Bill Heinecke chimes in
Good morning kids, it's Thursday, April 21, and here are a few of the things going on.
You might need a larger sack.
The junta-controlled National Anti-Corruption Commission says its main website has been hacked, and key information has slipped into public places.
The hacked information was a list of assets and liabilities of 780 accounts - and the investigations that the NACC has undertaken.
Be very careful with this information, which contains an unpleasant barnyard smell.
https://nacc.go.th
More money, more money, more
The Association of Domestic Travel (ADT) (call it Thailand's 'travel industry') called on the government to extend its 'Tour Teaw Thai' travel subsidies for local travellers until October.
"It is imperative to have a tourism stimulus scheme that can benefit tour operators," said the new ADT president Chaiyapruk Thongkam. The current programme is due to end next week.
Bill chimes in
And then there is Bill Heinecke, the former American travel expert. He has castigated Thai governments for unnecessary lockdowns since SARS.
This week, he went all-in. The junta, he said, should end all Covid-19 restrictions. There is no other way to boost tourist arrivals.
"I believe in Thai citizens, that they understand Omicron's characteristics and are ready to live in line with the new normal era."
PHOTO: Heinecke with a copy of one of the many letters he has written to influential military and junta members - including Prayut.
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40014706
Better than halfway
Alleged "medical experts" at Thailand's unimpressive Department of Disease Control (DoDC) have reckoned. And they reckon that as of today, April 21, Thailand has achieved anti-coronavirus 'herd immunity' of 50%.
The military-directed junta has ordered an 80% herd immunity.
PHOTO: Covid-19 vaccination resumes at the Bang Sue Grand Station in Bangkok on Monday, following the Songkran holiday break.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2297190/
Omicron kicks butt
On one day (Wednesday) Thailand reported
126 deaths caused by coronavirus
20,455 probable new cases.
The good news is that it was the fourth day in a row of very slightly declining new cases.
The bad news is the Covid-19 Omicron virus mutation began hitting Thailand.
There are now 51,297 coronavirus victims in hospitals and clinics - 2,104 seriously ill with lung inflammation, 940 on ventilators.
What would we do without experts?
But sometimes they are righter than rain.
'It's probably worse than Wuhan':
Experts warn China's Covid-19 lockdowns (cf Shanghai) will once again cripple global supply chains.
https://news.yahoo.com/probably-worse-wuhan-experts-warn-100000101.html
We could have used this four years ago but let's be honest. The U.S. CDC is a ruined entity. So why should we be impressed now?
CDC launches Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/cdc-launches-center-for-forecasting-and-outbreak-analytics/ar-AAWmSdC
FOR EXAMPLE
On Wednesday the U.S. CDC removed Thailad (and a fistful of other countries) from its so-called "highest Covid-19 travel risk category." How nice of them.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/04/18/CDC-removes-remaining-destinations-highest-travel-risk-cagtegory/2991650322761/
Hardly original, but well worth the read.
Expect inflation to worsen, not lessen
by Chartchai Parasuk, PhD, a freelance economist.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2297822/
Too late but an excellent read from Carol Roth.
What are the warning signs of a recession?
https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/roth-what-are-the-warning-signs-of-a-recession
Bottom line: Biden takes no blame. So, same as Thailand then.
TECHNOLOGY
The Brave browser has introduced a new feature to bypass Google's AMP. (ZDNet)
https://www.zdnet.com/article/brave-introduces-feature-to-bypass-harmful-google-amp-pages/
I still remember the day that IBM sold this straightforward laptop and PC business to Lenovo (Beijing) Limited.
100 models of Lenovo PCs have firmware bugs that let hackers install undetectable malware. (Ars Technica)
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/04/bugs-in-100-lenovo-models-fixed-to-prevent-unremovable-infections/
IMPORTANT NOTE
I.B.M. was the company that put the "P" in "P.C."
I'm sure this will be a fabulous success.
Google Cloud is making a big focus on security. (The Register)
https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/19/google_cloud_security
In Canada, the professor would have gone to prison and suffered life-long ruin for this.
In Thailand, he would be hauled away as administrators worked on his termination notice.
