Elon says there's a 'cash burn' at Twitter; how unfortunate
FRIDAY Friday, today is 18 November 2022.
To put that into perspective, there are
5 weeks (37 days) until Christmas, 43 days until New Year's Eve, 66 days until Chinese New Year aka Tết Nguyên Đán , 718 days until the next U.S.A. presidential election.
At this moment, it is 26 Canadian degrees with not enough of a breeze to measure wind chill outside the World Headquarters of the highly respected Fishwrap - 79 Fahrenheit and it's going to rain [again] later on.
So the same as yesterday. And tomorrow.
Speaking of dates... this week is the 102nd anniversary of the start of the League of Nations, where 41 nations met to establish peace in the entire world.
Thailand discovers the basic cause of Global Warming.
All of these phuyai and their weekend sleepover dates flew into Suvarnabhumi airport in private airplanes.
It's alive... It's alive, Look! it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!
-- Mary Shelley, quoting Henry Frankenstein
APEC SUMMIT SCHEDULE
Participants in Prayut's 'APEC Summit 2022' have flocked into Thailand - most of them in global-warming-causing private jets.
But signs emerged this morning that the 'leaders' will have an actual agenda to follow.
Prayut, who thought up the junta's policy of "staying neutral" in the Russia-Ukraine imbroglio, got the backing of China's President4Life Xi Jinping to deep all talks of the war off the APEC 2022 debate table.
Instead, phuyai and poobahs are to discuss sustainable fishing and the logging industry.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2434665/
THAILAND JUNTA PRAYUT PROTESTS
Anti-junta protesters clashed briefly with riot police at Bangkok's Democracy Monument - where the alleged 'government' banned all rallies.
Tweet includes short video.
The demonstrators were trying up put up anti-government signs, which quite annoyed the security men.
Much more at:
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2440122/
Protest leaders said they will march today from the town square at the Bangkok City Hall to the site of Prayut's APEC 22.
Black berets of Thailand's anti-riot Border Patrol Police will try to prevent that.
Quite misleading, not to mention a blatant case of "justice denied" by (once again) Europeans.
These three dopes were convicted of conspiring to obtain a missile and get it to the field where it was fired - killing all 298 aboard the Malaysian flight.
A fourth suspect, Russian national Oleg Pulatov, a former soldier of the Russian special forces Spetsnaz-GRU, was acquitted.
THAILAND POLITICS APEC PRAYUT
This is a good description, with photos, of the outer ring of defence for the APEC summit site at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in central Bangkok.
https://twitter.com/KhaosodEnglish
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2022/11/17/asia-pacific-leaders-tackle-trade-sustainability-in-bangkok/
THAILAND DRUGS MARIJUANA HEMP
Holiday fragrance of thyme and cannabis in the air
Debate over hemp bill drags on
After a totally shambolic introduction of the partial legalisation of marijuana, disputes continue to pop up.
Junta loyalist and political party leader Anutin Charnvirakul, designated as the 'minister of public health' we well as a deputy prime minister, has issued a new announcement/edict on pot.
It categorises flowers or buds of the cannabis plant as "controlled herbs" - once again a criminal or at least partly criminal matter.
But it's just one of the many small legal measures being used to control the recreational use of cannabis.
Prayut has long held that there can't be any recreational smoking or ingesting weed. But it's common, and foreign tourists now flock to buy pot.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2439635/
Worse than cigarettes? Unpossible!
ABC (U.S.) reported, "People who smoke marijuana were more likely to have certain types of lung damage than people who smoked cigarettes, according to a new study that reviewed lung scans of smokers. The researchers who led the study say their findings suggest smoking marijuana may be more harmful than people realize.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/smoking-marijuana-harmful-lungs-smoking-cigarettes-study-finds/story?id=93283206
World economy - it's all downhill from here
The economy columnist Chartchai Parasuk is not seeing a bright future.
China is a troubled economy and will remain so over the medium term.
... Who would believe that the current robust demand is nothing but an example of short-term, pent-up demand after two years of the Covid-19 outbreak? Who would consider the fact that consumers have no increased purchasing power to sustain today's level of consumption?
What the world is currently experiencing is not actual demand but rather pent-up demand in the wake of the Covid lockdowns.
PHOTO: Indonesian president Joko Widodo welcomes International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to his Bali summit.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2439690/
USA DRUGS NARCOTICS LAW JUSTICE
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/due-to-legal-challenge-recreational-marijuana-sales-in-brooklyn-westchester-and-elsewhere-hit-snag/
Elon Musk Demands Employees Sign Up For "Hardcore" Work Mode and Commit To Working Long Hours, Or Else Accept a Three Month Severance [Twitter.com]
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/401916.php
Elon says there's a 'cash burn' at Twitter. [Bangkokpost.com]
He threatens to take Twitter into backruptcy.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/2435464/
And next, Bezos firing 'about' 10,000 Amazon employees.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY
Pay close attention to the mannerisms here: Watch Xi, then watch Justin Trudeau.
