Merry Christmas Mr. President!
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the cold, calm, soon to be stormy once again island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this 8th day of December, 2014, a Monday to be sure, as the Nantucket Christmas Stroll wrapped up for another year; thousands taking the journey from Cape Cod’s hub of Hyannis–30 nautical miles south/southeast–to a fairy tale island that time forgot. To a quaint little place where all is forever forgiven–fabulously rich beyond one’s wildest imagination…
New data just out on Friday indicates that this year, 2014, is the best year for jobs numbers since the heady days of the go go 90’s, the days of Bill Clinton. After taking over in January 2009, dusting the country off what was deemed as the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression that began with ‘the Crash of 1929′, a young newly elected Senator now President began to climb upward and onward… 1929 fall from grace was the great economic and social spiral that took this country down a path of wicked austerity and blight for the next seven plus years. The late, great former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt taking control, not only turning the tide, but reforming the nation as well, making it ‘a more perfect union’ for the average person…
Yes, after taking over from President George W. Bush in 2009, American jobs hemorrhaging at the clip of 700,000 per week, newly elected President Barack Obama began the ascent back to the top of the MOUNTAIN, and as of this past week it seems that more jobs have been created this year than in any year of the Bush one or Bush two presidencies. AP just wrote, “…job gains put U.S. on pace for best growth since 1999.”
“Boom like numbers!”
The Washington Post added, “…this is what a real recovery looks like.” The New York Times headlining, “These are the best numbers in months, maybe years“, going on to state in an article, “…Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from your friends at the Bureau of Labor Statistics!”, adding in another “…more jobs and higher wages, U.S. recovery hits home.” Quoting a Wall Street executive saying, “…in one line, spectacular!”.
So before you send Obama some negative energy this Christmas season, here is a ten fold list of ‘nice’ things our very fine 44th U.S. President has done for this great country of OURS, none so high as the fact we are not engaged in any horrible land war at present, nor are we going to be any time soon. “Praise be to God!”…
1. 10 months in a row of job growth with 200,000 or more jobs created.
2. Big picture: AP states, “…the 321,000 jobs added in November, most in three years, is the latest evidence that the United States is out performing other economies throughout the developed world.
3. the price of gas is at a five year low, many U.S. gas stations coming in at less than $2 a gallon! Helping the average American consumer with a savings of over $600 in the coming year alone!
4. Actual wages are going up, not down, as well as corporate earnings and executive compensation– (CEO/average employee salary ratio still far out of wack, but hey, it’s progress no?–the Dow Jones Industrial Average poised to hit 18,000 for first time in it’s history (fingers crossed Goldman Sachs, you know I’m rooting for ya!)…
5. Health care spending (once out of control and unsustainable) in the U.S. (in 2013) grew slower than in any time in more than 50 years! Unheard of and one of those non-sexy details of “Obamacare”, or what it really IS, the AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, now LAW in the U.S. for good, by gosh by golly! “…the number of uninsured non-elderly adults fell by an estimated 10.6 million people, between September 2013 and September 2014, a drop of 30.1 percent in the uninsured rate.
Beyond the U.S. Economy…
these are the other checks off the ‘to do list’ President Obama has accomplished just since the election…
6. Obama negotiated (in secret for months) an HISTORIC signing of a far reaching, ‘huge’, and quite unexpected Climate Change deal with the now largest emitter of green house gasses, China, with far reaching (hopefully) consequences (good ones) for our very fragile and last time I checked, ONE, environment.
7. Secret mission to North Korea to free the last remaining U.S. hostage being held prisoner by that 1984 Orwellian nightmare of a country, just ask James Franco and Seth Rogen, they’ll tell ya! Kim Jong Un, (spelling?), you so crazy!
8. The ‘horrible scourge of Benghazi’, another Obama Waterloo if you will, was quietly and deliberately put out of it’s misery late on Friday’s news dump of the day, and if you listen really hard you can hear the sound of Darrell Issa playing taps on his lonely bugle…as the ‘committee’ on the “scandal” that the tragedy of the deaths of four Americans, including a U.S. Ambassador, decided that it was just that stating, “…second, the committee finds that there was no intelligence failure prior to the attack”. Adding in a private scribbling, “…sorry we did not spend all those millions upon millions of tax payer dollars on feeding some of this country’s poor.” We are the GOP and we don’t care though, so there’s that…
9. Obama has freed 5 million human beings from living in the shadows, fearing deportation every time they step out of the family’s door, therefore, because of Obama’s Executive Action, when Congress would not act, those five million plus families will have a much nicer Christmas than they would have if that cloud was still hovering over them. Another example of the GOP being out to lunch on so many issues. Case in point, another Senator from Oklahoma who will remain nameless, stating to press after the decision a day or two after the midterms, telling the USA Today, “…GOP Senator warns of violence after immigration order.” Wrong again Senator, wrong again.
10. Obama has managed to turn this whole ‘losing the midterms’ into his benefit, going on the offensive for a change, as the GOP’s schizophrenia goes into overdrive. The truly crazy periodical? “Red State”, is it a blog? Is it a website? Is it a gift from God? “I thought you said it was a gift from God?” “That was when you were my son!” (credit the film, “Flirting with Disaster”, circa 1996, starring Ben Stiller,Tea Leoni), anyway, whatever “that” is, wrote an article the other day that pretty much sums up this schism between what the plutocrats want their puppets to do (i.e. Ted Cruz and the like) and what actual independent thinking GOP members want to do for this country for a change. “…The Republicans in Congress hate the American people. Just like the Democrats.” Going on to say, “…Representative John Boehner hate your guts people! You are neither a lobbyist, nor a cigarette, so you have no use for him.“ Ouch.
The fake grass roots tea party nut jobs like Senator Ted Cruz of the great state of Texas and about 30-40 other puppets will attempt to shut this U.S. government down in five days. As Rachel Maddow (host of the great TRMS, weeknights at 9 p.m. eastern, only on MSNBC), put it on her show, “…watch this space.” Thanks for all of that information too Rachel, and a Merry Christmas to you and yours! That goes for all who speak for the ‘little people’ in this great land of ours, one that must be watched constantly, lest we lose that little letter ‘d’ at the beginning of that word democracy, a society where one man (or one woman) equals one VOTE! And a land where all are EQUAL under the LAW.
No one being above it, especially those sworn to ‘protect and serve’…
Have a wonderful week ahead folks and ‘May the Force be with you’ as you get ready for the upcoming holiday energies! Don’t let those negative ones get in the way of the true meaning of the word Noel.
PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
