Walker88

As far as I know the 'farangs' didn't vote, so they stayed out just fine. In fact, the farangs' non-vote is only slightly more meaningless than the votes of 70 million Thais, whose votes are ignored anyway. At least everyone was sober when they cast their meaningless vote, so there's that.

(I read the title and assumed you were referring to another kind of verbal decline, so that is what my post is about) What you write is a concern for you as you age, but of greater significance is how our species is losing many of its skills, and not only the ability to use language. Some might argue language is dynamic, but the changes we have witnessed in the last few years in how language is used and how it has changed are less about dynamism and more about dumbness. Use it or lose it. Like, you know, SMH. I worry that we will lose the range and subtlety of our language, and of English in particular. English is the richest of human languages. I once read that most languages have between 5,000 and 10,000 common words. German has 25,000. English has 85,000. Think of the words "loquacious" and "garrulous". Or "interesting" and "scintillating". You, Gamma, know the difference and when to use which, even if you cannot explain it. Sadly, we've morphed into "I was like...wow, you know, I mean, yea". How would you design a curriculum for a kid entering 1st grade today, since school is supposed to be a preparation for the student's emergence into the adult world? The world is changing so quickly, no school administrator can have a clue what will be needed. Do you still teach penmanship? Cursive script? How about multiplication tables? Even typing might become unnecessary in a world where voice recognition systems will put speech into symbols. How will that impact our brains? Young people today have little concept of space, or "spatiality". They have no clue what a city looks like and cannot read a map. When they want to go to Point B from Point A, they just use GPS. I doubt most could find 2nd Ave if they were on 1st Ave in a grid-based city like NYC above Houston St. Maybe we will have to know so little that when age comes and our faculties begin to decline, we'll be declining from a significantly lower peak. Your writing, while sometimes exhibiting a bit too much prolixity, is likely still infinitely better than an average college graduate today. If you are losing a little, you are still a quantum leap above those coming along to replace you. That is of greater long term concern, though to our entire species, rather than any single person advancing into the death zone years.

"Religious" I cannot recall any founder of any superstition faith suggesting his followers get tatts.

I like LeBron and enjoy watching hm play, but all 4 of those folks would look a lot better---in my opinion, of course---without the tatts. I'm sure every last bit of ink has great personal 'meaning' to them...or else they just found a bare patch of skin and decided to slap something on it.

Yes, if the 'art' is a tiger painted on black velvet at a Starving Artist's sale on a Saturday morning at a highway Holiday Inn.

It is not that much money. 25K euros? Hardly the capital base of a major criminal enterprise. It's walking around money if one does a trip. Sometimes cash is more convenient than credit cards for daily purchases, restaurants, etc. Maybe that isn't something you would or could do, but it's not particularly uncommon. Even Thailand isn't cheap anymore.

Well, you'd better get word to the FBI, MI5, MI6, Mossad, the CIA, FSB, GRU, law enforcement across the globe, even CHAOS and SPECTRE, because all use that combination of dress, movement, facial expression, mannerisms, etc. to 'profile'. AI is going to make assessment even more accurate. Here's a weird example: There are actually algorithms now that can can guess a woman is pregnant even before she knows it, based on what she looks at in grocery stores and how much time she spends looking, since pregnant women develop tastes for certain foods. Relating this to the OP, his overall appearance may rub people the wrong way, based on human's primal ability to read body language.

Look at his full post. I don't think he meant each thing independently, but rather collectively. I agree with him, too. The overall appearance---size, dress, mannerisms, facial expressions, etc.---are quite revealing as to demeanor/personality. I think everyone from detectives to FBI agents to agency case officers/spooks are taught to tune into these things. As the poster said, it's primal, but also can be fine tuned to be of use. Someone undercover can do just the opposite purposely: dress, move and behave in a manner to create an impression. Or as the Bee Gees sang, "Well you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk"