Shawnee State University settles with philosophy Professor it punished for failure to use preferred pronouns. “[T]he university agreed to pay $400,000 in damages and Meriwether’s attorneys’ fees. Additionally, considering the 6th Circuit’s ruling, the university is rescinding the written warning it issued Meriwether in June 2018.” Pricey.
In Cincinnati, a U.S.A. city with great Skyline chile, it was the university that got punished.
But, like the man said, it's complicated.
https://adflegal.org/press-release/victory-shawnee-state-agrees-professors-cant-be-forced-speak-contrary-their-beliefs
Vitit Muntarbhorn is a quiet, life-long bureaucrat/writer, who has won numerous awards for his work and writing, mostly about international human rights.
His latest newspaper column earns the headline:
UN General Assembly must assert itself
Who could argue? Vitit replays and examines the recent UNGA decision to boot Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council - strictly on the basis of the Ukraine conflict.
It is a rare instance of the UNGA asserting its powers with binding force.
Generally, only the UN Security Council can adopt such measures; these are exemplified by sanctions adopted by the SC periodically against errant states, non-government armed groups and individuals.
Is there then room for a more assertive GA, especially when the SC is dysfunctional?
PHOTO: The list of countries joining the April 7 vote on suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council is shown during a special session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's invasion of Ukraine
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2297326/
Prayut's Lockdown and 'fully vaccinated' orders on the Chinese Communist Party's novel coronavirus.
A nice judgelady in Florida declared President Biden's mask mandates are illegal and threw them out.
Repeat: President Biden's personally signed orders and edicts on mask mandates.
Now, President Biden, who is president of the United States,, has ordered the U.S. Department of Justice, legally required to answer to and act on behalf of only President Joseph Biden, to go after the judgelady (in court) and get her order reversed.
But the battles to contain and defeat Covid-19 are not in any way political, right?
And on Wednesday, of all unexpected things, three Big Elites dropped all edicts for mask-wearing:
Uber, Lyft, Disney.
But you still MUST be 'fully vaccinated' at all three services.
Define 'fully vaccinated'.
Bet you can't.
https://bityl.co/BruD
50 Years Ago this week,
I was in the very, very upper South Vietnam, north of Quang Tri, covering what we came to call the Easter Offensive of the North Vietnamese army.
Scrambling through scrub or occasionally and luckily crouched in trenches and foxholes, we saw the true offensive power of the NVA for the first time.
We had no way of knowing, but North Vietnam's top military men were trying out the tactics, including The Blooming Lotus, that would win the war and capture Saigon. Or Ho Chi Minh City.
A friend of mine, at the time and now, has written up a commentary of the Quang Tri province Easten Offensive.
Don Kirk in those days, worked for the Washington Times. Some of you may be quite interested in this report from the Vietnam Center of Texas Tech University.
PHOTO: The 1972 Easter Offensive was spread throughout South Vietnam. These GIs are looking for snipers from their trench in an earlier battle at Phuoc Vinh, northeast of Saigon.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3261901-as-war-rages-in-ukraine-how-much-has-the-us-learned-from-vietnam/.
Say this for Joe Biden, he had more draft deferments to keep him out of the Vietnam war than any president, ever. And when push came to shove, it was Biden that made the policy to force Saigon to surrender, and it was Biden who fought like hell to try to keep all Indochinese refugees out of the U.S.A.
Or as his son Hunter put it in all-caps to his pimp: "NO ASIANS".
The U.S. was ever so fortunate that Biden didn't get his way on refugees.
She seems nice.
If you've got an hour to spare on "mindless", you cannot do better that the "exclusive" Reuters story of the ex-C.I.A. operative who helped to supervise the torturers of al-Qaeda poo yai such as Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The story of Alfreda Scheuer promises revelations about Detention Site Green, the "black site" Somewhere in Thailand where it all happened.
Then it reveals nothing, in the least informative bit of boredom since 'Zero Dark Thirty'.
FULL STORY: https://bityl.co/Bsj1
Who doesn't like bare-knuckles fights, right?
This is a lengthy core of mostly foreigners trying to beat up each other - no gloves, no padding.
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship will be at the Royal Cliff Hotel of Pattaya and the tickets for the May 7 card are on sale - cheapest seat at 500 baht.
www.bkfc.com/thailand
