The motto of Taiwan, effective immediately: Prepare for war, but do not seek it
Go-o-o-o-o-d morning children. We are up to Saturday, August 6, the 125th Saturday of masking up.
Sattahip pub - the day after
https://www.khaosod.co.th/breaking-news/news_7198213
The Thailand junta's token 'prime minister' Prayut is sad and mad.
Prayut wants swift pub fire action
Orders a second investigation
Just spitballin' here, but the general prediction and belief is that the more investigations, the slower a meaningful reaction.
Prayut has ordered another investigation into the Chon Buri pub fire that killed 14 people and injured 36 others after an initial probe found the establishment had been illegally altered and operated.
The inferno started at about 1 a.m. yesterday (Friday) at the customer-packed Mountain B pub.
Prayut yesterday expressed sympathy for the victims of the Mountain B pub fire. He said he has instructed authorities to inspect the damage and take care of the injured and the relatives of the dead.
"Authorities have been ordered to find the cause of the incident and bring the culprit in for punishment," he said.
Prayut's extremely close BFF and 'minister of interior' Anupong Paojinda said the initial probe had already found Mountain B did not have a pub licence and it was built in an area where entertainment venues were prohibited."
Also the fire exit was boarded up.
"Officials are checking the details of the building, including design, construction materials used, control systems and fire exits," he said. "I told them to find the cause of the fire and [identify] the people responsible for it."
Thai media including morning newspapers were packed with editorials urging 'authorities to Do Something'.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2362209/
Fourth monkeypox case found in Bangkok
Thailand's fourth case of monkeypox has been confirmed in Bangkok on Friday. The patient is a woman with a record of visiting entertainment venues popular with foreign tourists.
This time the junta's loyalist 'minister of public health' did not say, "I told you so. Filthy fuc*ing farangs."
The motto of Taiwan, effective yesterday:
Prepare for war, but do not seek it
10 Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships crossed the median line and hung around
"About" 20 PLA Air Force military aircraft "briefly crossed" the median line.
The line, aka the Davis Line is a Beijing-Taipei agreement of 2020, roughly defining Taiwan's territory, including a median line in the Taiwan Strait and an ADIZ aka Air defense identification zone of a country.
Chinese incursions across the Davis Line are rare.
This is one of several graphics posted to social media on Friday by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defence, aka MND.
'Year 111' is marked from 1912, or 'Year 1' of the Republic of China.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4617259
Reuters: https://bityl.co/DfwS
Map shows China's 'live-fire drills' and missiles which effectively blockaded Taiwan on Friday.
Click to embiggen.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4617119
China's Twitter copycat Weibo carried short videos by Chinese citizens of the PLA missiles.
TAIWAN CHINA PELOSI
Thai columnist and Chulalongkorn University professor just blasts it out:
United States shoots itself in foot over Taiwan
The Oped says
Even pro-democracy critics of China's authoritarian ways would have to call United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan an undue provocation that ended up as a lose-lose outcome for all concerned, including the 82-year-old congresswoman.
Everything about it was misguided and self-indulgent, designed for domestic consumption in the US rather than regional peace and security in Asia.
The US, by way of Ms Pelosi, has unnecessarily shot itself in the foot big time, leaving regional states and societies to deal with the consequences.
PHOTO: Holidaying Chinese look on as a Chinese military helicopter flies past Pingtan island, China's closest point from Taiwan.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2362037/
The New York Times' Bret Stephens disagrees completely.
Last thing we need is Pelosi backing down
Bullies often seek tests of strengths to probe for signs of weakness. And they always read efforts at conciliation as evidence of capitulation.
That's what's happening now. "To win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the acme of skill," Sun Tzu wrote. "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."
...What should the US do then? Don't back down.
1. Congressional delegations ought to arrive in Taiwan every week for the next year.
2. Biden should formally state what he has said repeatedly off the cuff: that the US will intervene militarily if China seeks to invade Taiwan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/opinion/pelosi-taiwan-china.html
NOT PAYWALLED:
https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/opinion/freepress-commentary/story/2022/aug/03/opinion-last-thing-we-needed-wpelosi-backing/573947/
Oddly, after that, Stephens sees the light and adds:
China will accept that the ultimate costs of confrontation vastly outweigh the benefits.
Which is an understatement. The "costs" of a Taiwan invasion are absolutely beside the point for the Chinese Communist Party and, indeed, for President-4-Life XiJinping.
THAILAND CHINA WAR GAMES
After a three-year Time-Out for Wuflu, the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) and the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) will hold a new, 10-day 'Operation Falcon Strike', beginning next week at Udon Thani aka Udorn air base.
Falcon Strike 2022 will stretch from August 10-24.
China has confirmed it won't be bringing down any SU-27s. In return, Thailand has agreed not to fly F-16s - only Gripens and Alphajets.
ASIAN AMERICAN NEWS
California man who gets off on beating up Asians made a bad error when he picked a little Filipino to assault
https://nextshark.com/omari-garland-fight/
Sci-Fi takes the cake
The largest grossing film in the world last week was the Chinese flick 'Moon Man,' a bit like Hollywood's 'The Martian. It raked in US$129 million, got great reviews, PLUS - 1.4 million Chinese clicked "Want to See".
Movie director Ron Howard's 'Thirteen Lives' movie is a painfully exact re-creation of the resecue of the 12 boys and their soccer coach from the Chiang Rai cave.
What Inflation Causes
In China, it causes the badly broke KFC to put chicken feet on the menu.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/01/business/yum-china-q2-earnings-intl-hnk/index.html
How America earns the world's respect.
U.S. Navy transgender four-star Admiral Rachel Levine and the Biden administration's Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Sam Brinto pose for photos by their many hi-so admirers at the French Embassy in Washington on Bastille Day.