khunjeff

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The Royal Thai Police (RTP) has been commended by Chinese and Japanese authorities

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The RTP is now preparing legal action against those spreading misinformation that damages the country’s reputation and image.

I guess it's easier to get praise if you punish anyone who gives you criticism.

3 hours ago, Dante99 said:

So they can get some income information.

 

So this can tell about some wealth but a lot of wealth does not produce income so it would not be flagged.

 

The terminology is getting the dialog confusing and misleading.

Agree - the story starts out talking about getting data on "income" and "earnings", and then says that will lead to a tax on "wealth". I don't know whether the speaker wasn't clear in his presentation, or the reporter didn't explain it clearly, but I'm not following this at all.

Problem: Chinese entertainers are answering fake job ads and then being forcibly abducted to scam centers in Burma with assistance from corrupt Thai officials 

Solution: cut the period of stay for Chinese tourists from 30 days to 15 days

Wait, what? 🤔

3 hours ago, webfact said:

enforce local and national crime prevention strategies. This includes the deployment of checkpoints

For the love of god, their answer to every problem is...checkpoints.

Not only are checkpoints a very poor and inefficient strategy for crime prevention in general, but foreigners who were victimized by these scams have reported that they were stopped at checkpoints while being transported to the border, and were waved through when the officers recognized the faces of the traffickers.

So yeah, it still all comes down to "Directive 1" on his list, as usual - and we know how successful that's likely to be.

This case has been going on for decades now. The sale of the land was long ago determined to have been illegal, and at least one person went to prison years ago for the corruption involved in the project - and only now the titles are being revoked?

"With effective from April 1, 2019, New York branch only process ACH with appropriate IAT format and all non-IAT transactions will be returned."

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Other-Services/Transfers/Transferring-Into-Thailand/Transfer-money-from-US-to-Thailand-via-Bangkok-Bank-NewYork-branch

5 hours ago, webfact said:

an African man had approached the company for assistance in importing 50 rabbits, reported Bangkok Post.

 

The company agreed to manage the import procedures for 150,000 baht (US$4,346) but denied any knowledge of the gorilla.

Yeah, because charging 150k baht obviously sounds like a normal price for importing rabbits. Sure... 🙄

Treating people like these as criminals - rather than victims, which is clearly what they are - is one of the reasons why Thailand keeps ending up on Trafficking in Persons watchlists. They fled from captors who had confiscated their passports, and have no desire to stay in Thailand, so just turn them over to their embassy and call it a day, instead of engaging in this jingoistic nonsense.

I thought the GOP wanted all decisions related to education to be made at the local level, with no "interference" from Washington? 🤔

28 minutes ago, Surasak said:

Embassy premises are classed as being part of the country they represent, negating your statement.

Yes, embassies can perform any marriage registrations that they want. Whether a given country will recognize those registrations, on the other hand, is a different matter, and that's the case even for opposite sex marriages.

So, this "course" is taught by police officers in a university classroom...

Police: "we had nothing to do with this"

University: "we had nothing to do with this"

The mind boggles 🤔

10 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

There is a lot of confusion going on now as Embassies can't give the permission to get marry yet before the law is signed by Anutin

As another posted has already noted, Anutin has nothing to do with the law going into effect. But even if he did, embassies can issue whatever documents they want, regardless of what Thai laws may or may not be in effect - and they also don't "give the permission to get marry", they just give documentation that their citizen is free to marry (or claims to be so).

1 hour ago, Sig said:

Isn't that exactly the point? They don't. So, why not put a cap on it and if someone somehow gets control of their account, the ne'er-do-weller won't be able to fleece them in one fell swoop.

Not in one fell swoop, no, but we regularly see stories in the media about people whose accounts are emptied by the scammers in a dozen consecutive 49k transfers, and the banks apparently don't recognize that as suspicious. 

1 hour ago, Sig said:

Agreed. It's a great idea, but should be optional, not mandated by the government who seems to think that they know better than every individual situation....

The problem is that so many victims absolutely believe that they know better, and will continue to transfer money even after the bank has explained to them that they're being scammed. And people complain about government restrictions, but after they've been scammed will demand to know "why didn't the government do anything to protect me?" So there are no easy answers.

10 hours ago, webfact said:

One key element of these regulatory revisions is facilitating brewpubs and craft beer breweries to distribute keg beer beyond their premises, provided the containers hold a minimum of 20 litres.

This is actually far more interesting than the part about airports. There are already a number of small brew pubs illegally selling draft beer from small producers and home brewers, some of which is of very high quality. Legalizing this will hopefully lead to more production and more venues selling these artisanal brews.

7 hours ago, Enzian said:

Were the Duty Free shops at Swampy Arrivals (when you land in the country and leave the airport) ever removed as was proposed earlier this year?

Yes, they're gone - a really poorly thought-out idea that will accomplish pretty much nothing. 

5 hours ago, Foxx said:

Was it really the case that King Power stopped selling alcohol on these days? And did the various lounges stop providing alcohol to business and first class passengers?

No and no.

I've never been clear on what exactly this measure was meant to address, since even convenience stores at international airports were already exempt from the alcohol sales hours restrictions. Did the 7-11s have to halt sales on that small number of religious days? Maybe, but getting rid of that wouldn't seem to merit this grand announcement.

4 hours ago, jcmj said:

The numbers are so high and it is from lack of police enforcement, except on Special Occasions.

They don't even have enforcement on the much-publicized "special occasions" - they just have hundreds of extra checkpoints, most of which are filled with people sitting around drinking coffee and playing with their phones while not even looking at the road. And since I've never seen anyone pulled over for driving erratically or dangerously - the drunk driving measures are only enforced at checkpoints - I don't see what difference these increased penalties will make.

21 hours ago, Dexxter said:

If you are observant you will see RFID type detectors (same as you see that prevents shoplifting in stores) that you have to walk past before leaving the secure area.

I've noticed those, and had the same thought as you did. But they light up (a blue light, I think?) with every person who passes through, so I'm not sure...it's certainly possible that an RFID tag would generate a light of a different color, or a sound, but I have yet to see that happen 🤷

7 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Preliminary findings suggest reckless driving as the primary cause

Ya think so???

1 hour ago, impulse said:

When you look at your account statements, are there any service charges added for pulling out your American plastic for a $0.76 charge in Thailand?  I'd be afraid the bank would tack on some horrendous fee.

That's entirely dependent on your individual bank and its policies, so other people's experiences won't tell you what might happen in your particular case. If your card has no foreign transaction fees, there shouldn't be any additional charge.

9 hours ago, Wagyu said:

Perhaps my case is somewhat unusual. As I have no visa and I'm not in Thailand, I'm supposed to get the LTR at the embassy.

Your case isn't unusual at all - many people have done exactly what you're planning to do, and there is no requirement for you to get the visa at an embassy instead of at BoI.

9 hours ago, Wagyu said:

I hope I can get an appointment soon after without waiting. 

That shouldn't be an issue. They will likely give the final approval within a couple of days after you upload the information, and the appointment schedule is usually wide open. Don't overthink this, and don't bother trying to upload your passport pages until you're actually here - they want to see your entry stamp into Thailand.