Stephen and Seth are back.
Stephen
Seth
Jul 16 2019
Summer Vacation
Jul 16 2019
The Breakfast Club (No Law)
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.
This Day in History
Test of the world’s first nuclear weapon; President Richard Nixon’s White House taping system revealed; John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife and her sister die in a plane crash; Apollo 11 lifts off for Moon.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
It doesn’t make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law. Ruben Blades
Jul 16 2019
Six In The Morning Tuesday 16 July 2019
India monsoons: Collapse of four-storey building leaves more than 40 trapped in Mumbai
Monsoon rains have displaced millions of people in recent weeks and killed scores across India, Nepal and Bangladesh
Adam WithnallDelhi
A four-story building has collapsed in a densely populated neighbourhood of Mumbai amid monsoon rains in India, trapping more than 40 people in the rubble.
Fire service officials said the residential building came down in the Dongri area of the city, India’s financial and entertainment capital, and that a search and rescue operation was under way.
Mumbai has been hit by several fatal wall collapses this year during the monsoon rains that come annually between June and September, as the city’s poorly-designed infrastructure struggles to cope with the downpour.
Croatian police use violence to push back migrants, president admits
Human Rights Watch calls on Croatia to end illegal practice of forcing people back over Bosnian border
After months of official denials, Croatia’s president has admitted that the country’s police are involved in the violent pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers apprehended inside the country.
The best chance for thousands of refugees stuck in Bosnia is to cross its border with Croatia to make it to the European Union. For the past year there has been repeated evidence of police using force against those who have made it across the border and then dumping them back in Bosnia.
In an interview with Swiss television, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović appeared to admit the pushbacks were taking place. She denied they were illegal and also admitted that police used force when doing so.
Thousands call for Puerto Rico governor to resign after chat leak
Thousands of people demonstrated Monday demanding the resignation of Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello following the leak of a group text chat in which he and other officials made obscene, sexist and homophobic remarks about political opponents and others including pop star Ricky Martin, local media reports said.
At nightfall police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the capital San Juan who shouted: “Ricky corrupto!” in a third day of protests which also questioned Rossello’s handling of the Hurricane Maria emergency and the island’s financial crisis.
“We want him arrested, him and his wife jailed for stealing money from the people of Puerto Rico,” protestor Tatiana Gomez told the local newspaper Primera Hora.
Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling
By Marshall Cohen, Kay Guerrero and Arturo Torres, CNN
New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 US election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
The documents build on the possibility, raised by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report on Russian meddling, that couriers brought hacked files to Assange at the embassy.
The surveillance reports also describe how Assange turned the embassy into a command center and orchestrated a series of damaging disclosures that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.
Erdogan says Turkey aims to produce S-400s jointly with Russia
President says S-400s will be ready in April 2020, making Turkey the first NATO nation with Russian missile system.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a controversial Russian missile defence system will be fully deployed in April 2020 despite the threat of US sanctions, adding the next step would be to jointly produce S-400s with Moscow.
The first batch of the Russian S-400 equipment was delivered to Turkey in recent days even after repeated US calls to cancel the deal or face punishment.
“We have begun to receive our S-400s. Some said ‘they cannot buy them’… God willing they will have been installed in their sites by April 2020,” Erdogan told a crowd of thousands on Monday in Ankara, as Turkey marked the third anniversary of a bloody coup attempt.
Congresswomen hit back after Trump’s tweets branded racist
The four US congresswomen attacked by US President Donald Trump in tweets widely called racist have dismissed his remarks as a distraction.
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib urged the US people “not to take the bait” at a Monday news conference.
Mr Trump had suggested the four women – all US citizens – “can leave”.
He has defended his comments and denied allegations of racism.
The president did not explicitly name the women in his initial Twitter tirade on Sunday, but the context made a clear link to the four Democrat women, who are known as The Squad.
Jul 15 2019
The Breakfast Club (Early Warning)
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.
