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The Southern Border?

I don’t know but I just got back to CNX after spending two months back in So Cal. First the good things: 1) Gas was under $4 a gallon. 2) Got a cheeseburger fries and a drink at my favorite In N out for $9 3) Got my usual Charles Shaw wine at Trader Joe’s for $3.49(no longer two buck chuck) but it was still a great bargain. Now the bad: Tried to get a haircut for almost a week and just about every barber shop in my old neighborhood was booked solid for almost a week. These barbershops now charge anywhere from $17 to $25 for a simple men’s haircut. Found a homeless guy sleeping in the hallway of the hotel I was staying in. I was paying $140 a night and it was not great. I saw more and more homeless people camped out on the sidewalks of my old neighborhood. I grew up in the city of Torrance and it was always considered to be a solid middle class neighborhood. The most shocking thing I saw was a job poster at a local Panda Express(for those who have never been to Panda and it is the most popular fast Chinese outlet in the US). The starting pay at Panda is now $20 per hour. Conversely a two item combo plate is now $12 dollars. The days of lunch at Panda for $8 is long gone. A plain bagel at one of my favorite places was $2.89. I wonder how does the average person survive? The macro economic data announced by the Biden administration sounds really great. GDP at over 3%, 300K in news jobs and the stock market at over 38,000 means little for those in the middle to lower end of society. Wal Mart, Targer and Dollar Tree were all very crowed. Other stores were not very busy. If Trump gets convicted any of the charges pending by November then I guess “game over”. In 2016 I did not vote for Trumps and in 2020 I did not vote for either. Life looks tough for most people I spoke to in So Cal. Really don’t know how many will vote and for who.

At least two barbershop in CNX that I know of charge 200 Baht. I will not complain about CNX prices because last week I paid $35 for a haircut at a barbershop in Southern California

The counter to this argument would be those on Non O or OA spend money while in LOS as well. I would venture to guess some on O or an OA would spend more money while residing in LOS. I am an OA and Pacific Cross in Bangkok(A Thai Insurance company is very happy when I pay my annual premium without filing a claim).

A school that is aware of what Immigration might be thinking would discourage people over a certain age from applying for an Education Visa. A few year ago I knew a person in CNX who was almost 60 and tried to obtain an Education Visa but the school advised him a Non O Retirement Visa would be a better. The school even directed him to a local agency to obtain the Non O. This person has been extending the same Retirement Visa for the last 5 yeas with the same agency. In this case the school did him a huge favor.

Have you been to Los Angeles County lately? Have you been to San Francisco lately? It is not pretty. What people say on a survey can be different than what they actually feel or do. Of course I know families that have one, two and even three Tesla's and they rarely feel much pain. When I was working and was making a lot of money I felt none of the pain that I see. Why is the US economy so strong? What about the 31+ trillion in national debt? California has a 68+ Billion budget deficit and no one seems to care. This is concerning to me because my retirement pay comes out of Sacramento. "Empirical Data" does not feed you. I went to three other barber shops in the same area and they were all busy. All asked me to make an appointment for next weeks because they charged the bargain price of only $20 per haircut. Also, for the first time I was offered $100 dollar bills when I withdrew money from a Bank of America ATM; I guess a $20 dollar bill just is not enough. Money or lack of money has always been the great equalizer. Just imagine if welfare payments, SSA, SSI or SSID payments are delayed? i know many who rely on those payments to get by.

