Longwood50

I think probably the man witn the highest personal moral standards but unquestionably one of the poorest performing presidents.

It has been conjectured that Carter had one of if not the highest IQ's but lacked insight and common sense. 

Carter was a person who has high idealistic objectives and failed miserably in executing a policy to make them a reality. 

His presidency can be best captured by his attempted rescue of hostages in Iran. It was a noble mission not well thought out and executed poorly. 

I have a small area on the bridge if my nose that I am guessing is the very early skin cancer formation. 

Need to have it examined and if necessary have it surgically removed.

Yes I know Bangkok Hospital I'm Pattaya. I just don't like their practice of having you repeatedly come back following procedures for meaningless appointments 

Whoa hold on.  I know this can't be true. 

The news media and several posts on this forum said that Biden had consulted with his military adviser on the first Chinese balloon and determined it was TOO RISKY to shoot it down over areas like Alaska, Canada, or Montana.  Also they had to let it travel 3,700 kilometers to dunk in in the ocean rather than perforating the balloon with small holes to let it make a gentle descent on to land because retrieving that balloon on the open ocean hoping it doesn't sink gave a better chance of recovery. 

So this obviously can't be true. 

On 2/12/2023 at 10:04 AM, InlandSea said:

If you initially set up your bank account in Bangkok but move to Chiang Mai, would you ever need to go back to the Bangkok branch or could you do everything in Chiang Mai (as far as paperwork for visa reporting (proof of funds), getting a secured credit card)? 

Depends on the bank.  Certain banks such as SCB and Kasikorn say they can do everything at every branch.  Other banks such as Bangkok bank "say" you must go back to the branch you opened your account at for certain things like 1 year bank statement and monthly letter of deposit for immigration. 

One way or antother I probaby if I moved open a new account where I now lived to make sure that I did have problems.  I would keep the old account active for some time to make sure there was never a need to access the old records from it. 

11 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Grab found a way to link with the taxis  >> GrabTaxi….    Uber became illegal overnight. 

I never heard that Uber was illegal in Bangkok.  I do know that Uber sold its intereste in SE Asia to Grab for a partial ownership deal.  So Uber now is a partial owner of Grab. 

One way or another with Grab owning Uber SE Asia there is no way that it is refurfacing back here in Thailand

THERE IS NO MONEY IN THE SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND

This is one of the biggest mistruths ever told.  The money for social security is collected and sent to the treasury.  No different than the money taken that is witheld from your paycheck for tax witholding. 

It is "ear marked" as money to go into the social security trust fund.  After posting to the social security trust fund, it is still in the general fund and the trust fund uses those dollars to 'INVEST".  The investments are entirely U.S. Treasury Bonds.  Now what is a bond.  It is an IOU.  You buy a bond from a company it is borrowing the money from you, giving you a bond, which is a promise to pay you back your principal plus interest over time. 

So the investments in the Social Security Trust fund are IOU's that the U.S. government Issues.  In effect the Treasury Department owes the Social Security Trust Fund money. 

That is not "investing"  It is the equivalent of you receiving cash from your employer putting it in your pocket and then spending it but replacing it with a piece of paper called a bond stating that you intend to pay yourself back with interest per the terms of the bond.  

You can not loan yourself money and call it invested. In truth various leading publicatins including CNBC call social security the worlds largest Ponzi scheme and that is exactly what it is.   They are taking money from current workers to pay for the benefits being paid to older workers and if the witholding from current workers is insufficient borrowing to make up the difference. 

When they talk about the Trust Fund being depleted that only means that the bonds in the trust fund will be redeemed.  How will they be redeemed?  The Federal Government runs a huge trillion dollar deficit each year.  So the only way to get the money to cash in the bonds is to borrow more money. 

https://www.cnbc.com/id/28241636

3 hours ago, dick turpin said:

Looking to obtain bank letter and statement for extension at Korat IO.

 

Is Bangkok Bank's Korat branch at 680 Mittraphap Road ( just round the

corner from Terminal 21) user friendly in this respect.

Having just gone through this at Bangkok Bank here in Pattaya.  If you need only a short statment 6 months or less they can print at the branch and give you the letter same day that merely records the date, the fact you have the account and its current balance.  

If you need the 12 month statement using the monthly method, go to the office and request a 13 month statement.  It will take 3 to 5 business days.  Upon arrival the bank can typie a letter that details your monthly transfers.  Some branches will do that same day, others come back the next day.  

1 hour ago, moon47 said:

 

Because Grab is basically a monopoly in the area there is no incentive for them to fix their broken program.

