That Thaksin fella in Thailand -- they can't catch him, can they?

There is no use even counting the days any longer, just hang your stockings and say your prayers...
But for the record this is Fishwrap Bulldog for Saturday 21 December.

In terms that even an American gridiron football fan can grok:
That Thaksin Shinawatra that you hate more than an ex-spouse is the Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen of Thai politics. You really believed that, "This time we've really got him," and the top judges in the country laughed at you.
Thaksin again for the umpteenth time since 2001 scrambled out of the lawfare pocket, and delivered a strike down the field for yet another win.

Yesterday's win was at the Constitutional Court of Thailand -- equivalent to the supreme courts of most countries -- threw out accusers and their charges that the top three Ministry of Justice officials gave Thaksin privileges, including six (6) months in the Police General Hospital instead of a prison cell.
The judges were unanimous: There is no Evidence. Please leave.

RULE NUMBER ONE IN THAI POLITICS
If the prime minister holds up the press gaggle and says, "Nah, c'mon man, there's no rift in the ruling coalition government," then there's a rift in the coalition, sure as God made those delicious little oranges we get every December in the country.
Prime Minister Paethongtarn Shinawatra, better known as Ung-Ing also said: "The government remains intact" even though that marijuana party, the Bhumjaithai is blocking attempts to modify the constitution, then (English translation) Bhumjaithai is going to poke, prod, bother and contend with Ms Paethongtarn until Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul, the coronavirus screw-up, finally satisfies his lust to be prime minister; meaning Ung-Ing and daddy Thaksin get gone.

VIETNAM KILLER FIRE
Hanoi police arrest arsonist
A 50-something man said, "Yeah, well, I had that argument with the staff." So he went and bought cans and cans of gasoline and splashed them about all the doors of a three-story karaoke club at midnight on Tuesday, lit a match and
THRUMP
One survivor said that he head an explosion. The fast-spreading fire killed 11 patrons. Two of the seven survivors are in serious condition in hospitals.

MYANMAR BURMA ASEAN
A Twofer from the generous Bangkok Post
ASEAN falters on Myanmar crisis
[ Gosh! Really? ]
By Shayna Bauchner, who sees ASEAN from the headquarters of Human Rights Watch.

As chair in 2025, Malaysia should reroute ASEAN's approach in line with the tougher rhetoric it previously espoused, supporting punitive and diplomatic measures from a coalition of concerned governments. ASEAN should welcome a follow-up resolution imposing a global arms embargo by the U.N. Security Council.

And this one by the veteran correspondent of the former Nation newspaper and now the Post:
Assad's fate haunts Myanmar junta
By Kavi Chongkittavorn, veteran journalist on regional affairs
It would be great if something did. From recently killing 2,000-plus of its own citizens to effectively ending the life of Aung San Suu Kyi... do any Tatmadaw really feel guilt?:

Overconfidence and naivety can be toxic and create a false sense of security and illusion.

The Tatmadaw's atrocities against Myanmar/Burmese people, which are not very different from what Assad did to his people.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing must decide whether to learn from Assad's experience or repeat his foredoomed pathway.

GLOBAL WARMING
In Case you haven't caught on that Justin Trudeau is running...
Canada pushes back its Magnificent Goal of net-zero electricity from 2035 to 2050.
Stand by for more!

The Canuckistanian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick still rely on coal and natural gas to supply between 30 percent and 85 percent of their power. Holy Gosh, eh?

USA FAREWELL
Meet The Monsters
Biden has signed more pardons and amnesty commutations than any president in the 227 years that the United States has had presidents.
It seems likely that kindly old Unca Joe considered his pardon of his own son Hunter, because he had staff compile a 37-page Justification, and signed it personally.
But those other 1,538 (with a promise of More To Come before The Final Buh-bye at 1201 noon on Sunday (00:01 Washington time) appear to be mostly or all tricks, conjuring, flimflams and plain old, downright treachery by Joseph Biden's staff in the White House and nearby 'senior bureaucrats', dirty and corrupt Democrats, nervous immediate family and perhaps Biden's personal DOCTOR (De.D) -- but it's going to take honest men and women to literally dig into the stinking pit of garbage that has become this unconscionable garbage pit of political filth.

A comfortable chair, perhaps even a sofa or (why not?) an old rocking chair can be perfect for reading. A puppy as warm companion; or kitty, we do not not judge you. And you'll need articles worthy of consideration.
No, You Weren't Crazy
Now we're getting the 2024 update to "Now It Can Be Told," in the form of a Wall Street Journal exposé on how Joe Biden's aides sought to cover up the president's mental frailty during his four years in office (one of the least convincing cover-ups in history, in our view, but one that nonetheless appears to have fooled vast swathes of the American press).
Or at least members of the swathes who claim that they were fooled.
Which is sad.

Here at Fishwrap,we consider this (next) long-read a Must-Read:
How Barack Obama Built An Omnipotent Thought-Machine And How It Was Destroyed
Parallel to the collapse of the new regional order that Obama decreed for the Middle East has been the collapse of the Obama-led domestic order at home. The coincidence marks the end of Obama’s pretensions to be a new kind of world leader, running a new world order of his own making from his iPhone, grounded in his own strange combination of nihilism and virtue-mongering.

This guy knows how to write hockey.
The Golden Age of Jewish Hockey

Zach Hyman (graphic) of the Edmonton Oilers joins the NHL’s exclusive 50-goal club, joining the fabulous Hughes brothers—Jack, Luke, and Quinn—and N.Y. Rangers defenseman Adam Fox in the league’s ranks of elite, bar mitzvahed talent. Add in Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, and you’ve got hockey’s first all-Jewish All Star team

The original Jews of Edmonton were traders following the country’s movement west, along with poorer immigrants, mostly from Russia and Ukraine, who decided they’d had enough of the farming colonies the Canadian government created to populate the frontier and drifted toward the region’s one real town. Edmonton had 2,600 residents at the beginning of the 20th century; it became a city of 100,000 in the mid 1940s, meaning it was still young when Gretzky arrived in 1978.

Recently Watched (Tuesday, after press time)
Fishwrap may have erred in not having mentioned that Frances McDormand is the best actress who ever has acted but I just came across this, and it's marvelous.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, made in 2008.
Fishwrap may have erred in not recently mentioning that Frances McDormand is the best actress who ever has acted but one of our Limey/not Limey volunteers just came across this, and it's marvelous.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, made in 2008.
It's all quite Limey, although not totally British. Guinevere Pettigrew (Hollywood cannot do names but London can) is a governess, down on her luck in the days just before World War Twice, and surrounded mostly by the beastly cobbers and pencil-necked women imaginable when suddenly, right at the point where she's so poor she's actually cadging food that she becomes this ... assistant to a dreadful blonde would-be movie star who is Amy Adams, and that's just the start.