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SPeCiaL RePoRT: UNDeRSTaNDiNG THe PoLiTiCS oF THaiLaND...

Submitted by williambanzai7 on 05/08/2014 15:19 -0400

Now do you understand the politics of Thailand?

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Fri, 05/09/2014 - 02:55 | 4742595 janus

far be it from janus to deviate from the subject at hand; none on the Hedge maintain a more rigid adherence to 'the topic' as does yours truly, but there are times when the discipline and focus of the severest among us is challenged by various circumstances and forces unseen -- and this is just such a time. to put it another way, things have happened; and it is my obligation to share.

{WARNING: janus is not responsible for any epileptic seizures, nervous tics, drug addictions, therapy sessions, nightmares, angioplasties, lobotomies, circumcisions, voodoo rituals, hail marys or any other procedures or repercussions that may result from the reading of this post.}

when you read a lot of weird shit on line, you get a sense for the pitch and tenor of whatever weirdness presently permeates the cyber-hive (i do hereby trademark the term "cyber-hive"). it troubles me that the whole soothsayer game has devolved into a petty competition...what was once a noble and respectable trade for gypsies and other lice-ridden tramps is now the hobby-horse of lack-wits and retards aspiring to one-up each other for most spectacular numbskullery.

i took all of this into consideration and decided to win; and to do it in convincing fashion. so you can take all your palm-readers, all your shaman, all your visionaries, all your mediums and all your cystal ballers and spit in their eye for me. after reading what follows, i promise that every other fortune-teller and oracle you ever in any way encounter will be a sour disappointment...as i was saying, i not only intend to beat these rascals at their own game; i aim to put them to everlasting shame.

okay, before i tear into the meat of this, i should probably smoke a cigarette and set it all up with a song or two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrZRURcb1cM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vlAdMeZSfw

you may at this point be asking yourself, 'what makes this particular prophesy so special?' i'm glad you may be asking yourself that...it's got all the ingredients: out of body experience? check! past-life/reincarnation motif? you know it! creepy native american witch-doctor? certainly. drug use? quite possibly. stay tuned...

alright, i'm sure y'all know how it goes with out-of-body experiences: one minute you're in-body, and then all of a sudden shit starts gettin crazy and, well, you're floating through time and space...shit happens....anyway, about two hours ago i was swept away in just such a state, teleported back to the time of pioneers and trappers and candle-stick makers...and, as regards janus, there was also at this time a brisk business in bead trading. see, in one of my past lives, i was a 'pioneer' in the world of real estate speculation...i'd go from tribe to tribe swapping the most exquisite glass beads for endless hectares of land (literally, as far as the eye could see). business was good. i was everywhere allocating capital and seeing to it that the 'market' functioned and, above all, that contracts were honored.

one evening, after inking a few lucrative deals, feasting on fresh vinision, taking in a little fire-side allegorical dance number by the natives, and then finishing up with a couple of squaws back at the executive tee-pee, i made my way over to the witch-doctor's tee-pee for some good ole fashioned peace-pipery. as past-janus sat there with the witch-doctor and big chief puff-puff-pass, i saw my past self suddenly noticing my present self; we waved and everything, but it was awkward.

so i watched past-life-janus burn down with these injuns, and this is, to the best of my memory, what was said:

janus: so, big chief puff-puff-pass, how did mrs. puff-puff-pass like those shiny beads you gave her? i'll bet she lost all control; did she not? nothing will loosen up those animal-pelt panties like shiny glass beads.

at this point, janus and big chief puff-puff-pass high-five and dance around praising the power of glass beads like a couple of wild, godless savages. but, leave it to a witch doctor to harsh the vibe. no sooner had my past-life speculator-self packed another peace pipe and mister party-pooper (the witch doctor) starts quaking and slobberin and rolling around on the dirt. i felt the whole scene was in poor taste; witch doctors should carry themselves with a bit more dignity than that. it was clear that nobody was in the mood for this unkempt, toothless babbler and all his hocus pocus...even so, and as many of you know, janus is keen on manners. as rude as it was of that witch doctor to froth around like a madman, i felt it important to take the high-road and let the imbecile expel his frightful tantrum unobstructed.

