Blog/Thailand
Posted Sep 4, 2019 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: My friend is Chinese. He said you are very popular in Asia because you understand the Asian mindset. I believe when the military stepped in in Thailand against the politicians, you were not concerned about a military-type coup and said it was different from the West’s experience. Would you care to explain that position? Really curious.
PN
ANSWER: The Thai people are among the most polite in the world. Military coups d’eÌ tat occurred in Thailand in 2006 as well as back in 1991, 1991 and 2006. The Thai military acts as a political army which is very different from military coups in the West. The Thai military determines the combination of factors necessary for the military to step into the political system which stems from the kingdom’s ancient beginnings. The 1932 coup d’eÌ tat overthrew the absolute monarchy and defended the people. In the 1980s, they established the founding principles of the military and its historical role in politics, both of which contribute to the values and identity of Thailand’s military as an institution.
If you actually look closely and make a comparison of the precoup periods to the events that lead directly to the coup event, there is clearly a common set of factors necessary for the military to stage a successful coup. These factors include political stalemate, affronts to Thai values, and direct threats to the interests of the nation. Thailand’s military is compelled to act as a political army due to the birthright principle, civilian incompetence, and military competence.
The Thai people do not see such military intervention as the same thing as in the case of European history from Hitler to events in Spain and Italy for example. Ironically, they follow more along the lines of the principles of the Roman dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (519–430 BC). He was an aristocrat and statesman who served as consul in 460 BC and dictator in 458 BC and 439 BC, which made him a model of integrity and virtue. The Romans regarded Cincinnatus as a hero.
When Rome was invaded, Cincinnatus was called to serve Rome as a dictator, which was an office for one year. He defended the nation and then resigned two weeks later after defeating the rival tribes of the Aequians, Sabines, and Volscians. His immediate resignation of power demonstrated his integrity and lack of personal ambition.
George Washington would not accept the office of president until he had resigned as a military leader and returned to private life. The Founding Fathers were deeply impressed with the battle of Rome against its Tarquin king that gave birth to a republic. George Washington followed and created the Order of the Cincinnati and wanted to follow his integrity.
The Thai military in its coups has followed the same path. Their interventions and unlike those of various military dictatorships in European history. They step in, deal with corruption, and then surrender power back to the political state. They may not be expressly following the man Cincinnatus, but they have exercised the very same basic principle. The proof of that is the simple fact that they returned the power to the political system.
Susanna Reid Debates Steve Bannon over Trump’s Brexit Criticism | Good Morning Britain
Five Killed, 21 Injured During Midland-Odessa, Texas Shootout, Three Police Officers Injured….
August 31, 2019
A shooting spree spread spread from Midland to Odessa, Texas, after police pulled over a man driving a gold Honda on interstate-20 and the driver began firing a rifle through his rear window, shooting one of two state troopers.
According to local reports a 30-year-old male started the shooting spree after his vehicle was stopped, and then continued shooting random bystanders, victims and responding officers as he drove from Midland to Odessa Texas.
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Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said: one of two state troopers conducting the traffic stop was shot. She says the suspect then fled “and continued shooting innocent people,” including two other police officers.
TEXAS – At least five people were killed and 21 others were injured in shootings near Midland and Odessa Saturday before the alleged shooter was shot and killed at Cinergy Cinemas in Odessa, police said.
According to officials, the shooting started in Midland and then proceeded to Odessa. In a news conference Saturday afternoon, Chief Michael Gerke of the Odessa Police Department said the shooting began around 3 p.m. after a traffic stop. When a trooper tried to pull over the gunman — who Gerke said was a white male in his mid-30s — he shot the trooper who pulled him over and began shooting people at random, Gerke said.
The shooter eventually ditched his car, hijacked a U.S. Postal Service vehicle and continued to open fire, Gerke said. Two law enforcement officers were injured. (read more)
President Trump Delivers Impromptu Remarks Departing White House….
August 30, 2019
Chopper pressers are the best pressers. As the president departed the White House for Camp David, President Trump stops to deliver remarks on ongoing events to the assembled press pool. [Video Below – Transcript will Follow]
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Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor, Peter Brown, will accompany the President to Camp David this weekend to provide regular updates on Hurricane Dorian. Also traveling with the President were Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Senior Advisor for Digital Strategy Dan Scavino and Press Secretary/Communications Director Stephanie Grisham
EU President Donald Tusk: Domestic Politics Could Drive Britain Out of EU….
