spidermike007

This is a good thing. That betrayal should never be forgotten. The senate and army leadership is made up of weak, pathetic, cowardly, self entitled hooligans, who are accustomed to a perch atop the ivory tower, scared to death of being taken down a notch, and being asked to be accountable for their heinous and unforgivable actions. Of course they will resort to whatever dirty tactics they can. That is who and what they are. Filth. They are the deplorables. These lowlifes have been bullying the Thai people for decades now. Guess they never expected the favor to be returned. They all assume they are "above it all". Mightier than the masses. Too rich to touch. Well, perhaps things are about to change. Perhaps your lives are about to take a turn for the worse, and you and your families are going to be subject to intense harassment for the cowardly and highly dishonorable positions you accepted. After all, the fortune comes at some cost, right? Harass the army leaders and the senators, and their families. The kids benefit from the fortunes their parents make off their illicit jobs. They are treated special due to their parents positions. They need to know that their parents are monsters. We must stop coddling the kids. Life can and should be ugly for those gangster families. The people know the disqualification was a sham, an act of desperation, a power grab, an act of spectacularly, morally bankrupt power mongering men, and a total travesty. The army is far too powerful here, he knows that, and reform is needed. The sooner the better.

The will of the people is only relevant in a true democracy. In an army ruled autocracy, they ignore the election results, cast aside a young, capable reformer like Pita, and install an incompetent puppet like Sretta. They way of the Thai army is to pick a bottom of the barrel man like Prayuth, or Sretta. It has to be an unreliable poll, if Sretta got 22%. Why would he get that high a number? Familiarity? What has he done for the Thai people lately, besides making alot of declarations?

Pretzels. Pennsylvania Dutch style. Unfortunately, can't get them here. I haul them back from my trips to the US. Very crunchy, and fairly pure ingredients. But, fattening for sure.

I wanted to wish all my fellow posters on this forum a very happy holiday, and may the New Year bring good fortune, great health, many blessings, smooth sailing and much joy.

I used to know a woman who sold homemade coconut ice cream at a night market. Every single night she was out there, she sold out this enormous tub of ice cream and walked away with several thousand baht. She stopped selling because she sold out every night and it was too much work. Some seem to like it when business is really good and they are blessed to count their good fortune, some seem to really mind working so hard, or being too busy.

You are really quite a unique individual. I would consider some inner work, or some psychiatric assistance. Earnestly.

The MRT system has been an incredible success and with the congestion in Bangkok the monorails make perfect sense. If you look at an alternative to them, just look at the construction going on in Samut Sakorn, how long has it been? 15 years already and another 10 to 15 years to go?

I did. Concentrated milk, Disodium phosphate, Sodium ascorbate (vitamin C), Carrageenan, Cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). At least 50% milk product. Highly toxic and dangerous when left opened, and uncooled, in the heat. But, I know you won't agree. You must love hearing yourself argue.

I was scheduled for a full knee replacement 5 months ago, and my wife suggested I try Sesamin treatment. It is the extract of black sesame seed and it's the only compound known to mankind to actually regenerate cartilage. Two months into the treatment I canceled my knee operation, my discomfort is about 10% of what it was 4 months post cortisone shots, it feels like a naturalistic miracle. You might want to try something like that first. Available on Lazada and inexpensive. In addition, I take sea cucumber extract and circumin, both of which are known to dramatically decrease inflammation.

And I forecast that my business is going to pick up to $9 million a year next year, and my forecast is about as reliable as their forecast, especially when you have a forecast that is as ridiculously optimistic and pie in the sky as this one. There are truly an infinite number of variables, one of them being that the Chinese are not coming to Thailand nearly as much anymore, and the second being a high possibility of an oncoming recession. But perhaps they don't even take into account those minor factors.

Completely wrong. Many are predicting China's birthrate to fall to half of what it is now, within 40 short years. Many simply refuse to bring kids into today's world, or one at most. Very smart.

Please read the post above. It was willful sabotage of the economy. A horrific lack of judgment.

If course there will be many losers and alot of pain. But, it is the only path forward. Continued population growth will be far worse. This is a huge blessing for the planet and our quality of life. We just have to get Africa, and especially the Muslim nations on board.

You cannot explain it with logic, common sense and reason. But, you can explain it with deep seated and malicious pathology. How the Thai people got themselves into a position like this, with no moral authority whatsoever, anywhere to be seen, is a disaster. All the moral guidance and authority is gone. This is truly a very dark time for Thailand, it's people and much of the expat community. Some of the devastation can be blamed on Covid. Much of it can be blamed on Prayuth and his band of goons and thieves. It is more and more apparent by the day, that the destruction and sabotage of Thailand's tourism industry is likely deliberate, and planned out. Nothing else makes sense. They have been wanting to get rid of the nightlife for as long as they have been in power. What better way to do this, than use the cover of Covid? Reduce the entire industry to ashes, then rebuild it, in their own pure as snow image. Without a trace of nightlife, or a hint of a sex industry. Of course we know this will not only mean a total failure to ever revive the tourism industry, but likely a larger sex industry. Try to stop it, and oppress it, and what happens? It just grows. When you have a nation that pays 3,000 to 5,000 baht a month more for a college graduate with a 4 year degree (after a very expensive education) than an unskilled laborer, what choice do some women have? Just "say not to sex" is as stupid and misguided as "just say no to drugs". But stupid barely even begins to describe the current leadership. Possibly moronic, fake, misguided, arrogant, out of touch, pathological, lacking one iota of compassion, black hearted, misled, ill informed, and incapable to leadership is closer to the mark. Extreme cowardice or willful sabotage? You choose. Woe is Thailand. It feels like willful sabotage. You cannot kill tourism more effectively, if you were doing it deliberately. Therefore, the verdict is in. They are trying to reduce the industry to ashes, and rebuild it in their own image. That of saints, sages and holy Buddhists. Put all the bars, nightclubs, go-go's, and related businesses out of business entirely. Then rebuild the industry as a Disneyworld, family type attraction. Pure as winter snow.

