Friday 14 June 2019

Index of Peace

Someone went and did a survey of 'peace' around the world, and built an index.  The US rating?  We were around 128 on the list of countries, in terms of safety and peace.

I sat and pondered over this index and the way they built it.

The problem I have is that if you went to an individual state (say Alabama, and in particular the northern third of Alabama).....we probably would have rated up there with Iceland (the number one country in terms of 'peace' and safety.

But once you push in assaults, shootings, murders, and various other non-peace events.....well....the nation of the US can't compete with Iceland (rural Alabama could).

Why so much lack of 'peace'?  I look at five issues:

1.  Drug abuse and the escalation over the past three decades.
2.  Seriously mentally-ill individuals who have two choices....roam freely among the public, and thrown into a prison-jail system.
3.  A national belief that we are the world's protector, and we willingly roam around looking for some 'mess' to solve.
4.  A national willing nature to let problem behaviors to develop and get worse.
5.  Lack of respect, across all lines.

But the idea of letting these PhD folks continue this trend, and toss the everyone into some big joint 'group'?  It simply promotes a fake survey and data in the end. 

The Ten Essential Problems With Politics Today in America

1.  You are told daily that such-and-such massive problem exists, and only Washington DC with the aid of such-and-such party....can save the day.  After you've seen forty of these odd 'saves', you obviously connect the dots and suggest that the solution simply changed problem 'X' to problem 'Y'.

2.  Getting people hyped-up twenty-four hours a day....seven days a week.....365 days a year, has given you what result? 

3.  People have begun to look at candidates (for any office, not just the Presidency) and begun to recognize that some folks have a six-line resume (enough to put on a 3x5 inch card). 

4.  Just about every single detail or path in life....is now politicized.  Fifth-grade school kids now argue over politicized topics.  Seventy-year-old women at the local beauty parlor.....argue over politics.  Farmers who used to discuss weather, tractor maintenance, and cattle prices....now argue over politics. 

5.  If you gave a mental test or intelligence exam to 435 Congressmen and 100 Senators, most folks are convinced that a fair sum (maybe ten-percent) would fail.

6.  Virtually every single House member is working around the clock for his next election (two years away). 

7.  No one can explain the federal budget or where the money went in support of. 

8.  Some political agendas include the idea that a non-citizen has just as many rights as a voting-citizen. 

9.  Journalists are no longer journalists.

10.  The news is biased, slanted, or remarkably fake. 

Boredom Politics

In roughly two weeks, the Democratic 'debates' start up via NBC....over two nights.  I know....you are fairly excited that this will be a Wednesday and Thursday night situation....with ten different candidates each night.

It's bad enough when you get like five guys up on a stage and limited to a two-minute response, but you get ten, and repeat this the next night?  I'll go ahead and predict this....that the audience watching on second evening will be half the size of the first night.  If you drew the card for the second night group?  You won't make any points and this will be the beginning of the end.

Moderators?  Five of them?  Yes. Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, and Jose Diaz-Balart.  This will be another problem as they 'run over' each other in asking questions or moderating.

I expect this by the weekend after the 2-day event to be categorized as a mega-screw-up.  With this many folks, I think it'd been better to have just candidates up on the stage with one moderator, and just repeat this every other day for two weeks. 

Then add to this fury in that they will repeat this roughly a month later (unless this goes terribly wrong). 

Trump to watch?  That's another thing.....he'll be firing away on Twitter....minutes after some stupid comment is made, and the public will be viewing his comments against the NBC episode.