Thai government hardly aligned

Do you remember what you were doing on this date exactly 51 years ago?
Because we do.

THIS

DAY 73... of U.S. Secret Service agents working without pay. And the U.S. Coast Guard.

NEWEST REPLY FROM SOMEONE ALLEGEDLY IN IRAN
How About We Postpone All Talks About Our Nuke Program While You End the Embargo, Like Obama Did?
So somewhere inside Iran there is a person who doesn’t like the new IRGC rulers any more.
Well, who does?
Outside Iran, U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio noted that Iran’s idea that “opening the Strait” means that they get to decide who can transit the Strait and collect tolls from them is a non-starter.

OMG youse guys, Travis Kelce’s girlfriend just told us she is going to trademark™, like, herself.
It’s just self-defence against all those AI deep fakes.
Also, did you guys know she’s going to make humping legal everywhere in the United States by, like, legally getting married, did you know that?

Whatever happened to the good old days when sex was dirty and the air was clean?

From the bitter divisions of 250 years ago, we forged a friendship that has grown into one of the most consequential alliances in human history.-- King Charles III in the second speech to the U.S. Congress by a British monarch.

THAILAND USA

Foreign Minister explains to the Washington Post that the Peter Principle is alive and well.
Well, it is news that one (1) U.S. ‘news’paper has a reporter in East Asia.

KRABI, THAILAND: Sihasak Phuangketkeow explained exclusively that “This war should not have taken place.”
It has caused major crises in Thailand and the U.S. government has refused to pay lavish amounts of cash to the Thai government to make up for that.
Therefore, Thailand has no choice but to cozy up to China and to Russia.
CORRECTION: ... to cozy up further to them.

Of 11 ASEAN members, Thailand is uniquely combative on this issue.
It is America’s oldest ally in Asia -- 185 years but now counting.

OTOH
Thailand’s new trade minister Suphajee Suthumpun has her ticket booked to Washington and stopped off to yak about things with Ambassador Sean O’Neill.

Suphajee is another one who has worked her way to the top after doing all jobs, dirty and otherwise within the bureaucracy.
She now has to convince the U.S. Trade Representative that Thailand is not just a firm commerce partner of America but an unfailing honest one.
She must claim that Thailand doesn’t import a lot of stuff made by Chinese slaves -- and if they do, they’ll try not to serve as a Chinese laundry to sell Temu-quality consumer goods and EVs and solar panels as “Made In Thailand“ as China has been strong-arming them to do for the past six years.
So... basically the opposite of what Sihasak has chosen to kvetch and dislike the bad orange man.

IN THAI LANGUAGE
Not that it matters but by far the best video enhancement yet of that futile attempt by the addled California teacher to rush past the outer Secret Service security ring. Shooting a USSS agent in the chest (futilely).

Via Channel 3 HD

TRUMP IS BREAKING OPEC
UAE To Leave OPEC Next Month
Also it’s hard for OPEC to set prices when the U.S. is outproducing Saudi Arabia and Russia combined, and has effective control of Venezuela’s production.
As an un-left news agency reported this story:

The Islamic Republic today offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and OPEC’s number three oil producer just said “Sayonara!” to the decades-old price-fixing organization.

Finally, Some COVID Accountability?
Fauci Advisor David Morens -- Whom Biden Forgot to Pardon -- Arrested and Charged for Conspiracy and Destruction of Federal Records Related to Fauci’s COVID Cover-Up
Could Peter Daszak Be Next?!

Fauci’s butt-buddy in corruption, Peter Daszak, the head of EcoHealth who was used as a cut-out to illegally fund the Wuhan lab, is almost certainly the man the indictment calls “CO-CONSPIRATOR,” and should be the next to be arrested and charged.
UPDATE: Charging document here, if you want to give it a once-over.

ALSO... IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY TRAIN ROLLING?
The U.S. NIH has removed virologist Ralph Baric from all his grants; University of North Carolina placed Baric on leave.
UNC was complicit in starting the COVID pandemic.

SPORTS
Stanley Cup playoffs Round 1
Vegas Golden Knights 5 -- 4 (OT) Utah Mammoths (Series tied 2-2)
Philadelphia Flyers 2 -- 3 Pittsburgh Penguins (Philly up 3-2)

Boston Bruins 2 -- 1 (OT) Buffalo Sabres (Sabres lead 3-2)
Minnesota Wild 4 -- 2 Dallas Stars (Wild leads 3-2)
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 1 -- 4 Edmonton Oilers (Ducks 3 lead 3-2)

Musical Interlude
You hardly ever see good dobro players, even on the intertubes.
This here’s Leah Needham playing The Big Sciota with her ETSU Bluegrass band.
No, that is not a Hawaiian guitar. It’s a dobro.

EARTH DAY
Joe Rogan and Jimmy Carr
Carr: You know what the biggest industry in the world was in 1903?
Rogan: Beavers?
Carr: Very close. I’ll pass you -- I’ll give you a C. Whaling was the biggest industry in the world in 1903. And it disappeared almost overnight. In about a year and a half, it was gone. Those towns were just emptied because whale oil wasn’t required anymore. Suddenly, we discovered petrochemicals.
Rogan: Electricity too.
Carr: Petrochemicals was really the thing. Yeah, whale oil, electricity, Edison, all of that, Tesla. It’s really interesting how that industry just fell away. It’s like the story of horse manure in New York City. You know this?
Rogan: No.
Carr: So, horse manure -- do you know why brownstones have steps up to the front door? Ever wondered why the ground floor isn’t actually on the ground floor?
Rogan: Why?
Carr: Horseshit.
Rogan: Really?
Carr: There was horseshit everywhere. They’ve always got those metal scrapers by the side --
Rogan: Yeah, to get the horseshit off.
Carr: Exactly. You know how old movies always talk about smelling salts? There are loads of references to them. The smell was horrific. If a horse died in the street, you had to wait for it to decompose before cutting it up and taking it away. New York was chaos—cobbled streets, metal wheels on carts, horses everywhere. So they made laws: “Right, we’ll tax horses.” Didn’t change anything.
Next year: “We’ll double the taxes.” Then more rules -- if you have a horse, you have to do this, do that. They kept trying, over and over.
And what actually stopped it?
Henry Ford. Cars came along -- [and then, horses in the streets] gone. Almost instantly. There are, what, five horses left in Central Park? That’s it. Whaling disappeared overnight. So did that whole system.
** FISHWRAP NOTES: Moby Dick was published in 1851.

And by last Sunday, Earth Day 2026 was almost as dumb as Earth Day 1970.
Almost.
You may recall how the founder of the event, Ira Einhorn, murdered his girlfriend, but it is important to understand that he lived by example -- he did compost her body.

Individualists unite!