In Bangkok, the answer to free speech is VIOLENCE
A good morning to the World from Thailand, it is Thursday, May 12. In short, We're over the hump. For the 112th Hump Day since Thailand's ruling junta ordered a two-week lockdown to flatten the curve. It's probably just an unfortunate coincidence that Thailand's first Covid Lockdown in 2020 was also on a Thursday.
Now tell us something we don't know
or as old people say,
YES, IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Thailand's junta-appointed 'minister of finance' Arkhom Termpittayapaisith (left) and Worachai Bhicharnchitr, vice-chairman of the Board of Trade, spoke on Wednesday at a forum sponsored by the Post Today newspaper.
Arkhom said the biggest problem for the Thai economy is the lagging recovery of tourism.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2308330/
If you say so...
The dollar hit a 20-year high. The Fed rate hike, war in Ukraine, and China covid curbs are driving up dollar demand as investors seek a safe haven.
Here are the rates in Thailand, pretty well all of East Asia about the same.
In Thailand in the past three sad years, currency prices including the dollar have moved with tiny brackets, with no real effect on regional prices, let alone the world.
But there are real concerns about the stability of the Thai baht.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2308042/
THAILAND BANGKOK POLITICS
The answer to free speech is VIOLENCE
The psycho in the white shirt, carrying a murse, is well-known Kanetpisanuthep "K-100 million" Jakapopmahadecha, a beyond bizarre man who claims to be a loyalist of Thai royalty and nation lover. As in "No one could ever love the King and royal family more than me and no Thai loves Thailand more than me." Ching-ching.
The young woman is a noted protest figure and auntie, Worawan "Pa-Pao" Sae-Ung, who was standing at a BTS (Skytrain) station when this occurred.
NOTE: The unpleasant video goes violent for a couple of seconds. Use your discretion.
Smile School is over, now for the real thing
Tonight (Thailand time) the U.S. president will smile and backslap and mutter a few words to the leaders of the 10 nations of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Minus Myanmar and the Philippines, with other place-settings to be determined.
Thailand and the others have low expectations. They'd rather hear some tough, timely words than the guff and gobblegook about the huge importance of U.S. ties to ASEAN and so on and so on. But time will tell.
One of the U.S. goals at the "summit" is to push all ASEAN leaders off their fence-straddling and "way too much pro-Russian" stances over the war in the Ukraine, and that will be a tough sell.
As Biden himself put it on Wednesday to all his citizens:
"I want every American to know that I am taking inflation very seriously and it's my top domestic priority.”
"But First, I got these guys who flew in from Asia they're forcing me to talk to."
Joe Biden, U.S. president
In 2003, W Bush made Thailand (not ASEAN) a "major non-NATO partner" of the United States, to fight all that terrorism that's going on.
On Wednesday, literally as he was going to the airport for his flight to Washington and the U.S.-ASEAN "summit", Prayut announced that he had a literal brainstorm.
He intends to ask Biden to make Thailand an "American Supply Chain Partner".
https://bangkokherald.com/general/politics/prayut-heads-to-us-for-asean-summit-push-thailand-as-american-supply-chain-partner/
GLOBAL WARMING
U.S. must assist with climate finance
By Kasit Piromya
The author of this Oped was once the foreign minister of Thailand. Then he became obsessively dedicated to ridding the country of Thaksin and everything Shinawatra, a goal he has been pursuing for 17 years.
As U.S. President Joe Biden is due to meet with leaders from Southeast Asian countries this week at the U.S.-ASEAN Summit in Washington from tonight and tomorrow (Thailand time), one issue on which Washington bears an enormous responsibility - and from which ASEAN countries suffer enormous consequences - will be high on the agenda: climate change.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2307978/
CHINA HONG KONG COMMUNIST PARTY
Really? This is just as surprising as finding noodles in your breakfast soup. It's what the Chinese Communist Party has done, and will continue to do, whether you call them insurgents or Long March survivors of Red Guards...
This is a political atrocity and it is a worldwide shame that no one will call Beijing on it.
Hong Kong arrested four opposition activists.
They are: Cardinal Joseph Zen, human rights defender Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, singer Denise Ho Wan-sze and academic Hui Po-keung.
All were trustees of the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, set up by pro-democracy leaders during the 2019 protests.
For the president4life and for the CCP they were revisionist, splittists, and do not deserve to exist.
PHOTO: Catholic leader and activist Cardinal Joseph Zen. Below, Margaret Ng.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61413335
NOTE: 'Ng' is a common surname of Chinese, particularly in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and America. It is most commonly translated as "Wu", although there are dozens of variants, including "Wong". This is one excellent background:
https://www.mychinaroots.com/surnames/detail?word=Ng
CORONAVIRUS THAILAND
Thailand's ruling junta is pushing all media outlets aggressively to spread the word that the Covid-19 infections and deaths are dropping.