August 30, 2019
I must admit at first I was going to present this as a “Friday Funny“, because the statement is a nomination for this year’s Captain Obvious Award.
“Domestic politics could drive Britain out of the EU”… Gee, ya think?
Well, duh. Of course it’s those pesky British domestics, those vulgarian masses, that are driving Britain out of the EU. It is stunning to see a person say that out loud as if there was some other mysterious force that could have created the Brexit referendum.
However, beyond the stupid humor of the comment, and believe me it had me in stitches for more than a few moments, Tusk’s outlook actually opens a window into the knuckleheaded collective mindset that exists within the EU:
“The main political problem with Brexit is the situation inside Britain … the emotions related to this show that we are all victims of Britain’s internal politics.” (link)
Perhaps it’s just because we are inherently American, that this outlook, this collective elitism as highlighted by Donald Tusk, just seems to personify everything wrong with their entire assembly. The Tusks of the EU just cannot fathom a system of government where the people actually get to determine their own future. It’s remarkable to watch and hear.
EU President Donald Tusk was never elected by people, he was appointed by a technocratic system filled with central-planning bureaucrats. At the most basic of cognitive capabilities, the Tusks writ large cannot understand individual liberty, individual freedom, self-determination, etc.
Not only can they not comprehend it, the very fiber of their DNA has no connection to the concept of individualism. The elitism within the modern EU is ridiculous.
President Trump Reacts to IG Report on James Comey Conduct as FBI Director….
August 30, 2019
The IG report on the behavior of FBI Director James Comey clearly validated President Trump’s 2017 decision to fire him. Mr. Comey is described as a highly self-interested person within the department who saw himself above all rules applied to others.
Today, President Trump tweeted about the IG findings:
From the CTH review of the report content, there is absolutely no doubt James Comey used his memos akin to FD-302 investigative reports from an FBI agent. Meaning, from beginning-to-end James Comey considered himself an investigative agent against the President-elect and then President Trump.
Note: From Comey making a record of his encounter with the target, President-elect Trump, should be: “treated like FISA derived information in a counterintelligence investigation.”
This outlook highlights James Comey’s disposition. During this January 6th operation, Comey was an active FBI agent gathering evidence for later use. The collected intelligence would be shared with the FBI team via memo #1.
Remember the Lisa Page Texts from the same date?
The FBI likely redacted almost all of that text because it outlines the distribution of the evidence Comey was collecting. Comey’s memos were essentially FD-302 reports, and the officials within the DOJ and FBI didn’t want that exposed. The Lisa Page text was heavily redacted because it would have shown the January 6th encounter was an operation against Trump.
Every encounter, and every aspect of every action within that encounter, was conducted in what Comey perceived as an official investigative capacity.
President Trump was the target of Comey’s operations and he wrote his memos as investigative notes therein. Example: Comey ran the January 6th, 2017, operation:
So the “small group”: Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Baker, Priestap, Rybicki, et al, were running a counterintelligence operation against the incoming administration.
There are parts of the IG report highlighting a stunning amount of self-interest.
Example: Who made the decision(s) about what “was” or what “was not” classified? Or, put another way: who was making the internal decisions about Comey’s exposure to legal risk for sharing his investigative notes (memos) outside the department?
The answer is the same “small group” who were carrying out the operation:
James Baker, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, James Rybicki and Lisa Page were determining what parts of James Comey’s investigative notes needed to be classified.
The corrupt FBI was in position to police itself. This is not a conflict of interest, it is better described as a profound conflict of self-interest.
The information the ‘small group‘ wanted to use to frame the target would be visible, not classified; however, any material that would outline the construct of their corruption in targeting the target would be hidden, classified. You can’t make this stuff up folks.
The “small group” WAS the sources and methods they were protecting. They were protecting themselves.
Everything needed to understand that level of corruption is outlined in the way the IG report discusses the handling of James Comey’s investigative notes (ie. memos). AND the fact that James Comey kept them hidden, yes hidden. Read this stuff:
First, “no hard copies of any of the memos were found in Comey’s FBI office.”:
So, if the memos were not held in Director James Comey’s official FBI office, the next logical question is where were they?
Well, when Special Agents went to James Comey’s house, he still kept them hidden and never informed the agents:
It is worth noting James Rybicki went to Comey’s house along with three supervisory special agents to pick up FBI property. Prior to this event Comey had already given Rybicki the memos as evidence in the case against Trump. However, neither Comey not Rybicki told the SSA’s about the physical copies of the memos at the residence.
