GroveHillWanderer

Because it's clearly stated in the terms and conditions that these prizes are tax-exempt.

Same in Hua Hin, in my experience. I've done 3 marriage extensions now, and have always been given a date to return 30 days (give or take) from the day I handed in the paperwork.

Not quite accurate. If you stay more than 180 days in Thailand you are considered a tax resident. Based on a number of announcements recently, it looks as though all tax residents are now supposed to file a tax return. However, even if you are a tax resident and even if you file a tax return, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to pay taxes.

Based on your own words there, you had evidently already made up your mind that this was going to be an unpleasant experience before she even opened her mouth. This comes across like a case of confirmation bias. You'd already decided how this was going to turn out, so perhaps unsurprisingly, that's the way things went (or at least, it's how you perceived it). What I can't quite understand is why seeing a female IO would evoke a feeling of horror for you. Especially when you said you've never had a similar experience before, and other female IO's had been very pleasant, why did you expect this particular encounter to be so bad, before it had even started?

I think you have to question the suitability for one of the most important positions in the US government of a man who doesn't believe in germs because he can't see them. Why Fox News' Hegseth Said He Hasn't Washed His Hands In 10 Years https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2019/02/11/why-fox-news-pete-hegseth-hasnt-washed-his-hands-in-10-years/

You're saying that in twenty years of doing 3 VE entries a year, you were never previously asked how long you were staying, and/or where you were staying (except during Covid)? I find that very hard to credit. Also, have you considered that her short questions might simply betray a lack of English language fluency?

What makes you say Starr is biased? I did a quick look at his background and I'm not seeing anything suggesting a particular bias. Also, what do you mean, "Nothing to say who they are"? He names every single person he quotes in the article. Here's a list of just some of them so named, and this is from only the first few paragraphs. Official Russian war correspondent, Evgeni Lisitsyn Yuri Devich, Duma member Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Duma Committee on Defense Commentator Sergei Mardan Loyal ally of Vladimir Putin, Oleg Matveevich Moscow tele-journalists, Olga Skabeeva All in all, he quotes from a dozen or more prominent people located inside Russia. As for for why they hold the opinions they do, I would say their words are self-explanatory.

I posted this link on another thread but I think it's actually more apposite here. Ukraine and Russia’s Collapsing Home Front https://nationalinterest.org/feature/ukraine-and-russia’s-collapsing-home-front-213869

Interesting perspective from S. Frederick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and former adviser to three US presidents. Based mainly on statements by various people within Russia itself, Starr sees multiple signs of weakness bedeviling the Russian war effort, especially on the economic front and his view is that: Ukraine and Russia’s Collapsing Home Front https://nationalinterest.org/feature/ukraine-and-russia’s-collapsing-home-front-213869 Just one man's opinion but an apparently well-informed one.

You haven't answered the question. How would civil cases keep him off the ballot? (Hint - they wouldn't).

What ballot? Trump is not currently on any ballot. Even if you meant "were" not "are" how would a civil case be an effort to get him off the ballot? In civil cases, the worst that can happen is him being ordered to pay damages.

That's a ridiculous mis-statement and so easily disproven that it's laughable. Here's just the first paper (published in March 2020, so very early in the piece) that showed up when I did a Google search. There are plenty of others. First isolation of SARS-CoV-2 from clinical samples in India https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7366528/ Edit: Here's a paper published in The Lancet, documenting how it was first isolated in China on 7 January, 2020. A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30185-9/fulltext (Links would not embed).

Well, exactly. That's the point that a lot of the people analysing this have been making - that they should have used a lightweight structure that would easily collapse, not a solid concrete one.

Not the same airport. The incident you refer to was at Gimpo airport

Here's another report from the NYT saying the same thing. Questions Arise Over Concrete Wall Near Runway in South Korea Crash* https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/business/plane-crash-korea-wall-investigation.html *Link won't embed.