USA: It Sucks to be You?

 I saw this article today.

Study ranks Canada #1 in the world for quality of life

Check that out.

Canada was recently ranked the second most beautiful country in the world, and now it is being hailed for its quality of life.

In fact, Canada took the top spot for the category in the latest 2019 Best Countries Rankings by U.S. News and World Report. What's more, this is the country's fourth year in a row in the ranking's top spot.

America?  Shall we compare?

• Guess what neighbor to the North has universal health care?
• Guess what neighbor to the North didn't tie health care to profit?
• And who's people don't go bankrupt from health care costs?
• And who's number 1 cause of bankruptcy for citizens isn't health care costs?
• And also has far less guns and weapons?
• And far less shootings and killings?
• And doesn't pay out an obscene amount every year for "defense"?
• And doesn't have an idiotic, self-serving, greedy, uninformed leader of their nation?

So...   Ladies and gentlemen?

Can we learn anything?

Maybe?

Could we?

Please?

President Trump: Openly Insulting Our Allies, Courting Our Enemy

After this G-7 meeting in Quebec, Canada this week, in the last few days, it seems clear President Trump is more truly showing himself for what and who he is. He's also actively courting Russia and Vladimir Putin and officially, publicly trashing our allies. All our allies.

The fallout from Trump’s international temper tantrum

Michael D. Shear and Catherine Porter of the New York Times describe the G-7 trainwreck this way:

The result was a slow-rolling collapse of the fragile alliances that officials at the summit — and even Mr. Thump’s own White House advisers — insisted throughout the day could be maintained in the face of fundamental disagreements. . . .

Mr. Trump confronted several of the leaders individually, giving examples of how, in his view, each of their countries had mistreated the United States, whether it be through trade barriers or security commitments, according to a European official.

After Trump’s G-7 summit fiasco, be afraid

After President Trump’s atrocious and irrational behavior leading up to and at the Group of Seven summit, the disintegration of the liberal world order in place since the end of World War II and the potential for a serious international crisis no longer seem hard to imagine. The president, unmoved by history, ignorant of facts and guided by sycophants, has not been forced to grapple with the real world nor to hear views that don’t coincide with his twisted worldview, in which allies are ripping us off and aggressive strongmen are to be admired and accommodated.

Trump is no joke

What they had to say about this President Trump and our current situation.

Laugh if you want but our Democracy is at stake

Some of President Trump’s detractors regard him as an object of ridicule to be laughed at and dismissed as a narcissistic, bombastic, uncouth showman, totally lacking in class.

Trump may be all that. But there is nothing amusing about him.

This president may well be the single greatest threat to our constitutional form of government and the rule of law to have ever occupied the White House. Considering our traumatic national experience with President Richard M. Nixon, that is saying something.

Trump is hell-bent on overriding long-standing constitutional controls over the arbitrary exercise of executive powers.

This just hit this morning, too. Just look at the associated picture. It's been making the rounds on the internet.

Actor Rob Reiner said it very well today.

"When an American President attacks our closest allies and embraces a hostile enemy power who is trying to destroy our Democracy and democracies around the world, we can only conclude that he has been compromised and is in a conspiracy to commit treason."

If this is not true and this President hasn't been compromised and isn't willfully committing treason, then he is, honestly, no exaggeration, more stupid than we thought.

One thing seems certain.

John Bolton must be loving this.

Not done there, not done putting the G-7 Summit into disarray, single-handedly, Trump had to go on to insult Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau.

Donald Trump rejects G7 summit statement, 

insults Justin Trudeau

Again, not done there, he went on, Mr. Trump did.

Globe editorial: 

Donald Trump insults Canada, 

and tests its patience 

Not done there, President Trump's aides had to go out of their way to also insult.

'Special place in hell': 

Trump aides hurl insults at Trudeau

And to, as I said, court our enemy, Mr. Trump fights for Russia and Vladimir Putin at the G-7 before it even took place

President Trump says Russia 

should be at G7 meeting

Meanwhile, across the planet, China and India and a few other nations just had a very successful and harmonious meeting, in sharp contrast to the G-7, thanks to Mr. Trump.

