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 armistice ends the fighting in World War I; Pilgrims sign Mayflower Compact; Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat dies; Author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and actor Leonardo DiCaprio born.
World War I is commemorated on this day, commonly known as Remembrance Day. The ceasefire went into effect at 11:00am CET in 1918, the date of which (and sometimes the commemoration of) is known as Armistice Day. Veterans Day is an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans.
On this day in 1918, the armistice between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiegne Forest.
In November 1918 the Engineer in charge of the North Region Railways: Arthur-Pierre Toubeau, was instructed to find a suitably discreet place which would accommodate two trains. By coincidence on the outskirts of Compiègne in the forest of Rethondes lay an artillery railway emplacement. Set deep within the wood and out of the view of the masses the location was ideal.
Early in the morning of the 8th November a train carrying Maréchal Ferdinand Foch, his staff and British officers arrived on the siding to the right, nearest the museum. The train formed a mobile headquarters for Foch, complete with a restaurant car and office.
At 0700 hours another train arrived on the left hand track. One of the carriages had been built for Napoleon III and still bore his coat of arms. Inside was a delegation from the German government seeking an armistice.
There were only a hundred metres between the two trains and the entire area was policed by gendarmes placed every 20 metres.
For three days the two parties discussed the terms of an armistice until at 0530 hours on the 11th November 1918, Matthias Erzberger the leader of the German delegation signed the Armistice document.
Within 6 hours the war would be over.
Initially the carriage (Wagon Lits Company car No. 2419D) used by Maréchal Foch was returned to its former duty as a restaurant car but was eventually placed in the courtyard of the Invalides in Paris.
An American: Arthur Fleming paid for its restoration, and the wagon was brought back to Rethondes on 8th April 1927 and placed in a purpose built shelter (Since destroyed).
Numerous artifacts were obtained from those who had been involved in 1918 and the car was refurbished to its condition at the time of the Armistice.
At the entrance to the avenue leading down to the memorial site is a monument raised by a public subscription organised by the newspaper Le Matin.
The monument is dedicated to Alsace Lorraine and consists of a bronze sculpture of a sword striking down the Imperial Eagle of Germany it is framed by sandstone from Alsace.
The Clairière was inaugurated on 11th November 1922 by President Millerand.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast News
Appeals judges grant US request to allow NSA data collection to continue
An appeals court granted the US government’s emergency request to allow the National Security Agency to keep collecting telephone metadata on Tuesday after a judge ruled that the program “likely violates the constitution”. [..]
The government filed a request for an emergency stay of the order, saying it believed it was likely to win on appeal. A different panel of judges in a similar case ruled in favor of the NSA in October. After Leon rejected the government’s demand for a stay US authorities appealed the rejection and received the stay from a panel of three others, David S Tatel, Patricia A Millett and Thomas B Griffith.
New York attorney general orders daily fantasy sports firms to shut down
New York’s attorney general has ordered daily fantasy sports firms DraftKings and FanDuel to cease operations with consumers in the state, claiming their games constitute illegal gambling under New York law – the most significant blow yet in the mounting legal challenge facing what’s become a multibillion-dollar industry.
The cease-and-desist order from the state’s top attorney was first reported on Tuesday by the New York Times, citing sources with knowledge of the investigation.
Russia facing IAAF suspension by Friday over damning doping report
Russia faces being suspended from athletics by the end of the week as the fallout from Dick Pound’s devastating report into state-sponsored doping begins to reverberate around world sport.
Sebastian Coe, the head of the sport’s global governing body who is under pressure to act in the wake of the damning report that also alleged “corruption and bribery practices at the very highest level of international athletics”, will chair a meeting of the International Association of Athletics Federations council on Friday at which sanctions against Russia will be decided.
Jimmy Carter says recent tests have found he’s responding well to treatment for cancer.
Carter’s spokeswoman Deanna Congileo says that the former president’s doctors have found no evidence of new tumors. The 91-year-old former US president announced in August that he had been diagnosed with cancer and doctors had found tumors on his brain.
Must Read Blog Posts
Interview with Charlie Savage on Obama’s War on Terror Legacy Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
The Supreme Court Just Made Police Shootings a Messier Problem Charles Pierce, Esquire Poltics
Letter From Leavenworth: Chelsea Manning Discusses ‘Personal And Emotionally Tough Letters’ From Trans People Kevin Goszstola, ShadowProof
GOP voters want an apocalypse: The truth about Trump & Carson’s success Heather Digby Parton, Salon
Socialism is suddenly hot! The unions show signs of life! Is “class consciousness” coming to America at last? Andrew Hehir, Salon