The debate to overthrow Thailand's dictator
script.py
1 print("Good morning from sunny Thailand, where it is Tuesday, the last day of May.")
Tuesday's column by veteran journalist Kavi Chongkittavorn is a call for better Thailand-U.S.A. relations.
Their relationship has gone through ups and downs since the end of the Cold War.
In Southeast Asia and within ASEAN, Singapore and Vietnam have consistently been the strategic focus of the United States, because of their stronger support of Washington's stance on the region's flashpoint issues.
PHOTO: March 2018: The U.S. Air Force Band performs at the fabulous IconSiam mall on the Chao Phraya River, to mark the 200th anniversary of US-Thai friendship.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2318514/
Holodomor II
Stalin is dead, but Stalinism is not, and it's starting to look a lot like 1933.
Peter Apps (of Reuters) writes that a 'Grain Battle could define Ukraine war'.
Late last month, trucks with number plates from Russian-occupied Crimea descended on the southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, emblazoned with the letter “Z” carried grain seized by Russian forces from silos around the town.
Exactly where it was then taken is unclear. It is clear that the hijacker was the Russian army.
But wait! The inestimable Victor Davis Hanson has a question:
What now, Ukraine?
https://bityl.co/CRgO
POSSIBLY ACCURATE
Political coup-loyalist Varawut, son of Thailand's shortest-ever prime minister Banharn, currently serves Prayut and the ruling junta as 'minister of natural resources and environment'.
THAILAND ECONOMY POLITICS
Thailand's parliament has begun a debate over Prayut's proposed record 3 trillion-with-a-"T" baht budget for FY 2023, which begins on October 1.
[3 trillion Thai baht is $US88 billion, or 111,4 billion loonies.]
The budget debate also reveals a campaign to get rid of Prayut.
It is a non-confidence debate which could conceivably unseat the alleged 'prime minister' Prayut. The result will depend on several "minnow political parties" who might vote for Prayut - or against him.
https://www.thaienquirer.com/40513/opposition-opposes-military-spending-in-newest-draft-budget/
Everybody Get Back! He's Got that Monkeypox!
The Thai junta's top 'medical experts' are pretty sure that a man who transited Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport for two hours on his way from Europe to Australia has that pox.
And they have spread out all over Thailand to find the 12 (exactly) crew members and passengers he came in contact with. They have the CCTV recordings.
[Although tbh there is no evidence that he had anal sex with any of them during his two-hour stopover.]
Full story: https://bityl.co/CRol
https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailand-reports-first-case-of-monkeypox-in-transit-passenger-to-australia/
MEDICAL FOLLOW-UP
Five semi-panicky tourists in Phuket - three of them brothers from Ireland - thought they had monkeypox because they had some blisters.
It turned out they had herpes.
ELECTION BANGKOK ROYALTY
All Thai media (including the Fishwrap) reported last week that Chadchart Sittipunt won the election for governor of Bangkok.
The country's Number One Top Champion Conspiracy Theorist and self-described hard-core royalist says, "Whoa, hold on!"
Srisuwan "Complainer In Chief" Janya, who pretends to be chief of his one-member Association for the Protection of the Thai Constitution, claimsd Chadchart broke the law (Section 112) against defaming the king and royal family, and the cops have to pretend to take him seriously. And the election result won't be finalised for now.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2318202/
War on Free Speech
It's pertinent to recall that the U.S. State Department and its chief Tony Blinken insist, forcefully that Thailand is a democracy.
The demonstration was peaceful if occasionally raucous, and ended without incident.
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/2022/01/09/opinion-draft-ngos-bill-is-like-a-python-constricting-civil-society/
According to a press release by the occasionally accurate United Nations, the "War on Drugs" seized one billion-with-a-"B" methamphetamine tablets in 2021.
The vast bulk of meth and ice production is in the Golden Triangle, and the bulk of those seizures was in Thailand by anti-drug warriors.
"The scale and reach of the methamphetamine and synthetic drug trade in East and Southeast Asia is staggering," wrote Jeremy Douglas of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the press release.
"Organised crime have [sic] all the ingredients in place that they need to continue to grow the business."
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2318214/
GLOBAL WARMING
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past.
Mona Lisa is attacked with custard pie by man disguised as elderly woman in a wheelchair screaming 'think of the planet!' ... before he’s dragged away by security.
The man, who wore a dark black wig and lipstick, turned out to be an artist and "climate change activist" who said he pied the prized painting in protest.
"Think about the Earth. People are in the process of destroying the Earth!" he declared as he was led away by security guards. "Artists think about the Earth, that's why I did this. Think of the planet!"
Directly Related
It seems Global Warming Champ Al Gore heads a $36 billion investment fund closely involved in China's slavery and oppression in Xinjiang province.
https://www.generationim.com/media/fyrlywmr/generation-im-global-equity-q1-2022-investor-letter.pdf
If German and Portuguese prosecutors are so damned certain that the German serial rapist Christian Brueckner kidnapped and killed British toddler Maddie McCann, why haven't they charged him?
Just askin'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10781839/We-SURE-Christian-Brueckner-murderer-Madeleine-McCann-says-German-prosecutor.html
Creating the ideal city
Newly elected Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt is asserting his readiness to work with every stakeholder to fulfil his campaign promises and make the capital more hospitable for everyone.
Click on graphic to expand.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/2317870/creating-the-ideal-city
Ouch! Prices are Thai baht/litre. And that's a record.
No way around it
Even the leading promoter of growing weed says Thais and tourists alike will be arrested if they even try to smoke marijuana recreationally.
Cannabis is now legal in Thailand - in some forms, under defined circumstances. But not recreational smoking.
Junta loyalist and 'public health minister' Anutin Charnvirakul said any ganja with more than 0.2% of THC - most Thai weed - is an illegal drug.
https://bityl.co/CQpu
And if you smoke-and-drive - it's already in the law, Driving Under the Influence, and off to the Crossbar Hotel.
https://siamrath.co.th/n/352336
This is (really!) extremely worrying to some:
Buddhism's future called into question
'Many of the new generation do not believe in Buddhism because of some monks' inappropriate conduct."
https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/social-and-lifestyle/2318090/
The joy of being wrinkly. Or: Every cloud has a silver lining.
The junta wants to promote long-stay visits and retirement living to the over 60 crowd
As vaccination coverage ramps up and many countries move towards an endemic classification for the virus, seniors can hit the road again or relocate to preferred retirement destinations.
PHOTO: A senior guest at Care Resort Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2318034/
If you haven't read Roger Crutchley's latest...
It is what it is … whatever it might be
One expression that can be useful is "but, having said that…" after which you proceed to contradict everything you have previously said. It's a handy way of sitting on the fence and is particularly helpful when making a hasty U-turn in a committee meeting.
The "it is what it is" type of idiom even has its own name, tautophrase, meaning a phrase which deliberately repeats certain words to emphasise an idea. This term was first used in 2006 by New York Times columnist William Safire.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2317574/
TECHNOLOGY
This year's iPhone will stick to TSMC's 5nm, and not jump to 4nm or 3nm. (9to5Mac)
4nm chips are in early production now, but apparently not in the volumes Apple requires. 3nm won't ship until late next year. And 5nm is pretty damn good already.
But this means the iPhone... The 2022 iPhone probably won't be a significant advance over the 2021 model.
https://9to5mac.com/2022/05/29/a16-chip-5nm-iphone-kuo/
Sometimes, Hollywood does really good things.
Pro-American 'Top Gun' Sequel Riles Chinese Communists.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2022/05/29/pro-american-top-gun-sequel-riles-chinese-communists-n1601801
