What You Should kKnow about Gambling in Thailand in 2020 ...
- What You Should kKnow about Gambling in Thailand in 2020 ...
- Thailand Gambling Law - Legal Forms of Brick and Mortar ...
- Illegal gambling a trump card for opposition in censure ...
- Thai Prime Minister Considers Legalizing Gambling in Thailand
- Gambling advocate and net idol arrested for allegedly ...
- Thailand Online Gambling Law - Legality in Thailand
- Thailand Gambling Is Illegal! - Thailand Gambling
- GAMBLING IN THAILAND: IS LEGALISATION A REAL POSSIBILITY ...
- 16 Foreigners, 5 Thai Detained for Illegal Gambling in ...
- Thai Prime Minister founds gambling investigation ...
is gambling illegal in thailand
is gambling illegal in thailand - win
5 Old but Gold Shows Made Available Again Through Viki Pass Plus in 2020
Disclaimer: I’m not an affiliate of Viki in any way, I just use their service. The purpose of this post is not to sell you on the service but to bring to attention shows that you would have missed otherwise for people who might already have a subscription. With the year coming to a close, I simply figured I would recap the new re-additions of some older gems! Here are 5 new old shows you should watch in 2021:
1. All In (2003) Viki:
MyDramaList:
With a main cast of Lee Byung Hun, Song Hye Kyo, Ji Sung and Park Sol Mi, this show was an early show of many stars of today. The show has that classic mix of romance, crime and melodrama offering up a little something for everyone. Lee Byung Hun plays a real bad boy involved in gambling and other illegal activities while the second male lead Ji Sung plays a rich model student. Of course, they both pine for the same woman, played by Song Hye Kyo. Perhaps nothing for those who hate the love-triangle trope but for those who find a guilty pleasure in it, this could be a real gem for you! This drama won the Grand Prize at the 2003 Baeksang Arts Awards.
2. What Happened in Bali (2004) Viki:
MyDramaList:
Just like the previous show, this show features a star studded cast and once again a love triangle (like all proper older romance shows)! This show trades the crime aspect for a suspended amount of melodrama and features some of the most heart wrenching acting scenes in Kdramaland. The show has Jo In Sung and So Ji Sub facing off against each other as first and second male lead. The female lead is played by the lovely Ha Ji Won. This show has a rumored remake in the works, so this is as good a time as any to watch the original.
3. My Girl (2005) Viki: MyDramaList: For a less angsty and more fun-filled watch, there is My Girl which trades the melodrama for comedy but still has the same amount of brilliant actors and lovely romance. My Girl offers a different take on the contract-relationship trope where the leads pretend to be cousins, not lovers. However, that all comes crumbling down when the leads start developing feelings for one another. The show launched its main actors Lee Dong Wook, Lee Da Hae and Lee Joon Gi into international fame and the show has been massively popular around Asia and spawned remakes in Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.
4. The Chaser (2012) Viki:
MyDramaList For those who don’t want any romance shows this winter, check out The Chaser instead. It is a revenge show about a man, played by Son Hyun Joo who seeks justice for a hit-and-run case where his daughter suffered terrible consequences. Soon he finds himself to be a wanted man on the run from the law when justice turns against him. This show won the award for Best Drama and Son Hyun Joo won Best Actor with his monster performance at the Baeksang Awards in 2013.
5. Empress Ki (2013) Viki: MyDramaList For those who are looking for a longer epic of a show, I would recommend you to the historical Empress Ki. As the female lead, we find once again Ha Ji Won, this time playing against Ji Chang Wook, but the drama also stars talents such as Joo Jin Mo, Baek Jin Hee and Kim Seo Hyung. This show has it all, political intrigues, comedy, romance and melodrama. The setting is quite unique, taking place in the Yuan dynasty but featuring a Korean (or Goryeo) woman who eventually becomes empress. The show was a TV ratings hit in Korea at the time it aired and at times recorded over 30% viewership ratings.
Bonus Drama Short!: Father’s House (2009) Viki: MyDramaList:
Two acting titans from different generations, Choi Min Soo and Kim Soo Hyun, come together as father and son in this drama short that is movie length at about 2 hours and 20 minutes total. It’s a story about family and also a coming of age story about a man learning to take responsibility. Sitting down and watching this life story unfold is a joy despite all the sorrows. Don’t sleep on this opportunity to see Kim Soo Hyun in one of his first roles freshly out of high school!
submitted by txc_vertigo to kdramarecommends [link] [comments]
UK conservative opinions on Uk policy ideas (immigration, unions, advertising, electoral reform etc)
I would call myself a libertarian. I am a Marxist in that I use a materialistic interpretation of history and events. I have some ideas that I think would benefit the UK. Some of which are in line with conservative ideas. I would love to know what you guys think or what you think would be a better idea. Please criticize. I hope to have a dialogue about this as much as possible.
Drugs de criminalise all drugs (much like portugal) treat it as a mental health issue. A lot of people take drugs because of homelessness and poverty so by dealing with those hard drug use will go down. Legalise Cannabis, Mushrooms (and most hallucinegics), LSD, MDMA and Cocaine (
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/13/bad-science-cocaine-study). tax them inline with the estimated costs for misuse of them. regulate them like tobacco and alcohol.
Obesity and Food Ban the sale of energy drinks to children below 16. ban the sale of very sweet confectiionary and drinks to children below 16 (some mexican states have done it recently), This includes in schools. tax very fatty, sugary or nutritionly rare foods in line with what the estimated costs are for the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by them (much the same way we do with alcohol, tobacco and in my tax system other drugs). Possibly make it mandatory to fortify very cheap foods with minerals and vitamins so the impoverished can get more nutrients. although the body doesnt absorb these very well so it might be pointless.
Make it illegal for a company/business to throw away food stuff and make them donate it to foodbanks/food charities.
Advertising/product placement/Games/Gambling Ban all adverts to children in any way. Ban alcohol ads, vaping ads, gambling ads, payday loan ads, ads for big SUV/highly polluting vehicles. Ban product placement, ban TV shows for kids that have toys explicitly linked to them. Ban Loot box system in games. Make fixed odds betting machines have lower returns. Either tax very highly online gambling sites (spin wheel style), forced break periods or make it a state monolopy. Gambling is effectively a license to print money. why shouldn't the state take the proceeds from what is a worthless noncontributing part of the economy. All ads that have photoshopped used need to a sign saying they've been photoshopped and very thin models have to have a medical certificate that they are healthy (like france).
NHS repeal the Blair laws making the NHS act more a competitive business which have proved to ineffective. Make the English NHS system more in line with the Scottish system.
Tax or in some make people who do more dangerous activities pay a small amount extra for the increased likelihood of needing the services of the NHS like motorcyclists, horse riders, extreme sportspeople.
Free speech repeal a lot of the Blair era censorship legislation. repeal with 2014 porn ban.
prostitution legalize brothels. but make prostitution licensed to stop sex trafficking. Mandate the wearing of a condom. Possibly make it that you can only be a prostitute if you hold a british passport to stop sex trafficking from abroad.
Trade Unions repeal the anti-trade union legislation.
Electoral reform I think a system like Single Transferrable Vote would be better than FPTP. I think that registered political parties should somehow get some minimum funding from the state to facilitate a healthy and varied democracy. Remove the hereditary peerages from the house of lords.
availability of credit I don't think payment plans for normal consumer goods should be available. I think it should be harder to get a pay day loan than it currently is.
Fines I think that fines for speeding, other fine-able offenses should be means tested and shouldn't have a cap.
Copyright I think that Copyright should expire for everything after 50 years. So at the this point everything from before 1969 should be in the public domain. I think any British citizen creator who leaves the UK to not pay income tax should have the copyright for their work removed in the UK when they do leave.
Welfare Introduce Universal basic income in the UK. replace all the means tested and tedious bureaucracy associated with current system. I think it should start from 18 years old and increase slightly each year. Maybe start at 5,000 pounds and by your thirties move up to 10,000 pounds by the time you want to start having kids etc. I think UBI would make work always pay more than being on benefits. It would disincentive benefits fraud as well as people having children to acquire more benefits.
Tax
I do believe in a progressive taxation system. I think the tax free threshold should be raised. I think the brackets for taxation are good at the moment but I would add higher tax thresholds at higher rates e.g. 50% at 200,000, 60% at 500,000. I am unsure what the upper limit should be for tax rate or income. The rich will leave anyway (Jim ratcliffe most recenty) no matter what the tax rate is. If they ever wants to come into the UK they should have to pay to do so. If they have a knighthood it should be taken away.
Immigration. remove all EU citizens not in critical under supplied or high paying jobs from the UK as well migratory workers from outside the EU. Syrian Civil war refugees should go back as well. basically as many people as possible should be made to go back to their country of origin without directly endangering their lives. I think the pay threshold for workers to legally migrate here should be much higher probably 40,000 pounds a year. there should be not net migration to the UK each year.
children and population growth I think the UK should aim for net 0% population growth. I think couples who want to have kids should be made to screen for any hereditary recessive genetic diseases before they plan to have a child so they can know if they're kid is going to be disabled. Possibly people should have to have in the womb embryo testing as well to see if theyre child has any genetic diseases. legalise child euthanasia (like belgium and the netherlands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol). I think people should be discouraged from having lots of children especially those without the means to provide for them. however if people do decide to have kids I think the provision for parenting should be a lot. 2+ years of paid maternity leave. free parenting lessons, support as much as possible the needs of the child and mother in the critical early bonding years. Ban all Child beauty pageants including trans ones (like france has done). I don't think childen can legally consent to hormone replacement drugs. I think the age of criminal responsibility should be raised should be raised to about 14. I think there are arguments to lower the age of consent in the UK to 15.
the environment Library of things/Repair cafes in towns and cities to be able to more easily repairs good or not have to buy in the first place.
Government subsidy scheme to better insulate homes across country.
More extensive use of nuclear fission energy for electric generation.
Large scale food waste reclamation for Compost or animal feed.
Subsidy for Ground source heat pumps for poor households
Subsidy for Thermal exchangers in home for poor households
Make planned obselescene illegal. Make right to repair legally mandated.
simplify the amount and types of plastic products to make it easier to recycle goods. Ban non recyclable plastics from being used in single use items.
Make products label their expected lifetime (from average use) so consumer knows what a good long lasting product is. For large electric goods perhaps put a minimum expected lifespan for it to be sold in the UK.
I think you could legislate to make products illegal from rainforests or unsustainable harvested forest.
Tax loopholes make all gift-aid illegal, make art donations as tax write off illegal, donations to think tanks,charities illegal as tax write-offs,
currently if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months you don't pay any income tax. I think the amount of income tax you pay should be proportionate for how long you spend in country with a bare minimum of 20% (estimate).
Make shell companies illegal so large multinationals can't escape to tax havens and not pay corporations tax. If they don't ban them from trading in the UK. This may need to be done in a coalition of states working together.
education repeal Blair era education legislation that created needless hoops and paper work for teachers. repeal new laws that teachers can you sources from anti-capitalist, anti-democratic sources etc. repeal the Gove/Cameron legislation that made schools behave like businesses. The point of school is for the kds to work hard and earn qualifications not the teacher. It is an inherently discriminatory system. allow at GCSE much more education in technical qualifications. e.g. bricklaying, carpentry, electricians etc, machine work. I don't think they need to start at 16 or above. I think theres an argument that children should be able to leave school at 16. Some of the courses they do are pointless. Apprenticeship pay is so low that in the short term it makes more sense to get a minimum wage job. Atleast make apprenticeship pay in line with minimum wage to incentivise it rather than literally force kids to be extremely cheap labour.
self defense I think it should be legal to carry around pepper spray, mace or stun gun. The criminals already have weapons. Why not decriminalise the ability for an individual to defend themselves especially women. Free female self defence classes.
BBC release all BBC created media onto the Iplayer. The British Tax payer paid for it. Why shouldn't they be able to access it. Perhaps make a BBC iplayer app to host it all for foreigners to use and pay for like Netflix.
International business Make corporations who sell goods in the UK prove that they don't come from slave/child labour. If they don't then they can't sell that product in the UK.
VAT remove VAT for resold,recycled products, upcycled products, products that are good the planet (re-chargeable batteries, battery chargers). effectively rebrand VAT as a carbon tax. completely remove VAT on sanitary products, all energy efficiency/saving products.
Voting like Australia make it mandatory to go to the polling booth.
University make universities offer their humanities subjects as online only option so that people can do their degree from anywhere and not necessarily in the expensive university town. the course would be cheaper. Make foreign students pay for their healthcare when they are here.
Tourism make foreigners pay to get into British Museums especially the big ones in london. I realise this may be cost prohibitive for smaller Museums.
Housing change the rental legislation that tenants can legally not pay full rent if a landlord hasn't done repairs to the standard of the property when the renter moved in.
No foreigner can own more than 2 homes in the UK (in thailand you can't own any property unless you're thai)
Cap the number of a properties anyone can own. especially for buy to let landlords.
If a house has sat vacant for too long it has to be put on the market as a competitive price.
houses cannot be treated as an investment where it doesn't matter if its occupied or not. a roof over ones head is a right.
Homelessness expand the access to homeless shelters. the best way to stop human and sex trafficking as well hard drug use to is stop homelessness.
migratory farm workers ban migratory farm workers in the UK. there are thousands of Uni, GCSE, college and A level students who have months off school in the picking season. Why not get them to pick fruit and vegetables? same thing goes for homeless people. Get them all to pick fruit and veg.
littering & dog tax small tax on having a dog to pay for dog park maintenance, dog bins, etc. small tax on single use packaging to pay for more Bins on high street, bins to be emptied more regularly to reduce littering. Same small tax on tobacco for cigarette butt bins.
