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.
This Day in History
Pope John Paul II shot; English colonists arrive at what becomes Jamestown; Winston Churchill gives his first speech as British prime minister; The U.S. declares war on Mexico; Singer Stevie Wonder born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
Breakfast News
Obama’s plans for trade deals with Asia and Europe in tatters after Senate vote
Barack Obama’s ambitions to pass sweeping new free trade agreements with Asia and Europe fell at the first hurdle on Tuesday as Senate Democrats put concerns about US manufacturing jobs ahead of arguments that the deals would boost global economic growth.
A vote to push through the bill failed as 45 senators voted against it, to 52 in favor. Obama needed 60 out of the 100 votes for it to pass.
Failure to secure so-called “fast track” negotiating authority from Congress leaves the president’s top legislative priority in tatters.
It may also prove the high-water mark in decades of steady trade liberalisation that has fuelled globalisation but is blamed for exacerbating economic inequality within many developed economies with the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. Internet activists had said the deal would curb freedom of speech, while other critics charged it would enshrine currency manipulation.
Shell’s Record Adds to the Anger of Those Opposing Arctic Drilling
When the Obama administration announced on Monday that it would let Shell drill for oil off the Alaskan coast this year if it met certain conditions, environmentalists were outraged – not just by the administration’s decision to allow drilling, but by its decision to give Shell, in particular, the green light.
They said that the company’s track record in the Arctic should rule out another chance for it. Shell tried to drill in the Arctic in 2012, and the company’s multibillion-dollar drilling rig, the Kulluk, ran aground. The operator of a drill ship hired by Shell also pleaded guilty to eight felony offenses and agreed to pay $12.2 million over shoddy record-keeping that covered up hazardous conditions and jury-rigged equipment that discharged polluted water. [..]
Shell, Europe’s leading oil company, has spent about $7 billion in the Alaskan Arctic over the last decade, and drilled two shallow wells during the 2012 attempt.
But the federal government did not allow the company to reach the deeper oil-bearing formations because the containment dome designed to cap a runaway well had been destroyed in testing.
From Drones Abroad to Police Brutality at Home, UN Slams US Human Rights Record
The United States’ human rights record faced fierce criticism on Monday during a hearing of the United Nations Human Rights Council, when a panel of more than 100 international leaders voiced concern over violations spanning from police brutality and the continued use of the death penalty to the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison.
According to those present at the hearing in Geneva, Switzerland, the subject of police brutality against people of color and, more broadly, discrimination within the U.S. criminal justice system dominated the critique. Monday marked the United States’ second Universal Periodic Review, a process created by the Human Rights Council to peer-review other member states.
Revealed: FBI violated its own rules while spying on Keystone XL opponents
The FBI breached its own internal rules when it spied on campaigners against the Keystone XL pipeline, failing to get approval before it cultivated informants and opened files on individuals protesting against the construction of the pipeline in Texas, documents reveal.
Internal agency documents show for the first time how FBI agents have been closely monitoring anti-Keystone activists, in violation of guidelines designed to prevent the agency from becoming unduly involved in sensitive political issues.
The hugely contentious Keystone XL pipeline, which is awaiting approval from the Obama administration, would transport tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf coast.
It has been strongly opposed for years by a coalition of environmental groups, including some involved in nonviolent civil disobedience who have been monitored by federal law enforcement agencies.
The documents reveal that one FBI investigation, run from its Houston field office, amounted to “substantial non-compliance” of Department of Justice rules that govern how the agency should handle sensitive matters.
Taxpayer Subsidies for Fossil Fuels on a Warming Planet in One Word: ‘Absurd’]
A new investigation by the Guardian, highlighting the large campaign contributions given by fossil fuel corporations to lawmakers who then back public subsidies for those same companies, has led presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to describe the arrangement-especially in light of the dangers posed by runaway climate change-with one word: absurd.
In their examination of three specific fossil fuel projects run by Shell, ExxonMobil, and Marathon Petroleum-all of which received public funding-the Guardian reveals that, in each case, “the subsidies were all granted by politicians who received significant campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.” [..]
Though oil and gas companies receiving such public largess is nothing new, proponents of climate action say that-at a time when fossil fuel companies should be forced to strand available assets in the ground in order to curb the worst impacts of climate change-the fact that such subsidies continue for some of the most profitable companies on Earth has become particularly problematic.
