Etaoin Shrdlu

I think post-nuptial contracts between spouses are not valid under Thai law or can be repudiated by either party at any time.

What I find most interesting about this scheme isn't necessarily the length of her sentence or how long she served, but who was taken in by this scheme and what happened when it went bust. The Wikipedia page does not go into these details for understandable reasons, but this information is available elsewhere on the internet with a bit of digging.

KSC, Thailand's first commercial ISP is still around, but got out of the personal email business a long time ago and I think they only provide corporate services now. I had a KSC email account for a number of years back in the 1990s. I guess only the likes of Google and Microsoft will be left as free email providers at some point.

This is small potatoes compared to the Mae Chamoy Thipyaso chit fund scheme that ran from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. When it unravelled, it threatened the solvency of some Thai banks. The perpetrator was eventually sentenced to 141,078 years in prison. Also very interesting to see how high up in Thai society the scheme managed to reach.

I've been to HCMC several times and at least one of our kids has been there, too. Daughter specifically asked for Hanoi. Where is most convenient to stay in Hanoi in order to get around and see the attractions? I'll sort pricing.

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Jack Russells are great dogs. Ours is ten years old now. Mrs. Shrdlu purchased him for the kids at a pet fair at a shopping mall, so I can't give advice on where to get one now. But good choice.

It may not seem very fair, but that's how US visa issuance works. Significant employment in Thailand or business ownership are factors that indicate a likelihood to return. This applies to the applicant and spouse/partner if there is one, especially if the spouse/partner isn't Thai.

The issue isn't financial support or how much money her partner has in the UK. The issue is her ties to Thailand and how likely she is to return. Having a foreign partner who has a good UK pension and money outside Thailand would actually increase the doubt in the consular official's mind about her returning. Why would she return if she and her partner aren't employed in Thailand and her partner has his assets and pensions outside Thailand?

It has always been difficult for single women to obtain a visa to visit the US. Not having significant formal employment works against her. Her partner's UK bank balance doesn't evidence strong ties to Thailand. She might have a better chance of success if she were able to demonstrate that her partner has been in Thailand for a number of years and either owns a company or has a good job. In such a case, being legally married to her partner would probably help. Good luck.

This company is an intermediary and not an insurance company. To its credit it is regulated by the FCA in the UK and they state that they would extend FCA protections on a voluntary basis to those who would not normally come within its scope. I believe they operate for the most part as a managing general agency for one particular insurer, although they do state they may use others in certain instances. An MGA usually has underwriting and claims-paying authority on behalf of the insurer with which they have their agreement. Drilling down into the policy wording, Expatriate Group does divulge the name and location of the insurance company that insures their plans: Guardrisk Insurance Company Mauritius Ltd PCC, authorised and regulated by the FSC in Mauritius (Registration number: C142417/C1/GBL). Here's a link to one of Expatriate Group's webpages that gives some info on Guardrisk in terms of size and Moody's credit ratings: https://www.expatriatehealthcare.com/information/underwriters/ I see that Guardrisk is rated Ba2 on a global scale by Moody's. This rating is stated by Moody's as non-investment grade or speculative. I don't have any insight into this company's claims-paying attitude.

Trump's all-American, God Bless the USA Bible: written by humans in the Middle East and printed in China. https://thehill.com/policy/international/4924319-trump-god-bless-the-usa-bibles-printed-in-china-records-show/

Three of our children will be visiting from the US in December and want to have a family holiday. My wife and kids are keen to go somewhere outside of Thailand. One daughter has suggested Hanoi. Can anyone give hotel recommendations or suggestions for activities and things to see? I think we'd plan on spending three nights there.

I don't know. A few serious Pastafarians might be fun.

I won't worry about a woman becoming President of the United States. I'm more concerned with the number of radical Catholics on the Supreme Court.

If God has an issue with this, He's free to write a formal letter to the Federal Election Commission asking for them to look into the matter. If the FEC does not receive a formal letter from God, then I guess there's nothing to be done.

Years ago, Mrs. Shrdlu suspended CDs on fishing line around the balcony and other parts of the house where pigeons used to congregate. She had heard that the CDs would repel the pigeons. I told her it would be futile because few pigeons could afford CD players and those that could might end up liking the music on the CDs and hang around even more. We finally solved the problem by installing strips of spikes on all window ledges and other horizontal surfaces as well as boarding up all areas under the eaves where they could nest. Haven't had any pigeons around the house in years.

No difference.

And to avoid "poisoning the blood", right?

As I said previously, I have no issue with having control over who comes into the US. My point is that mass deportation would have a severe negative impact on the US economy. While I found an article that supports the theory that some native Americans are affected by immigrant labor, I can't find any articles that say mass deportation would be a positive factor for the US economy or for any segment of the labor force. I am troubled by statements like "poisoning the blood of our country" used in reference to immigrants, which are quite reminiscent of the rhetoric of a certain Austrian fellow in the last century. These words rise above dog whistle.

In between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Tump honors the Jewish victims of October 7 by playing Village People's YMCA. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-ends-october-7-memorial-144146452.html Real class, huh?

I found many articles online that state that immigrant labor is a net positive for the US economy. This is but one example: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/do-immigrants-steal-jobs-from-american-workers/ Most articles with this viewpoint come from organizations that could be called "left of center", so I kept looking for articles that were written by organizations that come from the right of the political spectrum and found this: https://www.cato.org/blog/three-reasons-why-immigrants-arent-going-take-job Granted, Cato is Libertarian, but to me that's right-wing on steroids. Then I came across this economist's article in Politico: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216/ He's a bit of an outlier, but I find his arguments interesting. I note Borjas does not call for building a border wall or for mass deportation or curtailing immigration. Instead he seems to be in favor of redistributing the surplus profits that immigrant labor generates via taxes. Then I found this article that would seem to undermine at least part of Borjas's position: https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/immigrant-and-native-workers-compete-different-low-skilled-jobs I haven't yet found any serious articles from credible sources that promote the idea that mass deportation of immigrants is beneficial to America or to any segment of the labor force.

Why aren't the industries that currently rely upon "illegals" employing legal guest workers instead? Should there be harsher penalties for employing those without permission to work?

Bob Woodward is claiming in his new book that Trump secretly sent Covid test kits to Putin in 2020 when there was a shortage in the US. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/trump-secretly-sent-covid-tests-to-putin-during-2020-shortage-new-book-says/ar-AA1rTpf7 Perhaps this is thanks for the election interference that Russia carried out in 2016.

Felony, certainly. Misdemeanor? I would suggest applying the same standard as is used for non-citizens lawfully in the US. Some misdemeanors are deportable offenses, some are not always so. I agree that stricter border controls are necessary. A law was formulated to work towards that. It had bipartisan support including many Trump supporters in congress, but Trump killed it because it would destroy one of his talking points for his re-election campaign. Not sure about asylum seekers. Seekers of asylum due to political persecution at the hand of the government of their home country shouldn't be imprisoned. I'm thinking of those who were fortunate enough to leave Nazi Germany in the 1930s or defectors from the Soviet Union and similar. I suspect that there are similar situations today.I'm not sure that asylum is appropriate for those who are in reality economic migrants or are simply trying to get away from lawlessness in their home countries. I think a distinction needs to be made between having effective immigration policies, including better control of the border, and mass deportations.