CaptHaddock

Death penalty is an abomination wherever it exists. But as punishment for drug offenses it's very stupid. It has never stopped illegal drug distribution. Why would it? Increasing the risks of the drug business just raises the price of the drugs to the point that someone else is willing to take the risks. But the people who love punishment continue to love it no matter how little it accomplishes.

The legal advice I've gotten on that subject in the past, at least regarding wills for an American living overseas, is that the last U.S. state where you previously had residence before moving overseas continues to be your state. Similar with voter registration, in that you can continue to be an absentee voter from the last U.S. location where you were registered, even after you've moved outside the U.S.

^This

You are only no longer considered a resident of a state if you take up residency IN ANOTHER STATE.

Otherwise, you are a resident of the last state you lived. This even applies to lawful permanent residents and tourists to the US.

Edit: 'state' is not a proper noun unless referring to a specific state.

After moving abroad you continue to be a resident of the last state you live in for voting purposes. This is distinct from tax domicile. An expat does not necessarily continue to have tax domicile in his last state of residence depending on the criteria for determining tax domicile in that state. It's confusing because, depending on the state as TallGuy points out, some states may consider an expat's continuing to vote in the state as one factor toward establishing tax domicile.

By the way, TallGuy, my mail forwarder in FL offers a service to register their expat clients as FL voters. I haven't pursued it, because it seems to me it might constitute voting fraud, but FL is a swing state where votes count more. Let me know if you want a reference to my forwarder.

Why does Thailand need any military at all? It's not as though any of its neighbors have been threatening an invasion in the last 150 years.

Thailand had a lot small problems with Cambodia, Lao Myanmar in the past. You see what happens with countries with weak military in Libya, Iraq, Ukraine and you see what does not happen in countries with strong military in North Korea and Iran. Not judging who is right and who is wrong just how a strong military keeps peace.

Simplistic thinking. The strong US military certainly hasn't kept the peace, but kept us constantly at war (Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan) that profits only the arms industry. With N. Korea and Iran only nukes count for giving the Americans pause. Subs are not nukes.

Why does Thailand need any military at all? It's not as though any of its neighbors have been threatening an invasion in the last 150 years.

That's not correct but as far as I know the last war that a better navy might have helped Thailand was the Franco Siamease war in 1893 - in which case Thailand may still have included Laos - would that count as a victory?

The reality is that what Thailand needs is a glorified coast guard or self defence force. The PM has stated that Thailand wants to be friendly with all countries so why have a navel with offensive capabilities. However it does need to be able to police its waters in fulfilment of it own laws and international obligations. I fail to see how a sub or 2 could help.

Thailand never included Laos. At no point in the last thousand years up to and including now would Thailand have been able to fund a military that could resist France or Great Britain much less any superpower if they had decided to invade.

Why does Thailand need any military at all? It's not as though any of its neighbors have been threatening an invasion in the last 150 years.

Not a fake. Gears were encrusted with oxidation and sediment when they were found in 1900 during the first underwater archaeological excavation of a Greek shipwreck, which was datable. The instrument was then ignored until the 1940's when a scientist first tried to analyze the device using X-ray technology. So, if it was a fake no one profited from it. Further analysis using advances in imaging have enhanced the picture considerably. Inscriptions in archaic Greek on the elements of the device offer further dating evidence.

Numerous ancient writers make reference to automata in the shape of men or animals that showed complicated movements which would have required advanced knowledge of gearing. But those writers were disbelieved by historians partly because no such devices survived. But the anti-kythera device changes the picture.

Steel cut oats, the best oatmeal in my opinion, are now available at Tops Chidlom. Bob's Red Mill Organic Steel Cut Oats are ฿215 for 680 grams. They are not to be found on the breakfast cereal aisle, but down past the Chilled Deli wall displays in a little sort of cul-de-sac before the meat counters. A little hard to find. Shelved with some other Bob's Red Mill products.

Buy them up so that Tops will keep them stocked!

My American/Thai wife did this several times going between the US and Thailand. Eventually she registered the marriage with the amphur and changed her name to her married name. Got a new id card and passport. Don't remember whether immigration insisted she do this or whether she just decided on her own.

