Scott blakeman will be on to give the liberal jewish perspective on the israel palestine palestinian situation. Now to Lisa Ferguson for a current news update. Good morning, everyone. After a very busy visit abroad president obama has a pretty busy day ahead of him. The white house invited everyone to vote on these two turkeys, cobbler and gobbler on facebook to judge your favorite but while they make look the same they are very different. Cobbler likes cranberries, and gobbler likes corn. No matter which turkey gets the most votes both get to retire happily at mount vernon. Pita is saying this makes light of the slaughter of the 46 million birds during this holiday. This white house tradition has more than a century and a half history behind it. But pita says it is belittling for the turkeys, and doesnt cake their feelings into account. And we do have some serious news going on today. Hillary clinton is in the middle east working to deescalate the violence between israel and hamas. They do all plan to keep in close touch as clinton travels to cairo. More john next. Stay with us. How are you ever going to solve the problem if you dont look at all of the pieces . Tv and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. You just think there is no low they wont go to. Oh, no. If al gores watching today. [ boy 1 ] hey thats the last crescent. Oh, did you want it . Yea well split it. [ female announcer ] made fresh, so light buttery and flakey. Thats half thats not half guys, i have more thanks mom [ female announcer ] pillsbury crescents. Let the making begin the saying easy as pie . I get it now. Just unroll it fill, top, bake, and present. That must have taken you forever it was really tough. [ female announcer ] pillsbury pie crust. Let the making begin but when joint pain and stiffness from Psoriatic Arthritis hit even the smallest things became difficult. I finally understood what serious joint pain is like. I talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. Enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. Because enbrel, etanercept suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal events including infections tuberculosis lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and Blood Disorders have occurred. Before starting enbrel your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether youve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Tell your doctor if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores have had hepatitis b have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most. Ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. [ theme music ] announcer broadcasting across the nation on your radio, and on current tv this is the bill press show. John this is the bill press show. Good morning, im John Fugelsang filling in for bill as i have been all week. It has been a real pleasure sitting here in bills chair. I am a big fan of this show and every time i get to come down here from new york and direct the whole thing down to my level is just karmicly fun. And with me here today is dan henning. Good morning. John it was a pretty slow news week. Yeah nothing to talk about. John the violence in the middle east, the action of various governors to undermine the Affordable Health care act, the um coming thanksgiving and black friday, and elmo leaving sesame street, which is a pretty painful thing for all if you have a kid. Uhhuh. John but im really thrilled to be here on the eve of thanksgiving, im thankful for shows like this. Were going to talk about black friday and the real history of thanks give as well. And really a tough question i want to ask everyone listening progressive and conservative to call in on this we know all of the horrible things of black friday, that it takes the christmas message of jesus and his antimaterialism message and completely, well makes a joke out of it. Thanks giving is a time when christians buy lots of material possessions to celebration though guy who denounced material processions. We all know how about how these prices are jacked up and then put on sale, we know all of the bad things about black friday and well be covering all of those. But is black friday still good for our economy . Does it help . Does it create jobs . Will it help the Obama Administration, recession and the unemployment levels, as easy as it is to talk about the ugly aspects of it, what are the positive aspects if any. Shop at local Small Businesses on friday. Why not think about buying americanmade products and think about keeping your money in your community by buying locally . Well get to all of that governor Eliot Spitzer will be l kaing in host of viewpoint here on current tv. Likewise, film critic allison bails who im a big fan of, and shell be talking about what are some good films that smart politically progressive minded people can go see, and what are some good movies you can take your family to see or escape from your family with. And Scott Backman will be on. I cant wait for that. John yesterday we had dean on, and they do a show together. And scott takes the position where he is very pro israel but not a huge fan of their government. Anthony popus will be calling in, and is walmart as bad for their employees as we have been lead to believe . We will find out. But first its time for some full court press. Announcer this is the full court press. Hey, how about some overhead lines john im seconding bill tainted shell fish so i can come back again. Excellent. Pita wants to put an end to the turkey pardon ritual. It says it is an outdated ceremony that makes slight of some 46 million gentle intelligent birds. John every year the president has this ridiculous ritual where he doesnt kill a turkey, and that is up setting pita. Yeah. John if peta wants to get on board about the mass slaughter of turkeys, thats great, but any time you mix trip toe thank and alcohol thats a problem. But im surprised