Transcript of the above video: 

First things first, I'd like to kind of say this just to be clear. I don't really like to be making these videos this way. I can see that the pull of it is getting to be I think there's a place to be filled for this, sort of the Ted Koppel of Thailand or something, but this wasn't my intention when I started making videos on here. If you go back to October 2016, yeah by the way before all the so-called YouTubers and influencers got over here and started talking complete nonsense about things they have no idea what they are talking about, a lot of them. I've been making these videos a long time. My wife actually told me I should make a specific video on sort of my notoriety from YouTube and I may do that, but I am a little, I hesitate to say uncomfortable but it was never my initial thinking to be doing videos like this, to be making videos as an “influencer”, as a YouTuber, I really kind of wanted to keep a low profile but circumstances have intervened and I kind of feel like - COVID was a real turning point for me. I felt like nobody was talking about COVID in any real meaningful substantive way and I sort of felt like I had to step up and do that. In fact the first major COVID video we did where we kind of pushing back against the narrative, I didn't sleep the entire night after working because I was really kind of upset about the whole thing, but I felt like at the end of the day it had to be done. So I'm of the same mindset at the moment. So if you sort of see me making these videos with an air of consternation, just understand that's the reasoning behind it. 

That said, the title of the video and the thumbnail, "did anyone vote for this?" and that's kind of where I'm at at this point. It's like we are kind of in a scenario, it's almost absurdist in the Thai political sphere right now where I would say we have a scenario that quite literally virtually no one wants, maybe other than a small cadre of Phue Thai, what I can only describe as the Shinawatra faction of Phue Thai at this point, because as discussed in prior videos, we recently had a very peaceful protest here in Thailand where people you never would have ever thought if you follow Thai politics, were up on stage together just basically standing in solidarity behind Thailand the Nation. It wasn't partisan, it was just, "hey, we don't want to be sold out to outsiders; we don't want our sovereignty sold out to outsiders." I attended that; I wanted to see what was going on there; I made videos about it and yet here we are. It seems to be sort of getting worse and it's not hyperbole to bring up the Communists. The thumbnail that I used is from a clip in the movie, Other People's Money with Danny DeVito, from the late '80s. There's a great scene where he is talking to his lawyers and he is angry - and I'll put a link in the description below - where he basically says, "you know what happens when capitalism gets messed up? The communists come back. Don't kid yourself. They're out there waiting in the bushes." And that is reflected in the thumbnail and as I will get to, that's not hyperbole, that's not misinformation. We have Communist issues now and I don't think it's coincidental that we have this issue on the heels of having a former Prime Minister who seemed to be very intent on, for lack of better term colonization of Thailand by the World Economic Forum who call for things that are on par with what the old Comintern, the Communist International, used to call for; so this isn't hyperbole here, okay? But let's do some background about how we got here. 

So those who watch the channel with any frequency, you know, we saw the suspension of Ms. Paetongtarn Shinawatra as a result of a Court case that was brought to the Constitutional Court; by the way by 36 senators. It's important to bring this up, because I do know there are a lot of outlets out there that want to spin this as, "oh there's something wrong with this or something". No, there are serious concerns about her conduct in that phone call; 36 Senators rightly so brought it before the Constitution Court. Now understand in a 9 to 0 opinion, the Constitutional Court said, yeah there's a case here, and then in a 7-2 opinion, they said we need to suspend her while we adjudicate this. Now you need to compare that to when Mr. Srettha was removed from office, they actually did not suspend him until they made their final adjudication that he had done something, I believe it was an ethical violation, and then they removed him from office. So a very different posture here, and that different posture will explain why we are stuck with this “acting” Prime Minister that to my mind nobody particularly asked for, and it changes the posture in a way - it can, I don't think It ultimately will - but it puts us in this current sort of holding pattern position with regard to his status because they suspended her first as opposed to last time where he was removed, we automatically went into a caretaker Prime Ministership. This time because she is suspended pending adjudication, they can make the basically procedurally, it goes to an acting PM until a final adjudication is made. That said, as I'll get to, I think intervening circumstances will probably result in some sort of change up here in the relatively near future. 

