Transcript of the above video: 

So lately we have been going more and more over into some of the political news and I am kind of liking it. I am doing more deeper dives in other videos regarding political news, and we are going to continue to make the kind of news that we have always made for expats, legal news, but frankly right now we are in kind of a state of flux with this government thing. I am hesitant, I have noticed a lot of the idiots on YouTube that talk a lot of expat related stuff - frankly I don't even think they know what they are talking about generally - but then they do deep dives into what is going on with visas and things. We are really very much in a fluid position right now. I'm not making videos that say, "this is how you're doing things, right now", because quite honestly, it's similar to COVID in a way, but the problem is at least with COVID, we did have spokespeople that came out and said, "okay, this is what we are doing." Right now, again with politics being so much in flux, it is very difficult to see what policies are real, what are really being implemented and what are going to be implemented in the future. So I do deep dives into that also in our paid news service, that's Integrity News Service. Anybody that is interested in that, you can email us, [email protected]. While I'm talking on the side about such things, those of you who are interested in American diner style food or breakfast anytime here in downtown Bangkok, Pancake Palace. I've set that up with my better half here. We've opened that up; it's American diner style food. We've got as the name implies, pancakes, all day breakfast, and we have got hamburgers, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings, chilli bowls, all that good stuff - even Coke in glass bottles. Come on down, Pancake Palace. Link is in the description below to get there. 

Now what are we talking about in this video today with regard, first of all to the surprise survey and where are we getting this thumbnail from? This" How You Like me Now?" from Prayut. Well oddly enough, we got it from a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 80% of Thais want PM Paetongtarn to quit or dissolve House. In the past, I have been somewhat critical of these polls, so I am going to do a deep analysis of the poll, because I think it is worth noting that it's not just some fly-by-night opinion poll here. Quoting directly: "An opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration early this month found more than 80% of respondents wanted suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to either resign or dissolve the House. Gen. Prayut Chan-o-Cha was the most favourite choice as the next premier." And that's the reason for the thumbnail. 

I have got to be honest with you, if you would have told me back in the fall of 2023, that there would be a later opinion poll that said we would really like to see Prayut back or a plurality and not an insubstantial plurality of the respondents said, "we would like to see him back", I would have thought that was pretty unlikely. But in the events that have transpired, especially the interjection of the World Economic Forum into things out here, which we didn't see for an entire decade go by, we didn't have to deal with those people. A lot of the machinations that have occurred in the interim since August of '23 and now, I'm not that surprised standing here today.

That said, quoting further: "NIDA conducted the phone survey on 1,310 people" - so that's the sample size - "people sampled nationwide from July 4 to 7. Of the respondents, 42.37% of wanted Ms. Paetongtarn to resign so that the nation would have a new Prime Minister." So as discussed in prior videos, if she was to just resign and step aside, there is the possibility that the third person on the Phue Thai slate could take her place. Within Parliament, that is within the laws, that is within the Constitution, it is within Parliamentary procedure. They could have a vote, reconstitute a new Government and move on, but she's not stepping aside. As I have discussed in other videos, it puts the country in a very precarious position because she is suspended pending this Constitutional Court case, which by the way was taken up 9 to 0 to adjudicate her conduct, and in a 7 to 2 decision, the Court decided to suspend her pending the adjudication. It's noteworthy that in the past when Mr. Srettha was removed from office for ethical violations stemming from a ruling from the Constitutional Court, they did not suspend him, but they did remove him which after removal, a caretaker Government went in and then things shifted, and we got the new Government. As it sits now, we are in a precarious position because she is suspended and now we have this "acting" Prime Minister, the Communist, and I am not saying that apropos of nothing, he was an avowed Communist. Phumtham Wechayachai, is currently the "acting" Prime Minister which I've seen stuff in the press talking about him as a caretaker Prime Minister and it is my understanding he is in a substantively different position than being a caretaker Prime Minister as he is the acting Prime Minister; that's my understanding. 

