Transcript of the above video:

A lot of continued talk about the recent peaceful protest here in Thailand. There seems to be this ongoing effort to spin certain aspects of what's going on over here. I recently did a video where I myself discussed the fact that frankly this whole notion of people trying to spin up or sensationalize the notion there is going to be a coup here is pretty outside of the reality of the facts on the ground right now. I don't think anybody really wants that. There are political solutions, multiple political solutions by the way, and it looks very likely that one of them will probably come to pass. And as I said that prior video, I've been out here a long time. I'm originally from Kansas. Coups, I look at like tornadoes. There's like a confluence of things that happen, and you get a feel for what it looks like or what one coming would look like, and at the present time, I genuinely don't get that feeling. I think if anything, what we're going to see is it possible political transition and frankly under the current circumstances, it looks pretty warranted as I discussed in prior videos.

That said, I thought of making this particular video after reading two recent articles from the Bangkok Post, and hats off to the Bangkok Post, a great source of information on Thai politics, just Thailand news generally. Bangkok Post is quite good. Other publications which we quote and cite on here are quite good as well but really Bangkok Post, I think it's safe to say is the English language paper of record if you will with regard to Thailand or maybe Bangkok specifically, but I think Thailand-wide as well; it is fair to say that as well. That said, the article is titled: PM could face court test. And as we have discussed, all the stuff that has happened with this current Prime Minister, especially this leaked phone call, are leading to serious developments with regard to whether or not she is going to remain in office and if it's not abundantly clear from my prior videos, I don't think she should. I don't know exactly what she was thinking when she made that phone call to Hun Sen but I know that it means one of two things. Either she needs to leave because she had my opinion nefarious intentions, or she wasn't frankly competent enough to know that that kind of communication was not appropriate in an extreme way. I mean the word “appropriate” is kind of an understatement here. That said, quoting directly: “In response to a recent opinion poll showing a drop in the Prime Minister's popularity, he,” and this is some advisor. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out the article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, quoting further: “He stated that the poll had been conducted earlier, adding the sentiment had now improved as more people understand the context of the conversation between Ms. Paetongtarn and Hun Sen.” What context? Her calling him up, calling him Uncle, saying he can have basically whatever he wants, saying let's reopen the border at the same time and he disagreed and then calling our own uniformed personnel, the Commander in the field who's tasked with putting himself in harm's way to defend Thailand, to call that person an “opponent”? What further context do we need here? And I don't buy that. I'm just I'm sorry that sounds like spin to me. That said, let's go further here and real quick, well the whole issue of Thai sovereignty needs no context and what we will get into in the next citation here talks about the fact that there seems to be some spin now trying to be set up to talk about this in a more partisan manner. I was at that protest; it was completely peaceful, it was not a partisan gathering, okay? This is people like myself, and I'll get to all of this here in a moment in more detail, but it's folks that are just concerned about the sovereignty of Thailand because that sovereignty is the bulwark against outside forces protecting Thai freedoms; that's the point. And apparently, the leadership in what I'll call the Rump Coalition doesn't seem to get this, and it also seems like folks in the media don't seem to get this. That's our concern. Thailand. The sovereignty of Thailand is the concern. This is even political. It is an order of magnitude down from the issue of national sovereignty. That's what is concerning everyone, okay?

Real quick here. Just to let folks know, I do now have a paid news service; Integrity News Service which is we're trying to expand it out .I am liking more and more the notion of providing people with insight and commentary and news. We do deeper dives into this and many other things especially as it pertains to expats. More and more I kind of want to talk international economics especially as it pertains to Thailand and greater Southeast Asia. If you're interested in that, [email protected]. Also, Pancake Palace. My better half and I have opened a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. We are catering to folks that like American diner food. We have got chilli, we've got buffalo wings, we've got cheeseburgers. Now we have glass bottle Coke. We are looking to add milkshakes and things of that nature. Also and I hadn’t pointed this out before, I will note it more in the future, we do have Thai food options as well. So if you have a significant other who is not particularly into American food, we have Thai options on our menu as well. So Pancake Palace, the link is in the description below. 

