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
Rioting erupts in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict; U.S. soldiers liberate the Dachau concentration camp in Nazi Germany; Comedian Jerry Seinfeld born; Jazz legend Duke Ellington born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Cats have it all – admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.
Rod McKuen
Breakfast News
A Syrian hospital backed by Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo, killing patients and doctors including one of the last paediatricians remaining in the rebel-held part of the city.
MSF said the al-Quds hospital was targeted in an airstrike on Wednesday that killed 14 patients and staff members including at least two doctors, with the toll expected to rise.
The latest attack is part of a broader pattern of systematic targeting of hospitals by the government of Bashar al-Assad, as the humanitarian situation in the divided commercial capital of Syria grows more desperate under intense combat.
Rights concerns put EU-Turkey deal in peril as MPs brawl in Ankara
A key deadline looks increasingly likely to be missed in plans to grant Turkish citizens visa-free travel in the EU as part of a vital migration deal, after fighting in the parliament in Ankara and a stern warning of no special favours from Brussels.
Brawling between ruling party and pro-Kurdish MPs late on Wednesday resulted in Turkey’s parliament being suspended until Monday, halting work on laws the country needs to pass if the European commission is to recommend the controversial visa-waiver scheme to member states in a decision due next Wednesday.
New York Times boss sued over alleged ageist, racist and sexist hiring practices
Mark Thompson, the chief executive of the New York Times and former director-general of the BBC, is facing a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit alleging that he introduced a culture of “deplorable discrimination” based on age, race and gender at the newspaper.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two black female employees in their sixties in New York on Thursday, claims that under Thompson’s leadership the US paper of record has “become an environment rife with discrimination”.
The class action lawsuit, seen by the Guardian, alleges that the Times, which promotes its liberal and inclusive social values, preferentially favours its “ideal staffer (young, white, unencumbered with a family)” at the expense of older female and black employees.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn sells entire stake in Apple
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn says he had sold his entire stake in Apple Inc, citing the risk of China’s influence on the stock.
In an interview with US cable television network CNBC on Thursday, Icahn also said he was “still very cautious” on the US stock market and there would be a “day of reckoning” unless there was some sort of fiscal stimulus.
Icahn had been a huge cheerleader of Apple, acquiring a stake in the company almost three years ago, repeatedly calling the investment a “no brainer.”
Comcast’s NBCUniversal to buy DreamWorks Animation in $3.8bn deal
Comcast’s NBCUniversal has confirmed it has lined up a $3.8bn (£2.6bn) deal to buy DreamWorks Animation, maker of hits from Shrek to Kung Fu Panda, to create a formidable rival to Disney.
The deal will see DreamWorks Animation come under the same roof as NBCUniversal-owned Illumination Entertainment, maker of the hugely profitable including Despicable Me and spin-off Minions, creating an animation studio to challenge Disney and its Pixar operation.
Pixar’s impressive range of animated hits include Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, The Incredibles and Inside Out.
Breakfast Blogs
New Study Shows Mass Surveillance Breeds Meekness, Fear and Self-Censorship Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
So Much For The Fifth Amendment: Man Jailed For Seven Months For Not Turning Over Password Tim Cushing, Techdirt
Utah Is Allegedly Dealing with a McDonald’s Porn Epidemic Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
Bob Graham Says FBI Aggressively Deceived on Sarasota 9/11 Investigation emptywheel aka Marcy Wheel, emptywheel
Ted Cruz’s Gift To Hillary Clinton Steve M., Crooks and Liars
Recent Comments