Aug 03 2019

The Breakfast Club (Melting Glaciers)

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 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) 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.

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This Day in History

Christopher Columbus sets sail; Europe slides further into World War I; A Cold War case heats up Capitol Hill; Air traffic controllers in the U.S. go on strike; NBA founded; Singer Tony Bennett born.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Future generations are not going to ask us what political party were you in. They are going to ask what did you do about it, when you knew the glaciers were melting.

Martin Sheen

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Aug 03 2019

Six In The Morning Saturday 3 August 2019

 

Boris Johnson could be the last prime minister of the United Kingdom

Analysis by Luke McGee, CNN

Updated 0737 GMT (1537 HKT) August 3, 2019

Boris Johnson, the UK’s new prime minister, wants you to know that he loves his country.

Specifically, he wants you to know that he loves the Union between the four nations that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Unfortunately for Johnson, this love is not always reciprocated. During his visits to the four nations earlier this week, Johnson was confronted by a number of protesters who took issue with his “do or die” approach to Brexit. Johnson has not been coy about his commitment to leaving the EU on October 31. And he’s made it perfectly clear he would do so without a deal.

New wave of terrorist attacks possible before end of year, UN says

UN report warns threat from Islamist extremist groups remains high

The United Nations has warned that a recent pause in international terrorist violence may soon end, with a new wave of attacks possible before the end of the year.

In a report, specialist monitors at the UN security council paint a worrying picture of a global Islamist extremist movement that continues to pose a significant threat despite recent setbacks.

The authors raise concerns about up to 30,000 foreigners who travelled to the “caliphate” to fight and who may still be alive.

World’s first human-monkey hybrid created in China, scientists reveal

Researchers pledge to continue using primates in search for transplant organs

Jane Dalton @JournoJane

Scientists say they have created the world’s first human-monkey hybrid in a laboratory in China.

The researchers, who want to use animals to create organs for human life-saving transplants, say creating the hybrid was an important step.

And they pledged to continue their experiments using primates.

The team revealed that they had injected human stem cells capable of creating any type of tissue into a monkey embryo.

Russia: Demonstrators defiant ahead of opposition rally in Moscow

A recent police crackdown on protesters pushing for fair local council elections in the Russian capital has not deterred demonstrators. Thousands are expected to rally again over the weekend.

“A walk along the boulevards” in Moscow — that’s how organizers have billed the upcoming rally on Facebook. Saturday’s planned protest has not been authorized. It is to be the latest in a string of demonstrations fighting for the registration of independent candidates for elections to the Moscow parliament.

Last weekend’s rally saw nearly 1,400 people arrested, with images of police violence that sent shock waves around the world and garnered condemnation from both German and French government officials. The independent monitor OVD-Info told DW that the number of those arrested was a “record.”

Sudan’s military council and main opposition coalition agree to a constitutional declaration

Sudan’s military council and its main opposition coalition have agreed on a constitutional declaration to usher in a new period of transitional government, an African Union mediator told a news conference in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The document, which outlines the powers and the relationship between the branches of the transitional government, comes after weeks of protracted negotiations brokered by the African Union and neighbouring Ethiopia amid sporadic bouts of violence in the capital Khartoum and other cities.

Lebatt said that the delegations will continue talks on Saturday over the technical details of the signature procedures but did not elaborate further on the contents of the declaration.

TEPCO starts dismantling exhaust stack at crippled Fukushima plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc has begun dismantling part of the damaged and contaminated exhaust stack at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

After the deadly earthquake and tsunami in 2011 hit the plant and disabled its cooling functions, TEPCO released highly radioactive vapor through the exhaust stack as the utility scrambled to reduce pressure inside the No. 1 reactor’s containment vessel that had increased.

TEPCO aims to reduce the risk from the 120-meter joint exhaust stack for the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors after finding fractures in metal poles supporting the chimney structure.

Aug 02 2019

Moving the Needle

Boris Johnswon’s seat as Prime Minister got immeasurably more tippy in a Wales by-election that reduces his Parliamentary Majority to a single vote.

In a flash, Boris Johnson’s working majority in Britain’s Parliament is now just one seat
By William Booth, Washington Post
August 2, 2019

In February, three Conservative members of Parliament quit the party over Brexit to form a new independent group in the House of Commons.

