Open Thread–11/30/2013

I’m writing for tomorrow and feel a little less exhausted than I did yesterday.  Guitar man crashed for a few hours, and even though they blasted the heat again, I slept through it.  I woke up drenched in sweat, but at least I got almost four uninterrupted hours.  I’m still in highly abbreviated mode, and who knows what tomorrow will bring, but today I can include some Short Takes.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:05 (average 4:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: In Eric Cantor’s February 2013 speech, he said he wanted to propose Federal Law that would end overtime pay for hourly workers.  Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, mandates that certain workers get paid "time + 1/2" for overtime work.  Eric Cantor wants to eliminate that law.  Because — ya know — workers not getting paid for overtime hours worked out so good for workers before FDR enacted that Law.

     Eric Cantor’s "end of overtime pay for workers" that he talked about in his February speech was overshadowed, in part, by the public whining Cantor did bitching that ‘Obama gave his speech at the same time as me … wah, wah, wah.’

     In this week’s New Yorker Magazine, Ryan Lizza wrote an excellent article titled: "Can Eric Cantor, the Republican Majority Leader, redeem his party and himself?" in which Lizza reminded readers that Eric Cantor wants to end the Federal law that mandates certain workers get paid overtime for the extra hours they labor.

This assault in Republican class warfare would mean nothing less than the end to the 40 hour work week, allowing vulture capitalists to overwork more people, until they are used up, and discard them.

From NY Times: The law establishing Obamacare was officially titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And the “affordable” bit wasn’t just about subsidizing premiums. It was also supposed to be about “bending the curve” — slowing the seemingly inexorable rise in health costs.

Much of the Beltway establishment scoffed at the promise of cost savings. The prevalent attitude in Washington is that reform isn’t real unless the little people suffer; serious savings are supposed to come from things like raising the Medicare age (which the Congressional Budget Office recently concluded would, in fact, hardly save any money) and throwing millions of Americans off Medicaid. True, a 2011 letter signed by hundreds of health and labor economists pointed out that “the Affordable Care Act contains essentially every cost-containment provision policy analysts have considered effective in reducing the rate of medical spending.” But such expert views were largely ignored.

So, how’s it going? The health exchanges are off to a famously rocky start, but many, though by no means all, of the cost-control measures have already kicked in. Has the curve been bent?

The answer, amazingly, is yes. In fact, the slowdown in health costs has been dramatic.

Click through for the rest of this excellent Paul Krugman editorial that explains this truth, which most broadcast media opts to ignore.

From Think Progress: Giant retailers kicked off the Black Friday sales early this year, with many stores staying open on Thanksgiving Day. Bill Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations, told CNN that the stores attracted more than 22 million shoppers on Thursday and reported few violent altercations. “By and large there were a few small incidents but we were really really pleased with how the event went last night,” he said on CNN’s New Day.

But across the country, shoppers confronted each other with knives and guns, fighting for merchandise both inside and outside the stores. Here is a sampling of the worst of Black Friday

This article contains several videos of sheeple committing TEAbuggery, squabbling over the stuff for which they seem to have sold their souls. Click through. Next year, I bet Republicans promote Open Carry holiday shopping, so nobody can come between them and 2nd Amendment right to their stuff. I’m proud that, despite my legitimate need to shop for the necessities of moving, I’m saying NO to this Republican circus of greed.

Cartoon: