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Eminently sensible demands, in my opinion and consequently doomed to be ignored. Poor Thailand. Still, good to see that the young are still struggling for justice.

From Bangkok Post Demonstrators react to tear gas during a clash with police in Bangkok's Din Daeng area on Saturday. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiartpakun) Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon on anti-government protesters on Saturday, the culmination of a running battle in which demonstrators were forced to change their destination three times. Redem demonstrators had arranged originally to meet at Democracy Monument at 2pm on Saturday, with a plan to march to the Grand Palace. Redem (Restart Democracy) has no official leaders but still has guards. Created by the Free Youth group in February, it can consist of different pro-democracy groups that share common goals at any given time. The group on Saturday was looking to push three demands — Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha must unconditionally resign as prime minister, the budgets for the palace and armed forces must be cut and allocated to Covid-19 relief efforts, and the "tycoon" Covid-19 vaccine must be changed to the mRNA type. A few hundred people arrived at Democracy Monument around noon. Police closed the area to traffic at 12.20pm and told them to disperse. In front of the Grand Palace nearby, the usual wall of containers was seen, fortified this time with decommissioned tanker cars obtained from the State Railway of Thailand. At 1pm, police started clearing the area. Rubber bullets were reportedly used and at least two people were arrested. The demonstrators were pushed back to the Phan Fa Bridge. Some threw firecrackers and fired catapults at the police. Free Youth then posted on Facebook that the destination was being changed to Government House. As container walls were also set up there, a loudspeaker truck announced another change of destination to Victory Monument, with a planned march to the 11th Infantry Regiment, where Prime Minister Prayut resides. As the demonstrators arrived at Victory Monument and were heading for Vibhavadi Road, which leads to the army base, police blocked traffic using stacked containers and barbed wire, with crowd control police lining up behind the barriers. Police told them to go back to Victory Monument. As some of the protesters tried to remove the containers, several tear gas canisters were fired at them at Din Daeng intersection at 3.30pm. Police said they would use rubber bullets if the protesters still tried to move forward. At 5.30pm, police pushed them further back to Victory Monument using water cannon. Video taken at the scene also showed tear gas and muzzle flashes — possibly from firing of rubber bullets — being used by officers positioned on the skywalk overlooking the roundabout. Free Youth called off the rally around 5.30 but sporadic clashes were continuing into the evening between small groups of protesters and police. The Victory Monument BTS station was temporarily closed as the police operation continued. Dozens of protesters were seen being carried away on motorcycles and in ambulances. The Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said at least two civilians and three officers had been injured. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2161607/police-crack-down-on-protesters

Thank goodness no one practices M4M sex in Thailand. From The Thaiger Wear a condom… and a face mask. Find a sex position that is not face-to-face. Don’t kiss. Avoid saliva… and other secretions. And make it short. That’s what Thailand’s Department of Health is advising. After a prostitute in Western Thailand contracted Covid-19, the department announced nine safe sex guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. Along with no kissing, no oral sex, and no anal sex, the department says to shower before sex and to use disinfectant to clean the bed or other areas where sex is performed. Positions should maintain a safe distance between faces. (Don’t worry, we have a so-called “Coronasutra” graphic below.) Safe sex guidelines by Thailand’s Department of Health… Wash your hands and shower before and after having sex. Avoid kissing because the Covid-19 virus can be spread through saliva. Refrain from doing oral sex or having anal sex as Covid-19 virus can be contaminated in faeces Use condoms, dental dams, and rubber gloves to reduce contact with saliva or other types of secretions. Wear masks to cover your nose and mouth during sex to prevent the spread of infection through heavy breathing. Favour positions where you are not face-to-face while having sex to avoid contact with saliva or other secretions and spend as little time as possible (Basically, have a quickie.) Avoid group sex or swapping sex partners. Use disinfectants such as 70% alcohol, detergent, bleach to clean the sleeping area or the surface where sex was performed. Condoms, disposable tampons, dental dams, and rubber gloves infected with secretions should be thrown away in a covered bin. https://thethaiger.com/news/national/wear-a-condom-and-a-mask-health-department-advises-covid-safe-sex

Carpe diem.

There is of course the Trumpian approach; if judges provide unwelcome decisions, appoint different ones.

