robaus

Who Blocked Payments before Suthep took to the streets

 

FACTS Payments due since October

 

Stick that in you pipe and smoke it

So are you saying Yingluck and Suthep are both as bad as each other?

I just want the rule of democracy.

Have to admit though, the army has it easier. The caretaker government could not borrow money because the constitution forbade it.

 

The military tossed out the constitution so they can do what they want.

And if Suthep and the yellow shirts hadn't taken their bat and ball home boycotting the election, sent their armed thugs to disrupt decent citizens wanting to exercise their democratic rights, we would have had a fully functioning elected government and the farmers would have been paid months ago.

The words hypocrisy and disingenuity spring to mind!

"Yingluck's government tried to issue a bond to raise money to pay the farmers months ago, but guess who blocked that saying she didn't have the authority to do so.:

 

I absolutely knew you were going to say that!

 

In fact, most of the farmers were due to be paid in October. Yingluck didn't dissolve the house until December. The payment was already overdue by then, plus PT had plenty of time to make sure the money was approved before pulling the plug.

 

Ah, but no ... it just had to be Suthep. It always is. Suthep is even to blame for global warming.

Silly hyperbole. Stick to the subject.

So are you denying that Suthep and his cronies blocked Yingluck's attempts to repay them months ago?

 

i'd say one need to search long and wide to find a broken promise or outright lie from this 'PM'.

he also gets things done at speed!

 

refreshing

That's because he can censor the media and shoot anyone who protests against him!

I bet Aussie PM Tony Abbott wishes he had the same powers!

Well it would just be great IF the famers finally get paid

Obviously this could have happened with far greater expediency

Ms Ying did no pull it together

Yingluck's government tried to issue a bond to raise money to pay the farmers months ago, but guess who blocked that saying she didn't have the authority to do so. Yep, your mates Suthep and the yellow shirts! And now their chums the military dictators instantly find the cash. Surprise surprise. Could it be that the yellow shirts couldn't give a toss about the farmers a few months ago, but are now all in favour of their mate Prayuth getting them all onside.

“Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved parliament in December and called an election for February. From that moment, her caretaker government was unable to initiate new policies, even as the economy foundered, and found it impossible to raise funds for the troubled rice scheme.

The military has now torn up the constitution and the finance ministry has moved quickly to find money for the farmers, inviting banks to tender early next month to provide 50 billion baht ($1.53 billion) in loans to fund the rice scheme.â€

http://www.businessi...6#ixzz32uDGRDNu

I don’t understand the maths here. KS says 500 billion baht was lost in the corrupt rice scheme. The farmers were being paid at inflated prices, and yet it only costs 50 billion baht to repay the farmers. This does not compute.

Could the army be accused of “populist policies†making paying the farmers top priority..to keep them sweet and passive.

roboes et all,

 

how do one help all the voters even if one truely wanted to given the humongous difference across the country and villages.

even within bkk there is pretty much a flavor of everything thai and where/near flasher lives is almost a red shirt village if im not mistaken (don muang)!

 

so IF we imagined reforms before election could give a fat kickass start to bringing the interests of thais closer from the poorest farmer to the richest corrupt families well maybe some kind of fair elections with accepted outcome and useful policies may go ahead to make believers and sceptics of thai democrazy party together without a curfew

I may be misinterpreting your post but I think you are talking about 2 different things:

1. changes to the election process

2. party policy changes to improve all Thais’ lives, social mobility and aspirations.

No-one on this site or in the Thai media has yet given a concrete example or even vague hint of what these reforms may be ..although so far 28 people have died for them, Bangkok been disrupted for the last 6 months, and now a coup and military dictatorship that is echoing the same reform mantra.

The way I read it: Suthep and the yellow shirts can’t win any elections because too many people vote against them. Consequently, they want to alter the election process so that even if the majority of Thais vote against them, the yellow shirts can still win (eg. gerrymandering electoral boundaries, stacking parliament with more of their own unelected members). I believe that is unjust.

I believe the yellow shirts need to change their party policies to appeal to a wider voter audience if they want to win an election...improve rural education, more free scholarships for the underprivileged, more clinics, hospitals and affordable treatment in rural areas (health should be a civil right, like education...our American friends may not agree with that), tax incentives for job creation in Isaan, clean running water, improved roads and telecommunications, pension schemes for the elderly, disabled and unemployed where government matches baht for baht citizens’ contributions.

With a free media and TV debates, the various parties can make their pitch and the people have a real choice.

