ONGOING: THAILAND MILITARY BANS POLITICAL DEMONSTRATIONS NATIONWIDE!!!

The current ruling party, Pheu Thai, made it clear that they weren't going to go anywhere (despite popular calls for political reform) without plunging the country into civil war. Now the Thai military seems to have made a move to check this articulated threat. Background: Thai courts recently convicted numerous Pheu Thai leaders, including former-PM Yingluck Shinawatra on various criminal charges. Phei Thai responded by intimating threats of a civil war if the party was removed from power, or reform instituted "against their will."

Glancing over the emerging articles and comments in the MSM, certain interested parties are not particularly happy right now. That brings pause. It's a wait-and-see scenario at this point.

The current ruling party, Pheu Thai, made it clear that they weren't going to go anywhere (despite popular calls for political reform) without plunging the country into civil war. Now the Thai military seems to have made a move to check this articulated threat. Background: Thai courts recently convicted numerous Pheu Thai leaders, including former-PM Yingluck Shinawatra on various criminal charges. Phei Thai responded by intimating threats of a civil war if the party was removed from power, or reform instituted "against their will."

Glancing over the emerging articles and comments in the MSM, certain interested parties are not particularly happy right now. That brings pause. It's a wait-and-see scenario at this point.

Well said but a minor correction: PAD is not Pheua Thai's opposition party. PAD is another Royalist group, not a political party, that was active in the past, but not much now. PT"s opposition party is the Democrat Party.

Yes, the parties that made up the former People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) reorganized into what is now simply known as the Democrat Party. Apologies for this oversight in my previous summary.

Despite claims in the western media, the PDRC is not an anti-democratic movement so much as a pro-reform movement. So the actual conflict currently taking place is between pro-status quo forces and pro-reform forces within Thailand. It's not merely Pheu Thai's ruling status that is up for grabs, but ostensibly the entire political/electoral system is at stake.

Because western interests were happy with the existing political system, which is roughly modeled on a couple of their own, the PDRC has been consistently misrepresented as an anti-democracy movement in the western MSM. [On the cultural or ideological level Thainland's political system is a sort of hybrid between the US and the UK. Broadly speaking, the Democrat Party (the yellow shirts) is equivalent to US Republicans/UK Tories, while Pheu Thai (the red shirts) correspond to US Democrats/UK Labor. Functionally it is most similar to the UK, being a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament and prime minister.]

The threat of reform to the existing political system has been the primary concern for numerous vested interests, particularly in the west. The fact that the calls for reform have come from a significant percentage of Thai citizens has made it a strategic "necessity" to frame the PDRC in the western media as an anti-democratic & anti-government movement. Notice how the PDRC is never described as PRO-REFORM.

I write this not to champion the PDRC, but to point out as concisely as possible what exactly is at stake here, as well as to provide some added context for readers unfamiliar with Southeast Asian politics. The question remains how much the Democrat Party (Pheu Thai's opposition party) is involved in the PDRC movement, even though the PDRC has symbolically abandoned the "colored shirt" convention of recent Thai politics. Notably, the most prominent leader of the PDRC movement, Suthep Thaugsuban, served as secretary-general of the Democrat Party and a deputy prime minister under Abhisit's Democrat-led government.

Hope this helps some casual readers to understand what's taking place.

No, the Thai Democrat Party was founded and chartered in 1946. PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy) has been around for less than ten years. Some leaders of the Democrat Party did indeed support PAD, but not all.

The current ruling party, Pheu Thai, made it clear that they weren't going to go anywhere (despite popular calls for political reform) without plunging the country into civil war. Now the Thai military seems to have made a move to check this articulated threat. Background: Thai courts recently convicted numerous Pheu Thai leaders, including former-PM Yingluck Shinawatra on various criminal charges. Phei Thai responded by intimating threats of a civil war if the party was removed from power, or reform instituted "against their will."

Glancing over the emerging articles and comments in the MSM, certain interested parties are not particularly happy right now. That brings pause. It's a wait-and-see scenario at this point.

Despite claims in the western media, the PDRC is not an anti-democratic movement so much as a pro-reform movement. So the actual conflict currently taking place is between pro-status quo forces and pro-reform forces within Thailand. It's not merely Pheu Thai's ruling status that is up for grabs, but ostensibly the entire political/electoral system is at stake.

Because western interests were happy with the existing political system, which is roughly modeled on a couple of their own, the PDRC has been consistently misrepresented as an anti-democracy movement in the western MSM. [On the cultural or ideological level Thainland's political system is a sort of hybrid between the US and the UK. Broadly speaking, the Democrat Party (the yellow shirts) is equivalent to US Republicans/UK Tories, while Pheu Thai (the red shirts) correspond to US Democrats/UK Labor. Functionally it is most similar to the UK, being a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament and prime minister.]

The threat of reform to the existing political system has been the primary concern for numerous vested interests, particularly in the west. The fact that the calls for reform have come from a significant percentage of Thai citizens has made it a strategic "necessity" to frame the PDRC in the western media as an anti-democratic & anti-government movement. Notice how the PDRC is never described as PRO-REFORM.

I write this not to champion the PDRC, but to point out as concisely as possible what exactly is at stake here, as well as to provide some added context for readers unfamiliar with Southeast Asian politics. The question remains how much the Democrat Party (Pheu Thai's opposition party) is involved in the PDRC movement, even though the PDRC has symbolically abandoned the "colored shirt" convention of recent Thai politics. Notably, the most prominent leader of the PDRC movement, Suthep Thaugsuban, served as secretary-general of the Democrat Party and a deputy prime minister under Abhisit's Democrat-led government.

Hope this helps some casual readers to understand what's taking place.

you sure?

I know they had some issues some months ago and everything was ok with tourists.