Golden!

Plus, Halvard is from Norway, so he's on Trump's "most wanted" list! Poetic justice...

Well, Trump is an ignorant prick and they tend to stick together, so ...

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

I am guessing when you called him an ignorant prick he wasn’t upset because all he heard was “Mmph mmph blmph” because of the droopy orange balls in your mouth.

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

As someone who lived in Alabama for 21 years, I actually laughed out loud at this...

Congratulations, you're competing in car assembly with Detroit with the new robotic factories that require like 12 people to build 1000 cars/day :)

Please. Using Ukraine as a typical example is ridiculous. Could you pick an even worse case on the planet (maybe Syria)? Overwhelmingly most war zones are due to internal strife (civil wars, military coups), not because of too little military spending. Even the strongest military in history can't stabilize small countries. BTW, wasn't Haiti's last invasion in 1934? (I can't see your link due to a firewall). Here:



I'm hard-pressed to see how massive military spending in the Middle East makes it better than South America, or how higher military spending in Africa beats Western Europe. I'll stick to boring criteria like life expectancy, GDP/capita, educational level, crime rates, etc., if that is okay....

agreed.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

It's funny how JSA will throw stuff and see what sticks...maybe it's his training as an attorney?
OK, going to say that we are hated more than ever after Obama without evidence but we will see. Maybe no one will bother checking.
Ooops, someone did. OK, let's talk shit about someone quick. The discussion patterns are so freaking predictable on this forum now.

Massachusetts

One village idiot leaves/banned and there is always a fight for who will take the new top spot. The jockeying this week is on.
This is as predictable as anything in this forum.

In terms of life expectancy, which I would argue is more important than military strength, it’s the U.S that could use the help from 30 other countries.

Why? We die early because we live lives of excess. It is a choice. Would you rather not have that choice? Really?

The countries with higher life expectancies also live lives of relative excess. The reasons for the lower rates in the U.S are because of far more deaths at a young age and the leading causes are motor vehicle accidents, drugs and firearms.

So, if you want help from us or any of the other developed 29 countries ahead of you, we would be more than happy to assist.

How many space systems does Detroit build? How many modern airliners are built in Detroit? Compare the quality that is associated with Mercedes Benz with Detroit cars, then say how we are "competing" with Detroit.

The actual competition was between a few southern states and Iowa, with the final decision between North Carolina and Alabama. Alabama won, mainly because it was capable of expanding rapidlt, in land, in resources and employees. NC was unable to guarantee that land would be available for expansion and that local employees could meet labor demands.

Easy...good score....just bringing up the point that the days of factories being huge job engines are gone. Nothing as lonely as an Amazon "fulfillment center" either. You want the people designing the cars, not just those who lube and troubleshoot the factory robots.

The space and military industries in Alabama are legit. You're doing well! Keep it up, 'Bama!

What are some other good objective metrics to describe a country?


An interesting index is the "happiness index".

Often their is an inverse correlation between GDP, relative wealth and that 'happiness" number.

Having spent some time in 3rd world and developing countries, it's rare to find people who are truly unhappy. Yet my neighbor, who lives in an $800,000 house, with a BMW, and Toyota parked in the drive-way, as he leans over and fiddles with his snow-blower, is Mr. negative-and-unhappy! There are a lot of people like him living in 1st World countries and few of them living in 3rd world and developing countries! Just an observation I've made from my travels, and those World Happiness Indexes I've seen.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

FTFY (from the perspective of someone outside the US).

Thanks, I work with both industries and its amazing how they are supporting small businesses and breaking new ground in science and research fields.

It's also fascinating how Alabama has the only Mercedes Benz plant in the U.S. and has achieved a quality level that MB is proud of. They even sponsor a marathon every year that goes through the plant grounds!

+1 Obama did advance relations with Russia even mocking those that disagreed with his policy. fwiw how’s that working out.

Your n=1 analysis really added to the discussion.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

It perfectly cancelled out your own n=1 sample set.

Which means Francois carries the day, and you lose.

It's so awesome when the internet works.

Yeah, but Francois (and possibly you) comes from a country with an elitist and racist immigration policy, so pardon me for not giving any credit to his (and possibly your) opinion.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

And also, remember before Obama there was George W Bush who really created a substantially negative view of the rest of the world towards the US when he chose to invade Iraq in the name of fighting weapons of mass destruction when there was no evidence there were any. The whole world knew that and it was obvious he went to Iraq for different reasons. At the same time it did a lot of harm to Brits and Tony Blair too. At that time, the US was also the nation that did not want to participate in the Kyoto climate change program - another thing viewed as heavily negative by the rest of the world.

Obama had a very different policy and gained much respect from the majority of other nations. He supported science, saving the planet, not going into new unnecessary wars, and diplomacy. It brought the US back as a leading nation. With Trump, we are becoming the one kid in the class that no longer gets invited to birthday parties. First the kid got invited but turned a few down, now the other kids have stopped inviting it. Europe and Asia are moving forward without the US in global policy, China is jumping into the gap the US is leaving and is fully embracing the opportunity. It will every hard to reverse this trend - other nations have no respect for Trump and by the time new leadership gets elected it may very well be too late as the US no longer can be trusted.

You couldn't have said it better. It'll take a Democratic president or two to undo the damage that Trump has done.

I think you are missing the point. While everyone was busy having fits about how Trump described under developed third world countries, he was busy forgiving a bunch of fines levied against major financial institutions for what was effectively "fraud" (although they never admitted to fraud, they agreed to billions in penalites) and nobody really seemed to notice.

Trump and the Republicans are going to keep winning until people actually get interested in things that matter. Likewise, you aren't going to win this argument, 30-40% of people in this country (including many who think he is a complete fool) would either outright agree with how he characterized these countries, or would say yes, it is mean, it is lacking class, but it is still true.

let's continues to argue about the adjectives to describe Haiti, tranny rights and what to do with the children of illegal immigrants while first the Republicans decided to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit to give a tax break to billionaires. You know they are coming for SS next, or maybe you won't even notice because you will be too busy getting offended about his latest tweet or how much golf he plays.