Everything posted by GroveHillWanderer
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The abrupt welcome on my 3rd Visa Exempt
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?
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Thai-American Sen. Duckworth Exposes Ignorance of Trump's Defense Secy' Nominee Hegseth
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/
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The abrupt welcome on my 3rd Visa Exempt
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?
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Latest developments and discussion of recent events in the Ukraine War
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.
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Russia’s economy is doomed
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
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Latest developments and discussion of recent events in the Ukraine War
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.
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Another Major Trump Flip-Flop
You haven't answered the question. How would civil cases keep him off the ballot? (Hint - they wouldn't).
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Another Major Trump Flip-Flop
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.
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Anecdotal News about Covid-19 Vax harms
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).
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Jeju Air Flight from Bangkok Skids Off Runway at Muan Airport, 28 Dead
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.
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Jeju Air Flight from Bangkok Skids Off Runway at Muan Airport, 28 Dead
Not the same airport. The incident you refer to was at Gimpo airport
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Jeju Air Flight from Bangkok Skids Off Runway at Muan Airport, 28 Dead
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.
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Jeju Air Flight from Bangkok Skids Off Runway at Muan Airport, 28 Dead
It is indeed there to house the navigation anntenae - or at least, it is according to every report I've read or seen. Where do you see that it isn't? As explained by multiple sources, these anntenae would normally be at ground level but because this runway is on a slope, they needed to be higher up. However, instead of raising the anntenae position by using frangible materials, they chose to use solid concrete. Here's just one such report from the BBC. There are others saying the same thing. Why was there a wall near runway at S Korea plane crash airport?
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Jeju Air Flight from Bangkok Skids Off Runway at Muan Airport, 28 Dead
There is a system called EMAS that is designed to stop planes quickly and safely if they overshoot the runway and the airport didn't have sufficient run off space. It's installed at over a hundred airports in the US but only 15 others worldwide. Engineered materials arrestor system
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Jeju Air Flight from Bangkok Skids Off Runway at Muan Airport, 28 Dead
It now appears the airport authorities knew the berm was problematic. An internal document issued in May this year expressed concern that it was too close to the end of the runway. https://youtu.be/NCwZnSiOW78?si=N7inUDBmqx0sv3XG
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MAGA civil war as Elon Musk and Vivek clash with hard right on key immigration issue
Because all immigrants are automatically Democrat supporters? Just like Musk and Ramaswamy?
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Possibility of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190AR plane was shot down on the 25 Dec
It is a confirmation from the Azerbaijanis. As stated in the linked article.
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Latest developments and discussion of recent events in the Ukraine War
Again, there's no link there, just plain text. Links in other posts work fine, but yours recently (about the last dozen or more) have no URL attached, they're just text.
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Latest developments and discussion of recent events in the Ukraine War
The link is not working. Actually, that seems to be a problem with a lot of your posts, recently. Can you check and fix it? I liked checking into it those stories but can't any more (for the most part).
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US Warplane Brought Down in Red Sea Amid “Friendly Fire” Incident
Pretty sure that's not the original quote. In fact, even the link you post, gives the correct wording, which is, "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war."
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Marriage Extensions.
I don't think I would like that either but Hua Hin doesn't require photos taken while sitting on the bed, so it's a moot point (here at least). When they did the home visit (which as I say, was only the once) the IO only took pictures outside the front door and out on the street where the house number is located. No big deal, for me anyway.
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Marriage Extensions.
My personal experience is that processing yearly extensions by reason of marriage are not that much of a hassle at all. I have done four extensions, all in Hua Hin and the only slightly annoying thing about it is the number of documents that need to be signed when you hand in the final package at the Immigration Office. I've never really had a problem about supplying the correct documents, Hua Hin supplies a list of what they require and so long as you follow it, you won't have a problem. The only slight problem I had was in the very first year (when I didn't have the document list from them) and I didn't have a copy of my daughter's birth certificate and had to go back home to get it and make a copy. Subsequent years - plain sailing. I've always found the IO's very pleasant to deal with. No questioning of virtually any kind, they just take the documents, check through them, take a photo of myself and the wife and then give me a date to return to get the extension stamped in. Incidentally, they only ever did a home visit in the first year, which was a quick ten minute drop by, which I didn't find intrusive in the slightest.
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Two killed and scores injured after car drives into German Christmas market
Apparently, in his society media posts he also blamed Germany for being too pro-Islam. Germans mourn attack on Christmas market
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Thailand Vigilant Amidst 'Disease X' Outbreak in Africa
Apparently confirmed as malaria - so not a dire plot by the WHO (or anyone else) to foist a new disease and/or control measures on the public at all (as some people were trying to suggest). Mystery DRC outbreak officially identified as malaria
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Something new in non-o (upon marriage) requirements for extension
However the OP is doing extensions based on marriage. Different requirements (those listed by @DrJack54 above).