XRules

Good questions - and it is true Abhisit has revived the Democrats - especially in Bangkok and South. He is the person with the most credentials and experience to be the candidate for PM. No doubt he has 'cleaned out' the Party of those that took the deals and gave into the Military Parties - if he somehow becomes PM I believe Thailand would recover and again dominate this Region for trade and economic growth. As you said though - being in a coalition with PP in opposition would set things up well for them at the subsequent election.

Good points, but I think the relocation of military forces and equipment will not be such a big issue. As part of withdrawing from NATO, there would likely be an agreement reached for reduced US Military presence like USA has in countries all over the world. But your point about military purchases is valid - that is a lot of business and Trump never walks away from business. Although Europe only has one source which is USA - as China and Russia are obviously not a great choice - and countries like Sweden are very niche based.

The money for the BTS and Military is nothing compared to the money that will have to be paid out to millions of Thais receiving welfare payments year after year - which is my concern about PP. I do agree that taxes will be going up - the TRD is working on a new taxation system and Laws to enact it, and it is unlikely that whoever wins will put a stop to that - I think PP will ramp it up and broaden the base to include as many people as possible. Yes you are right - the Shins are by far the largest donors to PT - I got that wrong - they will not 'let go'.

Fair enough - not a problem then.

Not the 8th for much longer - the businesses and billionaires are leaving quick smart. The new wealth tax Newsome has announced will drive the State broke, at a faster rate than it is already declining.

Yes it was great seeing Machado give it to Trump who really deserved it. I still cannot get over the fact that those woke liberal EU politicians - who do decide through influence - gave Obama the Peace Prize when he actually did nothing other than get elected as a 'black' POTUS. Obama the great bomber-in-chief who dropped more bombs and killed more people than any other POTUS since WW2.

No - all you woke liberal haters are hoping he will have an accident and die. Awful people. We all complained about Biden's stupidity, corruption and his senility - but we did not wish him dead through a serious accident. When he fell off the bike and fell over in stage and fell down the stairs - we all just laughed and were amazed how the media just did not see it.

Seems very clear to me - Trump haters are going doodoo over a text message (not an official letter) that really says nothing. Just the usual Trump blurbs and obtuse statements. Trump is not a diplomatic politician - wow, who would have thought such a thing. Blunt and Direct in expressing himself - yep that is Trump. The message follows below. Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago , but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT. Seems pretty tame to me - but what is clear is that Trump has him so rattled that he has deliberately released the person to person text, which is a severe breach of trust. Obviously done as a means of embarrassing Trump, because they know the media will jump like a rabid dog and massively blow it out of all proportion and distort and lie about what was actually said - as they have of course done. The leaking of the Trump text to Jonas has betrayed any trust Trump and his Admin had with NATO members - not a very smart move on their part and will have repercussions going forward. Text messages between Leaders are a private back-door means of communicating - now that is gone with NATO and EU Nations. Whatever was in the past is not there anymore - and I would not be surprised to read a headline soon saying - Trump withdraws support and funding from NATO. However, the rabid MSM will make the headline more like this - Trump puts the World at risk of WW3 by attacking NATO and supporting Russia. I can imagine the response by the woke leftists after reading that headline??

Well said. The Chinese want Canada for one main reason - to repackage their products to on-sell into USA to avoid tariffs. Same reason China got closer to Thailand and many others before. But Trump has closed that scam with imposing tariffs on them - and it is hitting China and its puppets hard. China is hoping Trump will reduce tariffs on Canada - so they can use that channel into USA markets. Trump is trolling everyone. NATO. EU. China. Dems. Wokes. Everyone. They panic and over-react all the time and he loves it. They should really think more logically and rationally - and think Venezuela. The snatch and grab of Maduro was obviously planned - Trump did not say a thing. Likewise they need to calm down and negotiate - look at Rubio - Trump absolutely canned him during the election debates and now he is his main International Player - that is how it works (it is just business) . They should stop playing their BS diplomatic khrapp games and start negotiating - one line item at a time. Then move on to the next one and forget the last one - because that 'deal' is done.

