In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue … and slaughtered the indigenous peoples he found

You gotta love the Brits! That’s the headline of an article in The Guardian today. And John Oliver can teach us a thing or two about “Columbus Day” too:

Good question! Why is Columbus Day still a thing? Thankfully, cities like Seattle, Minneapolis and Berkeley realized that it shouldn’t be, and now celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, like the rest of the country should. Capisce?

It’s Monday, so it’s The Steve Israel Hour, sponsored by Little Debbie, with Howie Klein of Down With Tyranny and the Blue America PAC.  We discussed “The Steve Israel Effect,” Blue America’s last endorsement of 2014: WA-08- Reichert vs Jason Ritchie, the Carl DeMaio scandal, and more.

In the second hour, I was joined by Aaron Krager of Action Now, who went to Ferguson MO over the weekend to participate in the #FergusonOctober protests that continue in the wake of the Mike Brown killing and, now, another African-American teenager who was shot and killed by police last week.

Suggested reading:

Thomas Frank does it again at Salon! I sent him an invite to come back on the show this week to talk about his latest – a great interview with Elizabeth Warren. While you’re there, check out his Bernie Sanders piece from two weeks ago too!

And now for something completely different, Paul Krugman In Defense of Obama! 

And one more shot at Columbus Day, courtesy of Stephen Colbert…

I’ll be back tomorrow, radio or not!