TallGuyJohninBKK

The problem with your bogus inflammatory claims -- and part of the reason for the protests -- is a lot of the immigrants being rounded up by the Trump Admin are NOT "illegal." And when people come to understand that and cut thru the B.S. right wing political rhetoric, they're a whole lot less supportive of this federal nonsense. Examples below: "On March 15, a day later than Rubio’s message anticipated, the U.S. sent more than 260 migrants, including 23 Salvadorans, to El Salvador. Many had no deportation orders. President Donald Trump invoked the wartime powers of the Alien Enemies Act against the Venezuela-based gang known as Tren de Aragua to remove over 100 of the migrants without giving them a chance to contest their removals. [emphasis added] ... The Post examined immigration and court records, and conducted interviews with attorneys, friends and family members, to piece together information about more than 50 of the men believed to be imprisoned at the Terrorism Confinement Center, the megaprison often referred to by its Spanish acronym, CECOT. The review shows that despite the administration’s claims, many of the immigrants sent to El Salvador had entered the United States legally and were actively complying with U.S. immigration rules. [emphasis added] At least two of the men imprisoned in El Salvador had been approved by the State Department to resettle as refugees in the U.S. after extensive vetting by federal law enforcement authorities, documents show. At least four had protections against removal through temporary protected status, often called TPS, granted to those fleeing Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, according to attorneys for the men or records shared with The Post. Others had been active members of Venezuela’s opposition and had open asylum claims." [emphasis added] Washington Post https://archive.ph/j2FQs

Hmm... where could a U.S. president have sent the Marines in response to scores of police officers being injured in a riot, but didn't??? One episode comes to might right off the bat: Jan. 2021 Capitol attack: "Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack But.... "active-duty Marines were not officially deployed to the U.S. Capitol Riot on January 6, 2021. While some Marines were involved in the riot, according to reports, they were acting as individuals, not as part of a deployed force." [emphasis added] The Jan. 6 riot included Marines. The military is wrestling with the consequences October 26, 2024 "Some one-third of the 200 active and retired military participants arrested for their role in the Capitol attack were Marines. That’s a disproportionate number, considering the Marines are the smallest of the fighting forces." https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/g-s1-29609/jan-6-riot-donald-trump-insurrection-marines#:~:text=Digging into Abate's story and the aftermath,role in the Capitol attack were Marines. So I guess the lesson here is... Try to steal the U.S. presidency and foment an insurrection, and the president behind it all won't call out the Marines... But have modest (compared to past various riots in U.S. cities) rioting in Los Angeles over Trump's anti-immigrant/immigration policies, and he's going to have the U.S. military (CA National Guard and perhaps the U.S. Marines) all over it... over maybe a dozen reported minor injuries to police.

More inflammatory right-wing scaremongering: Jun 9, 2025 / 08:09 AM PDT "Madison added that five LAPD officers were hurt in the chaos. Three of them were treated at the scene and two others sustained minor injuries. Keene said six CHP officers were also hurt, though they were minor injuries. The LASD said no injuries to deputies were reported." https://ktla.com/news/local-news/42-arrested-5-lapd-officers-hurt-in-immigration-protest-unrest/

Trump charts new territory in bypassing Newsom to deploy National Guard Legal experts questioned the president’s response to unrest in Los Angeles, saying he appears to be laying groundwork for more expansive use of the military to suppress dissent. "President Donald Trump’s order to deploy 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles appears unprecedented, relying on an unorthodox use of a law aimed at quelling serious domestic unrest or an attack on the United States by a foreign power, some legal experts said Sunday. ... It marks the first time in about 60 years that an American president has taken such action without a governor’s consent. Furthermore, his executive order authorizes the Pentagon to dispatch military personnel domestically to enable federal functions and protect government property — a chilling sign, the experts said, that Trump is prepared to send troops into other cities in response to protests. “That is completely unprecedented under any legal authority,” said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The use of the military to quell civil unrest is supposed to be an absolute last resort.” Washington Post https://archive.ph/nvogM

Trump’s FBI Pick Exposed for Deranged Views on Covid-19 Kash Patel may have some of the most deranged views on Covid in Trump’s next Cabinet. December 4, 2024 "Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, has a fake Covid-19 vaccine “detox” supplement side hustle. According to a report from NBC News Wednesday, Patel has helped push “Warrior Essentials,” a right-wing faux “wellness” company that sells three different types of supplements claiming to “undo the damage from the spike protein” (essentially the Covid vaccine). ... Patel is a loyal MAGA disciple who wants to dismantle the very agency he is set to head. It only makes sense that he’s doing weird supplement grifting too—after all, he’s learned from one of the best. https://newrepublic.com/post/189016/trump-fbi-pick-kash-patel-covid-views-supplement Kash Patel claims ‘breakthrough’ in Fauci COVID origins probe ... At the same time, Patel cautioned Fauci’s critics from expecting too much. “We just had a great breakthrough this week on Fauci,” Patel told podcaster Joe Rogan in an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” released Friday, explaining the FBI had recovered phones used by Fauci early in the pandemic. “Everybody listening to us shouldn’t jump to the conclusion [that] everything’s in there,” he added. “Maybe it’s deleted, maybe it’s not, but at least we found it, and at least now we can tell people that we have been looking because it is of public importance.” https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5337460-fauci-fbi-investigation-breakthrough-patel/

