The World Is Looking on in Disbelief, if not Horror, America

 For a bit of what Italy and Europe and the world are seeing as they look on at America.

Europe stunned by American coronavirus response as US approaches five million infections

The United States' failure to contain the spread of coronavirus has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe

"'We Italians always saw America as a model,' said Massimo Franco, columnist with daily Corriere della Sera. 'But with this virus we've discovered a country that is very fragile, with bad infrastructure and a public health system that is non-existent.'"

Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn't have when the first Covid patients started filling intensive care units.

Yet, more than four months into a sustained outbreak, the US is about to hit an astonishing milestone of five million confirmed infections, easily the highest in the world.

Thanks, Mr. President.

Thanks, Republicans.

Note to Trump Supporters

All true. Facts.

But wait. There's more. Much more.

Mexico just closed their border with us, the US, in a case of deep, deep irony and the EU is opening its borders to many nations but THE US ISN'T ONE OF THEM. Also, we, the US, have the largest number of coronavirus cases--and deaths--in the entire world, China and India included. Etc.

Thanks, Republicans.

It's bad enough you were and are suckers. You didn't have to bring us, the nation, along with you all.

Fantastic, Evaluative, Maybe Even Important Read On Where We Are Presently

I ran across this article today, this morning, online and found it very good and seemingly complete for where we are now, where we've been since maybe the Great Depression up to today and on our nation, overall. I think people might find it helpful.

Coronavirus: What this crisis reveals about US - 

and its president

It's a pretty all-encompassing, sweeping read so I'll only post a very little bit of it here--what I found to possibly be most important.

"Consequently, America's claim to global pre-eminence looks less convincing by the day. While in previous crises, the world's most powerful superpower might have mobilised a global response, nobody expects that of the United States anymore. The neo-isolationism of three years of America Firstism has created a geopolitical form of social distancing, and this crisis has reminded us of the oceanic divide that has opened up even with Washington's closest allies. Take the European travel ban, which Trump announced during his Oval Office address to the nation without warning the countries affected. The European Union complained, in an unusually robust public statement, the decision was 'taken unilaterally and without consultation.'"

Can't recommend it enough.

Be well out there, everyone.

Living In the US vs Elsewhere

A friend's post yesterday said what I've been thinking for some time:

A comment from a friend who moved to Europe a few years ago: 

"it is absolutely incredible. We've been here (several) years now...the life style for my family is spectacular. The kids are happy, my wife is happy, we're experiencing people/culture/travel that we'd never see in the US. My kids are growing up in an environment with such cultural/international awareness that we never experienced as kids.

The longer you live outside the US, the more obvious the divide becomes. Education, healthcare, and environment are top priorities in Europe. Nudity is allowed and you see it on billboards, magazines, etc., but no one cares because it is natural. Violence, on the other hand, isn’t dramatized or publicized and broadcast throughout the media. When people commit crimes, they don’t even publish their full names in the paper (it shows as 'Matt H. was found guilty'). Europe allows nudity and minimizes the broadcasting of violence, while the US takes an opposite stance"

Additionally, they have far fewer guns so far fewer shootings and killings.

And universal health care.

And then there's all that architecture. We tear our "old" buildings down after 50 years.

All that, just for starters.

The Brexit Mess

The sky isn't falling, of course, nor do I think it will but with the UK having their rather significant vote a few days ago, it seems a good deal came out of it, both nationally, for them, as well as for the world. Herewith are a few headlines of examples from the weekend so far.

Britain Rattles Postwar Order and Its Place as Pillar of Stability

Pound takes a beating, markets in tailspin 

after British vote to exit E.U.

After 'Brexit,' 3 Centuries of Unity in Britain 

Are in Danger

Moody's cut UK's credit outlook to 'negative'

It would be bad enough if it only hurt the UK but then there are the damages it did on this side of the pond, of course.

Dow closes down 600 after Brexit surprise; financials post worst day since 2011

And then there are the world markets it hit:

Brexit panic wipes $2 trillion off world markets - 
as it happened

World stocks tumble as Britain votes 

for EU exit

World Markets Roiled by Brexit as Stocks, 

Pound Drop; Gold Soars

And not bad enough it hurt the UK--and its allies--quickly, it also gave its enemies cause for celebration:

Despite Russia's Somber Facade, Glimpses of Joy Over EU Referendum

There were some glimmers of hope, fortunately. On this first one, it seems millions of Brits want a "second shot", a second vote on this whole Brexit idea. They have misgivings about the turnout.

UK voters, 3 million of them, want another bite at the Brexit apple

On this one, lots of UK business leaders and investors think the populace will dismiss the idea outright:

Corporates and investors think voters will shun Brexit despite recent polls

So at this point, I and a lot of us are just hoping some good, somehow, comes of this vote they had. We shall see. It would be nice if they rethought it, had yet another election, and voted it down.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

There is an old insult people used to throw around. It went like this--if you didn't like someone, for whatever reason, they would tell them "May you live in interesting times."

