The Real State of the Union

With the onslaught of global warming striking destruction, I fear the United States faces greater challenges with each passing month. The severity of weather patterns all around the globe has only intensified the urgency that humanity is facing at the most crucial point in our history. The forces of denial have already hastened us to the point of no return. With the clock ticking and time running out, it is essential that cooler heads prevail. Yet, those climate change deniers cling to their convictions; that is all well and good. But, as the wrath of nature rocks a splintered nation, millions are continually thrown into an inferno of hopelessness and despair.

Today, the scientific community has sounded the alarm that the planet has at the most 12 years remaining before irreversible damage is done to all life forms all around the globe. As we are seeing right now, the scorching heat and violent storms that continue to annihilate homes, businesses, lives and livelihoods right here in the U.S. while other parts of the world face one catastrophe after another are all reminders that climate change is one of the most severe threats to all life. The time is now, and we had better act to reduce and eliminate the effects of what fossil fuels have done and continue to do to our world before it really is too late.

With the advent of hurricane season coinciding with the severity and frequency of violent tornadoes and flash floods throughout the midwest and central United States, the billions of dollars in damage with an already crippling economy makes it clear that decisive action is needed now to negate the root causes that have placed the United States in such great peril. Not only has our continued use of fossil fuel fueled the catastrophic weather patterns that have caused the greatest desalination point in the world's oceans, but the economic policies of the Trump Administration and past administrations have drastically increased the number of Americans from ever achieving the American Dream.

While the media keeps focusing on how well the economy is doing, underneath this facade of "all is well and good" lies a mounting avalanche of an economic catastrophe that would make the financial crisis of 2008 look like a picnic. News that isn't reported, I bet for obvious reasons, is a far cry from what is actually reported by the main stream media. In truth, there are several facts that emphatically state quite the contrary to what the media keeps reporting about the state of the U.S. economy. When there are over 137 million Americans faced with acute financial hardship due to medical bills and more Americans every month declaring bankruptcy due to the lack of medical coverage and the high cost of medical care, it's a sure sign this country needs "Medicare for All."

This is just the start of the financial crack in our fragile economy. A crack that is only getting wider, and pretty soon our whole economy will come crashing down on an unsuspecting public. All because the media is either oblivious to the facts or is intentionally steering the public away from the real state of our economy. It is more evident each week that the retail industry continuing its decline, as over 6,000 stores closed in the first half of this year alone. More closures continue to showcase the disturbing signs that all is not well and good in the American economy.

Today, 50% of our population can't meet their basic needs like food, shelter, clean freshwater and just about everything essential for day-to-day living. The disposable incomes for over 80% of the population are totally insufficient to meet today's cost of living. The media keeps reminding us that we have a very low unemployment number, but what they fail to report is that the United States has over 100 million Americans that don't have jobs at all. Our once strong manufacturing base has only withered and died on the vine of all the corporate shifts to outsource American jobs overseas. Today's farmers are going bankrupt at a rate higher than they were in the 1970s. Consumer spending has dropped to an all time low. All of this just adds another dimension to the nation's critical condition.

We can add the Trumps tariff wars, which have only escalated and exasperated the crippling effects of our whole economic future. More to the point is the fact that the future is really in our hands, but we must act with decisive action now, not later, if we are going to not only survive, but prosper. There are ways to do just that, but we first have to realize just how bad things have gotten and use a plan of direction that details solutions to the many urgent crises of our times. That plan of direction is what the Ten Articles of Confederation and the National Economic Security and Recovery Act details. And when they are both implemented, this nation and the world will become solidified in a much brighter future for all.