dageurreotype

Meanwhile, here on Phuket http://thumb1.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/1678669/197375300/stock-photo-phuket-thailand-may-unidentified-people-travel-around-the-city-by-wooden-197375300.jpg

I think it must now be clear you're right on the money. There will not be an election in Thailand until the army and it's backers (whom we all know) can be sure of delivering the results the kleptocracy wants.

It may be the case that a civil war will be the only way to avoid Thailand going the way of Burma. and I think that has been clear from day 1 of the treasonous coup d'etat. Seizing power at the point of a gun - its the 21st century for God's sake, these people live five or six hundred years in the past.

The redshirts have been very cowardly, and are waiting for Prayuth to completely bugger things up - which he is in the process of doing right now. I can foresee all this becoming extremely grim if they ever grow any balls - which is not by any means on the cards just yet.

Forget Thaksin, no help is coming from that quarter, remember he is as much a part of the kleptocracy as Prem, even though he fell from grace by being too popular. He used the reds as power base like you and I might use a spanner or a screwdriver.

Forget the pro-junta foreigners as well, they don't care about anything except making sure their supply of lager and hookers doesn't dry up.

Whilst I agree with the thrust of your post, I do wish those here continuing the binary pro junta/red shirt would accept the fact that there are many Thais who have allegiance to neither. They're simply too afraid to speak out seeing how the 'chicken was treated in front of the monkeys', the students and now the new Democracy group. Also consider that mainstream media are very limited in what they can/will report on. You must seek out other sources for that.

As far as the 'Red Shirts being very cowardly', there are those non affiliated with Taksin who too are being pursued/having their attitudes adjusted. The rent a mob's long been dispersed, Taksin's not throwing good money after bad.

And if a second referendum fails to approve the charter, does the Junta just continue on infinitum?

That's the plan, so yes ..

Wanchai Sornsiri ... agreed with the idea of delivering reform before holding the election, but preferred to see the draft charter rejected

Through this approach, reformers would have about one more year to finish the reform work before holding an election, he said.

the (anti-democratic) force is strong in this one...

There's a very good piece by Kong Rithdee on this in today's BP, so unlinkable.

Christ, talk about calling the pot black, any previous Ministers from right back to Khun Chuan's day should keep a low profile and tend to their roses , there are too many skeletons in the proverbial closet and too many ready to send it all back in kind, twice over.

Excepting Korn. They should definitely bring back Korn

I taught at a school which had hired a very dark skinned gentleman. He told me he started learning to speak Thai only to realize the absolutely HORRIBLE things they were saying about him right to his face. Even after he informed them he "khow chaied," they kept on speaking despicably based solely on his skin color.

Something I learned from Bill Nye - ALL humans are of the same race, we just have different tribes. Some people may find this as splitting hairs, others might grasp the subtle context that we're all the same, some with lighter tans, others darker, but we HAVE to get over this garbage! Once a kid sees this guide, and the concept continues to get fed, it can only grow into full-blown xenophobia.

I agree. They really should start teaching them from an early age that not all white skinned people are very wealthy too

somehow i think if the US will put a embargo up the EU will follow .... and then they would be <deleted> and they know that.

Are you sure they know about it..I doubt it I rather think they can't even find them on a map...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/thai-seafood-is-contaminated-by-human-trafficking.html?_r=0

Police raid hookah bar near Phuket university

Too obvious. Must try harder

he was driving from the Heroines Monument at high speed

Another arrogant SUV driving prick. Som nom na.

Deodorant.... Does the trick for me, expensive in Thailand, but cheap as chips in the UK...,

Which is one of the reasons I use som san, the same as the Thais. It's dirt cheap and actually works. Deodorises anything. Ask at a hardware/dry goods store. It looks like very large rock salt crystals.

One became President of America , so there hope for All. Except Americans.!!!!.

Bearing in mind the entire population save for the indigenous people are immigrants any nationality can become president, excepting the Americans. President White Eagle has a nice ring to it

It seems like the French are not doing enough,as I suppose they

would be very happy to see them cross the channel,if the migrants

are supposedly fleeing their home countries because of persecution,

and safety issues,then why do they not just stay in the first European

country they land in,not safe enough ?or is the real reason,financial.

regards worgeordie

Do not believe that, there are any many migrants to other major European countries. Just those that go in the UK by road necessarily pass through Calais where they are visible.

Those other countries have ID cards, the UK and the migrants do not. Much easier to get away with being illegal in the UK.

Are these people real. do they think any one is going to go against the PM

Read the thread dumbo, they're trying to punch a hole in the wall of fearful silence created by the junta.

Problem is when the police are being run by thaksin lovers they simply refuse to uphold the law, thats why the army took over, so that law and order was restored.

OK. So the police were breaking the law by not enforcing the law, so the army had to step in, commit treason, commit a coup d'etat and declare themselves above the law. Did I get that right? And that's a step forward in your world is it?

Interesting...

blaming the police on this one is nonsense. The police did what they could within the limits imposed on them by the courts. Some of them even got killed in the process.

