Bonus points for unapologetically showing Democrats being pro-slavery. Of course "that's not the Democrat party of today" so they get a pass. Of course, if Spielberg had tried to lampshade the overt racism of the Democrats or the egalitarianism of the Republicans, the movie would have been panned as historically inaccurate, and when you're trying to tell a story about a seminal figure like Lincoln you have to get the details right.
There's a scene, during the vote on the 13th Amendment, where Lincoln has his son in his lap and they're looking at a book. The page shown is the old thing where the page is full of pictures of bugs; I said--in my "old man" voice--"Look at all the bugs! Find the one that's different," and Mrs. Fungus began laughing and told me to shut up.
It was worth seeing the movie, but as with any historical movie the ending was not exactly surprising.
* * *
And plenty of Democrats are still unapologetically racist, especially because their fellow Democrats do not hold them to the same standard they hold others.
* * *
And speaking of hypocrisy, NAACP chapter head says "she was asking for it" so the girl raped in Steubenville, Ohio, by two "promising young athletes", is at fault for being raped. Yeah.
The media is, of course, entirely uninterested.
* * *
Walmart can't hire the people it needs because of government regulations. That is to say, the compliance cost associated with those regulations is keeping Walmart from hiring enough people to do the work it needs done.
The economy is not improving. Since "recession" is defined as "two or more consecutive quarters with negative or zero economic growth" we are staring down the barrels of an official double-dip recession.
...of course, the recession never actually ended, but who's counting?
Here's the important bit:
At the end of the day only profits matter and corporations have been floating higher in stock price based on squeezing every possible gain out of their people and process. That must eventually end simply due to the lack of additional fat to be cut and we've been running into the end of that now for the last six to nine months, with the inevitable push-back coming now from a roundly-abused labor force.You can make one worker do the work of two people for a while, and depending on conditions you can get away with that for quite some time...but eventually people reach their limit and stop cooperating with you. What do you do when you get to that point? When your continued performance depends on people who are exhausted and unwilling to do anything else to help you but the bare minimum?
Of course you can fire them and replace them with new workers--if the work you need done is relatively simple--but how long can you continue to do that?
* * *
I'd wager that Congress really isn't interested in reining in HHS.
* * *
Thank God abortion-as-contraception is legal! Otherwise, women would be dying from back-alley abortions!
* * *
It's Maundy Thursday, which means tomorrow is Good Friday. I am so not looking forward to Friday's service, because damn is it depressing.
Still, it's got to be done, so I'll do it.
As for right now the temperature is approaching 50, but I feel so damned rancid that I can't even summon the energy to go to the front door, much less go outside and ride my motorcycle. *sigh*
It's okay, though. I don't have to be anywhere before 6:30 PM tonight.