beammeup

Thai at Heart, on 2012-05-25 14:06:33, said:

I feel the same way after reading your post.  A lot of words saying little and a lot of lame excuses trying to prop up Thaksin's fable that he is not part of the elite and is a self made man.  It is a fact that he is a man born in to immense wealth and social power, descended from the hereditary rulers of the Kingdom of Chiangmai and part of an extremely influential and powerful family.  His father was a member of parliament, a position he secured because he was a wealthy member of the elite.  Thaksin raised his clan from millionaire to billionaire precisely because of his connections within the elite, connections he had access to because of who he was.  All of these doors would have been closed to him if he had been a normal person.  He has both supporters and opponents among the elite and opposition to him isn't based on who he is, he is undoubtedly part of the elite, but what he is and what he has done.  He hasn't changed anything, rather he is strengthening the rule of the elites and bending the other elites to his own will.  Which is precisely why I refer to all these naive red shirts like the guy in the OP as useful idiots, because that is all that they are to Thaksin.  They are useful tools that he uses to cement his own political position.  Now that they are no longer useful they will be discarded.  They may moan and whine a bit but without access to Thaksin's checkbook they have no power and will be ignored by almost everyone.

The diehard members of the Thaksin Fan Club won't change their spots. Those who can see the bigger picture will. But its the diehards that can cause the most trouble. Thaksin and the other leaders know that the kwais are easily manipulated and they still (and will continue to do so) form a considerable army that can cause mayhem when and where they like and then use Thaksin and his PR people (such as that disgusting Robert Amsterdam) to rewrite history. Even Thaksin is not sure where he himself stands. 'I'm out of politics', 'Thaksin thinks ......' etc etc etc. Shifting sands. If you look at his contradictory statements over the years you can see he is an idiot and people like Amsterdam recognise this and simply pump him for all he's worth as he's a good earner for these guys.
As for democracy, Thai's have no idea what this word, or concept, means. The fundamental basis of Democracy is the rule of law. Without the rule of law, or respect for the law, there can be no democracy. Burning Bangkok, looting shops, accusing the Abhisit government of things about which they were not responsible, constant lies and corruption - even smaller things like all the reds I saw here in Chiang Mai riding their motorcycles without helmets whilst on their way to some rally, proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the reds are as far away from understanding democracy as you could possibly be. And that's the way Thaksin wants it to be. If only they understood .........................

Food for thought.

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Democrat Government instructs the Royal Thai Army to shoot in self defence

RTA loads some weapons with live rounds

Armed protesters attack RTA

RTA returns fire and protesters are killed or injured.

Whose is to blame? Government? Army? Protesters?

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Red Shirts have armed protesters among them - black shirts or whatever

Armed protesters shoot weapons, grenades and kill armed forces.

Who is to blame? Black shirts? Red Shirt leaders?

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85 people are arrested by police and army, tied up, kicked and in some cases shot

Those captured are now stacked in a truck with limited ventilation.

85 dead

Who is responsible? Government? Army? Police?

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rixalex, on 2012-05-20 12:00:54, said:

Not delusional, just typical of any expat who supports the Red Shirts. They only pick and choose the same 3 defenses for the last two years but when presented with solid evidence that proves the Red Shirts were in the wrong, such as video of Red Shirts and Black Security firing at the army and civvies first, then they stop answering altogether and move onto another thread to recycle the 3 arguments all over again.

How any expat with a brain can defend the Red Shirts after living here during the riots and subsequent events is delusional though.

birdpooguava, on 2012-05-19 12:57:59, said:

"Important" to who?

And yes, many are very bitter about the reality of thousands of untethered brainwashed fools running around causing severe social unrest and public disruption to support a maniacal despot sociopath.

... or as George Carlin so aptly put it, "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups".

TinoThailand, on 2012-05-19 10:59:41, said:

I don't get it... Thaksin IS back. He was brought back the past election via his self proclaimed "clone" sister and is calling the shots, pulling the strings & making the decisions for ALL things happening in this government via his sister and his puppets in power. Puah Thai election campaign slogan even admits it, "Thaksin kit, Puah Thai tahm" (What Thaksin thinks, Puah Thai does). My question is this, why the hell then isn't he working his "magic" and making everything wonderful again which is what all of his hyper-ignorant supporters truly believe? What happened to the campaign promise "There will be NO MORE POOR in 6 months!", "I will bring the price of Gold back down", "Drug dealers will cease to deal drugs the moment my plane touches the ground..." And we don't even need to get into the other lame promises of IMMEDIATE nationwide 300 Baht a day wage increase, computer tablets for every student, guarantee major sales price increases for rice farmers, etc, etc... It's been 10 months now and I can tell you that this has been the absolute WORST 10 months of my previous 7 years here. The reality is simply this, Thaksin is nothing more than your typical "Snake Oil Salesman" promising the world, fleecing the public for it's money and then double-talking his way around any prior claims. Let the Red Tshirts crap in one hand and wait for Thaksin promises fulfilled in the other and see which one fills up first.

Stop corruption?

Who profited from that, I wonder?

So the xenophobic nonsense by the AG has been balanced out by the racist spleen venting from the shallow end of the TV gene pool.

So mods, shall we call this one a draw and close this thread?

There will no doubt be a thread tomorrow fit for more spleen venting. Another day, another rant fest so to speak...

Some 100 million rai of Thai land is owned by foreigners, mostly through their Thai spouses or nominees, Auditor-General Sriracha Charoenpanit revealed yesterday.

He said if this situation was "unsolved", it could lead to later generations of Thais having no land to live on.

Mr. Charoenpanit, you have nothing to worry about.  I long ago learned that foreigners are not protected by the rule of law when it comes to owning property in Thailand.  I promise to only bring what I need to live on into Thailand and will not make any kind of serious investment in this country.  Is everyone happy now?