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
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is first published; Jefferson Davis is sworn in as President of the Confederate States of America; ‘Chicago Seven’ defendants in court; Dale Earnhardt, Senior dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.
Breakfast News
UK staying in EU is in Germany’s national interest, says Merkel
Angela Merkel has said it is in Germany’s national interest for the UK to remain in the European Union, as David Cameron embarked on a round of last-minute diplomacy ahead of a crucial summit on Thursday.
Shortly before a summit in Brussels where David Cameron’s reform proposals will be thrashed out, the German chancellor appealed for more sympathy and understanding for the British position.
In London, Cameron undertook a round of telephone calls with EU leaders, and held talks in Downing Street with the London mayor, Boris Johnson, one of the most prominent figures in Cameron’s party yet to make his position known on the EU deal.
Venezuela president raises fuel price by 6,000% and devalues bolivar to tackle crisis
Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has announced the first rise in petrol prices in 20 years and a sharp devaluation of the currency which he said aimed to shore up the flailing economy, hard hit by falling oil prices which make up 95% of foreign income.
Prices at the pump in Venezuela will jump as much as 6,086% for 95 octane gasoline, from 0.097 bolivars to 6 bolivars, or 1,300% for 91 octane as of Friday.
The official exchange rate used for food and medicine imports will weaken to 10 bolivars per dollar from 6.3, as of Thursday, while a second rate will be allowed to float.
The socialist government’s announcement on Wednesday revealed some of the free market reforms that analysts have been clamouring for in the oil-dependent nation although critics say they don’t go far enough to right the country’s crisis-hit economy.
Call for Obama to delay supreme court nomination is ‘absurd’, say legal scholars
Republican calls for Barack Obama to refrain from nominating a successor to deceased supreme court justice Antonin Scalia are “odd” and “absurd”, according to constitutional scholars and experts.
“The arguments that they are making – that this is a matter of principle – are nonsense,” said Michael Dorf, professor of constitutional law at Cornell Law School. “It’s just that they politically want some different kind of nominee.”
Within two hours of official word about Scalia’s death, the Republican leadership was quick to draw its line in the sand, led by the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next supreme court justice,” McConnell said in a statement. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
The American people do have a voice, said Dorf. “It’s through President Obama and the current Senate. If they lack legitimacy to do this, how do they have legitimacy to do all sorts of other things that have long-term consequences?”
SoCalGas pleads not guilty to criminal charges in massive natural gas leak case
Southern California Gas Company pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from a weeks-long leak of gas from a storage well that spewed record amounts of global warming pollution and led to the relocation of thousands of nearby residents.
The utility’s attorneys entered the pleas in Los Angeles County superior court in suburban Santa Clarita. [..]
The complaint brought by the county district attorney includes three counts of failing to report the release of a hazardous material and one count of discharge of air contaminants.
If convicted, the company could be fined up to $1,000 per day for air pollution violations and up to $25,000 for each of the three days it didn’t notify the state office of emergency services of the leak.
The Oregon standoff is over but militia left something on the refuge: their poop
The armed militia in Oregon left behind “significant amounts of human feces” and dug trenches filled with waste on wildlife refuge grounds that contained sensitive Native American artifacts, according to the FBI.
One week after the final four anti-government protesters surrendered at the Malheur national wildlife refuge in rural Harney County, federal investigators have begun the long task of processing the “crime scene” and have uncovered firearms, explosives, potential booby traps and large piles of human excrement, prosecutors wrote in a new court filing.
“Occupiers appear to have excavated two large trenches and an improvised road on or adjacent to grounds containing sensitive artifacts,” Billy Williams, US attorney, wrote in a Tuesday filing in federal court, outlining the FBI’s findings in its preliminary investigation. “At least one of those trenches contains human feces.”
Breakfast Blogs
Why Republicans Are Masquerading Spin as Principle Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
Snickers Bars and Fudged ISIS Intelligence Jim White, emptywheel
Apple Leads the Charge on Security, But Who Will Follow? Jenna McLaughlin, The Intercept
America’s most dangerous Zika challenge: Puerto Rico’s health system is collapsing — and nobody wants to help David Dayen, Salon
Once Again It’s The US That Seems To Be The Most Aggressive With Cyberattacks Mike Masnick, Techdirt