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My guys will have to wear condoms, face masks, and socks!

This is what happens worldwide when people can't take care of their families. As a frequent visitor to Brazil, I have seen the rise in crime during economic hard time. It is sad for sure and it is the government's responsibility to take care of this. If they do not, things will get worse.

From Bangkok Post Already reeling from shutdowns brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the poor have found themselves facing increasing economic hardship since the government enforced social distancing measures and travel restrictions to flatten the curve of transmission three weeks ago. There have been numerous media reports depicting the depressing state of Thailand's poor. One such report concerned an electrician from Songkhla who deliberately walked towards police officers in Phuket with a methamphetamine pill in his hand, asking them to charge him and send him to jail for illicit drug possession because he had nothing to eat. The man said he was laid off but couldn't return to his family because Phuket was locked down not long after he lost his job. He was charged but it has not been reported whether he was jailed as he hoped. https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1898460/virus-fight-sees-impoverished-go-hungry Yes, this is the result of not having social programs in place to take care of the poor and weakest in the country. I see this as the start of things worldwide for countries that do not take care of the poor. Les Mis 2020.

Happy new year!

....while almost all liberal democracies are currently engaging in highly repressive measures against their populations. Just before the Easter weekend a court in Germany lifted a ban imposed by the regional government for visits to the Baltic coast. Rightly so, because what risk of virus transmission is there on an incredibly spacious and windy beach? Close to none I'd say, common sense says, and the court says, ruling the measure "disproportionate" and thus illegal. Goes to show that political leaders in said liberal democracies have an equally repressive mentality and interfere in matters they shouldn't. On the general issue of lockdown and proposals for a more measured approach to just quarantine the elderly and otherwise at-risk people, the German minister for family affairs said it would be unfair towards those people. What kind of repressive mind is that? So in this situation these mind sets are everywhere, common sense seems to completely out of fashion. The alcohol ban is rather harmless in comparison, and possibly justified as the government knows their people and how they like to flout the rules....

From Bangkok Post Already reeling from shutdowns brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the poor have found themselves facing increasing economic hardship since the government enforced social distancing measures and travel restrictions to flatten the curve of transmission three weeks ago. There have been numerous media reports depicting the depressing state of Thailand's poor. One such report concerned an electrician from Songkhla who deliberately walked towards police officers in Phuket with a methamphetamine pill in his hand, asking them to charge him and send him to jail for illicit drug possession because he had nothing to eat. The man said he was laid off but couldn't return to his family because Phuket was locked down not long after he lost his job. He was charged but it has not been reported whether he was jailed as he hoped. The government's measures to lock down cities, shut down businesses, restrict travel and impose curfews have resulted in the loss of jobs. Without income, food has become scarce among the poor -- many of whom can hardly afford to eat, let alone fill their stomachs. One such incident was that of a 25-year-old motorcycle taxi driver who was arrested last week for stealing 6,000 baht cash from a grocery store owner in Sathon district. Several reporters visited his home and found out he was the sole breadwinner for a family of six. There have been several reports of theft and burglaries in the past two weeks. The motives of many cases are linked to rising poverty and food shortages. Their plight is in stark contrast to how the middle-class, including white-collar workers, have been living during the outbreak. For them, food is not a problem. They can get food at department stores, supermarkets, grocery shops and convenience stores. They can even have food delivered without having to leave their houses. But for the poor, these are luxuries they can't afford. They survive off cheap food from street vendors, street stalls at markets or mobile food trucks -- many of which have suspended operations or closed down because of the government's restrictions on activities and movement. Recent news stories have proved that leaving the poor to deal with food scarcity by themselves can lead to social problems, such as increased crime, poverty and inequality. Without state aid, ultimately it won't just be their problem. https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1898460/virus-fight-sees-impoverished-go-hungry