But that said, going back to the reason for the video. Did anyone vote for this stuff? and frankly people can say, "oh in the last election things did not shake out the way that folks went into that thinking they would." Fine and you can get into reasonable arguments on that whole topic, but at the end of the day, especially once it was a coalition between Bhumjaithai and Phue Thai, the Coalition reflected more than a majority of the membership of Parliament which therefore represented a cross-section of the country that was majoritarianly represented in the Parliament when forming that last Government. Bhumjaithai has now pulled out; there's a lot of talk that, "oh well, everything is hunky dory right now within the Coalition and they have this razor-thin margin," I've made videos before and I have talked about it in the paid news service, and for those who are interested, we do have a paid news service here at Integrity. You can email us, [email protected], where I get into this stuff in further detail. Also while I'm talking about that, Pancake Palace. Pancake Palace is a restaurant I have opened with my better half here in downtown Bangkok. For those who are interested, it's American diner style food. We have got breakfast anytime, including pancakes. We have got cheeseburgers, buffalo wings, chilli bowls, all of that good stuff. If you like American diner style food come check us out: Link in the description below. 

In any event, back to this. What I was talking about is I talked about in the media section before, about how basically or in the paid news section, about how basically we did not come to this, nobody was really looking for this but we have gotten here because the Coalition Party has pulled out and then they are saying that there are still enough votes within the Coalition, even though I have really serious questions about that. The Executive Boards in these parties have said, "yeah we are still part of the Coalition", but the rank-and-file membership I'm not so sure, especially when you look at the Democrat Party and you look at the United Thai Nation Party and I'll get to more on that analysis in something that I will quote further here. That said, first of all we did have a Prime Minister for all of a day, Suriya Jungrungreangkit. This is Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, Suriya Jungrungreangkit set for single day as acting PM. "Thailand's acting Prime Minister is set to helm the country for only one day one full day Wednesday, standing in for suspended Premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra before being replaced himself in the Cabinet Reshuffle." So since then, they have reshuffled the Cabinet and now I will get to further the analysis on that. Meanwhile, I think it's pertinent to note, going back to the issue of well this current Coalition has a majority, albeit a slim margin as they keep saying in the press, maybe they do. I don't know but as I have discussed in other videos, the UTN seems to have fissures in it as well as the Democrat Party, notwithstanding the fact their Executive Boards have voiced their, I guess opinion/decision that they are still part of the Coalition. Again the rank-and-file membership remains to be seen. I think this article adds some complexion to the issue. The Nation, nationthailand.com, the article is titled: House meeting adjourned following opposition's quorum check. Quoting directly: "The meeting of the House of Representatives on the first day of the new Parliamentary session on Thursday had to be adjourned after the opposition called for a quorum check. Deputy House Speaker Pichet Chuamuangphan, adjourned the meeting shortly after it was opened when he realized that the MPs did not meet the quorum." So we have seen them try to open Parliament now and they are unable to do it because there are not enough folks in the Chamber to meet quorum. Now that can mean a number of things and I urge those who are watching this video, check out that article in detail if you want to get into the details. They do go into the fact there were a lot of other meetings going on where MP's might have been present. But lack of a quorum and lack of an ability to get the Session open might be evidence of the fact that all is not well within the Government, and all is not well with their “razor-thin” majority because they are not even able to get enough folks onto the floor to get the actual Session open. So I think that that may be indicative of something there.

