The Breakfast Club 7-30-2014

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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Economic Council Reports Costs Of Climate Change Delay (BREAKING)

The time has come for America’s jolly denial-mongers to stop laughing about climate change. The White House released a report this morning from the government’s Council of Economic Advisers that shows what an economic whack we’re in for if we don’t start doing something about climate change NOW.

The report finds that delaying policy actions by a decade increases total mitigation costs by approximately 40 percent, and failing to take any action would risk substantial economic damage. These findings emphasize the need for policy action today. (emphasis added)

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Legislators, Corporations Gather For Secret Meeting Against Clean Energy And You’re Not Invited

After maintaining a low profile for decades, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) received widespread exposure in recent years for backing Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, a substantial part of the national discussion following the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. ALEC eventually distanced itself from the gun lobby’s position after the backlash following Martin’s death, but not before the significant public relations blow led to the departure of many donors. With that high-profile case mostly subsided, ALEC can now return its attention to the low-profile war it’s waging for several years to keep renewable energy from gaining territory and promoting fossil fuel production across the country.

Going into their annual meeting in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, ALEC – the secretive organization that brings together conservative politicians and major corporate interests – is looking to recalibrate their approach to repealing or obstructing a range of clean energy initiatives after a year of state-level defeats. The 40-year-old group, which has been pushing a corporate-backed, free market-driven agenda for decades, is beholden to a number of utilities and fossil fuel companies that bankroll them and they are expected to show results. At the same time, with renewable energy gaining momentum across the country and homeowners increasingly eager to get in on the rapid growth and falling prices, ALEC risks alienating itself from the public yet again.

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BP Oil Spill Is Much Worse Than People Think, Scientists Say

Scientists at Penn State University have discovered two new coral reefs near the site of BP’s historic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the impacts to those reefs from the spill have been greater than expected, according to research released Monday.

The two additional reefs found by the PSU team were both farther away and deeper than the one coral reef that had previously been found to have been impacted by the spill. That indicates not only that marine ecosystems may be more greatly affected, but that some of the 210 million gallons of oil that BP spilled into the Gulf is making its mark in the deep sea.

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Top Scientists Urge Obama Administration to Use Accurate Estimates of Methane’s Dangerous Climate Effects

As the U.S. Department of Energy examines methane pollution from the natural gas industry, a group of prominent climate scientists today urged the Obama administration to update methods for estimating the climate consequences of this dangerously potent greenhouse gas.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and other top officials, Drew Shindell of Duke University, Michael Mann of Penn State University, Michael MacCracken of the Climate Institute, Robert Howarth of Cornell University and 17 other leading climate scientists also called for aggressive reductions of methane pollution from the oil and gas industry, the agricultural sector and other sources, because methane leaves the atmosphere much more quickly than carbon dioxide and therefore provides an important opportunity to make significant near-term cuts in greenhouse gas pollution.

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Overworked America: 12 Charts That Will Make Your Blood Boil

Want more rage? We’ve got 11 charts that show how the superrich spoil it for the rest of us.

In the past 20 years, the US economy has grown nearly 60 percent. This huge increase in productivity is partly due to automation, the internet, and other improvements in efficiency. But it’s also the result of Americans working harder-often without a big boost to their bottom lines. Oh, and meanwhile, corporate profits are up 20 percent. (Also read our essay on the great speedup and harrowing first-person tales of overwork.)

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Must Read Blog Posts

Why People Are Organizing to End U.S. Empire

by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

What Does the Democratic Party Actually Believe?

by William Greider

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Maloney, “A girl should be entitled to live decently and properly.”

by JayRaye

8 Religious People Who Were Not Oppressors

by Alex Henderson

Is Marriage Becoming Obsolete for Millennials?

by Lynn Stuart Parramore

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The Daily Wiki

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Yiddish: אױפֿשטאַנד אין װאַרשעװער געטאָ; Polish: powstanie w getcie warszawskim; German: Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto) was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany’s final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp. The most significant portion of the rebellion took place from 19 April, and ended when the poorly armed and supplied resistance was crushed by the Germans, who officially finished their operation to liquidate the Ghetto on 16 May. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II.[3]

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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else. ~Charles Dickens

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Breakfast Tunes

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Stupid Shit by LaEscapee

Anomaly

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