This video from the USA says about itself:
21 Nov 2012
Thanksgiving is a long cherished American tradition, but have we idealized it to the point that we’ve forgotten the true story, the historical events which really surrounded Thanksgiving? And what of the post-Thanksgiving shopping tradition of ‘Black Friday’ shopping— has it commercialized the holiday so much that we’ve forgotten the point? And lastly, for those who spend Thanksgiving dinner with family, how does one mitigate the various table-conversation pitfalls, such as politics and religion?
John Fugelsang (Host, Current TV’s “So That Happened”) leads this week’s panel to discuss these issues and more on this special episode of The Point with Kelly Carlin (Host, Sirius XM‘s “The Kelly Carlin Show”), James Spady (Assistant Professor of American History, Soka University), and Altagracia Perez (Rector- Holy Faith Episcopal Church). Special thanks to John Cumbler (University of Louisville Professor), Annie Leonard (“The Story of Stuff” documentary filmmaker) for sending in points.
By Andre Damon and Barry Grey in the USA:
Thanksgiving in America
28 November 2013
This year’s Thanksgiving holiday, coming more than five years after the Wall Street crash, highlights the devastating impact of mass unemployment and budget cuts on tens of millions of Americans. It underscores as well the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny elite.
Even as food banks across the country report increasing demand and dwindling supplies, the US media is obsessed with snowstorms, travel delays and Black Friday sales. There is barely a mention of the intractable unemployment, poverty, hunger and homelessness that impact millions.
Judging by the media coverage, one would never suspect that the United States is a country where, according to a July 2013 report by the Associated Press, “Four out of five US adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives.”
In cities throughout the country, people have lined up by the hundreds for Thanksgiving food distributions, recalling the bread lines of the 1930s. Food banks are reporting rising demand not only from the unemployed, but also from the growing ranks of the working poor.
The dire conditions created by years of economic slump have been compounded by cutbacks in food stamp benefits that took effect at the beginning of this month, eliminating the equivalent of two days of food every month. Extended unemployment benefits are set to expire for millions of people on December 31, throwing them even further into destitution.
Amid such shocking poverty and misery—and incessant claims that there is no money to do anything about it—the stock market is setting new records every day. Over the past week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit 16,000, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index has reached 1,800, and the NASDAQ has once again topped 4,000.
The giddy—and unsustainable—rise of stock prices, which is propelling the personal fortunes of the rich and the super-rich to ever more astronomical heights, is being deliberately engineered by the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve Board. Near-zero interest rates and $85 billion a month in cash infusions from the Fed into the financial markets are facilitating an accelerated transfer of wealth from the bottom to the very top of the social ladder.
This week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that US life expectancy has sunk below the international average, dropping below that of Greece, Portugal, South Korea and Slovenia. One of the starkest indices of the social crisis is the rise in the number of Americans receiving food stamps from 28.2 million in 2008 to 47.7 million this year, an increase of 70 percent.
The response of the political establishment to the growth in need has been to slash benefits in advance of the holidays. The $5 billion in food stamp cuts implemented at the start of November are only the beginning, with the Democrats proposing to cut an additional $4 billion in food stamps as a “sensible” alternative to more than $40 billion in cuts proposed by the Republicans.
The social chasm in America is reflected in a concentrated manner in New York City, the country’s largest metropolis and the home of Wall Street. Ninety-six billionaires live in the city. On average, they own four homes, each one worth nearly $20 million, as well as one or two yachts, a private jet or two, and a small army of domestic servants. Their combined wealth is more than three times the city’s annual budget.
Across the Harlem River from Manhattan lies the Bronx, the poorest of New York’s five boroughs. There, half of all children live in households that do not have enough to eat, according to a report issued this week by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger.
In America’s second-largest city and the center of the film industry, Los Angeles, the City Council is debating whether to follow the lead of Philadelphia and Seattle and ban the distribution of food to the homeless in public places.
Detroit, the historical center of American manufacturing, has been thrown into bankruptcy by an unelected emergency manager, who is using his emergency powers to rip up the pensions and health benefits of tens of thousands of city workers and sell off the city’s assets, including the world-famous art collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The billions stolen from the working class are to be handed over to the banks and major holders of city bonds.
The decline in living standards of broad sections of the population is not even raised as a significant issue by the Obama administration, the political establishment as a whole, or the corporate-controlled media. There is hardly a pretense that the present situation is a temporary aberration. Nor are any policies proposed to improve the conditions of life of working people.
Instead, mass unemployment, growing poverty and increasing social inequality are casually described as the “new normal.”
This social reality is an indictment of the entire political order and the capitalist system it serves. It is, moreover, the rule, not the exception, all over the world.
For the working class, things will only get worse so long as political and economic control is left in the hands of a parasitic financial aristocracy and its political representatives. Social opposition is mounting and will take explosive forms in the US, as it has begun to do in Egypt, Greece and other countries.
The defense of the most basic social rights—to a job, a decent wage, health care, education, a decent retirement, access to culture and art—requires a struggle against the two corporate-controlled parties and the financial oligarchy.
On eve of Thanksgiving holiday. Hunger rises in US capital: here.
A Walmart Thanksgiving, by Charles Dickens: here.
Retail sales over the Thanksgiving weekend dropped for the first time in seven years, reflecting the impact of falling wages and mass unemployment on the financial health of American households: here.
A record 1.1 million students attending public schools in the United States are homeless in 2013. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the number of homeless students has increased by 10 percent in 2013, from 1,065,794 in 2012, to 1,168,354. Forty-three states have reported increases from last year, with 10 states reporting increases of 20 percent or more. The number of homeless children has grown 24 percent over the past three years: here.
Related articles
- Thanksgiving Day: Let’s End Hunger (eauddinkhan.com)
- Today the 28th November, Is AMERICA’s THANKSGIVING. (mojiakubudel.com)
- Before you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, take this one action (dailykos.com)
- Happy Thanksgiving Day! Are you all-American or a True Brit? Play our game to find out (metro.co.uk)
- Thanksgiving Through The Ages an Infographic! (projecteve.com)
- Food Stamps And Thanksgiving (prosebeforehos.com)
Reblogged this on 4writersandreaders and commented:
Inside American! ~ Bette A. Stevens http://www.4writersandreaders.com
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Excellent post, Petrel. Thanks! Reblogged… at http://www.4writersandreaders.com
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Thank you for the reblog, Bette!
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Dear Kitty. This is so important that I’m sharing it once again. Thanks for your continued efforts to expose the wrongs in the world… Blessings to you and yours, Bette
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Thank you so much, Bette! I have today added a few links to this blog post. Sometimes, I add things to older blog posts.
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Reblogged this on Living and Lovin.
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Re-Blogged onto Living and Lovin as well as my Facebook pages
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Thanks for reblogging!
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You are very welcome.
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Such a valuable post Petre, thank you
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You are welcome, Valerie, like always 🙂
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Great article! What we need is for the media to address hunger, homelessness, lack of health care, the real issues facing poor Americans today, now. Stop the propaganda, face the issues.
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Thanks for your comment!
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