Making America Great Again?

Thank goodness for Donald Trump, right?

God help us.

God save us.

And thanks, Republicans.

That's quite the guy you have there in our White House.

Some Takeaways On the World's Happiest Nations Report

The world's happiest nations were announced today by the by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations.

World's happiest countries named

Takeaways?

--The US isn't the happiest

--The US isn't in the top 3

--The US isn't in the top 5

--The US isn't even in the top 10

--The US is in the 13th position

Here's what I love.

The top ten "happiest nations"?

Socialist.

All Socialist.

Every one.

Here's another kicker. Another takeaway. Frankly, it's one more slam on us, the US.

Israel ranks higher in happiness than the US.

Israel.

Surrounded by their enemies. Set upon and attacked, not infrequently, by Palestinians yet they have a higher happiness rating than we do here in the United States.


So, America.  Could we learn some things here?

Please?

Soon as possible?

Here's one:  The lady was right.

We are #Strongertogether.

Links:

World Happiness Report Update 2016

World Happiness Report - Wikipedia

America Has the Worst Vacation Policies 

Of Any Developed Country

Once again, U.S. has most expensive, least effective health care

Americans are much, much more likely to be killed by guns than  people in other countries

Americans are paying more for slower Internet 

America, Due To This President, You're Being Mocked

I don't remember a time in our nation's history when we were this mocked, this lampooned, by not just groups of people outside our nation but by whole nations. With this new President, not a total surprise, we now are. To wit:

Country by country, Europe is trolling Trump 

one video at a time

Swtizerland is said to have begun it all, with this.



Suddenly, that "richest nation in the world" wants to be "America first!"

I guess we just aren't rich enough yet, huh?

Pretty embarrassing.

What isn't stupid from the Orange One, what isn't stupid and irresponsible policies, are stupid statements and ideas and claims, sometimes, as we've seen already repeatedly, there are outright untruths. Lies.

So again, congratulations, America, congratulations Republicans! You've gotten stupider and more greedy, both, in one fell swoop.

Socialism or America's Capitalism?

In the ever-raging and ongoing battle of what's better? Capitalism or Socialism, I offer you today the Legatum Prosperity Index of world nations for 2015.

Britain leapfrogs Germany in list of world's 

most prosperous

Note two things, ladies and gentlemen.

The US is not "NUMBER ONE!"

And the top nine nations are Socialist.


Huh.

Question for you, America

Quote of the day -- On Fairness and Balance

The American way

We just aren't that bright.

Welfare ruins nations?

We've heard it repeatedly, right? Welfare--for the people--makes them weaker?

And what countries also aren't outspending the rest of the world for war, bombs and planes, investing so much of their GDP on death and war?

Yeah, them, that's who.

And then there's this, added to it all:

I think it's all important to know.

And repeat.


 

One more stereotype, shot to heck

Here's your "lazy Mexicans", according to reasearch from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the OECD):

Quoting: "Mexicans...top international studies by working nearly 10 hours a day on the job and in the home."

So much for that stereotype, huh?

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/who-knew/work-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html#crsl=%252Fwho-knew%252Fwork-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html

And while we're on the subject of who's "Number One"

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the Better Life Initiative, examining how various aspects of people's lives affect the general well-being of whole countries and came up with the following list of "The 10 Countries With The Best Work-Life Balance." Guess what country who thinks--and claims, frequently, that it's "number one"-- ISN'T EVEN ON THE FREAKING LIST? Yeah, I think you know. European countries? All over the place. The Netherlands? You bet. No Uncle Sam. Read it and weep, suckers. As I've said before, your boss loves you. Try to have a nice weekend anyway. Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/01/top-ten-countries-with-work-life-balance_n_868224.html#s285262&title=10_France

100 Places to Go Before They Disappear

On Earth Day, for Earth Day, today, from Yahoo! News:


For Earth Day, Yahoo! News interviewed Gaute Hogh, publisher of the book 100 Places to Go Before They Disappear (distributed by Abrams in the U.S.). Hogh was inspired to produce the book after witnessing the effects of global warming in his native Denmark. He wanted to show how natural beauty around the globe could be forever altered by climate change.


