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 10:00am (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
The U.S. Supreme Court effectively voids state death penalty laws; Jerusalem reunified under Israeli control after the Six-Day War; Singer Rosemary Clooney and actress Katharine Hepburn die.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
G20 summit: Trump and Xi agree to restart US-China trade talks
The United States and China have agreed to resume trade negotiations, easing a protracted row that has fuelled a global economic slowdown.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached the agreement on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan.
Mr Trump said the talks had been “excellent”.
He had threatened to impose an additional $300bn (£236bn) in tariffs on Chinese imports.
However after the meeting in Osaka, he confirmed that Washington would not be adding the additional tariffs, and that he would continue to negotiate with Beijing “for the time being”.
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: ‘Hope is contagious’
One is America’s youngest-ever congresswoman, the other a Swedish schoolgirl. Two of the most powerful voices on the climate speak for the first time
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez enters a boardroom at her constituency office in Queens, New York, after a short delay which, a political aide hopes, hasn’t been caused by a constituent waylaying her in the corridor. (“They can get really excited to meet her.”) Greta Thunberg is in her home in Sweden, her father testing the technology for the video link while the teenager waits in the background. The activists have never met nor spoken but, as two of the most visible climate campaigners in the world, they are keenly aware of each other.
German charity rescue ship with 40 migrants on board docks after ‘tense’ days-long standoff with Italian authorities.
A German charity rescue ship with 40 migrants on board defied authorities and docked in the port of the Italian island of Lampedusa early Saturday, after it was at sea for more than two weeks.
Italian news agency ANSA reported that an Italian customs police boat attempted to prevent the Sea-Watch 3 charity ship from docking on multiple occasions, but had to get out of the way in order to not be trapped against a wharf.
Chinese infiltrators plotting Taiwan takeover
Hands of the United Front seen in false news reports and distortion of results of last municipal elections
ByJONATHAN MANTHORPE, TAIPEI
Beijing’s long-threatened invasion of Taiwan is well underway, but its shock troops are not the foot-soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army. They are the shadowy agents of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “magic weapon,” who over the past decade have infiltrated Taiwanese society and institutions.
Since 2015 Xi has doubled the budget and responsibilities of the United Front, which aims to rally support for Chinese Communist Party objectives at home and abroad, often by creating groups and organizations that have no obvious affiliations with the party.
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS PLANNING MASS VIDEO PROCEEDINGS FOR IMMIGRANTS IN TENTS ON THE BORDER
A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION program that banishes asylum-seekers to perilous Mexican border cities could expand exponentially — and disastrously — with a new plan to hold mass video proceedings in tents along the border.
Officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, the Trump program has already pushed over 15,000 migrants seeking asylum out of the U.S. and into areas just across the international line, many of which the State Department advises Americans to limit travel to because they are so crime-ridden. Many immigrant rights advocates call the program the “Migrant Persecution Protocols.”
Ancient palace emerges from drought-hit Iraq reservoir
Jack Guy, CNN • Updated 29th June 2019
A 3,400-year-old palace has emerged from a reservoir in the Kurdistan region of Iraq after water levels dropped because of drought.
The discovery of the ruins in the Mosul Dam reservoir on the banks of the Tigris River inspired a spontaneous archeological dig that will improve understanding of the Mittani Empire, one of the least-researched empires of the Ancient Near East, the Kurdish-German team of researchers said in a press release.
“The find is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the region in recent decades,” Kurdish archeologist Hasan Ahmed Qasim said in a press release.
They’re planning another run to Canada this month to stock up on insulin — and to call attention to their cause. This time, they’ll be taking the scenic route, driving from Minnesota through Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan en route to London, Ontario, where Frederick Banting began the work that led to the discovery of insulin nearly a century ago.
Like millions of Americans, Greenseid and Nystrom are stressed and outraged by the rising costs of prescription drugs in the United States — a problem Republicans and Democrats alike have promised to fix.
Insulin is a big part of the challenge. More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. About 7.5 million, including 1.5 million with Type 1 diabetes, rely on insulin.
Some pharmaceutical companies, under pressure from U.S. lawmakers, have tried to reduce the cost for some patients. But many who rely on insulin still struggle. Large numbers resort to rationing — a dangerous and sometimes deadly practice.
Some diabetics and their families are taking matters into their own hands. They meet in coffee shops and strip mall parking lots to exchange emergency supplies. An unknown number travel outside the country to buy the lifesaving drug for less.
