Coss

A third suspect, allegedly connected to a narcotics trafficking network linked to the TG cabin crew member’s drug case in Australia, was arrested in Ayutthaya province yesterday. The suspect has been identified only as “Nanthawat”, who allegedly told police investigators that he received a black plastic bag containing six fabric elephant-patterned tote bags from “Uthai”, a Hmong hill tribe man who delivered a package of drugs to the condominium of cabin crew member Meena in the Bang Na area on June 22. Nanthawat is reported to have told police that he panicked after learning about Meena’s arrest in Australia and contacted Uthai about what to do with the six tote bags in the plastic bag. After being told to get rid of the bags, Nanthawat claimed that he used a knife to cut them open and flushed all the white powder in them down the toilet in his apartment. LINK

Earlier, a total of 4,322 freshmen at the university tested positive for liver fluke parasites using rapid urine strip tests, triggering the health alarm that lead to the Department of Disease Control suspending the stool examinations. Dr. Wichan said the small number of liver fluke cases found is a clear indication that the infection is not at the level of an epidemic, adding that the parasites do not spread from humans to humans but through the eating of raw or uncooked fresh-water fish. LINK

So at this time, multiple birds have been found in OZ and now one in NZ with H5N1 - and those are the ones that have been found, there'll be many that are not saying hello. prediction: gonna get bigger, OZ n NZ folk should avoid proximity to birds and whilst the fried chicken is still OK, there will be issues, when we come out of the winter season. LINK

Clark Gayford - a tangential note on this bloke - I never liked this fella, the spouse of our former prime minister Jacinda Adern, but on reading his article on sharks and spearfishing - something I've encountered in my youth - in The Guardian, I'm forced to alter my opinion - seems he's OK. read at LINK

...a column that The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie wrote last summer: "The administration-produced imagery in Washington is, then, a projection of sorts — a representation of what the president wants reality to be, drawn from its idea of what authoritarianism looks like. The banners and the troops — not to mention the strangely sycophantic cabinet meetings and news conferences — are a secondhand reproduction of the strongman aesthetic of other strongman states. It is as if the administration is building a simulacrum of authoritarianism, albeit one meant to bring the real thing into being. No, the United States is not a totalitarian state led by a sovereign Donald Trump — a continental Trump Organization backed by the world’s largest nuclear arsenal — but his favored imagery reflects his desire to live in this fantasy." Nearly a year later, Bouie’s observation still resonates. These banners don’t signal Trump’s strength, they reflect his desperation. A failing president wants to convey authority, so he and his team scramble to impose symbols like these on the public square. They appear intended to convey questions Trump seems reluctant to ask out loud: “Don’t I appear imposing? Isn’t it clear how powerful I am? Shouldn’t my opponents feel an overwhelming sense of fear?” The answer to the questions, however, is no. In fact, members of Team Trump have it backward: By trying too hard, their posturing delivers the opposite of the intended message. The banners don’t show a commanding figure, they show a flailing politician struggling to convey confidence. LINK

Cornyn asks for Graham's Toxicology - LINK --- GOP conspiracy theories run wild after Lindsey Graham’s death - LINK ... Prominent figures in the conservative and MAGA movements have led the charge in spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell and now the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham. It’s part of a pattern in which conspiracy theories about the deaths and ailments of prominent Republicans are increasingly coming from inside the party’s own house — with little in the way of efforts to combat it from GOP and MAGA leaders. At Charlie Kirk’s memorial service last year, for example, Tucker Carlson seemed to play footsy with the burgeoning but baseless conspiracy theories that Israel was behind Kirk’s killing. He compared the conservative activist’s death to “guys sitting around eating hummus” in Jerusalem plotting to kill Jesus Christ. ...

"I never met her. I have never touched her. I would have no interest in meeting her in any shape or form." [1] "I've never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book — that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section." [1] --- Donald J Trump be lying? Come on Trumpanzees, prove me wrong... --- US President Donald Trump has paid US$5.6 million ($6.8m) to writer E. Jean Carroll after a civil jury found he sexually assaulted and defamed her, a court filing showed Tuesday. “Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement. “Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict.” The US Supreme Court in late June refused to hear Trump’s appeal against the original May 2023 judgment, essentially making that decision final. ... LINK --- ...only 83.3 million dollars outstanding ( ... its enforcement remains suspended, because he wont pay it), remarkably small change for the most successful, the greatest, most brilliant, healthiest, billionaire in the history of billionaires.

if Trump has knocked out all of Iran's capabilities, why is he still bombing them? ...everyone here will cheer Trump's successor, no matter what party, he or she is from. b coz Trumpo wil b gon

“We hereby award President Donald J. Trump this participation trophy for his enthusiastic involvement in the Iran War,” reads a plaque on the faux monument, which was installed in the wee hours near the MLK Memorial Bookstore. “While some concern themselves with military strategy, diplomacy, or measurable outcomes, President Trump demonstrated the courage to participate regardless of the final score.” “As recipient of this prestigious award, President Trump joins the ranks of children everywhere who receive recognition for simply showing up. We join you in celebrating this remarkable achievement.”

