TallGuyJohninBKK

"The law cited by Trump's proclamation places National Guard troops under federal command. The law says that can be done under three circumstances: When the U.S. is invaded or in danger of invasion; when there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government, or when the President is unable to “execute the laws of the United States,” with regular forces. But the law also says that orders for those purposes “shall be issued through the governors of the States.” It's not immediately clear if the president can activate National Guard troops without the order of that state's governor." https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trumps-deployment-national-guard-troops-la-protests-122622792 From the same source above, the Civil Rights era National Guard deployments involved the president invoking the Insurrection Act, which is clearly the one legal scenario where the governor's consent is not required: "The Insurrection Act and related laws were used during the Civil Rights era to protect activists and students desegregating schools. President Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect Black students integrating Central High School after that state’s governor activated the National Guard to keep the students out."

Yep, in my many years of experience and having tried and tested most of the major providers, Nord is the one MOST friendly and compatible with all kinds of streaming service activity.... whereas many others claim to support streaming, but when you actually go to use their servers, they're often blocked or get recognized as VPN services and draw the "you're using a VPN" error message.

I read a recent Brennan Center article on this just by chance earlier today. Their upshot was that MOST situations are going to require at least the consent of the state's governor, even if the NG troops are under federal control. The one exception to that would be the president invoking the Insurrection Act, which would really be a step into political/constitutional outer space, but not one I would put past Trump. The President’s Power to Call Out the National Guard Is Not a Blank Check November 18, 2024 ... "The Guard’s June 2020 operation in D.C. was unprecedented; § 502(f) had never before been used for a federally requested deployment in response to civil unrest. Historically, when presidents have desired to deploy the military for this purpose, they have invoked the Insurrection Act and deployed either active-duty federal troops or federalized National Guard. The District of Columbia’s unusual status within the United States’s federal system presents a second question: whether the deployment of unfederalized, out-of-state Guard troops into a nonconsenting jurisdiction would be lawful if that jurisdiction were a state. The answer to both of these questions is no. ... The word “request” in § 502(f)(2)(A) is significant. The president or the secretary of defense may ask a governor to deploy National Guard troops, but the governor is under no obligation to acquiesce. This reading is supported by 32 U.S.C. § 328, which makes clear that a governor is the party empowered to order National Guard troops to duty under either prong of § 502(f). A governor’s right to refuse was evident in the summer of 2020—the Trump administration asked a total of 15 governors to deploy their Guard personnel into Washington, but four declined to do so. ... Moreover, regardless of Congress’s intent, deployments of the National Guard in Title 32 status must in all cases respect the co-equal and territorially limited sovereignty of the states. As a constitutional matter, the deployment of unfederalized Guard personnel into a nonconsenting state is never permissible. If the president wishes to unilaterally deploy military forces into a nonconsenting state, then they must do so through the statutory mechanism that Congress has provided for this purpose since 1792: the Insurrection Act. [emphasis added] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/presidents-power-call-out-national-guard-not-blank-check

Thanks too for that suggestion. I'd used Bluestacks in the past for Android video streaming app stuff and it was fine for a time... But then they kept coming out with new versions of the BS software, and every time I upgraded to the latest version, the user experience and functionality seemed to get worse! And BS also didn't support required DRM in some Android video streaming apps. So at some point, I gave up on that, uninstalled it all, and went to just using Google TV streaming devices instead.... But the banking apps only approach within Bluestacks, that certainly might be an interesting alternative to explore!

I'm fine and very well versed with tech... So, whenever tech makes it easier to type and do business on a mobile phone keyboard and 6 inch phone screen vs. my full size desktop keyboard and 24 in monitor, that's when I'd begin to prefer using the mobile app.... But we're nowhere close to that right now. Phone apps are OK when all you have to do is tap presented choices or scroll displayed info... But they're nowhere near as fast or convenient when you actually have to type to enter content.

I have a particular practical gripe with the Thai banking apps... apart from not liking to do personal banking stuff and having to do typing for that on a small 6 inch phone screen. On my phone, I use several very essential for me extensions that require the use of "accessibility services" in Android to be turned on. And, the Thai banking apps don't allow that, meaning, every time I want to use the banking app, I have to go into my Android settings and turn off 3-4 accessibility service settings one by one, and then go back and re-enable them when I done with the banking apps... It's just an ANNOYING HASSLE!

I know you're not big on the rule of law. But just in case you haven't heard, U.S. Supreme Court rulings OVERRULE lower court rulings, including those of immigration court judges. And, it wasn't just the Supreme Court that called his deportation illegal, but the lower federal courts had also issued orders against his deportation and keeping his presence in the U.S. Bottom line - his deportation was illegal from the start, and every court that's heard the case since he was deported has found exactly that. Timeline: Wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador "Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native living Maryland, was mistakenly deported in March to a mega-prison in his home country of El Salvador -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution -- after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family denies." ... April 4, 2025 U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, at a hearing in Maryland, grants a preliminary injunction and orders the government to "facilitate and effectuate" the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States by midnight on April 7. ... April 10, 2025 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that Judge Xinis "properly requires the Government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador." https://abcnews.go.com/US/timeline-wrongful-deportation-kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador/story?id=120803843

I HATE that... I HATED it too when SCB recently did the same thing. I really dislike trying to do personal banking stuff on a mobile phone screen. I'd 100% rather be doing it via my personal computer, large monitor and web browser at home.