These are all my ideas. Please critique them.
submitted by MemeTimeRadioHour to tories [link] [comments]
UK LibDem opinons on UK policy ideas (immigration, unions, advertising, electoral reform etc)
I'm not sure if this is allowed here. I would call myself an environmental libertarian-ish. I was a member of the Lib dems from 2012-2013. I am a Marxist in that I use a materialistic interpretation of history and events. I have some ideas that I think would benefit the UK. Some of which are in line with Lib Dem ideas. I would love to know what you guys think or what you think would be a better idea. Please criticize. I hope to have a dialogue about this as much as possible.
Drugs Decriminalise all drugs (much like portugal) treat it as a mental health issue. A lot of people take drugs because of homelessness and poverty so by dealing with those hard drug use will go down. Legalise Cannabis, Mushrooms (and most hallucinegics), LSD, MDMA, Steroids and Cocaine (
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/13/bad-science-cocaine-study). Tax them inline with the estimated costs for misuse of them. Regulate them like tobacco and alcohol.
Obesity and Food Ban the sale of energy drinks to children below 16. Ban the sale of very sweet confectionery and drinks to children below 16 (some Mexican states have done it recently), This includes in schools. Tax very fatty, sugary or nutritionally rare foods in line with what the estimated costs are for the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by them (much the same way we do with alcohol, tobacco and in my tax system other drugs). Possibly Ban the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Margarine in UK foods. Possibly make it mandatory to fortify very cheap foods with minerals and vitamins so the impoverished can get more nutrients. although the body doesn't absorb these very well so it might be pointless. Ban the Injection of water in meat to make it look bigger.
Plain Packaging and warning labels on Junk food like cigarettes. make the nutritional information for actual representative portions. If companies shrinkflate a product then they have to put it on the packaging of the product that they have done so. Ban the sale of Alcohol and Tobacco to pregnant women (not sure how you enforce this).
Make it illegal for a company/business to throw away food stuff and make them donate it to foodbanks/food charities (Like France)
Advertising/product placement/ Ban all adverts to children in any way. I think you could also make toys/mannequins sold in the UK have realistic proportions for both boys and girls. Ban junk food ads, alcohol ads, vaping ads, gambling ads, payday loan ads, ads for big SUV/highly polluting vehicles. Ban the sponsorship of events by any of these things either. Ban product placement, ban TV shows for kids that have toys explicitly linked to them. All ads that have photo shopped used need to a sign saying they've been photo shopped and very thin models have to have a medical certificate that they are healthy (like France).
Gambling/Games Ban or reclassify Loot box systems in games. Make fixed odds betting machines have lower returns. Either tax very highly online gambling sites (spin wheel style), forced break periods or make it a state monolopy. Gambling is effectively a license to print money. Why shouldn't the state take the proceeds from what is a worthless noncontributing part of the economy. Either make the lottery state run and recieve all the profits for public work or ban it and replace it with a government bond deposit scheme like premium bonds but a lower threshold to enter.
NHS repeal the Blair laws making the NHS act more a competitive business which have proved to ineffective. Make the English NHS system more in line with the Scottish system.
Tax or in some make people who do more dangerous activities pay a small amount extra for the increased likelihood of needing the services of the NHS like motorcyclists, horse riders, extreme sportspeople.
Ban the ever greening of drugs so they can be made cheaply and generically. If a pharma company has received funding to develop a drug then it must be sold at cost (or much lower profit). Somehow democratise the access to science and medical journals e.g. higher tax, made to be free if research was publicly funded, government run science journal).
Free speech Repeal a lot of the Blair era censorship legislation. repeal with 2014 porn ban.
prostitution Legalize brothels. but make prostitution licensed to stop sex trafficking. Mandate the wearing of a condom. Possibly make it that you can only be a prostitute if you hold a british passport to stop sex trafficking from abroad.
Trade Unions repeal the anti-trade union legislation.
Electoral reform I think a system like Single Transferrable Vote would be better than FPTP. I think that registered political parties should somehow get some minimum funding from the state to facilitate a healthy and varied democracy. Remove the hereditary peerages from the house of lords.
availability of credit I don't think payment plans for normal consumer goods should be available. I think it should be harder to get a pay day loan than it currently is.
Fines I think that fines for speeding, other fine-able offenses should be means tested and shouldn't have a cap.
Copyright I think that Copyright should expire for everything after 50 years. So at the this point everything from before 1969 should be in the public domain. I think any British citizen creator who leaves the UK to not pay income tax should have the copyright for their work removed in the UK when they do leave.
Welfare Introduce Universal basic income in the UK. Replace all the means tested and tedious bureaucracy associated with current system. I think it should start from 18 years old and increase slightly each year. Maybe start at 5,000 pounds and by your thirties move up to 10,000 pounds by the time you want to start having kids etc. I think UBI would make work always pay more than being on benefits. It would disincentive benefits fraud as well as people having children to acquire more benefits.
Tax
I do believe in a progressive taxation system. I think the tax free threshold should be raised. I think the brackets for taxation are good at the moment but I would add higher tax thresholds at higher rates e.g. 50% at 200,000, 60% at 500,000. I am unsure what the upper limit should be for tax rate or income. The rich will leave anyway (Jim ratcliffe most recenty) no matter what the tax rate is. If they ever wants to come into the UK they should have to pay to do so. If they have a knighthood it should be taken away.
Immigration. Remove all EU citizens not in critical under supplied or high paying jobs from the UK as well migratory workers from outside the EU. Syrian Civil war refugees should go back as well, The war is over now. basically as many people as possible should be made to go back to their country of origin without directly endangering their lives. I think the pay threshold for workers to legally migrate here should be much higher probably 40,000 pounds a year. There should ideally be no net migration to the UK each year.
children and population growth I think the UK should aim for net 0% population growth. I think couples who want to have kids should be made to screen for any hereditary recessive genetic diseases before they plan to have a child so they can know if they're kid is going to be disabled/Birthing complications. Possibly if a couple is high risk of a genetic diseased child people should have to have in the womb embryo testing as well to see if theyre child has any genetic diseases. I think people should be discouraged from having lots of children especially those without the means to provide for them. However if people do decide to have kids I think the provision for parenting should be a lot. 2+ years of paid maternity leave. Free parenting lessons, support as much as possible the needs of the child and mother in the critical early bonding years.
Ban all Child beauty pageants including trans ones (like France has done). I don't think children can legally consent to hormone replacement drugs. Ban Gay conversion therapy. I think the age of criminal responsibility should be raised should be raised to about 14. I think there are arguments to lower the age of consent in the UK to 15.
Euthanasia Legalise child euthanasia (like belgium and the netherlands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol). Legalise normal euthanasia for people of any age as well.
the environment Library of things/Repair cafes in towns and cities to be able to more easily repairs good or not have to buy in the first place.
Ban or curtail the sale of bottled war. Install more water fountains and public bathrooms instead.
Government subsidy scheme to better insulate homes across country.
More extensive use of nuclear fission energy for electric generation.
Large scale food waste reclamation for Compost or animal feed.
Subsidy for Ground source heat pumps for poor households
Subsidy for Thermal exchangers in home for poor households
Make planned obselescene illegal. Make right to repair legally mandated.
simplify the amount and types of plastic products to make it easier to recycle goods. Ban non recyclable plastics from being used in single use items.
Ban paper junk mail and possibly free newspapers.
Make products label their expected lifetime (from average use) so consumer knows what a good long lasting product is. For large electric goods perhaps put a minimum expected lifespan for it to be sold in the UK.
I think you could legislate to make products illegal from rainforests or unsustainable harvested forest (palm oil specifically)
Tax loopholes Make all gift-aid illegal, make art donations as tax write off illegal, donations to think tanks,charities illegal as tax write-offs,
Currently if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months you don't pay any income tax. I think the amount of income tax you pay should be proportionate for how long you spend in country with a bare minimum of 20% (estimate).
Make shell companies illegal so large multinationals can't escape to tax havens and not pay corporations tax. If they don't ban them from trading in the UK. This may need to be done in a coalition of states working together.
education Repeal Blair era education legislation that created needless hoops and paper work for teachers. Repeal new laws that teachers can you sources from anti-capitalist, anti-democratic sources etc. Repeal the Gove/Cameron legislation that made schools behave like businesses. The point of school is for the kids to work hard and earn qualifications not the teacher. It is an inherently discriminatory system. allow at GCSE much more education in technical qualifications. e.g. bricklaying, carpentry, electricians, machine work, DJing etc . I don't think they need to start doing it at 16 or above. I think there's an argument that children should be able to leave school at 16. Some of the courses they do are pointless. Apprenticeship pay is so low that in the short term it makes more sense to get a minimum wage job. Atleast make apprenticeship pay in line with minimum wage to incentivise it rather than literally force kids to be extremely cheap labour like now.
self defense I think it should be legal to carry around pepper spray, mace or stun gun especially for women. The criminals already have weapons. Why not decriminalise the ability for an individual to defend themselves especially women. Free female self defence classes.
BBC Release all BBC created media onto the Iplayer. The British Tax payer paid for it. Why shouldn't they be able to access it. Perhaps make a BBC iplayer app to host it all for foreigners to use and pay for like Netflix.
business Make corporations who sell goods in the UK prove that they don't come from slave/child labour. If they don't then they can't sell that product in the UK. Ban or reclassify Multi Level Marketting companies as Ponzi Schemes. Label Scientology as a cult (like Germany has). Regulate detox tea and supplements like any other medicine/pharmaceutical. One day a year allow any to search for a named person and see what their salary is (Norway does this). Get rid of 1 and 2 penny, they cost too much to make for what they are.
Government Ban former MPs from ever holding any business position once they retire. Make them divest all their business interests before being an MP. Make their spouses and children's company's to never receive state money or have a job in a state enterprise. Same goes for Generals/Civil Servants. Spread of Government facilities from London to other cities e.g. does any every ministry need to be in London? Pay HMRC accountants/auditors much more than they a company would so they tell the government the loopholes companies use to not pay tax. Make it Financially rewarding to be ethical.
VAT Remove VAT for resold,recycled products, upcycled products, products that are good the planet (re-chargeable batteries, battery chargers). Effectively re brand VAT as a carbon tax. Completely remove VAT on sanitary products, all energy efficiency/saving products.
University make universities offer their humanities subjects as an online only option as well as in person so that people can do their degree from anywhere and not necessarily in the expensive university town. The course would be cheaper. Make foreign students pay for their healthcare when they are here. Give less money to unis with more beneficiary (e.g. red brick unis). They already have so many endowments they don't need as much from the state. Foreign students can't work at all while studying here.
Housing Change the rental legislation that tenants can legally not pay full rent if a landlord hasn't done repairs to the standard of the property when the renter moved in.
No foreigner can own more than 2 homes in the UK (in Thailand you can't own any property unless you're Thai)
Cap the number of a properties anyone can own. especially for buy to let landlords.
If a house has sat vacant for too long it has to be put on the market as a competitive price.
Rent control for a property inline with inflation for renters.
Houses cannot be treated as an investment where it doesn't matter if its occupied or not. A roof over ones head is a right.
Homelessness Expand the access to homeless shelters. The best way to stop human and sex trafficking as well hard drug use to is stop homelessness.
migratory farm workers Ban migratory farm workers in the UK. There are thousands of underemployed Uni, GCSE, college and A level students who have months off school in the picking season. Why not pay them to pick fruit and vegetables? Same thing goes for homeless people. Get them all to pick fruit and veg.
littering & dog tax Small tax on having a dog to pay for dog park maintenance, dog bins, etc. Small tax on single use packaging to pay for more Bins on high street, bins to be emptied more regularly to reduce littering. Same small tax on tobacco for cigarette butt bins.
Misc Legalise Polygamy.
These are all my ideas. Please critique them.
submitted by MemeTimeRadioHour to LibDem [link] [comments]
Tape Delayed Horse racing
A friend of mine teaches English abroad in Thailand. He says that at one of the bars he occasionally goes to, they show tape delayed horse races. There is betting and other forms of gambling at this establishment. Gambling is mostly illegal in Thailand, outside of the lottery and a few licensed horse tracks. But there is a sizable underground market.
This got me thinking, not necessarily for my friend’s benefit, but is this exploitable in any way? I mean, you don’t want to anger t wrong people in a foreign country (not sure who is behind the gambling), but is there a database of horse racing results somewhere? Would it be possible for anyone at that bar who is a regular bettor to know the results of the tape delayed races?
I would guess the races are from an obscure track, likely in a different country, but just wondering out of curiosity.
submitted by NicholeDaylinn1993 to gambling [link] [comments]
I'm gonna pop off for a second. ZERO of these cucks care ANYTHING for you or your grandma, how do I know? Because they never complained about the gambling industry.
- Gambling addiction has been shown to have the same pharmacological effects as opiates.
- Casinos are designed to disorient and confuse patrons, from the lighting and carpeting to the key of machine sounds.
- Nevada had the highest suicide rate in the nation from 1990-1994, according to statistics from the CDC.
- In Gulfport, Mississippi, suicides increased by 213 percent in the first two years after casinos arrived. In neighboring Biloxi, suicide attempts jumped by 1,000 percent in the first year alone.
