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Today at 2.30 pm I was supposed to land in Swampy according to he ticket I'm still holding. Plan was to pass immigration , take a train to Phaya Thai, change to BTS and walk from Sala Daeng to still undecided hotel. First massage was supposed to be at Senso and in the evening I was hoping to itch to check if my dream boy at Jupiter is still there, Unfortunately for well known reason it came to naught and timing of trip # 21A is still unknown. Some seeing a tittle and then reading narrative will be disappointed but rest assured , not even 1/10 of how disappointed I am. But hope dies last

Bangkok Guy has been back in Bangkok since early in the month. His hair looks good, his smile is the same as ever and to me he looks paler than usual, which will make him happy. 'You look white'. He gives me a strange look. Not the eye-squint of 'What you say?' but the startled expression of 'What on earth you say!' 'No, brown.' He turns his phone around so I can see the large light fixture above him. 'Is light'. Still, he is happy I am paying attention. This is the week he thinks he will reopen his sister's market stalls. His room is full of racks of stock, very smart sports shirts. If I lost a couple of decades and a similar number of pounds I'd quite like one. Bangkok Guy has good taste. In common with everyone I know I have put on weight in these months of confinement. This will have to be lost before Bangkok Guy and I next meet. If I don't, I know what to expect. With a look of cheerful insouciance he will put his hand on my stomach - 'baby healthy!' He likes his falang in shape.

I'll bet he does the rally but stays away from all. He does not want to get sick but could care less if others do.

Hard to stick with the budget? My budget for international travel is zero for the foreseeable future.

It is astonishing that this still a topic of discussion. In some ways, it is a remnant of the west's imperialism; everything is OK for us at home due to improvements in treatment, so why consider those benighted parts of the world where, for some, Hiv is still a death sentence, or at least involves a lifetime if struggle?

It looks like it was taken early in the morning. Thanks for posting.

Found this on YouTube, are drones view of Rio.

Thank you Thomas Friedman at the NY Times! Is Trump Trying to Spread Covid-19? "It is absolutely devilish" "We know that countries where everyone wears a mask outside the home sharply reduce the spread and that people who practice strict social distancing infect fewer people and are infected less often. And we know that people who avoid “superspreading” events — large, prolonged social gatherings, religious services and crammed nightclubs and workplaces, where one highly contagious person can quickly spew the virus to many others — are less likely to get infected." What a relief to find this article this morning: Friedman calling Trump a spawn of the Devil. Friedman usually gets TV coverage when he writes something like this. Perhaps in the next few days momentum can occur with the media pushing hard. IMO, there is no way Trump and Co. can spin this horrific act. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. It would be GREAT for America if the pressure forced him to cancel the event. Either way, it's going to be a media shitshow no matter what decision is made. As it should be. The photo by Doug Mills that accompanies the Op-ed is brilliant. A smug, defiant prick.

what da ya mean? One is not going to Thailand to save money, one saves money by NOT going to Thailand - that's only upside of whole virus saga for me

Like I said, the fucking chicken sandwiches can't possibly taste good enough for me to give one cent of my own money to that company.

What I said, A FOLLOWER!

the disappearance of a virus actually not only leads to the evaporation of the motivation, but also makes it impossible to develop one. Virus trials work by giving the new shot to x number of people, then releasing those people in the "wild" of the general population and see if they get infected or not, and by what percentage the infection rate is lower than in the control group. Now, if you don't have any virus out there, no such clinical trial is possible. This is a problem even for Corona/Covid in some countries developing a vaccine as they are getting the virus under control. Trials will have to be moved to countries where it is still widespread or even increasing. Fortunately for the vaccine development, unfortunately for the affected populations, there is no shortage of such places at the moment. An alternative method would be so-called "challenge trials", but I don't think they will go that route for ethical reasons.

competing claims, that hasn't occurred to me, but now that you say it, yes it's a worry in this crazy world. Instead they should be happy that there are (hopefully) multiple vaccines avaiable at the same time, speeding up the global vaccination process. Incidentally, even Thailand is working on it's own vaccine!

True. But, the most significant events, other than Brown v. Board of Education & a civil act in the late 1950s, took place when Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson said "we shall overcome.". Truman desegregated the military. LBJ signed Medicare into law at the Truman Presidential Library in Missouri with Harry and Bess Truman there. Politcal scientists rate LBJ as the best president for minorities, but in second place after Lincoln. As much as I liked Kennedy, I knew in 1964, Johnson was better at dealing with Congress.

Geez Louise. Something awful must have happened to you. I could write a lot more but I don't have the time. Your attitude is very defeatist, very cynical. I was the first executive in my stodgy, conservative luxe corporation to recruit Black, Latino, and Asian artists. I made it my mission to teach my stubborn White elders (several of them racists) the wisdom and foresight of diversity. I taught my recruits how to strive and thrive in creative business. I fully gave back what was given to me. Most of my recruits went on to live the American Dream. I know countless business people in our Capitalist system who believe in paying it forward and leaving no man behind. I stand among them, proudly.

Generally liking the attempts to finally rupture the Republican hegemony.

Yes, reddit's learning curve is very steep. It's a seeming jungle of millions of reddits and sub-reddits but once you find a niche it excels. The posters can be tedious and even arrogant but the best intellects are there in most fields. Art and literature is especially good.

And I'll there too....as long as the vaccination is validated in Thailand. With all the research taking place all over the world, I foresee competing claims getting in the way.

You forgot to go to your favourite exchange booth at the airport, so no baht left for LT boy tonight

I suppose you consider a young gay massage boy who has not been able to work for months who has trouble paying off loans and sending money to his family and can not afford PReP will always make a rational decision when faced with your question. I suggest you put yourself in his position before you talk about raw sex.

