pomchop

How about at least start with a SNOWBIRD plan to attract people for six months a year by allowing an online six month visa without all the BS of doing immigration visits, leaving the country etc etc....there are a LOT of snowbirds worldwide who are looking for a nice warm place to spend about six months a year. Thailand is a perfect logical choice for many of these people. Keep the requirements simple , promote it and i suspect there would be a LOT more people who would spend 5 or 6 months a year in Thailand. Those that want to eventually retire full time I suspect is a smaller more complicated market than the snowbirds.

I grew up in the south. In those days if a loud mouth orange haired yankee had shown up in the south he would have gotten the crap beat out of himself by all the good ole boys. The preachers would have railed on and on against the thrice divorced, bankrupting, gold plated, grifter king who grabbed em by the pxxxsy, called POW's losers, made fun of crippled people, scoffed at the meek, encouraged and praised violence and constantly bragged about how perfect he was and couldn't think of anything he had ever done wrong. The only trait that I can see that Trump shared with the southern evangelical bible thumping good ole boys is racism and hate for any immigrants that don't look like them (and perhaps a desire to also "grab em by the pxxxsy and lust after their own women kinfolk) I would like to think that by now a few of the southern boys are starting to realize they have been conned by a fast talking yankee that has used them over and over to give him $$ and cheer his lies. Of course we are generally not talking the most educated sharpest tools in the tool box and many of them are the type to never admit they were wrong or got conned even though many of them know deep inside that is what happened, Their hatred for Hillary as an "elite" new yorker and their belief in most of the lies and conspiracy theories pushed by fox "news" coupled with a deep held racism convinced many that trump was the "savior" they had been waiting for who would drain the swamp and take America back to the good ole days. Now of course many buy into the "witch hunt" theory that little donnie constantly pushes and still send the man who bragged he is "very , very, very rich" and would never need anyone else $$ . Many will still send their hard earned wages, welfare and social security to him just as they have done for decades to all the evangelicals on TV that fly around in private jets and live in mansions. It seems some people just love to be lied to and made fools of by fast slick dog talkers. BUT as a southerner I do see a lot of cracks forming in his red neck/evangelical coalition and notice that the trump flags and signs and Maga hats that were once everywhere are now few and far between. Naturally if/when trump is tried and convicted of a litany of crimes many will still scream witch hunt but I also think that a lot of them have had about enough of the orange new yorker though they are embarrassed to admit they got conned. We shall see but without the southern electoral block of votes trump has zero chance of becoming POTUS again. Zero.

And the only POTUS in recent memory or maybe ever who has not accepted his defeat at the polls after all recounts and court cases and investigations is Trump. Refused to concede to Biden, refused to meet him at white house for traditional handshake.....a poor loser whose massive ego to this day continues to tell the BIG LIE with no credible evidence provided of significant voter fraud. During the Gore Bush mess at least Gore had the class to concede when all his recounts and appeals failed....and that election was actually very close unlike the not even close electoral count that Biden won by...incidentally the exact same electoral vote that when trump had those numbers he bragged he won in a landslide. A spoiled little rich boy that always got his way and then he didn't. No better than a 2 year old throwing a tantrum because he did not get the ice cream cone he wanted. Trumps term ended on Jan 20 and in spite of what he blabbers on and on about he is not now and has not been president since Jan 20....as for the VP even spineless Pence knew they had lost and that he had zero legal right to try and overthrow the election in spite of trumps demands and all those fine law abiding "patriots " attempt to storm the capitol to stop the vote and hang mike pence if they had the chance. Yep that trump is a real class act and a grifter extraordinaire.

health insurance is a problem as many have pointed out...even if you can get it the policy will likely have so many exclusions as to be worthless for anything major. There is really no simple way around that. What I do is go for complete physical in usa a month before flying to Thailand in USA where my Medicare/supplement covers it....of course there are o real guarantees that a physical can predict you will have no major events but at least you "might" get an indication for problems before flying to Thailand.....if looks ok then i would get another physical every 3 to 6 months in Thailand which are usually cheap ....and IF i see anything that appears to be moving into danger zone get on a plane and get back to USA asap where i have insurance and get it dealt with... It is certainly not a perfect solution but it is the best I have been able to come up with. A major event like a heart attack etc in Thailand with no or very limited and expensive insurance is something you may want to be proactive to at least try and avoid is IMO a good idea...be aware of your odds....but as we all know there is no guarantee that a physical will be able to magically predict no problems not to mention being in an accident. The rest regarding budget of your eating at home, not many beers, no or few gals is the least of your worries. Better that you budget for return trips to where you hopefully have insurance for check ups as well as frequent check ups in Thailand Good Luck.

