As December begins, and most of America attempts to crawl back to work and out of our collective national tryptophan-induced comas, we think it's important for you to catch up on a few things that happened over the last few days.
Yes, the annual Black Friday stampedes and sales occurred - with many of them starting on Thursday - though that extra day didn't appear to help retailers as much as they thought it would. The Republican National Committee declared racism dead over the holiday break, in a completely boneheaded move on Twitter. Meanwhile, the GOP's position on the hungry appeared to remain, "Let them eat cake."
Hanukkah began, and the Pope also delivered his first apostolic exhortation - effectively his platform for his papacy - a positive and amazing statement on world economics that truly decouples the idea that Wall Street is on the side of God. A train also derailed in New York City during the holiday break, Auburn derailed Alabama's national championship hopes, Nebraska's head football coach Bo Pelini kept his job, and - contrary to all the hate, lies, and detrimental counter-measures Republicans and conservatives have engaged in for years - Obamacare did not derail over the break. In fact, the national Affordable Care website has significantly improved - just as the Obama Administration promised it would.
In short, some Americans obviously came out of the long Thanksgiving weekend filled with continued gratitude and gratefulness, while others are still the ungrateful, angry, fact-free little monsters they've always been.
Welcome to the holiday season, 2013 edition.
We're more than certain you're going to hear about many of these stories today, and you may have even caught a few slanted, sloppy versions of them over the weekend. Whatever claims you heard from that one uncle or auntie we all have, the facts on most of these stories are no different than they were five days ago.
For example, Republicans in Congress and those on the right are still screaming about all the problems with Affordable Care Act. Yet they still don't want to take any responsibility for all the problems they've caused in the rollout of the program - and they still have no concrete alternative plan. Meanwhile, the Obama administration did indeed meet its own goals on improving the system by November 30. Sure, there are many more things to do to improve our national health insurance system - it's just doubtful you’ll find anyone on the political right trying to do anything to improve that system.
Likewise in Nebraska's football program, there are still those grousing that head coach Bo Pelini should be fired, even in the wake of an obvious statement of support from Nebraska's new Athletic Director, Shawn Eichorst. These anti-Pelini armchair football 'geniuses' have no legitimate idea of who the program would replace Pelini with, and no understanding of the massive economic damage such a hasty action would cause to the school they claim to love. They also seem to have forgotten the petition once passed around Nebraska to fire legendary football coach Bob Devaney, or the years when similar discussions swirled around legendary football coach Tom Osborne.
In other words, whatever expressions of gratitude some Americans whispered over the weekend, their monsterous actions in the three days since prove that - in their hearts - their facade of gratefulness disappeared as rapidly as this year's latkes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.
We hope that as this month of holiday festivities begin, you remember that being grateful - not just for what you have, but also that things aren't worse - isn't merely a once-a-year action.
Being grateful is a way of life.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
A Very Special Thanksgiving
Before we close up the offices for a few days and enjoy our Thanksgiving holiday, we wanted to take a moment with you, our readers, for a personal message. Of course, as it often happens, there are stories - some very crazy - that threaten to derail our intentions.
For example, the crazy idea that corporations - entities that only exist on paper - can have religious beliefs is now going before the Supreme Court. As Greg Sargent pointed out on Tuesday, that battle before the Court will also be a fight over the rights of Americans to have access to contraception - an even nuttier idea. That isn't the only crazy bit of news today, though.
Late on Tuesday, the Obama administration - specifically through the Treasury Department and IRS - released long-demanded rules clarifying the nature of 501(C)(4) groups. The effect of the new guidelines may be to force organizations that are truly political in nature to change their designation, and disclose their donors - or it may shut off the unethical flow of money from some of those kinds of groups altogether.
There is also crazy gun news. Nearly a year after the horrible events in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and in the wake of a public report on the school massacre, the notion that more guns in schools will make our kids safer looks to be staging a comeback - this time, as a proposal before the Nebraska Legislature's 2014 session.
The fact that Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah are also on the same day this year has also been a topic of discussion among our friends and colleagues. 'Thanksgivukkah', as many are calling it, even has it's own food recipes - a crazy idea for a holiday that won't happen again for another 70,000 years.
Still, amongst all the craziness of the holiday preparation - including the ugly storm striking half the nation - we realize Americans in general, and our staff in particular, have a lot to be thankful for.