Could you kindly copy and paste for those of us too mean to cough up the subscription! Many thanks. Olympics Perspective Fewer and fewer cities want to host the Olympics. That should tell the IOC something. Listen to article 6 min The flag of Japan flies during the Opening Ceremonies for the Tokyo Olympics. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) By Barry Svrluga Sports columnist Yesterday at 3:57 a.m. EDT 1.5k TOKYO — The Olympics are awesome, and the Olympics are broken. It didn’t take the Tokyo Games — the entirety of which took place while the host city endured a state of emergency — to prove that. Still, watching the International Olympic Committee put the Games on a fork and force-feed them to the resistant toddler that was Japan, well, it drove home the point about who’s actually in power here. Clearly, it’s not the people of the host city or country. It never is. Get the latest news and results from the Tokyo Olympics Of all the developments over the past three weeks — the rising coronavirus cases in Japan, the Games staged in empty arenas, the athletes pouring out their emotions about how difficult it was merely to compete — the one that matters most slipped in before the cauldron was lit. On July 21, the IOC foisted the 2032 Summer Olympics upon Brisbane, Australia — sorry, awarded those Games to that coastal city. That move means the Olympics are still being granted to cities that spend billions of dollars to stage them, then are left with a questionable legacy. Tokyo’s original budget: $7.4 billion. Its actual admitted cost: $15.4 billion. But this is all some manner of financial semantics, numbers that often don’t include pre-Games construction or other major projects. The only thing to know about the true cost is it’s never what the IOC says it is. The Tokyo Olympics: 1964 celebrations and 2021 struggles Whatever the numbers, this isn’t sustainable, nor has it been for decades. The further sham, though, is this: Brisbane wasn’t up against a slew of eager bidders, because a slew of eager bidders doesn’t exist. As Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economist who has written books about the IOC and its bidding process, said: “I think it’s really clear what’s going on. “In my view, what’s happened over the last 20 years or more is they have a dwindling number of cities that enter — and then stay in — the bidding process,” Zimbalist said. “… The demand-and-supply situation has changed.” Which is further indication that the entire Olympics should change. No more of this fleecing of countries and cities to stage a three-week party — and then vanishing. Default Mono Sans Mono Serif Sans Serif Comic Fancy Small Caps Default X-Small Small Medium Large X-Large XX-Large Default Outline Dark Outline Light Outline Dark Bold Outline Light Bold Shadow Dark Shadow Light Shadow Dark Bold Shadow Light Bold Default Black Silver Gray White Maroon Red Purple Fuchsia Green Lime Olive Yellow Navy Blue Teal Aqua OrangeDefault 100% 75% 50% 25% 0% Default Black Silver Gray White Maroon Red Purple Fuchsia Green Lime Olive Yellow Navy Blue Teal Aqua OrangeDefault 100% 75% 50% 25% 0% Top moments from the Tokyo Olympics Washington Post reporters and a photojournalist recall favorite moments from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and what it was like to cover the games during a pandemic. (Allie Caren, Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post) For those keeping score, here are the future Olympics that are scheduled: Beijing in February (really?), Paris in 2024, Milan and Cortina in 2026, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane four years after that. You’ll notice an unprecedented hole, the 2030 Winter Games, still looking for a home. There’s a reason for that. Life after gold: How winning trained these Olympians to face the unexpected The world has caught on to the ruse, and the Olympics need to respond by acknowledging their process is outdated and unnecessary. To land the 2032 Games, Brisbane beat out … whom, exactly? We used to know precisely what cities were in, and there was actual disappointment among those not granted the bid. But for the Beijing Games that sit just six months off, six cities originally expressed interest. Oslo; Stockholm; Krakow, Poland; and Lviv, Ukraine, all withdrew, unable to muster public or political support. That left only Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Beijing as the candidates. The IOC’s response: take the bidding out of the public eye. “This way, they can’t be embarrassed by an inadequacy of bidders,” Zimbalist said by phone late last week. “They can’t be embarrassed by bidders dropping out. They can’t be embarrassed by having no bidders. We don’t know anything about how it happens.” That’s telling and so indicative of the way the IOC operates. Lest you believe that the organization that elaborately and expensively runs the Games should be trusted in either motivations or methods, here’s Thomas Bach, the organization’s president and a former Olympic fencer from Germany, on the lack of fans in the Tokyo stands. “When you were in the competitions, in many cases you did not realize that there were no spectators,” said Bach, an utterance that is demonstrably false. “And maybe in some cases you could even experience the feelings of the athletes closer and better than being surrounded by so many spectators.” Man, those fans. So annoying. Tokyo logs record coronavirus cases, as government struggles to contain spread While the Tokyo Olympics didn’t change what the Games are, they exposed it further. The pandemic led the Japanese government to bar fans in Tokyo and surrounding areas, which would seem to reflect the dire nature of the virus here. Through Sunday, there have been 436 positive tests associated with the Games since July 1. We’ll have to wait until we all return to the 205 countries from where we traveled to learn whether the virus spreads because the Olympics occurred. Whether it does or not, it was a risk the IOC was willing to impose on Japan and the world. Still, for Bach to suggest that the lack of fans was either negligible or could possibly be interpreted as a positive is ludicrous — not to mention disrespectful to the zealots who, in normal times, would travel around the globe and pay money to attend the event on which he builds his enterprise. “I’m not going to lie,” American soccer star Megan Rapinoe said early in the Games. “That part sucks.” And that’s the truth. With no fans, the Olympics were stripped down to what matters to the IOC anyway: television programming for the international networks that bankroll the entire operation. Tokyo wasn’t a cultural backdrop; it was a sound stage. And without that exploration of a nation’s history and people and traditions that could be offered when and if the world gathers together, there’s not much reason to move the Games from one new place to another. “Why rebuild the Olympic Shangri-La every four years in a new city?” Zimbalist said. “It’s not 100 years ago, when you had to move the Games around to expose them to different countries. International telecommunications allow everyone to see them. So let’s have one city be the permanent host and stop pretending the Games are athletic events. They’re construction events.” In shadow of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, the Olympic message of ‘recovery’ rings hollow I have to admit: That solution is practical and logical and responsible. But I don’t love it. Even though a city that’s hosting the Olympics isn’t really a representative version of itself during the Games, exploring different countries and customs is part of the entire affair’s appeal. There is a palpable boost to the athletes of a host nation, and it turns out that’s even true in a pandemic Games with no in-person home support. Japan won 58 medals, including 27 golds, at these Olympics, new highs in both categories. But the Olympics exist on parallel planes. It’s possible to be transported and inspired by the athletes and the competition but struggle to marry that with the largesse and grift that have become the standard to stage the Games. Moving the Olympics from city to city, requiring billions of dollars in cost overruns each time, is an antiquated premise. We can learn about other cultures by examining where the athletes came from and telling their stories. So sayonara, Tokyo. Sorry for imposing. Keep the notes on your experience — and share them with the cities that seek future Games so they can be fairly warned. The Olympics shouldn’t be a road show that lays waste to a town. They should find a home so we can stop wasting money and land and resources and just celebrate the athletes, whom the Games are supposed to be for anyway. Updated August 7, 2021 More about the Tokyo Olympics The Tokyo Olympics run from July 23 to August 8. Find the latest news and updates from the Tokyo Olympics here, and join us as we track the Olympic medal count, sport by sport. Here’s the full schedule and TV guide. On the track, Allyson Felix won a record 11th medal and the U.S. men’s 4x400 team won gold. The U.S. men’s basketball team won a fourth straight gold medal, led by Kevin Durant, with a 87-82 defeat of France in the final of the Olympic tournament. The U.S. women’s team will play Japan for gold on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya and compatriot Brigid Kosgei won the gold and silver in the women’s marathon. American Molly Seidel, running in her third marathon ever, took bronze. The U.S. women’s water polo team won gold again, its third straight, with a dominant 14-5 win over