That said, that's where we are at. If she was to resign, it's my understanding Phue Thai could choose someone new - again their third person from their slate - put them before the Parliament. If Parliament agrees, okay yeah that's who we will have as the new Prime Minister which I think could happen fairly, I won't say easily, but it could happen in a rather straightforward manner, we would move on, but she's not doing that. So here we are, sitting here with a suspended PM and an acting PM who by the way has ignored the Council of State and other things - I get into that in other videos I have already made and in some videos I am making contemporaneously with this one - but that said, that's where things stand right now. So this poll is saying that 42.37% wanted Ms. Paetongtarn to resign so the nation would have a new Prime Minister.  Meanwhile, 39.92% of respondents called on her to dissolve the House of Representatives to pave the way for a fresh general election, and 0.99% wanted to see a coup d'état." Well nobody I think really wants to see that. That's margin of error. That said, it is worth pointing out that some, what have we got here, 82% of the country I guess would like to see, from what I am seeing in this article, would like to see some major change, either dissolution or she steps aside and we can see somebody else from their ranks come forward. That is pretty telling. This one though to my mind is something to pay close attention to. Quoting directly: "On the contrary, 15.04% of respondents wanted Ms. Paetongtarn to continue with her national administration." So that's her hardcore support. If anybody out there - especially in the English-speaking world - who is watching this, that doesn't really understand the ins and outs, and wants to know how much support does she really have, I think that's very telling. 15%. Not a lot by any metric. That said, quoting further: "When asked who among existing Prime Ministerial candidates should replace Ms. Paetongtarn as Prime Minister, the biggest group of respondents, 38.82%, favoured Gen. Prayut Chan-o-Cha, who is a Privy Counselor and is a Prime Ministerial candidate of the United Thai Nation Party." 

Again, if you would have told me that back in fall of 2023, I would have said that that sounded pretty unlikely, but here we are and quite honestly, we are here and it has driven here because of the actions of the currently suspended Prime Minister and the policies of this "Core Coalition" Party which seem to be especially preoccupied with notions of the World Economic Forum, seem to be preoccupied with creating a Casino here, the enterprise of which would be run primarily by foreigners, and as I have discussed in other videos, the possibility that even the land associated would be sold to foreigners. Again, they seem preoccupied with issues that aren't really of main concern - and that is an understatement - to most Thais, and as a result I think that's why we are here. That said, quoting further, and I think again this is also noteworthy, where the sample size came from. "Of all the respondents, 8.55% lived in Bangkok" - so okay, that is your city folks, so if anybody said, "oh it was just a poll of the city, well only eight and a half percent was the city people - Quoting further: "18.70% in the Central Plains," - so again some people would say that is kind of your more, I look at that like the way you would look at Middle America in America: from Ohio all the way to like the Eastern Border of Nevada, it is like the heartland if you will. Quoting further: "17.79% in the North", so that's the true north. That's up like Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai area, that kind of thing. And then this I thought was very telling, "33.28% in the Northeast". Which people are always saying, "well they don't ever really account for people up in E-San in the Northeast". Well 33.28% of this poll was conducted among folks up there. Quoting further: "13.82% in the South and 7.86% in the East." So this was a broad survey, and this is what they came up with. 

Then moving over here. I thought about making this in two videos, but there are only so many hours in the day and I do have a real job around here. Moving over to this whole, "now Thaksin is a lobbyist". It's like, why do you think people are sitting here saying, I know myself, why would people say, "hey maybe the days of Prayut aren't looking so bad right now". Well it's because of all of these just the chicanery and nonsense and frankly what looks to me like every time we turn around, it looks like something that is untoward and may or may not be in the interest of Thailand, and on balance looks like it is probably not in the interest of Thailand. That said, also especially since we have seen this "acting" PM come in and be very dismissive, I've discussed this in another video, him talking about his powers to dissolve the House, the Council of State said, "hey no, you don't have that", and he said, "well that's just your opinion". I did the video on that. I find that very concerning. Again, I have made the videos. It reminds me of Bolshevik-style thinking and from somebody that was an avowed Communist, and was in the jungle as a Communist back in the day, it's not outside the realm of reason to talk about such things like that.