Trump would love that - perfect solution to the USA getting away from the parasites that are the EU and NATO.

An NBC article about one of their fake polls?? Are you serious?? Trump is not up for re-election and will be in power until 2028 - and his agenda is all that he is focussed on - not fake polls. Stop believing the MSM because you want to believe them. Dont you remember all the fake polls in 2015?? And again in 2024?? Trump won both by a mile.

The PP are proposing much more than current payments and more of them - and likely to keep increasing. If PP are in power and desperately need taxation revenue to pay for things - that is my fear is on the Taxation changes that could happen - we are an easy target. But yes those with only a Pension are fine. I hear you about Thaksin, but I think PT will move forward without him - if it means buddying up to BJT. Politics makes for some very strange bedfellows - it is better to be in power with an enemy, than in opposition and all alone.

No mate - you dont - are you would know your own BS. And you obviously have a beef with reality - social welfare is not a solution in Thailand and will be abused way more than it is in Aust if it is introduced here. Reality.

You live in Thailand? Permanent Resident?

Send me the link to their publicised details and costs - happy to read up. All I have seen is statements about a cradle to grave welfare system with additional payments for things like unmarried Mothers. That is what happened in Aust (and UK NZ etc.) - it all sounds great and then a decade later the country is spending billions as more and more people see it as a 'lifestyle opportunity' and not what is was supposed to be (short term assistance). I am predicting what I think will happen - having witnessed it before. Let me tell you a story about homeless kids in Brazil - cannot send a link - current social media searches do not publish it now - but I remember it clearly. About the 1980s in a City (maybe Rio) there was 10s of thousands of homeless kids roaming the streets, so the lefty Government opened up homeless kids centres to look after them - all sounds great - right? Wrong. Besides the initial homeless kids, other parents took the opportunity to dump their kids near the centres, including parents from outside the city. The centres were overwhelmed and of course the lefties wanted more built - so a few more were - and they became swamped too. In the end after about a year the Govt could not afford to continue and shut them down - the vast majority of kids in the centres went back home. Some parents were taking kids there Mondays and picking them up Fridays - it was a total farce. That is what happens in 3rd world countries - what seems like a great social welfare idea just will not work out the way planned.

True - but also any changes they make in Immigration and Taxation Laws.

No beef as such - seems you are the one with a beef. Are you from/in UK, NZ, Europe - or USA. If USA then you have no real idea of the massive changes that can happen (like in Aust. UK, NZ, Europe) when the Govt introduces a 'massive scale' welfare system and changes society. If from one of the others then perhaps you are young - under 40 - and you did not see the changes that happened following the welfare state implementations that started in the 80s and then never stopped growing.

Yep - Anutin got what he wanted - to be PM. And it is very clear that he is doing a decent job of it - unlike his two predecessors. However, a 'caretaker' PM is an easy role - not much can really go wrong when you are not managing a long term agenda and all the political players are busy planning for the election. He will only stay in the role if he forms a coalition and gets more seats than each of any coalition partners he is able to get together. That could happen - PP is 'off the boil' and they will not win enough seats to form Government on their own. Last time the PP only got 151 of 500 seats and they needed to form a coalition - and that meant a compromise on their Section 112 reforms. However PP refused and that resulted in the full weight of the Thai Elite destroying them. Hopefully PP will have learned their lesson this time around, and if they do gain a larger amount of seats than other Parties, that they compromise and drop what their coalition partners want them to drop (Social Welfare being a likely issue). I dont think PP and Dems will be a 'fit' - the Dems are very conservative and their current leader was a conservative PM in the past. I think it more likely BJT and PT will partner with the Dem Party. But politics in Thailand is as predictable as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs - and being in power is like trying to herd a large number of cats.

Who cares what Dems think - they lost and will lose again in 2028. Those RINOs are all in danger of being primaried when their next election is due. There was a few RINOs removed last time around (Cheney etc.) and those blocking the Trump agenda are next in line. There are many things the GOP has learned from the 'Trump Experience', and one of those has been to 'stir up' the base and get them active - like the Dems have been doing for a long time. There are a lot of GOP activists getting involved now - it started in 2015 and it has escalated greatly. It is the local activists that make the difference when it comes to things like candidate selections and gathering voters to get active and to vote. The Dems have been doing it for a long time - they learned it at places like Unions and Universities and Schools - and it works - like their current anti-ICE campaigns.

