12 minutes ago, Valentine said:

Did the Patong City sign go down after leaning over more & more over the years

The infamous 10 million baht sign.  I'm pretty sure it would be behind the image shown.  It would be interesting to know if this 10 million baht white elephant survived.

Here's the source video.  I don't get why all the scaremongers point out where the information came from and then try to discredit it in some way.  That's so weak, it laughable.   

twitter.com/spectator/status/1314573157827858434

34 minutes ago, robsamui said:

Chuckle!
You've obviously of the generation which never heard of Pete Seeger or Peter Paul and Mary!

Who?  

I am definitely not of the generation you are referring to, although I might have heard the original when subjected to having to listen to a "golden oldies" station with my parents.

7 hours ago, polpott said:

A country with an extremely high death/infection rate compared to its neighbours who did impose more stringent restrictions.

 

 

This is only due to the virus getting into the hugely populated old folks homes and the Somali community who have no vitamin D and live in cramped living conditions.  Take those out and what do you have?  

Looking at the last 10 years of statista, 2019 was a light year in total deaths, so it makes sense that some folks who were very susceptible to anything were hit by covid in 2020.  However, looking at the overall total number of deaths in the country, it will be not much greater than a heavy flu year.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-deaths/

21 minutes ago, sanuk711 said:

Kingdom of Silence....(2 October 2020 release; 101 min.) Showtime.

 

**Burb--Kingdom of Silence" is a documentary about the vicious murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government. As the movie opens, we see some of the now infamous 2018 footage of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Jamal Khashoggi walks in but never exits.

this is the latest work from Oscar-nominated documentarian Rick Rowley ("The Dirty Wars"). (Seemingly omni-resent Alex Gibney executive-produced this.) Here Rowley looks back at the life and times of Jamal Khashoggi, once an ally of and spokesperson for the Saudi royal family.

 

 

DW had a great documentary about this on youtube.

1 hour ago, NCC1701A said:

Where have all the tourists gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the tourists gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the tourists gone?
Thais ripped them off, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

A tribute to Eddie Van Halen, nice.

Where have all the good times gone.

So about all those excess deaths in the US.

2017 Total Deaths US: 2,813,503 (234,000/month)

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm

2018 Total Deaths US: 2,839,205 (237,000/month)

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db355.htm

2019 Total Deaths US: 2,855,000 (238,000/month)

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/provisional-tables.htm

2020 Total Deaths US (jan - week 9/26): 2,130,000 (236,000/month)

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Weekly-Counts-of-Deaths-by-State-and-Select-Causes/muzy-jte6

2,130,000 + (236,000/month x 3) [Oct, Nov, Dec] = 2,838,000 [assumption based on monthly avg]

2020: 2,838,000 [3-month assumption insert]

Just now, Paul Henry said:

Latest scientific information is people can catch a second dose of Covid 19. So TWITTER are correct in putting a signal on Trumps ravings. Why can't this man obey any rules is it because he does not understand them or is it because he really believes he is infallible.

From what I have seen and read, these are people that still have dead fragments of the virus in them.  Of course there is always an exception  for anything considering there are over 7.5 billion people on the planet and someone will have a highly unusual abnormality that is a .00001 chance.

22 hours ago, Max69xl said:

Use google search and type "how to retire on bali" or similar. You retire in Thailand starting on a 90 days Non-immigrant O Visa which you then extend 1 year, or you start with a 30 days or 60 days tourist and then change it to a 90 days Non-immigrant O. This is so easy if you have half a brain and it's fast.

You will never complain about that procedure if you read how to apply for a retirement visa on Bali. OP mentions the cost, but has his friend really gone through the procedure, or even know about it? I doubt it. I went through it online and it's tedious and it always involves an agent,because it's totally impossible to do it yourself. Check it out if you know how to use google. I think many foreigners have changed their mind about retirement on Bali when they realized how much work it is. I did. 

My friend did go through with it and he's already got the visas in hand for him and his wife.  You pays your money, you get the service.  End of story.