That said, getting into this whole issue of "now Thaksin is a lobbyist". Quoting directly from a recent article from the Nation, that's nationthailand.com. First of all, I haven't waded into the US-Thai trade issues very much yet, quite honestly because there is this non-disclosure agreement which I will get into on that here in a second, but it's under sort of an agreement of confidentiality. Meanwhile, I haven't wanted to get into it because frankly I am just kind of hoping that the professionals get into a room and work it out. I'm a big believer in the alliance; I believe in the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. For those who are unaware, it allows many, many benefits for Americans to do business here in Thailand that no other nationality is granted frankly. So it's not an insignificant thing. I started my business under the auspices of that agreement, and I've had a good life here in Thailand and as an American here who became a Thai, I believe in both countries and I believe in the alliance. So I have been hoping for the best and I have just kind of left it out there in the hope that they would come back and say, "okay we have a deal." But now it looks like Thaksin is sticking his nose into all of that. That said, I do have issues with the confidentiality, but I was okay with it until it was well, confidentiality for the broad public, but when it comes to Thaksin, oh no he gets to be a lobbyist now. Which I have never even heard that term used in that context, but now he's a lobbyist. That said, let's get into it.

Quoting from the Nation, nationthailand.com, the article is titled: Thai Finance Minister Dismisses US Tariff Rumours, Submits New Proposal. The thrust of that goes a different way but I want to quote directly here on the issue of confidentiality, quoting: "Addressing calls for transparency regarding the ongoing discussions, Pichai explained that the negotiations, involving both US and Thai teams, remain confidential as per agreement and standard negotiating etiquette." I had a problem with that and I held my tongue at the time, but as we will get into, now Thaksin is just sticking his nose in this thing and it is reminding me a lot of the issues surrounding casinos in Thailand, where casinos, they had this secret deal that none of us got to see it. Then Reuters came out and it turned out all of these foreign interests were involved in the Casino Bill drafting process but us regular old Thais hadn't even seen the Bill yet. I did the video on that going back, it has been within the last 6 months. That said, so other people had an issue with this too and quoting again from the Nation, nationthailand.com, the article is: Ruangkrai asks NACC to investigate Pichai over Thaksin's invitation to official meeting. Quoting directly: "Alleged breach of ethical standards. Ruangkrai alleged that Pichai had violated the Ethical Standards Act for Holders of Positions in Independent Organizations of 2018 by inviting Thaksin to a meeting of government negotiators and Prime Ministerial advisors. The meeting, held at the Ban Phitsanulok Residence on Friday, focused on Thailand's economic response to retaliatory US import tariffs." And again, the Nation cites that this was under a Confidentiality Agreement. 

I am going to going to go ahead and put up on bangkokbiznews.com, we will put up the Thai language article. There was a Thai language article which also cited that this is under a non-disclosure agreement; this is supposed to be between the two Governments. Why is somebody not in the Government involved in this? It is a good question. I have my own issues with the notion of these two Governments talking and it not being in the public space. That's a different question, perhaps for a different video. But where it has been decided between these two sovereign actors that they are going to hold it confidentially, why is this person allowed to be involved in it? Quoting further: "Potential violations of five key articles. Quoting: "According to Ruangkrai, allowing an outsider to join a high-level policy meeting on national issues could constitute a breach of several ethical articles. He urged the NACC to investigate Pichai's conduct in line with the following: 

Article 8: Must perform duties with honesty and integrity, and must not seek undue benefits for oneself or others.." - yeah, I have a question about that. When the current acting Prime Minister refers to Mr. Thaksin as a "Lobbyist", lobbyists tend to advocate for the benefit of something - quoting further: "...nor engage in or condone conduct that allows others to exploit one's position for improper gain." Quoting further: 

"Article 11: Must not engage in any act that creates a conflict between personal interest and the public interest, whether directly or indirectly." And there's a good question there. The Prime Minister is currently suspended. Thaksin holds no position at all. This was a Government to Government communication. Why was he there? Because he could only be there in a personal capacity. Quoting further: 

"Article 12: must uphold the rule of law and conduct oneself in accordance with the moral and ethical standards of society.

