ronnie50

..Regarding K-Street lobbyists, I haven't seen much coming out of Trump's piehole about special-interest lobbyists, other than his obvious full-throated pro-zionist backing. Has the NRA been effective with its lobbying or any other others (oh, yeah, Trump's, BBB including the ending a tax of 'firearm silencers' - what?). Of course the main playbook seems to be Project 2025, which I guess is an amalgamation of all the right wing lobbyists and their wish lists. What about the processed food industry, or shipping industry, others..

The United States desperately needs more mainstream national political parties to create a proper multi-party democracy, so this is a good start. The best part, provided it takes off, is it will split the conservative/republican vote. While I'm no fan of the democrats either (who abandoned their working class base during Bill Clinton's time in exchange for promoting hollywood weirdos, pop stars and others with no connection to how most people live), there needs to be a further creation - a Progressive Party of America or something like that. Call it a Bernie Sanders or OAC style of social democracy, that would represent the views of millions of Americans. It would be a bit like France, where there are a few mainstream leaders running for presidency and ultimately a run-off second ballot to get the final winner. In my view, that would be a much better system than the military-industrial-political K-Street dominance of deep pocket lobbyists and money politics that dominates the U.S. system at the expense of ordinary, common sense thinking voters.

This is a politely, but deliberately, written misandry questionnaire (e.g. opposite of mysogyny), with a pre-conceived bias. I could post similar questions on why young plain-Jane-looking Western women marry Moroccan, Turkish or Latin American waiters or busboys and bring them back to live in Europe, the U.S. or Canada (until the latter get permanent residence status/citizenship - then they separate).

Thanks - very helpful info.

Yes, but has the principle of 'first in first out' been dealt with yet? By that I mean if you transfer money to your Thai bank account from a foreign bank account, with the latter having accumulated savings for many years, it is 'presumably' after-tax savings in your home country. No idea how you prove that. Attach bank statements from the account from years ago to show how long the money has been there and include an old tax return(s)?

That's what they should have engineered. Instead, the knuckleheads expect shippers to offload their containers at a new port on one side of the isthmus, then truck it to the other side, where another new port will load the container onto a second ship. You gotta wonder if they ever ran the idea past big shipping companies. The country is not big on business plans prior to capital expenditure, is it.

That's my guess. Once the sub approval gets published officially, then the establishment morons can have their coup. I also doubt they'll buy Swedish fighter jets, they need some leverage with Trump. That's a game too.

You mean like Canadians and Europeans enjoy - but in reality - couldn't give a sh!t if Americans visit their countries? Well, ok, yeah.

Apparently, since February, border crossings from Canada to the US are down by more than 40%, per month, year-on-year. This news report is from this week. This is just one example of one major border crossing to the major US West Coast highway (I-5). But it's not just Canadians deciding not to travel to USA it's happening with Europeans too. They've read the news reports in recent months about their compatriots being detained for two weeks in ICE immigration detention centers - often with no reason given - then deported. So it's fear of lawless/unbridled US border officials and a general xenaphobia in the United States being drummed up by Trump's weirdo cabinet. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/border-crossings-from-b-c-to-u-s-down-5th-month-1.7576247

Yes, she seems guilty. She also seems very dumb. She's very young. Why would she be going to Georgia of all places. Despite her case, there is something fishy going on out of BKK airport. Disproportionate number of travelers getting 'caught' with marijuana heading to Europe/UK - including couples. Then there's the Canadian guy with suitacses full of hard drugs - who the authorities said was getting paid $30,000 for his risk. Another red flag. That 30k wouldn't even buy him a new car in Canada. Why would he take such a big risk for such little reward?

Check your cynicism. At roughly USD 2.50 per play, the cost per Thai ticket is not that much different to most US state lottery single-ticket purchases, or those in Canada or the British Lottery or European. But the grand prizes are enormously different. The Thai grand prize is less than USD 200k. The other mentioned countries above have a monthly average grand prize of USD 10 million = and often much, much more, and with many subsiduary prizes. So it's apples and oranges - Thai lottery is poor value comparitively. But you could say all lotteries are a waste of money.