I have resided in a number of countries over the years. All have good and bad points. One learns to ignore the bad and embrace the good. You are going to find racist-seeming behavior, or actual racism, in every nation of Earth, including Thailand. It's worse in some places than others, and has improved with time in most places as most people have gotten used to 'others'. When I first lived in Japan in my mid 20s, one morning I got on the subway and sat next to a young (35-ish) woman and her child. She got up and moved away, saying to the child "Foreigners are dirty" (I speak Japanese). I am fit, was wearing a $5000 Brioni suit, had just showered and shaved. It wasn't me; it was her. Stuff happens. Let it go. I was shopping in an Armani shop in Hong Kong. I spoke with a service staff, asking about a different size in a garment. The woman suddenly had another customer come in---Chinese---so she called out to a colleague, "Can you come help the gwai lo?" That term, as most know, translates as 'white devil'. That was her, not me. The fact that I remember these two instances should suggest it is a rare phenomenon. I suspect such crass behavior is equally rare in Thailand, so if it happens, paste it on to the one who did it, not all Thais. Each nation has a view of how they expect 'outsiders' to act, move, look, etc. Understand what that is in Thailand, and you will have no problem, save for the occasional xenophobe. Better if you are dressed neatly, fit, clean, and move in a non-aggressive manner. If someone makes eye contact, or you notice them staring at you, smile and nod your head. A smile is non-threatening. Try to understand your own body language and what impression it creates. If you are tall, there are ways to move to make you seem shorter, which is less threatening. In shops and restaurants, keep your voice low and even tone, smile when you speak with service staff, and toss out plenty of 'thank yous' in Thai. The majority of Thais couldn't care less you exist. Some will be friendly and curious, and yes, some will fear you or act as if you are a virus. Best if you always maintain a pleasant demeanor no matter what reaction you elicit, and learn to ignore those instances when someone might act offensively.

You LINK is to a partisan nuthouse currently with the wingnuts in the majority. That's like a Hatfield saying he doesn't like a McCoy (a US reference). Those are the same clowns who voted against certifying a free and fair election. Their credibility is zero. Back when Repubs were the Senate majority, and thus chaired SSCI, they released a 1000 page report noting 140 contacts between trump campaign officials and russians. As for Mueller, he was severely limited in what he was allowed to pursue. He was prohibited from looking into finance, such as Deutsche Banks SIVs. Durham was not limited, but willfully chose not to pursue even the contacts the Republican SSCI report noted. As I said, those interviewed by Durham and his team said he was completely uninterested in the actual intelligence, such as kilimnik/manafort, stone/assange, the trump tower meeting, etc. What sort of investigation ignores the VERY REASON why Crossfire Hurricane was pursued? Yes, a biased, goal-seeking one. It might be time for the Third Derivative: an investigation of the investigator of the investigators.

Legal experts: John Durham made false statements to Congress about Trump-Russia probe https://news.yahoo.com/legal-experts-john-durham-made-145839097.html No surprise here. As I wrote in a post that was deleted, people I know who were questioned by Durham's team all said the same thing: he was goal seeking and had no interest in the facts nor the intel that was uncovered during the entire investigation. Durham refused to pursue the Campaign Manager manafort's trip to Spain to give konstantin kilimnik---a GRU asset---internal polling data for the GRU's "Internet Research Agency". The IRA then microtargeted voters in key swing States with false stories about HRC and other Dems, using the data manafort gave kilimnik. Durham also refused to pursue the intel that showed roger stone was in constant contact with Julian Assange at Wikileaks, and had a heads up on what things (like Podesta emails) would be leaked and when. In a trump rally, trump actually said that "next week, there's going to be some really interesting information coming out about the Dems". Durham also did not think the meeting in trump tower between trump, jr, manafort, jared and a russian woman was significant, despite the email exchange where trump, jr was told: "that the session was part of a secret Russian plot to support his father's campaign.", to which trump, jr responded by email: "I love it !" Durham did not care, and now---according to this article---he lied to Congress, too.

If an 'engulfing' fire only caused 500K baht in damage, the pigeons must have been the guests. Five star it couldn't have been.