Between Donald Trump running for the Presidency and this Brexit vote, someone must have had it in for humanity about now.

On Brussels

I am personally sick to death of people who think somehow that blowing up other civilians, strangers advances their cause. It's beyond disgusting.

The bad thing is that they killed and hurt lots of innocents.

The good thing is that they did it with suicide vests.

The State of the Nation and World

Kim Jong Un and North Korea are threatening South Korea with attack.

China's economy is in freefall.

The Dow dropped nearly 1000 points the last 2 days.

The Mexican peso--in next door Mexico, of course--just hit a record low against the US dollar.

Wealth inequality in America is getting worse by the year with the already-wealthy getting richer and the middle and lower classes getting poorer.

Greece just nearly avoided a total bankruptcy of the nation.

Our infrastructure is falling apart.

Our Highway Fund needs funding from Congress.

All this and a lot more but Donald Trump and his disconnected, childish, really, musings on America and the world put him, somehow, somehow, "most popular" right now, number one in the polls of Republican candidates for president in next year's election.

This is no way to run a country.

Quote of the Day -- Us vs. the Rest of the World

On Germany and Their Nasty, Ugly Socialism

There is a fantastic article and interview out just now at Alternet:

Why Germany Has It So Much Better Than the U.S

It's all based on author Thomas Geohegan's new book Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?  Renowned fellow author Terrence McNally interviews him.

Just a bit, here, to make point:

December 9, 2014/  The European Union, 27 member nations with a half billion people, has become the largest, wealthiest trading bloc in the world, producing nearly a third of the world's economy -- nearly as large as the US and China combined. Europe has more Fortune 500 companies than either the US, China or Japan.

European nations spend far less than the United States for universal healthcare rated by the World Health Organization as the best in the world, even as U.S. health care is ranked 37th. Europe leads in confronting global climate change with renewable energy technologies, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process. Europe is twice as energy efficient as the US and their ecological "footprint" (the amount of the earth's capacity that a population consumes) is about half that of the United States for the same standard of living.

Unemployment in the US is widespread and becoming chronic, but when Americans have jobs, we work much longer hours than our peers in Europe. Before the recession, Americans were working 1,804 hours per year versus 1,436 hours for Germans -- the equivalent of nine extra 40-hour weeks per year.

They're better paid, have more money, live better, have more--far more---vacation time,  pay less for education,don't ship jobs overseas, there's less--again, far less--poverty, they have more "green", sustainable energy sources, all while producing more, as a nation.

Great interview. It sounds like a good to great book, possibly an important one. Eye-opening to most Americans. Too many of us, without international travel, don't know what we don't have, of course, nor what, maybe, likely, even, we could, if only for better national priorities. Some things we could maybe have if we had statesmen and stateswomen in our leadership instead of what we have now.
I love this---something the author found:  "...if you don't have much poverty, life is better for everybody. Not just for the poor, but for everybody.

It's what a lot of us have been saying and for a long time. It seems something the Waltons of Walmart and the Koch brothers and their ilk just can't comprehend or accept or agree to.

What's to not want to emulate here, on our part? Heck, on anyone's part?

That is really some ugly Socialism there, isn't it?

I'm sure glad we aren't Socialists and have that ugly stuff here, aren't you?

The big story in America not being reported

There is a huge story right now in America that is not just being under-reported.  It's very nearly not being reported at all.

And the reason why it's not being reported is because it's not in the interests (read: profits) of the big media companies to report it.

Not even Fox "News."

What's not being reported is the ruling Monday by the Washington, DC Court of Appeals on "net neuttrality." That is, internet neutrality.

First, what it is:

Net neutrality (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on theInternet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.

And the reason this effects you and me is this is about who gets the internet and how much they pay for it, ultimately.  As ever, the wealthy will have theirs.  Everyone else will either pay through the nose for it or get little of it at all, or none, in plenty of cases.

And what happened Monday?  This:

Broadcast nightly news shows completely ignored the day's landmark court ruling striking down federal net neutrality regulations, an omission that deals a huge disservice to the public audience and a boon to the news outlets' parent corporations.

Net neutrality -- the principle that corporate internet providers should provide equal access to content for subscribers -- was dealt a serious blow the morning of January 14 when the D.C. Court of Appeals invalidatedthe Federal Communications Commission's requirement that providers offer equal access to online information, regardless of the source. Prior to the ruling, the FCC prevented internet providers from blocking (or slowing down access to) content in order to benefit their own business interests.

That evening, neither NBC, CBS, nor ABC acknowledged the ruling in their evening news broadcasts.

