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
Germany’s Reichstag burns, giving the Nazis under Adolf Hitler a pretext to seize absolute power; A cease-fire ends the Persian Gulf War; Actress Elizabeth Taylor born; Children’s TV host Fred Rogers dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.
Breakfast News
FBI contacted Apple, received data related to San Bernardino case 3 days after shooting
As noted in the declaration of Lisa Olle, manager of Apple’s Global Privacy & Law Enforcement Compliance Team, law enforcement officials contacted the company’s 24-hour emergency call center on the afternoon of Dec. 5, three days after Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in a self-proclaimed act of terrorism. Farook’s iPhone 5c now sits at the heart of a contentious debate between privacy advocates and national security hawks.
The information sheds new light on Apple’s efforts to cooperate with FBI investigatory operations prior to being served a federal court order compelling assistance in breaking into Farook’s iPhone. It was previously learned that by early January Apple was in regular discussions with government officials over how best to extract the phone’s data, though information stored on Apple’s end was apparently provided weeks earlier.
Flint water crisis: Michigan governor’s advisers warned months before disclosure
Syria’s Temporary Ceasefire Deal Comes Into Effect
A cessation of hostilities in Syria came into effect at the agreed time of midnight on Saturday (2200 GMT Friday), under a U.S.-Russian plan which warring sides in the five-year conflict have said they would commit to.
It was not immediately clear whether the various sides that signed up to the plan, including Damascus and its ally Russia, as well as a range of insurgent groups fighting against them, were respecting the halt in fighting.
The truce does not apply to Islamic State and al Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, and the Syrian government and Moscow have said they will not halt combat against those militants.
The United Nations unanimously demanded late on Friday that all parties to the conflict comply with the terms of the plan.
Iran To Hold First Elections Since Nuclear Deal, But Don’t Expect Change Overnight
Iranian voters head to the polls Friday for the first elections since last year’s nuclear agreement. They will choose members of the next parliament and the Assembly of Experts, a body of religious clerics tasked with picking the next supreme leader in the event that the current one steps down or dies.
It is tempting to view the upcoming elections as a referendum on the foreign policy agenda advanced by the politically moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who led his country through diplomatic negotiations with the international community over its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars of sanctions relief. The outcome of Friday’s vote will determine the political makeup of the legislative body Rouhani will contend with for the remainder of his presidency. It is also likely that members of the next Assembly of Experts, who serve eight-year terms, will be the people involved in choosing a successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who is 76 years old and reportedly in deteriorating health.
California Highway Patrol needed nearly four hours to catch a runaway ‘unicorn’
When a caller reported a “unicorn-like” animal galloping down an open Central Valley road, the California Highway Patrol suspected someone was high on hallucinogenic drugs.
But then officers met Juliet — a snow-white, 600-pound Shetland pony with a prosthetic horn and a fuzzy pink bridle.
The wannabe unicorn twice bolted from a photo shoot in Madera Ranchos on Wednesday, leading CHP officers on a lengthy, if not enchanted, pursuit.
It was around 2:30 p.m. when a dispatcher first alerted the nearest CHP officer to an apparent mythical creature at large.
Juliet’s owner, Fresno photographer Sandra Boos, managed to corral the 20-year-old pony in relatively short order. However, the CHP grew concerned when they received another call at 5:30 p.m.: Juliet was loose again and headed toward Avenue 12, a busy traffic corridor between State Route 99 and State Route 41. [..]
It took officers three and half hours to round up the pony, using a helicopter with thermal imaging to track down Juliet in an orchard. Then, they needed to use one of the pony’s friends, a horse, to help bring her out of hiding.
The horse whinnied to Juliet, who whinnied back and then ran to her friend, Boos said.
Breakfast Blogs
I’m a Cynic, and I Voted for Bernie Sanders Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
Why Isn’t Jim Comey Crusading against This Tool Used to Hide Terrorist Secrets? emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
The Absurd Timing of Michael Hayden’s Drone Campaign Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept
Rather Than Ending NSA’s Key Surveillance Tool, White House To Now Let Other Agencies Use It Mike Masnick, Techdirt
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