Lets be honest, low risk country is one part of the equation but the major part of their decision is which country that will brings the most money, which is why singapore is also included while they are having hundreds of new cases daily. Cant blame them as the main reason to open up border is money, so if you are going to take risk, u want the reward to justify the risk. That said, this is all temporary steps taken until vaccine is found. After that, most likely the only requirement will be you have to be vaccinated to travel.

I agree that there will be other polls...but the new outbreak in Beijing will make every country recalculate their welcome. The rumor was that China was under consideration as a low risk country similar to Vietnam. I'm thinking of new chairs rather than a sofa bed...

Soi 6, has long been neglected, except for tawan and the lesser of the 3 small host bar tucked away in the smaller sub soi. Maybe soi4/2 bars might go there as well. Location wise it is still convenient.

The demise of Soi 4 and Soi 2 will be very sad and a big loss in the same way as Twilight is/was, in that the condensed nature of these Sois make them unique scenes. While the gogo bars of Twilight had an excellent transition arguably for the better in Patpong, it is still not the same as the cozy atmosphere of Twilight, which continues to be missed by members of this board, as evidenced by recurring references to the missing Maxi's equivalent for instance. The same will be true true to an even bigger extent for Soi 4 and Soi 2. Especially Soi 2 is a microcosmos of it's own, completely hidden from and unconnected to the outside world. Both Sois are/were a huge magnet not only for tourists but also expats and locals. Yes, (gay) nightlife will continue in some form around the area, presumably in Patpong, and fun will be had, but with a very different feel to it. I admit I'm rather sad about that. As for the Patpong nightmarket, I've been waiting for something to happen for years. It has been declining for a long time. 20 years ago, all stalls were occupied and throngs of tourists making the aisles almost impassable. In recent years, every other stall unoccupied and tourists few and far between. A slow death. The new development plans outlined in the interview sound very good indeed, though, I'll welcome that with open arms.

Lessens the need for those who have been fucked over on the Daddy site to waste ink complaining about it.... This semi-literate Daddy does not need us exposing how moronic he is - he is fully capable of doing it himself. Maybe his lap-puppies can try to rescue him, but given the stupidity of his right wing kapos there, doubt they can do much good, R.I.P.

And, I have not stepped foot in Chick-Fil-A in years. And, I am not sure if I posted this, but I drove a U-Haul from California to South Carolina and stopped at one of their locations every time I needed to pee. I opened the door, took a piss in the parking lot, and moved on. I guess I'm not as flexible.

Feelings are nice to have, but facts are more important in epidemiology. COVID cases and deaths are, in all likelihood, underreported. The conspiracy theory that you refer to (pushed by right wing media) has been debunked by nonpartisan fact check organizations. https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/social-media-posts-make-baseless-claim-on-covid-19-death-toll/

Practically every disease more adversely affects the elderly and the immunocompromised. First and only post, and it’s both an epidemiological fail and a loony conspiracy theory all in one.

I will have to increase my budget for international travel.

From National Public Radio The Cost Of Thailand's Coronavirus Success: Despair ... And Suicide One of Bangkok's street vendors and his bicycle worker. So-called "informal workers" have suffered the loss of income in the wake of coronavirus lockdown measures. Patrick Brown for NPR From a small corner storefront in Bangkok, Suchart Prasomsu, 53, a rice dealer, leads a rescue team of 30 volunteers. They rush to car crashes or crime scenes. They also retrieve the bodies of those who died in their homes, and since the start of the pandemic, part of their job has become trying to prevent people from killing themselves. Sacks of rice are stacked among disinfectant tanks (used to clean the apartment of a neighbor who contracted COVID-19), Prasomsu's rescue diving suit (for when someone has jumped into the river), a Buddhist shrine, a cage of songbirds and his poodle, Lion. Parked outside is the Harley he uses to weave through Bangkok's traffic. His shortwave radios — one that picks up police reports in his riverside district and the other for the entire central region of Thailand — crackle in the background. Prasomsu has been a rescue volunteer for nearly 30 years. He says the reports of suicide have ticked up since the country announced a lockdown on March 26 in the effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. He and his team have responded to at least 10 police reports of people who are publicly suicidal in his area. He talked to one young woman who nearly killed herself after losing her job at a factory. He remembers her because she backed away from the edge. Sometimes, he responds to a call and there's nothing left but a pair of flip-flops. It becomes a job for the divers to recover the body, Prasomsu said. "Then we can help by giving them a proper burial." The case and death rates from COVID-19 in Thailand are among the world's lowest, with about 3,100 confirmed cases and 58 deaths, as of Thursday. Thai epidemiologists say their health care system — one of the finest in the world — had a major role to play. So did a strict lockdown. But like many other countries, the measures to contain the virus have also caused mass disruptions as the economy came to a sudden stop. Shops, offices, malls, markets, factories, gyms, restaurants and bars were ordered to close. Domestic and international flights were grounded. People were ordered to stay home, and if they went outside, they were required to wear a mask. The few businesses that stayed open, like grocery stores, were required to do temperature checks at the door and squirted alcohol hand sanitizer into the hands of their customers. In May, the government began easing the restrictions, and as of mid-June, most businesses have been allowed to reopen. Dr. Varoth Chotpitayasunondh, a psychiatrist and spokesperson for the mental health department of Thailand's Ministry of Public Health, says that now the threat of COVID-19 is under control, the government is faced with a different public health challenge: "The next wave of the problem will be mental health." Continues with photos https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/16/874198026/the-cost-of-thailands-coronavirus-success-despair-and-suicide

I only bother to comment or post in threads of topics that interest me. I’ve seen enough of his posts in the LATAM and European forums to know exactly what he is.