There's few people on this Earth that I'd be LESS inclined to trust/believe than Joe Rogan (being popular doesn't mean you're right) and Kash Patel: Rogan: "Rogan has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, COVID-19 misinformation, and for hosting guests who spread misinformation and pseudoscience." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rogan Patel: "After Trump left office in January 2021, Patel leveraged his association with Trump to promote several business ventures and made recurring appearances on several podcasts. In April 2022, he was named to the board of Trump Media & Technology Group. ... He founded The Kash Foundation, a charity to help participants in the January 6 United States Capitol attack pay legal costs. Patel has promoted several conspiracy theories about the deep state, false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, QAnon, COVID-19 vaccines, and the January 6 Capitol attack." In March 2023, a report compiled by Democrats on the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government detailed the testimony of two former FBI special agents, who said they had received financial support from Patel for promoting misinformation about the January 6 Capitol attack"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kash_Patel

Does the RTP have farangs as actual regularly employed civilian police department employees? Can't say I've ever heard of that....

I'm assuming / guessing this work was somehow part of the government's malady-prone Rama II expressway project?

There's no excuse for violence... But there's plenty of good reasons why people ARE protesting against the Trump Admin's often legally questionable enforcement actions: Such as the following regarding the Trump Admin's deportation of Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador: "On March 15, a day later than Rubio’s message anticipated, the U.S. sent more than 260 migrants, including 23 Salvadorans, to El Salvador. Many had no deportation orders. President Donald Trump invoked the wartime powers of the Alien Enemies Act against the Venezuela-based gang known as Tren de Aragua to remove over 100 of the migrants without giving them a chance to contest their removals. [emphasis added] ... The Post examined immigration and court records, and conducted interviews with attorneys, friends and family members, to piece together information about more than 50 of the men believed to be imprisoned at the Terrorism Confinement Center, the megaprison often referred to by its Spanish acronym, CECOT. The review shows that despite the administration’s claims, many of the immigrants sent to El Salvador had entered the United States legally and were actively complying with U.S. immigration rules. [emphasis added] At least two of the men imprisoned in El Salvador had been approved by the State Department to resettle as refugees in the U.S. after extensive vetting by federal law enforcement authorities, documents show. At least four had protections against removal through temporary protected status, often called TPS, granted to those fleeing Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, according to attorneys for the men or records shared with The Post. Others had been active members of Venezuela’s opposition and had open asylum claims." Washington Post https://archive.ph/j2FQs "The administration has repeatedly flouted and possibly defied court orders. ... To recap: The Trump administration has acknowledged in court that it wrongly deported Abrego García to a brutal El Salvador prison, saying it was due to an “administrative error.” (Abrego García is an undocumented immigrant, but the government wasn’t legally allowed to deport him to El Salvador, specifically.) ... The American people, though, do want Abrego García returned. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll two weeks ago showed Americans said by 16 points that Abrego García should be returned. A YouGov poll, meanwhile, showed they said 53-21 that the administration should comply with the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his return." Washington Post https://archive.ph/B5RWO Trump’ immigration crackdown is leaving children terrified and ‘truly alone’ Advocates say unaccompanied minors are being detained longer and used as bait to arrest those who care for them ... "In the past few months, the administration has enacted a series of punitive policies to expedite the removal of unaccompanied minors and strip them of legal representation. It has attempted to tear down the basic rights and protections for children under the government’s care, while simultaneously issuing new restrictions on who can take custody of them – leaving children to languish in detention. In several troubling cases across the US, advocates say the children are being used as “bait” to arrest and deport the adults around them. [emphasis added] ... Taken together, advocates and lawyers say the changes represent a terrifying new strategy in the government’s crackdown on immigrants, designed to instill fear and chaos in families. “The level and intensity of the attacks on children that we’re seeing currently is unprecedented in my legal career, which has spanned over 10 years,” said Marion Donovan-Kaloust, director of legal services at the Immigrant Defenders law center (ImmDef). “It’s not just one thing – it’s a concentrated attack on children from so many different angles. And it’s really shocking to the conscience.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jun/05/trumps-immigration-children-unaccompanied-minors etc etc etc....