this is the gist of what that withered old freak of a witch doctor had to say:

he described a glorious future of walmarts and mcdonalds and casinos and patrol cars on every corner and guns in every glove box and zombies stumbling around in an SSRI'd haze and amber waves of frankenfood; an era of progress wherein all men, white, red, black and yellow would slave under the yolk of an enlightened oligarchy, fretting endlessly over their present and future -- like anxious squirrls on a tread-wheel; an heroic epoch when all men would come to understand their neighbors for the mortal threats they truly are. a time when all and everyone of every station hath learned to hate his neighbor for the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.

at this point, past-life janus jumps and sings "hallelujah!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16fG1sDagU

and then the witch-doctor's all-like, "simmer down pale-face bead-trader...there's more..."

and so the prophesy continues...but past-janus was troubled. thinking, naturally, that a nation founded on lotteries and common-core and hard-core porn and fast food and graphically violent 'entertainment' had to be the happiest of happy endings. how was this crazy ole weirdo gonna top all that? what could he possibly do for an encore?

he went on to murmur something about The Great God of the Universe grimacing over all the profound and ubiquitous wickedness in amorica...and that, as awesome as it all seemed on its surface, there was actually a down-side to all the perfected splendidness of 'progress'. i don't know about you, but any God that doesn't appreciate reality TV and diabetes is no god for janus. give me double-hydrogenation and a wi-fi connection or give me death.

and then the witch doctor squared his eye level at past-janus's and said, "it will be so unimaginably perverse and corrupted and menacing and sickening that you, even your progeny...that guy, right there hovering in the corner, future-janus having the out of body experience...even he will get so nauseated with it all that he will leave his beloved homeland...but not before he douses it with high-octane petroleum, packs it with TNT; then he moves to a distant shore, gets friendly with the locals, scratches a strike-anywhere against his cigarette case, lights his roll-yer-own, and then lobs the lit-match over the sea, right atop this bonfire of the vanities, for all the world (and especially his new neighbors) to see....aaaaaand, end vision." selah.

perfect song for the amorican vision:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlxH9-TYseY

& an amazing essay from one of the last living greats, Louis Lapham:

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/preamble/crowd-control-1.php?page=1

this is not a joke/

so please stop smiling/

...i am trying/

to break your heart,

janus

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 05:02 | 4742666 Its_the_economy...

mission accomplshed

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 00:47 | 4742430 ebworthen

I love me some lemongrass soup.

Rice? Who needs rice in Asia!?!? That is so 20th century!

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 23:00 | 4742206 The_Prisoner

Best blog I found for Thailand and SE Asia geopolitics:

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.in/2011/07/wisdom-from-orient-self-sufficiency.html

That is but one of his posts about how agrarian-style self sufficiency inherent in Asian culture is being fought by the local governments, herding people into cities, making them dependend on government and money. The same game was played by the IMF in South America in the 60's and 70's.

Another excellent one:

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.in/2014/03/let-me-tell-you-about-thailands-rice.html

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 01:05 | 4742452 james.connolly

Complete BS and lies, while I think its great for the CIA to take a liberal issue and twist it around so that appear's that the bad are the good, these articles suck.

The fact is YINGLUCK promises to pay more for the rice than it was worth, which is called "POLITICS", so the POOR harvested their rice and sent it to the gubmint. The POOR elected YINGLUCK, because this was her CAMPAIGN PROMISE to pay them a FAIR price for their RICE.

The YELLOW in power over treasury refused to PAY for the rice, so now for 2+ years the rice has rotted and been eaten by the rats.

Farmers are pissed they didn't get PAID for their rice, and the rat's are happy.

>>>

Majoritarianism typically involves an elected government that captures the TREASURY, courts, silences media critics and tinkers with the constitution to perpetuate its rule.

In Thailand the opposite is true: the courts, the media, the bureaucracy, and the universities are extensions of the old Thai establishment, THE YELLOW, The Rich, The CIA.

>>>

Today the YELLOW have called for an end to VOTING.

In a real democracy the RICE would have been paid for and millions of kilo's of rice would not have been destroyed. In a world of starving people, and in a world where Thailands rice is the best in the world. The game here played by the RICH YELLOW ELITE, is beyond sick, it is CRIMINAL.

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 09:13 | 4742974 doctor10

And hence the argument for a "republic" rather than a "democracy"

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 07:25 | 4742783 The_Prisoner

Are you saying that Thaksin is not a CFR stooge? Brother, you tripping!

