spidermike007

Are you saying that when you go to renew your annual visa they won't put it in your new passport, but rather they'll put it in your expired passport? That doesn't make much sense.

I tend to agree, I really like the Thai people. I find most of them to be light-hearted and I find that it's very easy to get them to smile or to get them to laugh, as they can be quite playful. I don't find that to be the case in Vietnam. I've only been there three times but it's been over the course of 20 years and it's both the North and the South, and it's with and without a woman, so I feel like I speak from some experience. I considered a lot of Vietnamese people unfriendly and I considered some of them to be downright cold, they felt kind of like wet fish, which is a bit like the Chinese on the mainland. No thanks. Don't ever need to return.

What a worthless, pathetic worm. I just do not understand this kind of thing. When a relationship is not working out, a real man tries to make it work, and when he sees that she is not who he thought she was, and things are just not coming together, he walks away, holding his head high. Anyone man with self esteem, who is in possession of his manhood, just wishes the woman well, and walks away. With a failure like this total goon, one has to ask: 1. Who are his parents, and why did they fail so miserably? 2. Why did he stop maturing at the age of 13, and never become a man? 3. Why does he have no self esteem. What caused him to hate himself so much, that he could not just accept reality, and walk away? 4. Why does this worthless thug have so little respect for others, and for human life? One has to hope he will be locked up in prison for a very long time, and let us hope some of his fellow inmates teach him the kinds of lessons he should have learned long ago.

I've been told that you have to carry both passports when you travel. One with the visa in it, and then the new valid passport, until you get the new visa in the new passport.

Who sends a significant amount of money to somebody that they've never met face to face, without knowing that they're a very reputable and trustworthy company? There is a whole subculture in this world, who absolutely refuse to work for a living, and instead like to prey on those who are vulnerable, naive, dumb, and easy victims. It is our responsibility to be careful, prudent, willing to do some vetting, some research, some due diligence, anytime we part with cash. Especially online. Dealing with Ebay, Lazada, Amazon is one thing. You have recourse. But, dealing with Facebook vendors, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, dating sites, or any other social media, the scammers outweigh the real deals. People get taken every day. I get junk emails offering me at least $100 million a month. These people are parasites, they barely deserve the oxygen they consume, and we must do everything in our power to deny the online worms.

A lot of people just don't like low quality corporate junk food, and low quality corporate restaurants. I do everything in my power to avoid supporting those enormous chains and a would much rather support local businesses and Mom and type Pop operations.

You have to wonder who these people are that sit around in these offices dreaming up these schemes on almost a daily basis? There's are good reasons why wealthy people are avoiding Thailand, there are a dozen areas that should have, and could have been addressed over the past decade or longer, that the government's been ignoring. Those problems are not going away on their own. Wealthy people like to buy good wine at a fair markup. Wealthy people like to shop while on vacation, and are unwilling to spend $13,000 for a Prada handbag that they can get for $4,500 in Singapore and elsewhere. Wealthy people like to travel by helicopter locally. Wealthy people do not want to get on a dangerous, choked up highway and spend hours and hours in traffic. Wealthy people care about things like air quality, public safety, traffic safety, and effective law enforcement. The list goes on and on and on, when will these govt. nimwits wake up?

I'm just not a vaccine guy. I'm not antivax, if people want to get one, then power to them, but I don't feel like I need them to stay healthy, and I question their efficacy towards the latest variants. And I despise masks and will not be wearing one unless a very serious plague comes along.

As Trump started droning on and on about the need to take over democratic cities and states and complaining about democratic mayors and governors in addition to a tirade about the G7's unwillingness to accept Russia into the fold, Carney stepped in and brutally shut down the conference and stopped Trump in his tracks, the look on Trump's face was precious. America’s leader decided to open the international G7 summit with a long complaint, seemingly in support of Russia. Speaking before the global trade coalition, Donald Trump lamented that the group—which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the EU—would not allow Russia to join its ranks.

I do feel very welcome here and I very rarely ever feel anything north of indifference, which is something I can easily handle. I happened to countries where I have felt hostility such as in France and in Vietnam, but I find the Thai people to be quite warm and very gracious. I don't know if the Thai cities are overrun to the extent that some of the European cities are, I've been to Florence in May and it was fairly out of control. I've never seen concentrations of foreign crowds like that in Bangkok. Certainly in a couple of sections of Pattaya, Samui and Phuket you do have big concentrations of foreign crowds, and subsequently jaded locals who oftentimes appear to be quite fed up. But, who can blame them?

Well white rice is kind of like a blank canvas, and it absorbs the flavors of everything around it so certainly you can make an argument that you can make white rice taste great with anything from soy sauce to butter to spices, curries and whatnot. But I find that brown rice just has this wonderful rich flavor all on its own, which to me makes it pair with things even better with some foods. Grilled rotisserie chicken and brown rice, with some Sriracha sauce for instance, is amazing.

