As Ozzies put it, "Gidday and welcome" to Fishwrap, straight out of Nong Bon. We're now just one week away from our four-day long weekend for Asalha Bucha aka Dhamma Day, the beginning of Buddhist Lent.
THAILAND POLITICS
Back at the brink (again) ANALYSIS by Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Chulalongkoirn University professor and respected commentator. The shunt to the now ex-premier Paetongtarn is deja vu. It exposes a pattern of systematic manipulation and concoction of political outcomes. It is time to call a spade a spade. Thailand is a faux democracy. (Worth a full read)
Help stamp out, eliminate, and abolish redundancy!
All media is good media, all coverage is good coverage. They're talking about us. -- Joseph Goebbels, advertising genius, on beating up communists in the streets. TDS POLITICS Court to hear Thaksin hospitalisation case -- from scratch The same tiny group of appointed senators-for-life goes after Thaksin, again.
They have filed a lawsuit claiming that Thaksin should be put in prison instead of hospital. In effect, Thaksin is denying their charge of lese majeste -- disloyalty to the monarchy. His lawyer says the ex-PM is 'composed and untroubled'. Mai mee panha -- No Problem.
THAILAND CAMBODIA BORDER
Google: We have a map right here that shows that the temple is near Thailand but in Cambodia. Royal Thai Army: We have three questions: Yes? And? Your Point Is?
U.S. media in Grim Funk as much-heraldedTrump Recession continues not arriving. Update: Americans fill new jobs while illegals lose theirs
Compare with Thailand in two days: Cambodia acquired 2 million unemployed. Thailand has 2 million job openings. Ex-prime minister Paetongtarn suffered. Khmer Rouge loyalist Hun Sen suffered most.
CLOSELY RELATED World Bank predicts: Thailand growth for this year won't be more than 1.8 percent.
DEFENCE SUBMARINE
The outgoing Thai minister of defence revealed that he has signed "the final purchase deal." Phumtham Wechayachai (photo) said the 393 million-dollar deal was about to expire.
I had no choice.
On the Bad News side, Germany refused to sell engines for the second-class Yuan subs (photo). Also, Phumtham didn't have time to sign the final contact for the purchase of 12 Gripen jet fighters from Sweden after Joseph Biden said that Thai were far too stupid to fly F-35 jets that Thailand tried to buy.
THAILAND DRUGS You got a doctor's prescription for that? If not, take a hike. The entire billion-dollar open-drug unicorn has died. You can no longer purchase marijuana in Thailand -- especially for personal enjoyment. New rules by the ministry of public health reclassify cannabis 'buds' as a controlled herb. English translation: The return of weed to the1970s War On Drugs status. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/3058860/
Microsoft's Copilot has joined ChatGPT in being humiliated in chess by the Atari 2600, which dates from the Cenozoic Era. (Tom's Hardware) Copilot boasted of its skill at chess, but couldn't even keep track of the board, despite being explicitly fed that data.
Microsoft is laying off another 9,000 employees, Xboxdivision hardest hit. (The Verge) That ranges from 10% of the people working on Candy Crush being laid off to the entire studio behind the game Perfect Dark being closed down. Details still pending.
TRANS ERASURE
The University of Pennsylvania Agreed to No Longer Allow Men in Women's Sports. It also agreed to expunge all of fake-female Will "Lia" Thomas's swimming records.
