Secretive plots emerge over battle to be the next Thai 'prime minister'
Today is Day 874 of the Emergency Decree to flatten the curve.
Just a quick check out the window of the fantabulous World Headquarters of the Daily Fishwrap informs me it's a terrific morning in East Nong Bon, but it's definitely going to rain.
The weatherman, for all his faults, predicts rain every consarned day of the next week but a pleasant 31, maybe 32 Canadian degrees.
There are 64 days before the annual Most Spectacular Best Opening Day in all of sports when the 48th Highlanders troop the colours to 'Road to the Isles' wi a hundreds papers on the ice at the Air Canada Center and and Toronto Maple Leafs open another fruitless hockey season, against les visiteurs de Montréal, which means Mount Royal.
Just noting...
Oh, those suffering Englishmen:
The Agence France-Presse has just published that the ordinary 9 a.m. temperature in Bangkok has triggered an Amber Weather Alert for extreme heat wave.
Temperatures are set to soar to the mid-30s Celsius for several days. ZOMG!
https://www.rawstory.com/uk-meteorologists-water-firms-issue-warnings-as-extreme-heatwave-looms/
Interesting problem
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Thailand meets today to discuss new interest rates.
It's the most important meeting since May of 2020 when the MPC set the current, record-low rate of 0.5%.
Big shots of major banks promise they will delay actual interest rate hikes... as long as possible.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2363741/
Also
Junta halts rise in home and business electricity prices
Fuel tariff hike on hold to stop power price surge
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2359029/
In a kingdom far, far away...
Energy Bills in Britain to Double Next Year.
But at least they've been spared the horrors of fracking.
THAILAND POLITICS
Secretive plots emerge over battle to be 'prime minister'
The empty chair belongs to the selected 'prime minister' of Thailand. The man 'covering up' is ex-general, ex-bff of Prayut, Prawit Wongsuwan. He was the author of the 2014 military coup that elevated Prayut, and then formed a political front party to support and defent Prayut - Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP).
Also this week: the health minister and coup loyalist Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of the BhumjaiThai Party, has begun a public campaign to succeed Prayut.
Just behind the curtains, schemer and former Prayut supporter Thamanat Prompow. His crafty plots will depend upon the public's opinion of him as a heroin smuggler - which he was.
Retreads (i.e. Thaksin and progressives who won the 2018 election) are not in the mix. Yet.
And Prayut keepS behaving like he'll never be out of power. Which is a bad phase for any dictator.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2364549/
Good read now or on the weekend.
Reminder for all readers of all political news of the U.S.A., Canada and Thailand:
Political Experts Aren't Really Experts. And they have the track record to prove it.
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2022/08/09/political_experts_arent_really_experts_846894.html
The perennial headline:
Give Myanmar asylum seekers a chance
In addition to allowing some irregular workers to stay until 2025, Thailand should offer those detained a chance to work in the country.
Which is why most of them come to Thailand - not for asylum, but for work.
'Guest commentary' by sociologist Tuai Sawn Khai:
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that more than a (1) million people in Myanmar have been forcibly displaced by the Tatmadaw's indiscriminate attacks against civilians across the country.
Many of them tried to enter Thailand or India in search of refuge, but were turned away at the border.
PHOTO: shows an injured Myanmar refugee being put on a stretcher before being transported to a hospital in Mae Sam Lap district of Tak province in the North of Thailand. (Photo by Royal Thai Army)
Related
(Reuters) - At least 2,500 people including hundreds of children have fled a flare-up in fighting between the Myanmar army and ethnic minority rebels and have taken refuge across the border in Thailand.
Oh lord... New Mexico? Really?
Authorities think they have the one (1) man who has killed four South Asian Muslims in Albuquerque.
The shootings were reported around the same area in the eastern part of Albuquerque, and the latest three happened within the span of two weeks.
"We tracked down a vehicle, detained the driver," said police chief Harold Medina.
PHOTO: When police released a photo of a 'suspect vehicle' and asked the public to help, calls flooded the police department.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4619596
WEST TAIWAN U.S.A.
QUESTION ASKED
Did Nancy Pelosi Put The U.S. And China On A Path To War?
In any other national capital, the catastrophic military disasters of the last two decades would have forced regime change.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan exhibited the ostentatious arrogance and recklessness which has come to characterize US foreign policy. The attitude of Washington's denizens is simple: we are masters of the universe, essential and powerful, and must be obeyed. Everyone on earth must submit to our majestic and supreme greatness.
PHOTO: An F-35 at sea.
==
The Taiwanese government welcomed her — it could hardly do otherwise — but local misgivings were significant. Locals realized that they would pay a high price for her political vanity.
If the Chinese leadership chooses war, it will do so on its terms, not those of a vainglorious, likely lame duck American politician.
...In fact, Taiwan did not face immediate assault. Beijing had no present plans for invasion and will not create a military crisis without careful planning and, more important, compelling circumstances.
