John Drake

Is it the case that you only need $1000 per month from Social Security to get permanent residence in Mexico?

Recent news articles indicate that California millennials are moving to Mexico, driving up rents and property prices, demanding service in their own language, and ghettoizing several historical neighborhoods. I used to want to go to Mexico, too. Still would consider Cuernavaca and Aguascalientes but for the influx of corporate and digital nomads. Now, who's going to Russia at number 17?

A report I saw said that the people coming out of the building with fires erupting all over them were burning because of the foam insulation catching fire and dripping on them. It wasn't their clothes on fire but liquified foam.

Why shouldn't I or anyone else know? Is there some reason you think some people don't need to know? I don't get this secretiveness.

So far, I've seen three names. The one you mention, the waitress, and someone named Xiao. Three names in three different publications.

Are you serious? Hell, yes, people need to know who the owner is.

There is also another name floating around as well. Seems very confused. Too many names now up in the air.

aljazeera says that person is a waitress. Could she be an owner and a waitress? And Bangkok Post is identifying her as a pub supervisor. "A waitress at the venue, Thanyapat Sornsuwanhiran, also told Thai television reporters that she saw smoke near the stage. “I shouted ‘fire’ to customers, and I was near the doors, so I directed them out. I kept shouting ‘fire, fire’ and the security guards were also helping lead people out,” she said." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/5/fire-at-a-club-in-eastern-thailand-kills-at-least-13

A lot of very young people all around. In shock. Can't accept what is happening. And crowds need someone to lead. Had just one person taken the initiative, maybe a better result. But there is one thing. After the initial fire, when you see people coming out and on fire, there is a lapse of a few moments before a second, larger explosion occurs. People might have been just too afraid to move towards the building.

The videos are so gruesome I don't see how they can cover it up. The man engulfed in flames crumpling to the parking lot in the background. The young girl with several fires sprouting around her back, neck, and face. The young man walking by calmly apparently unaware that his back has been burnt badly. It was like watching survivors from the Hindenburg.

I fear that that is about as close to the name as we will ever see.

Owner's name, please.

Does anyone have a sample of Bangkok Bank's CW account letter for the 800,000 retirement extension option? If so, could you please post a photo?

I should think so, if you've made an investment in family life here and there is a risk of that being destroyed and split up. OTOH, you might be someone who just pitched a tent here in a condo to live cheap and it doesn't matter.

Because eventually, if you live here, they may just kick your sweet ass out of the country.

Sometimes you have to look for subtle shifts in things. Other times, statements about racial solidarity (such as a certain government minister saying Asians are cleaner and Westerners are infection sources) make things more explicit. And the willingness and eagerness to jump on that bandwagon by certain segments, such as Thai conservatives siding with Russia and blaming the US for Ukraine, is something that would not have happened here 15 years ago--although it would have happened right after Vietnam 47 years ago. More fundamentally, look at what is going on in education. "International schools" in Thailand used to mean instruction in English. Increasingly, it's Chinese now (or at least it was in 2020 when I last taught and gave talks at Thai universities, before the Chinese exodus). Entire departments of Chinese have been imported in the space of a few years. Funding and exchange programs had altered their targets to China as well. I could go on about this for pages. But unless you've been a teacher as well as an administrator in a Thai university, you would not be aware of the drastic changes that have occurred.

Not only did Trump not achieve much, he essentially was counterproductive when everything was said and done. Whatever you think about "strategy," to me the most fundamental part of any US strategy should be to stop PLA linked Chinese state owned enterprises from raising capital in the US. And as for the Quad you allude to, I believe that began under Trump. Unfortunately. Because I have misgivings about India's role in it. I think India is as much or more of a threat to the US over the long term than China. I know I'd much rather live with Chinese than Indians any time. So I don't trust the Quad at all. Yes, Trump's discarding the TPP was perhaps the biggest mistake he made in foreign policy. And I hop Biden indeed is able to resurrect something through his Indo Pacific Economic Framework. I wish him success because I'm an American and it's in my personal interest that he succeed in it.

This is the most important question for those of us living here. For years now, things have been on a slow boil making life increasingly more dangerous for Americans and Europeans in SE Asia. Had Xi managed to cancel Pelosi's trip indirectly through appealing to the Pentagon generals or Biden or directly through threats, our position would have been degraded. It may not have been a tipping point, but it would have been a landmark leading to one. I just hope that Pelosi has in fact united a bipartisan position against Xi in the US. BTW, let me hasten to add, that I like China and the Chinese. You could even say I'm smitten with their history. But their leader is a totalitarian dictator who wants to turn the world into a mirror image of his surveillance state. I don't want that.

My guy good! Other guy bad!

Trump seemed to be doing something, but he caved into Xi because he didn't want "his" stock market to go down. I supported Trump's early China stances and actions (btw, remember the export agreements that China signed and never delivered on?), including sanctions and tariffs. But it was all empty air when it came time to act and Trump ended up almost begging Xi to buy American soybeans. That said, Biden's failure to delist Chinese PLA stocks from American exchanges, ban things like Tik Tok, and let Meng Wanzhou go free from extradition show weakness. Biden is a weak and corrupt man. Trump is a corrupt bully with a huge yellow streak. Members of congress are on the PRC payroll too. There simply needs to be an accounting. As far as Pelosi, she did the right thing and has showed up China for what it is, a country going into hysterics over a 24 hour visit by an 83 year old woman. Pelosi comes out strong and Xi looks weak. Frankly, she boxed him in. Had xi done nothing, he loses. But doing what he has done with a blockade of Taiwan makes him look like an impulsive nutcase. I don't side much with Pelosi on domestic matters, but she was masterful in this case.

Yes. Could well be. I have no political party preference in any of this. Speculators and profiteers on both sides are guilty, including Mitch McConnell, btw. As long as people defend "their" party and "their" favorite politicians for the roles they've taken on China, the more the US loses the war that is going on right now.

China has aided Russia against Ukraine. When asked, China also refused to use its influence to keep Myanmar from executing pro democracy activists. There is no need any longer to maintain the fiction that China can be a partner in anything. Flood Taiwan with weapons, kick Chinese companies from listing on Wall Street, indict Americans who have in the past and who are now serving PRC interests.

Ought to try the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat hospital near Central Pinklao.

It is amazing to see people cheer for China just because it's Pelosi who has belled the cat.

Might want to get a professional opinion, instead of one from Dr. Google.