I have been back in So Cal for the past two months and I can say categorically these allegedly positive economic numbers mean nothing to most Americans. “GDP grew at 3%” and “335,000 jobs added”(most were probably for Christmas). What does this got to with the cost of lunch. The cheapest lunch out for me was $10 dollars. The average was around $15 to $17 dollars. The only stores that’s were full of shoppers were 1) Wal Mart 2) Target 3) Dollar Tree 4) 99 Cent Store. I took a stroll through a local Kohl’s and it was like a ghost town. The local people I spoke to had the look of despair and most just wanted to make it to pay day or the end of the month. Even with some fast food places offering entry level job at $20 per dollar an hour many people looked somewhat anxious. It looked like those fast food places that started out at $20+ per hour were operating with a limited number of employees. The most interesting person I spoke to was a barber. The barber just opened up his shop and came from Vietnam 10 years ago. He said “ I never knew life would be so hard in America and my wife just wants to back to Vietnam”. HIs barber shop charges $25 for a man’s haircut and he was just barely getting by. I will never say anything bad about the 150 Baht haircut I am used to getting a local shop in Chiang Mai. For the first time in my life I fear the future of America. I fear some kind of internal conflict will be triggered not by politics but economics. I hope I am wrong. I look forward to going back to LOS.

Eric Clapton's son, Connor, was also four when he died in a similar way. The song "Tears in Heaven" was written as a tribute.

Not surprised by the Chinse but how the British Police Officer responded was surprising.

1. Which Embassy/Consulate are you dealing with? 2. Have you set up an account with: thaievisa.go.th ?

Last time I flew TG to the US was back in 2013. They were flying a B777-300 ER and the routing was BKK-ICN-LAX. The stop in ICN was about 2 hours. I do not see TG ever flying to the US again.

Yup. 340. Thai offered a great Premium Economy back then for just slightly more than Economy.

Last time I flew BKK to LAX nonstop was back in 2008. It was on Thai Airways on an A350-400. The plane was half empty because of the amount fuel needed to fly almost 9,000 miles nonstop. I believe Air Canada is planning a Vancouver to BKK in the near future.

Many times with Singapore on the A350-900. As a passenger it was a nicer experience. The EVA 777 from TPE-LAX and back was nice back in 2018. The last two times I have used Korean Air from CNX to LAX (CNX to ICN on an older A330 and ICN to LAX on a A380). So far KAL has been good. Round trip economy is usually around $1,000 (give or take $50). I prefer KAL KE 17 because it arrives at 0940.

Possibly. I am currently renting a Hertz vehicle from LAX. They were pushing a Tesla at check-in. I am renting a Nissan Altima and the Tesla was 30% cheaper. When I made the reservation the cheapest car available was the Tesla. Even the lowly Chevy Spark was more expensive than the Tesla.

A criminal background would ease any concerns. One can pay for such a background check. If the DUI was a misdemeanor (most DUI's are) the records in most cases are not retained for 30 years.

1) DoorDash 2) Grub Hub will take over delivery. Last week I went to a Dominos in So Cal and there two employees in the place. One guy was putting the Pizza into the oven and the girl was answering the phones and dealing with customers. I called the local Dominos number and got a call center in Manila. “Unintended Consequences”? Fewer employees at each location but of course they are now making $20 dollars while doing the work of 2 people. This is called the thinking of people who never run a business.

Not old enough. At least not yet. I got the “free shot” last year at CVS and they did not accept PC.

So you have an annual AiS tourist SIM card?

I just arrived back in Los Angeles and went to my local CVS pharmacy and asked about the updated Covid 19 Vaccine. It is free if your health insurance plan is in the CVS network. Well because I have Pacific Cross health insurance it is obviously not in the CVS network. I declined to pay. So I guess the days of the free Covid Vaccine in the US is over. This could one of the reasons that fewer are lining up to jabbed.

So it is not “unlimited”. I pay 1176 per month for unlimited data(4G and sometimes 5G speeds) and 700 minutes of talk with True. Normal speeds on this plan averages 100 mbps and once I got 500 Mbps.

So you’’re paying 125 Baht a month for unlimited Data and talk? What kind of speeds are you getting?

So it's not like a Southern American accent? How does a foreigner actually become fluent in this language?

I am in CNX and most of the time the reaction has been laughter(like laughing at me). I can never get the tonal inflection right on many Thai words. So now I speak mostly English. I guess the only way to master the Thai language would be to spend months in a small town or village where English is not spoken. Did not have this problem learning Korean. I even studied Dari and Arabic and most understood what I was saying. But as always "TIT".

I would not be happy: