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
President Bill Clinton impeached; General George Washington opens camp at Valley Forge; Charles Dickens’ novel “A Christmas Carol” is first published; Apollo 17 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean; ‘The Music Man’ opens on Broadway.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
Charles Dickens
Breakfast News
UN security council adopts resolution on Syrian peace process
The UN security council has unanimously agreed a resolution endorsing an international roadmap for a peace process in Syria, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than 250,000 lives.
“This council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long-suffering people of that battered land can support,” US secretary of state John Kerry told the 15-nation council after the vote.
The resolution came after Russia and the US clinched a deal on a text. The two powers have had very different views on what should happen in Syria, where Islamic State militants control considerable territory.
Wall St. slides on lower crude prices, stock options expiry
U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday for the second straight day, as concerns, ranging from a decline in crude oil prices to the global response to the Federal Reserve’s interest hike, weighed down the market.
The expiration of stock and index options contracts added volatility in a heavy trading volume day.
The S&P and Dow had their worst two-day performance since Sept. 1, while indexes posted losses for the week.
“It’s a confluence of all the factors: oil prices continuing to run down, the Chinese trying to counteract the dollar and everyone is digesting, globally, what the Fed’s announcement means for emerging markets and everything else,” said J.J. Feldman, portfolio manager at Miracle Mile Advisors in Los Angeles.
The week was dominated by the Fed, which raised rates on Wednesday for the first time in nearly a decade.
Reilly welcomes ruling on Australian tobacco packaging
Minister for Children James Reilly has welcomed the decision of an international court to throw out a challenge by the tobacco industry to Australia’s plain-packaging legislation for tobacco products. Dr Reilly said the Government, which plans to introduce plain packaging next May but is facing a similar legal challenge, was equally committed to standing up to the tobacco industry.
“I applaud the leadership shown by the Australian government in being the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging,” he said. “I admire their courage in standing up to the tobacco industry again and again in legal challenges. Today is a great day for the future health of Australian children.”
Dr Reilly’s officials are awaiting a key opinion from the advocate general of the European Court of Justice, due next Wednesday, on the competence of European Union member states to introduce plain packaging.
Political ignorance and bombing Agrabah
A recent Public Policy Polling survey found that 30% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats say they support “bombing Agrabah” – the fictional nation portrayed in the Disney movie Aladdin. This is not a surprising result. Pollsters have long known that it is easy to get survey respondents to express opinions about nonexistent legislation, such as the “Metallic Metals Act.” It is also easy to elicit survey responses that reveal widespread scientific ignorance. For example, one recent poll found that 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA.”
All of this is just part of the broader phenomenon of widespread political ignorance. For most people, ignorance about science and public policy is perfectly rational behavior, because there is so little chance that their vote will decisively affect electoral outcomes.
Fossilized Femur Suggests Ancient and Modern Humans Overlapped
A fossil thigh bone creates a plot twist in the story of human evolution. This partial femur — found among remains of China’s mysterious “Red Deer Cave people” — belongs to an ancient species of human thought to be long extinct, researchers say. This suggests the ancient species actually survived at least until the last Ice Age 14,000 years ago
The fossil’s true identity was discovered by researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology (YICRA, China). The femur was originally excavated from Yunnan Province’s Maludong (Red Deer Cave) in 1989, but it remained unstudied in a museum in southeastern Yunnan, according to a news release.
While the fossils have not yet been assigned to a particular species, researchers say the thigh bone exhibits features that strongly resemble those of Homo habilis and early Homo erectus, which lived more than 1.5 million years ago in Africa. It follows then that early hominins may not have immediately disappeared in China after modern humans emerged.
Breakfast Blogs
Why Did the DNC Let the Bernie-Hillary Tech Story Leak? Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
US Military Tired of Questions From Media, Restricts Access to Guantanamo Kevin Gosztola, ShadowProof
The House GOP’s under-the-radar oil coup: The dangerous domestic bailout that they’re almost certain to win David Dayen, Salon
An Excerpt from Real Fiscal Responsibility, Vol I: the Progressive Give-up Formula letsgetitdone aka Joe Firestone, Corrente
It Must Be Christmas Time, Because Target Is Losing People’s Personal Information Again Tim Geigner, Techdirt