John Drake

This photo is from 2014 according to the cut lines. I'd like to see a photo of the group in question. Wonder why it's not included?

Might even get a government NGO grant to improve his "services."

The fact that the decision refers to Harry Windsor as "the Duke" does in itself denote preferential treatment, as the US legal system and immigration does not recognize foreign titles. As Gemini AI put it: "While the U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal government from granting titles of nobility and restricts government officials from accepting foreign titles without Congressional consent, U.S. courts do not generally recognize or enforce foreign royal titles in a legal context." For most of my life, when you referred to "the Duke," you were talking about John Wayne.

I really don't know how much lower Trump can go. He is making the US the junior partner of Russia, which is the junior partner of China. So the US is now a jr. jr. partner. He is humiliating the country, while conducting the most immoral foreign policy he can.

The Thai trade surplus with the US is just about the same size as the Thai trade deficit with China.

Toldyaso. "And he's going to govern so incompetently that the Democrats sweep congress in 2026 and AOC becomes president in 2028."

RFA was important. It brought in some of the best minds in DC for dealing with Southeast Asia. See, for instance, Zachary Abuza. https://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/vietnam-humor-10102022175726.html https://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/vietnam-politics-03122023093639.html

China will be happy. Say hello to Xi, Elon.

No doubt Trump is doing considerable damage to this alliance. And don't discount what damage the alternative will be. There are calls to buy European at the moment. But just wait once all these national European firms clear the field for themselves. They'll turn on each other, as they usually do, because the Germans and the French will try to manipulate things solely for their benefit. Remember what the Germans did to exploit the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) during the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

Look up The Night of the Sparrows, part of Mao's Four Pests Campaign. The Chinese tried to eradicate the sparrow because they feared that it ate their grain. According to Wikipedia: "Sparrow nests were destroyed, eggs were broken, and chicks were killed. Millions of people organized into groups, and hit noisy pots and pans to prevent sparrows from resting in their nests, with the goal of causing them to drop dead from exhaustion. In addition to these tactics, citizens also simply shot the birds down from the sky with slings or guns. The campaign depleted the sparrow population, pushing it to near extinction within China." As a result, the insects that the sparrows helped control ended up getting out of hand and enhancing crop and ecological damage.

Didn't Sweden just sell a bunch of fighters to Thailand? We all know that once something gets into Thailand, it also goes straight to China. That's why the US refused to give Thailand F35s and only wanted to allow them to have relatively safely controlled avionics in updated F16s. China will end up with all the information on vulnerabilities of Swedish jets before most of the European customers ever get delivery.

The US kicked Turkey out of the F35 program years ago. Just recently the Turks were trying to get back in. But they were not part of the program anyway. https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/foreign-policy/1261246/f-35-window-opens-again-for-turkey/

And this is why the British are going to lose and see their country colonized.

I wonder if they think, "well, that takes care of that, now about those American companies and their data centers . . . ."

Human rights with Thai characteristics.

The names will leak out. And before they do, there will be speculation that will widen the scope. Things will look even worse. And there will be follow up actions, I believe. Tariffs incoming.

Is being a "football fan" an occupation or identity? Is this usual in the UK?

Something else may be at work. Xi just might be calling some of his people home. It has been part of China's foreign policy to seed other countries with Chinese immigrants as a sort of beachhead for industrial sabotage and technology theft. In the US, recently, several tenured and entrenched Chinese professors have resigned from their American university jobs to return to China to work. The final face-off over Taiwan may be a year or less away from happening. China is shifting to a war economy and needs its brains at home, while its agents and operative remain embedded. Mass tourism of Chinese tourists all across Asia is a problem in this scenario. Xi probably doesn't want mass panic during an armed conflict causing them to rush back home and overwhelm airports and shipping terminals, which will be needed to focus on military matters.

This is an excellent point! Chinese infrastructure and building expansion is all relatively brand new. Things look like shiny and attractive when their new. The difficulty, as everyone in Asia knows, is maintenance. The Japanese are excellent at it. I think the Koreans do well, too. But how will China do over the next twenty years as repair and replace becomes more heavily required than putting up new railways, apartments, office buildings and airports?

I've not dealt with Chinese mass tourism. But I have dealt with Chinese individuals and Chinese graduate students (aged 25 to 49) in Thailand. And I like them. They are a disciplined high IQ people. And they do not exhibit the entitlement my American and European students constantly displayed when I worked in the US and Germany. OTOH I do despise Xi and China's government. But before we blame them too much, we ought to look at the people who gave them the key to the cookie jar, the Clintons and the Bushes in the US. I imagine there is an equal set of European profiteers who sold out their countries to the Chinese, too.

How many European countries will now work side deals to ignore this EU action and try to get a trade advantage for themselves?

Rubio just noticed Thailand. That means others in the administration involved with tariffs and investigating companies helping China evade sanctions will take notice too.

A couple of days ago the report was that Chinese by the millions were coming.

The point is you cannot use MySocialSecurity to change your bank account as of 29 March, when phone service is disallowed for that purpose. That's because when you click on the link, it goes to a "contact us" link, which gives you the 1-800 number.

Many others won't be in the clear. And there are always reasons that may come up that require you to change your bank and thus bank account. If that happens, you're out of luck. And Elon could not care less.