spidermike007

Excellent essay. Alot of truth. Russia is an objectively weak state — “Upper Volta with nuclear weapons,” as someone once quipped — with a nominal G.D.P. smaller than that of South Korea. Outside of energy, minerals and second-rate military equipment, it produces almost nothing that outsiders want: no Russian iPhone, Lexus or “Fauda.” If it were not for the minerals, oil and natural gas, I believe Russia would be a highly irrelevant state. Sure, it had alot of culture. Had. What have it's contributions been since the middle of the 20th century? There are a multitude of reasons why very few around the world have sympathy for the Russians. Those reasons are not limited to their serial killing, despot, thieving multi billionaire dictator for life. It is more about their nature, their history as ruthless, homicidal Cossack warriors, and their total lack of manners, and class. Not to mention the dignity, class, decency, civility, and social skills decades of Leninism, Stalinism, and now Putinism has stripped them of. And of course, the utter failure of their leader. This is a clear case of psychological projection: Putin dreamt and failed to create a dollar-free world and establish Russia as an “energy superpower.” He allowed corruption to metastasize through the state’s fabric, undermining its security capabilities. With its mass emigration, skyrocketing divorce rate, and low fertility, Russia, more than the West, demonstrates an immense collapse of family and social values. Russia has nothing but malicious intentions. They are a terrorist state, run by a serial killing desperado. This is a nation so lacking in redeeming qualities. They contributed alot culturally, in past centuries. Now? What are they bringing to the table? How are they of any benefit to mankind? They offer nothing but misery, death, destruction and bad will.

Sounds like you are an overly sensitive individual. None of these are particularly strange happenings, if I were buying a new phone I would expect for the staff to inspect it and make sure it works. The same would apply to any form of electronics that I purchased. The ribbon ceremony and a car dealership is a tradition that seems to make the employees of the dealership very happy, so again why complain about that? Thailand is a very foreign culture and there are many aspects of this culture that are very, very different from where we came from. For me I celebrate that fact. I want to be some place that is different, I want to be someplace that is inexplicable and occasionally difficult to understand. For me that creates mystery and intrigue and makes everyday here wonderful. I do agree that Home Pro does appear to be over staffed, and a lot of the employees seem to be quite bored, but whoever complains about great service? If I go into a Home Depot in America it takes me 15 minutes to get the attention of one individual if I'm looking for something, so why complain about something like this, unless you're a snowflake.

Lock him up. This is not 1810. There's never an excuse to be lewd with a complete stranger. It's easy enough to get PFP here, one does not have to engage in rude behavior.

Well let me see if I can draw a few distinctions. I've been a business man my entire life. I've always been very fair not only to my employees but to all the contractors that I've worked with, and my customers. I've always honored my contracts and never tried to sue a contractor to gain his cash and in the process cripple his company, so that's one quite distinct contrast right there. Perhaps that's the reason why I'm not a billionaire but I'd rather be in my position having been honest than in his position having stolen billions from trusting and unsuspecting souls. I've also never created a fake University, handed out fake degrees and collected tens of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting students being duped by a fake school . In addition I've never bankrupted any companies, much less to the tune of several billion dollars. I could go on but that's probably enough for now.

Wow. That sounds like an absolutely amazing property. Kudos to you man, what an enviable lifestyle. I absolutely love Italy, and dream about being able to buy a place there and fixing it up. Spain seems like they're missing the point, and it is likely an overreaction from the massive tourism that they've been suffering from. But they've been plagued by bad government for a very long time.

True that. Bow down to the new king.

This would be a very welcome and very positive change. Thai beer is only rivaled by Serbian beer, and the mass produced American beers, in terms of the very low quality. Poor grade of hops, barely, and the production process seems to be entirely lacking in pride. Typical of the big monopolies. Even a large production beer, like Beer Laos blows away any Thai beer, hands down. Thailand desperately needs a vital craft beer movement, and the youth are ready to mount it. If only the dinosaurs would stop protecting their "bankers" and move out of the way. In other words, allow some progress, you mindless simpletons! Boon Rawd Brewery, which makes Singha, and ThaiBev, which brews Chang, the country’s best-selling beer, are owned and run by two of the wealthiest families in Thailand. Through longevity and political influence, these two breweries have dominated Thai beer for nearly a century, forcing out or crushing any competition, foreign or domestic. And we all know how they easily accomplish this. 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, 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.

Hun Sen is a serial killer and he's been massacring anyone who gets in his way for the last 30 years or longer. In addition to that he's a thieving fool who has stolen billions of dollars worth of land from the poorest people within Cambodia. The man is a gangster, a thief, a liar, a fraud, a killer and a lowlife form of human garbage.

This is a highly unqualified man, morally bankrupt man, and another bottom of the barrel pic by Trump. He has never led a large organization and he may be qualified to lead a Boy Scout chapter of a large County but not the Department of Defense, which has 3 million employees.

