Monomial

What is fascinating to watch about this whole situation is how specific groups react to these changes. For example, what is confounding the defenders of the status quo, is that when they point out all the negative ramifications of Trump's policies to his supporters, rather than causing resentment, they actually seem to be having the opposite effect. It is causing them to double down on Trump. Of course, this makes many think Trump supporters are just idiots who can't see reality, but the truth is much more complex.

The fact is, Trump has given his detractors hundreds of opportunities, but nobody has yet given the people an alternative. These trade wars aren't about numbers and whether bankers can show that traditional macro economic indicators are growing or declining. It is that people no longer actually believe in these macro economic indicators, therefore they are simply irrelevant to much of the public. When the Fed says they can't just "print money", the average person says "why not?" You did it to bail out Wall Street. Just do it again. Make everyone too big to fail. Trump is saying the same thing, and the people love him for it. Not because they are looking at how it effects their lives in the short term, but because it is different. Wildly different.

Trump is causing chaos, and that is what people want at the moment. The only way to beat Trump, is to promise even more chaos than Trump is currently creating. And that is not what Trump's detractors are offering. They are offering a return to their version of stability, and anyone who thinks the American public is going to accept that just hasn't spoken to an average rural American recently.

Expect more tariffs and a further turning away from free trade. This is what is coming, and cackling about traditional economic indicators and how much this is hurting people is just stupid. Trump supporters don't care. No matter how many jobs a government lobbyist says are lost, the previous system is still unsustainable, and everyone has recognized it. What Trump is promising is truly different. That is exciting. People want to see it through. Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.
 

Hate Trump? Then put up a candidate even more reckless than him. This is the new world. There is no path back to what was before.

I think you are wildly missing the point of that statement by the US embassy. The Thai DMV is not looking for just a notary. If that were the case, why not just use a Thai lawyer to notarize it for you?

What they are looking for is an official, recognized Thai government organization that says this is your address. In lieu of immigration, they will usually accept a statement from the embassy. It just so happens that the US government has no way to verify your actual, registered address, so they will notarize anything you tell them.  Other countries may have ways of checking to see where you have declared as your domicile.

Once you have a yellow book or work permit, this is no longer necessary because they have an official address for you already.

So no, I am extremely doubtful you can use your bank for this purpose.

13 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

Once the plane dropped off the radar it could've literally gone anywhere for as long as the fuel lasted, which means the plane could've turned around and crashed on land.

You forget the signals from the engine maintenance system. By analyzing the signal strength and triangulating it is clear the engines either went southwest over the Indian Ocean or northwest over China. Those are the only 2 places that are possible and agree with the evidence. The plane could not have turned around and flown east. So unless you are going to make the claim that the plane flew in a different direction than its engines, then no. The plane could not have gone literally "anywhere". There are only a couple of very specific places it could be. Unfortunately, the most likely place is an area that is hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean, and it may never be found.

I think much depends on the structure of what is happening. If the company's Thai operations are being taken over by a different Thai entity, and the company will be continuing as a going concern, then realistically you can be transferred to the new entity and your employment contracts will also be transferred. They do not require you to consent when the only change is an administrative detail.

If they are asking you to accept a completely new position however, in a completely new entity because they are moving operations to a new jurisdiction, that is not an amalgamation or asset acquisition.

In any case, I would think any arbiter on this is going to look at the intent of the company in placing you in a new position. If the company's intent is legitimate in that they are honestly merging two entities and nothing about your job or responsibility will materially change, then I don't think they need your consent. On the other hand, if they are simply trying to move you in order to avoid paying the statutory severance, then you are going to need to consent to that.

Suggest you go consult with the labor department about your rights before you sign anything or accept any offer in compromise.

It takes too much energy to smile, it's not healthy for you, and Americans smile the most anyway, so apparently Thailand was a move down in the smiling category.

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/do-you-smile-too-much-the-answer-is-probably-yes-heres-why-thats-bad.html

I've found as I've been here longer and have more bills from the children and the mortgage, I definitely smile less. I was much happier in my 20's when I moved here without a care in the world and money to blow. Yeah...I'm in a bad mood today.

Meanwhile, the engines, having successfully departed the aircraft, continued flying themselves out over the Indian Ocean as determined through actual analysis. Without wings to provide lift, there is no explanation for how this occurred.

