Any British Expats Out There?

[Strong Eagle]

I need to renew my British passport (British Citizen) but I live in the USA.

Any recommendations for the simplest/quickest way to get this done?

TIA

[malcontent]

I need to renew my British passport (British Citizen) but I live in the USA.

Any recommendations for the simplest/quickest way to get this done?

TIA

This probably requires a visit to the British consular office; there are many in the U.S. — for example:

British Consulate General Houston
1301 Fannin St #2400, Houston, TX 77002

Check online for application and appointment requirements ahead of the visit.

[PNGMK]

Why bother?

[Strong Eagle]

Why bother?

Because the US is turning to shit and I want to keep my options open. IF we have elections, how do we stop a civil war when 73 percent of republicans think trump is doing a great job? From the NYT:



And if we don't have elections because trump has claimed "insurrection"... well, I hate to even think about it.

[PNGMK]

Ah fair enough.
We are not moving to the US also for similar reasons.

[malcontent]

Why bother?

Because the US is turning to shit and I want to keep my options open. IF we have elections, how do we stop a civil war when 73 percent of republicans think trump is doing a great job? From the NYT:

And if we don't have elections because trump has claimed "insurrection"... well, I hate to even think about it.

Is the UK that much better? I don’t really watch the news much, so have to admit that a lot of the nonsense going on is lost on me.

Instead of watching the evening news, I had a wonderful stroll with my wife and son along a bluff near our home as we watched the sun set on the Pacific Ocean. Lots of people bring their dogs out there, it’s almost like a dog show. And someone was playing live jazz music impromptu right there, as is often the case (not the begging for money kind). Did I mention the weather… it is sublime almost every day, 65-70F (19-23C).

I did see some ICE protestors along the streets near where we live today, but not sure what it’s all about. I just know that Immigration in the U.S. is really screwed up. In some ways we are worse off playing by the rules, legally migrating my wife to the US. I was on the phone with my daughter’s university the other day “you mean to tell me, if my wife was illegal, we would qualify for in-state tuition right now” — the answer was yes, and we have to wait another year. Nice.

[Strong Eagle]

I did see some ICE protestors along the streets near where we live today, but not sure what it’s all about. I just know that Immigration in the U.S. is really screwed up. In some ways we are worse off playing by the rules, legally migrating my wife to the US. I was on the phone with my daughter’s university the other day “you mean to tell me, if my wife was illegal, we would qualify for in-state tuition right now” — the answer was yes, and we have to wait another year. Nice.

Yes, indeed, you really haven't been watching the news, have you?

Let's start with a photo of ICE agents in Minneapolis.



They executed Alex Pretti in cold blood... a nurse in the VA hospital... thrown to the ground trying to protect a woman being thrown to the ground by ICE... then pepper sprayed and shot 11 times by two ICE Gestapo.



ICE deported a 5 year old boy and his father to a Texas detention center. When a federal judge ordered the boy's release, he was sent back to Minneapolis and detained again.



ICE had to be ordered to stop using pepper spray on peaceful protesters.



ICE murdered Renee Good, shot in the face twice while driving away from ICE... a 37 year old mother of three.



These are just a very few images of the atrocious acts committed by ICE... more like trump's private Gestapo... and then he and Kristi Noem have the lying audacity to call them, and many others, "domestic terrorists". The f*cking terrorists are ICE.

Beware of what is happening to and in this country.

[Strong Eagle]

Adding one more... this girl and her family were/are in the USA legally. She and her mother were taken from Minneapolis, without a warrant, to a detention center in Texas where they were imprisoned for a month. They were released without comment, to find their own way back to Minnesota. If this isn't Gestapo tactics, I don't know what is.

[malcontent]

Yeah, I certainly don’t agree with those kinds of tactics… and seriously doubt it is necessary or justified in many/most/all of these cases.

Where I live on the West Coast, quite a few people seem to welcome this kind of mistreatment in hopes of a payday — apparently because the state is among the most litigation friendly in the country.

In the past, I have had some unpleasant encounters with law enforcement in the U.S. due to my foreign indicia. One incident in New Jersey, the police were very aggressive with me because I was driving on a Singapore license. They claimed it wasn’t recognized in the state of NJ and I needed to go to my consulate to get an international license… to which I replied, I don’t have a consulate, I am a US citizen. They still said tough, you cannot drive without an international license. I finally told them that I did check with my home state before driving on it, and they said it was fine as long as it was in English. That seemed to help, and they finally decided (grudgingly) to let me go with the understanding that I’m just passing through NJ and not coming back.

Later that evening I checked the official laws and found NJ recognizes licenses from all UN signatories, which Singapore is among them. I also noticed lots of chatter online about incidents of foreign drivers getting falsely arrested in NJ for this. I suppose I was lucky, the officers were either misinformed or had malicious (or worse) intent.

That said, had I acted a fool rather than being courteous, respectful and sticking to facts, I can imagine these officers would have gladly dragged me out of my car and hauled me away — it seemed like they were chomping at the bit to do so.

[malcontent]

I just took one of the cases at random: Alex Pretti, first time learning about this, never heard of the guy or this incident before. It was a challenge to get a complete picture, only snippets of what either side wants people to see.

With any case involving death by law enforcement, I always ask one simple question… was the victim acting a fool? This is a such a recurring theme that I hate to even ask, because I feel like I already know the answer. This case was no different.

Does it justify the killing? Absolutely not. I sure wish they would have locked him up 11 days before when he smashed the tail light on their cruiser, he’d probably be alive right now.

[Strong Eagle]

"Acting the fool"? Please tell me that you are joking. He was peacefully protesting, recording the actions of ICE, a Constitutional right. ICE threw a woman to the ground. He attempted to help her. He was thrown to the ground. He was pepper sprayed. He was then shot in the back, shot a total of 11 times by two ICE agents. The tail light incident occurred 11 days before, and this justifies his murder? I'm sorry but your reasoning is simply sick.

And what of the many other atrocities committed by ICE?

[malcontent]

"Acting the fool"? Please tell me that you are joking. He was peacefully protesting, recording the actions of ICE, a Constitutional right. ICE threw a woman to the ground. He attempted to help her. He was thrown to the ground. He was pepper sprayed. He was then shot in the back, shot a total of 11 times by two ICE agents. The tail light incident occurred 11 days before, and this justifies his murder? I'm sorry but your reasoning is simply sick.

And what of the many other atrocities committed by ICE?

Yes, I agree, the atrocities are getting out of hand. ICE needs to change, IMO they should operate in the shadows and employ smarter techniques.

Again, nothing that went down justifies killing this guy. But I’m sure you agree that bringing a gun to his peaceful protest 11 days later was not a smart move.

[malcontent]

This video does an excellent job of analyzing the psychological aspects play-by-play. Before the officer murdered the guy, you can see he was already acting in an erratic manner… way outside of expected norms. He was likely juiced on adrenaline and seems in over his head. I would guess underlying inexperience (perhaps with a generous dose of low self-esteem) led to his trigger happy response when the gun was uncovered on the victim. This officer had no business being in this job and certainly shouldn’t been armed.



This certainly looks bad on the current administration… who is vetting and training these people? Someone should be fired. And I find it weird that these officers were not even ICE.