Transcript of above video:

Over the course of roughly the past well, 18 months more in earnest, but even going back into really since August of 2023 I've commented more on politics on his channel than I ever did before that, and then in this past summer it became rather acute for a variety of different reasons, but this channel isn't primarily dedicated to that type of stuff although where it has an interplay with legal matters, immigration matters, expat world, etc., I will comment on it. We do have the news service channel as well, Integrity News Service and I do Checkpoint Benji check-ins over there every once in a while, where I will do sort of op-ed news, sort of news and views if you will, so please feel free to check that out. Also while I'm plugging stuff, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok called Pancake Palace. We would love to see some of you viewers come by if you feel like it; links are in the description below. As the name implies, breakfast anytime. We also have English breakfast as well as American style breakfast and American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, grilled cheese sandwiches. If you're interested, come on down; we've even got coke in glass bottles. 

But the reason for the video, I thought about not really commenting on the Prime Ministerial elections and things. There are other sources, there are other outlets out there that are covering it well, but it felt like, kind of puts a pin in things if you will for what we have seen over the past year and as the title of this video implies, I really feel like Thailand is moving on and I'll get into this here in a moment, but let's go into citations. 

I initially thought of making this video after reading a recent article, well I guess I should correct myself, the article, it is not really an article per se, it is a Press Statement from Marco Rubio, Secretary of State titled: Re-Election of Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. Quoting directly: "The United States congratulates Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on his re-election. The United States greatly values our alliance and deep friendship with Thailand, spanning nearly two centuries. We appreciate the Prime Minister's close corporation with us on key priorities, including economic prosperity, law enforcement cooperation on cyber scams, modernizing our defense alliance, and helping to promote peace and stability in the region. We look forward to working closely with Prime Minister Anutin and his new Government to further strengthen the U.S.-Thai relationship by promoting peace and prosperity for both our peoples. Together, we will continue to make our country safer, stronger, and more prosperous." And then, moving over here also from NNT, this is over on Facebook under National News Bureau of Thailand. Quote: “His Majesty the King has graciously granted a Royal Command appointing Anutin Charnvirakul as Prime Minister, effective from March 19, 2026, onwards”. So obviously, we know who the new Prime Minister is or who the Prime Minister continues to be.

This election and everything that I have seen in the past roughly 18 years that I've been here, it seems to cap off really to my mind something that has been going on for about 15 years. The unpleasantness that we saw in 2010 led to sort of a cyclical, not led to but was part of a sort of cyclical of sort of cyclical negative feedback loop that has been going on in Thailand for some time now. I don't want to get in the factionalization of it, I just want to talk about the systemic nature of what this thing was. It was problematic for a variety different reasons because it left Thailand just constantly kind of spinning her wheels for lack of a better term and I really do believe that this election marks a watershed moment. Thailand is moving on. The politics of getting on with it if you will, or politics of moving on, I got that from, it is sort of paraphrasing a scene in the film Air America where Mel Gibson is talking about why he's sort of anti-communist or starting to be, why he was doing what he was doing in that movie and he said he talked about the politics of Saturday Night and he said I figured all the good places the politics of Saturday Night were a pretty good time then I came to later find out that most people kind of also want to have a good Saturday night. 

At the end of the day, what I'm trying to say with this video is I am happy Thailand is able to move on and really get out of this feedback loop that she's been in almost the entire time I've been here really, and it has been in earnest for about 15 years. And it's been odd because the Military Government which lasted for almost 10, sort of operated in a kind of almost vacuum from broader political issues, because it sort of put on hold again this feedback loop and it was sort of a stop gap if you will. It wasn't the most optimal, but it was the best I think, solution that could be come up with at the moment, in the moment, at that time. But that said, Thailand has clearly evolved and I am really happy to see that she is putting a lot of these past cleavages behind her and we can now start moving into a situation where we can get some things done, and it didn't come a moment too soon, because I think Thailand's going to have to stand unified in a very chaotic world and in a world where Thailand's going to have to fend for herself. This is a good time to not be dealing with this sort of internal negative feedback loop and just getting on with it. 

So I'm happy to see these things. I'm hoping all plays out well in the forthcoming months, and hopefully years. That being said, we will still be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.