Patong2021

Someone's kid? Maybe 70+ years ago.

was the information incorrect?

Mr. Musk is not even close to being a conductor because 1. He is not directly managing or or directing the activity, and 2. He did not create the "arrangement' that would allow for the operation's success. Assumptions to the contrary, Mr Trump is not an aeronautical engineer and has a limited knowledge of high altitude and space management. The credit lies with the engineers and technicians.

Self made? He relied on an inheritance that was created because of government generosity. Trump is wealthy today because of government housing subsidies. While still a young man, he inherited his father Fred's real-estate empire, worth tens of millions of dollars. The senior Trump made his fortune by building middle-class housing financed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). In the 1930s, Fred Trump built single-family homes for middle class families in Queens and Brooklyn, using mortgage subsidies from the newly created FHA in order to obtain construction loans. After his real-estate business fell on hard times, he revived his firm during World War II by constructing FHA-backed housing for U.S. naval personnel near major shipyards along the East Coast. After the war, he continued to rely on FHA financing to construct apartment buildings in New York's outer boroughs. https://prospect.org/economy/trump-s-housing-hypocrisy/

And at the same time there were power interruptions in Thailand. In fact there are power interruptions throughout the world every day and there are large scale hacking events too. Quite a plot.

Mr. musk did not land anything. The skilled technicians and engineers achieved that.

I'd be more concerned with Pakistan - India relations.

Multiple bankruptcies are not par for the course of successful businessmen. The state of the US union at this time is not anywhere near comparable to the crisis that Lincoln faced. Lincoln did not resort to a war. On the contrary, he reluctantly was forced into a conflict that was started on April 12, 1861 when the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter. Many people tuned in to watch the PTL Club, At one time Tammy Faye and Jim Baker were successful TV personalities, and then one day they were not. No doubt for some Trump is a showman. However, for others he is not much more than a Carny sideshow hustler. Not impugning Melania. Merely disagreeing with the description of her as a supermodel. She never claimed to be special or carry on like other self important Presidential spouses. I give her full credit for keeping a low profile and knowing her limitations and strengths. I think she is a good mother and a good daughter, and believe that she is probably as tough as nails.

Dear dowager great aunties, please let go of the pearls, as you will pass out. The man may be low class and annoying, but he is neither a criminal nor worth police intervention. The culprit is the venue management which did not intervene. Any decent restaurant or nightclub will quickly remove the patron who misbehaves. It looks like he was a big spender and the restaurant management may have preferred his money over maintaining decorum. Yes, he is a fool, but hold the restaurant responsible too for not intervening. And yes, these things happen regularly and have been going on for 50+ years.. In some nightclubs in the backrooms there are some nasty fights with serious injuries inflicted. They don't make the news. This idiot did.

How would a Reform Council or any council for that matter be able to do what you describe? Which one of their powers would a local council use? The only policing related power that a local council has is in respect to the Power to install and maintain equipment with view to preventing and detecting crime in own area (e.g. surveillance cameras). This would not accomplish what you demand.

Is he really successful? I suppose as a father, he is a good and loving father. And as a friend, he does take care of them. Some will call it cronyism. However, as a business person and as a President, he has not been consistently successful. Multiple bankruptcies are not a measure of success. Nor is the stiffing of small independent contractors. As a President, he is a failure because of his inability to unite a nation or to do what is right when it needs to be done, i.e. taking the higher ground. Doing things his way is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a bad thing when it is inappropriate like ignoring the US Constitution, or having public temper tantrums or insulting people. He is a mediocre showman on the same level as the 1980's televangelists who sold dreams and false promises. His staying power is as good as Ron Popeil's hair in a can spray. His wife was not a supermodel. She was a high school dropout, generic model who came to the USA from eastern Europe under questionable means. Brave isn't the word I would use for him. A relentless bully, brash, tough with a strong will to survive are more appropriate adjectives. He has no class. Hating him is not worth the energy. I expect that his detractors are more likely to be embarrassed and ashamed of what he has done, than hateful. I don't know why you make references to anyone's wife as you do know Trump's wife's own history. And if he reminds people of a school bully, then they are most likely reasonable in their assessment.

Just a reflection of the changing times that we live in. The quality of both tenants and landlords has gone into the gutter. I have a hunch that a closer look at the tenants will show at least one mentally ill person.

The marvels of AI generated narratives. 😐

And what is different than what I wrote ? An extermination camp consisted of gas chambers and crematoria.

