GroveHillWanderer

My first car was a 1981 Chevy Caprice. I bought it second hand in 1989 and if I do say so myself, I kept it in pretty good nick. This is a photo of it taken in 2003, admittedly after having recently had it re-sprayed and having fitted new tyres.

I don't think it's a false narrative to say Trump's tariffs will probably cost the American consumer billions. Pretty much every single article I've read about this, agrees on the likely outcome. Here's just one example, with a quote from the president of the US National Retail Federation. Trump Tariff Proposals Could Cost Americans $78 billion https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/trump-tariff-proposals-could-cost-americans-78-billion-annual-spending

Pretty sure that's a still (probably from a CCTV video) taken at or around the time of the altercation described in the OP. Unless I miss my guess, the Irish couple would be sitting at the table at the very top of the image and a member of the restaurant staff seems to be running towards the table, presumably to intervene (since that is what the article states that they did).

No, disloyalty to the Commander in Chief is not called treason. Treason Under the Constitution https://constitution.findlaw.com/article3/annotation24.html

According to this article in the Sun (yes, I know) he intends to return to the UK to clear his name. Husband of ‘Lady of the Hills’ wants to ‘return to Britain to clear his name’ 21 YEARS after wife’s body was dumped https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/33045000/husband-lady-of-the-hills-return-to-britain/

That's not necessarily the case. As the article below points out: You Say You're An American, But What If You Had To Prove It Or Be Deported? https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/22/504031635/you-say-you-re-an-american-but-what-if-you-had-to-prove-it-or-be-deported Don't forget that in deportation hearings, it's up to the accused illegal immigrant to prove they're a US citizen (if that's what they're claiming) and if they can't do so, they're subject to deportation. In these hearings you're basically presumed guilty and have to prove your innocence.

Are you sure? Man who claims he's a U.S. citizen repeatedly has been deported to Mexico. It's complicated https://www.tpr.org/news/2024-05-30/man-who-claims-hes-a-u-s-citizen-repeatedly-has-been-deported-to-mexico-its-complicated

That's not accurate. The FBI may be mostly concerned with domestic matters but it also operates internationally. Here's an extract from their own website. International Operations https://www.fbi.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/international-operations

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.

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?

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