While I wholeheartedly agree with you in regard to your statements pertaining to immigration, I completely disagree with you in regard to Senator Padilla. He is a true gentleman, and he was escorted into the room by an FBI agent and a National Guard, so they knew exactly who he was and they just simply didn't like him speaking out and being critical. It's that simple, every single member of Trump's cabinet is completely intolerant of criticism, just like the huge Goon himself.

From my point of view there's no such thing as a tasty white rice, sure the Japanese are able to make it with more interesting texture, suitable for sushi and better than normal white rice, but if you want to talk about tasty rice you just have to start getting into the whole grain stuff. The whole grain jasmine's, the red rices, and the black rices, now those are tasty. Thailand creates some absolutely beautiful versions of organic whole grain rice.

It would appear that the worst the offense, and the more morally reprehensible the individual, the more likely they are to get a pardon from the Goon himself.

The most corrupt president in the history of America has likely earned that in one week, many sources are stating how he has earned billions since the beginning of his administration, a lot of it's being funneled through his sons, and the entire crime family continues to benefit. People accused Biden of being corrupt, but this guy makes Biden look like a saint.

Fascinating how I'm not hearing anybody speak about it nor am I hearing about anybody catching it. Other than in the news. I won't be wearing a mask anytime soon and I will not be getting any more covid vaccines. Something like the Bubonic plague would have to come along for me to get another vaccine, and the only reason I got the first two was so that I was able to travel. I depend upon my immune system which remains quite strong due to plenty of exercise a good diet some very beneficial herbal supplements and my daily sense of fulfillment. The variants will likely continue and by all accounts it appears to me to be getting weaker and weaker, and more and more feeble. Only those at very high risk seem to be harmed by it, so from my point of view it's a big nothing burger.

I think it's a great concept when it applies to repeat offenders, and it could be seen as a deterrent, the likes of which are which are sorely lacking here, but I doubt that it will ever be implemented. Law enforcement here is so weak, the police are so feeble, and if this law is implemented I fear will be highly selective and the worst type of people will get away with it, and the people that are the least deserving of the punishment will be harassed.

Now that is a very ugly incident, it just goes to show you when the Grim Reaper comes calling there is nothing you can do to avoid the inevitable. Yikes.

Again you're speaking without knowing the facts, he had been contacting her office consistently for 3 months requesting an interview, and they would not even give him the courtesy of a reply. He was with a national guardsman and an FBI agent being escorted to a meeting when he was told that Noem was speaking in the room and asked if he would like to ask her a question. Everyone knew who he was. Sometimes reality can be quite a different thing from total BS White House spin.

You're obviously speaking without knowing the facts, he was escorted into the room by an FBI agent and a National Guard after being told that Noem was speaking in there, so everybody knew who he was, the rest is as he said total BS and total nonsense, and nothing but a cover-up.

Thank you. Again, you have proven my thesis. As gentlemen we can have political discussions and though I think it is fine to criticize and insult the politicians it crosses the line when we start berating each other. I do have some friends that will come right out and say the man is a butthead, he's an idiot, and he's an absolute clown, but I like his policies. Or this policy is good, but that policy is really bad. Those are the Republicans I admire. With many people, once they got attached to a theory, it was hard to get them detached. They’d screen out unhelpful facts, invent favorable ones, and ignore contradictions in their own claims. Look at those Sandy Hook, multiple fraud convictions, and Jan. 6th truthers, babbling about false flags and crisis actors and all the rest. When people were motivated enough to believe something, they were going to believe it no matter what. There was no such thing as a bridge too far.

Even one virgin is not only over rated, but a real pain in the butt. One can only imagine 72 of them. No thanks. A total fantasy based on nothing but fake purity, medieval ridiculousness, and complete and total ignorance. Down with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He is a power hungry, serial killing freak, who claims to be a man of God. What a buffoon.

There we go with the juvenile name calling again, just like your political master you need to engage in abusive nonsense, rather than offering a rational policy argument.

I agree. But distraction and deflection is really all a lot of Republican voters have at this point, you can't defend the indefensible.

It's an interesting point that you bring up, and one that a lot of Republicans just don't understand these days. During the 20 years that Clinton, Obama and Biden were in office I was continually critical of their policies. Just look back at some of my posts when Obama and Biden were in power. I was not a big fan of Obama for many of the years that he was president and my posts reflect that. As a centrist democrat I criticized a lot of his policies. I see so little of that coming from Republicans these days, to point where their absolute fealty is actually quite frightening. Most just can't handle critique of Trump, they immediately clam up, get defensive and start making it personal. Instead of behaving like rational intellectuals and debating policy they just start throwing out nonsense, accusations that I've never criticized my own party, or that I get paid to be critical of Trump. That is not only ridiculous, it is inane. I wish somebody would offer to pay me to criticize Trump. I would spend my whole day doing it. Criticism and open mindedness is what independent thinkers engage in, and it sets them apart from dogmatic subjects of a wannabe king. I invite you to reflect on that for just a moment.