Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving Misgivings

     Unfortunately, Squanto wasn't psychic. If he was, think of all the misery he could've saved his people.
     But he wasn't. The Indians around Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts took pity on the settlers from the Mayflower and essentially kept them alive. Over the next four centuries, we repaid them with venereal disease and small pox, massive land grabs, raids, fascist resident schools and shunting them to reservations.
     Because that's the way of the White Man and his Manifest Destiny.
     And we're still seeing the same spirit today in mostly white corporate executives who have nothing left to steal from Native Americans and have moved on to the rest of us. Now they're after our pensions, our health care, our very dignity and will to live and fight. A cabal of 150 corporate executives, one of them Obama's jobs czar Jeff Immelt, called "Fix the Debt" is now busting a nut trying to raise the retirement age to at least 70, get rid of overtime pay, grab what few pension funds there are, freeze the minimum wage and God knows what else. Many of these corporate scumbags already have retirement funds of $140,000,000 or more.
     Now, K-Mart, Walmart and, for the first time ever, Macy's is open today for business as well as hundreds if not thousands of retailers. K-Mart opened at 6 this morning and will be at it for 41 straight hours and who cares if their employees want to spend Thanksgiving with their families? According to the propaganda campaigns of these corporations, it'll be a "high energy day" for "associates" who just can't wait to forgo spending a major holiday with loved ones to wait on manic, murderous customers who would stick a shiv between their mother's ribs to get that extra 20% off on a plasma TV.
     You think a single retail executive in this country is working on Thanksgiving?
     And now, like the original colonists of 1620, many of us are fighting for bare survival. Only it seems there's no Squanto to save us from certain ruin. Our government quietly let the ARRA or Recovery Act lapse, leaving millions with less food assistance and no subsidization for their COBRA health coverage and millions will lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress acts because they simply don't give a shit about you. If you can't stuff millions in soft PAC money into their war chests, unless you can wine and dine them at the Four Seasons or the Pump Room or some other swanky restaurant, if you don't hold $10,000-a-plate fundraisers or foot the bill for golf junkets at St. Andrews, they want nothing to do with you. It is a government of the 1%, by the 1% and for the 1%.
     Like the executive scum who've sent the word down to the regional, district and store levels that if you don't work on Thanksgiving, you're fired.
     So, Squanto and his people are dead and gone and most of their descendants can't even help themselves let alone us, not that they'd want to. We have just each other, fellow human beings who are compassionate enough to look beyond our ken and to sympathize with the plight of others less fortunate than we. A certain Walmart store in Canton, Ohio proved that recently.
     And if you're lucky as I am to be spending a quiet, peaceful Thanksgiving with a loved one or loved ones, please give a silent prayer or gesture of thanks to the people who are braving termination, ridicule and the cold protesting the ongoing theft by the 1% of our most basic ways and means of survival. Because they don't care about you any more than do their temp workers in the federal government.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

KindleindaWind, my writing blog.

All Time Classics

  • Our Worse Half: The 25 Most Embarrassing States.
  • The Missing Security Tapes From the World Trade Center.
  • It's a Blunderful Life.
  • The Civil War II
  • Sweet Jesus, I Hate America
  • Top Ten Conservative Books
  • I Am Mr. Ed
  • Glenn Beck: Racist, Hate Monger, Comedian
  • The Ten Worst Music Videos of all Time
  • Assclowns of the Week

