Dead Jim. Dead!

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.

Israel and the Palestinians sign a major accord; President George W. Bush takes responsibility for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina; Attica prison uprising ends; Rapper Tupac Shakur dies.

We give you the facts. I told you information is power – knowledge is power. We can’t be in an ideological battle to redeem the soul of this country if we don’t have the facts.

Tavis Smiley

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Not that I think it likely mind you, but a rosy best case scenario for Democrats in November includes a 60 vote swing in the House and a Senate majority.

The things that are new today are a decline in Trump’s already dismal Poll numbers and new State by State Polling that indicates as many as 8 or 10 Senators, overwhelmingly Republican, are nursing single digit leads within the net disapproval umbra (to say nothing of the margin of error).

‘Shipwreck’: GOP grows fearful about losing Senate as candidates struggle, Trump support tumbles
By Sean Sullivan, Washington Post
September 11, 2018

Republicans could still emerge with an increase in their numbers if GOP candidates eventually prevail in many of these close races, with Democrats seriously concerned about Florida, where Republican Gov. Rick Scott is running about even against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

The dire warnings also could serve as a wake-up call to GOP donors for the final eight weeks of the campaign.

But for the GOP, simply retaining its majority — which was whittled by a seat after a stunning upset in the Alabama special election last year — has looked like a more challenging goal by the day, as controversy swirls around Trump, the public loses confidence in the president and GOP candidates are slow to gain traction.

A Washington Post-ABC News national poll conducted in late August found just 38 percent of voters approved of the job that Trump was doing, compared with 60 percent who disapproved. His approval rating in April was 44 percent.

These difficulties have come into sharp focus in Texas, where Cruz is fighting for political survival against O’Rourke, a rising liberal star who is raising record-setting sums of cash and attracting large crowds across a ruby-red state. At the end of June, O’Rourke had close to $14 million cash on hand to Cruz’s $9 million, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
…
The sudden cooperation underscores how much the GOP fears losing Texas. The shock waves are being felt well beyond the state, as its several expensive media markets could force the party to spend money there that it will have to subtract from GOP hopefuls in other battlegrounds.

“Other campaigns are going to be shorted due to the lackluster nature of the campaign,” said one White House official, speaking of the Cruz operation.

McConnell recently assured Cruz in a private conversation that resources would be there for him, according to people familiar with the talk. Trump is planning to campaign for Cruz in Texas next month.

While it seems to be all about Ted Cruz, Republicans are in trouble in Arizona and Nevada too while in the most vulnerable Democratic State, Indiana, the Democrat has finally gained a narrow lead.

60 GOP House seats in danger
By STEVEN SHEPARD, Politico
09/05/2018

Roughly 100 of the 240 Republican-controlled House seats are currently within Democratic reach, posing the most serious threat to the GOP majority since the party won control in 2010.

Despite the GOP’s built-in advantages due to incumbency and redistricting, 60 of those seats are even more precariously positioned, with the Republican nominee either holding just a slight competitive edge, dead even against their Democratic opponent or trailing.
…
The election cycle began with Republicans holding key structural assets in the battle for House control. But over the course of the past year-and-a-half, those advantages have gradually eroded.

Republicans started with a number of entrenched incumbents in seats that swung against the GOP in last year’s presidential election. The problem? Many of them — like Ed Royce and Darrell Issa in Southern California, Rodney Frelinghuysen in New Jersey, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in South Florida and Dave Reichert in Washington state — chose to retire rather than run for reelection. Since incumbent members typically have more campaign cash in the bank and run stronger than candidates in open seats, it provided Democrats with a more even playing field than they might have otherwise had.

All told, more than 40 House Republicans aren’t seeking reelection, and Democrats already have the advantage in a number of these seats, including those currently held by Issa, Frelinghuysen, Ros-Lehtinen and Reichert.

Many of the GOP incumbents who are running have their own problems. Fifty-six Republican incumbents were outraised by the Democratic challengers in the most recent fundraising quarter, and 16 of them trailed in cash on hand as of the end of June. One reason is that Democrats have been able to raise funds at a greater clip than past minority parties, in large part thanks to an unprecedented online fundraising network. Republicans are in better shape when it comes to outside money — Congressional Leadership Fund, the leading pro-GOP super PAC — had $73.3 million in cash on hand as of mid-July, its latest report with the Federal Election Commission.