 

Uber should be allowed to operate in Bangkok and heavy traffic areas as the system they have set up now is made to prevent that constant frustration between driver and passenger needs.

Grab bought Uber a few years ago.  Uber took an ownership interest in Grab rather than try and build up its network here in Thailand. 

So no, that is not going to happen to allow Uber to operate.  

2 hours ago, crouchpeter said:

t's the 2nd biggest killer of men in Australia. Watchful waiting is for the very old.

At 65 in the USA that is exactly the process.  They don't believe in surgery after 65 because statistically the person will die with the disease not from it.  I agree with you however that a biopsy will ascertain if it is slow growing or a fast growing prostate cancer.  Typically a digital exam can determine if the growth is toward the anus in which case it is almost always slow growing.  I have had for the past two years a physical that includes a full ultrasound of the stomach.  It can also determine the size and any abnormalities with the pancreas.  For the OP I would opt for a urologist and first do a biopsy if I was really concerned.  After that if the cancer was the typical cancer very slow growing, I would in all liklihood do nothing. 

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I've encountered 3 total doctor failures in Thailand in the past 10 years.

Not just Thailand.  Like anyplace research your doctor and get at least a second opinion.  My experience here in Thailand is that the quality of care is very good.  However I am private pay and so I go to hospitals and see doctors who I have done some research on.  If one thing the for profit hospitals try to push to to have some needless tests and want you running back to see them.  My GF had high cholesteral so they put her on a drug to lower it and asked her to come back in 90 days to test.  The cholesteral was lower and so they said to go off the drug and come back in 90 days and get tested.  She did, and her cholesteral was back up.  They put her back on the drug and wanted her to come back in 90 days.  I said, enough nonsense,  keep on the drug and we can go to Lifecare and have your blood work analyzed and I can read the cholesteral number just as good as the doctor can. 

Recent studies of medical errors have estimated errors may account for as many as 251,000 deaths annually in the United States (U.S)., making medical errors the third leading cause of death.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28186008/

5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Because you don’t understand tax paid proportional to income.

You obiously can't 

The chart show that the tax rate of the top 1% earned 22.2% of the income in the USA but paid 42.3% of ALL THE FEDERAL INCOME TAX  The average rate was 25.99% which is more than EIGHT TIMES the rate of the bottom 50%.  The lower 50% earned 10.2% of all income but paid only 2.3% of all tax

So much for your proportionality stat. 

Match wasn't your best subject was it. 

29 minutes ago, Black Ops said:

However, they also found one to six cups of tea a day may actually cut the risk of dementia.

There is a huge difference between a correlation and a causation.  I could run a study of those who ate donuts and dementia and if the study showed that those that ate more donuts had a higher incidence of dementia I could report that but that does not mean eating donuts caused the dementia.  Conversely if the study showed those eating lots of donuts had a lower incidence of dementia it does not show that eating donuts can help you reduce your incidence of dementia. 

You have to have two groups virtually identical, one drinking lots of tea and the other drinking virtually none.  Even then it is virtually impossible to make the two groups identical with no differenting factors.  You could run animal tests with two groups that might be more telling but I can recall for many years things like Coffee, Sacharin, Wine, Turkey Bacon and numerous other products were bad for you but later found not only not to be bad but in some cases like Wine and Coffee actually good for you. 

Bottom line, do everything in moderation.  The Japanese drink lots of tea and their average lifespan in 84.62 years.  They have a death rate from dementia at 7.87 per 100,000.  Finland who I doubt drinks lots of tea has a death rate of 54.62 per 100,000 and is the highest in the world.  Singapore which I would suspect drinks lots of tea has the lowest rate in the world at .43 per 100,000.  So much for tea being bad for you.  

39 minutes ago, Longwood50 said:

She has never eaten Som Tam, the one with crabs in?

No she indicates that she has never eaten any raw sea food.  

41 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The benefits of buying politicians to create ‘loop holes’ in your favor.

Looks like the buying of politicians i not getting a good return on their investment.  Would you care to ever provide any statistic just one to back up your unfounded assertion.

https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/#:~:text=High-Income Taxpayers Paid the Majority of Federal Income Taxes,of all federal income taxes.



https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/who-pays-income-taxes

21 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The benefits of buying politicians to create ‘loop holes’ in your favor.

Are another empty platitude backed by of course nothing but the thin air of your mind. 

If they were so great at creating 'LOOP HOLES'  Then tell me why do the top 1% pay more by a great amount then the bottom 90%



If they are so great at creating loopholes why is the AVERAGE TAX RATE paid by the top 1%   more than 8 TIMES the bottom 50%. 

