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 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) 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.

Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.

Trump ousts hawkish Bolton, dissenter on foreign policyenhauer_119081″ rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Arthur Schopenhauer

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Just as terrible as ever and about to get worse.

Japan will have to dump radioactive water into Pacific, minister says
by Justin McCurry, The Guardian
Tue 10 Sep 2019

The operator of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will have to dump huge quantities of contaminated water from the site directly into the Pacific Ocean, Japan’s environment minister has said – a move that would enrage local fishermen.

More than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water has accumulated at the plant since it was struck by a tsunami in March 2011, triggering a triple meltdown that forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has struggled to deal with the buildup of groundwater, which becomes contaminated when it mixes with water used to prevent the three damaged reactor cores from melting.

Tepco has attempted to remove most radionuclides from the excess water, but the technology does not exist to rid the water of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Coastal nuclear plants commonly dump water that contains tritium into the ocean. It occurs in minute amounts in nature.

Tepco admitted last year that the water in its tanks still contained contaminants beside tritium.

Currently, more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water is held in almost 1,000 tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi site, but the utility has warned that it will run out of tank space by the summer of 2022.

“The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” Yoshiaki Harada told a news briefing in Tokyo on Tuesday. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.”

No decision on how to dispose of the water will be made until the government has received a report from a panel of experts. Other options include vaporising the liquid or storing it on land for an extended period.

Harada did not say how much water would need to be discharged into the ocean.

One recent study by Hiroshi Miyano, who heads a committee studying the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi at the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, said it could take 17 years to discharge the treated water after it has been diluted to reduce radioactive substances to levels that meet the plant’s safety standards.

Any decision to dispose of the waste water into the sea would anger local fishermen, who have spent the past eight years rebuilding their industry.

Nearby South Korea has also voiced concern over the impact it would have on the reputation of its own seafood.

Last month, Seoul summoned a senior Japanese embassy official to explain how Fukushima Daiichi’s waste water would be dealt with.
…
The government spent 34.5bn yen (£260m) to build a frozen underground wall to prevent groundwater reaching the three damaged reactor buildings. The wall, however, has succeeded only in reducing the flow of groundwater from about 500 tonnes a day to about 100 tonnes a day.

Japan has come under renewed pressure to address the contaminated water problem before Tokyo hosts the Olympics and Paralympics next summer.

This is a hard problem with no easy solution. Probably storage should be doubled. The wonderful thing about half life is that after that period of time 50% of the original waste is degraded into harmless isotopes. Of course Half Lives can be quite long.

The other thing it gives you is time to develop better filtering to decrease the concentration of waste in what is released. Finally any release must be carefully planned and monitored. Oceans are big, but they are finite and just dumping willy-nilly will almost certainly result in damaging releses of radiation.

Better yet, dump Nuclear. It’s dangerous and expensive.

I keep saying that most policies considered “impossibly far Left” by the D.C. Political and Media Establishment of both Parties are in fact ideas favored by supermajorities of United States Citizens.

This is a good summary of some of the issues on which the D.C. consensus is just wrong and is being ground under the bootheel of History because of their thwarting them at the behest of their paymasters. It is more remarkable coming from Max Boot, who is no liberal.

A new poll shows voters aren’t buying what Trump is selling
By Max Boot, Washington Post
September 9, 2019

President Trump inherited more than $400 million from his father and invested in one failed business after another. Trump must be the only person in the world who can’t make money off steaks, vodka or gambling. He would have been better off putting his money into an index fund.

Now he has brought his reverse Midas touch to politics. Despite a booming economy, he is the only president in modern history never to achieve at least a 50 percent job approval rating. He inherited a Republican-controlled Congress and in his first midterm election lost control of the House. It’s not just that Trump is personally unpopular. So are his views. On issue after issue, the country rejects the populist snake oil that he is peddling.

Trump breathlessly and endlessly touts the economy, claiming it’s “doing GREAT,” yet in a recent Quinnipiac poll, more Americans said the economy is getting “worse” (37 percent) than say it’s getting “better” (31 percent).

Trump opposes any attempt to strengthen lax gun laws, even refusing to back universal background checks. Yet Gallup reports that support for stricter gun laws (now at 61 percent) has reached one of its highest level in a quarter-century.

Trump is indifferent to environmental protection or the need to address global warming. Yet the Pew Research Center reports that the public supports making environmental protection (56 percent) and climate change (44 percent) a top priority.

