Patong2021

Not really. Many regions with a critical shortage of housing have cracked down on BNB and short term rentals by absentee landlords. One example which hit Air BNB hard was Canada where some provinces imposed registration and licensing fees to crack down on operators who did not pay taxes and who forced out long term rentals. I will restrict my comments to the cities I know: Hua Hin - the serviced apartments are priced slightly lower than or similar to the basic studio Air BNBs. The difference is that there is 24 hour service, daily cleaning and frequent linen changes at the service apartments. A big condo complex down the soi from me is quite nice and offers a better gym and bigger pool, but the linen change is only once a stay and there is no daily cleaning. The condo owners really hate the short stay guests since they are disruptive. I didn't want to move there because it's like a cheap motel at times despite it being a nice condo complex. In Patong, I rented a condo from a fellow who also rented other units on Air BNB. The Air BNB cost was comparable to a hotel, except the big condo did not have a gym, and the pool was disgusting. Units had small kitchen with no ovens. My takeaway is that Air BNB isn't so great if you have the time to look around and know a locale.

is it really judicial? Seems to me more like Military puppets. A truly independent judiciary would not agree to such interference.

You assume that the video was made in Sudzha. The creation of false road signs for propaganda purposes is not unusual.

What is factually incorrect in my statement? Putin's psychological state has already been profiled and nothing I wrote is outside those assessments; https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2022/03/26/a_psychological_analysis_of_vladimir_putin_and_his_destructive_leadership_823868.html - Putin has a “strong man” attitude. He displays an apparent lack of regret or remorse for his unethical decisions and the negative effect they have on innocent people. He also fails to accept responsibility for negative outcomes, and typically blames others when something goes wrong. https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Ukraine-war/Is-Putin-cracking-Voice-analysis-belies-steely-exterior

Double post edit

Because it demonstrated US capabilities and was intended to reassure US allies in the region. In any given week, the US and other militaries will make grand announcements similar to this. Last June, the Russian navy deployed its flotilla to Havana, Cuba for a week and then traveled to South America. The flotilla included the Admiral Gorshkov a guided missile frigate, one of the Russian navy’s most modern stealth models equipped with Zircon hypersonic missiles, which Putin has in the past said can fly nine times faster than the speed of sound at a range of more than 1,000km. It also carried Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles. The Kazan a nuclear-powered submarine equipped with missiles from the Kalibr and Oniks families was included. Where were you when the Russians did this? Did you accuse them of a provocation? The Russians had made a similar announcement to the USA. The difference is that the Russian presence was intended to prop up dictatorships, while the US presence is to deter violence.

Perhaps he envied the Russian opportunity to loot women's lingerie and home appliances?

Because the Russians have done it previously. The Ukraine forces are well aware of thee claims of Nazisim and measures were taken to prevent such incidents. There will always be stupidity and some idiot may at some point do similar, but under the circumstances, when the whole world is watching for missteps, such an action would be unusual. Your claim of it being Ukrainian has no greater validity than it being a Russian staged event for propaganda purposes.

No he is not.

Your argument is built upon your dismissive defensive response in respect to the example I provided on restaurants. You initially started off with the claim that business failed because of the response to Covid. It was an attempt to blame business failures on the protective public health strategies. Restaurant failure rates were used to illustrate that businesses failed because of bad business decisions, either in location, menu, management and/or operation. 60% of US restaurants typically fail in year 1. That is not because of Covid. You then tried to intimate that the economy was destroyed when it was not. The historical bankruptcy rates do not support your argument. The historical data shows a temporary disruption that is being corrected now. Economies go through periodic economic recessions. These correct the excessive highs when economies expand too fast. In the USA recessions occurred in 1960, 1970, 1973-1975, 1980-1982, 1990, 2001, 2007-2009, and 2020. The 2020 did not fully correct the excess of the prior decade so it is expected that there will be a mild correction to come. You see these cycles of evidence of conspiracies and government negligence. Responsible educated rational people see them for what they are: market cycles. You then go off on a disjointed polemic that makes no sense except to someone who is so certain that their veiw point is correct. "Facts" are fabricated to support nonsensical claims. (Trump does this too.) Of course we all suffered, some more than others because of Covid. And of course there were financial losses incurred. However, when put into the historical context, national governments for the most part did a pretty good job of keeping their nations up and running.

