The Breakfast Club: 7-4-2014

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. Everyone’s welcome here, no special handshake required. Just check your meta at the door.

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.

This Day in History

Breakfast News

—–

Ukraine’s new defence minister promises Crimea victory

New Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Heletey has promised that the army would retake Crimea, restoring the country’s territorial integrity.

Addressing parliament in Kiev, he said: “There will be a victory parade… in Ukraine’s Sevastopol.”

Russia annexed the peninsula – which has a Russian-speaking majority – in March after a controversial referendum.

—–

Hong Kong police charge pro-democracy march organizers

Five organizers of a massive pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong were charged by police on Friday with a range of minor offences, as pressure builds on Communist Party rulers in Beijing to introduce political reforms in the former British colony.

Tuesday’s pro-democracy march, which organizers said attracted more than half a million people, and a subsequent sit-in by mainly student groups rank among the biggest challenges yet to China which resumed control over the former British colony on July 1, 1997.

Police said the charges brought against the organizers included failure to comply with instructions from a police officer, obstructing officers performing their duties, leaving a running vehicle and providing false information to an officer. Police did not name those charged.

—–

Campaign smears taint Indonesian presidential race

Indonesia’s presidential race appears to have tightened dramatically less than a week before the election with credible polling showing front-runner and former Jakarta governor Joko Widodo having lost virtually all the formidable lead he had before his nomination.

Analysts say millions of undecided voters have turned to Prabowo Subianto, a former army general who has been accused of abducting pro-democracy activists in 1998 and instigating deadly riots.

—–

Israel does not want peace

Israel does not want peace. There is nothing I have ever written that I would be happier to be proved wrong about. But the evidence is piling up. In fact, it can be said that Israel has never wanted peace – a just peace, that is, one based on a just compromise for both sides. It’s true that the routine greeting in Hebrew is Shalom (peace) – shalom when one leaves and shalom when one arrives. And, at the drop of a hat, almost every Israeli will say he wants peace, of course he does. But he’s not referring to the kind of peace that will bring about the justice without which there is no peace and there will be no peace. Israelis want peace, not justice, certainly not anything based on universal values. Thus, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Not only is there no peace: In recent years, Israel has moved away from even the aspiration to make peace. It has despaired utterly of it. Peace has disappeared from the Israeli agenda, its place taken by the collective anxieties that are systematically implanted, and by personal, private matters that now take precedence over all else.

—–

School gets pass on Obamacare contraception mandate

A Chicago-area evangelical college won a temporary victory at the Supreme Court on Thursday over an Obamacare requirement that religious non-profits provide contraception insurance to their workers.

Wheaton College objected to potential fines if it refused to provide coverage or sign a release form, saying that doing so would be morally wrong. The court said it didn’t have to do either for now.

The requirement in the health law championed by President Barack Obama has been challenged broadly by groups that oppose abortion.

—–

Denver Teen Arrested for Support to ISIS Called Herself a ‘Slave of Allah’ on Facebook

She was a memorable figure in this western Denver suburb, a teenager wearing a traditional Muslim headscarf and dress, sitting alone on a park swing or walking into a Christian church with a backpack and notebook.

People who encountered 19-year-old Shannon Maureen Conley over the past few months said Thursday they were shocked, unnerved or simply sad to learn she had been arrested on charges of conspiring to help terrorists.

“I feel sorry for her,” said Mary Beth Brugler, a member of Faith Bible Chapel, where Conley visited several times last fall before concerned church officials asked her to leave.

—–

The Basics of the Border Crisis: How Did We Get Here?

More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since October. Here’s a look at why it’s happening and how authorities and communities are coping:

When did the crisis start?

The Department of Homeland Security said the uptick in unaccompanied minors crossing the border began last year but accelerated in the last few months. Since October, more than 52,000 children traveling without an adult were caught entering the United States through Mexico – double the number of the previous year and triple the number in 2011.

—–

Here’s What Competitive Eating Does to Your Body

Eating champions expand their stomachs far beyond normal size

Tomorrow will likely mark competitive eater Joey Chestnut’s eighth straight year winning the Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Chestnut is now 30 years old and weighs 230 pounds-not an especially large man. In fact, many serious competitive eaters appear to be relatively thin and healthy.

—–

Cosmic masquerade: Pair of Earth-like planets don’t exist – scientists

US scientists have said two distant Earth-like planets, which some believed might be able to harbour life, do not actually exist and that astronomers were confused by a star’s sunspots.

The controversial pair of planets, Gliese d and g, some 22 light years away, were once believed to be in the Goldilocks zone – not too close and not too far from the star, where the potential exists for water and perhaps life.

They are part of a larger trove of potentially Earth-like planets that have been identified by astronomers so far, and Nasa has said billions may be out there.

—–

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

“It doesn’t matter in our country whether it’s a Republican or Democrat, or frankly in your country whether it’s a Conservative or a Tory. There is a level of trust and understanding. It doesn’t mean we always agree because of course we don’t.”

Hillary Romney Rodham Clinton

—–

Breakfast Tunes

—–

Stupid Shit by LaEscapee

I am having computer issues

—–