At least it's not like this: "On June 21, 2023, following the directive of the Bureau’s chief, Pol. Maj. Gen. Sakchai Santanarat, nationwide checks on foreigners overstaying their visas were executed between June 7 and June 21, reported Siam Rath. For that, I think we can agree with Ahmed, il hamdu l'Illah

Okay, beancounters, that 'stimulus' represents about 11% of Thailand's GDP. It seems a rather aggressive action for a caretaker government, as if it's a going away present for people drinking at the public trough. Call me a cynic, but I see lots of Lamborghini Aventadors in the ex-government's future. Also, some of this statement: "With an expected increase in foreign tourists and strong private consumption, the Thai economy is expected to remain healthy." .....seems at odds with yesterday's announcement about record household debt. Perhaps getting the new government settled before inflicting this massive new debt on it, letting them decide what is needed and where, would be wiser and fairer to them. On the tourism side, provided the world doesn't slip into Recession, the combination of falling exports and this new debt should put downward pressure on the baht and theoretically make Thailand a more attractive destination.

I'll take the other side of that bet. Of course even if one side could do it, the other side could, too. Wash. Never has a Dem been recorded saying, "If you could just find me...11,780 votes...etc." trump lost. Badly. It was the worst drubbing of an incumbent R ever. Time to move on.

No, he cannot share them indiscriminately, even when he was still POTUS. I've repeated this ad nauseum, but even a competent POTUS is not fully aware of the harm revealing classified material can do. That is why there is a process to declassify. None of that "in my mind I declassified", as agency chiefs must be able to view, redact if necessary, and not sign on if they wholeheartedly disagree. trump is/was hardly competent, so he was a particular loose cannon. Finally, what possible purpose would a country club owner have for all that material? It certainly raises the suspicion he intended to monetize it. As for Repubs who stand by trump's claims he declassified (despite the mandatory paper trail not existing), let these Repubs stand behind that belief and agree to publish every last document, so that putin, Xi, the mullahs in Iran, al Qaeda, etc., can be brought up to speed on US strengths and weaknesses, knowledge of adversairies, clandestine penetrations of adversaries by identity, etc. Oh, and according to the indictment, some docs were classified "RD", which applies to nuclear secrets. Only the Dept of Energy can declassify those. A POTUS cannot.

90,000 in 5 months? Staggering number, given total yearly car sales in Thailand run about 750,000. Banks should be holding fire sales at least to realize something for the asset, but I suspect they are somehow holding on to these as 'good assets' at full theoretical 'market' value. Parsing the debt numbers, it seems all Thai economic growth has been debt based. I remember one stat that corporate debt levels grew by 11% per year from 2010-2020, while GDP growth lagged that number considerably. Maybe Thailand is just catching up to worldwide debt patterns, but there is a danger when your economy is based on cheap labor, not technological innovation. There's always another country who can undercut price or attract the owners of aging facilities who need to replace them. While some growth is due to agricultural exports, the drought is not going to help that. A final point of concern is non-bank supplied debt, as in loan sharks. Who is a Thai going to try to repay first, the loan shark who can exert some serious pressure, or a bank that is less likely to employ aggressive collectors? Easy to imagine NPLs are just going to keep climbing. This all went bad during the reign of the junta, reflecting its lack of expertise in running a modern economy. Hopefully the new government will both have ideas and be willing to tell it like it is.

The DoJ has been weaponized ! Oh, sorry. Wrong family. Never mind. And Hunter deserved to be investigated. Real alleged crimes, not the made up stuff some R lawmakers claim, despite continually misplacing witnesses. Since Whataboutism is the parlor game of politics today, however, let's see if the DoJ also pursues: (all of these are from oft-written articles appearing in the NYT, WaPo, Chicago Tribune and aired on all major networks except Fox, Newsmax and OAN). A simple Google search will bring up dozens of LINKS. ---Jared's miracle refinancing of 666 Fifth Ave in 2018 by the Govt of Qatar, allowing him to make a $1.2 billion balloon payment on a building with a market value of $700 million, at a time when Qatar was under US and GCC sanctions, removed days after jared's refinancing. ---jared going to the russian embassy in DC in December 2020 during the transition and asking to set up a secret back channel to putin using the embassy's secure system. That could be charged as 'conspiracy to commit espionage', a capital offense. So excited was then-Ambassador Kislyak he used a non-secure phone to relay the news, a call intercepted by US intel, widely reported in all major media. ---trump's sons peddling the family name, hoping to license it in India and the Middle East while their father and company CEO was POTUS. US Secret Service, at a cost to the US Taxpayer, accompanied the boys on all of these trips -jared's sister schlepping condos to Chinese buyers, telling them she could also arrange a US Green Card if they purchased 'through connections'. ---jared somehow getting $2 billion of Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund money to manage just after leaving office, despite the fact he had never managed money before In WaPo a few days ago it was reported that Garland's DoJ was not pursuing any charges against trump for his role in calling supporters to DC on 6 January ("it will be wild"), holding a rally on the Mall imploring the crowd to march to the Capitol and "take our country back", and trump's 180 minutes of doing absolutely nothing except watch the attack on TV, even hearing the terrorists chanting "Hang Mike Pence" after trump Tweeted "I hope Pence does the right thing". After the appointment of Jack Smith, the investigation became underway.

