Should we get ready? Should we get READY?

Been listening lately about getting ready for an attack or some major altercation from terrorists. Hiding in our neighborhoods, airports, big and small cities, coasts, and outside our borders.

There are kits to purchase, goods to store up, equipment to be trained to use, Ham radios, flares, bottled water here on the ground as citizens of this once great nation.  Is she still the great nation?  Her purpose originally was 2-fold, 1. Protect her citizens from foreign entities; and, 2 to establish a fair government to ensure that each citizen is enabled to enjoy the pursuit of happiness in a peaceful existence. Well, so much for that, huh?

Long before 9/11 things were churning in the middle east against the US, long before the so-called journalism of the media brought any of this to our attention things were in the works to destroy our good country.  But to our detriment, we were left vulnerable.

But think of this:

1. The Oil Industry has been allowed to destroy good and clean modes of transportation by eradicating the electric car and since 2008 the price of gas has basically climbed with little relief in sight.
2. The media has been controlled by somebody or something editing what is written and exposed to her citizens for years.
3. The poor seems to be getting poorer, the rich, seem to be getting richer and the middle-class seems to be unchanged...if not struggling a bit more.
4. Over the past 2 decades, the religious freedom of her citizens have been whittled away by certain groups that seem to have a hold on governmental decision makers.
5. The public education of our children is more and more being dictated/manipulated by partisan values and opinions with the loss of vital subjects, ie, geography, higher maths..
6. Our prisons are growing rapidly with more being built to house more and more convicts. No one seems to notice the dominance of the race that occupies these prisons, either.
7. The definition of the family is being redrawn with traditional marriage basically thrown to the wall with same-sex "marriages" being brought to the forefront as winner.
8. America's dictionary is being revised with words like: equality, tolerance, safe-zones, gender-equality, coexist, marriage, etc. having new definitions.
9. Lies and governmental cover-up continue to be the order of the day instead of conducting business righteously and/or coming clean with mistakes or misjudgements and setting things right.
10. Our veterans are being left off the priority list of care and benefits.  Our soldiers are under strict regulations before they can shoot a gun in defense.

Am I wrong in these assessments?  I need to counter this post with a positive one.   BUT in the meantime, when will American citizens stand up and say enough is enough and do something to change how things are going?  Isn't there something we can do to protect our families, our children's education, the prices of everyday commodities from skyrocketing?....or are we just sitting ducks?

Media and truth

It seems shocking how truth and the media are so far apart from each other. It's so sad that truth is something to fear enough that it must be hidden....or worse, mangled and distorted.

There is just one truth, the coin has two sides, but on only one side is the truth.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Treasury Department, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Social Security Administration

JOBS - At the end of President Bush’s first term, total non-farm employment in the U.S. consisted of 104,000 fewer jobs than when he took office in January 2001. At the end of President Obama’s first term, total non-farm employment in the U.S. consisted of 970,000 fewer jobs than when he took office in January 2009.
UNEMPLOYMENT - At the end of George W. Bush’s first term the U-6 unemployment rate was 9.3 percent, up from 7.3 percent in January 2001. At the end of President Obama’s first term, the real unemployment rate, meaning the number of unemployed or underemployed Americans, was 14.4 percent or 23 million people, up from 14.2 percent in January 2009.
DURATION - During President Bush’s first term, the average duration of unemployment was 17 weeks. During President Obama’s first term, the average duration of unemployment was 34 weeks.
PARTICIPATION - At the end of President Bush's first term the labor force participation rate was 65.8 percent, down from 67.2 percent. At the end of President Obama’s first term, the labor force participation rate was 63.7 percent, down from 65.7 when he took office.
FOOD STAMPS - In January 2005 roughly 25 million people participated in SNAP. About 17 million participated in the program in 2001. Under Obama, individuals on food stamps grew from 32 million to 47 million.
DISABILITY - In 2004, the last full year of Bush’s first term, roughly 7.2 million people received disability benefits. The number of individuals receiving U.S. Social Security disability insurance payments in 2012 was 9 million.
GDP - The total increase in U.S. GDP during the first four years of President Bush was 9.4 percent. The total increase in U.S. GDP during the first four years of President Obama was 5.9 percent.
DEBT - At the end of President Bush’s first term the U.S. national debt was 64 percent of gross national product. The U.S. national debt was $7.6 trillion or roughly $26,000 per person. At the end of President Obama’s first term in office the U.S. national debt was more than 100 percent of gross domestic product. The U.S. national debt was more than $16.4 trillion, more than $52,000 per person.
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