Too late. The patient who was terminal is now in hospice care.

This is nothing. In NYC they have been riding the subway car rooves and getting fried or squashed. In London, Daily Mail had a photo of one idiot riding the back of a bus, holding his machete.

Trump won't listen to Nikki. She's a woman who doesn't flatter him incessantly. Watching Trump flail about in meltdown model is sort of sad. The man may have jumped the shark, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/donald-trump-elon-musk-interview but sometimes I sort of feel sorry for him. The world is passing him by now and he doesn't realize it. He's an elderly guy who just doesn't realize that its 2024 not 1984. His core supporters are the people who got angry when parking meters went electronic and stopped taking coins. Let him keep it up. His core supporters will still vote for him. He will just convince people who were not going to vote, to vote and people who want the craziness to end, to hold their noses and vote Democrat.

Why not get a service apartment? cleaning service and change of sheets and towels.

No. Caused by a brain drain and 6 million Venezuelan refugees. The USA is not alone in its sanctions and restrictions. Many countries who have foreign policies divergent from the USA have sanctions in place, typically because of venezuela's horrid human rights abuses and state sanctioned criminal activities. These countries include, Switzerland, Mexico, Panama, Columbia, EU as a group, Canada , Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Guyana, Saint Lucia, and Belize. Blaming the USA is a cop out.

The access referred to was reciprocal. Russia was given access to US facilities too. It was part of the nuclear arms limitation agreements. The access was granted under strict conditions and was to verify that missiles had been removed. Your link does not support a claim of Russia being an American colony. It is an rhetorical leap to claim such a construct. Yes, Putin has an obvious feeling of inadequacy. It is common in short people who also demonstrate psychopathic characteristics. Whether this is due to his height or his family background or his genetic structure is a matter I will leave with the scientists.

Yours are false claims. Because you imagine things does not mean they occurred. The Swedish results you say support your position do not exist. On the contrary the Swedish data, shows that the initial Swedish open policy failed. There was no incarceration of people in the USA. Free movement as individuals was never stopped. Again you blame the failures of business on "politicians" and not on the businesses themselves. Businesses that were in poor financial shape prior to Covid suffered their inevitable fate. What part of 60% of US restaurants failing in their first year did you not understand? The historical record number of bankruptcies in the USA certainly do not support your claim. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/bankruptcies# What are these results in Sweden that are so good that you refer to? You compare Sweden to the USA and UK, which is an unacceptable comparison since their characteristics are not similar. Compare Sweden to its peer group of nations like Denmark and Norway and the Swedish results are worse. Both Denmark and Norway initially had had greater restrictions in place, until Sweden also imposed restrictions. The Danish and Norwegian economies did no worse, but their loss of life results were significantly better. Sweden based its strategy on the disproven "herd immunity theory". It didn't work for Covid until there was a vaccine. The claim that Sweden did so much better was offered as an excuse in the initial period of Covid, but the actual data shows that was not a correct conclusion. "The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that in terms of pandemic-driven economic contraction, Sweden did markedly worse than its Nordic neighbors Denmark, Norway and Finland, “despite the adoption of softer distancing measures, especially during the first COVID wave.” The OECD review concluded that , “Covid hit the (Swedish) economy hard.” As the death toll mounted, Sweden also imposed public gathering caps and encouraged distance learning for students. Nature's review showed that Swedish government authorities denied or downplayed scientific findings about COVID that should have guided them to more reasoned and appropriate policies. These included scientific findings that infected but asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people could spread the virus, that it was airborne, that the virus was a greater health threat than the flu and that children were not immune. The Swedish policymakers “denied or downgraded the fact that children could be infectious, develop severe disease, or drive the spread of the infection in the population”. At the same time, they found, the authorities’ “internal emails indicate their aim to use children to spread the infection in society.” Once the failure of Sweden's initial approach became evident, Sweden reversed course and implemented restrictions. Multiple reviews support the Nature authors conclusions. examples are Comparing the responses of the UK, Sweden and Denmark to COVID-19 using counterfactual modelling, Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 16342 (2021) https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/04/06/Sweden-Deadly-COVID-Failure/ You state that wages are not catching up. Ok. Do you realize then that you have just unwound your own claims? One of the largest factors in current inflation were wage increases. Your saying that wages have not "kept up" means that inflation is lower than it is. You are all over the place throwing anything that you can in hopes that it will stick. Accusing "politicians" of criminal negligence is pure idiocy. Almost all of the governments did their best under catastrophic circumstances. They had difficult decisions to make and their first obligation was to keep their nations up and running. That's what they did. Under the circumstances, few could have done better, particularly when there were so many competing interest groups all screaming for different things. If there were problems, it was because of people like you, always complaining and criticizing and contributing nothing but negativity and false information.

