Police target Pattaya transvestites preying on tourists
Hi kids. Today is the 59th anniversary of the day that Jack Ruby eliminated Lee Harvey Oswald.
It is also the 140th Thursday of Prayut's infamous Emergency Decree - and still running.
THAILAND POLITICS
As soon as Prayut's APEC 'summit' ended, the politicians renewed their games of buying and selling themselves to old and new parties.
• A brand new party formed by solid, core supporters of Prayut and the junta wants Prayut to stand for election next May (or so) and become 'prime minister' yet again.
Prayut met leaders of this new Ruam Thai Sang Chart (United Country-Building Thais) on Tuesday, but it's all hush-hush.
Word leaked from the usual "reliable sources" that Prayut has told his chief military coup instigator, retired army 4-star general Prawit Wongsuwan that they are splitting up.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2443647/
Those same sources -- sometimes reliable to be honest -- now predict that the chief issue in the foreseeable future is marijuana.
"Some 20-30 MPs may resign in protest if a new bill legislating the use of cannabis and hemp fails to clear the Lower House of parliament in the next couple of weeks.
A leading member (and member of parliament) of the leftist [progressive] Move Forward Party is now ramrodding the new bill to make marijuana even more legal.
Speaking ahead of the second and third readings of the controversial bill that are expected today, Mr Kharom said those lawmakers could quit if their parties do not put the public interest first.
By 'public interest', the renegade MP Kharom Polpornklang means more legal weed.
PHOTO: Kharom [centre, with progressive allies] is a 53-year-old lawyer from Roi Et, who has often supported Prayut and the ruling military junta.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2443984/
WORLD CUP BROADCASTING CORRUPTION
The international soccer controllers FIFA threatened to take away all telecasts of all World Cup games in Qatar.
The issue is the failure of Thai TV to encrypt broadcasts so that pirates cannot tape the games.
Even worse: People in Laos are watching games from Thai TV stations.
PHOTO: FIFA warned Thailand that its broadcast will be cut off if the country cannot follow its rules to tighten broadcasting encryption.
Which is nuts. In Thailand, every World Cup match is available for download and watching.
And then there are VPNs and hundreds of websites telling how to watch live broadcasts for free.
https://thethaiger.com/news/national/fifa-warns-thailand-world-cup-broadcast-will-be-cut-off-after-illegal-access-spotted
WORLD CUP GAME OF THE DAY
Japan 2-1 Germany
Today, Canada play their first game, against Belgium.
And tomorrow, Wales play Iran - the team without a national anthem.
England face the U.S.A. on Saturday morning.
THAILAND ROYALTY SIRINDHORN
Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was rushed to Chulalongkorn Hospital on Tuesday, with "a heart problem".
The Royal Household Bureau reported early today that an operation was successful.
She is a sister of Thailand's King Vajiralongkorn.
THAILAND SOUTH TERRORIISM BOMB
Thai police are out in full duty this morning - trying to find clues and then arrest the two separatists responsible for the fatal car bomb on Tuesday.
One policeman died and at least 45 bystanders were injured.
Investigators are reviewing CCTV footage from around the scene of the blast at a Narathiwat city apartment complex.
The pickup truck rigged as a powerful car bomb was owned by a 32-year-old resident of next-door Pattani province.
The owner, Fatiya Pradu, was recently given a ticket for driving the pickup without a valid driver's licence. That is probably not the reason for the bombing.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2444674/
THAILAND TOURISM PATTAYA
What a good idea!
Police target Pattaya transvestites preying on tourists
PATTAYA, Chon Buri: Tourist police have begun a campaign to prevent transvestites preying on tourists along Pattaya beaches ahead of the...
But a pretty lukewarm "policy"
The patrols round up 36 of them. Their personal information was taken and put on record. They were then warned against gathering in groups along the beaches and tourist spots to target tourists with aggressive offers of sex services, pickpocketing, fights, stabbings, etc.
PHOTO: Pattaya girls (transvestites aka katoey) wait to register and pay their fines at the main Pattaya police station.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2444522/
The Chinese-owned cruise ship Genting Dream made a brief stop off Patong Beach, Phuket, on Tuesday - the first such ship to visit in three years.
Genting Dream, sailing from Singapore, had 3,000 passengers, from Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Taiwan.
The ship is 335 metres, with 1,674 rooms on 18 decks. Maximum passenger load is 3,352.
Marketing, ticket prices, reservations (Thai language). Bookings for a five-day [5-day] New Year's cruise aboard the Genting Dream are on sale for 46,200 baht [29 December-to-3 January], including a 12-hour stop at Phuket.
