The Breakfast Club: 7-14-2014

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

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Israel pounds northern Gaza Strip after warning residents to flee

Prompting thousands to flee, Israel warned some residents of the crowded Gaza Strip to leave their homes Sunday and then unleashed an aerial bombardment of sites it says are used by Islamic militants to launch rockets at major Israeli population centers.

About 17,000 people from the Beit Lahiya area in the northern Gaza Strip streamed for protection into United Nations-run facilities. Israeli warplanes hammered the vacated area Sunday afternoon and evening, hitting alleged launch sites and homes of members of extremist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The assault was carried out mostly by air, but the Israeli navy also reportedly fired shells from the sea.

Despite the concentrated attack, militants continued to fire rockets at a broad swath of Israel, setting off warning sirens in Tel Aviv and the coastal city of Haifa. A teenager became the second Israeli civilian to be severely wounded in six days of fighting when two rockets landed in the city of Ashkelon. No Israelis have been killed by the rocket strikes.

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Is Shinzo Abe’s Notion of ‘Womenomics’ Just a Pipe Dream in Sexist Japan?

On a recent state visit to Australia, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke of his plans to lift Japan from its economic doldrums and of the role women will play in that rejuvenation.

“Women have the greatest potential,” he told the business publication Nikkei, “and allowing them to demonstrate their full abilities is the core of our growth strategy.”

It wasn’t the first time Abe invoked gender equality in his developmental rhetoric. In September last year, he wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, in which he extolled the virtues of “womenomics”: “A country that hires and promotes more women grows economically.” Soon after the piece ran, Abe declared to the U.N. General Assembly his intention to “create a society in which women shine.”

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Mistrust Could Hamper Progress in Nuclear Deal With Iran

Iran and world powers from the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany are here for the last leg of their negotiations over Iran’s disputed nuclear program as the July 20th deadline to reach a deal draws closer.

With the exception of the Russian and Chinese, all the other foreign ministers arrived on Sunday to join the talks. According to a senior State Department official, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is not here to seal the deal but to gauge “Iran’s willingness to make the critical choices it will need to make if we have a chance of getting a comprehensive agreement.”

Kerry will then make recommendations to President Barack Obama about next steps in the negotiation, the official said.

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Australia’s carbon tax repeal set for final showdown

Australia’s lower house of parliament on Monday voted to scrap the country’s controversial carbon tax, setting up a final showdown in the Senate as early as Tuesday to decide the scheme’s fate.

Abolition of the carbon tax was a centerpiece policy of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s 2013 election, but he has struggled to repeal the tax as his government does not control the Senate.

Last week the Senate rejected the repeal legislation after lawmakers from mining magnate Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party (PUP), which holds the balance of power in the upper house, withdrew support at the last minute.

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Companies That Offer Help With Student Loans Often Predatory, Officials Say

Student loan debt hovers at more than $1 trillion, a threefold surge from a decade ago, and a record number of college students who graduated as the financial system nearly imploded have an average debt load of more than $20,000.

More than half of recent graduates are unemployed. And if they do have a job, it is probably a low-paying one that does not require that expensive college degree. Some Americans, including baby boomers whose savings were devastated by the financial crisis, are still struggling to pay off their student loans well into their 50s.

For the debt settlement industry, all this means a tantalizing gold mine of new customers.

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Seven earthquakes shake Oklahoma in two days

On Saturday and Sunday in Oklahoma, there were seven earthquakes. You read that right. Not tornadoes. Earthquakes.

The most severe temblor registered 4.3 near Langston, the U.S. Geological Survey site showed, delivering a rumble to Logan County, north of Oklahoma City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no reports of damage or major injury on Saturday, Oklahoma City news station News9 reported.

The three earthquakes that happened Sunday occurred near Langston, CNN affiliate KOCO reported, one registering 4.0.

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GOP leader calls for migrant children ‘warehouses’ in Central America

A senior Republican has proposed that the US government should build “warehouses” in Central America where thousands of unaccompanied children who have attempted to seek asylum in the US could be deported and processed on their return to their countries of origin.

Michael McCaul, a Republican member of Congress from Texas who chairs the House committee on homeland security, has proposed that rather than build extra facilities on domestic soil to handle the surge in numbers of child immigrants attempting to cross the US border, facilities should be located in the territories from which the minors came. “I’m not in favour of building large warehouses in the US to warehouse these kids, I think we have to have deterrence and if we are to build facilities we should think about doing that in the countries of origin in Central America,” he said.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, McCaul said that Republicans would not write a blank cheque for dealing with the border situation, which he said had reached crisis proportions. President Obama last week asked Congress for $3.7bn in emergency funds to expand the system of immigration courts and speed up the process for dealing with child immigrants crossing the southern border, who have exceeded 50,000 since last October.

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Strange Odor Causes Montco Residents to Flee Homes

About 100 residents fled their homes in a  Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, community early Sunday evening due to a strange, potentially hazardous odor that authorities described as a volatile chemical compound.

The Montgomery County Hazardous Materials Response Team was still working to determine what that odor was, nearly 12 hours after residents in Skippack Township began to leave their homes in the Fairlawn Court development off Route 113. Officials at first described the odor was hydrogen cyanide, a bi-product of fires that can be deadly in high concentrations.

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Archie to be shot saving gay friend in comic book

Archie Andrews will die taking a bullet for his gay best friend.

The famous freckle-faced comic book icon is meeting his demise in Wednesday’s installment of ”Life with Archie” when he intervenes in an assassination attempt on Kevin Keller, Archie Comics’ first openly gay character. Andrews’ death, which was first announced in April, will mark the conclusion of the series that focuses on grown-up renditions of Andrews and his Riverdale pals.

”The way in which Archie dies is everything that you would expect of Archie,” said Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics publisher and co-CEO. ”He dies heroically. He dies selflessly. He dies in the manner that epitomizes not only the best of Riverdale but the best of all of us. It’s what Archie has come to represent over the past almost 75 years.”

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Eeek! Huge Blob of Anchovies Makes an Appearance After Three Decades

According to the scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, the number of anchovies seen in near-shore waters are the highest in three decades, although they said that prediction at this time is not possible and the school was first noticed at Scripps Pier at La Jolla on Monday. KPBS spotted those anchovies on time and stated million of anchovies led to the creation of a dark-blue band in shallow waters just off the coast.

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One in three Alzheimer’s cases preventable, says research

One in three cases of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide is preventable, according to research from the University of Cambridge.

The main risk factors for the disease are a lack of exercise, smoking, depression and poor education, it says.

Previous research from 2011 put the estimate at one in two cases, but this new study takes into account overlapping risk factors.

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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

It’s not easy being drunk all the time. Everyone would do it if it were easy.

Tyrion Lannister

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Breakfast Tunes

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Stupid Shit by LaEscapee

Just a Question

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