11 hours ago, faraday said:

How many people attended yesterday, I've seen reports of 'thousands' & 50k mentioned on the Beeb?

 

    However  that said .

     UD, town was rather quite last night , and Soi Sampan, much the same ..

 

I remember there were some huge protests on "wall street" all around the world.

 

Wall street is now bigger and more powerful than ever. 

Anyone have shares in a razor wire company? your rich ????

 

22 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Anyone have shares in a razor wire company? your rich ????

 

On a slightly more serious note. Razor wire is bad enough to lay out, but trying to put it back into a coil for re use is likely to be very painful.

Thousand's shoulder to shoulder, good to see the turn out. It will also be interesting to see what may happen a week or two down the road regarding  possible Covid cases increase. If there is, officials may look foolish - lack of local testing maybe and don't know where they actually stand on Covid. From what I have read over months everyone will be just fine ??

Edited September 20, 20205 yr by CANSIAM

19 hours ago, shackleton said:

Well according to reports the protesters meeting was positive no violence 

As usual the Media has over hyped on this expecting the worst

Just glad it went okay for everyone concerned

Yes, and I hope they keep having these protests from time to time until these "military academy" educated soldiers are ousted and a peoples government elected.

The sheeple are restless.

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

Yes, and I hope they keep having these protests from time to time until these "military academy" educated soldiers are ousted and a peoples government elected.

 

The last couple of decades or so, most governments elected by the people weren't all that different from the current one, or even the coup governments/leadership. Different faces, different hot air, same conduct and failures.

 

That's not a reason to deny democracy, but worth keeping in mind what you get isn't always as advertised.

4 hours ago, MaxYakov said:

The sheeple are restless.

no the sheeple are all cozied up on the coach or on the net making disparaging comments on these people. 

20 hours ago, Morch said:

 

I'm sorry, having difficulty following your reasoning and argument, maybe a language thing.

 

Picking a country where things turned out right after embracing democracy is fine, ignoring that in many countries things went pear shaped is another. Thailand's attempts at this cannot, IMO, be termed much of a success. More often than not, the governments elected in a democratic manner failed to live up to the ideals of democracy and/or exhibited other issues. Saying this time it's different is not a particularly strong argument.

 

I have already agreed with the position that the army's role in politics is a major problem. Then again, this also serves to make the previous point - if there's no army to intervene and political factions do not really respect the tenets of democracy, how are things to be handled?

 

I don't know that 70% of the Thai population support the protests, or at least, all of the issues raised on the protests. Kinda doubt there's that much of an actual consensus among Thais. The regime 50 years ago would have laughed at the current government being labeled a 'dictatorship'. That you try to claim it same same doesn't quite make it so. Nor does it lend much support for your 70% bit.

The governments elected in a democratic manner do not get a chance to govern quite simply because they are removed or hindered by the military.

 

The only one that governed effectively was during Thaksin's first term as the overwhelming majority of Thai people were behind it.

You are espousing the military being able to step in at any time to remove elected administrations which is the biggest problem as they will collude with malicious actors as we have seen evidenced during the last two coups.

 

In 2005 we saw a jilted media mogul (now a convicted criminal and disgraced conspiracy theory lunatic) use his media empire to force a coup to bring down Thailand's first ever twice elected prime minister and first prime minister to serve a full term. All because his personal friend and piggy bank at KTB was removed by the Thaksin admin for forgiving billions of Baht worth of loans. 

 

People of course believed the nonsense from this lunatic at the time as most are easily led and the lunatic politicised the country's highest institution to bring more people into the argument, splitting the country down the middle. 

 

There were of course other reasons for Thaksin's downfall but this was the catalyst and the main reason behind the Yellow Shirts.

 

The 2014 coup was well planned and conducted in collusion with a mafia godfather and confessed corrupt politician Suthep who's own Democrat Party colleagues openly called him the most corrupt politician in Thailand. A polly who brought down the Chuan Leekpai government in the 90's due to his corrupt activities no less. 

 

So your argument comes apart at the seams once examined I am afraid.

 

 

4 hours ago, Morch said:

 

The last couple of decades or so, most governments elected by the people weren't all that different from the current one, or even the coup governments/leadership. Different faces, different hot air, same conduct and failures.

 

That's not a reason to deny democracy, but worth keeping in mind what you get isn't always as advertised.

I can only conclude that you were not here and did not live in Thailand under the Chuan or Thaksin governments.

 

It was far better for the average Thai. 

18 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

Anyone have shares in a razor wire company? your rich ????

 

Looks like East Germany in the 80's.

58 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

The governments elected in a democratic manner do not get a chance to govern quite simply because they are removed or hindered by the military.

 

The only one that governed effectively was during Thaksin's first term as the overwhelming majority of Thai people were behind it.

You are espousing the military being able to step in at any time to remove elected administrations which is the biggest problem as they will collude with malicious actors as we have seen evidenced during the last two coups.

 

In 2005 we saw a jilted media mogul (now a convicted criminal and disgraced conspiracy theory lunatic) use his media empire to force a coup to bring down Thailand's first ever twice elected prime minister and first prime minister to serve a full term. All because his personal friend and piggy bank at KTB was removed by the Thaksin admin for forgiving billions of Baht worth of loans. 

 

People of course believed the nonsense from this lunatic at the time as most are easily led and the lunatic politicised the country's highest institution to bring more people into the argument, splitting the country down the middle. 

 

There were of course other reasons for Thaksin's downfall but this was the catalyst and the main reason behind the Yellow Shirts.

 

The 2014 coup was well planned and conducted in collusion with a mafia godfather and confessed corrupt politician Suthep who's own Democrat Party colleagues openly called him the most corrupt politician in Thailand. A polly who brought down the Chuan Leekpai government in the 90's due to his corrupt activities no less. 

 

So your argument comes apart at the seams once examined I am afraid.

 

 

 

Pretty much all the governments in this time span, including the one you excluded, were nothing to write home about. You want to paint it otherwise, that's ok, incorrect but whatever. Almost all managed to do their bit for themselves rather than the country before being removed by the army.

 

If you'll follow what I actually post, there's nothing in it which supports the army's involvement in Thai politics - certainly not in the manner seen during the last two decades. Please refrain from attributing positions I do not hold. What I did say was simply this - with the army out of the picture, and with the politicians being less democratic than wished for, what recourse exists to deal with such? No claim to have a good answer for that. Just not seeing the democratic institutions of this country as being solid enough to handle abuse of democracy by supposedly democratic players.

 

I get it you're a Thaksin fan. That's alright too. And if you wish to focus on those who opposed him, that totally up to you. Those not completely invested in adulating the fugitive ex-prime minister, would recall that he was convicted, and that there were plenty of other dodgy stuff that went along with his terms in office. 

 

Spewing partisan views of events is not an argument.

1 hour ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

I can only conclude that you were not here and did not live in Thailand under the Chuan or Thaksin governments.

 

It was far better for the average Thai. 

Looks like East Germany in the 80's.

 

I can only inform you that your conclusions are wrong. As for 'far better' or even 'the average Thai' - well, both can be defined in various ways, I'm sure some would fit your views.

Not so convinced the "redshirts" trying to align themselves with this movement is a good thing, being representative themselves of the old politics. To be sure, there appears to be a wellspring of public support though I still sense a pretty pervasive sense of fear among the general population. I guess a a lot of people are attentiste, a minority collabo; the young, it seems, are overwhelmingly résistant.

So......where did all this grand activity leave us?