At least they are operating. The UK and Canadian submarine fleets are mostly inoperable.

Reads like a nursing home roster of residents.

Thank you for that well written item. It is a nice change from the usual nonsensical claims that come from the mentally ill collective who offer imagined convoluted plots. I too believe that the origin of the illness is due to the consumption of wild animals. It's nothing new as we have seen this play out before with Ebola and the African consumption of "Bush Meat". The Wuhan animal market aka wet market has been documented as a gruesome horrific place. Live animals are kept in small cages, terrified. They are often tormented and tortured as the Chinese believe that the resulting adrenaline will give the consumers of the animal flesh, vitality and vigor. The animals are not fed and are often dehydrated which makes them at greater risk of infection as their immune systems become impaired. China has gone to great lengths to over up the horrors of these wet markets. The animal vendors at Bangkpok's Chatuchak market offer a similar risk and Thai authorities have refused to stop the inhumane activities. the threat has been repeatedly documented, but the powers that be and the community at large has ignored the warnings. Today we are on the edge of another international health crisis with a resurgence of MPox aka Monkey Pox. Initially centered in the Congo, because vaccines were not made available and quarantines not effected, the disease has spread and risks exploding. European infections have been increasing in the past 2 weeks and it is only a matter of time before it spreads in the Americas. Fortunately, vaccines exist to contain the spread, but the issue will be if people at risk will take the vaccine or fall prey to the ignorance of the anti science group who are opposed to vaccines and preventative measures. Will governments act or will be they be afraid of a repeat of the covid conspiracy nutters?

