Walker88

Maher has nailed just about every major issue in the last few years. Four years ago he predicted EXACTLY what the former guy was going to do when he lost. He was dismissed as a Cassandra by the Dems, but like Cassandra, Maher was right, and US democracy teeters on the brink. He called out bitcoin and other cyber dreams for the energy waste they are. As noted in the vid, 'mining' and transactions use more energy than Netflix, Facebook, Google and Apple combined, yet deliver precious little benefit to society. He's called out cancel culture, making light of the fact someone might have done something 40 years ago that today is not acceptable, yet the person is being 'prosecuted' retroactively by new norms. He also calls out the far left for their delusional self-view that they would have been different if living through the years when women were 'barefoot and pregnant' or Blacks were 'Negroes' or worse terms, or when we called gay men 'confirmed bachelors'. He calls out the far right for being as anti-Democratic and thug-worshiping as they are. He's called out the "anti-Socialists", pointing out that everything from interstate highways to the Defense Dept to FDIC insurance to FDA food inspection and a host of other programs are 'socialism'. He's pointed out that 'fiscal conservative Repubs' only care when not in power, but are wild spendthrifts when they hold the combination to the money box. Now he has called out the Neo Narcissists for what they really are. It's likely the most common human trait is hypocrisy, and Maher never holds back pointing that out. He offends both extremes, which likely means he's doing something right.

In sports records are made to be broken. In Thailand, rules are made to be broken.....though selectively, depending on immediate financial needs.

.......many people were found gathering...... Oh my! The horror! Not the dreaded gathering! It is my understanding old Moses just couldn't carry the third stone tablet, and what he left behind on My Sinai was the one that read "Thou shalt not gather". Now gathering in a crowded wet market is okay, as is gathering on the BTS in BKK or in Foodland/FoodGourmet/Tops/etc. Gathering is even likely to be allowed this weekend at the music festival, but there is gathering, and then there is gathering. Ecclesiastes and Pete Seeger, and then the Byrds did say there is a time, or a season, to gather, but that was 'stones together', and not any sort of illegal and unsanctioned gathering. Let them learn a lesson.

Clearly they just don't have enough consultants and idea people, as the need to announce newer and ever better buzzwords, plus delivering more meaningless prattle and pie-in-the-sky delusion is endless. They also need to open a Thesaurus and find replacements for such tired words and phrases as 'quality' and 'new normal'. Oh, and they don't seem to know they are two generations behind in their exhaustive use of "Amazing", apparently unaware that the term long ago was replaced first by 'Awesome' and then 'Epic'. Time Thailand got ahead of the curve. Let me suggest 'Stupefying' Thailand, as just a slight error or two in spelling could tell it like it really is coming from the current 'leadership' (sic).

I have come to learn that there is some unknown critical level of "rules" that must be met in order for some measure to be deemed 'governance'. It's a bit obscure what the number of rules is, but it seems to be at least 20. Construct a measure with only 19 rules, and it just doesn't fly. 20+ makes the grade. There is also some minimum number of pages that must be met in any application for anything, lest it not be official, and certainly not reaching the level that would allow some bureaucrat to find a way to supplement his or her income by 'granting a concession' on an applicant's failure to produce the requisite number of pages. I know from personal experience that for a Non-B business/investor visa, the number of pages is at least 100. I also know these applications are never actually viewed, and merely end up in a pile stacked against a wall in Immigration, waiting to be tossed into a shopping cart then ferried off to some limbo where time, the elements, and Newton's Law on entropy return them to the state of nature. Oh---PHOTOS---there MUST be photos. For the Non-B business/investor visa one must submit 20 or so 'action shots' of the applicant in an office environment, either barking out orders or pondering some nearly impenetrable business decision. Having stacks of papers on a desk adds to the mood of the images and carries a lot of weight in the application process. I think there's a business niche for some entrepreneur to rent out a Potemkin Office, a place where Non-B applicants can manufacture the image of a business magnate, deserving of the visa. As I noted in my previous post, this SHA cert is on the bandwagon of 20+ photos as part of the application process. Like the proverbial gentle wave of the hand that the UK monarchy seems to teach its royalty when acknowledging the existence of the nation's subjects, there is a way of pointing that must be evidenced in all the photos in the SHA process, just in case the viewer cannot locate the 'social distancing' placard or the ubiquitous hand gel bottles placed strategically around the venue. Now you know.

Or Absinthe makes the threat no longer

It seems odd, then again not so odd, that folks who meet twice-vaxxed and recently negative Covid 'tourists' at Suvarnabhumi are in full hazmat gear, or that restaurants in Pattaya cannot serve alcohol, but folks can gather around a hibachi, sans masks, pawing the same food with the chopsticks they use to deliver the moo ka ta fare to their mouths. Apparently Covid does not like moo ka ta.