That's always been my view too. Waste of 80 baht. Poor payouts to winners. Not sure foreigners were ever excluded from buying or collecting a winning though..

The hidden hands of the wealthy Thai establishment families begin their signature slow-moving trainwreck towards a military coup or a court-coup to ensure the establishment families wealth and influence remain sure-footed and without any external or internal threats. It's as predictable as rain in October.

Okay, this is actually a question... If you are out of the country frequently on an annual retirement O-extension (I am out now), it's possible that you'd never actually need to do a 90 day report, isn't that right? It would depend on timing of your trips abroad, but if you travelled 3 or 4 times in a year, potentially you'd never be in Thailand long enough for a 90 day in-person report (or online report), isn't that right? Or have I got this wrong.. (I haven't done one yet..and this is my second trip away).

She might be right to be suspicious. Few others would care though. I wonder if his bank accounts recorded large withdrawals just prior to his death..wouldn't surprise me. Reminds me of the death of Jeffrey Epstein in custody. In that case though, few believe he committed suicide, and was silenced to avoid uncovering his high-profile trafficking customers/friends.

What he says makes sense though. It sounds like Hun Sen was in this charade from the first shot that was fired. He had his reasons (doesn't want casinos in Thailand competing with his) and the hidden Thai hands who have their reasons (change of government).

...and singing 'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go'! Then another two rows away shoouts 'Oi! Scouser! Shut it!'

Should be standard practise. Need more of that from everyone these days!

Yeah right. Do we know who are the 'big' players in owning/operating marijuana shops? There seem to be hundreds if not a thousand of them. So it's 'highly' unlikely all are sole-proprietors with money to get a lease in a prominent place, kit a place out and stock it - when there doesn't appear to be a big market to sustain all of these shops month in, month out. Of course that leads to suspicions of a shop (many?) existing solely for the purposes of money laundering in some cases. So yeah, business 'groups' - whoever they are, and operating in that latter category - will be trying to figure out how they fake doctor's prescriptions and what happens if raided.

Would losing a no confidence vote trigger an election, or just a change of PM within the same coalition by a vote in the existing Parliament? Everyone knows Prawit wants to be PM... but through a general election, he and his party doesn't have much chance.

No. I'm not sure of the figure of 'bona-fide' Hi-So Thais (whatever bona-fide would be). It's a guess by me, but good idea, maybe AI would have a better guess. By wealth - some of the aristocracy "Na-this, N-that" surnames) are not wealthy, because the name comes from history and historic wealth, and in some cases, that wealth has already been tapped out or frittered away by former uncles, aunts, whatever. So you can't necessarily tell by a 'sakinda' name. Still, many are well-educated even if not wealthy, and have a decent home, and the family name still opens doors - and they know 'extinctively' who they will and won't vote for. The pee-noi system though extends through society and in the upper wealth category the extended families can be quite big, and the patron dishes out the cash via the old Chinese guangxi-type of distribution - or other ways if not Thai-Chinese but still very wealthy. So ultimately it's probably a lot larger than 500 - a guess at the number of ultimate family heads - bigger number is probably in the low thousands - but in a country of 70 million, with the majority earning minimum wage USD 10 daily, or even twice minimun wage, it's still working poverty in comparison to the well-connected, many of the latter scared of the majority with a vote.

Yes, but I seem to manage it.

Practicality I guess comes into it too.

Not rich by any stretch. Just keep my powder dry with basic investments and a pension income. Like you, I've structured things to avoid paying most taxes. That may change of course depending on the outcome of Thailand's tax revisions. If Viet Nam comes up with a similar (minimum) one year retirement visa like Thailand, I would try to add that to the current Thai O-visa-retiree extension. Then spend some minimal time in home country to round out the year. It means being nimble, but it would also means paying for two places.. (two six month leases - Thai - VN back to back). But I'd need to weigh pros and cons. It might be cheaper to just pay the Thai taxes.

Because 'America' is a generic name that refers to a continent (or two). Other countries like Iran and others have their adjectives in brackets that refer not geographically, but politically. UK would be tricky.