pipkins

I have been to all these protest sites the last few weeks and any person who thinks that numbers are dropping off are just incorrect. I just came back through asok and the crowd there is huge I would say bigger than Monday. Suthep and his merry men will see victory soon.

Huge mate! 350 million Id guess

Tully, you're missing the point.

In case you missed it, Suthep has anounced that his supporter's vote is worth 1,000,000 to every 1 poor person's vote.

The same principle applies to the protester tally. So, 350 = 350,000,000

I hope this clears your confusion

'

A huge mass popular uprising by all accounts... With Rambo, they got away with a few dodgy ones... Looks like "Coup19" has bombed at the box office somewhat!!!

Those ungreatful Thais. Fancy less than1,000 peopl showing up to support a coup.

Please send pics when the locals get wind of this and run them out of town.

Here are classic examples of what we have been talking about all day. The crowds have gone.... and the media are doing there bit by cropping the pics to make them look full.

Where are the drone shots? Why is twitter awash with photo of empty streets and deserted stage areas? why are ALL media reports from creditable media talking of "HUNDEREDS" of protesters in some of their pics? Where are the millions?

Getting dirty now is this war and the media who have sucked up to Suthep are going to come out with egg on their faces.

Stop supporting this madman and go for some real reform. Reform that would see these crazies behind bars as well.

'empty streets'? well cars cannot go through. 'deserted stages'? provide links

Hundreds of protesters? more likely thousands and times staging areas.

All this input from you seems to suggest that the anti-anti-government group is getting really desperate. Now suggestions, half-truths and insinuations. Next white lies, real lies and personal attacks.

At least I don't hear any shooting, that's nice.

You should get out of TV and Bluesky more often. thousands of pics on Twitter. Firm evidence to all but those who don't want to see it. The march today wasn't much more than 50m long. At most 2,000 people. So maybe best ou don't look.!!!

Looking out of the window I don't see much traffic on RamaIII. This morning also a new record in getting here. 'shutdown bangkok' seems to work.

You mean work< as in it achieved its objective and got rid of the government? Another deadline passed yesterday. Sutheps final final final final final battle was predicted to end on 14th... his astrologer said....

All that is happening now is they are alienating themselves even more. Once the citizens of BKK see this mob is reduced in size enough, they will run them out of town. Almost happened at Cheang Wattana yesterday. The residents had them outnumbered and were giving them grief, so they closed down part of it.

Bangkok has adapted. Cities and towns can adapt and adjust to protests like this. There is a whole country full of cities and municiple buildings for them to operate out of if req..... but it's not required. Sweet dreams of you all dancing to Sutheps tune if he gets in.

the north and northeast are run by a vile creature also, should they meet up for a Muay Thai fight and see who is the vilest of all.

Seems difficult for you to follow so lets try bite size pieces.

This reform process against corruption is nothing of the sort. The people behind it are much worse than Thaksin.

They also did much less for the people of Thailand (outside of their clique that is) Education rights, healthcare did not exist fact.

Following a man such as Suthep is wrought with dangers as nobody will ever be able to move without his consent after this. don't be blinded by TV anti Thaksin Rhetoric. Most of the posters were not here before mid 90's and have no idea of what they speak.

Try to forget this is anything but a power grab at a very key time in Thai History, and please make use of google and wiki and world media to enlighten yourself.

And yes, to your impending knee jerk, I read about thaksin and he is not what thailand needs. but he was much better than what you will get if this mob ever gets any traction

More good news. http://www.establishmentpost.com/bangkok-shutdown-fails-cripple-thai-capital/

and on topic as well for a change.

Will the yellow pedants on here with the bizarre knee jerk reqests for Quotes and souce please do the following.

Log on to twitter and follow Richard Barrow of some noted tweeter. They post every pic taken at every rally ever and have live feeds. Please tell us if you think there are more people now than Monday.

Then make a guess at how many are protesting still and subtract that number from 7 million ( which is what suthep and co were claiming at the weekend)

Then work out your figure as a percentage of 67 million (pop of thailand) and come back and tell us Suthep is speaking for all thais.

No evidence required, but I'd be really interested in some facts and opinions that you hold dear.

And please keep the silly comparisons to other things out of it. Thanksin blah blah blah, we know all about it, just see how you get on this this for now.

Good think about the press coverage that Suthep demanded is that it is now showing him in a very bad light, showing him to be villain and showing his number falling fast. Most media have done their research into him and hit past dealings and land deals etc. So he is down to a few hard core supporters now and a few head in the sand falangs for company.