None of this is recommended by U.S. officials, and some of it might be illegal under Food and Drug Administration guidelines. But the organizers of the caravan — their word, a nod to the migrants traveling in groups through Mexico to the U.S. border — are speaking out about their trip because they want Americans to see how drug prices push ordinary people to extremes.
“When you have a bad health-care system, it makes good people feel like outlaws,” Greenseid said.
Look, it’s not that I think Joe Biden is the anti-Christ any more than I believe Bernie Sanders is the reincarnation of Karl Marx, but he does have a public record and it was troubling when he made it and it’s troubling today. Last time I checked repealing the Hyde Amendment (which he whipped in the Senate ladies) was not on his action agenda despite being quite a popular idea among Democrats as recently as last week, and indeed his entire Legislative history is pro-Life and anti-Abortion.
It’s ground Gillibrand could have confronted him on and tried to a bit but she was kind of a feminist black hole, ignoring her opponents (and the questions) entirely. Still, if you are a feminist and you have the patriarchal personification of the status quo standing next to you, wouldn’t you feel compelled to remind him? Biden is no Al Franken, he’s just creepy in that same bad touches clown/actor clueless kind of way that some people have. Me? I did politics for a while, I have a “personal space” zone of about a meter and I remember and resent every intrusion. You may be more comfortable with the hugging thing than I am.
On the other hand Kamala Harris kneecapped him without hesitation- “As the only African-American on this stage, may I address that?”
Come back here. I’ll bite your legs off.
And then she crushed him with the Busing story. I, of course, remember all that and Joe Biden too. He’s a disappointing Democrat for sale to the highest bidder, a reliable vote only for Majority Leader and otherwise an accident waiting to happen. He likes Trains, probably puppies too.
There is no question who lost, and Kamala shot to the top of my maybe list, however experience shows the one who actually carries out the hit usually takes a hit themselves.
And The Rest
Russell and Dawn just hated that.
It will surprise none of you that my opinion of Sanders has changed not a bit. I think at the end it will be Biden Neo Libs, Bernie and Warren, and Harris. Harris is at least better than Biden and probably better than Barack. Were it just Bernie and Joe I think Biden would get ground down, he’s on the wrong side of history. With the ladies it’s possible that the men’s support will leach away and one of them is left standing.
The rest are running for Vice and other Cabinet offices, though some are interesting.
Tied for wierdest are Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang, Self Help Author and Tech Entrepreneur respectively. Williamson seems remarkably grounded given her profession (yes, I have been to a Tony Robbins Training, have you?) and Yang no more crazy than average- his guaranteed income program makes perfect economic sense even given Keynes/Samuelson models and assumptions. Shame he’s a kook actually.
Pick an Office? Sure, Secretary of Education and Treasury Secretary.
Michael Bennet? John Hickenlooper? Kindly, absent minded, and clueless Uncle Joe is stepping on your ConservaDem Oxygen line and strangling you. Also you are bad Democrats and dull, dull, dull.
Eric Swalwell has a lot of things happening for him, including the Impeachment of Unindicted Co-Conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio. He’s also open to the re-election option so I’m not sure he’ll last until California.
Pete Buttigieg looks like Tom Holland growed up a mite and there is no denial of youthful appeal. He’s a 2019 Moderate and I think Joe will suck him dry like a Vampire ultimately, though don’t get me wrong- he’s still better than Joe, Bennet, or Hickenlooper. He is badly wounded by the shooting in South Bend but otherwise would have been impressive.
Mostly Stephen and Seth got it too, but they weren’t as good as Trevor was in less time to prepare.
The Vikings are coming for all of us and they will end this village
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 10:00am (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
An assassination in Europe sparks World War I; Elian Gonzalez and his father leave for Cuba; Boxer Mike Tyson disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear; Richard Rodgers and Mel Brooks born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.
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”.
What did you think of the bunch of socialists you just saw debating on stage?
Wait, you may protest, you didn’t see any socialists up there. And you’d be right. The Democratic Party has clearly moved left in recent years, but none of the presidential candidates are anything close to being actual socialists — no, not even Bernie Sanders, whose embrace of the label is really more about branding (“I’m anti-establishment!”) than substance.
Nobody in these debates wants government ownership of the means of production, which is what socialism used to mean. Most of the candidates are, instead, what Europeans would call “social democrats”: advocates of a private-sector-driven economy, but with a stronger social safety net, enhanced bargaining power for workers and tighter regulation of corporate malfeasance. They want America to be more like Denmark, not more like Venezuela.
