Walker88

If ever there was an appropriate spot to toss in this old saw..... Some of my best friends are women. Love them, Usually prefer them as friends, unless we're doing a pick-up basketball game. And if they're smart...boom! They can have me. I'm a sucker for the proverbial well-turned ankle as well as the well tuned brain.

Armored vehicles are not so bad, provided one just faces a general, not a specific, threat. I lived in India and had a Landcruiser rated VR6, which is sufficient to stop AR-15 or AK-47 rounds. The windows were an inch thick. Terrible gas mileage, though, as the vehicle was rather heavy. I never needed it to do what it was intended to do, but it did offer some peace of mind. Most strife in India is aimed at a specific ethnicity, such as Hindus against SIkhs or Moslems, but madness can get out of hand and violence get aimed at targets of opportunity. The neighborhood was quite upscale (Prithviraj/Amrita Shergill Marg area), so others in the area took similar steps in the event of unrest. Better safe than sorry. In my residence I installed a massive steal door on a panic room. The entire frame had to be removed and replaced with a steal frame to support the weight. In the end, the biggest threat came from the two seasonal migrations of the giant fruit bats. Each night about 1930 they would flock over my residence. They are known to carry all sorts of diseases, but they are spectacular to watch. I had a flat roof home and a spiral staircase leading to the roof. In the evening I would take a glass of wine up there and await their evening movement to Lodi Gardens or wherever mangoes were in season. They can have a wingspan up to six feet (180 cm), but most who flew over me were in the 3' to 4' range. Each night thousands would fly maybe 10 meters above my head. Horror movie stuff, but quite cool.

Where I used to work the average guy---me included---wore Brioni and Stefano Ricci, so one can guess the wealth level. One day I was out after work with office mates and realized they all were arrogant a-holes. I began to wonder if I was not the same. Money can be quite corrupting. I cannot imagine what the wealth of a Musk or Bezos does to one's head. I quit soon thereafter (though admittedly waiting until bonus season finished...I'm not THAT pure). I hope the A-hole-ness oozed out over time, but that is for others to decide. The folks with whom I associate now, whether Thai or expat, are unlike my previous colleagues, both in terms of personality and wealth. It's much more refreshing today, though I do get hit up rather often for tributes or loans, as people can guess I have more than they have. Sometimes I give in if the need is real, and other times I figure I've been had. So be it. When I go back home and catch up with high school mates for golf or dinner, it's not an issue, as I was voted Most Likely to Succeed, so they kind of assume I have more than a pot to void in. With those guys, however, I'm still the kid I was in high school, so it's honest. We're all 17 years old again, gossiping about our female classmates we 'did' back then. Boys will be boys. I will answer an age old question, at least from my experience: Money does make you happy. It takes away the vast majority of worries most people have, which leaves one with time to enjoy this brief existence.

The CCP plays 'subtle' overseas (sarc) but not so subtle at home. Henry Kissinger once visited the now-jailed CCP official Bo Xilai, and the map of China on Bo's office wall not only included Taiwan, but also all of Myanmar. Subsequently China built a new airport in Mandalay with a 3 km long runway built to handle China's largest, fully-loaded military transport aircraft. China also began damming the confluence of two rivers at Myitsone in Kachin State, importing a wholly Chinese workforce, and attempted to construct a dam that would send all of its generated electricity to China. The KIA took out a few Chinese engineers and the project stopped. China also built two pipelines from Yakhine State across Myanmar into Kunming in order to carry Middle East oil and natural gas, and obviate the much longer voyage. China also took control of tropical hardwood forests in Kachin State, began mining for Rare Earths in Kachin State, engaged in gold mining using a cyanide recovery technique that poisoned ground water, and took over copper mines in other areas of Myanmar. The PLA also 'exports' young Kachin women to be auctioned off as brides in China. (perhaps these Chinese cops will export the bargirls from Walking Street and LK Metro). Bit by bit China was taking over Myanmar and making Bo's map accurate. China's control slowed a bit during the brief attempt at Myanmar democracy, but the Covid-Era coup has brought China back in. I wonder if maps are not being drawn up right now that will have Thailand join Myanmar as a part of the Middle Kingdom. As for these Chinese cops, admittedly it is a minor step, but perhaps a minor first step. The police tend to be MSS, and their function is both to monitor dissidents and gather intel on the host country. In the US, MSS agents joined a particular south Florida members club, that is a window into US national secrets. They also run ethnic Chinese assets who work at major universities or labs such as Los Alamos.

