mfd101

There's nothing like ambition to drive an individual forward. But not sure it works at the national level when the relevant organisations are driven by incompetent and corrupt individuals.

Looking at the photo and the creature there displaying his hiso wealth ... I just think there's a whole world of criminal morons out there, many of them generals or police chiefs or politicians or their wives. All of them disgusting and contemptible. I wouldn't p/s on any of them.

Um, so 20 years is not sufficient to pursue the matter in the courts? If it hasn't happened by now it's hard to think it ever will, even with another 50 years to go ...

I used to 'believe in' Big Joke. Oh well, I'm getting old.

Wow! I never knowed dat. PS I wonder how biological realities work in sports-playing trans-males ...

The Arab states won't take the Palestinians (who are mostly non-Arab in origin). Those that did take them in willy-nilly (Jordan & Lebanon) lived to regret it, with civil wars necessary to control or expel them (now ongoing in Lebanon). Given their extremely mixed origins, you'ld have to say that their closed rellies are ... (wait for it) ... the Israelis. Funny that. One-state solution in about 50 or 100 years is about all we can hope for. In the meantime nothing except more killing on all sides.

Enemies on all sides. He needs to change the locks at home.

I await the day when politicians petition the EC & the CC for the generals who led the last coup and then 'managed' the country for a decade to be charged with lèse majesté and overthrow of legitimate government. And then thrown in to prison for the rest of their days on this earth.

Parents-in law

Residency is not the same thing as citizenship.

Be afraid, be very afraid. What comes after the current government bites the dust and no new election?

The legislation doesn't come in to effect till next January.

A distinction with little or no practical difference.

You'ld have to be a NITwit to think there'll be any benefit for expats out of such a scheme. And will my aged PILs - illiterate & without income beyond what I give them - have to register? They wouldn't know the meanings of the words. As for the appalling corruption at every level of government and society, much of it would disappear if bureaucrats were actually paid a liveable salary ...

Yes. Who or what is 'The Icon'?

Age, family history & race: You have no control over these. (Yawn) The 2 things you can control - ie greatly improve - are diet and lifestyle (ie exercise). As in just about every other 'Western' health issue - diabetes & dementia come to mind - sugar (in all its forms) is your enemy. And it's never too late. Your decisions, your consequences.

Oz $ climbing steeply against the US & the ฿, even as we speak. Long may it last (at least 5 minutes, dear Lord!).

Enforcement of the current tax laws would probably solve most of the government's problems.

The present constitution is indefensible - written by the royal & military fascists to keep the royal & military fascists permanently in power (in practice if not in in name). The problem is that - putting the current impossible situation aside - the Senate is right IN PRINCIPLE about how to change a Constitution. It should be hard to do, and only done with the double democratic majority the Senate is defending. Wunnerful Thailand.

Thailand in good company. Perfectly normal in the France of my youth - men pissing in shop doorways, beside the road, against any wall anywhere ... It's mostly only over-anxious Anglos who worry about these things.

Yawn, seen it all before, including the Palace's standard lines. Still be the same in 50 years when George succeeds William ...

Mmmm, well we're about to find out.

Being close to a tall iron tower (as in the photo) probably not helpful ...

Just about says it all, I think. Pollsters & betting platforms need CONSTANT CHANGE to continue making money.

Such agreements don't achieve much out in the real world but they do no harm. At least they're better than the alternative (shouting insults and being negative about everything).