- The National Council on Problem Gambling, citing various studies, reports that one in five pathological gamblers attempts suicide, a rate higher than for any other addictive disorder.
- In the UK more than 2 million households are affected by problem gambling including 50,000 addicted minors. Suicide deaths every day increasingly include young, healthy males with good careers from stable families. This is worth reading.
- Asia is even worse, with Macau generating about 8 times the revenue of Las Vegas, but Thailand, Korea, and India are also in very severe condition. Japan began the process of legalizing casino gambling in 2018, with a new agency established in 2020.
- 1 in 5 habitual gamblers attempts suicide
- 1 in 5 suicides is related to gambling (usually with no other health or psychological problems)
That's JUST the suicides. Not the drugs, prostitution, organized crime, alcohol, cigarettes, job problems, domestic problems, credit card interest, or whatever else people could be doing with their lives. It's
just the suicides.
Gambling was illegal in 48 states for over 100 years, but in the last ten years has risen almost perpendicularly. Ask anyone who works at a gas station or convenience store, daily lottery drawings and scratch-off tickets are almost a $100B industry - with some states legalizing lotteries as recently as January of 2020. Sports betting is almost as large, formally estimated at $85B.
Casinos, together with strip clubs and the other forms of gambling listed above, are open and operating right now in states that continue to (illegally) force churches and businesses to shut down. By the way.
submitted by JIVEprinting to CoronavirusCirclejerk [link] [comments]
UK Labour opinions on UK policy ideas (immigration, unions, advertising, electoral reform etc)
I'm not sure if this is allowed here. I would call myself an environmental libertarian-ish. I am member of the Labour Party. I am a Marxist in that I use a materialistic interpretation of history and events. I have some ideas that I think would benefit the UK. Some of which are in line with Labour ideas. I would love to know what you guys think or what you think would be a better idea. Please criticize. I hope to have a dialogue about this as much as possible.
Drugs Decriminalise all drugs (much like portugal) treat it as a mental health issue. A lot of people take drugs because of homelessness and poverty so by dealing with those hard drug use will go down. Legalise Cannabis, Mushrooms (and most hallucinegics), LSD, MDMA, Steroids and Cocaine (
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/13/bad-science-cocaine-study). Tax them inline with the estimated costs for misuse of them. Regulate them like tobacco and alcohol.
Obesity and Food Ban the sale of energy drinks to children below 16. Ban the sale of very sweet confectionery and drinks to children below 16 (some Mexican states have done it recently), This includes in schools. Tax very fatty, sugary or nutritionally rare foods in line with what the estimated costs are for the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by them (much the same way we do with alcohol, tobacco and in my tax system other drugs). Possibly Ban the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Margarine in UK foods. Possibly make it mandatory to fortify very cheap foods with minerals and vitamins so the impoverished can get more nutrients. although the body doesn't absorb these very well so it might be pointless.
Plain Packaging and warning labels on Junk food like cigarettes. make the nutritional information for actual representative portions. If companies shrinkflate a product then they have to put it on the packaging of the product that they have done so. Ban the sale of Alcohol and Tobacco to pregnant women (not sure how you enforce this).
Make it illegal for a company/business to throw away food stuff and make them donate it to foodbanks/food charities (Like France)
Advertising/product placement/ Ban all adverts to children in any way. I think you could also make toys/mannequins sold in the UK have realistic proportions for both boys and girls. Ban junk food ads, alcohol ads, vaping ads, gambling ads, payday loan ads, ads for big SUV/highly polluting vehicles. Ban the sponsorship of events by any of these things either. Ban product placement, ban TV shows for kids that have toys explicitly linked to them. All ads that have photo shopped used need to a sign saying they've been photo shopped and very thin models have to have a medical certificate that they are healthy (like France).
Gambling/Games Ban or reclassify Loot box systems in games. Make fixed odds betting machines have lower returns. Either tax very highly online gambling sites (spin wheel style), forced break periods or make it a state monolopy. Gambling is effectively a license to print money. Why shouldn't the state take the proceeds from what is a worthless noncontributing part of the economy. Either make the lottery state run and recieve all the profits for public work or ban it and replace it with a government bond deposit scheme like premium bonds but a lower threshold to enter.
NHS repeal the Blair laws making the NHS act more a competitive business which have proved to ineffective. Make the English NHS system more in line with the Scottish system.
Tax or in some make people who do more dangerous activities pay a small amount extra for the increased likelihood of needing the services of the NHS like motorcyclists, horse riders, extreme sportspeople.
Ban the ever greening of drugs so they can be made cheaply and generically. If a pharma company has received funding to develop a drug then it must be sold at cost (or much lower profit). Somehow democratise the access to science and medical journals e.g. higher tax, made to be free if research was publicly funded, government run science journal).
Free speech Repeal a lot of the Blair era censorship legislation. repeal with 2014 porn ban.
prostitution Legalize brothels. but make prostitution licensed to stop sex trafficking. Mandate the wearing of a condom. Possibly make it that you can only be a prostitute if you hold a british passport to stop sex trafficking from abroad.
Trade Unions repeal the anti-trade union legislation.
Electoral reform I think a system like Single Transferrable Vote would be better than FPTP. I think that registered political parties should somehow get some minimum funding from the state to facilitate a healthy and varied democracy. Remove the hereditary peerages from the house of lords.
availability of credit I don't think payment plans for normal consumer goods should be available. I think it should be harder to get a pay day loan than it currently is.
Fines I think that fines for speeding, other fine-able offenses should be means tested and shouldn't have a cap.
Copyright I think that Copyright should expire for everything after 50 years. So at the this point everything from before 1969 should be in the public domain. I think any British citizen creator who leaves the UK to not pay income tax should have the copyright for their work removed in the UK when they do leave.
Welfare Introduce Universal basic income in the UK. Replace all the means tested and tedious bureaucracy associated with current system. I think it should start from 18 years old and increase slightly each year. Maybe start at 5,000 pounds and by your thirties move up to 10,000 pounds by the time you want to start having kids etc. I think UBI would make work always pay more than being on benefits. It would disincentive benefits fraud as well as people having children to acquire more benefits.
Tax
I do believe in a progressive taxation system. I think the tax free threshold should be raised. I think the brackets for taxation are good at the moment but I would add higher tax thresholds at higher rates e.g. 50% at 200,000, 60% at 500,000. I am unsure what the upper limit should be for tax rate or income. The rich will leave anyway (Jim ratcliffe most recenty) no matter what the tax rate is. If they ever wants to come into the UK they should have to pay to do so. If they have a knighthood it should be taken away.
Immigration. Remove all EU citizens not in critical under supplied or high paying jobs from the UK as well migratory workers from outside the EU. Syrian Civil war refugees should go back as well, The war is over now. basically as many people as possible should be made to go back to their country of origin without directly endangering their lives. I think the pay threshold for workers to legally migrate here should be much higher probably 40,000 pounds a year. There should ideally be no net migration to the UK each year.
children and population growth I think the UK should aim for net 0% population growth. I think couples who want to have kids should be made to screen for any hereditary recessive genetic diseases before they plan to have a child so they can know if they're kid is going to be disabled/Birthing complications. Possibly if a couple is high risk of a genetic diseased child people should have to have in the womb embryo testing as well to see if theyre child has any genetic diseases. I think people should be discouraged from having lots of children especially those without the means to provide for them. However if people do decide to have kids I think the provision for parenting should be a lot. 2+ years of paid maternity leave. Free parenting lessons, support as much as possible the needs of the child and mother in the critical early bonding years.
Ban all Child beauty pageants including trans ones (like France has done). I don't think children can legally consent to hormone replacement drugs. Ban Gay conversion therapy. I think the age of criminal responsibility should be raised should be raised to about 14. I think there are arguments to lower the age of consent in the UK to 15.
Euthanasia Legalise child euthanasia (like belgium and the netherlands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol). Legalise normal euthanasia for people of any age as well.
the environment Library of things/Repair cafes in towns and cities to be able to more easily repairs good or not have to buy in the first place.
Ban or curtail the sale of bottled war. Install more water fountains and public bathrooms instead.
Government subsidy scheme to better insulate homes across country.
More extensive use of nuclear fission energy for electric generation.
Large scale food waste reclamation for Compost or animal feed.
Subsidy for Ground source heat pumps for poor households
Subsidy for Thermal exchangers in home for poor households
Make planned obselescene illegal. Make right to repair legally mandated.
simplify the amount and types of plastic products to make it easier to recycle goods. Ban non recyclable plastics from being used in single use items.
Ban paper junk mail and possibly free newspapers.
Make products label their expected lifetime (from average use) so consumer knows what a good long lasting product is. For large electric goods perhaps put a minimum expected lifespan for it to be sold in the UK.
I think you could legislate to make products illegal from rainforests or unsustainable harvested forest (palm oil specifically)
Tax loopholes Make all gift-aid illegal, make art donations as tax write off illegal, donations to think tanks,charities illegal as tax write-offs,
Currently if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months you don't pay any income tax. I think the amount of income tax you pay should be proportionate for how long you spend in country with a bare minimum of 20% (estimate).
Make shell companies illegal so large multinationals can't escape to tax havens and not pay corporations tax. If they don't ban them from trading in the UK. This may need to be done in a coalition of states working together.
education Repeal Blair era education legislation that created needless hoops and paper work for teachers. Repeal new laws that teachers can you sources from anti-capitalist, anti-democratic sources etc. Repeal the Gove/Cameron legislation that made schools behave like businesses. The point of school is for the kids to work hard and earn qualifications not the teacher. It is an inherently discriminatory system. allow at GCSE much more education in technical qualifications. e.g. bricklaying, carpentry, electricians, machine work, DJing etc . I don't think they need to start doing it at 16 or above. I think there's an argument that children should be able to leave school at 16. Some of the courses they do are pointless. Apprenticeship pay is so low that in the short term it makes more sense to get a minimum wage job. Atleast make apprenticeship pay in line with minimum wage to incentivise it rather than literally force kids to be extremely cheap labour like now.
self defense I think it should be legal to carry around pepper spray, mace or stun gun especially for women. The criminals already have weapons. Why not decriminalise the ability for an individual to defend themselves especially women. Free female self defence classes.
BBC Release all BBC created media onto the Iplayer. The British Tax payer paid for it. Why shouldn't they be able to access it. Perhaps make a BBC iplayer app to host it all for foreigners to use and pay for like Netflix.
business Make corporations who sell goods in the UK prove that they don't come from slave/child labour. If they don't then they can't sell that product in the UK. Ban or reclassify Multi Level Marketting companies as Ponzi Schemes. Label Scientology as a cult (like Germany has). Regulate detox tea and supplements like any other medicine/pharmaceutical. One day a year allow any to search for a named person and see what their salary is (Norway does this).
Government Ban former MPs from ever holding any business position once they retire. Make them divest all their business interests before being an MP. Make their spouses and children's company's to never receive state money or have a job in a state enterprise. Same goes for Generals/Civil Servants. Spread of Government facilities from London to other cities e.g. does any every ministry need to be in London? Pay HMRC accountants/auditors much more than they a company would so they tell the government the loopholes companies use to not pay tax. Make it Financially rewarding to be ethical.
VAT Remove VAT for resold,recycled products, upcycled products, products that are good the planet (re-chargeable batteries, battery chargers). Effectively re brand VAT as a carbon tax. Completely remove VAT on sanitary products, all energy efficiency/saving products.
Voting Like Australia make it mandatory to go to the polling booth.
University make universities offer their humanities subjects as an online only option as well as in person so that people can do their degree from anywhere and not necessarily in the expensive university town. The course would be cheaper. Make foreign students pay for their healthcare when they are here. Give less money to unis with more beneficiary (e.g. red brick unis). They already have so many endowments they don't need as much from the state. Foreign students can't work at all while studying here.
Tourism Make foreigners pay to get into British Museums especially the big ones in london. I realise this may be cost prohibitive for smaller Museums.
Housing Change the rental legislation that tenants can legally not pay full rent if a landlord hasn't done repairs to the standard of the property when the renter moved in.
No foreigner can own more than 2 homes in the UK (in Thailand you can't own any property unless you're Thai)
Cap the number of a properties anyone can own. especially for buy to let landlords.
If a house has sat vacant for too long it has to be put on the market as a competitive price.
Rent control for a property inline with inflation for renters.
Houses cannot be treated as an investment where it doesn't matter if its occupied or not. A roof over ones head is a right.
Homelessness Expand the access to homeless shelters. The best way to stop human and sex trafficking as well hard drug use to is stop homelessness.
migratory farm workers Ban migratory farm workers in the UK. There are thousands of underemployed Uni, GCSE, college and A level students who have months off school in the picking season. Why not pay them to pick fruit and vegetables? Same thing goes for homeless people. Get them all to pick fruit and veg.
littering & dog tax Small tax on having a dog to pay for dog park maintenance, dog bins, etc. Small tax on single use packaging to pay for more Bins on high street, bins to be emptied more regularly to reduce littering. Same small tax on tobacco for cigarette butt bins.
These are all my ideas. Please critique them.
submitted by MemeTimeRadioHour to LabourUK [link] [comments]
UK Labour opinions on Uk policy ideas (immigration, unions, advertising, electoral reform etc)
I would call myself an environmental libertarian-ish. I am a Marxist in that I use a materialistic interpretation of history and events. I have some ideas that I think would benefit the UK. Some of which are in line with Labour ideas. I would love to know what you guys think or what you think would be a better idea. Please criticize. I hope to have a dialogue about this as much as possible.
