"After the announcement of the first two travel bans in January and March, the number of international travelers arriving in the U.S. has dramatically dropped, according to ForwardKeys, a European travel-prediction firm."
"Experts expected to see falling arrivals following the first executive announcement in January, when European interest in visiting the U.S. fell 12% but to see the number of arrivals impacted so quickly is startling."
“The confusing and convoluted travel bans have done nothing but worsen the country's reputation around the world,” said Lee Abbamonte, an American travel expert who has been to every country in the world, in an email. Although he believes there should be a vetting process, he says that as it stands now, it is too stringent, and confusing for many international citizens.
More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than any other losing presidential candidate in US history.
The Democrat outpaced President-elect Donald Trump by almost 2.9 million votes, with 65,844,954 (48.2%) to his 62,979,879 (46.1%), according to revised and certified final election results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
And then you took too many of these beautiful lives away from us!
Donald Trump lies everyday and sometimes in the middle of speeches - FACT
Donald Trump and his Dad discriminated against Blacks in housing in the 70’s! Blacks were not allowed to live in his apartments. Applications were marked with a "C" (as in "colored") or they were told no apartments were available! - FACT.
Donald Trump is a Misogynist! He has called women very disgusting things whether on the Howard Stern show or to their faces and now spends time focusing downward on Ms. Universe whom he called "Miss Piggy" and "Miss HouseKeeping"! - FACT.
Donald Trump continued the "Birther Chant" and witch hunt for 5 plus years where he lied about an investigator that he had on the case and
that there were going to be new revelations any day now. Then he, with hesitation, said the President of America was actually born in America! Yes...the President was/is indeed an American but just lately blamed Hillary on the whole birther thing! - FACT
Although he continues to deny it...yes...he originally supported the War in IRAQ! - FACT
Donald Trump called Mexicans murders and rapists! - FACT!
Donald Trump put thousands of small business owners in jeopardy of loosing their business. He stiffed them, but he got a $1 billion write-off and paid no taxes! He stiffed them!
A large percentage of Donald Trump's supporters are racists, bigots and misogynists (Neo-Nazi Party supporters, KKK, Alt Right and the list goes on)! Not all of them are...but it's still a FACT!
Not sure why it took me so long to think about this, but I'm starting to question this whole primary/caucus thing! Why? Well let's look at what's happened so far and the jury is still out on South Carolina (until later today).
Iowa:
Total population is 3.1M! 15.7% (358K folks) of that total population participated in this years' caucus! Just 15%! 187K Rethuglicans and 171K Democrats. Yet the results of the Iowa caucus's impact is big political pundit coverage. For example..."Hillary barely eeked out Bernie"...so she's in trouble! Don't get me wrong, I love me some Iowa! I went to college there and some of my most beloved friends are residents across Iowa! BUT...315 thousand people in Iowa are gonna set the temperature of the water regarding the "front runners"?
New Hampshire:
Total population is 1.3 million! 538K folks voted in the primary...just 40% of that state's total population!
Moving forward:
So as we move on to South Carolina's results today, we know that approximately 900k Americans in Iowa & New Hampshire (from a total combined population of 4.3M from those two states..or less than 25% of eligible voters in those two states) have planted the ground work for who may win and who is in trouble!
So if you're a believer that these two early states forecast the outcome of this years' election you could possibly make the following assumptions:
So now it's on to South Carolina (total population of 4.8M). Didn't they just take down the Confederate flag from the state capitol building? Back in the late 60's, I spent 2 months of my life at the Army's boot camp at Fort Jackson in Columbia South Carolina! Ugh!
Oh! Let's not forget Nevada! Total population is 2.8M! So we have a total population of the aforementioned four states at 12 million versus a total US population of 319 million! However, these four states seem to lay the ground for the political direction of this nation!
At this point, I'm seriously considering options to retire overseas! I'm just saying!
Needless to say, I'm deeply saddened by the results...but I'm not surprised. I've long held the belief that the American electorate is stupid uniformed. It's a sad fact that just over 36% of the electorate turned out to vote and I believe the majority of those that did were older Rethuglicans. Add to that that the majority of eligible voters don't even know which party controls the Senate or the House! Just unbelievable. And...to add icing to the cake...of the 14 countries surveyed by over 11,000 respondents, only the people of Italy proved to be more ignorant than Americans!!! Need more info...just check below!
The turnout statistic Republicans hate most!