All went very well at MedPark Hospital on Saturday. A lovely hospital, very efficient and great staff working hard. My four hour round trip from Pattaya using my favourite taxi firm was good. At the hospital it all took one and a half hours, including the half hour observation time after getting vaccinated. I am so grateful to have had the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. I was given an appointment for 30th October to receive the second dose. I shall give it two to three weeks and then decide whether I feel safe enough to finally meet with friends again having kept to myself since the start of April.

sometimes there are flickers of hope even in Thailand

Ezekiel also has a few boats with beds on the lower level. He can take you and a guy or guys of your choice on the boat and you guys can have fun on deck or some private, personal, adult fun below.

Unfortunately Thailand banned airbnb. As far as I know it is still banned. Thailand also banned guesthouses and the like from renting less than 30 days. If you ask me why they did any of this, I know only two likely answers. The first is "I don't know" and it is on my "I Don't Get It list." The second would be somehow somebody's brother-in-law is substantially profiting by this.

Spurred by the hotel promo vdo under Gay Asia, this is an ad prepared by students from one of Bangkok's Universities. The gay overtones are very clear! Not sure who developed this also very gay ad.

If tourism ever opens again we need to sleep in the streets because by then all hotels are broke and closed. Anyone knows some good outdoor spots in Pattaya where I can sleep when I finally can go on vacation again?