Democrats also managed to chip away at another House GOP firewall: the maps under which the elections will be held. Nowhere is that more obvious than Pennsylvania: Republicans held a 13-to-5 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation at the beginning of 2017, but thanks to court-ordered redrawing of the districts, Democrats could capture a majority of the state’s House seats this November.
…
Four seats currently in GOP hands are even classified as Safe or Likely Democratic — New Jersey’s 2nd District and Pennsylvania’s 5th, 6th and 17th districts. In New Jersey, national Republicans have cut loose the party’s nominee, Seth Grossman, over bigoted statements Grossman has made in the past. Pennsylvania’s 5th and 6th districts are poised to move into the Democratic column as a result of new, favorable district lines. In Pennsylvania’s 17th District, Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb has a consistent lead over GOP Rep. Keith Rothfus in a member-vs.-member contest.

Democrats have another 10 Republican seats leaning in their direction — their candidates are currently favored, though not assured of victory. Four GOP incumbents are at least slight underdogs: Barbara Comstock in Northern Virginia, Steve Knight in Southern California, Rod Blum in Eastern Iowa, Andy Barr in Kentucky. And Democrats are also favored to pick up seats where incumbents are retiring: Issa’s San Diego-area seat, Ros-Lehtinen’s Miami seat, Reichert’s Washington state seat, and a seat in southern North Carolina, where GOP Rep. Robert Pittenger lost his primary.

Of the two-dozen seats rated as Toss-Ups, 23 are currently held by Republicans; just one, the southern Minnesota seat Rep. Tim Walz is vacating to run for governor, is held by a Democrat.

Similarly, of the 27 seats rated as Lean Republican, 26 are currently held by the GOP. Republicans’ best pick-up opportunity: the Minnesota Iron Range seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Rick Nolan.

There are some self-inflicted wounds for Republicans on the House map. Blum, whose seat is rated Lean Democratic, is facing an investigation by the House ethics committee. Virginia Rep. Scott Taylor’s campaign is under investigation for allegedly forging signatures on the qualification papers of an independent candidate that could siphon votes away from Elaine Luria, the Democratic nominee.

Two GOP incumbents are under federal indictments: New York Rep. Chris Collins and California Rep. Duncan Hunter. Republicans are trying to replace Collins — who said he doesn’t want to run again, even though he is the GOP nominee — on the ballot, but Democrats have promised to fight his removal. Hunter, meanwhile, is full-steam-ahead on his reelection bid in what would have otherwise been a safe GOP district.

All is not lost for Republicans: Some of their incumbents are in better-than-expected shape, given the Democratic lean of their districts. Reps. Carlos Curbelo (Florida), Will Hurd (Texas) and John Katko (New York) are favored to win reelection.

Democrats will make gains on Election Day, and a “wave election” is possible — though not yet guaranteed. An improvement in the national environment — combined with GOP outside groups’ hand-to-hand combat in some of these districts — can still result in Republicans’ saving their House majority.

With two months to go until Election Day, the House is rated as Lean Democratic.

Remember, this is a best case scenario. It won’t happen if you don’t vote. For those who like to ‘sharpen the differences’ we’ve already had some pretty big gains for more Lefty candidates in the Primary season including a fairly favorable Rule change on Super Delegates and adoption of more populist positions by incumbents. I suggest the differences are quite sharp enough for now.

As Rhode Island goes to the Primary polls tonight (Rhode Island is sooo Blue that the Republicans are the Monster Raving Loony Party and half the Democrats are really Republicans (if you want to see what a single party state is like look no further- rampant corruption, indeed for a time it operated as the political arm of the Patriarcas until they gave it up because the politicians were stealing too much).

Nope, I’m here to refresh your memory that Andrew Cuomo is scum. You should vote for Cynthia Nixon (mine? Chive and Scallion schmear with Onion and Tomatoes on Salt, but I’ve always favored savory and fish on a cinnamon roll with raisins, while not to my taste, is totally acceptable and were I to re-arrange the ingredients slightly as smoked Trout in a cinnamon/raisin/carrot glaze and a dipping sauce of crème fraîche incorporated with Chives and a generous Chive garnish you might even learn to like it.)