It is a waste of time to try and deal in facts with someone who uses terms like trump "allegedly took documents" and that said documents were stored in a "safe" environment at mar largo after docs were found even in trumps desk drawer and Mar Lago is not exactly fort knox.....which of course makes no difference as the docs were never supposed to be there anyway and were not returned when asked repeatedly and lied to repeatedly until a subpoena was required to go get the docs that trump claimed and his lawyer swore in writing were not there......amazing how some just flat out defend the dear leader and disregard the "FACTS" that have been documented over and over.

Let's also take a look at the big boys bank accounts and assets attained over the past ten years or so.....all of the bribes openly paid to immigration officials add up quite nicely. A one day visit to Jomtiem immigration by an undercover cop would notice a large number of agents receiving "special" treatment which I highly doubt is provided without brown bags involved.

Geez....a HUGE difference is that Biden and Pence immediately returned all docs and co-operated as soon as the docs were found. Trump on the other hand delayed, lied repeatedly and refused to ever admit what he had done. It took a subpoena and a search to get the docs regardless of assurances from Trump that they were turned over. It's called obstruction of justice. Let's say three people went to a store and checked out but forgot to pay for some of the items in their basket. The store owner caught it all on video and notified the cops. The cops asked all three if they indeed had some items as claimed and they immediately searched and found they did have the items. Two of them immediately returned the items and had their attorneys search to make sure all items were turned over. The third had some of the items in his desk drawers and box after box full of items in storage. The third lied over and over saying first he didn't have the items then tried to claim that just by thinking he had paid for the items. lt took repeated visits by the cops where third man continued to lie until such time as a subpoena and a search found dozens of items. Only a kool aide clouded mind could fail to see the difference claiming they should all be treated the same. Is it even possible that trumpers can ever ever admit that the emperor has no clothes?

I am hoping that this young man will really step up to the plate and ultimately be able to move Thailand forward by eliminating the coups, at least attempting to rein in the corruption that is rife in the police, immigration, military, judicial, and many levels of government. I hope he will select a tourism chief that actually has experience and the smarts and budget to understand that tourism is moving more and more into a digital world with most everything online to include most all immigration issues. I hope that he will order a top to bottom review of immigration to eliminate a lot of the duplication/confusion and down right stupid and confusing amount of immigration rules. I hope that a new tourism chief will understand that if you want more tourists that you have to put in place some tourist friendly policies, experiment with longer visas to attract digital nomads and snowbird six month a year type ex pats. I hope he will appoint some Thai Airways execs that actually know how to run an airline and make it completive rather than exist to provide first class treatment to their wealthy friends, generals, ceo's, families, etc. I hope that he will be able to improve the schools by making it easier to recruit and keep native language English and Chinese teachers even those who are willing to volunteer to teach for free (such as vetted retired expats). I hope that he will be able to divert funds away from the ultra rich to help the ultra poor have better lives. At first look he certainly seems to have the education and background to accomplish much especially if he is able to further increase his standing with a larger percentage of the Thai population behind him. It will not be easy and will not all happen in a year. Those are a few of the things that i "hope" will happen. I am sure everyone farang and Thai has their own lists of items that need to be dealt with in an intelligent way by intelligent people for the benefit of all Thailand and not just the ultra rich/well connected. A breath of fresh air blows into Thailand.

Harvard is in USA last i heard ? Perfect English also a plus and probably hard to graduate Harvard without near perfect English.

