California finally discovers what is wrong with California and applies remedies
Ladies, gentlemen, comrades all, just one more day at the mine face, and you will... well, you should have two days to contemplate, battle and engage.
In Bangkok it is May 13, and everyone will soon have that same pleasure.
It is true. Doctors, doctorettes and injection specialists did their best, and I'm still here.
Prayut went to Washington, 14,176 kilometres in his private airplane we bought for him.
And just as the mysterious Gypsy lady foretold, the U.S. State Department and White House tried to brush him and seven other ASEAN political leaders aside with a wussy, meaningless old statement.
This time it was Prayut who shouted, "Stop!" We have a message and you aren't listening.
We're open for business. We have open arms for tourists and visitors. We are moving towards this 'Next Normal' prediction.
Thailand is on the road to economic recovery and is ready to rejoin the global supply chain and contribute to digital economy transformation, sustainable development and clean energy.
PHOTO: The Thai embassy in Washington rousted several Thai residents to show how grateful they are at Prayut's visit.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2309102/
Oped
[REUTERS] By welcoming ASEAN leaders, Biden seeks to keep China in focus
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/biden-seeks-keep-china-focus-welcoming-asean-leaders-2678196
Engaging Thailand is the right move for Biden ahead of the ASEAN-U.S Summit
https://www.thaienquirer.com/40030/engaging-thailand-is-the-right-move-for-biden-ahead-of-the-asean-u-s-summit/
Biden calls to congratulate presumptive Philippine president Marcos Jr
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/philippines-election-biden-calls-congratulate-presumptive-president-marcos-jr-2679941
CORONAVIRUS NORTH KOREA
The hermit kingdom reported its first case of SARS-Cov-2 Covid-19 ever in history.
Kim Jong-Un locked down the country, completely.
The detected case was a 'malicious BA.2 sub-variant of Covid's Xi-Omicron mutation.
For now there is no information on who carried the virus into Pyongyang or were [s]he came from.
The detected BA.2 sub-sub variant, known as the 'stealth' mutation of the Xi-Omicron mutation of Covid is now the dominant form of Covid-19 everywhere in the world.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-we-know-about-omicrons-ba-2-variant-so-far1/
Radio Pyongyang said:
"There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months, since February 2020.
 "Maximum control efforts are being imposed in Pyongyang.
 "Comrade Kim Jong-Un has called on all the cities and counties of the whole country to thoroughly lock down their areas, in order to flawlessly and perfectly block the spread vacuum of the malicious virus."
Rodong Sinmun, official newspaper of the North Korean Workers' (Communist) Party, was scathing:
"There has been a breach in the country's virus defences.
"The department handling the epidemic has shown carelessness, laxity, irresponsibility, and incompetence in its failure to respond to the acceleration in transmission around the world."
North Korea has repeatedly rejected offers of vaccines from the United Nations-backed global vaccination initiative. Aid workers inside the country warned that North Korea would struggle to handle a major coronavirus outbreak, given its dilapidated health system.
MORE THAN 25% of North Koreans are malnourished and the country barely feeds itself.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/12/north-korea-reports-first-covid-outbreak-since-pandemic
Presumbably
Repeat, this is a presumption
Presumably the North Korean official who allowed the Covid-19 infection to threaten the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be rewarded with death by implement.
If you want to improve business at your supermarket, just start a rumour that another Lockdown is coming.
It worked for this Beijing supermarket.
CORONAVIRUS THAILAND
Thailand's ruling junta has said it might possibly maybe allow bars and night clubs to reopen at Koh Chang, Phuket and Koh Samui.
But not today.
Nothing official, but the junta's proposal seeks to divide Thailand into a confusing mishmash of allowed-not allowed sectors within three weeks.
Rules on mask-wearing and "fully vaccinated" are to be doubled, and then doubled again.
Thai media claim this is all part of the junta's attempt to declare the coronavirus outbreaks are not at all "pandemic" but merely "endemic".