He's so full of sh** ,that if you gave him an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox.

The Monkees were a manufactured group, but they were already adults. Morning Musume and what has come after were mid-teens. I was living in Japan when that whole J-Pop thing began. I knew a guy in that business, and I know part of the goal was to attract middle age guys who fantasized about schtupping girls that age. It was building on the Super Loose Socks porn theme popular at that time. I don't know for a fact Korea had the same goal, but I suspect it did. As for talent, I don't think any of them are selected because of their voice or dance moves. It's all cutesy, and whatever they lack is corrected with Autotune and 2-second editing of video. There is a massive difference between the dance skills of, say Fred and Ginger, or Gene and Cyd, who did many of their dance scenes in a one or two camera takes. Today's 'dancers' only need to learn one move, do it, then it gets spliced in two-second cuts into a 3 minute video. (Look at "Moses Supposes" from Singin in the Rain...three camera takes in a 2+ minute dance, or Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dancing to Begin the Beguine...two camera takes in a three minute routine). None of today's 'stars' can pull that sort of thing off. They don't have to to be considered stars.

I sort of get it. That doesn't mean I like it. This type of thing all began with Boy Bands in the US, like New Kids on the Block. It was aimed at Teeny Boppers who had access to Mom's purse. Japan took it one step forward, using cutesy girls instead of boys. Pink Lady was a start. Decades later Morning Musume followed. J-Pop had two targets: Teeny Boppers and middle aged men who fantasized about schtupping schoolgirls. The music was all flash...the girls made to be sexually stimulating, their voices corrected in the studio to something less than cat-in-heat screams, and a fancy technical production. Korea copied Japan and went after the same two target markets: Teeny Boppers and middle aged perverts. None of the women can sing worth a lick, and that doesn't matter. Can they be cute? Can clever editing make it look like they can actually dance? (Cyd Charisse they ain't) Can they be sexually stimulating to the older target market? It all comes with a price. The "artists" actually think they are talented, but as soon as their cutesy-ness morphs into adulthood, they are tossed aside and new pubescent girls are promoted as the next best thing. So many of these K-Pop singers and actors end up taking their own life by their late 20s. As for the music itself, the whole idea is to have a catch and then work it to death in the studio to make the voices a meaningless part of the whole. In the age of TikTok, where those without talent produce content for those without taste, it's a recipe for success, as the bar is set quite low. Cutesy is good enough. More power to them. Lisa Blackpink's recent $37 million contract says there is appeal, at least for now. Ideally she will survive her 20s and end up Mayor of Buriram.

This scheme is a one-off 5% addition to outstanding public debt. It is almost equal to the yearly budget deficit, so the two combined look to be adding 10% to outstanding public debt in just one year (if my math is correct). Pretty massive. I suspect this new debt will be treated like all the old debt, which is it is never really paid off, but rather just serviced, and then rolled over at maturity. As this is a borrowing from a State bank, it won't be exactly like a bond rollover/reissue, but the loan will just be renegotiated. This is really how all sovereign debt works. We all collectively agree that it doesn't matter so long as the debt is serviced (interest paid). There is some endpoint somewhere, where we collectively admit it's madness, but that point hasn't come yet. (The scariest thing in your LINKED article is Japan's public debt. Japan may be the canary in the coal mine, as the sharp fall in the yen---to 151.5/$---might suggest that collective realization of madness is upon us.) I'm not sure what 10,000 baht for 50 million Thais will do. I'll go out on a limb and guess it will not be used to pay down the very high average Household Debt Thais have, but instead will be used to buy booze, lottery tickets, and as a downpayment on a new iPhone 15, which means the other 30,000 baht for the iPhone will be financed, adding to the high outstanding Household Debt. The world is in a competitive race to the bottom regarding debt. This digital wallet scheme is just the latest sovereign scheme to mortgage citizens' future. The Perfect Storm that is coming is that virtually every developed and developing country has a declining birthrate, yet the debt structure and social obligations are based on a Pyramid Scheme. With the population pyramid inverting (especially in Japan), finally we might be seeing the beginning of the end of this wild debt cycle. To extrapolate on to the world as a whole, my guess is people will make decisions not based on the level of debt of any particular sovereign, but rather based on which economies are best able to weather the coming storm. Perhaps it will seem ironic to some, but I would guess this is dollar positive, yen negative, and emerging nation negative, which means, inter alia, the baht. It will unfold as a spinning coin.....ever-increasing until the coin is almost horizontal and at max speed....and then: silence. I look at this Thai scheme, then consider other sovereign debt, then consider declining populations who will assume all this debt, then consider the coming massive impact on employment that Artificial Intelligence represents, and it scares the bejesus out of me.