25,900 baht in real money is equivalent to 960 loonies or US$718 - roughly the same as a return flight to Los Angeles via Thai Airways International.
http://www.rromdtour.com/Dream-Cruise/Genting-Dream-EX-SIN.html
Meanwhile, Koh Samui is preparing to welcome a one-day stop by Viking Mars of Norway, with 700 European tourists aboard.
CRIME DRUGS CARTEL
Army and police conducted 22 raids, and took down a drug network allegedly owned and run by "Long Sae-Lee", a drug merchant.
The raids seized 2.4 billion-with-a-"B" baht worth of assets, including vehicles, homes and cash-money.
Just as Thailand's mafia-watcher foretold...
Thai-Chinese gang and triad boss "Tuhan" [aka Tu Hao] surrendered to Bangkok police after a mysterious week that included a flight from China by the Royal Thai Air Force.
"Tuhan" is actually Chaiyanat Kornchayanant. Among other accomplishments, he was the chief donor -- millions of baht -- to the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), the most-loyal of Prayut and coup supporters. Tuhan's wife is a colonel in the Royal Thai Police.
Chaiyanat was accompanied by a phalanx of lawyers and bodyguards when he surrendered on Wednesday to the very dodgy police 4-star general Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn at the Royal Thai Police Sports Club, just north of the Bangkok city centre.
Chaiyanat operates dozens of businesses in Bangkok. He turned himself in to Big Joke "to prove I am not involved" in the illicit drug trade, or money laundering.
The "mafia watcher" who revealed this story last week is the infamous Chuwit Kamolvisit, who knows quite a bit about criminals and crime syndicates.
It has been strongly suggested by phuyai of the ruling Thai junta that all nedia including foreign reporters based in Thailand should not report this story.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/2443492/chuwit-hands-triad-details-to-ministry
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2444627/chinese-businessman-tuhao-reports-to-police-denies-charges
PHOTO: Chaiyanat "Tuhao" Kornchayanant, left, wearing a black face mask, arrives at the Royal Thai Police Sports Club on Tuesday.
CORONAVIRUS USA WHITE HOUSE
This is notably scandalous.
No one expects the dopey White House secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to know jack about the novel coronavirus, Fauci or the [Fauci-funded] Wuhan Institute of Virology.
But one expects KJP not to start a brouhaha about it.
ONE single important question: Who told KJP to shut down questions about the origins of the coronavirus. And why are they so desperate to protect?
Karine Jean-Pierre loses it after reporter presses Fauci on COVID origin
https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/united-states/karine-jeanpierre-loses-it-after-reporter-presses-fauci-on-covid-origin/video/86f0b522f06b51d96cbcc4c488e08c36
Related
The dunce-in-charge of all U.S. government responses to all questions about Covid is Doctor Ashish Jha employed by the Biden White House on a short-term contract.
Doctor Jha, you're a Jhoke
He stated, in public:
"We can prevent every covid death in America" if everyone gets their updated booster.
Which is even more ignorant that anyone expected.
He also said:
"I really believe this is why God gave us two arms — one for the flu shot and the other one for the COVID shot!"
Video AND audio on the official name of the U.S. president at
TECHNOLOGY USA
The false promise of Washington's flawed CHIPS Act
By a former World Bank chief economist, for Project Syndicate, hitting the nail directly on its head.
The United States is not going to become a leading chipmaker in our lifetimes - or our children's.
The only reason for the Biden government to even think of such a jokeful plan is the massive opportunities for graft.
A far preferable approach would be to support the global industry among friendly countries, encourage competition, increase the number of highly skilled immigrants with needed skills, support the expansion of qualified training facilities and capacity, increase incentives for students to get appropriate training, and allocate more resources to R&D.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2444059/
So far as we know, there is one (1) Thai youth in this programme.
Democrat Congress cooks up DACA amnesty in the lame duck session.
Amnesty Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, if ever happens, will allow him to stay in the U.S.A. forever and even become a citizen.
Because his Robin Hood parents took him illegally to the U.S.A. when he was too young to even know what was going on
The lame-duck session is from now to January, when Republicans will control the House of Representatives.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/11/democrat_congress_cooks_up_daca_amnesty_in_the_lame_duck_session.html
MALAYSIA POLITICS ELECTION ANALYSIS
Bloomberg: Malaysian weekend polls see Islamist surge
That's a trend that is definitely unfavourable for Thailand -- and can't be super-popular inside Malaysia.
'Old Man' Mahathir Mohamad, now 97 lost the election in his own riding. So did his son and supposed political heir.
The 'conservative' (i.e. Islamist) Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, known as PAS, has broken out of regional confines, claiming the largest number of seats in parliament for a single party at the expense of some of the most established pro-Malay stalwarts.
The development threatens to deepen existing divides and to open new ones -- and just when the country can ill-afford to rattle investors.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2444054/
Admiration for the bravery and support for the cause of the Iranian players at the World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
The AP reports: "Iran's players didn't sing their national anthem and didn't celebrate their goals."