Here's why that's important -- NBC is owned by Comcast Corporation, which bills itself as the nation's largest high-speed Internet provider. CBS' parent company is CBS Corporation, which also owns multiple sports networks and Showtime, while ABC is part of The Walt Disney Company empire, also the owner of ESPN.

We've known, forever, really, that "them that has, gets," sure.  The rich get richer, the poor get, well, little to nothing and poorer. Unfortunately, humans being how we are, it's one more truth of the human condition. 

But it doesn't have to be that way and this is one place where the government should step in, make it right and make certain the internet is not only available but available, reasonably--if not even free, for pity's sake--for everyone.

And the reason is not just decency or fairness, either, by any means. The reason the internet needs to be available is actually, also for even the benefit and competitiveness of the entire nation.  You want a productive nation? You want a productive, well-educated population?  Well, you don't do it, even now, let alone in the future by making the internet only available to and for those who can afford it. Besides being even inhumane, it's not good national policy and it keeps people from being informed and educated.  

You want to cut off productivity and education in America, then vote against net neutrality and for the corporations.  Want to see a more intelligent answer to all this?  Look no further than "Socialist" Europe:

US Consumers Paying More, Getting Less For Internet Than Europe

The thing that's being ignored in all this is that we need net neutrailty for international competitiveness, not just for lining the pockets of the already-wealthy and the corporations.

That's the "bottome line."  We need it not just for the fairness and decency and humanity of it all, we need it sto stay competitive, nationally and internationally. Merely letting the corporations have their way with us, in this case, as in the case of our health care system, makes us weaker as a nation.

You want to weaken America?

Cut us off from education, information and technology.

That'll do it.

That and killing us with obscenely, even immorally too-high health care.

Link:  Net neutrality - Wikipedia

Missouri in the national--and international--news yesterday

Yes, we were:

Missouri Gov. Calls Off Execution Using Experimental Drug

(Photo: AP)

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced Friday that he is calling off a planned execution using the drug Propofol in the wake of threats from the European Union that the 27 country bloc will scrap exports of the drug altogether if it is used for lethal injection, the AP reports.

Nixon is a fervent death penalty supporter who saw 59 men executed during his tenure as attorney general in the state. Missouri been had slated to become the first state to use the drug in an execution October 23, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The governor's announcement comes a day after German drug manufacturer Fresenius Kabi confirmed that it halted all shipments of the drug Propofol to a U.S.-based distributor after 20 vials were sent to Missouri for execution of prisoners on death row, Reuters reports. Shipments of the drug to Louisiana-based distributor Morris & Dickson were suspended from November 2012 to March 2013, the company stated.

The EU has banned the death penalty, as well as the export of drugs for use in lethal injections. The company purportedly halted shipments over concerns that the EU would place an all-out ban on exports of Propofol if it is used in executions.

A majority of Propofol is produced in Europe, and the manufacturer says the drug is administered approximately 50 million times a year for surgical procedures in the United States.

Nearly two dozen Missouri death row inmates had filed a lawsuit over concerns that injection with an experimental drug would cause horrific pain and suffering.
______________________________________________________

Once again, our country, the good old US of A is on the wrong side of an issue and the rest of the world has to correct us.

Another indication of America's problems

A list is just out, ranking the best and worst cities of the world, based either on "Quality of Living", the second on "Infrastructure ranking."

Not one US city ranks in the top ten of either:

Worldwide top 50 cities: Quality of living ranking

Worldwide top 50 cities: Infrastructure ranking

Repeat after me:  "WE'RE NUMBER ONE!"

Original article:  Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living ranking highlights - Global

Most Americans have no clue this weekend figures big in their lives

I imagine if most Americans--coast to coast--were interviewed this weekend, they would have no idea an election is going on in Greece this weekend.

Asked, too, if they thought it could or would have much impact on them or their lives in any way, I'd think most would give a resounding "no."

Quite the opposite is true.

Greece is voting Sunday (imagine that--voting on a weekend) on their leaders. The outcome will likely be huge for Greece, of course, but for all of Europe and European Union... and even for the US.

One government would have them stick with austerity so they can get the money they need from Germany, Angela Merkel and the rest of the EU.

The other would have them do away with what they see as the crushing austerity, walk away from the money and likely walk away from the EU itself.

Let there be no mistake, this weekend is huge for what takes place internationally for the next several months, if not years.

The thing is, though, too, no one can really predict the outcome of the vote, for sure, but of whatever happens, either. No one can really say, with any real authority, what "best path" there is for Greece, let alone the EU and the world.

It's been said--by more than once source, too--that if this doesn't go well, it will make the 2008 financial collapse pale by comparison.

Once again, Margo Channing's quote from "All About Eve" becomes all too relevant:

"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!

Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/sunday-greece-elections-prove-lehman-brothers-moment-maybe-172918499.html

Quote of the day

"Europe is headed for deep turmoil because Europeans have something to defend. They’ll fight to keep a decent social welfare net. The Americans don’t even know what a minimally just society looks like or feels like. We’ll have to create that society through struggle, and almost from scratch." --Glen Ford, Black Agenda Radio(www.BlackAgendaReport.com).

Link: http://blackagendareport.com/content/united-states-impoverished-delusional-society

America vs. Europe--and sanity and decency (guest post)

"Thanks to the U.S. corporate media’s great skills of obfuscation, omission and just plain lying, Americans are quite confused about the political and financial crisis in Europe, and what it means on this side of the Atlantic. People in the United States harbor vague fears that the social turmoil they see playing out in European elections and on the streets may come here. This scares them, which is almost funny, in a very sad way, since what European working people are struggling to avoid is being forced to live like most Americans, at the total mercy of the rich.

Europeans are righteously upset because they have something quite precious to lose: a social safety net that provides levels of security that Americans have never experienced, and that many cannot even imagine. Since most overworked or underemployed Americans don’t know how Europeans actually live, they find it difficult to understand what all the fuss is about. U.S. corporate media fill in the vast blanks in American consciousness with slanders against Europe – the relatively comfortable French and the devastated Greeks, alike – branding them all lazy slackers who don’t want to work hard or pay their bills. America’s damn near nonexistent social welfare structure is packaged as a virtue, while the sights and sounds of European protest are made to seem ominous, dangerous, selfish.

Most Americans of modest means don’t travel to countries where the people live better than they do, or are so oblivious that they don’t notice the deep social service networks that underlie these societies. Americans cannot understand, for example, that higher educational achievement is so often tied to strong national compacts among citizens and fundamental notions of social equality – these qualities being absent in American life. CNN is quick to cite figures on European unemployment, but tells its U.S. audience virtually nothing about the social safety net that makes unemployment in Europe a very different experience than being without a job in the United States." --The United States: An Impoverished, Delusional Society. A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

And ladies and gentlemen, Kansas' own Governor, Sam "The Sham" Brownback is about to make that American Dream even more of a skinflint nightmare, with his austerity budget.

To all Kansans, all I can say is, get ready for the really ugly, scary part of the roller coaster because if the Guv has his way, it's about to get nasty. You'll wish the arts were the only thing you lost and didn't have in your state.

Link: http://blackagendareport.com/content/united-states-impoverished-delusional-society

Quote of the day

“In the United States and around the world, the middle class is in steep decline while the wealthy and large corporations are doing phenomenally well.

The message sent by voters in France and other European countries, which I believe will be echoed here in the United States, is that the wealthy and large corporations are going to have to experience some austerity also and that that burden cannot solely fall on working families.” --Senator Bernie Sanders (Indep., VT).

France and French is so bad?

The situation in the EU

I came across what I thought is a very good, if simple, description of the European financial system and its problems right now: "Underfunded banks buys underfunded government bonds and underfunded governments guarantees underfunded banks.? It's one of those things that, again, is simple and that seems true but you certainly hope is not. Links: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/02/capital-flight-from-italy-greece.html; http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-myths-about-the-european-quagmire-2012-02-27?link=MW_story_popular; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/opinion/krugman-what-ails-europe.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Remember the 60's?

Remember the riots of the 60's? 1967, 1968, 1969. Remember those? Watts. Chicago. The 1968 Democratic National Convention riots in Chicago. All those? I would nearly bet that this Summer is going to be full of similar demonstrations and riots nearly nationwide, if not totally. Between the election year and the "Occupy" groups and the general breakdown of different society issues, especially of the very rich vs. the very poor, I expect there will be clashes, almost certainly. Cities are already changing their laws so they can act more forcefully against demonstrations. That, and watch Europe, too. With Greece's likely default on their debt and both the extreme debts across Europe, along with deep cuts in so many public programs, look for demonstrations and riots to break out all across Europe, too. I think it is likely to be the 2nd "long, hot Summer." We shall see. I'd be happy--very happy--to be mistaken.

On the new year

From an article in the UK's Daily Mail: "Our world is poised on the edge of perhaps the most important 12 months for more than half a century. If our leaders provide the right leadership, then we may, perhaps, muddle through towards slow growth and gradual recovery. But if the European elite continue to inflict needless hardship on their people; if the markets continue to erode faith in the euro; and if Western politicians waste their time in petty bickering, then we could easily slip further towards discontent and disaster. The experience of 1932 provides a desperately valuable lesson. As a result of the decisions taken in those 12 short months, millions of people later lost their lives. Today, on the brink of a new year that could well prove the most frightening in living memory, we can only pray that our history takes a very different path." Here's hoping for the best in the new year. Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2080534/Loss-faith-democracy-make-2012-frightening-year-ever.html#ixzz1iMBUAHHz