This morning, Friday, three days after the coup, Army presence is on the streets of Chiang Mai. Over the past couple of days we have seen the odd soldier or two walking around with their guns, but this morning we have jeeps and lorries parked all over the place.

It seems the main reason for the escalation of events here is that people in the Northern Capital were furious that they did not have the same right as their Bangkok colleagues for photo opportunities!

Does anyone else feel, as I do, that the escalating show of armed forces is a bit “over the top?”

It seems the main reason for the escalation of events here is that people in the Northern Capital were furious that they did not have the same right as their Bangkok colleagues for photo opportunities!

They probably have nothing else do and saw that other troops elsewhere were getting free food and water

Answer:

There are lots of people in CM that are very very very pissed off. It's Thaksin's home town, it was his support base, and the mayor and governor are his 1st cousin & 2nd cousins. It is a fortified stronghold with many tanks, fighter jets, personnel, etc.

The show of military presence there, now after a short vacuum, is nothing short of perfection, a remarkably brilliant and effective plan of strategic timing. If they would have made a strong showing at the start of the takeover, you would have had something really really (how many times can I say 'really'?) bad happen.

(Not too go into this too deeply, my forum adherence to military rulings.)

If the north were not secure the great evil being, who we hope to soon become a British citizen, would land there, gather his evil kin, and create a country of the northern provinces called Shinoland. After that he would probably join with his mentors(his relatives) in Burma to invade the remainder of Thailand. Does the Thai military now have a shoot-on-sight policy for anyone who looks like the former PM?

The first day everything was kinda limited to downtown Bangkok but yesterday, and especially today, they have been putting up checkpoints in northern Bangkok (most likely other places too) and checking cars. For what? Contraband? Contra-revolutionarys? Dunno.

But if this doesn't subside soon...

If the north were not secure the great evil being, who we hope to soon become a British citizen, would land there, gather his evil kin, and create a country of the northern provinces called Shinoland. After that he would probably join with his mentors(his relatives) in Burma to invade the remainder of Thailand. Does the Thai military now have a shoot-on-sight policy for anyone who looks like the former PM?

Square blocks of wood beware . . . .