Now moving forward on this issue of Thai sovereignty and this spin that seems to be going on because there seems to be forces trying to keep this purely in kind of a partisan or political framework. That's not what is going on here. People that are upset about this are not upset about it because they care particularly about politics. That was the big takeaway I have from being at the actual event and then and as we will get into in this citation, it's from the article: New anti-Paetongtarn group draws scrutiny, bangkokpost.com, that's the first misnomer. This is not per se an anti-Paetongtarn group; this was a pro-Thai sovereignty group, okay? People are concerned, I myself am one of them. I have voiced first of all my concerns about the underlying of Thai Sovereignty in the form of the World Economic Forum coming out here and her acting like some kind of hostess to those folks, if anything somebody opening the games if you will to allow in the foreign marauders in the form of the World Economic Forum, that's my real concern. Stuff like the OECD where they are coming in and telling us - and Trump in the United States, just as a counterpoint if you will or a point of reference on this, affirmatively rejected everything associated with OECD citing national sovereignty; I discussed that in another video. So this WEF stuff and this OECD stuff is concerning enough. Then this woman gets on the phone with Hun Sen and seems to be handing over border prerogatives to the guy on the other side of the border. This is not partisan. I can't stress that enough. I don't like Thai partisan politics, okay? That's the reason that this to my mind is different, and it is why I get upset. Look, I'm a naturalized Thai. I came here. In a sense this place gave me a level of refuge and I appreciate it. Maybe I appreciate it more even than folks that live here because I come to it from an outsider’s perspective. I am not saying I understand it better or worse, I just have a different perspective, and I find this stuff very concerning. Again what happened on Sunday past, this past weekend was not, excuse me Saturday, was not an anti-Paetongtarn protest per se, there was a lot of talk about “she needs to go” as I have discussed on this video, and when I say that I mean she needs to resign or hopefully we will see some kind of further action. Maybe the Coalition will just fall apart politically of its own accord; we may see action from the Courts, it remains to be seen but it's not a matter of even any of us particularly care about the Party in power, it's the fact that she herself either intentionally undermined Thailand's sovereignty or did not have the competence to understand that what she was doing was undermining Thailand's sovereignty. That's why we are concerned, and that is why people think she has got to go. This isn't political, this is just we are concerned about our country, that's the point. 

That said, quoting directly, again bangkokpost.com, New anti-Paetongtarn protest draws scrutiny. Again that is a misnomer. It's not an anti-Paetongtarn protest, it's a pro-Thai sovereignty protest. Quoting further: "Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political and security analyst, said the protest was notable for uniting figures from former rival groups including red shirts, the People’s Alliance for Democracy, aka yellow shirts, and the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) as well as academics and some senators.” Yeah I have noted this as well. I never in a million years, if you would have told me 15 years ago in 2010, that you would have seen these people on the same stage, I would have called you a liar. I would never have believed it and that goes to the point of this. This isn't partisan, this is Thais who couldn't disagree on things more otherwise, getting together and saying whoa, whoa, whoa. It's kind of like the quote from Benjamin Franklin in the founding days of the United States Republic when he said, “we shall all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately.” That's the concern. Thailand sovereignty protects all of us Thais. That is what needs to be understood; this isn't partisan; this isn't political. Quoting further: “Mr. Panitan stressed the importance of monitoring unaffiliated citizens and online platforms which have played a major role in spreading the protest message.” Are you talking about me? Unaffiliated citizens and online platforms? Well okay. Whatever. “He also pointed to the potential influence of upcoming judicial rulings on the PM’s status expected after July 1, in shaping public sentiment.” Well beyond shaping public sentiment, it may change the makeup of the Government frankly; as we have been discussing, I think it's probably warranted under the circumstances, as again she either understood she was undermining Thailand sovereignty, or she didn't and in either case that's probably not the person we need to be the leading the country right now. That said, quoting further: “Another legal scholar, Komsan Pohkong, emphasized that the demonstration reflected informed civic engagement.” Yeah, that's well put, and that is what we are talking about here. This isn't political partisanship, it's not demagoguery, it's just look this is an issue that pertains to Thai sovereignty. We're concerned about it; something needs to change on this score and that something is quite specific.  In fact it is simply embodied in one person. Quoting further: “This wasn't mob rule. These participants were concerned, largely middle-class citizens expressing political dissatisfaction in an organized way.” He warned against dismissing their concerns, particularly around national sovereignty.” Yeah. As I discussed in another video, one thing I was talking to somebody who was there and they were saying hey, this isn't like other things we've been to in the past, political events and things, where you have to walk around on eggshells and worry about talking about the wrong political actor in the wrong way for fear that you are going to upset them, which is sort of like the polarization we have seen in the United States here recently especially politically, it's sort of the antithesis of that. Everybody was just there basically supporting Thailand. That was the message. We care about our sovereignty; we care about the independence of our nation state; we care about the fact that this country needs to be governed by somebody who understands that Thai national sovereignty protects us as the citizenry from undue outside influence. And if we don't have that person, we need to find somebody else.

So again, I think it's really worth pointing out the exact context of all this and try to dispel some of the spin because this isn't political; this isn't like in times past when this has been some attempt to trigger some other type of mechanism here in Thailand that will lead to some major change that could be detrimental to the country. No, this is just concern as it says in the article. Middle class kind of the “every man” type of Thai, basically saying, “hey, we care about our country; we care about its independence; we care about its sovereignty and we don't want to see it undermined.”