If Mr. Altruism, James Comey, was simply fulfilling the duty of a concerned and dedicated FBI Director, why not tell the FBI agents -picking up FBI records- that he had copies of FBI investigative notes in his “personal safe” while they were there?
What honorable justification exists for keeping them hidden from valid investigators?
Obviously we are not the only ones able to see the sketchy nature of this construct. In fact, an internal FBI whistleblower came forward soon after that search of Comey’s home to request official “whistleblower status protection” from the IG.
Think logically…. What would prompt someone inside the FBI; who at some point gained access to the Comey memos; to request ‘whistleblower protected status’?
Doesn’t the “whistleblower request” itself indicate the requesting FBI official saw something nefarious in the way this was all going down?
Who was that ‘whistleblower’?
Well, it has to be someone who actually gained possession of those memos right?…. this is not a big group. Second, we only need to read a few more pages of the IG report to see who it was:
The “whistleblower” was almost certainly the Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) described in page 38 as above.
The memos were “stored” in a “reception area“, and in locked drawers in James Rybicki’s office. [“Drawer safes” are silly FBI legal terms for fancy locked drawers] Also note…
“Reception area“? “May 15th“?
Well, (#1) apparently no-one wanted to admit their knowledge of the hot potato of investigative evidence (Comey memos). That admission would outline them as participatory members in carrying out the targeting of then President Trump.
Those investigative notes (memos) were not in “the office of the FBI Director” on May 10th, when the SSAs were there searching the last time,… for some mysterious reason.. they, uh,… well, they were discovered… in the “reception area“… yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket! Right under the four month old copy of People Magazine, n’ stuff.
….ARE YOU FRIGGIN’ KIDDING ME WITH THIS?
…AND (#2) the very next morning, using the copies of the memos that were left hidden in Comey’s residence, GUESS what happened?…
Now we see why the FBI Supervisory Special Agent in charge in charge of inventorying Comey records asked the IG for official “whistleblower status.”
The SSA agent was surrounded warning signs of corruption in the FBI executive suites. On May 10th, they were kept hidden. On May 12th they were kept hidden. On May 15th Rybicki finally told the SSA where they were; and on May 16th Comey told his friend Daniel Richman to leak the content to the New York Times.
Of course the SSA in charge of inventorying Comey’s records gave the Inspector General the seven memos, asked for whistleblower protection, and likely explained to the IG the way they were handled and produced by FBI officials was extremely concerning.
Ingratitude of the Immigrants
by Tabitha Korol
President Trump has been unarguably the most pro-Jewish, pro-Israel President we’ve ever had, surpassing George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman. His stand against Iran (vociferous enemy of Israel), finally moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, cutting funds to the PA and closing the PLO office in Washington, his donations to Jewish causes, and developing housing for Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn are just some of the points, but many non-Orthodox American Jews are calling him antisemitic. It is primarily the Democrat Jews who appear antisemitic when they continue to support their party whose members explicitly express their hatred of Israel and Jews worldwide. It may be that their desire to distance themselves from their heritage in eastern Europe and Israel has rendered them irrational, and psychological projection has them denying their own impulses as they attribute them to others – specifically to President Trump.
Most recently, President Trump spoke out against the antisemitism spewed by Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, and was himself accused of bias. It is time to review the backgrounds of both women who are recognized as Islamic extremists and antisemites by such as Senator Lindsey Graham, Speaker Newt Gingrich, media personalities Mark Thiessen and Rush Limbaugh, as well as by Imam Tawhidi, who added Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the lot.
- October 2015, Rashida Tlaib joined and praised activists who support terrorist Rasmeah Odeh, who is guilty of the deadly 1969 bombing in Jerusalem.
- December 2017, Tlaib shared a Facebook post with Linda Sarsour in support of 17-yr-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, who assaulted an IDF soldier and promotes stabbings and suicide bombings.
- February 2018, Tlaib joined Facebook group, Palestinian American Congress, which demonizes Jews and raised funds for her campaign. She denied both the Holocaust and the Jewish historical claim to Israel.
- August 2018, for her victory speech, Tlaib wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag and promised to “fight against every racist and oppressive structure that needs to be dismantled,” later telling the UK’s Channel 4 News that she would vote against US military aid to Israel. Despite her own foreign garb, she accused Jewish Americans of dual loyalty and has since established a record of Jew-hatred and an affinity for radical Islam.