Glad you're deciding all those things, because the courts thus far certainly have not. Somehow, you're missing the part where the U.S. Supreme Court very recently ruled that his earlier deportation by the Trump Admin was illegal/unlawful.

The underlying message here is pretty clear about what's really going on: "The case also prompted the resignation of a top supervisor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Ben Schrader, who was chief of the office’s criminal division, did not explain the reason for his resignation but posted to social media around the time the indictment was being handed down, saying: “It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.” [emphasis added] He declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Friday. Abrego Garcia’s lawyer calls charges ‘preposterous’ “This administration … instead of simply admitting their mistake, they’ll stop at nothing at all, including some of the most preposterous charges imageable,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said." https://wpln.org/post/kilmar-abrego-garcia-returned-to-the-us-charged-in-tennessee-with-transporting-people-in-the-country-illegally/ And who's there to help announce the criminal charges against Abrego Garcia -- none other than Trump appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, better known as the former criminal defense attorney for Donald Trump and also the one who defended other Trump luminaries such as Rudy Giuliani associate (and convicted criminal) Igor Fruman and former Trump campaign chairman (convicted criminal, and later Trump pardoned) Paul Manafort. "Blanche left the firm and founded Blanche Law to represent former U.S. president Donald Trump.[9][6] He is a defense attorney in the 2024 criminal trial of Donald Trump.[6] Following Trump's May 30, 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Blanche stated Trump's defense team plans to appeal the verdict.[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Blanche

Innocent until proven guilty in court....That's why the U.S. has a legally binding Constitution, even though the Trump Admin acts like that document doesn't exist. And given the following, there's good reason at the outset to be doubtful / suspicious of the credibility of the charges being brought against him. Let's see what happens in court. "Abrego García has no prior criminal history in either the U.S. or El Salvador, his lawyers have said in court records. For several months in 2019, during the time period officials say he was smuggling, he was being held in immigration detention successfully fighting efforts to deport him. ... "The decision to indict prompted the resignation of a supervisor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Tennessee that brought the charges, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it." [emphasis added] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/06/kilmar-abrego-garcia-return-human-trafficking/?location=alert

I don't know about that, given that a federal judge ruled the government had no right to deport him in the way they did, and now in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, he's magically back in the U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Lawlessness of the Removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia 18 Apr 2025 Supreme Court Affirms Lawlessness of the Removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia The constitutional crisis has arrived, unsurprisingly with someone particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse caught in the crosshairs: a non-U.S. citizen, working-class father of three small children. Kilmar Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager and sought refuge in the United States. He gained legal permission to remain in the United States and established a life here. But in March of 2025, Mr. Abrego Garcia would find himself unlawfully deported and detained in a Salvadoran prison with the very gang members he had fled. ... On April 10, 2025, the Supreme Court issued its ruling on the Government’s request.9 In a unanimous decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court affirmed the lawlessness of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s removal to a Salvadoran prison, observing that even “[t]he United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal.”10 The Court largely affirmed the underlying District Court order, maintaining its effect while also suggesting that Judge Paula Xinis’s directive that the Government “facilitate and effectuate the return of [Abrego Garcia] to the United States by no later than 11:59 PM on Monday, April 7, 2025”11 should be clarified.12 Specifically, the Court explained that the District Court should exercise “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”13 The Court also instructed the Government defendants to “share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”14 [emphasis added] https://www.gwlr.org/kilmar-abrego-garcia/

Beginning to sound like the Trump Admin's federal criminal prosecution of this guy is basically a politically-motivated attempt at payback for challenging and winning the fight against his illegal deportation: "Abrego García has no prior criminal history in either the U.S. or El Salvador, his lawyers have said in court records. For several months in 2019, during the time period officials say he was smuggling, he was being held in immigration detention successfully fighting efforts to deport him. ... The decision to indict prompted the resignation of a supervisor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Tennessee that brought the charges, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. ... Abrego García, who made a brief appearance in federal court in Tennessee on Friday, was among more than 200 migrants deported by the Trump administration to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador in March. His removal violated a standing immigration court order forbidding U.S. officials from sending him to El Salvador because it was more likely than not that gang members there would persecute him." [emphasis added] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/06/kilmar-abrego-garcia-return-human-trafficking/?location=alert

Clash of military titans!!!!

My grandmother left me a wonderful fruitcake recipe some years back. If I had known today was going to be fruitcake day at the forum here, I would have brought some cake for everyone, or, well, at least for certain posters here!!!