CygnusX1

I have a condo in Jomtien, and I’ve never noticed this, either on my balcony or on beach road. I’m in Bangkok right now, and have never noticed any smell of cannabis, even while walking past the numerous cannabis shops on Sukhumvit road. I certainly notice the smell of cigarette smoke and diesel exhaust though, so there seems to be nothing too wrong with my sense of smell. Maybe there’s a genetic component here, with some people being way more sensitive than others.

The most widespread scam of all is dynamic currency conversion. You have to be so careful when getting money from ATMs. Don’t rush, and read every screen thoroughly. Just this morning, I saved around $70 by not agreeing to the bank’s “‘helpful” automatic conversion to my card’s home currency - had to select “‘don’t proceed with conversion”, which was at the bottom left of the screen, and easily missed. Even some supermarkets are trying it on now, always pay in Thai baht.

Do you mean that only that portion of global income that’s remitted to Thailand will be taxable?

Also from the Thai Examiner article - “A Finance Ministry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, explained that Thailand operates a residency-based tax system. Anyone living in Thailand for at least half the year is subject to tax on global income. That rule has not changed.” That tax on global income is the key point for me, not the tax on money brought into Thailand. Until it’s clear that I won’t be paying tax on money I earn outside Thailand, I’ll continue to very carefully track my stays in Thailand on a spreadsheet to ensure I’m there less than 180 days per calendar year.

Well, I suppose it means that a bad actor could send anything else of any nature whatsoever to my tablet, even with the tablet having no SIM card and no active internet connection. I’ve never elected to receive disaster alerts.

I’ve had my electricity bills auto paid from my Bangkok Bank account for the last 5 years with zero problems. No guarantee that will continue of course. Had to do it as I’m in Thailand less than 6 months a year, and the electricity authority wouldn’t accept advance payments. A very helpful bank teller spent over half an hour completing a fearsomely complicated form to set up the auto transfer.

No idea how I managed to do it, just wish I could figure out how to turn it off. Feels a little as if I’m in an Orwellian state in which I can’t escape the mobile phone network and internet. My ipad, iphone and android phone all received the alert, but unlike my Samsung tablet, they all have SIM cards.

My Samsung tablet received the test alert even though there’s no SIM card in it and WiFi was off. Creepy.

Someone with a shady past, who values anonymity, and wants to keep as low a profile as possible.

Enough to supply 2.6 million homes, except when the wind’s too light or too strong. Weather dependent power’s a much better term for wind and solar than renewables.

Search for “the fat electrician iran praying mantis” on youtube. Wonderful video explaining what happened when the US delivered a “‘proportional response” after a US warship was severely damaged by an Iranian mine.

It’s a bit humiliating that at age 67 I’m considered incapable of controlling a dangerous dog, unlike a 10 year child. More seriously, strict enforcement of compulsory (and I hope free) rabies shots for dogs is essential.

After many stays in Thailand over many years, I’ve honestly never encountered that, except at temples of course. Now you have me worried that I’ve not been noticing these signs. Nothing against removing my shoes, never wear shoes inside my home or in anyone else’s home. In fact, I’m more likely to get into trouble for not wearing my shoes than for wearing them.

I I don’t know about partitives, but I’ve read that there are 2 main types of classifier, one being for countable things and the other for non-countable things. English uses classifiers for non-countable things in much the same way as Thai . For example, water is non-countable, so the phrase “‘three water” is meaningless. It needs a classifier such as glass, bottle, jug, barrel to be added. Unlike English , Thai also uses classifiers for countable items, such as chairs and dogs, so in Thai we can’t say “three dogs”, we have to say “dog three body”. There are rare exceptions in English - a pedant might say that “‘three cattle” is grammatically incorrect, it should be “three head of cattle”, where “‘head” is the same as a Thai classifier for a countable thing.

Latest video on "Andrew Gold Heretics" YouTube channel is a wonderful, very amusing summary of Starmer's Trans U-Turn.

But of course Thailand has a way way higher percentage of motorcycles. Another poster on this forum a few months back put it better than I could - “Better in a Volvo in Thailand than on a motorbike in Sweden”. Lots of confounding factors in the stats.

Not sure if I'm allowed to paste links here, but if you search the web for "Milton Friedman on tariffs" you'll find a beautifully clear explanation of the utter idiocy of Trump's trade war.

The electricity bill for my apartment in Australia, for billing periods when I'm not there and using zero electricity, is higher than the bill for my Thai condo, when I'm there for the whole billing period and running the AC 16 hours a day.

Yes, and support for Russia’s invasion of other countries used to be the preserve of the most idiotic of the useful idiots on the extreme left, now it’s unaccountably the most idiotic of the far right. The likes of Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher would be dumbfounded if they were still alive.

Most countries in South America have visa free access to the Schengen zone.

Schengen Zone in Europe visa free entry for citizens of certain countries is 90 days in any 180 day period. Might be a good idea for Thailand, would let snowbirds stay for a reasonable length of time, and provide reassurance for frequent visitors that they wouldn't be accused of visiting Thailand too often by an immigration officer.

After the tens of trillions of dollars the US has spent on defense against Russia since WW2, a hundred billion or two assisting Ukraine fight the Russian invaders, with no risk to the life of any American soldier, is a spectacular bargain. Trump should be thanking Ukraine.

'Putin is made to be seen as a warmonger' - that's not hard to do!

If you banned Airbnb and similar services in Croatia and Montenegro, you'd destroy their summer tourist industry overnight, as most accommodation on the coast is in privately owned apartments. These people have been renting out their apartments in high season long before the internet existed, let alone Airbnb, and without all of the controversy currently in Thailand. It's true you run the risk of your stay being cancelled at the last moment, but it's not yet happened to me after dozens of successful stays over several years. The monetary savings are huge, and you have the advantage of a kitchen.

As I’m against DEI, am an advocate of free speech, and despise Wokery in general, I’m regularly called a right wing looney. However, had I been a US citizen, I would have voted for Harris, as 4 more years of Wokery would have been far preferable to Trump’s unconscionable support of Putin, together with his insane trade war. So for me, it’s a case of righty tears, especially considering the enormous long term damage Trump’s inflicted on the Republican party.