Here's the thing Lucky, most of the promises the VPN providers give about making you safer are bullshit. Damn near every web page you go to is encrypted these days. See that lock next to boytoy.com? Means this text could not be intercepted on the way between me and the site, and restrictions are even stronger if you're dealing with passwords and especially CC numbers. Somebody hacks boytoy (or a ecomerce site that has my info) they'll get my info regardless of if I used a VPN to connect to initially give them that data. Most importantly, almost all EMAIL is now encrypted too, if you go to gmail or mac.com you'll see the same lock. Just make sure you're not using some old setup relying on pop3 or IMAP. Their app on your phone or the web page will be fine. This wasn't the case before, but it is now, so as far as security, VPN doesn't do much at all. Even when you're on a fishy network, now that almost everything from your browser is encrypted. The only way to realistically defeat this encryption would be to have something installed on your computer (maybe a shady VPN app?). Privacy, on the other hand... it helps a bit. Your ISP knows you went to boytoy.com, and most likely, so does your government. However, I believe it's just the top-level site. That you went to youtube (or youporn), yes, what you searched and watched, no. Also, your ISP, your government, and many companies will impose restrictions based on location. Netflix's selection is different here vs. Thailand. You can't watch BBC content from their page in the US. Can't search for Tienanmen Square in China. So a VPN takes all your traffic, encrypts it (usually again) and it comes out the other end at some other point you've set in the world, your local ISP can't read it at all, and it appears to come from whatever country you've chosen as the endpoint for this session. There's a problem here though... it costs real money to make possible on any scale and so how exactly is the VPN provider making a profit? Turns out some are fronts for the NSA and similar. If they have *all* your traffic, and especially if they got you to install something... they have you. Also, your ISP can see you're sending data through a VPN tunnel, and may not allow that. Many of the public networks the VPN tells you it's protecting you from... might not allow VPN traffic at all, hotel, aircraft and public wifi networks often have this restriction. And it slows your data down a lot, mostly because of the extra trip halfway around the world all your data goes on. Those endpoints are somewhat easy to detect and there aren't a lot of spare public IP addresses. So some of the things you're trying to access (say BBC.uk) may have already blacklisted many of the enpoints in the UK.

A sphincter-themed movie is available today on itunes and Amazon. Butt Boy sounds like it will be a national hit...or maybe not. "Detective Fox loves work and alcohol. After going to AA, his sponsor, Chip, becomes the main suspect in his investigation of a missing kid. Fox also starts to believe that people are disappearing up Chip's butt." See the review in today's LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-04-13/butt-boy-review

Rather than to protect my privacy, I use it to dodge filters. For instance, if you hide you are from the USA, you can read the narrative reviews in Rentmen and see the escorts fees in other countries.

I can appreciate the logic behind the ban. Although Thai New Year has been postponed it is reliably said and I can see it locally that many Thais from the NE living and working in Bangkok, Pattaya etc have lost their jobs and have returned to their villages in Isaan where I'm sure if they could they would still gather and have parties to celebrate the New Year In my Province the fine for selling alcohol is 100,000 baht which hubby tells me has even stopped the small village shops selling beer. IMO if it stops the spread in Isaan where there are a lot of vulnerable old people I can put up with being dry and console myself it's good for my liver and there are only 17 days to go. (Am I counting? YES I am)

If restrictions are ease by the, I am planning to be exchanging fluids in July. I am aware that I am extremely optimistic.

You'll need to expound, but maybe in the Asia forum.

From the Bangkok Post

yup, and the number of recovered patients is now larger than the number of hospitalized ones. The number of new recoveries is outstripping the new reported infections and, assuming the new cases remain on their declining trend, will continue to do so. Given new infection numbers from about 2+ weeks ago we should expect around 100 new daily recoveries in the coming week or two, leading to further declines in active cases. Fingers crossed!

May 1st is around the corner

This site is a place where engaging, not disengaging, more often than not gives participants some rewards. Here I think we have self-selected to come together in at least a little bit more mutual giving than taking. And we come here because we like one another, not the opposite. End of sermon.

A photo in today's NY Times grabbed my attention as I immediately sought to identify the guys in the picture whom I thought were cute. You might do the same... How many did you find? If you read the accompanying article, you will get a hint: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/13/t-magazine/butch-stud-lesbian.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=T Magazine Yup, butch lesbians are getting their due or at least a start for it. None of those pictured are male. Right?