Thai government orders massive anti-vaping anti-drugs campaign in Bangkok schools
Thailand legal net closes slowly over election winning political party
U.S. promises China one full month of Shock and Awe in the Taiwan Strait
A genie asked, "What's your first wish?"
Steve answered, "I wish I was rich."
The genie said, "What's your second wish, Rich?"
 Â
If I didn't have the teachings of the Buddha, I would have been depressed or committed suicide.
-- Thaksin Shinawatra, convict and ex-prime minister claims faith in The Buddha sustained his 17 years of self-exile.
Thaksin claimed he suffered a week of Covid, and could not attend the Office of the Attorney General to hear the latest charges against him of lese majeste. [https://shorturl.at/C7cmt]
"This case has absolutely no basis," he told reports at Thanyaburi, former residence of MacAlan Thompson.Plenty of supporters turned out for Thaksin's visit to Pathum Thani province.
Gurgles of the Dying Politicians https://t.ly/vAcCJ
Progressive Move Forward Parth (MFP) leaders argue that the Constitutional Court lacks the legal power to abolish MFP and ban its leaders from politics for life.
Pita Limjaroenrat, former party leader makes his 'legal' case at a last-minute press conference for Thai media -- at the MFP headquarters.
 We haven't even had the opportunity to defend against the accusations levelled at us.
The Constitutional Court has stated that MFP is attempting to amend or abolish Criminal Code Section 112 -- iow lese majeste.
Government schools must be free!
-- Elected Bangkok governor (mayor) Chadchart Sittipunt
In other words, they must be free of all smoking, especially cigarettes and vaping -- by force.
PHOTO: A public school security guard searches a students' backpack for tobacco, e-cigarettes or any kind of contraband.
The New War on Some 'Drugs'
The governor and all government hires are under strict orders to enforce the harsh law against vaping. For example, without regard to civil rights, schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Adminstration (known as 'BMA') must install or display messages or symbols that prohibit electronic cigarettes at entrances and exits and within all school areas. Personal searches of students, teachers and staff are not not permitted, but enforced.
 Allow and enforce measures to inspect and search students' bags. The school should also regularly inspect the building and premises within the school to prevent the bringing of e-cigarettes, liquids, or various equipment related to e-cigarettes into the school.
Because The Gateway Theory
Electronic cigarettes make smokers addicted to nicotine and can cause acute pneumonia, coronary heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases that lead to health problems and risk of death.
Governor Chadchart hopes and aims to protect children and youth from e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes.
[Which might be true but all e-cigarettes and all vaping is illegal everywhere in Thailand.
[Citizens, Residents, Visitors and Tourists are subject to laws brought in by the recent military dictatorship that puts 'e-cigarettes' in the same category as heroin, meth, etc.
[Enforcement of this law is particularly strong at all schools but especially at customs where tourists arrive.]
ENTERTAINMENT SPORTS HOCKEY STANLEY
The Cup Final now is the best-of-five. Both teams are flying -- to the Great White North.
Game 3 Panthers at Oilers at 0700 Friday 14 June (aka Thursday 13 June, 8 p.m.Ottawa time.)
Straight from the shoulder by the Edmonton Journal
Edmonton Oilers heading the wrong wayin Stanley Cup Final, lose 4-1 in Game 2
TRAVEL AVIATION
DUTCH TREAT
Holland-ish airline gives you a choice on saving your life in clear-air turbulence.
Good lord!...
Dear KLM: Actually it matters quite a lot.
by Veera Prateepchaikul, life-time reporter of Thai politics, former editor Bangkok Post
The Thai government under Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has a knack for self-sabotage
Behind the backdrop of a sluggish economy, Thailand is entering a new phase of political uncertainty that threatens to drive the government into turmoil and plunge the ailing economy into deeper trouble.
Pitifully, the reason is short-sighted judgements by the core coalition party, Pheu Thai, which can be traced back to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2808025/
PHOTO: Anti-government protesters in Bangkok began street protests against Srettha (front and centre) and select, unpopular cabinet ministers on June 1.