Trump is a fanatical nativist who has made opposition to nonwhite immigration a centerpiece of his administration, yet Pew finds that 62 percent think that immigrants strengthen our country, compared with only 28 percent who think they are a burden. That’s a major shift from a quarter-century ago: In 1994, 31 percent saw immigrants as a boon and 63 percent as a hindrance. The rise in support for immigration predates Trump — but he hasn’t reversed the trend despite all of his fearmongering about an “invasion” of undocumented immigrants.

A new survey released Monday from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs reinforces these findings and extends them into foreign policy and trade policy. Trump is an isolationist at heart, but the survey shows the American public is becoming more, not less, supportive of foreign engagement. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed think that the United States should take “an active part in world affairs.” One of the only times in the past 45 years that support for international engagement has been higher was in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Trump views NATO as a rip-off, yet 73 percent of the public thinks NATO is essential to U.S. security — up from 65 percent when Trump was elected.

The public has similarly rejected Trump’s protectionism. The percentage of Americans who think that international trade is good for the U.S. economy has risen to an astonishing 87 percent — a whopping increase of 28 points since Trump was elected. For all of Trump’s vilification of U.S. trade partners, overwhelming majorities favor trade with Germany (87 percent), Japan (87 percent) and Mexico (83 percent). Seventy-four percent even support trade with China, despite — or because of — Trump’s trade war.

The Chicago Council survey also confirms public rejection of Trump positions on immigration (81 percent want a pathway for citizenship for undocumented immigrants; only 23 percent want to separate immigrant children from parents) and climate change (51 percent support steps to address the problem even if they involve “significant costs”).
…
With the help of the conservative media industrial complex, Trump is brainwashing Republicans despite his breaks with decades of Republican orthodoxy on trade, immigration, alliances and other issues. The Chicago Council found that the number of Republicans who view immigration as a threat has risen to 78 percent from 67 percent in 2016, while the number who view China as a threat has increased to 54 percent from 41 percent in 2017. A bare majority of Republicans (51 percent) now support a U.S. leadership role in the world, down from 57 percent in 2015. And only 23 percent of Republicans view climate change as a threat.

It is deeply unfortunate that Trump is dragging Republicans deeper into the fever swamps of climate denialism, nativism, protectionism and isolationism. The good news is that, according to Gallup, Republicans make up only 27 percent of the electorate, a figure that grows to 40 percent if you add in Republican-leaning independents. The rest of the country is repulsed by the president and his odious views.

By my count the last 8 elections have been “change” elections. People will keep voting for it until they get some.

Sometimes it’s not funny.

Hasan Minhaj

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 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) 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.

Hungary lets East German refugees leave for West Germany; Louisiana U.S. Senator Huey Long fatally shot; Elias Howe gets sewing machine patent; ‘Gunsmoke’ premieres; Singer Jose Feliciano born.

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

Charles Kuralt

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(The Mint 400)

So I’ve been at North Lake absorbing the vibes. This weekend we had like 19 Democratic Presidential Candidates visit the New Hampshire Democratic State Convention. If you go by crowd reaction it’s Warren all the way. Did I personally visit? Are you kidding?

First of all, Manchester is a pit. It’s like all the worst and most confusing parts of Newark New Jersey compressed and distilled. Dated a girl who went to college there once, she loved it.

Second of all I’ve been to conventions. I discount Warren’s reaction as she was the kickoff speaker and everyone had to be in the Hall anyway for check-in with their organizer before they hit the bar and the Mall.

What is the mood of the Granite State? Well, to the extent I move in circles with them at all it’s the ex-Pat Nutmeggers and Bean Eaters. Some of them have been around a long time and are more deeply locally connected. I give you even money the total population of North Lake is below 10,000 and it’s not small geographically, could be less than 5,000 year ’rounders.

There are 2 waves of immigrants, the Hippies who run things like Apiaries and Pottery Studios as opposed to locals who sell “antiques” and hold permanent yard sales while working at the Mill in a real job. The second wave of immigrants were the Yuppies and the locals like them because they spend a lot of money. Hippies look at the Yuppies as closet Republicans (some are not) and take their money too.

Locals are pretty evenly divided among those who are Civil War Republicans and those who are FDR Democrats. Hippies are overwhelmingly Democratic / Libertarian, Yuppies are mostly Reaganauts with a few Democrats and Leftys mixed in.

