Sometimes it really, really, really sucks to be right.

[WilliamPitt]

Me, yesterday: "Now, people camp out for days in department store parking lots, risk stampedes, fist-fights and the occasional hail of gunfire in order to get their glutton on one day after a holiday dedicated to being thankful for what they have. Someone will die in a store on Friday over a flat-screen television or a power tool. That annual sacrifice upon the altar of More Stuff has become as predictable as the tides."

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20308-black-thursday-thanksgiving-in-the-consumer-wasteland

NBC News, today: "Shoppers eager to take advantage of early Thanksgiving deals brawled late Thursday as retailers across the country prepared for more crowds on what was expected to be a bumper Black Friday. After buying a big screen TV, a Las Vegas shopper was shot at around 9:45 p.m. local time (12.45 a.m. ET) late Thursday as he tried to take his purchase home, Lt. Gordon of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told NBC News."

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/29/21669088-violence-flares-as-shoppers-slug-it-out-for-the-best-black-friday-deals?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=2

Fuck. This. Day.

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. ...

[99Forever]

2. The day is okay.

How about Fuck. Our. Greedy. Capitalistic. System. ?

[Brigid]

3. And it sucks to not be surprised by this.

And these retailers think they bear no responsibility for this chaos? If you threw a hunk of meat into a cage full of hungry lions, what would you expect?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

37. perfect analogy

Starve em then exploit em. Oooooo what fun.

[lastlib]

59. But, hey, the store got its money, right? Why should it care about whoever gave it to them?

(I don't know if that's really sarcasm, or just pure cynicism about the profit-at-any-cost mentality of our modern corporations. After all, a dead body doesn't show up on the bottom line after the sale is made, now, does it? So why the F*** should they care???)

[weetie]

4. war on christmas, eh?

Someone needs to tell the folks at Fox that THIS kind of thing is what perverts the meaning of Christmas. Not someone saying happy holidays.

[onlyadream]

18. Nailed it ^^^

[geardaddy]

31. + 1 million

[tsuki]

33. That would interfere with their revenue stream. Move along, nothing

to see, Merry Shopzilla.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

41. we disract...

Capitalist Pravda

[TBF]

5. Capitalism -

it only encourages this behavior and you're correct that it's sickening.

[malthaussen]

6. And we wonder why these people are Republicans?

Brainless selfishness. Sometimes I feel like that is the defining characteristics of the Western mind.

-- Mal

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. I am not clear...which "people are Republicans"???

The shoppers?
The shooter?
and how can you tell?

[nadinbrzezinski]

88. Gee, thanks...

I participated in the madness (that was not) in 2008. My washer machine died a week or two earlier. We needed a new one. Money is tight. So as a good republican (in your view) I was up bright and early to save a good 300 dollars. I even blogged how the economy was crashing. Black Friday, and it was me, and the staff at Sears. We all talked about it by the way.

But you are correct, I have voted for every Republican ever, since I started voting, and that includes Mexico. Yup.

for those that need it.

I truly hate broad brushes

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Hunger Games for the arena

The arena





Gamesters of Triskelion




Bread and Circus


All were there to the enjoyment of the elite

[antiquie]

27. ~

[Alkene]

32. I bid 300 quatloos on the X-box one thrall! n/t

[Avalux]

43. CNN prefaced yesterday's cattle run with "And let the games begin!"

What you're saying is the reality of our society, unfortunately.

[navarth]

66. "You bring this network's ratings down, Flavius....."

"...and we'll do a special on you!"

Can't forget that one. Especially the cloying corny end of the episode.

[Ichingcarpenter]

73. So Far 7 Deaths 88 injuries

According to this link:
http://blackfridaydeathcount.com/


I wonder if they watch them on their security cameras and play them back
in the board rooms?

[whopis01]

76. So far means since 2008 on that site.

And considering most of the deaths that they list are from car accidents, I would say that doesn't appear to be anything too out of the ordinary.

[LiberalEsto]

8. Your is the best comment EVER about Thanksgiving Day shopping

"If you actually endorse the theft of people's Thanksgiving holiday by frequenting those open stores today, you are a Very Special Breed Of Asshole, a whole Bag of Assholes, with extra assholes on the side."

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20308-black-thursday-thanksgiving-in-the-consumer-wasteland

PS: Today should be called Black Fucked-Day

[Ikonoklast]

9. No one is blaming the thief for the murder.

He pulled the trigger, no one forced him to do it. Walmart certainly didn't shoot that guy.


People die every day while getting robbed of their possessions by armed criminals in this country, yesterday was just another day.

[reACTIONary]

13. It would be surprising...

... if there weren't someone killed after making a large purchase on just about any day the year. Like car accidents on memorial day. They happen every day, but no one is paying attention.

