Shaunduhpostman

The tide, I'm afraid, is going to turn very badly against Islam in Europe very soon if it isn't already. They seem to have the upper hand at the moment but Europeans are not just going sit there and let Sharia Europe bloom. Europe is the home of hundreds of millions who would never dream of allowing an Islamic Europe, and if they have to they will fight for their home and way of life and the numbers who would do so and military might of Europe give them the odds of winning such a battle. No so called Muslim invasion will ultimately prevail but of course there will be much tragedy, to put it mildly before the dust settles. Ultimately the hysteria of an Islamic invasion is just that, but that is not to say there is not a real problem that needs to be addressed. European, Western and Islamic leaders have failed humanity big time. The elites have engeneered this as well to try and guarantee a world totalitarian state whereby no matter who wins, whether it is Islamist or right wing anti-Islamic demagogue, a structure is in plac that makes it easy to yank only a few leaders' chains and then they get what they want, no messy democratic systems with their whining human rights demanding electorates to have to worry about.

Then we can all just switch over to using the Yahoo search engine. It will probably take another few years for them to realize that Google isn't the only search engine and then a few more years before they sit down to meetings with Yahoo and asked to be allowed to meddle with Yahoo.

In addition to Yahoo there's Yippie. And then there's Dogpile which compiles results from Google and other search engines. You may in fact be able to get around any Google special censorship for Thailand via Dogpile unless what the junta is proposing is that they be allowed to edit everyone in the world's search results, which would not surprise me if they were.

She was probably just acting like her favorite characters in the television soap operas. Maybe this is a bit off topic, but the soap operas seem to reinforce this style of behavior whereby the solution to dilemmas is to start screaming and attacking others violently. Seems that everytime I look up at a television in some shop or other place, there is some shriek festival going on which devolves into head bashing.

Way to go doods, let's conflate people who are resisting/protesting absolute government control of the internet with people who break into banks and steal money. Standing up for your rights is no different than robbing people...yeah right.

Why stop with a fee for the TAT? Tourists could pay a 5000 baht fee for the use of all the infrastructure in the country. Those not willing are not the kind of tourists that are good for Thailand.

The railways, transpo ministry, the roads and highways, the national parks, utilities, health department, law enforcement, the military, etc. they all could argue that they are unfairly burdened by all the tourists adding to the wear and tear and costs of their services. So why can't they ask for fees as well?

"It's all a win-win for Republicans, potentially bolstering Sanders, who they see as the less formidable general election opponent, and reinforcing negative impressions of Clinton."

Given that this is a mainstream press article, guess that it shouldn't be surprising that they are going to spin things so as to downplay Sanders, but now it's in a different way. They can't just ignore him anymore and they have to admit he is a challenge to Clinton, but the spin is now that he doesn't stand a chance against Trump. However, There has already been one poll as cited on a report on Young Turks that showed Sanders clobbering Trump and Clinton narrowly losing. I for one am no longer falling for the assumption that just because Sanders is more leftward than Clinton doesn't mean that he has less cross over appeal. The electorate may be truly more desperate to get rid of corporate influence and big business in government ie both Clinton and Trump, than the mainstream media is willing to admit.

Living on 30k/month in an urban area year in and year out, in most cases, your health would begin to suffer both physically and emotionally. You could easily do it for a year or two but each year it is going to get harder. You can't really eat properly, cannot get a place that allows you to rest in a relatively clean and cool environment for that budget. Year after year takes its toll. You won't have a kitchen in your apartment and will be eating out in the soi or at the food court mostly. You'll get run down by the low quality food and you'll start to look like a wreck and thus begin to have more problems with the Thais for whom appearances are very important. I could go on and on about people I have known, my own experiences living this way but I'll just drop it here, I'm sure you can look around you and find many examples of people who have or who are trying to live this way.

In our area of Isaan the smoke has been particularly bad this year. This background of smoke that makes the sky grey and makes it uncomfortable to breath as well as makes headaches, seems to give people in the village a reminder to burn even more plastic even more often as well and while they are at it, wouldn't it be great to start up a small charcoal business, the smoke from that matches nicely with all the rest of the smoke. So there are now several people burning wood several times a week which produces an incredibly thick choking cloud. The pu yai ban now reminds people all the time to burn their trash and burn forest growth to keep the village neat and tidy as well. One night last year, the neighbors actually had to flee on motorbike at midnight because you literally could not breathe from a mass charcoal making operation. We had air filtering and so were ok indoors, but outside it was really scary.