No, but I talk to people there....they say the shelves are bare. Worse than during the "special period"..... the restrictions to enter, quarantine and all....doesn't make it sound too inviting. They tell me to not think about going, plus I can't find any flights. If you do go, customs lifted the limits that you can bring as much food items as you want....I'd guess restricted fruits & meats and and whatever would still be restricted.

I know nothing about the case beyond what i read in the media. But should I find it strange that a 27 year old Thai male out to collect wild orchids was aroused by any 57 year old woman? The blurry photo of the arrested man in the Phuket Daily News looks like he is around 164 cms in height and has a full head of fluffy hair. The photo of the man on the motorcycle in the Bangkok Post photo looks taller with hair having receded slightly at the temples. Not that this proves anything. Merely an observation. A South China Morning Post description of the incident states the woman was swimming below the waterfall. It adds she was "partially clothed". Her purse had been robbed of 300 baht which according to the police the suspect used to buy "drugs, drinks and phone repairs." If you have what is clearly quite a large motorbike, after paying for phone repairs, how much would be left over for booze and drugs? Again something seems a bit odd here. Yet one more oddity is that the Ton Ao Yon waterfall is not well known, it's hard to find and very difficult to access. Several websites also state the pathways are confusing and you need good shoes to avoid sharp rocks. https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3144249/thai-police-arrest-suspect-killing-swiss-woman-island

I checked out your Twitter! Didn't realize you had one until now. I see that you also jumped on the Onlyfan's bandwagon. Maybe the proceeds from the channel will not only fund all your travel expenses, not that you will need any of them, but also turn you a handsome profit. I'm curious if any of the black talents will get a share? lol. Maybe we soon will see two stuff the back entry and one fill the front?

They are probably a little short on Cambodian and Burmese workers to blame this one on, and they definitely won't want it to be another tourist who is guilty of this heinous crime. But the "police" force in Thailand are probably short of people to get tea money out of these days so maybe they are bored and might pretend to do some actual investigation. Duh.

Call Ezekiel on whatsapp. He can get you guys in punta cana like manny does in Santo domingo

Even without these requirements I doubt you'll be seeing Thailand any time soon . . .

