John Drake

Time to start treating China/Russia as a single entity, politically and economically. Sanctions on one require the same sanctions on the other. And don't forget to target and isolate China/Russia satellite countries. You listening, Thailand?

It really has been China/Russia all along. One and the same, essentially, plotting to disrupt the international order and impose totalitarian dictatorships in their own image. This should be the last straw. Western nations should move to sever their relations with China/Russia and isolate the former along with the latter. And, yes, Thailand you will be forced to choose.

Great timing. AQI in western Bangkok is 160 today.

Almost nobody is "forced" to publish at Thai universities. Often, maybe usually, it's option. Faculty members can either get a teaching contract or a research contract. Most opt for the teaching contract, because they can't publish. There are top ranked Thai universities where the faculty members have maybe published a couple of book chapters over the past three years and nothing else. Yes, they spent Covid sitting at home on their rears and didn't manage to publish a single article in a top tier journal. And this is especially a problem among foreign teachers who are hired because they speak English and otherwise have very thin vitas.

In reality, Thailand is popular because it cuts corners with safety on the set. Working conditions that call a halt to production anywhere in North America are SOP here.

You are 100 percent correct. Any insights the Thai military acquires from the US will go straight to their commanders in Peking.

Chy-nuh! Chy-nuh! Chy-nuh!

Yes, the medical "trust fund" has become a tourist industry slush fund.

Tofu building standards

Can't find that story anywhere, including the Bangkok Post.

And her husband had to be aware at the very least. Great advice there. Wonder if he and his US property are liable for a civil suit. She should contact the US Embassy and start the process of giving herself up of her own free will.

Who is the pitbull going to go to war against?

Per Time.

Seven very good recommendations here, especially the introduction of means testing as a way to limit benefits for high income individuals. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/03/changes-americans-are-willing-to-make-to-fix-social-security.html

"Can." In fact, they rarely get above 38,000 because it is inefficient and dangerous in case of an emergency to do so.

I think the Chinese come here because it's not China. And it's nearby and cheap.

It's not about being "updated," it's about the use of a single anonymous source to launch a story. And that is what happened a couple of days ago, here, on this forum, which caused people to react so assuredly. A "single anonymous source" was all they needed then. Here are the pertinent parts of the story linked to in the original topic https://aseannow.com/topic/1285572-revealed-three-chinese-spy-balloons-infiltrated-the-us-during-trump-administration-but-he-never-shot-them-down-or-told-the-public-as-republicans-call-for-biden-to-resign-for-putting-americans-at-risk/ That launched a 10 page discussion, all based on a single anonymous source. It used to be in journalism that anonymous sources were only very rarely used (think Watergate). Nowadays, it has become something of a default. Why did this "senior official" need to "speak on background" for this story? It was either an identifiable fact or it wasn't.

It does look pathetic. "What did you do on your vacation, Huang?" "I watched a train run through a ghetto."

Wow! Big news!

And all of it benefitting a relatively select few. Should have kept the electricity subsidy for home users instead.

This is funny. Because it was only a couple of days ago that all those stories about balloons spying on the US during the Trump administration were being spilled all over this forum and they were sourced by a single anonymous official. I'm all for sabotaging, sanctioning, isolating, and confronting Russia/China. But to see the news media act as little more than an appendage to a particular political ideology and outlook is not only disturbing, it will eventually undermine and discredit the existing system of news gathering and trust.

Following this on Twitter, it looks like Trump's followers are all piling in with him on this. Because he is unelectable, it's clear they all intend to sink to the bottom with him. Trump simply is a degenerate person for whom this sort of <deleted> slinging is an integral part of his make up.

Because incredibly it seems most of the Western military and intelligence agencies either 1) cannot detect them or 2) sit around in their underwear and wonder "what's that?"

Because that's where the money is!

I think that is the point of any crackdown that might come. Since Chuwit exposed the extensiveness of Chinese triads operating in Bangkok and elsewhere, it's clear that a lot of immigration falsifying of documents is going on. I don't want triads or Russian gangsters here. Not only will they make things more dangerous in terms of violence and financial fraud, they'll destroy the price structure, especially for Thai people. I don't really think that the small fry will be caught up in this. But they might. The problem of a growing foreign criminal class, however, is a greater threat that needs some sort of resolution that gets them out of here.