RandolphGB

Most of these TV shows are staged and heavily scripted by producers to create a certain narrative. In this case, move over North Korea, the manufactured propaganda was that foreigners are backwards and chauvinistic while Thais are forward-thinking, modern progressives. Thai Enquirer fell for it hook, line and sinker. Because, well, the people who run that website are pretty dim.

Good coffee - La croisette Pool - there's a pool hall opposite Pontoon nightclub. All the bars have really bad quality tables Good restaurants - a few nice Italian places Girls - Street 136, Street 130. Plenty of bars around here. Pontoon is OK after midnight.

There was a sycophantic interview on Aseannow a while ago lauding Nate. Wonder if the author still feels the same way.

The father's will was executed in 2006. That's almost two decades ago, so the fact Pita was still holding them suggests he received them as the beneficiary. He quickly offloaded them once the details emerged after the election, so it's just plain incompetent that Pita and the MFP did not sort it out before they started campaigning.

iTV is a media company but it stopped broadcasting. It's still a registered media company though. The idea that he is a plant is more credible than the idea a Harvard University graduate and former director of a NYSE listed company was unaware of being a shareholder in iTV and unaware of the Thai election laws. He knew all along - he's either incompetent or in on it.

The rules are very simple - anyone who owns shares in a media company cannot run to be an MP. Pita and his party knew the rules as Thanathorn was also caught out by this rule four years ago. Yet Pita and his party still ignored them again this time. Why? It's a simple rule and very easy to offload shares. There's just no way he would not have known he owned them and that it was also a media company (iTV) The guy's either a clown who has let down millions of people. Something is very fishy on his part. I might even go so far as suggest, he's just an establishment plant put there to absorb votes and give people false hope without ever having the intention to govern. Perhaps the army and Pita knew he would be eventually skewered by this 'rule', and that was part of the plan.

You are correct that the next civilian government must go to extremes to confine the military without themselves becoming authoritarian. I believe the traditional elite have another 20 or 30 years of power left to run. Hope is what they want people to have. Hope is inaction, like hoping to win the lottery or dreaming of living in a palace. Nothing comes true through hope alone. Visceral anger and co-ordinated action, on the other hand, are what the establishment families here will be terrified of.

Corruption is endemic, part of the Thai cultural DNA. They worship it, literally.

The military have been running things in one shape or other for the last century. There have been platitudes about 'moving towards democracy' since the 1970s. So this idea of elections is a sham, a face-saving exercise. Power here is highly centralized around a handful of families who use the military to maintain the social order.

By disaster, perhaps you mean the country's wealth being plundered by one family protected by law while 95% of the populace live in ignorance. Though is it so bad when you look at the state of Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam?

Thailand is still in the dark ages when it comes to animal welfare.

There's a grey area with these things. Firstly, assuming this was an oil massage with her clothes off. The customer might have been in the mood during the massage and gave body signals that suggested it was ok for the man to do it, but then regretted it after and complained .Or the man may have proceeded without any kind of consent. There's no way to tell and no legal recourse because it's Thailand.

Wonder if this hospital, unlike the Bumrungrad in Bangkok, will be able to keep to appointment times. Or is that just the lovely Thai culture to have so much respect for their paying customers they make them wait for longer.

Thailand is terrified of upsetting China. Always has been and always will.

Good. This should finally dispel any fanciful ideas of democracy in Thailand. Back to the status quo of military and 'establishment' rule like it has been for the last 100+ years.

You have no knowledge or understanding of Thai history of the last 50 years. Nothing has changed. The army will do exactly what they always do. And Thai people will do exactly what they always do - nothing.

The party had FOUR years to make sure they were whiter-than-white. They could have gone through every rule with a fine-tooth comb to ensure they were in compliance and there was nothing that could be used against them. If they can't do that properly, they would be hopeless in government.

They are naive and politically inexperienced. It will be their downfall. A shrewd politician would have made vague promises and hidden all of their plans for change but pushed them through once in power. All this talk of changing alcohol laws, changing the constitution, marriage laws, sidelining the military etc etc will just be seen as a threat to national security by those who actually rule the country and they will prevent MFP from ever getting near to government.

Bless you ???? You haven't accepted yet that Thailand is stupid and backward thinking. There is no common sense. As for dumb religious laws... you'll find them the world over. But why are you so arrogant to want to change what is sacred to the people, history and culture of a country for commercial interests?

A tourist can survive for a day without booze. Would you go to Saudi Arabia and complain there's no beer? It's no different for a Buddhist country.

That hypocritical purity is Thailand. Don't you understand? Protecting those bizarre religious customs is tantamount to protecting their national security. That is the conservative view at the bedrock of their whole social order and state system. They won't risk the slow unravelling of their culture just to sell beers to make a few foreigners happy. And why should they?

Medieval is a useful word to describe Thailand's social order, laws, beliefs and customs. They want to keep it that way so let them.

Anyone who 'agonizes' over bars not legally being able to serve alcohol for 24 hours should probably see a doctor.

What's funny is that anyone thought the army would ever allow this clown anywhere near the keys to government. Thailand always has been and always will be for the foreseeable future controlled by the military in cahoots with the elite.

Yes, one was West to East long haul. The others were all within Asia flying West to East.