retarius

The Panama Papers itemised Zelensky's ac counts and those held by close relatives. The political will was obviously not there to hold Mr Z to account.

Totally agree. All this lies about WMDs sent by the Pentagon to build support for a totally illegal war. You cannot legally invade a nation because the leaders are anti-US. If you allow this line of reasoning, why is it wrong for Russia to invade Ukraine that has anti-Russian leaders?

I think it is a sight more than $1 billion and I am sick, as a taxpayer, of having to fund this finical disaster in Ukraine. Cut all aid now. Slava Russia.

Did you get cancer? Did you die in a car or motorcycle accident? Did you get bitten by. posse of poisonous snakes? There you are, you are lucky....Keep up the donations, I've proved to you they are worth it.

Thanks. Is that $15000 per trip, or 15k per year? How about gifting money to a girlfriend?

Another different question.....gift tax is 5% as I understand it. Suppose I 'gift' my g/f (18 years together, not someone I met on Soi 6 last night) 5 million baht, and she puts the money into a joint account? Tax rate on 5 million is 25% or 40% or so (I can't remember) so a gift might be a considerable saving if the g/f doesn't run off with it. Anybody know how this would play out?

I have a question about cash brought in from outside. My understanding is that you are allowed $10,000 equivalent per trip. Would this be part of income as defined in the tax code? Since amounts below $10,000 do not need to be declared, they cannot be tracked presumably.

I'm going back to the US to open a Chase account soon. You seem familiar with them, are their rates OK? I'm not really concerned with individual cost items, but more with the overall net result....so a composite of rate, total costs and total amount transferred netting out at the best deal.

Mike, I agree with the logic of what you say, and I do hope you are correct. You seem to have faith in the good sense of Thailand's leaders that I lack. I have a little anxiety because I have seen a large number of illogical, and frankly nutty schemes that our glorious leaders propose, and sometimes even implement. Having seen Thailand go from a high growth/low debt economy in 2008 to a much lower growth/much higher debt country now, damaging their own economy seem not to be beyond the capabilities of our leaders.

I tend to agree with you. I find it harsh and lacking depth. Much prefer Indian, Japanese or Italian food. The food which my ladies cook at home is better than restaurant food, maybe it is adjusted for my palate better. As far as MK is concerned I find it waaaay overpriced for what it is, but I like the duck and dim sum and like fish and shrimp wantons; I also like the end when my wife orders an egg and a bowl of rice, boils down the broth into a more concentrated soup and dumps the egg and rice in....

Like you, apparently, I had understood or misunderstood from Charlie H and Mike Lister's simple guide and the subsequent discussion that one could transfer all monies tax free provided that you could demonstrate that the overseas account balances before transfer exceeded the amount transferred. I will have to re-read the Simple Guide, as the grey matter doesn't seem to function very well these days.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Where's your evidence. Tell me when it actually has changed the game. I still won't be taking any vaccine.

I cannot connect online most US financial institutions, I am with. This includes Vanguard, BOA and NYCB. Also I could not log onto NatWest in the UK. The only US institution I can connect to is Fidelity. I was told by Vanguard that they didn't accept log ons from Thailand because of scams and fraud. So I got a VPN and still couldn't connect, when I called Vanguard tech support and he said "Oh you are calling from Thailand." I said I was using a VPN and he said "yes we know when you are using a VPN, so it still screens yo out." So each time I have to call the institution and verify who I am and then they let me log on, but next time it is the same story. I used to travel a lot and could log on from other countries in EU, UK Japan etc, but even that has stopped now. I'm going back to close my bank accounts because it is pointless having them. I'll have my pensions paid into a joint account with my son and put the proceeds from the closed bank accounts into that. He will have access to the mobile account and will make any desired transactions. I do the same in the UK with another family member.

Why move to another 3rd world country? Better to stay here. In the 15 years I have been here there have been many advances. One can always hope for more but a lot has been achieved. Why go another 40 years back in time?

You get one guess. My guess is that the vaccine doesn't work very well...

