Black Friday. Cyber Monday. These are more than just marketing strategies. They are the high holidays of the world's most popular religion: Consumerism. With every virtual swipe of your credit card, you are playing a critical role in driving the world economy. But it wasn't that long ago that such materialistic ways were frowned upon by leaders and philosophers. "From Plato in ancient Greece to St. Augustine and the Christian fathers to writers in the Italian Renaissance, thinkers routinely condemned the pursuit of things as wicked and dangerous because it corrupted the human soul, destroyed republics, and overthrew the social order." (I'll buy that. But then again, I am a child of the consumer revolution, so I'll buy almost anything.) From Frank Trentmann in The Atlantic: How Humans Became Consumers: A History.

+ If American consumerism has a pumping heart, it is Amazon; a company that is getting more efficient as it grows. Here's Brad Stone on Jeff Bezos' selling machine. "Putting a larger variety of products into Prime attracts more Prime members and vice versa, resulting in ever-increasing sales, which Amazon dutifully converts into even more fulfillment centers, faster shipping and lower prices. This is the flywheel of doom for rival merchants."

Protesters have been trying to block Dakota Access Pipeline for months. And now, North Dakota officials are considering a plan to block supplies from the pipeline protesters' camp. (Although the state's governor says it won't happen.)

+ From The Guardian: "A litany of munitions, including water cannons, combined with ambiguous government leadership and misleading police statements, have resulted in mass arrests, serious injuries and a deeply sown atmosphere of fear and distrust on the banks of the Missouri river." Standing Rock: violence and evacuation orders raise spectre of showdown

Only six people survived the crash of a chartered aircraft carrying members of a Brazilian soccer team and more than twenty journalists.

+ "Their story is a fantastic fairytale, but now it has reached a tragic end."

+ BBC on the players that didn't take the trip, including the son of the coach who remained in Brazil because of a lost passport.

"According to the Mounk-Foa early-warning system, signs of democratic deconsolidation in the United States and many other liberal democracies are now similar to those in Venezuela before its crisis. Across numerous countries, including Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States, the percentage of people who say it is "essential" to live in a democracy has plummeted, and it is especially low among younger generations." The NYT with a very interesting (and very disturbing) look at the state of world democracies, including America. How stable are they? Warning Signs Are Flashing Red.

"Every single day Obamacare is making the quality of health care in this country worse ....Patients and taxpayers cannot afford Obamacare and clearly this law was doomed from the start." That was Georgia Republican Tom Price last month. And as of today, he is Trump's pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services. For those wondering if Trump really wanted to dismantle Obamacare, this choice answers that question. Meanwhile, Trump named Elaine Chao as his transportation secretary.

+ Trump has also been lighting up Twitter over the last twenty-four hours, including a few attacks on the media and a seemingly random comment about flag burning: "Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag -- if they do, there must be consequences -- perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!" The current thinking among many in the media is that Trump is using tweets to distract journalists from bigger or more controversial stories. I've been watching the tweets and visiting hundreds of news sites, and I've come to this conclusion: I'm not sure what he's doing. A lot of folks seem really sure why he tweets what he tweets. I'm not even sure why I tweet.

Each year, Cuba spends $813 per person on health care. America spends $9,403. And yet, Cubans have about the same life expectancy as Americans, and "the rate of infant mortality in Cuba has been lower than in the Boston neighborhood of his own prestigious hospital, Harvard's Brigham and Women's." James Hamblin on how Cubans live as long as Americans at a tenth of the cost.

"Despite intense outcry from the medical community and reproductive rights advocates, the state will prohibit hospitals, abortion clinics and other health care facilities from disposing of fetal remains in sanitary landfills, instead allowing only cremation or burial of all remains -- regardless of the period of gestation." From the Texas Tribune: Texas to implement rules requiring burial or cremation of fetal remains.

"Last night AT&T made a dim prophecy official by announcing that its new DirecTV Now streaming service would be zero rated: it won't count against its customers' data caps. Zero rating isn't new -- T-Mobile has been writing the manual on how to get away with it -- but now it's finally happening at a scale that matters." The Verge on how AT&T (and other companies) have declared war on an open internet. (At this point, I'm glad NextDraft is all text.)

From fake news to the alt right to online trolls, the Internet has been in our crosshairs lately. But this network of connected computers does have some good parts. Matthew Bishop on our path from ice buckets to Giving Tuesday: lessons from the new ways we can bond for good.

+ What does it feel like to be poor in a place like San Francisco? The folks at the excellent Tipping Point teamed with Goodby Silverstein to give SF shoppers an idea of what prices seem like for those living below the poverty line.

+ Since it's giving Tuesday, I'd like to suggest a couple organizations that are worth your consideration. As many of you know, I'm on the board of the awesome 826 Valencia. We recently opened a new center in SF's Tenderloin district, and the program continues its tradition of helping kids become better writers, thinkers and dreamers. And now more than ever, we need a strong press and great investigative journalism. I make it a point to support the Center for Investigative Reporting each year.

The Austin American Statesman's Taylor Goldenstein on the Kyle city officials who were stunned by the corruption at its housing authority. They were also stunned that they had a housing authority.

+ The Natural History Museum in London has a collection of some of the best wildlife photographs of the year. (Remember when the Internet was mostly about cute animals?)

+ Fake news has been around for awhile. It almost cost Lincoln an election.

+ As I'm typing this, there are a few hours left to score your NextDraft Read Real News Shirt.