King Rama X is a Super Rad Dude Who TOTALLY Deserves to Rule Over the Thai People!
Did you catch the video that made the rounds recently showing Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn (reigning title: Phrabat Somdet Phra Vajira Klao Chao Yu Hua, but we’ll just call him by the simpler title, Rama X) promoting his girlfriend to “Royal Noble Consort“? You know, the video where Major-General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi lay completely prostrate at the monarch’s feet, gratefully accepting royal baubles and trinkets from her master like an obedient dog?
No no no, not the video from this past May, where he promoted his top bodyguard to be his new queen in a ceremony that involved her lying completely prostrate at the monarch’s feet, gratefully accepting royal baubles and trinkets from her master like an obedient dog. That’s an entirely different video.
But either way, I think we can all agree that King Rama X is a super cool dude and that it’s a great thing that he and his fourth wife and his official mistress are the rulers of Thailand. Long live the King.
Oh, and by the way, apropos of nothing in particular—just as an aside, really—did you know that it’s illegal to insult the King of Thailand? I mean, it’s not just frowned upon, but actually literally illegal? Well, it is!
That’s right, according to Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, “Whoever, defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.”
Find out more about the super cool dude who rightfully rules over the Thai people because he comes from a special family of enlightened superhumans in this week’s edition of The Corbett Report Subscriber (which, just for the record, is legal in Thailand!). For full access to the subscriber newsletter and to support this website, please become a member.
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Don’t you just hate all these privileged old white men?
I agree that White elites can be just as “lord it overish” as Asian elites. Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s actions seem kinda silly, actually.
What about the kings of England that had a “Groom of the Stool” to wipe their bottom? To me that grossness is worse than Maha’s silliness.
But who know what all goes on behind closed doors of elites throughout history even today?
‘..But who know what all goes on behind closed doors of elites throughout history even today?..’
You probably wouldn’t like to see… too much time and money. Think about it, if you ‘go a bit pervy’ the ability to indulge you sickness is limited by the availability of money and people to indulge you. With Unlimited leisure and money and ‘sicko’phants to aid the mighty when they go bad its probably real gross
Kinda like CS Lewis said that if we’re becomeing worse over a life time we can only get a LITTLE horrible compared to if we had forever to continue on that path.
Hope that’s sarcasm, lol. As an Intel Vet who looks like a white boy but has two Great Grandmothers who are Japanese and American Blackfoot Indian added to his Austrian/English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh Blood I get tired of being labeled a racist just because I am light golden Brown with my California tan, lol.
Being serious, I’m thankful to James for this report actually looking forward to doing business in Thailand later this year and looking to potentially move there and I just immediately 86’d that whole idea after reading this.
I have a good friend from Singapore who lives there now full time and I’m Amazed said he would stay in such a country
Of course that was sarcasm.
I tried to highlight how ridiculous this “hate campaign” is – using this prime example of an obviously superior human being (sorry, sarcasm again…).
“Cultural differences” are all fine and dandy but if they degrade women (like in this example, even if the women don’t/can’t recognize it) then I’ll never root for them.
If we really want “human rights” to be universal on Earth we have to be strict in some things and can’t just tolerate this behaviour. Criticism has to be allowed.
And I’m talking about non-violent criticism here, not bombing this country into oblivion like Americans are used to — you as a Vietnam vet know the effects far better than someone like me who had the luck to not be personally involved in a “hot” war himself.
You deciding not to move there is actually a form of criticism and I fully understand and support it. You voted with your money, as they say…
There is an American comedian that I’m a fan of (unnamed for his protection, in case the Thai king reads the Corbett comments section) who has been touring internationally for years. He has made fun of the Thai king at various gigs, and for this reason will never, ever, book a gig in Thailand.
Wow, that’s some steamy hot footage at 2:50 of the hyperlinked themtube video! Maybe Wikileaks isn’t so bad after all!!
No but seriously, I was just having a good laugh about that Very Photo at the top of this article (of wiggling on the floor in a tight pink silk skirt suit and high heels) that I discovered Just This Morning!! when a student was telling me how during her 3-week trip through Thailand and Cambodia she was struck by the fact that there were ceremonial portraits of the King all over Bangkok!
