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
Mongol ruler Genghis Khan dies; Women in U.S. clinch right to vote; James Meredith graduates from Univ. of Miss.; Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ published in U.S.; Actor-director Robert Redford born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Breakfast News
Egypt imposes anti-terror law that punishes ‘false’ reporting of attacks
An anti-terror law that stipulates exorbitant fines, and possible suspension from employment, for “false” reporting on militant attacks has come into effect in Egypt.
The government sped up the passage of the law after the state prosecutor was assassinated in a car bombing in late June, followed by a large-scale jihadi attack in the Sinai peninsula days later.
The military was infuriated after media, quoting security officials, reported that dozens of troops had been killed in the Sinai attack. The military’s official death toll was 21 soldiers and scores of jihadists.
[ UN deciding ‘how best to respond’ after AT&T helped NSA spy on headquarters www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/17/un-att-nsa-spy-headquarters-privacy]
The United Nations has said it expects member states to respect its right to privacy and is assessing how to respond to a report that telecommunications company AT&T Inc helped the US National Security Agency spy on the world body’s communications.
The company gave technical assistance to the NSA in carrying out a secret court order allowing wiretapping of all internet communications at the headquarters of the United Nations, an AT&T customer, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The paper cited newly disclosed NSA documents that date from 2003 to 2013 and were provided by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
God bless John Oliver: late-night comedian forms his own church
Bless you, John Oliver.
On Sunday, the British satirist and host of Last Week Tonight, eviscerated mega-churches, which earn millions every year by preying on the vulnerable to donate hefty, tax-free donations – but are somehow exempt from paying taxes. [..]
To expose the industry’s fraudulent activity, his team got close with leading celebrity televangelist Robert Tilton of Word of Faith Worldwide Church. After mailing Tilton $20, with a request to be added to his church’s mailing list, a correspondence was reportedly struck up, which resulted in the televangelist requesting larger and larger sums of money.
As Oliver said: “As of tonight, I’ve sent him $319 and received 26 letters – that’s almost one a week. And again, this is all hilarious until you imagine these letters being sent to someone who cannot afford what he’s asking for.”
Four more gored to death across Spain as surge in bull-run casualties continues
At least 10 people have been fatally gored during bull runs across Spain this summer, including four over the past weekend, in what is shaping up to be an especially deadly fiesta season across the country.
Spain’s best-known running of the bulls is held each year in Pamplona, but similar events are held throughout the summer across many municipalities as part of their annual fiestas. This year, as half-ton bulls race through the streets of cities and towns across the country, some startling images have emerged showing bulls attacking runners and spectators.
Drunk airBaltic crew included co-pilot at seven times legal alcohol limit
A Norwegian court has sentenced a Latvian airBaltic co-pilot to six months in jail after he failed a breathalyser test before take-off from Oslo’s airport.
The 38-year-old man – who registered an alcohol level that was almost seven times the legal limit – admitted that he drank two bottles of whisky and some beer with the other crew members before the flight’s planned departure for Greece with around 100 passengers aboard on 8 August.
Oldest US veteran dies weeks after she met Obama
A Michigan woman who was believed to be the nation’s oldest veteran, at 110, has died a month after meeting Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
The Oakland County medical examiner’s office said Emma Didlake died on Sunday in West Bloomfield, north-west of Detroit.
Didlake was a 38-year-old wife and mother of five when she signed up in 1943 for the women’s army auxiliary corps. She served about seven months stateside during the war, as a private and driver.
Mass grave reveals prehistoric warfare in ancient European farming community
The chance discovery of a mass grave crammed with the battered skeletons of ancient Europeans has shed light on the lethal violence that tore through one of the continent’s earliest farming communities.
In 2006, archaeologists were called in after road builders in Germany uncovered a narrow ditch filled with human bones as they worked at a site in Schöneck-Kilianstädten, 20km north-east of Frankfurt.The chance discovery of a mass grave crammed with the battered skeletons of ancient Europeans has shed light on the lethal violence that tore through one of the continent’s earliest farming communities.
In 2006, archaeologists were called in after road builders in Germany uncovered a narrow ditch filled with human bones as they worked at a site in Schöneck-Kilianstädten, 20km north-east of Frankfurt.
They have now identified the remains as belonging to a 7000-year-old group of early farmers who were part of the Linear Pottery culture, which gained its name from the group’s distinctive style of ceramic decoration.
DNA-testing dog poo: Spanish city on the scent of owners who don’t pick up
Spain’s north-eastern city of Tarragona has threatened to use DNA analysis of dog droppings to track down owners who fail to clear up their pet’s mess.
The coastal Mediterranean city would work with a local university to create a DNA database of registered dogs that could be used to identify their owners, said Ivana Martinez, the city’s city councillor for public spaces, on news radio Cadena Ser.
Droppings found on the street or in parks could then be matched through the DNA database to a registered pet, and its owner issued with a fine, she said.
—–
Must Read Blog Posts
Justice Department: Appeals Court Wrong to Revive Lawsuit Brought by Immigrants Abused After 9/11 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter @ ShadowProof
Workers To Face Biosurveillance From Employers Dan Wright, The BullPen @ ShadowProof
No, This Summer Is Not Like the 1968 Primary Season Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
Tim Pawlenty Makes It Clear Banks Want Immunity for Negligence emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
STUDY: Texas’s voter ID law confused registered voters, likely decided 2014 congressional race
Austerity, Greece’s Debt Crisis, and the Death of Democracy: A Book about Greece and Much More letsgetitdone aka Joe Firestone, Corrente
Yet More Private Equity Grifting: The SEC Enables “Broken Deal Expense” Con Yves Smith, naked capitalism
The Long Sad Slide From Leading Civil Rights Organization to Anti-Black Lives Matter Group Lee Fang. The Intercept
Read “DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception,” Part 1 of The Teflon Toxin Sharon Lerner, The Intercept
Intel Officials’ Claims That NSA Couldn’t Access Majority Of Cellphone Records Apparently Bogus Tim Cushing, Techdirt
—–
Your Moment of Zen
—–