Kick that pretend democracy to the curb. Thailand, you sit this one out.

I expect Xi will invite Prayut north for a nice chat over tea.

6 hours ago, meechai said:

Duh....Why would the leader of a Junta overthrow of a democratically elected government be invited to a Democracy Summit? ????

Excellent point!!????

6 hours ago, Walker88 said:

No, President Biden can actually point out countries on a map. He also knows China and India share a long common border (and have historical issues over it), and would never call some South Asian countries Nipple and Button.

Or Laser (Lhasa).

6 hours ago, fangless said:

How about actual real live Democracy rather than monuments and virtual meetings on it!

Actual real live Democracy. Whatever that is. 

Don't believe it's practiced anywhere, actually - though, there is a surface romance that many pretend to imbibe. 

 

The real live universal practices are oligarchical and plutocratic. Too many are fooled to understand these forms are something else.

Obviously it would have been absurd to invite Thailand.

 

But inviting the nation of Taiwan is going to get Xi's panda panties in a twist. Good on Biden.

1 hour ago, Albert Zweistein said:

It's a democracy summit.

Sure it is...and anyone here who strongly prefers to live in a democratic country should consider moving to a country in the democracy list...for example Iraq.

Trouble with a lot of you is that forget, Democracy is messy!

 

People argue, throw insults, and are at times downright idiots.

 

But somehow it seems to work for all it's faults.

 

Now pick your poison.

 

You can either have all that messiness, or you can have a Great Firewall of China, Putin, or Lukashenko.

 

The latter are far more orderly, but God forbid you say something out of line, you might well disappear, or worse still end up with some strange needle mark on your body

 

You choose

10 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Obviously it would have been absurd to invite Thailand.

 

But inviting the nation of Taiwan is going to get Xi's panda panties in a twist. Good on Biden.

Yes, much better to invite the Democratic Republic of Congo....it even has "democratic" in the name!

 

Corruption perception index - number 170 out of 180 countries. Makes Thailand to look pretty good.

 

https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/democratic-republic-of-the-congo

3 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

I don't know the reason for the snub -- if that's what it is -- but I would not worry about the US of A alienating Thailand too much because, if you look at the map, Thailand is the closest the US can get for land-based intelligence on large parts of Sothern China without being in a Communist ruled country.

 

 

Actually, Vietnam has a friendly relationship with the US given China's anti-sovereign attitude towards Vietnam.

An "enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of relationship.

Notice that Vietnam directly borders China.

With Thailand's military government's almost fawning relationship with China, it would be a security risk for US intelligence operations originating from Thailand. 

Don't fret, Thailand. You'll soon receive your invitation to the Annual D-Ship Networking Conference, to be held early next year in peaceful and progressive Turkmenistan. Perhaps you'll even be honored with the "Excellent Leadership Award" trophy, who knows? 

"South and Central Asia obtained just four invites (for India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Pakistan).

https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/11/22/who-s-in-and-who-s-out-from-biden-s-democracy-summit-pub-85822

Seems when it comes to democracy, Thailand isn't a hub.

It’s kind of ironic that this summit is being held in the USA, since a fairly large part of the voters there are still convinced that Trump lost because the election was ‘stolen’. About 10-15% even believe it’s acceptable to use force/violence to overthrow the current administration. How’s that for democracy?

Thailand's health minister couldnt go to a who meeting due to not meeting the vaxx standard, and now thai style democracy is shunned by the world democracy meeting.

 

Reality is a harsh mistress

Best in thailand doesnt mean much on the world stage.

 

No wonder the thais hate foreigners

Foreigners dont buy their bullshxttt

Its the ultimate loss of face

1 minute ago, rudi49jr said:

It’s kind of ironic that this summit is being held in the USA, since a fairly large part of the voters there are still convinced that Trump lost because the election was ‘stolen’. About 10-15% even believe it’s acceptable to use force/violence to overthrow the current administration. How’s that for democracy?

Well it shows preserving democracy is a constant struggle and once lost very difficult to restore.

49 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Actually, Vietnam has a friendly relationship with the US given China's anti-sovereign attitude towards Vietnam.

An "enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of relationship.

Notice that Vietnam directly borders China.

With Thailand's military government's almost fawning relationship with China, it would be a security risk for US intelligence operations originating from Thailand. 

Well I don't think Vietnam allows NSA listening and intercepting devices on its soil pointing at China.

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Absolutely. The future of American democracy is under grave threat by very dark forces that we saw during the January 6th insurrection/coup attempt. They still control one of the two major parties in the U.S. But it's good for the current U.S. president who actually is pro democracy to at least attempt to be a leader on this issue as it is an international one.

The perpetuation of cultural illusion is at play. 

5 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Not really forget about Trump , just no need to deflect from Bidens unpopularity and his ability to do his job, by keep turning the subject to Trump .

Which is why the current potus managed to push through a huge infrastructure bill while the previous one, with larger majorities in the Senate and House, couldn't even manage to send a coherent infrastructure  package over to the legislative branch.

Why the suprise? Myanmar wasn't invited either

1 hour ago, GinBoy2 said:

Trouble with a lot of you is that forget, Democracy is messy!

 

People argue, throw insults, and are at times downright idiots.

A great discription of this thread ????

31 minutes ago, Admiral Hornblower said:

Why the suprise? Myanmar wasn't invited either

No surprise. Would they even want to come to such a conference? 

12 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

No surprise. Would they even want to come to such a conference? 

Of course they would! Gives them a chance to push their lies and tell everyone what great defenders of democracy they are. You have to understand that these people (and I’m not only talking about the Myanmar junta here) don’t live in the real world, they have created their own reality where everything they say is true and everything they do is good. 

1 hour ago, Admiral Hornblower said:

Why the suprise? Myanmar wasn't invited either

Nor the DEMOCRATIC People's Republic of Korea, despite the name.

2 hours ago, gearbox said:

Sure it is...and anyone here who strongly prefers to live in a democratic country should consider moving to a country in the democracy list...for example Iraq.

I don't live here and I have no intension at all to do so.

1 hour ago, jerrymahoney said:

Well I don't think Vietnam allows NSA listening and intercepting devices on its soil pointing at China.

Your proof? Or just speculating.

Vietnam wants substantial trade with the US, since 2001 has had a bilateral trade agreement with the US, has been forging closer military ties and high-level military exchanges with the US since 2016. Vietnam now wants to begin selling its electric SUVs next year. 

You're thinking of Vietnam after the US withdrawal. Times have changed especially in the Pacific-southeast Asia region.

Vietnam wants the power to resist China's "bad boy" behavior that threatens Vietnam's sovereignty- Communist or not. Partnership with a naval and air superiority super power like the US can give Vietnam disportionate political power for its size. 

 

Don't worry about it. It's not like there's democracy in the US. 

10 hours ago, mvdf said:

Yup... selective bullying in the works. Exclude those governments not aligned with the bully's governance system.

Ok. So Thailand in your opinion is a democracy then. Please note that freedom of speech is a vital underpinning of Democracy. This is not the case here.

49 minutes ago, Misterwhisper said:

Nor the DEMOCRATIC People's Republic of Korea, despite the name.

If you look you will see most if not all countries that have the word Democratic in them are not democratic.

No surprise about that rebuff

First we need to define the name & the US does not fulfill the democratic bill anymore than Thailand does