TallGuyJohninBKK

That's a curious restriction. In your contacts with Schwab, did you get any info on how, for their intl accounts, they would handle a situation where the accountholder has passed away, and there's no beneficiary allowed to be listed on the account?

So, were those new accounts for you and your wife Schwab International accounts reporting your Thai addresses, OR, Schwab U.S. accounts with the added restriction against being able to purchase any U.S. mutual funds?

Vaccination Dramatically Lowers Long COVID Risk Several new studies reveal that getting multiple COVID vaccine doses provides strong protection against lingering symptoms January 3, 2024 "At least 200 million people worldwide have struggled with long COVID: a slew of symptoms that can persist for months or even years after an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. But research suggests that that number would likely be much higher if not for vaccines. A growing consensus is emerging that receiving multiple doses of the COVID vaccine before an initial infection can dramatically reduce the risk of long-term symptoms. Although the studies disagree on the exact amount of protection, they show a clear trend: the more shots in your arm before your first bout with COVID, the less likely you are to get long COVID." One meta-analysis of 24 studies published in October, for example, found that people who’d had three doses of the COVID vaccine were 68.7 percent less likely to develop long COVID compared with those who were unvaccinated. “This is really impressive,” says Alexandre Marra, a medical researcher at the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in Brazil and the lead author of the study. “Booster doses make a difference in long COVID.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/

And only idiots make that kind of unsourced, proven false, nonsense statement: Vaccinated kids at 57% to 73% lower risk of long COVID, CDC study suggests February 26, 2025 "mRNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 was tied to a 57% and 73% lower risk of having at least one or two long-COVID symptoms, respectively, in US children ages 5 to 17 years, according to a case-control study led by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The four-site study involved 622 children who were eligible for COVID-19 vaccination when they were infected with the Omicron variant and who completed a post-COVID condition (PCC) survey at least 60 days later. They were enrolled from the Pediatric Research Observing Trends and Exposures in COVID-19 Timelines (PROTECT) study, a longitudinal SARS-CoV-2 surveillance cohort convened in July 2021. ... "Our findings suggest that children should stay up to date with current COVID-19 vaccination recommendations as vaccination not only protects against severe COVID-19 illness but also protects against PCC," they concluded. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vaccinated-kids-57-73-lower-risk-long-covid-cdc-study-suggests AND Recent COVID-19 vaccination tied to lower risk of long COVID November 7, 2024 New data from the VENUS (Vaccine Effectiveness, Networking, and Universal Safety) study in Japan reveal that the risk of developing long COVID is significantly lower when people have been recently vaccinated before infection. The study was published yesterday in Vaccine. The retrospective study followed participants diagnosed with COVID-19 between August 2020 and December 2022. The incidences of 36 post-COVID-19 conditions were monitored 3, 5, and 8 months after infection. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/recent-covid-19-vaccination-tied-lower-risk-long-covid

No one is or was arguing that older people weren't at greater risk, of course they were/are. But that's irrelevant to the real, albeit lesser, risks that young people faced from COVID. The low death "rate" numbers for young people don't somehow wipe away the 1,800+ American youngsters and estimated 17,000+ young people worldwide who died from COVID -- Alex Berenson notwithstanding.

Here's a global estimate for COVID deaths among youngsters -- more than 17,000 globally: Child mortality and COVID-19 Last update: December 2023 How many children have died from COVID-19? Among the 4.4 million COVID-19 deaths1 reported in the MPIDR COVerAGE database, 0.4 per cent (over 17,400) occurred in children and adolescents under 20 years of age. Of the over 17,400 deaths reported in those under 20 years of age, 53 per cent occurred among adolescents ages 10–19, and 47 per cent among children ages 0–9. [emphasis added] Data correct as of December 2023. https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/covid-19/

More than 1,800 young people in the U.S. (up through age 18) died from COVID during the pandemic through mid-2023, per the CDC. And that's not counting the many tens of thousands who were hospitalized from it. The above count also is just from the U.S., leaving out the rest of the world. Berenson was simply wrong in his claims that young people were not at risk from COVID... Lesser risk compared to adults and older people, yes. But not no risk or immune from risk. https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Deaths-by-Sex-Ages-0-18-years/xa4b-4pzv

There are lots of different kinds of coronaviruses, including many that have nothing to do with the COVID pandemic. That the Wuhan lab was studying certain types of coronaviruses is undisputed. But there's no evidence or proof that lab was studying the specific version(s) that became or had the potential to become COVID. Per the New York Times: "There remains no evidence that the Wuhan institute stored any virus that could have become the coronavirus and caused Covid, with or without scientific tinkering, researchers have said. Scientists who specialize in tracing outbreaks have published analyses of early cases and viral genomes that they say point to the pandemic’s starting at an illegal wild-animal market in Wuhan. The presence of the coronavirus in samples from the market containing genetic material linked to raccoon dogs, they have said, is consistent with that scenario." https://archive.ph/Ho5gO#selection-7189.0-7197.51