This incredible phenomenon has brought into question the Bournolli Principle that has stood unchallenged since the Wright brothers first discovered powered flight over a century ago.

The shocked Google investigator was said to have reported "I believe this MH370 conspiracy goes deeper than we thought. Why, it appears that the governments behind this conspiracy even changed the laws of physics to accomplish their evil plans."

I would look at the golf courses in the surrounding provinces (Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi, Pathumthani). They are all within an hours drive of central Bangkok.  Some of them have some very nice houses. The green tends to keep the air cleaner. During morning rush hour nothing other than lower Sukhumvit is within an hours drive, so you can't worry about  that. It takes 30 minutes just to get off the tollway, and even inner Bangkok isn't within an hours drive from inner Bangkok.

Not sure the problem here...

You are required to have a work permit in order to work at a school. If you do not have a work permit, then you can not legally work. You are under no obligation to pay for that administrative detail. It is part of the work permit process.

If they refuse to pay for your work permit, then that is equivalent to terminating your employment.  You simply need to give the school a written later stating that you understand they have refused to provide you a work permit and therefore you can not begin work. You then look for a new job.

Don't get drawn into a discussion about their internal policies. You can't win. It doesn't matter what the real problem is.  They have more information than you do, and it is their problem to sort out.

Just leave. Or pay it yourself if you really want the job. Those are your only options. Don't turn it into a drama...

11 hours ago, Tailwagsdog said:

I asked my thai friend why their were two 7-11 on opposite corners on a quiet street, and she told me the same thing. If its true then you have been warned.

It's not quite as evil as you make it sound. 7-11 has a policy that if your store is doing more than a certain volume per day, they will authorize a second store in the area to relieve the traffic. They do this so that customers never have to wait too long for service. It can be either a corporate store or another franchise. It depends on the situation. On busy intersections, it is not unheard of to see 4  stores, one on each corner.

It is a distinction without a difference though. Your maximum growth for any 7-11 has an upper limit. You can not exceed this profit by design.

9 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Rural America where farmers are being offered government handouts instead of being allowed to earn a living - this as a direct result of Trump’s trade wars.

You are making my argument for me. Like many, you are hung up on criticizing what Trump did wrong, or why Trump is bad. That is totally irrelevant until you address why Trump won to begin with. He won because people were so upset with the status quo, that they were willing to accept anything that might change it. Making arguments about how unpleasant that anything turned out to be doesn't matter. Unless and until the Democrats provide an option, they are not going to find a receptive audience.

So stop concentrating on Trump, and start concentrating on what went so wrong that people prefer the disaster that is Trump to anything else on offer.

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

 

2016 Presidential Election
Candidate    Party    Popular Votes
Donald J. Trump    Republican    62,980,160
Hillary R. Clinton    Democratic    65,845,063
Gary Johnson    Libertarian    4,488,931
Jill Stein    Green    1,457,050

 

Everyone has accepted that tRUmp lost the popular vote, it seems like tRUmp voters who can't seem to move on?

 

 

But yes, 35 individual Senate races in 2018 is very different.

 

 

While not the topic of this post, the 2016 results are very important to understanding this election. There are many ways to view the results of 2016. At the electoral college level, Trump won. Democrats don't like this result, so they prefer to consider popular vote. An actual analysis on a county by county level is more revealing however. Consider the following image from the actual 2016 election:

This shows unequivocally exactly where the Democratic support base lies. By and large, any place where Democrats have support already has Democratic senators. The country is basically a sea of red (Trump) in the rural areas, with islands of Democratic support in every major city and around the Mexican border areas.

This should tell everyone something about what is really going on. The Democratic support base is in the major cities, which is where the voters live that currently benefit from the status quo. In the rural areas, independent of state, the people are angry and are tired of the situation. They want actual change, and they don't care what needs to be done to get it. Certainly not some possible campaign violations or collusion that they feel every politician does anyway.

In order to win, the Democrats need to stop doing what they have been doing, and reach out to that sea of disenchantment in the rural areas. This is the challenge that they have. They have done absolutely nothing in 2 years to address the real reasons they lost. They have done nothing to tell those rural voters how they will disrupt the status quo. All they have done is concentrate on disparaging Trump, but the divide is so clear and obvious that this is irrelevant. If you are in a red area, all you will hear is that the media is on a witch hunt. If you are in a blue area, you will have your opinions confirmed.

