Briggsy

That would have freaked me out if I had been in that shop.

Expendables working for somebody much higher up the chain.

No. That is definitely not what I said and you are well aware of that. Musk pushed both stories and was very happy that both stories garnered column inches. People like Musk deliberately court controversy in order to remain in the headlines. He has done it hundreds of times and will continue to do it.

It is unlikely without connections that the Ministry of Labour will issue a work permit for any of the "simple" read 'unskilled' jobs you mention. The salary will not reach the 35,000 Baht per month to extend the permission to stay once the initial permission to stay expires. So, as it stands at the moment, your plan will not work. Much better plan - marry a Thai man.

The video is very unclear and only shows a snippet of the violence. There may well have been kicks to the head. I wonder how they are feeling today. Concussed? Unconscious?

You must be confusing me with somebody else. Apparently in your MAGA world, Tesla is currently good. And again, in your MAGA cult world, any non-MAGA's be they "RINO's" or "libtards" or whatever, must be anti-Tesla. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. My view on Tesla (and all other non-CCP EV producers) is that I hope they survive and thrive. A vibrant competitive market is always good for the consumer. Any industrial sector beholden to and controlled by the CCP is a losing result for the rest of the world.

Not at all. It is fabricated irrelevance. It is the political equivalent of Keeping up with the Kardashians. It is trivial froth and should not be reported as a news story.

Elon can feel his star is waning. It has been over a week since he has created a polemic on Twitter (X). Expect many more self-created "twitter-spats" in the coming months. It is how people remain relevant and in the public eye nowadays. Back in the real world, Tesla shareholders are demanding results. He needs to walk a fine line between keeping them off his back and keeping in with the MAGA cult.

I notice you cut off the key part of my quote (naughty! 😞) Trump's deals with Russia approved by Putin are to enrich himself.

The MAGA cultists all fall in line. "Everything is NATO's / Zelensky's / The West's / Ukrainian Nazi's fault." "Putin is a peaceful president who is a victim of Western aggression." "Zelensky is starting World War 3." Just keep repeating these ridiculous assertions from Trump's talking points. In the meantime, your hero is cooking up deals with Putin to enrich himself. Nobody with the ability to think can believe these MAGA lies. War, started by and propagated by Putin, the aggressor, destroys everything. Putin could call a halt right now, if he so wished.

With the 50% premium on the unit price of electricity and with air con running whenever the room was occupied, I think the amounts are both eye-watering and also possible. It is perfectly normal in Thai apartment rentals to include a premium on water and electricity and the unit rate should have been stated in the initial contract. (I pay 8 Baht a unit for electricity.) The excuse they use is the cost of the connection from the street. But, at the end of the day, it is just an extra cost.

Yingluck is Thaksin's sister. You are confusing your Shinawatra's.

He is wearing the jersey of a big French cycling team. Could he be French? 🤨

Technically yes. However if you want your Certificate of Residence, which is necessary for a whole range of tasks, or your permission to stay extension or your change of passport details noted, you will need to get around this issue to get what you want. Two solutions seem to be available. 1. Pay the fine for a belated TM30. 2. Book into a hotel that does TM30's and get them to do it. Back on topic, for DTV-holders like myself, it is probably a good idea to, at the very least, think ahead each time you make an entry into Thailand and consider whether you are going to have a need for anything from Immigration. If so, file a new TM30 as soon as you can so that you don't get fined when you go in for what you need later on.

I believe the fine for a belated TM30 is 1500 Baht (if they apply it). This could be cheaper than an agent.

Indeed. You may well find the beneficial owner of the property is in China. Hence, their preference for Chinese construction staff recruited by a Chinese agency all based in China. The goal is often to find a safe investment, in property, which Chinese traditionally use to hold value, and to provide a rental income. Investing in property in China has become a very risky proposition. There will have to be a local property agent to co-ordinate on behalf of the Chinese owner. That is who the police should be going after. A pseudo-employer, of sorts.

These have been the stipulations for the multi-entry tourist visa, METV, for years and years.

Cop wants a BM.

I too was denied on an METV. And I had been warned at Don Meuang several months earlier. However, the IO at the Jantaburi was adamant as was his supervisor that there was nothing in the computer about any denial. And he was addressing his supervisor in Thai. Perhaps Bangkok Region (Immigration Division 1) have something that only they can see or a marker. Who knows?

Yes, I recall reading your story. I suppose it is a bit different at a land border. They sort of just turn you around. When you fly in, there is a lot more palaver. They need to take you to the airport detention centre, have an IO of maybe colonel rank stamp your passport, co-ordinate with the airline, have your baggage collected and re-routed because you are not allowed to collect it. It has the appearance of an official process, but nothing is noted in the computer. As @Rob Browder said, the goal is to inconvenience you and make you incur extra expense so that the cost of safe entry suddenly changes from being unnecessary to being an unmissable bargain.

Whingeing Brits in compo culture crisis. Give us compensation, give us more compensation, it's not fair, what about the inconvenience.......

Indeed the defendant was not white. Perhaps a larger sample size is required.

This mirrors my experience. When I was denied entry, they put a stamp in my passport. At one of the Jantaburi / Cambodia border crossings later that year, the stamp gained the attention of the IO. He asked his boss what to do explaining "there was nothing about it in the computer". (I was allowed in) The point being is that they don't seem to record denials of entry as official denials of entry in the Immigration database. Rather it seems informal with just a stamp or now a small note in the passport.

You might well find that the sentences for smuggling this amount of cannabis can potentially be very light in the UK and mainland Europe. The risk vs reward equation may mean people will continue to do it. A suspended sentence was given out recently for a suitcase full of weed from Thailand. Money equivalent to grafting on a building site for 2 years vs a suspended sentence may well be an attractive proposition.

I have previously had knowledge of Beer Laos smuggled into Thailand before the ASEAN free trade agreement. Each box only ever had 23 or 22 bottles as it was "taxed" en route.