Their silence speaks.
https://bityl.co/FnWt
TECHNOLOGY
Samsung has stolen a lead over everyone else with 3nm chip production - but only 20% of the chips actually work. (WCCFTech)
Early production on a new process often has high failure rates, but a 20% yield is really bad.
https://wccftech.com/samsung-3nm-gaa-yield-rate-20-percent-aims-to-improve/
For example, Pfizer is not hiking the price of COVID vaccines by 400%. (Ars Technica)
It's only 300%.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/11/covid-vaccines-will-still-be-free-despite-400-price-hike-pfizer-ceo-says/
Why is the entire tech industry imploding at once? (The Atlantic)
Because you locked people into their homes while pumping trillions of dollars into the economy, and then hiked interest rates to combat the inevitable inflation, creating and then bursting a massive bubble.
You idiots.
https://archive.ph/L3Tp0
With Twitter ushering in a new era of free speech - not just Trump, but dozens of other prominent accounts having been reinstated - liberals are vowing to stay and fight. (The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/musk-restores-trump-twitter-liberal-resistance/672208/
Tumblr is adding support for ActivityPub so that it can be part of the Fediverse. (Tech Crunch)
All this shit started when Tumblr banned porn. Before then, the crazies were safely contained. Now, Elon Musk has had to spend $44 billion to stop them from burning civilisation to the ground.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps/
Is wine fake? Well, yes, but also no. (Asterisk)
The article provides some details about a study I'd read of previously, that found that wine experts couldn't tell the difference between red and white wine in a blind tasting. That's not quite true, as most things aren't.
https://asteriskmag.com/issues/1/is-wine-fake
I have wondered for ages why the makers of the world's best handguns didn't make a rifle. And now they have.
Figure to spend US$900 to US$1,100 for your personal Glock carbine. It will be a competitor to the AR-15 for recreation shooters.
MEANWHILE... of all people, Prayut got one to try.
https://gunpowdermagazine.com/breaking-news-glock-ar-15-photos-leaked/
And also...
A deranged Walmart manager in Virginia state walked into the store's break room and started shooting.
Six dead, and then he killed himself, which was the only happy part.
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/11/23/walmart-manager-opens-fire-in-break-room-killing-6/
WEEKEND READS
POLITICS and WORLD CUP
A Must-Read
Saudi Arabia Feasts on the GOAT. What this week's stunning World Cup upset in Qatar tells us about the state of play in the Middle East.
As Osama bin Laden put it, "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse."
The primary aim of the Al Thani clan was to show they were the strong horse of the Arabian Gulf, infinitely and extravagantly more prestigious than their rivals in Riyadh.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/sports/articles/saudi-arabia-feasts-goat-quatar
Red Flags
Why didn't Club Q shooter get prosecuted for bomb threat and kidnapping?
This is mostly an analysis, claiming that The Associated Press totally botched the reporting of the murderous Club Q attack by Anderson Lee Aldrich in Colorado Springs.
The suspect didn't evade anything, as it turns out that law enforcement and his family didn't bother to employ it.
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/11/21/red-flags-why-didnt-club-q-shooter-get-prosecuted-for-bomb-threat-and-kidnapping-allegations-in-2021-n512648
Robert Shibley
Systemic racism in STEM fields and statistical illiteracy. They go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Here's a suggestion: Stop trying to get every high school student into calculus, about which 99% of the kids are right when they complain "I'll never use this!," and make the default last year of math a course in basic statistics, which 99% of them will need in order to avoid being bamboozled every day of their lives.
https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/11/why-the-left-relies-on-statistical-illiteracy/
Short story that has everyone going HUH?
Massive flock of sheep has been walking in a circle for 12 days straight in China - and still walking.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/17/sheep-filmed-walking-in-circle-for-12-days-straight-in-china/
AND THEN
A member of the Gang of 97 thinks he knows why the sheep are doing this.
Or maybe it's Listeriosis?
https://nypost.com/2022/11/21/mystery-of-sheep-walking-in-circle-for-12-days-may-be-solved/
A Conversation with Masih Alinejad
Iranian-American Masih Alinejad goes deep on the troubles in Iran.
The hijab is the Berlin Wall.
More than 300 people have been killed and 15,000 have been arrested. Schoolgirls are in prison. Teenagers are in prison.
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/conversation-masih-alinejad
And speaking of how well the U.S. Marines taught marksmanship to Lee Harvey Oswald...
Marine SgtMaj wins Caldecott Medal for kids book
Shut the Fuck Up and Sit the Fuck Down! is a hi
Related: https://amzn.to/3GbFWXf
EXACTLY as the pilgrims envisioned
