TA DA! Thailand 'Peace talks' that have gone nowhere in more than 10 years are scheduled to resume on March 7.
Quiet down now, class. We are on the last Wednesday of February of 2022.
Yes, well, what he won't say is, "Sorry, kids, but the cost of Covid is going to be your cash, from now on."
So-called 'minister' of public health Anutin alleged on Tuesday that the employees' Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) scheme for treating Covid-19 sufferers isn't being scrapped. Not just yet. But slowly and steadily, every new victim of Chinese Covid-19 is going to have to have to pay for part of their treatment.
Say this for Anutin. From the start (102 weeks ago) he has been a Flattener, preaching the need for moar lockdowns at the barrels of the military's guns.
New Zealand authorities 'did a Trudeau' and unleashed violent police attacks on citizen-protester they insist are "anti-vax".
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2268123/
Four-month-old baby found alive next to five dead people at drug party.
Well, to be honest... the party had ended. The five dead people? Fentanyl, man. Do NOT even try it.
But face the facts. The Golden Triangle drug trafficking gangs have just started doing this same thing - Fentanyl inside yaa ba tablets.
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/coastal/ap-top-news/2022/02/21/5-found-dead-in-colorado-apartment-baby-adult-hospitalized
Related. All in just one state, Colorado.
How counterfeit drugs made to look like real pills have ravaged one Colorado county
A Boulder 18-year-old's overdose began a string of 2021 deaths tied to fentanyl. Since then, 13 more fentanyl overdoses have been confirmed and the causes of six other deaths are pending the results of toxicology tests.
https://coloradosun.com/2021/11/15/fentanyl-overdose-boulder-colorado/
THAILAND DEEP SOUTH INSURGENCY
'Peace talks' that have gone nowhere in more than 10 years are scheduled to resume on March 7.
 The talks pit Thai government negotiators (aka army generals under close junta control) across the table from the men (only) of the main group that controls violence in the Deep South, the (Barison Revolusi Nasional (BRN), meaning "National Revolutionary Front".)
 A Malaysian government man acts as a 'facilitator' to move talks along - but never has succeeded.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2268079/
To show what they can do, BNR gunmen ambushed a former assistant village chief in Pattani province and shot him dead.
 Police said Arong Yeng, 61, a native of Ban Tha Kubo village in tambon Pulo Puyo, was shot while riding his motorcycle homeward and there was no eyewitness.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2268103/
THAILAND CORONAVIRUS
 The number of new infections of Chinese Covid-19 coronavirus has reached 19,000 per day. It is not slowing up.
 The junta's so-called "government" on Tuesday briefly discussed the plan of the minister of public health CharnvirakuAnutinl to cancel the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) medical insurance, and start charging for all Covid-19 medical expenses, starting next week.
 Then they all laughed and told Prayut's pet minister Anutin Charnviraku, "Get outta here!" and left medical treatment as it is.
 The "Level 4" or 'utmost red alert' over current waves of new Covid-19 infections will cost a lot, risk the junta's downfall. It won't end well.
https://www.thaienquirer.com/37731/healthcare-stocks-gain-on-covid-19-alert-but-tourism-sector-falls%ef%bf%bc/
The rush on vaccination centres continued on Tuesday, with 190,673 vaccinations:
1st 76.4%
2nd 71.2%
3rd 27.7%
==
UPDATE of latest Chinese Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, February 22:
 18,363 confirmed new cases
 14,605 probable cases
 127 cases were from abroad and 31 from prisons.
 169,074 patients in care, 73,633 in hospital.
35 deaths (0.83% mortality rate)
827 in ICU (+31)
214 on ventilators (+12)
https://twitter.com/thainewsreports
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2268039/
BANGKOK KRUNG THEP
This is still a VERY big deal, with at least 70 million different opinions.
Reminds me of Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City on and after May 1, 1975. That one is still going on.
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/2022/02/20/opinion-bangkok-vs-krung-thep-maha-nakhon/
Government to reassess Test & Go measures
[Where by "government" we mean Thailand's ruling junta. And by "Test & Go" we mean the single worst tourist-promotion programme in the 700-year history of Thailand.]
"Too danged much testing"
 Authorities will begin on Wednesday to consider rubbishing the mandatory second RT-PCR test for overseas arrivals under the Test & Go scheme, said Anutin Charnvirakul, the current military-approved 'deputy prime minister and public health'.
 He said the Department of Disease Control (DDC) and the Emergency Operation Centre under the Public Health Ministry will present proposals for consideration to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
 One proposal involves scrapping the second RT-PCR test for overseas arrivals, he said.
