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Which form of government is considered the best?

Which form of government is considered the best?


Overall, democracy is the best form of government, because it is morally the most justifiable, although democratic governments today can be improved. A democratic government is a better government because it is a more responsible form of government. Democracy improves the quality of decision making.

CURRENT RESULTS:
Government effectiveness – Country rankings
Source: https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/wb_government_effectiveness/

#1: Singapore

#18 Canada

#24:  USA

#104: Mexico

#117: Ukraine

#139: Russia

#193 Yemen (last on the list)

MISSION STATEMENT

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of this blog is to provide clear, accessible blog posts that help you to stay informed. Our approach is to peruse many forms of information and pull from those sources what we think are the most informative and important for you to better understand what we think is really going on.

This blog is unwavering in our commitment to the ideals of democracy, threats to democracy, the rule of law, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and rising ignorance, polarization and more. This blog also tries to rate the performance for all societies and government organizations. This blog also, often times includes helpful tips, ideas, and views, for you to consider.  We strive to make this world a better place for you and a better life experience for all by looking deeper into what is really going on in our world and sharing with you what we find.

We get rewarded by feeling good that we are trying to help others.

Posted 2-10-2025 by Score Card

Alleged Deficiencies Of The American Political System

Alleged Deficiencies Of The American Political System

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Republican Party

“Experts agree that the health of U.S. democracy has declined in recent years—but what does that mean? The United States is experiencing two major forms of democratic erosion in its governing institutions: election manipulation and executive overreach.”  (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/understanding-democratic-decline-in-the-united-states/)

Next, we cover election manipulation.

1. The electoral college

“… the president is chosen not by “we the people”, but indirectly by 538 electors apportioned by state”called the Electoral College.  STUPID

“…the electoral college today gives Republican presidential candidates a 4% to 5% advantage over their Democratic rivals.”  STUPID

Hillary Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than Donald Trump and should have been declared the winner but NO!  STUPID

Solutions:

John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA)
Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA)

2. Voter suppression

“We have seen this cycle an effort by the Republican party to make it harder, wherever possible, to vote – especially for black and minority populations,”  STUPID

EXAMPLE: “Florida’s Republicans immediately set about undermining the will of the electorate, putting in place a bureaucratic maze that former felons had to negotiate before they could vote. It was so convoluted that almost 900,000 people were still disenfranchised on election day – including about one in every six black Floridians of voting age.”

Solutions:

John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA)
Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA)

3. The Senate

“The structure of the Senate is an outdated, racist, Jim Crow relic meant to enshrine white landowner power in our government, by prioritizing land over people.” 

“This distortion favors senators from low-population rural states with largely white electorates, such as Montana and the Dakotas, and helps explain the Republicans’ stranglehold on Congress.”   STUPID

Solutions:

John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA)
Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA)

4. Judges

“We’ve had polling place reductions, massive voter purges, a voter-ID law – all attempts by the right wing to consolidate their power and shrink the electorate.”

 “We are certainly going to feel it down the line as these rightwing judges, appointed to lifetime positions, obstruct us as we pull out all the stops to provide relief to our folks.”  STUPID

Solutions:

John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA)
Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA)

5. Redistricting – Gerrymandering.

“Failure to take control in Texas and elsewhere hands Republicans the gift of controlling the 10-year redistricting process in which electoral boundaries are drawn. As was seen in the last round in 2010, after the Tea Party upheaval swept Republicans to power in several states, they proved themselves to be devastatingly effective at drawing those lines in their own favor – gerrymandering.”  STUPID.

Solutions:

John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA)
Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA)

 

NOTE: MOST OR ALL OF THE ABOVE BULLET POINTS ARE USED BY REPUBLICANS. 

 

SOLUTIONS

(Brennan Center For Justice)

Enact Automatic Voter Registration

“Currently there there are 24 states and the District of Columbia that have adopted voter registration automation.”  Note that there are 50 states, thus only half support full democratic voter registration.
“Congress should pass the Automatic Voter Registration Act, and states should continue to adopt automatic voter registration.”

Restore the Voting Rights Act

“Congress should restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act, and states should supplement those protections.  This essential bill would restore the Voting Rights Act to its original strength and add additional protections that are needed today.”  

Expand Early Voting

“Congress should set minimum early voting requirements in federal elections, and the states that don’t offer early voting should adopt it.”

Prevent Long Lines at the Polls

“Congress and the states should set and enforce standards to ensure all polling places have sufficient voting machines, poll workers, and other resources to avoid long lines.”

Some sources for this blog:

(https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/voting-reform/strengthening-voting-rights-act)

(https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/voting-reform)
(https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/democracy-election-agenda-candidates-activists-and-legislators)

Posted August 24, 2024.     Posted by: Score Card

Press Freedom Ratings For The United States Calculated By Reporters Without Borders

Press Freedom Ratings For The United States Calculated By Reporters Without Borders

Why the U.S. ranks low #55 in press freedom index despite all its principles?

 

“The World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) since 2002 based upon the organization’s own assessment of the countries’ press freedom records in the previous year.”

