Not as funny as you think.
Jul 09 2019
Cartnoon
Jul 09 2019
The Breakfast Club (Moonless Midnight)
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.
This Day in History
William Jennings Bryan gives his ‘Cross of Gold’ speech; Britain’s Princess Elizabeth engaged; Boxer Mike Tyson punished for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear; Actor Tom Hanks born; Actor Rod Steiger dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Sometimes there is no darker place than our thoughts, the moonless midnight of the mind.
Jul 09 2019
Six In The Morning Tuesday 9 July 2019
Hong Kong extradition bill ‘is dead’ says Carrie Lam
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said the controversial bill that would have allowed extradition to the Chinese mainland “is dead”.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Lam said the government’s work on the bill had been a “total failure”.
But she stopped short of saying it had been withdrawn completely, as protesters have been demanding.
The bill sparked weeks of unrest in the city and the government had already suspended it indefinitely.
“But there are still lingering doubts about the government’s sincerity or worries whether the government will restart the process in the Legislative Council,” Ms Lam told reporters.
South Korean TV star resigns after spycam scandal
Kim Sung-joon was allegedly caught photographing a woman in a subway station, the latest in a string of ‘molka’ incidents
A well-known South Korean broadcaster has resigned after allegedly taking photographs of a woman’s “lower body” without her knowledge, in the latest molka voyeurism scandal to hit the country.
Kim Sung-joon submitted his resignation to Seoul Broadcasting System [SBS] on Monday after he was reportedly caught taking the photographs with his mobile phone at a subway station in the South Korean capital last week, Yonhap news agency said.
He was apprehended shortly after the alleged incident after a witness warned the women she was being photographed and called police, it added.
Free trade or environment
by Serge Halimi
Europe’s Greens revived the old debate on the political positioning of their movement when they won 10% of seats in the new European Parliament. Is it leftwing, as most of its alliances to date suggest? Or is it neoliberal, given that several of its former leaders, including Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Pascal Canfin and Pascal Durand, have since joined forces with Emmanuel Macron, and that some coalitions in Germany include rightwing parties as well as the Greens?
At first glance, neoliberalism and ecology seem like an odd match. In 2003 Milton Friedman, the father of neoliberalism, said, ‘The environment is a greatly overstated problem … We cause pollution just by breathing. We can’t close all the factories on the grounds that it will stop CO2 emissions. We might as well go and hang ourselves right away’ (1). A decade earlier, Gary Becker, another winner of the Nobel for economics and outspoken critic of what is now called ‘punitive ecology’, wrote that labour legislation and environmental protection were now excessive in most developed countries. He hoped that free trade would curb some of the excesses by forcing everyone to stay competitive with imports from developing countries (2).
Illegal Japanese manga site manager arrested in the Philippines
A man who ran an illegal online manga comic library read by around 100 million people each month has been arrested in Manila, Philippine authorities said Tuesday.
Romi Hoshino, 28, managed “Manga Mura” (Manga village), which shut down on its own in April last year as Japan launched a manhunt for the website’s founder for massive violation of copyright.
About 100 million people each month used the popular pirate website, which made around 60,000 manga — Japanese graphic novels or comics — available to the public for free immediately after publication.
Manga publishers lost about 320 billion yen ($2.94 billion) in potential revenues over a six-month period to February 2018 alone, Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association said.
‘Americanized’ anti-abortion protests are on the rise in the UK. But a fight back has begun
Updated 0522 GMT (1322 HKT) July 9, 2019
Monika Neall was standing outside an abortion clinic in Manchester when she saw a woman in her mid-20s dart out the doors. The woman moved towards a parked car, then suddenly froze.
On the ground nearby lay plastic fetus models, candles and images of mothers gazing adoringly at babies. Panicking, she caught Neall’s eye. “That’s my car,” she said, her voice starting to crack.
Most Saturday mornings, Neall puts on a pink vest and joins a small group of women from the volunteer organization Sister Supporter. They stand outside the Marie Stopes clinic in the northern English city to oppose the anti-abortion protests that are held there weekly.
