An Open Letter, a Plea, Really, to Missouri's Senator Josh Hawley

From Republican Party's Missouri Senator Josh Hawley and his Facebook page today. He posted it at about 1:30 pm. He's concerned about---China

What a year for #china - Beijing inflicted #COVID19 on the world and continues to violate its treaty obligations & destroy the liberties of its people, including this latest crackdown in #HongKong

 With this article from The New York Times

Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow Are Sentenced to Prison Over Hong Kong Protest

To which, I respond...

China. 

More on China from this guy. 

Unbelievable. 

Have you heard, do you know there is the worst, most deadly, killing international pandemic in the last more than 100 years going on just now, presently, this year, Senator? Do you know we all still need PPE out here? And testing? And that millions, literally millions of Americans are going hungry presently due to this pandemic? And that literally millions of Americans are going into winter facing eviction from their homes because of the pandemic? Would you DO SOMETHING about these situations, Senator Hawley, instead of harping about China, for pity's sake? Please?

CDC director: Winter could be 'most difficult time in the public health history of this nation'

Because we'll beg. I'll beg. Honest I will. Please.

Help.

The USA.

Quote--and question--of the day

The “democracy movement” in Hong Kong is garnering headlines, but what about America? With Congress gridlocked and dysfunctional, the real work of the nation has quietly shifted to three agencies beyond its direct reach -- the Supreme Court (which returns to work tomorrow, and is dictating much of America’s social policy), the Federal Reserve Board (now handling the nation’s economic policy), and the Pentagon (now dictating much of our foreign policy).

The will of the American people is being supplanted by the views of five right-wing Republican jurists, a committee of economists and bankers, and several generals. We could use a democracy movement in America.

--

Robert Reich

I couldn't agree more. It just shouldn't/can't be run by the Republicans, the very wrong Right Wing or the Tea Party.

Guess what country ISN'T on the "World's Top 9 Countries With The Fastest Internet Speeds"

Sure, the country I'm thinking of--that you're thinking of--THINKS it's number one. But it isn't. Think again. Akamai, a company that collects data about Internet use, ranks countries by their computer speeds and has ranked the following: Belgium (9), Romania (8), Switzerland (7), the Czech Republic (the Czech Republic, for pity's sake) (6), Latvia (FREAKING LATVIA!!) (5), the Netherlands (4), Japan (3), Hong Kong (2) and South Korea (for crying out loud) at number one, are all FASTER IN INTERNET SPEED than the United States. Where do we rank, you might ask? We rank a lowly number 12--not even in the top 10. How's that "we're number one!" thing going for you? (We're slower than Romania. Holy cow. Romania. and Latvia. --banging head--). Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/fastest-internet-countries-akamai_n_1051651.html#s438321&title=9__Belgium

What we--the US--are really good at

Okay, so in the last few months, I've put up different evaluations of nations about "best places to live", as determined by Forbes Magazine and others and now here's one from Business Week. It tells of what nations have the most millionaires. And this, of course, is what the US is really good at. Yes, we're at the top for creating millionaires. Yippee. Sure, there should be good ways for smart, hard-working people to achieve, excel and get ahead in the commerical world and lots of millionaires could be just fine, sure. What's bad and unfair and wrong and inappropriate is when the wealthy class gets big and then bigger and bigger, while the middle class is shrinking and the lowest classes are rising. That's a recipe for disaster and defeat for a country. And it's, statistically, where we've been headed. Link to original story: http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109838/countries-with-the-most-millionaires?mod=career-work

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