PHOTO: Current rules for the fake 'Test and Go' require one-to-10 nights in guarded quarantine, and two tests for coronavirus infection. (Poster courtesy Thai consulate in Los Angeles)
10-year Thailand visa for very carefully selected foreigners
If you are already quite rich, and you're more than 50 years old, and you love to do paperwork, and you want to live in Thailand for 10 years...
 The cabinet has approved a number of incentives for three foreign groups of taxpayers: high-income earners, retirees and those who want to work remotely from Thailand, said Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith.
 He said the beneficiaries would be considered investors in Thailand with the Thai government offering them long-term residence (LTR) visas.
 The first group must invest at least US$500,000 (16.35 million baht) in government bonds, property or otherwise in the form of foreign direct investment.
 They must have amassed at least $80,000 in income over the last two years and have $1 million in assets.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2268283/
THAILAND ECONOMY
The junta-sponsored National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) is maintaining its 2022 forecast for economic growth at 3.5-4.5%.
 Thailand's economic growth in 2022 will also be supported by rising demand, the recovery of domestic tourism, the ongoing growth of exports, and higher public investment, according to Danucha Pichayanan, the NESDC's secretary-general.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2267771/
U.S.A. TEACHERS
Teachers: Let Us Teach Your Children CRT, and That They Can Choose Their Own Gender With Hormone Injections and Amputations, Or We'll... Quit!
 Oh please, not the Briar Patch...!
Question: What is worse than a team from Florida winning the Stanley Cup?
Answer: A team from Finland winning hockey gold at the Olympics.
TECHNOLOGY
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes wants to wreck Australia's electricity supply. (Wall Street Journal)
He's offered $3.5 billion for energy company AGL, and wants it to shut down its coal-burning power stations.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/atlassian-co-founder-wants-to-buy-australias-biggest-polluter-to-make-it-greener-11645427453
Crypto engineers would welcome a prolonged "crypto winter" says Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin. (Business Insider)
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-winter-ethereum-bitcoin-blockchain-technology-markets-investors-price-developers-2022-2
The Netherlands has fined Apple $5 million. Again. (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/dutch-watchdog-fines-apple-5-mln-euros-failure-comply-app-store-2022-01-24/
Is Firefox okay? (Ars Technica)
No. The company is run by communists.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/is-firefox-ok/
Dear Canada,
 Your journalists ARE NOT Trudeau/Liberal Party activists with bylines.
 The fall of a Canadian government via a vote in the House of Commons is not a bug. It's a feature.
 Every practice, every constitution. every legal ruling and every Canadian child's social studies textbook explains this in detail. And even the small, chaste and humble Justin Trudeau has said so, publicly.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/mps-to-vote-tonight-on-whether-emergencies-act-for-blockades-still-needed
UNEXPECTEDLY
 Canadian Parliament Votes to Extend Emergencies Act for 30 Days.
 OH, CANADA: Motion to extend Emergencies Act approved in House of Commons: The NDP voted in favour alongside the minority Liberals, with some expressing concerns a 'no' vote would have toppled the government.
 [NOTE: 'NDP' or New Democratic Party is Canada's version of a leftist, mostly pro-socialist political party, since 1932.]
When you've lost Preston Manning...
Canada's most respected "old-man" politician and journalist wrote this for the Toronto Sun newspaper.
Canada's autocratic government
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/manning-canadas-increasingly-autocratic-government
The fall of Canada will proceed very slowly. And then all of a sudden.
This is not a coronavirus rush to the Corruption Trough, or a long-term politburo plan to take over Thailand on behalf of the CCP. It's Canada, you know? But it's the same as all of the above:
 Justin Trudeau stamps his tiny foot and DEMANDS that last week's "temporary" emergency act remain indefinitely,.
post-Reichstag Fire "enabling act" to become permanent and the Canadian Parliament is one step closer to obliging.
 Members of the Canadian Parliament, who believe and broadcast the stupidity that "Honk Honk" means "Heil Hitler", voted to approve Trudeau's order to invoke the Emergencies Act by a vote of 185 for and 151 against.
 And screw those civil liberties groups, such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA). To hell with them. And the goddamn Economist magazine.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/21/trudeau-wins-house-vote-emergencies-act-00010474
The Toronto Sun newspaper turns the broiler control up to "11" and roasts Prime Minister Trudeau.
International leaders of the Left and Right now agree: PM Trudeau is a disaster
Ew, that hurt
VIDEO (11 minutes)!
Meanwhile, further west...
Saskatchewan considers challenging federal Emergencies Act in court
https://thestarphoenix.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/saskatchewan-considers-challenging-federal-emergencies-act-in-court/wcm/c57b5d22-307d-4baa-80a3-bbda3d359925
And much, much further west...
Chinese Communist Party puts Hong Kong into full Lockdown.
 Hong Kong will start Covid testing for all residents in March. (NOTE: March begins in a week.)
