Denim

1 foot away won't focus. Just a blurry fuzz.

Alternatively , eat foods with more vitamin D , more fish for example.

Yup. Shutting the door after the horse has bolted. IMO, those senators who abstained in round 1 should now be excluded from any further participation having already demonstrated an apparent indifference on the issue.

Considering the hefty cut of the sale price they want for their services it's just as easy to sell your home yourself. The best method I found after selling 4 houses here is a for sale sign on the front gate. People in the area see it and tell friends and family and you soon get a bite. I advertised extensively on the internet on 4 different sites and the only calls I got were from agents offering to put a for sale sign on my gate and advertise my property on the internet. For this they wanted 3.5% of the sale price. Always sold my properties within 2 weeks at the price I wanted ( no haggling ) Asking for a fair price is key to a quick sale. Plus , when people come to view everything must look like a show home with as many personal effects as possible kept out of site. Lastly, it is better to include fixtures and fittings in the sale price. If you try to take air con units with you it won't help the sale.

Neither has Ukraine. Russia has them but behind the scenes both sides are in contact trying to prevent the pointless use of nuclear weapons. What does Russia / Putin think. They can have a free pop at Ukraine / the West with nuclear weapons and this will lead to victory ??? That Nato and Ukraine will buckle and say ' Ok Ok we surrender. We did not know how far you would go. We give in. Do with us as you see fit ' Dream on. If they go nuclear you can bet there will be a response in kind. There has to be. If not....lie down belly up and watch Russia go further west.

Did you ever hear about a little thing called the second world war. ? Germany had to pay reparations but they were given a long time ( on interest ) to repay. It will be the same when this war ends. The bill does not have to be paid immediately. It it stretched out to be painless. The war will go on . Neither side can back down. IMO , the Ukraine should shelve plans to retake it's territory as a priority. More important is to hamper as much as possible the Russians ability to fight. Offensive operations should be aimed at encircling and capturing / killing as many Russians as possible.. Hurt them. Territory retaken can again be retaken again by the Russians. Although the ultimate objective is the liberating of captured territory , the stratedgy and tactics for doing this must first concentrate on destroying the enemies abilty to fight. This was understood by Grant and Lincoln in the American Civil War. After 4 years of indecisive battles , Grant finally applied maths and attrition to defeat the Confederacy.

If there were no Royal Family how much money would be saved and how much of it would end up in the average Joe's pocket. I would think , not enough to go out on a single good bender. I think it's pathetic to prattle on about the cost of the Royal family when there are bigger and more useless drains on the governments finances. The Prince of Wales received a private income from the Duchy of Cornwall of nearly £6 million this year, The Home Affairs Committee has heard that the UK is thought to be spending £7m per day on hotels to house asylum seekers. https://iasservices.org.uk/united-kingdom-is-spending-7m-a-day-on-hotels-for-asylum-seekers/#:~:text=United Kingdom is spending £,their home country to safety. If it is only the money that matters , get your priorities right.

It is interesting to reflect that had MF been banned long before the election then Phua Thai would have got the landside they were seeking. With two anti establishment parties the vote was split , something favoring the conservatives. But even if Phua Thai had picked up every single vote that went to MF , the resulting landslide would still not have been enough to overcome the block of senators. When there was a referundum on the new constitution back in 2016 the coup makers knew that their worries were over. That fixed vote absolutely fixed once and for all any hope of a decent political party gaining power from any popular vote. Details in the thread I started : Therefore, there is now only one method of bringing about any meaningful political change here and that method will have to come , if it ever does , at a high price in spilt blood. That scenario seems a pretty unlikely one at the moment.

Plenty where we are. No shortage in any stores.

Here you go Bob. Get a few down you , get melancholy then have a listen.

No surprise. Those not in the democratic coalition know that they now have the whip hand. Without the support of the senators nobody is forming anything , just as intended from the beginning. What remains to be seen is how Phua Thai now react. Stab their friends in the back and pay the heavy price later or stick with the coalition. If they leave and try to form a government with the hated conservative parties , then in the words of Frazer .....' They are doomed I tell you . Doomed '

Better to lose than get into bed with somebody with the clap. If the MF PT coalition remains strong , then even if the senators enable a bunch of losers to form a minority government it will be hamstrung trying to run the country effectively. Hopefully PT will look to its long term future rather than any short time gain.

Orange is the new red. Funnily enough , you get orange by mixing red and yellow. Appropriate when you consider that Move Forward have garned support from both of the old protagomists.

Hopefully the sort of calm that comes before a storm

With alcohol I vowed I would never touch a drop. Glass full ok but never a drop.

