The Skarry Skelly 2022 Halloween Message

From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!

O h boy. Another election-year Halloween. These days, that's something to be scared about.

According to Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight website, as of today, 45.9% of voters would prefer to see Republicans in charge of Congress, compared to the 45.1% who'd prefer Democrats. A couple of weeks ago those numbers were flipped, so who knows? But still, it's enough to make you long for Halloweens gone by when nobody thought the polls knew what they were talking about.

Sammy generally makes at least a feeble effort to give a fair hearing to both ends of the political spectrum. This election year even a paltry effort at that would be, frankly, a disservice to readers. This time, if Republicans get hold of Congress, nobody can accuse them of not having a thought-out plan. Among the good things many of them think they could accomplish this time around are these.

  • Slash Medicare and Social Security by sun-setting both programs every five years (meaning they would end unless Congress voted to reauthorize), raising the retirement age to 70, ending the Medicare guarantee, and eventually privatizing Social Security. Make the tax cuts for the rich, passed in Trump's term in office, permanent and raise taxes on as much as 50% of other taxpayers;
  • Cast a cold eye on whether any further military aid to Ukraine should be offered;
  • Permanently sideline access to abortion, climate change and gun control as viable issues, possibly making abortion a federal crime;
  • Investigate the members of the January 6 Committee after first shutting it down;
  • Shut down the government;
  • And of course impeach President Biden.

Astounding that a plurality of would-be voters think these are good ideas. Or are too poorly informed to understand why they're not.

Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, published a battle plan earlier this year that he called his “11 Point Plan to Rescue America," which championed many of the above ideas. The Orlando Weekly characterized it as "insane."

Forbes Magazine quipped, "If Scott was trying to develop a set of compelling talking points, he did a fine job—for Democrats."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately disavowed the plan. McConnell knows how to win the midterm: Oppose everything Joe Biden does, blame him for anything that goes wrong, and never lay out an agenda that turns the election into a choice rather than a referendum.

All well and good. Crossed wires and impetuous talk are to be expected in an election year. But, Jesus, people are buying this? Scott went way beyond impetuous. Many of his ideas were flat-out absurd.

Rescue America? From what?

Abortion rights have nearly universal support among the American public. So do gay rights. Transgender people are more likely to be seen as an object of sympathy than scorn in this country.

Fix the border? Didn't Trump already do that when he made Mexico pay for the wall? The only thing they didn't try last time was killing the children after separating them from their families. Would that be the next step?

Republicans fixing the economy and curtailing the deficit? First of all, when has that ever happened? Second, what exactly about the US Economy would the Republicans fix, never even mind how? The Economy under Biden is enjoying its best days since the time of Clinton.

True, US. GDP fell by a 1.6% annualized rate in the first quarter of 2022 and fell again in the second quarter ... by a paltry 0.6%. The third quarter reported in with a 2.5% increase. So much for a recession.

Payroll employment, industrial production and real incomes are all healthy and growing. Gross Domestic Income this year by quarter has risen by 1.8% and 1.4% respectively. The unemployment rate stands at 3.5%. Sorry, guys, your dreams have turned to dust. No finanicial collapse this time.

Carping about runaway spending while Democrats occupy the White House is, of course, de rigueur. But almost unnoticed—certainly unremarked—the Biden administration has halved the fiscal deficit in its first two years. For the 2022 fiscal year, just ended, outlays did climb 9% but receipts grew by 30%, thereby reducing the deficit by $1.3 trillion for the year. A record of accomplishment Republican administrations—who are the real deficit growers, you can look it up— never achieve. During the Trump Administration the deficit went up every single year.

Why on earth do people want to go back to that?

Of course Biden got some unfair help. His Administration proved adroit in operating during a Covid Pandemic. Budgets weren't the only thing Trump's people couldn't manage. (At one time Trump pledged to eliminate the national debt within eight years. If Republicans had really dealt with any of these things properly, Democrats wouldn't be dealing with them now, including inflation.)

Yes, yes, yes. Inflation! We all feel it. A buddy just spent twelve bucks for a chicken breast. Even the chicken was outraged. But the test of a president isn't whether he has to deal with inflation, currently a nasty problem and a predictable one in the face of the Covid-induced economic slowdown and disjointedness, affecting just about every one of the world's developed economies. Inflation, like so many things, however it arrives is generally not the making of a head of state. The test is how he deals with it. And, as bad as it is, the US under Biden is dealing with it better than most countries.

By way of analogy, it wasn't former President Trump's fault we got all caught up in a Covid pandemic. His problem was that he didn't do more to shape a federal response, instead of trying to downplay it because he was afraid it would make him look bad. And it was he personally who chose not to be more honest about the true nature, scope and threat of the pandemic, which he really had been briefed on. Briefed to death. No pun intended.

The National Retail Federation’s annual survey (conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics) predicts Halloween spending this year will increase slightly this year (up 5% from last year). Enthusiasm for the event is supposedly on the rise as well. But last night's neighborhood drive in search of Halloween house decorations suggested people are holding back this year. Tired and depressed, perhaps, by all the things they've had to put up with in the last two years, including Donald Trump? In any event, far fewer displays than in prior years, at least in Milton. Many streets with none for blocks, and with scaled-down efforts where they were to be found.