This Day in History
President Richard Nixon announces his breakthrough trip to China; Fashion designer Gianni Versace slain; Aerospace giant Boeing founded; Dutch painter Rembrandt born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
History is a vast early warning system.
Jul 15 2019
Six In The Morning Monday 15 July 2019
Trump tweets racist attacks at progressive Democratic congresswomen
Updated 0032 GMT (0832 HKT) July 15, 2019
President Donald Trump used racist language on Sunday to attack progressive Democratic congresswomen, falsely implying they weren’t natural-born American citizens.
Trump did not name who he was attacking in Sunday’s tirade but earlier this week he referenced New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when the President was defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
A group of Democrats, who are women of color and have been outspoken about Trump’s immigration policies, last week condemned the conditions of border detention facilities. The group of women joining Ocasio-Cortez were Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Papua New Guinea massacre of 30 women and children is ‘worst payback killing’ in country’s history
Warring clans target women and children after tribe leader’s mother killed, police minister says
The brutal deaths of about 30 women and children in Papua New Guinea’s highlands amount to the “worst payback killing” in the country’s history, the police minister has said.
Bryan Kramer made the declaration after visiting Hela province, where 16 people were slaughtered by rival clansmen who the prime minister, James Marape, described as “warlords”.
The motive for the massacre was unclear last week, and the total death toll from a series of attacks had also varied, according to reports.
Toxic employers face jail as South Korea tackles workplace bullying
After enduring months of constant harassment at work, South Korean office worker Christine Jung finally confronted her aggressor — only to be fired and sued for defamation by her employer.
Her situation is not unusual in South Korea, where employees have traditionally been expected to turn a blind eye to abusive behaviour by those in power — a phenomenon so commonplace that locals have coined a word for it, “gabjil”. But that could soon change thanks to a revised labour law.
The new legislation that comes into effect on Tuesday will criminalise business owners who unfairly dismiss employees harassed at work.
Reporters in Turkey adopt a new beat: Imprisoned journalists
Three years ago, a failed coup in Turkey led to a media crackdown. Since then, journalists have banded together to document the cases of reporters imprisoned or changed with crimes against the state.
This brief notice was a part of the “Upcoming trials” series featured on the website and the Twitter account of the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), a media freedom and legal rights organization in Turkey. It was founded by journalist Evin Baris Altintas in 2017 to track and document the cases against journalists, writers and academics imprisoned or charged with crimes after the failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016. Parlak’s trial is one of dozens of cases that MLSA is monitoring.
Altintas believes the reason Turkish authorities targeted certain individuals is because they wanted to silence those willing to speak out against Erdogan and his policies. Freedom of expression and media freedom are protected by Turkish law.
TRUMP’S “REMAIN IN MEXICO” POLICY EXPOSES MIGRANTS TO RAPE, KIDNAPPING, AND MURDER IN DANGEROUS BORDER CITIES
THE BIG MAN with a little mustache sat slumped in his chair at an immigrant aid office in Ciudad Juárez. The Mexican city sits a block and a half from El Paso, Texas, across the shallow trickle of the Rio Grande. But proximity to the U.S. meant nothing in his case; the office might as well have been on another continent. The man was sobbing. “Soy un muerto. Un muerto vivo,” he kept saying. “I’m a dead man. The walking dead.”
The man, whom I will call Franklin to protect him from retaliation, said he was being pursued by assassins. Back in his home country months earlier, covered from head to toe to conceal his identity, he had given testimony against cartel bosses who had extorted his and his common-law wife’s businesses. The extortionists were convicted and imprisoned, but the witness’s disguise had fooled no one. Post-trial, two of the bosses’ armed underlings pursued Franklin, first in his home country in Central America. Then, after he fled, they threatened his niece back home with death if she did not say where he had gone. “Juárez, Mexico,” the terrified woman told the hit men.
Japan weighs possible SDF dispatch to Strait of Hormuz as U.S. seeks coalition
Officials from major political parties on Sunday debated whether Self-Defense Forces troops should take part in a U.S.-proposed coalition to safeguard strategic waters near the Strait of Hormuz amid reports the government is mulling such a move.
