MicroB

Interestingly, the UK has links to Ukraine that go way back. Donetsk was founded in 1870, but it wasn't called Donetsk then. It was called Hugheskova, after the man who founded the city, John Hughes. Welsh migrants to the area established the Russian metallurgy industry. 70 years before Hughes, a Yorkshireman Charles Gascoigne founded what is now called Luhansk, setting up an iron foundary there. What he did there was make guns for Catherine the Great. Ironically, many of the captured Russian cannons on display around the UK, were made by Gascoigne. And it was a young Welsh journalist who brought to international attention the Holodomor. https://www.garethjones.org/

I'm a microbiologist of over 35 years standing (yikes, has it been that long). During that time, I worked developing ways to detect the worst pathogens known to man, and unknown to man. I was also a biological safety officer for a major Plc (in addition to being a senior researcher). These days I preach microbiology from an office. We started talking about this virus in early January 2020, and, as you do, speculate about its origins. 98% of the microbial world is completely unknown, The potential for new diseases is infinite. The world only starts picking up on them well into the infection's development. Many burn out, without making a single headline. Take MERS; this was another coronavirus, related to SARS, and related to Sars-Cov-2. It made the headlines around the world when some elderly Saudi was evacuated to London with a respiratory illness, and an Anglo-Dutch team identified the virus. MERS has an incredibly high mortality rate. But at least 6 months before this virus was identified, I was writing articles on the Amman cluster, where some doctors and ER nurse died following a short respiratory illness. It seemed significant to me at the time, and later on was confirmed to be MERS. MERs had the potential to cause a frightening pandemic, and for a few years, we were anxiously keeping an eye on the annual haj, and the potential for new cases. But they never happened. Its not gone away, there are still cases. His high mortality rate probably limits forward transmission, But MERS appeared following a change in human behaviour. All emerging infectious diseases follow the same path. Flu, an avian virus, impacted humans farming pigs 2000+ years ago. It was about the time when someone invented the pig sty, rather than taking the pigs out to forage. MERS emerged because of the wealth of the Gulf. It became commonly associated with elderly Arab men who kept a few camels. Saudi Arabia imports camels, due to rising demand for camel meat, camels for racing and for old men wishing to keep a few camels around after retiring from a prosperous job. The camels mostly come from the Canaries, Australia (the feral Afghan camels) and Sudan. The MERS virus was only found in Sudanese camels. The change in human behaviour was Saudi Arabia now being full of wealthy old men pining for something resembling the Bedu lifestyle in old age (ie the good old days). and all buying camels. The story of COVID-19, and its origins, will occupy entire lifetimes. We still do not know exactly where Spanish Flu came from, thought there is strong circumstantial evidence that it emerged in China in 1917 (newly discovered old Chinese medical records), about the time the British and French were recruiting coolies to serve on the Western Front, and these coolie battalions were then shipped via Canada and Kansas. What really caused this virus to take off, besides the unusual act of mostly young Chinese men being shipped off to France, was the end of WW1. There was a priority to evacuate men in the hospitals home. Other soldiers remained at their posts, allowing a virus to circulate among relatively fit men living in close proximity, leading to recombination events, and selection of a strain with heightened virulance. After 120+ years, we are getting closer. As for COVID-19, my working theory why this EID becames a pandemic so quickly was, again, due to a change in human behaviour, this time "Globalisation". Wuhan, by 2020, had become part of a global supply chain for the textiles and car parts industries, leading to particular traffic between Wuhan and Italy. The city's residents had become much more properous, and were enjoying a lifestyle far better than during their parents in the 1960s, when there was genuine hunger. Part of this means indulging in exotic meats. This prosperity attracted the attention of Western banks, who has invested heavily into the surrounding farming sector, pushing traditional farmers out onto lands not farmed before, increasing the chances of first contact with novel disease causing organisms. The increased farming activity has also driven up demand for fertiliser. The area is well known for bat guano deposits, that itinerant miners excavate. Let it be remembered that coronaviruses circulate among the bat community Bats has really slow immune systems, and these viruses don't really bother them. There are a number of scenarios for transmission. Wuhan is a prosperous city, with more more coming from the rural area. One reason is to bring in livestock for the wet market. There is more prospect of human to human contact, and livestock to human contact. Then you have all the international visitors. One cannot disregard the laboratory, but as a microbiologist with experience of the kinds of facilties involved, I find it incredibly unlikely. Some assume if it came from the lab, it must be some sort of engineered strain. well, maybe, probably not. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has a number of functions. One of which is to conduct research on novel pathogens. Around the world, in the major metropolises, you will find research institutes looking at some of the nastiest pathogens know. For instance, Colindale in London, is one of Health England's main reference labs, the other being the civvie lab at Porton Down. Where my lab was, was in one of the Home Counties close to London, and it was a private lab. The other function of the Wuhan lab was as a reference lab, meaning they received clinical samples coming from hospital labs for further investigation. Every city will have at least one hospital, and typically, that hospital will have a pathology laboratory, which will include a virology section. In those labs, the scientists are deliberately propagating viruses to identify them. That means producing millions up millions of viruses. And mostly this will be in fairly open bench BSL2 and BSL3 labs; the scientists aren't usually wearing breathing apparatus. Hazardous work can be conducted in open front laminar flow cabinets venting to atmosphere via a HEPA filter. So a lab origin might be from a BSL 4 research lab, a lab that was newly built by a French firm, and which was apparently in good corder, with a combination of physical and non-physical (ie training) controls in place. Another origin would be from the reference lab, which would be at a lower standard, but there are still controls in place. If reference labs didn't have controls for BSL-2 labs, then why aren't they the source of STDs in your city? But lab leaks do occur, when someone circumvents a control. The last smallpox death in the UK was in 1978, a forensic photographer in Birmingham. The photographer's office was below a lab looking at Smallpox. For many years it was thought poorly maintained ducting was to blame. But this has been ruled out. As a result of death, the head of the Birmingham Medical School microbiology department took his own life. He had been harassed by the Press and others, who accused him of genetically manipulating the Smallpox virus, utter nonsense. Where it emerged from; its still most likely a zoonitic infection. 60% of all human infections have crossed the species barrier