Genetic ghosts suggest Covid’s market origins 19 September 2024 "A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak. They were analysing hundreds of samples collected from Wuhan, China, in January 2020. ... Prof Michael Worobey, of the University of Arizona, said ... this study, combined with other data – such as early cases and hospitalisations being linked to the market – all pointed to an animal origin of Covid. (more) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8095xjg4po

Virologists and epidemiologists back natural origin for COVID-19, survey suggests 6 Feb 2024 "...a group of risk experts has found a new angle on one of the most hotly contested science issues of our time—where the SARS-CoV-2 virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic came from—by conducting what it calls the first systematic survey of scientific opinion on the matter. The report, posted online on Friday, suggests virologists and other scientists with relevant expertise favor the view that the pandemic began when a natural virus jumped from an animal to a human, not because of an accident in a research lab studying or manipulating coronaviruses..." Respondents were asked to put a probability on each of three scenarios: that the pandemic was the result of a natural zoonosis; that a biomedical research-related accident was to blame; or that there was another cause. (The three probabilities had to add up to 100%.) On average, respondents assigned a 77% probability to a zoonosis, 21% to the lab-leak scenario, and 2% to the “other” category. One-quarter of respondents seemed to be very sure about a zoonotic origin, giving it a probability between 96% and 100%." https://www.science.org/content/article/virologists-and-epidemiologists-back-natural-origin-covid-19-survey-suggests

The source for the OP post, Alex Berenson, is a serial COVID misinformation spreader, not surprisingly.... That's in part why the source here is his own Substack post, instead of any credible news agency source. Re Berenson: "Early in the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Berenson vocally argued that people and the media were overestimating the risk of the new virus, that it posed little risk to young Americans, and that it was being used as a cover for government overreach.[8][29] Many public health experts have rejected his claims.[8][29]: ... In 2021, Berenson tweeted that COVID-19 vaccinations had led to 50 times more adverse effects than flu vaccine. PolitiFact rated the claim "mostly false".[12] The Atlantic called him "The pandemic's wrongest man", owing to what they termed his "dangerously, unflaggingly, and superlatively wrong" claims of the vaccine's ineffectiveness.[10] On January 25, 2022, Berenson appeared on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight declaring that existing mRNA vaccines are "dangerous and ineffective" against COVID-19, and further demanding that they be withdrawn from the market immediately.[31] The Washington Post's Philip Bump denounced Carlson for "inviting Berenson on, despite his proven track record of misinformation and cherry-picking" and observed that "Berenson's claims went unchallenged."[32] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Berenson#COVID-19_pandemic As for the claims of the OP, most scientists with expertise in the field continue to believe natural spillover is the most likely source for the COVID virus, and NOT from a lab leak. In addition, the majority of U.S. intelligence agencies (5) also continue to believe natural spillover is the most likely source.... even though a minority number (3) now believe a lab leak was the most likely cause. New York Times - Jan. 2025: "Five agencies, including the National Intelligence Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed that natural exposure most likely caused the epidemic. But they said that they had only low-confidence in their assessment. Until now, two agencies, the F.B.I. and Department of Energy, thought a lab leak was more likely. But their theories are different. The F.B.I. believes the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Energy Department put its bet on another lab, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control. Officials would not say if the C.I.A. believes one lab or the other was the more likely source of the virus." https://archive.ph/AeGpZ#selection-1087.0-1095.108

What else would you expect the liar-in-chief to say.... along with all the other lies and nonsense he has spouted, and then later ignored, during his political career. And this comes as Trump and Musk are trying to dismiss thousands of SSA employees, and pushing Republican tax legislation that non-partisan experts have said would hasten the demise of the current SS system and require major cuts in SS benefits by the early 2030s. "In October, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan watchdog, said Trump’s policies would hasten the demise of Social Security’s trust fund. It predicted that the Social Security Board of Trustees would start cutting benefits by 2031 instead of 2034 because the fund that covers the deficit between outlays and revenue would run out of money sooner." https://www.fortune.com/2025/03/03/social-security-payments-benefits-interruption-doge-cuts-system-collapse-retirement-disability/

That whole claim by Musk and Trump was false and fraudulent, as the OP article by Forbes here explains, and has been detailed by numerous news agencies elsewhere. "Musk had previous sparked concern about his plans for the safety net after he said tens of millions of dead Americans are receiving Social Security checks—a claim the Associated Press debunked. And on Friday, he added to fears when he called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and described the federal government as “one big pyramid scheme.” In October, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan watchdog, said Trump’s policies would hasten the demise of Social Security’s trust fund." https://www.fortune.com/2025/03/03/social-security-payments-benefits-interruption-doge-cuts-system-collapse-retirement-disability/ Tens of millions of dead people aren’t getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims https://apnews.com/article/social-security-payments-deceased-false-claims-doge-ed2885f5769f368853ac3615b4852cf7#

"Poised" is the eternal, hopeful, vague term used for high-speed rail in Thailand. Worth noting, nowhere in the OP article does it make any mention of when this supposed project might actually be completed.