Now that said, the other thing to understand and to gain the context of with regard to this is I have seen a lot of really dialectical analysis on this whole thing and then there is all this weird hyperbole, especially from the Western kind of not so much press but social media folks, "oh there's going to be a coup", all of this stuff or it's either a coup or the House dissolves and we go into an election. That's not the case. As we have discussed in other videos, there are currently still five people on slates as candidates per the current Constitution, per the current Parliamentary rules who could be chosen to replace the now-suspended Prime Minister. So it's neither a must that we have to have this acting Prime Minister, nor is it really a foregone conclusion that we are going to continue having this acting Prime Minister and of those five, one of them is a member of the "Core Coalition" Party, Phue Thai. It's not a situation where even the Party would be sort of sidelined from power. They can remain as the Government, it's just we wouldn't have this “acting” person that nobody asked for and we wouldn't necessarily have to be stuck with a caretaker Prime Ministership; there is another choice. Quoting directly from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: "Chaikasem a 'ready but reluctant' PM. Quoting directly, and this is from a while ago and I am just quoting it to give context, quoting directly: "Chaikasem Nitisiri, the third and final Prime Ministerial candidate of the Phue Thai Party in the 2023 election, says he would be willing to take over from Paetongtarn Shinawatra but only if "necessary", amid speculation he would become Thailand's next Premier." Well we are at the point where it is pretty necessary. She has been suspended, so I don't understand why, especially the press is out there talking about this whole issue as if this is just a non-issue, or the topic of yeah, we have a third guy that is on their list. Constitutionally speaking it’s proper, Parliamentary rule speaking it's proper. He could come in there and fill this role, so why are we talking about an “acting” PM like it's a foregone conclusion, when in my mind it's really not. I bring this up after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post bangkokpost.com article is titled: Phumtham vows drug blitz. Quoting directly, again bangkokpost.com, "Interior Minister, Phumtham Wechayachai has pledged a nationwide crackdown on narcotics." Now I want to get to this real quick. There is this talk, it has not happened yet that the, again from the “Core Coalition” Party, the Minister of Public Health wants to unilaterally and in my mind illegally - because I don't understand how this works in line with the Doctrine of Codification as I have talked about at length in other videos on this channel - but  I don't see how they can just unilaterally say a plant is a narcotic overnight. They say they can, but as discussed and I have done the analysis on this as it regards the Doctrine of Codification, I don't see how they can do that. I think they need to pass a law through Parliament. They can't just do it arbitrarily and capriciously and say, "yep we are doing this now, it's a narcotic." So when he says there is going to be a push on narcotics, again it looks to me like they are trying to ramp up basically to excoriate Cannabis and I don't think that they are doing it in the legally correct manner from where I see it, it doesn't seem to me to be the case especially where you consider, not a fortnight ago, not two weeks ago, it was legal and there are 18,000 licensed premises in Thailand to sell this product. They have affirmative licensure from the Government saying what they are doing is legitimate, so how can just overnight, one Ministerial bureaucrat just say, "oh no that's a narcotic now, and you can't do it." As I have discussed in videos going back about 6 months ago, there was a group that said, "hey that looks like cause of action for a lawsuit." Now they may be looking at this and they may be saying, "we haven't triggered the things we need to trigger legally yet before we can bring lawsuits." That remains to be seen. But then my question becomes, who asked for a Communist to crush Cannabis because it looks like they are trying to conflate Cannabis with “narcotics” which I am all for is I have discussed in any other videos. If you want to go after heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, all the terrible drugs that kill people fine do that. In fact I'm glad to pay taxes to my Government to go after. But Cannabis has not proven to be this scourge that these people say it is. And meanwhile, who elected anyone to do this? There is no electoral mandate to do any of this so what are we doing here? That said, quoting further: "…has pledged a nationwide crackdown on narcotics, crime syndicates, and Mafia-style figures, calling the drug crisis a pressing threat to national security." Well wasn't the Prime Minister talking to the Strong Man of Cambodia about “she would give him whatever he wanted”, more of a pressing threat to National Security? I mean that to my mind is more the issue. Meanwhile, what is a “narcotic”? You're trying to call Cannabis a narcotic which again two weeks ago was completely legal and there are affirmative licenses allowing folks to sell that in Thailand. Meanwhile, what are crime syndicates and Mafia-style figures? If you're changing all the definitions of stuff, are these are these political opponents or are they really criminals? I think it's a valid question to ask especially by somebody who's stepping into the role of Prime Minister when nobody asked him to do that, and quite frankly there are other people that could be doing it that would be coming from a more shall we call it due process proper position. That said quoting directly: "Mr. Phumtham, who is also acting Prime Minister on Friday presented policies to senior Ministry officials and Provincial Governors nationwide on his first official day in the role at the Ministry of Interior." I have issues with that as well. I mean look I am not using hyperbole when I use the term "communist" here. Let's go over to Wikipedia, wikipedia.com. "Phumtham Wechayachai, quoting directly: "Phumtham was a member of the Communist Party of Thailand from 1977 to 1978." Okay, and this was not at a time when it was teeheehee, like I am an academic kid in a college and I joined the Communist Party or something. This was the real heyday of this stuff. I have serious concerns about this. Did anyone in Thailand ask for a Communist to be cracking down on something that two weeks ago was legal, and there are 18,000 businesses in Thailand that have been set up to sell this legally with licenses? People have invested money, time, and effort into that, and now we are seeing somebody who was a member of the Communist Party, and by the way whose predecessor who he is “filling in for” as acting PM was happy to court the likes of the World Economic Forum coming here to Thailand. Now he's cracking down on that, as if he has a legal legitimacy to do so, which I question that as well. But my question is, are we being infiltrated by Bolsheviks here? And that's not hyperbole. This is that kind of tactic. If you go into the history of Russia, Bolshevik versus Menshevik, it was the whole majority versus minority where a small clique took over and just started dictating to everyone. This is not apropos of nothing, it is why I bring it up. That said, quoting further: "He reiterated a message he had delivered stating that the Ministry of Interior plays a crucial role in Thailand's governance framework from the provincial to the district level in implementing policy and addressing grassroots problems". Neato, and we are going to have a Communist in that role spreading more World Economic Forum propaganda, and these are the people that literally say, "you will own nothing and be happy". I mean what is more Bolshevik than that type of sentiment? 