Another thing to remember, especially around Hunting Season, is to wear your safety orange out in the woods. The “Live Free or Die” State does love it some guns and nobody thinks twice about you sawing down scrub in your back 40 with an AK-47 provided you’re not too loud about it. Some may ask you where you get your ammo so cheap.

So it’s a funny State, hard to predict except that the Democrats are more Liberal than average (which is not saying a lot). Tulsi Gabbard has been spending a ton of money here, so has Tom Steyer. ‘Tis not yet Yard Sign Season except, unfortunately, for Trump.

Should you choose to visit keep your eyes on your wallet. Your outlanderness makes you a mark and there are few true bargains.

And don’t bring any firewood. Diseases.

We asked 100 New Hampshire insiders about the Democratic field. Here’s who they favor.
By TRENT SPINER and HOLLY OTTERBEIN, Politico
09/07/2019

Joe Biden found little mojo for his candidacy among Democratic Party insiders at their state convention here Saturday, despite leading the polls in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

Dozens of state representatives, party leaders, operatives and volunteers said they weren’t planning to vote for the former vice president in the nomination contest — and many publicly aired concerns about his age, energy and gender.

A striking number of party activists said they were undecided as 19 presidential candidates delivered stump speeches over seven hours at the SNHU Arena, according to interviews with 100 delegates by POLITICO.

Elizabeth Warren led the way among the surveyed delegates who had made up their minds, followed by Bernie Sanders in second and Biden in third.

“I’m not here to criticize any other Democrat or anyone else’s campaign,” Warren told reporters. “What I saw in that room were a whole lot of Democrats here in New Hampshire who are not only ready for change. They’re ready to get out there.”

Just over half of the 100 delegates said they haven’t picked a candidate yet. Of those who have decided, a third named Warren as their favorite.
…
The complaints about Biden from party soldiers often centered on his campaigning skills, and a desire for more diversity in Democratic leadership. Notably, few undecided delegates named Biden when asked who they were leaning toward.

“I’m tired of old white guys telling me what to do,” said Rachel Cisto, an uncommitted delegate who is leading toward Warren or Sanders.

Warren, on the other hand, showed significant strength among those who said they hadn’t selected a candidate, but were moving toward one or more contenders. Of the undecided delegates surveyed, a third said they’re leaning towards Warren, either exclusively or as part of a small list of others.

Warren had also won the support of a handful of people who backed Sanders four years ago.
…
Dressed in her trademark “liberty green” T-shirts, Warren’s supporters swarmed the convention. When Warren took the stage, the audience exploded, at one point chanting “2 cents, 2 cents!” in reference to her proposed wealth tax. Sanders also received an enthusiastic welcome from the crowd.

Warren and Sanders are familiar faces in New Hampshire, living in bordering states and visiting more frequently than Biden. Both progressives have high expectations in the state due to the proximity and other factors. Sanders won the New Hampshire primary by 22 points in 2016.

“I met him in 1996 and had a chance to talk to him,” said delegate Mark King of Sanders, who he is supporting. “He talks about the same things and has the same attitudes he had back then.”
…
The 1,280 party delegates who gave up their Saturday to cheer on their party are key to the ground game in New Hampshire: They’re some of the most willing Democrats in the state to make calls, knock on doors and plant lawn signs. They run town and county committees and are instrumental in the retail politicking of the first primary state.

“These are the 1,280 most influential Democrats in the state,” said New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley.

The delegates are selected in local elections throughout the state. In off years, they would vote on platform issues, but this year will only serve as party evangelists.

Local powerbrokers met privately with candidates in private suites at the arena during the day. Several hopefuls moved from suite to suite, kissing rings of party leaders, unions and some of their campaigns’ biggest backers. Biden spent a significant amount of time at the International Association of Fire Fighters’ room, shaking hands with everyone and whipping out cash to buy a non-alcoholic drink.

Sanders’ campaign did less so-called “visibility” outside of the convention than other campaigns, opting instead to organize, aides said. A staffer said his team knocked on more than 9,000 doors on Saturday as of 4 p.m., and Sanders greeted a large crowd of volunteers at a canvass kickoff at a local pub after he spoke at the convention.
…
The latest poll of likely New Hampshire voters, conducted more than a month ago by Suffolk University and the Boston Globe, showed Biden in the lead with 21 percent, followed by Sanders at 17 and Warren at 14. It also found that half of the general electorate was undecided, similar to the party operatives interviewed Saturday.

