Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
An armistice ends the Korean War; A House panel votes to impeach President Richard Nixon; A pipe bomb explodes at the Atlanta Olympics; The deposed Shah of Iran and comedian Bob Hope die.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
I am pretty fearless, and you know why? Because I don’t handle fear very well; I’m not a good terrified person.
The House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.
snip
In May 1974, the House Judiciary Committee began formal impeachment hearings against Nixon. On July 27 of that year, the first article of impeachment against the president was passed. Two more articles, for abuse of power and contempt of Congress, were approved on July 29 and 30. On August 5, Nixon complied with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring that he provide transcripts of the missing tapes, and the new evidence clearly implicated him in a cover up of the Watergate break-in. On August 8, Nixon announced his resignation, becoming the first president in U.S. history to voluntarily leave office. After departing the White House on August 9, Nixon was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, who, in a controversial move, pardoned Nixon on September 8, 1974, making it impossible for the former president to be prosecuted for any crimes he might have committed while in office. Only two other presidents in U.S. history have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.
On this day in 1775, the U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. Franklin (1706-1790) put in place the foundation for many aspects of today’s mail system. During early colonial times in the 1600s, few American colonists needed to send mail to each other; it was more likely that their correspondence was with letter writers in Britain. Mail deliveries from across the Atlantic were sporadic and could take many months to arrive. There were no post offices in the colonies, so mail was typically left at inns and taverns. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin, who had been postmaster of Philadelphia, became one of two joint postmasters general for the colonies. He made numerous improvements to the mail system, including setting up new, more efficient colonial routes and cutting delivery time in half between Philadelphia and New York by having the weekly mail wagon travel both day and night via relay teams. Franklin also debuted the first rate chart, which standardized delivery costs based on distance and weight. In 1774, the British fired Franklin from his postmaster job because of his revolutionary activities. However, the following year, he was appointed postmaster general of the United Colonies by the Continental Congress. Franklin held the job until late in 1776, when he was sent to France as a diplomat. He left a vastly improved mail system, with routes from Florida to Maine and regular service between the colonies and Britain. President George Washington appointed Samuel Osgood, a former Massachusetts congressman, as the first postmaster general of the American nation under the new U.S. constitution in 1789. At the time, there were approximately 75 post offices in the country
“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.
This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guests on Sunday’s “This Week” are: Attorney General Loretta Lynch; GOP presidential contender Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood.
The roundtable guests are: ABC News analyst Matthew Dowd; Republican strategist Ana Navarro; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MI); and Maggie Haberman, The New York Times.
Face the Nation: Mr. Dickerson’s guests are: former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX); Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV); former Obama National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; and former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI).
his panel guests are: CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes; John Heilemann, Bloomberg Politics; Wall Street Journal‘s Gerald Seib; and Jamelle Bouie, Slate.
Meet the Press with Chuck Todd: The guests on Sunday’s “MTP” are: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT); former adviser to Presdents Nixon for and Reagan, Patrick J. Buchanan; Jon Nichols, The Nation; and GOP presidential contender Gov. John Kasich (R-OH).
The roundtable guests are: Jose Diaz-Balart, Telemundo and MSNBC host; Sara Fagen, former White House Political Director for President George W. Bush; Ron Fournier, The National Journal; and Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report.
State of the Union with Jake Tapper: Mr. Tapper’s guests are: GOP presidential contender former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX); and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R).
Obama speech on shared values to conclude Kenya visit
BBC
US President Barack Obama is to conclude his visit to Kenya with a televised address at a sports stadium in the capital, Nairobi.
The BBC’s Karen Allen in Nairobi says he is expected to underscore the shared values of the two countries but also touch on human rights.
On Saturday, President Obama discussed security issues with his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta.
Later on Sunday, President Obama will fly on to Ethiopia.
The Kasarani stadium, where the US leader will make his speech, was last year used as a controversial detention camp for hundreds of Somalis during an operation against the Islamist group al-Shabab.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
Breakfast Tune: o Bardo e o Banjo – Honky Tonk Women (The Rolling Stones cover bluegrass)
Today in History
President Harry Truman orders desegregation of U.S. Military; Cuba’s Fidel Castro attacks Moncada barracks; Argentina’s Eva Peron dies; Playwright George Bernard Shaw and rock star Mick Jagger born.
His corruption was so notorious that a Pennsylvania congressman, Thaddeus Stevens, when discussing Cameron’s honesty with Lincoln, told Lincoln that “I don’t think that he would steal a red hot stove.”When Cameron demanded Stevens retract this statement, Stevens told Lincoln “I believe I told you he would not steal a red-hot stove. I will now take that back.”
When banks join the Federal Reserve system, they are required to buy stock in the central bank equal to 6 percent of their assets. However, that stock does not gain value and cannot be traded or sold, so to entice banks to participate, the Fed pays out a 6 percent dividend payment.
The Senate proposal says it would slash that “overly generous” payout to 1.5 percent for all banks with more than $1 billion in assets. While the summary language outlining the proposal said that change would only impact “large banks,” industry advocates argued that banks most would identify as small community shops could easily have assets in excess of that amount.
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While banking advocates make the policy argument, they also acknowledge they are facing a hard political reality – $17 billion is hard for members to pass up to help cover costs in a must-pass bill.
“It’s difficult to have a policy discussion when people are looking for a pay for,” said Ballentine. “That’s the issue we’ve been running into.”
The Senate bill is facing an uphill climb towards enactment, as House leaders from both parties have pushed the Senate to instead take up its short-term extension of highway funding and continue working on a longer-term proposal. But now that the Fed dividend has been identified as a way to raise billions of dollars, the industry now will be on high alert for it pop up elsewhere, when lawmakers are looking for a way to cover the costs of their preferred policies.
“That’s a genuine concern,” said Merski. “We’re going to remain actively opposed to this in any form.”
“Pay fors, they never die,” agreed Ballentine. “Perhaps we can take some of the spotlight off of this provision, which we think has served a good purpose.”
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