Etaoin Shrdlu

Also, think of how an occurrence similar to the Carrington Event of 1859 would disrupt our lives that are now so dependent upon the data stored in those data centers.

Yes, the quality of expat in Thailand is different now than it was thirty or forty years ago. Proportionately fewer secondments by multinationals of high-level execs, but still many about. Thais have worked their way into many of these positions. Possibly the highest level of expat (perhaps immigrant would be a better word) will be either those who have obtained Thai citizenship or PR and sit on the boards of directors of some of the companies listed on the SET. This apart from some of the academics at the major Thai universities, possibly. I think the retirement visa dates from the late-1990s, so before that this demographic was missing. There were also fewer international schools before the Thai government liberalized things at about that same time, meaning fewer foreign teachers. Far, far fewer tourists back then, too. Very different now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Just my opinion, though.

A plurality. Not majority. 49.8 percent or so.

Yes, that's true.

Merry Christmas!

And then there's Donald Trump's appointment of Elon Musk to be President of the United States, a position he's not qualified to hold due to the fact that he's a naturalized citizen.

When my children were in high school, the guidance counselor would often recommend Mahidol University for those students contemplating attending university in Thailand. He thought it among the best for international undergraduate programs. I assume this would also hold true of graduate programs. Mahidol has an MBA program and estimated total cost is under 500,000 baht. https://muic.mahidol.ac.th/eng/admissions/fees-and-costs/graduate-tuition-fees/ https://muic.mahidol.ac.th/eng/programs/graduate-programs/master-of-business-administration-mba/ Might be worth adding to your list of potential grad schools for your son. My son in also in the process of applying to grad school, but in the US.

Yeah. The Republicans in the House of Representatives were trying to hammer out a temporary spending bill to keep the government funded for a few more months. Instead of providing his input during this process, Trump was tweeting at 3 am about annexing Canada. His head isn't in the game. It's somewhere else.

I wonder how Donnie likes being upstaged by Elon and how long he will put up with it. Or perhaps it's the other way around and President Musk will tire of Donnie.

Ok. I must have misunderstood.

I think the issue of IRA/401k accounts came up during a Q&A session after a presentation to one of the foreign chambers of commerce a while back. An officer from the RD stated that IRAs and 401ks are considered by the RD to be self-directed pensions and that withdrawals would be considered assessable income subject to the rules relating to timing and remittance. I don't recall that the subject of Roth IRAs was addressed. I could see that one interpretation might be that the portion of a withdrawal that consisted of after-tax contributions might not be assessable income, but the portion that was investment gains might be. This then brings up the issue of how to determine each portion.

KTB is majority-owned by the Ministry of Finance, so really a state enterprise despite being listed on the SET. I guess it would make some sense for a state enterprise to work with the DLT to provide this.

I am not suggesting that your post was an attack on Haitians.

His post isn't necessarily racist, but the attacks on Haitians is part of a long history of such. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/14/racist-history-trump-pet-eating-immigrant

I think you are correct. An accountholder cannot be forced to complete these forms. The bank may close the account if one doesn't, but they are not required to do so by either the CRS or FATCA protocols. You will notice that the advice from the bank states that they may close your account, not that they will close your account. But at the end of the day, it is up to the bank to decide policy on this. I think that for the accountholders who do not provide the information and sign the forms, the banks are supposed to aggregate the balances and transaction information from these accounts and report the aggregates without any detail regarding the accountholders. I think these accounts are labeled "recalcitrant accounts". The banks are not penalized if they are unable to obtain all information from all accountholders. This is my understanding, but I did not work in the banking industry. Perhaps someone with closer knowledge can further clarify.

I haven't been able to find any credible source that states that Haitians in Haiti eat dogs or cats as part of their typical diet. I am not inclined to travel to Port-au-Prince to try to determine if this is the case or not. Instead, I would be pleased to consider any credible source that states that dogs or cats are a part of Haitians' typical diet. I can't find any. I am not accusing you of being racist.

What racist slur?

I can't find any credible source that states that Haitians typically eat dogs or cats in Haiti. Can you? I think this is just another racist trope.

Trump did not make a distinction between legal and illegal migrants when he falsely accused legal Haitian migrants in Springfield OH of eating people's pet dogs and cats.

Some hospitality occupations may be eligible for H1B, but I doubt housekeeping helpers would qualify. Here's an article that discusses the hospitality industry and the applicability of the H1B: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/visas-hospitality-industry-eaganimmigration-hkw9c Doesn't seem that housekeepers would qualify.

H1B isn't for hotel clerks, waiters and cleaning staff: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/immigration/h1b

SBC is an insurance broker, not an insurance company, so SBC does not itself pay any claims. Claims would be paid by the insurance company they place their clients' risks with. Do some research on which insurance company or companies SBC works with and then check them out on Trustpilot.

Yup.