- January 3, 2019, in a MoveOn.org reception, Tlaib warned that the President’s days were numbered, and she’d “impeach the motherfu**er.” She took her oath on the Koran, which is the antithesis of our Bible and Constitution, and affixed a sticker “Palestine” to replace Israel on her wall map.
- A guest at Tlaib’s swearing-in ceremony and private dinner was Abbas Hamideh, who equates Zionism with Nazism, and who voiced his support for Hassan Nasrallah, violent murderer of an Israeli Jew and his 4-year-old daughter.
- During the week of January 2019, Tlaib condemned her congressional colleagues who did not support BDS against Israel.
- March 2019, Tlaib posed with a Palestinian activist who had mourned the death of a Hamas murderer of a rabbi in Israel.
- August 2019, Tlaib compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and co-sponsored a resolution to support the BDS movement. She consistently shows herself to be an enemy of our ally Israel and the Jewish people.
- Most recently, Tlaib shunned a bipartisan delegation to Israel in order to schedule her own trip to be led by the anti-Israel nongovernmental organization Miftah, where she could agitate for the anti-Israel boycott and use her disinvitation as an accusation against the Jewish state.
- Claiming racism, oppression and injustice, Tlaib used the event of her entry rejection into Israel to enhance her victimhood, and a way of showing Gaza’s inhumane conditions. However, videos of interviews of her family show a healthy grandmother, free-standing home, and plentiful grounds with outdoor furniture on a lovely summer night.
- Tlaib, Omar, AOC and Rep Prammila Jayapal co-sponsored a bill that accuses the Jewish state of torturing non-Jewish children; the bill was re-introduced by Rep. Beth McCollum.
Ilhan Omar claimed to love America but shows her disdain for our country at every turn with a decided detestation for Israel and the Jews. She called herself the President’s “biggest nemesis”; said of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, “some people did something”; and wants our greatest ally, Israel, wiped off the face of the earth. The following are examples of her words and deeds:
- In November 2012, Omar called Israel an apartheid regime that “hypnotized the world” in order to conceal its “evil doings.”
- In 2013, Omar said on PBS that she took a college course in terrorism, saying that the professor spoke with pride (his shoulders raised in intensity) about Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, but not when we say America.
- During 2013-15, Omar, then a member of the Minneapolis City Council, acknowledged her friendship with Al-Shabab, a Somali jihad terror group.
- Omar often characterized Israel as the “Jewish ISIS,’ on Arab-American television, comparing members of Hamas to Holocaust victims.
- Following the 2013 terrorist bombing that killed ~70 people in a Kenyan shopping mall, Omar blamed the act on a reaction to American injustices, and how the world contributed to Islamic radicalization.
- After her election to the MN House of Representatives, November 2016, Omar wrote a judge for leniency in the sentencing of nine Somali-born men found guilty of attempting to join ISIS, blaming their desire for violence on alienation.
- In 2016, Omar wanted the University of MN to divest its Israel bonds, and in 2017, she opposed a bill designed to counter economic boycotts against Israel, likening Israel to apartheid South Africa.
- In 2017, Omar was one of two MN House members (out of 129) to vote against a bill that would allow life-insurance companies to deny payments to beneficiaries of suicide terrorists, and one of four to oppose legislation to make it a felony for parents to subject their daughters to female genital mutilation (FGM).
- After only five days of winning her congressional seat in 2018, Omar worked to institute BDS to financially cripple the state of Israel.
- In February 2019, Omar tweeted that pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was guilty of paying politicians to favor Israel: “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
- March 2019, Omar’s disdain for Israel won praise from Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
- March 2019, Omar was keynote speaker for an Hamas-linked CAIR benefit event, along with Hassan Shibley, who will not call out Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations.
- April 2019, Omar called for the release of a senior Muslim Brotherhood member detained in Egypt.
- July 2019, Omar, Tlaib and John Lewis co-sponsored House Resolution HR496 for BDS, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.
There is no question that both Omar and Tlaib are antisemites who seek to destroy Israel and endanger Jews worldwide, and that the Democrat Jews who support those policies are collaborators. Those who speak ill of President Trump and PM Netanyahu and side with the Marxist-Islamic ideology emanating from the Democrat party, who compare the southern-border invaders to the Holocaust’s Jewish refugees, and who failed to attend and celebrate the dedication of the US embassy in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, cannot be judged otherwise. Yes, President Trump’s honesty may sting, but it is nevertheless honesty.
