Scott

Troll posts and replies removed.

Numerous off-topic posts and replies have been remove, some for posting false or misleading information others for trolling. This is the final warning. Continue to post unsubstantiated claims without a link to a credible source and you will face a suspension. The topic is about proof of vaccination for all arriving in Thailand.

Troll posts and those advocating illegal activity have been reported and removed.

Elon Musk said he would fix Twitter’s problem with impostors. The blue check mark on my fake U.S. senator suggests he still has a long way to go. On Tuesday, @SenatorEdMarkey briefly went viral on Twitter. Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the wife of Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), thanked @SenatorEdMarkey in a tweet that garnered 140,000 views. The problem is, @SenatorEdMarkey is actually me, not the real Sen. Edward J. Markey. It’s a test of Twitter’s $7.99 per month Blue “verification” service I made with the permission of the real Democrat from Massachusetts. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/05/twitter-blue-verification/

In a far-reaching move that could raise wages and increase competition among businesses, the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday unveiled a rule that would block companies from limiting their employees’ ability to work for a rival. The proposed rule would ban provisions of labor contracts known as noncompete agreements, which prevent workers from leaving for a competitor or starting a competing business for months or years after their employment, often within a certain geographic area. The agreements have applied to workers as varied as sandwich makers, hair stylists, doctors and software engineers. Studies show that noncompetes, which appear to directly affect roughly 20 percent to 45 percent of private-sector U.S. workers, hold down pay because job switching is one of the more reliable ways of securing a raise. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/business/economy/ftc-noncompete.html Also here: https://politicalwire.com/2023/01/05/u-s-moves-to-bar-noncompete-agreements/

Troll post removed.

When will Republican voters figure out how badly they’re getting screwed by Republican politicians? — Desperate workers struggle with soaring rents (courtesy of Republican-donor hedge funds); — lack of healthcare (12 GOP-controlled states still refuse to expand Medicaid for under-$15,000/year workers) is literally killing Americans; — wages have flatlined since Reagan declared war on workers in 1981 while the merely rich have become the morbidly rich; — Americans pay 10 times as much as Canadians for some drugs because Republicans block any effort to bring competition to that marketplace; — at the same time Trump and his GOP buddies in the House and Senate borrowed $1.7 trillion to fund a tax giveaway to his billionaire buddies, student debt passed the $1.7 trillion mark… Yet somehow the “conservative” base voters never seem to figure it out. https://www.rawstory.com/gop-voters-2659070034/

A troll post making unsubstantiated claims has been removed.

A landlord for Twitter filed a lawsuit late last week accusing the company of skipping out on $136,250 in rent payments for the 30th floor of an office tower at 650 California St. The landlord, Columbia Reit – 650 California LLC, says it served a default notice to Twitter on Dec. 16. Five days elapsed, and no payment was made, triggering the lawsuit. The landlord is seeking back rent, plus interest and attorney’s fees. Twitter and CrossInstall, an adtech startup it acquired in 2020, rented the 30th floor of 650 California under a seven-year lease signed in September 2017, according to a legal filing. https://sfstandard.com/business/twitter-sued-for-failing-to-pay-rent-at-san-francisco-office/

Ruby Freeman told the House select committee that Trump's false claims had unleashed a barrage of death threats that forced her to move and made her afraid to give her name, but the former president renewed those debunked allegations just days after a special grand jury in Fulton County wrapped up a criminal probe of his post-election conduct there. "Wow! Has anyone seen the Ruby Freeman 'contradictions' of her sworn testimony? Now this is 'BIG STUFF,'" Trump posted on his Truth Social website. " https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-launches-fresh-round-of-attacks-on-georgia-election-worker-ruby-freeman-now-it-gets-really-bad/ar-AA15V9ap

Troll posts removed. Please stay on topic or face a suspension. You have been warned.