For all the screaming and hollering the right-wing media has been pumping out for the last two months, the Healthcare.gov website now appears to be working about as well as the Obama administration had hoped - smooth and effective for most Americans. That nearly 70% of America still hasn't been negatively affected by the problems surrounding the website is a great reason for thanks, as are all the stories of success that are finally beginning to drown out the negativity.
One of those success stories is personal, to us. In part, because of the coverage of the ACA, our editor Amy and her family may not feel quite as pinched when they welcome their second child into the world in 2014.
We're also thankful the economy continues to improve, and that it's likely The Fed will soon have its first ever female chairperson. Along those lines - even though not all of our staff members are Catholic - we're even thankful that the current Pope has come out in favor of sane, positive economic policies, instead of the trickle-down, austerity based economic ideas that are proven failures over the last thirty years.
On a more personal note, we're thankful that you enjoy what we do for you here. We're glad you share Paul's cartoons daily, that you read our commentaries, and that you pass our news links along to your friends and family.
In short, on this long Thanksgiving weekend, we're thankful for a great number of things - for our friends and family members, our media colleagues, and especially you, our readers.
Travel safely, stay warm.
Happy Thanksgiving.
For example, the crazy idea that corporations - entities that only exist on paper - can have religious beliefs is now going before the Supreme Court. As Greg Sargent pointed out on Tuesday, that battle before the Court will also be a fight over the rights of Americans to have access to contraception - an even nuttier idea. That isn't the only crazy bit of news today, though.
Late on Tuesday, the Obama administration - specifically through the Treasury Department and IRS - released long-demanded rules clarifying the nature of 501(C)(4) groups. The effect of the new guidelines may be to force organizations that are truly political in nature to change their designation, and disclose their donors - or it may shut off the unethical flow of money from some of those kinds of groups altogether.
There is also crazy gun news. Nearly a year after the horrible events in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and in the wake of a public report on the school massacre, the notion that more guns in schools will make our kids safer looks to be staging a comeback - this time, as a proposal before the Nebraska Legislature's 2014 session.
The fact that Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah are also on the same day this year has also been a topic of discussion among our friends and colleagues. 'Thanksgivukkah', as many are calling it, even has it's own food recipes - a crazy idea for a holiday that won't happen again for another 70,000 years.
Still, amongst all the craziness of the holiday preparation - including the ugly storm striking half the nation - we realize Americans in general, and our staff in particular, have a lot to be thankful for.
For all the screaming and hollering the right-wing media has been pumping out for the last two months, the Healthcare.gov website now appears to be working about as well as the Obama administration had hoped - smooth and effective for most Americans. That nearly 70% of America still hasn't been negatively affected by the problems surrounding the website is a great reason for thanks, as are all the stories of success that are finally beginning to drown out the negativity.
One of those success stories is personal, to us. In part, because of the coverage of the ACA, our editor Amy and her family may not feel quite as pinched when they welcome their second child into the world in 2014.
We're also thankful the economy continues to improve, and that it's likely The Fed will soon have its first ever female chairperson. Along those lines - even though not all of our staff members are Catholic - we're even thankful that the current Pope has come out in favor of sane, positive economic policies, instead of the trickle-down, austerity based economic ideas that are proven failures over the last thirty years.
On a more personal note, we're thankful that you enjoy what we do for you here. We're glad you share Paul's cartoons daily, that you read our commentaries, and that you pass our news links along to your friends and family.
In short, on this long Thanksgiving weekend, we're thankful for a great number of things - for our friends and family members, our media colleagues, and especially you, our readers.
Travel safely, stay warm.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Thankful For A Day Off
At this time of year, when we hear words like "smothered," "drizzled," or "stacked," we're usually thinking of gravy, sauces, and piles of ham or turkey. This year, for many Americans, those adjectives may also apply in several other ways.
For millions of Americans on the East Coast, including near our office in Washington, DC, "drizzled" and "stacked" may refer to the weather and the traffic patterns, including a nasty early winter storm that will make holiday travel a mess. For some of our Republican friends, no matter how much better the HealthCare.gov website is getting, and how much enrollment is increasing, they'll still be dreaming of smothering the program to death in its sleep.
For millions of other Americans - including some of our own family members who either work in retail stores or service retail & restaurant establishments, the words "smothered" and "stacked" refer to how they feel economically, and how they think of the bills they have back home. You can even add "chained" to that list, as so many Americans working low-level hourly jobs worry - now more than ever - that they could lose their jobs at any time.