There is such a callous disregard for public safety here. I wonder if the monk even looked at oncoming traffic before he attempted to cross the highway? My guess is that he didn't. I see so many people crossing the road here without even looking, no regard to safety, same applies to motorcycles and cars cutting in front of oncoming traffic, they barely look before they lunge ahead.

Any administration here that has any associations whatsoever with the extremely toxic Thai military like the current one, is always going to use fear mongering as a way to keep the population at bay, under control, and very scared. How about just encouraging people to use mosquito repellent?

Well nobody really knows how China is doing at this point, as the economic numbers are like all fake, but I'm hearing stories that there are massive outflows of laborers from the cities, back of the provinces as Chinese production is way down. Hopefully this trend will continue and China will no longer be a huge factor down the road. They are not reliable allies and their expansionist hopes and dreams have no boundaries. The Chinese need to be stopped and hopefully this is happening as we speak. The CCP are power hungry hooligans and I don't think they would get away with being able to take Taiwan.

I think something like this should be a mandatory death penalty, you set the example, no tolerance for this kind of nonsense. I've heard so many stories about embezzlement of funds by Thai Monks, and the level of tolerance that society shows toward it is unacceptable. Time for this kind of thing to stop, lock them up, or execute them.

This from a man who has how 11 children! I admire him on alot of levels, but he has a Mormon lifestyle, when it comes to child production. His perception of child bearing is bizarre. Within two decades, the Tesla founder has become a father of 11 children with three women. His first child was born in 2002 and his most recent in 2023. The first six children he shares with his ex-wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson.

I've seen some recent studies that have China's population dropping to 650 million by the year 2060, multiple predictions also have shown Thailand's population to drop to 35 million within that same period. The people are just getting smart and many are deciding not to have children, or to have one child at the most. This is not a great time to be bringing children into the world, and people are wising up. I don't think they're going to be able to reverse that trend. And it's a good thing overall, though some pain will be felt, no doubt. World population needs to drop. If you look at the curves birth rates are falling all over the world, except in Africa, the forlorn continent. Falling in China, Thailand, Japan, etc. Some are predicting China's population to fall to 650 million within 50 years, the crisis is that bad. I don't call it a crisis. I think it's a huge blessing. We report on China whose birth rate in the last year has fallen to the lowest level on record while American research shows more adults who do not already have children are saying they are unlikely to ever have them. Hooray!!! https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/the-51/20220121-global-decline-in-birth-rates-should-we-worry Japan's population is projected to fall from a peak of 128 million in 2017 to less than 53 million by the end of the century. Italy is expected to see an equally dramatic population crash from 61 million to 28 million over the same timeframe. They are two of 23 countries - which also include Spain, Portugal, Thailand and South Korea - expected to see their population more than halve. Hooray!!! https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521

This is pure ridiculousness. Someone appears to be very high. They would be very fortunate to get close to the 25 million they are claiming for this year. And the real figure was likely 15 million. They counted me 4 times. And they likely counted every head that showed up at Swampy. Businessmen, expats going back and forth, etc. An inaccurate reflection of tourism arrivals, for sure. Next year? Likely a coming recession. Some nations are already there. Alot of headwinds. Prices rising. Thailand is losing some of its luster. As prices rise, tourism will fall. Tourists are very price sensitive when it comes to Thailand, as the vast majority are low to middle income. Very few wealthy tourists visiting Thailand right now, for a dozen good reasons. Total malarkey, as they say in my old neighborhood.

Excellent news. The economy here is soft. As it is in many places. People are cutting back. These clowns are not exempt. I would also bet occupancy rates are relatively low, for all but the top properties, during the current peak season. As they were last year too.

Exactly, for me covid was like a relatively mild flu, a day of very low energy, 2 days of nasal congestion and sniffles, and then a cough that lasted for a few days. No big deal at all, but I am referring to Omi, and not Delta. But each subsequent variant has been getting weaker, so that's good news right? Covid is a has been. It is like an endemic flu now.

Monks are just like everybody else, they're just normal people with a robe. So there's a good chance that this guy simply did not look before crossing the road. I see so many people that are doing this all the time, it is quite astonishing to me that one would not be concerned about bodily harm, when crossing a major highway on foot. And no, Buddha, God, nor any other supernatural force will not protect you, if you are not protecting yourself.

It's always a good idea. I've been doing this for many years, I always check to make sure that the meter is on zero before they start pumping. This scam has existed for decades all over the world.