Leading Republicans, however, routinely describe Democrats, even those on the right of their party, as socialists. Indeed, all indications are that denunciations of Democrats’ “socialist” agenda will be front and center in the general election campaign. And everyone in the news media accepts this as the normal state of affairs.
Which goes to show the extent to which Republican extremism has been accepted simply as a fact of life, barely worth mentioning.
Ignoring the racial redistricting problem won’t make it go away.
The Supreme Court decision on Thursday in Rucho v. Common Cause purports to take federal courts out of the business of policing partisan gerrymanders and leave the issue for states to handle. But the decision will instead push federal courts further into the political thicket, and, in states with substantial minority voter populations, force courts to make logically impossible determinations about whether racial reasons or partisan motives predominate when a party gerrymanders for political advantage. It didn’t have to be this way.
For more than a decade, federal courts have struggled with the question of whether there are standards for separating permissible from impermissible partisan considerations in drawing district lines. They struggled because Justice Anthony Kennedy had kept the door open to having federal courts hold some districting plans unconstitutional.
With Justice Kennedy’s retirement, a solid five-justice conservative majority firmly shut the door in the Rucho case, saying that there were no judicially manageable standards to apply. For a court that regularly uses court-created standards — such as those determining when someone has acted with racially discriminatory intent or when a monopolist created “substantially anticompetitive effects” — the opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts is disingenuous.
The world’s second-most populous country is running out of water.
About 100 million people across India are on the front lines of a nationwide water crisis. A total of 21 major cities are poised to run out of groundwater next year, according to a 2018 report by government-run think tank NITI Aayog.
Much-needed monsoon rains have only just arrived in some places, running weeks late, amid a heatwave that has killed at least 137 people this summer.
French city shuts down public pools after two women wear burkinis
Grenoble authorities say shutdown was requested by lifeguards at the pool
Agence France-Presse in Grenoble
Despite the unprecedented heatwave sweeping across western Europe, lifeguards in Grenoble have shut down the city’s two municipal swimming pools after Muslim women went swimming in burkinis.
The women went to the pools twice at the initiative of the Alliance Citoyenne rights group to challenge a city ban on the full-body swimwear.
According to a statement from the town hall, the lifeguards at the pools asked for the shutdown because “they are there to maintain safety and they can’t do that when they have to worry about the crowds”. It added: “We are working towards a positive solution.”
Father, Neighbor, KillerGermany’s Chilling New Far-Right Terror
The recent politically motivated assassination of a prominent local leader in Germany has raised concern about the growing threat of far-right extremism in the country. As investigators search for possible accomplices, politicians are struggling to find answers to the escalating violence. By DER SPIEGEL Staff
Looking back, it was almost as if the group of high-ranking officials tasked with protecting Germany had had some dark premonition about what would soon transpire.
As the interior ministers of Germany’s 16 states convened in a hotel in the northern city of Kiel, the first item on the agenda was a “security report.” Sinan Selen, the vice president of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), which is responsible for monitoring all forms of extremism, began enumerating the gravest threats to the country.
Why United Nations failed to save Rohingya
Insiders say UN sought to downplay criticism of Myanmar and was hamstrung by China, Russia opposition to firm response.
When Liam Mahony travelled to Myanmar to advise the United Nations on its handling of the Rohingya crisis, the dozens of aid workers he spoke to were almost unanimous in their appraisal of the organisation’s approach.
Their view, the researcher recalls, was “this was all screwed up… this was not going to help the Rohingya population”.
An aid worker who was helping to manage the detention camps in the western state of Rakhine – where the UN and others provide food and other basic necessities to tens of thousands of Rohingya who were forcibly relocated after riots in 2012 – offered Mahony a grim assessment of her role there.
Trump jokes to Putin: ‘Don’t meddle in the election, please’
By Jonathan Lemire
U.S. President Donald Trump met Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Friday for the first time since the special counsel found extensive evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. When asked if he would warn Russia not to meddle in the next election, Trump wore a bit of a smile, pointed his finger at Putin and dryly said: “Don’t meddle in the election, please.”
The tone of the president’s comments were immediately open to interpretation but would seem to do little to silence questions about Trump’s relationship with Russia in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusion that his campaign did not collude with Russia in 2016. Their meeting in Japan was the first time the two sat together publicly since their summit in Helsinki nearly a year ago in which Trump pointedly did not admonish Putin over election interference and did not side with U.S. intelligence services over his Russian counterpart.