Unfortunately , recruits do not have access to weapons except when they are being trained in there use. And a civil war needs weapons , lots of them. Next is leadership. Whatever their sentiments they need to be led. I know that the Thai arms is a conscript one , mostly of unlucky recruits who picked the wrong chit from the bag. But whatever their private feelings they are unlikely to storm the armoury and get tooled up. After training many will end up working as unpaid servants to high ranking officers.

I think this is one of the reasons Move Forward did so well in the election. Everybody was sick of this red yellow stalemate. They genuinely want to ' move forward ' Clearly , that is not going to be allowed to happen .

I actually started this thread on account of a short chat I had with an expat I bumped into in the car park at Big C a few days ago. ( He had parked next to me and was waiting for his wife ) . He commented about the 250 senators being hand picked and not elected. This much he knew. But he did not know why this had been allowed and what mechanism was the cause. I informed him and he said interesting, he would google it. We then went our separate ways. it occured to me that anyone who has only been here a few years would likely not know about this rigged referendum that gave a very thin veneer of democracy and decency to those that had seized power by armed force. At the time , I asked Thai friends if they had indeed voted for this current consitution. To my surprise they replied yes. Asked why , they replied that it had been widely disseminated by those who had seized power that without a new constitution there would be no further elections or return to civilian rule. Thus , believing they were facilitating this return they had voted to accept this constitution without thinking too deeply about the consequences.

That has not been my observation. As for democracy , hard to say if it would work in todays Thailand because clearly it is unlikely to ever again get a chance. Nobody is deluded enough to think democracy is perfect but it has the redeaming feature that if a government is performing poorly it can be voted out of office without the need of bloodshed or locking people of differing rules in prison.

Well, clearly many do. Those who have wives and children want a brighter future for them and their grand children. Then again , if , as a foreigner , you have spent more of your life here and paid more taxes here then in the country of your birth is it so surprising or unreasonable that after such a commitment you should not feel an attachment to the place and a concern for the society you have chosen to live in. Just because I don't have a vote and am not Thai does not mean I don't care at all about what happens here.

Current events have angered and disgusted many Thais and expts alike. Back in 2016 , following the coup a new constitution was presented to the electorate . It was at this point that the military fixed things for themselves and their supporters so that they would easily be able to retain power. If ever an election was rigged it was this one. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37013950 The result of the referendum on Thailand's new constitution has left many observers around the world baffled. Why would an electorate, denied any say over who governs them since a coup two years ago, vote to approve a charter which offers them only a semi-democracy? A charter which was condemned by human rights groups and by the two largest political parties as a means to entrench military rule for many years to come? When the UDD ( United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship ) saw what was coming they tried to establish an anti fraud center . They hoped to set up a nationwide network of centres to monitor possible fraud in the Aug 7 charter referendum. However when banners went up warning people of what was coming ... military officials removed them. The above banner in Lampang was removed by the order of the then Third Army commander , who is now , unsurprisingly , one of the current 250 senators. Prawit then ordered the UDD to close these fraud centers and then Prayuth then threatened the UDD with legal action : https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30288088 “What do I gain if there are frauds to rig the charter draft to pass or not pass the referendum?’’ he said. UDD leaders have said that after setting up the centre to monitor for fraud in the August 7 referendum, they would invite the United Nations, the European Union and foreign embassies in Thailand to the centre. Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said he would not allow the centre to be set up. “The referendum is our internal affairs. Why would they have to bring others in?’’ he said. Prawit said the country had the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Election Commission to monitor for referendum fraud. “Please stop, I plead with you,” he said. “If the UDD still go ahead, I will take legal action. “Our country will be in turmoil. Then why would we have these agencies in the country? Please be confident that we want the country to move forward.’’ It is easy to see that current events are just playing out a grand plan of the military and elite to retain power against all democratic voting outcomes. I thought back then that if ever there was a time to protest , it should have been when this phony constitution referendum was put forward. Nothing happened and now everyone can see the results of indifference and complacency.

Nope. For a civil war you need two well armed groups with opposing views. Thailand only has the one armed group For a civil war to kick off in earnest you would need a disaffected unit of the Thai army to make a drive on Bangkok with a view to bringing democracy to Thailand. A pretty unlikely scenario.............................sadly.

This volte face by PT will take the wrecking ball to their future chances in the next election. Clearly , one of the things a new government without Move Forward will do is get MF banned plus , importantly , stamp on any chance of it resurrecting itself for a third time. The elite are running scared to the degree that they are now getting into bed with the Shinawatras and visa versa.

Apparently this was the cruel joke : Nam, the daughter of Saknarin, reported that she and a friend were walking past the men when one suddenly urinated in their path causing them to flee but not before tripping and injuring herself.

What about a cashiers cheque. Can't you write one out for your wife so that if you croak she just cashes the cheque ?