See: Encircling China: Soft Underbelly
It's been tougher than expected, and this must have been determined to be the weakest point after the probes:
"Voters in Thailand endorse military’s proposed constitution" by Richard C. Paddock New York Times August 07, 2016
BANGKOK — In its first test at the polls, Thailand’s military government won overwhelming approval Sunday of a new constitution that aims to reduce the power of political parties and extend the influence of the military.
With 94 percent of the ballots counted, voters were approving the military’s proposed constitution by a wide margin, according to preliminary returns issued by the election commission. A companion ballot measure that would give the military junta the authority to fill the Senate with its appointees was also easily winning.
The word junta is the key. Petroshenko's CIA-installed piece of crap is not referred to as such in this NYT pos.
How come everywhere the U.S. goes it isn't really liked anymore?
Meechai Ruchupan, the chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, said his panel would begin writing laws required to implement the new constitution as soon as the results are official.
The constitution would be the country’s 20th in 84 years. Election officials put the turnout at 54.6 percent of eligible voters.
The junta seized power in 2014 and brought temporary peace after years of clashes between political factions. The military leaders have pledged to hold parliamentary elections next year and return power to civilian leaders no matter what the outcome of the voting.
Human rights groups challenged the legitimacy of the referendum because of restrictions that prevented opponents of the proposed constitution from campaigning.
Thailand has long been divided between the rural poor, mainly in the northern and northeastern parts of the country, and the urban middle class, leading to years of clashes between the two factions.
Two populist prime ministers, Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, Yingluck, were elected with the support of rural, northern voters. But Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006, and Yingluck was ousted by a court ruling just before the 2014 coup.
You only need roll back through my Thailand scroll a ways to see what bulls** is that. The Shinawatras were NWO globalist and US favorites and were far from populist.
Nice insult, too, considering how they treat populism in this country.
The proposed constitution was designed to shift the balance of power away from major political parties and give a greater voice to medium-size parties under a new formula for awarding seats in Parliament.
Oh, I can see why the U.S. government would not like that.
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And this is their typical response!
"4 killed in wave of bombings in Thailand" by Poypiti Amatatham New York Times August 12, 2016
Ah, Jew York Times again, sigh.
BANGKOK — A series of bombings struck five provinces in Thailand, mostly at sites popular with tourists, on Thursday and Friday, in what a senior Thai official called a coordinated wave of attacks. Four people were killed and dozens wounded, police said.
Those would be the ones frequenting the child sex trade for which Thailand is notorious?
General Prawit Wongsuwan, a deputy prime minister in Thailand’s military-run government, said the attacks were “absolutely conducted by the same network.”
“I believe so,” he continued. “But the investigation is unclear on who actually did it, what are the reasons behind it.”
I'm not going on much but gut instinct because I've seen this movie before and I understand who is my messenger.
Another senior official later described the bombings as “local sabotage,” not terrorism. No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts.
The government has to say that. They are in a corner. Even if they know or suspect the truth, they could never admit it. They could never say some western intelligence agencies and their assets or proxies carried out a false flag. It would invalidate the government because it would prove they can't protect their people.
That's the genius of these globe-kicking war-planners. They know other authorities can't blow the whistle without exposing themselves so they go along with the cover stories.
Two bombs went off at the Hua Hin resort in Prachuap Khiri Khan province late Thursday evening, killing one woman and wounding 21 other people, Thai police said. Hours earlier, a bombing near a market in Trang province killed one person and wounded six.
On Friday morning, more explosions struck in Hua Hin, killing another person and wounding three, and at the popular resort island Phuket, where one person was wounded, the police said. Two bombs also went off in the province of Surat Thani, leaving one person dead, and two near a market in Phang Nga, a southern province, although officials said there were no casualties there.
Police officials said several of the bombs were detonated by cellphones.
A hallmark of western intelligence agencies!
