Hot Topics:

• Black Friday: Whoopi doesn’t really understand the Black Friday phenomenon or what it means so Rosie P explained that it’s a good thing, when retailers end up “in the black” as opposed to in ending red, or in debt. Rosie O doesn’t remember ever shopping with her family on Black Friday, but she remembered going shopping with her mom the day after Christmas to get the good porcelain ornaments on sale.  Nicolle likes shopping for Christmas decorations when they’re on sale following the holiday too.  And she really likes to support locally owned businesses in her community on Small Business Saturday.  Rosie P went Black Friday shopping once and was almost stampeded and nearly had a heart attack.  She isn’t a fan of it but understands the desire to get a good deal.  Whoopi shops for the holidays in the summer time.  It’s too hard for her to concentrate when people are wrestling over items in the stores.  Nicolle and Rosie P joked how they would be “fightin’” over the dresses on the racks if they ever ran into each other while shopping.
• Life After Death: The ladies discussed a story about a woman who made worldwide headlines after her heart stopped beating for 45 minutes during childbirth and then survived. Her near death experience mirrors many of the near death stories we’ve heard over the years, a long tunnel, seeing deceased family members, etc.   Rosie O called it a “true miracle.”  Rosie P talked about a woman whose 92 year old Aunt passed away and then came back to life after being declared dead for 11 hours!  This, Rosie P explained, is the original reason for a wake before a funeral.  Whoopi once worked at a morgue and her boss played a prank on her pretending to be a dead person coming back to life.  He did it to teach her a lesson that weird things might happen in a morgue, but nothing weirder than that would ever happen while she worked there.    Nicolle said she would never take a job in a morgue because it freaks her out so much.
• The Kids Are All Right: They showed a video of Neil deGrasse Tyson sitting on the floor with a small child discussing how first graders can help the Earth by emptying the kitchen cupboards as a future scientist.  The ladies discussed children getting into the cupboards and pulling out all of its contents and how that is normal behavior.  Nicolle said she has a harder time stopping her son’s impulses than anything.  Her little boy loves to help out in the kitchen and help her cook.  He can crack 6 eggs without getting a shell in the bowl!  Rosie P thinks in several decades technology will be taking over and the world of coding is going to be big money.  She loves Neil and wants him to come on The View to discuss curiosity and the fields of science for children.  Rosie O is way too lenient as a mom and calls herself a “stay-at-homer,” who likes the kids to have their friends over to their house rather than go to someone else’s house.  She has found, however, that not limiting a child’s impulses at 2 or 3 makes it harder when they turn 15, 16 or 17.  She advises starting early with setting limits.  Rosie O said “the look” that Whoopi says worked for her as a parent, never works for Rosie.  She said she has to raise her voice to a level of yelling for them to listen to her.  She said not having a mom has made her create a hybrid of parent/companion in her parenting which she said worked for her because the closeness to her children was a necessity.  Nicolle talks to her mom every day and said she’s the best mom in the world.  She often thinks “what would my mom do” when she has to make a parental decision.  Whoopi said parenting just has to do with doing the best you can.  She thinks that’s how most parents parented in the past and continue to parent today.
• Unlikely Lessons: The ladies discussed an op-ed in the Huffington Post The 10 Lessons You Can Learn From The Assholes In Your Life. Rosie P admitted to being a semi-asshole at times herself.  She’s had a lot of assholes in her life and she’s learned not to be that stupid or mean from them.  The best thing she read in the article was “you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.” She said she’s really had to learn that lesson through her interaction with her friends because her gut instinct is to always fix things.  Rosie O has never found Rosie P to be assholish at all, not even once.  Nicolle thinks the best lesson from the list is that some people cannot be helped and are just assholes.  Rosie O said she’s learned it’s best not to engage with assholes via the media.  Then Rosie O not-so-casually tossed her hair to the side for no apparent reason whatsoever.
• Secrets To Seeking A Psychic: An Austrian psychic recently revealed how to find a reputable psychic. She advises doing your homework and getting good recommendations.  Nicolle doesn’t like anything that talks to her about the past or the future and just as she doesn’t like mimes or Ouija boards.  Rosie P respects psychics but doesn’t want to know about the future either, she just wants to live.  Rosie O likes psychics and thinks they’re interesting, but doesn’t always find them reliable.  She’s had a lot of people try and tell her that her mom is trying to speak to her, but they often get the details wrong.  For example, one psychic told her that her mother appreciates that Rosie has photos of her all around the house but Rosie O has absolutely no photos of her mom.  Recently, a viewer wrote in to the show who had photos of Rosie’s mom from elementary school.  The viewer wrote how she followed Rosie’s career because of her mother and was so sorry that she died so young.  As the viewer grew older she realized when you’re a mother, you’re a mother to everyone’s child.  She said if Rosie O ever needs a mother, she’s there for her out in TV land.  Rosie O thought that was the sweetest thing.  Rosie’s kids could all find her mom in the photos.  She doesn’t remember her mom being as tiny as she was but her mom was the smallest kid in the class.  She always justified her size because she thought her mom was a bigger size like her, but in fact, she wasn’t.  She was petite like Rosie P.  Whoopi said psychics come up to her all the time because she played a psychic in the movie Ghost.  They often try to read her, but she’s not interested.  She feels that nothing they can tell her is going to be relevant to her.  Rosie O had a psychic once talk to her about her daughter who was going through some problems.  And the psychic compared her daughter’s issues to a chick hatching from an egg: up close it looks like destruction, but if you take a look from afar, it’s actually a rebirth.
• Viral Video:  They showed a video of a cat winning at the shell game.  All the ladies loved it.

