yourauntbob

On 4/20/2020 at 12:47 PM, moontang said:

Are you a SS recipient, or did they have that info from your 2019 refund?

2018 return, have yet to file 2019

4 hours ago, JTXR said:

This sucks.

The day the Bangkok ban was announced — a ban for 10 days, mind you — my whole household assumed it was to discourage gatherings during Songkran, so we estimated how much alcohol we had in the house and went out to make up the difference and ensure a 10-day stock. 

This last-minute extension hurts only ordinary folks, including many many folks who are happy to stay home and do social distancing for the public good, but who enjoy a drink or two, especially when stuck at home with few other options.

 

Does anyone really think that the bigwigs making these decisions can't procure alcohol any time they want? 

The day it was announced i also wen to the store with the thought of picking up a 10 day supply.  My wife then reminded me that TIT and there would be a solid chance of an extension.  I then procured a months supply to be safe.

Live and learn.  Im sure there are some mom and pop shops in your network who would find a way to meet your demand.  

On 4/17/2020 at 9:47 AM, Thainess said:

They should extend the ban forever. Introduce permanent alcohol prohibition. Thailand is a Buddhist country and Buddhists aren't supposed to drink alcohol. If alcoholic westerners can't do without their drug fix, they can move to Cambodia or Vietnam instead. The quality of western tourists in Thailand will then increase massively.

Or you could move to the middle east where many counties have prohibited alcohol.  Seems you choose to live in a country where the laws are generally loose with this substance.

Please also consider that Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religions all also frown on alcohol consumption.  This being a Buddhist country has little to nothing to do with it.  

My direct deposit hit last Wednesday.  Most people i know back home had the same

So a company adapting to make a needed product and supply needed jobs was raised and closed.  

Great work!

6 hours ago, allen303 said:

This ban came about because a bunch of Thais sitting outside the 7/11s drinking at all hours of the night. The Thai police have no control over the people and can’t stop it. So, lets just ban the sale of alcohol. We have discussed this before, the lack of authority or respect for the police.

That lack of respect is what i admire most about Thais.  The west could learn a lot from them in this regard

15 hours ago, fourpack said:

If this so called By you Childish ban saves one person from getting Covid-19 . Then it's achieved its aim

Lets ban cars, because if it stops even one car crash then its achieved its aim.  Are lives not more important than the convenience of cars?

3 hours ago, DrTuner said:

The only thing backing up a fiat currency is a bank, it's all just a social contract. Ok, in some cases a military, which explains why USD is so popular.

 

Gold is a tangible. But not dense enough for my tastes, storing a few cubic meters under the pillow isn't practical.

Banks dont back national currencies, most (if not all) are fiat as well.  The main reason national currencies have value is that is what you need to pay your taxes with. 

I'd love to have the problem of storing "a few cubic meters" of gold considering you could easily hold a million baht worth in your hand.  

11 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I'm selling my gold to buy XRP. 

Digital nothing.

I love the concept of crypto but with nothing backing it fiat currency that has little to no practical use.  

On 4/14/2020 at 10:03 AM, Blumpie said:

When I read this post that's the first thing that went through my mind too.  The safeguards afforded to first world nations simply don't exist here yet.  Thailand is, forgive me and I'm not trying to incite anger, a juvenile when it comes to problems like this and in many ways they simply lack the tools to help financially.

It's worrying.  

Id say its just the opposite.  In the west there is no self responsibility.  When things go wrong everyone runs to big brother for help.  In asia people have some savings to fall back on and communities pull together.   I know many people back home with nothing to fall back on which is much more juvenile in my opinion/  

On 4/14/2020 at 12:33 AM, Vigilante said:

I was warning about this senario weeks ago.

Keep in mind, gold hasn't really moved upwards ,in a big way yet

Imagine, in a potential meltdown and gold doubles/triples, and millions of thais run to the gold shop demanding to sell.

Gold shop-owner cannot possibly redeem but a tiny fraction of the gold he has sold

 

Lesson...stay away from thai gold

If you can buy 99.9% gold ,anonymously and not stored with a third-party vault, do it.

You can always sell it in the int'l market unlike low-purity thai gold

 

There are also fake gold bars to worry about

<deleted> it..I'm sticking with cash.

 

Have a nice day

 

Not sure i trust the third party vaults either.  And cash is a depreciating asset (inflation) 

On 4/14/2020 at 6:43 AM, prakhonchai nick said:

The maximum is I believe 100,000baht fine  + jail.    Give him both.

So people make a decision that you don't like and your solution is to put them in a cage.

Did he force people to participate or are they all willing?  It's no surprise governments world over are acting like tyrants, it's in their nature.  What makes me sad is people are demanding this behavior.

Lord help us

2 hours ago, ChouDoufu said:

unfortunately the libertarian party is not viable in the usa.  we have a two-wing uniparty system that offers interchangeable, common-denominator candidates.