Two beers a couple nights a week, especially in the hot season. I cannot drink an entire bottle of wine (or prefer not to do so), so always share when I open one. Haven't been drunk since university, and do not even enjoy a mild buzz. I also practice the pilot's law of not operating any vehicle within 8 hours of a drink (easier to lose a pilot's license---by dying in a crash---than a auto/bike license via a police checkpoint). One comment about wine price in Thailand: the more expensive the wine, the closer the price is to its price back home. Importers 'work' with Customs. Cheap wines get the full tax, whereas expensive wines get taxed as if they're cheap. The low tax kicks in at about 1500 baht/btl. Wine Connection wines probably suffer the full tax, whereas move up into medium to high prices, and the tax as a % is minimal. I pay the same price in the US for something like il Bruciato or Le Volte as I do in Thailand (if one buys a mixed case, suppliers will discount). Move up to something like Sassicaia or Guado al Tasso or any Gaja, and I can buy it cheaper in Thailand than the US. I just priced a Fattoria le Pupille Saffredi in Bangkok, and it's about $15 cheaper than I'd pay in the US. Of course an Italian or a Frenchman would pay less back home for his country's wines, but my comparison is Old World wines in the US vs Thailand. If I drank wine every day, likely the tax would impact me more, but as I drink judiciously, I prefer a better wine when I do drink, and thus the tax has minimal impact. Now restaurants and hotels can jack up the price to whatever they want, but it is their margin, not the oft-cursed tax, responsible. If the tax is slashed by the new govt, better wines are unlikely to show much price difference. Cheap wines, however, will.

In fact Biden has accomplished quite a bit. trump inherited a growing economy and 4.8% UE. He left Biden a Recession and 6.8% UE, plus he added 40% under his watch to the National Debt. That's $7,800,000,000,000 or $24000 for every man, woman and child in the US. THAT is what caused the inflation Biden had to address. It's difficult to attribute economic gain directly to a POTUS, but current UE is at a 54 year low of 3.4%, the economy is growing (despite continual predictions of doom and gloom), manufacturing jobs are growing, Biden got a bipartisan infrastructure Bill passed, Biden was the main voice arguing to support Ukraine, claiming they could take on russia, and he was right. He also re-unified the NATO trump tried so hard to destroy. In terms of budget, Biden's FY2021 budget slashed $350,000,000,000 from trump's last budget, and a staggering $1,300,000,000,000 in FY2022 from trump's FY2020 budget. The latest inflation number is 4%, job openings are at a record level, and border crossings are down from trump's time, despite the cries from the right. As for Biden's gaffs, he was born a gaff machine and is little different at this age than he was at 35. AT least he never claimed the Revolutionary soldiers 'secured the airports' in 1776, he hasn't advocated nuking hurricanes, nor has he suggested injecting oneself with disinfectant to ward off viruses like Covid.

