Talking back - Part 2

[Continuation of annotated SOTU:]

Rosy prediction #8/Lie #11:

There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this [re-industrialization] trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. . . . There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns.

Except for the GOP nutbags I keep pandering to with all my deficit/austerity talk.

Rosy prediction #9:

So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.

Good luck with that. Don’t forget it will have to cost $0.00 as you faithfully promised before.

Disturbing truth #16:

Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race.

Which will come with the support of people who think God created Kentucky in 4,001 B.C.

Disturbing truth #17/Lie #12:

And today, no area holds more promise than our investments in American energy. After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future.

‘Our’ energy future? Useless chauvinism that feeds the Drill-Baby-Drill foolishness, i.e., dangerous bullshit. Cannot happen except in the parallel universe of Sarah Palins.

Disturbing truth #18:

We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years.

And are burning it all up as fast as always.

Not disturbing truth #1:

We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it.

Disturbing truth #19:

We produce more natural gas than ever before . . .

Thanks to the fracking debacle, which both present and future generations will pay for dearly.

Disturbing truth #20:

. . . and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it.

Although energy will have to be more expensive if we want to avoid frying ourselves.

Lie #12:

And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.

Possibly true in a narrow technical sense, which makes the prevarication that much worse.

Rosy prediction #10:

I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change. . .

And I urge daddy to buy me a pony! How about a solution that actually saves our ass instead?

Disturbing truth #21:

. . . like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago.

Oh, that’s REALLY reassuring.

Disturbing truth #22:

. . . executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.

Like scotching the Keystone Pipeline?

Rosy prediction #11:

Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We’ve begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.

Lie #13:

In the meantime, the natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence.

Only if ‘cleaner’ is defined to exclude how we get the fuel out of the ground [hint: fracking].

Disturbing truth #23:

That’s why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits.

Now there’s a promise we can count on! Birther states rejoice!

Rosy prediction #12:

But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water.

Through graduate students working in unpaid internships—see, it won’t cost a dime!

Rosy prediction #13:

Indeed, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. So tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. Let’s free our families and businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we’ve put up with for far too long.

That way, adjustment to global climate change will be totally painless for you drivers! No sacrifice or infrastructural changes will be needed!

Rosy prediction #14:

I’m also issuing a new goal for America: let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.

And remember, all this can happen without adding one cent to the deficit! We’ll get the money from Grandma’s pension.

Rosy prediction #15:

America’s energy sector is just one part of an aging infrastructure badly in need of repair. Ask any CEO where they’d rather locate and hire: a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and internet; high-tech schools and self-healing power grids. The CEO of Siemens America – a company that brought hundreds of new jobs to North Carolina – has said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they’ll bring even more jobs. And I know that you want these job-creating projects in your districts. I’ve seen you all at the ribbon-cuttings.

Did I mention that, concidentally, North Carolina is a non-union state? I decided not to bring that up since it might offend people who think I’m a Muslim foreigner.

Rosy prediction #16/Disturbing truth #24:

Tonight, I propose a ‘Fix-It-First’ program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children.

See, it won’t cost anything! It’ll be like it’s free! And once private contractors are done, they can recover their costs by charging us tiny little fees to cross bridges and stuff that will be so low that we’ll hardly even notice.

Rosy prediction #17:

Let’s prove that there is no better place to do business than the United States of America. And let’s start right away.

Because the business of America is business. I learned that from reading about Calvin Coolidge.

Lie #14 (repeats lie #1):

Today, our housing market is finally healing from the collapse of 2007.

Which was caused by rampant illegality, fraud and speculation, that will now be restored as is so that banks can reflate the bubble and restore their profits.

Disturbing truth #25:

Home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years, home purchases are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.

Thanks in part to zero interest rates, which will not last forever.

Disturbing truth #26:

But even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, too many families with solid credit who want to buy a home are being rejected.

How can that be if the ‘housing market is finally healing’? Could it be that the credit market is not?

Disturbing truth #27:

Too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no.

Because the banks and servers can’t gouge enough out of them in fees. Why should they when theft is legal and much more profitable?

Disturbing truth #28:

That’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it.

But without making any of the thieves give up their bonuses/jobs/influence. Hey, Jamie Dimon is a smart guy!

Rosy prediction #18:

Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before. What are we waiting for? Take a vote, and send me that bill.

Three whole thousand each! Why, that’s enough to pay even Countrywide’s refi fees.

Lie #15/Whopper #3:

Right now, overlapping regulations keep responsible young families from buying their first home. What’s holding us back? Let’s streamline the process, and help our economy grow.

Down with regulations! After all, gummint is the problem, not the free marketplace in the greatest country in the world. Earth to base: it wasn’t overlapping or underlapping or any kind of lapping regulations that blew up the housing market and the world economy; it was the abject failure to use what regulations did exist to stop bubbling-making fraud and theft, which your administration has done zip to prosecute. ‘Streamline’ regulations is Reagan-speak for let them do it all again. Are you out of your mind?

[end of part 2]