connda

I think it's a great idea. I hope the UK, France, and Germany put their entire forces on the ground in Ukraine. Right to the front.

"Certain tourist?" Get real. That means all farangs. You can live here married to a Thai woman for decades and as far as the Thai government and Immigration are concerned - you ARE a tourist. On the flip-side, I know where to get alcohol if I want it any day of the year, any time of day as do most long-stay expats, and unlike most tourists.

Says a guy from Spain who obviously wants the US to foot the bill for EU security. Sorry, I'm a US citizen and my taxes are paying for your protection. Your government can now protect themselves and foot the da*m bill.

I love this. Yesterday: US - "Assad must go. The dictator Assad kills his own people." Syria had elections, Assad troops fought Al-Queda and ISIS. Today: Al-Queda comes to power in Syria. Leader states "No Elections For Next Four Years." Leader is Al-Queda terrorist with a $10 million USD bounty. US - Nothing to see here. Leader Al-Jolani is a good guy, we even took the 10 mil bounty off his head. He even wears a suit! In the meanwhile, Al-Jolani's Al-Queda are killing Syrian Druse, Alawite, Christians, and anyone connected with the past government. This is called "A Democracy" and "Peace" and "Freedom."

My guess if he doesn't, the next "light" he will be encountering is the "Great-White-End-of-Life" celestial-type.

You fully understand defamation laws here, right?

I went to a restaurant about 17 years ago in Korat and ordered a filet minion medium well. I did so knowing that cooks tend to undercook steaks so I expected to have a nice medium steak. I got the steak on a plate swimming in blood. I sent it back. The staff we beyond impolite. They were unhappy. In retrospect they probably "lost face." Sending a steak back in the US was never, ever was a problem. Like I said, you can undercook a steak and fix it. You can't overcook a steak and fix it. So I expect uncooked meat. Anyway, got the steak back still in a pool of blood. They didn't give me a new plate, just plopped it back in the now cold pool of blood. I'm sure they did that on purpose. I got up, paid for the meal, and left vowing never to return or recommend that restaurant to anyone. I even wrote the farang owner who offered me a free meal. I didn't take him up on it, not because of anything he did - he did the right thing and tried to make it right. But rude, impolite, and unaccommodating staff are a business-killer. Food can be fixed, but I don't abide by rude staff. Someone needed to be fired. Especially for the price I paid for that meal - multiples of what the staff gets paid. That only happens once and you lose my business for good. That restaurant lost my business for good.

"After the Democratic Party's well-publicized setbacks during the November elections, a recent national poll indicates 45% of Democrats want their party to go moderate and move away from the terminally woke. That's up 11 points from 2021." -ZeroHedge / Gallap https://www.zerohedge.com/political/wake-call-polls-show-half-democrat-voters-are-tired-far-left-politics https://news.gallup.com/poll/656636/democrats-favor-party-moderation-past.aspx "I think the Democrats' brand is really bad, and I think this was an election based on culture. And the Democrats' failure to connect on a cultural basis with a wide swath of Americans is hugely problematic... I think the majority of the party realizes that the ideological purity of some of the groups is a recipe for disaster and that, candidly, the attack on over-the-top wokeism was a valid attack." -Senator Mark Warner, Dem Virginia I'm sure the most liberal progressives on AN, especially US Democrats, probably want to keep the status quo of extreme, woke liberalism. Or maybe not? But based on the Gallup poll, enough moderate Democrats want to swing back toward the political center. I don't blame them - I did years ago. However, a small move from moderate Democrat toward the center is liable to get those Democrats labelled as "Far-Right MAGA-lovers." But out of that 45% of Democrats in the Gallup poll who want to move towards a moderate political center, enough of them voted for Trump to swing the election. And the European and UK leadership are probably about to find out exactly what their own voters think about far Left politics and social policies. I'll even make this a poll. The poll is not anonymous. Stand behind your political positions. "If you are a US Democrat or Liberal in another country, do you think that your liberal parties should move toward the political center."

I've seen people using it on their dogs for a variety of aliments including bites, scratches, as well as mange here in Thailand. I'm sure our neighbor thinks it works well for mange as their dog's mange cleared up after they used it. Actually the dog's mange cleared up because I gave it a dose of Bravecto. Before anyone says, "You didn't have permission," guilty as charged. I've taken care of a number of the dogs in the neighborhood because their owners neglect them. In the US it would border on criminal animal cruelty and negligence. We have a shared soi, and when we come home, if you saw who their dog reacts, you'd think he was one of our own dogs. Other than he is not fenced, he's treated like one of our own, as was their previous dog which quite literally die of neglect. Back to Methylene Blue, I wouldn't ingest it. It can be used topically for fungus infections. I've seen doctors use it for just that in the US.