Here are classic examples of what we have been talking about all day. The crowds have gone.... and the media are doing there bit by cropping the pics to make them look full.

Where are the drone shots? Why is twitter awash with photo of empty streets and deserted stage areas? why are ALL media reports from creditable media talking of "HUNDEREDS" of protesters in some of their pics? Where are the millions?

Getting dirty now is this war and the media who have sucked up to Suthep are going to come out with egg on their faces.

Stop supporting this madman and go for some real reform. Reform that would see these crazies behind bars as well.

'empty streets'? well cars cannot go through. 'deserted stages'? provide links

Hundreds of protesters? more likely thousands and times staging areas.

All this input from you seems to suggest that the anti-anti-government group is getting really desperate. Now suggestions, half-truths and insinuations. Next white lies, real lies and personal attacks.

At least I don't hear any shooting, that's nice.

You should get out of TV and Bluesky more often. thousands of pics on Twitter. Firm evidence to all but those who don't want to see it. The march today wasn't much more than 50m long. At most 2,000 people. So maybe best ou don't look.!!!

This is where many people need to be careful.

It's right, the objective of freeing Thailand from Corruption, but this movement should have been positioned in the middle and targeted all politicians, all parties, every Gov agency, the Police yes... BUT ALSO, the Army who operate as a private business with arms - Think East India Tea Company, the courts and all these cowards in the background who will not voice their fasicit aspirations.

These backers who control the country use both sides to fight for them. For Sutheps movement to have any crediblilty at all, it would have to go after them as well.

As it is, it's a Putch. A clear cut conspiracy organised by the Elites. How else could all those phoney court cases against PT have lined up in the week of the shutdown? Who else could have organised the media to play poodle and release "News" at critical times, Report constantly on Sutheps speeches Etc. happy to say that now the media concentration on Suthep is showing him more and more to be the villain here and they clearly show his number tanking.

Why else to the media not push the point that hundreds of thousands of thais have already voted? Because it does not suit the big plan of getting their man into power.

Danger here is people think they it's piecemeal with Suthep. Many of you think you can support him in some of his aims but not in other. Believe me, you get Suthep and there will be no dissent at all, the man does not listen and is not interested. So beware... he may bite some of his own soon if they are not 100% loyal.

I seem to have missed a few stories.

1. 'phony court cases against Pheu Thai'?

2. 'hundreds of thousands of Thai already voted' ?

Please, could you provide more information on this, or some links?

If you watched anything other than Blue Sky you would perhaps be able to form an opinion about both.

http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNPOL5701150010004

Other papers mentioned it... but not bluesky!!! There is even links to it on here!!!

Media outside thailand reported this.. The MFA made sure it if with a briefing and it was duly targeted by the fascist mobs.

You need to read more if you are going to attempt anything more than snide knee jerk comments like that. Next you'll be having ago at Humour or sarcasm I suppose. Good luck with it!! Least I don't need to take you seriously anymore

Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin of the Matuphum Party and Chuvit Kamolvisit of Love Thailand Party,

So, in the interest of accuracy, Yingluck is boasting about a coupist and a happy ending massage parlour magnate attending her meeting.

Would that be Gen Sonthi who led a coup and appears to have said (at the time) he would never enter politics or want to be an MP ? Similar to how Suthep says (at the moment) he is out of politics for good................... ?

That's the same General who led the coup, had his amnesty included in the 2007 constitution and thinking about it decided to vote in favour of coalition partner Pheu Thai's 'blanket amnesty' bill. That chap.

Now of course the topic is the care-taking PM Yingluck being upset with the EC commission not taking part in her forum. Mind you I'm sure someone would charge the EC with meddling in elections, rules and the like if they did join. With the general election not (yet) cancelled or postponed I think the EC should concentrate on that rather than join discussions on how to possibly do it different.

Did the EC not send a notice requesting they consider postponing the election?Subsequently a meeting with all parties was arranged to discuss it. Given the EC made a request to postpone the election, you would have thought given they are in charge of organizing, it may have been an decent idea to attend the meeting to explain their reasoning and listen to other opinions. The main opposition have boycotted the election, by their own choice, the meeting therefore has nothing to do with them, although i believe they were still invited.

Its just another nail in the coffin of the Coup. They have met their match and were obviously expecting that by this stage the Army would have outsted PT and saved them having to rationalise their connivance.

This is more proof positive that the Coup Charter and the EC and Courts are not interested in anything other than master Shutheps master plan. World Stage PR. This is a major victory for Yingluck. The Judges making the most noises about the election didn't show. Thats because they have no authority to speak and act outside of that their controller tells them, so they could not have said anything.