There have also been five by-election contests since the 2017 general elections — two lawmakers faced recall petitions, two resigned from office and one died.

If Johnson’s pledge to get Britain out by October is threatened, many assume he might call a snap election to seek a greater majority in Parliament — but this result makes it unclear how he and his party would fare.

In the Brecon-district by-election in Wales on Thursday, Conservative Chris Davies tried to hold on to his seat, but was beaten by Liberal Democrat candidate Jane Dodds.

What makes this doubly interesting is that the Liberal Democrats have emerged as the most potent voice in British politics for stopping Brexit and have increased their clout by forging a “Remain Alliance.”

In the election in Wales, the Liberal Democrats teamed up with other anti-Brexit parties, including the Greens and Wales’s Plaid Cymru, which both agreed not to put forward candidates, to increase the Liberal Democrat candidate’s chances.

“Boris Johnson’s shrinking majority makes it clear that he has no mandate to crash us out of the E.U.,” the Liberal Democrats’ new leader, Jo Swinson, said Friday. She added that she envisioned the Remain Alliance growing to fight Johnson’s Brexit plans.

“The country doesn’t have to settle for Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn,” she told BBC Radio, referring to the opposition Labour Party leader, who can’t seem to make up his mind on whether Labour supports leaving or remaining in the E.U.

Dodd, the winner in Wales, said the Liberal Democrats “are the party that want to stay as part of the United Kingdom. We want to stay in Europe. We see that as healthy for our communities. We have to stay in Europe, and we have to stay in this bigger team.”

Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian politician and a leader for the European Parliament’s Brexit talks, tweeted his congratulations to the Liberal Democrats, asserting that “the party goes from strength to strength & it really could change everything.”

The Liberal Democrats took 13,826 votes and the Conservative Party garnered 12,401, a margin of 1,425 that overturned the Tories’ previous majority of more than 8,000.

The voting district backed leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Johnson was jeered this week as he visited Wales. The new prime minister met with chicken farmers and sheepherders who are worried that if Britain crashes out of Europe without new customs and trade arrangements, their roasters and lamb chops could immediately face high tariffs in Europe that would make their meats far less competitive.

“October, November and December are peak times to sell Welsh lamb,” Dodd said Friday. “There are two issues for farmers — firstly, how are they going to cope with 40 percent tariffs on their lamb exports. The second is mental health. Farming is the profession with the highest suicide rate. These are real concerns.”

Witching hour (October 31st) approaches.

Aug 02 2019

Pondering the Pundits

Pondering 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 “Pondering the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Paul Krugman: Why Was Trumponomics a Flop?

Neither tax cuts nor tariffs are working.

Donald Trump has pursued two main economic policies. On taxes, he has been an orthodox Republican, pushing through big tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, which his administration promised would lead to a huge surge in business investment. On trade, he has broken with his party’s free(ish) trade policies, imposing large tariffs that he promised would lead to a revival of U.S. manufacturing.

Donald Trump has pursued two main economic policies. On taxes, he has been an orthodox Republican, pushing through big tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, which his administration promised would lead to a huge surge in business investment. On trade, he has broken with his party’s free(ish) trade policies, imposing large tariffs that he promised would lead to a revival of U.S. manufacturing.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates, even though the unemployment rate is low and overall economic growth remains decent, though not great. According to Jay Powell, the Fed’s chairman, the goal was to take out some insurance against worrying hints of a future slowdown — in particular, weakness in business investment, which fell in the most recent quarter, and manufacturing, which has been declining since the beginning of the year. [..]

To be fair, the economy remains pretty strong, which isn’t really a surprise given the G.O.P.’s willingness to run huge budget deficits as long as Democrats don’t hold the White House. As I wrote three days after the 2016 election — after the shock had worn off — “It’s at least possible that bigger budget deficits will, if anything, strengthen the economy briefly.” And that’s pretty much what happened: There was a bit of a bump in 2018, but at this point we’ve basically returned to pre-Trump rates of growth.

But why has Trumponomics failed to deliver much besides trillion-dollar budget deficits? The answer is that both the tax cuts and the trade war were based on false views about how the world works.

Harry Littman: Two big reasons the Senate should swiftly reject John Ratcliffe

John Ratcliffe, President Trump’s nominee to serve as the next director of national intelligence, faces two high hurdles to earning Senate confirmation.