Great post - not relevant for myself (married 10+ years to a Thai) but very relevant for many here and I can see that it is true. Unlikely (I hope) to be single again - but if I am, then that is what I will do as well. This is far more prevalent in many 'poorer' countries, where the girls are more freely available at a price that wont destroy your income - not spoken about much in the liberal feminist media. Many older men, once rap**ed financially (or when they wise up), have moved to where they dont run the risk of being 'caught' (if sensible) and then financially rap**ed 5-10 years later by a western woman. More and more males from the West are 'opting out' of the sexual predator trap that is a young western women - unless they find a good one and want to have a family. But even the good ones are proving to be not so good in the long run, and IMO the run of the feminists in charge is coming to an end. I saw an interesting Joe Rogan interview - it was about Sex Robots. It is truly amazing how far they have come in such a short period of time. That is a business that is bound to make $billions - so many younger males are 'opting out' of the trap nowadays, and a robot at home will be an option taken up for sure by those with the money. Over time that will be a huge growth industry - I wonder if my boss was referring to that when he said Tesla robots will be taking over in the future?

Unfortunately what the Inspecting Engineer said is very telling and why so many building projects here in Thailand are a disaster just waiting to happen. Quote from OP - "He also noted that Thailand currently lacks strict, legally enforced standards for construction machinery inspections, with most guidelines remaining advisory." If/when those guidelines become mandates and they are strictly enforced, then and only then will things improve. Safety Standards is not an issue complied with in Thailand for so many things (building sites being just one of them) - because they are not mandatory - they are recommendations. Mountain B Rayong nightclub owners got 3-5 years in jail for killing over 30 people in a fire, at an illegally built and unapproved nightclub that did not meet any safety guidelines and had the doors all locked. The owners of the illegal nightclub in India where many people died in a fire, will be lucky to avoid the death penalty - the ones that fled to Thailand and were deported back to face trial.

Yes - they are a University academic ideologue based Party. The key players are still too young to be able to play the political game, and are certainly not ready to lead yet. They are like the previous PM - far too young and inexperienced to be able to manage things - especially when the proverbial hits the fan.

Mate - it is all the current woke liberal socialists have as a platform - minorities and grievances. Instead of backing down after seeing the People in most 1st world countries going more right wing - they have doubled down. PP has backed down on the anti-royal rhetoric, but they still want to create a welfare state in Thailand. Hopefully the PP lose and become the Opposition - and then over time get rid of the far left nonsense and become the centre-left alternative to the right wing BJT and PT coalition - with the too-far right Military pushed out completely. Maybe the Democrats will get involved in the BJT and PT coalition too - they are right wing as well. IMO that would be a good thing for Thailand - basically a two Party system between left wing and right wing - with Power moving back and forth between them. Just like all Democracies/Republics before them, Thailand is still in the initial phases of political 'settlement'. Right now there are too many Parties and they all squabble and fight to get a bigger share. Having a stable right wing and left wing Party as the main political forces in a country, makes things drift to and from the centre - massive shifts from far-right to far-left do not work out very well.

Well said - but I dont think it was planned about Thaksin - he did not plan to go to jail. But the end result is as you have said - the elite know change must be allowed - how far they allow it is yet to be seen. I do agree that they do realise that if the election goes where they dont want, and they again reject and ban the political Party and Leader the People selected, the backlash from the world community will be severe. And if that takes the form of another Coup - all hell will break loose - and who knows what Trump will do (90% tariffs?). They got away with what happened after the 2023 election because the World was very much focussed on post Covid recovery - that will not happen again.

You are BS mate - not me. What I have said is my opinion on what Thailand should and should not do - I am not speaking for Thais and never claimed to be doing so. It is you that thinks he/she can speak on behalf of Thais. You claimed 25 years in the Provinces - I say BS.