Progressive Contract with America Aims to ‘Rewrite the Rules’ in Favor of 99%
Adding one more pillar beneath an increasingly solid progressive movement platform, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio unveiled on Tuesday a new “Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality,” calling for universal pre-kindergarten, a higher minimum wage, paid family leave, and higher taxes on the wealthy.
The 13-point agenda has been presented as “the left’s answer to the Contract with America, which helped propel Newt Gingrich and the Republican revolution of 1994,” according to Politico, which first reported on DeBlasio’s plan last week.
The planks of the newly launched platform are in line with a new report on the root causes of-and proposed fixes for-the current wealth gap, authored by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and also published Tuesday by the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank.
DeBlasio and Sen. Elizabeth Warren both spoke at an event earlier on Tuesday touting the release of the Stiglitz report, leading Bloomberg to dub the DeBlasio-Warren-Stiglitz trio “inequality avengers.”
Smuggled Syrian documents enough to indict Bashar al-Assad, say investigators
A three-year operation to smuggle official documents out of Syria has produced enough evidence to indict President Bashar al-Assad and 24 senior members of his regime, according to the findings of an international investigative commission.
The prosecution cases against the Syrian leaders focus on their role in the suppression of the protests that triggered the conflict in 2011. Tens of thousands of suspected dissidents were detained, and many of them were tortured and killed in the Syrian prison system.
The evidence has been compiled for the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), made up of investigators and legal experts who formerly worked on war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and for the international criminal court (ICC).
They worked with a team of 50 Syrian investigators who have carried out the dangerous task of smuggling regime documents out of the country. So far one investigator has been killed, another severely wounded, and several have been detained and tortured by the regime.
Hundreds feared dead as another strong earthquake strikes devastated Nepal
Hundreds are feared dead in a remote region of Nepal after the country was hit by a second strong earthquake, just weeks after the disaster that killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.
The new quake has left 42 dead with more than 1,100 injured, according to officials. It had a magnitude of 7.3 and struck about 42 miles (68km) west ofthe town of Namche Bazaar, close to Mount Everest.
There are fears that the district of Dolakha, where the epicentre of the latest earthquake was located, may have been badly hit.
U.S. military helicopter missing in Nepal during aid efforts
The U.S. Pacific Command announced Tuesday that a military helicopter has gone missing while participating in rescue efforts in Nepal after the devastating earthquake in late April.
According to a statement issued by the U.S. military, six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers were on board the chopper, which disappeared on Tuesday near the town of Charikot, east of the capital of Kathmandu.
The Marine helicopter had been deployed to help with the search and rescue operations being undertaken by the U.S. military after the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the mountainous South Asian nation on April 25, killing more than 8,000 people.
Magnitude 6.8 earthquake hits off northeast Japan, no damage reported]
An earthquake struck the northeast of Japan early on Wednesday, the area devastated four years ago, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury and no tsunami alert.
The quake off the Tohoku region had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and 6.6 according to public broadcaster NHK. USGS originally reported the earthquake as 6.9 magnitude.
The quake was centred 74 miles (119 km) southeast of Morioka, Japan, at a depth of 24 miles (39 km), it said.
An NHK helicopter flying over the area showed no damage, and the network said it had received no reports of damage or injuries from the broad areas shaken by the quake.
There were no reports of the abnormalities at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant or the nearby Daini plant, NHK said.
Must Read Blog Posts
Trade Show: The Senator Professor Takes Round One Charles Piercs, Esquire Politics
Texas bill would label citizens who receive Obamacare subsidies Jon Green, AMERICAblog
ACLU v. Clapper and the Congress: How The Second Circuit’s Decision Affects the Legislative Landscape David Greene and Mark Jaycox. Electronic Frontier Foundation
Monsters Inc. – Starring Hillary T. Inevitable joe shikspack, The Stars Hollow Gazette
The GOP’s Scientology strategy: How Charles Murray’s perverse anti-government agenda has won over the American right Heather Digby Parton, Salon
Looks Like CIA’s ‘Torture Revealed Osama’s Courier’ Story Now Even More False Than Previously Believed Mike Masnick, Techdirt
EFF Withdraws Support For USA Freedom Act After Last Week’s Court Ruling Mike Masnick, Techdirt
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters Declares Silicon Valley A ‘Gallery Of Rogues And Thieves’ Karl Bode, Techdirt
Your Moment of Zen
h/t poligirl