Comrade Xi berates commie-wannabe Justin for their conversation the previous day being shared with the media.
Xi is shorter than Justin, but notice how Justin leans in. Xi is expressive and emotional, while Justin is tense and unmoving.
Xi is clearly and genuinely agitated in the exchange.
And here is how it ended...
VIDEO and FULL TRANSCRIPT at: https://bityl.co/Fgjn
COMMENT: You'd think Canada could afford better-quality cameras for its close-in press-pool work.
USA EDUCATION
Are we supposed to be impressed with this total, complete and admitted failure of the people 'teaching' future leaders?
Teachers experienced more pandemic anxiety than healthcare workers, study says.
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/11/15/study-teachers-more-COVID-19-pandemic-anxiety/5351668554858/
DRUGS NARCOTICS AMPETAMINES CRYPTO
You Go, Girl!
These are the people [literally] in charge of crypto currency:
Ellison was CEO of Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading house Alameda Research.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11432007/Ex-girlfriend-disgraced-FTX-founder-bragged-regular-amphetamine-use-Twitter.html
TECHNOLOGY
The launch of Google Wallet in Thailand is expected to pressure Apple into providing Apple Pay here as the move adds another option to the array of mobile payment channels in the country. [Bangkok Post]
Google Wallet is available in 57 countries worldwide.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2439665/
Official website with live coverage of Artemis I.
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/trackartemis/
Central Bank Digital Currencies Are Coming – A US Social Credit System Could Soon Follow [HumanEvents.com]
... the exact same people who have been inflating our life savings away would be able to directly control how we spend it."
https://humanevents.com/2022/11/15/central-bank-digital-currency-social-credit-system
Read it and weep:
Tech news site Protocol is closing its doors and laying off its entire staff. (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/15/media/protocol/index.html
Nvidia's RTX 4080 is here and overpriced. (Tom's Hardware)
If you're looking to spend $1200 for the second-best video card, it makes sense to plunk down the extra $400 for the best video card.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4080-review
FTX owes money to more than a million people. (Vice)
Take a number, kids. You're in for a long wait before these leeches cough up a single dime.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgpnvg/ftx-owes-money-to-more-than-a-million-people-court-filing-suggests
Closely related:
Disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried went to Twitter to announce that... You have got to be shitting me. (News.com.au)
He's looking for investors so he can pay back the billions of dollars he stole from the first lot of investors.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/investing/sbf-breaks-silence-after-cryptic-tweets-claims-ftx-us-has-enough-to-repay-customers/news-story/8920d94b8d846aeab1b41fee10bf8737
Answer: Probably
Question: Was FTX one huge money laundering scheme run by the Washington elite?
https://t.co/pUvni18YQ9
NOTE: There is more information on crypto-crime in this thread and links than in all the pathetic efforts of Thailand's media to report tha pump-and-dump of MORE shares and assets put together.
Answer: Not a chance, pal.
Question: Will we get a list of all the "donations" SBF made? [Forbes]
But here are four of them:
- $69 million in political donations, mostly to Democrats, some to Republicans via his subordinate
- $190M to a foundation
- $128M to a PAC
- Undisclosed amount (!)
The Prediction Whisperer foretells
Predictable supporters, press editors and tech-industry influencers have already begun to form a narrative that this monumentally corrupt, criminal scheme of US$10 billion-with-a-"B" is entirely about a donation of $23 million to the U.S. Republican Party.
This narrative seeks to plant the notion that any and all attempts to report and prosecute this historic crime is nothing but an insignificant blunder by one political party, and quite likely traceable to Trump.
It is effectively an organized scam to brainwash Americans and the world.
Question: Will SBF be Epsteined or Maxwelled?
GLOBAL WARMING
HOW TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING
http://lileks.com/bleats/archive/22/1122/33.html
USA POLITICS oh, also CANADA
Some of Trump's megadonors are bailing on him. e.g.
Stephen Schwarzman -- chairman, CEO and co-founder of private-equity giant Blackstone -- says in a statement to Axios that he's defecting from former President Trump for the 2024 presidential race.
Driving the news: "America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday," Schwarzman says.
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/11/16/axios-trump-megadonor-class-bailing-n511346
Related: Now is the time to boot failed GOP leaders, not bicker about Trump vs. DeSantis. Agreed. We'll have to get to Trump vs. DeSantis soon enough, but we have two years for that.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/11/15/now-is-the-time-to-boot-failed-gop-leaders-not-bicker-about-trump-vs-desantis/
The totally brilliant James Lileks raises a point that the MSM never bothers to cover:
Let's see, anything else today? Ah: two more morons defacing a painting. A Klimt this time. I still wonder how they get the paint into the museum.
http://lileks.com/bleats/archive/22/1122/33.html
Imagine that!
In 1914, people knew where it was AND why it was important (which it was).
