mfd101

Good for her. Looks like a real leader.

Slowly sinking lower & lower. And affecting all the Royals as well. The mystique wearing thin.

My b/f reports how difficult it was to vote this morning, just here on the outskirts of little Prasat Surin ... main thing was trying to find on the papers the party & the individual(s) you wanted to vote for in an astonishing maze of parties & individuals. My thought: Probably fine for individuals with high-level literacy in Thai (10%? 20%? of the population). But with limited literacy in his case and zero literacy in the case of older members of his family, making rational choices was simply impossible.

You're probably right - your "best option" avoids a military or (more likely) legal coup and has the great virtue of giving the PP & its leadership some real-world government experience, which has to be good for the longer term. Your "second best" is OK in theory but wouldn't last longer than the few days it would take for the courts to throw them out or BJT to swap partners..

Have seen it often enough here in my own huge Khmer family. As to the position of foreign members of a Thai peasant family, in the broad you reap what you sow.

What most people above seem not to understand is that - for, say, 80% of Thais - it is FAMILY that constitutes their social security and health system. Much as it was in 'Western' countries 100 years ago. I see this on a daily basis here in south Surin amongst the poor Khmer peasants. When I start to decline there will be multiple in-laws available to gather round and help. Assisted no doubt by the fact that, for most of them, I am their main source of funds ...

I think we know the answer to that. And confusion all round is exactly what's required to achieve the appropriate outcomes. I notice that nowhere in the news item is there a reason or reasons given for removal of candidates ...

Only for the Progressives.

Sadly, only an armed uprising that includes the junior elements of the Army will ever make the dramatic change this country needs if it's to have a future worth living. At age 76 and aiming for 90+ I doubt I'll see it in my lifetime. And, in any case, as the Castro/Guevara example shows (along with so many others worldwide) armed uprisings usually end up just as badly as the dictatorship they overthrew. 😪

Typical Thai approach to life in general and to legal rules in particular: She'll be right & bugger the consequences.

A year or so ago a couple of times as I glanced out the window from my upstairs library I watched a squirrel racing along the top of our high dividing fence. It was snow white from its head to the end of its beautiful tail. Magnificent! Unfortunately only seen twice and for a few seconds. The second time it leaped off the fence into a high tree next door. I mentioned this to my b/f. He said: Oh yes. Would you like me to kill it? We could eat it. (Sigh) The function of all living things is to serve as meat. This applies notably to dogs run over on the road. Quick, into the boot, off to the farm for a feast ...

A Day in the Life of Thailand ... corruption & manipulation feed off incompetence.

Mais quelle surprise! I'm sure it can't be right. Must have been rigged. I'm sure Hispanic voters all recognize the merits of trumpism.

Well, it was 'the Thai people' who - collectively - got 'the Thai people' where they are today. And it's only a smallish subset - of younger & well-educated Thais mostly in BKK & CM - who have the capacity to lead change. The upcoming few weeks after next Sunday will tell us what they're made of, as the forces of never-change gather against them.

'Normal' men? I'm guessing you mean heterosexual or 'straight' men? You may be unaware that homosexual and bisexual men have been around for the several hundred thousand years there have been H. sapiens on this planet, and at various times & places in the history of our species (for example the classical Greeks & the Roman Empire but also in east Asia) homosexual practices have been not just tolerated but celebrated as the preferred sexual expression for all male citizens (which didn't stop them from also fathering children on their wives).

They are. Just not necessarily what you're fussy about ... Big bulge and muscles-rather-than-flab are important.

No but I picked up one on stage at Classic Boys in late 2011. 14 years later we're long since happily hitched (in Oz) and living cheerfully not far from his Khmer peasant family here in south Surin.

Kidnapped to work in a scam centre?

Which rather begs the question why anyone would buy shoes without trying them on first ... like in a shoe shop. All the complaints here from people who buy sight unseen from assorted strange & unverifiable foreign places ... Not surprising there are problems.

Super crash for a super car.

(Yawn) Same same everywhere in the world where politicians go thru the motions ... We will do this and we will do that. (Oh and um somehow we'll find the cash somehow.)

Yes. Anyone who's actually had shingles - as have friends of mine in Oz - will tell you the pain is enough to make you get the vaccine even if the risk of catching it is low. ie It's a case of low risk, high penalty.

And what would that change? If you want a guvamint at all, you have to pay for it and, short of periodically shooting everyone currently carrying out its functions, you're stuck with the fact that bureaucrats & politicians have the same basic (ie human) defects as everyone else ie pay me more to do less.

Not to mention the filthy rich ...

There's no doubt rules already (eg expired licence) but not enforced except post hoc.