Not So Great Expectations

Do you ever feel like you're living in some weird alternate reality? Friday on the news, I hear, I don't know how many times, U.S. consumer sentiment up more than expected in April | Reuters
 Happy Days are here again! It's strange that there's such an unemployment problem in this country, since our real job as Americans is to be good consumers, so it makes sense that consumer sentiment is so high, right?
"near term expectations have improved substantially, longer term expectations for personal finances as well as the overall economy have not improved as much."
Huh? Am I the only one who notices a disconnect between reality and consumer "sentiment"? Are these "consumers" on Prozac? Are expectations facts?
This coming on the heels of a Princeton Study, that America is no longer a democracy. 
Thanks for noticing. The real irony here is that we did this to ourselves.
I'm thinking I should just go ahead and drink the Kool - Aid of the "American Dream". There are some "expectations" some where, that "things" are getting better despite the FACT that nothings improved. 
Did anyone even notice that President Obama went to Japan pedaling his TPP deal that no one wants any part of, especially Japan? Maybe democracy does have a fighting chance, somewhere. You know what Japan has? A national healthcare system. Their people live longer than Americans too.
America is like Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, pedaling heartbreak to countries like Vietnam, Iraq, and it's own American citizens. This country is a glorified shooting gallery, unlike Japan, 
A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths - Max Fisher - The Atlantic
Looks like Japan has no love for guns in their country, I'm surprised they speak to us at all because of  "U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan after attacks against Japanese women raised political tensions there."
 Next up for the President? Korea, I seem to remember there was some kind of conflict there, oh yeah,
Korean War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hopefully, the rest of the world will wake up to our real export, war and violence. Our economy has been stagnant for some time now and there's nothing like a good war for the rich to profit from to get the economy going again. Pretty much, that's what I expect. It's crazy to me that we think anyone, anywhere wants any part of a country that doesn't take care of it's own people, God forbid.
 America is looking more like a Dickens novel with almost 50 million people living in poverty, all we hear in this country is how broke we are and we need to cut, cut, cut our budget. The DOD's budget is being cut, however, our military spending is more than the top 10 countries budgets COMBINED! Americans are constantly told to lower our expectations, to the point where we just don't have any.  Especially when "reporters" are gushing about expectations improving, even though there's a "flood of retail stores closing" Reality looks very different.
"Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule." Charles Dickens was right.