Walker88

It's Versace, and they are nothing special. If you want to play the bon vivant, learn the names of real quality things. Brioni, Stefano Ricci, not big chain store, wildly marked up stuff like Versace, who goes after the nouveau riche and posseurs.. You end up coming across more of a troll than you are.

Bob, I wouldn't wear the Rolex. Roleks, maybe, but not Rolex. Even the ladies in 7-11 know what they are. Three of them could gang up and beat the tar out of you. If you want understated elegance at around the same price point, wear the Audemars Piguet. Or opt for the Piaget or Richard Mille. Not as pedestrian as a Rolex, so you'll feel better about your wealth, and no one will be the wiser. Quiet luxury is the way old money goes about life. No logos, nothing too ostentatious. You know how much you've got; no need for anyone else to know.

I've resided in numerous countries. Thailand does draw more than its fair share of miscreants, as does a place like the Philippines, but they are still in the minority. Miscreants, however, tend to be more visible. I would attribute much of it to two things: the easy availability of female company, and a very flexible enforcement of laws. For the former, hormones drive lots of guys to believe a 20 year old Isaan farm girl is attracted to a grossly overweight, fairly unsuccessful older geezer of quite modest financial means. Those guys come to 'live the dream'. They think women get weak in the knees over them, and many add a tatt or ten, thinking that increases their babe magnet-ness. If slighted by a street smart young lass, they get bitter and come to dislike all things Thai. For the latter, Thailand draws the lo-so petty criminals, whereas the more upscale criminal types head to Monaco or Dubai or the Caymens or Bora Bora or Geneva. The vast majority of expats taking up residence, retired or working, cause no trouble.

In a world where technology is becoming more critical to national success, it's a huge mistake to disparage science by attributing any power to some superstition. Of course Oklahoma is unlikely to produce any important brains or advances, so maybe let them have their fantasies. The argument that the Bible or any fantasy text creates morality is silly. Civilization creates morality, as non-psychopathic people inherently understand what behaviors lead to success and survival. Superstitions are only left with creating silly rules, like not eating pork, dressing females like giant eggplants, praising and thanking some very needy skydaddy, etc. There won't be any more nor less murder and stealing if people absolutely accepted there are no deities, no souls or spirits, no afterlife. I don't try to behave because I fear some eternal punishment or reward, but rather because it's simply the right thing to do. Do unto others....is not Biblical; it's common sense.

Yes, I would say I abstain from casual sex out of fear of catching an STD, but I prefer to think I abstain because of my deep sense of moral rectitude. That being said (facetiously), people should know that STDs are not limited to the major ones (HIV, Hep-C, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia) but also all sorts of mycoplasma bacteria. These can be passed even from oral sex...you on her, she on you. Some women get their lady bits checked, few get a mouth swab, so if shakuhatchi (a kind of Japanese flute) is your thing, and if she does it regularly, you can get things. Some of the mycoplasma, as well as gonorrhea, is drug resistant. Some mycoplasma might require powerful antibiotics like moxifloxicin, which can have nasty and unusual side effects, such as tendon damage. At the very least, all antibiotics are bad for your gut microbiome, so best avoided. Avoid STDs and that limits the odds of one needing antibiotics. Best to be "moral", which is to say carry a decent bit of fear. If a casual acquaintance 'does it' with you, you're unlikely to be her first.

I think the Dems might have just won the White House. They will have an open convention now, and whomever they pick will be young and vibrant and a believer in democracy. Their candidate (e.g., Newsome or Michelle Obama) will face off against a convicted felon. The Dem age will no longer be a factor. Also, the R war machine won't have as much time to come up with negative memes, while everybody already has all the ammunition they needs against the felon. It's quite possible the Repubs now will also hold an open convention, and neither current candidate will be on the ballot. Repubs would have go with a moderate, so when there are two new candidates on the ballot, it will be a win-win for the US. Bye Biden, bye felon.

I recognize the writing style, but can't quite figure who you are/were. Here's some advice if your attempt at boasting isn't tongue-in-cheek: $900 for a suit is rather pedestrian. A discerning eye, as most 18-20 year old Isaan maidens have, will not be impressed. A nice Brioni will set you back $5500, but you'll look the part. Match it with a Stefano Ricci shirt ($750) and tie ($200), and you'll scream ATM catch. 18-20 year olds looking for a 'deep and meaningful' relationship with an aging foreigner will be all over themselves. If that doesn't put you over the top, I have found that keeping a Gulfstream at Don Mueang FBO is the kicker. That also makes you a 'quality tourist', even if you're a habitue of agogos and ST Hotels.