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 11:12 | 4743420 tip e. canoe

http://altthainews.blogspot.com/2012/11/thailand-thaksin-shinawatras-for...

Check out that photo with mister aye eye gee

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 02:06 | 4742551 putaipan

i been away (er uh...lurking) for a while .... do we have to do this thailand "start @ the begining" bullshit all over again? what part of takasin ruling from the shadows of cambodia while serving on the board of the carlyle group doesn't sound like cia to you john conally? i'll take the coalition of old school thai corruption and the educated young urbanites over the privatizing internationalists anyday. to take a liberal issue and twist it around so that appear's that the bad are the good... hello? pot meet kettle. you both are blacker than the ace of spades, but then again, i miss quedaffi .....

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 07:30 | 4742788 tip e. canoe

Bet ya a grain of rice he's got skin in the game of grapes.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 20:58 | 4741880 Alananda

The quality of ZH comments here have surpassed -- easily -- sets of comments on dozens, if not hundreds of prior postings. WB7 brings out the best of us, it would seem!

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 22:35 | 4742162 patience...

Absolutely, thanks WB7

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 01:44 | 4742527 old naughty

WB the inspirer.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 20:04 | 4741680 james.connolly

Arab Spring in Thailand is a guy name Suthep, the richest man of the south, a man 40 years ago that entered politics with no money. Today is one of Thailand's richest men. Palm Oil, some how this rag's to riches KLEPTOCRAT has gone completely mad.

Suthep the CIA ARAB-SPRING Puppet is yellow. Yingluck ( the woman ) is RED.

Suthep was in charge of murdering everybody during the last red/yellow war a few years ago. When they shut the airport down 7 years ago, Suthep the 'yellow' leader was in charge of that.

Now the problem with 'RED'

The Red represent the POOR; the rice farmers, the RED are the majority, Yellow represents' GOLD, they are the MINORITY. The power of GOLD is of course closely tied to the CIA.

Suthep hasn't WON an election in 20 years, ...he's pissed so now he has a called a permanent ban on all voting, and he's called for a permanent 'Peoples Parliment' to run the country.

The Courts are controlled by YELLOW.

So RED are the majority, and everytime there is an election they win, They elected THANKSIN, but the YELLOW ran him out of the country, they elected YINGLUCK ( his sister ), they have ran her out of office.

For 10+ years the RED have carefully played the DEMOCRACY game, and voted, and won every election by MAJORITY, everytime thereafer the YELLOW have NULL&VOIDED the election by COUP.

This time the RED said, if you take out our candidate there will be WAR, so be the COURT has now removed YINGLUCK.

NOW there be WAR, welcome to DEMOCRACY, brought to you by the CIA, ...

Now can have your democracy, you can have your vote, ,,, BUT your money, your land, belong to us.

ARAB SPRING has now come to SE-ASIA,...

A moron might understand that the USA is burning the world to the ground so that ALL money flee's to the USA.

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 02:35 | 4742580 Lord Koos

Thaksin and his sister aren't exactly Saints from what I've heard.

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 05:42 | 4742686 james.connolly

Thailand’s constitutional court has come through for the opposition once again: It has just ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and nine of her cabinet ministers for improperly removing a civil servant from office.

This is the latest move in an eight-year campaign by the old political establishment and its middle-class supporters in Bangkok to destroy a populist party — twice renamed and currently called Pheu Thai — that has won every election since 2001.

The street protests by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) that have intermittently paralyzed Bangkok since last November get the headlines, but the courts remain an indispensable weapon too.

The civil servant who lost his post, Thawil Pliensri, was the head of the National Security Council. He was appointed by a previous government that was deeply hostile to Yingluck’s party, and he was publicly critical of her government. So after winning the 2011 election, she moved him to a different post and put in a national security head of her own choice.

The prime minister actually replaced Thawil with a general called Paradorn Pattanatabut, who is not a relation — but his promotion allowed a distant relative of hers, also a general, to move up one rung in the hierarchy. It didn’t give him political power or more money, but any old accusation will do if the court works for the opposition. The constitutional court found Yingluck guilty of nepotism and ordered her to step down.

