TallGuyJohninBKK

I believe it's pretty much SOP here to appoint ministers to jobs at which they have little to no professional experience.

Same same as here with the OP..... ????

I was kind of expecting he would have escaped the Thai police station while the officers went out for lunch or took an afternoon nap... That seems to kind of have been the trend lately....

I didn't realize the Thai medical profession had discovered a new medical procedure to cure patients from their innate fixations with lying and corruption. Thailand truly is an amazing place!

Looks like the latest RTP talking head spoke a bit too soon... The OP announcement here followed the next day (today) by:

Serial killers or the numbers of them is hardly the only indicator of a nation's collective mental health. Especially when the count and source you cite is tallying them all the way back to the year 1900... Also, I'm not sure why you're suddenly bringing the U.S. into this, since my prior comments didn't. And, I'm pretty sure if anyone looked, they'd find Thailand over the years has had far more serial killers than the "4 that [you] can think of." An easy search shows Thailand has had many more, and those are just the ones formally recognized by the dodgy police here: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/features/thailands-most-notorious-serial-killers-by-the-numbers/ "The only one of Thailand’s 10 most infamous serial killers of the past century to match or even eclipse Sararat’s alleged crimes wasn’t a Thai national but rather a charismatic Indian-Vietnamese con artist who also tied up loose ends with poison. Of course, the fact most occurred in the last 20 years suggests others may have gone undiscovered throughout history."

Here's the info I mentioned above about the Amazon announcement of a new and much improved version of the Fire Stick 4K Max: "To start with, Amazon gave attendees a preview of the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which promises to be the most powerful Fire TV Stick yet. It includes support for Wi-Fi 6E, Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+, and immersive Dolby Atmos audio. The device also features 16GB of storage, which is twice the amount the previous generation of Fire TV Stick had. The Fire TV Stick 4K will retail for $59.99." https://thestreamable.com/news/amazon-unveils-new-fire-tv-sticks-alexa-updates-more-at-fall-product-launch Doubling the internal storage to 16 GB is a good and long overdue move... eliminating the need for folks like myself with the original Fire Stick Max devices to tinker around in getting USB stick storage formatted as added internal storage on those Fire OS 7 devices. Will be interesting to watch -- Amazon has another 'Prime Days" type sales event coming up in mid October, and then the annual big Prime Days sale right after Thanksgiving... Will be interesting to see if the new Fire Stick 4K Max goes on sale for either of those events. Most of the specs for the new 4K Max seem to be pretty much the same as the prior one, except for the doubled internal storage, a slightly faster CPU, and the upgrade to Wifi 6E vs the prior Wifi 6. The new one is also coming with the newer Fire OS 8, which is the equivalent of Android OS 11. https://www.aftvnews.com/comparison-table-of-all-recent-2018-thru-2023-4k-fire-tv-stick-cube-models-1st-gen-vs-2nd-gen-firesticks-4k-vs-4k-max-vs-cube/

And the country's leading legislative "pot-head" as the former Public Health minister now lately having become the new Interior Minister.

If their various deadlines aren't until NEXT year (fall), it doesn't sound like they're on the verge of ANYTHING right now.. contrary to the OP article.

I've never heard of "Thai Smile Bus"? Who the heck are they? Really??? "At present, the company operates 2,500 buses (comprising 2,017 EVs and 483 NGV buses) across 123 routes, authorised by the Department of Land Transport, Ministry of Transport." And of course, the photo accompanying the article showing a big bus painted entirely white with no name or signage on it certainly is going to help folks recognize the provider... ????

The most recent entry on that EN language page of theirs is dated Sept. 6. Here's a more up-to-date version of their forecasts in EN: https://tmd.go.th/en/forecast/daily

The National Enquirer doesn't count.... Nor does being a doorman at some newspaper office....

Too bad the OP article doesn't explain just who is "blondie" in the accompanying photos..... And for that matter, if they arrested a bunch of those involved in this ring, how come NONE of them are actually identified by real name and nationality in the article? When the police arrest some farang for overstaying his visa, those guys typically get identified by name... But here, apparently, police feel these criminals have some right to anonymity?

