Fwd: Is China having a coup?
Comrades, friends, colleagues and fellow children. Today is Sunday, yet again.
Thailand prepares for the Return of Prayut - on Friday
Is Xi Jinping gone?
Is China Having A Coup? And Is President4Life Xi Jinping Under House Arrest?
Beijing cancels a whopping 6,000-plus domestic and international flight without a word of explanation.
Xi announces he has jailed China's top security official, for life.
Unsubstantiated speculation swirled Saturday morning that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been locked down in isolation amid a potential coup, Far East expert Gordon Chang said.
https://www.firstpost.com/world/is-all-well-with-chinas-xi-jinping-ask-netizens-as-beijing-cancels-6000-domestic-international-flights-11326311.html
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/gordon-chang-china-coup/2022/09/24/id/1088867/
The lack of news from #China over the last few hours suggests coup rumors are untrue, but whatever happened inside the #Chinese military during the last three days — evidently something unusual occurred — tells us there is turbulence inside the senior #CCP leadership.
Gordon Chang
Hmm. Most interesting.
According to New Highland Vision [新高地], former Chinese President Hu Jintao and former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao may have persuaded Song Ping, the former member of the Standing Committee and retaken control of the Central Guard Bureau (CGB).
https://www.newhighlandvision.com/
Dead on Arrival
SPECIAL REPORT
The new governor of Bangkok announced his vision: a satellite city that will relieve pressure on Bangkok.
One word applies: Doomed. There is no chance that his convoluted plan can work.
Another City Hall plan has a chance of success.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration aka City Hall aka governor Chadchart has signed a contract with  Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) to try to make youngsters read better.
'Free Books for Early Childhood Children' [sic] kicked off on Friday in the Kao Phatthana, Supsin Kao, and Phlub Phla communities of Wang Thonglang district.
 Deputy Bangkok governor Sanon Wangsangboon said the project aimed to keep early-childhood youngsters from learning loss due to Covid-19. Anyone up to six years old is targeted.
Warning: Con artists want to use you
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is concerned about the increasing number of young people being duped to open saving accounts in exchange for money.
Siritida  Panomwon  Na  Ayudhya, assistant  governor  of  the  BoT, said "mule accounts", as they are known, are used for ill purposes by scammers.
 "Con men use them for fraudulent online transactions, call-centre scams or online bets. Mule accounts are used so they will not be traced back to the call-centre scammers."
Baht freefall could hit 38 [newspaper headline]
Economists credit the Thai currency's movement to a stronger dollar
1. The Thai baht is not in free-fall against the U.S. dollar. In the past two months, the currency exchange value of the baht has gone from 36.1 baht to 37.2 baht - which is not free-fall.
2. The alleged so-called 'government' installed by leaders of the 2014 military coup have, literally, no idea what to do about it.
Tourists and foreign residents reap the benefits, which aren't all that great because
3. Inflation is pushing prices of goods and services much faster than the value of the baht is falling.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2399250/
Spoiler: The Thai baht will certain pass 38-per U.S. dollar within the next week
Here are the exchange rates for the baht against important foreign currencies.
Compare and Contrast. Discuss.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2397213/
Example of military FUBAR
Thailand's acting temporary caretaker 'prime minister' Prawit Wongsuwan told the cabinet and the media on Tuesday that he thinks the baht rate should be 35 per U.S. dollar.
He wasn't embarrassed (although he should have been, at least.)
On Friday, Prawit excplained ahem um, "I'm not trying to tell the Bank of Thailand how to do its job."
Of course not. That would be a Bad Thing To Do, not to mention illegal.
[So once again the public and the ruling elite are left to disbelieve Prawit. Like with his million-dollar watches.]
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2397923/
Thai narcs arrest two, seize 139 kilos of crystal meth and speed pills
The suspects were taken down in Chiang Mai and in northern Bangkok.
 The suspects told interrogators that they worked for "a major drug trafficker" in a neighbouring country (read: Myanmar) who smuggled drugs into Thailand.
