Thailand's junta sets a new target: 50,000 new Covid cases every day
Good morning children, it's the almost-but-not-quite very last final terminal Monday of February 21, 2022.
It's going to get really cold in the North. Not just cold, REALLY cold.
RIP: Impossibles singer dies of lung cancer
The country lost one of its most-loved singers on Sunday. Setha Sirachaya of The Impossibles (and constantly smiling TV channel 5 host), died of lung cancer, aged 77.
CORONAVIRUS THAILAND
On Day Six of the Fifth Wave of Chinese Covid-19 in Thailand and Day 705 of the Emergency Lockdown Decree to flatten the curve:
Thailand's "medical experts" predict new cases of Chinese Covid-19 coronavirus will soon hit 50,000 per day.
The number of new cases has been soaring for days.
A virologist (who cannot be identified by Thai media) said on Sunday the number of new Covid-19 cases will hit 30,000 a day and then 50,000 "unless measures are taken to curb the contagion."
No actual "measures" have been suggested.
But the junta's 'ministry of interior' has sent out a letter to all provincial governors ordering them to come up with a plan to slow the spread of Covid-19 in their areas and strictly enforce the rules, according to permanent secretary of the interior, Suttipong Juljarern.
So that should work, right? It's not the fault of the junta or its designated 'prime minister' Prayut  government's fault that all these Covid-19 cases are taking place.
 Governors of border provinces have been orderred to stop all this illegal migration that's going on because (this is true) the junta believes the current Outbreak No.5 of Chinese Covie-19 is mostly because of illegal immigrants.
 STATS: Another 30 Thais died of Chinese Covid-19 on Sunday - nine of them in Bangkok. Age range of the victims was 28-93 years. Twenty-two of the victims were more than 60 years old.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2267111/
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2267047/
I have seen the Lockdown and Emergency Decrees and how they work.
 And the damage they do. And the bureaucrats they enrich.
 And the massive corruption they cause to those bureaucrats and the taxpayers who support them.
Comic relief:
Provincial governors ordered to step up fight against coronavirus
But don't blame the ruling junta. Like Sergeant Schultz, they know nothing.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2267111/
Indications that the Chinese Covid-19 coronavirus is going away: None
 The Sunday report:
18,953 new Covid cases
30 more deaths
 Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 2,712,315 Covid-19 cases, including 488,880 cases this year, with 2,527,231 complete recoveries to date.
 The accumulated death toll stood at 22,624 since the beginning of the pandemic.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2267047/
And now, Buckingham Palace has reported that Queen Elizabeth II has 'mild Covid-19'.
The 95-year-old monarch is trying to shrug it off.
In case you have a thing against monarchs, this Betty Windsor is one tough old broad. On the exact day her daddy died and she became queen she was on a big-game safari in Africa and they had to send out search teams to find her. Now she has Covid: "So what?"
She intends to continue with light duties at her Windsor Castle residence, aides said.
Her large-eared son Chuck tested positive on February 10.
The Queen has been "fully vaccinated", whatever that means.
"Buckingham Palace confirms that the queen has today tested positive for Covid," a palace statement said.
"Her Majesty is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week."
PHOTO: The Queen, 99 years old, has 'mild symptoms' and will continue working.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/20/queen-tests-positive-for-covid
THAILAND POLITICS
Veera Prateepchaikul, long-time reporter of Thai politics and former editor of the Bangkok Post, took a hit for our team.
He watched the entire three-day debate in parliament so that none of us would have to.
And he found the interesting bits:
==
Renegades bring House debate to life
 ["renegades" are the number of MPs quitting their parties, especially the political wing of the ruling junta.]
==
The failure to deal with corruption by the alleged 'prime minister' Prayut has become a hallmark of the administration.
 Mustachioed MP of Uttaradit province Saranwut Saranket (photo below) does not look like a typical Thai politician. He looks more like a Wild West cowboy, albeit without a gun slung on his waist or a horse.