Many scientists and meteorologists agree that last year was the hottest year in 138,000 years. That was not a coincidence and climate change is happening, big time. Are we causing it? That is likely. We are behaving as if we have 9 alternative planets to move to, as soon as we trash this one. Many will say I am not responsible, I have not contributed to these problems, if they exist at all, and nothing that I do could possibly have an effect on some place as large as the earth or it's vast oceans. So stop picking on me and stop asking me to take responsibility, because I won't. Plastic is not harmful and I won't make any attempt to cut down on my use of it. Gas and diesel vehicles are not harmful and therefore I will make no attempt to drive one that consumes less gas, or to use a bicycle, or even a motorbike. I like gas guzzlers, so again I ask please leave me alone. I won't do anything and nothing will make a difference anyway. And besides all this is just a big coincidence.

What I find kind of astonishing is the number of new Chinese brands that are coming into Thailand with absolutely no track history. How do you spend real money on a vehicle without knowing how dependable they are. We hear stories of tens of thousands of Chinese EVS, that are no longer running due to faulty battery systems, and a crazy amount of money required to replace them.

I don't think it has anything to do with Buddhism. I think if anything Buddhism teaches the need to look within and take responsibility and admit that perhaps you are the source of the problem. What we're seeing is the opposite of Buddhism, what we're seeing is complete denial and a total inability to accept blame and be a true adult about a problem that you have caused. And it comes down to the staggering human weakness known as saving face.

During the last term Trump sort of set the benchmark for selecting nominees from the absolute bottom of the barrel, it seems like he's determined to repeat himself by selecting people who are not only massively unqualified, but like himself morally bankrupt.

That's a good point, the refiners are the ones who have to be penalized and if there was ever anyone in this government who was serious about cleaning up the air they would need to wage battle against their oligarch friends.

Trump has a lot of dumb ideas, he's a man of tremendous ignorance who does absolutely no research before he blurts out nonsense, and this is a very good example of that. Get used to it we're going to be seeing a lot more ignorance and nonsense over the next four years.

That's a very good point and it certainly gets right to the heart of so many issues that plague this nation. When the Army took over 10 years ago they promised that they would begin enforcement, they raided Samui with 100 soldiers and promise that they would reform the taxi mafia. That lasted about 2 weeks. Every single proclamation, promise and declaration lasts about 2 weeks here and then it's completely forgotten. There seems to be absolutely no will to improve the country and make it a better place.

There are a lot of super wealthy people out there that just keep their opinion to themselves, but that is not in the nature of a clown like Musk. He's a brilliant guy when it comes to inventions, but he's dumb as dirt when it comes to social causes and politics. He may be the most ignorant African-American in the US.

Life in prison or some sort of penal colony with forced labor would not be too heavy a penalty for someone who deliberately set one of these fires, a firing squad might be more appropriate.

I just hope and pray that Trump doesn't decide to dance, we still remember that sorry spectacle from his visit to Saudi Arabia. Keep Trump off the dance floor please!

Casinos are a very bad idea here, nothing to do with morality, everything to do with the inconsistency and undependility of the subsequent administrations. Like next door in Cambodia billions of dollars could be invested in these casinos only to have the next clown administration vote it down and then you have more abandoned buildings and huge fortunes lost.

It is like gliding on a cloud, with the stock suspension. I did replace the cheap stock tires with Pirelli Angel tires, and that made quite a difference in terms of traction, but the bike is incredibly comfortable and the seat is ridiculous. It's almost like a living room couch!

I only buy electronics and televisions from big box stores where they offer warranty service and they offer recourse in the event of issues. With a Lazada vendor it's like buying from MBK, if you need the service you have no idea if you're going to get it. I have purchased things on Lazada where the vendor would not stand behind them just a few months later. I only buy small ticket items on Lazada from now on.

How long have you lived here? How often have we seen promises like this? These administrations are infamous for pledges, declarations, proclamations and promises. Few are even remembered, much less followed up upon two weeks later. Feel free to cite some environmental promises that were followed up on, if you can. Otherwise, we are discussing a staggering level of incompetence and indifference toward their land, water and the common man. There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease. So here is what I propose- 1. Fine the farmers 5,000 baht for a first offense, and give them a stern warning, that burning is now prohibited, and the second fine will be very harsh. 2. For a second offense, fine the farmer 100,000 baht, and warn them that if the burning continues, their land will be confiscated. 3. On the 3rd offense, confiscate their land. Period. No questions. No legal proceeding or appeals on the part of the farmers. Allow others to come in and purchase the land at a fair price, with the caveat that sugar is prohibited as a crop to be grown on that land. The news would travel faster than the toxic smoke, and farmers would change their ways overnight, and move into the 21st century. Progressive reform on burning - green harvesting https://youtu.be/thXstqQcdQ4?si=yExPfXaED66a4vyP

The Chinese are being discouraged from traveling outside of the country by their horrendous leadership, and they are suffering from economic hardship at the moment, the real estate market has collapsed leaving trillions in debt, and their appetite for travel outside of the nation is diminishing anyway. Add to it craziness in Thailand, bizarre and strange scams and events, and thankfully we will see less Chinese tourists around. Very few of us are going to miss them. Now, if only the Russians would leave.

As an American I can say it's absolutely delightful to see any country turn down a choice of American weapons or equipment. Anytime the US military industrial complex is spurned it's a step in the right direction.