China-hosted SCO summit 'unity' 

contrasts with G7 disarray

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the "pursuit of cooperation for mutual benefit" at the final day of a meeting by a Beijing and Moscow-led bloc, hours after the G7 meeting in Canadaended in disarray.

Xi made his remarks on Sunday on the second and final day of an annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the coastal city of Qingdao, China.

He also called on his regional partners to "boost harmony and unity by seeking common ground and setting aside differences".

The best headline on this G-& Summit and what Mr. Trump did comes in this headline.

Trump hits the world stage, Day 1: Come late, leave early, offend host, alienate allies

Now Mr. Trump is off to Singapore.

To wreak yet more international havoc?

God help him.

God help us.

Donald Trump and His Very Bizarre Treatment of the G-7 Meeting

Breaking news this morning, again, on this President Donald John Trump and his antics.

First this, the coward leaves the G7 Summit early.

Trump to leave G7 summit early amid feud with world leaders, 

calls Trudeau 'so indignant'

He clearly resents Canada's Trudeau being "indignant." Yeah, imagine that. The Orange One chooses to arbitrarily, out of the blue, raise tariffs on products on an ally and neighbor, Trudeau's nation, and he's surprised he, Trudeau, is upset. In this case, Trudeau's being indignant is an extremely natural result and outcome of his, Trump's, actions.

And then, the second headline today due to The Orange One, is this.

Trump says Russia should be at G7 meeting

Just who, exactly, is this Donald Trump working for, anyway? 

It seems he doesn't know Russia's Vladimir Putin sees himself as our own, sworn national enemy and would like nothing better than for us to fail at any and every endeavor we undertake.This seems to be yet more evidence of this Republican Party President not knowing any national and/or international history whatever.

Republicans. Really. Seriously. Could you please, please reign in this idiot, this dolt of yours?

Please?

Question of the Day

America: Do You Even Know Yourself?

So we just finished celebrating Memorial Day and being patriotic, all that, sure. But America, Americans, do you even really know your own nation? Check out these facts, these statistics:

In December 2017, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty issued a report on the United States that included these lines:[xix]

• US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world.
• Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives, compared to people living in any other rich democracy, and the “health gap” between the US and its peer countries continues to grow.
• US inequality levels are far higher than those in most European countries.
• Neglected tropical diseases, including Zika, are increasingly common in the USA. It has been estimated that 12 million Americans live with a neglected parasitic infection. A 2017 report documents the prevalence of hookworm in Lowndes County, Alabama.
• The US has the highest prevalence of obesity in the developed world.
• In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world.
• America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, ahead of Turkmenistan, El Salvador, Cuba, Thailand and the Russian Federation. Its rate is nearly five times the OECD average. [OECD means the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an organization that has 35 member countries.]
• The youth poverty rate in the United States is the highest across the OECD with one quarter of youth living in poverty compared to less than 14 percent across the OECD.
• The Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks the most well-off countries in terms of labor markets, poverty, safety net, wealth inequality, and economic mobility. The US comes in last of the top 10 most well-off countries, and 18th amongst the top 21.
• In the OECD the US ranks 35th out of 37 in terms of poverty and inequality.
• According to the World Income Inequality Database, the US has the highest Gini rate (measuring inequality) of all Western Countries.
• The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality characterizes the US as “a clear and constant outlier in the child poverty league.” US child poverty rates are the highest amongst the six richest countries – Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Norway.

Doesn't it seem as though we should all come together and work on our issues, our problems?

Reputedly, a Canadian Asks Some Very Good and Relevant Questions of Us

Way to go, America

Check out the latest ranking of all the nations of the world and who does--and who doesn't--come in at the top. This is precisely what Republican and Right Wing policies and legislators and government and governments get us.

In a global ranking of 'best countries,' the United States drops to No. 7

The top 6 nations? 