Newsom plans lawsuit against Trump administration over deployment of National Guard ... "This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard. The order he signed doesn't just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We're suing him," Newsom posted on X. The governor has also asked that the National Guard be removed. The deployment is the first time in decades that a state's National Guard has been activated without a request from its governor. [emphasis added] https://abc7.com/live-updates/tensions-flare-downtown-la-anti-ice-protesters-clash-agents-live-updates/16692645/entry/16705492

Sounds like the Los Angeles police chief is perfectly capable of addressing the LAPD's actual response to the demonstrations and violence: LAPD chief denies ICE director's claim of 2-hour response time during protest AND The city's top cop said Sunday night that federal authorities did not brief the Los Angeles Police Department on the clandestine raids that have descended the city into chaos ... "McDonnell made it clear that the LAPD does not make immigration arrests, but the department does not prevent federal officials from doing their job either. "They have their mission...they have every right to do that," McDonnell said of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have fanned out across L.A., ripping people out of their workplaces and descending on Home Depot parking lots. But, McDonnell said, federal officials did not brief his department, which made it difficult to respond to the mobs of people who began to protest. [emphasis added] https://lamag.com/news/lapd-chief-jim-mcdonnell-says-violence-i-have-seen-is-disgusting-recounting-attacks-on-cops

As for what Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass really said about the confrontations: “Let’s be real about this. This is about another agenda [by the feds]. It’s not about public safety,’ Bass said at the press conference. “There is clearly no plan, and I want the people of Los Angeles to know that we stand with all Angelenos no matter where you were born.” The mayor noted that the First Amendment allows residents to protest peacefully but does not grant demonstrators the right to violence and to vandalize property, and that those types of actions will not be tolerated. [emphasis added] https://ktla.com/news/local-news/this-is-another-agenda-l-a-mayor-bass-says-of-national-guard-involvement-protests/ Posted on 06/07/2025 Statement from Mayor Karen Bass Regarding Recent Clashes "This is a difficult time for our city. As we recover from an unprecedented natural disaster, many in our community are feeling fear following recent federal immigration enforcement actions across Los Angeles County. Reports of unrest outside the city, including in Paramount, are deeply concerning. We’ve been in direct contact with officials in Washington, D.C., and are working closely with law enforcement to find the best path forward. Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable." [emphasis added] https://mayor.lacity.gov/news/statement-mayor-karen-bass-regarding-recent-clashes As for the notion floated above that the LAPD was somehow prevented from responding to illegal activity by protesters: "CNN witnessed police using flash-bangs and tear gas to disperse crowds, with some hitting protesters, as well as protesters setting self-driving cars on fire. Police have declared all of Downtown Los Angeles an unlawful assembly area after arresting dozens over the weekend" [emphasis added] AND "The weekend protests resulted in vandalism, cars set ablaze and dozens of arrests by the LAPD, but the mayor emphasized the lawlessness was isolated to a small area of Los Angeles. [emphasis added] “This is not citywide civil unrest taking place in Los Angeles. A few streets downtown – it looks horrible. People committed crimes,” Bass said. “It is absolutely unacceptable, and those people that set cars on fire or did other forms of vandalism will be sought to be arrested and prosecuted.” https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/la-protests-ice-raids-trump-06-09-25

After a flood above of rubbish, non-credible right-wing nonsense reports.... how about some actual real news: California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sue Trump over National Guard deployment Jun 9, 2025 "LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he planned to file a lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump in response to the administration’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard to confront immigration protesters who took to the streets in Los Angeles. “Commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral,” Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC on Sunday. ... The governor, who was was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials, also told protesters that they were playing into Trump’s plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction. “Trump wants chaos and he’s instigated violence,” he said. “Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don’t give him the excuse he’s looking for.” (more) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/california-gov-gavin-newsom-to-sue-trump-over-national-guard-deployment

Another Thai banking app related malady.... Lately, the Thai government and banking system began requiring customer facial recognition via the banking apps in order to perform certain kinds of transactions... But low and behold, that setup was apparently only available to Thai nationals via their ID card registration, and not available to foreigners at all... So at least some Thai banks, SCB in particular, allowed foreigners to voluntarily waive participation in the facial recognition scheme.... OK, no problem about that... So now in the last day, I get an app popup message from SCB saying that the bank is ENDING their waiver program for facial recognition.... And, I wish I knew more details about just what's going to mean for farang accountholders.... Except, when I tried to click to read the SCB message, the SCB app gave me an error message and wouldn't open unless I first turned off all the Android accessibility settings on my mobile phone!!!! YEESH!!!

That, and the related cost cutting, are I believe what's behind all this on the Thais' part.... There are Thai companies still running Windows 98 and similar as their servers, and if I recall correctly, many of the Thai bank ATMs were/are running on outdated / insecure OS software. IMHO, it's a problem of their own making for failing to maintain (and pay competent tech staff capable of maintaining) secure tech systems, which most first-world banks seem to be able to manage most of the time without giving up on their platforms.