Summing Up
Although Washington officials have trouble imaging their actions having consequences—after all, the cost is usually borne by others—the self-centered and short-sighted Pelosi trip will have impacts, both short- and long-term. The immediate is to chill US-China relations and intensify PRC pressure on Taipei.
Rather than dissuade the PRC from acting, Pelosi almost certainly has accelerated what is likely to become a political and economic crisis, and which could easily turn into a military crisis. Washington cannot expect Beijing to back down: Taiwan matters far more to China, its people as well as leaders, than America.
PHOTO (below) PACIFIC OCEAN During exercise Stellar Avenger, the Aegis-class destroyer USS Hopper (DDG 70) launches a standard missile (SM) 3 Blk IA, successfully intercepting a sub-scale short range ballistic missile, launched from the Kauai Test Facility, Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sans, Kauai.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/08/did-nancy-pelosi-put-the-u-s-and-china-on-a-path-to-war/
THAILAND TOURISM
Whatever happens here, one thing is certain: Thailand will NOT bar Russians or Ukrainians.
Thailand needs their moolah.
Kremlin blasts Zelensky's call for West to close borders to Russians
https://tinyurl.com/v2tt889x
THAILAND POLITICS
REUTERS: https://bityl.co/Diuv
CORONAVIRUS THAILAND
This is what Rona did to Thailand in just 24 hours of Tuesday:
• infected another 1,955 people
• responsible for another 33 deaths
• totaled 20,947 new, active cases
• turned 935 cases serious
To be fair, 2,294 WuFlu victims were declared cured and safe, and sere sent home.
As of October 1...
Thailand will reorganise totally its approach to the novel virus.
The National Communicable Disease Committee (NCDC) will downgrade Covid-19 from a "danger-ous communicable disease" to a "communicable disease under surveillance".
It's a first step in a programme to move from 'pandemic' to endemic'.
Anutin Charnvirakul, the junta's designated 'public health minister' and self-appointed candidate to be prime minister, says:
"Health authorities have now been able to bring Covid-19 under control despite it still spreading, adding that the disease’s severity has also been mitigated.
"This is why the NCDC has decided to downgrade the Covid-19 disease to a low level of concern from a dangerous communicable disease to a communicable disease under surveillance which will come into effect on October 1.
PHOTO: Bangkok waif waits his turn to receive a Covid-19 jab at the Central Westgate shopping mall in Nonthaburi, northern Bangkok.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/easy/2364632/
U.S.A. PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM Chapter Saizeci si trei
Par for the course
The Chaotic Monkeypox Vaccine Pipeline Is Leaving Everyone Short.
THAILAND BUSINESS AIRLINE
Thai Airways International gets permission to raise capital
Thai Airways International Plc will receive key financial support from the government for its 80 billion baht capital raising and debt-to-equity swap plan aimed at helping the state-controlled carrier come out of its pandemic-induced bankruptcy. State-owned banks will lead in funding new loans, converting debt and injecting equity capital into Thai Airways as part of a revised revamp plan the airline.
State-owned banks will lead in funding new loans, converting debt and injecting equity capital into Thai Airways as part of a revised revamp plan the airline gave the court last month.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2364612/
RIP
'Grease' star British-Australian Dame Olivia Newton-John dies aged 73 after a 30-year battle against cancer.
She wrote and sang the sensational 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' - in 1978.
SEXY NUDE
Police arrested and fined a stacked 25-year-old woman who got drunk, threw off her clothes and danced at a restaurant party.
'Oi Roi Joop' (Kiss) apologised and paid a 5,000-baht fine - 182 loonies or US$141.
"I just got drunk and carried away," she explained to the admiring cops at the Lamlukla station just north of Bangkok.
She is something of a social media hit.
PHOTO: Miss Kiss at the cop shop and on her Facebook page.
All of the above, merely to say that Thailand is getting back to normal in many ways.
Story and pix: https://www.sanook.com/news/8604846/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064169886648&sk=photos
NOT AT ALL RELATED
My oldest daughter and 'Master Chef Traveller' is in Las Vegas. Just sayin'. (Yes she is Thai and also American.)
Americans got asked:
Are you worried about President Joseph Biden's mental fitness?
Very concerned - 59%
Not really - 39%
I&I/TIPP Poll
https://issuesinsights.com/2022/08/08/americans-very-worried-about-bidens-mental-health-ii-tipp-poll/
Sod off swampy! If you ever make an actual sacrifice, let me know and I'll politely listen to you.
They’re now giving advice on how to live once the Greens ban air conditioning: 11 ways to sleep better in unbearable heat: No AC? No problem.
America won two world wars without any air conditioning and the performance of U.S. federal employees hasn't improved now that they've got it.
https://www.popsci.com/diy/sleep-in-the-heat/
People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.