They didn't falsify a medical using a corrupt physician.

It has to be noted that the photos (there are more) were taken after he had left the marines, which was a time which Hamel stated "taught me how to live like an adult". If the photos were taken at Ohio State, then he was 23-24 and working for a Republican senator. Hi jinks at uni when you are 18-19, fine, its how Prime Minister David Cameron largely got away with the story how he inserted his member into a severed pigs head while at uni. Apparently all students do this. At 24, one is supposed to be a responsible adult. But the photos are not from Ohio, where maybe he was an immature 24 year old, but from Yale, when he was aged 28 years, a postgraduate. former marine with experience in a combat zone, and who volunteered to work for politicians. Context is everything of course. It was a party, where a variety of costumes were available, and he went for the tranvestite look (but with his pudgy face, he's no Lily Savage). But context is everything. At age 8, Hamel thought he was a homosexual. He discussed this with his grandmother, who's married name he would later adopt while at Yale, dressed in drag. How did the Grandmother deal with the confused little boy? By asking him if he wanted to conduct fellatio on a man to prove he was a homosexual. That is not normal, and no wonder his own mother ended up a drug addict with a mother like that, a grandmother who Hamel apparently worships. He grew up in a highly sexualised household where little boys knew the ins and outs of homosexual sex, and were taught crude sexual language from a young age. Now it doesn't really matter if he experimented at University following an abusive childhood. What matters is that it reveals hypocrisy. He's generally against LBGTQ rights, same gender marriage. He also at one time compared Trump to Hitler. Is he that fluid in his principals? And if Trump is elected, its pretty likely the man previously known as Hamel will end up with his finger on the proverbial button following the 25th Amendment (Trump is obese, plus has family history of dementia. Obesity accelerates dementia onset. His father was a pretty thin man). Trump thinks it doesn't matter who is the VP; it does. The VP is an elected role, and Trump can't fire him when in office. We are now reminded of this image (Mayor Guliani in drag. Guliani was later caught on camera attempting to masturbate in front of someone he thought was a vulnerable woman who was looking for help) Maybe Hamel reminded Trump of a character in his favourite Lectar movie, ie. Buffalo Bill in his woman suit.