At the time the decisions were made, they were effected on the basis that Covid Sars-2 was an infectious respiratory disease with deadly consequences that had the potential to spread quickly and to reinfect. The same people complaining today, were also the same people in panic mode back then inventing idiotic claims of cures and disease origins. National service infrastructure was in serious peril. The restrictions were made to keep key systems running You ignore the fact that the infection shut down the delivery of medical services. Surgeries and basic procedures could not be undertaken. EMS workers, nurses, orderlies and physicians were dying and/or going off sick for 2-4 weeks and/or burning out. Did you not see the overcrowded emergency rooms and hospitals? Did you not see the wholescale abandonment of residents of long term nursing facilities? Tens of thousands of elderly and infirm were literally abandoned. The healthcare systems were collapsing. In the USA, 4,511 physicians died during this early phase of COVID, 622 more deaths than would have occurred had the pandemic not happened. Excess physician deaths peaked at 70 in December 2020 among all active physicians, followed by a rapid drop in 2021 when safe and effective vaccines became available. No excess deaths among physicians occurred after April 2021, which coincided with the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines, meaning that nearly 50 U.S. doctors more than expected died each month during this phase of the pandemic. Thousands of healthcare workers burnt out and the staffing problems are still seen today. Source: February 6, 2023- Excess Mortality Among US Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic; JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183(4):374-376. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.6308 Police and fire service capability in some cities fell to less than 50% as personnel became ill and fatigued. Food processing plants shut down as infections raged amongst the workers. Key industries like power generation had staffing crises. Electrical power supply lines could not be properly serviced as line workers dropped like flies. Logistics could not operate as the workers became ill at a time when the mechanism of infection was still unknown. Westerners were fighting over toilet paper and hoarding food. Some people were literally going into grocery stores and cleaning out the meat counters, concerned only about their own selfish interests. There is criticism of school closures, but what the critics ignore is that some schools were missing so many teachers and support staff that they could not operate safely. It is very easy to criticize because you have the luxury of the benefits that the restrictions delivered. It is complaining because measures worked as intended. Yes there were inconveniences, but the economy has recovered. People complain about inflation now, but what they ignore is that there was deflation during Covid. Workers did not receive salary adjustments for 2 years, but were expected to work harder than ever. Wages are catching up now. Many of the business that have failed and blame Covid restrictions were in bad financial shape or mismanaged prior to Covid. It is always someone else's fault. The restaurant business is typical of this. In the USA, studies indicate that approximately 60% of restaurants fail within the first year of operation and 80% fail within the first five years. No one ever mentions this when they complain about their restaurant having closed. Bad management and bad quality are never mentioned. Governments did what they could do during the pandemic and overall, they did as best they could. Some countries did better than others, but the constant sniping at the governments and administrations is unwarranted as the complainers would have done much worse.

The Ukrainians have demonstrated that they can take the fight to the invader and Zelenskyy's replacement of Senior defence commanders is vindicated. The arrival of new equipment and modern armaments have helped. The coalition of free nations have been shown that the Ukrainians can and will hold their own if properly equipped. Now russia must devote more personnel and more equipment to a black hole of losses: Losses in money that is diverted from the Russian economy and a loss of young working age males. Perhaps as far as the average Russian is concerned, they won't care since most of the casualties are incurred by the poor and marginalized youth of the outer republics and Siberia, The cream of St Petersburg and Moscow's middle and upper income demographic are avoiding combat. However, it is these young people who work in the factories, oil fields and mines of Russia and upon which the Russian economy was built. A nation cannot afford to lose a generation of young males. Regurgitating Russian saboteur talking points does not support your cause. Your "assumption" leaves the impression that you are so desperate to denigrate President Biden and to support Putin that you have to resort to nonsensical claims. The declared presence of a US submarine is not a provocation as you claim. US submarines are deployed in the Mediterranean sea regularly. The UK and France have submarines in the region too. In case you did not know, multiple EU and NATO member nations border the Mediterranean Sea. Some of these countries include Greece (and Free Cyprus), Italy, France and UK (Gibraltar). Iran has been trying to provoke a war with Israel and its proxy army, Hezbollah holds Lebanon hostage. Because of the presence of the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese with passports of convenience from the EU, Canada and the USA as well as thousands of their nationals in Jordan and Israel, the western nations have an obligation to station assets to discourage potential attacks that could harm these passport holders and nationals. It is Iran that is engaging in massive provocation. Is it a provocation if Russia has a naval vessels in the region? The last count was 6 vessels. Russia also maintains a naval base in the Port of Tartus, Syria. You should ask Russia why it is provoking the EU with its naval presence. Are you sober? Russia is not an American colony. Your reference to American soldiers working on secret Russian objects is so outlandish as to initiate a legitimate questioning of your psychological state.

Your comment is factually incorrect. Donald Trump, the convicted felon and former President of the USA praised Walz's handling of the protests. “So the best example, I alluded to it a couple of seconds ago, is Minneapolis. It was incredible what happened in the state of Minnesota. What they did in Minneapolis was incredible”. “They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.” June 1. 2020 Full transcript of conference call https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/politics/wh-governors-call-protests/index.html?cid=ios_app

I don't believe the "left" is attacking him for this. I see it as highlighting his hypocrisy. Anytime you see someone you disagree with, your go to attack is to call them a "leftist".

You read, or you fantasize? Please provide a source or retract your statement.