It is Friday so I will try and post something a little light.

With all the talk lately about people moving to the United States needing to learn English - I was reminded of a Faulty Towers episode.

You think it might be hard to learn English? Try being a dead moose…

[

I am trying to keep up with the submissions to The Slow Bleed by readers and will post them as I get them (assuming they can be viewed by all). Here is one that came over this morning (and keep those submissions coming!) - the Godfather

 When Florida makes the news it is typically not good.

 Hurricane’s, voting processes, and the occasional poodle-attacked-by-gator all seem to top the list.

 So what is on the list this week at The Slow Bleed? 

According to state figures, 72.4 percent of students who enrolled in ninth grade managed to graduate last spring. That means about 37,000 students dropped off the radar and out of school.

The only thing worse is that in a state-by-state study, Florida is not the worse. Here are states that fall below Florida when it comes to graduation… 

• Tennessee
• Alabama
• Mississippi
• Georgia
• New York
• South Carolina

 And the (worst) winner is…

•  Nevada.

If your state did not make the list, just give it a few more years. With absolutely no priorities for education in this country these statistics are not going to get any better. 

Submitted by a Slow Bleed reader, this one keeps coming up.

In Reno, NV last year and still under debate, a man cut down an American flag that was being flown below a Mexican Flag. Since then, the Veteran, Jim Brossard, has been at the center of the debate (Below is the original newscast.)

Post your comments. Did he do the right thing or did he infringe on someone else’s rights?

[

It seems that many people are concerned in this election over who will best represent them as President.

The sad part is elected officials stopped representing us decades ago and not just at the highest level of government but pretty much across the aboard. 

Take the Presidential election for starters. It appears that Hillary Clinton has close to 20 million of her own money in it. Now, the last time I checked, the average American doesn’t have anywhere near that. Certainly Hillary is not the exception. - Politicians need to be multi-millionaires to even think about running for office. 

If that were not enough, once there, they still won’t be any closer to understanding the average American’s plight. 

Politicians don’t have to worry about Social Security (they have their own plans that seem to be paying very well). A lot don’t have to worry about medical issues (their bills are 100 percent paid for life). 

The result is that we don’t (and won’t) have people in office that represent the people because they are not typical people. They will continue to represent oil companies, insurance companies, drug companies, etc, etc. 

Up this week…

If you could go back in time and tell yourself something at age Eighteen, what would it be?

Well, here is a surprise. Our government is overspending again…by a lot!

The U.S.’s long-term financial obligations grew by another $2.5 trillion from last year. That means, if you factor in all the obligations such as Social Security, Medicare and other government programs, the debt is about $531,472 per household. (and you thought your Visa bill was high didn’t you?!) 

The big liabilities from 2007… 

Civil Servant Retirement: $106 billion

Social Security: $900 billion

Medicare: $1.2 trillion 

The numbers are actually much worse when you get into accounting methods. 

Corporations and states are required to count new financial obligations, even if the payments will be made later. Spoiler alert: Our government will not follow those accounting rules. 

What does this mean? Medicare, for example, has an unfunded liability of $30.4 trillion. I guess the government better start looking under seat cushions in a real hurry.