General election voter turnout for the 2014 midterms was the lowest it’s been in any election cycle since World War II, according to early projections by the United States Election Project.
"Just 36.4 percent of the voting-eligible population cast ballots as of last Tuesday, continuing a steady decline in midterm voter participation that has spanned several decades. The results are dismal, but not surprising – participation has been dropping since the 1964 election, when voter turnout was at nearly 49 percent.
The last time voter turnout was so low during a midterm cycle was in 1942, when only 33.9 percent of eligible voters cast ballots."
More than half of Americans don't know which party controls the House and the Senate!
A study of 1416 American adults conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found the following:
Asked which party has the most members in the House of Representatives, 38 percent said they knew the Republicans are the majority, but 17 percent responded the Democrats, and 44 percent reported that they did not know (up from 27 percent who said they did not know in 2011).
Asked which party controls the Senate, 38 percent correctly said the Democrats, 20 percent said the Republicans, and 42 percent said they did not know (also up from 27 percent who said they did not know in 2011).
Little more than a third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, just as many (35 percent) could not name a single one.
I'm just dumfounded but too many Americans are just f*cking dumb when it comes to the BASICS of their government!
Who's more ignorant than Americans? Ipsos MORI’s new global survey highlights how wrong the public across 14 countries are about the basic make-up of their populations and the scale of key social issues.
Looking across the full set of questions and how each country responded, we can identify a clear pattern in how close to reality the public in each country are. The image below shows that the country with the best understanding of these population characteristics and social issues is Sweden – and the country with the least accurate view is Italy.
I never thought I'd think this way...but I'm looking forward to the end of Barack Obama's presidency. Why? Because I'm so sick and tired of him being beaten up and blamed for everything that doesn't sit well with the right wing ignorant Americans. I'm sick of it!
I'm sick of all the talk about taking back America! Taking it back from who? Taking it back to where? Then there's all the criticism about the President's policies! But they never mention the exact policies that they are criticizing! It's all the generalities exaxcerbated by FOX news!
President Obama stepped into a bag of sh*t left at the front door of the White House upon Dubya's departure! Here is what this man has accomplished (in spite of Mitch McConnell declaring that his primary mission was to make President Obama a one term President)!:
Avoided a full depression!
Kept alive the American auto industry!
Oversaw the creation of more jobs in 2010 alone than Dubya did in eight years (with Mitch McConnell's wife as Secretary of Labor)!
Has the current unemployment rate below 6%!
Has the Dow Jones above 17,000! It has increased 121% since President Obama took office! (I know a whole lotta folks are still hurtin' but there are a whole lotta folks with 401k's smilin'!)
Got Osama Bin Laden!
Has provided for the lowest increase in health care cost in the last 50 years because of the Affordable Care Act!
Has reduced the federal budget deficit from 9.8% of GDP in Fiscal Year 2009 under Bush, to 2.9% of GDP in FY 2014. We're talking over ONE TRILLION dollars!
Led the country to 64 consecutive months of economic expansion, eclipsing Saint Reagan’s record, by far.
Has dragged us out of Dubya's wars that cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars!
And that's just the tip of the iceberg! If you need more just GOGGLE "Obama Accomplishments"!
But then again here are those "policies" (facts?) that the right wing wackos just can't get over:
President Obama got rid of DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) Gays in the military! OUCH!
President Obama supports same sex marriage!
President Obama was born in Kenya!
President Obama can't verify his birth certificate! (Just ask Donald Trump!)
...and last, but not least...President Obama is a NIGGER!!!
This country does not deserve him and I'm counting down to 2016. After that...this place can go to hell in a hand basket! I really don't give a sh*t anymore!
"Of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to disclosures filed last year by all members of Congress and candidates. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 — an increase from the previous year when it was $966,000."
"Members of Congress have long been far wealthier than the typical American, but the fact that now a majority of members — albeit just a hair over 50 percent — are millionaires represents a watershed moment at a time when lawmakers are debating issues like unemployment benefits, food stamps and the minimum wage, which affect people with far fewer resources, as well as considering an overhaul of the tax code."
Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God's guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.
Gallup has asked Americans to choose among these three explanations for the origin and development of human beings 11 times since 1982. Although the percentages choosing each view have varied from survey to survey, the 46% who today choose the creationist explanation is virtually the same as the 45% average over that period -- and very similar to the 44% who chose that explanation in 1982. The 32% who choose the "theistic evolution" view that humans evolved under God's guidance is slightly below the 30-year average of 37%, while the 15% choosing the secular evolution view is slightly higher (12%).