This was the allegation coming from James Hamel. James Hamel needs to explain how he managed only 6 months in Iraq out of 4 years service, mostly photographing birthday cakes, handshakes and oil changes, while fellow marines were enduring on average 14 month tours. Hamel also needs to explain why he decided not to transfer to the Marine Reserve, despite being a fit young man. He has to explain why after leaving the Corp, he took a conscious decision, as a grown man, to eschew the name he was known as while a Marine to take the name of his maternal Grandfather. Hamel was a good enough name when he joined the Marines, why was he so ashamed of it as he tried to break into Venture Capitalism? Afraid someone would remember him? 15% of WW2 veterans never picked up a rifle, but they were important to the effort. Today, 40% of service members will never deploy to a combat zone. Of those 60%, only 10% see any combat. But all are important. In the age of drones, those in the backend will increase, and their importance will increase. My late father served in the British army for 25 years, and was called back to the Colours for Operation Granby. Afterwards, he finally stood down. if he was still around, he'd punch out the lights of any armchair general who'd call him a deserter. He did his duty. All service people are deserving of respect, no matter what era they were in; if anything, its the reservists and part timers who are most deserving. During moments of national crisis, they perform the unenviable task of juggling two lives. My good American friend, a professor at a State University, has now seen 23 years service, after joining the Army Reserve folowing 911. He has spent 15 years on deployment, rising to unit command. All that time, he has worked in his educational duties at two colleges, thanks to online capabilities. Hamel, when he went to Iraq, was noted to be right away studying online at Ohio State for the day he would be an ex-Marine. As soon as he joined, he was already planning to leave. Good for him. As a kid at the time, I remember 1981. That was when we were being prepped for WW3, told how to build bomb shelters in our homes, as tensions ratcheted between the USSR and USA. Walz, like a similarly aged Hamel 24 years later, took the proverbial shilling to service his country. If Walz didn't do that, like thousands of reservists and National Guardsmen at the time, there is a possibility that Hamel literally wouldn't exist in 2024, or he'll be Russian speaking. Walz was deployed to Italy in 2003 as a Battle Casualty Replacement for Afghanistan. He went in the full expectation that he could be sent to Afghanistan to fill in a wrecked and combat ineffective unit that had been mullered at the hands of the Taliban. Hamel is now complaining not enough Americans died in Afghanistan so that Walz would have been sent there? Hamel says he is fully transparent about his service. We have to take his word for that. We have no idea how he managed to serve so little in Iraq during his service. Why he decided to leave. Why he didn't transfer to the reserve. Why, during one Enlistment, and not being short of a few braincells (evidenced by is later Law degree), he only managed E-4; not exactly a stand out record for someone who wishes to be VP. What Hamel did in Iraq https://static.dvidshub.net/media/pubs/pdf_0376.pdf https://www.dvidshub.net/news/5060/houston-native-comes-full-circle-iraq https://www.dvidshub.net/image/11887/vmgr-252-air-crews-make-mission-possible-iraq https://static.dvidshub.net/media/pubs/pdf_0357.pdf https://static.dvidshub.net/media/pubs/pdf_6564.pdf Hamel needs to explain why he voted against expanding VA benefits. Which Walz might benefit from; his military service meant he lost hearing due to artillary fire. When he re-enlisted in 2001, following 911 (and when his first born arrived), he had to go to a medical board to appeal against being thrown out due to medical disability. Hamel is a vain man. He didn't like people laughing at him about supposed masturbation on a sofa. You can tellhe's vain because of that ridiculous beard he wears, to hide that pudgy chinless face. Plus all the eyeliner he wears (Trump likes men not afraid to wear makeup). Hamel threw the stones first. Maybe more details will emerge of the 3.5 years he wasn't in Iraq and at Cherry Point.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/11/far-right-disorder-had-clear-russian-involvement-says-ex-mi6-spy https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/11/uk-two-tier-treats-far-right-attacks-less-harshly-islamist-violence-rusi

I'm assuming from your user name you are not from Europe, and probably don't really understand that Winters in Europe can be quite cold, hence your assumption that t-shirts only are often worn a European winter. Some reading for you https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matteo-Mattavelli-2/publication/295918492_Develpment_of_a_Glaciological_Spatial_Data_Infrastructure_to_assess_glaciers_response_to_climatic_fluctuations/links/56d0816d08ae4d8d64a38fc0/Develpment-of-a-Glaciological-Spatial-Data-Infrastructure-to-assess-glaciers-response-to-climatic-fluctuations.pdf?origin=publication_detail&_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6Il9kaXJlY3QiLCJwYWdlIjoicHVibGljYXRpb25Eb3dubG9hZCIsInByZXZpb3VzUGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIn19