CHINA TAIWAN WAR
U.S. plans to turn Taiwan Strait into 'unmanned Hellscape' if China invades
 America plans to deploy thousands of lethal drones if mainland China invades Taiwan, says Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
Strange Headline. It's not "if", it's "when". https://t.ly/Z8Hq5
PHOTO: Taiwan (R.O.C.) Coast Guard cutter Xin Bei patrols off the Taiwan Strait island of Kinmen, previously called Quemoy.
Paparo said at the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Shangri-La Dialogue Summit at Singapore
 I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.
USA POLITICS
Biden’s All-of-Government Vote-Buying Scheme
A decade after Barack Obama pioneered it, Joe Biden is tasking every agency and department of the federal government to promote voter engagement.
CORONAVIRUS CORRUPTION
Is he a cheating cover-up artist or con man-grifter?
Adopt the power of "and".
The disgustive Anthony Fauci won US$710 Million-with-an-M from Big Pharma, for something-or-other still unrevealed. His government friends got their part. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/nih-scientists-made-710m-in-royalties-from-drug-makers-a-fact-they-tried-to-hide/ar-BB1nuldg
TOTALLY RELATED
Follow the money and you’ll find 'the Science.'
 Study shows most doctors endorsing drugs on X aka Twitter are paid to do so.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-doctors-endorsing-drugs-paid.html
CUBA OUTBREAK EPIDEMIC
The accumulation of garbage dumps and sewage (babalublog)
'People are collapsing on the street'; Oropouche epidemic in Cuba spirals out of control.
https://babalublog.com/2024/05/30/people-are-collapsing-on-the-street-oropuche-epidemic-in-cuba-spirals-out-of-control/
Explainer (brief)
Oropouche fever is a tropical viral infection transmitted by biting midges and mosquitoes from the blood of sloths to humans.
For Cuba specifically, OROV is mainly transmitted through the bite of the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus, which can also be a vector.
“It is a type of midge, but much smaller, barely visible when it bites, and there are a huge number of them."
Bottom Line: No Mosquito Nets means Outbreak
TECHNOLOGY
How the new Microsoft Recall feature fundamentally undermines Windows security. (Double Pulsar)
Surely it's not that bad? Why, yes, Yes it is.
https://doublepulsar.com/how-the-new-microsoft-recall-feature-fundamentally-undermines-windows-security-aa072829f218
How bad?
Stealing everything you ever type or viewed on your Windows PC is now possible - with just two lines of code. (Double Pulsar)
It is that bad.
In fact, it's the end of the Personal Computer. Dead. Done.
https://doublepulsar.com/recall-stealing-everything-youve-ever-typed-or-viewed-on-your-own-windows-pc-is-now-possible-da3e12e9465e
Somebody message you with disappearing messages? They're recorded anyway. Write a disappearing message? It's recorded. Delete a message? It's recorded.
It is one of the most ridiculous security failings I've ever seen, people inside MS don't seem to understand the implications of any of this and they've even enabled it on their own systems (while dealing with customer data).
https://twitter.com/GossiTheDog/status/1796218726808748367
Also to be super clear you can disable this in Settings when it ships, and we highly recommend you do unless they rework the feature and experience (they're working to add it to AMD and Intel, too - and doesn't actually need an NPU, I don't have one). Â
NPU: Neural Processing Unit
YOU CAN disable Recall in Settings when it arrives or if you buy a new device. For now.
Blog explanation: https://doublepulsar.com/recall-stealing-everything-youve-ever-typed-or-viewed-on-your-own-windows-pc-is-now-possible-da3e12e9465e
Speaking of visceral Culture of Corruption [https://t.ly/_nU_Z]:
 Google buys its way out of legal trouble and a jury trial by sending $2.3 million cheque to U.S. government -- 84.5 million baht in real money.
[Monday Exchange Rate 36.82 baht per U.S.$1. At the nadir rate during the coronavirus epidemic, $U.S. 1 = 29.875 baht]
The Chinese Hygon 8 core CPU matches multi-threaded performance of a three-generation old AMD CPU in Geekbench. (Tom's Hardware)
A three-generation old 6 core AMD CPU.
Still, not awful.
