TallGuyJohninBKK

How's your memory doing? Never mentioned in the past? Sep 23, 2020 Jan 12, 2021 Harmful Stuttering Myths Perpetuated by Major Media Outlets May 12, 2022 "In fact, many people can predict when they will stutter and often attempt to change the triggering word. To a naive listener, these attempts at concealing stuttering can often look like the person forgot the word they originally attempted to say. Even if media outlets claim ignorance, they still inflict potential harm to many current and future generations of children who stutter. Perpetuating misinformation like this seemingly gives others permission to critique and mock someone who stutters. There should be no room to tolerate ableist and stigmatizing attacks on differences or disorders. Irrespective of politics, we must unite in our condemnation of such rhetoric and help educate society about stuttering." https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/2022-0511-biden-stuttering-news/full/ The ASHA Leader American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

From the NYT's coverage: Feb. 8, 2024, 8:21 p.m. ET Maggie Haberman It’s hard to see how this helped Biden’s political case. Several Democratic operatives have sent panicked texts about how that press conference went. -------------------------------- Feb. 8, 2024, 8:16 p.m. ET Peter Baker There will be much second guessing about whether Biden should have spoken and whether he handled it well. He was feisty and showed a certain anger over questions about his capacity. He exhibited emotion in discussing the death of his son Beau. He denied some of the assertions in the report and tried to reset the narrative in the way he wanted to. Whether it worked, that’s not as clear. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/08/us/biden-documents-trump-nevada-news

A pretty forceful and clear rebuttal on Biden's part...

'How in the hell dare he': Biden strikes defiant tone on special counsel report The president's unexpected remarks came hours after the release of special counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's handling of classified documents. ... "Later in his remarks, Biden mistakenly referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as the president of Mexico. The flub took place when Biden was answering a question about the Israel-Hamas war, and it was the third time this week he has mixed up heads of state." https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-national-address-special-counsel-report-rcna138031

Biden defends how he handled classified docs after scathing special counsel report ... He angrily responded to special counsel Robert Hur's description of a portion of an interview in which Hur said Biden seemed to not remember when his son, Beau, died. "How in the hell dare he raise that?" Biden said, adding it was "none of their damn business," and choking up with emotion. "I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away," he said. He said that Hur's description did not belong in the report. "They don't know what they're talking about," he said. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/08/1230290474/biden-classified-documents-response

"My memory is fine": Angry Biden fires back after special counsel report President Biden fired back forcefully during remarks on Thursday against assertions made by a special counsel over his mental acuity and handling of classified documents. ... "I've been president and I put this country back on its feet, I don't need his recommendation," Biden said, referring to Special Counsel Robert Hur. ,,, "I'm well meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing," Biden said in response to a question from a reporter. https://www.axios.com/2024/02/09/biden-special-counsel-report-memory-robert-hur

Your screen shot above tells the real truth about the supposedly improved BKK-Hua Hin train service. Contrary to the misleading claims in the OP report, as your chart shows, most of the current BKK-Hua Hin train trips are still 4 hours or longer. The faster trips are few and far between. The wife and I had a Christmas season trip to Hua Hin at the end of last year. Having read all the hoo-ha publicity, I was thinking about trying to take the train for the first time. But after actually seeing the real "new" schedules, we took a pass on that... And instead, did what we've always done, and that's take the VIP, air con express bus that runs between Swampy and HH many times per day, with travel times usually less than 4 hours. The one morning train trip that's less than 4 hours arrives in HH at about noon time, which for me, doesn't really fit well with tourist hotel check-in times that typically start at 2-3 pm. When we take the bus, we leave BKK about 10 am, not having to get up and out at the crack of dawn on our vacation days, and take the bus to arrive HH about 1:30 pm, and then straight to our hotel for checking in. That's what works better for our travel plans.

I had info from some years past saying the U.S. Embassy had ceased certifying Thai passports, and that kind of certification from then on needed to be done by the Thai MFA???

Perplexed.... I filed for and received the ITIN for my Thai wife back in 2015 with the middle digits 97. Have used her ITIN number when filing my annual "married filing separately" tax return online every year ever since. Since then up till today, I've never received any expiration notice from the IRS. But when I logged onto TurboTax this past week to start working on my 2023 return, TT popped up a message saying my wife's entered ITIN number had expired. News to me. Yeesh! PS I see the reference above: "In addition, ITINs with middle digits “90,” “91,” “92,” “94,” “95,” “96,” “97,” “98,” or “99,” IF assigned before 2013, have expired. " But in my wife's case, her ITIN was assigned AFTER 2013....

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for Jan. 28 - Feb. 3, 2024: --715 new COVID hospitalizations, up 94 from the prior week --8 new COVID deaths, unchanged from the prior week --248 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition, up 17 from the prior week (dark purple) --176 COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation/ventilation to breathe, up 22 from the prior week (light purple) (cumulative figures are COVID new hospitalizations (2,679) & deaths (34) since the start of the current year) https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

"In December he launched his own streaming service. Before then, Carlson published interviews on X with Argentina’s Javier Milei and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán." Then add Putin and Trump to the list. I can see a tour and album title emerging here -- Tucker Carlson, the Autocrats and Dictators Tour.

I can see a good outcome here -- Tucker goes to Russia, meets Putin, gets forcibly conscripted into the Russian Army, and is sent off to the front lines to fight in Ukraine.

The Via Bus app in the Google Play Store for Android devices appears to be incorporating at least some of these latest changes in their routing info: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.indyzalab.transitia&hl=en_US&gl=US

One of my longtime go-to sources for BKK bus route info is the following website: https://www.transitbangkok.com/bangkok_buses.html But the website doesn't appear to be regularly updated, and I see no sign that they've incorporated any of these recent numbering changes. https://www.transitbangkok.com/lines/bangkok-bus-line/150 And the BMTA's current website, at least in English, appears to NOT show either a 150 or a 115 line: http://www.bmta.co.th/en/bus-lines?page=1

The source BKK Post report explains that some routes will have the "E" letter added to designate "express" routes. No mention in their report of what a "B" letter is supposed to designate.... Bull****???