The largely friendly tone among the different campaigns’ supporters and “Anybody But Trump” signs were a stark contrast to the event in 2016. The party’s annual convention that year was marred by chants and boos, forcing former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schutlz to stop speaking.

In a sign of unity this year, hundreds of delegates agreed to hold signs for whichever candidate was speaking at the time, regardless of which contender they backed personally. The only jeers were when several candidates couldn’t remember or pronounce the names of the state’s congressional members.

“Whoever wins the primary is who I’m supporting,” said delegate Stephanie Vuolo, adding that she is undecided in the race for the nomination.

Sam Clemens’ idea of a good joke-

I don’t reckon them times will ever come again. There never was a more bullier old ram than what he was. Grandfather fetched him from Illinois–got him of a man by the name of Yates–Bill Yates–maybe you might have heard of him; his father was a deacon–Baptist–and he was a rustler, too; a man had to get up ruther early to get the start of old Thankful Yates; it was him that put the Greens up to jining teams with my grandfather when he moved west. Seth Green was prob’ly the pick of the flock; he married a Wilkerson–Sarah Wilkerson–good cretur, she was–one of the likeliest heifers that was ever raised in old Stoddard, everybody said that knowed her. She could heft a bar’l of flour as easy as I can flirt a flapjack. And spin? Don’t mention it! Independent? Humph! When Sile Hawkins come a browsing around her, she let him know that for all his tin he couldn’t trot in harness alongside of her. You see, Sile Hawkins was–no, it warn’t Sile Hawkins, after all–it was a galoot by the name of Filkins–I disremember his first name; but he was a stump–come into pra’r meeting drunk, one night, hooraying for Nixon, becuz he thought it was a primary; and old deacon Ferguson up and scooted him through the window and he lit on old Miss Jefferson’s head, poor old filly. She was a good soul–had a glass eye and used to lend it to old Miss Wagner, that hadn’t any, to receive company in; it warn’t big enough, and when Miss Wagner warn’t noticing, it would get twisted around in the socket, and look up, maybe, or out to one side, and every which way, while t’ other one was looking as straight ahead as a spy-glass. Grown people didn’t mind it, but it most always made the children cry, it was so sort of scary. She tried packing it in raw cotton, but it wouldn’t work, somehow–the cotton would get loose and stick out and look so kind of awful that the children couldn’t stand it no way. She was always dropping it out, and turning up her old dead-light on the company empty, and making them oncomfortable, becuz she never could tell when it hopped out, being blind on that side, you see. So somebody would have to hunch her and say, “Your game eye has fetched loose, Miss Wagner dear”–and then all of them would have to sit and wait till she jammed it in again–wrong side before, as a general thing, and green as a bird’s egg, being a bashful cretur and easy sot back before company. But being wrong side before warn’t much difference, anyway; becuz her own eye was sky-blue and the glass one was yaller on the front side, so whichever way she turned it it didn’t match nohow. Old Miss Wagner was considerable on the borrow, she was. When she had a quilting, or Dorcas S’iety at her house she gen’ally borrowed Miss Higgins’s wooden leg to stump around on; it was considerable shorter than her other pin, but much she minded that. She said she couldn’t abide crutches when she had company, becuz they were so slow; said when she had company and things had to be done, she wanted to get up and hump herself. She was as bald as a jug, and so she used to borrow Miss Jacops’s wig–Miss Jacops was the coffin-peddler’s wife–a ratty old buzzard, he was, that used to go roosting around where people was sick, waiting for ‘em; and there that old rip would sit all day, in the shade, on a coffin that he judged would fit the can’idate; and if it was a slow customer and kind of uncertain, he’d fetch his rations and a blanket along and sleep in the coffin nights. He was anchored out that way, in frosty weather, for about three weeks, once, before old Robbins’s place, waiting for him; and after that, for as much as two years, Jacops was not on speaking terms with the old man, on account of his disapp’inting him. He got one of his feet froze, and lost money, too, becuz old Robbins took a favorable turn and got well. The next time Robbins got sick, Jacops tried to make up with him, and varnished up the same old coffin and fetched it along; but old Robbins was too many for him; he had him in, and ‘peared to be powerful weak; he bought the coffin for ten dollars and Jacops was to pay it back and twenty-five more besides if Robbins didn’t like the coffin after he’d tried it. And then Robbins died, and at the funeral he bursted off the lid and riz up in his shroud and told the parson to let up on the performances, becuz he could not stand such a coffin as that. You see he had been in a trance once before, when he was young, and he took the chances on another, cal’lating that if he made the trip it was money in his pocket, and if he missed fire he couldn’t lose a cent. And by George he sued Jacops for the rhino and got jedgment; and he set up the coffin in his back parlor and said he ‘lowed to take his time, now. It was always an aggravation to Jacops, the way that miserable old thing acted. He moved back to Indiany pretty soon–went to Wellsville–Wellsville was the place the Hogadorns was from. Mighty fine family. Old Maryland stock. Old Squire Hogadorn could carry around more mixed licker, and cuss better than most any man I ever see. His second wife was the widder Billings–she that was Becky Martin; her dam was deacon Dunlap’s first wife. Her oldest child, Maria, married a missionary and died in grace–et up by the savages. They et him, too, poor feller–biled him. It warn’t the custom, so they say, but they explained to friends of his’n that went down there to bring away his things, that they’d tried missionaries every other way and never could get any good out of ‘em–and so it annoyed all his relations to find out that that man’s life was fooled away just out of a dern’d experiment, so to speak. But mind you, there ain’t anything ever reely lost; everything that people can’t understand and don’t see the reason of does good if you only hold on and give it a fair shake; Prov’dence don’t fire no blank ca’tridges, boys. That there missionary’s substance, unbeknowns to himself, actu’ly converted every last one of them heathens that took a chance at the barbacue. Nothing ever fetched them but that. Don’t tell me it was an accident that he was biled. There ain’t no such a thing as an accident. When my uncle Lem was leaning up agin a scaffolding once, sick, or drunk, or suthin, an Irishman with a hod full of bricks fell on him out of the third story and broke the old man’s back in two places. People said it was an accident. Much accident there was about that. He didn’t know what he was there for, but he was there for a good object. If he hadn’t been there the Irishman would have been killed. Nobody can ever make me believe anything different from that. Uncle Lem’s dog was there. Why didn’t the Irishman fall on the dog? Becuz the dog would a seen him a coming and stood from under. That’s the reason the dog warn’t appinted. A dog can’t be depended on to carry out a special providence. Mark my words it was a put-up thing. Accidents don’t happen, boys. Uncle Lem’s dog–I wish you could a seen that dog. He was a reglar shepherd–or ruther he was part bull and part shepherd–splendid animal; belonged to parson Hagar before Uncle Lem got him. Parson Hagar belonged to the Western Reserve Hagars; prime family; his mother was a Watson; one of his sisters married a Wheeler; they settled in Morgan county, and he got nipped by the machinery in a carpet factory and went through in less than a quarter of a minute; his widder bought the piece of carpet that had his remains wove in, and people come a hundred mile to ‘tend the funeral. There was fourteen yards in the piece. She wouldn’t let them roll him up, but planted him just so–full length. The church was middling small where they preached the funeral, and they had to let one end of the coffin stick out of the window. They didn’t bury him–they planted one end, and let him stand up, same as a monument. And they nailed a sign on it and put–put on–put on it–sacred to–the m-e-m-o-r-y–of fourteen y-a-r-d-s–of three-ply–car–-pet–containing all that was–m-o-r-t-a-l–of–of–W-i-l-l-i-a-m–W-h-e–”

