Jonathan Swift

Two phrases: Follow the money, and who benefits?

Aerial wide angle shots are tricky sometimes

You forgot Thailand’s neighbor, Myanmar

Your insight into world affairs is staggering! Right up there with your spelling skills [Nagty Putin]. My guess is that you comprehend less than 1% of what you hear and read, nonetheless you consider yourself an expert. The fact is that countries, governments, and politics are complicated and nuanced and operate in many layers, and cannot be simplified to the pre school level on which you seem to operate. Your comments are uninformed, broadly prejudiced, and thus meaningless. The worst part of it is your insensitive failure on the most basic humanitarian level to recognize this international catastrophe for what it is, and your failure to recognize the profound and genuine horror and sympathy expressed on the part of all of a united Europe. Your “Western govs” stopped being “puppets to US” a long time ago, if they ever were, further alienated by Trump’s retreat from NATO, the climate accords, and other commitments. But feel free to continue to embarrass yourself by parading your tiny world view for all to see. It makes the rest of us grateful for our education, verbal skills, and mental health. Instead of pointing your crooked finger at others I suggest you first take a look at your own humanity. Something is missing there. You can do something about that. That’s where you need the work. I also suggest you stop reading the news. You’re never going to understand it. Watch some cartoons or tiktok videos. Peace be with you nonetheless brother.

Rest assured, a statement like that in times like these will get around fast. I live here, but I would support a boycott Thailand movement until and unless he retracted his statement and joined the rest of the world in condemnation.

If they were afraid to publicly commit I would have expected him to say nothing. But I have never seen Thailand in a position to have to make such a stand on the world stage. What a colossal PR blunder for him to say this in public. I had tended to reserve judgment as to Thai officials and their silliness, but this guy is morally repugnant. Mark my words, he will regret his words, if he doesn’t already. Imagine the looks he will get from his peers and acquaintances from around the world. The verdict in my court is he is one $tupid MF.

A quote from the Nuremberg trials. “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing.” And how much have we learned since 1945? Tragically sad.

He is going to find himself not too popular in the near future. If this were my country I’d be calling for his resignation. If Thailand were attacked by Myanmar or China would he let things follow their natural course or would he be on his knees begging for help and sympathy? But I wonder who else is behind him in this. He didn’t come up with this on his own. What are Thailand’s hidden connections to Russian powers, oligarchs, dirty money, and brown envelopes?

You are correct sir. Thailand is going to be demoted in the eyes of the world because of this, placed on permanent $hit lists. They will never see another Ukrainian tourist.

He sounds like Trump when he refused to condemn racist white supremacists after a protest that saw a racist run down a peaceful protestor with his car. This is by far the worst thing I have ever heard come out of Thailand officials, and it says a lot about their true moral fiber. They’re so afraid of pi$$ing off a source of tourist revenue that they are willing to condone war crimes

Happens all the time

You've not heard the thousands of stories of partners leading secret lives on the side, be it drugs or just cheating? I am not a lawbreaker, nor a cheater, but there are certain elements of my personal finances that I would not discuss with a girlfriend, or a wife. Lots of good reasons for that. I just think it's probably a sad case of misplaced trust or stupidity with tragic results, but that's only my guess, since no one actually knows except her and her ex.

It may sound odd, but in the US it's the same. An appeals court only looks at the decision of the lower court solely based on the evidence and testimony presented at the first trial, and decides whether there was any error of law, or whether the defendant's rights were denied or infringed, or whether the evidence PRESENTED AT THE TIME did not justify the court's decision . If the court were to find that exonerating evidence was withheld improperly, or that the defendant didn't receive adequate or lawfully competent representation, then a new trial can be ordered, or the conviction reversed. But the appeal doesn't RETRY the case. If it finds error, it will order a new one. In the US, a new trial can be requested separately from an appeal, based on NEW evidence, that is a different sort of action. I have absolutely NO IDEA as to Thai law in this regard.

Could be a valid point, but some people just don't think about such things, someone shows up with a package, sign on the line, why not? It would be routine under many normal circumstances in other countries. Could be just extreme gullible stupidity. Or naiveté.