Let's see....."10% tariffs and elimination of Income Tax" Okay, then just add a straight up $4,000,000,000,000 to the National Debt each year, plus the vig on that plus existing debt, and in 4 years (provided the felon doesn't declare himself Your Favorite President for Life), the bloated one will have rung up at least an additional $20,000,000,000,000 in his term. Alternatively, if he wanted to have tariffs make up 100% of existing tax revenues, the rate (based on import totals) would have to be tariffs of about 130%. Imports are everywhere, but in some places (e.g., Walmart), imports are just about all there is. Who shops at Walmart? MAGAs mostly, so their Favorite President" will be killing them in the pocketbook or manbag. They won't even be able to afford the Chinese dog food or baby formula loaded with melamine. Those who might dispute this can go to government websites, collect all the import data and parse it against income tax revenues. Set up an equation and adjust the tariff rate until income tax goes to zero. Enjoy Felonomics!

Nothing screams 'man made god' louder than the Judeo 10 Commandments. Apparently the creator (sic) of 200 billion galaxies each with up to a trillion stars, is really insecure if he insisted the first 3 Commandments be all about it. On an obscure planet around a nothing star in one of those 200 billion galaxies, this omnipotent being insists on no competitors, no graven images, and set aside a day just to tell it how great it is. Sounds very human, and not the good kind of human. And who needed to be told that killing and stealing are wrong? Maybe MAGA types, but absent the psychopathic demographic, people know it's a no-no to kill. Oddly, no mention of slavery. In fact neither the Bible nor the great Hay Zeus himself, who had 33 years to say something about it, never said owning other humans is wrong. No, there's no morality in the Bible, and nothing anyone wouldn't innately know in the Commandments that discuss actual moral subjects, rather than the "hey, look at me!" first three. Totally unnecessary drivel. As has been noted, the Constitution mentions deities exactly zero times. The fact a good many of the Founders were not believers, plus they knew the dangers of forced faith, explains why they left out the superstition. I wonder if at some future date when US demographics could conceivably shift toward majority Moslem, will we have Shari'a enforced upon us and daily sura readings in schools?

Civilization itself provides ethics and moral direction. Otherwise, nobody would choose to live around others. Moses did not come down from the mountain, gather folks around, and say: "Bad news, folks. We can't murder or steal or fool around with others except our spouse."

Looks like some of the felon's "best people" are something less than superlative. The felon's "Spiritual Adviser", a megachurch grifter pastor named Robert Morris, just had to step down because it was revealed he dallied 'inappropriately' with a 12 year old girl. The statutory rape occurred several years ago, and 'Rev' Morris swears she was the only child he assaulted. One and done? There's a pattern here in the felon's life: Jeffrey Epstein, campaign adviser George Nader (kiddie porn conviction), business partner Arif Tevfik (trafficking of children), and now Morris. Either the felon approves of such behavior, or he's a really poor judge of character. Neither is good. Morris is the fellow on the left:

Is that 'advanced degree from an accredited university' you have in Virology or Epidemiology? Just curious about your particular area of expertise, since apparently you know better than Dr. Fauci.

What this debate will do is showcase the cognitive decline of the felon as well as show how absolutely weird he has become as his brain fizzles and deteriorates and turns to mush. Right wing media has spent lots of time splicing together every gaffe or stutter of Biden, creating a false impression of his cognitive state. One could do the same to Taylor Swift and make her look as if she has dementia. It's editing vs reality. If one watches the speech Biden delivered in Normandy on 6 June, two things are apparent. He has great focus and can still deliver, whether those are his words or the words of a speechwriter. Also, Biden's entire speech was about honoring the sacrifice of those who fought and praising/thanking them for what they did. The felon is totally incapable of giving credit to others nor honoring the great sacrifice others have made. For the felon, all glory, honor and credit goes to him for everything. Even his spawn suffer from the same, as the second son posted on Memorial Day last month of the "great sacrifice" (sic) his Never Served family has made for the US. If not for those bone spurs, eh? While editing to disparage Biden, right wing media also selectively edits to hide all of the felon's gaffes. They ignored the 'sinking electric boat and shark' idiocy, as well as not reminding us how great the felon thinks Hannibal Lecter was. There will be no hiding in the debate, no real time editing. Sharks and Hannibal Lecter will be there for all the world to see....live. There will also be instant fact checking, so the usual lies and hyperbole spewing from the felon's frothing maw will be laid bare instantly for the absurdity that they are. Neither man is what they once were, but the felon has been able to hide, because his base only watches a highly edited version of his declining grasp of reality. The felon is going to look bad. In fact, his team is likely well aware of how bad he is going to look, so it will come as no surprise if the felon cancels out between now and debate day. Maybe the felon will say his son is graduating from school again and he has to attend, or perhaps cite the gag order of Judge Merchan and say if he can't say what he wants, he won't play.

