Hun Sen's got the Rona
Good morning kids of all sorts, it is now Wednesday, November 14 everywhere on Earth.
Come Friday, one of these men will be in Bangkok and the other will be dressing for a wedding reception 14,145 kilometres away.
Presidents Joe "NO ASIANS" Biden and Xi "ZERO COVID" Jinping end a landmark summit in Bali, Indonesia after three hours of talks aimed at avoiding conflict between the rival superpowers.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2437612/
But anyway... good morning all kids of all persuasions on this quite lovely Wednesday morning of November 16.
THAILAND APEC ANALYSIS
Hun Sen of Cambodia, the longest-serving head of government in the world, can't make it to Prayut's APEC 2022 'summit'.
He's got the Covid, and joins the growing list of foreign phuyai and poobahs who won't help Prayut celebrate.
Just a coincidence of course, but his Rona diagnosis came immediately after maskless Hun Sen met U.S. president Biden and China's soon-to-be ex-prime minister Li Keqiang at the Bali G-20 and the Phnom Penh ASEAN summits.
He took off his mask 'a lot'.
Hun Sen met at length with President Joe "The Pandemic Is Over" Biden on Saturday in Cambodia, first in a bilateral session and then co-hosting a meeting between the U.S. and ASEAN. After that the two sat next to each other at a lengthy gala dinner.
Hun Sen planned to meet Xi Jinping and Macron in Bangkok, but in the immortal, legendary words of U.S. philosopher Michael Gerard Tyson, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
https://bityl.co/FfHd
So is it permitted to write that events around the APEC 'summit' are changing at a fever pace?
The perpetually well-informed columnist Kavi Chongkittavorn speculates on...
Xi's visit to Bangkok: East wind blowing
 Thailand's ruling junta believes firmly that now is the Asian Century; that China is the undisputed leader; and that Thailand-China ties are consequential to peace and stability in the region.
 Thailand will do its utmost to further strengthen bilateral ties with China in anticipation of the 50th anniversary in 2025 and beyond.
 On the other hand, Thai strategists also offered the opposite scenario, which is bleak, titled "Cold War Redux", with an 85% possibility. It predicts the return of containment, the threat of global nuclear war, numerous nations choosing defence alliances with the US, great economic and financial disruption as globalisation sharply contracts, and a stagnant regional economy.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2437872/xis-visit-to-bangkok-east-wind-blowing
Xi and Prayut first met at the Great Hall of the People in December of 2014, seven months after Thailand's last military coup.
THAILAND POLITICS FOOTBALL SOCCER
Thailand's top junta fellas lifted another 600 million baht out of the country's diminishing budget - 17 million U.S. dollars, 22.4 Canuckian loonies - with the intention of tempting/bribing international football (FIFA) guys into broadcasting next week's [starting Sunday] World Cup of soccer from Qatar into Thailand.
 They kvetched and shouted that FIFA is currently trying to extract 1.6 billion-with-a-"B" baht and pleaded for a discount - 45 million American bucks, 60 million loonies.
 That 600 million Thai baht came [supposedly] from a formerly secret fund for broadcasting research and development.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/sports/2437582/
Heavily related
Roger Crutchley, a bred-and-born Limey, knows more about how Thai military dictators have SNAFU'd at least four World Cup broacast schedules (and counting).
 He says:
Some nimble footwork might save the day
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2436620/
Suspect Captured After Manhunt, But Three Dead, Two Injured After Gunman Opens Fire On Bus at the University of Virginia
The Amazon Washington Post would do better. and save ink, to just shorten its silly motto to Democracy Dies.
Its horribly manipulation of the murderous killings on board a University of Virginia bus sets a new standard of journalistic stench.
This is a biased but accurate account and timeline of just how the Post donned the clown nose and huge floppy clown shoes. And it is worse than you imagine.
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/
more at
On the very eve of the APEC 2022 'summit'
Covid surges in Bangkok, tourist areas
Unvaxxed elderly urged to stay home
https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/easy/2437330/
Above story ignores the possibility that the "surge" is because of more and better detailed reports.
