WWSD: What Will Suni Do?
Hello class, I'm so pleased to tell you all that the past week went by so darned fast. And it's already Friday, May 6.
An entire state of the U.S.A. holds its breath, waiting for one, clear "Yes" or "No".
Sunisa "Suni" Lee will likely decide today whether to return for a second year at Auburn University.
Auburn head gymnastics coach Jef Graba told the press that he and Suni met and talked this week. The coach is really optimistic:
"She’s planning on training for 2024. At this point, Auburn has been so good for her. Auburn has supported her in her quest for the (2024) Olympics."
A well-done story, worth a full read, at
https://www.al.com/auburn/2022/05/auburn-expects-suni-lee-to-decide-on-her-return-this-week.html
BONUS VID: Sunisa's first gymnastics meet at Auburn Arena. And the crowd goes wild!
Prize for the Least Surprising Story of the Day
Myanmar Supreme Court 'summarily dismisses' Suu Kyi appeal
The Supreme Court in military-ruled Myanmar on Wednesday struck down an appeal from deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi against a five-year jail sentence she was handed last week on corruption charges.
The Tatmadaw has filed an additional 10 such cases against Suu Kyi, with the aim of keeping her locked up for the rest of her life (she is 76 years old.)
https://bityl.co/C5Eu
Go back where you came from
New video reveals Thai military destroying a cross border footbridge used by Myanmar refugees
Bottom line: Not a single word from Thailand's ruling military dictatorship.
Unfortunate truth: We have seen this movie before. The ending is always horribly depressing.
Unpleasant 69-second video:
THAILAND CORONAVIRUS POLITICS TOURISM
Thailand's junta says it may 'ease' the visa/quarantine system Thai Pass, (nee Thailand Pass)
And for Thai citizens, rubbish and bury it
This is not a solution that will please anyone
The fabulously wealthy junta loyalist Anutin Charnvirakul, appointed as 'minister of public health' said he will ask the junta appointed Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to consider cancelling the requirement to get a Thai Pass.
BUT not just yet, maybe later when the pandemic starts to flatten the curve and the military regime decides to call Covid-19 "endemic" and not "pandemic".
The parallel visa/quarantine system known as Test & Go was abolished last Sunday.
Anutin Charnvirakul said he wants Prayut and the junta to end Thailand Pass registration - first for Thai citizen returnees, then for foreign visitors.
Foreign residents and many Thais believe Thailand Pass is maintained because it benefits insurance companies. All visitors must prove they have $10,000 health policies that specifically cover Covid-19 coverage.
There is no existing proof of such a conspiracy. Yet.
Full Story: https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-936672
According to the CSSA's comely spokeslady Dr Sumanee Wacharasint, so far this week
213,958 travellers have applied for a Thai Pass, and
202,878 were already approved
because the junta has made the whole folderol easier, and simpler to follow.
PHOTO: Thailand's junta 'asked' all media to point out what potential visitors are missing: a guided tour of Bangkok's Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram, or Wat Pho.
Junta representatives 'asked' Thai photographers not to approach those on the temple visit.
The photogs said it was possible that some were foreign tourists, and not Thai shills standing in.
The paperwork won't stop
At some secret date in the future, Thailand's ruling junta will issue an edict that will officially change the Covid-19 pandemic to "endemic".
And when that happens, Yet Another Visa/Quarantine system is already under construction as a replacement for Thai Pass.
Talkative sources inside the military regime say they have a name for it:
Endemic Sandbox
It will cover all areas of Thailand that are currently covered by Thai Pass, including Bangkok. It may allow some tourists in some areas of Bangkok to remove their masks during, say, a walk in the park, literally.
As of today, unmasked people are subject to seizure and on-the-spot fines up to 20,000 baht.
THAILAND POLITICS ELECTIONS
Suthep to take aim at Pheu Thai
The man who organised the horrible whistle-blowing Bangkok Shutdown campaign to help the army to overthrow Thailand's last elected government is back. And an invented word.
With a passion and a mision.
Suthep Thaugsuban announced (via his Facebook page) that he will fight against "Thaksinocracy" after Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a daughter of fugitive ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said the Pheu Thai Party with which she is affiliated would win the new election by a landslide.
Suthep, 72, led the 2013-14 Bangkokcentric campaign that set up the army's coup d'etat and the ouster of elected prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
He never got thanked by Prayut or any other green-clad for all his work with his People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) protests. When he proclaimed that the PDRC had motivated Prayut and others to launch the coup, Prayut immediately shut him up, and shut him out.
