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.
This Day in History
Richard Nixon dies, Elian Gonzalez seized by federal agents, Oklahoma land rush begins.
ou know what, why am I getting excited and bothering? This was never about facts to begin with. But what is new, is that it’s not even about pandering to voters any more. Even half of Republicans now want this issue dealt with.
Well good luck, because the zombie lies aren’t for the voters. They’re for the donors who make their money killing the planet. The question is not why today’s politicians suck more than ever. It’s who they’re sucking more than ever.
The Koch brothers are in the oil business and they’re pledging almost a billion dollars in this election. For that kind of money, Cruz and Bush and the rest of them will say anything. It’s what their fellow prostitutes in the sex industry call the girlfriend experience.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
As crude a weapon as the cave man’s club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life-a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways.
Breakfast News
Escalation or Cease Fire? Saudi Arabia Claims Pause in Attack on Yemen
It was not immediately clear whether announcement will lead to sustained halt to military assault or relief for Yemenis facing humanitarian crisis
Saudi Arabia, which has led a four-week-long military assault on Yemen, announced Tuesday that “Operation Decisive Storm” will conclude at midnight, but it was not immediately clear whether this development will bring a sustained halt to the fighting or relief to Yemenis facing humanitarian crisis and siege.
A statement from the Saudi government claimed that “the objectives of ‘Operation Decisive Storm’ have been achieved” and the national security of Saudi Arabia “protected.” However, the government went on to declare that Saudi Arabia has the right to “counter any military moves by the Houthis or their allies, and deal with any threat against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or its neighbors.”
‘Environmental Heroes’ From Around World Honored With Prestigious Prize
This year’s winners of Goldman Prize hail from Kenya, Myanmar, Scotland, Haiti, Canada, and Honduras
Six “grassroots environmental heroes” from around the world were honored this week with the annual Goldman Prize for their role in defending the earth, “often at great personal risk.”
Selected by an international jury, this year’s recipients hail from Kenya, Myanmar, Scotland, Haiti, Canada, and Honduras. They will be bestowed with $175,000 “to pursue their vision of a renewed and protected environment,” according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation.
An award ceremony that took place in San Francisco on Monday will be followed by another in Washington, D.C. later this week
In Historic Ruling, Pair of Chimpanzees Recognized as ‘Legal Persons’
Two research chimps granted right to seek relief from imprisonment in habeas corpus ruling
For the first time in U.S. history, a judge has effectively recognized two chimpanzees as legal persons, in an order Monday which will allow a pair of research primates-Hercules and Leo-to seek relief from unlawful imprisonment.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe on Monday granted the chimps a writ of habeas corpus that will require Stony Brook University, where they are being kept for biomedical experiments, to appear in court and explain why the school has “unlawfully detained” Leo and Hercules. That hearing is set for May 6.
Jaffe’s decision comes in response to a petition filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP). Steven Wise, one of the lawyers on the case, told the Guardian after the ruling, “This is one step in a long, long struggle.”
Louisiana Judge Deals Another Blow to Local Control Over Fracking
‘We won’t get just one well, we’re going to get dozens, if not hundreds of these things. Is that what we want to leave our children and our grandchildren?’
Must Read Blog Posts
In keeping with recent moves across the country to chip away at local control over fracking operations, a Louisiana state judge ruled Monday that St. Tammany Parish, located on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, cannot use its zoning regulations to block a proposed oil drilling and fracking project within parish borders.
Helis Oil & Gas Co., of New Orleans, wants to drill a 13,000-foot-deep exploratory well on undeveloped land it has under lease just north of the city of Mandeville. If the well data is promising, the company would then seek state and federal approval to drill horizontally and extract oil by fracking.
With EPA Lawsuit, Environmental Groups Step Up Fight Against ‘Super-Toxic Chemical Cocktail’
‘Our federal regulators have again unlawfully bowed to the chemical industry,’ says Center for Food Safety
A coalition of health and environmental organizations on Monday challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to expand the use of a new herbicide in nine states, which the groups say could endanger wildlife and public health.
The lawsuit (pdf) is the most recent step in a fight to push back against the use of the weed killer, Dow’s Enlist Duo, which combines glyphosate, found in Monsanto’s Roundup, and 2,4-D, the key ingredient in the infamous warfare herbicide Agent Orange.
As the coalition points out in a press release following its lawsuit, 2,4-D “has been linked to serious illnesses like Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and reproductive problems. It also threatens endangered species that reside in the approved states, like the whooping crane, the Louisiana black bear, and the Indiana bat.”
Frustrated man charged by police after shooting his uncooperative computer
Colorado man Lucas Hinch cited for discharging a firearm within city limits
Police in Colorado have cited a 37-year-old man for carrying his computer into an alley then shooting it eight times with a handgun after what authorities said had been a long battle with the uncooperative machine. [//]
“He took the computer into the back alley and fired eight shots into the computer with a handgun, effectively disabling it.”
The Colorado Springs Gazette quoted police as saying Hinch had been good-natured about the citation, telling officers he had not realised he was breaking the law.
A judge will decide what penalty the citation carries.
Recent Comments