Thaksin: 'See you in Thailand next year'
Boys and Girls and others, good morning on the FINAL Tuesday of July of 2022.
It's Day 858 of the Coronavirus Lockdown and Day 5 of the Monkeypox panic.
Thailand's energy regulators promise to leave gasoline and diesel prices alone 'until the end of July'. Which is not really that confident.
 Current price of diesel in Thailand, where diesel is far more important than in North America: US $1.23 per litre, roughly US$ 4.90 per gallon. Gasoline prices are less.
Fugitive ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is slowly ratcheting up Thai politics.
In a Saturday night phone call from his Dubai 'exile', Thaksin told his core fans,
"See you all in Thailand next year."
Today is his 73rd birthday, and Thaksin promised that it would be the last held by long-distance videophone. Supporters cheered.
He predicted that his Pheu Thai party would win an election, to "punish the junta" regime.
PHOTO: Around 300 core members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (the original Thai 'Red Shirts') from northeastern provinces rented a resort hall in Korat province for Thaksin's videocall.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2352971/
MYANMAR TATMADAW BRUTALITY
Yes, there are dictatorships worse than Thailand. Worse than almost any country.
 Myanmar 'political officers' arrested and jailed a former member of parliament (Suu Kyi's party), then arrested and locked up three other men for saying Badthings about the army dictators.
 But on Monday, they'd just had enough, so they hustled the four of them outside, behind the prison, and hanged them. Or, to be clear. lynched them.
PHOTO: The only current question about Myanmar (Burma) is how long the Tatmadaw dictatorship will allow any scenes like this in Yangon (Rangoon). The guy with the big "X" on the signs is "Senior General" Min Aung Hlaing, head of the army and Top Man of the coup administration.
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/international/2022/07/25/myanmar-executes-nld-lawmaker-3-other-political-detainees/
Burma's Mirror Daily state newspaper said the four had planned, directed and organized "the violent and inhuman accomplice acts of terrorist killings." Sure. Everyone believes that, right?
MARIJUANA LEGALISATION
There was a sudden burst of opinion on Monday against the ruling junta's legalisation of marijuana sales and cultivation.
• Hundreds of doctors and alumni of the Faculty of Medicine at Ramathibodi Hospital demanded an immediate end to the recreational use of cannabis. That is, major law enforcement and military efforts against the weed.
https://bityl.co/DSWz
• The Ramathibodi group was quickly joined by the Forensic Physicians Association of Thailand. The group's president,  Dr. Smith Srisont, demanded immediate 'suspension' of the cannabis-decriminalisation, until the regime can come up with laws and regulations to protect young people.
https://bityl.co/DSX4
• Almost immediately, Islamic leaders in Thailand's south re-launched their aggressive campaign to put cannabis back on the country's narcotics list, i.e. making it once again a target of the junta's War on (Some) Drugs.
 Prayut and the junta laughed off an earlier, similar demand by the Islamic Committee of Songkhla.
 Committee chairman Sakriya Binsaela promised the junta that there would be active protests against the marijuana legalisation in every mosque of the five southern provinces: Songkhla, Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Satun.
 The chief Muslim leader, the Chularatchamontri, has explained to the junta that the use of medical marijuana was A-okay - but the the use of cannabis for recreation, like drinking alcohol, was against Islamic principles.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2353801/
PHOTO: Students gathered at Bangkok Government House in an attempt to explain medical marijuana to 'prime minister' Prayut.
THAILAND ECONOMY KFC
The operator of the KFC outlets in Thailand said Monday he wants to ditch the entire franchise - to anyone who will pay him 300 million U.S. dollars - 11 billion-with-a-'b' Thai baht in real money.
 The current operator is  Restaurants Development Company, based in Bangkok. They had a plan to sell out in 2020, but the Covid panic put it on the back burner.
 There are 236 KFC stores in Thailand.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kfc-operator-thailand-explores-sale-102236517.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
U.S.A. CORONAVIRUS
GOOD: Biden's symptoms 'continue to improve significantly,' says White House physician.
Patient is 79, male, with no history of novel coronavirus infection. So the panic-mongers have no reason to claim there is a SARS Cov-2 novel coronavirus emergency.
 Move on to monkeypox, doomers.
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/24/biden-covid
Which leaves hysterical "medical experts" in Thailand a problem. Including, there's no monkeypox in Thailand.
Yup, yes, he actually did. Even The New York Times was impressed.
Pope Francis Apologizes to Canada's Indigenous People
But trust CNN. Sure, the pope apologized. But, and I quote, "For some indigenous school survivors, he triggered more pain."
Ya can't win, Frank.
But CNN had a short and informative vid about a century of those 'residential schools', give 'em that. Called it a Tour of Penance.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/25/americas/canada-indigenous-school-survivors-pope-apology-cmd-intl/index.html
Said the pope:
"I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools."
Hard-hearted Canadians might call that "blame-shifting".
https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-canada-apology-visit-137ad23719603e9d370257f257ec0163
HOW POWERFUL IS YOUR PASSPORT, heh
The self-proclaimed global leader in residence and citizenship, H&P, and the parapetetic news/analysis folks at Quartz issue an annual list of Countries With The Most Powerful Passports.
There are several factors involved, but the main one is
How many countries can a holder of this passport enter without a visa.
There's a full list of all such passports, from Number One Japan to Number 112 Afghanistan at
https://www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index/ranking
Here's the list of passports most used by Daily Fishwrappers. The columns are
Flag Country Ranking and then how many countries you can enter without a visa.
TRIVIA from the above:
Number 34 rank is Taiwan. China is 16.
Weird Fact: Holders of the world's 'most powerful passports' are among the least likely to travel
PHOTO: Suvarnabhumi airport of Bangkok.
https://qz.com/2190003/the-countries-with-the-most-powerful-passports-in-2022/
Remind me again why America has a NASA? C'mon even Neil Armstrong would be ashamed of this:
SpaceX launches yet another 53 Starlink satellites in sixth launch of the month.
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2022/07/24/spacex-launches-yet-another-53-starlink-satellites/1691658671863/
Hard No.
Are there other questions?
Can Pickleball Save America?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/can-pickleball-save-america
Loved the story though. Tiny excerpt:
Navratil, with gazelle-like grace, executed two snazzy moves at once: an Erne (which involved a flying leap) and a body shot (which involved hitting Johnson in the gut). He chuckled with contentment.