The other day however, My wife went to some provincial public health office or something to complain about various clouds of smoke that debilitate us day in and day out this year. I wasn't surprised when she told me they said nothing about doing anything about any of it, but they did mention that many people were coming in and complaining. That surprised me because people I ask and encounter never seem to know what I am talking about, "Oh...smell bad." Telling them about the health consequences doesn't register, zero public awareness.

Much of the problem is that families and shops burn their plastic. If they just had garbage collection for us here as they do in many areas of Thailand that would solve much of the problem here. There is smoke from fires from burning fields, but that eventually clears up, the charcoal and trash burning is year round. Couple that with the noxious pesticides and other agricultural chemicals and country life is much more of a health hazard from pollution than Bangkok for sure. The maddening thing is that the problem could be solved but instead the health ministry wants to bang on about cigarette smoking and alcohol. I would bet people are dying from smoke created by these fires in droves.

Not yet, but every year, we go for months with water cut offs. Should be going into effect soon here in Isaan.

I find it hard to believe Thai airlines are the absolute bottom of the barrel. Though, It would really be what you would expect that Thai carriers would not rank highly at all. The mentality in Thailand is such that it is so horribly unbecoming to bother oneself or others with precautions, plans or safety, don't seriot, is the mantra here. Much cheaper and stress free to breeze through life and run one's business etc with the attitude that nothing bad ever happens to good people, so why bother? International groups that inspect and try and create awareness and standards simply don't understand the deeper truths of life.

As top conspiracy theorist and high octane speculator Joseph P. Farrell pointed out a few days ago, Russia has subtly hinted that they will use nuclear weapons against ISIS by pointing out that some of the missle attacks have been from missles normally used to launch nuclear weapons. As Russia is Iran's ally, one my then think the Saudis ought to get the hint too, that perhaps Russia is reaching the end of its tether and that who are we kidding here, we know where a lot of ISIS's backing is coming from: Saudi Arabia, and that before too long they could find themselves on the receiving end of some of these Russian submarine launched missle attacks. There was a regime change in Saudi in January, and they have been, as German intelligence put it, impulsively aggressive at an unprecedented level. The US media has been dropping subtle hints, such as after the San Bernadino attack, in which Saudi Arabia was mentioned again and again as the place where the gunman had gone for training and indoctrination. It is as though the US is suggesting that things may be getting ready for a shift away from support for Saudi Arabia. I certainly hope so.

That it irritates Hillary so is a bit self-incriminating. Doesn't make her look too good on a number of fronts: the pettiness of her complaint is verging desperate, it's more of this National Security State, don't critisize just go with the program style we get from Obama, and it shows how eager she is to jump to corporate America's defense at the drop of a hat.

As a side light I thought it was interesting to read that according to a poll, Hillary would lose an election to Trump while Sanders would route him. Analysts were saying that it shows how fed up people are with the legalized corruption of American politics and that they would rather vote for a lunatic than support the Wall Street candidates.

Agree with some of the previous posts, that catching the actual hackers is not important to the kind of people we are dealing with here when you want to talk about govt. officials on the warpath. Unfortunately, to save face doesn't require that you are correctly placing blame. That they can't possibly catch the culprits is probably missing the point at the end of the day, as satisfying as it might be to rest assured that Anonymous can pretty much expose the Thai government with impunity and will continue to do so as long as it remains fun and interesting for them. Just sayin', as they say.

The official who said this is just saying whatever to preserve their sense of authority or control. Obviously, there is nothing they can do about what Hannah's sister says on facebook. This kind of statement from the government is probably made for our benefit, to try and make us fearful of speaking out should anything happen to any of us or friends or family. What a way to promote your image in the global community, eh?

The US has really gone full steam ahead with its policy of disingenuous posturing regarding IS which it fully trained and equipped to go after Assad, if not completely created. Good for Australia that they aren't yet drinking the kool aide.

When you sit down and start considering all the reasons not invest here the mind just reels. To me it is just flabberghasting that anyone invests in Thailand at all, and the situation has not changed that much since the coup as far as what problems exist for a potential foreign investor. The mentality of the current regime is nothing new, they have quite a typical attitude and style about how they do things, in a way it s good that outsiders finally get to see what they will be dealing with if investing in Thailand straight away before wasting even a minute more thinking about it.

