Sunday, November 30, 2014

Black Friday And A Touch Of Ferguson

Ahh, nothing like the annual bacchanalia of Thanksgiving on Thursday and when you finish your meal, head on off to the mall to join in Black Friday on Thursday.
Huh? Well, whatever.
But this year, while you might have been partaking of the shopping frenzy, you may have been entertained a bit courtesy of the Ferguson Players.
The following are a few of the agitprop that the Ferguson Players took part in throughout the United States.
Here's a nice "die-in" at the Chesterfield Mall in St. Louis, Missouri, somewhat the epicenter of the events of Ferguson involving the former police office, Darren Wilson, shooting the youth Michael Brown.
And here is one from the flagship Macy's department store in New York City.

And the photo on the far top are a group of protesters blocking the main BART train station between Oakland and San Francisco. The photo below shows the agitpropers getting a little out of control in San Francisco's shopping area of Union Square. Nothing says agitprop like a little violence and a few arrests.
But remember, my friends. These are all peaceful protests against the St. Louis county grand jury that failed to indict the former White police officer, Mr. Wilson, on any charges in the shooting death of the Black, unarmed Mr. Brown.
This is a confluence of events.
There is the fact that the biggest shopping day of the year for most retailers is Black Friday, which is now moving into Thanksgiving Thursday evening.
I do have some views of  Black Friday. And they do conflict.
The capitalist in me sees nothing wrong with offering convenient shopping times for people. After all, many are already together for Thanksgiving. Many come in from out of town to visit friends and or relatives. So they are already in town, why not use the occasion to offer some bargains.
But where I find that it has gone off the rails is that it went from stores opening at 6am on Friday. Then 5am. Then midnight. Now as early as 5pm on Thanksgiving Thursday.
Really, do people need to desperately go to any given store to maybe, maybe get a come-on item at an unbelievable price and only a few available? And while I am not fanatical about people having to work on Thanksgiving like so many are on the left in particular, I think that the stores really can let employees actually digest their turkey and all the trimmings dinner.
Which leads to the several-year old event known as the WalMart protests.
Yes, for several years now, for some reason, WalMart is seen as the retailer of all evil for not only paying their employees barely minimum wage, which is not true, and not offering more than part-time hours, also not true. The left has truly focused on WalMart as if they are doing something out of the world of retail. Why the United Food and Commercial Workers labor union had this website to organize protests against the eeeeevvvvviiiiilllll of WalMart.
WalMart is not really alone for most retailers have part-time workers and pay not much more for entry-level employees than the federal or state minimum wage, depending on what is higher. And WalMart is no different for offering any benefits to full-time employees than any other retailer.
But for some reason, the focus every Black Friday is WalMart.
And this year, this year the Ferguson Players, a slew of many left-wing organizations, teamed up with the WalMart protesters to shed the light on the eeeeevvvvviiiiilllll of  retail and the obvious racism of the St. Louis county grand jury for not indicting Mr. Wilson on at least a charge. Any charge for the obvious murder of Mr. Brown.
You know how I spent Black Friday?
From the comfort of the RVFTLC Manor and helping Mrs. RVFTLC with our day after Thanksgiving turkey dinner. I did not contribute to the mass hystreia that has become Black Friday. I did not get to participate in the agitprop of the Ferguson Players or Black Friday Protests for the poor souls taken advantage of by the eeeeevvvvviiiiilllll that is WalMart. Nor did I get to see the protesters and tell them where they could take the protests.
For one day out of the year, there seemed to be a lot of pent up anger. Whether it be the hordes stomping over each other for that must have item or people protesting a retailer that provides jobs or protesters hating the racist legal system, I am glad I stayed in the Manor.

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