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.

President Ronald Reagan demands the tearing down of the Berlin Wall; Civil rights activist Medgar Evers killed; O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman murdered; Baseball Hall of Fame opens.

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Continue reading

By James Griffiths, Helen Regan, Ben Westcott and Steve George, CNN

Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee

Sick and elderly left to fend for themselves with no end in sight to water crisis

Hundreds of Indian villages have been evacuated as a historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water.

The country has seen extremely high temperatures in recent weeks. On Monday the capital, Delhi, saw its highest ever June temperature of 48C. In Rajasthan, the city of Churu recently experienced highs of 50.8C, making it the hottest place on the planet.

Further south, less than 250 miles from the country’s commercial capital, Mumbai, village after village lies deserted. Estimates suggest up to 90% of the area’s population has fled, leaving the sick and elderly to fend for themselves in the face of a water crisis that shows no sign of abating.

Botswana decriminalises homosexuality in landmark ruling for LGBT+ rights

More than two dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa have laws criminalising gay sex

Samuel Osborne @SamuelOsborne93

Botswana became the latest country to decriminalise homosexuality on Tuesday, celebrated by activists as a day of “pride, compassion and love.”

In the landmark ruling, the southern African nation’s High Court rejected sections of the penal code that criminalise same-sex relations and impose up to seven years in prison.

High Court said in its ruling that penalising people for who they are is disrespectful, and the law should not deal with private acts between consenting adults. The right to privacy includes sexual orientation, which is innate and not a fashion statement, the judges said.

Journalist gunned down in Mexico: reports

A journalist was murdered Tuesday in southeast Mexico, her former employer and other news outlets reported.

Norma Sarabia was a correspondent for the newspaper Tabasco Today for 15 years and most recently worked for other local media outlets, the newspaper said in its report of her death.

She was attacked by two armed men riding a motorbike who shot her several times outside her home in Tabasco state, the paper reported.

“We deeply regret her death and we sympathize with her family,” wrote editorial director Hector Tapia on Twitter.

Israel plans to entrench annexation of East Jerusalem: Report

Concerned that Jerusalem will soon have a non-Jewish majority, Israel may excise Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem.

If current demographic trends continue, Jerusalemcould become a minority-Jewish city as early as 2045, according to a report by the Jerusalem and Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).

And to stop this trend Israel may excise Palestinianneighbourhoods located east of its separation barrier, entrenching its de facto annexation of most of occupied East Jerusalem, according to the report.

Japan’s Shinzo Abe heads to Tehran amid US-Iran tensions

Some News, eh?

We only ask what we ever ask. Let us see it first.

I haven’t talked much about Brexit recently because very little has actually happened. Theresa May’s Government is inevitably and mercifully over (though she will act as a caretaker until the next Tory leader is selected sometime in July). I imagine she was much kinder to Larry than David Cameron was. The Conservatives are imploding, remembering why, exactly, they hate each and every one of their opponent’s guts and just what a corrupt perverted dope fiend they are.

You know, your typical Tory Leadership election and every scurrilous bit is true. These are deeply evil people.

Meanwhile, events have taken a noticiable spurt forward. Jeremy Corbyn has finally committed Labour to advance a Bill the ultimate effect of which which would bind any Prime Minister from submitting a Bill including a ‘No Deal’ Brexit alternative for debate even more permanently we were sure was already the case!

It would in fact separate the Parliament Remain/Leave (a little simplistic but captures the dynamics I think). ‘Leave’ loses with a thud and that will permanently weaken their grip on Institutional Tories, a clear defeat I think. While the usual suspects (SNP, Greens, Neo-Lib Dems, and Plaid Cymru) are behind Labour, which is United. That’s still about 10 shy given the stand of the DUP.

There is a trickle of Tories who’ve already flipped and Corbyn is hoping it will turn into a torrent which is not a bad bet given May was not able to prevent a similar measure. Whether it does him any good in the general? Jeremy has been less than innovative on Brexit.

Labour to launch bid to block new PM from forcing no-deal Brexit
by Jessica Elgot, The Guardian
Tue 11 Jun 201

Labour will launch the first step in an audacious cross-party attempt to block a new prime minister from forcing through a no-deal Brexit in October.

The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, threw down the gauntlet to Tory cabinet ministers including Amber Rudd and Philip Hammond, saying they should back Labour’s attempts if they were serious about preventing no deal.

Rory Stewart, a Tory leadership contender, said he might consider backing the motion on Wednesday – a move that could get him sacked as international development secretary.

If passed, the motion would give MPs control of the parliamentary agenda on 25 June. The same motion could then potentially be used to begin legislation to prevent the UK from leaving the EU without a deal.

The motion, which Labour will table during the opposition day debate on Wednesday, has the backing of the former Conservative minister Oliver Letwin and the leaders of the Scottish National party, Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.

Unlike typical opposition day debates, the motion, if passed, will be binding, but it will need to secure the support of more Conservative MPs.
…
A similar move in April by Letwin and the Labour MP Yvette Cooper passed by one vote after 14 Tory MPs rebelled. Conservative sources who have worked behind the scenes on the proposal believe it may be difficult to convince some party colleagues to back a plan based on a Labour opposition day motion, even if they broadly support its objective.
…
Johnson, as well as Andrea Leadsom, Dominic Raab and Esther McVey, have vowed that if they win the Tory leadership, they will take the UK out of the EU on 31 October, regardless of whether or not a deal is in place.

Raab has also refused to rule out the option of proroguing parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit, something other candidates have said they would not countenance.

Starmer said the debate over a no-deal Brexit in the Tory leadership contest had “descended into the disturbing, the ludicrous and the reckless”, and had forced MPs to act.