More or less connected to this....the requirement that restaurants have an SHA cert in order to serve alcohol.... Speaking with a few restaurants, it seems this came as a surprise, and the website where one could apply was unreachable for a few days because of heavy traffic. Some almost completely filled out the onerous application, then were bumped from the site, forcing them to go back to square one. Venues must send a few dozen photos of their place, including the various signs asking for social distancing, instructing folks how to wash their hands, photos of the temp gauge, photos of all the containers of hand gel, etc. Venues also had to relate how they 'teach' customers about the need for all the Covid mitigation measures, as if the customers had been on the moon for the last 2 years and hadn't yet heard of Covid. Some people who successfully completed the form were called and told to do it again another day, because the health ministry lacked the staff to look over all the applications, and some were likely to get lost. When finally and irrevocably completed, applicants got a message saying the certificate of SHA approval would come anywhere from within a few weeks to a few months, but simply filing the application---and showing the "Done!" message to cops if needed---would give them authority to sell alcohol until 9PM. Quite the process, which seems to be being created on the fly...and there are flies in the ointment.

If 2424 is 'almost' 2500, it might as well be almost 7000. Heck, let it be almost 30,000. With 890 being Thai nationals, however, one could go the other direction and say 1534 is nearly just 1500, or nearly 1000, or nearly zero. The airlines, who cancelled 80% of their gates at Suvarnabhumi for the Oct-Apr period, seem to have a more realistic view of things. Money and the bottom line tend to do that.

Last Friday I walked passed Nana and saw a delivery truck and crew unloading cases of beer and bringing it into a first floor agogo restaurant. I don't know if any venues there actually have a restaurant license, as most operate as 'bars' and 'entertainment' with appropriate licenses for those. businesses. Bars on/off Soi 7 plan to open tonight, save for the few owned by people above, beside and inside the law (which have been open for the duration).

I'm not sure Thai Airways was ever profitable---at least using GAAP---so returning to what never was is a tall order, especially in a post-Covid world. There's a fine line between optimism and delusion, perhaps, but this one is easy to see.

Thailand seems to have a wildly over-inflated view of its attractiveness as a destination, both for tourism and business. Other regional nations, if they step up, can help disabuse Thailand of that notion. On the plus side for Thailand, its western neighbor blew it when they had their own coup. Tourism and FDI had been soaring in Myanmar. Now, except for China back on path to making Myanmar a vassal state and 'renegade province', both tourism and FDI are dead for the foreseeable future. Vietnam, pre-Covid, was becoming a new 'must see' destination, and Vietnam has also begun to lure, successfully, FDI from Japan and other countries that had been dedicated to Thailand. The cuisine is also a match for Thai, as it's a mix of both indigenous Vietnamese and French. As one who has undergone the onerous (and expensive) visa process for a Non-B investor stamp, I cannot imagine other countries make it more difficult and unpleasant to 'allow' Thailand to accept your investment capital. 100+ pages of silly documents, agent fees, plus the blatant demands for 'tributes' are off-putting. Before the Myanmar coup, I thought a good tag line to lure foreign tourists might have been: "Come to Myanmar; We Actually Like You!". The country is (was) welcoming, interesting, has places like Bagan that dwarf anything Thailand has, has a range of cuisine that borrows from Thailand, China and India (ethnic Kachin fare is delightful), still has pristine beaches, sites with history of interest to Western visitors (WWII), and even snow capped 4000 meter mountains up near Putao. Even shopping is superior, as Myanmar can match any of Thailand's 'local crafts', but also has minimal import taxes so the well healed can shop at Louis Vuitton or Prada or Armani and pay a price similar to home. For those who care, wine prices are maybe 10% above what one would pay in Italy or France, vs 100%+ difference in Thailand. Back to Thailand.....being met at Suvarnabhumi by hazmat-clad officials and workers, despite travelers being double vaxxed and recipients of a negative PCR test within the last 72 hours, is not going to scream "Welcome!" to the average tourist. Property owners and spouses/significant others, or single males hoping to meet a string of temporarily significant others, maybe, but not the typical tourist, and certainly not the HNW 'quality' tourists TAT and the govt claim to seek. If I had to pen one sentence that epitomizes Thailand's vision of tourism, it is: "We want your money, but not YOU"

If I remember that novel correctly, didn't Miss Have-a-Scam rent jet skis in Pattaya?

97% of males who enter Thailand come with the intent of bedding a young Thai woman....and the other 3% are liars. Holier-than-though suits never fit properly...not on foreigners and not on Thais themselves (Thai males mongering at a rate that exceeds all other nations). Mia noi is not a word borrowed from farangs.

Perhaps a tourist or two---quality tourists, by the way---should arrive in full hazmat gear and start spraying disinfectant on the Thai officials and "welcoming committee", then say, "Sorry, but I KNOW I'm clean, but I just can't be too careful with all of you people".

My bad. Sometimes I forget that as a foreigner, I was born with Original Sin. Born bad.

The officials and workers in the hazmat suits, greeting people who have had a negative Covid test within the last 72 hours, then finish work, go to a packed market on the way home wearing only a mask, and joining a crowd of thousands who may or may not have ever been tested. It seems.....oddly inconsistent.

