Transcript of the above video: 

So it looks like the US is getting ready to send a new Ambassador out here to Thailand and let me just dig into it. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Thai PBS World, that is, world.thaipbs.or.th, the article is titled: Trump's nominee O'Neal confirmed as Ambassador to Thailand. Quoting directly: "The US Senate has confirmed Sean O'Neill, a former Consul General in Chiang Mai, as the next US Ambassador to Thailand. He was among a group of more than 100 nominees proposed by US President Trump voted in with a simple majority. The party-line vote comes after Senate Republicans changed the rules last month to allow most executive branch nominees to be confirmed as a group, whereas lawmakers previously had to hold a vote on each one. Several of the appointees critical to Mr. Trump's Asia diplomacy were also confirmed in the 51 - 47 vote." Quoting further: "These included nominees for senior State Department positions like Michael de Sombre" - for those who are unaware, that is the former Ambassador to Thailand, as they say here - "a former Ambassador to Thailand, as assistant Secretary of State in charge of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Paul Kapur as his counterpart in charge of South Asian affairs."

So again, pretty big news and I look forward to seeing Mr. O'Neill as the Ambassador here; it will be interesting to see how things move along on his watch. I think it's worth noting, and I would just like to take this opportunity to give a real tip of the hat to Ambassador Godec who has been the Ambassador here for a number of years now. I'll comment especially comings and goings, but I don't really like to comment overall on what the Embassy is doing or anything like that because I am in kind of a different position; in a sense I guess you could say we sort of stand apart, although I don't want it to seem like an adversarial thing. But I just have to say I have watched Godec here for years and frankly in all my time in Thailand going on 18 years now, I have to say that I think Mr. Godec is pretty much for lack of a better term, the “best” if you will Ambassador I have seen here as of yet, in terms of the way he works, the output, the results he has gotten during his tenure of office here as Ambassador to Thailand. I have got to say, I was very much impressed by it. 

So I am on a certain level sad to see him go because I think he was a very good, very competent Ambassador, but I am also very hopeful to see what sort of new innovations this new Ambassador may be bringing in. All of that remains to be seen and we will certainly be keeping folks updated on these development as they evolve.