Death of an American terrorist
Good morning. It is no longer Monday in Thailand, and soon it will be Tuesday for you, too.
Thai media get their Orders of the Day
Every newspaper, every blog, every Twitter feed and every TV news/gossip program on Monday led off with this story.
Just a coincidence, of course.
Overseas tourists thrilled by the Thai junta's new entry rules.
Actual headline example: Tourists give thumbs-up to new rules
Tourists have given positive feedback after the government's decision to scrap the Test & Go scheme, a rescinding that took effect on Sunday.
PHOTO: Hotel agents and friends (left) wait to welcome partially confused tourists and visitors at Suvarnabhumi airport on Monday.
 Suvarnabhumi sucked in about 17,000 travellers on Sunday, the first day following the death of the Test & Go scheme.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2303314/
And speaking of lack of accountability, no one is allowed to know who thought up 'Test & Go' or the equally unpopular Thailand Pass.
Covid continues relentless march in Thailand
The ruling junta and medical community continue their reluctance to address the deadly problem.
Here are the initial and confirmed statistics from the 24-hour period of Monday:
As America's leading paper of record puts it:
What has been done to fight Covid is being done again. By the same, virtuous people.
MIGHT
Yeah, sure, might.
Oh, how medical studies have fallen.
"MIGHT."
 Virus might be behind mystery child hepatitis cases: US agency.
Why would you refuse to name the agency? Which, surprise-surprise, is the totally useless C.D.C.
 "Nine young children from Alabama affected by a mysterious hepatitis (inflammation of the liver) all tested positive for a common pathogen called adenovirus 41, a study by the US health agency said Friday.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-virus-mystery-child-hepatitis-cases.html
Japan to the (partial) rescue
Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida visited Thailand Monday on his 'familiarisation tour' of Southeast Asia.
He agreed to sign an agreement with junta chief Prayut to "deepen their bilateral security cooperation," specifically because of the threats from China.
Kishida committed Japan to give and lend Thailand
50 billion yen (US$385 million) for an extremely vague 'project to recover from Covid-19'
500 million yen to help out with more anti-Covid quarantine programmes and aid Thailand's attempts to recover from the pandemic
PHOTO
Masked up Fumio Kishida, prime minister of Japan, followed ed all the formal, red-carpet protocol for his official visit.
Much more at
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/05/03/national/politics-diplomacy/kishida-thailand-defense-deal/
The total value of the Japanese promised aid is 13 billion baht - US$377 million, 13 billion baht in real money.
By total coincidence, that is the exact amount that Thailand owes to China for a submarine it purchased but has not paid for.
NOTE: As of this month, Japan has not attacked, occupied or colonized Thailand for 77 years.
THAILAND TOURISM TRADE
Thai media continue to beat the drums of the military dictators, because hundreds of foreign tourists are here, with more on the way.
There are speed bumps:
China refuses to allow any citizens to go on vacation anywhere, including Thailand.
On Monday, the ruling junta ordered the reopening of three border crossings between Thailand and Laos, but only managed to open one.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2303606/
DRUGS TRAFFICKING MARIJUANA
Up in the Northeast, just outside Bob's old stomping grounds at Nakhon Phanom, the Black Berets of the Border Patrol Police literally stumbled over 200 kilogrammes of marijuana.
The grass was packed and ready for export, but the mules abandoned the stash and fled. So there were no arrests.
Thailand's alleged 'government' and parliament have promised for three years to legalize local production and use of weed.
But we're not there yet.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2303646/
Sink the Belgrano. Defeat those Argies.
Speaking of 40th Anniversaries...
The four-country nation once known as Great Britain celebrated Monday
Most people don't even want to know that the Churchill-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine HMS Conqueror (nickname Conks) sank the ARA cruiser General Belgrano on May 2, 1982.
I don't celebrate deaths, even Pol Pot or Joseph Stalin.
But there are some deaths that I feel less sad about. Example.
American terrorist and murderer Kathy Boudin has died after fighting and losing to cancer. She was 78 when she assumed room temperature at her New York home.
Boudin was a communist leader of the Weathermen and then the Weather Underground. She was finally neutralized after taking part in a 1981 bank robbery that left two policemen dead and two security guards badly injured
Sentenced to 20 years, Boudin served 10. When she got out, she had a baby, apparently male, whom she taught violent radicalism and communism. The child, Chesa, served 20 years and then became San Francisco's district attorney (prosecutor).
The U.S. media and The Guardian self-censored Kathy's politics, claiming she was a "radical". They all blamed her parents for not teaching their children well.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Kathy-Boudin-radical-mother-of-Chesa-Boudin-dies-17140599.php
The press self-censored the heck out of Boudin's death.
The New York Times tweeted, deleted, edited and re-posted a tweet about the death of Kathy, pointing out she had a heart of gold.
But The New York Times forgot that the internet never forgets.
Many children, especially in the United States, are unaware of this, but it's worth learning and remembering.
May you be retweeted by Ben Shapiro
 — Ancient Chinese curse
I don't understand these U.S.A. fights over censorship. Censorship is the reason for the defeat of Nazis and the end of the Third Reich.
