Today’s comic by Matt Bors is Trump ... unindicted and excited!
• EPI reports on how labor market changes have generated inequality and wage suppression:
Since 1979, the bottom 90 percent of the American workforce has seen their pay shrink radically as a share of total income. Figure A shows total labor compensation for the bottom 90 percent as a share of all market-based income in the American economy. In 1979, this share was 58 percent, but as of 2015 it had shrunk to just under 47 percent. The amount of money this loss represents is staggering; had the 1979 share held constant, the bottom 90 percent of the American workforce would have had roughly $1.35 trillion in additional labor income in 2015, or about $10,800 per household.
• Consumer Price Index, one measure of inflation, rose 2.2 percent over past 12 months. But in November, the CPI remained unchanged over October when it rose 0.3 percent. The gasoline index fell 4.2 percent in November and the overall energy index dropped 2.2 percent.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act ends in most states on December 15: After today, there’s only three days left to enroll if you need insurance! Free help is available. Answers to your questions about signing up and trained professionals who can talk your through your options are just a phone call or click away. Call 1-800-318-2596 or visit localhelp.healthcare.gov to make a one-on-one appointment now.
• Public health experts—James Bond had ‘a severe chronic alcohol problem’: In a newly reported study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand examined James Bond movies from 1962 to 2015 to check out the fictional British Secret Service agent’s patterns of alcohol use. In two dozen movies over that time, Bond was seen drinking alcohol 109 times. Conclusion: Bond had a “severe” and “chronic” drinking problem and he engaged in stunningly risky behavior under the influence of alcohol. “Chronic risks include frequently drinking prior to fights, driving vehicles (including in chases), high-stakes gambling, operating complex machinery or devices, contact with dangerous animals, extreme athletic performance and sex with enemies, sometimes with guns or knives in the bed,” the study’s lead author Nick Wilson said in a statement.
• Pompeo tells U.N. Security Council to stop Iran’s ballistic missile activity: The secretary of state said Wednesday that the U.N. should reimpose restrictions on Iran’s missile program and not lift the current arms embargo when it expires in 2020. Pompeo said continued “goodwill gestures” by the United States had been “futile in correcting Iran’s missile activity” and its “destructive behavior.” Meanwhile, eight EU members issued a statement in support of the Iran nuclear deal ahead of the Security Council meeting but calling for Tehran to stop its “destabilizing” behavior in the region, including its testing of ballistic missiles. That statement noted that "the launch of nuclear-capable missiles and any transfers of missiles, missile technologies and components" would violate Security Council resolutions. The Trump regime has withdrawn from 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions even though the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly found Iran in full compliance.
• Trump regime offers 150,000 acres of public land for fossil fuel extraction fracking near Utah’s protected lands: "This is a reckless fire sale of spectacular public lands for dirty drilling and fracking," said Ryan Beam, a public lands campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. "These red-rock wonderlands are some of the West's most iconic landscapes, and we can't afford to lose a single acre. Fracking here will waste precious water, foul the air and destroy beautiful wild places that should be held in trust for generations to come."
• Gulf state monarchies are using racism, male supremacy, and fake news to attack Muslim women elected to Congress in November.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Everybody's talking about yesterday's Oval Office meltdown. That includes Greg Dworkin & Joan McCarter. Nobody's talking about the job of UN Musical Director. That Chinese microchip spying story's falling apart. And so is Trump’s base, at last!