Drugs de criminalise all drugs (much like portugal) treat it as a mental health issue. A lot of people take drugs because of homelessness and poverty so by dealing with those hard drug use will go down. Legalise Cannabis, Mushrooms (and most hallucinegics), LSD, MDMA, Steroids and Cocaine (
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/13/bad-science-cocaine-study). tax them inline with the estimated costs for misuse of them. regulate them like tobacco and alcohol.
Obesity and Food Ban the sale of energy drinks to children below 16. ban the sale of very sweet confectiionary and drinks to children below 16 (some mexican states have done it recently), This includes in schools. tax very fatty, sugary or nutritionly rare foods in line with what the estimated costs are for the NHS to deal with the health problems caused by them (much the same way we do with alcohol, tobacco and in my tax system other drugs). Possibly make it mandatory to fortify very cheap foods with minerals and vitamins so the impoverished can get more nutrients. although the body doesnt absorb these very well so it might be pointless. Plain Packaging and warning labels on Junk food like cigarettes. make the nutritional information for actual representative portions. Possibly Ban the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Margarine in UK foods. If companies shrinkflate a product then they have to put it on the packaging of the product that they have done so. Ban the sale of Alcohol and Tobacco to pregnant women (not sure how you enforce this).
Make it illegal for a company/business to throw away food stuff and make them donate it to foodbanks/food charities.
Advertising/product placement/ Ban all adverts to children in any way. I think you could also make toys/mannequins sold in the UK have realistic proportions for both boys and girls. Ban junk food ads, alcohol ads, vaping ads, gambling ads, payday loan ads, ads for big SUV/highly polluting vehicles. Ban the sponsorship of events by any of these things either .Ban product placement, ban TV shows for kids that have toys explicitly linked to them. All ads that have photoshopped used need to a sign saying they've been photoshopped and very thin models have to have a medical certificate that they are healthy (like france).
Gambling/Games Ban or reclassify Loot box systems in games. Make fixed odds betting machines have lower returns. Either tax very highly online gambling sites (spin wheel style), forced break periods or make it a state monolopy. Gambling is effectively a license to print money. why shouldn't the state take the proceeds from what is a worthless noncontributing part of the economy. Either make the lottery state run and recieve all the profits for public work or ban it and replace it with a government bond deposit scheme like premium bonds but a lower threshold to enter.
NHS repeal the Blair laws making the NHS act more a competitive business which have proved to ineffective. Make the English NHS system more in line with the Scottish system.
Tax or in some make people who do more dangerous activities pay a small amount extra for the increased likelihood of needing the services of the NHS like motorcyclists, horse riders, extreme sportspeople.
Ban the evergreening of drugs so they can be made cheaply and generically. If a pharma company has recieved funding to develop a drug then it must be sold at cost (or much lower profit). Somehow democratise the access to science and medical journals e.g. higher tax, made to be free if research was publicly funded, government run science journal).
Free speech repeal a lot of the Blair era censorship legislation. repeal with 2014 porn ban.
prostitution legalize brothels. but make prostitution licensed to stop sex trafficking. Mandate the wearing of a condom. Possibly make it that you can only be a prostitute if you hold a british passport to stop sex trafficking from abroad.
Trade Unions repeal the anti-trade union legislation.
Electoral reform I think a system like Single Transferrable Vote would be better than FPTP. I think that registered political parties should somehow get some minimum funding from the state to facilitate a healthy and varied democracy. Remove the hereditary peerages from the house of lords.
availability of credit I don't think payment plans for normal consumer goods should be available. I think it should be harder to get a pay day loan than it currently is.
Fines I think that fines for speeding, other fine-able offenses should be means tested and shouldn't have a cap.
Copyright I think that Copyright should expire for everything after 50 years. So at the this point everything from before 1969 should be in the public domain. I think any British citizen creator who leaves the UK to not pay income tax should have the copyright for their work removed in the UK when they do leave.
Welfare Introduce Universal basic income in the UK. replace all the means tested and tedious bureaucracy associated with current system. I think it should start from 18 years old and increase slightly each year. Maybe start at 5,000 pounds and by your thirties move up to 10,000 pounds by the time you want to start having kids etc. I think UBI would make work always pay more than being on benefits. It would disincentive benefits fraud as well as people having children to acquire more benefits.
Tax
I do believe in a progressive taxation system. I think the tax free threshold should be raised. I think the brackets for taxation are good at the moment but I would add higher tax thresholds at higher rates e.g. 50% at 200,000, 60% at 500,000. I am unsure what the upper limit should be for tax rate or income. The rich will leave anyway (Jim ratcliffe most recenty) no matter what the tax rate is. If they ever wants to come into the UK they should have to pay to do so. If they have a knighthood it should be taken away.
Immigration. remove all EU citizens not in critical under supplied or high paying jobs from the UK as well migratory workers from outside the EU. Syrian Civil war refugees should go back as well. basically as many people as possible should be made to go back to their country of origin without directly endangering their lives. I think the pay threshold for workers to legally migrate here should be much higher probably 40,000 pounds a year. there should be not net migration to the UK each year.
children and population growth I think the UK should aim for net 0% population growth. I think couples who want to have kids should be made to screen for any hereditary recessive genetic diseases before they plan to have a child so they can know if they're kid is going to be disabled. Possibly people should have to have in the womb embryo testing as well to see if theyre child has any genetic diseases. I think people should be discouraged from having lots of children especially those without the means to provide for them. however if people do decide to have kids I think the provision for parenting should be a lot. 2+ years of paid maternity leave. free parenting lessons, support as much as possible the needs of the child and mother in the critical early bonding years. Ban all Child beauty pageants including trans ones (like france has done). I don't think childen can legally consent to hormone replacement drugs. Ban Gay conversion therapy. I think the age of criminal responsibility should be raised should be raised to about 14. I think there are arguments to lower the age of consent in the UK to 15.
Euthanasia legalise child euthanasia (like belgium and the netherlands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_Protocol). Legalise normal euthanasia for people of any age as well.
the environment Library of things/Repair cafes in towns and cities to be able to more easily repairs good or not have to buy in the first place.
Ban or curtail the sale of bottled war. Install more water fountains and public bathrooms instead.
Government subsidy scheme to better insulate homes across country.
More extensive use of nuclear fission energy for electric generation.
Large scale food waste reclamation for Compost or animal feed.
Subsidy for Ground source heat pumps for poor households
Subsidy for Thermal exchangers in home for poor households
Make planned obselescene illegal. Make right to repair legally mandated.
simplify the amount and types of plastic products to make it easier to recycle goods. Ban non recyclable plastics from being used in single use items.
Ban paper junk mail and possibly free newspapers.
Make products label their expected lifetime (from average use) so consumer knows what a good long lasting product is. For large electric goods perhaps put a minimum expected lifespan for it to be sold in the UK.
I think you could legislate to make products illegal from rainforests or unsustainable harvested forest (palm oil specifically)
Tax loopholes make all gift-aid illegal, make art donations as tax write off illegal, donations to think tanks,charities illegal as tax write-offs,
currently if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months you don't pay any income tax. I think the amount of income tax you pay should be proportionate for how long you spend in country with a bare minimum of 20% (estimate).
Make shell companies illegal so large multinationals can't escape to tax havens and not pay corporations tax. If they don't ban them from trading in the UK. This may need to be done in a coalition of states working together.
education repeal Blair era education legislation that created needless hoops and paper work for teachers. repeal new laws that teachers can you sources from anti-capitalist, anti-democratic sources etc. repeal the Gove/Cameron legislation that made schools behave like businesses. The point of school is for the kds to work hard and earn qualifications not the teacher. It is an inherently discriminatory system. allow at GCSE much more education in technical qualifications. e.g. bricklaying, carpentry, electricians etc, machine work. I don't think they need to start at 16 or above. I think theres an argument that children should be able to leave school at 16. Some of the courses they do are pointless. Apprenticeship pay is so low that in the short term it makes more sense to get a minimum wage job. Atleast make apprenticeship pay in line with minimum wage to incentivise it rather than literally force kids to be extremely cheap labour.
self defense I think it should be legal to carry around pepper spray, mace or stun gun. The criminals already have weapons. Why not decriminalise the ability for an individual to defend themselves especially women. Free female self defence classes.
BBC release all BBC created media onto the Iplayer. The British Tax payer paid for it. Why shouldn't they be able to access it. Perhaps make a BBC iplayer app to host it all for foreigners to use and pay for like Netflix.
business Make corporations who sell goods in the UK prove that they don't come from slave/child labour. If they don't then they can't sell that product in the UK. Ban or reclassify Multi Level Marketting companies as Ponzi Schemes. Label Scientology as a cult (like germany has). Regulate detox tea and supplements like any other medicine/pharmaceutical. one day a year allow any to search for a named person and see what their salary is (norway does this).
Government Ban former MPs from ever holding any business position once they retire. Make them divest all their business interests before being an MP. Make their spouses and children's company's to ever recieve state money or have a job in a state enterprise. Same goes for Generals/Civil Servants. Spread of Governemnt facilites from London to other cities e.g. does any every ministry need to be in London? Pay HMRC accountants/auditors much more than they a company would so they tell the government the loopholes companies use to not pay tax. make it Financially rewarding to be ethical.
VAT remove VAT for resold,recycled products, upcycled products, products that are good the planet (re-chargeable batteries, battery chargers). effectively rebrand VAT as a carbon tax. completely remove VAT on sanitary products, all energy efficiency/saving products.
Voting like Australia make it mandatory to go to the polling booth.
University make universities offer their humanities subjects as online only option so that people can do their degree from anywhere and not necessarily in the expensive university town. the course would be cheaper. Make foreign students pay for their healthcare when they are here. Give less money to unis with more beneficiarys (e.g. red brick unis). They already have so many endowments they don't need as much from the state. Foreigns students can't work at all while studying here.
Tourism make foreigners pay to get into British Museums especially the big ones in london. I realise this may be cost prohibitive for smaller Museums.
Housing change the rental legislation that tenants can legally not pay full rent if a landlord hasn't done repairs to the standard of the property when the renter moved in.
No foreigner can own more than 2 homes in the UK (in thailand you can't own any property unless you're thai)
Cap the number of a properties anyone can own. especially for buy to let landlords.
If a house has sat vacant for too long it has to be put on the market as a competitive price.
rent control for a property inline with inflation for renters.
houses cannot be treated as an investment where it doesn't matter if its occupied or not. a roof over ones head is a right.
Homelessness expand the access to homeless shelters. the best way to stop human and sex trafficking as well hard drug use to is stop homelessness.
migratory farm workers ban migratory farm workers in the UK. there are thousands of Uni, GCSE, college and A level students who have months off school in the picking season. Why not get them to pick fruit and vegetables? same thing goes for homeless people. Get them all to pick fruit and veg.
littering & dog tax small tax on having a dog to pay for dog park maintenance, dog bins, etc. small tax on single use packaging to pay for more Bins on high street, bins to be emptied more regularly to reduce littering. Same small tax on tobacco for cigarette butt bins.
These are all my ideas. Please critique them.
submitted by MemeTimeRadioHour to Labour [link] [comments]
[S] Marooned: Marquesas (Complete)
Down below a fishing boat are 16 Americans who are about to be marooned in the middle of the Marquesas, part of Tahiti’s mystical islands. Thousands of miles from the nearest continent this will be their home for the next 39 days. But this time the game is different, these survivors will be given no food, absolutely no rations. Each tribe will leave this ship with only the barest of essentials, two machetes, two cooking pots, two empty water containers, one frying pan, one filet knife, and one magnifying glass. They’ll be left to fend for themselves using the resources of the land and their own survival skills. It is the ultimate challenge! 16 strangers forced to work together to create a new society while battling the elements and each other. They must learn to adapt of they’ll be voted out of the tribe. In the end only one will remain to claim the million dollar prize. 39 days, 16 people, one survivor! This is Marooned: Marquesas.
INTRO The Cast Maraamu Tribe: - Robert “R2” Reyes, 25, Medical Student
- was raised by Chinese immigrants. They always had the highest expectations for him, and encouraged him to enter the medical field. His life is very stressful though, as he always worries about not being good enough for his parents dreams. In the recent years, his parents have been struggling financially, but refuse to use any money reserved for R2's education. Winning Marooned will allow him to continue his schooling and take care of his aging parents.
- Lela Walker, 36, School Psychologist
- When Lela was 11, she had to deal with a very stressful and traumatic decision, and when her parent's fighting turned physical, she called the police on her own father. Since then, her and her mother had to be strong together, without him. That's when she knew she wanted to help people. When she first told her mom she wanted to be a school psychologist, she didn't really like it, but eventually she decided to follow her dreams and major in psychology. After having a successful career in psychology, Lela's mom still wasn't convinced she was making enough money... so she went on Marooned to prove it!
- Kelsey Harris, 28, Bartender
- Kelsey grew up in a wealthy and strict family, her parents wanted her to become a lawyer or doctor and to uphold her family’s reputation, but she always knew she was a rebel, so against her family’s wishes, she moved away, got tattoos, and worked as a bartender. She wants to prove to her family that she can pave her own path in life and winning Survivor can prove that.
- Vito Luco, 49, Used Car Salesman
- Vito Luco is the last person to trust with anything. He has lived life a scam artist, doing it all from pushing drugs, selling illegal fireworks, and going to prison over tax fraud. He now sells used cars for ridiculously high prices, and takes pride in it. Everyone around him is oblivious to his criminal record due to fake identifications, and he also allegedly has three different identities. Despite his mysteriousness, however, Vito knows how to pander to people, and is willing to do anything to win, as he is in debt to the mafia for 500,000 dollars.
