(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

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.  

(Truth be told, friends, we’re really not that disorganized; the fact that we’ve managed to put this series together and stick with it, despite the recent loss of some of our members, disabuses the notion that we’re disorganized, right?  Also, I wish I had a censored night once in awhile, but alas, this is something my producers made me say.)

This Day in History

This bit was posted at Voices on the Square, The Stars Holllow Gazette, Docudharma, and Daily Kos.

Breakfast News

Eric Cantor Loses to a Conservative Who Rips Crony Capitalism

John Nichols on June 11, 2014 – 12:21 AM ET – The Nation.

The DC-insider storyline about this being a great year for the Republican establishment is undergoing a rapid rewrite. For the first time since the post was formally established in 1899, a House majority leader has been defeated in a bid for renomination. And as political prognosticators, Republican stalwarts and savvy Democrats search for explanations, they are being forced to consider complexities they had not previously entertained-including the prospect of conservatives who are ready and willing to criticize big business.

Eric Cantor, the face of the GOP establishment, one of the party’s most prodigious fundraisers and the odds-on favorite to become the next speaker of the House, lost his Virginia Republican primary Tuesday to a challenger who promised, “I will fight to end crony capitalist programs that benefit the rich and powerful.”

The result shocked the not just the Republican establishment but the DC establishment. The shockwaves continued Wednesday, as Republican aides said Cantor would step down July 31from his position as the second most powerful figure in the House-ending the congressman’s run as a Washington power player who championed the interests of Wall Street and corporate America.

That Wall Street connection was a central theme of the challenge that displaced Cantor.

Eric Cantor’s Opponent Beat Him By Calling Out GOP Corruption

Posted at 10:03 am by Lee Fang – RepublicReport.org

“All of the investment banks, up in New York and D.C., they should have gone to jail.”

That isn’t a quote from an Occupy Wall Street protester or Senator Elizabeth Warren. That’s a common campaign slogan repeated by Dave Brat, the Virginia college professor who scored one of the biggest political upsets in over a century by defeating Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary last night.

The national media is buzzing about Brat’s victory, but for all of the wrong reasons.

Did the Tea Party swoop in and help Brat, as many in the Democratic Party are suggesting? Actually, the Wall Street Journal reports no major Tea Party or anti-establishment GOP group spent funds to defeat Cantor. Did Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in Congress, lose because of his religion, as some have suggested? There’s no evidence so far of anti-Semitism during the campaign. Was Cantor caught flatfooted? Nope; Cantor’s campaign spent close to $1 million on the race and several outside advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association, the National Realtors Association and the American Chemistry Council (a chemical industry lobbying association) came in and poured money into the district to defeat Brat. The New York Times claims that Brat focused his campaign primarily on immigration reform. Brat certainly made immigration a visible topic in his race, but Republic Report listened to several hours of Brat stump speeches and radio appearances, and that issue came up far less what Brat called the main problem in government: corruption and cronyism.

“That Wall Street connection was a central theme of the challenge that displaced Cantor.”

CANTOR LOSES, AND WASHINGTON GOES APE

POSTED BY JOHN CASSIDY – NewYorker.Com

Shortly after eight on Tuesday night, Twitter went a little nuts, and so, presumably, did Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. The Associated Press, CNN, and other news organizations had just called the Republican primary race in Virginia’s Seventh District for David Brat, a hitherto little-known economics professor who is associated with the Tea Party wing of the G.O.P. Cantor had become the first House Majority Leader to lose a primary renomination.

All over Washington, commentators were called out of dinner; Fox News broke into the O’Reilly Factor; and political reporters struggled to come up with a correct historical analogy. Since virtually no one-or, at least, no one in the world of political forecasting and punditry-had predicted Brat’s victory, it would be presumptuous, at this stage, to say anything definitive about its causes or its consequences. But here are a few things that can’t easily be contested.

In the 2012 G.O.P. primary, Cantor-who has aggressively courted Tea Party voters, tacitly promoting himself as a conservative alternative to Speaker John Boehner-defeated his opponent, Floyd Bane, by 79.4 per cent to 20.6 per cent. Evidently, Brat, who teaches at Randolph-Macon College, in Ashland, Virginia, wasn’t the sort to be put off. According to theWall Street Journal, his works include “God and Advanced Mammon: Can Theological Types Handle Usury and Capitalism?” and “An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand.” He entered the race at the start of this year, and was determined to make an issue of Cantor’s ties to the Party’s Washington-based establishment. Writing for the Daily Caller, a conservative news site, in February, Brat said:

Congressman Cantor’s profile has been erratic even by Washington standards – flitting from eager establishmentarian coat-holder to self-glorified “Young Gun” and back again. His loyalties, both upward and downward, have shifted in his eager embrace of the Ruling Class. Washington’s only genuine article of faith: maintaining control regardless of how that control affects the life of the folks back home.