As for this “crop-top tattoo mall” thing, it reminds me of Marie-Antoinette’s fantasy of peasant life and her “Hameau de la Reine”:
“…Designed by the Queen’s favoured architect, it contained a meadowland with lakes and streams, a classical Temple of Love on an island with fragrant shrubs and flowers, an octagonal Belvédère, with a neighbouring grotto and cascade. There are also various buildings in a rustic or vernacular style, inspired by Norman or Flemish design, situated around an irregular pond fed by a stream that turned a mill wheel.[1] The building scheme included a farmhouse, (the farm was to produce milk and eggs for the queen), a dairy, a dovecote, a boudoir, a barn that burned down during the French Revolution, a mill and a tower in the form of a lighthouse. Each building is decorated with a garden, an orchard or a flower garden….In spite of its idyllic appearance, the hamlet was a real farm, fully managed by a farmer appointed by the Queen, with its vineyards, fields, orchards and vegetable gardens producing fruit and vegetables consumed at the royal table. Animals from Switzerland, according to the instructions of the Queen, were raised on the farm. For this reason the place was often called “the Swiss hamlet”.
The Queen sought refuge in peasant life, milking cows or sheep, which were carefully maintained and cleaned by the servants. She preferred to wear simple clothing uncharacteristic to the frivolous fashion of the French Court while at the hameau, and often dressed in a sun hat and informal muslin dress, a Polonaise gown, or a Chemise à la Reine…The Queen would often wear a straw Bergère hat and a fichu alongside a Polonaise gown; the term Polonaise referring to the dress of Polish shepherdesses who would hoist and drape their overskirts in two or three loops in order to keep their dress clean while farming. Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe was generally imitative of the peasantry of the period…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hameau_de_la_Reine
So I guess it’s better to be a peasant!
?
steamy hot photo. not footage.
the photo becomes footage in my hyperactive imagination…I guess…
Thx for the link to “Hameau de la Reine” – fascinating bit of history!
It’s good to be a peasant when you have peasants peasanting away at peasantry.
Practically it’s just skimming the crop of both tops.
“skimming the crop of both tops”…wooooowww! niiiice!
I especially like the verb “to peasant away”! (which is pretty much what I’m doing right now)
not bad for a Croatian!
😉
I merely applied the smurf principle.
Well, at least with monarchies as opposed to oligarchical demonocracies, the ruler stays in power for a lot longer and can’t just screw everyone for 5 years and then get the hell out of dodge before people know what hit them.
Also, take a look at all the propaganda that Hollywood and Disney put out on these things. Instead of portraying the idea of royalty, rulers and mob rule as the despicable and disgusting remnants from our primitive past that we still can’t rid ourselves of after all these years, they portray kings and queens as holier than thou noble creatures devoid of flaws and impulses common to ordinary humans.
Bottom line is, we have about as much of a say about the ones who rule over us as they do and sadly this is not going to change anytime soon.
Olaf
True… one king stealing taxes is often more like one farmer keeping the farm….he wont want his chickens getting sick or his cows milk drying up or the fox stealing the goose.
This guy has an interesting take
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlnNsLj8-LY
People get the government they deserve mostly though… lazy greedy cowardly people will get worse governance then people who push back against their leaders and demand ‘good service’ Sadly the state has accrued so much more power then the regular folks thru technology
A summary of points laid out in the video.
http://prntscr.com/ox8jbt
In an idiotic society it does look like democracy is a far short rout to idiocracy.
Belief in the state, no matter the form, which is inculcated into people by the propaganda arms of the ruling class which serve to convey it’s messages to their subjects, is in fact one of the largest, if not the largest contributor to widespread discord and infantilization of problem solving processes.
Even if we had a democracy (i.e. 2 wolves and a sheep deciding on what they will have for dinner), it would just be mob rule, which is still a very precarious collectivistic authoritarian construct.
As such, all forms of statism inevitably lead to some form of idiocracy.
There is no need for society to be idiotic from the get go in order for it to devolve into full blown idiocracy.
It will slowly get there as a result of statism.
In related news,
https://76crimes.com/2019/08/02/ugandan-activist-stella-nyanzi-was-already-condemned-before-trial/
yo James, been a financial supporter for longer than I can remember.
Survived five years in Thailand maximum security prison, Bangkwang – sentenced to 20 years by a United SNAKES CORP-gov-supported Thai junta one week after arrest, 10Mar72 – NO legal representation/court appearance/due process .
psst – fully “reformed” though, cuz . . . REPENTed/REEMed and humbly seeking FORGIVENESS from ALL.
You are soooo right-on w/ said philandering “soiled low-ness”/int’l hobnobber/schmoozer.
