Is it time at last for legal prostitution in Thailand?
ESPIONAGE ACTIVISTS ANTI-JUNTA
Well... yeah. Did you expect them to just blurt out the truth?
HUMAN RIGHTS
Thai Police big-shots deny using Pegasus spyware against activists
Police Colonel Kissana Phathanacharoen, a deputy police force spokesman:
 "The Royal Thai Police have never used any spyware to violate anyone's rights as suggested in those news reports and rumours spread on social media. The RTP strictly follows laws and regulations."
 Thai human rights group iLaw, Southeast Asian internet watchdog Digital Reach and Toronto-based Citizen Lab, have previously revealed findings from their probe conducted after a mass alert from Apple in November informing thousands of iPhone users, including in Thailand, that they were targets of a spyware attack.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2349308/
Closely Related. But a different country.
SPYING ON AMERICANS:
 New Documents Reveal Huge Scale of Government Cellphone Tracking of Citizens.
 By purchasing this data from data brokers, officials are sidestepping the legal process government officials would typically need to go through in order to access cell phone data.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/18/homeland-security-cell-phone-tracking/
THAILAND CORRUPTION JUNTA
Military dictators do what military dictators always do
Thailand's ruling junta has (secretly) splashed out on the purchase of more luxurious Mercedes Benz than you can imagine.
The official narrative is that the Mercedes S500s and S400s for senior officers. Of which there are quite a few.
A Lower House committee discovered that 36 'senior officers' got the cars. And wondered why.
Defence Ministry spokesmen insisted that cars provided for the permanent secretary for defence, the deputy permanent secretary for defence and leaders of the army, navy and air force are not for personal use.
https://thethaiger.com/talk/topic/15973-news-forum-thai-military-commanders-asked-to-explain-secret-budget-used-by-senior-officers/
Related
Army waves off criticism of its 197.2 billion-with-a-b budget plan
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2348708/
It is past time, write two (women) of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), for Thailand to legalise prostitution.
Since prostitution is illegal in Thailand, the main labour force in this economic activity - sex workers - are treated as criminals and subjected to fines and imprisonment.
PHOTO: People dressed in white saris - inspired by the hit Netflix biopic 'Gangubai Kathiawadi - show their support for sex workers' rights during Pride Month in Thailand.
Let the Debate Begin
On Friday night or Saturday, parliament will vote in favour of Prayut.
Prayut literally babbling about Thaksin during the parliamentary no-confidence debate.
Thaksin successor and current Pheu Thai Party leader Cholnan Srikaew thinks he got one back.
Up next, on Thursday, the opposition has got some questions for the junta loyalist and marijuana champion Anutin Charnvirakul, wealthy 'minister of public health'.
Veteran Asia/ASEAN journalist-analyst Kavi Chongkittavorn writes this morning that...
 Thailand has discovered the secret to handling the problem of dealing with both the U.S.A. and China at the same time.
 Critics have constantly faulted the Prayut government's quiet diplomacy on all issues as a weakness for its failure to produce tangible results.
 But the junta knows. It's the 3 Rs.
PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, and Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi, both of whom came to meet with the junta.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2348873/
The new law mandates that If It's Wednesday There Must Be A Humorous Break. So, here's John Cleese at the Babylon Bee.
China's Trojan horse persists - the Confucius Institutes on campus in the U.S.A., Canada and Thailand. Among others.
A new and bombshell report from the National Association of Scholars (NAS) demonstrates that news of Confucius Institutes' death in America has been greatly exaggerated.
https://www.newsweek.com/chinas-trojan-horse-confucius-institutes-persist-campuses-opinion-1725085
BULLETIN Breaking... China will never, ever under any circumstance give up, reverse or halt any programme that serves the Communist Party of China (CCP).
If you think it will, you've been had.
 Confucius Institutes are covert threats...working to co-opt American (and Canadian and Thai) colleges and universities. They provide CCP-approved teachers and textbooks, and strings-attached funding aimed at promoting the Chinese government's favoured narratives.