PHOTO: Tourists and vendors enjoy the walking street of Lad Yai market in Phuket.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2308854/
Thailand's junta has 'encouraged' all media to print/say that the number of coronavirus infections and deaths is declining.
Which is not untrue. But Thursday was still a terrible, horrible awful day, and the number of confirmed new cases was higher than Wednesday.
Thailand ranks 24th in the global list of most cases, which is topped by the U.S.A. with 83.95 million.
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40015466
It's the way of all dictators.
The Chinese President4Life orders Party apparatchiks to silence all "Covid Zero" critics.
 It's not the (really dumb) message, it's the messengers.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/chinas-leaders-warn-against-questioning-covid-zero-policies/articleshow/91362968.cms
Xi Jinping said:
Our pandemic prevention-and-control strategy is determined by the party's nature and principles. Our policy can stand the test of history, and our measures are scientific and effective.
Uh-huh. Sure. Right you are.
If only life turned out the way you promised it would...
U.S. Passes 1 Million COVID Deaths Despite Biden's Promise to 'Shut Down the Virus'.
https://bityl.co/CBik
THAILAND BUDDHISM CORRUPTION
Thailand is in one of its predictable and lamentable battles with greedy, nasty Buddhist monks.
And there is no one (listen up!) NO ONE in the universe who is better able to explain and analyse this recurring grift and graft than my old pal Sanitsuda "Jaa" Ekachai.
As she writes:
The latest sex scandal of a popular preacher "Luang Pi Kato" once again reveals how rotten the cleric system is.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2308670/
America, ASEAN in geostrategic drift
Well-informed Chulalongkorn University professor and columnist Thitinan Pongsudhirak writes in his regular Friday Oped:
INDISPUTABLE AND OBVIOUS
When Washington cares less about ASEAN, the nominally 10-member grouping frets about the lack of attention and priority.
But when the US cares more, some ASEAN members are sceptical about its intentions and interests.
WHAT DOES ASEAN WANT?
Attention and priority from the United States, but not questions about human rights and democracy.
Thailand's Suan Dusit Poll, believed to be 'relatively honest', says Bangkok voters have made up their minds about the May 22 Bangkok election for governor.
With the May 22 election still 10 days away, the poll showed 91.67% of respondents would not change their choice of candidate, and only 8.33% admitting they might have second thoughts as the day draws nearer.
"We did not expect the percentage (of settled choice) to be that high," said Pornpan Buathong, a leading researcher of the survey.
Populist Chadchat Sittipunt (below) continued to stay well ahead of other candidates.
WITH OTHER POLL RESULTS
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2308934/
COPYRIGHT THAILAND
True story, screwed up
If you want to write "Thailand" you'll need permission.
The headline and story are bollocks. You cannot "copyright" a word, or a design, although you can trademark something like the design below.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/sports/2309006/
U.S.A. WAR VETERANS
The Veterans' Administration under the Biden administration is "asking" bona fides war veterans to let them know how their voting rights are holding up.
A government-distributed survey asks if veterans have had any trouble getting to the polls and voting - or not.
U.S.A. BUT APPLICABLE ANYWHERE
THE SWAMP LOOKS AFTER ITS OWN:
 ED Cancels us$6.8 billion of Public Servants' Student Debt, Launches Appeal Process for Denials.
Well, that re-escalated quickly...
U.S.A. radicals Democrats Have Jump Back onto their 'Men Can Get Pregnant' Fantasy Train.
https://bityl.co/CBiv
And then
Calvin Klein Hires 'Pregnant Man' for New Campaign.
I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that they didn't.
https://www.bullfrag.com/calvin-klein-hires-pregnant-man-for-new-campaign/
California finally discovers what is wrong with California and applies remedies, gooder and harder:
California targets loud exhausts in newest environment regulation.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/california-targets-loud-exhausts-in-newest-environment-regulation
Exactly three weeks from today...
This is an interesting, throwback, fabulously Day on the Train trip that the Thai national railway puts on about once a month, or so.
Politico.com (of all places) has a lengthy Twitter piece on the background and current situation of America's shortage of infant formula.