Malaria, as mentioned earlier is limited to certain areas, it is not going to be a worry for a village visit unless the village is near a forest.

As for dengue, I believe it is actually more of a problem in Bangkok than in rural areas. Even so, in my village out in Isaan, we seem to have a problem with it. Evry year lots of kids come down with it. I get bitten by at least a few mosquitoes several times a week for the last 3 years and have yet to come down with dengue, knock on wood.

I've read on the internet that many contract dengue, but many also have only very mild to no symptoms. Its is mostly children and the elderly who end up getting sick. That said, I've had co-workers and neighbors in Bangkok who were in their 40's 50's get bad cases of it. Pills and sprays and the like are really not the most important way to avoid contracting dengue. Your best bet is to limit your exposure to mosquito bites by limiting your time outdoors, especially if there are mosquitoes about and wearing long sleeves and pants when you go out. I'm not a fan of short sleeves or short pants, so that may have helped me avoid getting dengue.

Just be sensible and I think you have little to worry about, especially for a short visit.

He's was also declared to be a reincarnation of some Tibetan master by some Tibetan high lama or other about 15-20 years ago. Whacky guy, that Jonathon Livingstone Seagull the Serbian Buddha Master.

The Turkish guy is lucky. The way things often go in this country, it is totally irrelevant whether the tea is ganja or not. If what you have even suggests that it might be ganja, that is just as bad as actually having ganja, that is the mentality of too many Thais that may cross you.

The cops in this particular instance are much better than most, at least they are not doing everything and anything to avoid looking like they made mistake. Hats off to them for admitting they were wrong. Tho' it doesn't make sense that they would admit that, perhaps the Turk or the guy in the purple, who looks like he might be the guy's Dad, have some serious connections.

The operative phrase here is "properly disposed of" garbage. It would seem that burning garbage is proper disposal as that is the method we see most commonly up here in Isaan. There is no garbage pickup here, never has been, and the promised services in the future never arrive. Seems then that since garbage pick up isn't needed that just burning everything is fine and therefor can be approved as "properly disposed of" refuse.

If a country has real appeal as a tourist destination, few are going to be deterred by what they might consider an unpleasant government. Most people going on holiday are probably disgruntled with their home regimes, and when thinking of getting away, the last thing they are going to do is start researching the grim details and shortcomings of the government of the country they feel compelled to visit. Until there are major catastrophic events, most are not going to be focused much on the government of whatever country they are thinking of visiting and will instead be looking at all the appealing attractions that await them.

There are so many other factors going against Thailand as a tourist destination, or at least the kind of destination it was: a cheap place for westerners to have an exotic get away. In a nutshell, it's not cheap anymore, seems to be on par now with many cheaper European countries to visit, and with the world economy being pretty dire, I would disagree that people are just going to travel anyway. It's not too exotic anymore either, Thailand has become a westernized consumer society for the most part, and add to that that so many people have already been here before and it's just not the most interesting place to want to travel to. For westerners who want to travel to someplace that is going to fit the cheap and exotic bill a trip to Myanmar or even Indonesia would fit the bill.

If coffee creates complications for your acid reflux, maybe it's not the best thing for you, but coffee is increasingly turing out to have many health benefits. I wouldn't just dismiss it is as some kind of addictive poison, though it is mildly addictive and probably mildly toxic if used all day long, 5-8 cups, like many do. There is one or more more studies I recently read that shows coffee increases performance on IQ tests. It has also been shown to help prevent alzheimer's and help with depression as well as help alleviate constipation. Like you, I really like how coffee makes me feel, more alert, less sluggish mentally, and more upbeat in my attitude. I have found that black or green Tea is really no substitute, there is more than just caffeine in coffee that affects the mind and body.