I think excuses such as “This is not the Asian way†“Thailand is different ...you don’t understand†are just bullshit.

Dear Robaus, Jonathan Head, the bbc reporter himself reported on twitter that the protests where led by red shirts leaders.

Reference/link please. You've reported all the other twitter feeds. Why do I not see this very relevant info elsewhere on the net by reliable sources other than your hearsay?

It wouldn't surprise me if the red shirts are involved in protesting against the coup and defending the democratic choice that the majority of Thais made before military dictatorship stepped in. But to make the assumption that Taksin alone is upset about a military coup usurping democracy and is choreographing and leading the whole scenario, as some on this website would claim, is bulllshit.

..reforms subtitled “Get the Shinawatras at all costsâ€

If what they propose really is as crude as that, then Prayuth and Suthep’s cronies absolutely deserve to lose the next decade’s elections too. Why are they so puerile?

Why don’t opposition parties stay within the democratic framework and beat the Shinawatras at their own game, by helping all Thais to a better life, not just the Bangkok elite and their power base in the south?

Is the military dictatorship going to test their reforms in a referendum before an election or impose them as a fait accompli.

Any army that fears its own people is doomed to ultimate failure.

Hi,

 

Robaus, no need to get personal!

 

Sanuk!

Apologies. Just a bit of light satire. I went to remove the reference but you got there before me.

I've heard talk of ...

 

... weasel words unless you can support it with quality evidence. http://en.wikipedia....iki/Weasel_word

How about this version...

“I’ve heard talk of “... groups of yellow shirt supporters “spitting at the soldiers and shouting insults about HM to try to get them to respond with violenceâ€...so that they can blame it on the red shirts. Just as they fired on their own at the Victory Monument to provoke a coup.

My version is just as hearsay as yours unless I have proof.

Let's stick to facts and not Propaganda.

The anti-coup protesters are clearly mainly red shirts, as can be seen by their deliberately trying to provoke the young, frightened soldiers into overreacting.

 

..[Removed - KS] is at it again. How [Removed - KS] do you know what their politics is. The BBC’s Damian Grammaticas claims they are unaffiliated...simply prefer democracy to military dictatorship

http://www.bbc.com/n...d-asia-27563615

I've found far fewer of them to be red shirt backers than most people expect. Many seem to have become disillusioned with all politicians.

That's because you live in the city and not Nakhon Nowhere.

However long this all lasts, the army is just pissing in the wind until they address the will of the people through the ballot box.

The genie of voter empowerment is out of the bottle now. The days of feudal paternalism are numbered.

Maybe a 3^rd party will emerge that will appeal to the interests of all Thais.

Hi,

 

I don't really mind people being religious (eventhough I can't understand people being stupid enough to believe in any of them), but I really don't like them trying to convert others to their beliefs.

 

End of rant

 

Sanuk!

Do you have a moment? I'd like to share these thoughts with you....

For all of you that think Obama is so great and voted for him...

 

 

37 Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Obama Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy

 

 

I think you'll find that many of the above problems were created by the GFC and the recession...and we all know who caused that!

You can't wave a magic wand and cure the mother of all economic fuckups instantly. Obama is getting there as the DJI chart below shows

I think this chart of the Dow Jones Index speaks volumes. It’s the net worth of the top US companies. It represents a nation’s prosperity, and your life savings in pension funds.

On the left is Dubya’s term in office where he recklessly encouraged a market bubble deliberately unregulated by his cowboy financial advisers Greenspan, Rubin and Summers (recommended viewing “The Warning†http://www.pbs.org/w...e/warning/view/)

If Mc Cain had won the 2008 election that trough would have continued down because Republican policy was “let the banks and car industries etc go bankrupt†along with your life savings. We would have had a decade long depression.

Fortunately Obama won and the market clearly reversed from the moment he took office in 2008 and is still rising today, despite obstructionist Republican politics who put their self interest and hatred of Obama before the welfare of their country. If Americans united on economic recovery, (plus peace in the Middle East..no more futile costly wars!)...we could all have a new golden age of prosperity.

"If Israelis could learn to live and let live the entire Middle East ..."

The whole Arab world has agreed to recognise Israel in return basically for a few acres of land swaps equal in area to land occupied by Israel illegally since 1967

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Arab_League_summit and reindorsed in 2007 in Riyadh

Israel’s reply is to greedily hold onto stolen land and grab even more.

How can peace exist when someone occupies your land? Hamas was not created from a vacuum.

I hope Obama can knock a few heads together to create a peace agreement in his second term.