Socialist. 

 All Socialist. 

This is what working together gets them. 

A little from the article.

A new ranking of the world's “best countries” is out — and the results don’t look good for America.

Switzerland takes top nation honors, according to the second annual “Best Countries” ranking from U.S. News & World Report, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and global brand consultants BAV Consulting. Just behind the Swiss are Canada and Britain, second and third, respectively.

The United States ends up in the seventh spot, just edging out Australia but also lagging Germany, Japan and Sweden.

Get that. Our neighbors to the North, the Canadians, are number two in the world. I expect most Americans would no way expect that.

Not only are we ranked in the 7th spot but we dropped 3 spots from the previous list. We are only seen as the “most powerful.” Given the absolutely foolish and fiscally irresponsible amount we spend on military and what we call defense, we ought to be most powerful.

Bet better, America. You're falling behind. And it's not because you're not spending boodles of money. It's just that you're foolishly spending far too much of it on what we consider "defense" and health care.

Link:

US Falls in US News Best Countries Rankings

How Great Is This?

A bunch of our neighbors, Canadians, got together and made this video.



In response, we'd like to say thank you to all the Canadians who made this video, first, and second, sorry we're the insecure gits that made this video necessary.

We'll try to make sure we live up to it and don't let you down.

We Do Elections Very, Very Wrong, America

Sure, we Americans do and have done a lot of things right and well, absolutely or we wouldn't have gotten where we have, socially, sociologically and certainly economically, without question. (We've a lot--A LOT--of things wrong like maybe Korea but definitely Vietnam and that unlawful Iraq War and too many things about race, etc. but we'll save that for another time and day).

All that said, one thing we do wrong--and by wrong I mean deeply, wildly and very expensively wrong, all, is elections. Check out just a few notes on how the rest of the world does them:

The longest campaign in Canadian history was 10 weeks.

In the U.K., political parties can only spend $30 million in the year before an election.

In Germany, political parties release just one 90-second television ad.

In 2013, over two-thirds of income to Norway's political parties came from the government.

In Australia, voting is compulsory.

In Brazil, Election Day is on the weekend.

We just aren't very bright. 

We need to undo our election system and campaigns and campaign finance and all those "campaign contributions", folks.

We have got to Get the Big, Ugly Money Out of Our Election System and Government 

Links:  The Problems With Our Government--and Our Elections

National Elections: What the UK Does Right and We Americans Do So Wrong

Thoughts On a Huge Powerball Lottery Jackpot

So many thoughts come to mind on tonight's huge Powerball jackpot lottery, worth 1 and 1/2 billion dollars, in pre-tax jackpot prize amount.  Herewith:

--Hopefully not just one person wins it. (Well, unless it's me, of course).  To say it's a huge sum of money is blatantly obvious, even an understatement. The likelihood one person could handle this is slim. Possible and unlikely but slim.

--Hopefully a person of small means, the middle or lower class wins it---one who, again, could handle it. I heard a report on the radio news that said when lottery jackpots like these get bigger, more wealthy people buy tickets. Let's hope someone who isn't already "loaded" wins this thing.

--Better yet, it would be great if a group of people won it and again, it didn't mess any of them up. That's hoping for a lot.

--As I write this, the jackpot is officially 1.5 billion dollars. By the time this comes up as a post, I feel certain it will be valued at 1.6 billion, at least. Not that it isn't already an insane amount of money. Possibly for one person.

--Huge as this jackpot is and as much good or bad as it could do for someone and for a group of people---thinking their family and friends---my personal hope is, for the good of anyone and everyone involved with this thing, hopefully it's won tonight. I can't begin to imagine how big it will be if not won tonight but 2 billion dollars does seem entirely possible. In that case, and the bigger it gets, all the more likelihood it would screw up yet more lives.

--The real winners on this thing? The person and people atop the business that is Powerball. It's like Vegas. The only real winners are the ones who own the casinos and machines themselves.