“MPs cannot be bystanders while the next Tory prime minister tries to crash the UK out of the European Union without a deal and without the consent of the British people,” he said.

“That’s why we are taking this latest measure to end the uncertainty and protect communities across the country. My challenge to MPs who disagree either with a no-deal Brexit or proroguing parliament is to back this motion and act in the national interest.”

The motion has been signed by Corbyn and the Labour chief whip, Nick Brown, as well as Letwin, the SNP’s Ian Blackford, the Lib Dems’ Vince Cable, Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville Roberts and the Green MP, Caroline Lucas.
…
Letwin, who has backed Michael Gove in the Tory leadership contest, is likely to face criticism from party colleagues for supporting the move. A Gove campaign source said: “All leadership candidates will need to win support of colleagues across the party. Michael has always been clear that no deal must remain on the table.”

Steve Baker, the deputy chair of the hard-Brexit European Research Group, said Tories including Letwin were risking the chance of a general election that could result in the Conservatives being wiped out by the Brexit party.

Baker, who has backed Johnson, said: “Oliver Letwin brings closer a general election which could leave Conservatives holding as few as 26 seats. Colluding with this Labour leadership to deny government control of the Commons business is unconscionable for being firmly against the national interest.”

Man, Tories sure do hate Labour a lot.

A peek of nightmare

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.

Highlights of this day in history: Alabama Gov. George Wallace makes a symbolic stand against racial integration; A Buddhist monk immolates himself in South Vietnam; Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh executed; Actor John Wayne dies.

>

When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.

Saul Bellow

Continue reading

North Korea: Hundreds of public execution sites identified, says report

A South Korean NGO says it has identified 318 sites in North Korea that have been used by the government to carry out public executions.

The Transitional Justice Working Group interviewed 610 North Korean defectors over four years for its report.

It documented decades of killings, for offences ranging from stealing a cow to watching South Korean TV.

Public executions took place near rivers, fields, markets, schools, and sports grounds, the rights group said.

Crowds of 1,000 or more would gather to watch these executions, the NGO said in its report, “Mapping the fate of the dead”, released on Tuesday.

Sudanese doctors say dozens of people raped during sit-in attack

Hospitals in Khartoum record more than 70 cases of rape in aftermath of attack on protest

Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartoum and Jason Burke

Tue 11 Jun 2019 05.00 BST

Doctors believe paramilitaries carried out more than 70 rapes during an attack on a protest camp in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, a week ago.

More than 100 people were killed and as many as 700 injured in the attack last Monday on a sit-in and clashes afterwards, as paramilitaries from the Rapid Support Forces spread through the city to quell sporadic unrest.

Harrowing details of rapes by the RSF have emerged in recent days despite restrictions on communications in Sudan, but the extent of the sexual violence has remained unknown.

Twenty years after the end of the Kosovo war, survivors of Racak massacre remember their loved ones

The anniversary of a war that saw 15,000 killed and around 2.7 million displaced is marked by pomp and ceremony with international statesmen likely to attend, writes Kim Sengupta

The shooting began just before five in the afternoon. Ram Shabani remembers the time when his life changed forever. He recalls hearing the muzzein’s call from the mosque drifting over the loudspeaker just when he felt he was going to pass out from fatigue and the prolonged beating he had received.

“We were with our hands on our heads for a very long time. I was in real pain and did not think I would last any longer.

“Then I heard the prayer – it was such a peaceful sound, but suddenly there was firing all around me, people were screaming and falling, dying around me,” he recalls.

Nicaragua frees political prisoners with suspect amnesty law

Nicaragua’s government has released 50 people arrested during a year of anti-regime protests. However, the new amnesty law also protects police and supporters of the government who assaulted demonstrators in 2018.

On Monday, Nicaragua’s government released 50 more people jailed for their roles in protests during months of political upheaval in 2018.

A new law extends protections to “people who have not been investigated, who find themselves under investigation” or in criminal processes and “complying with their sentences.”

However, it also bans freed political prisoners from launching further anti-government protests.

Repatriate or reject: What countries are doing with IS group families

Since the fall of the Islamic State group’s so-called “caliphate” in March, the international community has been torn over what to do with the families of foreign jihadists captured or killed in Syria and Iraq.

A Russian journalist was arrested on drug charges. The backlash has blindsided the Kremlin

Analysis by Nathan Hodge and Mary Ilyushina, CNN

Updated 0507 GMT (1307 HKT) June 11, 2019

Just a little update on why we call him Bottomless. In this sense it means “unplumbed” or “beyond measure” and not “buff”. There’s actually quite a bit of Bottom in him in the sense of Ass or Fool, Bilge or Dregs.

President Trump has made 10,796 false or misleading claims over 869 days
By Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, and Meg Kelly, Washington Post
June 10, 2019

The president crossed the 10,000 threshold on April 26 and he has been averaging about 16 fishy claims a day since then. From the start of his presidency, he has averaged about 12 such claims a day.

About one-fifth of these claims are about immigration, his signature issue — a percentage that has grown since the government shut down over funding for his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In fact, his most repeated claim — 172 times — is that his border wall is being built. Congress balked at funding the concrete barrier he envisioned, so he has tried to pitch bollard fencing and repairs of existing barriers as “a wall.”

False or misleading claims about trade and the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign each account more about 10 percent of the total.

Trump’s penchant for repeating false claims is demonstrated by the fact that The Fact Checker database has recorded more than 300 instances in which he has repeated a variation of the same claim at least three times. He also now has earned 21 “Bottomless Pinocchios,” claims that have earned Three or Four Pinocchios and which have been repeated at least 20 times.