Without a just peace , violence will escalate and it might come to the shores of Israel’s chief backer the USA, same as the IRA did with the UK...$300 car bombs that cause $2b worth of damage in every major US city.

With spoilt brat friends like Israel, who needs enemies?

Israel has its fair share of Jewish nutters who want to ethnically cleanse Christians and Muslims from a racist Jews only state.

JERUSALEM -- A Jerusalem monastery, built on the spot where tradition holds the tree from which Jesus' cross was made, was defaced with graffiti bearing the hallmarks of militant Jewish settlers, police said on Tuesday.

"Death to Christians" was daubed in Hebrew on the outer walls of the Monastery of the Cross, an 11th-century fortress-like holy site situated in a valley overlooked by Israel's parliament.

Army Radio reported that "Maccabees of Migron" was painted on the monastery, too, The Associated Press reported. Maccabees were ancient Jewish heroes, and Migron is an unauthorized settlement facing a court-ordered evacuation.

Such acts originally targeted West Bank mosques but have recently expanded to include a mosque inside Israel, Israeli military bases, and now, a Christian holy site.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the words "Price Tag" were also painted overnight by the vandals, who damaged two cars parked outside the monastery in the attack, according to Reuters.

The slogan, used by Jewish settlers in vandalism attacks on mosques and Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, refers to the retribution they say they will exact for any attempt by the Israeli government to curb settlement in the territory.

Israeli settlement building up 20 percent, watchdog says

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/07/10339856-death-to-christians-suspected-jewish-extremists-deface-monastery?lite

Great idea FM, unfortunately they are not content to fight and kill each other.

There is their noble concept of conquest of the non-muslim world.

Live and let live is somehow thought of as a weakness.

>>Live and let live

...it's a pity the Christian USA and UK didn't display the same attitude in Iran when the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup to boot out the democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddegh to replace him ultimately with the Shah to help fill the coffers of US and European oil companies. Or prop up royal family dictatorships through the Gulf for the same reason.

Or Guatemala in 1954

Or Indonesia in 1958

Or Cuba in 1959

Or Congo in the 1960s

Or Iraq in the 1960s, 90s and 2003

Or Dominican Republic in 1961

Or Vietnam in 1963

Or Chile 1973

Or Nicaragua 1981

...and the good ole Christian folks are still at it today, buttering us all up for another war against Iran ..the 3rd war in 10 years fought on Israel’s behalf...but you can bet your bottom $ Israel won’t be sending any troops.... just as they never have in the past. Let the Americans, Brits and any other mugs fight it on their behalf.

Suckers!

 

Something to think about...

 

 

...and you think "they" are looking out for your interests???

Here's the UK, Canadian, NZ and Aus Head of State and her 2 successors hiding behind her bullet proof Harry Potter cloak of invisibility...speaks volumes about our comparative lifestyles, eh!

"notice the death of a three-year-old in Oklahoma who shot himself in the head last weekend with a gun he found in his aunt 's house, that belonged to his Highway Patrol uncle?"

 

So how would stricter gun control have prevented the uncle from being an idiot and leaving his HP issued pistol lying out where an infant could get it? Not only that, the copper left it with a round in the chamber! (It had to be an semi-automatic pistol. No 3-year-old could pull the trigger on a double action revolver.) Rule number 1: clear your weapon when not on duty!

And the uncle was supposed to be one of the good guys! If a professionally trained cop does a dopey thing, what chance have the general public got against nutters who can buy an assault rifle at a gun fair without even a police check.

In the UK that tragedy couldn't have happened, since the regular police don't carry guns, and in Aus I'm pretty sure cops have to leave their weapons at the police station which they collect when they arrive for duty.

The US mayhem continues...

Two US volunteer firefighters have been shot dead and two injured while responding to an emergency call in the town of Webster in New York state.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-20838925

N.R.A. Calls for Armed Guards in Schools to Deter Violence

 

"WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association on Friday called for schools to be protected by armed guards as the best way to protect children from gun violence."

 

 

LINK

What they really need is a gun store in every school so that the infants can protect themselves.

The NRA suggested creating a database of the mentally ill ...perhaps they should use their own membership list for starters

In the week after the Sandy Hook shootings, more than 500 more Americans have been killed by guns, most of them committing suicide, around 200 murdered and about 20 killed accidentally.

What I find so weird is that a country with such similar values and morals to the rest of the civilised world and that produces more Nobel Prize winners than the rest of us put together can be so dumb when it comes to gun control.