23 US governors join Calif. in opposing Trump mileage freeze
ELLEN KNICKMEYER,Associated PressCiting climate-damaging tailpipe emissions, 23 U.S. governors signed a pledge backing California leaders in their showdown with the Trump administration over its plans to relax vehicle mileage standards.
The stand by leaders of states and Puerto Rico — nearly all Democrats — comes as the Trump administration moves to freeze tougher mileage standards laid out by former President Barack Obama, in one of the previous administration’s key efforts against climate change.
The Trump administration says American consumers increasingly want bigger, gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks. It also argues that demanding ever-more fuel-efficient vehicles will drive up automobile costs and keep less-safe, older vehicles on the road longer. Many engineers have challenged that claim.
Jul 08 2019
The Breakfast Club (Failures)
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.
This Day in History
Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Tokyo Bay; Industrialist John D. Rockefeller born; Word of what becomes known as ‘The Roswell Incident’; North Korea’s Kim Il Sung dies; Ziegfeld stages first ‘Follies.’
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
War is failure of diplomacy.
Jul 08 2019
Six In The Morning Monday 7 July 2019
Trump warns Iran ‘better be careful’ on nuclear enrichment
US warning comes after Iran announces it will begin enriching uranium beyond a cap set in the 2015 nuclear deal.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has warned Iran it “better be careful” after Tehran announced it would begin enriching uranium beyond a limit set in an international nuclear accord.
Trump last year unilaterally abandoned the 2015 deal and reinstated punishing sanctions on Iran, prompting it to announce in May a phased reduction of compliance with the landmark pact.
On Sunday, Iran said it was hours away from passing the 3.67 percent uranium enrichment cap set in the deal, and threatened to keep reducing its commitments every 60 days unless the remaining signatories to the accord – United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China – protected it from US sanctions.
Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war is ‘large-scale murdering enterprise’ says Amnesty
New report details systematic killing of poor and calls for UN investigation into crimes against humanity
The president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is carrying out a “large-scale murdering enterprise” and should be investigated by the UN for crimes against humanity, according to a new Amnesty report into his so-called war on drugs.
It has been three years since Duterte pledged to wipe out drug abuse in the Philippines by giving police unprecedented powers and near total impunity to kill any suspected drug addicts or dealers. Amnesty’s new report detailed how the systematic killing of the urban poor has continued on such a scale it now amounts to crimes against humanity.
The report told of nightly incidents where police would shoot defenceless suspects, or abduct them and take them to other locations where they would be shot. It found crime scenes were tampered with, evidence fabricated or planted and there was no accountability for the killing of suspects.
Greek conservatives score ‘clear victory’ in snap election
The opposition New Democracy party has won the highest share of the country’s vote, beating out the ruling Syriza party, according to official projections. The party’s leader said he “will not fail to honor your hopes.”
With more than 90% of the votes counted, Greece’s conservative New Democracy (ND) is set to win the country’s parliamentary elections, beating Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party.
Greek Interior Ministry projections showed ND with 39.8% of the vote, ahead of Syriza’s 31.5%.
Outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras conceded defeat to his opponent on Sunday evening, saying “we accept the verdict of the people.”
Venezuela opposition says it will meet Maduro envoys in Barbados for next round of talks
Venezuela’s opposition will meet with representatives of President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Barbados for talks mediated by Norway, the parties involved said on Sunday, as part of efforts to resolve an ongoing political crisis.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognised as Venezuela‘s rightful leader by more than 50 governments, has said any talks must lead to a sustained solution to the crisis and cannot be used by the Socialist Party to buy time.
“The Venezuelan people, our allies and the world’s democracies recognise the need for a truly free and transparent electoral process that will allow us to surpass the crisis and build a productive future,” Guaido’s office said in a statement.
She She Wrote a poem about a vagina. It landed her in jail
By Alice McCool, for CNN
How do women get men who are standing in the way of gender equality to listen to them? Grab them by their genitalia.
That’s the radical suggestion offered by jailed Ugandan feminist Stella Nyanzi.
“Unless you grab and squeeze hard, they’re not listening,” she said, wearing traditional African kitenge, red lipstick and a wry smile before a recent court hearing.