But just like Arnold Schwarzenegger, "I'll be back." And now he is.
See Enen makes another attempt to perform journalism, and almost gets it right.
Computer hackers, paid by and loyal to the Communist Party of China, have tried to steal sensitive data from some three dozen manufacturing and technology firms in the U.S.A., Europe and Asia.
Security researchers have released findings that shed new light on Beijing's alleged use of hacking to buttress its powerhouse economy.
"It's clearly industrial espionage, IP [intellectual property] theft at the highest level," said Assaf Dahan, lead researcher at Cybereason.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, claimed that China "will never encourage, support or condone cyber attacks." Even though China has done all three of those on numerous occasions.
Xi NN calls the Chinese hacing "economic espionage," which is on of the polite ways to put it.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/04/politics/china-hackers-economic-espionage-manufacturing/index.html
https://www.cybereason.com/blog/operation-cuckoobees-cybereason-uncovers-massive-chinese-intellectual-property-theft-operation
Thai cartoonist gets it right.
To paraphrase the joyless, Maoist, Red-Guard broadcasters of Radio Peking in the 1960s and 1970s:
China has picked up a rock, only to drop it on its own feet.
CHINA HONG KONG
You say you want to see some resistance? THIS is resistance. Hong Kong isn't dead, yet.
Hong Kong protesters knock down facial recognition tower.
Protesters in Hong Kong destroyed a 'smart' lamppost (last) Saturday over fears that the device is equipped with facial recognition software and was being used for surveillance.
Communist Party lackeys say the devices on the destroyed tower were only to collect data on air quality, weather and traffic. Because, really, caught in the act, what else could they say?
PHOTO: Lots of umbrellas were present, too.
FULL (26 second) VIDEO:
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/hong-kong-protesters-facial-recognition-tower/
We still don't know what's behind the global hepatitis outbreak in kids.
Where "we" includes 100% of scientists and the entire 'medical community', even including the horrible China-owned World Health Organization.
Is anyone, anywhere looking into all the possible causes? It seems not.
https://www.popsci.com/science/hepatitis-outbreak-children-adenovirus/
U.S.A. WOMYN
Liberal American Women Threaten A Sex Strike to Save Roe.
Their terms are acceptable.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/05/05/liberal-women-threaten-sex-strikes-to-save-roe-to-no-ones-dismay-n1595413
NOTE
Can't stop the talk...
Common news these days is that we must "learn to live with Covid" because, mostly, its like influenza.
Well, okay then...
The common flu created "a truly horrible ongoing upper respiratory infection" that has forced Brit Hannah Waddington to quit her starring role as Rebecca in the insanely popular TV series 'Ted Lasso.'
PHOTO: Waddington (L) with American actor Jason Sudeikis, who plays Ted Lasso.
https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/health-and-fitness/20220503139302/ted-lasso-star-hannah-waddingham-illness/
Also, can't stop the virus.
In 24 hours on Wednesday, the Covid-19 virus caused
9,790 new cases of Covid-19, confirmed
52 deaths
Junta loyalists were near-giddy with joy, pointing out that the new infections were "fewer than 10,000 for the fourth day in a row" and "the death toll was the lowest since the beginning of March."
Typical good news-bad news report. Again.
PHOTO: Covid-19 vaccination booster shots were given to students at the Sea Complex Bangpoo Convention Center in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok.
Very class-y
If you had children in Thai schools, did you know that a virtual army of civil servants-cum-medics was checking your rug rat for Covid-19 every week?
What are those people going to do for income now?
As of next week, they're fired.
China holds firm to its punishing 'Zero Covid' dream
Even former Lockdown King Fauci says China is on the wrong path
China is slowly beefing up restrictions in Beijing and continuing a punishing lockdown in Shanghai. The multi-lockdowns are pummeling the country's economy.
(Welcome to the Real World, pal.)
On Wednesday 'Don Tony' Fauci said the Covid-19 situation and the Chinese Communist Party's response amount to a disaster.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-05/china-s-covid-battle-intractable-as-fauci-criticizes-approach
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/04/anthony-fauci-pandemic-china-lockdowns/
Let the bewilderment begin
United States Food and Drug Administration: Stop peddling your silly story about how Paxlovid can help patients with a second bout against Covid-19.
