It’s the beginning of a new week, and I thought I’d revisit – and add some updates – on some of the things I’ve been writing about here.
In yesterday’s post, I talked about “Black Friday” and the freak-outs that accompany it – and seem to be encouraged. Well, once again, it’s cost someone their life.
The three workers were on top of the man when police arrived, and officers found him unresponsive and bleeding from his mouth and nose, the newspaper said.
The man was taken to a local hospital, where he was declared dead. He appeared to have been put in a choke hold by the security officer, the paper reported.
That’s in addition to further reports of people being injured, threatening – or committing – violence, and children being abandoned. I keep wondering why people think that this frenzy starting the day after we give thanks for what we have is a “good thing.” There really needs to be some perspective here.
Moving on, on Friday I had some tips for the Republican Party. The first one was “admit supply side economics doesn’t work.” Then I saw a great set of charts which show that in stark detail. This is what the Heritage Foundation predicted back in 2002:
In other words, we should be looking at a surplus, according to them. What actually is the picture?
Oops! But even that is not quite the story. The deficit in President Bush’s years don’t include the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, since those were “supplemental budgets.” They are included President Obama’s budgets. You want to balance the budget? Look at when we had a surplus, and ask yourself “what were the tax rates then?”
I also mentioned it’s time to get real. I found this clip from Real Time with Bill Maher which rather nicely sums up what the Right has done against “common sense”
One of the statements I’ve heard a lot over the past 4 years is that “the function of the opposition is to oppose.” Besides making me want to smack some sense into the people that say that, it is a demonstration of how off the track the Republican Party has gone, and how little they actually understand the government we have. In a parliamentary system, yes, the opposition has no say. In our system, it does, and particularly when it has control of one house of the legislature, it most definitely does. They’ve been shirking their responsibility, and they need to stop that.
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I don’t even like shopping when I have to so, fortunately for me Black Friday has never held any allure. I heard an interesting thing today about the cheap electronics the merchants put up for sale. Seems they are not the usual model but are manufacture for just such an event. I believe P.T. Barnum said it best “there’s one born every minute”.
The RR’s still don’t get it. They lost the election yet they bring the Romney Ryan plan to the table as if they won. The majority of the people voted it down and we are still a majority rule country. Maybe the current crop of RR’s out there swore some kind of blood oath against letting reality influence them. The Grover oath is something is I don’t undersatnd. This is a guy who should by rights have gone to jail along with Jack Abramoff and public officials sign an oath for him they put ahead of the oath of office they take. The last time I looked the largest percentage of that “horrible deficit” is owed not to any foreign government but to the American People.
I can’t see the need to stand in long lines, and fight the (literal) crush just to grab a “bargain” on something that you probably don’t need, and could pick up for the same price at a much less stressful time.
I concur with your comments about “black Friday” This has never been my thing or my family’s thing. Maybe it is because we party so much on Thanksgiving Day that we are too sated, too exhausted and probably hung over to think of shopping. Or maybe it is because Christmas for us means something different than buying a lot of caca that no one wants. Whatever! I find that whole shopping feeding frenzy just really weird.
Last, the whole deficit BS just makes me weary. Repugs never worry about the deficit when they are so busy like little beavers making it. They only moan & weep when a Dem has taken the wheel of state. Repugs made two wars while giving tax cuts. Now it is time to pay the piper. Taxes will be raised whether they like it or not.
Math has not been a Republican strong point, as we saw from this past election. Their problem is that they’ve substituted belief for facts, across many fields. Denying facts only ends up biting you in the end.