The first is the Republican representative’s well-earned reputation as a political partisan and a toady to the president, an attribute particularly ill-suited to the job of director of national intelligence (DNI), who must provide objective national security information as opposed to what he or she thinks the president wants to hear.

The second involves charges of Ratcliffe dramatically exaggerating his own experience prosecuting terrorism cases. The allegation is worrisome in itself, but also again particularly with respect to the DNI, who is required by law to have “extensive national security experience.”

As to the charge of toadyism, it is established, and disqualifying in itself.

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Aug 02 2019

Deja Vu All Over Again

Why can’t they learn? In 1990, the United States sent troops into Saudi Arabia at the request of the royals who were panicked over bogus pictures of the Iraq army under the late Sadaam Hussein massing on their eastern border and the Iraqi invasion of tiny Kuwait.

 

Scott Peterson reported for The Christian Science Monitor in 2002, a key part of the first Bush administration’s case “was that an Iraqi juggernaut was also threatening to roll into Saudi Arabia. Citing top-secret satellite images, Pentagon officials estimated in mid-September [of 1990]  that up to 250,000 Iraqi troops and 1,500 tanks stood on the border, threatening the key US oil supplier.”

A quarter of a million troops with heavy armor amassed on the Saudi border certainly seemed like a clear sign of hostile intent. In announcing that he had deployed troops to the Gulf in August 1990, George HW Bush said, “I took this action to assist the Saudi Arabian Government in the defense of its homeland.” He asked the American people for their “support in a decision I’ve made to stand up for what’s right and condemn what’s wrong, all in the cause of peace.”

But one reporter — Jean Heller of the St. Petersburg Times — wasn’t satisfied taking the administration’s claims at face value. She obtained two commercial satellite images of the area taken at the exact same time that American intelligence supposedly had found Saddam’s huge and menacing army and found nothing there but empty desert.

She contacted the office of then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney “for evidence refuting the Times photos or analysis offering to hold the story if proven wrong.” But “the official response” was: “Trust us.”

Heller later told the Monitor’s Scott Peterson that the Iraqi buildup on the border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia “was the whole justification for Bush sending troops in there, and it just didn’t exist.”

The troops remained Saudi Arabia even after their presence was no longer needed. Their presence raised the ire of the son of a Saudi construction magnate, Osama bin Laden, which precipitated the rise of Al Qaeda. Ten years later the US was attacked on 9/11. Most of us remember very well what happened next. Once again, the US is about to repeat its 1990 lie by sending troops into Saudi Arabia. Only this time the evil regime is Iran, who hasn’t invaded anyone.

This time, however, the ostensible threat to Saudi Arabia comes from naughty Iran, the American national security state’s current favorite exaggerated villain. And, of course, Iran—unlike our onetime “partners” in Iraq—hasn’t invaded anybody. Thus, the U.S. troop infusion is more preemptive than reactive. It’s no matter; few Americans (or even most media/political elites) seem to notice.

Besides, what could go wrong? After all, the U.S. stations its military personnel all over the Middle East, so why not in “friendly” Saudi Arabia too? After all, Jared Kushner, the son-in-law in chief, maintains a well-known bromance with his pen pal, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), and President Trump revels in the profits from massive arms sales to the kingdom. Still, the answer to the question is a stark one: Quite a lot can go wrong, actually. It has before. [..]

First, the U.S. government backed a megalomaniacal dictator in Iraq during his eight-year invasion of Iran. After that war ended in a draw, Saddam Hussein thought perhaps he’d test his American support and gobble up small, but oil-rich, Kuwait. When Riyadh panicked, feared for its own bordering oil fields and invited in the U.S. military, the Saudi royals angered and alienated the other significant American time bomb: Osama bin Laden—the wealthy Islamist Saudi jihadi that Washington had backed (during the 1980s) in his fight with the Soviets in Afghanistan.

See, bin Laden believed his own legend: That his fellow foreign volunteers, known as “Afghan Arabs,” had turned the tide and driven the Soviets from Afghanistan. In reality, it was mostly native Afghan rebels, buoyed by generous American and Gulf States military aid, that had won the war—but that mattered little to bin Laden, the dogmatic, privileged son of a Saudi construction magnate. When Iraq swallowed Kuwait and threatened Saudi Arabia in 1990, the prodigal son offered to return, raise a new army of jihadis and defend the kingdom against Hussein’s forces. Rebuked by the Saudi king and overshadowed by the massive U.S. military, bin Laden developed a lifelong animus toward both the kingdom and America. The vendetta would prove extremely pivotal, a history-altering event. [..]