However, it includes statistics on the disease that have not been previously seen.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2437887/covid-surges-in-capital-tourist-areas
THAILAND BANGKOK APEC PROTESTS
Thai junta throws down the gauntlet: No protests during the APEC 'summit'
Police warned that if protest groups attempt to rally, "they can't cause disturbances and they have to stay inside the junta-designated protest site".
Bangkok police chief Major-General Archayon Kraithong set up a 'joint command centre' with national police and the Royal Thai Army to watch over all security threats during the next week.
National police chief General Damrongsak Kittiprapas, in his capacity as deputy chief of the new joint command, met Tuesday with representatives of the armed forces, the junta-controlled foreign affairs ministry and the junta's public health ministry - as well as other agencies "to coordinate efforts to ensure the APEC summit proceeds smoothly".
PHOTO: All roads near the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center are blocked by armed police and army commandos.
All the [known] anti-Prayut and anti-junta groups announced they intend to demonstrate and protest during Prayut's beloved APEC 2022 'summit' - despite junta bans on all public demonstrations during the joyful APEC festivities.
 Leaders of one of the few pro-Prayut groups, People's Centre For Protecion of the Monarchy, announced they intend to go onto Bangkok streets and battle the Ratsadon Group - "in order to defend Prayut's APEC 2022.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/11/thailands-protesters-are-battling-to-redefine-national-identity/
Example
Passaralee "Mind" Thanakitwibulphon, one of the Ratsadon anti-junta group leaders, said she needed to plan the protest carefully as 20 spots near the APEC meeting premises have already been declared no-protest zones.
 Mind insisted that she intended to get as close to the APEC 'summit' premises at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center as possible.
 "Not only Bangkoknians will join my group, but also those from other provinces," she said.
Mind's Ratsadon group have set a mission to "Stop APEC", with realistic chances ranging from slim to none. The group has published 3 demands.
Prayut has to cancel the BCG policy [Bio-Circular-Green Economic Model].
Prayut has no legitimacy to sign an agreement with APEC leaders. and must immediately cease his role as chairman of the APEC meeting.
Prayut has to dissolve parliament and open the way for elections.
PHOTO: Ratsadorn group leaders rallied at Bangkok's Demoncracy Monument, earlier this year.
https://thailand.postsen.com/live-style/72748/%E2%80%98People%E2%80%99s-Network%E2%80%99-announces-3-brake-pins-Prayut-%E2%80%98stop-APEC%E2%80%99-Nov-16-18-focusing-on-parallel-movement-long-cast-disaster.html
Prayut to receive an 'image makeover'
Thailand's top two coupmakers of the decade are growing apart.
The token 'prime minister' Prayut is about to join a new political parth set up specifically for him by depressed Democrats. He is openly mulling whether to run in the next general election, which could be in May. The new party is Ruam Thai Sang Chart - Uniting Thai People For the Nation, or RTSCP. It's going to be a powerhouse in the South and could win all seats there.
His alleged deputy and obese four-star army general Prawit Wongsuwan is going to stay with the pro-junta Palang Pracharath Party - now dedicated to facing off and defeating Prawit its former hero.
Prayut will require that makeover. He has never run for election and no Thai ever has voted for him.
=QUIDK BACKGROUND=
During his weekly TV programme "Returning Happiness to the People of the Country" last January 1...
So-called 'prime minister' Prayut Chan-o-cha has admitted that his personality since the military coup of May, 2014 has been "ferocious", so his New Year resolution was to erase his short-tempered image and become a "good guy".
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30276517
The latest Nida Poll by the National Institute of Development Administration asked folks in Thailand's Central Region, Bangkok and surrounding provinces, who they wanted as the country's next prime minister. And the winner is...
The pregnant and small youngest daughter of Thaksin.
These are the four top vote-getters:
• 24.18% - Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Pheu Thai Party
• 16.73% - Pita Limjaroenrat, Move Forward Party [progressive]
• 16.23% - Prayut Chan-o-cha, still with followers
• 13.54% nobody was suitable [NOTA]
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2436722/
THAILAND TOURISTS TAXIS
If you fly into Thailand today, here is Obstacle 2, after the Immigration lines.
Both airports serving the Bangkok region  [Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang] are just about out of taxis, so, "Please wait in this line and a taxi will probably come."