Bombings are not uncommon in Thailand’s deep south, where a separatist insurgency has raged, but they are rare in areas frequented by tourists, like Hua Hin and Phuket. These were the first such attacks since a bombing last August at a famous shrine in the heart of Bangkok that killed 20 people.
A spokesman for the national police, Major General Piyapan Pingmuang, said there was no evidence of a connection to international terrorism.
“This is different from the terrorism that has taken place in many countries,” he said. “This is local sabotage.”
Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College who researches politics and security in Southeast Asia, doubted that southern insurgents were behind the blasts.
So do I. See: THAI BOMBS - AUGUST 2016
“It’s been years since they have been able to pull off coordinated attacks across multiple cities and provinces, and when they have, it’s always been confined to the deep south,” he said in an e-mail.
He said the bombings were likelier to be the work of dissidents opposed to the military government that has ruled Thailand since a coup in 2014. He noted that the blasts came days after voters approved a new constitution expanding the power of the junta, which had barred opponents of the proposal from campaigning against it.
“The restrictions on campaigning ahead of the referendum must convince some that only extralegal means can be effective,” Abuza said.
While many of the bombings were in tourist areas, he said, they did not seem intended to kill large numbers of people, suggesting that the intent was to hurt the tourist-dependent economy.
Friday is the birthday of the queen, Sirikit, a national holiday, and some of the bombs were reported to have gone off after the national anthem, which is customarily played at 8 a.m. Many people had gone to Hua Hin, a coastal resort on the Gulf of Thailand, in anticipation of the holiday. Sirikit and King Bhumibol Adulyadej have a palace there, although they are both ill and hospitalized in Bangkok.
Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office, urged Thais to celebrate the holiday as usual.
“They don’t want people to go out, travel, or spend money,” he said in a televised interview, referring to the bombers. “They want to scare off investors. They don’t want tourists to come to Thailand.”
The explosions Thursday night in Hua Hin, which occurred about a half-hour apart, were in an area of bars and nightclubs popular with foreign tourists. At least nine foreigners were wounded in the second explosion, which went off at a crowded intersection, according to Suthipong Klai-udom, a district official.
Suthipong said that Germans, Swiss, and Italians were among the wounded and that the woman who died was a Thai street vendor whose cart was near one of the explosions. He said the bombs had been hidden in plant pots and detonated by cellphone.
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Related:
Encircling China: D-Day in Asia
Encircling China: Cambodian Jungle
Encircling China: Laotian Landmines
Encircling China: Filipino Front
That drew loud protests.
Encircling China: Shooting Thru the Taiwan Straight
Encircling China: Korean Ground Offensive
That gets us to Japan and the nuclear option:
"Japan’s emperor makes a veiled request to abdicate" by Jonathan Soble New York Times August 09, 2016
TOKYO — It has been something of an open secret. While the emperor now has only symbolic power, an abdication could also resurrect a contentious issue in Japan: the debate over allowing a woman to occupy the throne.
Japanese law, which says an emperor serves until death, makes no provision for abdication. Parliament would have to change the law for Akihito to step down from the Chrysanthemum Throne, which has been held by his family for almost 2,700 years, according to the official genealogy.
To meddle in politics has been forbidden to Japan’s emperors since the country’s defeat in World War II, waged in the name of his father, Hirohito.
After the war, Hirohito stunned his subjects by declaring that he was not a god, overturning decades of government propaganda and centuries of loosely held tradition. A new constitution, imposed by the victorious United States, stripped him of political power and relegated the monarchy to a purely ceremonial role.
“Historically, it was extremely common for emperors to abdicate,” said Takeshi Hara, an authority on the imperial family at the Open University of Japan.
Only in the 19th century, when Japan’s leaders created the cult of emperor worship, did quitting become impossible....
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The first American casualty from the Pacific theater has been returned home.
UPDATE: Thailand Gets the Libya-Syria Treatment
Must be because of the LGBT prison.