From the day his brother-murdering old man reverted to be nothing more than another corpse/historical anecdote, I declared that the majority of the Thai populace finally have the “monfart” they so richly deserve – especially the chauvinist/adulterist males!
“…Survived five years in Thailand maximum security prison….
Wow!
It is all too easy to point a finger, be sarcastic and mock the cultural traditions of another country. It is much more difficult to shift one’s perspective and make the effort to understand events from their perspective…especially when out of context.
The average Western ego-based mind has great difficulty understanding other cultures. Without a doubt, Westerners can look every bit as ridiculous or crazy to other cultures. And as cruel…
However, the point of the discussion is, I suppose, to point out the role and rule of such historical artefacts as Royalty and Royal Families…something I totally agree with abolishing. Though, to be frank, I would rather have the more visible behaviours and activities of greedy, pompous Royal Families than the invisible and out of general awareness behaviours of the ruling elites with their international corporations and organisations….whose insidious and nefarious activities are a serious threat to the entire world.
And by the way, most States are laden with out of date and quite redundant laws….they do make for good comedy though.
In addition to that…it is for the people of Thailand to address these issues….it’s a domestic issue …an internal matter. Or should we send in George Soros to rescue them…or some other NGO human rights saviour?
innanna, did James suggest intervention? I did not see that.
And I don’t think you can properly accuse James of cultural bias, since he is also highly critical of the People Who Run Things elsewhere. He is anti-authoritarian and anti-statist in general, and these egregious public displays of the dominance of a rarefied elite are just an extremely colorful and literal example of the same things that happen in subtler ways in the western world.
Certainly, many people are bottom-up authoritarians, that is they find comfort, for one reason or another, in systems which create artificial authority in a ruling class. For many of us, such systems are repulsive. That doesn’t mean that the people who like them, accept them, or even prefer them are repulsive.
Indeed….James did not suggest nor imply intervention…nor did I mean to imply that he did. I was more attempting to respond to what I deemed as an approach of personal vilification being used regarding the subject of artificial authoritarianism, rather than objective and critical reasoning.
I believe the way a person in authority lives their personal life is their business, unless they are doing harm, or breaking the law. Wearing a crop top in public is neither a crime nor doing harm. Nor is “grovelling†on the floor or any other such subservient behaviour, unless it is non-consensual. Granted, psychological pressure, social pressure and fear of punitive measures are important aspects and also need to be included in such a discussion.
To conclude…the purpose of making my original comment was to point out that it is easier to judge than to understand. Morality can be highly subjective and needs to be understood in that way.
Inanna has a perfectly valid point. I just wonder if there is any real reason to argue.
Not much has really been conveyed here. It’s a low point for TCR, certainly. It happens, but hopefully not often. (I notice a similar, reccurrent but not yet chronic thing in Caitlin Johnstone. She too bowls a writer’s gutter-ball, viz “Presenting Opinion as Fact.” Example: “And it’s exactly the same with religion!” followed by — well, I know not what, because reading has ceased. A writer — even a very good writer — who lacks a good editor can bowl a lot of gutter-balls, and may be even more prone to such shortcomings as readership grows. See Paul Fussell’s The Boy Scout Handbook and Other Observations.)
Ignoring the stylistically top-heavy sarcasm, in the above piece there is a vague premise, a missing part, and a puerile conclusion: “Thailand’s form of government should be _______ , because I strongly dislike monarchy.” It implies that Thai people and history count for little or nothing, because something (not stated, not in evidence) is inarguably better than what they have now.
It’s an opinion poorly presented.
The “I strongly dislike monarchy” alone would suffice in place of the entirety of the text.
To really reduce it to bare essentials, however, I suggest the following compound meme (slogan), and nothing more: Hierarchy Is Evil. Evil Is Bad.*
But still, I won’t demand a refund.
*(In ad copy writing, there is a six or seven word max limit for billboards. The rule is not always adhered to, but this is the time-honored, eminently successful KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid.)
“Thailand’s form of government should be _______ , because I strongly dislike monarchy.
I haven’t seen this anywhere in the text, I guess one has to really read into (and beyond) it. To even imply that an anarchist would like to intervene somewhere and replace one form of government with another as an adhoc solution to an issue completely outside of their domain is patently absurd.
I won’t comment much on the quality of this article, to each their own, but often these subscriber articles are prone to jest and I got used to interpret them as such; less depth and a much narrower scope than the usual podcast or documentary available on this website.
