Paris Climate Summit, Always Low Salaries

Political Climate: President Obama is in Paris today trying to negotiate an international climate change agreement that would enlist almost every country on earth to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. It would be one of the legacies of his presidency.

But he probably faces more difficulty at home than he does in Paris. Nearly 60 percent of Republican congressmen and 70 percent of Republican senators deny that human activity is causing global warming. Roughly half the states are suing to block the president’s climate change policy and all the Republican presidential candidates say they would undo his work if they are elected.

Russian Revenge: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on a package of economic sanctions against Turkey in retaliation for the Turks shooting down a Russian Fighter jet. Russia is Turkey’s second largest trading partner, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to apologize for the shootdown.

Nation: President Obama vented his frustration at yet another mass shooting after the attack at the offices of Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. “This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal,” Obama said. “If we truly care about this—if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience—then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.”

The Republican presidential candidates said nothing about the shooting that left a police officer and two other people dead.

Always Low: Bloomberg News reports on how Walmart fought back in 2012 when an organization of employees threatened to disrupt Black Friday sales in a fight for higher pay, more full time jobs, and predictable work schedules.

Bloomberg says, “Walmart considered the group enough of a threat that it hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin, contacted the FBI, staffed up its labor hotline, ranked stores by labor activity, and kept eyes on employees (and activists) prominent in the group.”

The organization Our Walmart began a series of protests and walkouts leading to the 2012 holiday shopping season. The company kept watch on the involved employees and organizers, sometimes reporting even innocuous conversations and comments back to bosses in Bentonville, Ark.

Bloomberg obtained the details in documents made public by a labor relations complaint in which OUR Walmart accuses the company of retaliating against protesting employees.

Walmart denies it all. And a company spokesman told Bloomberg “Our average full-time hourly associate earns more than $13 an hour in addition to the opportunity for quarterly cash bonuses, matching 401(k) as well as health-care benefits.”

More than half a million Walmart employees make $25,000 a year or less. By one estimate, Walmart workers cost the US government $6.2 billion a year in public assistance.

The Punching Sport: Britain’s Tyson Fury upset Wladimir Klitschko in Germany last night to become heavyweight champion of the world. The Ukrainian Klitschko has been the champion for more than nine years and it was a battle of titans. Fury is 6-9 and Klitschko is 6-6, but at 39 he was facing a boxer 12 years younger.

Social Notes: The 29-year-old fashionista and former child star Mary-Kate Olsen has married 49-year-old Olivier Sarkozy, the half brother of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Olsen rose to fame and fortune starting as a baby on the television series “Full House.” Sarkozy rose to fame by marrying Mary-Kate Olsen.

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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