Silencer

You start with a flawed hypothesis as you focus on MAGA voters. Forgetting the small parties, American's have Democrats or Republicans to vote for, so you need to evaluate both sides of the equation when discussing voter trends and bias. About 40% of Americans consider them selves independents (whom you might consider are the "rational" voters). But true independents (with no party affiliation) are only 10%. The remaining 30% (who call themselves independents), lets say half of them vote Democrat or Republican at different times. So, that gives us approx. 25% of American voters are mostly independent (but some of them lean one way or another more than likely). That means 75% of American voters, both MAGA and Dems, are incapable of voting for the other side. My point being this is NOT just a MAGA thing, although Trump is such a polarizing figure that, that it just highlights these voting dynamics. Lets not forget FDR was the closest thing the US had to a king (4 election victories!), which forced a new constitutional amendment to limit a President to two terms in office. I'm sure Republicans thought he was the Dems MAGA. I, personally, thought Trump did not deserve another term in office after the 2020 election denial, the fits and tantrums he exhibited, the threats to the VP and Jan 6. However, many (not all) of his polices I supported during his first term. In 2024, the US had two very flawed choices, Biden the nice guy, losing his faculties, replaced with an inexperienced and unintelligent Presidential imposter. She faced Trump (narcissist, uncontrollable liar, thin-skinned, wannabe King/dictator/ruler). Also, the economy was not in good shape (and everyone knows it's always "the economy, stupid"), mostly due to inflation, and illegal immigration became a core issue. Beyond the 75% already locked in on their candidate, that other 25% had those choices. Most of them could see both candidates a bit more rationally, some of them decided to stay home because both were losers in their eyes, and enough of them leaned toward the economy and immigration to give Trump the victory. Remember, even Hilary Clinton had a larger lead (popular vote) over Trump, than Trump had over Harris by a bit. The midterm elections in two years will be interesting. American often prefer split government, so both parties can check the extremes of the other, and if Trump causes enough pain or pisses enough of that 25% off on one issue or another, then it is highly likely that either the House or Senate could flip, reigning in some of Trumps agenda. If thigs are going great in almost two years (economy/immigration/overall satisfaction), then Trump might keep both. So, just like MAGA has blind followers, the Dems do as well, and its this 25% (somewhere between 20-30%) that decide the election outcomes. It made some sense that Trump won, despite his many flaws, and that is how he got the votes he did. For Dems, it seems totally incomprehensible people would vote for Trump just as it would have been incomprehensible by MAGA to think Harris had won.

Wonder if Thailand will be voted off the UN Human Rights Council that they were just elected to and joined in Jan, 2025? If you are going to choose returning Chinese asylum seekers to China (and detain them for 11 years, without processing them!), why were they ever voted on in the first place.

Hospital charges seem fine. No one commenting they are excessive have ever been on a ventilator 24x7 and under sedation at a private hospital in Thailand. You have any idea what kind of monitoring would be necessary in that condition? You don't just turn the machine on, inject a drip, and walk away until the next drip refill is needed. Might be cheaper in a government hospital though, that is your choice. GoFundMe's are ok, even the stupid ones, doing stupid things, never even thinking about insurance or consequences (not saying that is the case here). It's up to you if you want to give or not but why whine about people using a legal method to plead for money. Seems to work for many (and not for many more) and also scams aplenty. Donator beware.

We all agree that there is no place for pedos anywhere, at home, or here. Every year we see a few pedo stories of tourists or expats exposed. Hopefully, all get what is coming to them. There are bigger questions about pedos able to fulfill their fantasies here in Thailand more easily though, which this story points towards, yet Thai society (including the government and media) avoid. Some poor Thai families make their underage daughters available, often within local Thai pedo circles (and we have all seen articles of such). Many more poor families encourage (or force) their daughters into both Thai and foreign sex establishments. How many are underage? How many are underage on dating apps? The victims are the children, the pedos the criminals, and Thai culture the facilitators. This is not the time or place to get into a discussion of all the reasons for this situation. Until the situation changes,, both Thai and foreign pedos don't need to "manipulate" the system, they are taking advantage of it.

As I recall, Trump did not like having troops all over the world. Talked about pulling them from Germany, South Korea, NATO, ME, etc. Putin and Xi would certainly like to see that happen.

Since when is evidence needed? 🙂 🙂 Evidence is whatever is claimed as far as I can see.

BRICS is one thing, baht manipulation could be a future issue. As I recall last time, his economic people were looking into which currencies were being manipulated against the dollar.

Absolutely right. Just look at Facebook ads, and in local groups, on these islands. Selling land, houses, renting condos, motorbikes, cars, offering cleaning, training, and other services. Of course some are legit businesses, many are not. Would not take a lot of police work to find dozens more. A crackdown only means most of the time we don't care though.

Wasn't a new Thai-Chinese Center to deal with abductions like this just announced last week? Anymore gangs like this out there? Who's watching the watchers?

FWIW, I Just looked at exchange rates of various currencies against the Baht over the last 12 months. May be of general interest. US Dollar -1.3% Euro -6.0 UK Pound -2.0 Aus Dollar -8.2 Can dollar -8.5 China Yuan -3.7 Indian Rupee -3.7 Russian Ruble -15 (Ouch!) Israeli Shekel +0.5 Japanese Yen -9.1 Most of the falls starting around June. Been some rough going for a few currencies the last year. Also noted, other than the UK pound (USD up slightly) the USD has been strong against every major currency over the last year, generally 5-8%. Dips and surges come and go I suppose. I'm not a trader nor financial/economist type, but reading through this thread made me want to look up some longer term data points.

Mine paid for her own boob job after we both were involved in discussion of size, type (wide range of softness and associated costs), and joint consultation with doctor. All was fine, hot as hell, and she has never thought about getting anything else done. We live on an island, lots of bikini time, so it made sense she wanted to fill them out. To each their own, life is short.

Phoenix from the ashes.....Trump wins. Amazing.

The undecideds and independents in a few states will decide the election, that is all that matters. Since both candidates are disasters, especially given the size of the US and potential pool, undecided voters have to look at these two and decide which can they tolerate more. If Harris wins, there is a chance she's in charge for 8 years, following a predictable domestic and foreign policy path. If Trump wins, much more unpredictable outcomes, but he can only govern for 4 years. Do they lean Trump and hope the next 4 years they survive, or Harris and same old same old for 4 years, and potentially, 8 years. How they answer that question for themselves will decide the election.

My home currency is the US$. My non-financial solution for all the ups-downs of the exchange rates is this. It was easy to remember (and calculate) when the dollar to baht exchange rate was near 30 during one of my pre retirement trips.. So, for many many years after that, up to today, I have used the 30:1 ratio for rough calculations for large purchases, and always come out ahead in what the actual USD cost was. When over 35 or 36...thats a major large transfer signal (last transfer in July at 36.5). This way I dont get worked up between the ups and down between the 31-35 exchange rate. This strategy might work for others (set your own bottom number that works for you) and it will save some heartache during the swings.