Scientists of Pfizer Inc.: Take a second course of Paxlovid tablets and beat your Covid-19 virus infection.
Which is which and correct?
Repeat: ALL these guys and gals are scientists.
https://bityl.co/C5HZ
U.S.A. CANADA
The Stanley Cup playoffs mean real hockey has really returned
That's what I'm talking about:
Fight Night at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. With exciting 1-0 hockey game thrown in.
Flames-Stars first period ends in absolute chaos with fights, ejections
https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/2351922
https://nypost.com/2022/05/04/nhl-playoffs-2022-flames-stars-first-period-ends-in-absolute-chaos/
Pretty good video, courtesy Canada's Sportsnet
CRIME DRUGS TRAFFICKING
This is part of the drug smuggling trail that starts in the Golden Triangle and ends up in Australia - unless there's an interception.
Which there was.
Lao fishermen caught delivering drugs on river bank
NAKHON PHANOM:
Two Lao men were caught unloading packages containing almost 100,000 methamphetamine pills from a long-tailed boat onto the Mekong River bank in Ban Phaeng district on Wednesday night.
The main economics writer for the Bangkok Post is now arguing:
Thai interest rate policy needs changing
Chartchai Parasuk, who is an actual economist, tells us:
The Thai Monetary Policy Committee shared a similar view as the Bank of Japan by maintaining local interest rates to support economic growth. The price that the Thai economy has already paid is a 3.0% depreciation of the baht and a US$8.72 billion (299.2 billion baht) loss of foreign exchange reserves (also called international reserves).
If the Bank of Thailand did not intervene in the market by selling dollars from its reserves, the baht might have depreciated no less than the Japanese yen has.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2304870/
Rouble up, but the baht is down.
Here's what it means - and it means a lot.
The Bank of Thailand will intervene to stabilize the baht if it experiences significant volatility or movements that contradict Thai economic fundamentals.
Such intervention would aim to ensure smooth business operations, as well as help to facilitate the nation’s economic recovery.
https://www.pattayamail.com/thailandnews/thai-baht-depreciation-could-have-widespread-implications-397397
RUSSIA UKRAINE HOLODOMOR DIPLOMACY STATESMANSHIP
Yeah, sure. If you can't trust Noam Chomsky, who can you trust?
VIDEO at
Full Video:
NOTE
It's good to see Chomsky looking so decrepit, even if the single line he has peddled for 70 years never has changed.
FREE TIPS HERE
You probably think that you've seen a scary movie, a horror movie, but nah.
You've never seen a horror movie until you've seen a Thai horror movie.
Here is a small preview. (And in English.)
My all-time favourite, to this day, is Shutter, starring Thai-Lao-Australian Ananda Everingham, son of John, well-known Aussie photog.
Hollywood made a version of Shutter that is about as well-made and scary as an ice-cream cone. Total failure. The real (and original) Shutter made in Thailand is a winner.
Here's a guy who put together a small montage of 11 of the scariest Thai movies.
Good for a weekend read and mull:
A pet peeve: The rapidly growing aggression of U.S. prosecutors. Especially federal prosecutors.
THE DOBBS LEAKER: If you are a prosecutor or former prosecutor every wrong looks like a federal criminal offense.
Without going into a 6,000—word tirade/essay, the race to prosecute and hang Julian Assange is a great example. How is/are his Wikileaks escapade different from the hysteria in the U.S. media over this weeks Supreme Court leak or from well-known cases such as the Pentagon Papers.
https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/05/if-you-are-prosecutor-or-former.html
Quack-Quack. Also worth a read and a thought:
A 'factory reset' for the brain could cure anxiety, drinking behavior.
Comment: Well, when I emerged from just such a proposed factory three years ago, I couldn't walk, couln't hear and I couldn't smell or enjoy eating.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-factory-reset-brain-anxiety-behavior.html
Proposed (short) weekend read:
Could Ukraine Actually Win This War?
Lots of links and thoughtfulness. It's not a long piece, but it's well put together and helpfully edited.
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/05/05/could-ukraine-actually-win-this-war-n1595419
Comment: Whoa, dial it back a bit, pal. You're getting into "sort of like Vietnam" territory. Define "win".
uke06.jpg
The Department of Dumbass Boss, Smart Employee reports:
https://www.dailydot.com/irl/diabetic-worker-manager-cops-insulin-syringe/
