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?

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 

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.

What we could do instead of campaign contributions

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

Capitalism vs. Socialism

I got yer ugly, crazy Socialism right here:

5 Ways Norway Is Better Than Your Country

• Access To Higher Education Is Free
• Norway Invests In Its Citizens
• Progressive Prisons
• Norway Does Socialism Right
• Norway Is The Happiest Country On Earth

Norway has national health care, 

a 12-month paid maternity leave law, 

universal socialized pension system, 

and tuition free higher education. 

Despite the “cradle-to-grave" welfare, Norway has a budget surplus, little national debt, and navigated the rough seas of the global financial crisis with hardly a rocking of the ship.

Short story: the happiest country in the world is the most socialist.

Suck it, Right Wing, Republican, Libertarian, Tea Party corporatists.

New Year, dead birds: Is it happening again?

Remember last year there were all those dead birds that fell from the sky and littered the streets in that town in Arkansas? Did you see it happened again this year, albeit on a smaller scale? Same thing, red wing blackbirds, too: About 200 birds found dead in Arkansas city for second straight New Year's Eve

(See link below) My first thought was to write about it but then I figured it would get big, widespread coverage already anyway. I try to post different things. So, then, today, there's this story of yet another die-off: Norwegian beach briefly carpeted with dead herring

It seems scientists aren't sure if predators rather chased them onto shore or a storm surge did it or what. (Again, link to to original story below). My only points in posting about these is to say, here we go again, seemingly, first, and second, are they related to all the die-offs last year? Hopefully they aren't and hopefully, maybe we just weren't as aware of these things in the past. Maybe this always happened but international media and reporting and computers make all this far more available and knowable. Hopefully that's the case. Because if that's not the case, we also hope it's not because of how we--humankind--live, one way or another, and that we're causing these things. Between our pollution and pesticides and belching carbon dioxide into the air at hugely increasing levels and rates, who can say? Hopefully this is not a huge, devastating deal. That said, the way we live on this planet just really isn't sustainable, as the scientists confirm. Links: http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-01/us/us_arkansas-bird-deaths_1_blackbird-deaths-dead-birds-fireworks?_s=PM:US; http://news.yahoo.com/norwegian-beach-briefly-carpeted-dead-herring-145338809.html;_ylt=AtijTgTm3EOkC3VY7.tHXmSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTN2N2g3dDdwBG1pdANPZGQgRnJvbnQgUGFnZQRwa2cDMTAwMzIyOGEtYjhjMC0zNzE2LTg5ZWItNDk2Y2JkN2ZkMGI2BHBvcwMyBHNlYwNNZWRpYVNlY3Rpb25MaXN0BHZlcgNmMTYyMzNlMC0zNjFhLTExZTEtOTlmYi04NmE0OGUxMDEzYWM-;_ylg=X3oDMTFvdnRqYzJoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

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

Norway? Oslo, Norway?

First someone blew up a bomb in Oslo today, now come reports of a gunman opening fire, just North of there. What on Earth is going on? In the early article I read, they said this, too: "There was no clear claim of responsibility and while the attacks appeared to bear the hallmarks of an Islamist militant assault, analysts said it was too early to draw any conclusions." Wait. First, what are "the hallmarks of an Islamist militant assault" and second, isn't that statement itself, drawing conclusions? Link: http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-rocks-central-oslo-norway-pms-office-134903379.html

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

Whole lotta' hatin' comin' on

The President is going to the United Nations first, it seems, on December 9, at the start of a 12 day session, then go to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize the next day.

Can you imagine how Glenn Beck, Rush "Porkulus" Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and all the folks at Faux News are salivating for this? I'm thinking they all figure they have a great deal to be thankful for.

They'll be trashing the UN, this Nobel Peace Prize--again or some more--and dissing on Mr. Obama all they can, every second.

Get ready. They're going to whip themselves into a holiday frenzy.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/us/politics/26climate.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

What the heck?

How would you like to have had press secretary Robert Gibbs' job this morning?

How would you like to be the one with the job of calling your boss--the President of the United States--to tell him the Press just informed you he was being given the Nobel Peace Prize?

Yowza.

I think both of them must have had the same first response. That is, "Are you kidding?"

I mean, I'm a big fan and long-time supporter of this President and a lot of his efforts, especially in view of the previous office-holder, but this President has only been in office 9 months.

And he's considering escalating the war in Afghanistan right now, keep in mind.

But apparently President Obama is such a refreshing change from President George W. Bush and his policies that so much of what he's done and is doing is so supportive and positive and fresh for the world that this group thought he needed to be rewarded for his work to date.

It must be a giddy day at the White House.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_nobel_peace

For a good, brief read, go here for the text of the Nobel citation for the President:
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-BarackObama/idUSTRE5981RA20091009?virtualBrandChannel=11604

Two updates:

Apparently the White House has notified the Nobel organization that President Obama will go in person to receive the award. This will be a great time for him to make a moving speech, imploring nations to work together.

And the harping and criticism from the Republican Party has already begun.

Sad. Really sad.

Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/obamas-nobel-prize-inspir_n_315167.html