I wouldn't doubt it.

And get rid of those ridiculous mid-afternoon bans on alcohol sales.

Realistically, that makes a ton of sense. I can remember getting here in 2007 and pretty easily finding a place selling beer during Visakha Bucha Day on Khao San Road. The establishment was doing "the old coffee cup trick," and the bevy of other foreign tourist I was hanging out with were all happy as clams. Thailand should codify this. Thailand generates a large amount of it's GDP on tourism, so cater to foreign tourists, most all of whom on not Buddhists, and who are here during Buddhist holiday and allow drinking in designated tourist areas.

Good - It's been a gravy-train for too long with the US tax-payers paying for all the gravy. Bring the troops home and put them on the border.

I have no interest. After experiencing Reno and Las Vegas, who gives a buffalo fart about Thai casinos? The entire industry is by wealthy Thais for the benefit of wealthy Thais, and compared to Vegas it will be a bore. 🥱

You're still telling the average Thai to get lost, casinos are for the wealthy - "Scram peons!"

They brainstorm how to cut taxes for the rich and implement taxes for the poor effectively transferring the tax burden to those least able to shoulder it.

Guess what for all comparing Thailand to their own Western countries. This isn't your own Western country. There is no real enforcement here and for those who get hit, injured, or killed, there is little in the way of justice. So - for those who live here. If you understand how dangerous they are you should be all eyes when using one. For those who cross with the expectation that vehicles will stop - well - that's suicidal.

Unfortunately he is 100% correct. But it was turned into a Ponzi Scheme by the US Government and nobody else. Those SSA funds should have been invested and drawing interest instead of being plowed into the General Fund to be spent on all the waste, fraud, and abuse we are now seeing was well as trillions of USD for endless wars and foreign aid. But the US Government is responsible. Not the individual taxpayer who paid into the SSA system all their lives.

That is just an excuse to tax the poor.

More like it here 👇

It's pretty amazing what money and power and unquenchable greed will do to the mind. I agree - the last three years of adulation by UK/EU/US leaders has placed Zee's own mind on a pedestal. Given the White House performance where he felt so privileged that he felt he could wear his track-suit when they asked him to wear a suit, call Vice President Vance "JD", and the argue with the US President in the Oval Office shows exactly out of touch with reality this comedian actually is. To his own determent I'm afraid.

Step down or, judging by past history of past war-time allies of the US, fall out of the sky in an unfortunate plane or helicopter accident.

Good. No weapons and pallets of cash and the war ends. "But Russia will win." Yep - Russia will win. But people stop dying. Speaking of pallets of cash. Watch the exodus of Ukraine "leaders" with suitcases and duffel bags of $100 dollar bills leaving the country by any means they can. Zelensky should take a hint, but I doubt he will.

You've nailed it with that one sentence: They choose to be miserable.

When a Democrat is elected into office - even that pathetic, impotent, cognitively impaired shell of a sock-puppet named Joe Biden and his word-salad spewing VP - I never melted down and wallowed in a pool of self-generated angst and loathing like the Democrats and the Progressive Left does across the board. If fact, I can't say I've ever seen conservatives act like spoil-rotten children who didn't get a cupcake and an ice-cream before dinner and then throw a temper-tantrum - for four freaking years - like progressive-liberal did that last time Trump was in office. If a liberal Democrat gets elected, conservatives deal with it. Criticize policy? Absolutely. Spend four years having a spoil-child-like temper-tantrum and nervous-breakdowns? Never. Conservatives are mature, act mature, accept reality, and then deal with it. Progressive liberals whine, cry, hold their breath until they turn blue, fall on the floor and kick and scream, and it never freaking stops. It is really pathetic to watch, and unfortunately, here we go again for another four years of hyperbolic hysteria. I don't even like being around this freaks because they are so pathetic. But honestly, their antic do little but scream for ridicule, so the conservative members give them want they want. Ridicule. Why Ridicule? Because you can't hold a rationale discussion with the vast majority of them. They just start frothing at the mouth and spewing vile pejoratives. So it's sorta like a game to just poke at them and watch them twitch and become unraveled. It's so predicable. But their histrionics will outlast most of us. But like 2017 though 2021. Eventually you just have to let them go and stew in their own juices. Their histrionics and over-the-top hysteria and childish antics gets old very fast. I've got to tune out the Political Soapbox threads pretty soon. It's been fun over the last month <poke poke> but I've got better things to do. Best to ignore them.