mfd101

Given his state of health as reported (assuming it's not exaggerated for convenience), it's not impossible that his days are numbered & he just wanted to come home to die on the Bosom of the Sacred Mother.

Will be interesting to see how the Constitutional Court & the Electoral Commission behave - over time - under (so to speak) new management ... I wonder how many opportunities are coming along over, say, the next 2 years for new appointments to either.

Change your will to read 'XYZ, also known as ABC'? (or whatever your UK and/or Thai lawyers suggest).

No, it's a Shakespearean tragedy dressed out (typically) with comic interludes. There has to be 5 acts.

That's (probably) why there'll be either an early election or (perhaps more likely) another military coup.

We shall see. This morning he certainly looked like master of the situation: police saluting him, homage to the King, hugs and waves for his followers ... The news clips could scarcely have been bettered. The Big Man returns. Even if it takes 2 weeks before he's out of clink, he still makes the dinosaurs look like the very little men they really are.

In Usofa life expectancy is falling ...

Well, as for the poor people (Khmer peasants) amongst whom I live, there is no retirement (though thanks to Thaksin there is now a very modest old age monthly income from the government). That's of course the reason why poor people have so many children, to look after them once they're too old to fend for themselves.

You've missed my point but not appropriate to discuss further.

Which was rather my point.

That doesn't explain why higher prices are a threat to farmers.

His words aren't all he'll have to eat in the coming days and weeks and months.

He's supposed to be arriving at 0900, so by the time you need to head out to the airport he'll either be ensconced in the PM's residence or in prison. Either way you'll be safe to leave. Though perhaps not to return.

Not the same. Far from it, but depending on circumstances.

You'll be delighted when you see Thaksin get the vote for PM. Followed by a triumphant procession to The Palace for the benediction. ????

And what's the drill for Yingluck? Is she arriving too? Will she too get a luxury suite at the Hilton?

There's no reconciliation between mafias. Just convenience.

Hope you're right on the first item, but the record so far is that the EC & the CC will between them find some ridiculous excuse to do the dirty on MFP. They don't need either logic or good legal argument ... Fingers crossed. On the second item, just as MFP is the largest single party in the HofR but still in a minority, so in government the PTP will be the largest single party but in a minority both in the HofR and - I'm guessing - maybe in the Cabinet room too. Not sure how that latter point would pan out. In a Western nation the Cabinet generally works by consensus and not by actual vote, and - while the PM is greatly influential - he or she is not a dictator within the Party room or Cabinet. But in Thailand ...

My b/f gave me a lecture on the subject when we first moved here in south Surin in 2017. He said the locals can't afford to give tips and to do so ourselves would create expectations that others can't meet. So we just round up.

Why would any half-sensible person buy clothes unseen and untried-on?

Woops, I thought this was going to be a surprise new candidate for the Presidency ...

High risk whatever MFP and PTP do: (1) If MFP votes against Sretta & goes into (effectively) one-party opposition, it may last thru till the next election whenever that is and then triumph with a smashing victory. Or it may or may not be abolished by CC edict but in any case it gradually sinks in to irrelevance like the Democrats and more or less disappears from the scene after the next election; (2) Basically the same - more or less extreme - alternatives await PTP. They 'lead' a government dominated by dinosaurs and suffer a resounding defeat & irrelevance at the next election, or they retire next week into a dignified opposition party alongside MFP and live to hope for a better future after the next wunnerful exercise of Thai democracy.

I suspect Alibaba is under the gun in Communist China. Former owner Jack Ma ... Ergo: No longer dependable for anything.

No understanding of irony?

Well, good luck with all of that ... I note in passing that pardons come from only one person so no guarantees there, I should think.