This is what I would usually refer to as a more mainstream publication with some levity, that may increase the website visibility without resorting to heavy cannon fire expelling truth enriched shells that are more likely to disperse such an incoming crowd.
But humor is entirely subjective, of course. While some may take offense to this presentation, I wasn’t thinking about how stupid these people are but about what is it exactly in the human nature that perpetuates the growling, kneeling, genuflecting practices. What it is that makes a human being prone to go prostrate in front of an emperor or a god or their mistress? This is certainly not related to geography or the culture itself. So there is certainly no valid point being made about ridicule of foreign “cultural traditions”.
…While some may take offense to this presentation, I wasn’t thinking about how stupid these people are
but about what is it exactly in the human nature that perpetuates the growling, kneeling, genuflecting practices.
What it is that makes a human being prone to go prostrate in front of an emperor or a god or their mistress?
This is certainly not related to geography or the culture itself….
The future of Digital Currencies – good watch here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Ly1OrtRmE
This video eerily reminded me of when the Shah of Iran had a 2000 year celebration, invited heads of State and uber dignitaries to a ‘glorious’ celebration with food flown in from Europe for a too big to describe dinner…he then crowned himself Shahinshah (King of Kings) and crowned the Empress Queen…what is it about the DNA of Kings others miss? (sarcasm intended). It wasn’t long afterwards when the Shah was deposed and the Islamic Republic with a mantra of curing the country from ‘Westoxification’ was birthed…
With all my thought crimes, I guess I won’t be visiting Thailand anytime soon.
I enjoyed the writing style on this James Corbett article.
The descriptives danced like stories told at the bar.
It seems the world is full of leaders who are“superior human beings and all-around cool dudes”. They all should wear the twerpy tattoo t-shirts as a sign of “special human-ruling blood flowing through their veins”.
Why Everyone Should Support Free Markets (Recommended Viewing)
The video is misplaced and should be in category Just for fun.
Man, I was somewhere between pain and laugh watching the video.
6:00 claim workers pay tracks productivity
Fuck no. Productivity is a parameter in economy often misunderstood hence abused by experts. But in any case, I mean any, this claim is simply false.
12:26 Why are some countries wealthy and some countries poor?
Hahahaha, Donald has been visibly grilled by this question, talking around, spitting nonsense, but in essence, accepting bourgeois bargain is the reason country is wealthy.
Sure, eastern Europe accepted bourgeois bargain and mostly ended up poor, with huge swathes of population towards wealthier places. And south of Europe became poor although they were living bourgeois bargain.
This guy is ridiculous, but wait, worse is coming…
15:14 Donald wrote an article You are reacher than JD Rockefeller
Just watch Donald’s answer if you don’t feel like it. Language is really a bitch, you can screw it how ever you like it (of course, you paid for voluntary interaction).
20:30 Wealth inequality, Bezos…
Wealth earned on predating the others is not ok, but Bezos is not that kind of guy. The biggest problem is Envy, yes, children hasn’t been taught that envy is bad.
23:07
“Wealth isn’t a preexisting chunk of stuff, it is created”
But somehow majority of billionaires inherited their wealth. I’m sure Donald will amend his “philosophy” to include this happenstance.
NOW it’s time for something completely different:
Understanding Marxism: Q&A with Richard D. Wolff [June 2019]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-AkeOyiOQ
Hahaha, I don’t believe many people will watch this.
But watch just first two minutes
Richard claims:
“We are producing Economic update videos in Youtube studios, New York, at Their Request”!!!!
I thought to post this information somewhere in #propaganda watch.
Above link is a good example of youtube making truth propaganda.
QUOTE
mik says:
But watch just first two minutes
Richard claims:
“We are producing Economic update videos in Youtube studios, New York, at Their Requestâ€!!!!
For the last three days, I’ve been watching an on-line conference featuring several topics regarding protestant orthodoxy, its philosophy, history and its increasing authoritarianism. It’s frightening really what they get away with inside the church buildings, how easily people sell their birthright to be governed by a philosopher king. But for our pesky constitution, present day leadership long for the good ol’ days of Calvin’s Geneva, and America’s Puritan colonies.
So, somewhat fatigued and down, I thoroughly enjoyed this timely newsletter’s tone. I honestly laughed out loud when I saw the opening picture, but reading it truly does piss me off further.