 

a small percentage of voters may choose to vote libertarian, but due to the tiny margin of victory, they could easily throw the election to worser of the two evils.

The lesser of two evils is still evil.  I'm done doing that.  I'll be on the right side of history going forward waiting for others to catch on

2 hours ago, ChouDoufu said:

is it?  he got my vote by absentee ballot to texas in the last election.  more of a vote for "not her" than for trump, though.  i had some hope he would be different, but in a good way.  i was disappointed.  i see him selling his soul to his donors, and we're still in afghanistan/iraq/syria/etc, and still regime-changing.  i was fooled thinking his blowhard, know-nothing public image was just an act.

 

can't see voting for a creature like biden, not even as a "not him" vote.  if it comes down to those two, think i'll just save myself the trouble of printing off the ballot and expense of an airmail stamp.  what difference, at that point, would it make?

Agreed.  Horberger 2020!

1 hour ago, earlinclaifornia said:

trump asking Ukraine to only "state an investigation needs to be announced" is proof he is truly scared go Biden tossing him out. Probably is scared NY will jail him

Care to source this claim?

On 4/11/2020 at 6:49 PM, natway09 said:

Again, you say the "booze ban" is stupid but

 

I will say it again, they have to make rules "for the lowest common denominator "

Umderstand ?   No .......Thats exactly what I mean

So you think it's ok to punish the responsible for the sins of the irresponsible?  

I'd rather people make decisions for themselves on what is best for their own situation.  Being stupid should not be illegal

On 4/10/2020 at 2:05 PM, EricTh said:

I thought Buddhists aren't supposed to drink alcohol in the first place.

Neither are Christians, Muslims, and Jews 

10 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

Thanks for the economy advice. Yes, I have savings invested in exactly the most favorable percentage the maximise earning capacity as well as minimise the possibility of losses. In other words, I do not need any time, due to that I always see to that time is on my side. Who knows, maybe I give you some great ideas here.

The fact that they have injected more funds than ever before, is only something that is going to easy the come back of world economy. Nevermind, you do not need to understand that. You are already a pro. 

What they are doing is going to kill the economy.  Can't bail out everyone.   

I'm not a pro, but I listen to the ones who called 2000, 2007, and this one correct.  I don't listen to the ones who say "nobody saw this coming" every time their "cure" blows up in their face

36 minutes ago, chessman said:

This is an interesting point. The models that were predicting those kinds of numbers of deaths were based on no action being taken by governments at all. Those models pointed out at the time that this was purely hypothetical because no government would see so many deaths and take no action.

 

But some people will use the fact that the number of deaths will (almost certainly) be far below that to say that these social distancing measures were an over-reaction. But there is also a very strong argument that the number will be lower because politicians followed the advice of the models and took the measures that they did.

Execpt for the fact that some countries (Sweden) and some states  (Dakota's) didn't listen to the "experts" and have comparable numbers

15 minutes ago, chessman said:

I read it. Technical medical stuff. If you can explain the bit that supports your argument then please let me know. Did you see the Washington post article I quoted earlier? Uses data from previous viruses like swine flu to show how death rates at the time actually massively underestimate the total number of deaths.

“The underlying cause depends upon what and where conditions are reported on the death certificate. However, the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID- 19 being the underlying cause more often than not,”

“If the decedent had other chronic conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed, these conditions can be reported in Part II.”

many doctors are reading that as "if they have the covid virus, than that should be considered the primary cause for official reporting even if it could reasonably be assumed otherwise.

2 hours ago, chessman said:

fact checking from the Washington Post. Food for thought.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/27/those-covid-19-death-toll-figures-are-incomplete/

 

Giving reasons why the number of covid deaths is actually being underreported. Interesting that the number of Swine flu deaths at the time was much lower and then revised upwards later when people analysed the numbers of deaths. 

 

 

Just because they under reported/got it wrong last time by making the nber too low doesn't mean that the way they are digging the nbers this time will render the same result.  Espically since they are  blaming every death they can on covid

8 hours ago, Matzzon said:

Really!? You can´t be serious. Most countries will bounce back after less than a year. The housing crisis was much worse. Signs started already 2003, and nobody took any notice except Warren Buffet. That led to a collapse at the end of 2006 and was also what created the global financial crisis between 2007-2009. Economic collapse? Now, the world recovered fine. Any changes after that? No, people still not learned anything. Another crisis will come. This is just a minor bump in the road, that will soon be forgotten. Nothing will change at the end, until next time something comes up that makes people suffer.

Pretty sure everything in your post was wrong.  Buffet didn't predict the housing crisis.  There were many who did (the whole Austrian school of economics).  This is a dent crisis much worse that the 2007-2008 crises.  They have already injected more funds than the entire 2007/2008 QE cycles.  The virus is the pin that pricked the debt bubble.  And the response by governments world wide is going to prolong the pain.

If you have savings, buy gold.  The Austrian predicted this crash years ago and there is little time to get your finances in order at this point