Pet Peeves from a friend of this blog

   

                                                                                                              

     . . .  Hangin' on by a thread !

                                 

                            

                                                                     

                                                                                  Pee-Pee
That was not an order . . . those phonetics stand for “Pet Peeve” – something I don’t usually write about. But today I’m going to make an exception because this pet peeve of mine actually affects every one of you, regardless of how you make your living or what contribution you make to society.

I’m aware that some of you, maybe many of you, are employed in some segment, some tier, of government: federal, state, county, or city. I guess that’s understandable – it’s one of the only “careers” that remain somewhat impervious to the economic tsunami that is eroding our shores. But whether you’re in the private sector, the public sector, or the “welfare sector,” you should share this peeve.

A few days ago we got our first glimpse of the first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it was ugly. The preliminary number revealed only 0.1% growth — the weakest performance in the U.S. in about three years. This number fell significantly short of the estimate of 1.1% growth and the fourth-quarter 2013 GDP of 2.6%.

Today, if you asked a group under thirty what “GDP” stood for, most would look at you with glassy eyes and go back to their texting. The next older age-group might fare a little better. Maybe. In actuality studying the nation’s Gross Domestic Product can be compared to an MRI or blood test or a biopsy. It’s like regularly poking a thermometer up the national orifice to see how healthy our country is.

But times have changed. No matter what you’ve heard from Washington recently, the U.S.A. is not only unhealthy, our once-peerless homeland should be in Intensive Care.

At the risk of overly-simplifying, GDP measures the economic well-being of a country. It’s the market-value of all officially recognized  goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita can also be considered a good indicator of a country’s standard of living.

(For purists, GDP = C + G + I + NX.  "C" is equal to all private consumption, or consumer spending, in a nation's economy. "G" is the sum of government spending. "I" is the sum of all the country's businesses spending on capital. "NX" is the nation's total net exports, calculated as total exports minus total imports.)

Despite the administration’s efforts to sugarcoat the GDP, things look BAD for America. Since 2009, annual growth has averaged around 2% -- well below our national historical average of 3.3%. What little job growth we’ve seen has been limited to low-paying positions. In fact, business investment in equipment (which includes hiring new employees) dropped 5.5% in the first quarter of 2014 —– the largest drop in five years. The housing market has slowed. Business spending has slowed. Consumer spending (other than utilities and mandatory health-care spending) has slowed. And while it may be hard to believe, even government spending as slowed.

I am peeved at a White House occupant that has put his egocentric motives ahead of the well-being of every American, living today or yet to be born. I am peeved with a White House occupant that refuses to bend to the obvious needs of the middle- and lower-class; who refuses to deny the demands of his contributors -- his cronies -- allowing such as pipelines and other job-creators. I am peeved with a White House occupant who refuses to compromise or admit he has erred, with such as the disastrous "Obamacare." I am peeved with a White House occupant that shows deference to our Muslim enemies and rudely offends many of our allies. I am peeved with a White House occupant who, in the midst of an historic economic upset that exceeds even the Great Depression, pees taxpayer money away by the millions on vacations, holidays and pure frivolities, as though to say "Screw you, America, you may be doing without, but why should I do without?" I am peeved with a White House occupant who claims to have been a professor of Constitutional Law, then goes out of his way to walk all over the Constitution whenever he can. I am peeved with a White House occupant who wiggles and squirms his way out of his scandalous irresponsibilities (e.g., Benghazi, IRS, Fast and Furious, NSA, etc.) by "investigating," "looking into" or otherwise shelving, procrastinating or hiding from.

There was once a rabble-rouser named Saul Alinsky. He advocated "revolution" in the U.S. and unashamedly published his radical plan: 

                                          (1) Control healthcare and you control the people

                                          (2) Increase the poverty level as high as possible. Poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.

                                          (3) Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.

                                          (4) Gun Control – Remove the ability to defend themselves from the government. That way you are able to create a police state.

                                          (5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (food, housing, and income)

                                          (6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to. Take control of what children learn in school.
                                          (7) Remove the belief in the God from the government and the schools.

                                          (8) Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (to tax) the wealthy, with the support of the poor.

Can you see any similarities between Mr. Alinsky's plan and what is currently taking place in Washington? Our current president was an ardent devotee of Saul Alinsky's philosophies, attending classes and instructing in his doctrines.

Okay, I've about run out of peeves. But why can’t this current government be truthful? Why do they insist on lying to us at every turn? They can't be stupid. Close, maybe, but it doesn’t take a Mensa to see that America's in grievous trouble. Okay, I know I’ve mentioned this before. We – the Americans living here – are skilled, intelligent and usually, ambitious. A large percentage of the 300 million plus people are self-sufficient and have the drive and initiative to care for themselves. But they can’t . . . won’t . . . if the government keeps telling us that we’re recovering, that we’re on the road to riches, that everything is coming up roses. If Mark Twain were alive today, he'd tell us," There are three kinds of lies: plain lies, damn lies, and claims by the White House."

Dammit, friends, the recovery they brag about is  non-existent. Our resurgence is going nowhere! Our land of milk and honey is failing! China has surpassed us as the number one economy in the world.  There is a disappearing distinction between our middle-class and lower class. We – YOU AND I – owe others about 127 TRILLION DOLLARS!  Our chances of recovering under the guidance of these nincompoops in Washington are Slim and None (and Slim has expatriated to Uruguay).

Hey, I don’t write this stuff to encourage jumping out of windows or drastic stuff like that. But we should ALL know what the hell is going on. ALL of us should be aware of the problems we face because it will take ALL of us to orchestrate a TRUE recovery. The president and his toadies that lie to us daily about how great things are do us a terrible disservice. We can’t fix things if we don’t know they’re broke!

In eight and a half decades I’ve never seen a government so hopelessly ineffectual and so deceitful. They must know they’re setting us up for a deadly fall.  With debt still rising and jobs scarce, the economic picture is bleak. America is fast approaching a precipice that could send the United States down into violence and chaos the likes of which this country has never seen. I guaran-damn-tee you, we can't recover if our administration continually lies to us . . .

Maybe that's their objective?