Thai Navy on the verge of cancelling that Chinese submarine purchase
Hello children.
Strong scientific evidence indicates that it will be Wednesday all day today, everywhere, where by "today" we mean November 23, 2022.
A steadily diminishing number of people remember exactly what they were doing on November 22, 1963.
Which is the 59th anniversary of the day that commie-loving, U.S. Marine-trained marksman Lee Harvey Oswald and his pet and his pet 6.5mm (.223-calibre) Mannlicher-Carcano turned John F. Kennedy into the fourth United States president to be assassinated while in office.
Do you suffer from an irresistible urge?
TODAY all day is World Toilet Day.
Seems amusing to me.
Thailand resumes trial of alleged Uighur terrorists
Seven years-plus after the terrorist bombing of the Erawan shrine in central Bangkok, the two accused Uighur defendants were brought back to court.
The explosion at the shrine killed 20 people, all of them ethnic Chinese and all but one from foreign countries.
The junta claims two men -- Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed, both from Xinjiang confessed to the murderous bombing. But they now state they were tortured into making those statements.
The bombing at the Erawan Shrine in Pathumwan district of central Bangkok came after the then-ruling junta forcibly repatriated 109 Uighur to China. Prosecutors claim the two men resented that and resorted to the terrorist attack.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2443577/
THAILAND SOUTH
Self-styled separatists planted and touched off a huge car bomb blast near a block of apartments in Narathiwat city in the deep South of the country.
The blast killed a police captain and wounded 31 residents and bystanders.
CCTV showed a man in police clothing driving a pickup truck into the flats, parking it and then high-tailing it, quickly.
As always, no group claimed responsibility. The bomb was probably a plan by the Malaysia-based Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRn).
https://www.thaipbsworld.com/army-officer-killed-and-another-injured-in-bomb-blast-in-narathiwat-province/
Court accepts lawsuit against marijuana legalization
The Central Administrative Court ruled that a suit intended to put weed back on the 'most dangerous narcotic' list can go ahead.
A medical doctor and several opposition parliament members are targeting cannabis advocate and junta loyalist Anutin Charnvirakul*, as well as the prime minister's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB).
The lawsuit is led by Doctor Smith Srisont, a member of the Medical Council and president of the Forensic Physician Association of Thailand, but the issue is political.
PHOTO: Thailand's marijuana enforcement policy meets justice
https://www.nationmultimedia.com/thailand/40022301
*Anutin, the token 'minister of public health' and leader of the Bhumjaithai Party is the author of a [confusing] decree to get marijuana decriminalized so it can be used for medical and as a cash crop.
More handouts for stricken hotels
The alleged 'government' announced yesterday it intends to give 5 billion baht to struggling, small hotels and the tourist-industry supply chain.
Five billion baht in real money will buy US$138,000,000 or 185,000.000-plus loonies.
The ruling junta calls the prospective help "soft loans" but did not announce the conditions.
The repayment period was extended to 10 years from seven years previously.
https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG220728094435398
New OECD 'global outlook' predicts bad times ahead.
Example:
If you think the world's energy crisis is bad right now, next winter will be worse.
No, crypto isn't dead and it never will be dead, ever.
But yet another major cryptocurrency exchange is poised to go bankrupt.
There is a run on Genesis Global Trading of New York.
And the Bitcoin is at a 2-year low -- including in Bangkok.
https://qz.com/genesis-global-capital-unsecured-loans-1849808185
Trust us, we totally have $10 billion worth of Bitcoin, says Grayscale. (WCCFTech)
"Can we see it?"
"No."
They are currently trading at about half of their claimed value.
https://wccftech.com/traders-smell-blood-the-prevarications-by-the-grayscale-bitcoin-trust-gbtc-in-revealing-its-cold-wallet-addresses-is-deepening-its-discount/
OPINION ANALYSIS
That said:
Why is bitcoin a 'thing', other than a lot of people seemed to believe that bitcoinage was a 'thing'?
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/68654.html
THAILAND CHINA CORRUPTION SUBMARINE
Royal Thai Navy has not cancelled its 13-billion-baht purchase of a second-hand submarine from China.
Not yet.
The navy is prepared to pull out of the submarine purchase from China if the conditions of the procurement are unfavourable, the navy commander-in-chief says.
The big problem is that Thailand wants a certain type of engine for the sub, and China won't give it to them.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2443627/
Addendum
Royal Thai Navy RTN commander Admiral Choengchai Chomchoengpaet said the Thai navy wants the Chinese navy to guarantee the Chinese-made CHD620 engine that China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Company (CSOC) wants to use in the S26T Yuan-class submarine that Thailand ordered in 2017.
The original contract called for the installation of the well-proven German-made MTU 396 diesel engine, but Berlin will not allow its sale to China
"Without a guarantee, we cannot be confident of the engine's quality," he said.
Related, sort of
The European Union (EU) is set to renew sanctions on Chinese officials it has accused of "serious human rights violations" in the western region of Xinjiang for another year.
The sanctions were first placed on four individuals and one entity in March 2019.
The EU says there have been no improvement in human rights conditions in the region.
PHOTO: The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, continues to debate the Xinjiang slavery.
https://bityl.co/FmtK
ASEAN ASIA CHINA DIPLOMACY ANALYSIS
After the week's most confusing newspaper headline, ASEAN and East Asia expert Kavi Chongkittavorn produces an outstanding analysis.