Around half of all Bangkok taxis have gone on strike, demanding a 5-baht increase on their meters.
The ruling junta now is facing humiliation for yet another military effup, and is trying to recruit taxis of the ride-hailing app Grab.
Five-Day Weather Report for the only city on Earth scheduled to hold an APEC summit
for Thailand, Tuesday November 15-to-Saturday November 19
HOT: 30 Celsius or above every day
HUMID: Above 90% every day
RAIN: Every day this week
PACKING LIST: Brolly Galoshes Cotton clothes
And effective immediately:
 If you're flying abroad, show up at airport check-in at least three hours ahead of your scheduled departure, and,
 If you're flying inside Thailand, be at the check-in desk at least two hours ahead.
 Failing this, any complaints will be buried and forgotten.
The trials and troubles of Iran's national water polo team
A cleric in Iran has called for the punishment of athletes who fail to sing the national anthem, which could be trouble for the national men’s water polo team when it returns home from Thailand.
 Social media video showed team members not singing their country's anthem after a competition earlier last week.
 We can group them with other Iranian athletes who appear to have been lending their support to weeks-long protests at home that followed the death of a young woman detained by police for "inappropriate attire".
The 2022 Asian Water Polo Championship is under way at Bang Sao Thong district, just outside Bangkok.
PHOTO: This the team, photographed during their match against South Korea. The tournament is taking place in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2436274/
Quote du Jour
Türkiye has identified YPG militias in Syria as the masterminds behind the deadly bombing in Istanbul and will not accept condolences from the US, which has has supported them in the past.
https://www.rt.com/news/566494-t%C3%BCrkiye-us-condolences-ypg/
Elon Musk, Twitter: Look, 10,000 of you are going to be fired by the end of the year.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon: Hold my wine spitzer.
 Amazon.com Inc. plans to cut about 10,000 jobs, the largest ever headcount reduction at the e-commerce giant as it braces for slower growth and a possible recession. Layoffs will begin this week.
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/11/14/amazon-plans-largest-ever-layoffs-targeting-devices-retail-hr/
NOTICE
The following item is a rerun.
Hit PgDown and skip it if you must, but it's just so danged good.
So like, what's going on, eh?
In case you're into missing anniversaries:
 Thursday last, 10/11, was the day the Edmund Fitzgerald sank into The Lake That Never Gives Up Its Dead.
 Here is a terrifically excellent thread (Twitter) on the subject.
NOTE: Gordy Lightfoot (who is not an historian) made several errors.
For example, the Edmund was not bound for Cleveland. It was heading for Zug Island.
Gunpowder and shrapnel, the height of civilisation.
 -- Valerie Voze (played by Margot Robbie), Amsterdam
You can't protest here, this is a political summit
Thai junta tries to ban [potential] rallies and protests at 20 specific spots in Bangkok.
Known officially as 'democratic' by the U.S. State Department and its secretary Blinken, the junta printed names and locations of 20 spots where police and troops will attempt to come down hard on demonstrations during Prayut's prized APEC Summit 2022 - November 14-19.
The ban applies to the grounds of the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center and to 19 hotels where foreign leaders will be housed. The new-ish Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt is fully and disappointingly fully on board.
Police said two main Bangkok roads will be entirely closed for 5 days.
Submarine-seller Tóngzhì Xi is coming to town and the Royal Thai Police assures that everything is under control.
And not only him.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Thailand's token 'ministry of foreign affairs' does not [yet] consider that U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris is a 'world leader'. She is a 'representative of an APEC member's economy', even though she is not.
IMPORTANT NOTE2: Putin is not coming to the APEC summit. Like Joe Biden, then.
 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Tass that the Russian delegation to the APEC summit in Thailand will be headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2435640/
We are barely half done November and the next two weeks promises news developments from Bangkok and Phnom Penh and more. Nevertheless,
Headline of the Month
Ministry lifts lid on state of the nation's toilets, and it's not pretty
 -- Bangkok Post, Page One
• The Department of Health of the Thai junta's public health ministry reports:
• There are still 40,000 Thai households, or 0.2% of them all, with no toilet facilities.
