spidermike007

You are embracing impossible dreams. I understand why one would want to hope, but hoping against hope is a bizarre and dangerous thing. The US will never ever be the country that it once was, those days are long gone, the 50s and 60s were the heyday and since the 90s the US has been on a slow decline that will not stop, regardless of what this absolute goon promises.

Yes. It is a derogatory term regardless of how normalized it's become here, and I always refer to people from other countries as foreigners, and refuse to use the word farang. And it's most polite version it means outsider or "not one of us". For an expat who's been living here for many years and contributing to Thailand in countless ways, that is an insult, and I don't like it, nor will I use the term.

As a Westerner I can accept blame, apologize for an offense caused and take responsibility for my actions. No big deal. I care not one iota if I "lose face". Means less than zero to me what others think of me. Some will say it is a cultural difference. True. But, what about the deeper aspects of self esteem and having enough of it to be able to act like a man? A real man (or woman) accepts responsibility for problems they have caused. When that is being constantly deflected due to a pathological fear of looking bad in the eyes of others, that creates enormous problems for society. I despise the practice of face, and think it is the single greatest weakness of many Thai people. Own up and do what is right. Behave like a decent person and a responsible citizen.

True story. 30s is too soon. Dying in your 30's is tragic. As is the 40s Sympathy dissapates from there. 50s is such a shame 60s is too soon 70s is a good run 80s is a life well lived 90s - is a fricking hell of a ride

Just another TAT sponsored delinquent tourist, when you invite in the lowest of the low, when you make visa requirements zero, you're going to get a lot of ignorant fools who misbehave. That seems to be the nature of alot of Thai tourism in 2025. Quantity over quality never works unless you're selling $2 items at a swap meet. The Goombas just don't seem to understand that, and they don't seem to be willing to make the sacrifices required to attract more affluent tourists. Contrary to popular opinion within official circles, Thailand is not the center of the known universe.

This is not Mexico this is New Mexico, and if you hadn't realized it it's an entirely different country. And I don't not think New Mexico is considered to be a dangerous place. Hackman has appeared to be quite frail for some time, and there is always a possibility that is wife was so distraught over it, and he had had enough, and that it was just a planned family suicide. If I was 95 years old and in bad shape I'd probably be looking for a way out too.

These kinds of crimes are an abomination against nature and the environment, and they should find the owner of the cruise ship and put him in prison for 50 years or the remainder of his life. It might send a message. Unfortunately this kind of thing is happening with container ships and cruise ships all over the world, all over the high seas. In general we have no respect for this planet and we're behaving as if we have nine alternative planets we can move to, once we completely trash this one. We are certainly doing a good job of trashing this one, and it's just further proof that mankind is devolving, and we've been moving backwards for at least the last 30 years. Evolution has stopped on planet Earth!

While I agree that changes are needed, reform is needed and there is a massive amount of waste in the system, his bull in the China closet approach may not be the best way to handle this. Especially in regards to poverty stricken children who are now being deprived of their medicine and are dying daily, due to his heartless manner. Their blood is on his tiny hands.

Any dog who bites any human being in a serious manner should be put down within 24 hours no questions asked and no appeals possible dog should never be given priority over humans and doing so is a sign of a broken society. Not only that but the owner should face a massive fine there's just no excuse to have a poorly behaved dog who's aggressive toward others, especially defenseless children.

If anybody thought that Trump was was sane, I think on a daily basis he's proving this to be untrue. The man is completely unhinged, every day is a new adventure for him. Every day he continues his sabotage of the world order and diminishes the influence of America. His ignorance knows no bounds. He has no understanding of world ecosystems when it comes to globalization and he is not smart enough to be able to understand how these systems work, therefore his propaganda is always of a very simplistic nature, and reminds me of Marxism quite a bit. It’s a total mess. As the Ford Motor chief executive Jim Farley courageously (compared to other chief executives) pointed out, “Let’s be real honest: Long term, a 25 percent tariff across the Mexico and Canada borders would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we’ve never seen.” So, either Trump wants to blow that hole, or he’s bluffing, or he is clueless. If it is the latter, Trump is going to get a crash course in the hard realities of the global economy as it really is — not how he imagines it. Ecosystems? Listen a bit to Beinhocker, who is also the executive director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. In the real world, he argues, “There is no such thing as the American economy anymore that you can identify in any real, tangible way. There’s just this accounting fiction that we call U.S. G.D.P.” To be sure, he says, “There are American interests in the economy. There are American workers. There are American consumers. There are firms based in America. But there is no American economy in that isolated sense.” The old days, he added, “where you made wine and I made cheese, and you had everything you needed to make wine and I had everything I needed to make cheese and so we traded with each other — which made us both better off, as Adam Smith taught — those days are long gone.” Except in Trump’s head. Instead, there is a global web of commercial, manufacturing, services and trading “ecosystems,” explains Beinhocker. “There is an automobile ecosystem. There’s an A.I. ecosystem. There’s a smartphone ecosystem. There’s a drug development ecosystem. There is the chip-making ecosystem.” And the people, parts and knowledge that make up those ecosystems all move back and forth across many economies. As NPR noted in a recent story about the auto industry, “carmakers have built a vast, complicated supply chain that spans North America, with parts crossing back and forth across borders throughout the auto manufacturing process. … Some parts cross borders multiple times — like, say, a wire that is manufactured in the U.S., sent to Mexico to be bundled into a group of wires, and then back to the U.S. for installation into a bigger piece of a car, like a seat.” Trump just waves off all of this. He told reporters that the U.S. is not reliant on Canada. “We don’t need them to make our cars,” he said. Actually, we do. And thank goodness for that. It not only enables us to make cars cheaper, but also better. All that a Model T did was get you from point to point faster than a horse, but today’s cars offer you heating and cooling and entertainment from the internet and satellites. They will navigate for you and even drive for you — and they’re much safer. When we can combine more complex knowledge and complex parts to solve complex problems, our quality of life soars. But here’s the catch. You cannot make complex stuff alone anymore. It’s too complex. And if you are not part of these ecosystems, your country will not thrive.” And trust is the essential ingredient that makes these ecosystems work and grow, Beinhocker adds. Trust acts as both glue and grease. It glues together bonds of cooperation, while at the same time it greases the flows of people, products, capital and ideas from one country to the next. Remove trust and the ecosystems start to collapse. Trust, though, is built by good rules and healthy relationships, and Trump is trampling on both. The result: If he goes down this road, Trump will make America and the world poorer. Mr. President, do your homework.