Guests:

Norman Lear: Legendary television producer Norman Lear, the creator of All in the Family, One Day At A Time, The Jeffersons, Maude, and Good Times, joined the ladies of The View.   Norman said he didn’t know at the time he was producing those hit shows that he was changing the landscape of television.  He was simply reflecting life as he lived it discussing topics such as family, kids, relationships and how the economy and foreign policy was affecting them.  He sees the topics as still relevant today and said we’re still living with all of those issues, from racism to abortion. The abortion show aired on Maude originally in October and with no real response, but by the time reruns came in April and May the religious right went crazy over it.  “I think we are looking in the mirror and not seeing ourselves correctly,” Lear said.  He never insulted the intelligence of his viewing audience.  Rosie O said that Maude defined who she is as a women and a feminist and thanked him for it.

Rosie and Norman Lear

Angela Brown: At 11 years old, Trey Brown suffered a traumatic brain injury after being hit in the head with a baseball.  That injury caused years of pain and complications.  When the prescribed medications proved useless, his mother Angela gave him cannabis oil.  When the sheriff found out, he swooped in and charged her with child abuse.  Angela and Dr. Sharon Levy, a representative from the American Academy of Pediatrics, joined the ladies to debate the topic.  Angela said she was stunned when she was charged with child abuse.  She was only trying to take away her son’s pain.  Dr. Levy said they need to do the studies to show which how and why children can be helped by cannabis in order to make it a legal medicine for kids.  She said our children deserve standardized medicines because of the narrow dose range they require.  Angela said any parent who is going to take the step to use cannabis as a treatment for their child, is going to do the research themselves.  She doesn’t want to standardize it.  She believes it needs to be the whole plant and not a synthesized form thrown into a pill.  Dr. Levy is open to the field of study because she’s a pediatrician but also a mom.  She just wants to get it right.  Whoopi said this debate is about helping kids from suffering and what’s standing in their way is the medical marijuana policies.  Angela said, “A friend dying from pancreatic cancer can’t wait for studies.”

Audience Gift: Everyone in the studio audience got a copy of Even This I Get to Experience by Norman Lear.

Take a little time and enjoy The View!  

Hot Topics:

