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
An AP photographer takes an iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photo at Iwo Jima, Scottish scientists announce an advancement in cloning and Carlos Santana wins big at the Grammys.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?
Breakfast News
Obama’s last Guantánamo closure plan does not name new sites for detainees
Barack Obama’s final plan to close Guantánamo Bay does not name alternative sites in the United States for sending remaining detainees, according to sources familiar with it.
Moving Guantánamo detainees to the mainland US remains central to the clash between the White House and Congress over closing the facility in Cuba. However, the plan, due to be sent to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, declines to name alternative venues, despite a months-long field review undertaken by Pentagon officials.
Saudi Arabia leads surge in arms imports by Middle East states
The international transfer of weapons to the Middle East has risen dramatically over the past five years, with Saudi Arabia’s imports for 2011-15 increasing by 275% compared with 2006–10, according to an authoritative report.
Overall, imports by states in the Middle East increased by 61%; imports by European states decreased by 41% over the same period. Britain sold more weapons to Saudi Arabia than to any other country. Saudi Arabia is also the biggest US arms market and buys more American arms than British, the report shows.
Julian Assange: Swedish court asked to overturn arrest warrant after UN finding
Lawyers for Julian Assange have asked a Swedish court to overturn an arrest warrant for the WikiLeaks founder after a UN panel decided that his stay in Ecuador’s London embassy amounted to arbitrary detention.
Assange, 44, took refuge at the embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape in 2010.
He says the accusation is a ploy that would eventually lead to his extradition to the United States, where a criminal investigation into the activities of WikiLeaks is still open.
‘Stop’ a four-letter word for French drivers, traffic camera’s debut reveals
Maybe it is because “stop” is an Old English word that French drivers have such difficulty understanding the concept.
There is little excuse, however, for ignoring France’s Code de la Route, which clearly states motorists must come to a complete halt at a stop sign whether or not there is any other vehicle in sight.
Now police are chasing up 517 drivers who were caught on camera during just one day failing to stop at a sign in Yerres in the Essonne department south of Paris, to give them a verbal warning.
The traffic camera, the first to be installed at a stop sign in France, was being tested at a notorious road junction used by around 2,000 vehicles a day after a series of accidents, including one fatality and a serious injury to a child.
Mystery high-pitched noise keeps Oregon town awake at night
An unexplained high-pitched tone has kept residents of a Portland suburb awake at night for at least a week, confounding the best efforts of police and firefighters to pinpoint its source.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that the noise, a steady, whistling note like that of a flute, has only been reported after dark in Forest Grove, a rustic community of 22,500 people located about 25 miles (40km) west of Oregon’s largest city.
Former residents say they remember a similar sound echoing through the night air several decades ago, according to reports filed with Forest Grove Fire and Rescue.
Breakfast Blogs
This Apple Fight Is (Partly) about Solving Car Accidents emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
Donald Trump Has Got the Empty Suits at the RNC Sweating Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
Wall Street Makes Another Push To Stay Too Big To Fail Dan Wright, ShadowProof
Note on the Election: Stop Being a Goddamned Idiot The Rude One, The Rude Pundit
Court Says EFF Can Move Forward With Discovery In Its Big Case Against NSA Surveillance Mike Masnick, Techdirt