Today’s comic by Matt Bors is America's drunk uncle:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- Another barrier to Democratic downballot majorities: Are Democratic voters more 'bipartisan'? by Steve Singiser
- This is fascism, and we should say it clearly ... while we can, by Mark Sumner
- 'At long last, have you no decency, Mr. Trump?' Rubio, Cruz and Jeb aren't brave enough to ask that, by Ian Reifowitz
- A red, white and blue zone for Muslims in America, by Jon Perr
- The hidden social costs of violent videos, by Vann R Newkirk II
- The women of Daesh, by Susan Grigsby
- Some millionaires are fighting the good fight, by Egberto Willies
- We went to Howard - not Harvard, by Denise Oliver Velez
2015 likely to be hottest year on record. But just wait until 2016:
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced today that 2015 is likely to top the charts as the hottest year in modern observations, with 2011-15 the hottest five-year period on record.
With two full months still to add in, the global average surface temperature for January to October in 2015 was 0.73C above the 1961-1990 average. This already puts it a long way above 2014, in which average global temperature reached 0.57C above the 1961-1990 average.
Thanksgiving Flight Patterns:
Thanksgiving is known as a time to return home to family, with the holiday calling to mind images of grandmother’s house. But for many Americans, it’s also now a chance to go on vacation.
This week, Florida will see a surge in the number of people arriving by plane. Las Vegas is another popular destination. Much more than is commonly realized, Thanksgiving is a time to seek out sun (and gambling), in addition to (or possibly instead of) catching up with loved ones.
These conclusions emerge from The Upshot’s analysis of search data from Google Flights. In all, more than 3.6 million Americans — or slightly more than 1 percent of the country’s population — are expected to take a flight for Thanksgiving.
The fight of Woodrow Wilson at Princeton in light of what he did to my grandfather: Wilson is widely viewed as a far-sighted, progressive internationalist, but he was also an avowed racist who put those views into policy during his time in White House (which, in 1915, hosted a showing of the Klan-adoring Birth of a Nation:
Most notably, his administration oversaw the segregation of the federal government, destroying the careers of thousands of talented and accomplished black civil servants — including John Abraham Davis, my paternal grandfather. [...]
Over a long career, he rose through the ranks from laborer to a position in midlevel management. He supervised an office in which many of his employees were white men. He had a farm in Virginia and a home in Washington. By 1908, he was earning the considerable salary — for an African-American — of $1,400 per year.
But only months after Woodrow Wilson was sworn in as president in 1913, my grandfather was demoted. He was shuttled from department to department in various menial jobs, and eventually became a messenger in the War Department, where he made only $720 a year.
The protesters are all members of Witness Against Torture, a group which campaigns to have Guantánamo shut down. They plan to set up camp as close as they can to the 107 remaining detainees still being held at the facility. They will then begin a fast on Thanksgiving in symbolic solidarity with the 47 men inside the prison who have been cleared for release but are still trapped in legal limbo having never been charged with any crime, many of whom have been on hunger strike.
Senate Dining Room workers want a raise, saying they are living in poverty:
Elected members of the U.S. Senate don’t have to look very far to see fresh signs of the national Fight For $15 movement: It’s made its way from the McDonald’s hamburger joints back home to their own cozy Capitol Hill dining room.
The cooks and waiters working for a catering company that operates the Senate restaurant are speaking up for better wages and the right to unionize, even as they serve up luxurious meals to well-paid politicians and their well-heeled guests, say labor activists in Washington, D.C. Their efforts have persuaded some 34 members of the Senate to support the campaign, and are once again highlighting the need for the federal government to clean its own house and raise labor standards for its own contract employees.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounds up the horse race news, the lingering Trump factor, and continuing cluelessness on the Middle East. Armando follows up on yesterday’s discussion of how Trump baffles the media. And plenty, as always, on the dangers of “gun culture.”
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