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.
Today is the First Anniversary Of The Breakfast Club founded by That Group, a bunch of true left wing advocates for democracy and freedom. We are still here pointing out the lies, the absurd, the truth and still having a good laugh. We offer a place for the disenfranchised left to voice their distrust of the government and disgust with the current political system. It’s a place where we can discuss solutions and ideas. We are here everyday and will be in the future. Our three sites may not garner the attention that they deserve but we aren’t going away. Thank you all for reading and writing and thinking.
This Day in History
Slobodan Milosevic arrested; US forces invade Okinawa during WWII; Nazi Germany begins persecuting Jews; Pvt. Jessica Lynch rescued in Iraq; Marvin Gaye killed.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.
Breakfast News
US Climate Plan ‘Treats the Wound But Does Not Stop the Bleeding’
As the White House unveils blueprint for emission reductions ahead of UN climate talks, groups warn that unless US moves beyond fossil fuels it will not avert climate catastrophe
With bold language and take-charge rhetoric, the White House on Tuesday unveiled its plan to cut U.S. carbon emissions by roughly one third over the next decade, a goal that environmentalists say is commendable but is not enough to keep global warming beneath the critical 2°C threshold.
Submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahead of a midnight deadline, the plan joins other national commitments that will serve as the building blocks for an international climate treaty to be decided during the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) scheduled for December in Paris.
Arkansas passes Indiana-style ‘religious freedom’ bill criticised as anti-gay
State ratifies Religious Freedom Restoration Act that critics see as a way to discriminate against gay and lesbian people under the guise of religious freedom
The Arkansas state legislature has passed an Indiana-style religious freedom bill Democrats say “authorizes discrimination”, defying international outrage that hours earlier forced the governor of Indiana to walk back a similar law decried by the world’s leading companies and LGBT activists as anti-gay.
Despite heated debate among Arkansas’ legislators, who acknowledged increasing public anger brewing over such religious freedom laws sweeping statehouses, the Republican-dominated House passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act on Tuesday. Whether or not Republican governor Asa Hutchinson signs the bill, also known as HB1228 or RFRA, it is likely to go into effect within the week.
Similar legislation sparked outrage in Indiana after Governor Mike Pence signed the Hoosier State’s own RFRA bill into law. The law’s opponents see the measures as an indirect, legal way to discriminate against the LGBT community under the guise of religious liberty.
Iran nuclear talks marathon to continue in morning after deadline passes
Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers went past a deadline on Tuesday night, but foreign ministers in Lausanne opted to keep negotiating in the morning in the belief that they were within reach of an agreement.
After a marathon 17-hour day of talks, the ministers adjourned just after the midnight deadline and agreed to reconvene at 8am.
Speaking to reporters after midnight, Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said: “It has been a very long day for all delegations. We have accomplished quite a bit but people needed to get some rest and start over early in the morning.
Obama restores US military aid to Egypt over Islamic State concerns
Barack Obama has restored US military aid to Egypt that he suspended after the 2013 overthrow of Egypt’s first elected president, citing a need to combat Islamic State militants.
In what amounts to an epitaph for Obama’s stated aspirations for the Arab Spring, money and weapons will flow once more from Washington to Cairo as Obama signaled a restoration of traditional US support for Egyptian dictators.
The White House announced on Tuesday that Egypt’s Abdel Fatah el-Sisi will soon receive 12 F-16 fighter jets, replacement kits for 125 Abrams tanks, 20 Harpoon missiles and $1.3bn in annual military funding suspended after Sisi’s summer 2013 coup and crackdown.
With New Abortion Bill, Arizona Writes Medical Malpractice into Law
Arizona’s governor signed an extreme abortion restriction bill on Monday, which women’s health advocates say effectively writes medical malpractice into law.
The new law, which passed the state’s Republican-controlled legislature last week, requires that doctors tell women that drug-induced abortions can be reversed. Experts said the provision-the first of its kind to pass in the U.S.-was medically unfounded.
“This law will force abortion providers to give patients information about medical abortion care that is unsubstantiated and not supported by evidence-even abortion opponents admit there is no medical proof to support this information,” said Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation. “This is unacceptable and not how safe medical care of any kind is provided.”
The LA Times reported that State Sen. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who voted against the legislation, said the provision “requires medical professionals to commit medical malpractice.”