Which isn't a lie if you take the measure of the last three months of the novel virus throughout the country.
The idea that the disease should be declared endemic instead of pandemic may hasten the narrative.
In fact, the basic statistics for Wednesday were actually a tad higher than for Tuesday.
https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40015440
Researchers in Thailand issued a preliminary report of interest to wrinkled people:
Booster dose for elders via intradermal injection gives lower immunity but fewer side effects: study
The detailed report is out of the Siriraj Institute of Clinical Research (SICRES).
The institute said elders (aka old or older-than-Jason) face the risk of severe Covid-19 symptoms so they need the booster dose for protection.
https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40015440
Rona catches Bill Gates
He tweeted that he is experiencing mild symptoms, but he will Follow The Science and self-isolate for a while.
In a separate tweet, Gates noted he was 'fully vaccinated and boosted'.
Ironically, Gates has just completed writing a book, 'How to Prevent the Next Pandemic', with lots of information on washing hands and wearing masks.
PHOTO: If the Vid catches you, refuse to be a coviditiot. Turn the tables and use your coronacation to sell your book.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1098066371/bill-gates-positive-covid
NOTE: Weirdly, National Public Radio is partly funded by Gates.
Good grief. Now I'm starting to feel sorry for Melinda.
And who is this "we", Bill? Looks like straight-up CYA.
Comment: Can someone please just Fisk this nonsense and let us move on?
Here's a start:
1. Gates imagines an army of 3,000 well-trained Track 'n' Trace health police on permanent standby to interview 'early victims' of a new virus he just invented in his head. Gates (like many or most humans on Earth) refuses to say where he might have picked up coronavirus symptoms and there is no way to force him to do that. And there is no way to prevent him from changing his 'list of likely carriers' who infected him. No wonder why Melinda threw him out.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/704751/how-to-prevent-the-next-pandemic-by-bill-gates/
https://www.amazon.com/Prevent-Next-Pandemic-Bill-Gates/dp/0593534484
Two things that Bill Gates cannot do:
1. Write a software program for computers.
2. Battle a worldwide virus outbreak like, say, the common cold or the SARS-Cov 2 Covid-19 novel virus.
DISEASE BIRD FLU
Chickens on Lockdown
The U.S. outbreak of avian flu is the worst in seven years, so instead of locking them down, they culled aka killed 37 million chickens and turkeys.
Now they're going after the free-range birds, because cooping them up might prevent the spread of bird flu. Kind of like locking down humans prevented to much Covid-19.
France has required a full lockdown since November, 2019, and the U.K. government forced egg sellers to change the carton labels from "free-range" to "barn eggs".
https://qz.com/2162831/free-range-chickens-are-facing-global-bird-flu-lockdowns/
Very cute intro but this is a serious exposé of a slice of a serious subject.
BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE! U.S.-Israeli Cyber Security Firm Exposes Chinese Regime-Linked Global Industrial Espionage Ring.
Chinese hackers took trillions in intellectual property from about 30 multinational companies.
The report exposed a massive Chinese state-linked hacking operation that managed to infiltrate American, European, and Asian multinationals.
... Massachusetts-based Cybereason found that a Beijing-backed hacker outfit, which goes by the name APT 41, stole industrial secrets worth trillions of dollars with an apparent aim to boost the Chinese state-controlled economy.
The Chinese regime-backed hacker "group has existed since at least 2010 and is believed to be operating on behalf of Chinese state interests and specializes in cyberespionage and intellectual property theft."
"The covert attacks have been focused on infiltrating the networks of technology and manufacturing companies in Europe, Asia, and North America, focusing on stealing sensitive proprietary information."
And now, exposed for all to see, the Chinese Communist Party is mad as hell.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/05/u-s-israeli-cyber-security-firm-exposes-chinese-regime-linked-global-industrial-espionage-ring/
Self-radicalised Singaporean detained under ISA after planning to take part in armed violence overseas
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/isd-isa-man-detained-black-flag-army-2674876
For what it's worth, I doubt this headline and significant parts of the article. This guy is no lone wolf. He's a known wolf and paying for it.
The U.S. news agency Associated Press (AP) has attempted to do something rare.
10 poorest countries in Asia, using only GDP.
There are more than a few problems with the list, starting with geography. The link below has comments on why it chose each country, but here is the AP's list
East Timor (GDP – $1.67 billion)
Bhutan (GDP – $2.45 billion)
Maldives (GDP – $5.73 billion)
Tajikistan (GDP – $8.12 billion)
Kyrgyzstan (GDP – $8.45 billion)
Brunei (GDP – $13.47 billion)
Armenia (GDP – $13.67 billion)
Mongolia (GDP – $13.85 billion)
Palestine (GDP – $15 billion)
Georgia (GDP – $17.74 billion)
Sure, but is it okay to go in and check?