H.R. McMaster, the former US national security advisor, said on Monday that he believed China's leader, Xi Jinping, was "preparing the Chinese people for war." Speaking on CBS' "Face The Nation," hosted by Margaret Brennan, McMaster said the US should take care "not to fall into the same traps we did with Vladimir Putin" when it came to the threat of conflict with China over Taiwan. He and several pundits, including Michèle Flournoy, the former undersecretary of defense for policy, were on the show discussing US foreign policy on various fronts, such as dealing with Iran, the war in Ukraine, and China. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-national-security-adviser-mcmaster-xi-preparing-chinese-people-war-2023-1

Chaos reigns in House as GOP fails to pick a Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid to become the next House Speaker fell short on Tuesday in a string of three consecutive votes, marking a chaotic opening to a new Congress — and dampening the Republicans’ celebration as they took control of the House for the first time since 2018. The GOP standoff — pitting McCarthy and his allies against a small but persistent group of conservative firebrands — led to a bizarre day of commotion and confusion on the House floor, where frustrated Republicans sniped internally, amused Democrats reveled in the GOP’s struggles and lawmakers of both parties were forced to consider multiple speaker ballots for the first time in a century. “Hunter Thompson was right: When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.). https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3797324-chaos-reigns-in-house-as-gop-fails-to-pick-a-speaker/

Omicron offshoot XBB.1.5 could drive new Covid-19 surge in US For weeks, scientists have been watching a slew of Omicron descendants duke it out for dominance of Covid-19 transmission in the United States, with the BQs – BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 – seeming to edge out all the others to claim a slight lead. The result has been a gradual rise in cases and hospitalizations that never seemed to reach the peaks of this summer’s BA.5 wave and was certainly nothing like the tsunami of illness caused by the original Omicron strain a year ago. But on Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 variant dashboard revealed a new dark horse that could soon sweep the field: XBB.1.5. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/03/health/covid-variant-xbb-explainer/index.html

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, setting up a high-stakes legal battle that pits him against two of his closest former business partners. The 30-year-old entrepreneur, who is out on a $250 million bond, was arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday, flanked by attorneys and with his mother, Barbara Fried, sitting behind him. Attorney Mark Cohen entered the plea of not guilty to all counts. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/03/business/sam-bankman-fried-plea

It is necessary for most schools running K-12 schools. It is only necessary for getting the Teacher's License. Quite a number of years ago, we had a teacher who had an MBA without a Bachelors. At that time, we were able to get him a TL, but I very much doubt we could do that now. We've had teachers who only had copies of their Master's Degree with them when they arrived in Thailand; the Krusapa did not accept them and they had to get the Bachelor's degree.

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Who is George Santos and why is he in trouble? Fraudulent claims of college degrees, a non-existent real estate portfolio and confusion over whether he's Jewish - or merely "Jew-ish" - are just some of the controversies New York Republican congressman-elect George Santos is facing on the day he's due to be sworn in. Before winning his race in the November midterm election, the 34-year-old billed himself as "the full embodiment of the American dream": An openly gay child of Brazilian immigrants who rose to the upper echelons of Wall Street before entering the world of politics. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64127827

If you work for most schools, you will need a Teacher's License and to obtain that you need a Bachelor's Degree in Education. If you are Thai, then the salary may be a problem. We had a number of teachers who had dual citizenship. Only one was actually paid the foreign wage. The rest got more than the Thai teachers did, but less than the Western teachers. Unfortunately, a lot of it depended on how Asian they looked.

Troll post removed.

Prince Harry is continuing to speak out regarding the rift in the British royal family. He sat down with Anderson Cooper for a “60 Minutes” interview, described by CBS as Prince Harry’s “first U.S. television interview to discuss his upcoming memoir ‘Spare’ and recount his childhood, the loss of his mother and life as the Duke of Sussex living in the UK and now in America.” In a clip released Monday, Cooper asked Prince Harry about the criticism aimed at him and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, regarding their decision to step back from their royal duties, but air their grievances about what led to the move publicly. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/02/entertainment/prince-harry-anderson-cooper-interview/index.html

A second ballot for House speaker is underway after Rep. Kevin McCarthy fell short on votes in the first ballot – something that hasn’t happened since 1923. McCarthy has already lost more votes than he can afford in the second round of the speaker vote. At least 218 votes are needed, but the number required could change if members withhold their votes. https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/new-congress-sworn-in-2023/index.html]

Off-topic, troll post reported and removed.

An attack on a prison on Sunday morning in the Mexican border town of Juarez left 19 dead and allowed a cartel kingpin to escape along with two dozen other prisoners, authorities said Monday. An armed group, traveling in armored vehicles, launched almost-simultaneous attacks on the prison and the municipal police station, Defense Minister Luis Crescencio Sandoval said in a news conference. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-01-03/Death-toll-rises-to-19-from-prison-attack-in-Mexican-border-town-1ghKbVUMdWw/index.html

Conspiratorial post reported and removed.