9 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Not that the US has a democracy to brag about according to a report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance of Sweden:

 

A present wave of democratic erosion around the globe is part of a larger historic cycle of progress and regression, according to the author of a report released this week designating U.S. democracy as “backsliding” for the first time.

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2021-11-24/study-classifies-u-s-democracy-as-backsliding-for-the-first-time

go live in China

5 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

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.

As opposed to dictatorship? Of course what is democracy? What is freedom? Philosophers and scholars have been arguing this for centuries but I'll tell you one thing. Thailand isn't close. No freedom of speech, no democracy.

"Thailand not invited to US democracy summit"

 

That's a shame.

1 hour ago, natway09 said:

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

Rubbish. People can freely criticise the govt. in the US. Not here. Here there is an extra layer that cannot be critisised and which the govt. has used to protect itself.

2 minutes ago, madmen said:

Sleepy Joe has chronic dementia and he just forgot. He is a complete embarrassment. 

Right, he is nearly as bad as the previous one but that is a crook. Married 3 times because he was grabbing other females by the pu$$y all the time.

Good. Inviting them to a democracy summit would have been as ridiculous as asking the UAE to be part of the UN Human Rights Commission. Which actually happened! Kudos to the US for spurning an oppressive, backward moving, dinosaur regime. 

Off-topic posts reported and removed along with replies.  

 

;

8 hours ago, Srikcir said:

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. 

 

not proof but more than speculating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON (chart below)

 

As to any present or future US - Vietnam military cooperation I think you are way ahead of the game as per here:  https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-vietnam/

 

 

Loss of face to the great one! However I wonder how many Thai's will actually be aware of the summit let alone Thailand not being invited! 

19 hours ago, meechai said:

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

To learn something?

On 11/25/2021 at 9:34 AM, 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.

Don’t I recall a recent occupier of the White House referring to a country named Thighland?

On 11/25/2021 at 9:44 PM, dinsdale said:

Rubbish. People can freely criticise the govt. in the US. Not here. Here there is an extra layer that cannot be critisised and which the govt. has used to protect itself.

There is more to the definition of a real democracy than that. The U.S. democracy has objectively backslided, perhaps as argued here to a critical degree.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/how-civil-wars-start-barbara-walter-research/

 

If you know people still in denial about the crisis of American democracy, kindly remove their heads from the sand long enough to receive this message: A startling new finding by one of the nation’s top authorities on foreign civil wars says we are on the cusp of our own.

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

There is more to the definition of a real democracy than that. The U.S. democracy has objectively backslided, perhaps as argued here to a critical degree.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/how-civil-wars-start-barbara-walter-research/

 

If you know people still in denial about the crisis of American democracy, kindly remove their heads from the sand long enough to receive this message: A startling new finding by one of the nation’s top authorities on foreign civil wars says we are on the cusp of our own.

The thing is that when the sh*t really starts hitting the fan in the USA (like a civil war or something, which seems ever more likely, what with dozens of millions of deluded Americans still fully convinced that Trump won), the whole world is going to suffer, it will be a crisis of an unimaginable magnitude.

And the hypocrisy of it is that these people keep quoting the constitution, but support ‘democracy’ only when their guy wins, and have absolutely no qualms to lie and cheat and try to overturn an election when the other guy wins. 
Democracy is one man, one vote, by the way, not the convoluted, ridiculous and completely outdated system that is in place in the USA.

By picking Prayuth again, it is tantamount to making him PM for life, and joining the proud ranks of Haiti, Cuba, Paraguay, Gabon, Yemen, Equatorial Guinea, and Cambodia. Good job guys. I would refer to this as self demotion, and the devolution of your nation from the once proud Tiger of SE Asia, into a whiny, sickly, anemic, crying alley cat.