Bubi, as is usual, you are the font of all knowledge and I agree, this too will be attempted. Trump see potential gold = Trump take potential gold. I am reminded of Thailand when Thaksin was the chief grifter, there was a credible rumour that peasants in the North West near Burma, had discovered a WW2 Japanese railway carriage or three, full of looted gold etc. Thaksin dropped what ever he was doing in government in Bangkok and leapt aboard a Military helicopter with soldiers and shot off to claim the treasure, it was just a rumour. ____ Another thought that floated through my mind: It seems that encounters with ICE or law enforcement in the USA are different, if you are armed. This guy was arrested but not shot LINK - he was armed and near the Capitol. This guy was killed, unarmed LINK - and just going about his day. I sense a business opportunity, when incoming tourists arrive at the airport, after customs etc and before they leave to go and visit the good ol' USA, there be shops like the ones that sell mobiles and SIMS etc, but selling Guns and Ammo. So on arrival the visitors can arms themselves and be safer, than if they went unarmed...

Saw this, it's Spielberg so it's good, but not earth shattering, as I'd expected it to be.

One of a few actors with a good personal reputation, here in middle earth, I remember seeing Sleeping Dogs (1977) at the cinema as a teen, most impressed I was. Rams was a more recent one I liked. R.I.P.

Perfect!

I was in Playskool one night, my arms resting on the back of a bench seat, with a lass in each armpit, when a rat ran up one sleeve, across my shoulders and out the other sleeve (short sleeved shirt), I wondered then if I might suffer some disease or other, before I realized that the girls could also play this game...

Trumpo Begging - freedom fuel still 50¢ more than b4 the start of the Iran war..... LINK

MItch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, two votes gone from the flock of turtles following the Elephant, wot now?

Rescuers rest after putting out a fire in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, July 13, 2026. Sakchai Lalit/AP BangkokAP — A huge fire engulfed a pub in Bangkok early on Monday morning local time, killing at least 27 people before firefighters brought the blaze under control, officials said. Footage shared online by first responders shows a huge blaze raging and plumes coming out of the front door of the Na Ladprao pub in the northern part of the Thai capital. People are seen trying to flee as thick black smoke billows into the sky. Rescuers said the fire was reported around midnight. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters at the scene that 27 people died and that several of the injured have been taken to the hospital. He said the cause of the fire is under investigation. ... LINK

...Graham, who spent his long career advocating for more aggressive US foreign policy, was an influential voice in the Republican Party. He had served as a senator for South Carolina since 2003. He was one of Trump’s most steadfast allies in the US upper house, a strong advocate of the war against Iran and a staunch supporter of Nato and Israel. On July 10, the senator returned from a trip to Kyiv, where he met Volodymyr Zelensky and announced a revised sanctions package targeting Russia that gives the US authority to penalise or impose tariffs on countries buying Russian oil or gas. Sir William Browder, a British financier who became a target of Vladimir Putin’s regime, advocated on Sunday for “all tests” to be “done immediately to rule out foul play”. Sir William added on X: “Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but Lindsey Graham was the leading driver of the devastating sanctions bill against Russia. Yesterday, he announced that President Trump agreed to it. “He had just returned from Ukraine where it’s not unknown for Russian agents to operate. Russians are expert at administration of poisons that look like heart attacks.” Meaghan Mobbs, the daughter of Gen Keith Kellogg, Trump’s former special envoy for Ukraine, pointed to possible Russian involvement. She said that, while Graham’s death could be natural, it was reasonable to ask further questions “given the current geopolitical context and the adversaries he aggressively confronted”. ... LINK

will they nuke MacDonalds if he dies from fat induced immobility?

Worth a read at the link - LINK excerpts: In 1989 Francis Fukuyama famously and prematurely wrote that the world was seeing “the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism”. A decade later Henry Hansmann and Reinier Kraakman, two American law professors, made a similar argument about the way companies are run. The world was converging on a superior model of shareholder capitalism, they argued: firms subordinating the interests of capital to managers, workers and states would soon crumble like the Berlin Wall. & Almost nothing about Mr Musk’s corporate empire can be understood in the language of shareholder capitalism. That leads to discordant results when the analysts who speak it are required to express a view. This week Wall Street banks released their initial reports on SpaceX. “Not [free cashflow] positive on our forecasts before 2035, requiring, on average, $84bn of external capital needs per year from 2027-2034,” wrote Morgan Stanley, before saying the firm should be worth twice as much as it already is. This is the end. My only friend, the end Soon the ranks of giant public companies will grow. With which tribe are OpenAI and Anthropic likely to identify? ---

here's a pictorial guide

I did see video of the Belgium team, in the locker room after their win over the USA, doing the trump dance and singing "YMCA" larf? larfing stock? yeppiday

American Bitcoin Corp. (NASDAQ: ABTC) is publicly traded and majority-owned by the digital infrastructure firm Hut 8 Corp., which holds approximately 80% equity in the company. The remaining ownership is held by the Trump family (co-founder Eric Trump holds a significant stake) and shareholders from the brothers' former venture, American Data Centers.