Isn't Donald Trump her opponent? If you are referring to Tim Walz; the draft in the US ended in 1973 by President Nixon. In 1973, Tim Walz was 9 years old. Are you advocating that the US military needs to recruit child soldiers. And looking Trump's running mate, the man currently named James Vance. He apparently had a tour of 6 months in Iraq in 2005. At the time, that wasn't a full tour; typically it was 14-19 months, later 12 months. Why did Vance/Hamel get special treatment in leaving early, when other Marines had to endure far longer. He was a Marine photographer. What did he do there? Well, some of the photos he took in the combat zone. Steel yourself. Its strong stuff. He doesn't appear to have stepped foot outside of Al Asad Airbase during his his entire truncated tour. The biggest risk he faced waspaper cuts. He did 4 years service, and somehow only did 6 months soft duties deployment during all that time. From 2003-2010, my brother did 3 tours of Iraq and 2 in Afghanistan. A good friend of mine has done 22 year in the US Army Reserve, Nominally, he is a university professor, but he ended up 15 years deployed overseas, mostly Middle East. What connections did Chubby Vance/Hamel that allowed him to shirk his duty in return for a free university degree? Not exacty how Marine photographers were portrayed in Full Metal Jacket Tampon fact; now part of Russian combat first aid kit. You shove them into bullet holes.

A very long video, but one that showed the Rotherham riot, and how it developed from a shouting match between two groups into full blown lets-kill-the police barbarity; 1. The Thin Blue Line at one point was very thin. The hotel has roads on 3 sides and a carpark to the rear, and police were effectively under siege as the mob moved around to probe weaknesses. It took a while for the police to receive reinforcements from the BTP and establish a proper cordon. I thought the police were amazingly stoic throughout all this. Chatting amicably to members of the public, even with the rioters. I hoped they took down the masked guy in the skinny grey trackie. He seemed particularly deserving some time at His Majesty's Pleasure. 2. The power of a police dog or two. A couple of dogs rabbed a rioting lad and took him down. The experience immediately drained his bravado so much he was then led away by a single copper with a firm grasp of his wrist. 3. The age of the protestors was surprising; a lot of 40-60 somethings prancing about. An OAP couple claimed they were only there because they had lost their winter fuel allowance to pay for the asylum seekers. But the husband was then seen prancing around in front of the police line with all the manner of someone who had done this before. 4. The Right Wingers (or whatever you want to call them) seemed curiously obsessed about Paedophillia. You see, they thought it was a good idea to bring their kids along to day out (and I saw a few hiding behind their kids at times), but accused all the media and youtubers as being "pedos" trying to film their kids. One cameraman was violently assaulted during this. And at one time, there was a placard blaming Jimmy Saville. 5. Horrific moment was when some of the mob were able to enter the hotel, and the cameraman managed to film an unmasked thug gleefully tossing a lighter to another, as they attempted to set fire to a hotel housing 200 people. I was someone unnerved by the demographics of the rioters. I've had first hand experience of riots in Belfast, and their the rioters are mostly youth, with older guys at the back handing out the molotovs and directing their foot soldiers. In Rotherham, the rioters seemed to be mostly tatoo'd 40 somethings, or ever those in their 50s. People who ought to know better. Lock 'em up.

First rioters appearing in court. Backgrounds seem very Victorian https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/live-updates-court-violent-disorder-29678441 In the past, this lot would have been deported to the Colonies (which meant living in a prison ship for upto 2 years, while they filled it, before sailing). Where to put them. Could be some rich irony. In 1982, the MOD chartered the Bibby Venture and the Bibby Resolution to serve as floating barracks in the Falklands. These were later sold to New York City as Prison ships during a period of over crowding. Later the Resolution was sold back to the UK, and became HMP Weare at Portland. The ship later became oil worker accomodation in Nigeria, and apparently survives. More recently, the idea was revived with the Bibby Stockholm, to house migrants undergoing processing to determine their legal status. Apparently it provides very comfortable accomodation. Its now being decommissioned; while the decision was taken by the incoming government, really there have been months of objection from Dorset residents. Perhaps it should be repurposed as a floating prison for these rioters, a return to the traditional values that presumably drove them to destroy property and people. Mail bag sewing is a bit passe, but I think Holiday Inn has some laundry that needs hemming.

