Presnock

22 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

The locals reflect the local people. Replacing them will change nothing. This is Thai culture. Their lives need to get much worse for here to be change.

This is totally correct.  Since the pollution doesn't normally manifest itself quickly, the illnesses show up as one ages and then it is too late to fix it easily if at all.  

On 3/3/2025 at 1:41 PM, Presnock said:

basically it all comes down to how simple one's finances are in my case tax forms (2years and just the 1st page), one letter from my health insurer providing proof of at least 50K coverage and my passport pages.  DId all on my computer at home, within 3 weeks had the LTR.  I wasn't concerned with the taxes on income as mine is a US govt civil service pension but do like no 90-day reports, getting bank letters, etc plus yearly visit if necessary for address confirmation seems almost too easy based on all the years of retirement O.  Glad they came out with the 50% cheaper too.

I just did my first year report of address to the BOI immigration - less than 10 minutes total including waiting in line at the immigration info booth.  super easy just download  the form fill it out at home and either take it to the immigration or send it via your wife or an agent or whatever.  too easy for sure!!

3 hours ago, Yagoda said:

Based on what we see, nothing. The only CRAP they have is nukes. Its not what you have, its how its used and how successful it is.

 

By the way, the NSA and Justice Department is looking into how Mr. Goldberg got into the chat. Could it be surmised he hacked in? 

 

Question everything. Read everything. Listen to everything.

They might try to claim that and since "they" now run the agencies, it would be interesting if they tried to bring charges against him.  I myself think that they would lose in the long run but anything to keep everyone guessing, "What next?"

1 minute ago, BLMFem said:

Don't denigrate yourself. We know you're fairly sharp. Well, sharper than Pete anyway.

I would certainly hope so or would have to put 'er on the ignore list.  But so far seem sharper than the average user here which of course isn't that great a complement I guess. but I do mean smarter than the average bear!

55 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghanistan.

 

All of a sudden you care a lot about Kabul?

 

Where were you when Chimpy invaded?

 

Believe or not I was against going into Aghanistan.  I was in the minority. 

 

We shouldn't have gone in there in the first place.  Common sense.  You can't change cavemen mentality.

 

After 9/11, 90% supported Bush's military action in Aghanistan.

 

One redneck in a bar in Flagstaff almost punched me out after he told me he was proud to be American.

 

I told him no one chooses where they're born.

Be it in the slums of Calcutta or the middle of nowhere cowtown Arizona. 

 

Oh, the seething anger.

 

Do MAGA Jeniuses all think self-determination of birthplace is some kind of divine right only for themselves? 😄

 

All that was necessary about sending troops to Afghanistan was to read Michner's "Caravans" - then look how the Brits  and Russian military did and the results of those two.  By sending any troops there, was to be sentencing them to death and giving the local non-Taliban-ISIS troops false promises.  A total waste of men and money.

Just now, MadAtMatrix said:

They added the guy KNOWING he would leak this to show Europe that the US is fed up with propping them up. After all of the cuts Trump is doing, you don’t think that this was planned? 

I don't think he has to plan any of thes antics, just knowing how amateuristic they all are to government operations, they can screw it up in way too many ways for a plan to work. that is my opinion of the whole Trump team 

8 hours ago, flyingtlger said:

They might not admit it but Thailand will always bend the knee to China.

There's too much financial and economical stake to lose in getting on their bad side........

 

 

 

They even mentioned that in their responses to the press when asked about it!

1 hour ago, candide said:

 

See links in my post above....

no need to hack just down load and listen to the idiots speak

1 hour ago, Yagoda said:

OK. So so far it seems like this so called journalist may have been part of a chat, either invited deliberately, invited inadvertently, or via surreptitious entry.

 

No CLASSIFIED war plans were involved.

 

Now let me game this thing out: Putin and Trump are negotiating Ukraine. Telegram is Russian, and we have a so called "journalist" involved. And it all entails a strike on the Houthis.