For those restauranteurs foolishly operating under the assumption that time is linear, this announcement---coming as it did AFTER venues opened for the day and believed they could serve alcohol---may well have come as a surprise. Venues were already serving when this announcement came out on Monday, 1 November. A senior LE official, in a press release, threatened to bring harsh action against eateries selling demon alcohol without the 'previously unknown requirement' of having an SHA cert. I was sitting in a venue, albeit without a fermented libation, and the staff---upon hearing this 'previously unknown requirement'---was working hard trying to access the thailandsha.com website. The site was being overrun by venues trying to avoid the heretofore mentioned 'harsh actions' and get this SHA cert, so the pages and forms would not load. One wonders if any 'harsh actions' were taken simply owing to the inability to access the official government site, plus venues being totally unaware such a requirement had been mandated (which it wasn't until AFTER the fact). The rollout of this relaxation of restrictions was handled---how should I say---less than smoothly.

I'm curious about overcoming cultural differences. I'm not inexperienced, having lived in many countries, but some cultural gaps are easier to bridge than others. For example, I am not a 'believer', so myths and superstitions kind of grate on my logical mind, and deeply held belief in myth or superstition is like running fingernails on a chalkboard. The pedant in me just needs to speak up, and it's all I can do (as one or two Mods here might already know) to refrain from causing offense. Being a curious sort, I also tend to have many interests, and find joy in discussing topics with people who also have many interests. I have yet to meet a Thai woman whose interests go much beyond the Three Fs (and sometimes 4 Fs, though I cannot write that 4th word here for fear of censorship). The 3 Fs are family, Facebook and food. While at least 2 out of 3 can be interesting, they are not enough to carry a day of conversation, much less an extended relationship. Ennui is going to set in........on both sides, no doubt. Now I'm sure there must be well-read and accomplished Thai women who could run circles around my knowledge, but I have yet to meet the right one----and that despite being sinfully rich and drop dead han sum (there's some hyperbole back there <---------) Kudos to those who have found the scratch to sate their itch....perhaps if I commit to continued and endless 'research', I will find the Holy Grail of marital bliss.

This seems to be a universal problem at the moment, and it adds additional irritations to anyone living in Thailand. The good news for Americans is that it is much faster to renew a US Passport in Thailand than if one was in the US. I have been told in the US it is now about 6 months, while renewing by mail in Thailand (via the Embassy, who has a stash of blank passports on hand), it takes two weeks. Because I travel a lot, my passports fill up in a 2-3 years, and the Embassy no longer installs new pages. Fill it up and one must renew. Renewal requires submitting the old passport, and therein lies a problem. For two weeks I had all kinds of hassles at banks trying to access my accounts. "Original passport only!" I was told in the three banks where I have accounts. Copies of the data page were insufficient. No other ID was acceptable, not even a Thai Work Permit (which I am required to have as a business owner/investor even though I do not work). Trying to explain what 'filled pages' in a passport means to folks who never traveled outside Thailand falls on deaf ears. Passports are the quintessential Farang ID, not something one would use for the unknown activity of international travel. Being calm and reserved---per the instructions foreigners are always given regarding the local culture (when Thais do occasionally fly off the handle with each other)---was getting me nowhere. All it got was polite smiles and a repeat of "Original passport only". Raising my voice a little, though at lesser decibels that standing behind a jet engine, eventually did the trick, albeit with the branch manager at one bank. It helps to have a deep voice, similar to James Earle Jones and Paul Robeson. Anyway, the lesson is....plan ahead as much as possible, and still expect to meet some irritations.

Rules are made to be broken confusing. At 8:59PM you order a nice Brunello di Montalcino. At 9:00 on the dot the wait staff takes it away? Also, other than major chains, I've never seen a restaurant with an SHA+ cert. Photocopy machines will be busy today. Restaurants in Bangkok served throughout the restricted period, Little will change, though staff might come around to all the tables at 9:00 and replace the bottles, mugs and wine glasses with coffee cups. And finally, damn that pesky virus for working on the clock and coming out at 9PM.

You are incorrect. Mutation is a numbers game. There is always a possibility of a mutation every time a virus replicates. The unvaccinated do have a higher viral load (the latest research proves this, contrary to earlier beliefs), so they are host for more possible mutations, besides being more likely to suffer serious symptoms from whatever variant they caught. In any single replication, the odds of a mutation are equal. It doesn't matter if the host is vaxxed or not. PROBABILITY increases with the number of replications, and the unvaxxed are likely to be host to a greater number of replications. Vaccinated people have an immune system better able to stop the virus from replicating, which is very different from mutating. The more replications, the greater the chance of a mutation. Also, the more replications, the greater the chance the host will suffer symptoms, because the body's immune system is stressed beyond its ability to cope.

I read somewhere they've also added Atlantis to the mix. But Martians still remain an absolute "NO!". Standards must be maintained for the benefit of all.

The bad news is Lisa of Blackpink can't make it. The good news is she's been replaced by Elvis and Jimi Hendrix.

And Bob Dylan said, "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose...."