Enzian

2 hours ago, TroubleandGrumpy said:

all she did was to be stupid.

There's that old rule not to attribute to malice what can be easily explained by stupidity, but I'm not sure she deserves the benefit of the doubt; and the results look to be the same anyway... and unending.

So this will mean I can get a Nero d'Avola red in Thailand for just a few % more than in Sicily (6 Euros and up), or a drinkable Amarone della Valpolicella from the Veneto at the same price as at Trader Joe's in California (around $25 with tax)? I can't wait! 

Who knows? Maybe when the infrastructure road show reaches some saturation point, we can start talking about improving education in this country so as to take full advantage of these deals in the long run.

I like the tan leather jacket he's been wearing in these recent pictures; it's a northern Italy speciality.  I have a darker one like it I bought in Florence, but his is nicer. 

2 hours ago, JohnnyBD said:

Chase doesn't charge me an outgoing wire fee when I send USD, so I will only do wires from now on.

This makes sense and is encouraging on a couple of fronts. One, Stat above (if I read correctly) suggests using a credit (not debit?) card to withdraw baht from a teller at Krungsri (my bank also), which I thought was always a no-no (though with Chase there might be some frequent flyer points advantage, not sure). Second, I've long had a question of whether to tell my son to send X number of bhat, or X number of dollar; we've always sent a round dollar figure and not tried the baht alternative. The result has seemed to be .5 or .6 below Google spot, which is discouraging but perhaps inevitable. The fee is usually $40 (or $5 sometimes if he does it on his phone). Perhaps it would be $0 if we moved larger figures, idk. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

Finally, I will remark that by loading up my local baht account a bit before the end of '23, I think I can get through '24 by transferring funds only from a US account wherein the only activity is US SS deposits (in other words, no US business profits, taxed or not). That's my simple plan. And watch developments here.

So will this situation be similar to places in the US where the legal husband will still be responsible for supporting the child regardless of the known circumstances?

If you're (soon) going to run a country, you'd rather not have a failed state next door sharing hundreds of kilometers of rugged border. All kinds of things could happen to make you look bad. And it would be nice if there really had been some discussion of humanitarian assistance, not impossible. 

I got my PhD from Berkeley but most of my close professors had come from Harvard, so I say I got a Harvard education in northern California.

Chula is interesting because I'm planning to switch to their hospital after some unhappiness with Bumrungrad.

Looking at the above, the heat is definitely affecting a lot of people. Meanwhile I'm sitting in Berkeley where it's currently 14C.

Italy only #8 on the list? Good. Everyone stay away, the land of scams and bad food and wine. You won't like it.  /s

How much longer? I left Thailand on Feb. 3, been in the US and Europe since, but am returning to BKK May 7. Could it just keep going through May and part of June?

Perhaps the PT government should keep it up with this flailing about cluelessly trying to solve problems which are ultimately structural and which they really don't want to address. ATM Google pegs the baht at 36.7; it has been falling since March 9. Let's get popcorn and see how long this can continue.

I read the headline like there's a new party called No Move Forward that we need to get to know. Then I remembered there already is, it's the deep state power elite.

6 hours ago, rickudon said:

7 hours ago, Dolf said:

 

Southern Spain is only green if they irrigate,

I'm in southern Spain, Andalusia, right now. The arabs in control stepped up irrigation on a massive large scale 800 years ago. Nothing new.

On 2/18/2024 at 5:51 AM, KhunLA said:

Just seems other destination are more modern (if wanting), but definitely cleaner.  The amount of trash and unmaintained building here/TH is quite surprising.  A simply coat of paint would do wonders.

I agree and my favorite is that yellow building on the corner of Sukhumvit soi 4 across from the gas station. Does anyone bother to look at the upper floors of that eyesore? (A coat of paint would not help, the relative humidity would ruin the paint in a couple of years.) But I suggest hat the mentality behind that ugly thing is part of what makes Nana Plaza possible, so no one cares.

Has the BoT Governor anywhere laid out a list of the "underlying structural problems" he's referring to? That's what would be really interesting, as well as why Srettha presumably doesn't want to talk about those problems or discuss ways to address them. Reform doesn't seem to be his strong point; the status quo is.

And honestly I don't see the country in economic crisis. It's not doing well, but it's not falling apart. All too often populist politicians claim "crisis" as a motive for action, when what they want are actions that result in them having more control, not in improving the lives of everyone involved. 

1 hour ago, newbee2022 said:

If you are occupied since 80 years....how would you feel? Enough is enough? Or say thank you, we don't need freedom?

They had opportunities for a separate state and turned them down. And they have never offered to give up the official policy of calling for the eventual destruction of Israel and the death of all the Jews.

My son put in an order for a medium sized transfer from Chase US either late 26 or early 27 west coast time, and Chase emailed me that it had been sent at 6:11 PM Bangkok time on Wed. 27. My Thai bank informed me at 5:21 PM the next day, 23 hours later, that they had it. I will not need to make another wire transfer until 8 to 10 months from now, and I will have records to show the money came from the US Social Security Administration. Best I can do, maybe we will know more by then.

Edit: Looking at the post directly above, I understand this has been the case, but obviously a lot of people like me are assuming '23 earnings will be grandfathered in effect, or the practice of non-enforcement will continue. Luckily in my case I'm not married, no kids here, on a month to month lease, and have a lot of other reasons that a relocation to California would make sense at this point. Happy New Year everyone.

3 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

My plan for 2024 tax is almost complete:

The description you outline is close to what I've decided. I've bulked up my Thai account here to just over 1 mil. I use the 800K in the bank method. Conveniently my Non-O rolls over at the end of each December. Iirc after 3 months the figure can fall below 800K (but not below 400K) until 2 months before renewal. I already have plans to be gone Feb-March-April. I'll spend down the Thai account and use CCs as normally. I have one account in the US that virtually the only activity is Social Security deposits; when I do refresh the Thai account towards renewal it will be from that account, and that may be the first and only transfer during the year, baring something crazy in exchange rates.