The Breakfast Club: 7-18-2014

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

—–

Israel steps up Gaza ground offensive, civilian casualties grow

Israel stepped up its land offensive in Gaza with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday and declared it could “significantly widen” an operation Palestinian officials said was killing ever greater numbers of civilians.

Israeli gunboats lit up the sky with their fire before dawn while helicopters fired into the coastal enclave. Hamas fired mortar rounds at the invading troops and rockets across the border at the southern Israeli towns of Ashdod and Ashkelon.

Palestinian health officials said 27 Palestinians, including a baby, two children and a 70-year-old woman, had been killed since Israel poured ground forces into the densely-populated strip of 1.8 million Palestinians on Thursday.

—–

Former dictator Manuel Noriega suing ‘Call of Duty’ makers

The 80-year-old former dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega, might be sticking to Pac-Man from here on out.

The onetime star of the 1989 U.S.-led invasion of Panama is suing Santa Monica, Calif.-based video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. for using his name and likeness without permission in the 2012 blockbuster video game hit: “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.”

—–

Ousted Thai PM Yingluck rejects charge of negligence on graft

Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra spoke to the media on Friday for the first time since her government was ousted in a May coup, rejecting charges she was negligent in stemming corruption.

Yingluck is the younger sister of another deposed prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, whose nearly 10-year struggle for power with the royalist establishment has subverted stability and divided a country once seen as a surging economic “tiger”.

Yingluck was an executive in a Shinawatra family company before she became Thailand’s first woman prime minister in 2011, swept to power by the self-exiled Thaksin’s legions of loyal voters among the urban and rural poor.

—–

Kurd Oil Grab Fuels Separatist Dream as Iraq Unravels

As modern Iraq collapses, the northern region of Kurdistan is emerging as an oasis of relative calm — with plenty of oil to support its political ambitions for independence.

With the advance of Islamist rebels deep into Iraq, autonomous Kurdistan is increasingly rejecting Baghdad’s claims over its oil. Last week Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani seized control of fields near Kirkuk, in the latest move by Kurdistan to assert control over the region’s oil.

“Kurdistan has resources and it’s well organized,” said Brian Gallagher, an oil analyst at Investec Plc in London, who follows several explorers working in the region. “The Kurds are probably winners out of the recent events long-term.”

—–

Florida judge rules against gay-marriage ban

A county judge in Florida struck down the state’s gay marriage ban yesterday, the latest in a string of court rulings across the United States voiding state laws that restrict the right of same-sex couples to marry.

—–

Risk of earthquake increased for one-third of US

A new federal earthquake map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about one-third of the United States and lowers it for one-tenth.

The U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday updated its national seismic hazard maps for the first time since 2008, taking into account research from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the Japanese coast and the surprise 2011 Virginia temblor.

The maps are used for building codes and insurance purposes and they calculate just how much shaking an area probably will have in the biggest quake likely over a building’s lifetime.

—–

Secrets leaker Manning to begin gender treatments

National security leaker Chelsea Manning can get initial treatment for a gender-identity condition from the military after the Bureau of Prisons rejected the Army’s request to accept her transfer from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to a civilian facility.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved the Army’s recommendation to keep the Army private in military custody and start a rudimentary level of gender treatment, a defense official said Thursday. Defense officials have said the Army doesn’t have the medical expertise needed to give Manning the best treatment.

The initial gender treatments provided by the military could include allowing Manning to wear some female undergarments and also possibly provide some hormone treatments.

—–

Hillary Clinton: Europe should toughen sanctions on Russia after MH17 crash

Hillary Clinton has responded to the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, saying the attack would have taken “some planning”, as the plane was flying at a considerable height over Ukraine.

—–

Scientists expect to find alien life and Earth-like planets in the next 20 years

The task of finding a planet that is similar to Earth has seen increasing interest every passing year. Because of this, how close are we to locating this such a rare jewel? Not too far, according to scientists. Apparently, if everything goes according to plan, an alien planet similar to Earth could be found in the next 20 years.

At a panel at NASA that is all about the search for life in the universe initiative, the discussions surrounded the questions on whether or not Earth is alone in the Universe, along with the technological advances made in the last decade that could allow scientists to come up with an answer to those questions.

—–

Healthy, living kidney donors face ‘pointless’ insurance difficulties

According to a report from Johns Hopkins Medicine, healthy, living kidney donors frequently face pointless post-donation difficulties when in search of or changing health or life insurance.

“Living donors are some of the healthiest people in the United States.  They’re heavily screened before they’re approved for donation and should be easily insurable,” said study leader Dorry Segev, M.D., Ph.D., M.H.S., an associate professor of surgery and epidemiology at The Johns Hopkins University.

—–

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Let them see that their words can cut you and you’ll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name take it make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore.

Tyrion Lannister

—–

Breakfast Tunes

—–

Stupid Shit by LaEscapee

Convictions They Should Not Go as the Wind Blows

—–