[MADem]

17. NO ONE DIED!!!!

The guy was "not seriously injured." The OP's assertion wasn't accurate--his example just got grazed in the leg by a garden-variety THIEF. And NOT anywhere near the store, either. The guy was at his apartment complex when that shit went down.

No one person in that entire litany of "violence against shoppers" link was killed. Not one.

Geez, I hate this overdramatic posturing. Yes, it's crass to shop on the "sacred" day that commemorates the first meal with the Wampanoag on Cape Cod (when a bunch of white people turned up and were uninvited guests, basically) but it's not the end of the world, either. If the day is sacred to you, stay home.

Don't tell other people how to live their lives, it never works, anyway. Their attitude is "Great--stay home...all the more goodies for MEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The new paradigm is 24 hour consumerism. People who want to eschew that kind of thing and can't control themselves need to move to the country, far from any malls. Even at that, with a click of the mouse, people can shop in their underwear at two in the morning.

The people I saw interviewed on TV were flat-out saying that they were poor, and the reason they were waiting in the cold for the stores to open was because they wanted to give their kids a better Christmas than they actually could afford, and this was the only way they could do it.

Personally, I think they'd be better off telling kids that they're Spanish, celebrating Three Kings' Day on Jan 6, keeping the 25th as a religious holiday, and buying all the presents in the AFTER - Xmas sales....

[Eleanors38]

28. But...Gunzz, Zimmy, Cyrus! My feelings! My Comfort Zone™!

[MADem]

78. Ha ha ha! Especially the "comfort zone...!" nt

[dem in texas]

36. I was once very poor with kids

Many years ago, I did all kinds of humiliating thins such as standing in line to get a bargain toy for my kids. And thank God for layaways. I would put their presents on layaway and slowly pay them off. But now mostly it is different, it is people who watch TV or read on WWW about what is the latest thing to have. They are flat out consumers, they want more "stuff". I wonder how much of the stuff they buy on Black Friday ever gets fully used, how long the kids play with the toys they camped out all night to get.

Today, I am headed out to First Monday down in Canton,Texas. Going to do a little antiquing and eat some roasted corn and smoked turkey leg and generally goof-off on a beautiful sunny day.

[MADem]

39. The people I saw interviewed had very specific purchases in mind for their kids.

One woman was a minimum wage worker, a single parent. It might have been that the reporters were trying to put human faces on the event, but there were as many "fixed income/couldn't afford otherwise" interviews as "looking for a bargain" ones.

I don't give a shit about "stuff" (I have too much of it, mostly old stuff, what people call "junk" actually) but that's me. Who am I to tell others what they want for their children, though, and what they believe is important?

I would have to walk a mile in their shoes...I can understand not wanting your child to be an outsider.

[Ace Acme]

64. I bet that 99% of those who buy flat-screen TVs already have perfectly good TVs. nt

[MADem]

69. But they aren't.................. B I G ! ! !

And that's the new standard--not a farty little square box, but a giant rectangle, like a movie screen!

It took me forever to buy one of those things; first, my existing televisions were working fine and there was no reason to replace them, and second, they cost way too damn much money in the early days, especially.... Finally, the main tee vee took a dive, so now we have one. I can't say I don't like it!

[tabasco]

10. Yawn.

As you said, like predicting the tides.

[iandhr]

11. Kind of makes you loose faith in humanity

[mountain grammy]

12. When I was a kid, the day after Thanksgiving was just that..

an extra day off for a lot of people and we headed to the stores full of Turkey and Christmas spirit. Shoppers and retailers were happy to kick off the Christmas season.
I'm rarely nostalgic for the past, it's never what it's cracked up to be, but there was a time when I did shop on the day after Thanksgiving and enjoyed it. No more!

Here's my idea: Tax the rich, raise the minimum wage to $15/hr., respect American workers, expand Medicare to everyone, and we'll all have a good Christmas. After all, isn't it that the "Christian values" thing that's celebrated as the Christmas spirit?

[MADem]

14. The guy didn't DIE, though. He got jacked by a criminal IN HIS NEIGHBORHOOD.

He was in his apt. complex when that jerk shot at him. If the guy had been going out to the dumpster with a bag of old turkey bones, that same crook probably would have shot him and stole his wallet.

Thief is gonna thief. That flat-screen jacking was all about a crook, not about "shopper violence."

“As the victim was walking through his complex he was approached by a suspect who fired warning shots which caused the victim to release the television,” he said.
As the thief tried to load it into a vehicle the victim approached him to try and get it back, Gordon added.
“The suspect fired two more shots and the victim was struck in the leg,” he said. “He was not seriously injured."

I am not a fan of the "post-Thanksgiving consumer fest" but it seems to me there were WAY fewer incidents this year than in years past. The stores do a better job of limiting access, and bar the door and only let a certain number of people in, and then only let people in as other shoppers leave. No people getting trampled, anymore, and just the usual Filenes-Basement-Style brawls.