The response I provided is in respect to your multiple incorrect assumptions. I quote one of your incorrect assumptions They don't want to tax the vapes. This is about stopping people from vaping because that would lead to less cigarettes being purchased. My response was to read the explanations I provided in the same response. All of your assumptions are not reasonable. Your assumptions ignore the impact that tobacco smuggling has had on tobacco tax collection. As of mid-2021, about 30% of the country’s cigarette market was made up of illicit products, according to data obtained from the Thai excise department. The Thai Tobacco Trade Association stated that from July to September 2022, illicit trade through online channels increased by 97%. This highlights the challenge of halting the flow of unauthorized products into the market. Your second assumption is that the restrictions on vaping are not motivated by health reasons. Vaping is dangerous and causes lung damage. Whether or not it causes less damage than tobacco is irrelevant, the fact is that it does cause serious irreversible physiological damage. The vape chemicals sold in Thailand are of unknown composition. Do you know what is in the vape liquids sold in Thailand? Thailand is trying to avoid the mistakes it has made with tobacco and its reliance on the product as an agricultural product staple. Vape products would be next to impossible to control in Thailand. Anyone could put out the liquids, poisoning thousands of people who do not appreciate, nor understand the risks of such unregulated, unsupervised products.

And your point is what? The scenario you are describing is double taxation. No one is calling for that. There is a tax treaty between Thailand and Australia that addresses that. However, a low income foreign pension living in Thailand has not exactly contributed to Thailand as he, which begs the question as to why one would expect to not contribute to the society in which he lives and benefits from. That would be one hefty dollop of self deluded entitlement.

The Thai women went the same way as the farang male. It seems to me that the complainers are some of the ugliest people around. The women you see reflect the quality of the males who come looking for them. The quality Thai people are found where they always were, at work or in respectable places. Quality Thai women will not be found in the bar district. And they avoid foreigners who are not in their social tier or in their work space. Quality Thais know that many of the foreign males occupy lower socio economic tiers and have a limited understanding of Thai culture. They don't want the hassle, nor do they want to act as a nursing attendant for some old guy. The only foreigners who get a pass are good looking young people who dress and behave nicely. We walked back from the night market a month+ ago and strolled slowly through a bar district, a long soi with cheap beer bars packed on top of the other. I really enjoy my friends' running critical commentary. They are like Thai versions of Joan Rivers/Jimmy Carr. Looking at the customers we saw, elderly males, horribly turned out. Some were wearing their cheap Lotus sandals and polyester socks with ill fitting short pants that revealed creche paper flesh with bulging varicose veins. Others had ill fitting synthetic fiber counterfeit name brand shirts. (Hint to players, wearing a tight polyester shirt shows off your nipples and man boobs.) Too many smokers with the yellow teeth that goes with it. Others wore cargo pants or capri pants and they just looked ridiculous. 40+ year old fat men should not wear cargo pants. Capris are for slim and tall people. It was a walk down depressing lane. Then a quick walk to the nearby Marriott for a drink on the patio. (It's nice to be able to relax outside on a full moon night and listen to the waves as the tide changes. No aggressive and loud inked bar girls to bother us too.) I looked around. Most of the foreigners were nicely turned out, healthy looking and well groomed. The older gents carried themselves well. Whether they were with their spouse or otherwise, they were not uncouth nor loud. No smokers.

The Eastern Front is in large part a direct result of Russia having enabled Nazi Germanys expansion and the start of WWII. It was Russia which helped initiate WWII with its expansionism. - 23 August 1939: The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a pact that created a partnership between them in dividing up Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe. On September 17, Russians stabbed Poland in the back and invaded. - In June 1940, Russia attacked, invaded and brutally occupied the 3 Baltic states Russia then proceeded to attempt to annex other parts of Eastern Europe. In so doing it left a trail of destruction. Germany's attack on Russia came in part because the Russians were too aggressive and presented a threat to the Nazis. Two greedy sick despots had a turf war and the death and destruction that followed is history. Much of the Russian military deaths is attributable to the lack of concern for the personnel. Sacrificing tens of thousands was nothing to Stalin. Even the Germans were shocked by the Russians's callous disregard for the well being of military personnel. The Russians sent unarmed people into battle. It often denied weapons to jews and other ethnic groups because of "shortages". An estimated 500,000 jews served in the Russian military and it was this group of POWs who were the most mistreated, if they survived capture.

You are confused. Russians and Slavs were not sent to extermination camps. Russians both POWS and civilian deportees were sent to labour camps where they were often worked to death. However, their living conditions were slightly better than those earmarked for death. Because they were used for work, their food rations were higher. An estimated 250,000-500,000 Roma were killed in mass shootings or either labour or designated extermination camps. They were treated much worse than the Russians because they were to be killed. The people who deny their death, also deny the that the holocaust occurred. There is no differentiation. Because Russia had its own system of gulags that were just as bad as those operated by Germany and had sent Poles, political dissidents, and non ethnic Russians to the gulags, had committed its own atrocities in Ukraine and Poland, and had been an enabling ally of Nazi Germany, sympathy for Russia was hard to muster. It in no way diminishes the wrongful acts visited upon Russian POWS or civilians, but makes it difficult for Russia to claim victimization since it had also been a participant in the wrongful acts.

