spidermike007

I completely agree it's one of the safest places I've ever been and I never fear for my safety in Thailand. The vast majority of the violence is Thai on Thai, and it's usually young punks, or related to drugs and other criminal activity.

One of the most astonishing things to me is the extent to which Trump supporters will defend his mistakes, his foibles, his ridiculously low quality appointments, and the mistakes that they make. During the 20 years that Clinton, Obama and Biden were in office I was a frequent critic of their policies as a Centrist Democrat, but it seems like very little of that courage is forthcoming from his current band of followers. Where is the self esteem in that? Certainly you can't be agreeing with absolutely everything that this guy is doing and and the way he's going about, doing what he's doing? Or does his demand of absolute fealty preclude rational and independent thinking?

This is the exact opposite of what the Dems need, they need to stay away from the progressive left, and they need a Centrist candidate who appeals to the general population. This is one of the reasons why they lost this past election, the fact that they cowered and surrendered to the progressive left. This is not what the party needs that would be a huge mistake. Shapiro, or Beshears would be far better choices.

Exactly. Just give it a little time this is exactly what Trump will do. He raised the deficit by $7.1 trillion last time, my estimate will be that it will be far more than that this time. And of course he has to ensure that Musk continues to pay no taxes in the US.

He has no sense of humor so he doesn't qualify to be that type of Marxist. He is the very dull and boring type.

I sure hope you are right.

The people elected him to get rid of illegal immigrants, not to arrest Europeans with green cards and other completely legitimate folks who were visiting or living in the US. As usual with Trump he has stepped over the line and again shot himself in the foot. He is such an incompetent goon, who has surrounded himself with nothing but incompetents and liars.

Russia more or less invented the use of Marxist propaganda in order to convince the public of concepts that were not based in fact, Trump is an expert at using this technique and therefore employs Marxist ideology when it comes to winning. And leading. He is a Marxist.

This is quite an astonishing thing considering the fact that the Vietnamese and Chinese people really don't like each other, due to much bad history. The reality is that the Thai government is leading the country backwards, while many countries in the region are moving forward.

Trump needs a distraction at this point, and he is flailing badly. Things are going badly for him and he thinks that this might provide the answer, however it could lead to a prolonged war, increased terrorism, and this is the man who promised we wouldn't get into another war. Right? And let us not forget that he was the one who dismantled the existing treaty to begin with during his first term, the man is an utter failure.

When I grew up if you liked guys you were either gay or bisexual. Now? The US and the UK are by far the most tolerant countries in the world when it comes to the whole trans, non-binary, amorosexual, decide whatever you want today, if it fits mentality. No other countries are as loose, driftless, and as silly as the US, and the UK. When a woman devotes her entire youth to a sport, and becomes one of the best in that particular area, and then a man comes along who decides to identify as a woman, and steals all the awards, all the victories, and all the accolades, something is not right in society. Something is broken, society has become morally bankrupt, and there has to be a pause, there has to be an interruption of the nonsense. No woman would survive more than 30 minutes in the NFL. Women will not participate in men's sports because they won't be able to handle the physical endurance required, nor the brutality, nor the talent level. A woman ranked #5 on the WTA could not beat a #758 man on the ATP as John McEnroe so truthfully stated. Hopefully all this craziness will pass and we'll return to some form of normalcy and indecency.

There's no doubt that Trump is just waiting for an opportune moment to get rid of this clown. When you select from the absolute bottom of the barrel these are the kind of problems that you end up with. A man of very modest intelligence, who was a very minor Fox News host, appointed to one of the most important positions in the US government with a Department of 2 million people. So what could possibly go wrong? No doubt both our allies and our enemies are finding this kind of appointee quite astonishing. And depending upon which side of the fence these allies and enemies are, it must be either very thrilling or very frightening. This absolute clown would be under qualified to lead the San Diego County chapter of the Boy Scouts.

It takes certain qualities to survive on the roads here. Patience, being very conscious of your surroundings, driving defensively, avoiding excessive speed, especially in town, following basic traffic rules and laws and avoiding being overly stupid, at all times. The theory of natural selection, means we all have to exhibit certain survival skills, to thrive in this world. Self protection is just one of those skills. Some have it, some do not.

Well I'm sure there's a number of blreasons behind this phenomenon, but could part of it be the fact that they're representing a morally bankrupt organization that really serves no purpose whatsoever? I wonder if part of this also might be the fact that these young boys are being subject to real discipline for the first real time in their lives .