Meanwhile, the PDRC’s street protests continue, and Suthep Thaugsuban, the movement’s leader, is brutally frank about their objective: “From a Western point of view, democracy is an elected government serving as the people’s representative,” he said. “Unfortunately, elections in Thailand do not represent people’s (real) choices because their votes are bought.”

What he means is that the parties led by Yingluck, and earlier by her exiled brother Thaksin Shinawatra, have “bribed” poor people — and peasant farmers in particular — with policies such as a universal health-care system, microcredit development funds for villages, price supports for rice, and low-interest loans for farmers.

In other countries, such policies are seen as normal and legitimate political tools in the competition for votes. They have outraged members of the prosperous middle-class in Bangkok and the south, who were accustomed to having the government devote most of its time and money to their own needs; but they have delivered five election victories in a row for the Pheu Thai party and its predecessors in a country where the majority of voters are still poor farmers.

The PDRC’s solution is to prevent any more elections until an unelected "people’s council,” made up of “good people” chosen by the elite institutions that support the opposition, can “reform” the political system by excluding voters who are poorly educated or simply poor. Then the conservative opposition parties would finally be able to win elections.

Relying on their allies in the judiciary and the various official commissions to prevent elections or set their results aside has served the right-wing parties well since the original military coup that overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006. In the last four months, however, they have returned to the streets in Bangkok, and their next step may be to ask the army for another coup.

That is the only thing that could give them their cherished people’s council and the disenfranchisement of a substantial part of the electorate. All their street demonstrations and legal obstructionism are ultimately intended to create a political paralysis that will provide the pretext for such a coup, and they are now probably quite close to achieving that goal.

The only little problem is that a whole generation of Thais has now grown up to expect that they will have a political voice in the government of their country. Another coup, in these circumstances, could well be the trigger for civil war.

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 02:17 | 4742564 putaipan

sure red kinda means poor. and part of thakasins' populist promise was a tiny up in price for their rice ..... HE FAILED TO DELIVER!!! . when the poor realize the educated in bkk really have had their best interest at heart we'll finally see a "saffron" revolution. bring back rama IV.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 21:55 | 4742066 trentusa

You are nuts. Yingluck is a USA stoodge and to say otherwise u r either retarded or a troll. Yingluck, the current PM, is the wife of the last Prime Minister who fled the country of corruption charges rather than stand trial. The Yellow shirts are the good guys who are throwing out US controlled puppets. You are totally smoking crack to say the courts are controlled by the Yellow. In Thailand, the military is independent so when the executive branch became corrupt the military stepped in and threw him (Yingluck's husband) out. But he got his wife elected somehow to rule for him by proxy. The courts are controlled by the Red shirts. Only the military stops the gov't from a full scale crackdown more than they are already doing which is shooting protestors and throwing hand grenades into protest rallies. But a full scale crackdown on the people and the Thai military will step in again like they did in 2007 to establish a new government to rule according to their Constitution.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 22:28 | 4742147 Uchtdorf

Sister. Yingluck is the sister of Thaksin, the last PM.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 22:27 | 4742131 williambanzai7

I think if you examine all of the factions carefully, you will find that the situation is similar to the Ukraine and many other locales, including the US: one big corrupt political sewer.

Here is something interesting I came across today: http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/05/future-thailands-elite

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 07:48 | 4742808 tip e. canoe

Just don't forget to consider the source, bill.
Read the comment on the bottom of the article by
guest-siiesmsMay 9th, 05:23

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 09:20 | 4742995 williambanzai7

Yes, interesting nevertheless

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 11:16 | 4743435 tip e. canoe

Yes, also interesting

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/globalist-page-robert-amsterda...

Quite a resume

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 00:55 | 4742442 james.connolly

Good article Banzai, but the comments are most excellent.

"The speculation has it that, if [prime minister Yingluck] were removed by a court order, it could trigger a civil war—which would be the first ever in a modern, upper-middle-income country."

