Category: government

Black Lives Matter

On By Rick McIn education, ethics, firearms, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

Racism is in decline but still a problem in the USA. The relationship between African Americans and some police departments truly is toxic.

Here’s an excellent 2015 wrap-up.

President Barack Obama walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge, March 7, 2015, in Selma, Alabama, alongside civil rights leaders, members of Congress and former President George W. Bush.

GERALD HERBERT/ASSOCIATED PRESS

blacklivesmatter

It started with 3 words. Then it became a movement.

How Black Lives Matter forced America to confront racism once more

by Colin Daileda

2015: The Best Year in History for the Average Human Being

On By Rick McIn ethics, good news, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

As Bill Gates keeps telling us, the World is actually getting better. Overall. 🙂

Janicki Omniprocessor turns sewer sludge into clean water
Janicki Omniprocessor turns sewer sludge into clean water

6.7 million fewer kids under the age of five are dying each year compared to 1990.

2015: The Best Year in History for the Average Human Being

Click through to read the long article by Charles Kenney in The Atlantic.

africanwater_Ll

Republican Party anti-Islamic rhetoric

On By Rick McIn bad news, ethics, GOP USA, government, Islam, things getting worseLeave a comment

Led by Trump, most the GOP candidates are rushing to blame their problems on a minority. As they have in the past.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

trump-make-america-hate

B.S. = “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”

On By Rick McIn education, ethics, firearms, governmentLeave a comment

Most “good guys with a gun” are a danger to themselves, their friends and family. And YOU. 😦

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That said, I respect the rights of those who own guns where legal. And hope they store and handle them safely.

I agree with Trump … on one thing

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, things getting worse1 Comment

With his random, jumbled blurting … it was going to happen sooner or later.

… “We’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that, frankly, if they were there and if we could have spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems — our airports and all the other problems we have — we would have been a lot better off, I can tell you that right now.

We have done a tremendous disservice not only to the Middle East — we’ve done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have been wiped away — and for what? It’s not like we had victory. It’s a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized, a total and complete mess. I wish we had the 4 trillion dollars or 5 trillion dollars. I wish it were spent right here in the United States …

VOX

Trump

Still. This idiot has to quit the race soon. He’s bad for America. Bad for the world.

expats working in the Gulf

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, IslamLeave a comment

Palm trees, Vegas-style clubs, tax-free salaries, perfectly manicured promenades. Something about Dubai, the most famous of the seven kingdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates, makes living in the desert seem exotic and luxurious. …

About 80% of Dubai’s 2 million or so residents are foreigners …

Even though salaries are comparable with their European and North American counterparts, you won’t pay income taxes, which means you’ll be earning about 40% more. …

BBC

The expats I know in Riyadh and Doha are happy with conditions, overall. Our Gymnasium caretaker in Riyadh is now home in India for a 2 month holiday, for example. He has no plans to leave Saudi.

Doha, Qatar
Doha, Qatar

Here’s the other side of the story. 😦 The horror stories are mostly low paid construction workers.

Qatar’s failure to enact meaningful reforms for its kafala (sponsorship) system leaves hundreds of thousands of low-paid migrant workers at serious risk of forced labor and other abuses. Reforms announced on October 27, 2015, still require low-paid migrant workers to get their employer’s permission to change jobs or to leave the country, a system that that prevents workers from leaving abusive employers.

The new sponsorship law, law no. 21 of 2015, refers to “recruiters” instead of “sponsors” but it leaves the fundamentally exploitative characteristics of the kafala system in place. …

Human Rights Watch

Dubai

The side of Dubai that they DON’T want tourists to see: Photos show desperate conditions endured by migrant labourers forced to work in 50C heat for a pittance

related:

• Have 1,200 World Cup workers really died in Qatar?

• FactCheck: how many migrant workers are dying in Qatar?

Trump is a psychopath

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

I’m quite sure the majority of psychologists would agree.

Dr. Robert Hare, professor emeritus at UBC and the FBI’s top consulting psychologist on psychopaths, devised the Psychopathy Checklist, used by psychologists around the world …

1. Glibness, superficial charm
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
3. Need for stimulation, proneness to boredom
4. Pathological lying
5. Conning, manipulative
6. Lack of remorse or guilt
7. Shallow affect
8. Callous, lack of empathy
9. Parasitic lifestyle
10. Poor behavioral control
11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
12. Early behavior problems
13. Lack of realistic long-term goals
14. Impulsivity
15. Irresponsibility
16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
17. Many short-term marital relationships
18. Juvenile delinquency
19. Revocation of conditional release
20. Criminal versatility

trump-make-america-hate

That said, I’m guessing the majority of politicians would score high on that test. Especially right wing politicians.

Bernie Sanders would score low, however. Justin Trudeau would score low.

… Experts believe between one and two per cent of the general adult male population are psychopaths …

“Psychopaths are every bit as rational as any human being, if not more so, because they don’t have the noise of human emotion,’’ says Dr. Stephen Porter, Professor of Forensic Psychology at the University of British Columbia. …

CBC

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us is the book to read. You definitely know psychopaths. Stay away. They are con artists. Egomaniacs.

related – The Trump Effect: Falling for Successful Psychopaths

Carson, Trump, Cruz lie the most

On By Rick McIn ethics, governmentLeave a comment

Statements since 2007 by presidential candidates (and some current and former officeholders) ranked from most dishonest over all to least dishonest, as fact-checked by PolitiFact. “Pants on Fire” refers to the most egregious falsehoods. …

If Mr. Trump and his fans saw video of thousands of people cheering in New Jersey, why has no one brought it forward yet? Because it doesn’t exist. …

NY Times

click for larger version
click for larger version