Jingthing

I'm also very long term in the same place and find these new rules totally ridiculous. But no choice in the matter.

I doubt that if he's perceived as being pro Hamas that very many Jews of any kind will vote for him. At this point I have no idea whether he is really pro Hamas or not. My interest is in the future of democratic party politics in the US and the hope to be able to smash MAGA. I don't think he's going to help with that regardless.

I wouldn't say that. Jews are not a monolith. The orthodox ones tend to be pro Trump and right wing. The majority in the US are more liberal and heavily democrats. There is a lot of feeling among American Jews that there is a common ground with American Muslims being small minorities compared to Christians. There really isn't massive Muslim immigration in the US like some parts of Europe except for certain areas in a few states such as Michigan.

Integrity Legal has suggested that immigration offices are doing more stuff now because it's LOW SEASON so they have the time.

The visits for condo owners is a NEW thing at Jomtien.

I thought it would be higher.

I have no idea. I do have a legal question though. They are technically POLICE after all. Would they have the legal right to search homes?

Also if they have mucked it up it may not even be intentional. That's because they didn't know what the flippin' biscuit they were doing! Their goal was to SMASH things.

I've had the same experience and agree just go regular.

I do fear that someday they're going to come up with a "hoop" that I'm unable (or unwilling) to comply with. Even with the help of an agent. We're all in that boat. Is it a ship of fools?

You're not wrong to be suspicious of what DOGE has done. That's a big part of their cost cutting policy -- trying to shake people who are eligible out of the system by various sleazy methods. Of course those of us who know about the requirement will be pursuing filing in other ways such as through Manila. But that's not exactly foolproof.

If that's your POV, you're welcome to it . Personally I don't think Israel policy always comes up in mayor's races. It would if the candidate has taken any kind of position, and certainly any indication of support for Hamas (basically Iran).

I don't want the guy to be mayor but there are plenty of American Muslims with progressive POV's including being pro LGBTQ civil rights. Yes they would be more secular. Unfortunately, many on the left are so anti-Israel now (understandable to be anti-Netanyahu) that they have supported Hamas. Yes I would hope voters would reject such people but it's their choice.

What office?

In case anyone missed, apparently Jomtien immigration is now doing HOME VISITS for retirement extensions.

Ignorance is bliss.

What's wrong with trans health care? Do you think they're not people? Who cares what his mother did?

Yes, some transgender people feel the need to change their official gender on their official documents from male to female or female to male. As you say, two genders. Next ...

As many have heard, Jomtien has recently gotten more persnickety about a number of things. Ours is not to question why. Ours to just blindly follow whatever the current rules are if we know what's good for us. So here's the new rule. For me it's about a retirement extension but I assume it would apply to other extensions as well. TM30's have been required there for awhile already for most kinds of service. So along with your copy of your TM30 if you're a condo owner, now also include Copy of chanote Copy of blue or yellow book I don't know yet if you need to carry in the original chanote yet at extension time. To be clear, they know you provided that already for your TM30. They now want it too! Now you know.

So speaketh the CULT.

Moronic fear mongering. Shame on you.

If you don't have civil rights, the first rule of business is to become VISIBLE. Harvey Milk knew that. Backlash from bigots is always inevitable but moving forward is IMPOSSIBLE without pushing for it.

Because they don't serve the people. They serve Trump. Surely you realize that by now.

There is such a thing as OBJECTIVE REALITY when it comes to most things including the extent of the damage done to the Iranian nuclear program by Trump's big bombs. A few things we know -- Trump announcing right away that their program was completely obliterated was simply PROPAGANDA as there is no way possible he could know that. Later reports in the press about leaks suggesting much less devastating damage was not fake news. They were merely press reports about something that still as yet is short of it being possible to get to the OBJECTIVE REALITY of the actual truth about the damage. Trump being the narcissistic authoritarian leader that he is wants to shut down any press that says anything that isn't exactly his own PROPAGANDA narrative. Meanwhile, the public awaits more information so that that they can know what happened that is close to OBJECTIVE REALITY. The press is where the hope is to reach that situation. From Trump's white house, there is no hope to ever hear the TRUTH, social or otherwise. Cheers.

I think you're making false assumptions about my assertion here. I'm not necessarily talking about the cheapest (mostly Thai food) places with those kind of low level quality standards. I'm not contesting that there is an awful lot of cheap, low quality, and unhealthy food sold in Thailand. Personally the vast majority of the restaurant meals I eat in Thailand are NOT at such places, and still super amazing value compared to U.S. prices. I'll give it to you that sanitation standards may often be lower here For example last night I had a wonderful Chinese meal costing about 300 baht that may have been more like 1000 to 1500 baht at current U.S. prices including tax and tip. There was no evidence of low quality ingredients.