Oh, please stop with the "food shortage" nonsense. We are massively over-supplied
All right kids, settle down. Yes it is officially another Friday, May 27, not that there are orgies planned for the weekend, eh?
Thailand Weather Update: It is 84 Amrican degrees this morning, with just a hint of a breeze in pleasant downtown Dok Mai.
The Forum Was Electric
Prayut ripped off his mask and confronted the entire Nikkei Forum:
"Thailand can become the world's largest electric vehicle production hub."
B-b-b-but
But that will take huge, new Japanese investment and massive Japanese support.
Photo (left) Just outside the Nikkei-sponsored 27th International Conference on the Future of Asia, Thai students and residents of Japan launched a demonstration and demanded Prayut's resignation.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2316410/
https://www.matichon.co.th/news-monitor/news_3368055
In a second "welcome" for Prayut, the editor of NikkeiAsia newspaper "welcomed" Prayut with a caustic replay of the paper's 2019 Oped.
GLOBAL WARMING
For the first time in public, Prayut committed Thailand's ruling junta to
a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, and,
net-zero emissions by 2065.
PHOTO: On the flight up to Tokyo, a newspaper reporter caught the ex-army general Prayut reading binders of blank pages.
Facebook: https://fbook.cc/3vFt
Oh, please stop with the "food shortage" nonsense. Thailand has massive over-supplies.
But also some inflation.
Example. Prasit Boondoungprasert, CEO, Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF):
May 24: Malaysia banned all exports of chicken.
May 25: Singapore was first in a growing line of nations begging to buy Thai chicken.
Random Fact: CPF alone has 60% more chicken than all of Thailand can eat.
Prasit said key risks for Thailand include higher prices for less fertiliser because of the Ukraine war.
Also new diseases. (MONKEYPOX MONKEYPOX MONKEYPOX)
PHOTO: A week-long food conference under way at Impact Muang Thong is expected to net Thai sellers at least 10 billion baht from semi-desperate foreign buyers. Jurin is at the centre of the photo. The week-long expo is '
https://thaifex-anuga.com/en/
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2315922/
It's all about the monkeypox.
'Medical experts' turned away from Covid-19, and declared monkeypox to be a communicable disease that requires close surveillance.
There are still people who are not frightened half to death.
Virologists Claim 'Hyper-mutated' Strain of Monkeypox is Spreading Globally.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/05/virologists-claim-hyper-mutated-strain-of-monkeypox-is-spreading-globally/
Fine, yes, sure. Here's the official word, from 'experts'.
Attention all Grindr users and fans:
Monkeypox is characterised by clusters of blister-like rashes, which health officials say has led to misdiagnosing the disease as common sexually transmitted infections.
Anyone can get monkeypox, but most of the cases associated with this current outbreak have been in men who have sex with men, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many of the new cases so far have been linked to men who have sex with men, which suggests the virus may be spreading through sexual networks, experts say. So, Grindr has been working to get accurate information about the outbreak to its users.
[And pretty well everyone knows how credible, efficient, efficacious is the U.S. CDC.]
From Johns Hopkins: While monkeypox is now using sexual networks to spread, it's unclear how exactly that became its mode of transmission.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2316478/
MORE
Explainer: What vaccines, treatments do we have to combat monkeypox?
There are currently two smallpox vaccines available. Reported side-effects include pain and swelling at the injection site as well as headache and fatigue.
Just FYI: Global health officials have tracked more than 200 suspected and confirmed cases of the usually mild viral infection in 19 countries since early May.
Get the monkeypox and you have a 1% chance of dying.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2315814/
Jackassery is afoot
The official may I repeat that the OFFICIAL message and mission of WEF and Davos is to force people to love super-super-suveillance.
The Morning Challenge
Explain the difference between that tweet and SPECTRE. Bet you can't.
Japan may, repeat might, begin allowing tourism to resume as early as neat week. Details are awaited.
In other urgent, international news, a jury in Oregon (a state in the U.S.A) found Nancy Crampton Brophy (booking photo below) guilty of shooting and killing husband Daniel Brophy.
Nancy is the author of the book series, How to Murder Your Husband. She forgot the part about not getting caught.
So... kind of like Lou Gehrig dying of Lou Gehrig's disease.
CORONAVIRUS THAILAND
The numbers of new cases and deaths by coronavirus are holding steady, neither dropping nor increasing significantly.
These are the official, preliminary statistics for the 24 hours of Thursday.
There are monitors in all airports and most malls to provide quiet surveillance of everyone.
But there still is no case of monkeypox, anywhere in Thailand. Yet.
It is not at all clear what the surveillance CCTV cameras are surveilling.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2315878/
It's going to be a wet, wet weekend.
The Meteorological Department of Thailand is predicting heavy rain in most regions today, and most of the coming weekend.
Flash flooding has cut the roads between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai (photo below) in the North.
In Central provinces, the Chao Phraya Dam has topped out, and seven provinces along the riverside were alerted for flooding - Uthai Thani, Chai Nat, Singburi, Ang Thong, Suphan Buri, Ayutthaya and Lopburi.
Story and photos at
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40015844
Vote-buying 'won't work'
So says an expert on the subject, ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
From his spiffy home in Dubai, Thaksin claimed that, "More than one political party bought votes" during last Sunday's election for a Bangkok governor.
But the corruption had no effect on the outcome.
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40015957
THAILAND TOURISM CAMBODIA
Cambodia Airways has launched a new direct service between Phnom Penh and Samui, with two flights a week operating on Tuesday and Friday.