If eating your Pizza the wrong way (no utensils please, Di Blasio- looking right at you) or anti-Semitic falsehoods, slanders, and lies (raising her 2 kids Jewish) are your best material you not only deserve to lose, you should be drummed from the Party, run out of Albany on a rail, and sentenced to a lifetime as a token clerk in the 9th Avenue Subway.

Because of our elevated location (don’t let the ‘Hollow’ part fool you) and some ancient and obscure ‘Clear Channel’ rules, I recognize all these anchors from waiting for Colbert. It’s true that we have a perfectly good CBS channel here in Connecticut if your definition of ‘perfectly good’ includes results from the Brooklyn/Scotland (yes, those are real towns, Stars Hollow is Fictional) Swim Meet.

Five Minute Food Detox

It really works!

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.

America faces the aftermath of the Sept. 11th attacks; Nazis rescue Italy’s Mussolini; JFK confronts critics of his religion; Student leader Steven Biko killed in South Africa; Singer Johnny Cash dies.

I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out. Arthur Hays Sulzberger

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It’s National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and I never make jokes about about Suicide. I suffer from Anxiety and Depression but not that kind. I have a terminal condition, Life, and my sudden non-presence in it won’t solve anything (and that ladies and gentlemen is Depression, when even Death offers no relief).

What with Group and all, I’ve met quite a few including some that have later succeeded. It never mitigates and most often increases the damage. As toxic as you may think you are there are people who will miss you and why give them that satisfaction (I’ll piss on your grave yet W)?

Still, it takes a perverse nature to make a Suicide Prevention piece for the Army featuring a soldier who is serving a life sentence for murdering 16 Afghans in cold blood.

Oh yes. Meet Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. He “left his base in Kandahar on March 11, 2012 “and headed to a nearby village, where he killed four people, including a child, and assaulted six others. He returned to base for more ammunition before walking to another village, where he killed a dozen more, mainly women and children, in their beds.”

Confessions of America’s Most Notorious War Criminal
By Brendan Vaughan, Gentlemen’s Quarterly
October 21, 2015

The kid comes running out, screaming, from almost the same [direction] where the dog came from. I shot the kid.” He pauses. “Um.” Pauses again. “It was a quick reaction. You know, to be honest, you know—I hate it. I hate it. Every day, I think about it all the time.” Pause. “At this point, I just kind of turned and killed the man [Nazir Mohamed]. And pretty much after that it was autopilot.
…
Naim, an elderly man whose blood-pressure medication had allowed him to sleep through the attack. The women and children woke him up now, screaming, “The American is shooting people!” Naim told his family to hide while he investigated.
Rafiullah, who was wounded in the upper thigh of both legs after being shot allegedly by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.

But the instant he stepped out of the room and into the corridor, Bales shot him in the face and neck. Then Bales stepped across the threshold and looked into the room, where by now nearly 30 women and children were desperately trying to hide from him. He recognized the face of Na’ikmarga, the old woman who had struggled with him before running, and shot her in the head, killing her. Then, he says, he felt something “switch” inside him. He sprayed a fusillade of bullets, wounding four: Rafiullah, a teenage boy of 13 or 14, who was shot in both thighs; Parmina, a slightly older teenage girl, shot in the chest and groin; Sadiquallah, a boy of about 10, who took a bullet through the ear and into his skull; and Zardana, a 7-year-old girl, who was shot in the back of the head.

“I was so angry at these guys [the men who owned the homes] for putting their families in harm’s way like that,” Bales says, his voice tightening with a kind of agitated despair. “You wouldn’t make HMEs in your house. You wouldn’t have terrorists running to your house, bleeding. You wouldn’t have people run to your house for aid, where you have your wife and children sleeping. You just wouldn’t do it. To me, that’s hard. That’s really, really hard to comprehend.… So I blamed them, but I took it out on [the women and children]. I was just raging.”
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A few minutes later, Bales entered the room of Sergeant McLaughlin, one of the two soldiers he’d been drinking with earlier. “I told him, ‘Yo, man, I just killed some military-aged males in Alikozai, and I’m gonna go to Naja Bien and finish it. Take care of my wife and kids.’ ” (The only male Bales killed in Alikozai who was even close to military age was Nazir Mohamed.)