Maybe the felon will introduce his new tax and tariff plan, where he says he will impose tariffs on all imported goods and do away with income tax entirely. Sounds juicy, eh? That plan might appeal to those of us in the millionaire class, but for 99% of Americans, it spells INFLATION. He notes a 10-15% tariff, but that would not only cause inflation, but create a massive Federal Deficit of an additional $4 trillion per year. Imagine what that would do to interest rates. Also, it seems the batteries on the felon's calculator were eaten by a shark, because replacing $4.2 trillion in tax revenue would require tariffs of between 120-130% on all imports (based on import figures). Not sure his demographic would enjoy that, as they're already beefing about what the felon's $8,400,000,000,000 in new National Debt did to inflation after his election defeat. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-tariff-income-tax-rcna157199

Perhaps your old man eyes and ears missed this: (Aside: I didn't hear 'suckers and losers', nor do I think Biden gave a flying eff about messing his hair.) The felon is totally incapable of even reading such a speech, nor would he ever read a speech where he isn't the main subject and where all glory and credit doesn't fall on the him.

Biden is really going to be handicapped in this debate. I mean, I doubt he is up to speed on the dangers of sharks when one's electric boat sinks, or the merits of the great Hannibal Lecter, or the cancer dangers caused by windmills (one really has to feel for the Dutch). Question for the experts: Can a participant speak in all CAPS? LIke most of his holiday well wishes, what the felon put out on Father's Day really has to bring a tear to one's eye. It made me think of all those old Norman Rockwell paintings, or maybe Currier & Ives. His heartfelt joy was expressed so well in this part of his message: “HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE RADICAL LEFT DEGENERATES THAT ARE RAPIDLY BRINGING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO THIRD WORLD NATION STATUS WITH THEIR MANY ATTEMPTS AT TRYING TO INFLUENCE OUR SACRED COURT SYSTEM INTO BREAKING TO THEIR VERY SICK AND DANGEROUS WILL."

TAT and various government officials have proposed making Thailand the Hub of Everything, from the new Hollywood/Bollywood to the IT capital of Asia to the Snowbird Paradise to the Land of Digital Nomads and many more dreams, but it seems somebody is admitting what Thailand truly does best: vice. Steve Miller might have sung...You're a drinker, you're a toker, you're a lover, you play poker....come play your roulette in the sun Endless bars and weed shops, agogos and 'massage' parlors, ladyboys if that's one predilection, and now gambling. Accept nobody is really coming for the temples. Admit what you do best, which is cater to the darker side of life. There's plenty of dosh to be made having all these things, as well as pretending you don't.

Ah, the old BRICS and petrodollar argument. Brazilian growth rate and its standard of living is the envy of which country? Russia is doing rather poorly and losing both money and young men at a rapid rate. India is trying to become a Hindu Republic, but the BJP and Modi didn't fare so well recently. Expect some social disruption over the next few years. Modi couldn't even carry Uttar Pradesh, a province that population-wise is the world's 5th largest country. China has growth problems, debt problems and RE problems. Oh, and gender issues, such as 30+ million extra marrying age males. Generally, countries prefer not to join a group of losers. They pretend for possible trade, but that's it. As for the petrodollar....a quick search has the coming demise of the dollar going back to around 1967. Maybe someday, as in the old saying "Brazil is the country of tomorrow, and always will be". The dollar's strength stems from a combination of factors, the primary one being rule of law/access to capital markets. Anybody can place, or withdraw, billions of dollars into and out of US capital markets in an instant. There is liquidity and freedom. The same cannot be said of any other market, and certainly not China or India. On top of that the US economy is as robust as any nation right now, remains Ground Zero of innovation and invention, and its military remains the strongest in the world. The election could screw that up if the felon wins, but absent that, the next decade or more belongs to the US. If AI truly changes the world, the main thing it will change is the price and availability of energy. Oil is one technological breakthrough away from being obviated (e.g, thorium reactors, better battery storage), which means Russia even loses its 'gas station with nukes' status, and the entire Middle East can go back to camel schtupping and Shi'a vs Sunni conflict. Putin might be smart enough to see the writing on the wall, and this 'peace plan' is just desperation.

