As most know, the end of this month will bring the annual Presidential State of the Union Address. This event is set up to give the current president at the time an opportunity to report on what, if anything he feels is good and/or bad with the condition of the country and shed some light on what direction he wants to take the nation moving forward. If you are a steady viewer of CNN or a regular reader of the New York Times you may not be aware that yes, there are some very positive things happening with both foreign and domestic policy. The economy: It’s on fire – in a good way. Jobs are coming back, unemployment is at an 18 year low for the country as a whole and even unemployment among Black and Hispanic Americans is going down and at the lowest point in many years. With the recent tax reform package, a majority of working Americans will be getting less taken out of their pay and many companies have started giving bonus to employees already. The GNP has gone from a sickly 1.5% to more than 3% and could actually hit 4% by economist predictions. Companies are coming back to the country and bringing more jobs and the number of Americans who feel confident and good about the economy has nearly tripled. The Stock Market is setting records in the right direction. The nation is well on its way to becoming energy independent which will prevent OPEC from ever holding sway over us again. Our military; after eight years of neglect by Obama, is being rebuilt, the flood of illegal’s crossing our border has been slowed to a relative trickle and ISIS has nearly been reduced to rubble. North Korea, while still acting bellicose, has cut back on their threats to nuke everyone and has finally come to the table to have talks with South Korea thanks to US pressure. The UN has been put on notice that if they continue to pursue their anti-American and anti-Israel ways, the flow of money from Uncle Sam will be reduced and maybe even cut off at some point. These are some of the things that President Trump will be speaking about at the State of the Union but there will be some members of congress who will be boycotting the event because to be blunt, they hate him. So far, as of this writing those who have announced they will not be attending are Congress members Maxine Waters, John Lewis, Earl Blumenaueh and of course Frederica Wilson; owner of at least a thousand cowboy hats. In response to this boycott, some of our readers have made suggestions as to who or what could be used to fill those empty seats reserved for the afore mentioned congress members which would serve at least as useful a purpose as the absent lawmakers. Some of the suggestions were crash test dummies, potted plants, the balloons used in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Gia Pets. All of which, in the opinion of many, would serve the purpose and would probably cause less embarrassment to the nation; much of which will be watching on live TV. The State of California has just been given a title that many in that state won’t be too happy with – ‘Poverty Capitol of the Nation’. A recent study by the Pacific Research Institute finds that after years of liberal policies, Californians are becoming steadily poorer and some are starting to refer to the state as a third world country. Some of the reasons given for the state’s decline are crippling environmental regulations which are making everything more expensive, nonstop tax increases, nearly undeterred and often encouraged illegal immigration and the cost of supporting it and the fleeing of workers and even businesses to states like Texas and Utah where taxes and the cost of living are a lot less and the economies are booming. California used to be a place that enticed people to move there. There were once many goodreasons to do so. But now it seems the only thing that state has to offer is a nice climate. They have a state government dominated by liberal Democrats who want to tax everything that can’t be hidden, that passes countless restrictive laws and regulations that continuously chip away at individual freedoms and seeks to insert itself into the private lives and personal affairs of just about everyone. California used to be the ‘in’ place or the ‘cool’ place to be from. But now, it has become a sort of laughing stock and a joke to millions of Americans who just shake their heads in disbelief at what goes on there. But California can still serve a purpose. It can be used as an example for other states to look at as a place to never, ever turn into. Hopefully, the state of Massachusetts, which is considered by some to be a close second to California in its leftist leanings is paying close attention and will take a much different path.