How sad that the media has given total nut jobs the ability to raise millions of $$ by promoting conspiracy theories, lies, hate rhetoric to a bunch of people who don't have the mental capability to see through the smoke...people who will believe nearly everything because they read it on the internet or saw it on the "news". Politics especially on the right wing side has turned into a contest to see who can command the most attention and subsequent $$ by playing to people's ignorance and stupidity by positioning themselves as the most "entertaining". Of course many of them are simply copying the trump model of constantly being controversial, spewing hate, nicknames, outright lies, scorn for the very people that he appointed. It's all a big game that follows the path of "reality TV", Jerry Springer, and similar brain dead TV shows to attract ratings and $$. MTG and George Santos are but two more in a long line of grifters but their "success" in becoming "famous" will no doubt encourage even more of their kind. How sad that voters think this is the best they can elect to represent themselves.

i found many charming things there...the downtown clock tower, the night market, the river front park...but especially the slow pace and the charming simplicity of many of the residents, It was a wonderful experience for me for several years except the smoke months which are no fun anywhere.

Go live there and you may find out...or not.

Chiang Rai, Krabi.

interesting article...did not realize that Pita is a harvard grad, a single dad, and seems to wan to stop the coup train....fingers crossed he can clean up a lot of the messes over time https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/thailand-elections-pita-limjaroenrat-likely-prime-minister-single-dad-harvard-graduate-political-rockstar-move-forward-party-12596182.html

The reason it is done "quietly" is that even in Tn polls show that the majority of people want stricter gun controls but the repubs don't give a crap about what the people want as the suck up to the NRA and gun lobbyists. Thoughts and prayers don't stop bullets. Thoughts and prayers don't stop mentality sick people from buying and using guns to kill kids and anyone else they choose. Thoughts and prayers is code for "we are spineless wimps" scared to death that we might upset our right wing base.

So glad to see the anti "woke" republicans spending time and effort to deal with such hugely important matters like a disney movie....i guess they have solved all the really important stuff like child poverty, hunger, unemployment, income inequality, gerrymandering, corruption, roads, sewers. bridges, domestic abuse, teen pregnancies, judicial misbehavior, gun violence, crime, overcrowded prisons, and the myriad of other problems in florida and other states so now they can spend days watching disney movies and deciding which ones are ok..... yeah boy that is really what voters want elected officials to spend their time doing....the more stupid and outrageous the "cause" the more TV and social media attention they get....

maybe trump would just buy greenland and a few other countries like france, poland, new zealand and give them to his pal putin to "end the war"....hell why not throw in california.... end in a day? how nuke everyone? absurd statement by a fool believed only by brain dead trumpers.

"soared" then back to earth? 1 United States Dollar equals 33.96 Thai Baht May 16, 1:53 PM UTC · Disclaimer

Anyone ever try to guesstimate the amount of "fees" collected for jomtiem immigration agents over a year? Seems a $1000-1500 usd fee is fairly common to get one year visa/bank account/handled. And from reading threads and hearing farangs talk/brag/complain about how much they paid there are lots of customers around. So do the agents give half or more of their "fee" to the immigration officers who grease the wheels? Is it a flat fee per visa? Do the gals who actually sit and do the paper work get a cut or is only the big bosses who reap the rewards? i bet there are a lot of bmw's and mercedes and rolex watches owned by a lot of immigration officers and agents....if Thai govt actually wanted to clean it up i suspect about a one week investigation would identify the agents and the recipients of the funds....and yet it goes on in the open day after day after day.

So gas up the tanks, call the generals together and form a coup to "take back" the country from the voters and install a few new generals and back to business as usual. How dare the Thai people not support the generals who have proven to be so honest and caring and never ever any hint of corruption....SARCASM.. Let's appoint a real judiciary and take a look at some of the good generals bank accounts/assets and compare them to the pre coup days......and also take a look at deposits into various accounts by mr red bull.

With the added caution of "this conversation was taped"......that should be enough to worry republicans but of course they will twist themselves into pretzels to say that the conversation doesn't say what it clearly says.....roll the tapes.

Repubs will believe rumours and accusations from unknown unseen "spy" informants regarding biden but they will not believe hard evidence and audio and videos by dear leader who over and over incriminates himself all by himself because he can't shut his big flapping mouth....

Cue the conspiracy nut jobs. The informants are being held at graceland by elvis and a group of aliens and a gaggle of Salem witches....tune in to right wing podcasts for more details as soon as they can make them up.

easy enough to google charles schwab checking and read the details rather than speculate... .....i am not aware of any hidden charges.

Charles Schwab checking account reimburses all fees...but be careful as it is for US residents and if you are in thailand for long periods they may not continue the no fees policy.