Patong2021

It looks like no one cares about your biased and banal opinions. Please do try and be more constructive, Taking a lot of space to post drivel will not make it more salient.

Time for the banks to take a haircut. With credit card interest rates at 16%, the government should impose an interest rate reduction and forbid the credit cards from extending more credit to those unable to retire their debt. Banks have been profiting ruthlessly. And to those who say if banks reduce lending, loan sharks will move in, hit the loansharks hard. Confiscate assets, send them away for extended prison terms, and stop allowing payoffs when they are caught.

Yes, Thailand could do better, but in comparison to the rest of the world it is doing fine. Thailand cannot control macroeconomic conditions that are working against the economy. It is no secret that the global demand for Thai goods and services is weak. With the exception of some product lines like petroleum, it is like that all over the world. Thailand is an export economy. Thailand's key trade partners like the USA are erecting trade barriers with more to come (e.g. tariffs in the USA). The forum has had multiple articles on the problems of Thai consumer debt. saying it is too high. Thai consumers are struggling with household debt and cannot pick up the slack as Thai exports are negatively impacted. Thailand's problems are similar to those of Australia, Canada, USA etc. where consumers are locked into high credit card debt . (For example, if I look at the SCB Visa card; . Interest Rate for Cash Advance and Default Interest Rate for Purchase of Goods and Services are 16% per year) Banks through the Credit Card companies have allowed consumers to get trapped in debts that they can't support. Until the interest rates are capped, and credit pulled back, consumer debt can't be fixed. Until then, Thailand has to muddle along and content itself with a mediocre performance that keeps the country afloat.

Trump will lose supporters if many of his administration policies are effected; -Reduced income tax for the super wealthy and reduced taxes for Social Security benefits will result in increased deficits and underfunding of benefit programs. - Repeal of the Affordable Care Act will result in tens of millions of uninsured people - Imposition of 10% tariffs will contribute to inflation - Forced reduction of interest rates will encourage deficit growth shouldering future generations with massive debt obligation - Weakened building and development codes will allow building in flood and tornado high risk zones - Widescale deportations of unauthorized migrants will result in service industries, being unable to serve people (e.g. no dishwashers, no cleaners), slaughterhouses and farm labour will not have enough people to do the work and food prices will increase, contractors will not be able to find workers and this will be reflected in the costs of renovations, maintenance and new builds. - Some of the most controversial actions will result in litigation that will delay or block implementation - Social activists will become bolder and the USA could see civil unrest that is as bad and as widespread as in the 1960's. - An attempt to neutralize the Iranian regime will result in a war. - North Korea will become more aggressive and China may provoke the USA with an attack on Taiwan. Americans will get the war that they say Trump would never cause. Try 2 years. If Trump's administration creates havoc, the midterm elections will see the thin Republican majorities in the House and Senate disappear and a flip to Democrat. Trump would then enjoy 2 years of the delights that the Republicans rained down on Democrat Presidents when the Republicans controlled the Senate and the House. Ok. Unfortunately, this doesn't help much as the earth heats up now as extreme weather events result in floods and windstorms and wildfires that are destroying many regions.

Why the negative comments? There was growth and it is in keeping with worldwide results. The world's advanced economies have lower projected growth rates. As per the World Bank; Global growth is projected to hold steady at 2.6% in 2024 before edging up to an average of 2.7% in 2025-26. That is well below the 3.1% average in the decade before COVID-19. The forecast implies that over the course of 2024-26 countries that collectively account for more than 80% of the world’s population and global GDP would still be growing more slowly than they did in the decade before COVID-19. Overall, developing economies are projected to grow 4% on average over 2024-25, slightly slower than in 2023. Growth in low-income economies is expected to accelerate to 5% in 2024 from 3.8% in 2023. However, the forecasts for 2024 growth reflect downgrades in three out of every four low-income economies since January. In advanced economies, growth is set to remain steady at 1.5% in 2024 before rising to 1.7% in 2025. Thailand is doing just fine and has nothing to apologize for. Is that before or after they eat the cats and dogs and anything else that moves?