It is the divide that is dangerous, and it is obvious where the fault line is. Rural = angry. Metropolitan = more of the same. It doesn't help to keep preaching about how many city dwellers support the Democrats. It is rural America that needs to be convinced, and that is where most of the critical Senate seats are being contested.

The problem the Democrats are actually facing is that they have yet to accept why they lost and actually do something about it. The average Trump voter from 2016 doesn't even like Trump. They aren't going to be swayed by the stories of his guilt from the media. They voted for Trump because the hate the status quo. Trump's crimes are mostly irrelevant to everyone except the people who already hate him.

Unless the Democrats put up candidates that promise to upset the status quo on the same or greater level than Trump, they aren't going to win. It is really very simple. The Democrats are their own worst enemy. Any candidate that stands a chance of actually winning these Senate seats away from the Republicans is never going to be selected to run by the Democrats.

So unless and until the Democrats get their collective heads out of their south mouth, they are going to be stuck in this position. It's not Trump or the Republicans they need to beat this year. It's their own platform and leadership.

On 8/25/2018 at 11:24 AM, Brunolem said:

It seems to me that you contradict yourself, first saying that foreigners cannot change Thai culture, then saying that this culture was destroyed by mass tourism.

 

What you mean, I guess, is that foreigners cannot change Thai culture at an individual level, but that they do it as a group, which is also what I wrote above.

 

Actually, he does not contradict himself. What he says is that foreigners can not change Thai culture for the better. It is easy, even for an individual, to change it for the worse. Just imagine a foreigner coming in, kicking butt and taking names. He will make life miserable for everyone, and probably find himself eventually dead from some "accident".

The issue he is referring to is Western cultural values, which do not map directly onto Thai cultural values. If you want to get along here, you have to change your value system, not the other way around. It isn't so much love of money which is the problem. That is universal. What has been a problem is the modern Western thought that greed without responsibility is fine because everyone is equal. Historically, a kind of nobility and corruption was tolerated here because everyone followed the same rules, which included responsibility to those you were lording over. But Westerners came in and decided everything should be market economies, and that it was OK to become obscenely wealthy without any need to take care of those who were under you, because they shouldn't be under you. They are "equals" and you have no responsibility to them.

That is the ultimate root of the problem Thailand faces today. It either needs to adopt a mostly Western value system, or a mostly traditional value system. This hybrid system today is poison.

`

Opening an investment account overseas is easy for a Thai.  There are dozens of options.

*Funding* an overseas investment account can be impossible unless the Thai national already has an overseas bank account. The BOT does not allow outward SWIFT remittances for this purpose. Thais are supposed to use approved Thai funds for this purpose, all  overseen and approved by the SEC and central bank.

Honestly, unless you know a sympathetic banker who will help your partner avoid the restrictions on outgoing SWIFT transfers, just use a domestic investment company and select from whatever they are willing to offer.  You may find yourself ultimately disappointed if you try to do what you are doing. There is a reason it is not common for a Thai to do this. It is actually against BOT regulations.

OP,

You mention that you don't want to destroy a possibly viable family, but you have not given any indication that it is viable. At best, you have described a codependent relationship. That said, while you have the legal and moral right to leave, you do not have the moral right to estrange your children from their mother. Whatever you decide to do, you have to maintain relations with your ex (and she is your ex already...just admit it).

You can not simply pick up and not look back. Do see a lawyer and follow the law. Do make some provisions so that the mother of your children can survive.  Do allow the children to see their mother, but make absolutely sure she can not abduct them. Importantly, do not be so afraid of change that you continue the status quo.  It is over, however unpalatable that fact might be to accept. Your life is going to be different now. Some things easier, some more difficult.

Your children will eventually come to understand why you did this as long as you do it for the right reasons. If your ex is truly the person you say, they will probably even thank you for giving them a better home environment after they reach their late teens and start to see her for the person she is.

The only thing keeping you in that situation right now is fear. Admit it, and do what needs to be done.

1 minute ago, stevenl said:

Ofr course you won't, because your claim ' Congress...most of whom have done far worse than he is being accused of' is nonsense. 