OP, do you find that Witopia drops your connection every day at about 3:00 AM? Mine does. That's the only complaint I have about Witopia.

Negative feedback on the info in the articles is welcome as well.

I agree that it doesn't sound at all correct, that all U.S. citizens legally need a U.S. domicile.

But having one to state does smooth things out for doing a lot of things while living abroad, and some of those things can be quite vital to our existence abroad.

Domicile, in this context, means that it is your legal address, making you liable for state taxes. We don't need that. All we need is a mailing address. Very different from domicile.

Sounds more like you are feeding a regiment.

You can also re-sharpen the multi-blade cartridges on a pair of jeans. It works.

popcorn time.

A terrible article.

The author of the article claims that all US citizens must maintain domicile in a US state. This is flatly wrong. It ignores Puerto Ricans, Guam Islanders, and residents of DC, for one thing. It also ignores children born abroad of US parentage who may never even have visited the US, much less lived there. And it ignores most of us Americans here on TV. There is no legal requirement to maintain a domicile in a US state or to pay income tax in any state as an expat. Whether or not you are still obligated to pay income tax to your former state of residence depends on the tax domicile rules of that state and whatever steps you have taken to avoid being entrapped in them.

It may also be fraud to claim residence in a state when you do not live there.

The writer's goal was to move her residence of record from Texas, which has no income tax, to New Mexico, which does. She appears to be unaware that she is exposing herself to liability for NM state taxes.

The writer should be seeking advice, rather than giving it.

The right wing is always hammering on SS and Medicare. If they can drive a wedge beginning with expats, their goal will be to dismantle the entire system eventually. It bears watching, particularly if a Republican wins in 2016.

Odd in a plutocracy like the US that someone like Schumer could consider revoking voting rights while presumably continuing to tax expats on their worldwide income.

Chuck Schumer is a long time Left Wing Democrat senator. He is actually the Senior Senator in the Senate. He's a hiso Democrat from New York.

I suppose anything you don't like is automatically right wing?

I paid for my SS and Medicare starting at age 14 with a union job in a bakery. Bakers start in the wee hours of the morning and I somehow managed to do that and still go to school. I have no idea what left wing Schumer and right wing Cruz have against expats, but those two idiots working together should be referred to as the idiot wing comprised of two extremes from both parties.

Cheers

The list of Republican attacks on and attempts to destroy SS is a long one. Bush II wanted to convert it to private accounts which would have eliminated the mortality credit, which is the basis of the system's ability to pay benefits. That would have ended SS as we know it while enabling Wall St. to collect fees on those private accounts. Paul Ryan still wants to privatize SS. Eric Cantor wanted to cut benefits and raise the Full Retirement Age to 70. The Koch brothers have been funding a campaign of disinformation against SS via right-wing think tanks. In 2013 the Republican leadership was willing to shutdown the government in order to force a reduction of benefits in SS and Medicare. Rick Perry has called SS a "Ponzi Scheme." The budget passed by the Republican House called for large cuts in SS and Medicare. And on and on.

You worked for and paid for your SS benefits and you'll get them. And that will be because of the Democrats, not the Republicans.

Leading a dying market - I'm still not buying shares

You're confusing market share among all devices, which for pcs is declining, with the installed base, which continues to grow.

http://www.etforecasts.com/products/ES_pcww1203.htm

The right wing is always hammering on SS and Medicare. If they can drive a wedge beginning with expats, their goal will be to dismantle the entire system eventually. It bears watching, particularly if a Republican wins in 2016.

Odd in a plutocracy like the US that someone like Schumer could consider revoking voting rights while presumably continuing to tax expats on their worldwide income.

Thai govt seems to be proposing all kinds of new taxes...inheritance tax, land and property tax, higher excise taxes, maybe raising VAT, and now joint bank accounts would be taxed.

That is correct, also they are trying to tax private schools, especially tutorial schools but language schools could be in time taxed too.