Meanwhile let's go over here to France 24, quoting directly from the article titled: 'Big Comrade' Wow, neat. So the acting Prime Minister is known to the French as Big Comrade. Big Comrade, Former Defense Chief takes reins as Thai PM. And again this is an acting capacity, and the media out there is just talking about this as if it's oh well this is what is happening. Well there's another set of protocols, okay? This is sort of a weird limbo technicality where he is “acting” PM on behalf of somebody who was suspended by the way, for serious questions as to whether or not they effectively sold out the country to a foreign operator, and we have this on tape and she has said she is in the tape where she is saying, "yeah, our guy on the front line, our Army Commander on the front line is the opponent." I mean at a certain point, this starts to come together, and it looks really insidious and frankly I really have issues with it. Quoting further: "Thailand's former Defense Chief is said to be appointed acting Prime Minister on Thursday..." Well, no he's not really appointed, he is just filling in the role. As discussed a minute ago, we have another person waiting in the wings that is on the list from the same party as the Core Coalition party who could be doing this, and he's just sort of there in the acting role, and we are not in a caretaker government yet because she has only been suspended pending adjudication. So he is basically operating in the breach if you will, in a sort of a political legal sense. Quoting further: "..capping a colourful career for the political heavyweight once nicknamed "Big Comrade". He fled to the jungle where Communist guerillas were plotting uprisings against the nation's military, and recently he has been questioned over his associations." Yeah, he was in the jungle with these Communist guerillas. It begs some questions.

My point really isn't even getting into the substance of him and his background. It is, again we have a methodology, a mechanism in place through Parliament, to pick a replacement for the currently suspended Prime Minister and that replacement would come from her same Party and that replacement was on the slate that was voted for back in the elections of 2023. So why do we have this this former communist - I don't know if he's even former, all we know is he was definitely in the party for a year and he went into the jungle with these folks - I don't know, I can't speak to his internal thoughts and things so I won't, but what I am saying is why is this person who's not in that mechanism now "acting" PM, and now is talking about a big push against narcotics and I have to ask about "narcotics" that were not considered narcotics two weeks ago, and 18,000 operations here in Thailand went and got legal licenses to operate in. Meanwhile as discussed in other videos I have other serious questions most notably about the Casino Bill which they keep trying to push on Thailand and the possibility that in his role as Interior Minister, is he going to be pushing for allowing these foreign casinos which it is my understanding under the current iteration of the Bill, could be operated exclusively by foreigners and the operation can be wholly owned by foreigners. But on top of that, in his role as Interior Minister signing over land deeds to foreigners so that they can own the casino complexes. All of this adds up to really a kind of perfect storm of problematic issues I see surrounding this whole thing, and meanwhile nobody in the press seems to be really talking about the fact there is an alternative to this. There could be a person through Parliamentary mechanisms coming from the same Party as the recently suspended PM who could be put in as Prime Minister, and we could all go down the road. So again, basically this video is for background, and we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.