mfd101

Trying to do a new deal with the EU is premature. By about 30 years. Too many hatreds lurking up every little alleyway. It needs a complete turnover of personnel on all sides for any substantive progress on anything important.

The one country it'll never be is China. They don't need to.

And the Iraqi government can't bring itself to admit that it was the Israelis who got her released and returned to her family in Iraq ...

The internet is crammed full of lists and rankings, all of them b/s. Yet still we look. Obsessed with rank, and of course we live in Thailand which is the obsessed of the obsessed.

In any case he sounds like a charming individual. Perfect for the job of President of Usofa.

You would think that, even in an overly-complex system such as the electoral college nonsense, experience might have suggested to someone that having an EVEN NUMBER of total electoral college votes (538) is, um, not necessarily the sensible way to go.

An interesting quartet ... from the hideous to the pointless via the rich and the corrupt. Thailand's new pals.

I had forgotten Time still existed! Used to be a must-read, um, about 50 or 60 years ago.

Just been watching Pete Buttigieg perform. Wow! he's sharp, bright and you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him in a debate ... If I'd been Kamala, I would have chosen him for my Veep. But perhaps that would have been just too challenging for the Usofan dinosaurs ... Maybe it'll be his turn in 8 years after Kamala retires from the White House.

Seen from afar, Trudeau has always looked like a lightweight, riding on Daddy's name and his goodish looks. Comeuppance on the way at last.

Putting aside the particulars of Thailand's recent history, the rule - in ANY country - that you need 50%+ turnout of voters and 50%+ approval votes seems perfectly sensible. You don't change a constitution on a whim.

And of course what accompanies corruption everywhere in the world, including at high levels of government: Incompetence.

Getting his comeuppance after a foolish dismissal of the previous government.

What is fascinating is to watch a supposedly 'right-wing' character (Trump) who supposedly believes in the virtues of unrestrained capitalism & free markets, but now advocating for high tariff barriers against the rest of the world. Which is a SOCIALIST gambit if ever it was. Tried MANY times through the C20th and failed EVERY time.

Mmmm, well, whatever turns out to be useful. It may be that gentlemen's agreement within the family will suffice. The main thing the family will be interested in will be to keep up the monthly & fortnightly flow of funds. Which isn't a problem as long as I'm alive, even if gaga (because of enduring power of attorney in Oz).

Not sure a rational person would want either of them as surrogate Pres. But then this is Usofa. One might be tempted to think the same of the 2 principals. Well, one in particular beginning with D for damnation ...

Here in sth Surin you can't get near a bank today. Crowds outside every one, some 20 or so deep. For most of the local population, 10K in hand is more than they've seen in their whole life. And you have to search long & hard for an ATM with some cash in it. (Though succeeded on the 4th try.) No doubt some of the cash handout will be well spent, though even that will be all gone by the end of the week ...

Speed of the circulation of money ... The money doesn't care which track it takes.

But not if you've married happily in to a large Thai Khmer peasant family ...

I wonder how this will affect the value of the baht ...

Yes, same here in south Surin and throughout most of Thailand. Millions of Thai citizens, every day. But a half-day here and a 2-hours there and a whole day somewhere else followed by a week with nothing does not equal an exit from poverty. It's not called the 'informal economy' for nothing. Doesn't form part of the bureaucrats' stats and therefore of the politicians' considerations. And poverty is not just 'external' (as in observable). It's also in the mind. When you grew up with not-enough-food, no education worth having, illiterate, no experience of anything more than 20 kms away ... I have BILs too frightened to enter a shop on their own, never been inside a supermarket, wife has to escort to government buildings because cannot face the desk workers on their own ... One BIL in his late 30s has never bought clothes for himself; dressed entirely in hand-me-downs including from me. And so it goes ... But never mind. The PM will have it all fixed within 2 years.

Go to what work where?

Can't help noticing in the photo that the PM looks serious but all the men round the table are laughing ... Perhaps that says it all.

Ha ha, well optimism is a good thing. It keeps us all motivated ... So, first question: How do they define 'poverty'? Just to ensure that no worker is paid less than the regulation 350฿ per day (soon to be 380 wow!) would be a mammoth decade-long task, I shouldn't wonder. Governments - and Prime Ministers! - that make announcements like that are either mind-bogglingly stupid and ignorant, or they assume their audience is. Worthy of Trump.

Of course. The immigration program is gradually taking care of that, and a good thing too.