spidermike007

There is no doubt that this man is an absolute animal and has committed an untold number of atrocities against people trying to get into the business, and against women who likely hoped he would open some doors for them. And this kind of things been done throughout the ages, and if it's just plain sex and it's consensual it's likely no big deal. But when there's violence involved, when there's coercion involved, when there's a powerful person totally taking advantage of somebody in a dishonest and foul manner, then you have a monster who is pure evil and needs to be punished decisively.

Nowhere else in the world have I seen people consistency take the kinds of chances and risks in the road, that they take here, with their families in the car. Nowhere. When they could have waited four seconds to make the uturn or turn onto the highway, and have a completely clear path, they instead choose to take a tremendous risk. It is beyond comprehension. I see it all the time. My eyes do not lie to me. This rarely ever happens to me in the US. If I decide to cut you off on a highway, when you are going 120kph, and I am making a u-turn, and there was plenty of room behind you for me to make a safe turn, is that an error, if it results in a horrific, fatal accident, and I take the lives of you and your family? Sometimes an error is wearing white after Labor day in New York City. And sometimes an error is invading Russia before the oncoming winter. It most certainly has something to do with the inability to visualize. Neither the future, nor the hypothetical. What will happen in this scenario? What about this? What about that? What are the inherent risks involved in piloting my bike, car or truck onto the safety lane of a major highway, in the wrong direction, with big trucks coming at me at 100kph? Or onto a lane of a major highway, with oncoming traffic going 120kph? Is it worth sacrificing my life, or my ability to walk for the rest of my life? How will my death affect my kids? Hold on, what about the lives of my wife, kids and sister who are in the vehicle with me, and I am responsible for their safety. Wow. That would be a big loss. An entire family. Maybe I should act like an adult, and be prudent and careful.

It's just a nearly insane super freak, with too much cash on his hands, showing fealty to his political master. Be obedient my boy. You know me if someone says something bad about me I hate them, and If I don't like someone, you shouldn't either!

Nobody knows the extent to which these top generals and top ministers have enriched themselves over the years, we could be talking about billions of baht. Nobody knows, because no investigation is allowed and journalism here is inhibited to the point where one truly has to question if Thailand is anything resembling a democracy. This is just a symbolic gesture intended to deceive the most naive amongst us.

The wine import duties in Thailand are insane, and the government is denying themselves a potentially huge industry in fine wine at wine shops, good hotels, wine events, wine festival. The wine could be promoted on so many different levels and there's no doubt that if they got rid of so many of the taxes that are applied to wine and reduced the import duties by 80% across the board at the wine industry would be 10 times larger than it is now.

Thaopipob Linjittkorn, or Thao as he is more popularly known, a lawyer and homebrewer, was very publicly arrested in 2017 for making beer. He used that publicity to win an election to Parliament in 2019, along with 80 other members of the Future Forward Party. This progressive, pro-democracy party included in its platform a detailed plan to deregulate the beer industry, as well as a proposal for the legalization of marijuana, citing both as ways of putting money into the pockets of small businesses and local farmers. The opposition that Future Forward was up against is a military-backed, hardline government that supports the duopoly with strict regulations that allow it to control over 99% of Thailand’s estimated 180 billion baht ($5.8 billion) beer industry. The duopoly was originally made untouchable with the first Thai Liquor Control Act in 1950, a law which has been amended several times since to push legality even further out of reach of any small brewer. Prayuth's administration has done much to reinforce the isolationist and nationalistic policies that Phibul established in the 1940s and ’50s, and has called again and again for citizens to display a certain level of “Thainess,” which the PM defines in part as unquestioning loyalty to the government. Do not be disobedient! For some very small men, craft beer is associated with anti-establishment politics. “It’s very similar to the French Revolution, which started from a cafe in Paris, where people drank coffee,” says Taopiphop. “The fuel of the revolution is not coffee any more, it’s craft beer.” Taopiphop adds that, after the 2014 coup in Thailand, many pro-democracy activists chose to meet in Bangkok’s craft beer bars. If only the younger Thais were allowed to express themselves, be inventive, be creative, be industrious, and use their smarts and ambition, Thailand could have a future. Craft beer is needed here, and so are the young entrepreneurs. But, that future appears to be suppressed at every turn by dinosaurs, who only answer to money, money, and even more money. Money is the God of lesser men. The money first attitude is holding back Thailand on so many levels.

I was in Europe recently, and you are right. The US is now more expensive than Europe, in so many areas and in so many levels. The current US economy is unsustainable.