They must do everything in their power to maintain the integrity and the good standing of Pattaya. It is a city of such purity that incidents like this run the risk of creating a deterioration of the social fabric, these things cannot be allowed to happen, we must maintain absolute purity.

Bowing down to the heinous and toxic Masters! There is no doubt that these people being deported are in for a world of hurt. As much as Xi and China tries to deny it, we know what they're up to. And it's no good. This is definitely a boil on the face of Thailand and it shows just where the heart and soul of this young PM, the elites here, and her father is. And it's a very very ugly place.

I don't cower in the face of ridiculousness, and I don't succumb to a law passed by cowards, for cowards. I commit "so called defamation" regularly, and proudly, and I haven't been jailed yet.

No. Can you explain it to us please? Did the anti vax people somehow make vaccines illegal? Did they make them unavailable? Did they force the family to not vaccinate the children?

As an investor would you put $300,000 down on a condo in Gaza with Trump's name on it? I wouldn't pay $1,000 for a piece of property in that neighborhood. Again the silly clown leader has his head in the clouds, and is just coming up with another absolutely ridiculous pipe dream. The dirty little secret in all this is that you can't move the people of Gaza because nobody wants them, they're disliked throughout the entire Arab world. Jordan won't take them. Neither will Egypt. So Trump would have to move them to someplace like Philadelphia. And that really flies in the face of his immigration policy.

This is not just about EV's, this is about the overall automotive market. Trade tensions are just a small part of the equation. The economy here is in tatters, and it is still suffering from 10 years of the Prayuth Decimation. The debt is higher than it's ever been, the banks are being very stingy with loans at this point because the default rates are so high, the new car market has stalled, property sales are very slow, and exports are dropping, so the problems are numerous. As if those problems weren't enough, though the tourist arrival numbers are high, the quality of tourists continues to drop, and the amount that the average tourist is spending continues to drop, so the total revenue being brought in from tourism is significantly less than it was pre-covid. I could go on. A message to the young PM. You might as well stop with the lies because nobody believes you anymore. Do something. Do anything.

I don't buy that, the population is falling in many countries now, and hundreds of millions of people are deciding that this is not a good time to bring a child into this world. Deciding not to reproduce can be one of the smartest decisions that an individual makes in their lifetime. It may have been these single smartest decision I ever made.

I have no idea whatsoever how your reply was connected to the topic at hand, there are 650 million people in the world earning less than $2 a day and it doesn't matter what country you live in when you're earning less than $2 a day, you are dirt poor. There are another billion plus people beyond that, earning less than $7 a day.

Well, in that particular case both the perpetrators and the police that were involved need to be punished severely, I can think of a few ideas.

It's a shame that money buys so much influence in this country, hopefully an organization can get involved that has some power or connections and figure out a way to punish these people, if they can establish a burden of proof. If what she is saying is true these people need to be punished severely, and if not by law enforcement then by the community or society. They deserve a great degree of shame and humiliation, which is fairly easy to accomplish here.

Aggression and fear are two completely different sets of emotions, the Chinese are highly timid when it comes to things that appear to be dangerous, though they may be aggressive in public with their mannerisms.

Between Rama II, the continued delays on rail lines throughout the nation, and then this relatively simple route, one has to wonder who is supervising these projects, why are they so incompetent, and why didn't they hire a better contractor? Better yet, I wonder why not just take China up on their offer of a Belt and Road initiative loan, borrow hundreds of billions of baht, have the Chinese do all the work, have all the work done within a year or two throughout the nation, and just be done with it. Then like every other nation on the initiative just default on the loans. It's a really simple answer to Thailand's decades long transport problems.

The man of hate goes after his perceived enemies with a vengeance, don't use the presidency to do good, don't use it to improve the world, don't use it to establish peace and harmony and aid the poorest of the poor. Use it to go after your enemies and seek revenge like a petty 13 year old child. Good work Don. Making America less significant and less influential by the day.

Fascinating how Trump supporters completely dismissed the polls when it was bad news for their side, but if they see a bright light on the horizon they jump at it. This is likely fake news, his numbers are dropping dramatically and will continue to drop based on his radical policies and his inane desire to support despots and dictators and shun 80-year-old alliances with our allies. If you combine that with it's extreme lack of negotiating skills and basic incompetence it's a perfect storm, his supporters are just starting to see that now.

Chinese people can be extremely timid, and they tend to be easily scared by rumors, so the drop in tourism would not surprise me at all. Perhaps the Thai authorities need to stop supporting the Burmese junta?