  • Links to the first 33 Assclowns of the Week.
  • Links to Assclowns of the Week 38-63.
  • #106: The Turkey Has Landed edition
  • #105: Blame it on Paris or Putin edition
  • #104: Make Racism Great Again Also Labor Day edition
  • #103: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Toilet edition
  • #102: Orange is the New Fat edition
  • #101: Electoral College Dropouts edition
  • #100: Centennial of Silliness edition
  • #99: Dr. Strangehate edition
  • #98: Get Bentghazi edition
  • #97: SNAPping Your Fingers at the Poor edition
  • #96: Treat or Treat, Kiss My Ass edition
  • #95: Monumental Stupidity double-sized edition
  • #94: House of 'Tards edition
  • #93: You Da Bomb! edition.
  • #92: Akin to a Fool edition.
  • #91: Aurora Moronealis edition.
  • #90: Keep Your Gubmint Hands Off My High Pre'mums and Deductibles! edition.
  • #89: Occupy the Catbird Seat/Thanksgiving edition.
  • #88: Heil Hitler edition.
  • #87: Let Sleeping Elephants Lie edition.
  • #86: the Maniacs edition.
  • #85: The Top 50 Assclowns of 2010 edition.
  • #(19)84: Midterm Madness edition.
  • #83: Spill, Baby, Spill! edition.
  • #82: Leave Corporations Alone, They’re People! edition.
  • #81: Hatin' on Haiti edition.
  • #80: Don't Get Your Panties in a Twist edition.
  • #79: Top 50 Assclowns of 2009 edition.
  • #78: Nattering Nabobs of Negativism edition.
  • #77: ...And Justice For Once edition.
  • #76: Reading Tea Leaves/Labor Day edition.
  • #75: Diamond Jubilee/Inaugural Edition
  • #74: Dropping the Crystal Ball Edition
  • #73: The Twelve Assclowns of Christmas Edition
  • #72: Trick or Treat Election Day Edition
  • #71: Grand Theft Autocrats Edition
  • #70: Soulless Corporations and the Politicians Who Love Them Edition
  • Empire Of The Senseless.
  • Christwire.org: Conservative Values for an Unsaved World.
  • Esquire's Charles Pierce.
  • Brilliant @ Breakfast.
  • The Burning Platform.
  • The Rant.
  • Mock, Paper, Scissors.
  • James Petras.
  • Towle Road.
  • Avedon's Sideshow (the new site).
  • At Largely, Larisa Alexandrovna's place.
  • The Daily Howler.
  • The DCist.
  • Greg Palast.
  • Jon Swift. RIP, Al.
  • God is For Suckers.
  • The Rude Pundit.
  • Driftglass.
  • Newshounds.
  • William Grigg, a great find.
  • Brad Blog.
  • Down With Tyranny!, Howie Klein's blog.
  • Wayne's World. Party time! Excellent!
  • Busted Knuckles, aka Ornery Bastard.
  • Mills River Progressive.
  • Right Wing Watch.
  • Earthbond Misfit.
  • Anosognosia.
  • Echidne of the Snakes.
  • They Gave Us a Republic.
  • The Gawker.
  • Outtake Online, Emmy-winner Charlotte Robinson's site.
  • Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
  • No More Mr. Nice Blog.
  • Head On Radio Network, Bob Kincaid.
  • Spocko's Brain.
  • Pandagon.
  • Slackivist.
  • WTF Is It Now?
  • No Blood For Hubris.
  • Lydia Cornell, a very smart and accomplished lady.
  • Roger Ailes (the good one.)
  • BlondeSense.
  • The Smirking Chimp.
  • Hammer of the Blogs.
  • Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
  • Argville.
  • Existentialist Cowboy.
  • The Progressive.
  • The Nation.
  • Mother Jones.
  • Vanity Fair.
  • Salon.com.
  • Citizens For Legitimate Government.
  • News Finder.
  • Indy Media Center.
  • Lexis News.
  • Military Religious Freedom.
  • McClatchy Newspapers.
  • The New Yorker.
  • Bloggingheads TV, political vlogging.
  • Find Articles.com, the next-best thing to Nexis.
  • Altweeklies, for the news you won't get just anywhere.
  • The Smirking Chimp
  • Don Emmerich's Peace Blog
  • Wikileaks.
  • The Peoples' Voice.
  • Dictionary.com.
  • CIA World Fact Book.
  • IP address locator.
  • Tom Tomorrow's hilarious strip.
  • Babelfish, an instant, online translator. I love to translate Ann Coulter's site into German.
  • Newsmeat: Find out who's donating to whom.
  • Wikipedia.
  • Uncyclopedia.
  • anysoldier.com
  • Icasualties
  • Free Press
  • YouTube
  • The Bone Bridge.
  • Powered by Blogger