Have yourselves a fun Halloween, guys. But be careful. The mood is a little sour, the streets are a little darker, crime is up, and there are far more politically agitated people wandering the streets looking for someone to take it out on. Stick close to the ghosts and goblins and the ghoulish monsters; you'll be much safer this year in their company.

Love,
Dad

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Halloween Through the Years: a "Look Smart" Timeline.
Ancient Times: Halloween Begins as Samhain
Celts believed that the barrier between the physical and spirit worlds was breachable during Samhain. It was expected that ancestors might cross over during this time as well, and Celts would dress as animals and monsters so that fairies were not tempted to kidnap them.

10th Century: Samhain Gets Christianized
In the 7th century, the Catholic Church established November 1 as All Saints' Day, a day commemorating all the saints of the church. By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church declared November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It’s widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.

The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-Hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. ("Hallows" is Gaelic for Saints")


The Middles Ages: Trick-or-Treating Emerges
In England and Ireland All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day celebrations included an early form of trick-or-treating they called "souling." Poor people would visit the houses of wealthier families and receive pastries, called soulcakes, in exchange for their promise to pray for the souls of the homeowners’ dead relatives. The practice was later taken up by children, who would go door to door asking for gifts of food, money and ale—
19th Century: Jack-o-Lanterns Take Shape
Carving faces into vegetables became associated with Halloween in Ireland and Scotland around the 1800s. Jack-o-lanterns originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack,” who tricked the Devil and was forced to roam the earth with only a burning coal in a turnip to light his way. People began to make their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits.

19th Century: Halloween Comes to America—and with It Mischief
With the exception of Catholic-dominated Maryland and some other southern colonies, Halloween celebrations were limited in early America, which was largely Protestant. In the mid-19th century new immigrants—especially Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine—helped popularize Halloween nationally.

The immigrants celebrated as they did in their homelands—which often included pulling pranks. Common Halloween tricks included placing farmers’ wagons and livestock on barn roofs, uprooting vegetables in backyard gardens and tipping over outhouses. By the early 20th century, vandalism, physical assaults and sporadic acts of violence were not uncommon on Halloween.


1930s: Haunted Houses Become a Thing in the US
Haunted or spooky public attractions already had some precedent in Europe. In the 1800s, Marie Tussaud’s wax museum in London featured a “Chamber of Horrors” with decapitated figures from the French Revolution. In 1915, a British amusement ride manufacturer created an early haunted house,complete with dim lights, shaking floors and demonic screams.

By the time of the Great Depression in America, violence around Halloween—no doubt exacerbated by dire economic conditions—had reached new highs. Parents, concerned about children running amok on All Hallows' Eve, organized “haunted houses” or “trails” to keep them off the streets.


1950s: Halloween Costumes Go Mainstream
Costumes and disguises had figured into Halloween celebrations since their earliest days. But it wasn't until the mid-20th century that costumes started to look like what we know them as today. Mass-produced costumes became more affordable in the 1950s, and more kids began to use them to dress up.

Around the time neighborhoods began organizing activities to keep kids safe and occupied, costumes became more important (and less abstract and scary). And take the form of characters from popular radio shows, comics and movies. In the '50s, mass-produced box costumes became popular, and trick or treaters began to dress up as princesses, mummies, clowns or more specific characters like Batman and Frankenstein’s monster.


1980s: Fears About Poisoned Halloween Candy Reach New Heights
While in general the fears about poisoned Halloween candy have been overblown, crimes involving poison have occurred. The most infamous case took place on October 31, 1974 when a Texas man gave cyanide-laced pixie sticks to five children, including his son. The other children never ate the candy, but his eight-year-old son did—and died soon after.

The paranoia reached new heights in the early 1980s after a rash of Tylenol poisonings in which cyanide-laced acetaminophen was placed on store shelves and sold. After the Tylenol murders, which are still unsolved, warnings about adulterated Halloween candy increased.


1980s: Halloween Becomes a Holiday for Grownups
This shift can actually be traced back as far as the 1970s, when Halloween street festivals in several gay neighborhoods in the U.S. began to transform into adult parties featuring lavish and over-the-top costumes.

In the mid-1980s, the Coors Brewing Company ran an ad campaign featuring TV horror host Elvira. It helped make the ghoulish night a “beer holiday” in the mold of Super Bowl Sunday and St. Patrick’s Day. Today Americans buy enough Coors beer at Halloween to increase seasonal sales by 10 percent.

Capitalizing on the party mood, retailers began pushing theatrical costume offerings: pin-up pirate, naughty nurse, even sexy Big Bird. Skimpy Halloween get-ups have long been available but in the last decade but now the prevalence of sexy costumes has exploded, according to Lesley Bannatyne, author of “Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America’s Fright Night.”

Why the desire to flaunt so much skin for a celebration that comes around just when temperatures are taking a downward turn?“Whatever box you’re in, Halloween is when you get out of it, and for some, sexiness or outrageousness is their expression of getting out of it,” Bannatyne says.

(Sources: The History Channel,CNN)