 

Wherein we used this for the first time: https://www.twz.com/air/super-hornets-are-now-carrying-stormbreaker-glide-bombs-on-combat-missions

 

45 mile range on moving targets in bad weather or the dark. How do you like that Russian Mobile Radars and missile systems and T-34s?

 

Perhaps, only perhaps.... lets see.....Hey look  Vlad, they are gonna strike this and that..in the DARK? Nyet, they cannot.

 

Wow, now its all smoking wreckage. Nice lesson to you huh, Vlad. Looky, we have a new bomb just PERFECT for your stuff.

 

Things on this level are not always what it seems. However, if you steal the opponents game plan and still lose, dont think you are going to the Super Bowl.

 

Now watch the sad and confused emojis come in from folks who dont want to think outside their bubble.

When your coach is actually playing for the opposing team to win, one has to realize why the strange use of amateurs to run the team.  It seems more and more obvious to me but that is my opinion and I can only base that on my life experiences and what I see since Trump moved back into the WH.  So far, he has proven to me that my opinion is correct so far, yeah it may change but I really don't believe that it will.  At least not in my lifetime.

1 minute ago, Yagoda said:

Yet you will whitewash the Afghan withdrawal.

Never, Biden and the generals were blindsided due to poor intel on the Taliban.  Trump negotiated the deal with those people with whom anybody with half a brain would know that those folks still live in the stone age and will not be coming out of it in the next AGE that might pass by.  I knew from just listening to the generals and troop leaders there and knowing all that had transpired aftre Michner's "Caravans" had not changed the country, neither the Brits, Russians nor Americans with allies, could ever change them.  They want their women to be slaves and nothing but slaves, the most recent law passed was that women had to cover their eyes too so that they never met the eyes of any strange male.  Having lived in a fundamentaist enclave for a couple of years I fully understand where they are coming from and to where they are going.

1 minute ago, Yagoda said:

Got the statements? Actual statements?

I am not going to go over all that I have read since the incident to find particular statements.  If you google news casts then they could pop out off many probably as all the neworks have been working this.

5 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

100% OPSEC.  We are currently clean on OPSEC.

 

He's like a little boy using a big word he doesn't know what it means. 😄

 

OPSEC (Operational Security) is a risk management process that involves identifying, analyzing, and protecting critical information to prevent adversaries from exploiting it. 

 

 

Acutally, IMHO you just described the current heads of the US govt - like a little boy and in truth, a bunch of amateurs being given the keys to the our security system.  Who has any real idea of what they have already violated nor how much they will continue to violate while they try to determine how their particular agency is supposed to fit into the secure system.  To me, SCARY!

12 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Based on what we see, nothing. The only CRAP they have is nukes. Its not what you have, its how its used and how successful it is.

 

By the way, the NSA and Justice Department is looking into how Mr. Goldberg got into the chat. Could it be surmised he hacked in? 

 

Question everything. Read everything. Listen to everything.

WEll, yesterday the leaders of the group said that Goldberg's whole story was a hoax that the discussions mentioned never took place.  Of course then they realized that they had been caught but being billionaires, they knew that Trump wouldn't penalize any of them so they said yeah but no US personnel were injured or killed so what if we discussed it in non-secure systems?

2 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Not sure what you mean. Signal is a free app - I'm selling my home, my Realtor and I use it.

 

And it is NOTHING that should EVER be used for official US gubmint communication.

EXACTLY! but to the amateurs running the agencies in the US government today, they can only understand the ad that SIGNAL is secure.  Every day at least one of the newbies shows just how ignorant they are in their new position as head of an agency based on amount of money one has, not loyalty or experience in a particular field.  MHO anyway from the bleachers!

2 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Does ANY hacker loudly proclaim "Hey look everybody - I hacked a signal account!"

???

Thinking is such a lost art.

I think SIGNAL is an app that anyone can download, that is why "classified" material at any level is forbidden!  

15 minutes ago, hughrection said:

I like this definition better ...... Wildfire A wildfire, or forest fire, is an unplanned, uncontrolled fire in an area of flammable vegetation.