“RSF lobbies governments and international bodies to adopt standards and legislation in support of media freedom and takes legal action in defence of journalists under threat.” (Wikipedia)

Reporters Without Borders ranks all countries in the world and is comprised of these major Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) factors:

  • Global
  • Political
  • Economic
  • Legislative
  • Socialcultural
  • Security

Norway has the best Scores (2024):

  • Global 1
  • Political 1
  • Economic1
  • Legislative 2
  • Socialcultural 1
  • Security 7

USA scores (2024):

  • Global 55
  • Political. 29
  • Economic 33
  • Legislative 41
  • Socialcultural 54
  • Security. 118

USA’s princable RSF score is #55 in the Global category.

Norway has the best score:  Top ranking #1 for RSF Global category.

The US “media ownership is highly concentrated, and many of the companies buying American media outlets appear to prioritize profits over public interest journalism.”

The press freedom political indicator evaluates the degree of support and respect for media and can be found here:     https://rsf.org/en/index/score-pol?year=2024

RSF world map and country ratings is explained here:  https://rsf.org/en/country/united-states

Some Examples:

  •  In September 2022, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was stabbed to death by a politician he was investigating.
  • Dylan Lyons, a reporter for Spectrum News 13 in Orlando, Florida, was himself shot while covering a shooting in February 2023. 
  • When covering demonstrations, journalists are sometimes attacked and physically assaulted by demonstrators.
  • Several reporters have also been arrested while covering such events.
  • In 2022, at least 67 journalists and media workers were killed, the highest since 2018
  • Investigative reporter Don Bolles was injured in a 1976 car bomb attack. He died 11 days after the explosion
  • On June 28, 2018  5 Capital Gazette staffers died after a gunman entered the building. 6 others inside the newsroom survived by fleeing or hiding from him.

Posted and updated: 8-23-2024.      Posted by: Score Card

Some Ideas For Keeping Your House Cool.

Some Ideas For Keeping Your House Cool.

I wish to share with you some ideas on how to help keep your house stay cool.  These ideas have come from years of trying different actions and techniques.

  • A real important factor that you should try to achieve is to cool your house the best way you can so as to deeply cool the house structure as possible.  Think of these factors:
    • Cool the core portion of your house for as long as possible.  The cooling concept here is time.  It takes a long time to get the behind the walls to cool down.  Once these areas are cool they then act as sources for cooling.  Reasoning behind this method is if it takes a long time to cool the inner walls of your house then those areas should still be cool the next day when the temperature rises.  Those inner walls should be a cooling source!  So, consider start cooling when the outside temperature drops below your current house temperature.  This may be very late afternoon or early evening.  I have a very good inside the house thermometer (NEST), which I can view on my cell phone.  I compare that temperature with a good reliable Internet service provider web site.  I like The Weather Channel as I have found it to be reliable for my location.  Just a suggestion, you might consider buying a good outside thermometer that is WiFi capable so you can double check what The Weather Channel shows.
    • CAUTION:  Do not think you know the outside and inside temperature by how it feels on your body. Use science by looking at a temperature gauge.
      • Open windows when it gets cooler outside than in your house.
      • Close windows when the outside air gets within one degree of the pending outside temperature rising.
    • If you use any kind of window dressing such as sheer curtains, be aware that they will impede the free flow of air.  I do not like sheer curtains covering any window that I might want to open when it is cool outside.  I typically slide the sheer curtains open and closed as I think best.  If y0u think you need to keep a sheer curtain in place to maintain privacy, consider placing one or two ends of the curtains in line with the window opening so that, if there is a breeze, the curtains will be blown out of the way with the breeze or wind.  You will loose privacy when this happens but the curtains flapping back and forth might meet your requirements for some privacy.
  • Please be aware that turning on lights in a room will add heat into that room.  Tungsten light bulbs typically generate more heat than florescent bulbs but florescent bulbs do add some heat, just less than tungsten.  Compact Florescent Lights (CFL) and LED bulbs emit way less heat.  LED bulbs are the coolest because they emit very little heat.  Reference: https://brennan-electric.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-led-lights/
  • Another option to consider is to install window awnings where sunlight can pass into a window typically from the south, east and west.  Sun light passing into a window will heat the inside of that room.  I do not yet have these installed but I hope to soon.  A small rather nifty advantage is that you might be able to keep a window open when it rains if it has an awning.  Awnings are reported to increase the value of a home some times.

 

Posted:  June 19, 2024
Updated: June 20, 2024
Posted by: Score Card

Found US quarter coin revealed it’s secret.

Found US quarter coin revealed it’s secret.

While walking along a city sidewalk, very close to the street, I looked down into the street gutter and spotted what looked like a quarter.  I picked it up and was shocked to see one side of the quarter lost part of it’s covering.  I could not believe what I was holding.  I assumed that our US coins are solid, not coated.  My research shows the following:

“US quarters are “clad,” which means they are coated with multiple layers of different metals. The inner core of a quarter is pure copper, and the outer layer is a 75% copper, 25% nickel alloy that has a silver color. The layers of metal help the coin last longer.”

Bottom image is the front picture of the coin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 10, 2024
Posted by Score Card