Start here and keep scrolling:
And this is true, and documented:
UPDATE: Biden's Incoming Press Secretary and Replacement for Ginger Jen Laughs When Asked Who is Handling Baby Formula Crisis.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2022/05/11/bidens-incoming-press-secretary-laughs-about-baby-formula-shortage-n2607079
Weekend read, unless you have time...
China 'Deeply Alarmed' By SpaceX's Starlink Capabilities That Is Helping US Military Achieve Total Space Dominance.
 Including this:
 12k satellites up now, moving to 42k? Musk could use Starlink Sats as anti-sat weapons and probably take out every other satellite in LEO, without significantly degrading Starlink's capacity. China and Russia together have less than 2100 satellites in orbit.
 If I were Xi or Putin I'd be terrified of Musk.
Start here:
https://eurasiantimes.com/china-deeply-alarmed-by-spacexs-starlink-capabilities-usa/
 Move Over, Iron Man, our guys have Jet Suits
 The 3-D printed Gravity Industries Jet Suit consists of two small turbines fastened to each arm as well as a larger one on the user’s back. In a test run captured on video, the developer climbed more than 2,000 feet over a 1.2-mile distance in around three minutes and forty seconds.
 MUCH more and the vid:
Mis, Dis and Mal, Is there a difference?
Okay, but the real question is:
Just when did the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lose the very last shred of credibility and public respect?
But... just as the mysterious Gypsy lady foretold...
 The desperate and flailing current FDA Commissioner Claims 'Misinformation' Is Now America's Leading Cause Of Death.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2022/05/10/fda-commissioner-claims-misinformation-is-now-americas-leading-cause-of-death-n1596756
Frankly? These people are actually dumb, and Barry and Hill led us to this current moment when "the leadership" has no idea of what is misinformation, what is disinformation - and spread the ignorance widely.
 You want examples?
 Well just last Saturday, this Robert Califf guy submitted himself to a CNN interview. Asked to explain why he thought "misinformation" was the leading cause of death in America today, Califf immediately retreated, admitting that he had no data to establish his claim and tacitly admitting that it was just a Leftist talking point.
https://bityl.co/CAiP
The worthless (but not yet totally humiliated) National Institutes of Health of the U.S.A. finally admitted it hid vital, genetic information about the SARS Cov-2 novel virus from everyone because Chinese scientists asked them.
The genetic-information cover-up involved early genomic sequences of Covid-19 which would have, or could have shown the origin of the novel coronavirus.
NIH phuyai Lawrence Tabak claims the information still exists, on a "tape drive" (yikes) but can't (or won't) say where it is.
The cover-up prevented all attempts to discover the origin of the novel virus - inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology, or somewhere else.
INCLUDES VIDEO
https://nypost.com/2022/05/11/nih-director-tabak-confirms-agency-hid-covid-genes-per-chinese/https://nypost.com/2022/05/11/nih-director-tabak-confirms-agency-hid-covid-genes-per-chinese/
THAILAND CULT
Here in Bangkok, which is five hours or 186 miles or 299 klicks from Chaiyaphum, I have just had a mid-afternoon snack and it did not taste like shit.
 And after a careful check I confirmed that no food in my house smells or tastes like shit.
https://www.thaipbsworld.com/cult-followers-advised-to-get-check-ups-after-consuming-their-own-bodily-discharges/
Dear F.D.A.
Look up "okey-doke". It doesn't mean what you think it means, that's for sure.*
*"Okey-doke" is slang for the juke, the fake-out, the con, etc.
Weekend look. Some pretty pictures, too.
Development of a new supersonic airliner went all quiet after the flight of the last Concorde.
But it's well under way, in several places.
https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/these-are-the-new-concorde-challengers/
Friday's Feel Good Story
Law enforcement in Edgefield County, South Carolina says a man suffered a fatal heart attack while digging a grave and burying a woman he had just killed by strangulation.
https://www.lawofficer.com/joseph-anthony-mckinnon-fatal-heart-attack-burying-patricia-ruth-dent-strangled/
And your little doge, too.
