newnative

Well, he did lose by over 7 million votes last time around . . .

Absolutely true. Things are topsy turvy here. I could never afford a house in the US when I lived there. The biggest place I ever owned was a 2 bedroom condo, most were smallish 1 bedrooms. Even a townhouse was priced out of my financial reach. Single family? Forget it. This year, my partner and I sold a 79sqm 1 bedroom, 1 bath seaview condo in Pattaya for 9MB. Turned around and bought a 3 bedroom, 4 bath pool villa in a nice, gated project by Lake Mabprachan for 7MB. We'll do some improvements and be at about 8MB. Still a million less than the 1 bedroom condo. Plenty of other single family homes available for less than what we paid--and less than lots of condos. Topsy turvy--in a good way if you prefer a house.

Seriously? Trump did more good in 4 years than any other President???? You've got to be kidding. His Presidency will go down in history as one of the worst. In a nutshell, he passed a great big tax cut for himself--his only goal in running for President--and then pretty much lost interest. Never got around to much of anything else, including his big, boastful pledge made many times to replace Obamacare with something much better--and, in his words 'beautiful'--whatever that would mean with health care. Maybe free boob jobs. We'll never know. Instead, he spent his time playing endless rounds of golf at his golf courses, while grossly overcharging the American tax payer--always a big, fat, grifter at heart, our Donald. When he wasn't teeing it up, he spent his 4 years tweeting countless lies and other assorted unhinged nonsense; believed, unfortunately, by far too many.

Well done, JP. But, at the same time, I'm thinking of those poor fire victims getting far less.

Correct. Trump only said Pence 'deserves' to be hanged because he disobeyed his asinine, unhinged order to break the law for him. That's sooo much better, innit?

Yes. And, even though she won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, she didn't act like a spoiled crybaby like Trump, didn't spout the Big Lie at every opportunity that the election was 'stolen' from her, didn't call state officials and demand they find more votes for her, didn't ask Vice President Biden to nullify the election and declare her the winner, didn't institute over 50 unsuccessful lawsuits trying to overturn her loss, and, yes, didn't urge her supporters to storm the Capitol.

Yes, and that's what I find most disturbing.

Lock him up already.

No. Just one of the joys of owning.

Totally agree. I have a large, extended family and everyone, except my youngest niece now just out of college, has wanted, and has managed to, purchase a home--in states ranging from Pennsylvania, to Colorado, to Florida, to North Carolina, to New Jersey, to Virginia. I think they all saw their purchase, as I did, as both an investment and a home--with all the personal things involved with "home" that make a home investment something different than investing in a stock, a bar of gold, etc.

What's confusing? They go easy on all the laws.

Yes, always just 'plans'. Lots and lots of planning.

Keep him in jail and pay the 300,000 baht bail to the victims--as just a start in the compensation.

So true. And they refuse to eliminate parking on the major roads, which would instantly add another lane in each direction without any construction. North Pattaya Road is a good example. Large parts of it are already striped no parking but you have small stretches where parking is allowed. So, cars will be driving in the no parking/parking here and there lane, come to 1 car parked blocking the lane, and then have to merge into the traffic lane, causing tie-ups and delays. Just nuts, especially since the road is often grid-locked on weekends with all the cars going to the beach, T21, and all the big hotels in that area. Bad now, and all the tour buses haven't even started up much yet.

He still alive?

How many children does this dude have???

"Just a slap", says the teacher. Clearly thinks she could have done much worse if she felt like it--as many of the sub-standard teachers here have done, with all the news reports we've seen. And, likely, the many unreported. Give her a warning and if she does it again, sack her.

Yes, that was the case with the last condo I owned in the US.

Your items 2 and 3, along with a number of other reasons, are why I like living in Thailand. Even your number 1 is not bad here, at least for things I routinely deal with. Today I got a reminder email from Immigration that my 90 day report is due later this month on the 24th. I'll renew it on-line in a few days, now an easy process.

As always, no doubt he is 'satisfied' with his performance and he has instructed himself to continue with his fine service to his people.

I was just re-reading this post and I think one of your statements may be incorrect. You say that if you sell a house you have lived in but don't buy a replacement you will pay a capital gains tax on the profit, which, as you say, can be 'huge' as most homes do increase in value over time. However, this seems to be current tax law, which I'll paste from Investopedia: On Aug. 5, 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 took effect. The act did away with the continual unlimited deferral of profits and replaced it with capped exclusions.4 The current capital gains rules around the sale of your main home allow single taxpayers to exclude $250,000 in profits on their home's sale. Married couples who file jointly can exclude $500,000 from their taxable income. Age is not a factor, and you do not have to buy a replacement home. After you take the exclusion, you could buy a less expensive home or revert back to being a renter. Better still, the IRS will let you use the exclusion each time you sell your primary residence.5 To qualify for the current deferral rules, there are two rules: You must have owned and used the home as your primary residence for at least two out of the previous five years. These two years do not need to be consecutive. You cannot have used the exclusion during the preceding two years.5 The change in the tax law wouldn't have helped your father if he sold before 1997 but if he sold after the new law and the home was his primary residence for 2 of the last 5 years, it seems he should not have had to pay any capital gains tax except on any of the profit over the limit allowed, depending on his filing status. This 1997 tax law seems like a positive change for homeowners, unless I am misreading it.

Uh, oh. The dreaded word 'should'.

Committee after committee after committee. Where's the acceleration?

As always with the police, laser-focused on what is not in the least bit important or relevant.

It doesn't really matter, anyway. The important thing is TAT always counts the same way, whether it's 2019 or 2022. In 2010 there were about 16 million visitors, including me moving to Thailand. In 2019 there were 39 million visitors. This year, around 3 million and change so far. Easy to see, still very bad compared to 2019. And 2010.