John Drake

I make my own. It's still expensive.

I freely admit to following the Thai lead on this matter. I have no intent of being a pioneer. Makes perfect sense to me to follow the practices of the people who live around me.

I can't believe this guy's first act, even before he is confirmed, is to create friction, especially over the question of gas and oil. Should shut his yap. If he or the US were to start running arms to anti-government guerrillas in Myanmar, that would be something I could support. But stupidly getting on the wrong side of the country you've just been sent to is idiotic. No matter which side they are politically, just about every Thai is going to favor access to Myanmar oil and gas.

Hmmm. I must have suddenly become Thai. I think the mask mandates are largely useless. And I don't wear one when walking the streets in and around the village. But every time I walk into a store, a mall, come to a area with many vendors and customers on the side of the street, or get in a taxi, on goes the mask. There is no point in antagonizing the people you live around. They want the damn masks. So I oblige while in their company.

Fat chance.

It may make a difference when the 300 is divided up into various destinations, especially on a mass scale. But for two Americans coming here, they will see "tourism fee" and that it costs both together about $16 and disregard it. What do I hope to come from this? The dismissing of those high profile stories about a tourist in the hospital with multiple hip, leg, and arm fractures and complaints about Thai hospitals paying for it. Now, it's "covered" according to their own rules. If the patient doesn't "pay," it's the system's fault, not the foreigner's. Heck I wouldn't mind if they made the idea applicable to year long extensions. Tack on another 3600 baht in "insurance" to the 1900 baht for extensions and leave us to fund the balance of our medical care as we see fit.

Is this report on US inflation from Xinhua, the official press agency of the PRC?

Back in the US where I'm from, people are paying $4.59 for one Big Freak'n Burrito and $6.59 for an order of Mucho Nachos. Things cost so much there that 300 baht is going to seem like chump change.

I'm not happy with either group. If I could select a nationality to give preference to it would be Mexicans.

Yes, saw that. But maybe this will make them stop yakking about health insurance for retirement, as most of the really horrendous accidents seem to occur with younger daredevil tourists. Guess this leaves 90 day visas uncovered too.

Actually, this sounds okay to me.

Twenty five years ago, I remember a story (I think it was Goodyear) which had just built an entirely new factory. Six months later it was sold and literally dismantled and sent to China. This has been going on for some time. Corporate greed combined with fantastical socio-economic political theories that China would "transform" into a modern, democratic state.

Who would that be exactly? Not the United States, which never colonized, brutalized, or murdered Indians. That would be the British. And the British are a very junior member of relatively small clout in the so-called Quad. The treachery to which I refer is Indian actions against the United States, siding with Russia and China to displace the dollar as the reserve currency, siding with Russia and China against Ukraine, and siding with Russia in weapons procurement, and all the while flooding the US with their citizens and demanding the right to monopolize entire categories of visas.

One thing is for certain and that is Fuentes has been in the country since Biden has been president, and the child rape occurred during Biden's presidency. All the time, Biden had it as his responsibility to enforce US immigration law and deport illegal aliens. How many illegals has Biden deported from the US interior and Ohio, for instance? Why didn't Fuentes fear getting deported more than carrying out a child rape? Why are hundreds and thousands of illegals pouring across the border even as I write this?

India has sided with the Russian-Chinese plan to remove the US dollar as the reserve currency and replace it with a Yuan/Ruble global reserve. India is treacherous, a long time ally of the Soviet Union/Russia, and willing to back China against the West in order to leverage an advantage. India has its own big dreams. And its immigrants to the US are much more loyal to India overall than Chinese immigrants are to China. The spigot of Indian immigration into the US needs to be turned off and Indians made to feel better about returning home.

Covid. The gift that keeps on giving, if you're a totalitarian minded dictator or political party that wants to control everybody's actions.

And what a mistake it was for the US and Europe to give away their industry to China and import Indians to take over entire sectors of the economy. They literally emptied their cash bank accounts and intellectual property ownership in order to get things on the cheap for a couple of decades.

Yes, sent mine today. Paid 320 baht (don't know why the difference). Picked it up at my PO Box and filled it out right there, and sent it registered.

Hah. A lot of your "younger outlook on life" types are on Twitter. Aside from posting pictures of their bottles of beer, which seems to be their main activity, you should read the complaints. They complain about the people sitting next to them, roads being wet when it rains, their work--they really hate their work and let everyone know. Collectively, they're the most miserable people I've ever seen in Thailand.

I used to see their advertisements pop up and the expats they had in their photos for meet ups were the exact sort of people I came to Thailand to avoid.

Thailand knows this. During the 1950s, when China threatened to sweep down through Laos into Thailand, the US made emergency preparations for certain important individuals to evacuated from Thailand. And one other thing, the Mekong water card is not something China can play against Thailand. If it did so, China would hurt its Lao and Cambodian satellites more than Thailand.

I can't imagine why anybody would waste time and money on sportsball, especially when you're over 65 and have a limited amount of both left. What sort of an adult human being wears another person's team jersey and number and pays for the "privilege"?

Checked weather forecast and it seems lows will be in the 60s and 50, with the highest low 71 next Monday. Silly complaining. Can't take 90 degrees for a few hours before cooling off.

No.

Youze wuz robbed. Watch baseball instead.