There is law. There is morality. There is a woman's right to say "No". There is also Darwin. Meet a guy once and invite him to stay with you overnight is bucking for a Darwin Award. Sometimes it makes sense to put limits on one's own freedoms. There are many things I can do, within the law and as my right, but would choose not to do because it could come back to get me. For example, I could draw and publish a cartoon that might offend some members of a faith enough that they would do me extreme physical harm. I would be limiting my own freedom to refrain, but wisely so. What the woman did does not make her responsible, but damn...why would she put herself in that situation. Naivete is not a crime, but it can have consequences. I guess she never watched "Looking for Mr Goodbar".

He probably just arrived in Thailand and may be suffering from jetlag, even if it's only a 4 hour time difference. Airline probably lost his luggage, too, and he was culturally aware enough to know how sensitive Thai noses can be to dirty farangs, hence the removal of his travel outfit. Very thoughtful, tovarich. As for striking that couple, he probably mistook them for Ukrainian Nazis or maybe Alexei Navalny. Honest mistake. Maybe he'll get his act together in the next 89 days before his right to stay expires. And he'll have to purchase new garments, so that's a boost to the Thai economy.

As one of Robin Williams' characters said when speaking of 'intelligent design', "Who would put a waste disposal unit right next to an entertainment zone?"

trump's performance (f)art and political rallying in court is quite funny....though his goobers being naive and easily fooled might buy it. He and his sons love to talk about 'brand', claiming just his trump brand is worth billions of dollars. Funny that trump steaks, trump water, trump university, trump airline, trump travel agency, and his many bankrupt trump casinos, plus a long list of other trump businesses failed. His 'brand' did nothing for them. It might attract his goobers, but since most of them are unsuccessful, they could not afford to pay the inflated prices he hoped to get in his various business ventures. The folks who could afford to buy were not smitten with the conman's brand, so did not buy. trump also likes to include his many 'outstanding properties and their incredible value'. He can blow smoke when his properties are US based, because as a private company he is not required to issue public statements of income. In many of his international properties, however---such as his British Isles golf courses---he is required to issue financial statements. All of those properties are losing money, so the value is likely not anything close to what trump likes to claim. That also says more about his 'brand'. His brand doesn't travel well out of Gooberville. (Personally, I think his business ought to go after the market demographic of his goobers, which is cheap discount products and services like Motel 6s or non-natural fiber garments sold in low end stores.) In court on 6 Nov trump tried to address his absurd claim that his 10,000 sf apartment is actually 33,000 sf. trump actually said that 'perhaps the estimate included common spaces and elevators. That would have to be some massive elevators! Also, some of what he called 'common spaces' turn out to be apartments owned by other people. Oh, and his claim the building is 58 floors seems to have added 10 floors that do not exist. Maybe in another Universe, a place where trump's endless lies are truth, those 10 floors exist, but they do not exist in this Universe.

Assuming you are honest in your questioning, I'll attempt to explain: First, perhaps you remember 2008. The world financial system almost collapsed (Obama saved it, but that is a long story that might require more knowledge of finance and economics than you seem to have) because banks do not always do proper analysis nor appraisal. That should stand as an example of what banks do and don't do. There are several reasons for this. One is time...there isn't enough time to do all the checking one might expects banks to do. Another is that appraisal firms often do what their regular client wants. trump would have been a regular client of some appraisal firms to which he pays a fee. If the firm doesn't do what he wants, he will take his business to one who will. This is exactly how the rating firms operate, too, such as S&P or Moodys. Another reason is that bank employees are incentivized by dealmaking. Some employees with overlook obvious fraud because they will be bonused for writing a deal that might not go belly up until they have been paid and possibly moved to another firm. trump, being unscrupulous, would know this and take advantage of it. His entire business was based on taking advantage of others, such as he knew he could stiff contractors who lacked the financial means to chase him down in long court trials.