McLaughlin didn’t believe Bales, thinking he must be sleepwalking. Bales stuck the barrel of his M4 under his nose and said, “Smell my weapon.” McLaughlin was sleepy, irritated, and unconvinced. He snapped at Bales to take care of his own kids. Bales kept insisting that he promise to look after his family, and finally McLaughlin relented, just so he could go back to sleep.

“I don’t think I expected to come back,” Bales says now. “Why else would I tell him to take care of my wife and kids? I grabbed a grenade launcher, a grenade belt, a couple extra magazines, and I rolled back out.”
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This time Bales headed south, to Naja Bien, where the rifle and satellite phone had been found. He first went to the house of a man named Mohamed Dawud. When Bales walked in, he found his entire family asleep in one room. He dragged Dawud out of bed, yelling “Talib! Talib!,” and pulled him into the courtyard, where Dawud pleaded, “No Talib! No Talib!” Bales then shot Dawud in the head while Masuma, his wife, watched from a few feet away.
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(H)e left Dawud’s house and proceeded to the home of Mohamed Wazir, 500 yards to the west—near the spot where the Americans had discovered the 150-pound bomb. Wazir was not there, but 11 members of his family slept inside. His brother and sister-in-law were in one room. In another, his wife, his mother, six of his seven children, and his 13-year-old nephew. Bales walked through the door and into the courtyard, where he again encountered a dog. He shot it.

He then entered the room where the family had been sleeping on carpets, huddled together for warmth. Awakened by the gunfire, a boy named Issa swung a shovel at Bales, hitting him in the back. Bales easily overpowered the boy, flipping him over his head into the center of the room. A kerosene lantern on the floor provided some dim light. As Bales moved through the room, he kicked and stomped on various members of the family, beating one so severely that, according to prosecutors, he “left hair and skin stuck to the wall.” Bales then set his M4 on burst and murdered all eight people in the room.
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As he made his way through the house, he encountered one more soul: Shah Tarina, the elderly mother of Mohamed Wazir. Bales’s rifle was out of ammo, so he shot the old woman in the chest and head with his pistol. “She was not dead,” reads the Army’s account, so Bales “crushed her skull with his boot, stomping on her with so much force that her face and head were mutilated, leaving her blood splattered on the walls of her son’s home.” Bales then picked up her body, carried her into the other room, and laid her down with her family. The blankets and sheets were ablaze, the room bright with fire.

Bales is waiting for his Trump pardon, just like Paul Manafort-

Bales’ attorney, John Maher of Chicago, said earlier this month that if he runs out of options in the courts, he will seek executive clemency from the president.

Bales could face a receptive audience if President Donald Trump still occupies the Oval Office when his appeals are complete. Trump has freed people he believes were treated unfairly by the judicial system, pardoning five, including two for political corruption and infamous Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt.

From the U.S. Army official Facebook page (since deleted) Via Twitter–

Secretary of the Army Mark T. Esper

“As Army leaders we need to proactively build self-awareness and strenghten relations with our Soldiers, and foster a culture where individuals are motivated to seek help when needed without fear of stigma.” Lt. Gen. Thomas C. Seamands, U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1

This month we recognize National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month and encourage the entire Army community to support each other and encourage individuals to seek help.

Which seems kind of redundant to me, but I didn’t write it. The blurb appeared next to a picture of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales in full gear, smiling.

Now I reccommend treatment for everyone and not just potential suicides or War Criminals but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea, only obvious and unoriginal.

(h/t Frank Dale @ Think Progress)

Cold Dead Hand

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.

Sights and sounds of this day in 2001, when America suffered the worst terrorist attack on its soil.

The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate.

O. Henry

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Wait! You think this is about rushing the completion of the new Tappan Zee Bridge and putting hundreds of lives at risk not to mention screwing literally Billions of commutes for years?

Maybe about starving the Subways for money throughout his tenure and refusing to ride them even to see just how bad the problems are?

No, Andrew Cuomo is waaay scummier than that, this is just the latest one.

Andrew Cuomo Owes Cynthia Nixon an ApologyAndrew Cuomo Owes Cynthia Nixon an Apology
The New York Times
Sept. 9, 2018

This is dirty politics, nearly as sleazy as it gets.