• Ferguson Reacts: There was no indictment for the officer in the shooting death of Michael Brown.  Rosie O predicted it last week and wasn’t surprised at all by the verdict.  She thinks a lot of people weren’t surprised.  She feels for Michael’s parents and for every mother who has a son that age.  Her son Parker was 17 when Travon Martin was killed and 18 when Michael Brown was killed, and she said it’s overwhelming to her.   Rosie P also said it’s terrifying and overwhelming.  Her first reaction to the verdict last night was to pray for nonviolence.  She referenced Rodney King and the LA riots and said the only people who suffer in the end when there is rioting is the community itself.  Nicolle doesn’t know if she’s ever seen parents so capable of being so constructive in their hour of grief.  She said Michael Brown’s parents were devastated with the outcome but didn’t want his death to be in vain.  They called for peace and restated their goal to reduce police violence and to make sure that every police officer wears a camera.  Rosie P feels like the media didn’t give the peaceful protesters outside the courthouse credit.  Rosie O wondered why they waited to announce the decision until 9:00 at night.  She thinks it was a calculated decision in order to incite people in the nighttime.  She thinks the verdict wasn’t a surprise but the timing of the announcement was a distraction to shift the focus from the fact that a unarmed teenager was shot.  Instead, people ended up talking about the riots in the street and not the verdict itself. She thinks the anger of the people rioting is due to righteous indignation and rage.  And although she knows it’s not productive to the cause, she understands it.  Rosie P recalled the Rodney King and OJ verdicts, both reported during the day, both of which caused rioting.  Rosie O didn’t think the verdict or the outcome was a surprise to anyone.  Whoopi thought the verdict was a surprise to some people and she thinks whoever made the decision to announce the verdict at night was an idiot.  She said they [the grand jury] skirted their responsibility because it’s now on Eric Holder to make the ultimate decision.  Nicolle explained that the justice department has two separate, ongoing investigations looking at all the same evidence.  One is a civil case and one is a deeper look to see if there are systematic violations of civil rights happening.  Rosie O said, in general, we have a culture where white police officers shoot and kill black teenagers.  She believes this is a much bigger issue than Ferguson, the riots, and the reaction.  Nicolle thought President Obama made a beautiful gesture by speaking during the Ferguson riots.  She said most presidents wouldn’t allow themselves to be split-screened alongside riots in the street following such a controversial outcome.  Whoopi agreed that this is not a new situation, but an overall bigger issue.  Rosie O said, as a mother, she couldn’t believe how Michael Brown lay in the street for four hours and an ambulance was never called.  Instead, he was put into the back of an SUV.  Whoopi also wondered where the ambulances and fire trucks were during last night’s riots.  She said burning down your own stuff never works; it didn’t work in LA or Newark, and “we’re only hurting each other.”  Rosie O said in our history it took a lot of people protesting and getting shot at before change occurred, and she thinks that maybe we’re at that point again.  She pointed out that St. Louis is one of the most segregated cities in the United States.  She thinks we need to protest in the same way as they protested during the spring in Egypt.  Rosie P disagreed and said it could be done peacefully as they have recently done in Japan (she meant Hong Kong) and still be very effective.  She referenced the 2014 umbrella protests to fight for democracy and Martin Luther King who she said was always very “on message” stating we can obtain peace (I think she meant justice) through peaceful means.  Whoopi said you stand tall when you are not the perpetrator.  The police were the perpetrators in the 60s with the dogs and the fire hoses and the protesters were just asking for the right to vote.  In this case, it’s different because the protesters look like the perpetrators when they use violent means.

Pitbull Joins Hot Topics:  