Twitter followers of and of the notable Thai tweeters, inc. Richard Barrow (surely the most complete feed in Thailand) will see numerous pictures of deserted stages, marchers now in their hundreds which even if it's a few thousand means it is well off the 7 million Suthep was claiming last weekend.

Seems to be a turning point this week and Yingluck is looking very efficient, calm and Prime Ministerial again. Lets hope the pendulum is swinging back towards sanity.

Yingluck is proven right that she should have been ammending the constitution and sacking everybody involved with upholding it. They are the problem today.

What if... lets say Suthep gets in, what about all the criminal acts and damages they have caused. Police have most of them onn CCTV so can they be arrested in Suthep's New World? No. So that means an Amnesty for them has to be brought in (as it was for the Coup mongers in 2006), which again is proof that PT did nothing wrong with their Amnesty Bill.

It's just a matter of which side of the fence the Courts are on and this becomes clearer and clearer by the hour.

The Thaugsuban clan at it again. They have previous for this sort of behaviour.

The Democrat Party won elections in 13 September 1992, shortly after Black May, and formed a government. Suthep became Agriculture Minister. As part of the Sor Por Kor 4-01 (สปก.4-01) land reform scheme, Suthep gave title deeds to 592 plots of land in Khao Sam Liam, Kamala and Nakkerd hills of Phuket province to 489 farmers. It was later found that members of 11 wealthy families in Phuket were among the recipients. Suthep addressed a huge crowd in his Surat Thani constituency a month before a no-confidence debate and called on his supporters to march on Bangkok in the hundreds of thousands to defend his reputation.[2] The scandal led Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai of the Democrat Party to dissolve the House of Representatives in July 1995 in order to avoid the no-confidence debate.[3] In subsequent elections, the Chart Thai party won a majority, leading to the downfall of Chuan Leekpai's Democrat Party-led government.

http://en.wikipedia....thep_Thaugsuban

Ah suthep, the bastion of honesty and virtue.

yet people still wonder why people don't believe him over the events of 2010

Sir

We should not be surprised what he or his family get up to,the man is a scumbag,of the highest order.

I have wondered for years about who is on that land in Phuket. It was never allowed to be investigated. When they tried again in 2005 it triggered the coup.

There is no doubt this was one of the major factors as the DSI were down there in October last year looking into it, and low and behold. Suthep is out of his cage. Note, the DSI was one of the first offices to be broken into and you can bet there were agents in there who were after those files to protect their masters.

Many plots of land regulaly find their way into unscrupulous hands and the usual way in the South is for investigators, lawyers acting on behalf of the many people who have land stolen from them to be killed. Try looking at our beloved Phuket Media down the years.

Still nobody will say who is on it and I often wondered why details of the plots locations were never published. Army are very active business wise down there so the corruption in Phuket is of the un-touchable kind.

It is fine to start with a campaign and accept support from all those that have an interest in your stance. However when you allow others to take over or mismanage your plans then it is not your campaign and you have created an achilles heel. The students have proven they are a law onto themselves and the game plan is not going as smoothly as Suthep thought it would. The effect to take over AEROTHAI to some posters does not matter so much if each of the airports can rely on running their operations without it. However one TV poster mentioned that RTAF do need the services of AEROTHAI, then the Military must act. Terrorism is all that this campaign has been about but the students are spearheading it into a collision course with those that do not wish to be involved.

Maybe this is all a cunning ruse by Suthep. Use the brainwashed students to do something which unquestionably would lead to the arm of the military having to step in. Goal achieved by Suthep and all the while he can claim he 'never wanted that' and it had 'nothing to do with him' as despite quitting politics for good he under duress accepts to step is as secretary general to the appointed council, with his step son the leader.

I know this area well... There are tens of thousands of small appartments there where many BKK taxi drivers live. The Students would be trapped in that maze of tiny alleys and rich pickings for their enemies. This guy leading them is not only a real thug... he looks like one as well.

He is also desperate. At this late stage he is "threatening to bring in more people" These are un-doubtedly the guys who will will enforce Suthep dictats if thailand goes mad and he gets his way.... be very very scared Bangkok!! http://news.asiainterlaw.com/?p=8887

Back on Topic. The protest is quite clearly running out of steam.

Most junctions are deserted and the marchers are sticking to marching under the Skytrain to keep the sun off their skins. Perhaps if they had ever worked in their lives, they may have realised that the sun is hot when you are outside in it.... Thats why in Isaan they wear funny clothes.

