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.
AP’s Today in History for April 14th
President Abraham Lincoln assassinated; Titanic strikes iceberg; First videotape demonstrated; Loretta Lynn born.
Breakfast Tune “Blue Kentucky Girl” by: Heather Berry (song of the day 20)
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Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below
Julian Assange Arrested for Violating Bail
Ian Welsh
Update 2: So, we have a US extradition charge. This is a direct assault on the freedom of the press and those who say it isn’t are fools. The DOJ claim is that Assange didn’t just accept Manning’s documents, he encouraged Manning to go get more. Journalists do this all the time. Likewise, Assange is not American and Wikileaks is not an American institution, so the US is claiming extraordinary extradition rights.
So, it begins. The US put a ton of pressure on Ecuador to make this happen:
More: WikiLeaks says its founder Assange did not "walk out of the embassy". The Ecuadorian ambassador invited British police into the embassy and he was immediately arrested https://t.co/FWYZSDrQlE
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 11, 2019
In itself, this isn’t a big deal, though Ecuador’s caving is pathetic (if rather expected). The question is: What comes next? If Assange is extradited to the US, it will be a huge blow for freedom of the press. Since the Swedish sexual assault charges have been rescinded, if that doesn’t happen this all seems rather overblown.
This has nothing to do with Assange being something of a piece of work. It has to do with the fact that the information Wikileaks released with collateral murder, and even with the DNC leak, was legitimate journalistic information. The idea that journalists don’t accept info from state actors or don’t have political biases and preferences is hilariously wrong and stupid.
It’s also absurd to pretend that Assange has been treated as any other suspect. He hasn’t. His entire case has been politicized from the start, with pressure exerted that is not routine for the sort of sexual assault of which he was accused.
This is a political situation, from its start to its conclusion, whatever that might be.
Remember that Manning was just recently sent to prison on contempt charges because she refused to cooperate with a US grand jury on Wikileaks.
Assange isn’t a nice guy and that isn’t relevant to either his rights, or the bad precedent which will be set if he is prosecuted for releasing information, no matter what the source or reason.
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These House Democrats Pledged Not to Take Corporate Cash — but They’re Using a Loophole to Do It Anyway
Lee Fang, The Intercept
Jason Crow was one of the victorious Democrats who ran in last year’s midterm election on a promise to reject campaign cash controlled by business interests. In one of his first television commercials in the campaign, Crow, now a member of Congress from Colorado, touted his pledge not “to take a dime of corporate PAC money.” Recent campaign finance filings reveal that, about two weeks after being sworn into office, Crow accepted $5,000 from the American Hospital Association PAC, which represents public and private hospital companies across the country.
The Colorado Democrat is one of several newly elected House Democrats to have run on a pledge to eschew corporate money, but have found a broad loophole to begin collecting funds from political action committees affiliated with big business.
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The pledge loophole being exploited by these Democrats hinges on the Federal Election Commission’s designations for noncandidate-affiliated PACs. The elections regulator allows six different registrations, which include corporate, labor union, and trade association PACs. Trade associations are private groups typically formed by a collection of businesses from the same industry to advance shared interests in politics and public policy. Oil companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil, for instance, are represented by the American Petroleum Institute. Banks have the American Bankers Association and the Financial Services Roundtable.
Though the groups are not directly designated as corporate PACs — which are set up by for-profit companies and only take money from a particular company’s employees — they nonetheless represent infusions of corporate money into electoral politics by operating as coalitions to advance shared industry lobbying goals.
Some Democrats who pledged not to take corporate PAC money are leveraging the different FEC designations to stay true to the letter of their promises while violating their spirit.
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- America: A Failing State
Ian Welsh
- 4 Myths About Julian Assange DEBUNKED
WashingtonsBlog
- Bernie Sanders pushes back at critics of his new wealth: ‘I didn’t know it was a crime to write a good book’
Gregory Krieg and Annie Grayer
Something to think about over coffee prozac
Dog Menu At NYC Restaurant Features $42 Steak For Your Pup
Sydney Pereira, Patch Staff
CHELSEA, NY — A restaurant in Chelsea has curated a menu for your dog, the restaurant said on Instagram.
The Wilson, located at 132 West 27th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves., will now serve high-end doggy food for you and your pup to dine together.
The menu is “a tribute to Wilson, the bulldog, our namesake,” said the restaurant’s director of marketing in a video on Instagram.
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