- Savannah “Savvy” Guerrero, 20, Aspiring Model
- She loves making others happy, but coming in survivor she will hide her hero side and will completely play as a villain, she will backstab and. manipulate anyone that come in her way
- Shawn Phillip, 24, Pro Wrestler
- Shawn is an upcoming young pro wrestler who wrestles in lower promotions he plans do use his strength to win challenges he also not the brightest bulb of the bunch if he wins the money he gonna use to jumpstart his career into full gear
- Jodi “Jay” Beckett, 25, Street Artist
- Jay was always the quiet type, being the cool kid never interested her. She was always every teacher’s favorite though, as she was kind and did her work on time. She studied at her local college in Wisconsin and pursued a career in Art. After receiving top marks in her class, Jay acquired a job in the government to give abandoned buildings a makeover with art. She found her girlfriend Rita while working on her newest project. She hopes that her quiet personality will help her go far in the game.
- Lukasz “Luk” Zabolcki, 50, Professional Triathlete
- Lukasz is a Polish man who came to the United States in the 1980s looking for a better life for his newly created family. With a wife and a newborn baby, he finds happiness in the adrenaline of the sport. A great triathlete, he gained notoriety about 5 years ago, when he competed in the Ironman Triathlon. Soon after, he opened a gym where he trained young people for marathons in all sports. Even at the age of 50, Lukasz has the strength and determination of a young man and sees Survivor as another challenge that he will do with all his strength.
Rotu Tribe: - Zina Allrhed, 42, Casino Manager
- Zina grew up in a rich household, but her parents suddenly lost her money when her dad was arrested for fraud. His crime? Gambling, and making deals, and never paying up. She became a poker player to try to pay her dad’s debts and his bail and get him out of jail. She eventually did, and after dad decided to open her own casino with the remainder of her winning. A fun fact about her is that she won the 2009 Poker World Open Tournament. She wants to win the money to expand her business and open a second casino.
- Donatello “Don” Gray, 18, Unemployed
- Don grew up in an area of massive crime and poverty. He’s had to support his family through much of his life since his father left and his mom was diagnosed with cancer so Don decided to join a gang at a young age where he eventually climbed up in the rankings and has become respected among the members. He will do anything to win to leave his gang and have financial independence. He hopes to win to calm his mother's nerves and make her happy.
- Ida Cohen, 38, Flight Attendant/Air Force Veteran
- Ida served in Iraq as a combat systems officer for the Air Force. She was honorably discharged after a bad injury. She now has 2 wonderful kids. Her strategy is to apply military like tactics, but not let anyone know she's a veteran.
- Gregory Hess, 30, Comic Book Store Owner
- Labeled since a young age as a nerd, Gregory is very proud of who he is. Books, TV Shows, Video Games - he loves those stuff! And he's not trying to hide it! Being a rather responsible kid who was considered to be a teacher's pet, Gregory wasn't always exactly a "popular kid". Kids picked on him, both due to his behavior, his physique (Gregory is a bit overweight) and his interests. But he continued to move forward with a bright smile, not letting it phase him.At age 25, Gregory fell in love with a beautiful woman named Jess, and the two got married just last year. They had a kid, and Gregory plans on winning the money for the both of them. He's gonna win, take his wife and their child on a nice vacation, and do it flawlessly. Better watch out, you guys, because Gregory's coming!
- Antoine “Moz” Moss, 42, Trumpet Player
- He is Good-Natured, Honest, Helpful, and Friendly.
- James Terry, 20, College Student
- James has been into video games all his life. He grew up with his mother, his brother and both his dogs. He never had many friends in school and was a victim of bullying. He has a scar on his face after he got beaten up. Despite his rough life, James tries to remain positive and uses his skills from gaming to help him in his real life. He is open, honest and does his best to make sure no one feels left out. He joins Marooned in hopes of winning, making friends and finding out who he truly is. He plans to be as adaptable as he can to certain situations to get him further in the game while in the process, understanding others personalities.
- Imaan Campbell, 21, Barista
- Growing up Imaan was the queen bee of her school she could do whatever she wanted to all of her peers because they were all scared of her,it got even worse when she graduated she started working two jobs that could help her in her daily life one as a barista and one as a babysitter one day when Imaan was off from her job as a babysitter she didn’t notice that the customer she was cursing out was one of the parents of the kids that she was taking care of. This led to her losing the job and struggling a lot with money but it gave her the idea to audition for a Reality Tv show. Originally She got accepted for the hit show “Bad Girls Club” but when she found out she got onto the cast of the new Season of “Marooned” she couldn’t back down from it.
- Juliette Emery, 48, Therapist
- Juliette has been a hard-worker from a very early age. Always intelligent and promising, Juliette was always the smartest kid in school. The class president and the one voted most likely to rule the world one day. Juliette's life has been rather charmed, but she's always been ambitious and eager to succeed. Now, getting older, Juliette is in a comfortable place. She's happily married to a wonderful man, has kids (a son and a daughter), and has a very successful job. But she still wants to do something new and interesting and Survivor is just the thing to be that for her. Juliette believes her intelligence will serve her well in the game and that her skills as a therapist will help her even more when it comes to relationships. With a big mind for strategy, she'll do whatever she has to in order to advance herself. If she needs to be loyal to get far, she will, but she'll just as easily break those bonds if it means getting to the end.
THE SEASON Episode 1: After the marooning the two tribes arrive at their beaches and instantly the game starts being played. At the Maraamu tribe Savvy wants nothing more than for there to be an all girls alliance that dominates the game so she approaches Jay, Kelsey, and Lela and asks them if they would like to form an all girls alliance. Every single one of them is fully on board with an all girls alliance and so it is officially formed. Meanwhile on the Rotu tribe Juliette wants to make an alliance. She is a therapist and knows how to get along with all different types of people so she decides to make an alliance with a group very different people. This alliance ends up being made up of her, Don, Ida, James, and Moz. They all agree to stick together until the end. At the immunity challenge Maraamu blows Rotu out of the water and wins immunity sending Rotu to the first tribal council of the season. Back at camp a majority of the people in Juliette’s alliance want to vote out Zina because they don’t think that she’s a particularly valuable member of the tribe but Juliette has formed a bond with Zina and doesn’t want her to go so she convinces her alliance to vote for Gregory instead and at tribal council in a 5-3 vote Gregory becomes the first person voted out of Marooned: Marquesas. Episode 2: After the last tribal council Rotu starts becoming a bit concerned about how much control Juliette has over the tribe. At the immunity challenge Maraamu once again wins, sending Rotu back to tribal council. After the challenge Don is hungry and so he decides to climb up a coconut tree to get some coconuts. Right when he’s about to reach the top of the tree he slips and falls all the way down. He lands in a terrible position breaking both of his legs. The instant that the medics get there they know that there’s no way Don is going to be able to continue in the game so they put him in a stretcher and put that on a boat and take him away. Don has officially been medically evacuated. Episode 3:>! After the medical evacuation everyone on the Rotu tribe is sad. Don was a great presence around camp and was always willing to put in work. Everyone is devastated to see him leave the game the way he did. At the immunity challenge Rotu is finally able to claim victory, sending Maraamu to their first tribal council. Back at camp everyone is annoyed by Savvy. She spends most of the day laying in the shelter and complaining about the elements and has hardly lifted a finger the entire time that she’s been here. For the guys on the Maraamu tribe the decision is easy, Savvy needs to go but for the girls on the Maraamu tribe the decision isn’t nearly that simple. They all want to vote out Savvy but if they vote out Savvy the girls on the tribe will be down in numbers ruining their shot at having an all girls alliance run the game. In the end the girls decide to go with the guys and vote out Savvy so at tribal council Savvy is blindsided in a 7-1 vote.!<
Episode 4: On day 10 everyone is shocked when they are told to drop their buffs because there’s a tribe swap. At the first immunity challenge as new tribes the new Maraamu tribe manages to win immunity. Back at the Rotu tribe there is an equal number of both original Rotu people and original Maraamu people but Imaan does not like Juliette at all and after having to take orders from her for the first 9 days on the original Rotu tribe where Juliette was in power Imaan is fed up with her so she decides to flip and work with the original Maraamu people to blindside Juliette but Lela is still wanting there to be an all girls alliance and knows that if Juliette gets voted out then there will be an equal number of guys and girls in the game and the guys will most likely be able to take control. In order to avoid that happening she decides to flip and just minutes before tribal council she whispers in Juliette and James’s ears telling them to vote for Shawn. At tribal council this causes a 3-3 tie between Juliette and Shawn. On the revote nobody changes their vote causing a rock draw. Luk ends up drawing the purple rock and is out of the game. Episode 5: At the start of episode 5 we get a confessional from Juliette where she talks about how she doesn’t like the fact that she had to be saved by Lela in the last episode. She is worried that Lela is going to start telling people that Juliette is only in the game because of her and if that happens then it could hurt Juliette’s odds of getting jury votes. Because of this Juliette wants to take out Lela as soon as possible. At the immunity challenge Maraamu wins immunity. Back at camp Julliette decides to attempt to reunite the 3 original Rotu people on the tribe by pulling Imaan back into the alliance. Imaan ends up agreeing to stick with original Rotu giving Juliette the numbers once again. Lela realizes that Juliette no longer has any interest in working with her so she goes back to Shawn and the two of them decide to vote for James. Meanwhile the original Rotu people struggle to decide who to vote out. Juliette wants to vote out Lela for reasons mentioned at the start of the episode but Imann wants to vote out Shawn because she knows that they are about to merge and thinks that he will be more threatening after the merge. They are never able to reach an agreement and at tribal council this causes a 2-2-1 vote with Shawn getting one vote and James and Lela both getting 2. On the revote Imaan gives in and votes for Lela causing Lela to be voted out in a 2-1 vote. Episode 6: At the immunity challenge Maraamu wins for the third time in a row. Back at camp it seems clear that the 3 original Rotu people are going to stick together and vote out Shawn but Shawn doesn’t give up and works to form a bond with Imaan. This causes Imaan to consider voting with Shawn and forcing a tie but at the end of the day Imaan is too scared of drawing rocks again to force a tie and at tribal council Shawn is voted out in a 3-1 vote. Episode 7: After 19 days of competing against each other the two tribes come together and merge. After the merge all 6 of the original Rotu tribe members decide to stick together and pick off the original Maraamu tribe members. At the very first individual immunity challenge Imaan wins individual immunity. After the challenge the 6 original Rotu tribe members decide to vote out Vito because they think that he is sneaky and could be very difficult to vote out down the road if he manages to get a grip on the tribe. Kelsey and Jay see the writing on the wall and in an attempt to get in with the Rotu people they too write down VIto’s name at tribal council causing Vito to be voted out in a 8-2 vote. Episode 8: After the last tribal council Kelsey knows that she will most likely be one of the next 3 to be voted out and starts brainstorming ideas for how she can stay in the game. At the immunity challenge Jay wins immunity. Back at camp Kelsey decides that her best shot at staying in the game is starting a rumor so she begins telling people that Imaan has been talking about flipping on the Rotu people. This causes Ida to get angry so she confronts Imaan. This confrontation quickly escalates into a fight and soon the two have decided to target each other. Ida is quickly able to get all the Rotu people (Aside from Imaan) on her side and they all agree to vote for Imaan. Imaan on the other hand knows that she won’t be able to convince anyone to vote for Ida because Ida has strong relationships with everyone on the tribe so she instead decides to target James at this pivotal tribal council and hopefully take out Ida at the next tribal council. She is easily able to convince all of the original Maraamu people to vote for James but needs to convince at least one more person to vote for James in order to stay in the game. She views Zina as the person most likely to flip on the Rotu people and tries to convince her to vote for James but at tribal council Zina decides to stick with Ida and the Rotu people causing Imaan to be voted out in a 5-4 vote. Episode 9: After the last tribal council people once again start viewing Juliette as a big threat. R2 realizes that this is something he might be able to use to his advantage in order to save himself and the other Maraamu people. At the immunity challenge Kelsey wins immunity. After the immunity challenge the 6 people from the new Maraamu tribe (Ida, Jay, Kelsey, Moz, R2, and Zina) come together and decide to form a new alliance and take out Juliette and James but the plan is very messy and most people aren’t sure whether they are voting for Juliette or James which allows Juliette to step in and save herself by telling Kelsey, James, Jay, and Ida to vote for Moz about 20 minutes before tribal council. Because Kelsey, Jay, and Ida are still not sure if the new Maraamu people are voting for Juliette or James they decide that this is the safer plan to go with and at tribal council Moz is blindsided in a 5-2-1 vote. Episode 10: After the last tribal council R2 realizes that if he really wants the new Maraamu people to work together he’s going to have to step into more of a leadership role and reveal more of his cards otherwise they will never be able to put together a coherent plan and work together. At the immunity challenge Ida wins immunity. Back at camp R2 meets will all of the new Maraamu people and tells them to vote for James at tonight’s tribal council. Every single one of the new Maraamu people are fully on board with this plan and at tribal council James is voted out. Episode 11: After the last tribal council Juliette is clearly on the outs and her only shot at staying in the game seems to be winning immunity but at the immunity challenge Ida wins immunity again. The odds seem completely stacked against Juliette but she doesn’t want to give up so she has a talk with Kelsey during which she explains how she feels like R2 is running the game and will probably get to the end and win. The fact that people think that R2 is running the game doesn’t sit right with Kelsey because she thinks that she is running the game so she decides she wants to blindside R2. About half an hour before tribal council she goes to Ida and Jay and tells them to vote for R2 but neither Ida or Jay want to vote out R2 so they warn him. When R2 hears that he’s being targeted by Kelsey he decides that the best option for him is to blindside her so he gets Jay, Ida, and Zina on board with this plan and at tribal council Kelsey is blindsided in a 4-2 vote. Episode 12: Another tribal council comes and goes and Juliette is still on the bottom but now she knows that there are ways for her to break the alliance so she is more confident that she will be able to survive than she was in the last episode. At the immunity challenge Zina wins immunity. Back at camp the clear target is Juliette. Juliette tries to warn the girls that R2 is a big threat to win the game but this time the girls don’t fall for it and at tribal council Juliette is unanimously voted out. Finale Part 1: After listening to Juliette talk about what a big threat R2 is, the girls realize that he really is the biggest threat in the game and they all decide to work together to vote him out next. At the immunity challenge Ida wins her third individual immunity sealing R2’s fate and at tribal council R2 is voted out in a 3-1 vote. Final Part 2: At the final immunity challenge Jay wins immunity securing herself a spot in the final 2. At tribal council Jay votes out Ida because Ida is a major threat to win the game. Final Tribal council:>! At the final tribal council Jay reveals that her strategy the entire game was to fly under the radar so that she wasn’t a target. This strategy worked flawlessly and is the reason that she received 0 votes against her the entire game. The jury really respects this so in a 6-1 vote Jay becomes the winner of Marooned: Marquesas.!<
My Thoughts: I thought this was a good season. The cast was mostly good with the female side of the cast being especially fun to watch. There were a few good blindsides with the best one probably being the Kelsey blindside at the final 6. My favorite part of the season was when Lela risked her life in the game to save Juliette and Juliette turned right around and voted Lela out on the very next episode. Juliette is truly the ice queen of Marooned. Jay was not the most exciting winner of all time but she played a good game and came just one jury vote short of playing a perfect game. Ultimately I don’t think that this was the best season of Marooned so far but it was still a lot of fun to watch. Potential All Stars:>! Juliette, R2, Kelsey, Jay, Moz, Vito!<
Potential Second Chancers: Savvy, Lela, Don, Ida, Imaan, Luk Previous Seasons: Borneo The Australian Outback Africa Stay tuned for our next season Marooned: Thailand
I’d love to hear what you guys thought about the season in the comments submitted by Survivor31fan to BrantSteele [link] [comments]
The Second Poison
In Buddhism greed, hatred and delusion are known as The Three Poisons. The most destructive of these three is hatred: The Second Poison. When a former US Army interrogator, travels to Thailand to track down those responsible for ripping off his father in a boiler room telesales scam, he soon finds himself embroiled in the murky underworld of illegal muay thai kickboxing gambling, money laundering, sex work and digital crime. The Second Poison explores hatred, revenge and redemption in present-day Thailand from a number of perspectives: the hardened farang (Caucasian) army veteran; the compassionate Thai girl born a boy, who once murdered her sister’s rapists; the godfather of a Hong Kong gambling syndicate and the Thai cop who turns a blind eye to crimes of passion … their stories intertwining throughout the book.