WOULD CENSORSHIP HAVE STOPPED THE RISE OF THE NAZIS? Part 16 of answers to arguments against free speech from Nadine Strossen and Greg Lukianoff.
https://instapundit.com/518081/
And drilling down a bit
Information operations in Thailand: Exploiting Covid-19 to suppress dissent
Maria Ressa and her Manila-based Rappler crew tell:
How disinformation further harms Thailand's weak democracy
 Facebook posts went fully political.
 Narratives and lies which discredited the mRNA vaccines while promoting others were prevalent among groups and pages which were seen to be pro-regime.
 The pandemic resurfaced IO and its danger on public discourse and democracy in general. For one, disinformation on vaccines led many Thais to hesitate to receive them.
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/thailand-online-information-operations-support-offline-tactics/
I Wonder Why Hundreds of CDC Employees Aren't Vaxxed.
Really? I wonder why it's not reported.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/05/02/i-wonder-why-hundreds-of-cdc-employees-arent-vaxxed-n1594424
And: Johns Hopkins professor mocks Fauci for refusing to go to White House correspondents’ dinner despite being vaccinated FOUR times.
Seems like a legit mocking.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10761911/amp/Johns-Hopkins-professor-mocks-quadruple-vaxxed-Fauci-refusing-attend-White-House-dinner.html
Related: Covid-19 victim vice-president Kamala Harris, vaccinated four times, put on special ICU treatment.
https://defconnews.com/2022/04/27/4-times-vaxxed-kamala-harris-is-prescribed-covid-drug-for-severe-illness/
This will not end well
A serious junta miscalculation has set the military dictatorship and workers (aka voters and demonstrators) on a collision past.
Prayut made a short speech at a workers' rally on May Dayu, and said:
 He places strong emphasis on labour development so the people have better job opportunities and more income.
But there's a sudden and strong anti-junta show that demands that Prayut raise the daily minimum wage to 492, across the board.
Workers are blaming the business elite for putting pressure on the military regime to stop the pay rise.
The demands are simple:
Give us a daily wage minimum of 492 baht, everywhere in the country; that is about 18.50 loones, or $U.S.$14.35.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2303202/
Poll sees red-shirt win
The man named Marcos - Bongbong this time - is still away ahead in surveys of likely voters for the next president of the Philippines. He surged a bit, to 56% approval, more than twice his closest rival, Leni Robredo. Voters appear to like Marcos' anti-China rhetoric.
https://bityl.co/C2Y7
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickhelfenbein/2022/05/01/philippines-update-front-runner-bongbong-marcos-could-help-americas-retail-supply-chain/?sh=3cd3dc7830fe
ANOTHER WORLD RECORD FOR THAILAND
The country already holds the world record of longest roller coaster rider (more than two days)and the longest buffet line on a beach (more than 2 kilometres, in Phuket)
But this is a no-fun, no-smile, low-down dirty crime
The 'romance fraud' is nothing new in Thailand, with dozens of women cheated a year.
But this one, well...
A small group of internet-based con men convinced the chief finance officer of an international firm based in Bangkok that a (totally fake) U.S. Army soldiers of love at first sight on Instagram.
Before her arrest, Chamanan Phetporee had embezzled 6.3 billion-with-a-"b" baht from optical firm Essilor Manufacturing (Thailand) amd tramsferred it to her "lover" - and was making efforts to steal another four billion.
Much, Much more at
https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/2303622/
The criminal lady's CV is here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chamanun-phetporee-611a39130/?originalSubdomain=th
TECHNOLOGY TWITTER
I felt a strange disturbance in The Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and then nothing happened, but they kept right on crying out in terror for no apparent reason.
I'm not angry at, or about, Elon's purchase of Twitter, but I'm a little miffed that he didn't give me $44 billion because I deserve it more.
U.S.A. ESPIONAGE LEADERSHIP
The country is in the best of hands.
 Joe Biden used alias of KGB spy from Tom Clancy novels, emails from Hunter's laptop show. “Joe Biden wrote to his son Hunter and others close to him using the pseudonym ‘Peter Henderson' – a fictional Soviet Union-era spy in several Tom Clancy novels who infiltrated the US government, emails show.
https://nypost.com/2022/04/29/joe-biden-used-alias-of-kgb-spy-from-tom-clancy-novels-hunter-emails/
"Dumb" is a harsh word. But why didn't The Big Guy use the name of a Chinese spy?
GLOBAL WARMING
Piss on that
The massive over-population and food shortages are likely to kill us all.
But Frogs say, "Non, non, NON!"
They say the world should fertilise all growing plants with vast amounts of urine.
Well... Europeans, man.
https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/05/01/human-urine-could-be-an-effective-and-less-polluting-crop-fertiliser
Did you ever think, gee, gosh whillikers, why don't North Americans trust their media?
Well, stop thinking and wondering.
This is a pretty decent story from Vice (of all places) of an odious so-called 'respected journalist' who showed next week's 'Washington Post' story to Fusion GPS.
For no other reason than to "get the goods on that Russian bastard Trump". And of course get his filthy hands on that pee tape.
In my day as a reporter and editor, that was an event that would cause instant firing AND a notice to the rest of journalism so that Franklin Foer could never find another job.
 Even Google calls him a liberal, which seems to be massive understatement.