 He does not fire from the hip with a real gun, but his mouth fires as rapidly when he gets going, with raw guts about topics which MPs in general are reluctant to talk about, such as the "master puppeteer" who has been pulling the strings behind the Thai politics.
 During the last day of the general debate on Friday night, the maverick MP fired non-stop at the master puppeteer, naming him without fear, saying he was part of an "Axis of Evil" of people with an insatiable thirst for wealth.
 According to Mr Saranwut, this man has his hands in almost any businesses involving the government and the private sector that can enrich him or his clan, from water projects to train projects, from telecommunications to retail, without any sense of guilt or shame.
PHOTO: Once opposition MP Saranwut Saranket got going on Friday night, he didn't want to stop.
Much of Saranwut's speech dealt with the corruption of Prayut and his cronies.
The voice of the opposition burrowed in on human trafficking and and mass murders in 2015, with Prayut's approval.
[NOTE: Prayut and top junta cronies issued a 'shoot and kill' revenge vendetta against Paween for revealing their murderous corruption, but failed.
[The parliamentary debate circled around and bit them in the arses.]
PHOTO: Royal Thai Police Major General exposed the human trafficking, corruption and mass killings of Rohingya refugees overseen by Prayut and cronies. Then he had to flee to Australia in legitimate fear of his life.
NOTE: Aung San Suu Khi love the human trafficking and mass killings of Rohingya refugees.
https://www.thaipbsworld.com/story-of-thai-policeman-in-exile-and-victims-of-human-trafficking-revealed-in-parliament/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/10/thailands-most-senior-human-trafficking-investigator-to-seek-political-asylum-in-australia
FYI
The "master puppeteer" of Prayut and the ruling Thai junta is known to be ex-Army commander and four-star general Prawit Wongsuwon. He oversaw the 2014 military coup and has revelled in the corruption trough ever since.
Paween's written statement (PDF document, 18 pages, redacted but revalatory
One he got to the relative safety of Australia, he began naming names of the mass murders.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/boss-in-trafficking-crackdown-flees-thailand-out-of-fear/488651
https://www.moveforwardparty.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/paween_pongsirin_statutory_declaration_for_publishing.pdf
Prayut reduced to relying on supporters
 And they are in such short suppy that he probably will have to force a cabinet reshuffle to keep them happy.
 The ruling junta's designated 'prime minister's' leadership is about to be put to its toughest test.
 A breakaway group of 18 Members of Pparliament from his own ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) applied for membership of the Setthakij Thai Party.
 Despite assurances from PPRP leader Gen Prawit Wongsuwon that the group led by former secretary-general Capt Thamanat Prompow is loyal to the coalition government, 14 MPs in the group recently broke ranks and voted in favour of the Move Forward Party-sponsored bill on liberalisation of liquor production.
 The group's move cast a shadow over the coalition government stability and Gen Prayut's plan to complete his four-year tenure.
 Coffee house pundits joked on Sunday that it's more like four days.
PHOTO: Prayut is in trouble. Backed into a political corner, his only choices are to buy supporter, or give up.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2266927/
The public says... two polls
 1. A majority of people want Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to dissolve the House of Representatives as soon as possible now that the government has become unstable, according to the result of a survey by National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2267079/
 2. The current economic crisis could possibly lead to dissolution of the House of Representatives, according to a survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2267083/
B-R-R-R! Thundershowers, cold snap forecast in upper Thailand
 The Thai Meteorological Department reported on Sunday that the westerly trough has moved through the North and the upper Northeast while a high pressure area has covered the Northeast.
 At the same time, southerly and southeasterly winds have brought precipitation from the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand to the upper part of the country.
 As a result, thundershowers with gusty winds are expected in the North, the Northeast, the Central including Bangkok and its vicinity, and the East regions from Sunday.
 The temperature will decrease by 5-9 degrees Celcius in the Northeast and 3-5 degrees Celcius in the North, the Central region including Bangkok, and the East on Monday and Tuesday (Feb 21-22 and possibly beyond).
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2267087/
Thailand's tourism industry, particularly in the South, have been praying for a year for the opening of the Thai-Malaysia border.