I believe it was last year that I quoted everyday guy named John Immel, who in the early 90s having attended a church in D.C., went to hell and back and was provoked to write a book called “Blight in the Vineyard”. While written primarily for christians all across America reeling from their own hellish experiences, the following applies to ANY mystic system:
The following I extracted from this year’s presentation (I’m only half way through):
web.archive.org/web/20190825203259/https://boxcast.tv/view/tanc-2019-john-immel-session-2-760623
Long read but worthwhile – FOR BETTER OR WORSE, HAS GLOBALISATION PEAKED?
https://ir.citi.com/pLyp7cpkg6sZZWX%2BhUZBmdjuTEVp2SwhUafT8lpDhVDG8QDBeoNCiEopNVUe9Ex93P2WWahCXwx8vL42CPvWIaWmcKyehAYT
That reminds me of an article in the Rothschild-rag “The Economist”:
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/06/28/globalisation-is-dead-and-we-need-to-invent-a-new-world-order
Is there a trend in the making?
Regarding the Global Warming: Fact or Fiction? Featuring Physicists Willie Soon and Elliott Bloom listening
I’m currently taking a Global Environment class in college just for the giggles, and it is exactly how I thought it would be. Literally the first day my teacher was saying we need to change the world in accordance to climate change and that overpopulation is a catastrophic issue. Then we had to go to the following website https://www.footprintnetwork.org/ and take a quiz for how many “earths” it would take for your current lifestyle…(I got 3.9 Earths!)
I believe most Corbett listeners are on the side of global warming, climate change, and overpopulation being an exaggerated farce to impose some nasty stuff. I’m on that side as well, so I want to provide a different perspective to the class and maybe help some people learn some actual truth and not some academic foolery labeled as “truth”. I’ll be posting regularly during my semester, but I just wanted some help/tips with some “academic-level” truth material to share. I have so much information from the likes of Corbett, Tony Heller, and Tim Ball, but there’s so much more out there and it’s hard to focus on just a few hard-hitting pieces to really get people’s attention. It’s pretty much the Library of Babel story James talked about.
I’m excited for the rest of this class and I hope I can maybe help at least one individual.
Z-Taco,
Oh cool!
I look forward to hearing some of the anecdotes. Sometimes, this type of thing gets a bit tricky.
I have had experiences in the college classroom (2005-2008) bringing up things like 9/11 (repeatedly and also with presentations), vaccines, and a variety of other topics. The Agriculture Department Professors would quietly smirk to each other about the CO2 global warming stuff (they didn’t buy it) and sometimes would ask me to voice my opinion in front of the class (because they really couldn’t say much without getting in hot water).
But, by golly, I have never run into a regular, off the street person, face to face who was ranting loudly about the dangerous CO2 until today. This middle aged lady was almost in a panic about the issue.
She says: “Oh my god! Look at those trees! They can’t be replaced. Don’t they care about the climate change and CO2!”
I look over. She is talking about the Magnolia Trees in the shopping center. The leaves and old blooms are starting to brown. Of course, that happens this time of year in hot Texas weather when the heat index is around 110. I stay mum.
My shirt is soaked, parts of my jeans too, as a waterfall comes down my wireframe glasses. I don’t say much. Just attend to helping her unload the car. She loudly goes on and on about climate change and that nasty CO2 and the bad, bad oil companies.
I knew this would take a gentle touch, a slight nudge with just a piece of info. There is no way to address an issue like this in a minute or two.
Then as we wrap up, I say: “You mentioned the global warming. Have you read about all the folks and bankers getting filthy rich selling carbon credits?”
She had never heard of carbon credits. I says, “Yea. A lot of corporations have to buy carbon credits.”
She didn’t believe me. I told her “Fine. Look it up. Just search carbon credits.”
Then she went on a tirade about Exxon as she got back in her air conditioned, gas guzzling car while exhaling lots of CO2.
I figure the “carbon credit” thing will nag at her mind. Maybe she will take a break from National Public Radio enough to search the term.
~~~~~~ ~~~~
(Good. I was under 500 words. It is taboo to go over on comment.)
This “over-population” meme is literally hundreds of years old, dating back to the Venetian financial empire. And they came up with it for the same reasons as it is today.
MONEY & CONTROL.
Based on Scarcity Fear Porn, just as global warming, shortage this, shortage that, bla, bla, bla.
Just look around you. Do you see anything today that indicates scarcity of anything, or even a real fear of it by our technocratic, fascist uber-controllers?
Perhaps it’s just me, but I can’t.
Whitney Webb , journalist for mintpressnews.com, who recently finished a 4 part story on Jeffrey Epstein, and his benefactors, who love to do an interview with you Mr. Corbett.