I guess it's the same 'logic' that is behind all the posters here 'knowing' his bill was padded. SOMETIMES bills are padded, therefore his bill was padded. SOME russians are draft dodgers, therefore he is a draft dodger. Or....aren't we all entitled to speculation..... -He's just a drunk who acts irresponsibly and thinks he doesn't have to pay and ---He's the son of a privileged russian, so he isn't required to go help invade Ukraine Without further info, all is mere speculation. It's a Rorschach Inkblot Test: everybody can see what he wants to see. The article mentions his friends aiding him after the beating. They didn't offer to pay? They didn't try to save him from the beating? See? Details are missing.

What, you can't do that? In Thailand, anything is possible, as the women are so incredibly fetching. In all seriousness, there are folks gifted/cursed with an above average piece of equipment, like 'my friend', and it seems the OP, too. Yes, everyone likes to claim it, but sometimes it is true. Size is not better or worse, it just is, and in the interest of safe sex, it has to be addressed. The OP is trying to be responsible and safe.

Where did you find even It's the flat width. Lay it down flat like you ironed it. Measure across at the base. As for the OP, 62mm in Thailand? Where? Anything larger? Never found anything larger than a 56mm. Oh, 'asking for a friend'.

We all have things we don't think look good, but since none of us is a god or a monarch, we have to accept other people have different tastes. Personally, I don't like the collar up look, despite an indicted former POTUS often sporting that look. Nor do I like tattoos on anyone, as in my opinion they make no one look better, and if one needs a special reminder of something, commit it to memory, not ink. If the memory goes, no one would remember what the tatt was for anyway. I think if one wears a backwards baseball cap, he'd better either be under age 15 or else have a rap album that went Platinum. Wifebeaters are okay in the gym, but in a restaurant or shopping mall, no good. And on an airplane? Geesh. Plus, if one lacks definition in the shoulders, it's better not to broadcast that in a wifebeater. Worse is a tribal tattoo where biceps and triceps should be. The new fad of man buns is also rather unattractive. Toss in the outdated mullet, mohawk, and 'fashy', too (the one favored by Neo Nazis like Richard Spencer). Maybe I'm dead wrong, but I also think grown men, especially pensioners, don't look smart in the same clothes a 5 year old rural Isaan kid wears. Avoid Mike Shopping Mall to build a wardrobe. And don't get me started on fat! The late American football great Jim Brown was 6'3" and 235 lbs, yet he had a 28" waist. No matter how tall one is, anything over 31-32 inches is unsightly. Spare tires belong in the car trunk. Oh, and men cannot get pregnant, so shouldn't try to pretend they are by carrying that bloated overhanging gut so many expats seem to have. Un-tucked T-shirts do not hide a multitude of sins; the excess adipose tissue remains plain as day. Sadly, I cannot right the world's fashion and physical faux pas and must simply accept that we all have choices and are free to appear in whatever manner makes us happy. So for the Cialis Collar...up to you.

Yes, he pretends. He regularly calls people who are not wealthy "losers". He called members of the military who fought and either died or were disabled "suckers". There are a thousand suits filed against trump and his organization for failure to pay contractors. So much for the 'common man' and the elitist grifter trump. Heck, he even grifts his low paid cult for dosh by schlepping fantasy NFTs or appealing for funds to cover his defense. That so many of them continue to worship him is proof of their gullibility. As for Karl....Karl never considered the progress of technology. Low skilled jobs outsourced to China or elsewhere aren't coming back ever. Those foreign manufacturing positions are just a way station on the way to oblivion. Besides, we don't need another USSR or Bloc to show us human nature will never accept Marxism, and somebody is always going to grift the system for personal gain. Lots of Chinese communists died very wealthy. Oh, and Orwell pointed out the delusion of a worker's paradise. Increasingly, human input will be obviated by technology. The 'workers' will have no beef, because they won't be adding any value. They are unnecessary. That human labor is losing its pricing power is the most critical societal issue the world faces today. Technology is playing Pacman and chomping up the food chain. Blue collar work was the first to be replaced, but, for example, as AI gets better and better, lots of IT jobs are going to evaporate. Who needs human code writers when AI will do it faster and better? What are the redundant going to do? No politician has an answer for that. I'm not sure if trump understands what's coming, but he certainly knows how to broadcast a siren song to those losing out, which is to say he engages in pure self-interest by creating fantasies for the forlorn.