As reported in The New York Times, a fascinating new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that millennials (defined by Pew as Americans ages 18 to 33) are drifting away from traditional institutions — political, religious and cultural.
Now we just need to get these folks to vote during the midterm...and America will be a better place!
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. SOURCE
The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world and the highest per capita rate of firearm-related murders of all developed countries. SOURCE
One-fifth of U.S. Children are officially "Poor" and 2.8 Million are in "Extreme Poverty". SOURCE
Among advanced economies, the U.S. spends the most on health care on a relative cost basis with the worst outcome. SOURCE In other words, the world's richest country spends more of its money on health care while getting less than almost every other nation in return.
In 2012, the most recent year for which complete data is available, the U.S. approved $645.7 billion in defense budget authority (fiscal year 2013 dollars). This figure includes funding for the Pentagon base budget, Department of Energy-administered nuclear weapons activities, and the war in Afghanistan. This number is six times more than China, 11 times more than Russia, 27 times more than Iran and 33 times more than Israel. Though China is often cited as the country’s next great military adversary, U.S. military spending currently doubles that of all of the countries in Asia combined. SOURCE
The government shutdown took $24 billion out of the U.S. economy, and reduced projected fourth-quarter GDP growth from 3 percent to 2.4 percent. SOURCE
American teens scored below the international average in math and roughly average in science and reading, compared against dozens of other countries that participated in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which was administered last fall. The United States ranked 26th in math — trailing nations such as the Slovakia, Portugal and Russia. What’s more, American high school students dropped to 21st in science (from 17th in 2009) and slipped to 17th in reading (from 14th in 2009), according to the results. SOURCE
Overeating, lack of health insurance access and comparatively high poverty are among the many reasons why the U.S. has the highest obesity rate with 34 percent of the adult population classified as obese. SOURCE
In terms of National IQ scores, The United States ranks behind China, Mongolia, Poland, the Czech Republic and a dozen other countries! SOURCE
33% of Americans reject the idea of evolution, saying that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” SOURCE
"By the time a poor child is 1 year old, she has most likely already fallen behind middle-class children in her ability to talk, understand and learn. The gap between poor children and wealthier ones widens each year, and by high school it has become a chasm. American attempts to close this gap in schools have largely failed, and a consensus is starting to build that these attempts must start long before school — before preschool, perhaps even before birth."
The 2nd Amendment: (as ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State)
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
I was curious to find our what kind of “arms” I had the right to bear (back then), if I was a part of the “militia” against any possible form of tyranny. Also note...no mention of hunting...and what exactly is the definition of a "free state" anyway?
This whole 2nd Amendment thing goes back to the 18th century! 1791 to be specific! It was part of the Bill of Rights. As I said before...f*ck the 2nd Amendment! Below are images of some of the “arms” (pistols & rifles) available in the 18th century.
Okay...I can dig this! If Americans could only buy the "arms" depicted above NOW...I'd be cool with that! But they can't NOW and then again...I would have been a slave back then. Walmart didn’t exist. I would not have been able to order these “arms” “online”. There was no online! Hell...there was no radio! Not even the telegraph! There were no Glocks and no AR 15s!
I just don’t understand it and never will! But Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the NRA, has the answer! According to Mr. LaPierre...“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.”
America...the so-called "greatest country on earth" has 5% of the world's population and 50% of the guns! Go figure!
“Taking up where the Mormons left off in 2008, the Catholic Church – and its affiliate, the Knights of Columbus – have made considerable investments in the marriage fights in Minnesota, Maryland, Washington State and Maine this election cycle – spending nearly $2 million. In addition, a close ally of the Church and past co-conspirator, the National Organization for Marriage, spent more than $5.2 million this cycle. Final campaign figures for Maryland and Maine will be available by the end of the month.
Marriage equality opponents across the four states raised $11.3 million. The Catholic Church’s contributions make up 17 percent of that total figure. When you add in the contributions of Church ally NOM, the reality of the coordinated effort becomes clear: the Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus and NOM are responsible for funding nearly 65 percent of all anti-equality efforts in Minnesota, Maryland, Washington State and Maine.”
Source: Human Rights Campaign
I know this is based on 2005 data and the 2004 election results...but still...very interesting. No? Several of these "so called" red states went blue in 2008 as well as this year (Iowa, Virginia, OHIO!!!...and finally...FLORIDA!!!, etc)...but still...very interesting. No?
