The Breakfast Club (Opus One)

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.

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This Day in History

President Abraham Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address; Egypt’s Anwar Sadat becomes first Arab leader to visit Israel; Ford halts Edsel production; Bandleader Tommy Dorsey and actress Jodie Foster born.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Abraham Lincoln

Breakfast News

Obama’s drone war a ‘recruitment tool’ for Isis, say US air force whistleblowers

Four former US air force service members, with more than 20 years of experience between them operating military drones, have written an open letter to Barack Obama warning that the program of targeted killings by unmanned aircraft has become a major driving force for Isis and other terrorist groups.

The group of servicemen have issued an impassioned plea to the Obama administration, calling for a rethink of a military tactic that they say has “fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like Isis, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantánamo Bay”.

In particular, they argue, the killing of innocent civilians in drone airstrikes has acted as one of the most “devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world”.

With Demands for Racial Justice, Student ‘BlackOut’ Actions Sweep US

Students at colleges and universities from coast to coast walked out of class, held rallies and teach-ins, and protested on Wednesday as part of a coordinated national day of action demanding racial justice both on- and off-campus.

The actions were both inspired by and in solidarity with recent protests at the University of Missouri and other institutions. [..]

Demands from almost two dozen schools were collected on one website by Twitter user @samswey, an activist with Campaign Zero, which seeks to combat police violence and reform the criminal justice system. Calls ranged from greater access to higher education for Black and Indigenous communities to a public acknowledgement of deep-seated racism in the top echelons of school administrations.

To Break Big Pharma’s Stranglehold, Doctors Vote for Ban on Drug Ads

In an attempt to combat the soaring cost of prescription drugs and Big Pharma’s stranglehold on the U.S. healthcare system, the American Medical Association (AMA) has approved a new policy to “support a ban on direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs and implantable medical devices.”

“Today’s vote in support of an advertising ban reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially-driven promotions, and the role that marketing costs play in fueling escalating drug prices,” said AMA board chair-elect Patrice Harris, M.D., in a press statement on Tuesday. The vote took place at the AMA’s 2015 Interim Meeting in Atlanta.

Supporters of the ban also cited concerns including patient confusion and encouragement of off-label, or unapproved, use of certain drugs.

Connecticut welcomes Syrian refugee family after Indiana governor says no

A family of Syrian refugees destined for resettlement in Indiana was denied entry to the state and instead began a new life in Connecticut on Wednesday.

The family of three – a mother, father and their five-year-old son – had been waiting three years to move to Indiana before their placement was changed, a consequence of the growing tensions in the wake of the Paris attacks that Syrian refugees could pose a threat to national security.

The governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, is one of at least 30 governors who have said they do not want to resettle Syrian refugees in their state even though they do not have the authority to refuse to do so.

Rather than starting a new life in Indianapolis, the family will settle in New Haven, Connecticut.

Antibiotic defences against serious diseases under threat, experts warn

The last line of antibiotic defence against some serious infections is under threat, say experts who have identified a gene that enables resistance to spread between bacteria in China.

The gene, called mcr-1, allows a range of common bacteria, including E coli, to become resistant to the last fully functional class of antibiotics, the polymyxins. This gene, they say, is widespread in bugs called Enterobacteriaceae carried by both pigs and people in south China and is likely to spread worldwide.

The gene is easily transferred from one strain of bacteria to another. Enterobacteriaceae are capable of causing a range of diseases, from pneumonia to serious blood infections. Some of the strains of Enterobacteriaceae with the gene have epidemic potential, say experts in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Heroin antidote Narcan as a nasal spray gets clearance from US regulators

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved an easy-to-use version of the lifesaving drug that reverses heroin and prescription painkiller overdoses.

The reformulated drug, sold as Narcan, comes as a nasal spray and should help first responders, police and others deliver the antidote in emergency situations. Known generically as naloxone, it reverses the effects of opioids — drugs that include legal painkillers such as oxycodone and illegal narcotics such as heroin.

Government officials from the White House to the local level have called prescription opioid abuse a “national crisis” in the US, tied to more than 16,000 deaths in 2013. Another 8,000 additional deaths involved heroin, which many addicts switch to after becoming addicted to more expensive legal drugs.

Increasing access to naloxone has become a key tool in efforts to curb overdoses.

Yellowstone proposes controversial slaughter of 1,000 bison

Yellowstone National Park is proposing to reduce its celebrated bison herd by 1,000 animals this winter by rounding up those wandering into adjacent Montana and delivering them to Native American tribes for slaughter, officials said on Wednesday.

The longstanding but controversial annual culling is designed to lessen the risk of straying Yellowstone bison infecting cattle herds in Montana with brucellosis, a bacterial disease carried by many bison, also known as buffalo.

Yellowstone bison, the nation’s last sizeable herd of wild, purebred buffalo, are a top attraction for the millions of tourists who annually visit the park, which spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Must Read Blog Posts

France’s President Shows Us All How to Treat Syrian Refugees Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics

JPMorgan Facing Criminal Probe For Pre-Crash Mortgage Securities Fraud Dan Wright, ShadowProof

Overwhelmed NSA Surprised to Discover Its Own Surveillance “Goldmine” on Venezuela’s Oil Executives Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman, The Intercept

After Endless Demonization Of Encryption, Police Find Paris Attackers Coordinated Via Unencrypted SMS Karl Bode, Techdirt