Obviously, Bob’s post is a windup, but Bob…be careful…a reader might get confused as to whether you’re jealous of the guy’s wealth or the woman’s luck. Also, being dropped off in a Merc is kind of low rent. It’s Rolls or Bentley or she might as well just take the BTS or a motorcycle taxi. Also, real wealth is when the Senior Salesman for Harry Winston flies into Thailand and motors up to the family hovel in Buriram to show her a new necklace with a string of painstakingly-sourced Kashmir sapphires, Mogok rubies or Muzo emeralds. Dressing her in Chanel or Valentino is a must. I mean, how silly does it look if I’m wearing Brioni and Stefano Ricci, and she’s wearing what she bought at the sidewalk shop on the corner of Sukhumvit and Soi 4? Also, while Chanel is a giveaway simply by its look, ideally no logos are showing on anything. Logos are so wealthy-wannabe. Real wealth is more subtle. The beauty of being uber wealthy is that not only can you do whatever you wish to whatever extent you want, you don’t give a flying eff what anyone else thinks. With a Gulfstream 800 you can land the most hi-so almost-a-virgin in all of Thailand. In fact, her mother forces the daughter upon you. Sadly, some of those hi-so types you really don’t want, as the gods often held back on the looks and physique. Lots of uber wealthy are short and pear-shaped Sino-Thai elites. Good guys of modest means want a maid and cook in their partner. Bad guys with money want a sexual dynamo, because they’ve already got maids and cooks. You can’t take it with you, but you can take her with you…..and her…..and her….

You can fool some of the people all of the time. Jones either coined or popularized many of the moonbat conspiracies and conspiracy-related terms that now pepper the realm of the crazed and forlorn demographic. Not sure if he coined "Crisis Actors", but he certainly made it go mainstream. He pushed the silly 9-11 Truther thing. He once stood outside a Bilderberg Group meeting and screamed that the group's dinner was babies roasted in gold leaf. I would not be surprised if he was the inspiration behind "Q" and the entire QAnon silliness. No better example of how gullible and simply ignorant his followers are than his success selling supplements. Jones is a guy who looks 10-15 years older than he is, is a guy in horrible physical shape, and yet he can entice his goobers into buying snake oil that he claims will make them healthier and more virile. I don't know it for a fact, I just know it's true that he likely owns the entire Incel demographic. I will also guess he has among his followers exactly zero Biden supporters. He peddles the kind of physical and ideological nonsense that captures the kind of people who support the convicted felon. I'm a little surprised that he, too, hasn't yet schlepped NFTs of him as an astronaut or a fighter pilot.

We'll just have to suck it up and accept low unemployment, a vibrant stock market, improved infrastructure, highest growth rate since the late 1990s, and the continuation of both the US Constitution and democracy. Admittedly, it's a tough choice between democracy + free speech + press freedom + freedom of/from religion + growth + low UE vs fascism + suspension of the US Constitution + a dictatorship + mandatory whackadoodle KKKristianity, but lets go with the former and see.