[oberliner]

15. Good thing you were wrong

You wrote: "Someone will die..."

Article says: "....the victim was struck in the leg”

Hyperbole much?

[Whisp]

46. The leg died?

[LanternWaste]

85. Which certainly invalidates the critique of contemporary holiday consumerism.

Which certainly invalidates the critique of contemporary holiday consumerism.

(Insert rationalization here...)

[oberliner]

87. The article title was "it sucks to be right"

Focus placed on the writer rather than the content.

[Fuddnik]

20. Well, fuck it!

I'm gonna go out and kill a golf ball.

Meanwhile, you folks up north can kill a snowball!

[dionysus]

49. damn you all to hell. last round of the year was 2 weeks ago here :(

[HoosierCowboy]

21. If they called it what it really is....

...instead of Black Friday, and called it: "Get rid of the stuff we couldn't sell all year day" maybe the enthusiasm would abate.

[olegramps]

25. It amazes me that so many people would brave these crowds to buy something.

It appears that some people are desperate enough to stand out side in the cold from hours just to have a chance to buy something. The quantities are limited making turning them into frenzied mob once they get inside.

[Ian_rd]

22. This is the worst day of the year imo

I'll go out to jog or hang at the coffee shop but that be it. Seconded. Fuck this day. It brings out the worst in people. Whatever happened to the old school Christian excoriations against Greed? In my (girlfriend's) church they joke about the big screens they look forward to at Christmas, how they'll watch the Super Bowl on it and shit like that. When did mainstream Christianity start embracing this particular "deadly" sin?

[skepticscott]

23. Yes, this day is asinine and crazy

but why do you have to lie to make that point?

Someone will die in a store on Friday over a flat-screen television or a power tool.

After buying a big screen TV, a Las Vegas shopper was shot at around 9:45 p.m. local time (12:45 a.m. ET) late Thursday as he tried to take his purchase home, Lt. David Gordon of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told NBC News.

“As the victim was walking through his complex he was approached by a suspect who fired warning shots which caused the victim to release the television,” he said.

As the thief tried to load it into a vehicle the victim approached him to try and get it back, Gordon added.

“The suspect fired two more shots and the victim was struck in the leg,” he said. “He was not seriously injured."

Nobody died. This did not happen in a store, with shoppers fighting over something or trampling each other. And frankly the victim wouldn't even have been shot if he hadn't been stupid enough to challenge an armed man over a fucking TV.

[LordGlenconner]

30. Hey why let facts get in the way of good old fashioned self aggrandizing?

[skepticscott]

53. And apparently our bloviating OP has taken a powder

And won't even own up to his own dishonesty.

[LordGlenconner]

83. And put everyone on Iggy

Who dared to point out that he is actually mortal.

[Caeser67]

24. Too bad people don't get as excited, prepared, and enthused

about Election Day, as they do for Black Friday. Oh well.

Proceed.

[LiberalElite]

34. Maybe they would if

they were getting something free, you know, like STUFF!

[Major Hogwash]

26. It is sad that greed has overcome those struggling to make ends meet.

If they had more money, or the stores would have those lower prices during the year, this sort of shopping frenzy wouldn't happen.
I don't participate in it at all.

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. Let's never lose sight of the fact that you were right. nt

[oberliner]

38. Except he wasn't

This person was shot in the leg, not killed.

[hfojvt]

40. and not anywhere near a shopping center

nothing really to do with black friday.

[Logical]

35. Is the crime rate higher on black Friday than any other day? n-t

[MindPilot]

42. Hyperbole aside, at what point can it be construed as incitement to riot?

"Wal*Mart. The first and only place to be on Black Friday", I heard about a thousand times during yesterday's football. Local and national news devoted significant amounts of airtime to hyping what amounts to the "stuff" version of the running of the bulls. And then when stores do things like offer a TV for $98 to the first one hundred, it is more of a dystopian thing one would expect to see in a Hunger Games or Rollerball.

I can't help but think there is a group of fat, rich, good ole boys who are enjoying the let's-watch-the-poor-folk-fight-for-crumbs spectacle they deliberately created.

[Whisp]

44. wow.

lol.

not so wow. just kidding.

were You kidding?

[Blue Owl]

45. And the Lord sayeth: Go ye and consume with jealous anger

[Left2Tackle]

47. Nothing special, typical day in Chitown

[postatomic]

48. I predicted the Sun would rise today

It sucks being right.

[rudolph the red]

50. You are awesome, take a bow.

[johnp3907]

51. More:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024109171

[ryan_cats]

52. Oh the burden must crushing, luckily you are there to save us all.

Oh the burden must crushing, luckily you are there to save us all. Do you start threads where your prognostications are wrong besides the 24 business hours for Rove.

[pansypoo53219]

54. i call it crapitalism.