India arrests after women’s heads shaved for resisting rape
Two people have been arrested in India’s Bihar state after a group of men shaved the heads of two women as “punishment” for resisting rape.
The group, which included a local official, ambushed the mother and daughter in their home with the intent of raping them, police said.
When the women resisted, they assaulted them, shaved their heads and paraded them through the village.
Police say they are searching for five others involved in the incident.
“We were beaten with sticks very badly. I have injuries all over my body and my daughter also has some injuries,” the mother told the ANI news agency.
Warren had a great night, could hardly been better if you scripted it and by “luck of the draw” (if you believe in such things and not my Completely True QAnon Conspiracy Theories) got a chance to be all Presidential and Front-Runnerish which can only help. She’s got MoMo (as in Momentum Movement) working and this can only reinforce it. It’s a great wakeup call for Left Democrats who are looking for Bernie without Bernie’s Baggage.
Beto took a beating but was at least noticeable, Castro crushed him in the Great Texas Pissing Contest and looks a lot better than he has though Julián’s still doomed (so is Beto). One of them should be running against Cornyn. de Blasio did much better than I expected but the bar was low and there’s no reason anyone should love him any more than New York City does (according to my biased polls the general reaction is- “Thank goodness for a real, Bloomberg doesn’t count, Democrat. Too bad he’s an idiot.”).
Booker had great comic reaction shots in the background but otherwise did little to improve his position which mostly seems to be “Hey! I’m just as articulate as Obama.” which even if true, and it might be, does not recommend his candidacy to me. Where’s Cory on Single Payer? No where, that’s where, even de Blasio had no hesitancy.
Klobuchar was mostly notable for running over time. John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, and Tim Ryan did nothing that should change their hard to measure polling, Jay Inslee had a good one liner but not about his signature Global Warming Policy.
Of course they rated live recaps on Trevor and Stephen and Seth, but Sam Bee also got her shot-
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”.
America needs to give these women, and the accusations they’ve brought forth, the full attention they deserve.
I am simply disgusted by what’s happening in America.
My political differences with this president and his accomplices in Congress — and now on the Supreme Court — are only part of the reason. Indeed, those differences may not be the lesser reason, and that, for me, says a lot.
For me, the reason is that the country, or large segments of it, seems to be acquiescing to a particular form of evil, one that is pernicious and even playful, one in which the means of chipping away at our values and morals grow even stronger, graduating from tack hammer to standard hammer to sledgehammer.
America, it seems to me, is drifting toward catastrophe. Donald Trump is leading us there. And all the while, our politicians plot about political outcomes and leverage. Republican politicians are afraid to upset him; Democratic politicians are afraid to impeach him.
One thing that should never be underestimated is a politician’s clawing instinct toward self-preservation. These disciples of flexibility have learned well that the trees that remain standing are those that bend best in the storm.
Trump is to them a storm. But, to many of us, he is desolation, or the possibility thereof.
But, because nothing changes, because he is never truly held accountable, too many Americans are settling into a functional numbness, a just-let-me-survive-it form of sedation. But, that is where the edge of death is marked. That is where the rot begins. That is where a society loses itself.
It was election night at La Boom, a Queens nightclub, and Tiffany Cabán’s supporters had something to say.
“Black Lives Matter!” they shouted, an extraordinary cry at the victory party for a district attorney candidate. “Black Lives Matter!”
Such was the scene as the night’s tally ended with Ms. Cabán 1,090 votes ahead of Borough President Melinda Katz in the Democratic primary. The final toll won’t be known until at least next week, when absentee and other paper ballots are counted.
If Ms. Cabán’s lead holds, New York is likely to be added to the list of cities that have elected district attorneys who want to remake the criminal justice system to undo two decades of policies that led to the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of black and Latino Americans, too often for minor crimes and drug-related offenses.
The election also affirms the growing power of a fairly new force in New York politics: a millennial-based coalition pulling the Democratic Party to the left, and challenging its leadership machine.
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat Joseph Crowley, the Queens Democratic chairman and fourth-ranking House member, last June, she gained star power more akin to Beyoncé’s than that of a freshman member of Congress. The city’s political establishment thought it was a fluke.
Victories by reform Democrats in the New York State Senate primary elections in September threw shade on those doubts. This election should put to rest the idea that the coalition isn’t a sustainable force.
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