And meanwhile, in the real world, government administrators with many years of experience heading the Social Security Admin have been / are being forced out, and the agency for the time being in effectively being run by a bunch of Musk-ites who pretty much have no real knowledge or expertise in Social Security matters at all. Scary! But I've never heard anyone refer to Musk and Co. -- who are doing all the "replacing," -- as "Wokeist cultural devolution" and "inexperienced, racist, diverse ideologues."

Per the Associated Press: Tens of millions of dead people aren’t getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments. Over the past few days, President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly getting benefits — a “HUGE problem,” Musk wrote, as his Department of Government Efficiency digs into federal agencies to root out waste, fraud and abuse. It is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people. But the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White House are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data. (more) https://apnews.com/article/social-security-payments-deceased-false-claims-doge-ed2885f5769f368853ac3615b4852cf7 The lunatics are now running the show under Trump and Musk... and anyone actually relying on the federal government these days ought to be very concerned.

Apparently, Elon Musk and his minions, ever since the original agency head resigned after refusing to give Musk's team access to data that was deemed private under federal law. And then the Trump admin appointed a mid-level agency bureaucrat as the current acting director -- a guy who had been placed on admin leave and was potentially facing losing his job just days earlier for allegedly giving Musk's team improper access to confidential SS data. Per the Washington Post: "The newly installed caretaker at the Social Security Administration acknowledged this week that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is calling the shots as the agency races to slash thousands of jobs and shrink its budget, telling a group of advocates, “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before.” [emphasis added] In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to detailed notes from a participant in the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.” (more) https://archive.ph/1Yi8g

Can people trust Musk's DOGE minions to have the slightest clue of what really occurs with Social Security? I'd say NOT! For example, in the latest news: DOGE is driving Social Security cuts and will make mistakes, acting head says privately The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner said members of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team are outsiders who are unfamiliar with the nuances of the agency’s programs. "The newly installed caretaker at the Social Security Administration acknowledged this week that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is calling the shots as the agency races to slash thousands of jobs and shrink its budget, telling a group of advocates, “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before.” [emphasis added] In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to detailed notes from a participant in the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.” (more) https://archive.ph/1Yi8g All of the above is hardly reassuring for anyone who's a Social Security recipient, current or future. And this above comes on the heels of Trump's speech to Congress where he repeated false misinformation alleging fraud and waste presumably produced by DOGE that is flawed because of flawed/missing info in the Social Security's databases, which have failed to accurately record the people's actual birth dates, leading Trump to falsely claim that huge numbers of presumably dead people were still being paid SS benefits. Per the AP's fact check report giving Trump's false Social Security claims and how/why they were mistaken: "There’s no evidence Social Security money is being paid to many people over age 100 TRUMP: “Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. ... 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them, and we are searching right now.” THE FACTS: The databases may list those people, but that does not mean they are getting paid benefits. Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which doesn’t use a specific format for dates. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago. The news organization Wired first reported on the use of COBOL programming language at the Social Security Administration." But DOGE's dimwits dealing with Social Security either A] didn't bother to take the time and effort to actually what was going on with those numbers and why they were wrong, or B] they knew the data they were reporting was wrong and didn't care because it would give Trump another false talking point to assail Social Security over. CNN's fact check report had a milder takedown of Trump's false Trump's Social Security claims: "Social Security benefits: In an extended claim, Trump said 4.7 million people who are at least 100 years old are still listed in the Social Security Administration’s database and that “money is being paid to many of them.” However, this claim needs context. The vast majority of these people do not have dates of death listed in Social Security’s database. But that doesn’t mean they are actually receiving monthly benefits. Public data from the Social Security Administration shows that about 89,000 people age 99 or over were receiving Social Security benefits in December 2024, not even close to the millions Trump invoked. [emphasis added] https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-address-congress/index.html

Anyone who believes half of the false and misleading manure Trump is trying to sell is the epitomy of moronic.