Another tale about the lower socio economic demographic. The men's profile is one of limited education, minimal to modest financial status at best and rooted in the social class that has no power, nor influence, and usually they have a history of failed social relationships, typically estranged from family and having few if any close reliable friends. This makes them more likely to accept a prostitute as a spouse. Some of the men may be nice people, even hospitable and kind sometimes, but usually the men and their ladies share an exclusion from society and gravitate to each other for survival. It makes for nice entertainment, but the reality is that they are social pariahs and must remain in their "untouchable" social circle, forever forbidden from entering broader society. Thailand has social levels and one only gains social advancement through wealth and position over generations. Marrying a prostitute or a fat middle aged (or older) low status farang forever locks such people in the lower strata. Their children start at a crippling disadvantage. Usually, they are unaware of this, but it doesn't really matter because they are happy for however long the relationship lasts, which usually is until the Thai spouse finds a way to siphon the wealth from the farang.

Europe is still a nightmare at many airports. CDG was a zoo last time I was there, as was FCO. FRA and AMS are wonderful, but I cam through at offpeak hours. Singapore only has to handle 14 million or so visitors. Bangkok is on target for 40 million+ international visitors this year.

I do not recommend the DIY products. Barber scissors that did not cut, plastics that were brittle and broke after 1-3 uses. Unknown declaration of chemicals in food related serving utensils and storage. Electrical supplies with questionable safety etc. I thought that this would hurt Daiso when the chain expanded, but I am still using some of my Daiso products whereas everything I have purchased from DIY in the past year has either broken or been thrown out. It's like a retail outlet for Temu's low priced items.

Cost effective and the library is extensive.

In some respects like a gay remake of Porky's. It just oozes stupidity. The lead "kid" is actually 24 and has a hairy chest. To portray the 17 year old he had to wax off all his chest hair and cover up his heavy facial stubble. Not the best casting, when the other two "teenagers" look like they are in their mid twenties. Buy a subscription to Neftlix. You can access some great korean and Taiwan series. Also Diplomat is a decent series.

Again more nonsense. You say that there is cheating going on in Arizona. There is no evidence to support your claim. What magical evidence do you now have? You are denying the win by the Democrat Senator elect. It is was an undisputed victory. 1,666,979 /50.1% votes v. 1,588,475/47.7% votes. Whenever something doesn't go your way, it's a fix. crooked. Voters do split ballot and it happened in other regions. The Democrat is anything but a very left wing person. Have you considered the fact that Kari Lake alienated voters with her last false claim of voter fraud? ? She has just settled the defamation case that was filed against her by a fellow Republican, giving a defacto admission that she acted with malice. Lake had repeatedly claimed — without evidence — that Richer was responsible for 300,000 “illegal, invalid, phony or bogus” early ballots being counted in Maricopa County. She’s lost every trial and appeal in her lawsuit challenging the election results over the past two years. In March, Lake defaulted in the case, legally conceding that her claims about Richer were false, even as she continued to say the opposite in public statements. Even Kari Lake isn't making the nonsensical claim that you are as she has basically conceded her loss stating that her race to become senator has ended. Maybe she has learnt from him multiple court losses that lying won't help her cause.

The nonsensical hyperbole never ends. He was not a supporter of apartheid. It is unfair to even accuse him of something for which he was not even remotely connected. He immigrated to Canada at age 17, joining the large South African community who had fled the oppressive South African regime. His father's opposition to apartheid is well documented. He was raised in a home that was not supportive of the apartheid system. Musk is driven by ego and by profit making opportunity. He doesn't care who he deals with if it means he gets what he wants. Biden is not extreme left, nor is Harris. It shows a profound ignorance of political ideologies to make that statement. Yes, there is a predominance of red, but that is it. It is deceitful to claim that this demonstrates a dominance of Republican views. Rather , what it shows is a reflection of the USA's population distribution. 73,736,432 Americans still voted for the Democratic candidate. In some districts the margin was less than 1%. Ignoring 48% of the US population is folly. Arrogance and bullying is what will result in a blow out in the US midterm elections in 2 years. It has happened previously and will happen again.

The flight is not in the transit category. It is the passenger. Passengers in transit are the passengers who use a connecting airport to get to their final destination, and are at the connecting airport for no more than 23 hours and 59 minutes. If you look at airline fare structures, airfares will typically be more expensive for flights that have layovers that exceed this time parameter. Examples of transit flights are the *A flights which fly to BKK and then have passengers connect to Jakarta, Yangon, Hanoi, KUL, SIN via TG. The real obstacle are the airline alliances which have airlines funnel their passengers to partner airlines. Thai International is the dominant airline at BKK and it is *A. Unfortunately, *A is weak in SE Asia and the *A routes are often less frequent to support connections and more expensive than the One World airline partners (e.g. Cathay -Hongkong). Airline schedules have to be conducive to allow transit connections. PAX don't want to sit around an airport for hours waiting on a connection. SQ is set up to facilitate connections. TG is not.