The plot was given away (as usual) by Suthep with his call for the military to step in ... That was in December 2013...

This group, Resistant Citizen, is doing what needs to be done...

I believe Red Queen was simply setting out the facts in that the police didn't act in 2010 when Taksin had incited his Red Shirts to riot in Bangkok. I was there and they were indeed conspicuous by their absence. Thus giving the army the excuse, albeit unwittingly, to take over. As did Taksin's hubris in skyping in the plan for the ill thought out Amnesty bill gave the perfect excuse for the coup.

The army with 1,600 generals were not set up to defend the er, country. Their job is and has always been to stifle dissent and make sure the peasants don't get above themselves. Hence the very real climate of fear this brave group are attempting to allay, desperately needed but not obvious to the average TV poster safe and blind on his barstool/gated community.

Why not overpass? Oh yeah because underpass 3x more expensive and difficult to build. And overpass can be ready in 3-4 months.....

And would look ten times more ugly. At least all the traffic will be hidden from view, not to mention the area being more accessible to those on foot as opposed to the 'taking your life in your hands' traffic damaged pavements we have now. Hopefully a pedistrianised area free from food carts. One can dream

just did the upgrade as well and spent the last 3 hours sorting through this giant. all default settings leave your privacy 100% behind. w10 and its apps wants access to everything on your computer: photos, documents, emails, microphone, camera - you name it. it also disabled my very good and reliable kaspersky virus protection and replaced it with a microsoft version.

other than that it looks not much different from w8.1 and some of the notiification windows actually remind of the good old xp!

strongly suggest, if you decide to install, go through it (action centre icon bottom right next to date / time, than click 'all settings') and look at EVERYTHING and change what you are uncomfortable with.

Alternatively, when the box comes up saying 'your Windows 10 is ready for download', do what I did and ignore it

I think; that's a very good idea.

Dear God, just when I think the bar couldn't possibly be set lower on this forum ..

and in the event of a serious political shock, the country could quickly spiral into recession

Well that's a 'given', and an expected one ..

Strange how all these action groups had nothing to say when the 'democratically elected government' was using terrorism to murder woman and children who were exercising their right to protest.

Obviously no money available to support that cause ...

I have no respect for any of these jokers (or anyone on this forum) who are crying foul now and kept silent during the murders.

"Those that live by the sword shall die by the sword" the fact is that there was violence on both sides and peaceful protest on both sides and then the military stepped in, unfortunately if they (the military) were doing their job (National security) then those that committed these heinous acts of inhumanity would not have had such ease and opportunity to do so and very much limit the damage done, BUT THEY (the military)DIDN'T!!!

Much like the police didn't in 2010. In no way taking sides as you would see from my posts, but fact is they're really rather as bad as each other. It's simply a fact that the Military has bigger guns/higher backing.

However, I do sincerely believe that this country should have been allowed to develop a functioning democracy despite the pain that goes with it, as has every other now developed democratically run country on the planet. What makes this one so special? I sometimes get the feeling some posters have been here too long and have internalised the infantile Thai mindset that they are a 'special case'. Special Needs, more like.

... My friend and I flew to Bangkok in the morning and found her in the Mcdonalds near Nana plaza in a shirt and bikini bottoms. We had to drive her back to CM because she refused to go back for her belongings. She cried for the entire journey.

...

Of course this is TV so I await the considered and measured response :-P

Why didn't you fly back with the poor girl?

no ID and she wouldn't go back for her stuff

Does that answer your fatuous question NanLaew?

Suthip would like reforms that give him absolute power

This guy is very dangerous I just don't get why Thais support him

Rather alike why many TV posters supported him at that time. He appeared to be the only force ridding the country of Taksin and his puppet du jour. We live and learn

July 30, 2015 - Thai Baht 35.10 per USD.

if this ends up in another series of protests...

I think we could see the USD - THB hit 40 - 1

Really.

As far as I remember, even the burning of Bangkok didn't move the baht, much to everyone's consternation ..

And yet another Spot The Monger thread

Just to clarify,

The child didn't say Thai's need to learn to debate.

She didn't complete an exam and claimed it was a protest and went on to add she was unhappy with the 12 values being sold by the current government.

The journalist makes the point that Thai's need to learn how to debate in her article. The child is a merely a foil to explain her reasoning.

In regards to the title of the article, ' Learning how to debate is the first step to democracy'

This supposition is wrong.

Learning how to hold free and transparent elections, devoid of corruption or coercion- is the first step to democracy.

Debate is only so much he said, she said - in fact debate is a step backwards; there's been way too much debate in this country.

why not simply ban entry and the sale of alcohol in any establishment to younger than 18? The law is already there but is not enforced.

Simples same as no money no honey, no I/D =no service +no booze or is this to difficult to understand. a few bib checks on bars, large fines for anyone caught seling to under 20's, done, bib happy to share fines problem solved

It'll never happen for the very same reason those little M&P shops are able to sell all hours and not tied to 'official sales times'. The police empathise with them as many of their own families own them. Same as five kids on a bike never being stopped. It's the cheapest way for them to get about. Plus, they wouldn't have the tea money