Thanksgiving roundup

Signs that your democracy is under threat and why it's worth stopping. The press needs to be on the job, too. And you can help people being harassed by bigots.

Self-enrichment is something politicians do in a third-world kleptocracy.

Trump voters don't deserve the empathy of those they've screwed over. Why do rural voters get such disproportionate power? And why do the people who fought hardest for the country, get the blame for the result?

The world has never lacked for young, spoiled white people (perhaps mostly men), who grumble ungratefully at their parents (perhaps mostly moms), who’ve done the work of putting food on a Thanksgiving table, and instead return to their onanistic gaming aeries with loaves of bread (no roses) and an absolute assuredness that they know better than everyone else and that one of the great injustices of the world is the ban on them saying whatever vulgar thing they’d like to.

I couldn't spend Thanksgiving with the only Trump supporter I know.

Shrinking the federal workforce is more complicated than it may seem.

MRAs are dumb.

You, too, can (and should) pardon a turkey.

Sometimes, the obvious needs to be stated. First, Robin Givhan on dress:

Our choice of attire is a measure of our respect for those around us and our own personal dignity.

Also, exercise is good for you.

The pooled results persuasively showed that exercise, especially if it is moderately strenuous, such as brisk walking or jogging, and supervised, so that people complete the entire program, has a “large and significant effect” against depression, the authors wrote. People’s mental health tended to demonstrably improve if they were physically active.

There's no aloe in drug store "aloe."