Uzbek Militant Group Claims Pakistan Attack

By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press ISLAMABAD June 11, 2014 (AP)

An Uzbek militant group operating in Pakistan’s northwest tribal areas says it played a role in the attack on the Karachi airport earlier this week, in a disturbing sign of the increased cooperation between militant groups in Pakistan.

The news came the same day that the U.S. broke its five-month hiatus on drone strikes with a strike in the Pakistan tribal areas that killed three militants, officials said.

SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activity, reported the claim by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan on Wednesday, and it was also detailed on the group’s website.

“We would like to emphasize that this martyrdom operation was carried out as the revenge to the latest full-scale bombardments and night attacks with fighter jets by Pakistan Apostate Army,” the statement read.

More violence erupts near Pakistan’s busiest airport; Taliban vows ‘full-out war’

By Holly Yan and Sophia Saifi, CNN – updated 8:31 AM EDT, Tue June 10, 2014

Karachi, Pakistan (CNN) — For the second time in two days,Pakistan’s largest and busiest airport was forced to shut down after militants launched a brazen attack on airport security forces.

Tuesday’s assault targeted the Airport Security Forces academy near Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, the airport’s manager told CNN’s Saima Mohsin in Karachi.

Security forces told CNN that an unknown number of gunmen attacked the academy’s entrance and were met with an armed response. The attackers fled, and no one was killed in the attack, officials said.

Once again, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

“This wave of attacks will be continuing in retaliation for the shelling and atrocities of the government,” spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said by phone Tuesday from an undisclosed location.

An earthen lamp is held in front of the Pakistani national flag Wednesday during a memorial for the security force personnel killed in an attack by militants at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan. (Shahzaib Akber / European Pressphoto Agency)

U.S. drone strike reported in Pakistan, ending 5-month pause

By ZULFIQAR ALI, SHASHANK BENGALI

A .S. drone aircraft struck suspected militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas on Wednesday, breaking a five-month pause in the attacks, Pakistani security officials said.

Officials said the unmanned aircraft fired two missiles, hitting a car and a house in the North Waziristan tribal area Wednesday evening.

It marked the first strike by the CIA-run U.S. drone program in Pakistan since Christmas, according to the independent New America Foundation, which tracks the incidents. The strikes, which peaked at well over 100 in 2010, have dramatically decreased due to Pakistani opposition and tighter Obama administration guidelines on their use.

The strike came less than two weeks after U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban in North Waziristan, was freed in a prisoner exchange. His release has raised the prospect that the U.S. might increase the pace of drone attacks against the Taliban and the Haqqani network, the allied militant group that held Bergdahl.

News of the Weird

Pakistan cannibal brothers get 11-year jail term for eating dead baby

LAHORE (AFP) – A Pakistani court Wednesday sentenced two brothers to 11 years in jail for eating a dead baby in a case that has shocked the country, a year after they were freed over a similar offence.

Farman Ali and his brother Mohammad Arif were arrested in April this year after police discovered the head of a two-day-old child at their home.

The child’s corpse had been stolen from a graveyard in the brothers’ home village of Darya Khan, around 300km south of Islamabad.

The pair, who are in their late 30s, had prepared and eaten a curry from the child’s remains, the police said.

Oregon high school joins long list of school shootings; Obama calls latest violence, ‘not acceptable, this is not normal’

BY JOE KEMP , NINA GOLGOWSKI , CORKY SIEMASZKO

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Tuesday, June 10, 2014, 11:50 AM Updated: Wednesday, June 11, 2014, 7:04 AM

Student Emilio Hoffman was killed when a teenager opened fire Tuesday at the Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Ore. The gunman was later found dead inside a school bathroom. A gym teacher was wounded in the shooting. The incident was the 74th shooting at a U.S. school since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. Obama vented his frustration over the latest shooting.

Yet again.

A lone killer armed with an assault rifle invaded an Oregon high school Tuesday and opened fire in a gym locker room, fatally shooting 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman and wounding a popular teacher before killing himself.

It was the 74th shooting at an American school since the December 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School – and the 37th just this year, according to a tally by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

President Obama, whose attempts to stiffen gun control after Sandy Hook were thwarted by the powerful gun lobby and its allies in Congress, vented his frustration upon hearing about the latest school shooting – this one in Troutdale, Ore.

The violence at Reynolds High School was 74th school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.

Reynolds High School Shooting Victim Emilio Hoffman Mourned

The 14-year-old boy fatally shot at an Oregon high school Tuesday was a good-natured athlete with an easy laugh, his family said in a statement.