 Everyone in Hong Kong will be required to take three rounds of PCR tests and daily rapid tests.
 The Chinese Communist Party has ordered all schools to close. They are vitally needed by the Chinese Communist Party to transform into Chinese Communist Party Covid-19 response centres.
 NONE OF THE ABOVE is a suggestion. They are orders, to be obeyed.
 The BBC is fully on board with that.
PHOTO: Hong Kong is a fully owned city of the Chinese Communist Party, with 7.5 million morose residents all wondering, "Jeez, why the hell didn't I go to Vancouver when I had the chance."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60467039
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-sets-all-schools-for-covid-19-response-centers-11645530595
U.S.A. THAILAND MILITARY COBRA GOLD
 There are laughs galore about this next story. But the truth is...
China is watching
It's actually so pathetic and so pathetically small, they're actually calling it Cobra Gold Lite.
The annual Cobra Gold military exercise kicked off yesterday featuring 3,460 soldiers from the kingdom and abroad.
 Four-star General Chalermpol Srisawat, chief of Thailand's defence forces, and US charge d'affaires Michael Heath conducted the joint launch via teleconference.
 The 41st iteration of Exercise Cobra Gold, co-sponsored by Thailand and the United States, will run until March 4.
 It is the largest multinational military exercise in Southeast Asia aimed at strengthening relations between countries and exchanging military knowledge, said Gen Chalermpol.
WORLD POLITICS
Vlad Putin used to be the master of the KGB, and frighten several people.
Now he's expanded the business. On Monday he took pretty well all of the rest of the Ukraine - without starting World War Three!
The U.S. participation was limited to a counter-offensive by Kamala Harris, in full disguise.
REMINDER
The Pulitzers are to be announced soon.
(Full disclosure: The Pulitzers used to try to find and honour excellent journalism.)
Once again, one of the nominees is The New York Times, which
rabidly defended Stalin for massacring and starving millions in the World War Two Holodomor.
attempted with equal credibility but fewer facts to link Putin and Trump without a shred of evidence, even the pee tape.
In addition
Putin Invades Ukraine Just One Month After Biden Gave Him Permission to Mount a "Minor Incursion" Into That Country
I double-dog dare every single useless "White House correspondent" to ask the effete Jen Psaki about the Holodomor.
I'd pay to watch that.
 Plus
Actual real not-fake headline in the Washington Post, a former newspaper:
PHOTO: Maybe they will beat The New York Times and get yet another disgraceful Pulitzer?
Comment
The New York Times (and its useful idiots) on the Holodomor and outright Stalinist 'reporting' by Walter Duranty boils down to be the same as the Washington Post's outright and disproved lies of the Trump-Putin axis. No apology, no correction. No shame.
 They each won a Pulitzer for Determination in Shovelling Fetid Bullcrap, and they won't report the truth.
 It's something to remember when you read reports by those newspapers.
 As the Washington Post "reported" on Tuesday: "Man, Putin probably would have invaded Ukraine if Biden weren't here!"
 There are people who still believe Woodward and Bernstein won a Pulitzer Prize for the Bezos organisation for bringing down Nixon. Which they did not do.
RECOMMENDED
I just yesterday discovered a new CBC show, Son of a Critch.
As you can tell, it's Newfie. It's about a kid growing up in St. John's, in the late 1980s. It is mostly amusing, except for the parts where you LOL and scare the cat.
I was squawked that almost everyone in the show spoke Canadian instead of Newfie, but that's just me being crooked.
It was a book before it went to the dark side. The IMDb review of the TV shows is as good as any:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15310816/
The fall of Canada will proceed very slowly. And then all of a sudden...
This is not a coronavirus rush to the Corruption Trough, or a long-term politburo plan to take over Thailand on behalf of the CCP. It's Canada, you know? But it's the same as all of the above:
 Justin Trudeau stamps his tiny foot and DEMANDS that last week's "temporary" emergency act remain indefinitely.
Post-Reichstag Fire "enabling act" to become permanent and the Canadian Parliament is one step closer to obliging.
 Members of the Canadian Parliament, who believe and broadcast the stupidity that "Honk Honk" means "Heil Hitler", voted to approve Trudeau's order to invoke the Emergencies Act by a vote of 185 for and 151 against.
 And screw those civil liberties groups, such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA). To hell with them. And the goddamn Economist magazine. Communist trash, right?
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/21/trudeau-wins-house-vote-emergencies-act-00010474
Content warning but it's worth risking a firing for.
TRIVIA for your next pub-trivia night out:
The sport of cricket was invented at Rugby Public School when some boys were playing football and one of the boys forgot the ball and they're all standing in a field and nothing happened.
Cricket.
