All Asian politics must be measured in Chinese terms now.

They are building a United States (of Asia) under a strongman.

Just like Russia.
Just like India.
Just like we should.

@1: [citation needed]

A couple facts wrong and I think YMIT's "diplomat sources" might not be the most reliable. Since martial law was enacted on Tuesday, there have been rumors of a big announcement coming, which would mean one of two things. This first I cannot legally talk about. The second is what just happened: a full on military coup, constitutional suspension. So I don't think that many people find it too surprising. Life continues pretty normally, albeit with a 10pm curfew.

I've heard from multiple sources that there have been negotiations over the last month or so to settle matters with former PM Thaksin, to get his family out of Thai politics for good. These must have broken down recently. Best guess is that he asked for too much, i.e. the return of all of his frozen assets, but that is just speculation. I'll talk to one of my people who was at yesterday's and today's meetings to find out what exactly happened. (It was closed door.)

Coups here are fairly common and not that big of a deal in Thailand. The big question is who the military will appoint as PM. If they opt to appoint someone not seen as neutral to the Red Shirts, there could be further violence. (Word is Gen. Pravit and Gen. Anupong are options, which would not be good as they have been sympathetic to the anti-government side, but we hope reasonable heads prevail.)

Schools are closed but most of us office monkeys work as usual tomorrow. It's almost 1:30am and the Internet is still on. Business as usual.

Great fear mongering, Stranger. Other than a curfew there is no real change to the daily life in Bangkok and the small towns aren't even feeling any of the effects. I'd be really fantastic if you guys started focusing on news again instead of trying to tell us how to feel.

Three clarifications:

The constitution is suspended EXCEPT the chapter on the monarchy, which contains the infamous Section 112, hence me not being able to talk about that first scenario

The ban on gathering applies to MORE than 5 people. And this is mainly geared toward political gatherings.

The military is censoring TV and radio, and has asked for cooperation from ISPs for possible Internet censorship. But they don't seem to understand how the Internet works. Talks about banning social networking sites is futile unless they have access to overseas servers (or block at the gateway, which is unlikely).

@5: It is a fucking military coup. This is a big deal, which is why it is the top story on the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the BBC. Yes, the Stranger should be covering this, especially if they have someone they can talk to who will give a reaction in Thailand.

What do you call @5, an anti-concern-troll?

I have friends of four nationalities in Thailand.... they all report that this is no big deal....