"politically driven prosecutions" Perhaps you haven't noticed, but the fat man treasonous scumball tried to overthrow 250 years of US democracy, and do it by fomenting both a violent coup and by his 'fake elector' scheme. Only idiots think he had his goobers march to the Capitol on 6 Jan to buy souvenirs. Of course he's also a convicted charity fraudster, a convicted bank and insurance fraudster (who is about to lose his 30,000 sf 10,997 sf apartment), a convicted sex offender, indicted for stealing highly classified documents, indicted for his 6 January actions, indicted for paying off a pornstar for which his bag man was already convicted, and indicted for RICO and other illegal acts in Georgia to which 3 of his minions have already plead guilty. Frankly, he should be shot once convicted (If SC Smith adds "Sedition" to trump's 6 Jan actions, that is possible, as sedition is a capital offense). He might still win even if shot or fried like Sunday morning bacon in the electric chair, because his goobers are friggin morons, but at least we'd be physically done with him. The lower one's IQ, the more devoted one is to the clown trump. On Bill Maher the other night Fareed Zakaria was asked what will happen in 2024. Fareed answered, "Two things: either trump wins, or else he loses but claims he won...and he'll get the support of the newly elected Talibangical Speaker, who will accept fake electors." 2024 might be the end of US democracy and elections. If so, all bets are off, and I'll be happy to eradicate any and all traitors, no matter where they are. I took that oath, and will abide by it.

Better send out the dogs and that special BMW to search for this Khun Nobody.

Yes, even on Buddha days.....at least for 'medical reasons'.

She's cute for sure, but not a stunner. Obviously she has some sort of charisma that appeals. I don't know her background, other than she's from Buriram, but I doubt she was born into wealth. She made it on her own. She recently signed a management deal that will pay her $37 million. One has to applaud that kind of success story. Obviously Lalisa brings joy to many people. Nothing wrong with that.

Allow me to be a pedant and correct a misconception. The MLB World Series was a competition first funded and promoted by a newspaper called the New York World. They named the competition after themselves, as in The World Series. Had it been the Telegraph, the name would have been The Telegraph Series. Now you know.

The US is not the key to peace. That will have to come from rational actors on the two opposing sides. Hamas is never going to be part of that, and I have my doubts about Netanyahu. I used to work this issue as part of the foreign policy arm of the USG. Unless things have changed, the US goal is three fold: 1) Help Israel so that it will continue to exist 2) Try to minimize all innocent deaths 3) Work toward all sides accepting a Two State solution, even if it will never happen and the US is just playing Sisyphus. Perhaps a new goal nowadays is to keep Iran out of it as much as possible, hoping to buy time until the mullahs die and Iran enters a new phase of its existence, which ideally falls in that middle ground between the brutal autocracy of the Shah and the fanaticism of the mullahs. The youth of Iran certainly desire that. Yes, the US does want the flow of oil to continue, and that sometimes means walking a thin line so that the oil-producing monarchies don't do a 1974 again, but things have change even with that. The US has been content to accept/promote the dissolute lifestyle so many Gulf monarchies have adopted, because that gives them a reason to stay out of the Palestinian-Israeli issue in any meaningful way, save for words. Before the US invasion of Iraq, many who opposed the invasion argued that Saddam was no actual threat, and was content to live out the rest of his life enjoying "booze, broads and palaces". That also describes the leaders of the other Gulf monarchies.

I accept that there seems to be no middle ground in the Middle East. One must take one side or the other unequivocally. I am unable to do that. That leaves me no place in this ever-growing thread. The terror attack on 7 Oct was heinous. Were I a survivor, I'd be apoplectic. I understand that. If it is possible to step back, I recall reading of a sign a US military commander had on his office in Iraq. "In our actions killing enemies today, how many more did we create?" Maybe it's still too soon to have that sort of introspection. Another concern is the growing anti-Jewish sentiment in the world, even in the US and even on university campuses. This is revolting. Yes, this, too, is too soon, but humor sometimes can offer a temporary refuge. Bill Maher---whose mother was Jewish---had a joke in his monologue tonight that brings this anti-Jewish threat home. Maher noted that FBI Director Christopher Wray said that anti-Jewish threats are at an all time high in the US. "the threat level having moved up from Mel Gibson to Kanye". Humor is often better getting the point across to those who might not be listening, and this growing anti-Jewish hate must be addressed, lest history repeat. Finally, and a bit off topic. Maher's New Rules was rather interesting this morning.