Yikes. The beach is such a natural place to urinate. The waves lap it up within seconds. Glad we don't have to concern ourselves with what most activists are doing. Most "activists" these days are merely netizens. Getting up off your bum and actually doing something is far different than moaning, groaning and criticizing on social media. For me, that amounts to next to zero, in terms of courage. Being outraged is simply participating in victim culture, and weak PC nonsense, which is degrading society and preformed mostly by weaklings. Everything sparks debate these days, everything seems to offend the snowflakes, everything seems to cause "netizen outrage". Who cares, it means nothing, it is less than zero. Outrage is simply a manifestation of weak victim culture.

He sounds like he's lost the plot about comparable to the extent to which Trump has lost the plot. They both seem to have degenerated into their own unique type of insanity. The fact that he supports Trump tells you everything you need to know about Trump's economic policies and how favorable they're going to be to huge corporations. It's all about the money.

They booted out Pita for alot less, and he was duly elected, not appointed. Lock her up.

He not only lost the debate, he was bloodied and wounded 15 minutes into it. She baited him like a 13 year old adolescent. Poor guy. Of course he wouldn't want to debate her again. His cognitive decline is downright alarming. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're taking your pets.

I wouldn't expect to get very far with them unless you have Brad Pitt looks, or you're a centimillionaire.

Yes. Definitely. I have a lovely home that I rent, for about 10% of what I would pay in California, I live very well on an income which is not huge, have access to great health care, at a tiny fraction of what it costs in the US, and do not have to put up with alot of the aggravation that I had to when I lived back there. It is a very personal choice. I have friends who seem to be dropping like flies. I could be dead next year. You just don't know. I am not extravagant, but I live very, very well. A nice house, a new car every few years, new motorbikes for my gal and I every few years, a great art collection, plenty of good wine in the wine cooler, a new 77" OLED TV, a world class home theatre, plenty of international travel, etc. For me, it is a great lifestyle, that I could only dream of in the US. Well worth the expense and very easy to justify. Life is way too short. In the US the prices and inflation are now mind blowing. The cheapest lunch we have found was $30 for two. That is 1,000 baht, anytime you want something basic. A bag of groceries is 3,000 baht. A friend of mine is looking for an apartment to move to in LA, and really small, simple places are 70,000 baht per month. Nice two bedrooms are closer to 100,000 baht. Decent homes start at 125,000 baht per month. The cost of nearly everything has gone up dramatically. Runaway inflation? I had my motorbike seat redone on a scooter. 400 baht. A friend of mine had similar work done in the US. $275. I recently had a guy come over and insulate my ceiling. I bought the insulation and paid him 2000 baht for labor. In the US? $500 and up. I recently had an electrician do some work on the house. Nearly a full day of work. Paid him 1000 baht. In the US? $500 and up. An oil change for my scooter costs me 200 baht, with Castrol oil. In the US? $75. When I travel here I stay in nice four star hotels in Bangkok. Usually 1800-2500 baht. In the US? $130 for a crappy motel. $200 and up for a nice room. I eat well here. In a smaller town you can get a three course meal for 150-250 baht. In the US? 2000 baht and up, plus tax and a nearly mandatory 15% tip. I visit the emergency room here to visit a specialist, and with x-rays I am out the door for 2000 baht, at a private hospital. In the US? $300-2000. An anecdote on this subject. A good friend of mine got in a bad motorcycle accident some time ago. He almost lost his leg. He got his first of 11 operations at Bangkok Hospital Samui. It costs him over a million baht. They wanted to do a second procedure. They quoted him 1,400,000 baht. He decided to transfer to Bangkok. He was quoted 460,000 baht for the same procedure, at a top private hospital there. The surgeon told him that he worked at a public hospital too, and could do the same operation there, for alot less money. He told him he would get him a quote. In the interim, my friend called a good friend of his, in San Diego, who is an orthopedic surgeon. Since my friend is a retired chiropractor, he knew all the terminology, and explained what he needed, and asked for the best price. His friend called him back the next day, and quoted him $960,000, with cash discounts! The local surgeon here got back to him, and told him he could do it for 46,000 baht. He transferred, and they did all the rest of his procedures. So, 1,400,000 at Bangkok Hospital, 460,000 at Vejthani Hospital, and 46,000 at the public hospital, with an excellent surgeon. VS. 31,000,000 baht in the US. Again, no complaints from this peanut gallery. Friends of mine, who are single, enjoy the company of a young, beautiful woman for a couple of hours, for 2500 baht. In the US? $800 an hour now for a beauty, with alot of attitude. I could go on and on, all day long. I live at a level here, that I would never be able to live at, in the US, in most of Europe, in Oz, or Canada.

Sorry I assumed they were both Aussies, of course I was talking about the perpetrator.