--It's gone a bit international, this Powerball:

Canadians flock to U.S. border towns 

in frenzy for Powerball tickets

Now people are talking about building a wall to keep Canadians out but for completely different reasons.

It's gotten even bigger, however. I spoke to a Facebook friend yesterday, from England, and he says they can buy and are buying them there, online and that he was going to:

Powerball lottery: Questions about legitimacy of online ticket brokers not stopping Canadians

--The winner would be helped and greatly if they are from one of the states where you don't have to declare who you are if you're the winner.  Like Kansas. (hint, hint).

--When a person does finally win this thing, besides solving financial issues for them and giving them great vacations, SO MUCH GOOD COULD BE DONE and for so many, many people across the state and nation and even the world, literally, and for the rest of that person's long, healthy, happy life and even beyond, really. Here's hoping that's what happens.

So there you are. Some thoughts, random thoughts on this huge, crazy Powerball jackpot drawing tonight.

Good luck to anyone and everyone out there, playing the thing.

You'll need it in at least a few different ways.

Links:  How the Powerball rules were tweaked to make the game an even bigger ripoff

The Biggest Powerball Jackpot Ever

The Fascinating Math Behind Why You Won't Win Powerball

24 Things That Are More Likely Than Winning the Lottery

Dear Powerball Winner: Take Our Advice and Take the Annuity

Everyone Is Freaking Out About The $1.5 Billion Powerball

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.

That Republican Keystone XL "Jobs Bill"?

Check out what the Republican Keystone XL "jobs bill" won't have in it (from The Daily Kos and Bloomberg News):.

Senate Republicans Block Keystone Export and Steel Amendments

Republicans like to point to Keystone XL as one of their signature jobs bills and, when oil prices are high, like to imply that it would mean cheap oil flowing free in America. But Tuesday afternoon they voted down two Democratic amendments aimed at just those issues.

Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey's amendment to the Keystone bill would have prohibited oil shipped through the pipeline from being exported. It was killed by a 57 to 42 vote. Minnesota Sen. Al Franken's amendment would have required that the pipeline be built with American steel. It was killed by a 53 to 46 vote.

Nice, huh?

First they won't promise the oil will stay in the US---because, of course, they're "Big Oil" overlords that own them don't want that. They want this stuff going out to the world oil markets where they can make more money than if they sell it to us Americans.

And then make it out of US steel?

FUGGEDABOUDIT!

Really could they be more shallow or transparent? It is precisely what it's been described all along. That is, it is foreign, Canadian oil, crossing the US and our pastures and fields and rivers and streams and creeks---and the huge, very important Ogallala aquifer--and then going out to world oil markets. And sure, for a short while we'll have some construction jobs but then it will create between 35 to 50 permanent jobs, tops. The CEO of the oil company, Transcanada, said as much, very publicly. 

This is not for you, America.

Let's not kid ourselves.

Canada's Tar Sands Oil vs. Clean Energy

A solar energy company from California is to be hiring 600 people for 600 jobs in Kansas City.

Sungevity shines on with office build, hiring spree

600 jobs.

Meanwhile, a Canadian tar sands oil company---TransCanada---would be bringing between 35 to 50 total permanent jobs TO THE ENTIRE NATION, if only we'll let them build a pipeline THAT WILL INEVITABLY LEAK AND SPILL THEIR TOXIC TAR SANDS OIL just so they can get this stuff to the Gulf coast so they can get it out to world markets.

And with the solar, "green", sustainable energy, there will never be any inevitable oil spill and environmental nightmare like we can count on with the Keystone XL pipeline.

So tell me how tar sands oil from Canada, for a foreign oil company, crossing our nation and our farmlands and aquifers and lakes and creeks and rivers and streams, threatening all those, so it can go out to world markets from the Gulf, is somehow a good idea and a jobs maker.

How does that make sense?

To anyone?

The Social Media Sell Job on the Keystone XL Pipeline has begun

With Republicans taking over Congress this week, it became clear the social media "sell job" has gotten under way. I was just pulling up a video to watch on YouTube---ironically, with Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges---when this disgusting bit of advertising just came up:



Naturally "Comments are disabled for this video."  Of course. 

