Christmas Future?

by Duncan L. Dieterly

News Bulletin: Dateline: November 23, 2013 President Obamas made the blockbuster announcement today. As he declared it was with great reluctance that he was forced to cancel all national holidays for December, the reactions have been angry and volatile.
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Additionally he warned that they may also be canceled

through the 1 quarter of 2014. This news compounded by the newly instituted requirement that became effective in August that all government employees work six days a week and nine hours a day with pay for only a forty- hour week coupled with a temporary ban on all vacation days in 2013 (Congress members and their staffs are exempted from these rules of course), the United States is experiencing the largest employee upheaval in the past three hundred and fifty years of its existence. Although the President apologized for yet another drastic act to curtail the spiraling downward recession rate this year. That he pointed out began when the Republicans allowed us to go careening over the fiscal cliff in January. He indicated that he will continue do his best to put the brakes on the recession with a newly proposed doubling of the income tax rate for higherincome citizens (defined as anyone with an individual or joint income of over $500,000) to insure that all folks are on all on an even playing field. He also specified that the unintended increase in the national deficit to 30 trillion was only a temporary blip that will work itself out soon when we end the Israeli Palestine War next year. While in Congress the democrats are pushing forward another 100 billion stimulus bill to increase jobs. The shock waves have rippled across the economy. Some of the major results are a plunge in the already shaky stock marked of over 40% to an all-time low this year of 6,800. Heavily hit are manufacturing, airline and food product stocks, including the beverage industries.

In addition the abrupt lay off of over 22, 000 store and Good Will Santas and the reduction in part-time clerks for the anticipated holiday sales have driven the department stores to their knees announcing immediate layoffs of up to 30%, plus the shorting of the workweek to a unheard of five days. The unemployment rate that is already at 12.8 is predicted to skyrocket up to 16.9 by the end of this year. In addition, two major toy companies, Lego and Toys-r- Us are filing for immediate bankruptcy. Christmas tree sales slumped so low that they are being sold for kindling. Marvin Kaster, manager of the Lazy M Tree ranch of Oregon stated. This will ruin me. I will have to close down my business. A cloud of doom has fallen on all Americans who will be working on Dec 25th and not buying presents nor traveling to visit families. Travel and hotel reservation cancellations are pouring into all areas of the world. The good news is the price of gasoline dropped from $5.95 to $4.75 in just five hours after the announcement. Also mortgage rates are the lowest ever at 2.15%. Not to mention the drop of 35% in the cost of turkeys. However, the cranberry and sweet potato commoditys markets are skidding to negative values. While the president, who insured the public that he will fix the problems once he has established a coalition in Congress and that they should not worry since we are moving forward in spite of all our setbacks refused to answer any questions. He immediately boarded Air Force One and left Washington with his family to attend the 18th International Summit Meeting (ISM) on global warming in Paris. He will be giving the opening address. Additional clarification by an anonymous federal government source said that states would have to follow suit or lose all federal funding. When they do, it would mean no holiday vacation for school children and teachers. The states are rapidly adopting the appropriate regulations in emergency mid-night sessions. The Labor unions are united in their opposition to this. The people are electronically networking to gather for a massive march on Washington. Vice President Bidden is calling out the National Guard to control the safety of the marchers.

December 12, 2012 710 words 2