The Breakfast Club (Misunderstood)

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 May 19th

Actress Marilyn Monroe sings a sultry ‘Happy Birthday’ to President John F. Kennedy; Black militant Malcolm X born; Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dies; The Who’s Pete Townshend born.

Breakfast Tune Misunderstood (Pete Townshend cover)

Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below

Bipartisanship: How Congress Came Together To Screw The Poor, Again
Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney, Huffington Post

For most people, filing taxes is supposed to be free and easy. Instead, the vast majority of Americans pay a fee to a private tax preparer each year. We owe this annual ripoff to one of the most celebrated and misunderstood practices in American politics: bipartisanship.

Despite all the talk about widening political divides, Congress has approved thousands and thousands of pages of bipartisan legislation over the past decade ― everything from patent reform to Pentagon budgets to bank deregulation. We don’t remember these bipartisan bills as significant achievements for a simple reason. Most of them are terrible legislation, throwing money at corporate interests, often to subvert a genuine public interest.

Last month, in a fit of bipartisan comity, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would solidify corporate America’s control over online tax filing ― an arrangement already rated by an independent watchdog as one of the IRS’s “most serious problems.” But the handout didn’t just materialize out of nowhere. Lawmakers were trying to undo a different bipartisan giveaway from the Obama years ― a government-backed bonanza for debt collection agencies that targeted the poor. With their recent legislative push, Democrats and Republicans were setting aside their differences, screwing the poor in order to stop screwing the poor.

While you can’t tell from the official record ― nobody voted against the IRS bill ― the unexpected furor surrounding the legislation has left several Democrats on Capitol Hill privately fuming, setting off an intraparty spat that tells us a lot about how the new House Democratic majority plans to govern ― or misgovern ― with their Republican colleagues.

…

• HEIDI HEITKAMP AND JOE DONNELLY’S RURAL VOTER PROJECT TIED TO MEDICARE FOR ALL OPPONENTS
  Andrew Perez

• Whistleblower’s Arrest Shows Even “Secure” Platforms Are Vulnerable
  Bill Blunden

• Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 dissidents last month — and U.S. media called them “terrorists”
  ESHA KRISHNASWAMY

• Detroit Police Spent Over Half a Million on Cellphone Tracking Technology
  Camille Fassett

• Bernie Sanders Unveils ‘A Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education’
  Jessica Corbett

• Why Is Everyone Running for President? It’s a Billion-Dollar Industry.
  William Rivers Pitt

• America’s Illusions of Growth
  JEFFREY D. SACHS

• What 50 Countries are Backing Guaidó? Who Knows? Who Cares? If the Media Say It Enough It Must Be True
  DAVE LINDORFF

Something to think about over coffee prozac

How to Bail Out Main Street, Not Wall Street:

? Cap All Interest Rates at 15% (includes Credit Cards & all lending)
? Federal Student Loan Cancellation (for the past)
? Tuition-Free Public Colleges (for the future)
??‍⚕️Medicare for All (no egregious medical debt w/single payer)

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 18, 2019