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
Bastille prison stormed during the French Revolution; Outlaw ‘Billy the Kid’ gunned down; Richard Speck murders student nurses in Chicago; Mariner 4 probe flies by Mars; Folk singer Woody Guthrie born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.
Breakfast News
Alexis Tsipras aims to steer eurozone bailout plan through Greek parliament
Prime minister faces tough task to keep his Syriza party united, as former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis likens bailout proposal to 1919 Versailles treaty
Alexis Tsipras was on course on Monday night to sway radical-leftist Syriza MPs to accept the most draconian rescue of a sovereign nation since the second world war, after the Greek prime minister accepted a third bailout programme that one analyst said came after a weekend of “gunboat diplomacy”.
Tsipras, locked in fraught negotiations with EU leaders in Brussels until Monday morning, indicated that he would carry the Athens parliament, despite some defections, in a vote on the package by Wednesday.
Determined to keep his party together ahead of an expected onslaught by MPs opposing the outlined deal, Tsipras summoned his closest allies to a meeting in Athens before a gathering of his parliamentary party on Tuesday.
Anti-Democracy Forces on Trial as Voting Rights Fight Heats Up
In what has become ground zero in the national fight against voter suppression, thousands were expected to protest outside a federal courthouse in North Carolina on Monday marking the outset of a landmark trial which will determine if Republican-backed changes made to state voting laws discriminate against minority voters. [..]
In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court voted to remove key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, North Carolina’s GOP-dominated legislature has led other states in passing a slew of new voting restrictions. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in the past five years, 21 states have put in place new voting restrictions .
The North Carolina Voter Information and Verification Act of 2013 includes measures such as cutting same-day registration, restricting early voting and registration, and mandating new hurdles for obtaining photo IDs-each of which, Barber notes, disproportionately impacts the state’s minority voters.
Pentagon paves way for transgender people to serve openly in US military
The defense secretary, Ash Carter, on Monday paved the way for transgender people to serve openly in the US military.
In a statement, Carter announced an attempt to “deal with” the issue, “on the presumption that transgender persons can serve openly without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness”.
Announcing a working group to spend six months examining “the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons to serve openly”, Carter said: “The Defense Department’s current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions.”
Obama Grants Clemency to 46 Drug Offenders, But Thousands Turned Away
President Barack Obama announced Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 46 people incarcerated for federal drug convictions, prompting a lukewarm response from rights campaigners, who say the small act of clemency is vital for the people impacted-but a far cry from the deep change needed. [..]
The president’s statement brings the total number of commutations under his watch to 89-more pardons than any other president since Lyndon B. Johnson, who commuted 226 sentences.
However, the commutations fall well short of the thousands the administration estimated when the president last year unrolled an effort to release people locked up on nonviolent drug charges, citing lack of fairness in sentencing. Since the announcement, 35,000 people have applied for early release, Reuters reports.
But the president has has denied thousands of applications.
New York City agrees to pay $5.9m in settlement with family of Eric Garner
New York City has agreed to pay $5.9m to the family of Eric Garner, the 43-year-old man who died on Staten Island last July after being placed in an illegal chokehold by a police officer.
New York City comptroller Scott Stringer announced the settlement in a statement.
“Following a judicious review of the claim and facts of this case, my office was able to reach a settlement with the estate of Eric Garner that is in the best interests of all parties,” Stringer said.
The city’s medical examiner ruled the death a homicide but Daniel Panteleo, the officer who placed Garner in a chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes, was not indicted.
The grand jury decision not to hand down an indictment led to widespread protests and tension in the city in December.
Nasa probe’s early Pluto data shows dwarf planet larger than anticipated
A Nasa spacecraft that will hurtle past Pluto on Tuesday at more than 45,000 kilometres per hour has revealed the dwarf planet to be larger than scientists thought.
Fresh measurements from New Horizons, the first spacecraft to reach Pluto on the outer edge of the solar system, show that it is 2,370 kilometres across, roughly two-thirds the size of Earth’s moon.
Alan Stern, the lead scientist on the $700m (£450m) mission, said the increased dimensions meant Pluto must hold more ice and less rock beneath its surface than researchers had expected. Pluto has been hard to measure with any accuracy from Earth because it is so far away, and its atmosphere creates mirages that can fool ground-based telescopes.
Must Read Blog Posts
On the Fourth of July, FBI Disrupted ISIS-Inspired Terrorism Plot It Helped Manufacture Kevin Gosztola, FDL
Holy austerity, Batman, Greece will be fleeced! Frederick Leatherman, FDL
Mankiw’s Principles of Economics Part 2: The Cost of Something Is What You Give Up To Get It Ed Walker, emptywheel
Sheldon Whitehouse’s Hot and Cold Corporate Cybersecurity Liability Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
What Are the Gobshites Saying These Days? Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
DHS Head Jeh Johnson Recognizes The Privacy/Security Tradeoff, But Seems Unlikely To Make The First Concession Tim Cushing, Techdirt
White House So Desperate To Get TPP Approved, It Agrees To Whitewash Mass Graves & Human Trafficking In Malaysia Mike Masnick, Techdirt
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Your Moment of Zen
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