A sneak-peak at the ongoing 5G summit.
5G Crisis Summit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uocUW7ePHzI
It’s a sarcastic dig by James at the Thai “royals”, but the story is hardly relevant as to the real power structure in that country. It’s no different to other Western monarchies, where the royal families are promoted and propagandized by the media, but are not the real powers in charge (rich & influential as they are no less, especially in England and The Netherlands. If you’re a regular at the Bilderberger meetings, then you’re right up there).
Even the queen of England bows before entering the City of London…
No different in Thailand. Take the Shinawatra’s as one example. A criminal family, backed by Western NGO’s and Corporate money to bring Thailand into the Anglo/US sphere, and doing so with violent “colour revolutions” if necessary. The military coup James mentioned actually got rid of the Shinawatra US puppets.
I recommend the work by Tony Cartalucci, a Thailand-based journalist who has been writing about the Thai situation for a long time.
NEWS August 27, 2019
BANGKOK (REUTERS) – Thailand’s prime minister and his Cabinet breached the constitution by failing to recite the full oath of allegiance when they were sworn in before the king last month, the Office of the Ombudsman said on Tuesday (Aug 27).
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/thai-pm-prayut-chan-o-cha-breached-constitution-by-failing-to-vow-to-uphold-it
EXCERPTS
…Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and 35 Cabinet ministers pledged their loyalty to King Maha Vajiralongkorn at a ceremony at a Bangkok palace on July 16 but omitted the last sentence, on upholding and complying with the constitution.
“The prime minister did not recite all the wordings as required by the constitution,” Mr Raksagecha Chaechai, secretary-general of the Office of the Ombudsman told reporters.
“Therefore, the swearing-in was incomplete,” he said…
…Mr Prayut scrapped the previous constitution when he seized power from an elected government in a 2014 coup.
He was army chief at the time….
(Trick or Treat)
October 31, 2019 – Reuters
Thai king creates boot camp-style ‘unity’ courses
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-king-volunteers-insight/thai-king-creates-boot-camp-style-unity-courses-idUSKBN1XB2UY
EXCERPTS
Thousands of civil servants, police and teachers are being sent to a military camp in Thailand for intensive training in community service and loyalty to the monarchy, according to the Royal Palace and interviews with trainees and organizers…
…At the end of the training program, which lasts from 15 days to six weeks, they are…tasked with promoting the monarchy, and their efforts are tracked through messaging apps, the graduates said.
The “904 program” courses are coordinated by the permanent secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office…
…“The king has the royal policy to create unity among the people,†Theerapat said. “Then everything will lead to the people’s happiness and a secure nation.â€
About 3,000 people have completed the courses in groups of 500 since March 2018, he said, describing the program as “strictly voluntaryâ€.
The goal of the 904 program – named after the king’s security call sign – is to create a corps of influential people to “develop and defend the country and create people who are loyal to the monarchy,†the Royal Palace website said…
…Since they were first established, the “904 courses” have been expanded from palace officials, soldiers, police and civil servants to include university lecturers and students…
…“There must be at least some photos that show our audience teared up with gratitude,†one man said. “We have to find someone who cried. 
NEWS – Reuters
December 16, 2019
From tweet to street: New generation joins Thai protest
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-politics-youth-feature/from-tweet-to-street-new-generation-joins-thai-protest-idUSKBN1YK0FV
EXCERPTS
…She (an architect) and other first-timers joined veterans of Bangkok’s turbulent decades of street protest as thousands rallied at the weekend in the biggest demonstration since a 2014 coup…
…“They say the new generation only exists on social media, so we’re out here to show we have a voice too,†said Chattip Aphibanpoonpon, who like many Thais goes by her nickname.
“The conflict used to be about people on two sides. Now it’s a battle between the military and the people. It’s not fair.â€
In a country long roiled by bloody protests – and punctuated by coups in the name of ending them – Saturday’s peaceful rally was a reminder of the tension that is building again rapidly between the establishment and those seeking change.
At the forefront is 41-year-old auto-parts billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, who was recently banned as a member of parliament and whose Future Forward party faces dissolution…
… It is Future Forward’s social media heft – as well as pledges to change the army-drafted constitution and to end conscription – that have the army worried.
Army chief Apirat Kongsompong has said Thailand faces a situation of “hybrid war†against a movement he accuses of seeking to use social media to rally people against the army and the powerful palace….