Compare that to the on again off again, you can and now you can't come in from the Thai government.

https://www.icandecide.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Conflicted-Members-on-DSMBs-for-COVID-19-Vaccines-Final.pdf

A law firm has uncovered all the nefarious goings on behind the scenes of vaccines.  They have now sent the above linked communication to the health secretary, Fauci, Birks and Atlas.  They have asked that any members sitting on the board be removed when there is a conflict of interest. 

As I was reading about the various vaccines I was led to believe by Fauci that those that oversee the trials are independent and beholden to no one.  It turns out this is a blatant lie and two of the people overseeing the trials were inadvertently named.  It also turns out these people have deep ties ( now deeper pockets) to the various pharma companies they are supposed to be overseeing.  

Here's a couple quotes from Fauci,
"The accumulation of data and the analysis of data is unbiased. An independent group called a Data and Safety Monitoring Board is associated with every clinical trial that has NIH [National Institutes of Health] fingerprints on it"
"On September 2, 2020, in a STAT News interview: “It’s up to the DSMB, in their judgment, to balance the safety issue, the efficacy issue, and the
duration of the trial issue…And that’s the reason why they’re an independent group"

The two people that were named from these "secret boards" are Richard Whitley, who in the last In the last six years alone, has been a consultant for Gilead Science,AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sanofi, Sequirus, La Roche, and Allergan. He was paid over $2.6 million for the work he performed for these companies during this period. He also took 280 trips paid for by these companies totaling 173K

The second person named, Dr Kathryn Edwards, who is overseeing the Pfizer vaccine was a paid adviser to Pfizer before joining the safety board.  No conflict of interest there!

I wonder if any of these secret members actually don't have ties to pharma companies.

Bottom line all those in the pharma and health industry are thick as thieves, not to mention reek of corruption when seeing evidence like this.  They don't have citizens health in mind, they have lining their pockets in mind.

What I love about the vaccine trials is that they want the population that has a very risk low profile of dying from covid to be in the trials.  I understand that now they are adding a some older people, but no one over 70, who should be the people you are trying to protect as they are the most vulnerable.  What's going to happen when the elderly start getting vaccinated?  No one knows...................

33 minutes ago, partington said:

 

A disease that is very "mild" for 99% of those infected, and fatal for 1%, and is extremely contagious, is not "mild" in its effects on society.  If a 100 million people catch it, 1 million people who would not have died, will die.  This is a massive death toll, and a lot of human misery.

 

A vaccine that prevents death, even if it does not prevent infection, is therefore still extremely valuable though far from ideal. 

 

What is more, just because vaccines may be approved that do not prevent infection, does not mean:

 

(a) that the vaccines are designed to not prevent infection - of course the hope of every group working on vaccines is that their vaccine will prevent infection.

 

(b) that no vaccine that can prevent infection will ever be developed -there are literally  hundreds of groups trying to develop vaccines, by a variety of technologies and designs, and the approval of one, (especially if does not prevent infection) will not halt the endeavours to develop others that do prevent infection.

 

 

Your stats are not correct.  IFR is around .2-.3%, not 1%.

25 minutes ago, Guderian said:

How is your friend going to get to Bali given that it's closed to foreign arrivals, other than these four categories?

 

https://www.bali.com/travel-restrictions-corona-ban-bali-indonesia.html

 

For the moment all foreign arrivals (tourism) to Indonesia have been banned until further notice.

 

However, Indonesia Immigration has given some exemptions for foreigner to enter Bali or other areas for several specific reasons, such as:

 

1. Humanitarian activities
2. Volunteering Activities
3. Family reunion
4. Business or Investment visit

 

 

Pretty simple, pay an agent less than $500 or get a sponsor letter.  Always helps to read the thread before asking what has already been answered.

13 minutes ago, madmen said:

How hard is the biz visa to get? 

Easy, very easy.  Either get someone there to sponsor, or pay an agent less than $500.  Done.

I started a thread in the covid forum.  The bar is set very low for this vaccine to be approved for use.  It basically has to help those with mild symptoms and does not have to stop the disease, nor prevent death.

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1186778-forbes-article-covid-19-vaccine-protocols-reveal-that-trials-are-designed-to-succeed/

19 hours ago, gearbox said:

Thanks a lot. Do you know anyone who managed to get in with this visa recently?

I do.  No worries for him.  I've already seen some photos from him.