No. The reason I will not is because it is irrelevant. The salient point is that he will be judged by people who are afraid that getting into a war with a sitting president will expose all of their dark secrets. I don't care about delving into opinions about whose scandals are worse.

If you want to have a rational discussion, address the main point which is that Congress is biased against impeachment and conviction due to the harm it could do to themselves if there were any retribution. Even Clinton, who was judged by a majority Republican Congress, was not ultimately convicted. Why do you think Trump's guilt matters one bit?

4 minutes ago, utalkin2me said:

IT is over. This all reminds me of Al Capone getting caught on tax evasion, because you know this was just the tip of the iceberg with trump. 

 

There are still more problems possible with both cohen and manaford. There could possibly be more recordings made by cohen which would absolutely end trump. Then even if he did make it through all this, the muller report is still coming, and who knows what other endictments on people who could flip on him. Plus there are hundreds of cia and fbi agents denouncing his actions. It is over. 

Unfortunately nothing is over. This is just a small bump that may or may not have any significance. Al Capone was judged by a system that wanted him convicted. Trump will be judged by Congress...most of whom have done far worse than he is being accused of, and are likely terrified of setting a precedent that could come back on them.

No, this is a show. Nothing more. Nothing is over. Clinton was caught dead to rights in a perjury scandal, and walked away without a scratch. This is a minor bump by comparison, and anyone who thinks most politicians at that level haven't illegally colluded to win an election (Really? A politician paying someone off to hide a scandal is news?) during their career is living in fantasy land.

Is Trump guilty? Of course. Does it matter? Probably not.

There are so many skeletons in so many closets that this has very little chance of meaning anything.

There are Bank of Thailand rules that prohibit sending money out of the country unless it falls into one of only a few categories. So no, there is no way to wire money out of Thailand with no hassles. All banks are the same.

That said, the banks are left to police their own customers, so they have broad discretion in how much checking they do. I always hear stories on here about how easy it is to send money out. In my experience, a root canal has always been less painful than trying to do an outward remittance via SWIFT from a Thai bank.

My option is to hand carry the money to Cambodia and wire it from there. Others have either found a less anal retentive bank officer, or have made friends with a bank employee that allow them to do what us general toads can not.  You need to navigate this for yourself and discover the options in your particular situation.

You can use Western Union if the amount is less than $2000 USD. That is easy, but be prepared to pay handsomely for this.

49 minutes ago, Allen Smith said:

Interesting news...let us see who bag the license

The reality is there is very little chance of anyone getting a license within at least the next 6 months. Companies asking for a license, and the SEC having procedures to actually issue a license, are 2 entirely different things.

Meaning they wouldn't have impounded the car if a proper international permit was provided, because it technically would not have been illegal. This is simply a scam the police have run for ages. The serious problem was because they were actually doing something against the law -- driving without a license...any license.

5 minutes ago, over2you said:

Could you explain more please.

I've never had a problem. Except more recently had to show my passport. 

He means a postpaid SIM card.  For that, you either need to be Thai or have a work permit.

5 hours ago, gaff said:

 

But now the cops at Sihanoukville stop drivers without Khmer license and keep the car...

 

 

Actually, with regard to the Chinese that were stopped, the vehicles were impounded because they had neither a local driving license nor an international driving permit.

The Phnom Phen Post was quite clear on this.

There is no set price for a Bitcoin transaction. There is limited space on the blockchain, and you bid for that space when you want it. When demand is high, prices are high. Think of it as an auction. Right now, available space is far greater than demand. Today, even a 20 satoshi payment is likely to mean your transaction will eventually get included. Many blocks are going out only partially full or filled with 0 fee transactions.

That could change in a minute though if crypto speculation suddenly hits an upswing. Several people paid over $100 for a transaction last year when demand was very high and space was limited.

Another consideration though is that Major has teamed with Rapidzpay for their payment solution. It is not clear from Rapidzpay's whitepaper whether they actually do the payment on the Bitcoin blockchain. It sounds like they may have implemented their own chain for this purpose, meaning the standard Bitcoin fees will be irrelevant. You will need to have  a Rapidzpay wallet with your Bitcoins already stored in their system, and once you have given your Bitcoins to them, they can shuffle them around internally all they want to any other account holder at little to no cost.