Posts filed under ‘USA – Third World Country’
The U.S. is the 25th Best Place to be a Mom
Even though we are a country that supposedly values the family, we suck when it comes to putting those beliefs into practice:
(Image via CultivateTruth.com)
Just in time for Mother’s Day, an annual ranking of the best and worst countries in which to be a mom puts the USA in 25th place, up from 31st last year.
[...]
The improvement in the USA’s rank is due largely to increases in its already high educational status, which benefits the economic potential of women and mothers, says Carolyn Miles, president of the charity.
The USA still performs below average overall and quite poorly on a number of measures, Miles says, including:
•Lifetime risk of dying from childbirth. Mothers in the USA face a one-in-2,100 risk of maternal death, the highest of any industrialized nation.
•Mortality rate of children. The death rate for children younger than 5 is eight per 1,000 births, on par with Bosnia and Herzegovina. A child in the USA is four times as likely as a child in Iceland to die before age 5. Forty countries performed better than the U.S.
•Maternity leave policies. Policies in the USA are among the least generous of any wealthy nation. It is the only developed country, and one of only a handful of countries in the world, that does not guarantee working mothers paid leave. “The U.S. has moved up, but it’s still not great, falling near the bottom among most wealthy nations,” Miles says.
This is the kind of thing I think of when I hear people yell, “USA! USA! USA! We’re No. 1!”
Epic Battle Between the 1% and the 99% Happening at Lockheed Martin
This takes guts:
3,600 Lockheed Martin Workers Go on Strike in Texas
Strikes involving thousands of workers in the “right-to-work” state of Texas are extraordinarily rare. Yet on Monday, 3,600 Lockheed Martin workers, members of IAM Local 776 who make F-35 and F-16 fighter jets in Fort Worth, Texas, went out on strike to protest proposed healthcare and pension cuts.
Workers are upset about a proposed contract that would make workers’ pay much higher insurance deductibles. Lockheed Martin has already implemented this plan for its nonunion employees.
Workers are also upset about a plan that would eliminate defined-benefit pensions for new hires. In recent years, many other unions have agreed to this concession while retaining defined-benefit plans for current union members—a group of 15,000 GE workers agreed to a similar change for future hires last summer. Lockheed workers in Texas, however are fed up.
“The first time…, they take away pension for new hires. Next time around, when new hires [are in the union], they say ‘we are going to freeze the pension.’ Of course, the new hires that don’t have a pension aren’t going to strike, so then the pension is frozen,” says IAM spokesman Bob Woods. “Companies like Lockheed Martin simply want to eliminate defined benefit pensions plans.”
[...]
The union feels confident, though, that Lockheed Martin—the largest federal defense contractor, with $17.34 billion in federal projects last year—would be unable to operate the Texas plant without the skill of its unionized workforce.
[...]
“Every three years they want to come and take some other benefit. Everyone is sick and tired of it. These folks are prepared to be on strike for a long time” says Wood.
And there’s this just out this morning:
Lockheed Martin Profit Rises 20% as Stevens to Retire
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the world’s largest defense company, reported first-quarter profit rose 20 percent as Robert Stevens, the chairman and chief executive officer, announced plans to retire.
Again, these workers must have balls of steel be really, really pissed to strike in this environment when it’s fashionable to hate unions and when replacement workers are a dime a dozen. I admire their courage.
It will be very interesting indeed to see what happens here. Not only does this involve a relatively large under of people (harder to ignore) but it is a strike against a company that sucks in Our Tax Dollars as if it’s breastfeeding. What should we require — if anything — of companies that rely so heavily on Our Tax Dollars? Seems to me that in this instance, given it’s 20% profit increase, it’s trying to shift more and more money upward by slowly but surely screwing the workers and heck, I’d rather have the workers get good pay and good pensions than give even more (of my tax) money to the honchos.
Oh, and speaking of honchos, in 2010 the CEO of Lockheed Martin (Robert Stevens, the guy who’s retiring), raked in a total compensation package of $19,118,612. $19+ million.
This is a battle between the 1% and the 99%.
I’ll keep you posted.
Mitt Romney’s “Hero,” Scott Walker, Not That Good at Creating Jobs
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the pipsqueak who’s wholly owned by the Koch Brothers and a “hero” to Mitt Romney, is good at one thing for sure. Screwing things up. Take creating jobs for example. This would be the headline in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel yesterday: State Posts Largest Percentage Job Loss in U.S. Over Past Year.
Here’s a graph that accompanied the article. Check out the red line at the bottom. That’s Romney’s “hero’s” work.
So folks, if you like what Scott Walker’s doing in Wisconsin, vote for Mitt and all of our states will have red lines after their names. It’ll be kinda like what’s happening in the UK where they’re proving that austerity doesn’t work. British Economy Slips Back Into Recession.
The U.S. Regresses While the World Moves Ahead
Ah yes, the world moves on into the future. This happened in India while the United States spent its time taking rights away from women and talking about how many members of the communist party are in the House of Representatives.
Just 14 months ago, the Indian state of Gujarat announced that it was building a $2.3-billion solar park — the largest photovoltaic power station the world has seen so far.
Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, revealed this Thursday via Twitter than the solar park had been switched on.
(Photo via CleanTechnica.com)
(Via.)
(Look closely at the upper left hand corner of the photo. I think that’s a gigantic wind turbine.)
So, again, while we were taking ourselves back to the 1950s, India was building the largest solar farm on the planet.
USA! USA! USA!
Gay Guys at the White House — Yikes!