If the issue of convergence is not solved, I suspect none of us will have to work because we'll all be dead. "Siri...what is the cause of environmental destruction, and can you halt it?"

Can't play Kissinger, but maybe Cassandra. Cassandra may have been a pessimist, but Cassandra was also correct. Nobody is going to come out of this a winner. The world has taken sides, with the major powers on opposite ends. China and Russia are voicing support for the Palestinians, while the US remains on Israel's side, but with limitations. Biden has warned Israel that support for Israel will fade if the death toll of Palestinian civilians keeps rising. Though numbers must depend on reporters who likely have picked a side, the death toll in Gaza is likely approaching 10,000, and reports claim thousands of the dead are children. A bit of a backhanded urge for restraint came from US SecState Blinken, who said he can see his own children in the faces of Palestinian children. On a US TV show, two former US military men---Adm James Stavridas and Gen Stanley McCrystal---took opposite sides. Adm Stavridas advised restraint as the innocent death toll mounts, while Gen McCrystal said Israel should keep going at Hamas hard, in spite of the loss of innocent life. It might be germane that McCrystal fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and everyone knows how those wars turned out: not good. Terrorist attacks like 7 October create a new generation of militants. Some 120 innocent Palestinians have been killed in non-Hamas controlled West Bank since 7 Oct, mostly carried out by Israeli settlers. Those killings are nothing short of racist, as the Palestinians were murdered simply because they were Palestinians. Independent sources---who may well be biased, but may also be accurate---reported that 67 Palestinian children were killed in non-Hamas controlled West Bank by the IDF and Israeli settlers this year before 7 Oct. The blood feud is ever present. With a few thousand children now dead in Gaza from Israeli actions, it is likely a new generation of militants now exist there, too, which does not bode well for peace in the future. For whatever reason---all are welcome to opinions---the Middle East issue seems to bring out strong feelings on two sides, much more than other slaughter, whether that is the invasion of Ukraine or ethnic battle like the Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda. All victims might be human beings, but the feelings and opinions are not of equal vehemence, as if some human lives are worth more, or less, than others. Maybe we all go tribal when the victims are 'like us', and only express tacit and fleeting compassion when they're not. Is a solution even possible? Can a Two State solution ever work? If Israel decides (like some posters in this long thread suggest) that Israel just go all out innocents be damned, will that lose Israel even more support? If the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to rise, will that bring in both regional and international powers---Iran, the Gulf States, Russia and China---additionally on the side of the Palestinians? Will Russia---despite its war in Ukraine---even supply military and intelligence assistance to the Palestinians, as a volatile Middle East is certainly in the interest of a major fossil fuel power like Russia? There is also an irony that while the world is focused on this current battle, the world is also moving on as if nothing is happening. The price of oil has fallen 12% since right after the attack, and this week the US stock market soared. Maybe that is an indication that many have just had enough of the 75 year "Middle East Issue" and are now just going to live their own lives, wish both sides the best, but simply stop caring. I appreciate this thread has largely become an echo chamber, and none of us is going to solve anything. I write this just to bring up points and opinions I have seen scanning a wide cross section of sources.

Find a good ramen shop. Get a bowl of miso ramen, a side of gyoza, and a Sapporo beer. Reawaken your slurping skills, so as to fit in. Watch the guy in the back making the fresh noodles. He'll lay out the dough, grab a knife, focus zen-like, then chop away, as if he's playing Louis Moreau Gottschalk's "The Banjo" (especially the last verse). You could then use an electron microscope to measure noodle width, and it would not vary by more than an angstrom. Precision for the sake of precision....the Japanese Way. Go to the same shop every day at the same time, and soon enough the other customers, who go to the same shop at the same time everyday, will be your tomodachis. You might even hear, "I want to onsen with you!"

Then don't watch this !

Terrorists are miscreants who would engage in genocide if given the opportunity.