Sorry State of the Union

Last night I went to a State of the Union watching party at the CodePink house. And I would not want to have been watching it anywhere else. I think if I were at home by myself I would have listened to it while doing something else or not paid attention at all, but the lively crowd with which I shared the fulfillment of my very low expectations was a blast! At one point it even devolved into throwing cheetos at the screen.

While the speech had no surprises and nothing to redeem itself even on its rhetorical merits, there was on line that caught my attention: “Over the past seven years, we have increased funding for veterans by more than 95 percent.” That sounds great. But think about for a second: How many veterans were we making seven years ago? How many vets with PTSD? TBI? DU poisoning? Missing limbs? I think those numbers may have increased by over a thousand-fold. Unless able to spin it in this context, the proponents of the war will do everything to hide its costs.

His view of what he and Congress would be able to achieve in terms of economic stimulation was disturbingly optimistic. I think we’ve been in a recession for some time now and thanks to the absurd spin this administration has put on every piece of bad economic news, we’ve been in denial about it. You can only be in denial of a recession for so long before it becomes a full-blown depression. But these days, those are referred to as the “r word” and the “d word.” All this not to mention the impending currency collapse. So here are some funny cartoons to distract you from the fact that our beloved America is going down the toilet.