Acid reflux, if I am not mistaken, and I have some problems with it myself, though only on the average of about once a week (much worse in the past) is complex and related to one's diet as a whole as I have understood it, not just the result of a coffee habit. Eating 8 servings of fruit and vegetables, the recommended amount by the health authorities of most countries, if I am not mistaken, is a big challenge for most and is at least part of the reason I would guess many suffer from acid reflux: not enough alkaline fruits and veggies and too much acidifying dairy, grains and meats. In Thailand for example, outside of Bangkok, if you don't grow your own, you face poisonously chemicalized produce from the farmers and the retailers. I find it a challenge to find any acceptable fruits and vegetables at all out in Isaan on some shopping trips to town that I take. I have to have days where i don't eat any vegetables or fruits. Arsenic, something banned for decades in the west, is a staple weed killer and or bug killer here and everywhere in Asia. So the fact that much produce is from China doesn't help. God knows what gets into the produce via fertilizers which even Prayuth has complained farmers use excessively and indiscriminately. Toxic levels of arsenic in rice is a problem in every country on earth and it has many negative consquences to the point that some researchers in the US are recommending that people avoid eating rice more than three servings per week. Though there are some vegetables and fruits that don't require much if any pesticides such as guava, pineapple, mango, kiwi, cantaloupe and there are others, the info is out there on the net. Among the bad ones are tomatoes, apples, nectarines, potatoes, watermelon for which it is highly recommended you eat organic, not something available outside of a few major population centers in Thailand and even so, there is no credible regulation of what is called organic in Thai markets. There are many helpful sites on internet to help you avoid poisoning yourself in the process of trying to eat healthier.

I can only get down about about a pound of greens and a couple of fruit servings a day, but that has helped me to knock my reflux condition way down and feel better generally. I am glad that has helped so that I don't have to quit coffee which for me, in moderation, 1-2 cups a day, is actually a tonic that enhances health and life, not a poison.

Negative attention on Trump probably helps him more than harms him at this point. Everyone is well aware of the problem that is Trump, so what need is there for the continuing focus on the obvious in the media while other more credible less insane candidates such as Sanders get bypassed in lieu. It's as though Trump exists to be the bad guy to Hillary's probably nearly equally bad, corrupt bid to extend the Obama dynasty. Trump seems to me to exist simply as the no brainer wrong answer to the question: Which person would make the least awful President of the US? And many people are insulted and resentful enough of that kind of two choice question enough just to give the wrong answer to try and show they don't have to go along with the program. But the lock down is so severe at this point, that unfortunately they will: vote for Hillary or else, seems to be the message written in the sky these days.

If the hate speech refers to all of Trump's racist platforms yes, maybe the UK should ban him and that might finally get his attention and that of his minions of voters that they ought to consider that what they think, say and do in the toilet belongs there, not in the discourse of a global framework where the situation is already dire without Trump's sandbox level provocations.

That said, I fail to see how one of them, not wanting Muslim refugees is hate speech. It might be callous at worst, and it is clearly unfair to those Muslims who don't support the jihad, but perfectly understandable given the real possibility of Islamists aka Radical Islam coming into host countries and furthering the aims of creating European and and American fronts in the global jihad campaign. Saying we don't want you is a clear message to moderate Islam that there is a problem with the whole of their societies not just the Islamists (political Islam). It is not exactly hate speech to protest very real problems coming from the general direction of one set of societies clearly fully under sway of outmoded and hateful treatises for war and domination that like Trump have no place in world where most of us want to live in peace and have a future, namely the Quran. But there is likewise an equal share of the problem lying with America and what it has done to the Middle East and the whole world. Trump is merely one of the festering surface level symptoms, so perhaps that would be a well timed wake up slap in the face that America could use, that even their friends are fed up.

But, it is just as hateful if not more so of Obama to announce more bombing campaigns and continuing war fronts in the Middle East while using "lets welcome the refugees" as the froo froo window dressing to make bombing the crap out of the Syrian children look like it were an accident. If they were less hateful they would be speaking strongly about and acting on the urgency to find solutions and to how to end the middle east conflict. Instead they talk war abroad and hide their heads in the sand on the domestic front and call people Islamophobes who try and struggle to find the language and the perspective to articulate what they see and want done. Their pretending that Islamist attacks are random psycho gun freak acts to be addressed by getting rid of the 2nd amendment will only fly so long and they know it.

But, they should ban Trump for cynically appealing to those who have fallen a victim to complete idiocy and looking to get their vote, if he isn't actually so idiotic that he actually believes in his own preposterous notions and proposals. I would ban him for wreckless and irresponsible chaos mongering.

having the racist gun toting freak squads pouring off the potatoe farms waving their guns and shouting racist garbage outside the mosques is not going to win the rest of the world over in uniting against Islam and that is the only way that we are going to win against Islam. These guys and their ilk in europe are doing nobody any favors. Islam has made enemies not only in Europe but in Asia and Africa and elsewhere and it has been that way for centuries. Islam has to be forced into a corner by the whole rest of the world and taken out. Until non-lunatics wake up and say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done, then we are really up against two big problems: Islamofacism and white supramicists who would just as soon lynch our allies.