Time for the US population to pay the piper. Everyone wants something from the government, but no one accepts that someone has to pay for it.

Ukraine has received enough US funding to carry it through 2025. The Biden administration will ensure that the funds Congress has approved are sent before January 20, 2025. The EU and Canada can fund the Ukraine for 2026 , at which time the US midterm elections will offer a different Congress, because there is no way, at this time, that the Republicans will hold the House.

Can you not use a mailbox service? For example Mailbox Etc. UK will receive and forward mail to its customers, wherever they are in the world.

The beaches were closed because of what people did there. The public consumption of alcohol and drugs, the rowdy behaviour by youth and yobs, and close contacts were the problem. Because people refused to behave responsibly and insisted on engaging in high risk behaviour, public health authorities were obliged to temporarily restrict public gatherings. People could still go outside to get their exercise and vitamin D. You are mistaken. Ivermectin was promoted as a cure all before there were any clinical trials. Its promotion defied commonsense and was based upon data that was often falsified or manipulated. (This has been repeatedly proven.) Covid 19 is an inflammatory illness caused by a virus. Ivermectin has been around for years and its mechanism of action was well documented. This mechanism has no known impact on viruses. The worst aspect of the Ivermectin nonsense is that it delayed the rollout of known low cost anti inflamatories because the promotion of the ineffective ivermectin eroded confidence in health research and medications. For reference sake; Ivermectin binds selectively and with high affinity to glutamate-gated chloride ion channels in invertebrate muscle and nerve cells of the microfilaria. This binding causes an increase in the permeability of the cell membrane to chloride ions and results in hyperpolarization of the cell, leading to paralysis and death of the parasite. Ivermectin also is believed to act as an agonist of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), thereby disrupting GABA-mediated central nervous system (CNS) neurosynaptic transmission. Ivermectin may also impair normal intrauterine development of O. volvulus microfilariae and may inhibit their release from the uteri of gravid female worms. Much of the evidence for ivermectin in COVID-19 relied on pre-print in vitro data, and the clinical utility of the data was not proven. Due to a number of factors - for example, the relatively low number of patients per trial and the speed at which these trials were conducted - studies on the use of ivermectin in COVID-19 were characterized by statistical errors and accusations of plagiarism. In addition, the use of aggregate patient data in large-scale meta-analyses (as opposed to individual patient data (IPD)) was shown to disguise otherwise blatant data errors, such as extreme terminal digit bias and the duplication of blocks of patient records. Ivermectin was an illustration of what happens when unqualified people with financial self interests promote untried and untsted potions. The continued support of the ineffective Ivermectin demonstrates the refusal of the magical conspiracy promoters to consider actual scientific facts. they just can't accept that they are wrong and that their actions resulted in deaths.

There was no mismanagement by either Biden, nor Levine. On the contrary, Dr. Levine has had a clean record. Not one complaint of wrongdoing or professional misconduct and no scandals during her tenure as head of the PSHCC. What exactly did she do that was wrong, and please not your imagined wrongdoings, but actual errors and/or wrongdoings.

There is insufficient demand. The existing pod stations are not used to full capacity. I pass by during peak and off seasons and there are many vacancies. On what basis do you say there is demand? The Miracle Transit hotel on floor 3 almost always has vacancy as does the landside Novotel. There are 50+ hotels within 4km of the airport. They range in price from 500 baht to 5,000 baht+. What is it that you want?

The lines are no longer than in Hong Kong or Narita. Certainly better than PEK and PUD. Taking baggage on the airport link is an easier setup than the train from NRT or the subway link from HND. It is not anymore difficult than at YYZ, FRA or LHR. Singapore airport taxis have a surcharge of S$8 and the fare to the city is between S$25 and S$40 approx 700-1000 baht. My taxi fares from BKK are typically less than 500 baht. Singapore is a city state with a population half the size of Bangkok.The distance from the airport to the key central districts is 15-20km. The distance from BKK to the key central districts is twice as far. It is to be expected that there will be differences.