 

The fires in Thailand are planned and so don't come under this definition. IMHO. 🙂

yes the penalties when they do catch the one setting the fires is not worthy enough to make them actually stop doing it! That i my opinion of course and hope the govt can make it worthwhile to have them stop doing i!

20 hours ago, JimmyJoe said:

You don't want a "marriage visa" unless you intend to live permanently in the US.  It's not for temporary visits, takes a year or two (or maybe more now, who knows), and costs a few thousand dollars.

 

It can be difficult for a Thai married to an American to get a tourist visa.  They will assume your plan is to live in the US permanently, and you are just trying to avoid the long expensive process of getting a marriage visa.  To have a chance at getting a tourist visa she will need to show strong ties to Thailand and have a strong reason to return.  If she has a job, owns property, has kids or aging parents in Thailand that she needs to return to, she will have a chance to get a tourist visa.  

 

The process is outlined on the US embassy website.  There is nothing any visa service can do for you except hold your hand while you complete the process.

I, a former US Embassy Thailand assignee (4 tours) wanted to go with wife to take daughter to college (scholarship and acceptance) and yessir they said NO because she was married to a citizen and therefore probably would not return to Thailand so they said had to process for a green card - during the Afghan exidus - over a 500K backup in immigration with maybe 30-35K processable a month!  I am not exaggerating at all!  It took 13 months for our approval, and then she would still have to go to the Embassy consulate for an interview.  Our daughter said what a joke! and opted to go to Chulalongkorn University, #1 in Thailan and 1/10 the cost compared to what i t would have cost in the US.  Getting a B of Arts so acceptable paper and then masters in a Seoul Umiversity.  We'll see.  But anyway, I have seen others express how easy it was for them or how difficult but for me and former employee there and treated as such just made me mad.  Now I note that the Trump team is going shutter a lot of consulates throughout the world - seeing that huge CM building, I wonder if that will get a bit of the chopping block.  But for any US citizen wanting to take thei Thai wife, good luck - if she is working in Thailand at a good job, owning the house, cars etc - then possibly but I doubt it.  Too many people got them and then had problems.  I understand that during the VN war when US soldiers were stationed in Thailand and got married and took the wives to the US, there was a "waiting list at the Thai consulates in the US of 5-6 hundred Thai spouses every day " wanting to come back to Thailand and that began the problem for people still today.

9 minutes ago, hughrection said:

They need to start with the thousands of fires that are currently burning in Thailand ( see satellite images) and then go from there. It will have an influence.

Will they do it - it's a big fat No.

Today, someone in Laos remarked that with the change in wind from the south to that from the NE( China, VN) laos is heavily polluted today!  Last week NE Thailand was complaining because of Laotian and Maymar burning across the border causing pollution in the Norht and North East of Thailand.  One country can cause pollution throughout the region, not stop it except in a very small area. 

17 hours ago, SingAPorn said:

Bangkok is a disaster of pollution at toxic levels.  and nothing is done to enhance public transport and mainly to discourage people from taking their private cars. Same in other places like Hua Hin where public transport is a disaster and no proper connections between Hua Hin and surrounding villages like Hin Lek Fai that have large communities living and commuting to Hua Hin center.

Did you forget that week of free train rides as the government knew of predicted high pollution levels and advised people to forgo vehicles - trains were packed daily! but pollution still reigned.  Until all the nations in S. Asia can stop the burning it will continue!  Just saying, I see the govt issuing high pollution alerts daily or as needed in each of the provinces, plus high temperature readings, and possibility of summer storms so at least they are aware of this problem but I think they also realize that unless all of S. Asia agrees to stop all the burning, there is little else the government can do.  BUT, masks N95, N99 and others can block out most of the 2.5 micron pollutants but I see very few westerners wearing them while my family does use the air purifiers in all rooms of our house plus whenvever we go outside we wear our masks.  I so see a few Thais wearing them but a lot of that is because they are required to wear them at work.  Funnuy how many on this forum complain bout this problem but how many actually wear masks when outside and use air purifiers in their abodes?