A few observations and questions this Saturday Morning...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

We are the only first world country that still uses the death penalty. We have the highest prison population among westernized, first world countries.
We are the only first world western country to not have single payer health care. We have the most expensive health care system and the worst record when it comes to mistakes. I'm just wondering if anyone cares about how this makes us look.
Our old reputation was one of a Superpower.
Now, all we have become are greedy, selfish, hateful bastards. The rest of the world now sees us as dumb, fat, ignorant and entirely uncaring about anyone outside our borders. We are waring, egotistical and morally superior.
I HATE us. If I could leave, I would. If I had the money to move out of this absolutely nasty place, I would do it in a heart beat. My husband's family comes from Germany. I'd love to move us there.
What are you thinking about this morning?
Duckie

[HelenWheels]

1. Can I go to Germany with you?

I still have some relatives there. My first choice would be Canada but it's very difficult to get in there.

[RickFromMN]

2. My mother has distant relatives in Canada. Wonder what it would have been like to live there.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. ...about the gentle rain falling outside - and how it's gone from 80s to 50s...and...

how my retweets of Dem/liberal opinion pieces (Krugman, Reich et al) drives my Twitter followers away each day.

my usual daily thought is marveling at how happy our country seems to be with mediocrity (or worse), despite so much potential - and how the unemployment numbers will ever reverse - and the vicious cycle we are in.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. It will reverse.

There will be a revolution. It will be as violent as the plutocracy makes it. And once we get rid of capitalism and fascism in the US, our economy will be like nothing anyone has ever seen.

[NYC_SKP]

5. I'm increasingly aware of how the shit has hit the fan and our entire world is going to see some...

...serious changes in the very next generation.

Maybe not in my lifetime because I'm in my fifties, but very soon.

Water shortages and food shortages, strange weather and economic crises.

Peak oil, all of these.

Humans have run out of global resources to exploit and all this talk about fracking and everything constitute the last gasps of an overconsumptive population.

Still, babies are cute and kids need to learn and families love one another.

And nature is beautiful and there are things that make us smile and love.

That's what I'm thinking about most mornings!

:hi:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

6. This is true.

It was over 100 degrees for about three months this summer in Oklahoma. In London, it did not get over 65.
I live in the wrong place.
I am craving a simpler life. And this country is not where I want to live it.
Maybe not Germany, maybe Norway. Maybe Sweden. I'm just disillusioned this morning.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Hey there, friend! Happy Saturday to you!

:hi:

[NYC_SKP]

11. And to you, Sir!

Wishing you a fine day!

:hi:

[seabeyond]

7. i am thinking you will move to germany and find issues there, too. and i really dont

care how i "look" to others, that is a wasted exercise. u.s. has issues. every country has issues and are not pure as we like to pretend on du. there is good and there is bad. certainly not perfection.

i would like to work on becoming a better people, but i dont live under an illusion that there is an utopia out there.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

15. I'm not mimicking others on DU.

I'm really sad and feeling stuck and I don't think there's a utopia out there. I am not Naive. I just would like to live someplace that isn't this place and hateful.
And I know of a couple of places that fit that bill.
Seabeyond, thanks for talking to me like a naive moron. That just made it all better. :eyes:

[seabeyond]

16. well, firstly

you are sittin in OK. there is a lot of places in the u.s. that would look different than your experience there.

secondly.... hateful? i am tired of people suggesting how everything is so much more evolved in these other countries as we watch them pass discriminatory laws (which we dont do here) and hold on tight to a patriarchal society allowing sexaul assault and rape in the name of being evolved.

i think because this nation has regressed so much in the last decade or more, we see others as more evolved, but when i hear specific instances in other countries, i dont see that to be the case.

maybe pockets of the world, but... i dont see it. i still think the u.s. has a lot going for it. i am looking to relocate to an area much more intuned to me. texas is not it. but i have lived in adn visit other areas in the u.s. i will be more comfortable in.

sorry you think i am suggesting you are naive. maybe i am. maybe i feel you are. you asked. not meaning to purposely be offensive, though.

[catabryna]

8. I'm thinking...

that if some people could see the gray matter of a teenager splattered on a tree because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and flew through his windshield when he wrecked his car, or...

that if some people hsaw photographs of dead and injured plane crash victims and read their actual autopsies, and then met their families...

that some people wouldn't be so horny over disaster porn.

edited to remove language that might be considered a "call-out" of other du members

[YellowRubberDuckie]

13. I have done so.

Not because I think of it as disaster porn, but because I make sure I understand the suffering of others. I'm sad that bad things happen to such innocent people. I have watched innocents suffer. It is life changing and sickening, maddening.

[catabryna]

18. Yes, it is.

But, you asked what I was thinking about... and, that is what I was thinking about this morning. :)

[YellowRubberDuckie]

19. I was continuing the conversation.

:evilgrin:

[catabryna]

21. Well, that's strange in a way I couldn't explain...

to you. :)

[YellowRubberDuckie]

22. That has been said about me.

:) I know I'm "different."

[TBF]

10. Right now I wold just like to have some rain. :) nt

[seabeyond]

17. it does truly become the sole focus, doesnt it.

my view has totally changed and made this area more doable just by lower tempuratures and a good soaking. i hear ya.

[bbgrunt]

12. Amurikan exceptionalism.

[treestar]

14. It's the system

Good in many ways, but a Parliamentary system can get this kind of reform through when the liberals are in power. We have so many checks and balances and the system is designed to make any affirmative change difficult.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

20. I've been saying this for YEARS.

We need parliament. Our system is not viable on a long term scale. It doesn't evolve as much as it needs to. Parliament on the other hand has stood the test of time in many countries. Our major example? Rome. And we all see how that turned out.

[Honeycombe8]

23. Well, we ARE fat. I think 1/3rd of Americans are now obese, I read?

That is shocking. It adds to our healthcare problems, for sure.

As for the other things, you're being a bit negative. Nothing is all bad or all good. You list a lot of bad things. You don't list even one good thing. Objectively speaking, you know that there are good things.

It's interesting that you chose to list only the bad. Even though those bad things are mostly true. (I say "mostly" because, for one thing, you say "We are egotistical and morally superior." That's not true. "We" are not. "Some" are. "Some" are not.)

[YellowRubberDuckie]

24. Well, when you'e poor, you have to eat cheap...

...and cheap is normally fattening.