they are upset about not killing an animal. Oprah winfrey told Justin Bieber who said he wants to get married by 25 that she thinks she is crazy. She thinks it is way too young. John thats oprah advising him not to get married. Yeah. John thats very good advise from oprah, who i got to meet steadman this year, who is extremely not married. And Justin Bieber whoever he does marry it will be a great first marriage for both. Yeah. And a Small Division three school in iowa set a huge record. Jack tailor scored 138 points to help lead his team to a 179 to 104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible College last night. That shatters a previous record set back in 1954 of 116 points by a singlepoint player. John what is his name . Jack taylor. John congratulations. Yeah. John so let me begin by saying what a pleasure it is to come and do your show in dc. My father was a history teacher and when i was a kid and had my first communion he brought me to d. C. As a gift. And i was a history nerd and memorized all of the president s by the time i was 6. And i still have the same special feeling when i walk around like im a jaded new yorker nothing in new york impresses me on a tourism level, but here im just a dope. And yesterday was a great day, because i actually had a free day. You geeked out. I geeked out, and i was such a tourist. And it was also my first day off in 42 days. Other than i got up at 4 00 am and came to do bills show. Thats not work. John no, thats pleasure. And after i was done i actually walked around and did a fivemile walk around dc. I went and saw the james bond movie, went to dinner with a friend, and went and saw bob dylan tonight, and im seeing bob dylan tonight. I was Walking Around china town and there is your beautiful Verizon Center your Basketball Team yeah, the 09 washington wizards. John they are getting ready to bring back Michael Jordan at age 50. And i saw that dylan was playing there. And i thought i used to follow bob dylan around like a dead head, which is known as girl repel ant. How if have you seen . John over 50. Which is not a lot compared to some people i meet at the shows, but thats over 20 years and i love dylan, i do i like watching him age, and seeing how he rearranges his song and as his voice comes more like tom wait and a frog gargling i feel like he does more interesting stuff musically to make it work around him. And i heard he was playing grand piano on tour for the first time, so i wanted to go, and it was pretty wild i can work as a translator for bob dylan. He is playing grand piano now. The rumor is he has arthritis and cant play guitar too much. He comes to the foot of the stage and just sings and dances around and does kind of a crooner act. The one thing about the grand piano is now you are watching a 71yearold man sitting for 90 minutes, but when he does his crooner act, the guy is fantastic. He did the best all along the watchtower i have ever seen. The older he gets the more he is willing to be creepy and spooky and cool. So he has made his age work for him. Because some people say he has not aged well. Stephanie he has not aged well, in fact he goes to great length to make sure you cant photograph him. He has surrounded the stage with mirrors facing out, which i think is to screw up flashes, and then he has flood lights mounted on tripods around the whole stage, so i tried to get a picture, and you actually get lights. Yeah bob does not do zumba, but if you go expecting it to be the greatest hits jukebox concert, you are going to be disappointed. For the first twothirds of the show watching wealthy suburban folks who thought they were coming to see a vegas show just walk out in droves and i mean hundreds of people walk out, and by the end everyone who is there is on their feet because once you figure out that dylan is actually doing something, it is pretty fun. However, saying that i know there is a lot of people out there who paid to see bob dylan and hated it and thats why i say it works as Birth Control because it scares the girls away. Nice. John im going to go see him again tonight. And im going to see mark from dire straits. And a terrific evening of music, and its a great way to get ready for thanksgiving because this thanksgiving means a lot to progressives, and having the president reelects and not electing governor romney is enough to make most people feel thankful, but one thanksgiving as we know it as nothing to do with the original thanksgiving right down to the paintings that we see. When we look at any painting of thanksgiving that we see when we were kids and we see the pilgrims and indians dancing around, we were starving, and the indians saved our lives, and we relaid them as only white people can, and the wompanoa were planes indians, and our whole image of thanksgiving is skewed. And it has been used to convince children that we got along fine with indians, and draw pictures of turkeys with our hands. President lincoln made it a holiday at the urging of the woman who wrote mary had a little lamb. It started with the spaniards who were the first ones to have thanksgiving, who massacred a bunch of indians, and a year later they were celebrating the safe return of the white people who werent killed and it has evolved into this. It is one of those holidays that straddles the line of secular and spiritual holiday. Were going to talk about what is thanksgiving and secondly black friday. We can talk about how bad walmart is, the exploitation of workers, and how thanksgiving is supposed to be about buying stuff, but does it help the economy . We want to know what you think progressives, and conservative trolls too, and finally how do you handle your rightwing crazy relatives at the thanksgiving table . We want to know. Its the bill press show. Announcer this is the full court press, the bill press show, live on your radio, and on current tv. Unleashed. Joy behar. Ill talk about surviving thanksgiving with relationship guru iyanla vanzant, and chef michael simon, on say anything. Alright, in 15 minutes were going to do the young turks. