THAILAND/POLITICS : Essential reading for those following the endless cycle of political instability in Thailand, a country almost engineered for periodic political self-destruction.

THAILAND : "With those conditions set, wh/ already left the military with great influence over civilian politicians, in recent months the army has sent fairly clear signals that, after years of reformist parties trying to restrain it, it wants to be back in full power." www.cfr.org/article/coup...

THAILAND/CORRUPTION : This piece (below) from the Substack by @mattyglesias.bsky.social entitled "The stationary bandits of New York City" got me thinking as I continue my research into institutionalized corruption in Thailand. It explores the concept of government as... 1/

2/2 1 new prize is for "The Voices of Women, Workers, and the Forgottten" & his post ends: "Let us remember: democracy does not only live in parliaments, but in memory, ideas, & the courage to speak." (Netiwit figures centrally in the book I talk about here www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic... )

THAILAND : Greetings from BKK. Pl note below. How shall I advise my Thai colleagues ? Pls share if poss. @emptywheel.bsky.social @nuclearanthro.bsky.social

The number of American MAGA supporters I encounter in Thailand is genuinely shocking incl their weird sympathies for RU. Anyway…see below. 👇🏻

Excellent ! 😆👇🏻

And, this is a dumb example of Trump trying to leave his mark on us, but it's the part that stands for the whole. Every day, he wants to win the day and make us think he's a hero who can never be forgotten: jennifermercieca.substack.com/p/trump-is-o...

THAILAND : This reporter’s understatement of the week : “It is hard to read whether the minister’s optimism is warranted.” It’s not. It’s the time-honored tradition of Thai public officials floating wildly over optimistic forecasts.

THAILAND/LESE MAJESTE : Songchai Niamhom is a prominent ultra-royalist in Thailand, self-proclaimed leader of the King Protection Group, a small but active vigilante organization in the southern provinces. 1/2

Moments like this are when you should be educating yourself, so I've put together this playlist of podcasts about the various philosophical ideas that I've based my work defining Verification, Deliberation and Accountability as pillars of healthy democracies around open.spotify.com/playlist/3NJ...

LA PROTESTS : A video 🧵. To be honest, the cops here are not nearly as brutal as their Parisian gendarmes counterparts but this is shocking all the same. 😳👇🏻

If you're in DC and interested in Asia, it's a rich week for speakers. Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social talks about his new book on dissenters in Hong Kong, Burma and Thailand, "Milk Tea Alliance," at the National Press Club on 6/12, Thursday, at 6 pm. Info: www.press.org/events/npc-h...

In case anyone's interested in Buddhism and how young people engage with organized religion in Thailand!

It's important to remember that these are not typically "rubber bullets"--they are "rubber-coated metal rounds."

We all know AI models can now create realistic images and videos but how do they fare at identifying where a real image was taken? Bellingcat researchers have put Large Language Models to the test: www.bellingcat.com/resources/ho...

😆👇🏻 The “Jesus Conspiracy” !

😆👇🏻

THAILAND/AUTHORITARIANISM : From the piece 👇🏻: “This case demonstrates how Article 112 has transformed from a law intended to protect the monarchy into a tool of political repression. Its vague language allows authorities to reinterpret academic discourse as a threat to national security.”1/2

The lesson people infuriatingly never seem to master is that there is no creating a police state just for other people. If you create a police state with no due process for immigrants or accused criminals, then that's the system you've created for yourself.

That would be awful. Don’t share this.

This 👇🏻.

👇🏻 This. Don’t fall for Musk’s PR play.

Incredible work from everyone involved here

Identifying birds that are visible in photos or audible in audio or video recordings can sometimes provide important clues when doing geolocations. Learn more about the bird identification tool Merlin in @bellingcat.com's Open Source Investigation Toolkit: bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit/more...

BANGKOK/EMBASSY OF NETHERLANDS : This is terrible news ! Reporting states that the historic Dutch embassy on soi Ton Son is to be sold. 😳😢 www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/92279...

THAILAND/“COUNTERING WRONGFUL DETENTION ACT” : “As Americans continue to be wrongfully detained abroad by state actors, it is evident that additional measures are needed to deter this practice.” Free Dr. Paul Chambers ! Please share. 🙏 stevens.house.gov/media/press-...

VIETNAM : Vive la France ! 👇🏻

ASEAN : “If Southeast Asian leaders no longer want to be stuck in the role of strategic spectators as geopolitical tensions rise, they need to seriously consider ways in which ASEAN could be made capable of handling a regional contingency that may come sooner rather than later.”

A police helicopter crashed in Hua Hin, killing three police officers. One officer is believed to have escaped using a parachute. This is the second fatal police helicopter crash in Hua Hin in less than a month.

Unbelievable ! 😳👇🏻

THAILAND : Post your Thai dog. Here’s “Nala”…in repose.

I think I just saw WIlford Brimley return as a cat.

Pretty sure I saw this batch of Starlink satellites as a line of bright spots moving across the sky a few minutes ago. I counted about 22. www.space.com/spacex-starl... in keeping with Starlink sats being most visible shortly after deployment. That or it was aliens (I hope it was aliens)

THAILAND : “The philosophical underpinnings of Thailand's monarchial symbolism rest on a carefully cultivated conflation between criticism and treason. Section 112 transforms critical analysis into an act of violence against the state itself, creating…. 1/2

A Brief History of the DEFCON System Created during the Cold War as a system of progressive levels of defense readiness for a potential nuclear attack, the DEFCON system is a ranking of the perceived nuclear threat level facing the US national security. Story: theaviationist.com/2025/05/17/h...

This is bad news; in fact, very bad news. 👇🏻

UKRAINE : 👇🏻

AMERICA : This is some sick shit. 👇🏻

Sad times. Not what I envisaged twenty years ago. 😔👇🏻

“it is difficult to imagine how Trump’s behavior would differ if he were indeed compromised by Russia. Until Trump offers a convincing explanation of innocence, he should not be given the benefit of the doubt.” tomorrowsaffairs.com/trumps-whisp...

Please give me a “face” for Bruce ! 👇🏻

😳👇🏻

This is an enormous story. Thankful that ProPublica has pursued it so well, especially considering the way other media have snoozed. (While embracing Afrikaners as genocide victims, no less.) www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Our May – July 2025 issue is now up on our website! Read it on mekongreview.com or use this as a digital contents page: preview.mailerlite.i...

“THE KILOWATT NETWORK” : Great espionage news below although, while this might have been disclosed in recently declassified Swiss cables, this information has been known since the 1980s following the leak of US documents during the Tehran embassy takeover. 1/2

"The Americans have the bombs on planes in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey," Macron said. "We are ready to open this discussion." "I will define the framework in a very specific way in the weeks and months to come," he said.

FRANCE / MACRON : A concise and succinct overview of the major points from Macron’s marathon 3-hour TV interview this night. A must-read. 👇🏻

THAILAND : Although the history will be familiar to those who study or have lived in Thailand, this is an excellent summary from Dr. Patrick Jory. From “Thaksin Shinawatra’s Casino Gamble” : … 1/3