The time comes and it overtakes us all, a time when all, which we thought, could never be so, is so. All of the things, which once seemed impossible, have now come to pass. The world as we once knew it is gone; our lives as we once knew them are inverted, contorted and pulled inside out.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, some thirty years ago, any motivation to promote Capitalism as superior economic system to the people has evaporated and ceased to exist. Our prisons are filled to the brim with two million citizens and yet crime flourishes all around us. Today's criminals offer Payday loans, Car Title loans, Reverse Mortgages, cell phone contracts or predatory credit cards.
On the streets of any American city you can find a near endless supply of dangerous drugs. Theses drugs are made illicitly and smuggled into the United States, billions upon billions of dollars change hands and yet no one, except low level dealers ever winds up in jail. In the malls and strip malls of America, pharmaceutical manufactures peddle new drugs, not to cure disease, but merely to maintain the disease.
For more than a decade we have witnessed high crimes and misdemeanors perpetrated against the people. We have seen stolen elections, questionable returns capped with court decisions, which invalidate even the appearance of legitimate democracy. The political process has worked for the exclusive benefit of the few at the expense of the many; there is no respite, no relief and no expectations of relief or respite.
Jesus ain't coming, and Moses has retired, government no longer feeds us, but feeds off of us. The President will give his third State of the Union Address and in all honesty, who cares? The true state of the union is lousy and getting worse, stagnated and strangled by malicious neglect while I walk these streets of this new town with abject pessimism.
Stereotypes are common; but too easy to fall back upon. However, I have been in Portland for a week now and I have seen dry pavement only once. I know enough, to know, that I don't know anything about this place yet.
I have learned that I am a flat lander; I am unfamiliar with elevations and with mountains.Portland is picturesque, nestled tightly among the hills and valleys. A city dominated by rivers, punctuated by mountains, which so far, have been completely obscured by rain clouds. I am an Easterner, that is a new identity for me, but I am in the far West and that is also a new identity. It is a time change and a sea change and a change in mindset.
Some things are the same everywhere I go, I have met the unemployed and they are me and they are you. The unemployed are the young veterans and the older guys like myself. This is my third city in a year, I've been to the South and to the North and now to the West and it is all the same and what will Obama say tonight? He will say that everything getting better, and then he will take credit for improvement which hasn't occurred while he ignores the truth.
Number of Americans employed November 2011, 240,441,000
Number of Americans employed December 2011, 240,584,000
No longer in the labor force November 2011, 86,503,000
No longer in the labor force December 2011, 86,697,000
A gain of 143,000 new jobs, while 194,000 Americans dropped out of the labor market, but remember, December was hailed as a great month and yet, in reality, it was a terrible month.
Job losers and persons who completed Temporary jobs
December 2010- 8,995,000
December 2011- 7,691,000
On temporary layoff
December 2010- 1,547,000
December 2011- 1,385,000
Not on temporary layoff
December 2010- 7,448,000
December 2011- 6,306,000
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
2