Emilio Hoffman was a freshman at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, a suburb of Portland. He was killed in the locker room of the school’s gymnasium when Michael Padgett, a 15-year-old freshman, opened fire, police said.

In the statement, Emilio’s mother, Jennifer Hoffman, said: “You couldn’t be around Emilio without laughing! Anyone who has ever met Emilio laughed with him. He had to be the center of attention at all times!”

There’s nothing left to argue: No fact or tragedy will change any minds – but here’s what will

So many shootings, so many deaths. So much anger. Gun politics only get worse, but change really is coming

By COLIN MCENROE – Salon.com

To the people of Troutdale, Oregon, I am so very sorry about what happened. I was at lunch when my fellow journalists started looking at their phones, shaking their heads.

By one reckoning, this is the 74th school shooting since the December 2012 murders in Newtown, Connecticut.

There are so many school shootings that their numbers have started to resemble what the USDA calls “Food Defect Action Levels,” which establish how many insect fragments and larvae and rodent hairs can be in a can of peaches before anyone is required to do anything about it. There actually is an official “acceptable” amount of rodent feces for a bag of corn meal or cocoa powder, and it’s starting to feel like there’s some number of school shooting deaths per month that our society finds tolerable.

Which is crazy. I know that.

I live in Connecticut, which seemed for most of my life like a very safe (and slightly boring) place. But we began the decade with nine dead in a mass shooting at a beer distributorship east of Hartford. And then came Newtown.

A Common Vision – The Abolition of Militarism

By Mairead Maguire Inter Pres Service News Agency

 In this column, Mairead Maguire, peace activist from Northern Ireland and Nobel Peace Laureate 1976, argues that exactly 100 years after the start of the First World War, now is the time for a new ambitious start, offering new hope to a humanity suffering under the scourge of militarism and wars.

SARAJEVO, Jun 5 2014 (IPS) – On this Friday, June 6, people from all corners of the world gather here in Sarajevo, Bosnia, to explore a plethora of ideas on the road forward to a world in peace.

Sarajevo once was the scene of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand that led to the start of the First World War in 1914. The shot fired in Sarajevo a century ago set off, like a starting pistol, a race for power, two global wars, a Cold War, a century of immense, rapid explosion of death and destruction technology, all extremely costly, and extremely risky.

A huge step in the history of war, but also a decisive turning point in the history of peace. The peace movement has never been as strong politically as in the last three decades before the break-out of the First World War. It was a factor in political life, literature, organisation, and planning, the Hague Peace Conferences, the Hague Peace Palace and the International Court of Arbitration, and Bertha von Suttner’s bestseller, ‘Lay Down Your Arms!’.

Optimism was high as to what this ‘new science’ of peace could mean to humankind. Parliaments, Kings and Emperors, great cultural and business personalities involved themselves. The great strength of the movement was that it did not limit itself to civilising and slowing down militarism, it demanded its total abolition. People were presented with an alternative, and they saw common interest in this alternative road forward for humankind.

Skyrocketing salaries for health insurance CEOs

Commentary: if they’re making millions, should the rest of us have to pay higher premiums?

By Wendell Potter 6:00 am, June 9, 2014 Updated: 6:00 am, June 9, 2014 – The Center for Public Integrity

If health insurance companies announce big premium increases on policies for 2015, I hope regulators, lawmakers and the media will look closely at whether they are justified, especially in light of recent disclosures of better-than-expected profits in 2013, rosy outlooks for the rest of this year and soaring CEO compensation.

Almost all of the publicly traded health insurers reported big increases in revenue and profits last year. The big winners have been the top executives of those companies, led by Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, the nation’s third largest health insurer. Bertolini’s total compensation of $30.7 million in 2013 was 131 percent higher than in 2012.

If the stock prices of these firms keep growing at the current pace, Bertolini and his peers can expect to be rewarded even more handsomely this year, especially if they can hike premiums high enough to satisfy shareholders.

According to Health Plan Week, a trade publication, the CEOs of the 11 largest for-profit companies were rewarded with compensation packages last year totaling more than $125 million.

Jihadist group forces Iraqi military to retreat, takes control of pipeline land

PATRICK MARTIN The Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Jun. 11 2014, 9:25 PM EDT

Last updated Wednesday, Jun. 11 2014, 10:16 PM EDT

As the well-trained, black-uniformed forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant sweep across north and central Iraq, the entire Middle East shudders.

In less time than it took U.S.-led forces to reach Baghdad in 2003, thisjihadist group has taken control of almost a third of Iraq, the country with the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world.