The academic, who has been in Luzira Women’s Prison for eight months, is on trial after the government accused her of “cyber harassment and offensive communication” for penning and posting a poem on Facebook.
Journalist Ito says she was ‘desperate to protect’ herself from rape
Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, who has accused a prominent former television reporter of rape, said in a damages lawsuit Monday that she tried to stop him and was “desperate to protect” herself.
The 30-year-old Ito is seeking 11 million yen in compensation from Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former reporter at Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc, known as TBS. Yamaguchi has denied any unlawful act, saying his act was based on consent.
“I felt dizzy when I was dining together (with Yamaguchi), and when I woke up at a hotel I was being raped,” Ito said in a hearing at the Tokyo District Court. “I was desperate to protect my body, telling him to ‘stop.'”
Jul 07 2019
The Breakfast Club (Toasted)
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 July 7th
Terror bombings strike London’s transit system; Oliver North testifies at Iran-Contra hearings; Sandra Day O’Connor nominated for U.S. Supreme Court; Author Robert Heinlein and musician Ringo Starr born.
Breakfast Tune Mama Tried band plays “Don’t pass me by”
Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below
Exclusive: FDA enforcement actions plummet under Trump
Charles Piller, Science
From monitoring clinical trials and approving medicines and vaccines, to ensuring the safety of blood transfusions, medical devices, groceries, and more, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the nation’s most vital watchdogs. By several measures, however, FDA’s compliance and enforcement actions have plummeted since President Donald Trump took office, Science has found.
The agency’s “warning letters”—a key tool for keeping dangerous or ineffective drugs and devices and tainted foods off the market—have fallen by one-third, for example. Such letters typically demand swift corrections to protect public health and safety. FDA records from Trump’s inauguration through 22 May show the agency issued 1033 warning letters, compared with 1532 for the most recent equivalent period under former President Barack Obama. Compared with the start of the Obama presidency, Trump-era letters dropped by nearly half.
Warnings from the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which helps ensure the safety and quality of medical devices, and from some of the agency’s district offices—including Philadelphia, Florida, and New York—have dropped even more steeply, by more than two-thirds. Two district offices have not issued a warning in more than 2 years. The numbers don’t just reflect a new administration’s slow start. FDA sent significantly fewer warning letters in the second year of Trump’s presidency than in his first.
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- MSDNC, Single Payer, and the Serenity Prayer
PAUL STREET
- Progressive Candidates Are Rising. Establishment Media Are Terrified.
William Rivers Pitt
- The Plot to Keep Jeremy Corbyn Out of Power
JONATHAN COOK
- When Will Americans Realize We’re Not the Good Guys?
Tom Engelhardt
Something to think about over coffee prozac
Majority Backs ‘Medicare for All’ Replacing Private Plans, if Preferred Providers Stay
YUSRA MURAD, MORNING CONSULT
Though the dividing line between Democratic presidential candidates on “Medicare for All” concerns the elimination of the private insurance market, new Morning Consult data suggests that anxiety among voters may be misplaced fear about losing their providers rather than their private plans.
According to a Morning Consult/Politico survey conducted after the first Democratic presidential primary debates, support among voters for Medicare for All falls to 46 percent from 53 percent when respondents are told the government-run health system would diminish the role of private insurers — but rises back to 55 percent when voters learn that losing their private plans would still allow them to keep their preferred doctors and hospitals.
Between the forums last Wednesday and Thursday, only four of the 20 candidates onstage said they were in favor of abolishing private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.). Harris later partially modified her position, stating she misheard the question and believes private plans should continue offering supplemental coverage alongside the federal system (as would be the case under Sanders’ Medicare for All plan).
“These numbers only affirm what the senator has said many times: people don’t like insurance companies, they like their doctors and their hospitals,” Sanders’ campaign said of the data in an email to Morning Consult. “Despite what the pharmaceutical and insurance industries will tell you, Medicare for All is the only proposal that gives Americans the freedom to control their own futures — change jobs, start a family, start a business — and keep their doctor.”
