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
On this date in 1941, Japanese forces attack the home base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii – prompting America under President Franklin D. Roosevelt to enter World War II.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Breakfast News
Coalition of business leaders challenges 2C climate change target
A group of high-profile business leaders has challenged governments to set strong targets and not slam the door on limiting warming to 1.5C.
On Monday, a Paris meeting aimed at reaching a global deal to fight climate change kicks up to a gear, with government ministers taking charge of negotiations.
As ministers arrived in Paris, the chief executives of companies such as Virgin, Marks & Spencer, L’Oreal and Unilever said it was critical for governments to reach for stronger targets that would free the world’s economy from carbon emissions by 2050 and avoid dangerous warming.
The corporate leaders, members and supporters of the B Team, a coalition of chief executives for climate action, said governments should aim for a stronger target than the agreed goal of 2C and aim for actions that would eventually limit warming to 1.5C.
Jimmy Carter announces he is cancer-free after latest MRI scan
Former US president Jimmy Carter announced that he was cancer-free on Sunday, just four months after revealing that doctors had found four spots of melanoma on his brain.
“My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones,” Carter said in a statement on Sunday. “I will continue to receive regular three-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab,” he added, referring to a common cancer drug.
Carter, 91, shared the news on Sunday with worshippers at the Baptist church in Georgia where he teaches Bible study. The news was confirmed by two grandsons.
Surveillance must increase after terror attacks, say 2016 candidates
Presidential candidates from both parties came together at the weekend to call for beefed-up government surveillance programs in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.
The candidates did not agree, however, on what kind of surveillance – new dragnet metadata collection, tools to fight encryption or some even more powerful capability – was needed.
The debate broke out as the contrasting methods of communication – and possibly encryption – used by attackers in the two assaults demonstrated the difficulty of detecting and interrupting nascent plots, whether involving suspects known to authorities, as in Paris, or unknown, as in California.
US Justice Department ‘to launch patterns and practices’ probe into Chicago police
The US Justice Department will open an investigation into the Chicago police department after protests over how it handled the case of a black teenager shot by a white police officer, according to several reports.
The “patterns and practices” investigation will determine whether the department systematically violates constitutional rights, according to Reuters. No further details were revealed about the investigation.
A spokesman for the Chicago police department could not confirm the civil probe, which is expected to mimic those in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014.
Unions fight plan to turn Picasso art school into Woody Allen museum
Trade unions in Barcelona are fighting to prevent Pablo Picasso’s former art school being turned into a museum devoted to the film director Woody Allen, which they say would hold more appeal for the city’s legions of tourists than for its residents.
The Escola d’Arts i Oficis de Barcelona, which is owned by the regional government, stands in the Carrer Avinyó in the city’s Gothic quarter and was immortalised in Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon).
Despite its name, the painting has nothing to do with the southern French city but depicts five sex workers from a brothel in Carrer Avinyó. The building has stood empty since 2009.
Breakfast Blogs
Tone poem for the “leave it there” press Jay Rosen, Press Think
The Scottish hellscape digby, Hullabaloo
Yes, Calling Only Muslims Terrorists Does Result in Disparate Treatment of Muslims emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton & America’s Endless War Gaius Publius, naked capitalism
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