Anyway, the elites worrying about undoing all those years of skin whitening and hanging around in Malls are just not up to this prolong protesting. So, more mobs will need to be brought in the the Students will become more prominent. Further Isolating Suthep.

The media are cutting well back on the pics today. BP was showing videos and drone shots on Monday describing a sea of people (even though it was the same mob appearing in different places and making the numbers appear 5-6 times higher than they were). Today... not a pic! why? Well, twitter feeds have the answer, there is hardly anbody there and the few media shots from the yellow side have resorted to close cropping them to make the shot appear full.

Problem there is that one pic is a guy on stage with about 5 people around him, and only head shots as they don't want to show the street is void of protesters. I've seem the stage from afar on other pic! Another report is of traffic flowing through Asoke! so full of protesters it ISN'T.

Yesterday one stage had to close the the residents of Cheang Wattana had the protesters outnumbered. Get the odds more in their favour and they will kick the shit out of them. Police also tried to re-open Lad Prao as it was virtually deserted... So... Where are they all now?

Maybe they are meeting to discuss the low turnout?

More absolute &lt;deleted&gt;. If you had watched Bluesky you would have known by 9:30 a.m. that there were millions on the streets in Bangkok. By mid afternoon the numbers were swelled to prove you wrong, so wrong.

LOL. millions?

Where? In what fantasy image. Not even the protest media supporters are claiming that.

While it is great to have passion about one's political beliefs, one should endeavor to retain a modicum of honesty.

The Financial Times a reputable, non partisan observer of the theatrics has reported the following;

initial large turnouts estimated at up to 200,000 dwindle to a hard core of thousands.

Please sit down when you read this. Bluesky are reporting 8 million for todays failure.

But, hey... they could be right.

Hahaha How hilarious.

Yet another CAPO well timed and obviously staged new article distributed by none other than Khasaod the 100% red shirt press unit.

They failed with the last one when nobody else bothered to report it because it had as much credibility as a twitter posting.

I am 110 KG and work out almost daily and I would not be able to pick that lot up and make off with it, have you any idea how much just the armored vest weight on its own? This weedy little chap who must be 60KG soaking wet would be able to run off with all this?..... Lol

More fantasy crap from CAPO.... Give it a rest, we are not convinced, anyone not red oriented has far too much intelligentsia to fall for this.

The stuff was found at his home, he wasn't out wearing it on the street. Do you think he is a billy-no-mates and carried all that stuff by himself?

It's funny because they were filmed looting it and pictured wearing the stuff they'd taken, couldn't get clearer cut evidence. They already caught one of these guys also living around Ramkhamhaeng. Quite a few RU students in the NSPTR.

You mean the Students who were vilified (rightly) for daily shootings, ping pong bombings, gang violence, street racing, rape, killing innocent bystanders. and beating up people on busses etc.

Who became media darlings, and angelic pillars of the commutity by coming out on Sutheps side... of course not having anything to do the the bus burnings, shootings (oh they caught the 2 with the gun, but Sutheps lawyer went to get them out) or mob violence in that area when the Redshirts were there.

Quite a transformation and lucky we are that Sutheps righteous crusade has given these student gangs carte blance to cause as much trouble as possible

Surely not enough excuse yet to stage a coup.

555........ I was thinking the same!

Getting together to discuss if they should have some people fire into the crowd or toss a few grenades to get the violence going.

Have some Dr. "university lecturer" idiot sexually insulting the PM on stage and live TV to provoke an attack?

They have to come up with something soon. Time is running out!

By the way what where they celebrating? "Uselessness?" 555

They are probably getting flack from the Courts as the plan was they all coup together. The Judicial Coup is well underway as the old dodderers on there have been around far too long and have no independent thought whatsoever.

The Army may have been exposed to some education or free thinking during their training abroad and are starting to wonder if they should be keeping this fossil collection in power. Don't forget also that after the last Coup The EU blockaded the Army's new toys (Germany witheld delivery of armaments needed to suppress farmers basically) and the Americans withheld aid.. Hence, the Dems had to give them an instant vastly inflated anual budget.

They have all been wrong footed by Yingluck giving Suthep free reign to shit in his and the elites backyard. Much as they'd love to and it has long been in the blueprints, the Army just have enough braincells more than Suthep, which is enough to realise that this is not a popular uprising at all in the eyes of the world

I absolutely agree with you - the judicial coup was started as a backup when the constitutional court was told how to rule and pass the case on to the NACC.

The NACC has realized that they can not get it all wrapped up to ban the 308 MP's in time for the February 2nd election so the EC asked for an extension to hold the elections in May. Enough time for the NACC to play their game.