https://www.pieterwilhelm.com/the-second-poison
"The Second Poison" is published by Dollarbird an imprint of Monsoon Books. submitted by PieterWilhelm to u/PieterWilhelm [link] [comments]
PSA: Countries and their gambling bans
Favor for the GTA Reddit of the day.
Kudos to -
www.wizardslots.com and various Redditors for input. I have removed those fields that are just for 'Land Based' as they should allow online gambling alright. Some have very odd laws and will need tested.
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- American Samoa
- Argentina
- Azerbaijan
- Bahamas
- Bhutan
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Belarus
- Brunei
- Cambodia – gambling is illegal for natives, but land-based gambling is legal for foreign visitors
- Cayman Islands – land-based gambling is illegal, and online local casinos are banned, whereas foreign slots are not
- China
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Cyprus – online sports betting ok with a license
- Czech Republic – majority of online gambling is illegal (except online lottery and online sports betting)
- Ecuador
- Greece – some online gambling is illegal
- Iceland – online casino gambling and online poker illegal – offline gambling is legal
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Jamaica
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg – illegal online other than sports betting and online lottery
- Maldives
- Mali – only legal for foreign visitors
- Mauritania
- Malta - gambling services need a license from the government, this is up to R* to apply for
- Malaysia - note: seems to work for some and not for others. No clear reasons why so far.
- Montenegro
- North Korea
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Poland – everything but online sports betting is illegal
- Portugal - gambling services need a license from the government, this is up to R* to apply for
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Somalia
- South Africa - online gambling is illegal
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Syria
- Thailand - everything but Horse Racing and the Government Lotto
- Tuvalu
- United Arab Emirates
- Vietnam
- Venezuela
Notable edits - Originally the USA was added to this, it is illegal to gamble in Hawaii and Utah for example but the casino seems to function as normal there. There are a few countries as well that have gambling laws but again GTA's seems to duck underneath these. I'm not an enforcer of the law, nor am I a solicitor but common sense would lead me to say if GTA is allowing you to do it then you shouldn't have to worry about anything. If you cannot access the Casino games, VPN's are a known work around but this could net you in trouble. I won't be assisting players on where to find those (various comments have so far) but be warned it is to be used at your own discretion.
submitted by SlapshotTommy to gtaonline [link] [comments]
[Effortpost 5 of 15] Trump's swamp cabinet
Trump consistently nominates the worst possible person for every job. His campaign slogan was "drain the swamp", but instead he's putting lobbyists and business executives in charge of regulating their own industries. His nominees enrich their business buddies and waste taxpayer money for their own pleasure.
I'll break down his cabinet, nomination by nomination. (plus a couple cabinet-level positions such as EPA administrator)
Commerce
Wilbur Ross - Completely out of touch. He wondered aloud why furloughed federal workers went to food banks rather than applying for loans
- Said COVID would "accelerate the return of jobs to North America"
- Bragged about the lack of protests in his Saudi trip (protest is illegal in Saudi Arabia)
- Tried to add a citizenship question to the census. This wouldn't be objectionable on its own, but leaked emails revealed that the citizenship question was part of a Republican plot to reduce the reply rate of immigrants and rig the census in favor of Republicans.
- Held Russian and Chinese assets during his tenure, despite pledging to divest from them on his ethics agreement. After learning that reporters were looking into these holdings, he dumped some of them before the news could bring the stock price down. This may count as insider trading.
- Allegedly, Ross habitually stole large sums of money from his businesses. The allegations total over $120 million.
- Trump mistakenly said that Hurricane Dorian was forecast to hit Alabama. Simple mistake that can quickly be corrected, right? Not with Trump. He doubled down on it and demanded that his administration fall in line. Ross Threatened to fire NOAA officials who didn't repeat Trump's misstatement as fact. Dorian, by the way, did not wind up touching Alabama.
Interior
Ryan Zinke David Bernhardt CIA
Mike Pompeo Gina Haspel State
Rex Tillerson Mike Pompeo (continued from his tenure as CIA director)
- Denies that Israeli West Bank settlements violate international law
- Denied reports from his own intelligence agencies that bin Salman ordered the Jamal Khashoggi murder
- Took part in the phone call where Trump pressured Ukraine's president to give him dirt on Joe Biden
Treasury
Steve Mnuchin Defense
James Mattis Patrick Shanahan (Nominated)
- Appointed as Acting Secretary of Defense after Mattis resigned
- No military or intelligence background. Spent 31 years at Boeing, leading to possible conflicts of interest.
- Resigned as soon as the media started looking into allegations of domestic abuse
Mark Esper Agriculture
Sonny Perdue EPA
Scott Pruitt Andrew Wheeler - Coal lobbyist
- Rapidly rolling back environmental protections. This article covers some of those rollbacks, including:
- Gutting the coal ash rule
- Rolling back Clean Water Act protections
- Weakening the mercury emissions rule
Labor
Andrew Puzder (nominated)
Alexander Acosta Eugene Scalia Health and Human Services
Tom Price - Used private and military jets for overseas travel, wasting over a million dollars of taxpayer money.
- Resigned in under a year
Alex Azar Housing and Urban Development
Ben Carson Transportation
Elaine Chao - Mitch McConnell's wife
- Her sister and father have big investments in China, leading to conflicts of interest
- Failed to divest from a paving company as required by her ethics agreement. She later sold them at a higher price than when she took office.
Energy
Rick Perry Dan Brouillette - The one pick who hasn't been a complete disaster
- He even believes in climate change. (which is an incredibly low bar to clear for Secretary of Energy, but he does clear it)
Education
Betsy DeVos - Doesn't know a thing about education. Completely clueless any time she's questioned. Didn't know about the debate between measuring by growth vs measuring by proficiency, didn't know that federal law protected students with disabilities, and didn't know about school accountability standards.
- Her family are long-time GOP mega-donors. She bragged that her donations were buying influence, saying "We expect a return on our investment".
- Revoked student loan protections
- Stopped investigations into fraud by private universities, and put a DeVry executive in charge of the department that was supposed to do those investigations
- Pledged to divest from dozens of companies as part of her ethics agreement during confirmation, but refused to follow through. This leads to some serious conflicts of interest, such as her investment in Neurocore.
- Was VP of the Edgar & Elsa Prince Foundation, which made large donations to extreme anti-gay groups such as Focus on the Family. She claims to have had no involvement with the foundation.
- Funded Michigan's anti-lockdown protests
- DeVos's lifelong drive has been to shift power and funding from public schools to religious and charter schools. This article is well worth reading, and goes into detail on her motivations and actions. She said "Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s kingdom."
- Succeeded in getting Michigan to adopt widespread charter schools, ultimately leading to worse outcomes
- Is fine with government funding going towards private schools that refuse to accept LGBTQ students
- Redirected millions in COVID funds inteded for public schools to private schools
- Sided with Trump's threat to cut funding to public schools that delayed reopening. Said kids being in school is not "in any way dangerous".
Homeland Security
John Kelly - Joked that Trump should attack members of the press with a sword
- Came up with the family separation policy, explicitly saying that its goal was to be a deterrent.
- Left after 6 months to become Chief of Staff
Kirstjen Nielsen - This is a good timeline of Nielsen's role in carrying out the family separation policy. Of note:
- She repeatedly denied the existence of a family separation policy
- DHS separated families that were legally seeking asylum
- At least 471 parents were deported without their children
- Eventually, she and Trump gave in to backlash and repealed the policy. Trump later fired her for refusing to reimplement it.
Nobody - Cabinet officials need Senatorial approval, which (even with a Republican-controlled Senate) is more oversight than Trump is comfortable with. He found a loophole of not appointing a nominee at all, thus letting his "acting" DHS secretary run the department indefinitely. The current acting secretary is Chad Wolf
- Under Wolf, DHS is sending unmarked federal officers to take protestors off the streets with no accountability.
Attorney General
Jeff Sessions William Barr - The single worst person Trump has appointed
- Has perverted the normally-neutral Justice Department into an arm of the Trump White House, and gone out of his way to shield Trump from consequenses
- No links in this post, but he'll get his own section in the post on Trump's obstruction of justice
Veterans affairs
David Shulkin Ronny Jackson (Nominated)
- Racked up a long list of conduct allegations during his time as personal White House physician. These include freely writing prescriptions for whatever people wanted, writing himself prescriptions, creating a hostile work environment, and repeatedly being drunk while on duty.
- Withdrew his nomination after it became clear that he wouldn't get confirmed
- The whole reason that he was considered for a cabinet position is that he sucked up to Trump by giving him a laughably positive bill of health. This included lines such as "He has incredibly good genes, and it's just the way God made him".
Robert Wilkie - Pro-Confederacy. In a 1995 speech, he heaped glowing praise on Jefferson Davis, criticized abolitionists, and said the South's cause was honorable.
- Lied to Congress that he didn't have more recent ties to Confederate groups
submitted by OverlordLork to JoeBiden [link] [comments]
How to avoid bail ins?
Seeing that between 2015 and 2019 most of the world has adopted bail in regulations (that is any deposits over the government insured amount are taken by the bank, anything below that gets frozen for undetermined time period), the risk of bail ins seems likely in the current crisis.
Lebanon is already talking about implementing it:
https://www.euromoney.com/article/b1kwbrjj7pczrz/lebanon-depositor-bailin-39may-be-the-only-way39-to-save-the-banking-sector
Of course this would provoke massive protest from the public, however the virus has created a situation that would make a bail in more easy to implement for governments:
- Banks are closed, meaning people can't go to their local banks and ask for their money.
- Withdrawal limits have been implemented in a number of countries, from what I hear Germany and US. In countries like Belgium banks are giving conflicting information if large withdrawals are still possible or not.
- Protests are impossible, as mass gatherings are illegal and highly dangerous for any participators.
- Police and military have emergency powers, allowing them to put down any protests (for whatever cause) quickly and by any means (that is lethal force).
- Media blackout, for national security governments will likely block and punish the spreading of any fake news (that is any information that's not government approved for public consumption, regardless if say news of a bank run is true or not).
- Cash money could be banned, to avoid the risk of virus spreading. This will keep people from taking out their money from the banks cash. The switch to digital payments will also make it easier for governments to control the fallout of a bail in.