According to Jewish law, the Democrat Jews are still Jews, but the betrayal of their own brethren and heritage confirm that they are not in consonance with the laws and morality of Judaism – their hearts are elsewhere.
Tabitha Korol
With appreciation to frontpagemag.com for their detailed reporting.
Tabitha Korol
https://tinyurl.com/y7e6z63d
President Trump Delivers Remarks on Official Formation of U.S. Space Command – 4:15pm Livestream…
August 29, 2019
Today President Trump is participating in the formal establishment of US Space Command as a unified combatant command, ie. “space force”.
The President is expected to deliver public remarks for the first time since returning from the G-7 Summit in France and since the Justice Department Inspector General released the report on former FBI Director James Comey’s handling of the Russia investigation. Anticipated Start time 4:15pm EST
WH Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – Fox Business Livestream
FBI and IRS Raid Home of UAW President Gary Jones – Find “Bundles of Cash” – Nationwide Union Corruption Sweep…
August 28, 2019
Reports today about FBI raids on the homes of United Auto Workers (UAW) President Gary Jones who is under investigation in a nationwide corruption sweep.
MICHIGAN – FBI and IRS agents raided the home of UAW President Gary Jones in metro Detroit early Wednesday as part of a nationwide sweep of sites tied to the autoworker union.
Agents also raided the California home of Dennis Williams, who preceded Jones as UAW chief; the union’s northern Michigan conference center; and additional UAW locations in Wisconsin and Missouri.
The raids were a major step as federal officials ramped up their corruption investigation of the autoworkers union — which is in the midst of contract negotiations with Detroit automakers.
As many as a dozen agents collected evidence from Jones’ home on Wildrose Drive in Canton, and would remain there “as long as it takes,” Special Agent Mara Schneider said from the site late in the morning. The search lasted six hours. (read more)
The Leverage of Dependency – Chinese Manufacturers Admit Without U.S. Market They Collapse…
August 27, 2019
An interesting article in the South China Morning Post outlines how Chinese companies producing everything from canned mandarin oranges, to mid and high-tier furniture, cannot sustain a business model without access to the U.S. market.
Their problem?…
In essence, when they established their decades-old business model the overwhelming majority of their manufacturing was/is contingent on U.S. buyers.
Right now those Chinese companies are praying the CCP central government keeps devaluing their currency, because U.S. purchasers, including wholesalers and intermediaries, have told those manufacturers they will not pay the import duties.
Apparently, U.S. corporate buyers are leveraging the pressure applied by President Trump – a remarkable dynamic.
(SCMP) […] “The US client called us last weekend and asked us to pay the additional tariff of 5 per cent. We could not refuse since it was our idea to bid to supply the canned fruit for the supermarkets,” she said. “We have no way to deal with it now. We only hope that the yuan will depreciate in the coming weeks and offset the new tariff. Otherwise, we will lose a lot [of money] on this order.”
If the yuan does not further depreciate by more than 5 per cent, she added, the company will have no choice but to cease exports to the US after October 1.
Exporters have been left blindsided after the US said on Friday that it would raise the tariff rate on US$250 billion of Chinese imports from 25 per cent to 30 per cent from October 1, and raise the planned new tariff rate on US$300 billion of goods from 10 per cent to 15 per cent in two tranches on September 1 and December 15.
This was in response to China’s move earlier on Friday to impose retaliatory tariffs of between 5 and 10 per cent on US$75 billion worth of American products, including soybeans, pork, and, for the first time, crude oil. China also reinstated the 25 per cent penalty duty on imports of US-made cars and car parts, bringing the total tariff on the sector to 40 per cent.
[…] “In the case of medium-and high-end furniture, even with the addition of tariffs, it is still impossible to find substitute markets for our products,” said Xie Jun, a furniture exporter in Haining, a city in Zhejiang province where hundreds of furniture factories make goods for export to the US.
[…] “For Chinese exporters, it is useless to be afraid because there is nowhere to hide. We can only rely on the wisdom and countermeasures of the central government,” he said, adding that as long as Beijing can maintain employment levels and prevent the housing market from collapsing, “we are not afraid”. (read more)
The Eagle and the Arrow – An Aesop’s Fable
An Eagle was soaring through the air. Suddenly it heard the whizz of an Arrow, and felt the dart pierce its breast. Slowly it fluttered down to earth. Its lifeblood pouring out. Looking at the Arrow with which it had been shot, the Eagle realized that the deadly shaft had been feathered with one of its own plumes.
Moral: We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.
Centinel2012 