What a bunch of nonsense from these bureaucrats... Even if their re-numbering scheme was a good idea (which is up for debate), there's no debate that they've utterly failed to meaningfully give the public clear advance notice of these changes. It's already hard enough to use the bus system in Bangkok, with routes that often follow no logical path or necessarily travel the length of major streets without diverting off in various places. But now they're making the route numbering system even more unfamiliar and complicated. As an example, there was this additional clarification of how their renumbering scheme is supposed to work with what was originally bus route #150: The route number first was gonna be changed to #1-15. And now it's going to be changed to a double route number of 115 (150) [with the first number reflecting the new route number and the second number reflecting the old/original route number]. Perfectly clear now??? Yeesh!!!!

Regarding the local aspect here with Nok.... According to the wiki page for Nok Air, their fleet as of December 2023 did NOT include any of the MAX aircraft -- only 737-800s, which is an older, prior version of the 737 family. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nok_Air#Current_fleet The OP article here says air carrier has plans to acquire Max 8s, but not for delivery until 2025.

Seems as though they're talking about the empty parking lot that sits in front of / alongside Central Chidlom... I always had just assumed Central owned it, but wondered why it remained a vacant and mostly unused parking lot for many years... I guess the OP article explains why, since Central didn't actually own the parcel until now.

Best I can say is many thousands of Americans here in those kinds of situations. Apart from government/military pensions, Social Security alone is a standard retirement benefit for most older Americans. Data from a 2019 news report re Thai retirement extensions, which wouldn't count older Americans here on marriage visas/extensions: A 12% U.S. share back then of almost 80,000 retirement visas/extensions in 2018 would have been almost 10,000 Americans. Broader data from a 2018 Immigration report:

"Senator Jon Tester told CNN on April 24 [2018] that Jackson was known as "the candy man" at the White House, according to around 20 people who brought these concerns to the Veterans' Affairs Senate Committee, because he allegedly handed out Ambien, Provigil, and other prescription drugs "like they were candy".[36][37]" https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/24/politics/tester-va-ronny-jackson/index.html

Lots of Americans in Thailand who are on government and/or military pensions and/or receiving U.S. Social Security payments. Can't speak to the terms of other countries' DTAs with Thailand.

Physician to the President In office July 25, 2013 – March 28, 2018 President Barack Obama Donald Trump Worth mentioning that the former Trump (and prior Obama) White House physician mentioned above (Ronny Jackson) has gone on to become a Trumpy right-wing, 2020 election denying Republican congressman from Texas since January 2021. Re the prior 2021 IG report: Rep. Ronny Jackson made sexual comments, drank alcohol and took Ambien while working as White House physician, Pentagon watchdog finds March 3, 2021 (CNN) — The Department of Defense inspector general has issued a scathing review of Rep. Ronny Jackson during his time serving as the top White House physician, concluding that he made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a female subordinate, violated the policy for drinking alcohol while on a presidential trip and took prescription-strength sleeping medication that prompted concerns from his colleagues about his ability to provide proper care. ... Trump re-nominated Jackson to receive a second star – a bump in his military rank – in February 2019, though that promotion was not approved by the Senate. This came less than a year after Jackson withdrew from consideration as Trump’s nominee for secretary of Veterans Affairs over allegations that he was “abusive” toward colleagues, loosely handled prescription pain medications and was periodically intoxicated." https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/02/politics/ronny-jackson-dod-inspector-general-report/index.html Re election denying: "Jackson attended the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally at the White House Ellipse.[57] During the January 6 attack, he was inside the Capitol when members of the Oath Keepers militia allegedly exchanged text messages about protecting Jackson who had "critical data." ... Later on January 6, 2021, during the certification of the 2020 election, Jackson objected to certifying Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronny_Jackson#Tenure

I think the prior poster's comments were correct in terms of what is possible. For example, in my case, I've had a standing 800K retirement extension account in a Thai bank for many years, long prior to the current debacle. Never withdraw any funds from it, have never added any funds to it. It's a static, pre-existing account balance that's not going to be subject to the new rules. And then, for my living expense, I draw funds monthly from abroad that all are my government pension, which is exempt from Thai taxation under the US-Thai double taxation treaty. Thus, as long as I continue in that framework, I should not have any Thai tax obligation from the new regime... And that's without even getting into the ability to draw down on pre 2024 accrued savings that also would be exempt from the new tax rules.

So from that Thai article, translated by Google, the cases seem to involve Don Mueang Airport and at least one immigration officer there, who according to the translation got a end result sentence of; "According to Section 78 of the Criminal Code, imprisonment for each count will be 3 years and 4 months, a total of 14 counts, for a total of 42 years and 56 months in prison." That seems to be just one example among multiple defendants but not clear from the article the identity of all the defendants involved. "which reported the results of the legal action against the police and 15 people." "And this is considered an example case. The former commander of the Immigration Bureau "Big Joke" has taken strict action against all officials who neglect to perform their duties by demanding benefits. And there are still many cases in progress where immigration officials neglect to perform their duties, especially cases where illegal foundations are being used to certify extension of stay."

You're hardly alone in facing that kind of quandary... and no clear guidance at present that I'm aware of on how to handle those kinds of situations. All I can say is, one thing I'm doing now is keeping a documents snapshot of all my home country financial account balances as of 12-31-23... so I'll have clear future evidence of just how much accrued savings I had on hand prior to the start of the new Thai taxation rules.