As a result of its two-day blitzkrieg, ISIL is perched atop a major export pipeline in Mosul, has surrounded Iraq’s largest refinery in Baiji, has conquered Tikrit, the centre of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni empire, is on the edge of capturing one of the Shia world’s most sacred sites in Samarra, has shamed the once-mighty Iraqi military and sits on the doorstep to Baghdad.

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Daily Wiki:

Grace Jones

Beverly Grace Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a Jamaican singer, actress and model. She was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica and raised by her grandparents. At 13 she moved with her siblings to their parents’ home in Syracuse, New York. Jones started out as a model, initially in New York state, then in Paris, working for Yves St. Laurent, Claude Montana, and Kenzo Takada, and appearing on the covers of Elle, Vogue, and Stern working with Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, and Hans Feurer.

In 1977 Jones secured a record deal with Island Records; with the aid of Compass Point All Stars she moved into new wave in 1980. She scored Top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart with “Pull Up to the Bumper”, “I’ve Seen That Face Before”, “Private Life”, “Slave to the Rhythm” and “I’m Not Perfect”. Her albums include Warm Leatherette (1980), Nightclubbing (1981), and Slave to the Rhythm (1985).

She appeared in some low-budget films in the U.S. during the 1970s and early 1980s. Her first mainstream film was the 1984 fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the 1985 James Bond movie A View to a Kill. In 1986 she played a vampire in Vamp, and acted in and contributed a song to the 1992 Eddie Murphy film Boomerang. She appeared alongside Tim Curry in the 2001 film Wolf Girl.

Happy Birthday Grace Jones

Did you say “breakfast?”

Recipe from GarlicGirl.com

BREAKFAST PIZZA

Prep time:  2 hours Cook time:  10 mins Total time:  2 hours 10 mins

Serves: 2-3

INGREDIENTS

For the dough

4½ cups all purpose flour

2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

For Topping

½ cup sliced fresh mozzarella cheese

4-5 fresh small tomatoes (flavorful tomatoes make a big difference)

2 eggs

4 strips quality bacon

1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, roughly chopped

a few leaves fresh basil, ripped in large pieces

a little cornmeal to dust on pizza

INSTRUCTIONS

For dough, add yeast to the two cups of water for several minutes until it becomes foamy; stir in sugar, olive oil and vinegar.

While yeast is dissolving in water, add the flour and salt to food processor jar and pulse a couple times.

Add the water and yeast mixture gradually to the flour mixture and process until the dough begins to form a ball and come away from the sides of the container. Turn out onto floured surface. Sprinkle with flour and knead for several minutes until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Place in oiled bowl, cover with towel and let sit for two hours until double in size.

After two hours, turn out onto lightly floured surface, knead a couple times and cut in ½ or in three equal pieces. Form into balls and use as needed. To use the next day, rub lightly with olive oil, cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight (I prefer using the next day for better flavor).

To make the pizza, preheat oven (with pizza stone if you have one) to 500 degrees F. Place rack in center of oven.

Partially cook the bacon in a pan (don’t let it get crisp), remove and set aside on paper towels.

Crack eggs into separate cups (this makes it easy to add them to the pizza when it’s in the oven).

Stretch out your dough to desired shape and size. Dust pizza peel (or parchment paper) with a little cornmeal and lay your dough on top, reshaping and leaving a little more thickness on the edges.

Evenly arrange cheese and tomatoes on dough. Then add the bacon and basil (see image). Lightly rub a tiny bit of olive oil on the edges.

Slide onto pizza stone and let cook for about 5 minutes. Carefully add the eggs, one at a time, to the center of the pizza and cook for about another 5 minutes until egg is at desired doneness and the dough is nicely browned on the edges.

Remove and garnish with the fresh parsely.

Prepare to feast on a delicous breakfast!

Beauty upon which to gaze while you have your morning Prozac coffee:

From the Saving the Best for Last Department:

DeadHead and I on a fishing trip.  It looks like DeadHead’s reeling in a big one!  Assuming it’s really a fish, and not some old boot or rubber tire, that’s what we’ll have for dinner with a side of kelp salad, and for dessert?  A coconut cream pie, of course!

Stupid Quiet, Deep Shit LaEscapee Wrote:

I Had a Whole Diary.  

“I was nowhere near a computer and had no pen or piece of paper on hand. “

LaEscapee is a man of few words.  They say still waters run deep.  He ain’t heavy, man, he’s my brother.  Even though he, and Ek Hornbeck and TheMomCat have all been BANNED from dailykos, and poligirl and psychodrew are a year on the dog house on dailykos, they are still members in good standing of The Breakfast Club at Voices on the Square, The Stars Hollow Gazette and Docudharma.  Love to you bony, banned ones.  If you miss the absentees, you can perhaps find them at one of the other blogs.

Breakfast Tunes