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 Nixon announces accord to end Vietnam War; North Korea seizes the U.S.S. Pueblo; The TV mini-series “Roots” airs on ABC.
Breakfast Tunes
Breakfast News
Nearly 3 Million Gallons of Drilling Wastewater Spewed From ND Pipeline
New information reveals that ‘brine’ from ruptured pipeline in North Dakota could be worst spill of its kind since state’s shale boom began
A pipeline rupture earlier this month in North Dakota is now revealed to have spilled a possible record-setting amount of “brine” created as a byproduct of oil drilling, with the full impacts of the incident still unknown. [..]
A statement issued by the department Wednesday, however, says that the Summit Midstream informed them Tuesday that it was “approximately 70,000 barrels of produced water and an unknown amount of oil” that spewed from the pipeline.
That amount equals 2.94 million gallons.
The Associated Press described it as the largest spill of its kind since the state’s shale boom began.
On Roe vs. Wade Anniversary, GOP House Passes Vicious Assault on Women’s Right to Choose
On the 42nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which affirms a woman’s Constitutional right to an abortion, House Republicans passed a far-reaching anti-choice bill that women’s health advocates say would cause the entire insurance market to drop abortion coverage while raising taxes on small business who provide comprehensive health care to their employees.
‘Doomsday Clock’ now at three minutes to midnight
Runaway climate change and the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons have pushed the world closer towards irreversible catastrophe, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Thursday, as the group pushed the symbolic Doomsday Clock forward to three minutes before midnight.
The two factors “pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which came to its assessment with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 18 Nobel Laureates, said in a statement.
“World leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on Earth,” it added.
Netanyahu Side-Steps White House in Bid to Sabatoge Iran Talks
Analysts warn disintegration of negotiations would put ‘threat of war front and center’
At the invitation of Republican House Speaker John A. Boehner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington in March to directly address Congress on Iran, side-stepping the White House in a maneuver that analysts say is aimed at sabotaging diplomatic talks.
If negotiations are torpedoed, critics warn, this would likely ratchet up escalation and even threaten war. [..]
Netanyahu’s unusual bypassing of the U.S. president, which was described by White House spokesperson Josh Earnest as a departure from “typical protocol,” was made public less than 24 hours after President Barack Obama pledged in his State of the Union address to veto a congressional effort to pass new sanctions on Iran in the midst of talks. Obama revealed on Thursday that he will decline to meet with Netanyahu during the Prime Minister’s visit, which falls shortly before Israel’s general elections.
Yemeni government quits in protest at Houthi rebellion
Senior elected officials in Yemen resigned en masse on Thursday night in protest at a takeover by Houthi rebels of the executive, potentially pushing the country into a new phase of instability.
President Abdu Mansour Hadi, prime minister Khaled Bahah and the entire cabinet quit their posts a day after the Houthis announced the embattled leader had yielded to their demands for a much greater share of power in Yemen’s political affairs.
The move caught the rebels off guard and promptly put on hold their moves to consolidate control of the parliament and state institutions. Houthi supporters in the parliament said the president’s resignation would not be accepted, but it remained unclear whether the national legislature could make such a move in an emergency session called for Friday.
Hillary Clinton to Canada audience: ‘You won’t get me to talk about Keystone’
Hillary Clinton declined again to take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline, telling an audience in Canada that she would not express her views because of an ongoing review by the State Department.
Clinton, a potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, was asked on Wednesday about US-Canadian relations during a wide-ranging question-and-answer session in Winnipeg as Congress considers approving construction of the contentious, Canada-backed project. Making her first public remarks in a month, Clinton also touched upon the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and the debate in Congress over Iran.
“We have differences and you won’t get me to talk about Keystone because I have steadily made clear that I’m not going to express an opinion,” she said. “It is in our process and that’s where it belongs.”
Drop in Ebola cases ‘signals turning point’
The Ebola epidemic seems to have reached a turning point, as cases fall in all three of the worst-hit countries of west Africa, according to World Health Organisation figures.
Last week there were fewer than 150 cases reported, with Sierra Leone accounting for most of them – 117 of the total. The previous week it reported 184 cases and the week before 248. At the peak in December, the country was reporting 550 cases a week. Liberia’s case numbers have dropped from a high point of more than 300 a week in August and September. This week it reported eight, while the total for Guinea was 20.
Dr Christopher Dye, the director of strategy in the office of the WHO director general, told the BBC News website: “
Journalist Barrett Brown Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
Joking, ‘Wish me luck!’ Brown pleads guilty over hacking charges, obstruction of justice
Activist and journalist Barrett Brown was sentenced in a Dallas, Texas federal court Thursday to 63 months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $900,000 in restitution and fines.
Brown, 33, pleaded guilty to charges of transmitting threats, accessory to a cyber attack, and obstruction of justice for interfering with the execution of a search warrant. He faced a maximum sentence of eight years over charges stemming from his alleged involvement with the hacker-activist collective Anonymous, after Brown in 2012 shared a link to a cache of emails and credit card data stolen by Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond from Austin-based think tank Stratfor. Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2013.
Death by chocolate: New Hampshire reconsiders bait after bears overdose
A leading New Hampshire bear expert is proposing to eliminate the use of chocolate as bait after four bears were found dead at one trapping site due to a chocolate overdose.
The bears – two female adults and two cubs – were found dead within 50 feet of where a hunter had put down 90 pounds of chocolate and doughnuts as bait in September, the Concord Monitor reported.
A necropsy and toxicology reports performed at the University of New Hampshire confirmed they died of heart failure caused by theobromine, a toxic ingredient in chocolate.
The best way to stop this from happening again is to remove chocolate from the woods, Andrew Timmins, the state fish and game department’s bear project leader, told a commission meeting on Wednesday.
Must Read Blog Posts
‘A Piece of Torture’: Guantanamo Prisoner’s Diary Describes Brutal Transfer from Bagram Kevin Gosztola, FDL The Dissenter
What Obama Got Wrong In His State Of The Union Remarks On Trade Dave Johnson, Crooks and Liars
The Democratic Party Is Losing Its Writers Gaius Publius, Crooks and Liars
Fox Doc Blows Up At Anti-vaxxers Over Measles Outbreak: ‘A Million Times More Contagious Than Ebola!’ David, Crooks and Liars
The grown ups are definitely back in charge. Unfortunately they’re morons. digby, Hullabaloo
“This guy’s clearly a complete idiot”: How Fox News became a laughingstock in Paris Bruce Gain, Salon
GOP wants to define rape… again: How Lindsey Graham reawakened the ghost of Todd Akin Joan Walsh, Salon
Barrett Brown Sentenced To 63 Months In Jail For Daring To Do Journalism On Hacked Info Mike Masnick, Techdirt
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
That’s A Lot
I kind of respect it. If you’re going to be corrupt, go big.