It is all about tobacco smuggling. As of Feb 10, 2024 for Thailand TOBACCO TAXATION AND PRICE PRICE OF MOST SOLD BRAND, PACK OF 20 CIGARETTES TAXES ON MOST SOLD BRAND (% OF RETAIL PRICE) In country currency66.00 THB Total taxes81% In US dollars1.79 USD Total excise61% https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/legislation/policy-fact-sheets/thailand/summary As you can see the total tax rate on tobacco in Thailand is already high. In fact the tax rate is one of the higher rates in the world and the cost of tobacco in Thailand is much higher than in two of its neighbors. Cambodia and Lao-PDR tobacco is dirt cheap,almost 1/3 the cost of Thai tobacco. This makes it profitable for smugglers. Canada had a similar problem with the USA when it had high taxes on its tobacco. The contraband tobacco flowed in from the USA, specifically North Carolina with US border authorities not caring. North Carolina was well aware that trailers of contraband tobacco cargo was heading to Canada and did nothing to stop it. it took multiple highly expensive police actions, political pressure and the threat of disrupting the border to US imports,to get action. The Canadian solution was also to adjust its tax rate to make it less lucrative for the smugglers. Lao PDR and Cambodia are allowing the tobacco to be smuggled into Thailand. Corruption at the Thai border is facilitating the contraband entry. Attack that first. This would not address the tobacco issue. Thailand's tax rate on alcohol mirrors some of its neighbors. There is a false assumption that vaping is less of a health risk and this is a false assumption. The current research shows that there are significant health risks. Much of the vape products are sourced from suppliers where there is no quality assurance. The Thai products are a mishmash of chemicals. Formaldehyde, unknown nicotine concentrations, heavy metals, carcinogens aplenty and so on. Nope. The issue is smuggling. How would you ensure quality in vape products? It is not as if the manufacturers are transparent in their declaration of ingredients. Do you know what is in the vape liquids sold in Thailand? Nope. See above. You have made the assumption that the vape liquid ingredients are subject to quality control and that the ingredients are known. They are not. How would you control and supervise the supply of vape liquids?

I think of Kamala as the middle sister of three. Patong is the raunchy, party girl and always getting in trouble and embarrassing the family, Surin is the pretty, glamorous sister who likes expensive things. And then there is plain Jane Kamala who is distinguished by her lack of personality. Never causing a problem, she is low key and is often ignored. I expect that alot of people like Kamala because it is still more affordable than Surin or Patong and it is not over run by the demographic that plagues Patong now. The people who went to Kamala (when I was in Phuket) were mostly European and older. The Chinese were middle aged. The downside is that beach access is not easy (compared to Karon or Patong and other popular tourist towns) and the narrow Na Hat Road is a nightmare on weekends and holidays. Anyone doing a delivery or stalling or stopping, can cause tail backs. Zero planning and no thought given to beach facilities. It is hard to drive around in parts of Kamala. Highway 4030 dissects the town and acts as a barrier. Those who are south of the highway have a hard time accessing the beach. One must choose wisely when picking a hotel to stay at if one wants beach access. I was surprised by the reduced number of 7-11s near the beach area. It is not a town that is as convenient for tourists as others like Hua Hin, Pattaya or Patong. The upside though is that it is faster getting to and from the airport. When I first arrived in Patong it was 30 minutes transit, then 45 minutes, then an hour on some days and then 90 minutes in peak season. Kamala can shave 15-30 minutes off the trip.

There are also deniers amongst the supporters of positions who are not "socialist". Socialists are not inherently bad, nor evil and through history are the people who are most likely to take on extremism, whether it is the extremist communists, or right wing fascists. Socialists have a view that requires civil liberties and human rights to be respected, which often puts them in the firing line of the aforementioned supporters. We may think that socialists are deluded or impractical or naive, but they are not evil. They mean well and their intent is to do good. That is the exact opposite of people who engage in violent street protests or who vandalize property. Socialists are the people who gave societies public health care and other social benefit programs like workers compensation, pensions and unions. They also delivered voting rights to people who were excluded.

It really is depressing that such hateful intentional ignorance as you express, is so prevalent today. The concept of Chosen people refers to people who believe that they are chosen to obey the Lord. It doesn't mean they are better than anyone else, just that they were expected to follow the the rules and practices set down. It was being given the responsibility to be good people and to set an example so that others would follow. In the period in which post slavery Judaism arose, it was a time of great chaos. The Hebrews, having left their enslavement to the Egyptians were a lawless and uncivilized people in need of a code with which to rebuild their society. Moses was the agent through which the rules of society were re-established. Their nation was then rebuilt.

And what's your solution

Maybe they should look at their pricing, quality, and sales model. A "meal" at the chain costs more than a conventional low cost restaurant and offers fewer options.