• J-Lo’s Body of Work: Pitbull joined the ladies of The View for Hot topics and to discuss the American Music Awards!  Some are saying that Jennifer Lopez acted too young and sexy in her AMA performance but Pitbull loved her.  He even got to sneak in a kiss!  He said the AMAs are a lot of fun and the producers give them a lot of freedom with their performances.  All the ladies agreed that the female performers were hot and sexy and didn’t understand the criticism that J-Lo received.  Rosie P said it’s really insulting to tell a woman who’s had a child that she can’t be sexy anymore.  She talked about Iris Chacon, a Latin superstar, who has always been sexy and the Latin community loves her for it.    The other day someone asked Pitbull who he thought was sexier, Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj or Jennifer Lopez.  He said he thinks they’re all beautiful but wants to see what Kim and Nicki look like at Jennifer’s age.  He said it’s a lot of hard work to look as Jennifer does at her age.  Rosie O remembered when her daughter started reading and she found out that Jennifer Lopez was voted the most beautiful person in People Magazine. To this day her daughter states that as a FACT because she read it!
• Mug Mystery:  Rosie P showed a new Beyonce mug that was sent to her that states “I woke up like this, Flawless.” She wondered who sent her the mug!  She hoped it was Beyonce because she is a friend of hers….in her own mind.  Whoever sent it to her she says, “Thank you.”
• Phone Ban During Thanksgiving: A new study finds that 66% of Americans want to ban cell phones during Thanksgiving and the holidays.  Whoopi thinks that’s a fantastic idea!  Pitbull said one of his kids came home with a bad grade and he took the cellphone, the Xbox and all the controllers and threw them in the pool.  (I’m sorry, that’s what rich people do.  I would FREAK out if someone did that to our electronics.  That crap is expensive!)    He said his son took it like a man and has been working with a friend of his on the weekends and has raised his grade to a B.  Rosie O said they have a cell phone ban during the holidays and a couple hours a day when cell phones are banned in their home.  She said everyone hangs out, talks and plays with the baby when the cell phones are off.  Pitbull said, “Social media is the farthest thing from socializing.”  Whoopi puts her phone away at 6:00pm and said if you need her you should call her.  She’s old school, but she wants to be able to go to the bathroom in peace.  She feels like she doesn’t want people to be able to find her all the time every day.
• Pet Gets A Pass: A pit bull named Zeus was set to be put down in a Louisiana town because of a ban on pit bulls but since the story broke there has been such a massive online campaign to stop it that the town will now be reversing the ban! Zeus will live!

The Bar Cart: The ladies of The View got a crash course from a Target representative on this season’s newest trend, the bar cart.  Nicolle and Rosie P each had 45 seconds to style a bar cart.  Rosie P won by audience applause.   Members of the studio audience each received a $200 gift card to Target!

Pitbull Performs: Pitbull performed two songs off his latest album entitled Globalization.  He also introduced his new fragrance creatively titled “Pitbull.”

Audience Giveaway:   All the members of the studio audience received a $200 Target gift card, a copy of Pitbull’s newest album Globalization and his newest fragrance, Pitbull.

Quoteables:
Rosie P:  “It’s really insulting to tell a woman who’s had a child that she can’t be sexy anymore.” 
Nicolle: “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen parents so capable of being so constructive in their hour of such profound grief.”
Whoopi: “I think they [the grand jury] skirted their responsibility because now it will be on Eric Holder and the justice department to make that decision.”
Rosie O: “I think this is not a surprise and in some way takes everyone off of what actually happened to an 18 year old boy in the street and puts it on to ‘look at all those horrible people rioting.'”
Rosie O: “I think the anger of the people rioting, that’s righteous indignation and rage. And I understand it and although it’s not necessarily productive for the cause, it is very understandable as a human being why one might react in the way so many did.”
Pitbull:  “Social media is the farthest thing from socializing.”

Take a little time and enjoy The View!
And Happy Thanksgiving!

The ladies of The View welcomed guest cohost, Keke Palmer, who is currently starring as the first black Cinderella on Broadway.

Hot Topics:

• The AMAs: Pitbull hosted last night’s American Music Awards and he will be on the show tomorrow (11/25)! Whoopi thought the women set the stage ablaze last night.  Rosie P agreed that all the women were fantastic but wondered where Beyonce was last night.   But another queen was there last night, Ms. Dianna Ross.   Ross presented Taylor Swift with the Dick Clark award.  In her remarks Taylor alluded to her feud with Spotify saying that people should look at music as whole albums, not just singles.  KeKe noted that there are not that many artists you can count on to give you a good album.  The panel agreed that record companies don’t want to spend the time and money to develop performers as artists, but that they just want the hit single.  Rosie O remembered when albums were a bigger deal, you got the artwork, the lyrics, the notes, and you really felt like you got to know the artist.  She listed Carol King and Joni Mitchell as examples.  She said if her kids really like a song she’ll suggest they download the entire album but her kids aren’t interested in doing that.  All they really care about owning is the song they love.
• Two Country Stars Come Out: Two country music artists just came out of the closet: Ty Herndon and Billy Gilman, who just came out as gay in an emotional video. They played a clip of the video and you can watch it in its entirety here.   Whoopi thinks people forget to realize that gay people are everywhere, even in country music.  KeKe thinks it’s unfortunate that gay artists are pressured to come out when no one asks straight people to talk about their sexuality.
  