ECONOMY CHINA
Chinese prime minister warned on Thursday that Covid-19 has hit the country's economy hard.
China is the last major economy welded to a policy of mass testing and rapid lockdowns to eliminate virus clusters. Lockdown-type rules have shown no effect against the virus, but the strict curbs have battered businesses.
"In some ways," prime minister Li Keqiang told a State Council meeting, "Challenges now are greater than when the pandemic hit hard in 2020."
President4Life Xi Jinping called for an "all-out" infrastructure push. Analysts scoffed, and predicted Chinese economic growth will keep wilting until Beijing and the Communist Party of China ease their rigid virus controls.
The official mouthpiece The Economic Observer reported Thursday that the State Council teleconference 'involved an unusually large cohort' of provincial, city and county officials
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2316330/
DRUGS TRAFFICKING
Police arrest Estonian drug suspect
Immigration Police in Chon Buri province, southeast of Bangkok, have detaind an an Estonian man wanted under an Interpol Red Notice for drug possession.
Janno Ojaste, 39, was arrested at a house he was renting in Pattaya.
Interpol office in Estonia had issued a request on February 1 for Thai immigration police to arrest Mr Ojaste, who is wanted in Estonia for drug possession.
Ojaste had overstayed his visa by 1,227 days - a good reason for the boys in brown to put him behind bars.
Come June 1, Myanmar and Thailand will reopen half a dozen or so border crossings closed by Covid.
Thais and Burmese with border passes will be allowed across. The reopening is chiefly to promote more cross-border trade.
Foreigners are discouraged from even trying to cross.
The 'disagreements' in Thailand's far South have been going on for a hundred years. Doesn't appear they will stop.
https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40015961
WEEKEND READS (Suggested)
The single best exposition of the Trump-Russia case has gone online. It's a great read, by Margot Cleveland. Full title:
SpyGate 101: A Primer On The Russia Collusion Hoax's Years-long Plot To Take Down Trump
It lives up to the promise of the preview to present the minutia of the collusion without burying you in it.
That the scandal is dense does not mean it should be ignored.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/18/spygate-101-a-primer-on-the-russia-collusion-hoaxs-years-long-plot-to-take-down-trump/
Two parts, not intentionally linked.
The first is an essay for Tablet by the currently very busy muckraking journalist Lee Smith. It argues that U.S. national security and the U.S. media are openly and inextricably linked. Read the article and you may not be able to argue against Smith's thesis.
The second is by Gideon Rachman of Financial Times - a devastating exposure of the intellectual and moral putrefaction of bourgeois journalism and the political and social system it defends.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/spies-are-the-new-journalists
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/05/24/rach-m24.html
In case you didn't have the time or stomach...
RUSSIA UKRAINE CANADA WAR
This is a hugely pro-Russian anti-Ukraine series (now on Part 4) by American commies and symps, and it ain't pretty. Amd it's by (CAUTION) the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI).
Canadian imperialism's fascist friends — Part 4:
How Ottawa provided the Ukrainian fascists refuge and incubated and promoted far-right Ukrainian nationalism.
For the Western imperialist powers, there were no better allies in their "Cold War" crusade against the Soviet Union than the fascists and ultra-nationalists complicit in the Nazi regime's historically monstrous crimes against humanity.
... Canada's War Department saw the creation of the UCC as a means to mobilize the Ukrainian diaspora for war. As the UCC notes on its website, "The final and conclusive impetus for unity came from the National War Services of Canada which was anxious that young Ukrainians enlist in military services."
They are going to stop after Part 5, coming shortly.
PHOTO: Bear in mind... this is 1927, in Winnipeg.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/05/24/orre-m24.html
TECHNOLOGY
FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists have turned to an animal model to find out whether drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) can be reversed with a novel small molecule.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-drug-resistant-tb-reversed-small.html
Asus announced a new 500Hz gaming monitor. (AnandTech)
Okay. Why?
https://www.anandtech.com/show/17409/computex-2022-asus-announces-rog-swift-500-hz-gsync-gaming-monitor
Spain is investing $13 billion to upgrade the country's semiconductor industry. (AP News)
I was looking around what countries had semiconductor factories (not Thailand) and I believe Spain was on the list - they're not starting from zero. And there are worse ways to spend $13 billion, as our governments prove to us every day.
Do not expect much to come of this nonetheless.
https://apnews.com/article/world-economic-forum-madrid-spain-d9625d5b40975187bd3a0f2ecc57993b
The possibility of a recession in the United States is now 35%.
Goldman Sachs
Good Friday morning reminder from all my pals at Medicare. I might just do this while I'm in the Land of the Big PX in July.
SPORTS U.S.A. CANADA
So hoodoo you like?
Colorado is 3-1 over St Louis
Edmonton is 3-1 over Calgary
Tampa Bay whipped Florida and awaits either Carolina or the Rangers, currenly 2-2
Shameful. Shame. "Journalists".
Lebron James' son is getting flak from sports journalists because he has a cute blonde 17-year-old girlfriend. He actually, really... are you sitting down?... He took her to the high school prom! Imagine!
These aren't journalists. These are straight-up garbage people. And so are their editors.
Weirdest part of all: It's an American sports story!
VIDEO, PHOTOS AND MORE
https://www.essentiallysports.com/nba-basketball-news-lebron-james-ripped-by-journalist-over-bronny-james-prom-photo/
Will any American medium ever beclown itself more than the Washington Post? Don't forget: this newspaper has layers and layers of fact-checkers.
tbh I can only think of one thing that has changed - Minneapolis police have stopped shooting and killing George Floyd.
