The man, dressed in regular city business casual attire with a carrier bag slung around one shoulder was on his way to work and was jaywalking across the street when he stopped and looked to his left. There he saw the back of the delivery truck, with its sliding doors wide open. Perched on the edge of the truck, waiting to either be picked up or delivered, it was unclear exactly, where two black buckets. The man did a double-take, took a step back, looked around, walked up to the truck, grabbed one of the buckets, and slowly walked off down the busy avenue full of people coming and going, with none of his fellow city dwellers thinking anything of it. The bucket was heavier than the man had expected, and he had to stop and pause, and even put the bucket down every few minutes. He even tried putting it up on his shoulder, but that didn’t work so well, so he once again reverted to carrying it by the handle. It eventually took him an hour to get out of the area. Now, if you were wondering what this story was about, you missed one of the bigger lesser news items this week. A man in New York City, literally living up to that old Latin saying carpe diem, or seize the day, was able to grab and walk off with a bucket of gold worth more than 1.5 million dollars. The police footage was able to track him for 4 blocks, and then it lost him. And the police? Well, after reviewing the tape, a detective said — “I think he just saw an opportunity, took the pail and walked off”. And that’s how you do it in the Big Apple – get while the getting’s good. That guy might have 99 problems now, but gold ain’t one.
And speaking of opportunity, albeit of a different kind, we have to step into the way back machine for a moment, all the way back to 2014, when America found itself in the grips of a wave of undocumented migrants, to be pc, or also better known as illegal aliens, flooding across the borders. In fact, in December of that year, President Obama signed an executive order regarding child immigration, which, as MRCTV reported, was –“touted as a way to bring illegal alien children from certain Central American countries into the United States to be reunited with their families”. And that sounds pretty noble, on the face of it, right? Reuniting families is always a good thing, and especially around Christmas time, it is even nicer – a great opportunity to play on all of the holiday cheer.
Well, news emerging today, again from MRCTV, say that – “Recent (US) government data shows that more than two-thirds of the aliens the Obama administration has brought to the United States under the president's Central American Minors program weren’t actually minors at all.” That’s right. Two thirds weren’t minors. That is, they weren’t children under the age of 18. They were already adults.
To make matters even more interesting, the article goes on to note: “Unfortunately for the Obama administration, the program struggled to convince potential applicants that its long, extensive application process was more appealing than simply paying a smuggler to transport them across the border.” Because, hey, let’s be honest. People are people, and redtape sucks. It doesn’t matter what level of society one finds himself on, sitting around twiddling your thumbs while some faceless bureaucrat files your application is never fun.
And while we are talking about fun, or the lack of it, a new report from the Pew Research Center has been released. In that report, we can see that “broad demographic shifts in marital status, educational attainment and employment have transformed the way young adults in the U.S. are living”. And while that might be news to some, old hat to others, let’s continue on with what they reported: “For men ages 18 to 34, living at home with mom and/or dad has been the dominant living arrangement since 2009.” Shocking, right? But it gets even better. “In addition, trends in both employment status and wages have likely contributed to the growing share of young adults who are living in the home of their parent(s), and this is especially true of young men.” And while that isn’t fun for anyone, at least have a warm home of their own, unlike the protestors in North Dakota.
Reuters is reporting that the protests in North Dakota are still ongoing, and that –“More than 2,000 U.S. military veterans plan to form a human shield to protect protesters of a pipeline project near a Native American reservation in North Dakota”. This comes – “just ahead of a federal deadline for activists to leave the camp they have been occupying.” That’s right. Protestors have been roughing it in the wild for months now in a bid to stop the pipeline from being built because – “it poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.”
And what has the response been from the incoming President? Well, Reuters has reported that – “U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said for the first time that he supports the completion of a pipeline project near a North Dakota Indian reservation.” Further on, his transition team released a statement saying –“despite media reports that Trump owns a stake in the company building the pipeline, Trump's support of the pipeline has nothing to do with his personal investments and everything to do with promoting policies that benefit all Americans." Well, as they say, what is good for the goose, is good for the gander, right?
Donald Rumsfeld once said: “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know”. Looking forward to the next year and with a team in the White House, we should stop and ask ourselves, what will the future bring? More of the same? Will jobs return? Will peace prevail? Will opportunities be seized?
So, what do you think, dear listeners – Will Trump Make America Great Again?
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