John Drake

Totally outmaneuvered by the old order. Pita is incompetent--at politics. Were he to gain office, would he continue to blunder? How subtle/smart was it to publicly announce he was going after Prayuth before he was in power? His party can still make a major impact. But they need to do it as the junior partner of Pheu Thai. PTP know the game, the ropes, how to bring pressure to bear and know when to funnel it in the right direction. MF so far is just an uncontrolled mass in the streets without direction. That sort of thing will fade out quickly.

It's always possible that his successor, whomever that may be, could make things worse. Would everyone prefer Anutin? Prawit? Does Pita look all that competent in light of the "media shares" fiasco? My only interest in Thai politics is the hope that whoever is in charge just leaves Immigration alone and doesn't change anything. Otherwise, I just want a safe trip to Foodland and back and an easy walk around the village.

Yet, as has been said many times before, this entire situation need never have happened. Pita put his own head in the noose. He should have disposed/distanced himself from the "media shares" as soon as he entered politics. To still be holding something that could be manipulated against him was simply foolish.

Now I know why Prayut retired. Gettin' out of Dodge while the gettin's good.

The Chinese are buying durian at the source, straight to China deals with durian growers. Even Thai middlemen aren't getting a cut.

Chinese about to start growing their own and will drop Thailand after they've figured out how to dominate durian sales, even though in this article they promise not to (sure). https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202305/10/WS645af9bda310b6054fad21c5.html#:~:text=South China's Hainan province is,be ready for market soon.

Whatever is going to happen has already been decided.

Last month, I submitted my 90 day online on 13 June, with it due on 25 June, which was a Saturday. I did not receive the approval until the afternoon of 23 June, a Friday.

Come to Thailand, retire and keep a low profile.

Not sure that one is legal. It's like, but inferior to, zlibrary, which is illegal.

Jstor has been allowing users to access most of its holdings 100 times per month. But it is read only. No downloading.

There are also Project Gutenberg Canada and Project Gutenberg Australia. Also Roy Glashan's Library. These are all legal. Other sites have books, journals, and magazines, but they are illegal and require a TOR browser.

Unpopular opinion: There is only one person out there who is savvy enough to make money for himself and also increase the Thai standard of living across the board.

Well, for one thing, he needed permission to film inside the hotel, which clearly he did not have, as the manager was trying to stop him.

Sorry, this is beta male type stuff.

A pattern emerges. "That's not my cocaine." "That's not my laptop." "That's not my gun." "That's not my daughter."

Where's Chuwit? He identified and made public these Chinese criminal syndicates. He needs to get back in the game and put more pressure on the people responsible.

He's going to get screwed. The veteran pols are snickering behind his back.

Well, not only camera surveillance but fingerprints and DNA. Should be a snap to find out who the cocaine belongs to--unless there is going to be another coverup.

Obsessing over rain totals isn't going to make it come down any more or less than it will.

Pretty much the definition of a motley crew, seems to me.

It does begin to look as if Pita has been thoroughly outmaneuvered.

The same John Lee who is the face of Hong Kong's "See You in Hong Kong" and "Hello Hong Kong" tourist reboot?

Degenerates.

I think the children of faculty and administrators are also considered legacies. And that is a chunk of the enrollment that is simply going to mushroom. They'll also be disproportionately non-White. It used to be that faculty and secretarial work at private universities were relatively low paid, if not underpaid, jobs. These sort of perquisites made sense then. They don't now, in an age especially when admins are more numerous than faculty. Interesting little piece in the Harvard Crimson about it: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/11/29/anderson-bureaucratic-bloat-harvard/