The Breakfast Club (PT Omelet)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club!

AP’s Today in History for December 20th

New Orleans marks completion of Louisiana Purchase; South Carolina is first state to secede from Union; Vermont Supreme Court rules in favor of homosexual couples; ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ premieres in New York.

Breakfast Tune Gettysburg Banjo 12 – Buffalo Gals

Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below

• Here’s how Democrats can overcome their key weaknesses with voters
  Kenneth Peres

• No, Obama, we do mean “defund the police”: It’s not a snappy slogan, it’s a demand for justice
  D. WATKINS

• ‘A Troubling Indication of What Could Be to Come’: Biden Quietly Adds Goldman Sachs, Big Tech Officials to Transition
  Jake Johnson

• How McKinsey, the World’s Most Elite Consulting Firm, Helped Turbocharge America’s Opioid Epidemic
  LUKE SAVAGE

• Tom Vilsack for Agriculture Secretary Is Everything That’s Wrong With the Democratic Party
  Claire Kelloway

• In Secret-Ballot Vote, House Democrats Overwhelmingly Deny AOC a Powerful Committee Seat
  Jake Johnson

• COVID-19 RELIEF DRAFT BILL PROVIDES $100 BILLION “DOUBLE-DIP” TAX DEDUCTION FOR THE WEALTHY
  Lee Fang

• The Real Resistance Begins Now: 25 Groups That Will Keep Fighting No Matter Who’s President
  JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

• HOSPITAL CEOS HAVE GOTTEN RICH CUTTING STAFF AND SUPPLIES. NOW THEY’RE NOT READY FOR THE NEXT WAVE.
  Matthew Cunningham-Cook

• Biden and Trump Not That Different on the Issues
  Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford

• Biden Is the Perfect Figurehead for the Post-Trump National Security Establishment
  Jeremy Scahill

• Democrats Deploy “Diversity” to Mask Renewed War and Austerity
  Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford

• OPCW executives praised whistleblower and criticized Syria cover-up, leaks reveal
  AARON MATÉ

• The Myth of the Perfect Victim
  Too Black

• Biden Goes To Bat For BlackRock, Stays Vague On Direct Aid To Struggling Americans
  David Sirota and Walker Bragman

• A New Congressional Budget Office Study Shows That Medicare for All Would Save Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Annually
  MATT BRUENIG

• Impatience: a deep cause of Western failure in handling the pandemic?
  Branko Milanovic

• Tax Cuts For Rich People Produce ‘No Significant Economic Effects,’ Says 50 Years Of Data
  THEREALHEISENBERG

• “THE BLACK CAUCUS UNIFIED WITH THE PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS? WATCH OUT, BABY”: NINA TURNER, PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLE, COULD MAKE WAVES IN BIDEN’S CONGRESS
  ABIGAIL TRACY

• Congressional Democrats Are Raking in Huge Donations from War Profiteers
  STEPHEN SEMLER

Something to think about over coffee prozac

 
Literary Scholars Discover First Draft Of ‘A Christmas Carol’ Where All 4 Ghosts Show Up At Once And Just Beat The Shit Out Of Scrooge
T.O.

OXFORD, ENGLAND—Shedding new light on one of the famed writer’s most celebrated works, literary scholars from the University of Oxford reported Friday that they had discovered an early draft of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol where all four ghosts show up at once and just beat the shit out of Scrooge. “This incredible manuscript shows how Dickens developed the story from his original concept of a gang of malevolent spirits absolutely wailing on Ebenezer Scrooge into the iconic holiday classic we know and love today,” said professor Leah Mulroney, describing how the first draft features the spectral form of Jacob Marley appearing before Scrooge to warn him about the chains he had forged in life before using said chains to choke the miser. “From there, the Ghost Of Christmas Past bashes Scrooge with a candlestick before lifting him up in the air and dropping him at the foot of the Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come who bashes in his skull with a tombstone bearing his own name. After that, the Ghost Of Christmas Present opens his robe to reveal two children, Ignorance and Want, who proceed to kick Scrooge repeatedly in the groin while shouting ‘This one’s for Tiny Tim, bitch.’ It was, in fact, Dickens’ publisher who suggested that he instead focus on the miser’s transformative arc and adjust the original ending where the ghosts paraded Scrooge’s bruised corpse through the streets of London.” Mulroney added that this was the most significant Dickens-related discovery since archivists uncovering a draft of Oliver Twist in which the ravenous orphan bites out Mr. Limbkins’ trachea after being refused more gruel.