And on Social Security: "Social Security fraud TRUMP: "We're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program that our seniors and that our seniors, people that we love rely on, believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members, people aged 100 to 109 years old.” Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have both claimed, without evidence, that there is rampant fraud in the Social Security system. In his remarks, Trump asserted that government databases list millions of people aged well over 100 years old, including 1.3 million people between 150 to 159 years old and over 130,000 people aged over 160. But a 2023 report from the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General said that there were nearly 19 million Social Security number-holders aged 100-plus who didn't have information about their deaths in the system and that "almost none of the 18.9 million number-holders currently receive SSA payments." " https://www.npr.org/2025/03/04/g-s1-50488/trump-congress-joint-address-fact-check The bottom line, as reported elsewhere, is the current Social Security Admin's data systems for keeping track of older dates of birth and deaths in their systems are flawed by the SSA's own admission. And as a result, their databases show misleading and inaccurate counts on details being used by Trump and Musk, not that they care they are spouting known nonsense. Per Associated Press: "THE FACTS: The databases may list those people, but that does not mean they are getting paid benefits. Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which doesn’t use a specific format for dates. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago. The news organization Wired first reported on the use of COBOL programming language at the Social Security Administration. Additionally, a series of reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these people were receiving benefits. The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to do so, which would run upward of $9 million. As of September 2015, the agency automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years old." https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-trump-ukraine-3bea1df50167ac0a91f8c419b58c4b97

And on Ukraine: "TRUMP CLAIM: The U.S. has "spent perhaps $350 billion" on supporting Ukraine's defense FACT-CHECK: False According to the special inspector general responsible for overseeing the spending related to the war in Ukraine, Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available $182.75 billion for the overall U.S. response to the war since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Of that money, about $119 billion has been for the direct benefit of Ukraine, including approximately $65.9 billion in military assistance. White House officials have offered various explanations for how the Trump administration has arrived at the significantly higher figure of $350 billion, but most of the arguments rely on dubious logic–such as factoring in inflation–which has no bearing on the actual dollar amount appropriated by Congress." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-trumps-speech-congress/story?id=119447124

And on the economy: Trump did not inherit an ‘economic catastrophe’ "TRUMP: “Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.” THE FACTS: Inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022 under President Joe Biden, but Trump did not inherit a disastrous economy by any measure. The unemployment rate ticked down to a low 4% in January, the month he took office, while the economy expanded a healthy 2.8% in 2024. Inflation-adjusted incomes have grown steadily since mid-2023. And inflation, while showing signs of stickiness in recent months and still elevated at 3% in January, is down from its 2022 peak." https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-trump-ukraine-3bea1df50167ac0a91f8c419b58c4b97

It's a LONG LONG list of falsehoods and lies, as usual with Trump... But here are some low-lights pertinent to this thread's posts: Fact-checking Trump’s address to Congress (CNN) -- President Donald Trump made numerous false and misleading claims in his Tuesday speech to a joint session of Congress. The falsehoods spanned a variety of topics, including the economy, climate, immigration and more. In his speech, just under one hour and 40 minutes, Trump also made a number of false claims about his predecessor, Joe Biden. Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s statements: (more) https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-address-congress/index.html Including the following predictable false nonsense from Trump and echoed by his sycophants here: Per the above-linked CNN report: "DOGE and transgender mice: Trump falsely claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency identified government spending of “$8 million for making mice transgender.” Between the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, the National Institutes of Health awarded a total of $477,121 to three projects that involved administering feminizing hormone therapy to monkeys to understand how it may affect their immune system and make them more susceptible to HIV. Feminizing hormone therapy is a gender-affirming treatment used to block the effects of the male hormone testosterone and promote feminine characteristics among transgender women. Transgender women are nearly 50 times more likely to be infected with HIV than other adults, according to one study from 2013 across 15 countries, including the US. It’s not clear where the $8 million figure came from."

Glad to see the local anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian lunatics are out in force today, cheering for their lunatic, lying leader. Meanwhile, most thinking people recoil at Trump's shameful attempts to surrender Ukraine to their Russian invaders. Shake their heads at Trump's attempts to curtail clear energy policies/programs while at the same time trying to expand the use of pollution generating fossil fuels. Going to end up paying the price for Trump and Co's efforts to gut environmental and consumer protection policies that protect ordinary people from corporate wrongdoing, The world is going to end up being in a far worse place if Trump is successful in trampling the U.S.'s democratic traditions... Unless, of course, you're like some of the posters here who think the U.S. ought to a western mirror version of Russia.

My recent experience on that in BKK: The wife and I were out for a late weekend lunch at a cafe at the Gaysorn Amarin Mall.... Nice cafe that turned out to have a good selection of beers on tap. So I asked about adding a beer to our order, and the answer was "cannot". 2-5 p.m. So after we finished our lunch, we walked out and right nextdoor inside the same mall was a beer-focused pub with an accompanying food menu. Curious, we walked in and asked, "OK to order beer now?" And the staff replied sure, no problem, can -- even though it was still during the 2-5 p.m. blackout period. So we walked in and I had the beer I wanted along with some snacks. Sorry, but that kind of stupid situation is absolutely ridiculous. And it gets repeated from place to place all around Bangkok in my experience.