One of these many places that could be severely affected--Kauai, Hawai'i

Kauai, the fourth largest Hawaiian island, is famous for its tropical beauty and lush mountains. Global warming could disrupt its distinct “cloud forest”ecosystem, pushing life-giving moisture to higher elevations. Home to the hummingbird-like honeycreeper, a rare and colorful animal that sips nectar from flowers, this cool zone is vital to Kauai’s verdant environment. Deforestation and non-indigenous species like pigs and goats have also decimated the honeycreeper’s habitat in recent years and the bird is now in danger of going extinct.  See more at links below.

Or we could start to change how we live so it's more sustainable.


It's our choice.


Here's hoping we can change quickly enough to make a difference.


Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110421/sc_yblog_newsroom/photos-of-endangered-places-around-the-world
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Endangered-Places-Around-World/ss/events/sc/042011climateplaces

Guess who's not in the top ten of countries to do business

Yeah, it's us.

The US.

According to The World Economic Forum and their recent study, the US is no way in the top ten countries in which to do business, released yesterday.

Published for the third year in a row and covering 125 economies worldwide, the report presents a resource for dialogue and provides a yardstick of the extent to which economies have in place the necessary attributes for enabling trade and where improvements are most needed.

Check out the top ten:

1. Singapore
2. Hong Kong
3. Denmark
4. Sweden
5. Switzerland
6. New Zealand
7. Norway
8. Canada
9. Luxembourg
10. Netherlands

Beat out by Luxembourg.

Who'd have guessed?

The US? 19th.

We're not number one in this category, either.

Deal.

Link to original post:
http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/GlobalEnablingTradeReport/index.htm

I'm back!

After just getting back from a vacation and, as good fortune and hard work would have it, my first cruise on a cruise ship, it naturally gave a great deal of food for thought, so to speak.

Stopping, day after day, in different ports of call and cities, towns, countries and cultures, it helps give a little bit bigger viewpoint of the world. It may not be Europe or Africa or the former Soviet Union or anything more global--it was the Western Caribbean, after all and only 8 days--it was still a bit of a larger picture of the hemisphere, its current situation and some of its history.

The question I'm left with, after seeing these current civilizations and the remains of ancient ones like the Mayans, it seems clear, given our current world situations, that we just don't have the whole successful, supportive culture and civilization down yet.

What I mean is, after all these thousands of years of human kind's living and the lessons we can and should take from them, we still don't have sensible, intelligent, successful, working plan for a society down yet.

Think about it.

We don't.

Too much greed, surely.

You would think we could come up with some reasonable ways to educate, clothe, employ, feed and tend to the health care of all our citizens and society.

You would think.

I do.

It seems that with all the scientists, doctors, teachers, sociologists, historians and more--all the educated people, worldwide--we could set up a working,
simple and, again, intelligent society.

And in examples large and small, across the globe, it seems we're breaking down right now.

Things and places aren't working and aren't working well or right.

Russia fell apart and became the "Former Soviet Union".

South and Central America never have been coherent and working--or haven't been for years, since the Mayan or Aztec civilizations.

Africa is in pieces and has been for hundreds of years, I believe.

China is not a working, sustainable society as it exists today.

The examples go on.

It would seem Denmark and some other Scandinavian countries come closest to truly be successful, supportable and functioning for all, though who knows? I could be proven wrong there.

In the current world situation, it seems wealth, as always, rules.

And that's not supportable and able to work in the long run.

It doesn't make one very hopeful for us.

It brings up the same old, simple, possibly funny but also possibly poignant question from years ago:

Why can't we all just get along?


(The first thing we should all do is outlaw war).