  (ABC news broke into the program with news that Chuck Hagel is resigning from his position as Secretary of Defense. I will get these notes when they post it online.  Stay tuned.)
• Bill Cosby Continued: When The View returned, the panel was in the midst of a discussion about Bill Cosby and Rosie P was saying “Where there is smoke, there is fire,” and “we will see.” She hopes Bill Cosby will face his accusers in court so the truth can come out.  She thinks if all those women were sexually molested by him, they should have their day in court.  And if he is innocent, he should have his day in court to prove that.  Whoopi is reminded about the Duke lacrosse team who was accused of rape and she wants the accusers to present proof of what happened.  She wants to put away anyone who is doing that but she wants it to be proven for her to believe it.  Rosie P said a lot of the women were afraid to come forward because he was such a public figure so they don’t have the proof.  Rosie O said because the cases were settled, the accusers never went to court to have their say.  She said there will not be a way to know for sure.  Nicolle noted that the stories of the other women may be admissible in some states even though the incidents are past the statute of limitations.  She mentioned some other accusers and people who are saying a lot about Cosby’s weird behavior in the past.  Whoopi wants the story to be told if there is a story, but she doesn’t want to rush to judgment and recalled when Tawana Brawley falsely accused six white men of rape in 1988 and it was not true.  Then Whoopi pointed to the audience and said, “Before you come running up on me again and tell me that I am condoning rape, think twice.”  Then she went to commercial.

• A Special Breed: Save Zeus! A Louisiana family is set to lose their beloved pit bull on December 1 because of a local ban on the breed even though he has been a therapy dog for a girl suffering from back and neck problems.  Keke asked,“ So these people either have to move out the town, or their dog will get killed?” Nicolle wanted to get more information about the story and try and save the dog!  Rosie O just helped save a beautiful pit bull when she was out in LA recently taping The Fosters.  She admitted she used to be afraid of pit bulls, but has done a lot of research and she has a friend who brings her dog over to the house and she finds the dog very loving. Her baby even rides on the pit bull, whereas the Chihuahua tries to bite her every day!  Whoopi quoted the girl who says it is owners who make dogs bad, dogs aren’t born bad.  Keke said that pit bulls were made to fight.  But Rosie P said that is not true and she pointed out that Petey, from The Little Rascals, was a pit bull.  Rosie P hopes the people of Louisiana will stand up for the family and ask their representatives to save the dog.  Nicolle let the audience know they were going to try and reach out and save the dog for the family too.
• School Lunches: Kids are tweeting photos of their less than appealing school lunches and using the hashtag #thanksmichelleobama and it’s started a hashtag revolution! Nicolle reminded everyone that too many kids are suffering from diabetes and obesity and the challenge is to make healthy food look more appealing. She said, “You gotta eat it kids.  Eat your apple for Pete’s sake, you’re getting fat and you’re dying.”  She was on Michelle’s side.

Guest: Robin Roberts – Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts joined the ladies of The View to discuss a Thanksgiving night special she’s hosting that thanks people who are making a contribution to the world. She said she learned about service and giving back from her parents and she wanted to highlight people giving back in the world. Then she called out Parker who was sitting in the front row of the audience because she couldn’t believe how much he has grown!  She spoke to the ladies about the special and said it was really about just saying “Thank you” to people doing good out in the world.  Rosie O said how thankful they all were that Robin was doing so well and has kicked cancer’s ass twice!  Robin’s Thanksgiving night special airs Thursday night on ABC!

Must Have Monday:  The View has partnered with vendors to offer amazing gifts at up to 82% off the retail price.  You can find all of the Must Have Monday specials by clicking on this link or by visiting The View’s website.

Guest: Aubrey Plaza – “Parks and Rec” star, Aubrey Plaza, joined the ladies of The View to discuss her new role as the voice-over for Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever. Grumpy cat is super famous, has a tremendous amount of Twitter followers and has a huge entourage!  While seated on Rosie O’s lap Aubrey told the audience this will be her last season on Parks and Rec, but she said no one in the audience should be sad because they were all going home with the Grumpy Cat soundtrack and the Grumpy Cat book!  Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever premieres Saturday (11/29) at 8/7(c).

Audience Gift: Everyone in the studio audience received a watch (from the Must Have Monday online auction) and the Grumpy Cat soundtrack and book!