There will only be a civil war (i) if Thaksin wants to start one, (ii) if he has sufficient support among his parliamentarians (on-the-ground managers), and (iii) if there is sufficient support among the people for his cause. If Thaksin succeeded in starting a civil war, the Shinawatra family would instantly lose all of their assets in Thailand, so this is almost certainly an empty threat on his part. Now that Yingluck looks poised to lose her prime minister position for practicing nepotism and promoting a relative to be head of the national police, the Pheua Thai parliamentarians are in the best position they can imagine - in a position to shake off the Shinawatra family while remaining in control of the government - so they are also highly unlikely to support civil war. Finally, even in Thaksin's strongholds in the north and the northeast, there is no appetite whatsoever for a civil war outside of the most extreme Khmer Rouge-style factions of Thaksin's red shirts. The most likely scenario is that these red shirt factions will continue terrorist attacks against their political opponents, but this will in no way resemble a civil war.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 20:31 | 4741783 james.connolly

What's left for the Empire of Chaos is to pray for chaos to keep spreading across Europe & Asia, thus sapping Europe/Russia's and Asia's energy

MH-370, war in THAILAND, ... all brougtht to you by CIA; Killing's in china at train station, ... all Al-CIA-DUH; Thailand CIVIL WAR .... CIA

Pepe sez ...

What's left for the Empire of Chaos is to pray for chaos to keep spreading across Ukraine, thus sapping Europe/Russia's energy. And all this because the Washington establishment is absolutely terrified of an emerging power in Eurasia. Not one, but two -- Russia and China. Worse: strategically aligned. Worse still: bent on integrating Asia and Europe. So feel free to picture a bunch of Washington angry old men hissing like juvenile delinquents: "I don't like you. I don't want to talk to you. I want you to die."

Yes, the Obama/Bush/Clinton USA are children with matches,... so who will SLAP the spoiled little brat's?

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 08:50 | 4742916 PeakOil

Divide & Conquer has been the Al-Cia-Duh game for quite some time now. Except that now it is blatant to anyone with more than a two digit IQ and access to the interwebs.

Ukraine? Thailand? Same as it ever was. Our way of life for too long unfortunately, unsustainable.

Excellent summary here: Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 21:04 | 4741911 cifo

James, thanks for the great introduction to Thai politics.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 19:51 | 4741659 I_Am_

grapes of wrath.....sorta

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 22:19 | 4741800 Dewey Cheatum Howe

Speaking of the grapes of wrath fun little piece of history surrounding it but we need to go to the wayback machine to 1904.

It starts with an Italian immigrant named Amadeo Peter Gianinni. This guy started the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.

At the time branch and interstate banking was illegal in every state except California.

So what was the purpose of setting up the Bank of Italy?

"Giannini knew from the start that persuading North Beach Italians to deposit their savings in his bank would be an uphill battle. In addition to their preference for dealing strictly in gold, most were deeply suspicious of banks and lacked confidence in the people who either owned or managed them. North Beach Italians had ample reason for their distrust of financial institutions. Back in 1878, for example, a small neighborhood bank, the French Mutual, went into bankruptcy, wiping out the hard-earned savings of scores of Italian depositors. This calamity left a deep impression on the collective memory of the community. Rather than put their trust in a bank, most North Beach residents preferred to keep their savings safely at home, where it was hoarded in cans, jars, and mattresses."

(Bonadio, A. P. Giannini, Banker of America, p. 30).

Some more from the book explaining how he expanded his banking empire.

"The fear and resentment of Giannini's opposition was not difficult to understand. By the early 1920s the Bank of Italy had emerged as an immensely powerful force in the state. A crucial factor was the activity of the bank's Italian Department, which Giannini had established some years earlier and then placed under the direction of Armando Pedrini. Sharing the department's duties and responsibilities with Pedrini was Robert Paganini, a young, energetic, and demanding North Beach businessman who had owned an Italian-language newspaper in Sacramento before joining Bank of Italy. Paganini directed the activities of the department's corps of handpicked solicitors, or "missionaries" as they were called, all of them Italians, whose job was to turn every Italian resident of California into a depositor and stockholder in the Bank of Italy."

(Bonadio, A. P. Giannini, Banker of America, p. 76).

So by 1928 he had pretty much conquered all of California so what was the next step? Why Wall Street of course.

What bank you may ask, why the very first central bank of the United States, the one that was set up 1791 and charter expired in 1811. The one that changed it's name to Bank of America afterwards and is still in operation today as .............

Bank of America.

That is how the empire took control of that piece now the next piece they took control of through Bank of America, Hollywood.

Guess who became THE major financer of Hollywood in 1930 during the Great Depression. Why one A.P. Giannini

SPeCiaL RePoRT: UNDeRSTaNDiNG THe PoLiTiCS oF THaiLaND...

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