Bin Laden was a veritable monster, but, well, he had a point.

The rest, as they say, was history. The bombing of two American embassies in Africa (1998), the bombing of the USS Cole at the port of Aden, in Yemen (2000), and, most tragically, the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Thousands of Americans died in the combined attacks; President Bush the Younger started a war that’s yet to end and can’t be won. It’s been going for nearly 18 years. The total cost (so far): 7,000 American troops dead, at least 244,000 foreign civilians killed and a cool $5.9 trillion in U.S. tax dollars wasted.

Perhaps American policymakers, pundits and the people at large ought to remember this tragic course of events, what the great author Chalmers Johnson referred to as “blowback.” If they did, it’d be clear that today’s fresh infusion of U.S. troops back into the vicinity of the Islamic holy places is a major event with potentially devastating consequences for the U.S. military—and perhaps even the American homeland.

It seems this latest move into Saudi Arabia is all risk and no reward. What can the U.S. possibly achieve in the kingdom: protecting a venal Saudi theocracy that can defend itself quite easily from the inflated threat of sanctions-laden Iran? The risks, on the other hand, are many, and bear striking resemblance to what did unfold the last time Washington thought it prudent to garrison Saudi Arabia.

Maybe the U.S. will get lucky and suffer only a few terror attacks on its troops in the kingdom. Then again, Washington might just blunder into an unnecessary, unwinnable, unethical war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, a nation of 80 million, and further destabilize an already precarious region. The nightmare, but totally possible, scenario would be the radicalization of new Saudi and transnational jihadis who then take the fight to New York or Los Angeles.

It’s happened before, back when America was far less unpopular in the Mideast and the Muslim world than it is today. Don’t count it out.

Yes, the US is directly responsible for Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden may be dead but his organization lives on in the shadows all over the world and the US keeps poking a stick at it.

Aug 02 2019

Cartnoon

Patriotism

Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian

Aug 02 2019

The Breakfast Club (Fools Believe)

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 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) 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.

photo stress free zone_zps7hlsflkj.jpg

This Day in History

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.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Nations have come under the control of haters and fools.

Carroll O’Connor

Continue reading

Aug 02 2019

Six In The Morning Friday 2 August 2019

South Korea accuses Japan of waging ‘economic war’

By Sherisse Pham, CNN Business

Updated 0758 GMT (1558 HKT) August 2, 2019

Japan dropped South Korea as a preferred trading partner on Friday, escalating a dispute that threatens the global supply chain for smartphones and electronic devices.

The decision to remove South Korea from a so-called white list means that Japanese exports to South Korea now require additional screening to make sure they are not used for weapons and military applications. The new restrictions go into effect August 28.

South Korea was the only Asian country on the white list. Revoking its preferred status means the country will receive the same treatment as other Asian countries and territories, including Taiwan, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday.

Hong Kong police arrest pro-independence figure amid further protests

Founder of the banned Hong Kong National party among eight arrests by police as public servants prepare to march

Hong Kong police have arrested eight people, including a prominent pro-independence activist, on suspicion of having offensive weapons and explosives, ahead of a weekend of mass protests.

On Thursday night riot police raided an industrial building in Sha Tin in Hong Kong’s New Territories. A statement said they found petrol bombs and weapons.

The police said seven men and one woman, between the ages of 24 and 31 were arrested. They included Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National party, which was banned last year. Dozens of protesters surrounded local police stations from Thursday night into Friday morning, chanting “Free the martyrs!” according to footage from Hong Kong media.

World’s deepest lake under threat of ecological disaster from toxic mudflows

Pollution from waste facility chemicals ‘would be truly catastrophic,’ warns environmental expert

Adam Forrest @adamtomforrest

The world’s deepest lake is under threat from toxic mudflows following widespread flooding in Siberia, according to environmentalists.

Alongside wildfires that continue to consume its forests, the remote region in eastern Russia has been hit by severe floods in recent weeks – leaving Lake Baikal at risk of an ecological “catastrophe”.

An overflowing river in Baikal has affected a former pulp and paper mill close to the lake, prompting fears toxic chemicals could be swept into the pristine freshwaters, The Siberian Times reported.