I will be very surprised if any of the rioters have "tried the democratic approach", ie, have voted. Did democracy fail in 1919, or did the rioters have a noble cause?

And probably all of the rioters didn't bother.

And sunk if he gets in. You lot are stuck it seems. Of course, you have 33 senatorial seats up for grabs. That also affcts the path the US takes. I can't explain Trump's behaviour at 1:23. During a little interlude when he's complaining about microphones, when the interviewer, whom his clearly disliked turns away, he grabs her bottle and clearly closes the top extra tight, forcefully, before replacing it, hoping no one noticed. Why would he do that? He had his own bottle of water on his right. Edit: The Germaphobe thought it was his water, and drank it.

Actually neither. The $35 cost was proposed by Eli Lilley who approached the CMS in 2019, after, on their own initiative, looked at setting the $35 per month fee. The government wanted it set a bit higher, by Eli Lilley had done the groundwork to determine the level it should be set at for best return; if it went higher than $35/month, they observed patients would abanoon their insulin. It was in the drug company's interest to sell as much insulin as possible. The study happened during the Trump Administration, but it wasn't their initiative. During that period, about 1.5 million accessed insulin at $35/month. During that period, the drug company covered patient costs, so overall it was revenue neutral. Some say the $35/month in the IRA was based on an average copay, but others state it was set based on the work done between Eli Lilley and Unitedhealth. Rand did the evaluation: https://www.cms.gov/priorities/innovation/data-and-reports/2024/pdss-second-eval-rpt Prior to the IRA, individual states were setting their own Copay caps, and they were all over the place. Illinois had it at $100 per month, New Mexico at $25. What the IRA did was make it mandatory for all insurance schemes to set a £35 cap. What the Trump government established was a voluntary, time-limited model under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation known as the Part D Senior Savings Model. Under this model, participating Medicare Part D prescription drug plans covered at least one of each dosage form and type of insulin product at no more than $35 per month. The model was in effect from 2021 through 2023, and less than half of all Part D plans chose to participate in each year. Its been by no means certain that the scheme would have been extended beyond 2023. It only applied to the so-called Enhanced Plans, ie those without low-income subsidies. The Biden government ensured it was no longer voluntary. Controversially, the Heritage Foundation, who are making strong policy recommendations to Donald Trump, have suggested the IRA should be repealed. Some Republican Senators wanted to kill this copay cap part of the IRA. If it was Trump's idea, as he claimed, well, those Senators who voted against it, on the basis it kills market competition, could argue that Mr Trump was taking an anti-Capitalist stance. He wasn't because it wasn't his idea. Drug pricing is complex. Eli Lilley's motivation might have been in part due to a desire to take market share from Novo Nordisk. Its reminiscent of the scandal years earlier when it was found the major manufacturers of glucose monitoring devices effectively controled the pharmacies that sold these to patients. I recall the FDA collated data over many years. Deregulation meant most of the big players, like Abbott, existed the market, which is now diminated by much lower cost but effective devices from Taiwan and China. https://eu.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/11/indiana-senators-todd-young-mike-braun-voted-to-kill-insulin-price-cap/65397783007/

And Trump's grandfather was a pimp. Plus Fred Trump's shady association with the KKK.

Which Pogrom was this? I suspect you don't know the meaning of Pogrom, or have deliberately misused it for emotive reasons. What happened on October 7th was an incursion into Israel by an armed militia/terrorist group, aided by some expatriate workers, to attack military facilities and settlements, with the objective of causing civilian deaths, and taking prisoners, likely with the objective to mitigate an Isreali response (it didn't). Pogroms are riotous behaviour by the population, targeting a minority, often with the connivance of the local government. Its a Russian term, related to attacking Jewish minorities, but has been known since antiquity. Using it inappropriately is a gross insult to the victims of Pograms, much like being flippant with the term Holocaust.

Or Biden accedes to GOP demands that he steps down as President. Which could really backfire. Most new Presidents get a bit of a bounce at the start. Plus there are mountains of merch that become worthless overnight. Some Tippex could turn 7 into 8 I suppose.