- Financial support for the masses. For example free money handouts, Thailand has already implemented this, I believe Malaysia is looking into it, the US certainly is. This system would allow governments to increase or decrease the income of its population at will. For a millionaire who just had his money taken by the bank $1000 is laughable, but for most people who would lose little in a bank bail in this would be a very generous income, and would offset any losses they might suffer, reducing the risk for them to riot. What is more, they would not want to risk losing this new source of income if they are caught rioting. Another aid being implement globally is to delay bank loan repayments, for most people getting free money and having their loan payments delayed is a huge boon, and they would even prefer this over bail outs (which would benefit the rich, rather than the tax paying masses).
As such the virus is creating a perfect storm for a bail in scenario: the banks likely are suffering heavy losses; they are by law allowed to confiscate the deposits from their clients; the public can't do much to protest such a move right now; government actions to limit the virus fallout will make take away the will or need for most people to protest the bail ins.
All in all, only a small number of people would greatly suffer from the bail ins (10% would actually lose money), while most of the middle class would be able to survive having their money frozen for a year, and for at least 50% of people it would be a beneficial situation.
Seeing as this is
investing where most people actually have money they'd rather invest than have it taken or frozen by the banks, how to avoid the bail ins?
- Brokerage firms seem like the safest bet, since they have no banking license, and thus have to keep their clients' money separate from any liabilities the company might have. For example in 2008 not a single brokerage firm needed a bail out (except one, because the CEO broke the law and gambled with his customers' money). I did see brokers are now offering to spread their clients money over multiple banks, to benefit from interest rates without breaking the government guaranteed amounts, but I imagine this money could get frozen then.
- Invest the money on the market. I don't know if assets on a bank trading account would also be bailed in, I think it will, since those shares are technically on the books of the bank, and not in the investor's name (contrary to popular belief).
- Keep it cash in a safety deposit box. However with banks being closed getting to the box might be tricky, and risky when other people see you go in and come out with a big bag with Dollar signs on it.
- Gold I think is risky because the banks will likely push down the value if people put their money in it, since banks don't like competition, and they've admitted to manipulation gold prices.
- Crypto's I think are even more risky because it'll be very easy to make these illegal because they pose a danger to national economic security.
- Cash might be safest, although many countries will likely ban larger bills, certainly Europe will ban the 500 Euro bills. Australia is looking to make large cash transactions illegal starting this year, likely other countries will do the same.
submitted by sanem48 to investing [link] [comments]
[EVENT] Ending the "sin laws"
Gambling
The strict laws on gambling will be relaxed massively in order to bring the rampant illegal gambling business into proper business regulation and, crucially, add to the government revenue stream. Casinos, betting houses, and other forms of gambling will be legalized, provided that operators of such businesses do the following;
- Apply, receive, and pay for a license from the Ministry of Commerce
- Register with both the local Revenue Department office and the Royal Thai Police station
- Submit to regular inspection of premises by government officials
- Conduct stringent ID checks of all visitors to prevent under-18s from entering the premises. Should underage children be found at such premises, the owners will be liable for punishment up to and including imprisonment, fines, and revocation of licenses
- Gambling houses may not be opened within 500m of a school
Alcohol
The alcohol industry will be liberalized extensively, with a number of changes as follows;
- Import taxes on alcohol will be slashed extensively, bringing down the prices extensively, resulting in a new system of a flat rate of 7% for all imports of alcohol
- The current brewing laws will be loosened. The Brewing Act of 1950 will be repealed. Instead of a minimum capacity of 1 million litres per year being the minimum for bottling and canning for public sale, the new minimum will be set at 25,000 litres per year. Furthermore, the requirement for 10 million baht of company capital will be replaced with a minimum capital of 250,000 baht. This will allow for the numerous illegal local craft beers to be come legitimate. Additionally, production of alcohol under 500 litres a year will be decriminalised, allowing for the local customs of making home-brewed liquor to be enjoyed without worry.
- The prohibition on the sale of alcohol on religious holidays will be lifted and left to the discretion of each business
Drugs
Marijuana will be legalised in the Kingdom of Thailand. The model to be adopted for the legalisation will be as follows;
- Production and sale of marijuana will be allowed, but up to a maximum of six plants per person. Cooperatives of growers would be allowed to pool their allowances together to increase the number of plants allowed
- Production and sale of marijuana will require a registered and licensed location, to be recorded with the local Police, Public Health and Commerce authorities
- Production and sale of marijuana will be subject to excise taxes, similar to those on alcohol and cigarettes, but based on THC content, with higher THC content resulting in a higher tax bracket
- Sale of any marijuana products to anyone under the age of 20 will be punishable by law
- All sales of marijuana products must be conducted in a licensed premises, subject to inspection by local authorities. Unlicensed sales will be punishable by law
- Dispensaries may not open within 500m of a school
Prostitution
Prostitution will be completely legalised in the Kingdom of Thailand, bringing thousands of sex workers into the protection of the law, but also into the tax system. The limitations as part of this will be as follows;
- All sex workers must be registered with the relevant local authorities and subject to fortnightly health checks, which will be free of charge along with any treatment necessary
- Sex workers will pay tax on their earnings as with any other citizens
- Operators of places where sexual services are offered must submit to monthly inspections from official authorities in order to ensure they meet standards of hygiene and safety
- Operators of brothels must provide ensure that none of their workers are under age, or they may be liable for severe punitive measures including up to five years imprisonment, a 500,000 baht fine, or both, in addition to loss of licenses.
- Premises offering sexual services must apply for, pay for, and receive a license from local authorities, to be renewed annually. Exceptions will be made for services being offered by single individuals
- Employers involved in sexual services will not be allowed to deduct more than 20% of a sex worker's earnings in any such business, breach of such may result in termination of license and the return of all monies plus 100% interest
- Operators of such premises will be required to ensure that nobody under the age of 18 is involved with their business as either an employee or a client
- Businesses offering sexual services may not open within 500m of a school
submitted by ringkichardthethrid to GlobalPowers [link] [comments]
Reached People Group of the Week - Lisu of China
So I decided this week to be Thankful. So this week we praise and thank the Lord for how He worked so mightily among a people group that was once unreached! Meet the
Lisu of China!
How were they reached? Before Christianity was introduced to Lisu people, they were animists. Archibald Rose points that the religion of the Lisus appears to be a simple form of animism or nat-worship, sacrifices being offered to the spirits of the mountains.Most important rituals are performed by shamans. The main Lisu festival corresponds to Chinese New Year and is celebrated with music, feasting and drinking, as are weddings; people wear large amounts of silver jewelry and wear their best clothes at these times as a means of displaying their success in the previous agricultural year. In each traditional village there is a sacred grove at the top of the village, where the sky spirit or, in China, the Old Grandfather Spirit, are propitiated with offerings; each house has an ancestor altar at the back of the house. Wikipedia
The conversion of the Lisu is one of the greatest stories in mission history. Their mass turning to Christ was due in part to their ancient belief in Wa Sa, a supreme god of Healing and a village guardian. During one interrogation by the Communists, a young Lisu man exclaimed, "Christianity has already penetrated into our flesh and blood and it will not be easy to tear it away from us." Joshua Project
The Lisu people's convert to Christianity was relatively fast. It is logged that by the effort of Morse family and missionaries, many Lisu and Rawang converted to Christianity from animism. Before World War II, the Lisu tribes who live in Yunnan, China and Ah-Jhar river valley, Myanmar, were evangelized by missionaries from Tibetan Lisuland Mission and Lisuland Churches of Christ. Many Lisu then converted to Christianity. Wikipedia
A number of missionaries labored self-sacrificially among the Lisu prior to 1949, including James Fraser, A. B. Cooke, John and Isobel Kuhn, and the Morse family. In 1916 and 1917 alone, Fraser baptized 60,000 Lisu. Today there are an estimated 300,000 Lisu believers in China. The Lisu church has reached out to many other groups in the area, including the Deqen Tibetans. Joshua Project
Missionaries such as James O. Fraser, Allyn Cooke and Isobel Kuhn and her husband, John, of the China Inland Mission (now OMF International), were active with the Lisu of Yunnan. Among the missionaries, James Outram Fraser (1880–1938) was the first missionary to reach the Lisu people in China. Another missionary who evangelized Lisu people in Myanmar was Thara Saw Ba Thaw (1889–1968). It is recorded that James Fraser and Saw Ba Thaw together created the Lisu alphabet in 1914. There were many other missionaries who brought Christianity to Lisu people. David Fish researches,
There were over a hundred missionaries those who committed their life for spreading the Gospel among the Lisu people. They came from different denominations and mission; China Inland Mission, Disciples of Christ (Church of Christ), Assembly of God, Pentecostal Churches, and so on. The Lisu people accepted those missionaries and their teaching the Gospel so that they converted into Christianity quickly to be followers of Christ. Wikipedia
Estimates reveal that today more than half of the Lisu people in the Nujiang Autonomous Prefecture are Christians. Small pockets of Christian communities are scattered in different counties. Recent reports say that there are at least 300,000 Lisu Christians in China meeting in over 1,300 places. OMF International
It is estimated that somewhere around 80% of the Lisu are now Christian. That happened in around 100 years! Praise the Lord and His wondrous works!!
What are they like? The Lisu have a long history of being oppressed by greedy landlords and governments. The Lisu revolt of 1801-03 proved devastating. The Qing government mobilized a huge army of more than 10,000 soldiers from three provinces. Chinese writers criticized this campaign as "using a cattle knife to kill chickens." During the 1940s the Lisu had to pay 65 different types of taxes and levies - including one for each airplane flying over their region! This provocation resulted in thousands of Lisu seeking life in a new country. Missionary Lilian Hamer described one scene as the Lisu she had sought to reach left en masse: "I saw little children clinging to their mother's skirts, older folk carrying iron cooking pots, blankets, oil lamps. I stood outside my door and watched this wholesale evacuation of the people I had served and loved, mourned and wept over."
Before they embraced Christianity, the Lisu were described as "utter savages." They were so given over to alcohol that when one newly converted village threw out all their liquor, all the pigs in the village got drunk! A passion for gambling often degraded the Lisu into an abyss of suffering. "When they have gambled away their money, they will often stake their children, their wives, and even themselves as slaves. As a result, in one night a whole family can be gambled away into life-long slavery." Joshua Project
Lisu villages are usually built close to water to provide easy access for washing and drinking. Their homes are usually built on the ground and have dirt floors and bamboo walls, although an increasing number of the more affluent Lisu are now building houses of wood or even concrete.
Lisu subsistence was based on paddy fields, mountain rice, fruit and vegetables. However, they have typically lived in ecologically fragile regions that do not easily support subsistence. They also faced constant upheaval from both physical and social disasters (earthquakes and landslides; wars and governments). Therefore, they have typically been dependent on trade for survival. This included work as porters and caravan guards. With the introduction of the opium poppy as a cash crop in the early 19th century, many Lisu populations were able to achieve economic stability. This lasted for over 100 years, but opium production has all but disappeared in Thailand and China due to interdiction of production. Very few Lisu ever used opium, or its more common derivative heroin, except for medicinal use by the elders to alleviate the pain of arthritis.
The Lisu practiced swidden (slash-and-burn) agriculture. In conditions of low population density where land can be fallowed for many years, swiddening is an environmentally sustainable form of horticulture. Despite decades of swiddening by hill tribes such as the Lisu, northern Thailand had a higher proportion of intact forest than any other part of Thailand. However, with road building by the state, logging (some legal, but mostly illegal) by Thai companies, enclosure of land in national parks, and influx of immigrants from the lowlands, swidden fields can not be fallowed, can not re-grow, and swiddening results in large swathes of deforested mountainsides. Under these conditions, Lisu and other swiddeners have been forced to turn to new methods of agriculture to sustain themselves. Wikipedia
What do they believe? The majority of them are Christian. They believe:
The most terrifying news in the world is that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out his wrath on the sin of our ingratitude. But there is a fourth great truth that no one can ever learn from nature or from their own consciences, a truth which has to be told to neighbors and preached in churches and carried by missionaries: namely, the good news that God has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of his righteousness without condemning the whole human race. He has taken it upon himself apart from any merit in us to accomplish our salvation. The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the righteousness of God. And what is this wisdom?” “Jesus Christ, the Son of God crucified, is the Wisdom of God, by which the love of God can save sinners from the wrath of God, and all the while uphold and demonstrate the righteousness of God.”
my boi John Piper
I heard a story once about a Chinese tutor who was tutoring a missionary. That missionary asked the tutor when he became a believer and the tutor looked confused. He said that he had always been a believer, his parents were believers as well. So the missionary asked how long his parents had been, and he was met with the same answer, his parents have always been believers, because their parents came to Christ a long long time ago. Praise the Lord for His mighty works!!
How can we pray for them? - Praise our Great and Wonderful Creator for reaching an entire people group in one hundred years!!
- Thank the Lord for obedient servants who went to preach the Good News
- Thank the Lord for a people group nestled in an area with so much unbelief surrounding it
- Thank the Lord for his constant provision to these people and to the missionaries that reached them.
- Ask the Lord to help the Lisu be a light in the hills of darkness
- Ask the Lord to send the Lisu to boldly proclaim His Good News among all those people around them
- Ask the Lord to comfort the Lisu from any persecution they endure in China.
- Thank the Lord for His great handiwork in the Lisu.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1) ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Here are the previous weeks threads on the UPG of the Week for
Reformed As always, if you have experience in this country or with this people group, feel free to comment or PM me and I will happily edit it so that we can better pray for these peoples!
