No Commentariat Today

Sorry, my power has been out since late Wednesday night/early Thursday. At first I heard it would be restored in a couple of hours; then Saturday; then Sunday; now the story is maybe Monday.

The Internet connections were down in town, but obviously I found one that's up today. However, I've got stuff to do that precludes my working on Reality Chex.

I might try to do some postings tomorrow, but I'm not promising. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. No turkey for me. But hummus!

News Ledes

Your Holiday News Report.

KHOU Houston: "A reserve deputy constable with Harris County (Texas) Precinct 6 has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Kenneth Caplan was taken into custody Wednesday morning, authorities tell KHOU 11 News. Caplan is accused of shooting a 20-year-old woman who was driving on the 610 Loop at Stella Link about two weeks ago." ...

... WXIA Atlanta: A "man ... killed [a] dog while firing multiple gunshots into a Chevy Suburban that was loaded with children. Witnesses say the shooting began with road rage and ended up with the gunman following the SUV to a strip mall on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard. 'About five minutes later, they pulled back through,' said one of the victims, who asked not to be identified. 'They just rolled right up; they pulled a gun out and started (shooting).'" ...

... Fox 13 Tampa: A Pinellas Park (Florida) man who "had run-ins with Pinellas Park police 34 times since 2012" shot himself dead during a domestic dispute after he threatened to kill one of the family dogs. "Police say he cocked the gun, lowered the hammer, and then for some reason turned the gun around toward his face right as it fired. Based on witness statements, investigators believe it was an accident. 'It's a shame. It's a damn shame. I never figured him to be irresponsible with a handgun,' next door neighbor Dallas Collins said." CW: seems Collins is an excellent judge of character. ...

... CNN: "The busiest shopping day of the year also saw a major boom for gun sales, with the federal background check system setting a record of more than 175,000 background checks Friday, according to the FBI. The staggering number of checks -- an average of almost three per second, nearly three times the daily average -- falls on the shoulders of 600 FBI and contract call center employees who will endure 17-hour workdays in an attempt to complete the background reviews in three business days, as required by law, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said." CW: Merry Scary Christmas.

New York Daily News: "... Gov. Mario Cuomo [D-N.Y.] ... spent Thanksgiving at a Manhattan hospital with a serious heart condition. The 82-year-old Cuomo, the father of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was last seen in public at his son's re-election celebration the night of Nov. 4. He was hospitalized several days later."

A Shocking Executive Order

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

The First Franksgiving

The Party of No, a/k/a the Party of Big Business, is seldom interested in helping business if it means going along with a Democratic President's plan.

From Wikipedia:

Abraham Lincoln's successors as president followed his example of annually declaring the final Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving.

But in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with this tradition. November had five Thursdays that year (instead of the more-common four), and Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday as Thanksgiving rather than the fifth one. Although many popular histories state otherwise, he made clear that his plan was to establish the holiday on the next-to-last Thursday in the month instead of the last one. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would help bring the country out of the Depression.

At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate. Fred Lazarus, Jr., founder of the Federated Department Stores (later Macy's), is credited with convincing Roosevelt to push Thanksgiving to a week earlier to expand the shopping season, and within two years the change passed through Congress into law.

Republicans decried the change, calling it an affront to the memory of Lincoln. People began referring to November 30 as the 'Republican Thanksgiving' and November 23 as the 'Democratic Thanksgiving' or 'Franksgiving'. Regardless of the politics, many localities had made a tradition of celebrating on the last Thursday, and many football teams had a tradition of playing their final games of the season on Thanksgiving; with their schedules set well in advance, they could not change. Since a presidential declaration of Thanksgiving Day was not legally binding, Roosevelt's change was widely disregarded. Twenty-three states went along with Roosevelt's recommendation, 22 did not, and some, like Texas, could not decide and took both days as government holidays.

Footnotes omitted.