[maced666]

55. Don't be so dramatic- that was no 'prediction'

This is like predicting someone is going to unwrap a present on Christmas morning. An estimated 150 million people in this country were going to do some shopping Thur-Sun. Give or take a mil - any activity involving that many people will result in some type of crime or sadly even a death.
The mythical 'black-on-white knockout game', more accurately defined as street crimes, has resulted in several actual deaths - but I see no one outside of t-baggers and companions in the M$M claiming we have an epidemic of blacks attacking whites. Sporadic, random crime used as a tool for white RW hate.
NO difference between these two over-reactions other than the teens assaulting innocent pedestrians have a higher body count - and about 149.9999999999+ million fewer participants.

Not murder, but the partial enslavement of tens of thousands of workers (plus) by Walmart and others - that is the crime effecting most during holiday season. (referring to the forced Thanksgiving hours) Yes, threatening people with their jobs and health security for their low-wage jobs unless they abandon partners/wives/husbands/children and extended family on a holiday is, beyond reason/holding someone against their will for labor.
http://takeaction.takepart.com/

One death over stolen property is no joke but it happens every day multiple times. That is happens (so far) just once on the busiest shopping day of the year is not a Nostradamus moment for those opposed to a sale holiday.

[tavalon]

56. I've followed Buy Nothing Day for years

but this year, it's Buy Nothing except for food until after the New Year. Peaceful, quiet.

Unfortunately I won't be able to be a hermit as I have a hospital job and the roads are almost as risky this time of year as the malls. Malls, btw, I've been told are massive collection sites for zombies. I have no way of verifying this as I don't shop at these mall things. I can confirm that neither Goodwill nor Value Village are a zombie collection point.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

57. I reject all this capitalism bullshit, always have.

[DemocraticWing]

72. Exactly.

When you break it down, capitalism is really nothing more than people shooting each other for money. Corporations kill people all the time for profits, but it's more real when you realize that the poor man who died in that parking lot is another death at the hands of the system we live in.

[awoke_in_2003]

58. My stepdaughter took part in the insanity...

that is thanksgiving night shopping. Just as she was leaving, the cops arrived to arrest some shoppers. These same idiots will complain that people are trying to take the Christ of of christmas

[Orrex]

60. Honestly, I'm not aware of anyone who *didn't* make that prediction

So...

[Mr.Bill]

61. I admit I used to get some kind of weird pleasure

and sense of Christmas "spirit" (whatever that is) out of waiting until Christmas eve to go to the mall and pick up a few last minute gifts. It was a great time for people watching, and the store clerks were probably happy that the madness was almost over for another year.

[colsohlibgal]

62. Insanity

When I was younger I did get in line somewhat early for rock/pop concerts and a cabbage patch doll for my daughter. But those were an hour or two thing. Three days to save a hundred or whatever to get an even bigger TV - no way then or now.

[WilliamPitt]

63. This thread provided tremendous fodder for my Ignore file.

So thanks for that.

Don't bother replying to this post. I won't see it.

[skepticscott]

68. Ignoring people because they caught you in a lie

instead of simply being a grown-up and admitting that what you claimed wasn't really true? Wow.

Where have we seen that kind of behavior before?

[Number23]

71. This thread is hilarious. As soon as I saw the less than worshipping responses, I knew

a tantrum was coming. And there it was. Post #63. I guess others can make predictions too.

[MADem]

77. He's responding to HIMSELF in that post, too.

Which is kinda funny, as well...!

Put yerself on ignore, and that'll make for some quiet time around the old DU wood stove!

[Number23]

81. Ha!!

Put yerself on ignore, and that'll make for some quiet time around the old DU wood stove!

[LordGlenconner]

84. Yes, I was wondering

When the sycophants would show up to quell the uprising, but the sycophants never came.

[Major Hogwash]

74. Fodder, is that you? No, this is your Mudder.

Wah wah wah!!

And the beat goes on.
And the beat goes on.

OMG!!!
It's another song by CHER!!!!!

[MADem]

82. Your post reminds me of something....

Completely unrelated, but I remember what a hit this song was back in the early sixties...

[snooper2]

86. What you ignore will set you free!

or something like that

[ailsagirl]

65. Incomprehensible

[Packerowner740]

67. Isn't that special.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

70. although I'm not a big fan of retail therapy Americans seem obsessed with

I'd say the violent outbreaks as a percentage of total numbers out shopping yesterday or today were miniscule.

[oberliner]

80. Agreed

But huzzah for accurate predictions!

I predict the NFL will play football on Sunday.

[WowSeriously]

75. Black Friday.

The day the 1% break out champagne and caviar to celebrate the masses behaving like asses.

Sometimes I just don't give a rat's ass about American buffoons.

[alphafemale]

79. Because we are trained to use people and love things.

that's why.

[snooper2]

89. so nobody dead?

at least 95 recs is pretty cool