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Jul 07 2019
Six In The Morning Sunday 7 July 2019
Iran nuclear deal: Government announces enrichment breach
Iran has announced it will break a limit set on uranium enrichment, in breach of the landmark 2015 deal designed to curb its nuclear ambitions.
Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran still wanted to salvage the deal but blamed European countries for failing to live up to their own commitments.
The US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
It has since reimposed tight sanctions affecting the Iranian economy.
The Iranian announcement marks the latest breach of the accord.
In May, Iran stepped up its production of enriched uranium, which can be used to make fuel for reactors but also for nuclear weapons.
Donald Trump ‘inept’ and ‘dysfunctional’, UK ambassador to US says
In ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos, Kim Darroch reportedly says presidency could ‘end in disgrace’
Britain’s ambassador in the United States has described President Donald Trump and his administration as “inept” and “uniquely dysfunctional”, according to ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos published by the Mail on Sunday.
Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump’s presidency could “crash and burn” and “end in disgrace”, in the cache of secret cables and briefing notes sent back to Britain and seen by the newspaper.
“We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch allegedly wrote in one dispatch.
Iran and France working on plan to salvage nuclear deal, Macron says
French and Iranian presidents want to find ‘conditions for talks’ between Tehran and world powers
France and Iran have agreed to work together to find conditions for resuming international talks aimed at saving the 2015 nuclear deal, French president Emmanuel Macron has said.
Mr Macron said he spoke for more than an hour with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani on Saturday, and said they are trying to find a way to resume dialogue between world powers and Iran.
It comes as Iranian officials get set to announce an increase in uranium enrichment to 5 per cent – an amount above the limit set by the landmark agreement.
The World’s BankVast Chinese Loans Pose Risks to Developing World
China is the largest creditor in the world, funding infrastructure projects in the developing world in exchange for access to raw materials. A new study shows that the risk of a new debt crisis is significant.
By Bartholomäus Grill, Michael Sauga and Bernhard Zand
The future rail link cuts its way through the jungles of Laos for over 400 kilometers. Soon, trains will be rolling through — over bridges, through tunnels and across dams built just for the line, which runs from the Chinese border in the north to the Laotian capital of Vientiane on the Mekong River.
After five years of construction, the line is set to go into service in 2021. And the Chinese head of one of the sections has no doubt that it will be finished on time. “Our office alone employs 4,000 workers,” he says. There is also no lack of money: The Chinese government in Beijing has earmarked around 6 billion dollars for the project and has recently become both Laos’s largest creditor and most significant provider of development aid.
Designed as a symbol of unity, Hong Kong’s flag becomes the focus of protest
Written byOscar Holland, CNNHong Kong
Hong Kong’s flag was designed to be a symbol of unity. Its circular arrangement of white flower petals, set prominently against a bright red background, is supposed to embody the rights and freedoms enjoyed under the “one country, two systems” principle.
But in the 22 years since it was first raised, the flag and flower emblem have become targets for pro-democracy activists — including those who smashedtheir way into Hong Kong’s Legislative Council building Monday evening, after weeks of street protests.
Demonstrators are using the city’s ensign, which depicts a bauhinia flower, as a symbolic tool in their push to block a controversial extradition bill. Banners and protest art, for instance, have pictured the petals wilting, an apparent commentary on the perceived erosion of sovereignty.
THE RIVER BASIN at the center of Latin America called the Amazon is roughly the size of Australia. Created at the beginning of the world by a smashing of tectonic plates, it was the cradle of inland seas and continental lakes. For the last several million years, it has been blanketed by a teeming tropical biome of 400 billion trees and vegetation so dense and heavy with water, it exhales a fifth of Earth’s oxygen, stores centuries of carbon, and deflects and consumes an unknown but significant amount of solar heat. Twenty percent of the world’s fresh water cycles through its rivers, plants, soils, and air. This moisture fuels and regulates multiple planet-scale systems, including the production of “rivers in the air” by evapotranspiration, a ceaseless churning flux in which the forest breathes its water into great hemispheric conveyer belts that carry it as far as the breadbaskets of Argentina and the American Midwest, where it is released as rain.
Jul 06 2019
The Breakfast Club (Philosophy)
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.
