Jonathan Swift

Pepper spray would cause no permanent injuries. But you should escape while you can or throw it away and deny using it afterward as it's not wholly "legal". There are some that look like keychains or cigarette lighters that will even pass through customs.

Can you recommend a bar with the best view? 555

My guess is some will, some won't. There is a possibility that immigration may require a tax return for extensions including retirement and similar visas. But I also guess that due to the usual backlogs and delays immigration won't get involved. I pan to go for renewal at least a week in advance just in case.

You're a racist and a phenomenally poor judge of character.

A similar thing happened to a teacher at my high school in the 70s. His life and career were ruined, he was chronically depressed for years, he sued the family and the girl, after many years she admitted to making up a story. In this case if it's genuine there should be a way to corroborate the story.

The short answer is I describe myself in positive terms: Im 67 years old, an artist and rock and roll music performer, and entertainer. My purpose in life is to put smiles on people's faces. Literally. I am not defined by what is happening in the US right now. As to MAGA, I refuse to discuss it. Period. I change the subject or walk away. It's nobody's business but mine. It's the same as though someone asked me about a tragic event. "Say, tell me about that shark attack when you lost both legs". Would you ask someone who was raped to talk about it? I don't want to talk or think about the subject, it's too disturbing and I refuse. It's the same with everyone I know personally from facebook friends to my own brother. That's more than 500 Americans that I know personally who are in my age group. I came of age during the Vietnam war and managed to escape that with my life. My father served in WWII. Those values, the values of "the greatest generation", 1940 to 1960, are the values I grew up with and hold dear. We are now grieving for those values, for democracy. For the next 4 years I'm going to try with all of my might to keep the subject out of my mind and stick to positive thoughts and positive energy. Any discussion about this cannot end in a good place. Even if the foregoing were not the case there would be no point - most people here haven't a clue about what has really happened because they have never lived there, they haven't watched the decades long process of the erosion of democracy and the consolidation of wealth and power in the US. It's not a matter of "do you like the guy or not". Anyone who simplifies it to such a shallow level cannot be communicated with on the subject. There's a lot of people who thought Hitler was an OK guy before 1939. Just because we haven't yet experienced a holocaust of that magnitude yet, it doesn't change the agenda and likely outcome which is now moving forward. You may not see 6 million bodies, but this begins with a guy who was convicted of 34 felonies, found liable for sexual assault and for financial crimes and penalties in excess of 450 million dollars. These are facts, irrefutable. Anyone who thinks this isn't true had better start running as fast as they can in the opposite direction from me. Now that Trump has the power he will make all of his crimes go away. He will free all of those convicted of a violent assault at his beckoning on the US Capitol. On his to do list one of the first things will be withdrawal from NATO. How will you like that? He almost did it last time, or weren't you paying attention? No more alliances unless they have been bought and paid for. Mark my words. Support for Ukraine will be cut off. If Putin invades Poland no one in the new administration will care. I kid you not. These are promises that have already been made and there is no debate about it. My bottom line is my views and feelings are discussed only with people I know well enough for there to be a sensible and productive dialog. And those conversations will be few and far between. There are enough positive subjects for people to celebrate life and move forward. The reason I moved to Thailand is specifically to be as far away from that hot mess dumpster fire of the US as possible. Out of the reach of reprehensible people that I cannot otherwise get away from. Racists accosting me in grocery store parking lots, shootings next door to my house. And my advice is, don't EVER bring MAGA up with an American unless they bring it up first. You’ll be rubbing salt into deep wounds. Have a little respect for our loss of something dear to our hearts.

Don't know if this will help, but I think your rate is in standard (X) per kilowatt hour. I looked at my bill and it stated baht per "unit", and I believe that unit is the kilowatt hour. When I checked mine it wasn't very much higher than the rates in the US. I also believe that under Thai law landlords are not supposed to charge more than the government rate, but if they did charge the lower rate they would try to make it up with a higher rent or some other fees. Lastly, When I run my AC I set the thermostat at 30º and use my fans, and that's fine. I only run it long enough to make the fans more effective.

