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 Nobvember 24th
Jack Ruby fatally shoots Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas; Charles Darwin publishes theory of evolution; Hijacker known as D.B. Cooper parachutes out of plane with ransom money; Queen’s Freddie Mercury dies.
Breakfast Tune Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs – Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Original 1949)
Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below
The OPCW and Douma: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Accused of Evidence-Tampering by Its Own Inspectors
JONATHAN STEELE, COUNTERPUNCH
Claims that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons are almost as old as the Syrian civil war itself. They have produced strong reactions, and none more so than in the case of the alleged attack in April last year on the opposition-controlled area of Douma near Damascus in which 43 people are said to have been killed by chlorine gas. The United States, Britain and France responded by launching airstrikes on targets in the Syrian capital.
Were the strikes justified? An inspector from the eight-member team sent to Douma has just come forward with disturbing allegations about the international watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was tasked with obtaining and examining evidence.
Involved in collecting samples as well as drafting the OPCW’s interim report, he claims his evidence was suppressed and a new report was written by senior managers with assertions that contradicted his findings.
The inspector went public with his allegations at a recent all-day briefing in Brussels for people from several countries working in disarmament, international law, military operations, medicine and intelligence. They included Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on Palestine and Major-General John Holmes, a distinguished former commander of Britain’s special forces. The session was organised by the Courage Foundation, a New York-based fund which supports whistle-blowers. I attended as an independent reporter.
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- Let’s Be Very Clear: Medicare for All Is Not Socialism
Michele Swenson
- OK Obama, It’s Time to Cancel Centrism
Sonali Kolhatkar
- America Will Never Live Down Trump’s War Crime Pardons
Maj. Danny Sjursen
Something to think about over coffee prozac
IF YOU CARE ABOUT MEDICARE FOR ALL OR A GREEN NEW DEAL, HERE’S THE SENATE PRIMARY THAT MATTERS
Ryan Grim, The Intercept
CHRIS COONS, a Democratic senator known for his intense dedication to bipartisanship, has drawn a primary challenger in Delaware. On Monday, Jess Scarane, a Wilmington digital strategist, announced her plan to challenge Coons, saying that she drew inspiration from the insurgent bid in 2018 by Kerri Harris against longtime incumbent Delaware Sen. Tom Carper. Harris fell short, winning 35 percent of the vote, but shattered the wait-your-turn political convention in Delaware and demonstrated that there is a base of support for primary challengers.
Coons first won election in 2010, to serve out the rest of Joe Biden’s term. It was considered a fluke. Republican Mike Castle — a two-term governor and the longest-serving U.S. representative in the state’s history — had been expected to win easily, but amid the rise of the tea party, the moderate Castle was upset in the primary by Christine O’Donnell, an eccentric candidate who spent the general election denying that she was a witch. O’Donnell’s win, followed by her loss in the general election, was cited by many Democratic would-be supporters of Harris in 2018 as a reason to maintain the state’s tradition of not rocking the incumbents’ boats. The convention is part of what’s known as “the Delaware Way.”
Though Coons is an obscure member of the Democratic caucus relative to somebody like the famously recalcitrant Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Coons is no less a threat to the progressive agenda. He is an ardent supporter of the Senate tradition of bipartisan comity, and insists on only co-sponsoring legislation that is also backed by at least one Republican. His respect for bipartisanship is undiminished by the fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not reciprocated. After holding open a Supreme Court seat for a year in order to swipe it for his party, McConnell eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees and has been rubber-stamping a record-breaking number of judicial appointments. He used the process known as budget reconciliation, which gets around the legislative filibuster, to attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to pass the GOP’s tax cut.
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