Or more likely, mental problems lead to uncontrolled anger and violence. Competent mental health services for ordinary Thais in need of them seem to be few and far between here.... and many in need simply go without any meaningful treatment.

So he's a serial bigamist, in addition to all his other endearing qualities???

Probably because usually the contracted party is some part of the big, domestic Thai-Chinese oligarchy club, so they're all playing on the same team in some way or another. But in this case, the contracted party was a foreign entity... not part of the local club for some reason. And as we all know, when it comes to money, Thailand only wants it coming in.... and rarely if ever going out, if they have any say about it.

He's ALREADY out of prison, and has been since the night he arrived back in Thailand!

And apparently, the girl's mother and father nowhere in the immediate picture, based on the OP article. No indication in the OP article just exactly how the rape occurred or the context of it. But I believe, in general, Thailand pays a societal price when parents ignore their parental responsibilities and foist their children off on elder relations, who may or may not be up to the task of substitute parenting. Too many of these stories where the children are basically left entirely to their own devices, with no meaningful parental/adult oversight or supervision. And then the girls end up getting raped or shacked up in a quickie motel somewhere with some guy 20, 30, 40 years their senior..... And it's all an entire surprise and mystery to grandma.... Yeesh.

Blah blah blah... some ole, same ole... We're gonna launch an investigation statement, and then this is probably the last you'll ever hear of this sorry matter again.... Truly amazing how many of these guys are basically unhinged nutters... And yet they're the ones running around armed with pistols and rifles that, seemingly very rarely, get used for legitimate purposes.

Why do these things keep happening here? Answer: because the authorities (police, public health, consumer protection) do little to nothing to prevent these kinds of illegal clinic operations. Examples of why: --the fake doctor here is not named. --there's no mention of any criminal charges pending --there's no mention of what clinic was involved, where, etc etc. It's a crime against women. And police here in Thailand have never been particularly concerned with that category of crimes. They've got bigger fish to fry.

And there's absolutely no credible proof for the claim you're making... as has been your custom in the past. What to know about the COVID-19 vaccine and the immune system "It is a myth that the COVID-19 vaccine weakens the immune system. After someone receives a vaccine, their immune system is better equipped to protect against subsequent infections." "there have been concerns from some European regulators that giving COVID-19 booster shots too frequently could weaken the immune response to the vaccination. This is not the same as weakening a person’s immune system overall." https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-your-immune-system-weak-after-covid-vaccine#does-it-weaken-the-immune-system

Eventually, the newer version of the COVID vaccines will end up here in Thailand for expats... probably if the past is any indicator... via donations from more medically advanced countries like the U.S., Korea, France, etc... all of whom have donated COVID vaccines to Thailand in the past for use among expats. The rollouts in Thailand, even for Thais, have always trailed those in other places like the U.S. and the UK.... The newer vaccines have been approved there, but they're just starting to roll out there right now.... so Thailand likely will be a ways further down the road.

I think someone above said 50-60 countries in total, and I reposted most of the individual ones a bit earlier here (linked below) that would be among those with expat communities here. By my reading of the list, most of the biggies do have DTAs with Thailand, though I'm sure there are some exceptions. FWIW, there are just short of 200 total countries in the world, many of whom probably have little to do with Thailand.

I understand what you're saying, but practically speaking, I don't think the Thai revenue department is going to get down to that level of detail on different kinds of revenue sources...across all the many different nationalities present in Thailand. I'm betting that the way it will end up working is IF the person is from a country with a double taxation agreement with Thailand, they're basically going to leave you alone regarding foreign source income, and let you continue to pay whatever tax you do or don't owe on your income at large to your home taxing authority. Note the language in the OP report... It doesn't say this or that kind of income source will be exempt. It basically says people from countries that have DTAs with Thailand will be exempt from this new policy. "The program will begin January 1, 2024 and apply only to tax residents in Thailand meaning tourists and short term workers will be exempt. Also exempt will be those who have been taxed in a foreign country that has a standing Double Tax Agreement with Thailand." I'm an American, and a full time resident of Thailand. I have only non-Thai income from the U.S. and I pay taxes on it as required to the U.S., which has a DTA agreement with Thailand. Therefore, I ought be off the hook for all of this.

Worth repeating for folks who come into this now very long thread toward its now very long end....