Days before Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s primary race for re-election on Thursday, the New York State Democratic Committee has sent voters a campaign mailer falsely accusing his challenger, Cynthia Nixon, of being “silent on the rise of anti-Semitism.”

It says she supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. She does not. It accuses Ms. Nixon of opposing funding yeshivas, private religious schools attended by many of the city’s Orthodox Jews. She has never said that.

“With anti-Semitism and bigotry on the rise, we can’t take a chance,” the mailer reads. “Re-Elect Governor Andrew Cuomo.”

This is the lowest form of politics, and the most dangerous, exploiting the festering wounds and fears along ethnic and religious lines.

“I didn’t know about the mailer,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference Sunday in Manhattan. “I haven’t seen the mailer.”

Sorry, Mr. Cuomo, but that strains credulity.

Mr. Cuomo dominates the state Democratic Party. It acts ethically or abominably at his direction, or at the very least, with his campaign’s blessing.

The committee no doubt sent this garbage in the cynical hope that it would prove effective with ultra-Orthodox Jews, who generally vote as a bloc, making them a sought-after constituency for New York politicians.

Geoff Berman, executive director of the state Democrats, said Saturday on Twitter that the mailer was “a mistake and is inappropriate and is not the tone the Democratic Party should set,” saying it wouldn’t happen again. Sunday, he went further, saying the party would “work with the Nixon campaign to send out a mailing of their choosing to the same universe of people.”

Even if that were possible so late in the campaign, it’s not enough.

Mr. Cuomo has an obligation to personally apologize and condemn these outrageous attacks. Voters deserve to hear Mr. Cuomo describe Ms. Nixon as a worthy opponent who abhors anti-Semitism. He should make sure that message gets to ultra-Orthodox voters ahead of Thursday’s elections. And he should fire the party official who came up with the idea for the flier.

While Mr. Cuomo is at it, he might also mention that Ms. Nixon attends a Manhattan synagogue. Saturday night, her rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum, issued a joint statement with her wife, the teachers’ union leader Randi Weingarten, on Facebook, calling the charges in the mailer a “baseless lie.” Other Democrats have also condemned Mr. Cuomo and the Democratic Party for the flier.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat who hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the primary, said in a statement released by the Nixon campaign on Sunday: “I am doubly offended and aghast that my party organization would produce and mail such a false, damaging attack on Ms. Nixon and then watch the Governor and key staff act surprised they had done this. Shameful.”

Given all the ethical lapses in Mr. Cuomo’s administration, of which he has also pleaded ignorance, this smear is appalling. It is the kind of cynical behavior that detracts from Mr. Cuomo’s often-impressive ability to govern. If he is not careful, it could make voters feel they have no choice but to vote for someone else.

New Yorkers! You do have a choice. Vote for anyone except Cuomo, even Sam’s dog Harvey. A demon possesed mutt would be a better Governor, and a better Democrat.

Now I’ve got a nickel in my pocket.

Look, in a little while I’m going to hold an action sale at Cocoanut Manor, the suburb terrible or beautiful. You must come over. There’s going to be entertainment, sandwiches, and the auction. If you don’t like auctions, we can play contract. Here it is – Cocoanut Manor – 42 hours from Times Square by railroad. 1,600 miles as the crow flies and 1,800 as the horse flies. There you are – Cocoanut Manor glorifying the American sewer and the Florida sucker. It’s the most exclusive residential district in Florida. Nobody lives there. And the climate – ask me about the climate. I dare you.

Very well – how is the…

I’m glad you brought it up. Our motto is Cocoanut Beach, no snow, no ice, and no business.

And now whether you like it or not I’m going to tell you all about Florida real estate. It is the first time it has ever been mentioned here – today.

I’m sorry, Mr. Hammer, but I’m afraid…

Do you know that property values have increased since 1929 one thousand per cent? Do you know that this is the biggest development since Sophie Tucker? Do you know that Florida is the show spot of America and Cocoanut Manor the black spot of Florida?

You told me that yesterday.

I know but I left out a comma.

I’ll not stand here any longer and be insulted this way.

Aw, don’t go away and leave me here alone, you stay here and I’ll go away.