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They know that im not bsing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. When the democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer chatting with you live at current. Com billpress. This is the bill press show, live on your radio, and current tv. John this is called turkey in the straw, right . Yes. John why does it sound like a celtic rodeo . I dont know. I just saw the word turkey and thought let me play this. John happy thanksgiving to all yall, this is the bill press show. Im John Fugelsang filling in for bill. Ron is calling us from illinois. Good morning, ron, you are on the bill press show. Caller good morning, john, how are you . John im good how are you. Caller one im thankful for the administration that we have returning and not changing. Two, how do i handle my rightwing family, fortunately or unfortunately everybody at the dinner table tomorrow will be all leftwing progressive people that will be celebrating the, again reelection john oh, thats great, because liberals never fight with each other. Not at all. And the economy, unfortunately, reluctantly because our economy is based so much on consumers and black friday reluctantly it is probably good for the economy. John thank you for admitting it. But i do think there are ways we can have smart black friday, number one it doesnt have to be on friday, number 2, buy american products, or even buy supplies and make your own gifts, and the big thing i think is try to keep the money in your community by buying locally. Yeah, if you go to walmart some of the money will get back into your community, but big picture, that money is mainly going to the walton family. I do not shop at walmart, will not shop at walmart as a personal standpoint. John right on. But if you buy american that is patriotic and thats something we all can be thankful for. Governor Eliot Spitzer coming up next on the bill press show. They dont want to do anything about global warming. They just want to shut it down and go home. Ed is calling from frederick maryland. What do you say, ed . Caller good morning. Bill good morning. Caller on the republicans, i think theyre in the final stages of a plan they hatched back probably at reagans time or before that when theyve had administrations, they would keep spending all of the cut taxes, putting it all on the National People when im upset. Do you share the sense of outrage that theyre doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. I think thats an understatement, eliot. U im not prone tot. Understatement, so explain to me why that is. I think the mob learned from wall st. , not vice versa. Announcer this is the full court press, the bill press show, live on your radio, and on current tv. John this is the bill press show. Im John Fugelsang filling in for bill all morning. It has been a real pleasure spending thanksgiving week with you guys. This morning were asking a few thanksgiving questions, number one what is the real history of thanksgiving and what are you thanksful for, number two how do you handle your difficult rightwing or leftwing relatives at the dinner table, and number three is black friday good for the American Economy even though we complain about it . And patricia good morning, happy thanksgiving. Caller good morning, john. I have enjoyed listening to your show this morning. One thing i realized is it is so much about choice for example, the way we treated the natives, the oppression exclusion, et cetera, the things i didnt learn when i was in grade school, and i was at walmart the other night, and a group of employees were taking their break in the front of the store in the sitting area and i stopped and i said you know i heard about your benefits being cut, and if you go on strike ill support you. And they all kind of looked at me and went stone silent and a supervisor came out of the blue carrying a walkky talky, and looked at me and said do you have a problem . And the feeling i got i felt myself get really angry and really frightened all at the same time, and all of the employees sat there and looked at me, and i said i do have a problem, and the problem is that these people work their asses off. I see them day after day, and they are not being treated very well, and i said, and i believe in unions, and i believe that the election that we just had was for something, and they deserve fair treatment, and if they go on strike i will no longer shop here, and i walked away. And, you know, its so much about oppression so much of our history is about that kind of oppression, that silence. John thats not just american history, thats human history. Would you agree . Caller right. Yeah. John exploitation is one of the sad defects of the human model, and we try to overcome it, but it has been a long time since organized labor has had any weight in this country. And people will watch their rights be stripped away for sense of security. Caller and they are not raised with the knowledge of what their rights are, they are being spoon fed a version of history and a version of government or patriotism or whatever that doesnt include the personal aspect of it. John yeah, as ralph nader used to say we dont grow up civic in america, we grow up corporate. We know the jingles to a lot of tv commercials, and we dont grow up with a sense of who we are and what our own powers as citizens are, and i think walmart is a great example of that. And god bless you patricia for caring about people. The walmart folks have used a lot of nice talking points that make it sound like they are a happy wonderland. And its easy to pick on them because they make ungodly pro profits, and now their employees are being called in to work on thanksgiving day to get ready for black frida