There are many dubious, private "schools" in Bangkok run by scurrilous operators who lacks qualifications. If some of them were taxed out of existence, it wouldn't be such a loss.

Thai govt seems to be proposing all kinds of new taxes...inheritance tax, land and property tax, higher excise taxes, maybe raising VAT, and now joint bank accounts would be taxed.

But the proposals for taxes that would affect the rich always seem to be dismissed at the last moment: e.g. inheritance and land and buildings. I predict that the VAT increase will go forward since it is the most regressive of the lot.

There seem to be lots of tea rooms popping up lately. On Thanon Lang Suwan at the Portico community mall there is a very nice cafe on the second floor. They must be successful because they recently expanded into the adjacent space. There is also a small, very neat tea shop at the top floor of the Mercury Villa, the red mall close to the Chidlom BTS station.

If I were the op I would go and try to chat up the owners/workers of these places to try to get some idea of how the business works.

Look up your area and even target building in prakard.com which will give you a good idea of asking rents. Maybe visit in person and ask if anything is available. That's how we found our place. There is no central database of rental listings so each source will have different offerings in the same building.

Seems unlikely. Thai language lacks the English 'th' sound entirely. In fact, only English has it among the languages that I know anything about.

LTFaWG has a free app for Android.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.learnthaifromawhiteguy.free&hl=en

maybe for Iphone.

I think it is important to learn how to read (meaning to know where words in sentences begin and end and sound out roughly how they sound)Thai early on even if you know few words. If for no other reason so you can read the stop, don't, warning, forbidden and please signs when you drive.

I'm 68, and believe me learning a new language at this age is not easy. I put in an hr every day. When I first started to learn the language I thought I would have a good understanding in a years time remembering how easy it was for me to learn German and Spanish---- that was 5 years ago. I still feel very much a beginner. Damn short term memory loss.

Not my experience. I am 65, have been studying Thai for 3 years, and can read, write and speak Thai with correct tones, although I still make mistakes with tones sometimes. My goal is complete fluency. I memorize vocabulary using the Anki flashcard program which enables me to check my Thai spelling. By now I can even touch-type Thai just from memorizing vocabulary.

I am bragging a bit here just to counter the endless whining about how impossible it is to learn Thai because we are all so old. I want to point out that it's quite possible to succeed at learning Thai, if you are willing to do the work required.

Thai is a hard language for English-speakers to learn, much harder than German or Spanish. I am not sure it would have been much easier 40 years ago, but even if true, it doesn't matter. If you are strongly motivated, you can learn Thai even at our age. An hour a day is not nearly enough though. If you are studying with a competent teacher, put in the time and stick to it, you can learn Thai. If you just fool around with online videos or books and tapes on your own, then of course you'll fail. The reason won't be old age, but the hopelessly naive approach.

Attempts at explaining why one language is more "sophisticated" than another simply reveal the cultural bias of the questioner and show a lack of intellectual sophistication.

This smacks of the dogma that all races are equal, that all cultures are morally equivalent. It has become politically incorrect to state that, on average, Negroes are less intelligent than Caucasians, despite all the scientific evidence to the contrary. It is also now apparently unacceptable to state that certain religions incite violence, and aren't a religion of peace - again, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Political correctness is stifling free thought and free discussion*.

Whilst I don't particularly like the word "sophisticated" in this context, it would perhaps be difficult to argue that any language other than English has a larger lexis and greater subtlety in expressing relationships (with the possible exception of Volapük for the latter).

English may lack the subtlety of languages such as Javanese for conveying relative social status, but let's remember than when Indonesia was seeking a national language it deliberately eschewed Javanese because of its obsession with social status, and chose the more democratic Melayu. Conveying such status is often perceived as a demerit.

*And on this point, I'm rather wondering whether this posting will be deleted by the site's moderators.

Well, well, an old-fashioned blacks-are-inferior racist. Where do you like to get your racist "evidence" from? The Grand Kleagle of the KKK? Or will you be referencing social scientists of the caliber of Heinrich Himmler?

Far be it from me to attempt to acquaint you with the 21st century. Welcome to a permanent spot on my ignore list.