From CNN Hong Kong (CNN)Countries across Asia are grappling with their worst coronavirus outbreaks of the pandemic, spurred by low vaccine rates and the highly-contagious Delta variant. While nations such as China, Japan and South Korea are seeing growing outbreaks, the sharp edge of the Delta wave is being keenly felt in Southeast Asia, with countries seeing rapid rises in case numbers and deaths. Southeast Asian nations that managed to contain outbreaks last year are now struggling with overwhelmed health services, a lack of hospital beds, equipment, and oxygen. They have also reimposed lockdowns, shuttering factories in crucial manufacturing hubs and restricting the movement of citizens already suffering financially. Frustrations among citizens forced to endure yet more curbs on their freedoms and ability to work are reaching boiling point -- and protests against their governments' handling of the outbreaks have broken out in Malaysia and Thailand. Meanwhile, Myanmar is on the verge of collapse as a February military coup and ensuing bloody crackdown has shattered the health system and vaccinations have completely stalled. While wealthier countries, like the United Kingdom and Singapore, are seeing renewed outbreaks, they have fully vaccinated more than half of their populations. Comparatively, Vietnam has fully vaccinated less than 1% of its population, Thailand around 5%, the Philippines 7.2%, and virus epicenter Indonesia 7.6%, according to Our World in Data. More than a year and a half into the pandemic, the more contagious Delta variant is exposing the weaknesses of nations with low vaccine rates, even if they previously had control of the virus. Vietnam Perhaps nowhere in Southeast Asia is that flip more evident than in Vietnam. Last year, the country was held up as a leading example in containing the virus thanks to an aggressive strategy of early screening of passengers at airports and a strict quarantine and monitoring program. For the past year and a half, residents have been able to live a relatively normal life and the economy actually grew by 2.9% in 2020, according to the World Bank. But since late April, Vietnam has reported a sharp increase in Covid-19 infections. On Wednesday, Vietnam reported 7,623 new cases, down from 8,620 on Sunday with most new infections in Ho Chi Minh City, the Health Ministry said. In total, Vietnam has confirmed 177,813 cases, more than 85% of those were reported in the past month alone, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Of Vietnam's 2,327 deaths, about half were reported in the past month. The government has imposed strict lockdowns in the capital, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City to try to curb further spread and Covid treatment centers have been set up to accommodate more patients. But the outbreak has put pressure on the government to increase its vaccine supply and ramp up inoculations. So far, only 0.6% of Vietnam's 96 million population has been fully vaccinated, according to JHU. Indonesia The world's fourth most populous nation, Indonesia, recently overtook India as Asia's Covid epicenter, and the outbreak has been devastating with a high of more than 50,000 cases a day. Of its 354 million reported cases since the pandemic began, 1.2 million were recorded in the past month, according to JHU. On Wednesday, Indonesia surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths, becoming only the second country in Asia to do so. On Wednesday, 1,747 fatalities were reported by the Health Ministry and 35,867 cases. If the spread continues unabated, experts say it could push Indonesia's health care system to the brink of disaster. Some fear the situation may be worse than the numbers show, because not enough people are getting tested for the virus. One local survey found that nearly half of the 10.6 million residents of the capital, Jakarta, may have contracted Covid-19. The country is suffering a health crisis, with hospitals stretched to their limits, full cemeteries expanded to hold the Covid dead, and exhausted health care workers. Experts say Indonesia is now reaping the costs of not implementing strict lockdowns nor investing enough in efficient contact-tracing systems. On Monday, the government announced an extension of the highest Level 4 restrictions in several cities and areas, including the capital, and the islands of Java and Bali for another week. Meanwhile the country's health minister said the devastating wave had peaked in some areas, and authorities were aiming to start gradually reopening its economy in September, according to Reuters. Malaysia Despite a national lockdown, Malaysia has also seen an exponential rise in cases and deaths, with the outbreak forcing a month-long suspension of Parliament. Anger among the people is mounting. Hundreds broke coronavirus restrictions to protest in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, over the weekend against the government's handling of the outbreak and called on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resign. Following the suspension of a special sitting of the legislature on Monday due to Covid, opposition lawmakers marched toward the Parliament building also demanding Muhyiddin's resignation. Frustration over the mounting deaths, vaccine rates and economic pain is exacerbated by Malaysia's current political crisis, in which Muhyiddin's government appears on the verge of collapse after taking control of the ruling coalition following elections last year. Last week, thousands of overworked Malaysian doctors went on strike over conditions in hospitals, saying they have been pushed to the brink, as beds and ventilators run low. The protest came as total Covid cases in Malaysia surpassed 1 million with the country reporting its highest number of daily infections. On Wednesday, Malaysia reported a new record number of cases, with 19,819 new infections, according to the Health Ministry, up from about 7,000 a month ago. Covid deaths are also at record levels, with 257 reported on Wednesday. Thailand Although it was the first country to report a Covid-19 case outside of China in January last year, Thailand kept its infection numbers low in 2020 thanks to successful containment measures. This year, however, it is facing a much bigger challenge. After containing a second wave that started last December, Thailand is struggling to curb a third wave of infections that has pushed daily caseloads and death tolls to unprecedented levels. On Wednesday, Thailand reported a record high in daily confirmed cases, with 20,920 infections -- the second day of reporting over 20,000 cases, according to the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). Thailand also recorded 160 deaths, bringing the total death toll to 5,663. Hospitals in the capital, Bangkok, have become overwhelmed by the surge in cases and demand for beds has greatly outstripped capacity. Authorities are racing to lessen the burden on the health care system. Bangkok is dispatching more than 400 doctors and nurses from provincial areas to the city's slums and densely populated areas to test and isolate 250,000 residents, said Dr. Supat Hasuwannakit, president of the Rural Doctor Society. "We may be unable to reduce the rate of infection just yet, but we hope to ease the bed situation in Bangkok and slow down the death rate," Supat said. On Tuesday, Thailand extended its national lockdown until the end of the month to slow the rising cases. Now, 29 provinces have been placed under the strictest protocol, meaning 40% of the country's population will be under lockdown, according to CNN's calculation of data from the CCSA. Myanmar On Thailand's border, Myanmar is collapsing under the double crisis of pandemic and military coup. There is a desperate oxygen shortage in the country, with families of the seriously ill queuing for oxygen or frantically searching online for Covid treatments. Residents are choosing to self-treat at home, doctors say. If they do go to hospital they are often turned away as the facilities are running out of oxygen, treatments and beds, and there's not enough staff to care for patients, they said. The United Nations estimates only 40% of the country's health care facilities are still able to function. Reported daily cases in Myanmar have risen from about 100 in early June to about 5,000 a day, with the total confirmed infections at 315,118, according to the World Health Organization. Myanmar has also reported 10,373 deaths. Continues with graphs and photos https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/04/asia/southeast-asia-delta-covid-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html

He thinks he ate chicken, but it was beef.