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.
Breakfast Tune: Carolina Chocolate Drops – Ruby Are you Mad at Your Man?
Today in History
U.S. Supreme Court upholds the relocation and detention of Japanese-Americans during World War Two; U.S. begins 12 days of heavy bombing of North Vietnamese targets; Steven Spielberg is born; Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ – publicly premieres.
Breakfast News, Blogs, and Cuban Two Step Rag below
News
U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility
NY Times, By PETER BAKER DEC. 17, 2014
WASHINGTON – President Obama on Wednesday ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century as he vowed to “cut loose the shackles of the past” and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.
The surprise announcement came at the end of 18 months of secret talks that produced a prisoner swap negotiated with the help of Pope Francis and concluded by a telephone call between Mr. Obama and President Raúl Castro.
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“These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s time for a new approach.”…”I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result.”
I can think of a few other places where we keep doing the same things.
Sony Pictures Cancels Holiday Release of ‘The Interview’ After Threats
NY Times, By BROOKS BARNES and MICHAEL CIEPLY DEC. 17, 2014
LOS ANGELES – Sony Pictures Entertainment on Wednesday dropped plans for its Christmas Day release of “The Interview,” a movie that depicts the assassination of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after receiving a terror threat against theaters.
Before that, the four largest theater chains in the United States said they would not show the movie, which has been at the center of a devastating hacking attack on Sony over the last several weeks. In a statement, Sony said: “We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theatergoers.”
American intelligence officials on Wednesday concluded that the North Korean government was centrally involved with the attacks on Sony’s computers. …
Jews and Muslims stage New York protest for victims of police brutality
The Guardian, Kayla Epstein Dec 17, 2014
This year, when the first night of Hanukah came to Brooklyn, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim demonstrators commemorated the holiday with an evening of protest against police brutality.
Three New York activist groups – Jews For Racial and Economic Justice, the Arab American Association of New York, and Bend the Arc – were taking part in #ChanukahAction, a planned night of national protest by the Jewish community against police violence and the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and others at the hands of law enforcement. Similar protests were held by Jewish groups in cities across the country, including Albany, Boston, and San Francisco.
The New York protest was also part of #ThisStopsToday’s 11 Days of Action, so named because of the 11 times Eric Garner pleaded “I can’t breathe” while officers restrained him. …
Pakistan’s prime minister promises day of reckoning with militants
The Guardian, Jon Boone in Peshawar, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ewen MacAskill Dec 17, 2014
Pakistan buried its slaughtered children on Wednesday, as the prime minister on Wednesday promised a day of reckoning with militants behind the attack and the country’s own history of backing some violent groups.
The brutal attack on a prestigious army school killed 148, mostly students, in a bloody eight-hour siege that horrified even a country numbed by years of bombings, assassinations and suicide assaults.
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On Tuesday Hafiz Saeed, the leader of JuD and a man subject to a $10m US bounty, took to the airwaves to largely exonerate the TTP of their crimes. He said the school massacre been masterminded by India.
Blogs
St.Louis County prosecutor should be investigated for conspiracy to suborn perjury
Masoninblue, FDL
ACLU Appeals Decision Which Created Immunity for FBI Agents Involved in Torturing US Citizens Abroad
Kevin Gosztola, FDL The Dissenter
Voters Are Tired of Obama’s Governing Approach
Jon Walker, FDL
On the BBC Defending Not Torturing People
Peter van Buren FDL
American Police Unions: Why Mess With What Works?
Charles Pierce, Esquire’s Politics Blog
“Can you smell the Aqua Velva!”: Why Jeb Bush is this year’s Fred Thompson
Heather Digby Parton, Salon
Cuban Two Step Rag: fiddle, banjo-mandolin, baritone sax, and 6-string banjo.
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