You are a product of the refrain, tell a lie, make it a big lie and keep repeating it and eventually people believe it.  You believe the wealthy don't pay tax, have loopholes and dont pay their fair share. 

WHEN ALL THE STATISTICS BY THE IRS SHOW EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. 

Google sometime the term, know the truth, see the truth, but continue to believe the lies and see what it says about such a person. 

53 minutes ago, gamb00ler said:

You only talk about paying tax.... there's another side to taxation and that is receiving payments from the government which are funded by tax revenue.  Does that not seem relevant to you?  The percentage of tax paid that the average Texan receives back from the federal government in benefits is much higher than what the average Californian gets back.  That is the bottom line!   After considering the entire picture Californians are subsidizing Texans.

I repeat.  Two people earning identical amounts of income and both itemize.  The Texan is subsidizing the person in California in allowing him to pay less because he gets to deduct his state income tax.  

 

12 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

She has never eaten Som Tam, the one with crabs in?

I will ask her

2 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Prostate cancers can be either slow growing or aggressive. A biopsy can determine which it is.

That is the first I have ever heard of that. I know a number of years ago I had a spike in my PSA which was normally very low even now at 74 it is 2.5.  

The same doctor I referenced did send me in for a needle biopsy which proved to be negative.   Though uncomfortable and led to bleeding for an extended number of weeks, it was worth the reassurance and my PSA did drop back. 

What you suggested is good advise.  Get the biopsy and know what you are dealing with. 

 

37 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Liver cysts are commonly caused by dead liver flukes from eating uncooked fresh water fish/snails/crabs. Eventually they will become cancerous.

She is Thai however she has has and continues to eat only salt water sea food and never uncooked. 

17 minutes ago, Gabe H Coud said:

NHS is on the brink of collapse I'm reading. Would I get treated/operated on if necessary? 

On the brink of collapse?  Oh in the USA they are showing those government health programs with "healthcare for all" as the panacea.

As Margaret Thatcher once said.  The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of OTHER PEOPLES MONEY. 

7 minutes ago, Gabe H Coud said:

But like you suggest I'll need convincing that it actually needs removing/radiation etc. 

I know this, I am 74.  If I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, I would have to have some really strong evidence that it was imperative that I do something about it.  Typically it is very slow growing.

However prostate removal leads to incontinence, and impotence.  Though better outcomes today than years ago, it is still a real possibility.  The radioactive seeds are less invasive however once implanted if they don't work, they preclude the option to remove the prostate at a later date because of the radioactivity.  

Typically in the USA they do nothing but vigilant watching to see if the cancer is progressing.  My GF has a cyst on her liver.  They say most of those are there from birth.  Though Thai doctor wants to send her for MRI, Mayo Clinic the top hospital in the USA says in the majority of instances the cysts are not malignant and also slow growing and reccomends only to have additional ultra sounds to see if the cyst remains the same size or grows. 

 

11 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Hey look at you defending the billionaires.

I am not defending them.  What I am saying is there is no such thing as a loophole.  It is obvious you have no idea how tax loss selling works.  IT IS NOT A LOOPHOLE. 

Example Balmer owns two stocks.  He paid $5 million for each.  The first one increases in value to $7.5 million and he sells it for a $2.5 million gain.  The second one decreases to $2.5 million for a $2.5 million dollar loss.  So net HE EARNED ZERO

However the law states that unless Balmer sells the stock he has a loss in, he can not declare it on his tax return. 

So Balmer sells his stock at a loss to offset his "gain" otherwise he would pay tax on his $2.5 million dollar gain when in fact overall he really earned zero from the total of his investments. 

There are "no loopholes" there are only tax laws.  There are no tax havens, off shore accounts, that save people money.  The IRS says you must declare any and all income from any and all sources irrespective of how you earn it.  Technically a bank robber, drug dealer or a prostitute could be prosecuted for tax eveasion if they did not declare their earnings.  This idea that the wealthy don't pay their fair share of taxes is a myth that is peddled to garner votes from those who are not in the 1% and there are more of them.  The top 1% of earners in the USA pay more than the bottom 90% combined.  Use google it can be your friend. 

So in terms of jobs and tax revenues you want More Billionaires not fewer.  You are showing your class envy despising those who are successful. 

https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/#:~:text=In all%2C the top 1,90 percent paid %24450 billion.

10 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

You should re-think this a little.  TX gets back 83c for each federal tax dollar, Fl gets 77c and California gets 65c.  Does that sound like TX and FL are subsidizing CA?

I said those who get to deduct their California and New York income taxes are being subsidized.  Two people with identical income one in California and one in Texas, both itemize.  The Texas tax payer will pay more.  The majority of tax payers don't itemize.