Here is a
list of definitions in case you wonder what exactly I mean by words like "Unreached"
submitted by partypastor to Reformed [link] [comments]
Jury convicts Meth Mean for murder of Ranny Yun, 30+ year old cold case
Ranny Yun, 27, was a refugee who had escaped from the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In 1987, she was found dead in her sewing room, naked from the waist down. She had been beaten, with a fractured jaw and fractured skull, and her throat was cut while she was still alive. Semen recovered at the scene indicated sexual assault.
There were no shortage of suspects as Yun ran an illegal gambling operation out of her house and also provided loans. Further, her husband had married a second woman in Thailand shortly before Yun's death and was known to be violent.
The case was cold for 30 years when a fellow Cambodian refugee named Meth Mean was arrested in late 2017 and charged with murdering Yun. Mean was a cousin of Yun's husband. Mean and Yun had arrived together in Australia on the same plane from a Malaysian refugee camp, and at one time, Mean's and Yun's families lived under the same roof. Cold case investigators surreptitiously obtained Mean's DNA and found a match with the semen found on Yun's body, prompting the arrest
Mean employed two interesting tactics in his defense.
First, Mean tried to claim he was 14 at the time of the offense given the lack of any documentation of his birth or age. Witnesses and family members testified that he was 18 or 19, however, and the claim was rejected.
Second, Mean tried to explain away his semen at the scene by suggesting he found Yun dead and was so sexually aroused that he masturbated over her body. His lawyer admitted the behavior was "clearly revolting" but suggested afterwards Mean "panicked" about his behavior, which is why he did not call police.
Mean, 51(?), will be sentenced 29 May and is eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/news-victoria-meth-mean-jury-convicts-over-coldcase-melbourne-murdeb2364959-887a-4cfa-a699-d6f87d285492 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-08/woman-found-guilty-of-murder-of-pol-pot-supporter-ranny-yun/11092952 submitted by readthinkfight to UnresolvedMysteries [link] [comments]
[EVENT] Portus Ostium
Macau since 1949:
Since the end of the Chinese Civil War, Macau has
grown tremendously in regional significance, shifting from a valuable entrepôt to one of the largest hubs in the Far East. The vast majority of refugees who fled to the territory have been allowed to stay, with 150,000 having already secured territorial residency (the closest thing to citizenship for non-ethnic Portuguese in the overseas territories at present), bringing the total resident population up to 350,000 (the remaining 150,000 have ten-year work permits). Of the 300,000 residents who have arrived since 1939, approximately 100,000 have settled on the Macau Peninsula, 50,000 on Colaone Island, and 150,000 on the previously under-populated Taipa Island (see
map as attached). This has left much of the territory covered in slums, although a central government-supported programme to provide interest-free mortgages to refugees and new residents has led to the establishment of medium-quality, high-density housing across much of Taipa Island and the Peninsula. Small scale industry and locally-owned businesses have also taken off across the territory, as migrants attempt to start a new life in the bustling city.
The Macau of 1957, therefore, finds itself with an affluent centre of business on the Peninsula, flanked by emerging neighbourhoods and slums in the south and east, a highly-populated emerging cityscape on Taipa Island, with a central nucleus of emerging neighbourhoods (predominately featuring high-density, apartment-style housing) surrounded on all sides by slums and small scale factories, and a still under-populated Coloane Island, which presently boasts some slums, farms, factories and traditional villages.
The vast majority of small scale industry in Macau consists of textiles manufacturing in factories set up by the migrants. That said, larger-scale industry has also emerged, including a major
bicycle factory near the border with China and a rifle manufactory on the southern tip of the Peninsula. This is emblematic of the territory’s economic ascendance, as is the arrival of new waves of ethnic Portuguese, who have brought the European population of the territory up to 13,000 since 1949.
Commercial opportunities:
The signing of the Sino-Portuguese Free Trade Agreement (SPFTA) in 1956 has dramatically improved the economic prospects of Macau. Indeed, the near-complete removal of Chinese import tariffs on Portuguese luxury goods has resulted in the establishment of a number of luxury goods production facilities on the Peninsula, as well as the proliferation of dozens of prestigious vendors in the affluent portions of the isthmus. In addition to the basic textile manufactories set up by the migrants, a number of fashion outlets have also been established for upper-class visitors, and for deliveries to customers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia. Jewellers, shoemakers, watchmakers, tailors, cordwainers and bag markers have all set themselves up in the territory, where they create their products, sell them to visitors and also export them abroad. Distilleries have also become popular, with the territory developing a positive reputation for its fine, locally-distilled whiskey, rum, gin and baijiu. An emerging brand of dark rum, known as ”Ventos Orientais”, has grown particularly popular. The rum is recognised for its distinctive flavour, being the only major rum brand to use Timorese sugar. Tobacco companies have also established high-end stores on the Peninsula, where they sell a number of recognisable international cigarette and cigar brands.
Otherwise, with the significant reduction of Chinese tariffs on precision-made products, a number of manufactories have popped up on Coloane Island, producing measuring equipment, precision medical supplies and levelling tools.
The Banco de Macau, meanwhile, has left a permanent mark on the territory by becoming the first enterprise to construct a ‘skyscraper’ (as they’re being called) in Macau, building its new corporate headquarters on the western side of the Peninsula. It has been joined by the Macau-Beijing Investment Bank and the Banco Afro-Eurásia, which have also begun construction on smaller, albeit impressive skyscrapers. Regrettably for the Banco Português do Continente e Ilhas and Montepio Geral Bank, who do not have enough capital for a skyscraper, three-storey office buildings have had to suffice.
In many cases, these banks have been instrumental in financing the recent expansion of the Macanese economy. The Banco de Macau and the Banco Afro-Eurásia, however, have sought to increase their regional presence even further by expanding into Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia. The Banco de Macau, in particular, is expected to make major investments in Japan, Thailand and Indonesia in the coming years.
Tourism and entertainment opportunities:
The recent introduction of Western gambling to Macau, along with the Banco de Macau’s heavy investment in new casinos, has led to a proliferation of the gambling industry across the territory. Dozens of small to medium, high-end, Western casinos now dot the Peninsula, while a number of traditional casinos have emerged on Taipa Island. Along with the emergence of a luxury shopping culture, the new casinos have proven extremely popular with affluent visitors from China, Hong Kong, Japan, the West and Southeast Asia. Many new hotels are being founded on the Peninsula to meet this demand, as well as a new, game-changing casino known as Casino Lisboa, which shall open its doors in 1960. Quite expectedly, the proliferation of gambling across the territory has only poured fuel on the metaphorical fire that is the gambling syndicate rivalry. New syndicates are now competing for an increased market share as outside factions interfere with the rivalry (see: the banks and Triads) and older syndicates desperately battle to preserve their local hegemony. Already, this rivalry has been given a morbid monicker, becoming known as the ”Bloody Game (残忍赛)”. This name is quite deserved, given that syndicates of all sizes have gained a reputation for sabotage, death threats, murder and murky alliances with the Triads as their deadly rivalry spirals out of control.
Beyond the casinos, new bars, restaurants and nightclubs have been established across the territory, catering almost exclusively to high-end visitors and the Macanese elite. The combination of modern, dimly-lit bars, domestically-made liquor, prestigious fashion brands, international visitors and high-stakes games of poker have given Macau a distinct flavour, with the city increasingly being known as the ”City of Jazz (爵士城)”. Regular ferry trips between Hong Kong and Macau, coupled with daily/weekly flights to Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, Manila, Shanghai and Bangkok are only improving this reputation.
Future infrastructure:
MAP
The huge population increase on the Taipa and Coloane islands have put immense strain on the intra-Macau ferry service. Hoping to alleviate this strain, the Macanese territorial government has announced a new project to connect Taipa Island to the Peninsula with a new bridge. Inspired by the Ponte de Liberdade in Lisbon, and designed by the same engineers, the bridge is expected to be completed by 1965 (marked in red on the map). The bridge is to be named in honour of the territory’s outgoing Governor, Joaquim Marques Esparteiro, being called the Ponte da Esparteiro.
Otherwise, recognising the strain which Macau’s rapidly-increasing population has had on the geography of the territory, a major land reclamation project is to be undertaken on both the Peninsula and Taipa Island. Zoning will take place ahead of time for the planned land, allowing preemptive property sales to help fund the project. Dutch engineers will be brought on for the project as a result of their vast land reclamation experience. Additionally, the Portuguese Navy is to assist with the project by providing auxiliary vessels where relevant. The new Peninsula-Taipa bridge will only extend across the stretch of water between the reclaimed land, with the connecting road that passes over the reclaimed land simply being raised several metres above the ground. (Land reclamation areas are marked in blue on the map, along with their planned year of completion).
Finally, in order to prevent a potential bottleneck of manufactured goods produced on Taipa Island from blocking Macau harbour and the Ponte da Esparteiro, a new industrial dock is to be constructed on the island, to be completed by 1964 (marked in orange on the map).
Vice and crime:
As previously noted, the expansion of the gambling industry has also spawned an intense rivalry between the syndicates. Indeed, the increased prevalence of vice across Macau has created an opportunity for the Triads, who already enjoyed a strong Macanese presence before the territory’s expansion, particularly on Taipa Island, the Peninsula casinos and in the slums/emerging neighbourhoods in the north. As the "Four Major Gangs (四大黑幫)” of Shui Fong, Wo Shing Yee, 14K and the Big Circle Gang have grown in importance, they have gained large footholds in the new neighbourhoods, where they run extortion rackets and loan shark operations, targetting small businesses, nightclubs and traditional gambling dens. Human trafficking has also emerged as a dangerous front, as the Triads seek to smuggle in illegal workers and, in the case of the nightclub sector, “waitresses”. Finally, the counterfeiting of patacas (Macau’s currency) has increased prolifically, as the Triads seek to use fake currency to make large bets in the casinos.
Though Indonesia’s provision of detailed intelligence on Triad drug smuggling operations in Macau has resulted in a massive crackdown on that particular area of organised crime activity, the Triads appear to be gaining ground on almost every other front, creating a complex interplay between Macanese businesses, rival gambling syndicates, law enforcement, local politicians and the Four Major Gangs. Hoping to assist the struggling territorial police in eradicating bribery, human trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, murder and counterfeiting, the SIS (basically the Portuguese FBI/secret police) and the Customs and Finance Intelligence Service (CFIS) have created a joint task force known as Operation Varrer Profundo (Deep Sweep). This operation will see the two agencies create large, permanent offices across the territory, cracking down on the Triads and illegal gambling syndicate activity by sending in hundreds of agents. Thus begins what many expect to be a years-long cat and mouse game between Portuguese authorities, the Triads, the gambling syndicates, corrupt politicians and the business sector
submitted by hughmcf to ColdWarPowers [link] [comments]
is gambling illegal in thailand video
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha says he is now considering legalizing gambling an action that has been opposed for decades in the Kingdom. Much of Thailand’s recent coronavirus outbreaks have been linked to a number of illegal gambling dens. Due to constant occurrence of gambling dens its has prompted suggestions that legalizing gambling would be […] National – Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O’Cha yesterday, January 5th, ordered the establishment of a gambling investigation committee to eradicate illegal gambling operations and their influential figures in Thailand. The strict order is in response to the second cluster of Covid-19 Coronavirus found at a gambling den in Rayong in late December. The Prime Minister admitted […] Thailand Gambling Is Illegal! Aside from the national lottery and limited betting on horse racing, gambling is currently strictly illegal in Thailand. There are no legal casinos in Thailand, and even online casino games such as poker are blocked and banned. Despite our strict anti-gambling law, illegal gambling is widespread in Thailand. Chulalongkorn professor of economics Pasuk Phongpaichit is famous for his book Utsahakam Kan Phanan (The Gambling Industry). He estimates 70% of Thai people are regular gamblers. Living here and having visited dozens of provinces, my opinion is that he may be correct. Illegal gambling — estimated to be worth between Bt640 billion and Bt820 billion annually — is partly to blame for Thailand’s new wave of COVID-19 infections. Though most of the 19,000-plus new cases recorded since mid-December were found among Myanmar migrants in Samut Sakhon, many were also linked to illegal casinos – mostly in the ... The 29 year old self-professed gambler, Apirak “Sia Po” Chat-anon, is known for advocating for the legalisation of gambling. The Thai government even asked him to be an advisor on a committee reviewing Thailand’s laws on gambling. Nearly all forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand. The legislation doesn’t specifically mention internet play, but online gambling falls under the general category of gambling. The two exceptions to the country’s ban on gambling are the national lottery and betting on horses at a few racetracks. Other than that, the entire country is a no-gambling zone. Police in the resort town of Pattaya have raided a condominium and arrested 16 foreigners and 5 Thai for illegal gambling. The raid took place at the Espana Condominium & Resort in the early hours of Saturday. A combined team of Pattaya police, tourist police and health officials jointly raided Espana Condominium & Resort around […] While in Thailand, you can barely spot a physical casino. This is because gambling is illegal and is regulated by the Gambling Act of B.E.2478. There continue to be frequent, well-publicised police raids on illegal gambling dens – some 748 dens were supposedly raided in 2019, yet gambling continues to expand. In the unlikely event that General Prayut does legalise casino gambling, Thailand could again benefit from gambling taxes which formerly provided such a big portion of state income.
is gambling illegal in thailand top
[index]
[8395] [8045] [1713] [4214] [9676] [2447] [7618] [7252] [7237] [3468]
is gambling illegal in thailand
Copyright © 2024 m.123artnews.site