Americans seem impervious to the facts. Doesn’t the average American notice that the murder rate in the US is four times what it is in the UK? Do they notice that London, one of the world's biggest cities, is about to record fewer than 100 homicides a year for the first time in decades? Do they, blase as they are to news reports of shootings, notice the death of a three-year-old in Oklahoma who shot himself in the head last weekend with a gun he found in his aunt 's house, that belonged to his Highway Patrol uncle?

Americans obviously love their guns more than their lives and their children.

N.R.A. Calls for Armed Guards in Schools to Deter Violence

 

"WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association on Friday called for schools to be protected by armed guards as the best way to protect children from gun violence."

 

 

LINK

What they really need is a gun store in every school so that the infants can protect themselves.

The NRA suggested creating a database of the mentally ill ...perhaps they should use their own membership list for starters

In the week after the Sandy Hook shootings, more than 500 more Americans have been killed by guns, most of them committing suicide, around 200 murdered and about 20 killed accidentally.

What I find so weird is that a country with such similar values and morals to the rest of the civilised world and that produces more Nobel Prize winners than the rest of us put together can be so dumb when it comes to gun control.

Americans seem impervious to the facts. Doesn’t the average American notice that the murder rate in the US is four times what it is in the UK? Do they notice that London, one of the world's biggest cities, is about to record fewer than 100 homicides a year for the first time in decades? Do they, blase as they are to news reports of shootings, notice the death of a three-year-old in Oklahoma who shot himself in the head last weekend with a gun he found in his aunt 's house, that belonged to his Highway Patrol uncle?

Americans obviously love their guns more than their lives and their children.

Another comment about the gun argument I saw on the televisual extravaganza...

 

One guy hides a bomb in his shoes (and fails to kill anyone) and now millions of people around the world have to take off their shoes and belts and suffer harassment at airports everywhere.

 

But if you've got people slaughtering children with guns, the answer is - arm more people...

Like it

It really is quite possible and pleasant too to live in a society where guns are kept well away from the general no-need-to-own population.

I apologise to Americans on this forum I previously called weirdos. I was angry at the preventable slaughter of innocent children.

Personally, I would like to see zero ownership. But perhaps make a start by banning all weapons that a farmer or a hunter would find unnecessary..such as [semi] automatic rifles and handguns. I have a good Canadian friend who hunts with a crossbow to give the game better odds and himself more skilful sport.

I'm all for it. How do you do it so that not a soul will have guns here? Nothing would be better than a tragedy like this never happening again.

Like they did in Australia. Cash buy back for guns and destroy them. Include amnesty for illegally owned weapons. Just get them out of circulation.

Allow 6 months leeway period.

Thereafter, massive fines and imprisonment for possessing a gun.

“People kill people, not guns. Knives, cars, baseball bats can kill too†etc ..is all bullshit blah blah blah.

Yes, of course nutters all over the world will find ways to kill if they really want to, BUT not with so much ease as they seem to find in the USA.

Look at the stats.

http://en.wikipedia....ted_death_rate

36 times more deaths related to firearms per 100,000 than in UK

9 times more than in Australia.

Don’t you Americans realise that it is actually possible to experience normal peaceful non violent entire lives without having access to firearms? More than half the world’s population does it every single day. Some people live in countries where they never ever even see a gun! You are the weirdo exceptions, shaking you heads in shock and confusion when the simple truth stands out like dogs' balls.You're still clinging mindlessly to some outdated legislation of your founding fathers.

Yes, you can always find exceptions...Dunblane, Port Arthur etc but that’s the point..they are exceptions. American once a month copycat massacres now seem to be the norm.

Most people in the civilised world want to lead average peace loving lives. WTF you Americans desire to live at the extreme stupid edge of the bell curve beggars belief. Well, it doesn’t really ..it’s just gutless politicians who mouth platitudes and shed tears when these obscenities happen... but go back to the polls in silence when it comes to election time to cover their arses for fear they’ll upset the powerful NRA.

20 innocent 5-6 year old children a few days ago looking forward to their Christmas treats who are now dead is disgusting and was preventable. Just imagine your grief if they were your own children or grand children.

You obsessively gun loving Americans are almost as mad as the lunatic who murdered them, for allowing this to happen.

Until you get your fucking act together, we’ll read these same headlines again and again.

If 99.9% of the population find it incredibly difficult, if not impossible to own a gun, then you won't feel the need to own one either.

The only gun control should be zero ownership. If you want to practise marksmanship, join the army!