The Commentariat -- November 25
My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is titled, "Life Lessons from the New York Times Op-Ed Page: How to Cut-and-Paste, and Still Get It Wrong." You can read it here. (You may not be surprised to discover that Our Mister Brooks plays a starring roll.) The front page of NYTX is here. ...
... Paul Krugman: on the 99.9 Percent: "'We are the 99 percent' is a great slogan. It correctly defines the issue as being the middle class versus the elite (as opposed to the middle class versus the poor). And it also gets past the common but wrong establishment notion that rising inequality is mainly about the well educated doing better than the less educated; the big winners in this new Gilded Age have been a handful of very wealthy people, not college graduates in general."
** Today's Off Times Square topic is Black Friday. For some reason.
Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "Over the past year..., capitalism has fairly rolled over democracy. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Europe, where financial institutions and large investors have gone to war under the banner of austerity, and governments of nations with not-very-productive or overextended economies have found that they could not satisfy those demands and still cling to power.... What the markets are doing, is, in essence, extending to the realm of once-equally-sovereign nations the one-dollar-one-vote principle that our Supreme Court enshrined in its Citizens United decision last year."
Prof. Robert Frank, in a New York Times op-ed, on "How to End the Black Friday Madness": "Inspired by the 9-9-9 proposal of the Republican presidential contender Herman Cain, I call it the 6-6-6 plan — an across-the-board 6 percent national sales tax (on top of any existing state and local sales taxes) in effect from 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 6 a.m. on Black Friday." CW: Black Friday always reminds me of the film "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" a story (based on a 1935 novel by Horace McCoy) about Depression-era dance marathons. In both, desperate Americans put themselves under extreme stress and complete with other desperate people for a few extra bucks the rich toss out as part of a scheme to further enrich themselves. ...
... Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times: "As the busiest retail weekend of the year begins late Thursday night, the differences between how affluent and more ordinary Americans shop in the uncertain economy will be on unusually vivid display.... Many affluent shoppers will avoid the [Black Friday] scene altogether.... Still, a deal is a deal.... Neiman Marcus sold out of pewter-color Ferraris (luggage set matching the interior included) at $395,000 each within 50 minutes of making 10 of them available through its 'fantasy' holiday catalog late last month." ...
... A statement from Adbusters is here. Related AP story here. ...
... Update: Karen Garcia has a lovely post on "The Nightmare before Christmas." Don't miss the comparative photos. ...
... Update 2. Borowitz Report: "In what economists are hailing as a clear sign of economic recovery, Walmart customers across the USA jammed into stores on Black Friday, sometimes killing each other to buy useless shit.... Dr. [Davis] Logsdon said that the increased violence and mayhem at retail outlets across the country was 'a testament to the greatness of the American consumer.”
Aaron Davis & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Funding cuts for school lunches, home energy assistance, child support enforcement, HIV care, Race to the Top grants and other government programs will come quicker than advertised following the failure this week of the congressional 'supercommittee.' ... Members of Congress cast the breakdown as likely having little to no effect on federal spending over the coming year.... But in state capitals, where legislatures are bound by requirements to balance budgets, the committee’s failure cocked a trigger on $1.2 trillion in cuts that must, by law, be built into spending plans that governors will begin releasing within weeks."
Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "A smaller share of Americans currently serve in the Armed Forces than at any other time since the era between World Wars I and II, a new low that has led to a growing gap between people in uniform and the civilian population...."
CW: I finally forced myself to read this profile of Arianna Huffington by Vanessa Grigoriadis, writing in New York Magazine. The profile is long, informative and seems balanced. It will not give you new insights into the meaning of life. ...
... As an antidote, here's a brief profile of Andy Borowitz by Paul Farhi of the Washington Post. ...
... Today Our Mister Brooks writes (well, copies from others) a saccharine column in which he excerpts "life lessons" from septuagenarians-plus for the edification of the young. In a column I'll link later, I've summed up the lessons Brooks has chosen to share:
Cheating on your wife can lead to divorce. Also, cheating on your wife makes you feel ashamed. If you drink too much, you might cheat on your wife, which has the aforementioned downsides. When a loved one dies, you will feel really sad. When a child is hit by a car, God is more likely to mend the child's injuries than are doctors. (We do not learn why God let the driver of that car hit the child. Perhaps that will be a life lesson for another day.) When you yourself get sick, it's nice to have friends and be cheerful.
... Here is Andy Borowitz, whose Thanksgiving gift to us is an illumination of that last lesson.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Tom Wicker, one of postwar America’s most distinguished journalists, who wrote 20 books, covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for The New York Times and became the paper’s Washington bureau chief and an iconoclastic political columnist for 25 years, died on Friday at his home near Rochester, Vt. He was 85." You can read Wicker's account of JFK's assassination here.
Chicago Tribune: "Maggie Daley, who dedicated herself to children’s issues and the arts while also zealously guarding her family’s privacy during 22 years as Chicago’s First Lady, died a little after 6 p.m. Thursday, more than nine years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 68." With links to related stories.
AP: "A week into his new job, Premier Mario Monti is running out of time to reassure nervous investors that his government has a strategy to deal with Italy's crippling debts.The nation's borrowing rates skyrocketed Friday after a grim set of bond auctions, with a new auction looming Tuesday."
Reuters: "Sprint Nextel may be forced to abandon the biggest advantage it has over its rivals - unlimited data services for a flat fee - because of heavy data users and a shortage of wireless airwaves."
Reuters: "Former MF Global Chief Executive Jon Corzine is expected to testify at a congressional hearing next month, a committee aide said on Friday, tamping down speculation that the former head of the bankrupt brokerage would decline to take part."
AP: "Anti-Wall Street demonstrators in encampments around the country spent Thanksgiving serving turkey, donating time in solidarity with the protest movement and, in some cases, confronting police."
The New York Times story on Black Friday is here.
New York Times: "As huge crowds of demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square on Friday, state television reported that the generals running had appointed a politician from the era of deposed president Hosni Mubarak to lead the cabinet, potentially hardening the lines between the interim military rulers and protesters demanding their exit. At the same time, stepping directly into the crisis, the Obama administration urged the generals to transfer power immediately to a civilian government 'empowered with real authority.'" The Al Jazeera story is here, with video....
... AP: "Family and friends of three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo waited anxiously Friday for news that they had been released from police custody. Derrik Sweeney, Luke Gates and Gregory Porter, who attend the American University in Cairo, were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters. A court in Egypt ordered the release of the students, a lawyer in Philadelphia confirmed Thursday." ...
Update: "A Cairo airport official says the first of three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo has left Egypt. Luke Gates, 21, left Cairo early Saturday morning on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany."
Al Jazeera: "Syria is facing the prospect of economic sanctions as an Arab League deadline to sign a protocol allowing rights monitors into the country or face punitive measures passed with no apparent response from Damascus. As the deadline expired on Friday, fresh anti-government protests were reported in various towns across Syria and activists said three people had been killed." New York Times story here.
AP: "Moroccans began voting for a new parliament Friday in Arab Spring-inspired elections that are facing a boycott by democracy campaigners who say the ruling monarchy isn't committed to real change."
New York Times: "Quashing recent speculation of a softening in Germany’s hard-line stance on , Chancellor repeated on Thursday her firm opposition either to bonds issued jointly by the euro zone countries or to an expansion of the role of the as quick responses to the ."
Washington Post: "AT&T and T-Mobile on Thursday moved closer to abandoning their proposed $39 billion merger, saying they have withdrawn their application from the Federal Communications Commission."
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