 While suppressing all information about the regime's tyranny and brutality.
PHOTO: Confucius Institute of Suan Dusit University at Suphanburi.
The latest bad news from CHINA
China has an unemployment problem. Why nearly 20 percent of young job-seekers can't land a job.
https://www.grid.news/story/global/2022/07/18/china-has-an-unemployment-problem-why-nearly-20-percent-of-young-job-seekers-cant-land-a-job/
 Dissatisfaction among the young generation in China has spiked recently, and it's not hard to see why. Chinese students face intense competition at school and at universities - and lately they have also spent stretches of time in strict Covid lockdowns, many stuck in tight dorm rooms. Worse, perhaps: The payoff is increasingly elusive - it has become harder and harder to find a job.
https://www.grid.news/story/global/2022/07/18/china-has-an-unemployment-problem-why-nearly-20-percent-of-young-job-seekers-cant-land-a-job/
And according to REUTERS
A shrinking workforce and high youth unemployment don't say anything good about the true condition of China's economy.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-population-idUSKCN1GC18C
RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR
 Will U.S. Rockets Turn the Tide?
 ...What happens when Ukraine suddenly has the ability to reach out and touch Russian supplies and transportation networks far behind Russia's artillery?
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/07/18/ukraine-war-will-u-s-rockets-turn-the-tide-n1613715
Quote Du Jour: "Despite the odds and the obstacles, we push to move forward, that we are guided by what we see, that can be, unburdened by what has been."
 -- Kamala Harris, 'Quotes As Motivational Posters, Part 2'
XiNN - the stopped watch of TV news.
CNN Poll: Most Americans are discontented with Biden, the economy and the state of the country.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/politics/cnn-poll-joe-biden-economy-us/
BORN MUSIC
On this day in 1929 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins, super interesting guy:
Golden Gloves champion at 16
Married nine (9) times, father of more than thirty (30) children
Spent two years in prison
Recorded 'I Put A Spell On You' in 1956
Died on February 12, 2000, age 70, after emergency surgery for an aneurysm.
[h/t Onthisdayinmusic.com]
ADVERT
This morning's Daily Fishwrap has been brought to you by Luggage Carriers.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY
SKYNET SMILES, WAGS ITS TAIL:
 Robot dog learns to walk in one hour.
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-robot-dog-hour.html
GERMANY: On second thought, maybe we won't shut down our remaining nuclear power plants.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/07/19/germany-on-second-thought-maybe-we-wont-shut-down-our-remaining-nuclear-power-plants-n483735
THE NEW SPACE RACE:
 China plans to test asteroid deflection in 2026
... "A slide presented by Long indicates that the impactor mission will launch in 2026 on a Long March 3B rocket," the SpaceNews report said. "The mission will include a separate impactor and orbiter. The former will impact near-Earth object 2020 PN1 with the latter spacecraft making observations."
https://www.space.com/china-asteroid-deflection-test-planetary-defense
COVFEFE: Making Coffee Great Again
Hand it to the Trump fans for their ability to take every insult and turn it into something positive.
https://doyoucovfefe.com/coffee/
WEEKEND READ
U.S.A. HISTORY
Black scholar predicts it will take 30 years to erase the 'Big Lie' of '1619' victimhood.
 Progressive public school teacher in a blue state: Things are as bad as you’ve heard.
So instead of championing better performance from Black students, his goal is to "help shrink the racial achievement gap in our state" by lowering the test scores of whites?
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/07/18/progressive-public-school-teacher-in-a-blue-state-things-are-as-bad-as-youve-heard-n483563
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/black-scholar-predicts-30-years-to-erase-big-lie-of-1619-victimhood
STRANGE APPROACH
Make Funemployment Great Again!
 New York Times Magazine Interview Whines Over America's 'Rabid' 'Obsession' with Economic Growth.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/joseph-vazquez/2022/07/18/nyt-magazine-interview-whines-over-americas-rabid