According to a recent Washington Post-Miller Center poll, more than 60% of working Americans worry about losing their jobs right now, with nearly one-third saying they worry about it "a lot" these days.
That explains, in part, why so many Americans this Thanksgiving will be grudgingly putting on their work clothes and trudging off to work, while their families, friends and neighbors sit down next to empty chairs at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
In case you've missed it, a growing number of retailers this year have decided to cancel the Thanksgiving holidays of their workers, pushing the traditional Black Friday sales into a day that is supposed to be a national holiday for all Americans, not just the comfortable folks who can afford a day off.
Thankfully, not every corporate retail store or restaurant has decided to follow the Ebenezer Scrooge business model.
Stores including Costco, Nordstroms, R.E.I., and Apple have decided that - wherever possible - they are closing their stores for the Thanksgiving holiday and giving their workers a chance to count their blessings.
Those retailers that are forcing their workers to come in on the holiday are also firing up worker's rights groups and unions. As Matthew Fleischer noted in the L.A. Times this month, "the slow creep of Black Friday into Thanksgiving is probably the single most effective public relations gift the labor movement could ask for in the fight for a living wage across America."
For those businesses that do decide to remain open, as Brad Tuttle noted in Time last week, the few shekels the corporations might be able to squeeze out of shoppers may not be worth opening on Thanksgiving next year. Indeed, technology retailer Radio Shack found that out the hard way in 2012, and decided it wasn't worth opening their doors on Thanksgiving this year.
We're pointing this out today not to shame those businesses into closing on Thanksgiving. They've already made their plans for this week long ago.
We'd merely ask that you, our readers, acknowledge that no matter what the job is, if someone is working on Thanksgiving, chances are pretty good they'd rather be at home with their families and friends.
Instead of going out to shop on Thursday, maybe you should stay at home, so that next year, another hard-working American might also be able to give thanks that they also don't have to the work the Thanksgiving holiday.
For millions of Americans on the East Coast, including near our office in Washington, DC, "drizzled" and "stacked" may refer to the weather and the traffic patterns, including a nasty early winter storm that will make holiday travel a mess. For some of our Republican friends, no matter how much better the HealthCare.gov website is getting, and how much enrollment is increasing, they'll still be dreaming of smothering the program to death in its sleep.
For millions of other Americans - including some of our own family members who either work in retail stores or service retail & restaurant establishments, the words "smothered" and "stacked" refer to how they feel economically, and how they think of the bills they have back home. You can even add "chained" to that list, as so many Americans working low-level hourly jobs worry - now more than ever - that they could lose their jobs at any time.
According to a recent Washington Post-Miller Center poll, more than 60% of working Americans worry about losing their jobs right now, with nearly one-third saying they worry about it "a lot" these days.
That explains, in part, why so many Americans this Thanksgiving will be grudgingly putting on their work clothes and trudging off to work, while their families, friends and neighbors sit down next to empty chairs at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
In case you've missed it, a growing number of retailers this year have decided to cancel the Thanksgiving holidays of their workers, pushing the traditional Black Friday sales into a day that is supposed to be a national holiday for all Americans, not just the comfortable folks who can afford a day off.
Thankfully, not every corporate retail store or restaurant has decided to follow the Ebenezer Scrooge business model.
Stores including Costco, Nordstroms, R.E.I., and Apple have decided that - wherever possible - they are closing their stores for the Thanksgiving holiday and giving their workers a chance to count their blessings.
Those retailers that are forcing their workers to come in on the holiday are also firing up worker's rights groups and unions. As Matthew Fleischer noted in the L.A. Times this month, "the slow creep of Black Friday into Thanksgiving is probably the single most effective public relations gift the labor movement could ask for in the fight for a living wage across America."
For those businesses that do decide to remain open, as Brad Tuttle noted in Time last week, the few shekels the corporations might be able to squeeze out of shoppers may not be worth opening on Thanksgiving next year. Indeed, technology retailer Radio Shack found that out the hard way in 2012, and decided it wasn't worth opening their doors on Thanksgiving this year.
We're pointing this out today not to shame those businesses into closing on Thanksgiving. They've already made their plans for this week long ago.
We'd merely ask that you, our readers, acknowledge that no matter what the job is, if someone is working on Thanksgiving, chances are pretty good they'd rather be at home with their families and friends.
Instead of going out to shop on Thursday, maybe you should stay at home, so that next year, another hard-working American might also be able to give thanks that they also don't have to the work the Thanksgiving holiday.
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