Article 14: Must strictly preserve the confidentiality of meetings and deliberations." I read that again: "Must strictly preserve the confidentiality of meetings and deliberations." Well how are we preserving the confidentiality which is agreed between the two parties, if this non-government actor was allowed in on it? Quoting further: "and must respect the majority resolution as well as the reasoning of all parties.

Article 17: Must refrain from any act that would tarnish the dignity or integrity of the position held." 

So in response to this, our acting Prime Minister, whatever you want to call him, Phumtham, quoting directly from the Nation, again nationthailand.com: Phumtham says Thaksin consulted in US trade meeting as lobbyist. Quoting directly: "Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Monday that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was invited to a meeting between US Trade negotiators" -  so it's notable he is saying he was invited, so that's corroborated. – quoting further: "between US Trade negotiators and the Prime Minister's advisors because he is a skilled lobbyist." Okay first of all, it's notable. I've noticed that this guy doesn't really care what the definitions of things are and seems to just think, frankly his prerogative is what matters and others don't. He has explicitly sort of disregarded the Council of State; we have discussed that in other videos. That said, at the end of the day, just calling the guy a lobbyist doesn't just wash it all away. What is that? Quoting further: "Phumtham explained that Thaksin had been invited to join Thailand's negotiation teams in talks with the US Government on import tariffs held on Friday July 11. He justified the invitation by citing Thaksin's lobbying skills." My question is, did you permit the invitation as well? If so, what does that entail? I don't know.

That said, meanwhile what lobbying skills? What has this person ever lobbied for? Since the time he has been back, the only two things I can remember him lobbying for was a Digital Wallet Scheme that was to place the country into a massive amount of debt, a massive amount of debt, for what? To put us all under this digital money that could be tracked and traced; they could turn it on and off at will; it had an expiration date and they could deem that you had a certain perimeter in which you could buy goods and services using said tokens. So that's one thing he “lobbied for”. The other thing he seems to have “lobbied for” is this casino boondoggle, that I was actually kind of in favour of at first, and then as it evolved, it turned out to be this Bill, the last iteration I heard of, would have allowed foreigners to own the enterprise and then they basically alienated the other Coalition party, main Coalition Party Bhumjaithai, forcing out that Party. Looks to me like, in order to shoehorn in this Mr. Phumtham, and I made the video asking the question, "is that being done so he can sign off on selling the underlying land of the casino to foreigners? Because those look like the two big things that Thaksin has been "lobbying on" since the time I've been watching him in earnest over the past roughly two years. That said, quoting further: " or here's another one. Lobbying, the lobbies of Davos? The lobbies of the World Economic Forum because that is another thing he seems to have been “lobbying for”, at least his daughter has been, because she brought the World Economic Forum representative over here to Thailand, had a big talk with him in the Purple Room. I really am curious what this history of “lobbying” is. Quoting further: "He added that the government should be open to input from various individuals.." - well whoever else is consulted? I haven't seen anybody pick up the phone and ask me anything about it. Give me a break. Quoting further: "..especially if it benefits the country, and that no one should criticize the decision to include Thaksin in the discussion." So says the communist. No one is to criticize! Quoting further: "Phumtham denied claims that Thaksin was trying to control or interfere in government affairs." - Oh yeah! Why would we ever think that? Yet he was at the meeting. Well he is at the meeting; he's a lobbyist. He's not really supposed to be there because he's not involved in the government in any way, but he's not interfering. Quoting further: "Instead he said Thaksin's opinions were sought due to his expertise." Yeah okay. Expertise in what? This guy has been completely out of the loop. Expertise in English football? Because he owned Man City? I mean what expertise are you talking about? These are high level tariff and trade negotiations that need to be carried out between the sovereign envoys of each country, not being nosed in by some guy that frankly seems to, at every angle, in every instance try to play an angle, and my question is to whose benefit? Is it to Thailand's benefit? Because thus far, I haven't seen the evidence for that.

That said, the situation is evolving and we will continue to keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.