Why people don't understand is because it's easier to be stupid than to actually pay attention and educate one's self.

Things will never go back to the way they were. The virus is here to stay. get used to it.

"looks and your ability to do your job were separate entities, she said. " While generally true to a certain extent, we all know that they are NEVER truly separate. Doors and opportunities will open wide for the beautiful, not so wide for the not so beautiful. It's human nature. It is a timeless universal currency. Nonetheless, the ideal of objective and non discriminatory professions and opportunities is worth at least TRYING to uphold. She walks that fine line, and if she wants to be an activist and flaunt her assets in a bathing suit which shows virtually nothing, absolutely Thailand needs to live in the 21st century. teaching moments abound

I don't think it will make a whit of difference in any way. It's just symbolic, just semantics. Not worth a second thought

The normality that you are imagining will never happen. You can't turn the clock back. The world has changed and there is no way back to pre covid, or haven't you noticed? Wishful thinking will not put the genie back into the bottle. Much as we hate the term "new normal" that term applies. From there we simply build back as best we can.

Each cop brought his own recyclable bag

Enforcement has been lax in many areas and you should see plenty of bars open. In Nana and soi 4 in Bangkok all bars are open as usual.

Testosterone psychosis, or perhaps just another bad behaved drunk who can't hold his liquor

Speaking of foolish notions . . . Seems there is great concern here over the risk to life from covid.

How wonderful to have a board certified cosmetic surgeon such as yourself on top of things to give us your expert opinion. Facelift? Look closely. I'm in the entertainment business and work with lights and makeup. First, recognize that Asians do not worship the sun as westerners do and so do not incur the aging sun damage seen in similarly aged Americans for example. Secondly, it's evident to most observers that Asians just seem to genetically age more slowly. Just look at the girls! . Note Thaksin's protruding cheekbone area with some visible sagging. Note that he has prominent bags under his eyes. Not consistent with a facelift which would normally include eyelid work. Note that he is brightly lit from the front and therefore there are no shadows to highlight the normally visible irregularities in an older face. But you can see the irregularities to the left and right of his chin. The evenness of color tone overall hides blemishes and shows that he has been professionally made up. He has lines across his forehead, around his eyes-nose-mouth area, but with the makeup and frontal lighting they are minimized to near invisibility. It's possible he may have had a chemical peel, which removes the crinkly top layer of the epidermis which in an older person is where the dry and wrinkled agedness shows the most. And who cares if he dyes his hair? Do you see black rivers running down his face? He has a broad and bulbous nose - certainly no work done on that, since the popular trend is to "westernize" noses. Do you think his nose looks like Michael Jackson's nose? For comparison I've posted a photo of president Reagan, a California sun worshiper, age 75 WITHOUT MAKEUP and lit from the side and so all irregularities visible in shadow, and who has similar minimally sagging cheekbone features without the Asiatic cheekbones; a recent photo of Thaksin age 72 with less makeup but AGAIN lit from the front with minimal shadows (he probably has his own light and makeup crew) , and then your boy Michael Jackson, whom we can all see looks just about EXACTLY like Thaksin. As far as snouts in the trough, every person in power does it, everywhere, in every country, in every party, it's almost the universal natural order of things, to the extent that it merits little more than a shrug as far as more serious things go, because it proves nothing. Just my opinion though and I for one will be the first to admit to not necessarily being fully informed because - DUH! I'm not Thai, I'm not from here, and I don't know the hearts of the Thai people or its past and present leaders, and won't pretend I do just to stand on a soapbox and hear myself roar. The bottom line is, he may have had work done but if so it was minimal and undetectable even by the esteemed Dr. Buffy, MD. As to the fundamental issue, the details and machinations of economic forces on commodities like pork are incredibly complex, but they follow basic supply and demand. Nuff said.

ding ding ding ding ding ding! You are CORRECT sir, you are now our grand prize winner in the guess what's really going on here quiz show! Your prize? Free pork and (subsidized) rice dinners for life!