It is the official start of Week 102 of the two-week emergency decree to flatten the curve.
Good morning kids. It's a very nice, brisk, chilly (24 Canadian degrees) Sunday morning.
Prayut: 'I'm not going anywhere'
 The junta-appointed 'prime minister' of Thailand said Saturday he'll be around, in office, for at least another year.
 Prayut,  who  is  also  defence minister, made the remark at a remote meeting  of  armed  forces  leaders on Thursday.
 "I'll keep fighting and working until the  government's  tenure  ends," he said.
 That date is the biggest and most contentious issue in Thai politics. But Prayut made two things clear:
 He will not call a snap election by dissolving the House, and,
 He has secret plans to escape  the  non-confidence  debate  which  the opposition is preparing to launch against the government in May
New cases keep on coming
 Thailand reported 25,615 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, the second consecutive day the country set a record for daily infections.
 There were 40 more fatalities, aged from 36 to 105 years, with the average age of 78. They were 23 men and 17 women.
 All were Thais; all were vaccinated.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2270407/
THAILAND CORONAVIRUS STATISTICS
 25,615 confirmed new cases and
 21,934 probable cases
 166 cases from abroad, 189 from prisons
 Of 201,044 people in care, 83,703 are in hospital.
40 deaths
 965 in ICU (+34)
 263 on ventilators (+9)
 There were 40 reported Covid-19 deaths on Saturday. 34 were people aged 60 years and over. Overall, the age range was 36-105 years
380,104 people were vaccinated on Saturday, most of them with their booster doses (3rd jab or more).
Vaccinated on Saturday, February 26
 The figures for Saturday:
 1st shot: 76.8% (91,920 patients)
 2nd shot 71.4% (50,652)
 3rd + 4th (booster shots 28.8% (238,274)
Gee gosh! I wonder why?
Americans' Trust in Scientists, Other Groups Declines.
https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/americans-trust-in-scientists-other-groups-declines/
Friends and her mother say that beautiful and popular actress Nida "Tangmo" Patcharaveerapong was no accident. It was straight-up murder.
 [As reported earlier, Thailand's ruling junta ordered police not to reveal results of their tests on fingerprints and secretions.
 [So it's a murder AND a junta cover-up. Hmmmm!]
PHOTO: Actress Nida "Tangmo" Patcharaveerapong fell, or maybe was murdered and pushed into the Chao Phraya River off Bangkok. It took two days to find her body.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2270439/
I saw a good newspaper piece this morning. It's by Mark Judge, so that's kind of an automatic read for me.
 Would Batman Vote for Trump or Biden?
https://www.nysun.com/article/would-batman-vote-for-trump-or-biden
I saw a much better newspaper column by inestimable and unstoppable Roger Crutchley on the plague of the 99-cent pricing and other atrocities.
 Seducing shoppers with special offers
 ... At least you don't have to bargain for many things these days. When I was first in Bangkok there were no big department stores and shopping could be quite an exhausting experience.
 No place had everything under one roof so you trudged around from shop to shop, many without air conditioning.
 It would be nice to say that despite the hardships shopping was a rich cultural experience. But for me it was just too bloody hot.
 So I confess to having shamelessly succumbed in my old age to the air-conditioned comfort of my local (not-too-fancy) mall which has a passable supermarket. At least these days I don't return home soaked in sweat and suffering from exhaustion… unless I've been shopping with the wife.
Latest and full evacuation plans and details (in Thai) at
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=254252173561889&id=100069313235275
THAILAND RUSSIA UKRAINE
Thais seek to leave Ukraine amid Russian bombardment
Evacuation plans stepping up again
FLASHBACK: If it happens, this would be the first mass evacuation of Thai citizens since January, 2003, when the Royal Thai Air Force flew to rescue hundreds of Thais and families from the massacres and arsons ordered by Cambodian dictator Hun Sen.
Trivia:
How long ago was that? Thaksin Shinawatra was the popular, elected prime minister of Thailand, and Hun Sen was settling into his 18th year as violent 'leader' of Cambodia.
https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2003-01-30-20-thailand-67583547/389102.html
UKRAINE RUSSIA WARFARE
The world dithers
World Leaders Slap Sanctions on the Kremlin Over Invasion
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/international/2022/02/25/world-leaders-slap-sanctions-on-the-kremlin-over-invasion/
No surprise here:
ASEAN countries stays mostly silent as Ukraine invaded by Russia
https://bityl.co/B6WB
In 2022, wars cannot keep up with the speed of Twitter, where thousand already have opinions about:
 Has Putin botched the war?
 One can hope!
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1497537193346220038.html
 Russians didn't have a tactical plan.
 The war costs about US$20 billion/day. There are rockets for 3-4 days at most, they use them sparingly. They lack weapons, the Tula and 2 Rotenberg plants can't physically fulfil the orders for weapons. Rifles and ammo are the most they can do.
 If Ukraine manages to hold the Russians off for 10 days...
In summary: The Thailand junta has a plan, but it's not yet in operation.
 Some 236 Thai nationals (as of Saturday evening) are seeking immediate evacuation out of Ukraine amid attacks by the advancing Russian military forces, the junta-controlled Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
 Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat yesterday said the MFA has an evacuation plan ready, with an operation centre set up in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which will serve as a temporary shelter for Thais.
 "Some  236  Thais  have  requested immediate evacuation," Tanee said. He added:
 Another 12 Thais were fleeing from the capital Kyiv, making their way towards Lviv on their own on Saturday.
 Under the plan, Thai embassy officials in Warsaw, capital of neighbouring Poland, have been sent to Ukraine to help Thais fleeing cities under Russian military attack, Tanee said.
Wars always have numerous knock-ons. This one is going to hit the Thai economy, yet again.
Special Report
Tourism faces new battle ahead
 Russia's Ukraine invasion likely to hit visitor numbers from both countries
 In particular, tour agencies in Phuket and Pattaya and hotels are bracing for aftershocks from Russia's attack.
 Tourists from Russia and Ukriane have contributed a great deal to the local economies. For Phuket, Russians have  make  up  the  biggest  arrivals since the province, along with the rest of the country, reopened to tourism in November last year.
 Bhunanan Patanasin, president of the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association (PBTA), said Russian and Ukrainian visitors have been the mainstays of the tourism sector in Pattaya.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2270471/
I admit I did not see this coming: The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming! to Krabi!
Translation: They mean "once a week".
This is not just recommended Sunday reading,
It ought to be mandatory.
Savage Wars of Peace
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/03/churchill-in-barbary
And speaking of the old days...
This was written and blogged and memory-holed more than 7 years ago by the Prince Arthur Herald (of McGill University of Montreal) and quickly republished by the serially beknighted HuffPost:
Why Canada will become a dictatorship under Trudeau
Would a Prime Minister Trudeau arbitrarily whip the vote and outlaw certain moral questions? Could Prime Minister Trudeau be trusted to make decisions for the good of the country, not just for his personal self-worth? Would Trudeau call in the police to enforce his vision? Let's hope we never have the opportunity to ask those questions.
https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/trudeau-dictator_b_6314494
Very closely related:
 What led to Canada's crisis
 In Canada, an ideologically supercharged managerial class has accelerated the adoption of a new kind of emergency politics.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/02/what-led-to-canadas-crisis