Samui maybe idyllic for some people, but I left there nine years ago after massive over development, ridiculous traffic, and an extraordinary absence of local pride when it comes to maintaining the island. Not to mention a lot of price gouging. And now my friends who are still there tell me there's a huge Russian presence which diminishes the remaining joy even further.

It is an internationally accepted concept since World War II that any land amassed over the course of a war does not legally belong to the victor. The only true exception of this might be Israel which illegally seized a significant amount of land. Certainly the same applies to Russia and the pressure that Trump is putting on Zelensky to give up a very substantial portion of his nation is nauseating, pathetic, sickening, shameful and utterly desperate. In addition to showing a disgusting degree of butt kissing toward King Vlad.

That's quite a loaded question and it would probably take about 2 days to answer it properly, but I think it's safe to say that we're all looking for specific qualities, somebody who has your back, somebody who is devoted, kind, loving, affectionate, honest, caring, has a great sense of humor and a playful spirit, and a lot of fun to be around. The list goes on and on. Mine came from a very good family, really solid people, and she's just a very kind, decent human being. I realize I got lucky but for those of us with self-esteem we owe it to ourselves to spend the time and display the patience required to find one who is truly worthy of our devotion, don't you agree?

It's all about priorities and he cares not one iota for the common person. Just one more reason why we should never have a billionaire as a leader, much less one who's pathologically devoid of empathy, and at least partially insane, and completely detached from humanity.

Correct. As you know most Thais are incredibly self conscious and scared of what others think. Some of it has to do with just a very tribal mentality some of it has to do with a lack of self-esteem. If you're lucky you get a good one who's open to change and Improvement. If you are incredibly fortunate you get one who is the same lovely woman from one day to the next. She has a smile on her face when she wakes up in the morning. Never experienced that in the states. Some Thais manifest that unbearable lightness of being, that is so delightful to be around. I cannot really get enough of that spirit, and feel so blessed to be around that, and to have found such a well adjusted and delightful creature.

We've had a very different experience, most of the ones I know work very hard and send quite a bit of money home every month, so there is some variation in the quality of those who choose to bear children in Thailand. Being home would be ideal. But, these are not affluent folks.

Well that might be a slightly harsh way of looking at it, but the reality is that "the art of parenting" seems to be a lost art and that's not just in Thailand that's worldwide. I actually find the current generation of kids rather scary, though there will always be some cream that rises to the top, thankfully. But I get the general gist of your message, if you're not willing to really devote yourself, and make some huge sacrifices, just don't have kids! It is an incredibly irresponsible thing to do, if you're not prepared for it. If you're going to bring them into the world take good care of them, for God's sake.

I know with that spectacularly thin skin of yours anyone who disagrees with Trump on any level, for any reason, is very hurtful to you, and something that you simply cannot help but take personally. But facts are facts, and the man is a dunce.

An even bigger mistake is listening to Trump and thinking that anything anything he says is not propaganda. He is in reality a Marxist and a master at the use of propaganda. That's how he won.

The whole idea is to find a woman that you can relate to, and to find a woman that's worthy of your devotion, and part of that (for me at least) was finding a woman who was willing to live her life outside a box of extreme convention, so we are constantly demonstrating affection to each other in public. I don't care at all, and she's learned not to care as much about what total strangers think of us.

Trump does not know how the stock market works, but I think you can go one step further and say he does not know how the economy works, and on a more important level he knows nothing anything about globalization and all the intricacies involved in manufacturing internationally. There's a reason why that's taking place, there's a reason why manufacturing has shifted overseas. It didn't happen in a vacuum and that manufacturing will not return to the US, not during our lifetime. It is just a slogan and a concept that he used to very craftily deceive millions of people into voting for him. It would appear at this point that Trump's seesaw approach to tariffs is having a dire effect on the US economy, thousands of jobs are being lost every day, the stock market is crashing (and believe me that crash has only just begun) and many countries are re-thinking their relationships with the US, realizing that the US is not the dependable ally they thought it was. Many are avoiding visits to the US which could decimate American tourism, and many nations are likely planning their manufacturing in such a way that they are considerably less dependent on American imports, exports, and sales. So where does that leave America in the grand scheme of things, and how badly could Trump's policies come back and bite him on his enormous butt? Trump is very, very dumb. And he has no vision, and is getting terrible advice. He is a grand fool. A circus clown. In the minds of many of us Trump is grossly overestimating the importance of the US and the dependence of other nations on the US. Granted the US economy is still huge, but it's not immune to damage, it's not immune to punishment by other nations, it could start shrinking, and it's not immune to crashing.