I've never been on a cruise. Used to live on South Beach Miami and had a view of the bay and the McArthur Causeway and could see the giant cruise ships arriving and departing on the other side of the causeway. I'm guessing the ships hold about 5000 or so people, they are about 20 stories high, maybe more. I hate crowds and don't think I would enjoy being that close to 5000 people.

For me, crime occurs when action is taken on the thoughts. A good example of this is pedophilia. Medically speaking, pedophilia is diagnosed when a patient admits to having sexual fantasies about pre-pubescent children ie usually those aged up to about 13 or 14. The psychiatrist who diagnoses the pedophile is under no obligation to report such a patient to the authorities as being a pedophile per se is not a crime. When/if the patient does act out his fantasies with a child, then it obviously becomes a crime. Now what is odd, is that a pedophile who just has fantasies is a clear and present danger to children around him? Given the risk to children, would not this person be best locked up? Why do we wait for him to violate a child before he is locked up? There are however already thought crimes on the books eg conspiracies to commit a crime. There have been a rash of these new presumed thought crimes added to the statutes recently eg since 9/11 where merely being a relative friend of a terrorist could land you in jail. For conspiracies, financial, criminal or terror related, you only have to be planning the crime, not to have carried it out. And I find the law is inconsistent here, or at least, different than the law on pedophilia. Will thought crime become routine with AI identifying people would might commit crimes so they can be locked up to prevent crime. I doubt it. It is used already to put people on FBI watch lists and the like. AI is used to examine these folks browsing habits, their reading habits, their purchasing habits and so on to give a composite picture of risk. he They could do much better than AI already. Young black men aged 16 to 25 commit over 50% of violent crimes. Why not lock them all up? For me all of these repressive technologies will be used by tyrants to keep themselves in power and to exclude opposition and sadly the technologies are easy to rig. You can see what is happening to Trump and his supporters today, harassed by Biden's DOJ.

When I lived in America I tried to order a Mercedes E450 without a sunroof, It was s special order and had to be specially made, according to the dealership....a two or three month wait. I waited about three months and was told they had located one in another state, but there would be an extra charge to ship it. I told them where to go and canceled the order. I just bought a Toyota Alphard. The van is shipped in from Japan, they are not made here. Alphards have two sunroofs, one each for the front and middle row of seats. I don't think they have been opened in the first 6 months or so of motoring.

Damage to property is less serious in my opinion that damage to human life. I don;pt want to debate if you disagree, then let's agree to disagree.

Exactly my point, some ships have been damaged....but I have only read of one dead. If there were many ship hands dead, you would have read about it as it would have been hyped up to the max by the US/UK war PR machine. This is a disproportionate response by the US/UK and is killing people. Look the US bombed Libya, hundreds dead and now it is a disaster, oil cut off just a few days back as a refinery was occupied. Iraq bombed to a cinder, and still a basket case. Afghanistan 20 years of killing to get the Taliban back? I wouldn't be so freaked out by this, but it doesn't work....the US haven't won a war since WW2 when they used nukes. All this is is bullying to protect evil Israel. End of story. If you warmongers get excited about all theses folk being killed, then there is something seriously wrong with your morals and decency.

Yes, the world should not turn a blind eye to the evil Israeli genocide, and shout turn a blind eye to the inconvenience and extra cost of travelling around the Cape. To be c lear I have no time for warmongers like yourself and others who revel in bloodshed and bask in imagined reflected glory. Such immoral and vile attitudes make me sick.

How about Russia donating some S400s and S500s when they've shots all the US's F16s down?

Just how many have been killed or injured?

So approx 3000 pounds a month? Not bad I suppose, but not enough for a good lifestyle in Bangkok.

I'd reroute shipping and avoid the area. The Houthis found a nice and easy way to do very little harm to people, so minimal bloodshed to put pressure on murderous Israel. I applaud them. There's no excuse for bombing. When the only toll in your tool box is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The problem with the totally immoral West is that they use any excuse for a good bombing. I'd like to see these smaller nations and insurgents with better defensive weapons able to shoot down Western bombers. And I realise that this is not a popular view, but I hold people who support western military actions over the past 50 or 60 years, too be contemptible people who have warped morals.