 The crystal meth was sold at 170,000 baht per kilo.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2397971/
What do you think is the chance that Thailand's national hockey team will beat the Colorado Avalanche
Yes. well that's the same chance that Thailand's junta will lift their total, complete ban on e-cigarettes, vaping, etc. etc.
 Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul stressed the need to continue banning e-cigarette imports to protect youths from vaping health risks.
 A survey conducted by the National Statistical Office of Thailand last year found more than half of the about 80,000 e-cigarette smokers in Thailand were people aged 15 to 24.
 Crackdowns on e-cigarettes smuggled into the country will also continue to limit access to the products on the black market.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/easy/2380118/
SPORTS WOMEN VOLLEYBALL
The very dedicated Thai (young) women's volleyball team went to Turkey and knocked the tar out of the home team in a thrilling five-set opener at the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship.
17-25, 31-29, 22-25, 25-19, 15-13
The championship match will be on October 16. Joining Thailand and reigning champions Serbia are Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Netherlands, Poland, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/sports/2399526/
https://www.nationmultimedia.com/lifestyle/sport/40020378
VIDEO [Thais in black]:
I don't know what to say. My heart is full of happiness to win this match today because we worked and trained very hard.
 Chatchu-on Moksri, top scorer in the Thailand-Turkey volleyball batch
Taiwan is open, again
The island's government is selecting certain countries whose citizens are welcome.
China Airlines began to resume scheduled flights on Friday - with the first one bound for Chiang Mai.
Citizens of five countries will not need visas to visit - Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and South Korea. Not Thailand, not yet - too many Robin Hoods sneaking in and looking for jobs.
And there will be no more quarantine of foreign visitors, effective next week.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4665221
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4665583
That's a maple leaf, right?
Every drug arrest should feature a joke.
Man busted in southern Taiwan after his wife... (not a joke)
his wife thought their marijuana was a maple sapling.
[Sure, that's a common error, right? Canadian flagmakers do it all the time.]
Taiwanese media reported:
When police raided a man's home after catching him attempting to sell marijuana plants in Yunlin County, the suspect's wife said she was told the marijuana "house plant" was decorative maple.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4666354
So... it's not only Biden, right?
Video shows China's Xi slip while stepping off plane in Kazakhstan
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4658354
WEEKEND READING
My actual favourite continuous writer/analyst on the Middle East.
James M. Dorsey is an "Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies" in Singapore, but he gets around a lot, and he really knows his subject(s).
This week he is on about
 Public opinion surveys challenge the image Arab leaders like to project
 For now, keeping the lid on freedom of expression and dissent helps Mideast leaders maintain their grip but casts a shadow and a doubt over the image they work so hard to project.
Dear Canada,
Idiocracy was meant to be an instruction manual.
TOURISM TRAVEL AMERICA
The last airline in the U.S.A. with first-class sections, is dumping all its first class sections.
"But hey, WAIT" screamed American Airlines, "We're going to make our business class sections look spiffier."
Starting in two years, or so, every business class seat will look like this.
And [possibly] to boost membership of The Mile-High Club, every business-class cubicle (below) will have a door.
https://crankyflier.com/2022/09/22/american-announces-the-end-of-first-class-by-introducing-a-better-business-class/
FACT [largely unknown and unrecognized]
Human beings are the only species on Earth (including those that are living and all the extinct species] that celebrates Shark Week.
Quite right, Crutch nothing at all. As Freddy Fender noted soulfully some time ago, I'll Be There Before the Next Teardrop Falls.
And it was less than six years ago that teardrops were falling like rain at the funeral of King Bhumibol the Great.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not smacking down the Limeys for their pageantry of the farewell to Queen Elizabeth II. But as a young Thai said to me after watching the complete BBC funeral for the Queen, "We had ELEPHANTS".
Paul Krugman won a Nobel and never got over it. Today he preaches, in The New York Tim...
War, inflation and squandered credibility
The U.S. Federal Reserve and the Putin regime have this in common:
 Both took major policy actions this week. The Fed raised interest rates in an attempt to curb inflation.
 Mr Putin announced a partial mobilisation in an attempt to rescue his failed invasion. Both actions will inflict pain.
https://www.mercurynews.com/author/paul-krugman/