This is the amazing blogger Andrew Sullivan (on the left) walking into the White House last night with his spouse, Aaron Tone, on their way to the state dinner with British PM David Cameron.
What a wonderful picture. Despite all the gloom, it reminds me that yes, we’re slowly making progress despite having to drag the ball and chain of the Republicans along with us:
Photo via AndrewSullivan.TheDailyBeast.com
Love it.
Bravo to President Obama for having the guts to invite these two and bravo to Andrew and Tony for their pride and confidence.
This is News? Really? REALLY?
If we didn’t click on headlines like this, “news” organizations wouldn’t publish them:
Geezus. Thoughts about the collapse of civilization come to mind.
Good News On the Housing Front
WHILE the economy remains stubbornly sluggish and home sales nationwide continue to sag, Manhattan’s real estate market has largely stabilized, with apartments in some neighborhoods selling for prices not seen since the headiest days of the boom.
But on the road to recovery, one segment of the market has outpaced the rest: ultraluxury, which analysts roughly define as properties costing $7 million and up. At these lofty heights, there was only the slightest of hiccups after the crash, and in the ensuing years, values have soared, with some apartments doubling in price.
Normally, that news would mean rising prices in every other segment of the market, from the tiniest starter studios to family-size four-bedroom co-ops. But that is not happening, even with interest rates at record lows and prices considered reasonable by Manhattan standards.
Image via WeSellSarasota.com
“There is a greater disconnect between the very top of the market and everything else than I have ever seen in my 25 years in the business,” said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
That last sentence is remarkable: A guy with 25 years “in the business” has never seen such a disconnect between the “very top of the market and everything else.” Seems to me that’s quite the visual aid when it comes to imagining the 1% versus the 99%.
New Hampshire Republicans Hope to Eliminate Lunch Breaks
Photo: dylizi.blog.com
Do you think every single business can be trusted to give their workers a lunch break without it being mandated by law? You know, out of the goodness of their heart? Republicans in New Hampshire do: New Hampshire Republicans Propose Bill To Eliminate Workers’ Lunch Breaks.
Folks, if you think there are” too many government regulations” and that those regulations are strangling businesses, vote Republican, because this is what they mean when they say they want to undo those “job killing regulations.” They want to make it so businesses can do anything they want, including screw you out of a lunch break.
You think corporations run things now? Just wait.
Smog in China Is So Bad, Highways Are Closing
I just got these two tweets from China:
And then I did the Google:
Smog, commonly referred to as “fog” by the propagandistic Chinese government, is reeking havoc in China:
(December 7, 2011) Whether it’s fog or smog, thousands of people have been delayed during the last few days by the almost-opaque air around Beijing Capital International Airport.
The delays since Sunday evening at one of the busiest, most modern airports in the world raise questions about whether air pollution in China has gotten bad enough to derail the country’s economic growth. Nearly 1,000 flights have been canceled and 10 highways in northern China had to be closed due to lack of visibility.
Wow!
Chinese authorities say the murk is fog, purely a weather phenomenon, acknowledging only that there was “light pollution.” The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which has its own air monitor on the roof, however, reported Sunday night that the index of fine particulate matter had soared to 522 micrograms per cubic meter, which is off the charts. (A reading between 300 and 500 is considered “hazardous.”)
Beijingers bought more than 20,000 face masks on Taobao, a shopping site; and people took to the Internet to mock their government’s reporting of air quality.
“They are treating citizens as idiots,” complained a young man on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog. A middle-aged man wrote sarcastically, “The city looks like a fairyland but thanks to the government, it is only ‘slight pollution.’”
The poor air quality Tuesday resulted in the cancellation of more than 370 flights. The U.S. Embassy monitor reported the particulate matter as “very unhealthy.”
The life the Chinese are living is brought to you by a government that is bent on development and growth, sans regulation. This is what the Republicans want to bring to the US of A. I.e., give corporations free rein to do whatever they want because that CREATE JOBS. Yeah, so we have (low paying) jobs but then what? We’re can’t take our kids outside, walk the dog or grow veggies in the garden, and we die of emphysema or heart failure on our day off.
Oh, and again, ain’t it great that our “liberal media” seems to have gone into 27/7 campaign coverage mode (due to last until November) so we conveniently don’t hear about things like this? And, as usual, any “news” that occurs outside the literal borders of the United States isn’t covered. What a disastrous combo.
Grover Norquist (R) Hopes to Crush the Renewable Energy Movement
Here’s a heads up regarding Grover Norquist’s new project. (Was I asleep when he was elected president of everything?)
Rethink Renewable Energy Mandates
Sorry for the lack of a snipet. I’ve had it up to here with dictators today.
Read his craziness at the link above. He thinks building wind turbines and installing solar energy panels on homes across the country will kill jobs.
Ugh. There are no words…
Neti Pots Kill People: That Per “Officials” in Charge of Water in Louisiana
“Officials” responsible for tap water in Louisiana blame deaths from contaminated water there on a ceramic pot. No, I’m not kidding:
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has issued a warning about improper Neti pot use, which has been linked to two deadly infections.
A 51-year-old woman from DeSoto Parish and a 20-year-old man from St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, died after using Neti pots containing tap water to flush their sinuses. Both became infected with Naegleria fowleri, a parasite known as the brain-eating amoeba.
“If you are irrigating, flushing or rinsing your sinuses, for example, by using a Neti pot, use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution,” Louisiana State epidemiologist Dr. Raoult Ratard said in a statement. “Tap water is safe for drinking but not for irrigating your nose.”
Tap water is safe for drinking but not for irrigating one’s nose? A ceramic pot is the lynch pin in all this?
That makes no sense.
