Donald Trump, All the Way From the UK

None other than the BBC out of the UK did an expose' on Trump and the Mob.

Thanks, Republicans.

The Problems With Our Government--and Our Elections

The problems with our government are that

a) the elections for our representatives in our governement go on forever

b) we've made "campaign contributions" legal and

c) we've made unlimited spending on these campaigns not just legal but unlimited. That's insanity.

This is true for our national as well as state elections, too.

The fix?

We need to do what the Brits did, years ago, and limit our elections to one or, at most, two months in length, by law. This way, the big campaign money wouldn't be needed.

It's simple. It's badly, wildly needed. It's long overdue. It's simple.

But Americans and especially the wealthy and corporations won't easily go along with this just as so many don't understand the benefits of the Fairness Doctrine in our media we used to have.

We can only hope.

Fight and work for change.

And hope.

Link:  We could learn a lot from the U.K. election

The rest of the world sees this shutdown--and the Republicans--for what it is and they are

(click on picture for easier reading)

 

We need to stop the stupidity, at least, if not the insanity.

 

 

Contact your member of Congress: 

 

Contacting the Congress: A Citizen's Congressional Directory

 

Please.

 

 

Yet more examples--ugly ones, this time--of how the US is not "Number 1"

"The United States ranks 31st of the 34 countries that make up the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in terms of the percentage of our population that qualifies as poor. Of the 34 member states, only Mexico, Chile and Israel are worse off than we are. The UK (at 11%), Germany (8.9%) and France (7.2%) are all much lower. The OECD average is 11%." And there are many, many more statistics within this video, making Mr. Zakaria's point. The thing is, this kind of reporting is an example why Conservatives, the Right Wing, Republicans and others say American media is "Liberal." It reminds me, once again, of the now-famous quote from one Helder Camara: "When I fed the poor, they called me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a Communist." Links: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/12/zakaria-mitt-you-need-to-worry-about-the-very-poor/; http://www.oecd.org;

Calling all Libertarians!

To our Libertarian brothers and sisters--y'all are gonna' love this:

Belgium's World Record

The European country has gone nearly 300 days without a government.  By Brian Palmer, Slate Magazine

Belgium tied Iraq on Tuesday for a very special world record: Number of days without a new government. (It's been 289 days since the inconclusive June 13, 2010, election.) Has living without a government made any difference to the Belgian people?


Not really. It's not quite accurate to say the country is without a government. In parliamentary systems like that of Belgium or the United Kingdom, the existing ministers remain in office when Parliament is dissolved in anticipation of an election. In the event that the elections are inconclusive, the ministers continue to perform their functions. They can't undertake controversial new initiatives, because they don't have a parliamentary majority to approve it, but they can accomplish administrative tasks. The Belgian federal government has a fairly limited portfolio by European standards, dealing mainly with defense, foreign relations, social security, and the judiciary. In these areas, it's been able to manage. For example, Belgium sent four F-16 jets and 150 military personnel to help with the Libyan no-fly zone.


Quick, Sevesteen!  Fly to Belgium and enjoy!

Link to original post:  http://www.slate.com/id/2289797/?from=rss

Health care in America: most expensive, least healthy

U.S. Spends The Most On Health Care, Yet Gets Least June 23, 2010 by JULIE ROVNER Pretty much no matter how you measure it, our health care system stinks. Big money gets puny health care results in U.S. Once again that's the sobering conclusion of the 2010 version of the annual Commonwealth Fund comparison of the U.S. health system with those in other industrialized nations. This year the competitors were Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The U.S. finished last. To come up with the rankings, researchers surveyed both doctors and patients. The criteria comprised quality, access, efficiency, equity, whether people in each country lived long and productive lives, and how much each country spent per person on care. The researchers produced a spiffy interactive graphic to display the results. But the findings were strikingly similar to those from surveys done in the previous four years. The U.S. spends more — much more — on health care and gets much less value for those dollars. Overall, the winner in this year's contest was the Netherlands. Interestingly, perhaps, it's a nation that doesn't have a government-run system, but instead achieves universal coverage with an individual insurance mandate, much like the one recently passed by the U.S. Congress. The Dutch were first in access, first in equity, and second in quality of care. The U.S., by contrast, was last in every category except quality, where it was second to last, squeaking in ahead of Canada. At $7,290 in annual spending per person in 2007, the U.S. also dwarfed second-place Canada at $3,895 and third-place Netherlands at $3,837. About the only good news for America, said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, who was also the study's lead author, is that the new health law could put the U.S. on a path towards improvement. Link to original post: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/06/23/128027472/survey-says-u-s-health-system-sicker-than-most-other-nations?sc=17&f=1001

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

did you ever have a friend...

...to whom you gave everything--all committment, everything? You thought you were so close. Really tight, right? The tightest?

And then you found they lied to you? Big time?

That's how the United Kingdom must feel right now.

An AP story today: "The United States said on Thursday it had expressed regret to close ally Britain over inaccurate information Washington gave about U.S. planes carrying terrorism suspects that refueled on a British island."

ew.

ow.

That smarts.

You know what? "Inaccurate information" from a close friend sure sounds like "lie", doesn't it? It does to me. It would if I were Britain. Especially given this administration's penchant for doing whatever it wants, with whomever it wants, however it wants, whenever it wants. If ever there were an organization whose "ends justified their means", it's this bunch--especially Mssrs. Cheney, Rove and the guy who's supposed to be in charge.

Oh, well. Another day in the neighborhood, eh? "We're sorry, we swear." "We didn't lie to you, honest." "We won't do it again, we swear."

Yeah. Right.




Let's have a great weekend, y'all.