Etaoin Shrdlu

I just received my renewal debit card from Chase. Chase sent it via the US Postal Service. It probably cost about five dollars or less in postage and took about ten days to get here. It looks like it costs about $165 to shave off five or so days delivery time. But the USPS's hands aren't completely clean. They killed off international surface mail in 2007. Used to be good for sending books from the US to Thailand inexpensively.

The DLT office in Prakhanong/Bangchak accepts walk-ins at certain times of day. I obtained an IDP (1949 version for use in the US) there in May this year without an appointment.

Yes, and that’s true of life in Thailand as well.

Non-immigrant B visa is available for those who wish to work here. Salary level required isn't very high. One can also start one's own company. This is what some of the most successful expats have done. I know many who have either worked here or had their own companies, and some who have done both. A few came here in their twenties, many in their thirties and others older. I was in my mid-thirties when I came to work here. In my seventies now.

Given the GOP's love of conspiracy theories, I think it prudent to also present the Democrats' statement: https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-releases/ranking-member-ruiz-leads-select-subcommittee-democrats-releasing-final-report

The threat is real. There was a serious attempt to blow us the Israeli embassy in 1994 that was interrupted by a minor traffic accident involving the truck that contained the C4/ANFO bomb. Then a plot in 2012. https://wapo.st/4gcpkgS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Bangkok_bombings

Won the game of life? Not yet. Still playing and I hope I have a few years left. My advice is to move to Thailand when you're in your twenties or thirties. Then it isn't necessary to try to think that you're forty-five.

I think the W-8BEN is used for non-US persons who have income from US sources and who may be subject to US withholding taxes. Those who do have US-sourced income and are not US persons, can either avoid US withholding taxes or have reduced US withholding taxes under tax treaties if they complete the W-8BEN. I am not sure why a Thai bank would request this form unless it sold investment products such as mutual funds that provided US-sourced income.

I suspect one complication is a large rural population and the difficulty of determining the number of people who may occasionally engage in gathering wood or performing similar tasks.

And losers: https://rollcall.com/2024/11/25/donald-trump-administration-losers-elections/

This paper is a few years old, but I think the description of how the unemployment rate is calculated remains valid. https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@asia/@ro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_bk_pb_136_en.pdf Basically, it is a combination of a generous description of what constitutes employment and the exclusion of those not actively seeking same.

Still waiting.

Still waiting for an intelligent rebuttal of the OP's post.

Still waiting for an intelligent rebuttal to the OP's post. Are you up to it or not?

What do you think the salient points might be? Or did you not read the post?

Since DJT himself does not read, I guess it would be asking way too much for any of his cultists to. Instead of wasting time asking a question like this, why aren't you working on a fact-based rebuttal of the OP's points?

So far, responses from the MAGA crowd have mostly fallen into two categories: 1) Attacks on the author 2) Irrelevant culture war issues. I don't think any of them are capable of putting up a cogent argument that actually refutes the salient points of the OP's post.

Natasha's surname is Fatale.

I think the US recognizes that not all banks are in the position to defy local privacy laws, so banks were given leeway to segregate their accountholders into those who complied and those who are recalcitrant. I think the balances and transactions of recalcitrant accountholders was to be pooled and reported in the aggregate without identifying individual account holders. This gave the banks a means of complying with FATCA without breaking local privacy laws. Because of this, I doubt that most banks would take the nuclear option of closing an average expat's account, but it's anyone's guess what a Thai bank may do. I also don't know about CRS or have any insight into Thai laws in this area, which I understand were amended in order to facilitate CRS and FATCA compliance by the banks.

I have Bose QC2 on-ear headphones that I bought about ten years ago. Every couple of years, the ear pads start to disintegrate and shed black foam powder and therefore need to be replaced. OEM Bose ear pads cost 1,600 baht or so. Replacements from Lazada cost less than 400 baht and are indistinguishable from OEM. I have had no problems replacing the ear pads myself. Ear pads for your Sony headphones with cooling gel are available from Lazada as well. I suspect if you bought a pair an took them with your headphones to almost any electronics kiosk in a mall and offered them 100 baht they'd install them for you.

Actually, Trump received less than 50 percent of the total popular votes cast. He won a plurality of the popular vote, not the majority. More Americans voted for someone other than Trump than voted for Trump. He has no significant mandate from the people. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/donald-trump-vote-margin-narrowed/

I just completed this quiz. My Score 90/100 My Time 119 seconds  

Opera browser has a free VPN service. The main downside is that it only provides a VPN for the browser itself and not any other applications that may access the internet.

Yeah, she isn't much to look at, but I guess that's the way Mikey and the MAGAs like them.

I think Mikey just wants trans women in the men's rooms.