese planes to repatriate its nationals - Thailand's "facilitation" consisted of standing back and allowing the flights to proceed.

If the problem is poor law enforcement, what purpose would be served by reducing the visa exemption period?

That was in the bad old days of large-scale heroin smuggling out of Thailand, when the US, UK, and other western countries had hundreds of their citizens behind bars here who had been caught acting as mules. That business model all but disappeared decades ago, as meth became the drug of choice and could be manufactured just about anywhere. We hardly see reports of airport drug arrests these days, whereas back in the 90s they were a daily occurrence.

The article does specify But yes, carrying drugs in carry on that would be screened again in Singapore would be monumentally stupid.

Way too late, Tony.

The odds that an elderly American woman would be "flagged" as a possible drug smuggler are very low - it seems much more likely that someone informed on her. (In the old days, it was common for the gang arranging the smuggling to send 3-4 people at once, and rat out one of them to make it easier for the others to get through.) It makes no sense that 4.3kg of drugs would cause her bag to be overweight, or that packs of bedsheets weighing about 1kg - a typical weight for a set of king size sheets - would have aroused suspicion, so there was almost certainly something else going on here.

According to news reports at the time that weed was decriminalized, smoking it in public is considered a violation of "public nuisance" laws.

I can understand (b), but that is presumably a matter for the police and the national security establishment to consider and deal with. But (a) makes no sense at all - what is the connection between a Chabad House and overstays? And by the way, there are multiple Chabad facilities throughout Thailand, most of which were established many years ago and have been completely non-controversial. The one in Pai is suddenly a problem because a few Israelis acted like idiots and were dealt with appropriately?

I'll start thinking about how to spend my check for 12 cents right now 🙄

Thank god we've been saved from this lawlessness 🙏 I'm curious as to why the exact same series of raids has been reported so differently by various media outlets. The Nation gives the same statistics, but also says that: "One significant case involved the arrest of both Thai and foreign suspects accused of smuggling medical supplies worth 140 million baht for illegal sale. Police seized 41,500 medical supply items and 1.2 million baht in cash. "In another case, a suspect was arrested in possession of 509 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine." https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40046511

These groups are awful, but they're transnational criminal organizations, not terrorist organizations, and mislabeling them just adds confusion to efforts to fight actual terrorist groups. "The FBI defines terrorism, domestic or international, as the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government or civilian population in furtherance of political or social objectives." https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/fbi-and-terrorism

I assume they're using some kind of multiplier, as in "we bought this much food for inflight service, so we 'supported' the people making it, and we flew in this many tourists, so we 'supported' all the taxi drivers, hotel employees, and tour guides who took care of them during their stay", but yes, it's rather fanciful 😅

These floors would have to be absolutely massive for a single one of them to handle all departures to one region, especially Isaan - unless they're planning to have the buses staged elsewhere and only pull in when they're ready to go, but even then it would be tough (and you would need a huge staging ground nearby). This also only works if all the buses can pull directly onto expressways to start their journeys out of Bangkok. If that doesn't happen, there will be terrible gridlock all around the station, and it will likely end up taking buses 90 minutes just to get out of the city. That having been said, it's not a bad idea in theory - the problem is that this seems like yet another "study tour pipe dream", like the taxi stands, bike share stations, and other projects that were just copied from cities in other countries with no thought given as to whether they actually made sense for Bangkok.

If I recall the proposal, the BMA wants to have decorations and performances where those soon-to-be-evicted stalls are located - apparently not understanding that people are going to Chatuchak Market because they want to experience a market. And I have no idea what the blather is about "ventilation" and so on, since there's no obvious difference between the stalls in that zone and those in any of the other zones. The concerns were "tackled" simply by denying everything, with no explanation of why records show no rent payments, when the stall holders have receipts clearly showing that they did pay rent.

There are no out-of-province fees for QR payments. There are also no extra fees for out-of-province ATMs if you use the cardless withdrawal functionality through the bank app.

So he's an incompetent black marketeer in addition to being a terrible driver 🙄

Did I miss something? What change is taking place on February 17 that will present "potential challenges"?