State of the Union

 

 

"Sometimes if you take a lie and shine it up enough, it might look like truth -
but it is still a lie"

Here is comes folks. Tuesday night. The latest and greatest State of the Union address. I seldom watch these things no matter who gives them. Why? They should be called "The Bedtime Story" instead. Truth telling goes on a winter vacation for this night. Even though most presidents try to "put lipstick on the pig" during this annual event, NOBODY does it better than our current President. We are going to hear a whole bunch of sunshine and lolly pops and if only the rich would pay their "fair share", things could even be better. I am now going to list what I would rather hear during this annual waste of time.

Economy - Hello? Anybody remember me? I am the economy and I have a bad fever. I know it is more fun to talk about other things, but I am ruining our future. If the truth be told, our economy is healing - to a small degree. However, the metrics which led our economy down this hill are still far from fixed. Our U6 unemployment is still 14.4%. That is like 1 out of 7 people who are unemployed or underemployed. Our workplace participation percentage is the lowest since almost forever. Even though our housing market is starting to heal, we still have tens of thousands of homeowners who remain "underwater". By the way - to really muck things up, Fannie and Freddie have been instructed to start giving out NINJNA (No Income, No Job, No Asset) loans once again. For those who can't remember, that is what really started this mess with our economy. Our balance of trade is improving MOSTLY because of North Dakota giving us much needed oil and gas (with no help from our government). Europe is still a mess, and the current tranquility over there is expected to end soon.

War on Terror - I'm sorry - is this the right name again? I know not too long ago we were instructed to call it something else, something "PC" as not to offend anyone (especially the terrorists). I will be blunt - the world is a mess. Al Qaeda is still active in Afghanistan and many believe they are now in a "waiting game" until we pull out. They have reconstituted back into Northern Africa where they are now known as "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)". How active are they? According to a January 2013 Fox News press release: 

With the U.S. military now planning a new drone base to track extremists in northern Mali, senior U.S. intelligence officials confirmed Thursday that the Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa aspires to strike more U.S. and other western targets in the region.
This includes "hardened" targets such as diplomatic and military facilities, as well as "soft" targets, such as American citizens working in North Africa. The warning follows the deadly terrorist strike on an Algeria gas plant in which dozens of hostages, including three Americans, were killed.
Senior U.S. intelligence officials said that in the aftermath of the Algeria crisis, the intelligence suggests Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb wants "to carry out more attacks against western interests."

They have not gone away. Many suspect they are active in Libya, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon as well. We can pick up our marbles and go home, but they will not. Time is their friend - always has been. They as are patient and cunning as they always have been. Rough times could be ahead, and soon.

Sequester - So as we continue our stork dance on gun control and illegal immigration, the specter of sequestration looms large. We about three weeks before all hell breaks loose in the Defense Department. We have been warned by SecDef as well as a host of military experts these cuts will be unsustainable. They will gut our readiness. In a world which has grown oh so dangerous since the failed "Arab Spring", we are now going to unilaterally disarm. It will be like being shot with our own gun. By the way, we can't forget about the nukes in Iran and North Korea also. Besides hurting our defense, it will also stunt our slowly recovering economy. What is being done to avoid this? Gun control and immigration. In other words, nothing.

Debt - Tick, tock, tick, tock. Yes, it is still here, ticking away. It is a cancer within our economy, within our country. It is stealing the future from our children. Soon, we will see the debt hit $17T, with no chance of slowing down. Entitlements are "off the table" with this Administration as the base does not have any desire to touch them. Failure to act on the debt during this second term will result in a $20T problem and  a country which looks like Greece, or worse.

Do I think any of this will be discussed on Tuesday night? Absolutely not. It will not be worth watching. I can't even watch NCIS and NCIS LA as they will be preempted by this bedtime story. Good thing this only happens once a year.