This Day in History
John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for first time; Baseball’s first All-Star Game; Outbreak of the Biafran War; Painter Frida Kahlo born; Althea Gibson wins at Wimbledon; Singing cowboy Roy Rogers dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
Jul 06 2019
Six In The Morning 6 July 2019
Another, stronger quake in Ridgecrest shakes Southern California, causing more damage
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Southern California on Friday night, the second major temblor in less than two days and one that rocked buildings across Southern California, adding more jitters to an already nervous region.
The quake was centered near Ridgecrest, the location of the July Fourth 6.4 magnitude temblor that was the largest in nearly 20 years. It was followed by an aftershock first reported as 5.5 in magnitude. Scientists said the fault causing the quakes appears to be growing.
Friday night’s quake caused some fires and other damage in and around Ridgecrest and Trona, two Mojave Desert towns shaken by both quakes, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The quake was felt as far away as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Baja California and Reno, according to crowd-sourced data logged into the U.S. Geological Survey’s Did You Feel It? website.
Rare photos shine light on ‘degrading’ conditions in Iraqi jails
Concerns overcrowding at prisons for Isis suspects could fuel radicalisation
Bethan McKernan Middle East correspondent
Photos have surfaced of overcrowded and “degrading” conditions in Iraqi detention centres used to hold thousands of men, women and children with suspected links to Islamic State.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday it had acquired rare photographic evidence of conditions falling short of the most basic international standards at three facilities in Nineveh province. HRW warned the situation could lead to the radicalisation of vulnerable prisoners.
In one photograph, taken at Tal Kayf prison, dozens of women and small children are so tightly packed into a cell that the floor is not visible and clothes and belongings are hung on the wall. In another, of a juvenile cell at Tal Kayf, there is so little room a sea of teenage boys are forced to sleep in the foetal position.
Malta says deal reached with Italy to take migrants from rescue boat
Malta said it will accept migrants from a rescue vessel that had been headed toward Italy. A second boat with rescued migrants is also sailing for Lampedusa, where Italian officials have said it won’t be allowed to dock.
Malta and Italy reportedly reached a deal on Friday to begin to tackle the standoff between charity rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea and Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
The two countries are said to have agreed to each take refugees from a sailboat belonging to Italian NGO Mediterranea that rescued 54 people at sea.
Under the arrangement, Malta would send a coast guard vessel to pick up migrants on the Mediterranea and bring them to the country’s capital, Valetta.
In South Sudan, daring to hope for peace
After five years of brutal civil war in South Sudan, a peace deal signed last year by President Salva Kiir and his opponent Riek Machar is providing hope at last. Our reporters went to Bentiu, one of the cities worst affected by the war and home to 100,000 displaced people. Our team also witnessed negotiations between former enemies who are now praying side by side for a shared future.
Nine months after the ratification of a peace deal by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO rebel leader Riek Machar, violence in the country is subsiding. Several people have admittedly been killed since then, but far fewer than what the country has seen in five years of civil war.
Since December 15, 2013, the armed conflict between supporters of Salva Kiir and those of Riek Machar has left hundreds of thousands dead and forced four million people to flee their homes.
Losing one island cost Japan a war. That’s a warning for the South China Sea
Updated 0057 GMT (0857 HKT) July 6, 2019
In early July 1944, on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, the United States clinched a devastating defeat over Japan in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.
Some 29,000 Japanese troops, almost the entire force Tokyo put on Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, were killed. US losses totaled almost 3,000 dead and more than 10,000 wounded.
It was a pivotal moment in the war.
Soon after the Battle of Saipan, the US took the nearby islands of Tinian and Guam. On all three islands, the US built runways to accommodate heavy B-29 bombers, the biggest bombers in World War II.
Debate on death penalty not very vigorous 1 year after Aum executions
July marks one year since the founder and 12 former senior members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult were executed after being convicted of murders, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
The executions could have sparked a vigorous debate on the death penalty in Japan, but they have not led to any major movement calling for its abolition despite international criticism, and polls suggest many Japanese are supportive of capital punishment.
The unprecedented group execution of Aum founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, and the former senior members occurred on July 6 and 26, 2018.