A rather typical statement in this day and age, and very much to be expected. The idea of moderation just doesn't seem to be quite as common in politics anymore, and there's an awful lot of extremism on both sides both with the progressive liberals and with many of the Trump Republicans.

There are so many terrible movies coming out these days. Hollywood seems to have completely lost the plot, having said that I like Crowe, I think he's quite talented, he has done a lot of good films, and this sounds like a pretty good concept. I look forward to it.

Quite a few of my friends who plan to vote for Trump tell me they think he's a butt head, they think he's a racist, they think he's a hateful divider, they deplore him as a human being, they think he's a terrible example of what a man can become, but they support his policies more than the other side. Mature, well-developed Republicans can at least admit to his defaults as a human being.

Well for one thing Trump has given people permission to be racist, he has given them permission to hate, and he has given them permission to be intolerant. I used to pride myself in thinking that I came from a nation that was one of the most tolerant in the world. I was so wrong about that. I do understand some of the support that he has. As a centrist democrat I'm not particularly enchanted with the alternative, but I will take her over him. I would take Miley Cyrus over him,, I would take Pauly Shore over him.

Correct. Trump does appear to be a socialist at heart. Huge tax hikes, disguised as spectacularly stupid and highly ignorant tariffs. And we thought he knew something about the business world, oh we were so silly to buy into that.

There is no doubt that if he loses he will contest it, after all this is not a man of grace or dignity, and he knows nothing of fair play. He has he spent his entire career engaging in malpractice, fraud, scams, and lies, so one can only expect that from this man, when he most likely loses next month.

Yes but only for one more month. After Trump loses the second time he will likely be banished and I doubt that the majority of his supporters will stick with him. After all nobody likes a loser right? Perhaps at that point the Republican Party can claw back some of its morality and ethics.

I wonder how well these guys knew each other? Sounds like they may have simply been acquaintances. It's never a good idea to punch someone in the face when they're standing on the sidewalk or the street. Anytime someone gets knocked down to the pavement all bets are off, anything could happen. The head is so delicate, hitting it in the wrong spot can cause instantaneous death. I know a few Aussies who tend to be quite aggressive when drunk, I know one who's been beating his wife to the point where you could barely recognize her face. Finally after several assaults she has left him, thankfully. The man does not have one redeeming quality and his entire body. I don't know how indicative he is of Australian men in general, but this guy is a real low life. Now this Aussie bozo who was simply acting out is on the hook for murder, and will likely spend decades in The slammer. Very few hearts will bleed.

Anytime the Russian government, Putin, or the Kremlin says something it is a lie, and every time they do something such as an assassination or an attempted assassination, and then go about denying it, it is a lie. That government is one of the most foul and heinous on the planet, and they cannot be trusted for a nanosecond. Their intentions are nothing but heinous, and as far as the world is concerned they have brought absolutely nothing to the table in the last 50 years.

I consider social media to be the most destructive force in contemporary culture today. Children are growing up now in a world where they expect immediate response, gratification and notification. Their brains no longer have time to evolve; they must adapt to change in an instant, and the results are distressing. The difficulties of growing up have never been so public. Social technology provides a platform where things can run wild. Imagine the stress of high school – the competition for popularity, the pressure to fit in, the judgmental nature of social activities – at an accelerated pace. We try to protect our children from wandering off into the darkness on their own, and it turns out they are doing exactly that – online. When they get older and “ready,” we send them off to college, where they face more pressures. But social media has an infamous dark side and the more people share, the more serious this side becomes. As it turns out, living your life online has serious consequences for your self-esteem, your relationships, and your career prospects. And it is a strong indication of just how bent, warped and misguided contemporary culture and society is, that someone can be considered an idol or celebrity just because they have alot of followers on Tik tok, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Personally, I consider social media to be the most corrosive and degenerate force in culture today, and they can be downright dangerous, on multiple levels.

He is extremely desperate and he is in the beginning stages of severe cognitive decline and it's a horrific thing to watch, he's an increasingly dangerous man and having him as the oldest elected president in history would not be a good thing. He rambles on and on, and it is easy to discern that he has a very hard time maintaining a thought for more than 15 seconds. He is, and has always been the master of slogans, and memes, but the public is just getting tired of the same game, day in and day out. He does not possess the creative juice to adapt, and that is absolutely killing his campaign, at this point. He is headed for the greatest humiliation of his lifetime. He's old, he's tired, he's now the oldest person to ever run for president, he's feels like he's 85 or 90 right now, he seems to be losing interest, he seems to be losing the plot, his message is getting tired, he has no ability to dance on his feet and be creative, and adapt, and he just seems to be disintegrating before our eyes, which is a beautiful thing to watch. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're taking your pets!