The BKK bashers are out in force. How about some honesty? I am a frequent flyer and have had an opportunity to fly into some of the major airports in the world and BKK is one of my favourites. Compared to most airports in the EU and North America, BKK holds its own. I clear customs and immigration relatively quickly. My bags are delivered quickly. There are some days I am off the international flight and walking to my driver pickup or hotel in 30 minutes. How about looking at the original models? Singapore was always set up as a transit hub. The Singapore flights are not delivering visitors to Singapore. Thailand's flights were delivering visitors who stayed and spent money. Singapore had 13 million visitors in 2023. Thailand had 28 million visitors in 2023. Now Thailand is looking to picking up some easy business by attracting transit flights. It won't have to do much to be successful. It is not a "disaster". On what basis can you term the airport a disaster other than your own bias? The airport has some of the lowest delays in the region due to tarmac and ramp congestion. It has baggage delivery times comparable to ICN, NRT and HND. Customs and Immigration are relatively fast for most people. Have you ever considered that there has to be a demand for such options? There are many low cost 4* quality hotels all within easy access of the airport, so smart transit passengers don't bother with the pods. I usually stay at the Novotel. It is comparable in cost to the HND hotel. NRT and TPE do not have in terminal hotels. The Holiday Inn at SIN is further from some arrivals than the BKK Novotel and more expensive. The Regal at HKG is further too and more expensive, and not as nice. The airlines stopped flying to BKK because there wasn't a customer base to support the operation of the route. BA has resumed flights to BKK. There is no need to lure anyone away from SIN. The airlines will consider the potential for 5th Freedom flights. EVA does it now for VIE, LHR and AMS. Air Canada is a relatively new addition to Bangkok and is looking at a regional shift because of the issues with China. The same goes for US based airlines. There is nothing wrong with the AC. You do know that Bangkok is in the tropics and the daytime temperature regularly reaches 32C+ and sometimes 40C. The terminal temperature is usually at 23-25C which is more than acceptable. Asian people often find the terminal cool. The new Satellite terminal is very cool.

Kennedy has the deaths of 83 children and young adults to explain. It is an incident that should be brought to public attention at a Senate confirmation hearing. - In 2018, there were 2 deaths that followed measle vaccination. Samoa suspended its vaccination program while it investigated - Kennedy, an ardent and vocal opponent of childhood vaccination visited Samoa to pursue his opposition of vaccinations. - Vaccination rates plummeted following the Kennedy visit, where he praised a local opponent of vaccinations as a "hero". They went from approx 65% to approx. 30%. - The investigation showed that the deaths had nothing to do with the safety of the vaccine. It was human error attributed to the nurses who had mistakenly mixed the vaccine with a muscle relaxant and not the appropriate sterile water. - Even when the error was identified, Kennedy's group refused to acknowledge the finding. - In the decades prior to 2019, Samoa did not have any measles deaths in vaccinated people, nor epidemics. Because of the drop off in vaccination, Samoa experienced an explosion in measles infections and it resulted in 83 deaths. Kennedy is a public health menace and his actions should not be kept from the public.

And there are alot of people who believe that 9/11 was an inside job and that president Bush brought the Twin Towers down. There are also alot of people who believe that aliens have visited them in the trailer park and carried out anal probes. The selection of a Cabinet member is a serious undertaking and is quickly becoming a farce. He was not. The police department chose not to proceed further. The Monterey police department is relatively small and is in a county that has had an unusual number of lawsuits alleging police misconduct. The local jail has lost its 6th consecutive case. The most recent was a wrongful death case where the Monterey PD took a woman to jail where she died. This certainly does not make Hegseth guilty, but does lend credence to the suspicion that the police may have not given the case the attention it deserved. Of concern is the fact that the case came as a surprise to the Trump transition team. Had they been following proper protocol and allowing the FBI to do background checks, this would have been discovered before the nomination was announced. At the very least, the nomination merits proper review by the US Senate.

Incomprehensible.

The social restraints that once held people back from being rude and impolite have been lifted by the Trump election. Opportunistic bigots and bullies are crawling out from their hiding places. This is not what a majority of people who voted for Trump asked for. There will be a backlash once young girls are sexually assaulted and the mothers, grandmothers, wives, sisters and girlfriends of men are attacked.