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.
Hurry, it’s lovely up here
This Day in History
Breakfast News
‘Tis the season
North Carolina cleans up from twisters; Midwest, South brace for wild weather
(CNN) — Eastern North Carolina cleaned up Saturday from powerful tornadoes that damaged about 200 homes and knocked out power to thousands of customers.
Meanwhile, much of the central United States is bracing for even more severe weather in the form of tornadoes, damaging winds and hail.
Multiple twisters touched down in an area east of Greenville, North Carolina, to Beaufort County, on Friday evening, the National Weather Service reported. [..]
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, which monitors severe weather across the United States, said severe weather will move over other parts of the United States over the next three days. That’s all due to a storm that’s moving eastward from the Rockies.
CNN meteorologist Matt Daniels predicts a slight risk of severe storms Saturday evening from central Texas into southeast South Dakota. This may include damaging winds and large hail, but does not rule out a few tornadoes.
On Sunday, most of Arkansas and neighboring areas — including Shreveport, Louisiana, and Springfield, Missouri — face the highest chance of severe weather, though states as far north as North Dakota, and southeast to Georgia, also could be in harm’s way.
This is such incomprehensible heartbreak.
Ferry disaster: South Korean prime minister resigns
Chung Hong-won says he must go for the sake of the government amid heavy criticism of response to Sewol sinking
The South Korean prime minister, Chung Hong-won, has offered his resignation after criticism of the government’s response to the 16 April ferry disaster.
The Sewol ferry sank on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional holiday island of Jeju. More than 300 people, most of them students and teachers from one high school on a field trip, have died or are missing and presumed dead.
There has been criticism that the pace of the recovery has been too slow, and that conflicting information has been given by the government.
There are more reasons than wealth.
More renounce US citizenship but deny stereotype
Inside the long-awaited package, six pages of government paperwork dryly affirmed Carol Tapanila’s anxious request. But when Tapanila slipped the contents from the brown envelope, she saw there was something more.
“We the people….” declared the script inside her U.S. passport – now with four holes punched through it from cover to cover. Her departure from life as an American was stamped final on the same page: “Bearer Expatriated Self.”
With the envelope’s arrival, Tapanila, a native of upstate New York who has lived in Canada since 1969, joined a largely overlooked surge of Americans rejecting what is, to millions, a highly sought prize: U.S. citizenship. Last year, the U.S. government reported a record 2,999 people renounced citizenship or terminated permanent residency; most are widely assumed to be driven by a desire to avoid paying taxes on hidden wealth.
The reality, though, is more complicated. The government’s pursuit of tax evaders among Americans living abroad is indeed driving the jump in abandoned citizenship, experts say. But renouncers – whose ranks have swelled more than five-fold from a decade ago – often contradict the stereotype of the financial scoundrel. Many are from very ordinary economic circumstances.
Be still my heart. Congrats, George and Amal
Longtime bachelor George Clooney engaged to British lawyer
(Reuters) – Hollywood leading man George Clooney, who has said he was not suited for marriage, is engaged to British lawyer Amal Alamuddin, according to media reports on Saturday.
Alamuddin, 36, was spotted last week wearing a large ring at a Los Angeles restaurant where she and Clooney, 52, were apparently celebrating their engagement with friends, People magazine reported, citing anonymous sources.
Must Read Blog Posts
Hillary Clinton Mocks Snowden, Displays Her Ignorance When It Comes to Whistleblowers by Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter
The University of Connecticut hosted a keynote speaking event with former United States senator and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on April 23. She was asked a question about former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and proceeded to express puzzlement and mock him for disclosing information on top secret surveillance programs.
Much of what Clinton said deserves a rebuttal, particularly if this is going to be the talking points that Democratic Party politicians repeat throughout the next fear years. So, I have decided to go line by line through her remarks.
Why Would Obama Push A Trade Deal That Would Cut Pay Of 90% Of Workers? by Dave Johnson, Crooks and Liars
Research concludes that if you’re making less than $87,000 per year (the current 90th percentile wage), the Trans-Pacific Partnership would mean a pay cut. But that’s fine for corporations who want this treaty.
President Obama is in Japan as part of his “pivot to Asia” tour of Pacific countries. He is also visiting South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. The trip is meant to demonstrate U.S. diplomatic and economic efforts toward Pacific nations to counterbalance China’s increasing influence in the region. Part of this effort is a big push to get TPP negotiations back on track and completed.
Magistrate Judges Emboldened By Snowden, Pushing Back On Overly Broad DOJ Requests by Mike Masnick, Techdirt
A couple weeks ago, we wrote about how the judiciary was finally pushing back on overly broad and vague warrant requests from the DOJ, with magistrate judge John Facciola leading the way. That was based on a Wall Street Journal article highlighting how magistrate judges like Facciola and David Waxse have been pushing back much more regularly on requests. The Washington Post has now written a very similar article (though, like most stuck up mainstream publications, it never mentions the WSJ article that beat it to the punch) that is worth reading as well. While it repeats much of the same story from the WSJ one, it also adds some interesting details. The basic story is basically the same. Facciola and others have been pushing back steadily on requests:
DailyDirt: Endangered Or Extinct Meals by Mike Ho, Techdirt
Getting a craving for a McRib when it’s just not available from the golden arches is definitely a first-world problem. There was also that brief period of time when Hostess Brands’ Twinkies weren’t for sale. Fortunately, these junk food shortages are relatively short-lived events, and if anyone really, really wanted to re-create a homemade version of these products, it wouldn’t be impossible. However, some foods are actually gone forever (or are on their way to extinction). Here are just a few foods that probably haven’t been on your dinner plate.
The Daily Wiki
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.
Bob Marley
Breakfast Tunes
Cross posted at Docudharma, Voices on the Square and GOS
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