In the ad, they claim they're building it "to bring energy security to the United States."

Wow.

That is one gigantic lie.

Here's the YouTube video more should see:



And this one:



No to the KXL. No on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Missourians Against the Keystone XL Pipeline

Contact your representatives in Congress. Tell them no on the Keystone XL pipeline.


Contacting the Congress: A Citizen's Congressional Directory

With the New Year and New Congress

With the coming new year and a new, now Republican Congress, it's important---so important---that Missourians and Americans realize all that the Transcanada tar sands Keystone XL pipeline is and what it would mean to Americans. This only benefits the oil company, Transcanada and wealthy people. It takes that foreign oil, has it cross our country--it's fields and creeks and water sources---and goes out to world markets. This does not benefit America. No way.



More here. Links:

Oil field fumes so painful, Alberta families forced to move

Buyout packages allegedly silence Albertans struck with industry-related cancer

Broken trust: Alberta family without answers about oil sands' health impact

Enbridge Line 4 spills 56,700-gallons of oil, causing closure of pipeline to U.S.

Contact your representatives in Congress and President Obama. Tell them America neither needs nor wants this Keystone XL pipeline.  

Contact the U.S. Congress and the White House

Thank you, in advance.

We can do this.

White America/Black America

Entertainment Overnight -- new, different

Drone over Niagara Falls, with music

Americans and Canadians -- nearly couldn't be more different

Every time I visit Canada I'm reminded what Canadians -- who look and sound almost exactly like us Americans south of the border -- don't have what we do (guns, the National Rifle Association, huge piles of money corrupting their democracy, withering poverty, strident and vitriolic politics), and what they do have that we don't (single-payer health care, affordable public universities, civil discourse, conservatives that would be called moderate Democrats in the States).

--Robert Reich

Quote of the day

Final Olympic medal count

1	Russia	13	11	9	33
2	Norway	11	5	10	26
3	Canada	10	10	5	25
4	United States	9	7	12	28
5	Netherlands	8	7	9	24
6	Germany	8	6	5	19
7	Switzerland	6	3	2	11
8	Belarus	5	0	1	6
9	Austria	4	8	5	17
10	France	4	4	7	15
11	Poland	4	1	1	6
12	China	3	4	2	9
13	South Korea	3	3	2	8
14	Sweden	2	7	6	15
15	Czech Republic	2	4	2	8
16	Slovenia	2	2	4	8
17	Japan	1	4	3	8
18	Finland	1	3	1	5
19	Great Britain	1	1	2	4
20	Ukraine	1	0	1	2
21	Slovakia	1	0	0	1
22	Italy	0	2	6	8
23	Latvia	0	2	2	4
24	Australia	0	2	1	3
25	Croatia	0	1	0	1
26	Kazakhstan	0	0	1	1

Repeat after me:

WE'RE NUMBER FOUR!!  WE'RE NUMBER FOUR!!

There is this, anyway:
United States is king of the bronze

Some facts on the final Olympics counts for us:

It didn’t look good for the United States. No medals in individual figure skating for the first time since 1936. No medals in speedskating for the first time since 1984. The four most identifiable Winter Olympians — Shaun White, Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis — won a total of one bronze medal. (In Vonn’s defense, she wasn’t competing in Sochi due to injury.) The women’s hockey team blew a late 2-0 lead in the gold-medal game and the men’s team was outscored 6-0 in the medal rounds. Still, it wasn’t all bad. American athletes won 28 medals, good for second on the overall medal count. (That was nine fewer medals than the U.S. won in Vancouver, however.) Team USA’s 12 bronze medals were the most for any nation. It’s the third time in the past four Winter Olympics the Americans have won that tally.

Links:  The 14 most fascinating facts about the final 2014 Winter Olympics medal count

Inside the Final Medal Count at the 2014 Winter Olympics