Potentially the next thing we might have to pay for. The US government might decide to levy a fee to access the systems needed to fire Trident, or state Europe, including the UK, needs to pony up to pay their fair share of the US nuclear shield, transforming NATO from an Alliance to a protection racket.

My wife is not a refugee. She is coming for a holiday. I don't understand your illogical linkage of refugee policy with tourism, unless you have a medical condition, more of which later. If your response is driven by a medical condition, you have my sympathy. On this forum, I see frequent reports of criminals, including sex offenders, openly living in the expatriate community, with members of this forum openly admitting they had befriended them, including sex offenders. I take great offence at your crude attempts to insult, as I have done with others, who's accounts I have blocked because I couldn't be bothered to indulge their trollbaiting fantasies that make up for weak characters. But I will bite with you, and see how your version of a troll goes. I can always hit that Ignore button that the owners of this site have implemented for good reason. Maybe they will make that a two way ignore like other social media sites; I can't see your posts, and you can't see mine. The Home Office manual written by the previous regime gives instructions to IOs. It has not been revised, despite your implied allegation that they have changed it in a matter of a few days. For visitor visas, all applications where there is a custodial sentence of 12 months or less completed less than 12 months before the application, must be denied. For Partner visas, the same manual indicates all applications where there was a 12 month sentence completed less than 5 years before application, must be denied. There is a sliding scale for other offences up to 4 years sentence, after which there is no prospect of being granted a visa. You also have to consider that apparently on July 5th, there was about 1500 prison places left, and that since October, the previous government had granted early release to convicts, on an ad hoc basis (ie. without any real regard for the nature of their crimes, except in the case of the most violent and heinous), in order to free up spaces. As a kid (army brat) in Hong Kong in 74-77, I remember another group labeled at the time as "illegal boat people"; those fleeing former South Vietnam. This wasn't just for a few months as members of the South Vietnam government and ARVN members fled, it went on for 25 years. 100,000 arrived in Hong Kong, in various ramshackle vessals, by 1980, and they were incarcerated in camps behind barbed wire. But they still continued to flow. In the end, the issue was fixed by granting some refugee status in various countries, but ultimately about 50% were returned, largely through the major powers securing an agreement from the Vietnamese government that there would not be retribution against the returnees; in other words, the root causes were tackled (in this case, fear of the Hanoi government taking punitive action against members and supporters of the old regime). One of the reasons successive UK governments have gotten into a pickle is a 2010 interview between Andrew Marr and David Cameron, following the Archbishop of Canterbury's call for immigration to be cut. In the interview, Cameron let slip the term "net migration" and a target of cutting that from 100's of thousands to 10s of thousands. In one slip, the immigration debate shifted to a position that all future governments would be doomed to fail on. Its doomed to failure as the government has no control of emigration, short of imposing Russian style restrictions of not issuing passports (the original reason modern passports were introduced was as a mechanism to stop selected people from leaving the country during WW1, for instance Britain needed to stop engineers from leaving the UK, and weaken Britain's capabilities, or worse, pass such capabilities to the enemy. Germany thought much the same and so forth. Today, passports are seen as a way to facilitate entry not exit, and are generally seen as an expensive right). Short of fixing the issues that drive people to board leaking boats for a 25-30 mile cross, the only solution to "illegal boat people" would be the complete militarisation of the British coastline; maybe not a wall on the beaches, but laying millions of miles of barbed wire, and various offshore traps, of the sort last seen in 1940, combined with active patrols on our beaches. That seems grim to me, but its what the Nat-Cs and others seem to want. In some ways, the scenes portrayed in the dystopian film "The Children of Men" (based on PD James' excellent novel of the same name, describing a world in the grip of a global pandemic that has resulted in mass incurable infertility) represent their fantasy. Not such a fantasy; the British administered refugee camps in Hong Kong became so overcrowded, they had a cholera outbreak during the 1980s. Some of the first camps used were abandoned Japanese POW camps, which themselves were repurposed pre-WW2 refugee camps. In the meantime, why did you conflate a tourist with a refugee? Or are you proposing that the UK imposes a ban on tourists entering the UK. Trying to understand your deliberately provocative response to a fairly ordinary post. Is it how you brain is wired, that you feel the need to react like this, and that you can't help it? That you, and some others who have posted on this thread, feel the need to upset anonymous strangers. I know some people on the Autistic spectrum have this lack of control, and if you have had a diagnosis, I feel pity for you, as it must be difficult to get through life and establish normal relationships. If on the other hand, you obtain some sort of sexual thrill from such postings, you have my scorn.