‘Still Struggling’: Study of Gulf Species Contradicts BP’s Slick Corporate Spin
Despite BP’s claims that the Gulf of Mexico is making a robust recovery in the wake of 2010’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, an annual study of the ecosystem and its inhabitants shows that the effects of the catastrophic explosion and subsequent oil spill are still being felt-and in many cases, are not yet fully understood.
April 20 will mark the five-year anniversary of the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. And as the National Wildlife Federation notes in a report released Monday, “wildlife are still struggling” to rebound throughout the region’s deep waters, sandy beaches, lush wetlands, and coral reefs.
In Another Divestment Victory, Syracuse University Goes Fossil Free
Joining a rapidly expanding international network of institutions seeking to de-fund the industries driving global warming, Syracuse University on Tuesday announced it would divest its $1.8 billion endowment from coal mining and fossil fuel companies.
In a press release, the private research university based in central New York explained: “This commitment means that Syracuse will not directly invest in publicly traded companies whose primary business is extraction of fossil fuels. The university will also direct its external investment managers to take every step possible to prohibit investments in these public companies as well.”
In addition, the university said it would “continue to seek additional investments through its endowment in companies that are developing new technology related to solar energy, biofuels, and advanced recycling.”
Florida’s unwed cohabitating couples can soon party like it’s no longer 1868
‘Lewd and lascivious behavior’ among consenting adults a misdemeanor under 1868 law but state legislature is moving to repeal it.
The Florida legislature is moving to legalize unwed cohabitation, repealing an 1868 law that makes “lewd and lascivious behavior” among consenting adults a misdemeanor punishable by 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
“The times have changed,” Senator Eleanor Sobel, a south Florida Democrat, told the Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday.
“Currently, over a half-million couples in Florida are breaking this law. The government should not intrude into the private lives of consenting adults.”
They are not getting caught much, Sobel said, but some grandparents are being denied visitation rights because they live with an unmarried partner, and that cohabitation status could show up in background checks as a law violation.
“Only three states are left with this outdated statute – Florida, Michigan and Mississippi,” she said.
Gary Dahl, Inventor of the Pet Rock, Dies at 78
It was a craze to rival the Hula-Hoop, and even less explicable. For a mere three dollars and 95 cents, a consumer could buy … a rock – a plain, ordinary, egg-shaped rock of the kind one could dig up in almost any backyard.
The wonder of it was, for a few frenzied months in 1975, more than a million consumers did, becoming the proud if slightly abashed owners of Pet Rocks, the fad that Newsweek later called “one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever.”
Gary Dahl, the man behind that scheme – described variously as a marketing genius and a genial mountebank – died on March 23 at 78. A down-at-the-heels advertising copywriter when he hit on the idea, he originally meant it as a joke. But the concept of a “pet” that required no actual work and no real commitment resonated with the self-indulgent ’70s, and before long a cultural phenomenon was born.
Must Read Blog Posts
Sunday Train: The Hole in the PA Keystone West Feasibility Study Sunday Train: The Hole in the PA Keystone West Feasibility Study BruceMcF, The Stars Hollow Gazette
Manifestos Robyn, Voices on the Square
No Prank April Fools’ Day TMC, The Stars Hollow Gazette and Docudharma
Naturally Dyed Eggs ek hornbeck, The Stars Hollow Gazette
What’s Cooking: French Onion Soup TMC, The Stars Hollow Gazette
David Brooks Would Like You To Lower Your Voice Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
Voter registration deadlines suppressed up to 4 million votes in 2012 Jon Green. AMERICAblog
Why Populists Are Abandoning the Democratic Party praenomen, causcus99percent
When Will the White House and OMB Ever Learn About Sector Financial Balances? letsgetitdone, Corrente
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 3/25/1911 — 100+ Women Burned to Death Awakening the US Conscience to Labor Rights libbyliberal, Corrente
Fracking’s New Nemesis: Earthquake Lawsuits Yves Smith, naked capitalism
Sanity: Trademark Suit Rules That Florida Pizza Joints Don’t Compete With The NJ Turnpike Timothy Geigner, Techdirt
Many FBI Agents Find Racial Profiling Useless, But Those Up Top Feel It’s Just A Failure To Get Everyone On Board Tim Cushing, Techdirt
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The 1st day of April is turning out to be quite pleasant, sunny and much warmer. Maybe I’ll get out and clean up the front garden. The tulips and hyacinths have started to push above the mulch and other green things are beginning to stir. Even the grass is looking greener.
I also have to console my pet rock, he looked a little down today.