Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

So let's move on to the economic reality of what has been going on for years. Since we had the mass betrail of our economic stability by those that were only interested in personal wealth we as a nation have been in decline. We have denied this as truth and looked to the hope that we are going to be saved by the convicted felon, sex abuser, liar that got elected for the second time. He isn't going to save anything except self as that is the only item he is concerned with.
     Our fortunes have been in decline for at least the last 50 years. The people that have been in charge of our nation all had the idea that if we prop up the wealthy somehow that will benefit the lower part of our society. It didn't, doesn't and won't do any such thing. The only way we can possibly get back into the game is to start making deals with the countries that our wealthiest citzens sold out to years ago. 
     Minimum wages have not kept up with the rise in prices of anything. In the 1950's and through the 60's minimum wage was one dollar an hour. You could buy a loaf of bread for 20 cents or less and a gallon of gas for about the same price. My first tour of service in the Army began with basic pay for a recruit being less than 90 dollars a month. The basic pay now is around 3000 a month and gas is over 4 dollars a gallon. One of my fellow recruits was upset when the price of cigarettes went to 19 cents a pack, today the prices are more like a dollar per cigarette. The minimum wage is now 7.25 per hour which is way behind the cost index.
    Just using the cost of cigarettes as an example, then they were 1 cent each, now they are 1 dollar each which is a 100 times greater cost, wages are way behind on this score. So our economy is going down hill and will continue to do so unless someone gets very smart and starts cooperating with our competion instead of what we are doning today. Trump wants to build walls both literally and finacially and neither effort is going to stop anything. The wall on the border may slow some down but it won't stop all from crossing and the tariffs will only cost us money with higher prices that what we are paying now. 
    The anger and frustration that has and is being demonstrated by Trump is in large part a result of him being caught at the crimes he has committed and being held accountable for some of them. He is the ever present victim, just like most of the people that voted for him. Someone is always picking on them, they have it in for me, I never get a break, or stand a chance. Victim mentality produces many things, none of them positive. We have had to watch what we say because the words of yesterday are offensive. We have stopped trying to get society to defend our children from idiots entering schools with guns blazing and killing teachers and students. This has been brought about by the victims that claim the right to have those guns and with the help of the NRA and the purchase of Congressinal support and that of the Supreme Court, also bought and paid for by the gun lobby.
    The denial of global warming, the value of vaccines, the right to determine our personal health, and common sense in general not to mention the decline of our economic worth keeps us in the tailspin of decline and ultimately we will crash. Empires have fallen before and we have the proof of that in Greece, in Rome, from the Egyptains and the Aztecs and others from around the globe. Most of the nations of Europe have tried to be mighty at one time or another and all have lost. We went through Manifest Destiny and once we had gone from sea to sea decided to stop, and now Trump wants to put that back in play to annex Canada, and Panama and Greenland, and we can only guess at what else he has his eye on.