What is interesting is that the Universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. Why that can be is not known, but one theory has it that gravitons (the particles that impose gravity in the way the Higgs boson imposes mass) have limited range, so at extreme distances, masses do not interact. Maybe @Danderman123 has an answer, as he is a space expert. A peculiarity of light is that since the Earth is nowhere close to any edge of the Universe, our observable Universe is a sphere with us right in the dead center. That does not mean the earth is the center of the Universe, only that any light that reaches us can only come from distances whose coordinates would form the surface of a sphere. Anything farther away, it's light has not reached us yet; thus what Universe can be observed must be nearly spherical in form (If a massive Black Hole is in one direction, its pull could red shift light coming from there, which would create a dent in our observable Universe). While the Universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old, its diameter is estimated to be around 96 billion light years, because at the edges it is expanding faster than the speed of light. General relativity breaks down at extreme distance as well as extremely minute size. Something that argues against aliens is the great distances between stars, plus the fact most everything in our neighborhood is roughly the same age. Unless a nearby civilization developed much faster than life on Earth, no one would be advanced enough to travel even regionally. Older regions of the Universe are so far away that unless light is not the limiting speed factor, nobody has had the time to come visit. It's quite exciting how many secrets have been revealed, as well as how many are still waiting to be discovered.

Personally, I laugh at people who think virologists and astrophysicists are one in the same, because maybe both sometimes wear white coats.

The world's oldest scam: religion. A little advice for those who need it: Guys who didn't even know the Earth was round, or especially what the Higgs Boson does, really don't know a goddamn thing about anything. All such miscreants, grifters, lunatics or clinically depressed are best avoided, including any revelations about anything they claim to know. You exist because at least one person was horny at the right time of a female's month. Perhaps that's cynical, but it is undeniably true. No other reason, no master plan, no nothing. Just somebody was horny. Sperm meets egg does not create some ethereal entity called a soul. When the brain shuts down due to lack of oxygen, all you ever were no longer exists, except as separate atoms and molecules that go their separate ways over time. Entropy wins in the end. Remember that and you'll never get grifted for money or sex or wasted time.

Scanning the responses here, it seems that average Thai is much smarter and much more perceptive than the average right winger in the West. The far right in Thailand is the absolute elite, the monied-.1% who will support military coups because they keep the status quo where the elite still control the vast majority of the wealth. The average Thai knows the elite is purely out for themselves and couldn't care less about the common Thai. In the West, the far right at the highest levels is equally self-serving, but the goobers are not smart enough to know they are just pawns. Tax cuts and other measures are aimed squarely at the Donor Class. Guys like the felon have a club few of his cult could afford to join, and he likes it that way, because he has nothing but contempt for the "losers" who are struggling financially. He just wants their vote. As he famously said, "I love the poorly educated". Yes, he loves them because he knows they are so gullible they will buy whatever false promise he tosses at them. He even got some of the dumbest of them to try to block certification of his election loss, and many are now in jail because they were so stupid. He also has an inherent understanding of their inferiority complex and lifelong mediocrity, so he gives them the "own the libs" meme, which for those losers is good enough (so long as he also tosses in a false promise like, "In two weeks we'll be releasing our unbelievable plan to...blah blah blah. Two weeks never comes). Election demographics illustrate this in ways no thinking person can deny. The felon's supporters are largely as he wants them: poorly educated and on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder. The GDP statistics are so heavily skewed toward Blue areas that it verges on unbelievable (In 2016 Counties HRC carried produce per capita GDP at 9.25 times the level of Counties carried by the felon.) Thegoobers buy his lies because it allows them to believe the people who are better educated and more successful (i.e., the liberal left) are finally getting it at his hand. Of course they are not. Since Biden took over, the US economy is booming, experiencing its strongest growth since the late 1990s under Clinton, and saw 27 straight months of unemployment below 4%, the first time that has happened since the 1960s. In order to participate and benefit, however, one must have skills and talents the marketplace wants and needs. The felon's cult is beefing and moaning, and claiming things are bad, not because the overall economy is bad---it is strong---but because they lack the marketable skills needed in the modern world. The far right crazies now control the House in the US, that part of Congress where Bills should originate. Instead of legislating and doing what Congress is supposed to do, the (R) House members spend all them time either doing Performance Art (MTG, Gaetz, Comer, Jordan et al)or trying to find something/anything to get back at Biden. No legislation that could benefit the people is even considered. They purposely block a border Bill because they need migration as an issue. They even tried to stand in the way of the Infrastructure Bill that is rebuilding the US" bridges, roads, commo, airports, etc. (though the far right tries to take credit when they see benefits to their area). Stay dumb, gullible and pliant, just as the elite far right wants. The cult can't even see who their own worst enemy is. The average Thai knows who is keeping him or her down. The average far right goober in the US isn't clever enough to see they are being used.