• Thailand's filthiest toilets are in the public 'wet markets' where all housewives, restaurant owners and chefs shop. If you eat anything in Thailand, that's where your food came from.
• The cleanest facilities are in the nation's countless malls.
• World Toilet Day is a thing and will be celebrated on Thursday, the very day Prayut will claim pride and fame for opening his beloved APEC 22 summit at Bangkok's Queen Sirikit National Convention Center [QSNCC].
• QSNCC has clean toilet facilities.
Lots more details at
https://www.nationmultimedia.com/thailand/general/40021980
Jakkaphong "Anne" Jakrajutatip, founder and CEO, JKN Global Group Pcl.
The most powerful trans woman in the world
 -- Forbes Thailand
Transgender Rights Campaigner Buys 'Miss Universe' Pageant
Anne Jakapong Jakrajutatip, who also hosts the Thai edition of 'Project Runway', becomes the first woman to own the beauty pageant organisation outright.
There will be changes. Immediate examples:
 • Thailand will host the Miss Universe pageant in 2023.
 • Married women will be allowed to compete [so forget 'Miss'].
 • More and more transgender women will be encouraged to participate.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/social-and-lifestyle/2435209/
AFP: https://tinyurl.com/2p862v8j
TECHNOLOGY
CONTENT WARNING
 -- Mark Zuckerberg's getting desperate in his new pitch for Meta.
Prohibitionists and road-safety campaigners illustrated their demands for shorter night-time drinking hours.
The Bhumjaithai political party [main platform: MOAR marijuana!] wants nightspots open until at least 4 a.m.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2435764/
THAILAND CORONAVIRUS RECOVERY TOURISM
Heinecke back in the saddle again
Ex-American Billy Heinecke's MINT [Minor International Plc], one of the leading Asia-based hotel chain operators, reported quarterly earnings that saw the firm rebound to its pre-Covid era as hotel booking around the world saw a resurgence and its food business in Thailand improved.
Brokers said that MINT saw a Q3 2022 turnaround in every sector where it operates.
PHOTO: How Bill's Doing: Example.
https://bityl.co/FbNe
Package tours from Taiwan spike
Demand returns quickly once several Asian markets are reopened
And there's a picture to prove it. Sort of.
Pent-up demand from Taiwan has accelerated the growth of Thai tourism the last two months as tour package sales from a travel fair exceeded expectations, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
Thanet Phetsuwan, TAT's deputy governor of marketing for Asia and South Pacific, said the agency last week joined the Taipei International Travel Fair 2022 and partnered with eight major tour operators to sell tour packages to Thailand.
Taiwan reopened to foreign tourism without restrictions on October 13, helping to rebuild demand since then.
PHOTO: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen [centre, blue jacket] and the Tourism Authority of Thailand delegation at the Thai pavilion at the Taipei International Travel Fair 2022, which took place during November 4-7.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2436082/
AVE ATQUE VALE, you magnificent melon-smashing genius
Gallagher, Comedian Known for Smashing Watermelons, Dies at 76
 The inventive prop comedian known for smashing watermelons as part of his act, died Friday of organ failure.
 Gallagher had been in hospice care in California after suffering multiple heart attacks in recent years.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/gallagher-dead-comedian-smashing-watermelons-1235430439/
The inevitably challenging Chulalongkonrn professor and foreign affairs expert Thitinan Pongsudhirak tackles 'APEC's geopolitics and geoeconomics'.
ASEAN's summit season gets under way in Cambodia, but excitement and promise have given way to anxieties and apprehensions. While these summit talks are an extraordinary opportunity to tone down geopolitical temperatures and geoeconomic competition, they are likely to yield mixed results
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2434939/apecs-geopolitics-and-geoeconomics
Biden slipped into Phnom Penh from his stopover at the G20 summit in Bali, to meet Hun Sen, the world's longest-serving head of government.
Biden told him it would be neat if Hun Sen were to released the 60 political prisoners he locked up on risible charges of treason - including 51-year-old Cambodian-American activist Theary Seng.
Hun Sen, 70, laughed that laugh of his and told Biden he was going to run again in the next election because he likes being the man in complete charge.