Too bad. So sad.
Maybe later. Or maybe later than that.
Malaysia's border reopening likely in second quarter
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2267131/
On the 7th day of 8 Biden predictions...
 Russian Military Has 'Received Orders Now To Proceed With The Invasion' Of Ukraine
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-russian-military-has-received-orders-now-to-proceed-with-the-invasion-of-ukraine-report-says
 According to Biden and his new official news outlet...
The U.S. has no intention to send forces to Ukraine, but it will protect NATO territory together with allies, the President said
https://tass.com/world/1406301
Good Lord!
Covid patients in Hong Kong, one of the world's priciest cities, are sleeping on beds on the street as hospitals struggle with an Omicron wave
Shocking photos show chaos at Caritas Medical Center in Hong Kong where an overflow of Covid patients are being kept outside.
https://www.insider.com/patients-sleep-beds-on-streets-hong-kong-hospitals-breaking-point-2022-2
Tears, doping, massive Covid lockdowns, purchase of foreign athletes, no snow and 10 days of unrelenting Chinese Communist Party propaganda, and now.
Curtain set to fall on Beijing Olympics after tears, doping and Gu
President Thomas Bach of the unbelievably corrupt International Olympic Committee (IOC) had the unmitigated gall to try to lecture the world .
Bach lied that the athletes had "given peace a chance," apart from the chances of another world war starting in the Ukrained.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/60451409
You will have to go the link and look to get anything out of this news story
The 8 best-dressed athletes at the Beijing Olympics, from the Canadian ice dancers in bright orange jumpsuits to team USA's snowboarders
From Team Japan's "Ice Prince" Yuzuru Hanyu to US snowboarder Shaun White, some athletes took the chance to show off their fashion on the world stage.
https://www.insider.com/photos-best-dressed-athletes-beijing-winter-olympics-fashion-2022-2
China is running out of people.
And now, even the dimwits of the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party are claiming they have a solution.
(Spoiler: They don't.)
 China says it plans to carry out a 'special campaign' to 'intervene' in abortions as its birth rate hits a record low
 The campaign is slated to involve local efforts to "rebuild and instill the values and culture of raising multiple children in a family" as the country panics over birth rate.
https://www.insider.com/china-plans-special-campaign-to-intervene-in-abortions-2022-2
Related
Remember Zola Budd!
China's lack of decent athletes makes Beijing import 'fake Chinese'
https://www.businessinsider.com/beijing-olympics-china-athlete-exporter-importer-table-tennis-2022-2?_ga=2.203086804.479365354.1645321979-2116368572.1645321977
and also
https://www.insider.com/winter-olympics-athletes-who-dont-compete-for-birth-country-2022-2
Does anyone have a recent update on how many thousand people have died so far from not wearing a mask at the Super Bowl? Including the pencil-necked dweeb Mayor Garcetti who ordered everyone to mask up and then didn't do so himself?
I'm just wondering if the Super Bowl Covid-19 death toll is only in the thousands, or the tens of thousands so far.
PHOTO: How many thousands of these 78,000 people have dropped dead simply for refusing to wear a mask at the Super Bowl, as ordered?
Oh, here's a fake "fact checker":
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/feb/17/whats-missing-claims-comparing-unmasked-super-bowl/
Every time a mosquito dies, the world becomes a better place:
 Study: With humans, mosquitoes see red and prepare for the feast.
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2022/02/08/mosquitoes-drawn-to-humans-by-color-red/3111644338377/
Oh, wait... This just in... One man in Ottawa was arrested for intentionally harming a police service animal. Total Badthink there, eh?
That said,
It's wonderful for us 7th generation Canadians to see that Canadian border police to now use their horse's' reins to beat the crap out of lawbreakers, the way that American police do.
Excellent afternoon reading:
Cold War getting too hot for comfort
by Roger Crutchley
 Things seemed a lot simpler in those days of our past.
 In the USSR everyone ate borscht and military choirs sang boating songs. In the West it was burgers, the Beatles and the Beach Boys.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2267007/