Then again Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Capra film, Jean Arthur, Jimmy Stewart, populist message, what’s not to like?

Mr. Smith fails in the end. No one in the Senate has the guts to read the phone book while he takes a leak and gets a nap. Yeah, there’s a crappy happy slappy Hollywood ending where Joe Paine, the corrupt powerful one, is so moved by Mr Smith’s appeals for justice he attempts suicide, then confesses and resigns- disgusted with himself.

Theater is all about the suspension of disbelief but that one takes a shaker of salt.

So it’s a flawed work of Art.

So I just saw Crimes of Grindenwald on HBO which makes it fair game I guess. I rather liked it myself. Johnny Depp is a sinister Grindenwald and Jude Law an adequate Dumbledor.

If you’re allergic to spoilers I wouldn’t watch this. Funny thing is I could tell you the plot by action in excruciating detail or speculate wildly about the central mystery of Corvus/Aurelius (Grindenwald is as unreliable a narrator as Ben Solo) and neither one would make sense without seeing the movie.

Jenny Nicholson

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 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) 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.

Inmates seize control of Attica prison in upstate New York; Mao Zedong, Communist China’s founding leader, dies; Elvis Presley first appears on TV’s Ed Sullivan Show; Soul singer Otis Redding born.

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

Leo Tolstoy

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