And what I got from your contribution was another account to block. Thanks.

My Thai wife got a visitor visa first time of trying. Nothing remarkable in that. She has a prison record, serving 4 weeks in Malaysia in 2019 for working with no permit; she had no money to pay the fine, so it was 4 weeks plus the 6 weeks on remand. She has had 3 different names She got as far as Passport control in Korea, after immigration couldn't understant why her passport name was completely different from her ID card (divorced, changed to maiden name, changed first name for luck) One agency, with a UK office, suggested we lie on the application, because she had far too difficult an immigration history. I gave them short shrift. Appalling advice. We did use an agent, who seemed pretty doubtful given her history. I submitted documents, including English translation of marriage certificate, Mortgage statement, 1 months bank statement, P60 and invitation letter. I didn't go into detail about how much I give my wife, because basically, its none of their business. Just a broad statement that I support her. No submission of emails, messenger transcripts etc, again, none of their business. The agent tried to get me to use a letter from one of his clients as a template. It was a nonsense; the guy had gone into all sorts of detail about all the visits he had done, how he met her family, and performed duties. What his business was about and his position in the community. It ran to 3 sides of A4. I threw that out, and just kept it to the necessary; she is my wife, and she will be visiting me, staying at these addresses for these purposes. I have the means to pay her costs in the UK. Any further questions, you know where to find me. half page of A4. She did her bit; she has a massage shop, got it properly registered as a business, unlike 90% of them, with the public health inspection and sticker of approval. She doesn't have invoices from suppliers; she gets her supplies from the market, Tescos and some shop on Facebook that does massage shop gear. She actually lives in the shop she rents. She has a couple of motorbikes on tic, one of which she rents back to a motorbike rental place to rent out to foreigners. She has a 10 year old Fiesta, that she's paying back, on an informal basis to a friend. She put 100,000 into her bank, and showed the deposits from her shop (admittedly not a lot) and from me (and I just send her Moneygram cash pickups). Her parents are dead, her daughter is in her 20s, she doesn't own a house or land. She sent through all the details on Malaysia, including her old passport showing the blacklisting stamps. In return, she got her 6 month, multi entry visa, and she is over the moon. So I must assume the straightforward applications who get turned down, must have made some howling error on the application, rather than anything being "wrong" about their circumstances. Or they wrote reams and reams, and, like selecting CVs, no one has time to read them. In the end, super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Finland has joined NATO. What was this reaction to an apparent miitary threat to their borders? They withdrew units from along the Finnish border to throw into the meat grinder in occupied Ukraine. ie. Putin knows NATO is not a threat to him. Its a convenient cover for his other objectives which rest on internal politics and demographics. Since you decline to blame Dugin in this, I assume you are, if not an acolyte of his, at least broadly supportive of his views.

Maybe he just had a bad day. At a campaign rally today. Some people love a crowd. The other individual certainly does. https://twitter.com/RedTRaccoon/status/1806782688885346761/video/2 You don't understand the 25th Amendment. its not a stick. Its been used 6 times since it was passed in the late 60s. Speaking of car keys, when was the last time the other individual drove anything byn a Golf Cart?

There is a constitutional element. President Biden could now announce he is no longer seeking re-election. He might say due to reasons of ill health. But then, how can he remain in office? He could resign, and Kamala Harris takes office, appointing a new VP. He might not want to resign, but that will trigger Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, that was brought in after JFK was murdered. But thats a process that takes a cabinet vote, or a vote by some other body determined by Congress; could the Republicans stop Biden from stepping down, if they feel his presence aids their cause, or more importantly, stop the elevation of a potential candidate (which could be Harris or a new VP) into a national role that threatens the vote for Trumpf. In addition, Section 4 allows for Biden to state to Congress that he's fine, he's recovered. There is no medical threshold. The key parts are when the President ceases to be President, the VP immediately becomes President, not Acting President. North Dakota, South Carolina and Georgia never ratified this. They might not recognise the holders of office. The VP has an important role during any transfer of power. There would be somewhat of a constitutional crisis, irrespective of Democrat Party candidate procedures, that would affect not just the US, but the broader Western world and alliances.

deleted.