Vive ASEAN!
Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand with distinctive styles of leadership and diplomatic finesse have succeeded in performing the most difficult somersault in international relations by uniting concerned parties from all sides over the Ukraine war to agree to disagree - and then agree to agree.
Bravo to the trio of Asean members for the outstanding success.
...When historians look back, November 2022 will be highlighted and remembered as the most significant month for Southeast Asia because when the fate of the world hung in the balance, the region came to the rescue.
PHOTO: Immediately after his [first-ever] arrival in Bangkok last week, President4Life Xi Jinping went to Government House to help to give Prayut a memorable photo op.
GLOBAL WARMING
Another snowstorm hit Buffalo, New York state, and adjacent parts of southern Ontario - Call it 6.5 feet, around 205 Canadian centimetres of global warming. Today, the media is unanimously informing everyone that the snowstorm was exclusively only because of global warming.
Which provides the excuse for a terrific Flashback.
Remember when the media [and not just The New York Times by any means] informed all of the world that the 1977 blizzard in New York state was only exclusively solely because of global cooling?
"Specialists" "Cooling Trend" Right.
Related?
Khashoggi's death was an outrage until we needed oil
Biden said he would punish Saudi Arabia for the death of dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
https://bityl.co/FmS5
U.S.A. Department of Defence says new F-35 to be made entirely of Taylor Swift tickets
"It'll cost us, but it'll pay off in the long run."
Favourite? This is nothing more than a stark admission by a young graphics designer who knows SFA about A) movies and B) journalism.
Even if you're willing to lay aside the tiny-few comedies of the 1930s-40s there is precisely-exactly one (1) "journalism movie" and it was made three years ago.
It's about Gareth Jones, a Welshman who actually went out to the scenes of the crimes (as they say) and at huge personal risk exposed
• Joe Stalin's Holdomor and intentional slaughter of 3 million, and,
• The duplicitous, lying stories of Walter Duranty of The New York Times and that paper's shameful cover-up of the communist propaganda.
What he did not do: Gareth Jones did sit on his ass, reading Twitter and pretending that Twitter comments were real stories.
Preview (in Thai)
Facts on the Holodomor
https://www.britannica.com/event/Holodomor
THAILAND CORONAVIRUS
The Thai media, under orders of the ruling junta still refuse to state the obvious:
Viruses mutate. It is what they do.
But no, we must be subjected to front-page (no less) journalism on the Wuhan novel coronavirus:
New Omicron subvariants detected
More Omicron subvariants have been detected in Thailand in recent weeks, particularly the sublineage BA.2.75, first identified in India in early May, which now accounts for 42.9% of all samples tested, the Department of Medical Sciences (DMS) revealed yesterday.
The sublineage BA.2.75 made up only 23.6% of all samples tested in the department’s previous monitoring of coronavirus subvariants using the whole genome sequencing technique, said Dr Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the DMS.
Got that? HOWEVER...
The good news is that there were no signs of increasing virulence in these mutated sub-variants found despite the fact that their mutations could lead to their ability to spread and infect humans more easily, explained the DMS chief yesterday.
Which doesn't sound like good news, but whatever.
THAILAND POLITICS
Yingluck slams court bid to have her tracked and arrested
The ex-prime minister, now in joint exile with her older brother Thaksin Shinawatra in Dubai, was named in an arrest warrant issued on Monday by the Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions of the Supreme Court.
The case dredges (again) Yingluck's decision in 2011 to fire the head of her National Security Council, Thawil Pliensri.
It also charges Yingluck with nepotism because she appointed 'a close relative' as national police chief.
Her lawyer Winyat Chartmontri told the court that Yingluck will provide written statements to the court by the end of January.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40022332
TECHNOLOGY
Using airpods as hearing aids [Popsci.com]
The researchers worked with a pool of 21 patients in Taiwan -- whose average age was 41 -- with mild to moderate hearing loss. They tested Apple's Live Listen features.
https://www.popsci.com/science/airpods-hearing-aids-performance/
Tesla drivers test Autopilot's limits, attracting audiences and safety concerns [MarketScreener.com]
https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Elon-Musk-1364/news/Tesla-Drivers-Test-Autopilot-s-Limits-Attracting-Audiences-and-Safety-Concerns--33309204/
FASTER PLEASE
The U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approves diabetes drug teplizumab, first treatment to delay onset of disease. []
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/11/18/FDA-drug-Type-1-diabetes/2031668785736/
STruth
THE MAINSTREAM EXCUSE FOR CENSORSHIP IN THE WEST NOW: Imagine forbidding everything that is "damage in the mind"? So what would escape forbidden?"
And it's intended that nothing escape forbidding.
And in the U.S.A. the Democratic Party presses its insistence that the federal government become a national censor.
The senators hammering Musk the hardest, like Markey and Warren, don't have much authority, even to bring him in for a hearing. But this is an unstoppable political campaign.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/18/elon-musk-congress-oversight-twitter-00069437
https://www.reuters.com/technology/democratic-us-senators-accuse-musk-undermining-twitter-urge-ftc-probe-2022-11-17/
In case Twitter is making you anxious, here’s a man making a traditional teapot. (Four minutes)
Call for an FTC probe looks more like Congress chiming in from the sidelines than driving the issue (though that hasn’t stopped Musk from trolling lawmakers over the letter).
Happy Thanksgiving, Americans everywhere. And thank the Lord for the Pilgrims.