Biden then called Cambodia "Colombia", so call it a wash.
Here is a photo of Theary Seng just before Hun Sen disappeared her into his prison system.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/biden-calls-for-release-of-jailed-cambodian-activist
FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE THERE IS NOT A NEW SPACE RACE
Yes, China Really Grew a Plant on the Moon.
https://scienceandstuff.com/yes-china-really-grew-a-plant-on-the-moon/
[h/t Twitter - Scott Kelly]
GLOBAL WARMING
I will believe global warming is a crisis when the people who tell me it's a crisis start to act like it's a crisis themselves.
Four hundred private jets arrived in Egypt during COP27 as climate delegates are accused of 'hypocrisy.' (Accused? I'd say 'convicted')
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11416209/FOUR-private-jets-arrived-Egypt-COP27-climate-delegates-accused-hypocrisy.html
From the entainment rags. But apparently confirmed.
 Disney is test-screening a film it calls James Mangold's Indiana Jones 5. The studio has tried a handful of endings, and audiences hated them all.
 This means, of course that Disney is in a panic over the screenings, because now they're worried the whole movie will bomb.
Via email from Fishwrap's Special Guest Contributor Tom Friedman:
 We Need to Talk About What My Egyptian Cab Driver Told Me About lobalization Shortly Before He Began to Murder Me!
Sign up here to join the line to collect graft
WHO report decries inequality in global vaccine market.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/11/09/switzerland-who-vaccine-report-inequality-ebola-hpv-covid/4891668017225/
XiNN says
Biden admin divided over path ahead for Ukraine as top US general Milley pushes for diplomacy
When you've lost the general who probably had a Ukraine flag for his Twitter pic.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/11/politics/ukraine-mark-milley-negotiations-biden-administration-debate
[The Wednesday Morning Joke]
FROM THE YEAR 2059
Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest Country in the world, Mexifornia, formerly known as California.
White minorities still trying to have English recognized as the third language.
Spotted Owl plague threatens Northwestern United States crops and livestock.
Baby conceived naturally! Scientists stumped.
Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.
Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least
10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.
France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica. No other country comes forward to help the beleaguered nation!
Last Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.
George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2060.
Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.
Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.
85-year $758 billion study reveals: Diet and exercise is the key to weight loss.
Global cooling blamed for citrus crop failure for the third consecutive year in Mexifornia and Floruba.
Senate still blocking drilling in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) even though gas is selling for 4532 Pesos per liter and gas stations are only open on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.
Supreme Court rules any punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.
Average height of NBA players is now nine feet seven inches with only 5 illegitimate children.
New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers,fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2060.
IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.
Floruba voters still having trouble with voting machines. [hat tip Ace]
TECHNOLOGY
Intel has pre-announced its Sapphire Rapids server CPUs with the high-end 56 core models priced at $12,980. (WCCFTech)
Available some time next year.
https://wccftech.com/intel-xeon-max-sapphire-rapids-hbm-cpus-specs-prices-leak-platinum-9480-56-cores-12980-usd/
AMD has announced its Epyc Genoa server CPUs with the high-end 96 core models priced at $11,805. (Tom's Hardware)
Available now.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-4th-gen-epyc-genoa-9654-9554-and-9374f-review-96-cores-zen-4-and-5nm-disrupt-the-data-center
The Raspberry Pi shortage is coming to an end. (Tom's Hardware)
Probably within a year.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-ceo-talks-shortages-next-gen-pi
True story, but damn! did I want to use this headline.
Great Tits Gain Massive Peckers!
https://www.newsweek.com/great-tits-are-evolving-longer-beaks-because-bird-feeders-688560
One of the (few) consolations of Vietnam war service was that country's women, but now my old pal Major Mark Smith claims he has discovered 'THE UGLIEST VIETNAMESE 'GIRL' YOU EVER SAW'
CAUTION: For some reason, Redstate.com has more entry barriers than a nuclear power station, but persevvere and scroll down; Major Smith isn't wrong.
https://redstate.com/alexparker/2022/11/10/miss-america-organization-crowns-its-first-biologically-male-queen-n657508
Headed straight for Bangkok and Prayut's APEC 2022 'summit'