Funny thing is why did the EC not simply give an extension to candidate registration at secret locations only known to candidates to avoid the venues being blocked by the demonstrators?

Oh yes they have to buy time for the courts and the NACC!!

and as if the Marx Brothers had written this sorry Judicial Coup plot themselves, the Courts were impeded in this even further today when Sutheps "educated" followers blocked off the Courts...... And these are the go getters who think they should be ruling the country

Surely not enough excuse yet to stage a coup.

555........ I was thinking the same!

Getting together to discuss if they should have some people fire into the crowd or toss a few grenades to get the violence going.

Have some Dr. "university lecturer" idiot sexually insulting the PM on stage and live TV to provoke an attack?

They have to come up with something soon. Time is running out!

By the way what where they celebrating? "Uselessness?" 555

They are probably getting flack from the Courts as the plan was they all coup together. The Judicial Coup is well underway as the old dodderers on there have been around far too long and have no independent thought whatsoever.

The Army may have been exposed to some education or free thinking during their training abroad and are starting to wonder if they should be keeping this fossil collection in power. Don't forget also that after the last Coup The EU blockaded the Army's new toys (Germany witheld delivery of armaments needed to suppress farmers basically) and the Americans withheld aid.. Hence, the Dems had to give them an instant vastly inflated anual budget.

They have all been wrong footed by Yingluck giving Suthep free reign to shit in his and the elites backyard. Much as they'd love to and it has long been in the blueprints, the Army just have enough braincells more than Suthep, which is enough to realise that this is not a popular uprising at all in the eyes of the world

Just read on bloomberg 10 minutes ago that there was about 80,000 protesters, come on! Is this really a people's revolution? If people are that serious they should be coming out in there millions! These shutdowns are a mere inconvenience to the government. Suthep, I think your days are numbered!

Yes, as much as many people here would hate the low number, it has to be said that Bloomberg has no vested interest in high or low. The fact that the SET and the Baht both stabilised on the low turnout/no violence reflects the preference of the markets for stability( and the continuation in office of the current caretaker govt)

I do not often agree with you but in this case I feel you are spot on. But I do feel damage is being done and there ios a LOT more going on we will never know. All speculation to keep our brains busy

I noticed this early am when wondering whether the pound was heading towards 60 and if it was worth bringing my pension over. The numbers were poor and it was noticable from the drone shots during all the previous weeks protests that the numbers were tiny.

Suthep and his thugs also saw this early and set about de-stablising the SET by threatening to occupy it. BIt rash really as most of their Elite Backers will be inconvenienced by this move..... I do hope so as I'd love to see them trading in their Mercs and BMWs in order to by a rice paddy rotivator to go to work on with their mates.

Please provide the links to information that supports your view that world opinion has moved firmly to favour Yingluck. I can find support for a peaceful solution, support for democracy and elections. But I can't see mass information that specifically supports your statement that world opinion firmly favours Yingluck or her caretaker government.

Should be easy for you, after all you say you do a bit of research before posting what you think is cool, So, please share it with us all.

Virtually every single Western power has called for democracy to prevail. This is where Yingluck has done a turn on Suthep beyond belief. Shes managed to turn the issue away from the corruption plaugeing her government to one about defending democracy, hence the "Respect My Vote" campaign drawing in people who actually hate her and her brother. World opinion is forced to support her as she is the only one backing democracy.

Here is an article out today from probably the most highly respected international affairs publication in the world -

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21593419-varying-degrees-justification-election-boycotts-are-vogue-asia-trouble

" The main opposition group, the Democrat Party, should contemplate a name change: to the “anti-Democrats”, perhaps, or the catchier “Born to Rule!”. It is boycotting next month’s election not because it would be unfair (though it might be), but because it would lose. It has not won a general election for more than two decades. Its supporters in the south are outnumbered by those in the north and north-east of the country, who keep on voting in proxies for Thaksin Shinawatra, an exiled former prime minister. The forces that the Born to Rules represent, including much of Thailand’s traditional elite, find this impossible to accept. They are openly campaigning for what amounts to dictatorship, though they do not call it that. Democracy has not worked for the Democrats."

This is World Opinion, sorry if it doesnt match the TV clique of "I moved to Thailand as a sex tourist but want to try and be middle class" crew.

I've said this for years. The thinking goes like this. I am falang - I can buy sex and cheap beer - taxis call me sir - I am above these people... therefore I am Elite by virtue of being superior to most Thais I meet in bar areas or getting there and home.

Sorry it is a bit strong for a first post,but I don't usually come on here. Some reason. BP comments have gone down.. so you've got me for a while.