An account called "I_Heart_Bikes," run by a "female bike racer," had her tweets about the unfairness of men competing with women in bike competitions removed by the thugs of the EU for "defamation/insult." So she decided to sarcastically push the EU line and celebrate how amazing and empowering it is that men finally have the freedom to ride bikes!
https://x.com/i_heart__bikes/status/1798552826584654013
How to Get Monkeypox, Explained
Mpox continues to circulate at low numbers among gay and bisexual men who have sex with men
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1047318
Most Life on Earth is Dormant, After Pulling an 'Emergency Brake'
https://www.quantamagazine.org/most-life-on-earth-is-dormant-after-pulling-an-emergency-brake-20240605/
EUROPE ELECTIONS HUMILIATIONS
Far right's election victories rattle Euro politicians
Sacre Bleu!
The French peasants have revolted! Macron dissolves parliament, calls an immediate snap election
Left-populist leaders Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz may never recover. Second Biggest Loser, the Green Party.
More Fallout: The leftist Alexander De Croo, prime minister of Belgium, abruptly resigned.
PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron (Most Humiliated) went on national TV and ordered a snap election after the EU setbacks.
In Italy Giorgia Meloni won the EU elections easily, consolidating her kingmaker role across the dying continent. Matteo Salvini’s hard-right League was the biggest loser. Leftist and populist parties slunk away home in defeat.
A World War II veteran just married his bride near Normandy's D-Day beaches
CARENTAN-LES-MARAIS -- Together, the collective age of the bride and groom is nearly 200. But World War II veteran Harold Terens and his sweetheart Jeanne Swerlin proved that love is eternal as they tied the knot Saturday inland of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France. Their respective ages -- he’s 100, she’s a youngster of just 96 -- made their nuptials an almost double-century celebration.
Bubbly Jeanne: This is the best day of my life.
MIDEAST ISRAEL WAR
Did Gazan who held Israeli hostages work for Al Jazeera and US-based charity?
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-805525
[Probably. Gazans gotta eat, too.]
USA POLITICS CORRUPTION MEDIA
Elderly Man with a Poor Memory
It isn't the crime, it's the cover-up
 Biden administration tampered with evidence, altered Biden's Hur interview transcript.
Well... It's also the crime. [https://t.ly/YX-cb]
https://www.judicialwatch.org/counsel-transcript-inaccurate/
USA SPORTS BASKETBALL
Just walk up from behind and mug her.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1797011773641380264
Well, it worked for American hoodlums all during the pandemic -- in homes, on the street, in the New York City subway etc. etc. etc. and so on.
Two big differences: Caitlin Clark is straight and she is CaucAsian. Apart from that, yeah, same-same.
AUSTRALIA POLITICS
This writer seems not to love his prime minister
A Man with Few if Any Redeeming Qualities
Albanese, the Office of Prime Minister, has seriously exposed this hollow man. As he continues to pile lie upon equivocation upon blame-shifting upon bluster, I have found it easier and easier to dislike him. With his recent moral vacuity on Israel and the ICC, he has now achieved the ultimate nadir. He is contemptible.
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/politics/2024/05/a-man-with-few-if-any-redeeming-qualities/
CHINA FOREIGN_POLICY
View From Australia: China's Dream, America's Nightmare
Xi [Jinping] and his coterie [i.e. CCP] are going about the business of stealthily disintegrating the one power, America, standing in the way of the Middle Kingdom assuming its place as the dominant world power. For that to occur America must be broken and defeated, preferably 'without fighting', just as Sun Tzu recommended.
https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2024/05/chinas-dream-americas-nightmare/
ISLAM
"Submissions" 5555 https://quadrant.org.au/submissions/
The Left bows low and cries ‘Allahu Akbar’
In days of old the Left had no philosophical truck with any religion, yet today so-called progressives grant the decidedly unprogressive Islam a special immunity from complaint or criticism. It's social pathologies -- sexist oppression, contempt for gays, and worse, are of no account when preached by an intersectional ally
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/islam/2024/05/the-left-bows-low-and-cries-allahu-akbar/
and
The coming Islamic apocalypse
As the global jihad gathers momentum, is it too much to expect our political and academic leaders will realise it is their children and grandchildren who will be living in a future world their wilful ignorance of Islam's death cult is so rapidly bringing into being?
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/islam/2024/05/the-coming-islamic-apocalypse/