Don't bother with ebay, the shipping cost is prohibited, unless you don't mind paying. In my experience I've changed handles from one suitcase to the next, like others here have said, cut through the lining and have a look to see if it can be disassembled. Maybe you can ask someone at one of the millions of luggage shops. As to me, I have retired any luggage that had broken wheels. I buy new ones on Amazon, they're not too expensive. Good luck.

yeah, well , you don't know what you're talking about. Have you been to law school? Were you there at the trial? Have you seen the evidence? If you knew anything about law besides what you get from over simplified news you'd know that just having a good lawyer isn't enough to get a guilty party an acquittal. You're right about one thing, circumstantial evidence can rise to probable cause and prosecution, but if there is no other actual material proof circumstantial evidence is not enough to prove someone has committed a crime. In which case, you need a good lawyer simply to achieve justice for the innocent.

I don't think this is just "lately". I've read about these incidents since long before I came here in 2013. The only difference between now and 20 years ago is video cameras capturing it and putting it instantly on the web. And you can go all the way back in history to find violence against non paying "Johns" and it's not particular to trans women. In the US hookers or their pimps would lay waste to anyone who crossed them. That includes gang behavior among heterosexual women. As far as what "should" be done, that's when I remember that I'm the foreigner, it's their country, and it's not my job to preach to them or impose my morality on their status quo. I simply choose to be educated and make sure I don't make any messes that I can't clean up myself.

I think the temperament is highly testosterone fueled in terms of aggression.

How do you know how he voted? Speaking of high horse. Project much? No decent person voted for Trump. The problem is that there are too many ignorant and hateful people who did vote for him. If someone is living here it's obvious they're no longer part of what's going on in the US. The reason I chose to live here is largely b ecause of what the US has become. What you're doing is inventing a fight where there is none because you interpret comments as personal attacks when they are anything but.

I believe the rules state that any money coming into Thailand that is not specifically government or other type of pension is taxable in theory. That would include money charged on a credit or debit card from your home country. Social security is supposed to be exempt. That said, how are they going to enforce it or track your private transactions? I think most of the comments here are a correct assessment of the current state of affairs. As to my situation, my social security gets transferred once a month by Wise. That is routinely accepted by immigration for extending my one year non O visa. I can obtain an official US statement of social security benefits if they will require proof, say, when I apply for my retirement visa extension. If that happens I will have time to take care of that. I think that covers me.

In the majority of cases it does not. Cannabis use exists side by side with other drugs, but in most cases the one doesn't cause the other. Correlation is not the same as causation. This has been studied ad infinitum. For people with inherent addictive personalities it doesn't matter what they start with, they're likely to get involved with most anything anyway. 90% of cannabis users use it the same way as a few drinks or beers. They are not addicts.

They were talking about two different things. One was the two men, the other was about larger groups of smugglers. Yes, these stories are not the best examples of English literature.

How do you think? You don't have to have sex to see hairy armpits and legs. As to below, reputation precedes.

Like the balot, and century egg. But I agree with you. She's right about a relatively small demographic of Thai women, mostly the bar girls, And a few from the mainstream, but when you're out in the general public the percentage of them is low.

Yes, you're not all like that. But somehow there are a lot of them in the more visible places

It's a medical term. I assume you've never been to medical school. There is a whole spectrum of injuries that fall in that category, such as a ruptured aneurism, stroke, subdural hematoma etc. Those can easily kill. So there is indeed such thing as a minor symptomless brain bleed. Calling it a minor brain bleed does not mean it isn't serious, it only means that it is not life threatening.

Because the good outweighs the bad. Do the math. Any more questions? You're welcome. (I've been going there 10 years and counting)

Darwin doesn't cover young people simply making foolish mistakes. Drugs are a plague, and the temptation can be very strong to vulnerable people. There's the near universal "party" mindset that exists in every country and not just Thailand, and that includes the fentanyl plague. People die of it every day in the US. Preaching judgmentally comes from people who don't understand the nature of the problem. It's not a stupidity problem, it's a human problem. How many people do you think would stop using if you stood on a street corner telling people to "avoid putting stuff up your nose"? So who are you talking to here? What "folks"? My brother died of an OD at age 42 and I can tell you most certainly that he wasn't a stupid person. He had emotional problems that he couldn't deal with.

That would be me. I usually top out at around 700 baht for perfectly comfortable guest houses. All the more money left for better things.

Well said sir. This is a tragedy and should be regarded as such. For all of your stated reasons, you can't trust the accuracy of stories like this. After all, they misidentified the deceased right out of the starting gate. There is a race to get a story out that inherently compromises factual accuracy. As to this publication, the writing is often cartoonish and amateurish, written at a high school level. So expectations should not be high. Cheers.