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 hungover we’ve been bailed out we’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: Draft Dodger Rag – Smothers Brothers and George Segal
Published on Dec 25, 2014
From 1967, the Smothers Brothers stood virtually alone, among contemporary performers of that time, opposing the Vietnam War (Conflict, or whatever you want to call it). This was their version of a Phil Ochs’ song, “Draft Dodger Rag”, with guest star George Segal.
Today in History
Published on Aug 1, 2012
Highlights of this day in history: The Tonkin Gulf incident sparks U.S. escalation of the Vietnam War; Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invades Kuwait; JFK’s PT-109 boat sunk; President Warren G. Harding dies; ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok killed in Deadwood. (Aug. 2)
Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below
As ‘Do-Or-Die’ Talks End In Failure, Could TPP Be Derailed for Good?
Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams
This week’s closed-door Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in Maui, which President Barack Obama hoped would be the last round, ended Friday in failure to reach a final agreement, thereby pushing a U.S. ratification fight into the tumultuous 2016 presidential election cycle at the earliest-and raising hopes that the corporate-friendly accord could be derailed for good.
Global justice campaigners, who will now have more time to organize against the pact, were buoyed by the development, with Sujata Dey of Council of Canadians declaring on Saturday: “This stall in talks could mean the death of the deal, and a win for the public interest all over the world.”
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“It’s good news for people and the planet that no deal was done at this final do-or-die meeting given the TPP’s threats to jobs, wages, safe food, affordable medicines and more,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, in a press statement. “Only the beleaguered negotiators and most of the 600 official U.S. trade advisers representing corporate interests wanted this deal, which recent polling shows is unpopular in most of the countries involved.” …
As Heat Wave Sweeps Iraq, Thousands Demand Water, Electricity, Sustenance
Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams
As temperatures in Iraq climbed this week over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, thousands of people took to the streets across the country to protest dangerous power cuts, clean water shortages, poor living conditions-and the government corruption and theft they say is to blame.
Prominent media personalities and academics put out the call for a Friday mobilization in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, and thousands took heed, marching, carrying signs, and at one point shutting down traffic in the Iraqi capital.
“Young people, thirsty for an opportunity to gather outside the rhetoric of political parties, and their sectarian criminal agenda, rushed to the city’s main square to demand better living conditions, chanting, ‘In the name of religion, the thieves robbed us,” Ahmed Habib, editor for the Iraqi digital magazine shakomako.net, told Common Dreams. …
Puerto Rico says it will not make $58m bond payment due Saturday
Associated Press in San Juan
Puerto Rico’s government said on Friday it would not make a $58m bond payment due on the weekend and warned that the general fund would run out of liquidity by November if no action is taken.
Gubernatorial chief of staff Victor Suarez said at a news conference that the island’s Public Finance Corporation could not meet the payment which was due on Saturday.
“We don’t have the money,” he said, adding that the government still hopes to reach an agreement with creditors on renegotiating its debts. …
Kurdish leader asks PKK to withdraw from northern Iraq
Al Jazeera and agencies
Iraq’s Kurdish regional government has called on the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK) to “withdraw” from its territory to prevent civilian deaths, amid a campaign of Turkish airstrikes targeting the group.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said the PKK “should withdraw its fighters from the Kurdish region so to ensure the civilians of Kurdistan do not become victim of that fighting and conflict”.
The statement also condemned Turkey for bombing civilians, following reports that civilian homes were damaged in airstrikes in northwestern Iraq, while calling on both parties to resume peace talks. …
July is the deadliest month of 2015 for police-related killings
Jamiles Lartey, The Guardian
July was the deadliest month of 2015 so far for killings by police after registering 118 fatalities, according to the Guardian’s ongoing investigation The Counted, which now projects that US law enforcement is on course to kill more than 1,150 people this year.
The July figure brought an end to a steady decline in totals over the previous four months. After 113 people were killed in March, 101 died in April, 87 fatalities were recorded in May and 78 in June.
At least 20 people killed in July – more than one in six – were unarmed, including Samuel DuBose, who was shot by University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing in a 19 July traffic stop that has become the latest flashpoint in protests over the police’s use of deadly force. …
- Bush-Clinton Is Not Inevitable
John Atcheson - US Corruption vs. World Corruption
Ian Welsh - Freedom Rider: Obama’s Africa Hypocrisy
Margaret Kimberley - In the Age of Trump, Will Democrats Sell Out More, Or Less?
Matt Taibbi - 12 Angry Men.
ek hornbeck - Any Excuse for Another War
TMC
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac:
Michigan taxidermist recreates football rivalry
LANSING, Mich. (AP) – A Lansing-based taxidermist used the longtime rivalry between Michigan State University and the University of Michigan as inspiration for his latest creation.
Nick Saade, a full-time taxidermist for 18 years, recently made a football display with 22 stuffed chipmunks wearing little Spartan and Wolverine helmets. The chipmunks are mounted to a small-scale football field in passing, throwing, catching and tackling positions.
Saade enlisted the help of his son, who’s a football coach at Sexton High School, to help him plan the layout and plays in his display.
Saade, who owns Taxidermy by Nick Saade, told the Lansing State Journal (http://on.lsj.com/1ItIUBL ) that display shows the Spartans as they’re about to score the winning touchdown, with the chipmunk quarterback winding up to throw the football to his teammate in the end zone.
The Wolverine players from the University of Michigan look “kind of cool, but everybody knows MSU is better – even the chipmunks,” Saade said.
Four referees will be added to the display when another one of Saade’s relatives, a doll-maker, is finished creating their uniforms.
After the display is complete, Saade plans to sell his creation for $1,500.
“I don’t even care if it sells or not. It’s just a cute thing,” he said.
Saade said he doesn’t kill animals specifically for his projects, and instead he uses road kill, nuisance animals and leftover parts from the hunting and fishing trophies he makes.
The chipmunks in the football display were trapped by several friends who wanted to rid their cabins of the rodents. When a friend donated a chipmunk, he put it in the freezer, then waited until he collected enough of them for his project.
Other creations Saade has dreamed up are two fencing squirrels, an upright white-tailed doe holding a cocktail tray and a lounging muskrat.
“I basically do this because I love to do it, and I don’t like to see any parts of animals wasted,” he said of his self-taught taxidermy.
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the lounging muskrat will be playing a banjo.