Saudi Arabia to let adult women travel without permission from male guardian: state media

Saudi Arabia has allowed adult women to travel without permission and granted them more control over family matters, further eroding a heavily criticised male guardianship system at a time of heightened scrutiny over its human rights record.

The decisions issued in a series of cabinet decrees published by the official gazette on Friday stipulate that a Saudi passport should be issued to any citizen that applies for it and that any person above the age of 21 does not need permission to travel.

The amendments to regulations also grant women for the first time the right to register child birth, marriage or divorce and to be issued official family documents and be eligible as a guardian to children who are minors.

INF nuclear treaty: US pulls out of Cold War-era pact with Russia

The US is set to formally withdraw from a nuclear treaty with Russia, raising fears of a new arms race.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.

It banned missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km (310-3,400 miles).

But earlier this year the US and Nato accused Russia of violating the pact by deploying a new type of cruise missile, which Moscow has denied.

The Americans said they had evidence that Russia had deployed a number of 9M729 missiles – known to Nato as SSC-8. This accusation was then put to Washington’s Nato allies, which all backed the US claim.

Sudan detains nine RSF members over killing of protesters

Statement by spokesman of ruling Transitional Military Council comes as generals resume talks with protest leaders.

A spokesman for Sudan‘s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) has said nine members of a paramilitary group have been dismissed and detained over the recent killing of protesters in the cities of Omdurman and El-Obeid.

Speaking to reporters on Friday after a night of negotiations between Sudan’s ruling generals and protest leaders, Lieutenant General Shams El Din Kabbashi said those arrested belonged to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a feared group blamed by pro-democracy demonstrators for a bloody crackdown in June at a protest camp in the capital, Khartoum.

The spokesman added that the governor of North Kordofan state and its security council will be held accountable for the killing of six people, including four school children in the state capital, El-Obeid, on Monday.

Aug 01 2019

867 5309

Entirely creepy in retrospect like John Cusack in Say Anything.

Look, I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience, At 120+ years I understand how Faxing has taken the country by storm and I hear tell this nefangled email thing is going to make the Post Office obsolete. I don’t believe it for a minute, who would deliver my Kalamata Olives from Amazon.com?

30330…

Three I think, there are a lot of 3s in there someplace.

Trevor

Stephen

Seth

Chris Hayes

Aug 01 2019

Pondering the Pundits

Pondering 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 “Pondering the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Frank Figliuzzi:Why Does Trump Fan the Flames of Race-Based Terrorism?

The president is making the F.B.I.’s job harder.

If I learned anything from 25 years in the F.B.I., including a stint as head of counterintelligence, it was to trust my gut when I see a threat unfolding. Those of us who were part of the post-Sept. 11 intelligence community had a duty to sound the alarm about an impending threat.

Now, instinct and experience tell me we’re headed for trouble in the form of white hate violence stoked by a racially divisive president. I hope I’m wrong. [..]

It doesn’t really matter whether Mr. Trump is truly a racist or merely playing one on television to appeal to his base. Either way, his path can lead to bloodshed. When that happens, we will hear White House officials and the Republican leadership claim their hands are clean because malicious people can’t be stopped from acting out.

Don’t believe a word of it. Terrorists aren’t born that way: They are inspired, cultivated and directed. Our experience with online radicalization has shown there is a clear path to violence. I fear we are on it.

David Dayen: CNN’s Debate Fail

The Democratic debate was an inevitable by-product of turning news into an entertainment and cultural product

Everyone working for CNN should walk into network president Jeff Zucker’s office and resign en masse on Wednesday morning. A “debate” that spent its opening 25 minutes less efficiently than a Super Bowl pre-game show got dramatically worse as the actual questions got started. Jake Tapper then delivered instructions, warning the candidates not to go over time after CNN saw fit to run the national anthem and then a commercial break after the scheduled start time. The only ones wasting time on debate night would be CNN.

It would give Tapper and his other moderators too much credit to say that their relentless right-wing framing of the questions was animated by a desire to protect the insurance industry and the border patrol. But that’s not really it. CNN has no politics. CNN has no understanding of politics or policy. I doubt the combined firepower of the 20-person post-game panel could name a bill currently before Congress. The CNN debate was an inevitable by-product of turning news into an entertainment and cultural product.

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