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
Sen. Joseph McCarthy is censured; Scientists demonstrate the world’s first artificially-created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction; Enron files for Chapter 11 protection; Colombian drug lord is shot and killed.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.
Breakfast News
US announces ‘expeditionary force’ to target Isis in Iraq and Syria
A permanent new US “expeditionary force” will target Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, operating independently of local troops in Iraq and Syria for the first time, defense secretary Ash Carter has revealed, in a significant escalation of the frontline use of American ground troops in the region.
Addressing Congressional leaders who are demanding swifter progress against Isis, Carter said on Tuesday that the troops would be based in Iraq but will have the capability to carry out raids across the border.
“It puts everybody on notice in Syria,” he said. “You don’t know at night who is going to be coming in the window.”
Until now, US ground forces in the region have officially been restricted to a “training and support” mission for the Iraqi army and a handful of one-off special forces raids to free hostages.
MSF hospital in Syria hit by ‘double-tap’ barrel bombing
A hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières in Homs has been partially destroyed in a “double-tap” barrel bombing, a signature tactic of the Syrian air force.
The strikes on the hospital in Zafarana, a besieged town in northern Homs, killed seven people including a young girl, MSF said in a statement, and prompted the movement to nearby field hospitals of many wounded, some of whom died on the way.
Saturday’s strikes were the latest in an apparent pattern of escalating attacks on medical facilities and doctors in the Syrian civil war, according to human rights organisations.
Man held at Guantánamo for 13 years a case of mistaken identity, say officials
A man who has spent 13 years in the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was arrested partly in a case of mistaken identity, US officials conceded Tuesday.
Officials admitted that Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri, 37, was a low-level Islamist foot soldier and not an al-Qaida courier and trainer as previously thought, during a Guantanamo hearing.
Wearing a beard and voluminous white t-shirt, and accompanied by a linguist and two personal representatives, the Yemeni appeared before a panel assessing whether he can be released.
A profile published by the Department of Defense maintains he fought in Afghanistan and mixed with members of al-Qaida. But officials concede that they wrongly believed he had a more significant role because he was confused with others who had a similar name.
How an $84,000 drug got its price: ‘Let’s hold our position … whatever the headlines’
Gilead Sciences executives were acutely aware in 2013 that their plan to charge an exorbitantly high price for a powerful new hepatitis C drug would spark public outrage, but they pursued the profit-driven strategy anyway, according to a Senate Finance Committee investigation report released Tuesday. [..]
Gilead gained federal approval for its drug Sovaldi in late 2013 and ultimately settled on the price of $84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment. To the company, that price seemed to deliver the right balance: value to shareholders while also not so high that insurers would “hinder patient access to uncomfortable levels,” according to internal documents. But they also got more than they bargained for: an outpouring of outrage from the public, a backlash from government and private payers, and political scrutiny.
Canadian smuggler had 51 turtles in his pants when he tried to cross border
A Canadian college student caught at a border checkpoint with 51 live turtles in his pants has pleaded guilty to six smuggling charges in the US.
Kai Xu, 27, of Windsor, Ontario, admitted to smuggling or trying to smuggle more than 1,600 turtles of different species out of the United States from April 2014 until his arrest in September 2014. Each of the six counts carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Breakfast Blogs
Donald Trump Has [X Number of People] Who Agree with Him on [X Lie] Charles Pierce, Esquire Blog
Big Banks Suffer Rare Fail as Congressional Deal Cuts Nearly $1 Billion a Year in Handouts David Dayen, The Intercept
Wing-nuts are impervious to tragedy: Why the Planned Parenthood shooting won’t curb their insanity Heather Digby Parton, Salon
Scotland’s Unique Solution To The Syrian Crisis Empowers Women Michaela Whitton, ShadowProof
Goldman eyes $20 oil — Glut overwhelms storage sites Gaius Publius, Hullabaloo