spidermike007

You are a puppet. No doubt. Controlled by the army, and other powers. No point in protesting. We all know what's going on and there's no logic to your denials, they are only that. Simple denials trying to obfuscate the truth which will be believed by only the most naive.

Exactly. And it is likely that many of us who are not currently taxpayers in Thailand will not be affected one iota.

That is such a sad predicament. I had a very good American friend many years ago who ended up in the same predicament, he was smart, he worked hard, great sense of humor and alot of passion for life. He just had a streak of bad luck and ran out of money. After much effort trying to stay here, he ended up moving back to America, as his family offered to help. The only job that he could get back there was working in a Kmart and he was so depressed after 6 months he took his own life. He wanted more than anything to be able to return to Thailand and he just couldn't see a clear path to making that happen. It is very, very sad and I would not wish that fate upon anybody. He was a really great guy. I still miss him, and I am sure many feel the same way.

Although there are certainly some credible allegations that have materialized, since the whole Weinstein scandal broke, there are also alot of opportunists who have used this as a pretext for their agendas. Let's face it. Women have been using their femininity to get ahead for millennium. And there is nothing wrong with that. We use what we have to work with. But, the burden of proof is so minor these days, and reputations and lives can be shattered with one allegation. The system must work to establish a burden of proof on the accuser, and must set the bar higher than it currently is. The histrionics from some members of the movement, like Rosie O'Donnell, and especially the hysterical Minnie Driver, have been too much. When Matt Damon spoke out, and defended George Bush Sr. for patting a woman lightly on the butt, she excoriated him. When Damon had the audacity to say there is a big difference between patting a woman on the butt, and rape, she screamed no. It is about the same thing. Come on. There have to be limits. It is not the same thing! The idea of sexual harassment in the US, has passed all reasonable boundaries. When Matt Damon recently came out and stated that there was a big difference between a little pat on the butt, and forceful rape, he was nearly crucified by some women in Hollywood, (especially the shrill, elderly, and way, way, way past the sell by date) Minnie Driver. That alone demonstrated to the most reasonable mind, how far out of control this "war on men" has gone. It is beyond ridiculous. It is petty, silly, surly, and just plain old dumb. Not to say there are not men who deserve it. But, a pat on the butt, or a man putting his hand on a woman's thigh, when they are engaged in a friendly conversation is NOT the same as rape and does not constitute sexual harassment. And yes, I would feel the same way if it happened to my daughter. Give me a break. This whole situation is stupid. American men have been emasculated already. Now, it is getting so extreme, pretty soon it might be illegal to even possess a male organ in the US. So, I propose this. When a woman accuses a man of "sexual harassment" the burden of proof lies on her. She has to demonstrate some evidence. Otherwise, it is he said, she said. And in the US, she said always wins out.

While some accusations of sexual harassment are totally valid, there needs to be some burden of proof, it is simply not enough for a woman to say it happened, there needs to be some proof. Videos, recorded conversations, etc. For a woman to just simply say he touched me and made me feel uncomfortable, what does that really mean? Where did he touch you, how did he touch you, did he just touch your shoulders, are you being overly sensitive, what's really going on here? With the uber PC movement that's going on right now, careers are ruined over one statement from a woman. Is there a possibility that she has an agenda? Of course there is.

Many women all over the world are on their best behavior initially, once they have their hooks in you they just don't feel the motivation to continue to behave like decent people, and you start to see who the real person is. This is why I always advocate taking your time, a year, 2 years, 3 years, maybe 5 years to really get another the woman and really get to know who you're dealing with. Her upbringing, her issues, her neurosis, her baggage, how she deals with difficulties and challenges, and whether or not you're able to establish open lines of communication. All of that stuff is essential for a good, healthy long-term relationship. I am with a wonderful woman from Issan, and some of her personal development has come through our discourse and discussions about relationships, and some of it just came from being from a great family and being a wonderful human being. Don't give up. There are some really good Thai women out there.

While I'm sure many of us appreciated your essay on the lack of rehabilitation in regard to imprisonment, a lot of the ideas that you've discussed requires a tremendous amount of vision, planning, will, volition, and a true desire to see real improvement in society. Do you detect any of that in the leadership here at this time? That would be my primary question for you. So, what to do with these cretins.

There is no vision. Never has a truer statement ever been uttered about the leadership in Thailand.

Just like the South China Sea. The ambitions of the Chinese for expansion know no bounds. Just give it some time and all of this will be seen very very clearly. Xi and his CCP goons are up to no good.

So the perpetrator gets off the hook because she was a victim of society? It is likely not many of us are going to be buying into that explanation.

Exactly, they should be on trial, their passports should be revoked, they should be in a jail cell awaiting trial, and if not held accountable by the Thai people how about the Hague? They committed countless crimes against the Thai people.

All the more reason to call out the Thai officials for not having any sort of plan to speed up the movement of cargo, and figure out a way to ease the congestions on the highways. They are literally decades and decades behind the curve.

Good. There is no reason to be promoting, nor preying upon 17-year-old women. Hopefully a few years in the slammer might change her perspective on life. However we all know that if she has enough money she will never even see a court of law.

He was likely very drunk and in no condition to be riding a motorbike at night. Trees are extremely unforgiving, and if you run into one all bets are off.

In Thailand I would estimate that it is anybody with 50 million Baht or more in liquid assets. It's a whole different definition in the West, where things are infinitely more expensive.

Something like this has to be infinitely better than a retirement home in the West. Very few back there are pleasant or fun. I would imagine one in Thailand would have sweet, cute nurses and attendants with a good sense of humor, and it would be an entirely different atmosphere. Good on them for getting away from the misery of the West.

Well we certainly hope you guys are wrong, and you guys are wrong quite often. Meteorology and baseball are the only two professions where you get paid a lot of money to be wrong more than 70% of the time.

Such unbelievably fake purity, such hypocritical nonsense, such churlish, childlike, juvenile behavior on the part of the heinous CCP. Do you think you guys fool any of us, or any of the public for even one nanosecond?

His Master's in the army nearly destroyed the tourism industry, and deliberately decimated the nightlife, so that they could remake Thailand in their own image of (fake) purity and sanctification. Now that income is way down and tourism is way down, they are making a desperate attempt to rebuild the nightlife they sabotaged. Where is the vision? Where is the common sense? Where is the reason? Where is the ability to lead?

I use sleeping pills, I find that to be a magical solution for jet lag. You still get a little bit tired during the day but you get a really good night's sleep at night. Also you have to listen to the body clock, if the body's telling you it wants to sleep, you just let it sleep for a while.

Common sense and reason both. I once spoke to a Thai who spoke good English, and I asked him about that, and he said we have common sense and reason but we have Thai common sense and we have Thai reason and you would not recognize what that is.

Well it's been at least 60 years since a single Thai member of the Navy has piloted a submarine, so it's very likely correct what do you are speculating about. Has anyone considered the ramifications of that? Has anyone stopped to think about maintenance, the cost of maintenance, the difficulty of maintenance. I wonder how many aspects of the future of this fleet have been considered?

And that is how you know that society is somehow upside down, when you can't save somebody for fear of blame.

We don't want your junk sub. But, we're a bunch of overgrown boys with a big budget, who want to impress people with big toys that are very, very expensive. We don't really have a need for your boats but we like the idea of seeming like big important men. What can you sell us?

If anyone gave this guy credit for being intelligent, that has gone out the window after claiming that he was elected by the people. How on earth is anybody supposed to buy his nonsense after making a statement like that? Selected by the toxic army maybe, elected by the people, absolutely not. Sretta, you are a stooge and you seem to be the only one who does not know that.