Koichi Hagiuda, executive acting secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, stressed the need to consider a response to the proposal but said the current situation does not require the immediate dispatch of SDF troops to the Middle East.
Jul 14 2019
La Marseillaise
Vive Le Quatorze Juillet!
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us of the tyranny
The bloody banner is raised,
The bloody banner is raised,
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They’re coming right into your arms
To slit the throats your sons and your companions!
Form your battalions,
Let’s march, let’s march!
That tainted blood
Water our furrows!
Of traitors and conjured kings want?
For whom are these vile chains,
These long-prepared irons?
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What fury it must arouse!
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!
Would make the law in our homes!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would strike down our proud warriors!
Would strike down our proud warriors!
Great God ! By chained hands
Our brows would yield under the yoke
Vile despots would have themselves
The masters of our destinies!
The shame of all parties,
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will finally receive their reward!
Will finally receive their reward!
Everyone is a soldier to combat you
If they fall, our young heroes,
The earth will produce new ones,
Ready to fight against you!
You bear or hold back your blows!
You spare those sorry victims,
Who arm against us with regret.
Who arm against us with regret.
But not these bloodthirsty despots,
These accomplices of Bouillé,
All these tigers who, mercilessly,
Rip their mother’s breast!
Lead, support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished Liberty,
Fight with thy defenders!
Fight with thy defenders!
Under our flags, shall victory
Hurry to thy manly accents,
That thy expiring enemies,
See thy triumph and our glory!
When our elders are no longer there,
There we shall find their dust
And the trace of their virtues
And the trace of their virtues
Much less jealous to survive them
Than to share their coffins,
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or following them
Jul 14 2019
The Breakfast Club (Oeufs en Cocotte)
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 July 14th
Bastille prison stormed during the French Revolution; Outlaw ‘Billy the Kid’ gunned down; Richard Speck murders student nurses in Chicago; Mariner 4 probe flies by Mars; Folk singer Woody Guthrie born.
Breakfast Tune La Marseillaise – Banjo
Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below
US-trained troops shoot Honduran students protesting privatization
Anya Parampil, The Gray Zone / Video by Ben Norton
Anya Parampil reports from inside a student occupation at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), where US-trained troops shot activists protesting the Juan Orlando Hernandez government’s attempt to privatize education and healthcare.
- U.N. Report Condemns Torture of Assange
Robert Scheer
- Mainstream “Centrists” Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
- Sanders vs the Endless Austerity Regime
Glen Ford
- Their Deplorables and Ours
ANDREW LEVINE
- The 4 biggest conservative lies about inequality
Robert Reich
Something to think about over coffee prozac
HOUSE DEMOCRATS ARE PANICKED ABOUT PRIMARIES, AND NEW YORK SHOWS HOW POTENT THEY CAN BE
Ryan Grim, The Intercept
A SPECTER IS haunting the House of Representatives: the specter of primaries. All the powers of the status quo have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter. Blacklists have been drawn up; arms have been locked. The ferocity with which House Democratic incumbents have rallied around each other reached absurd new dimensions this week. With Crisanta Duran, the first Latina state House speaker in Colorado history, challenging Rep. Diana Degette, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus weighed into the primary — on behalf of Degette.
Democratic Reps. Dan Lipinski, Ill.; Eliot Engel, N.Y.; Henry Cuellar, Texas; Steny Hoyer, Md.; and Jerry Nadler, N.Y., are all facing primary challenges, and paranoia is being stoked inside the Democratic caucus. “The question that comes up all the time is, is there anybody internally assisting and abetting, encouraging people to run against incumbents?” Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, told Politico.
In 2018, primary challenges — including by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley — and progressive bids in open seats — from candidates like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Katie Porter, Mike Levin, Lauren Underwood, and Jahana Hayes — yielded just a handful of victories, but those members, once elected, have had an outsized role in shaping the agenda of the new caucus and shifting the national conversation to the left.
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