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
George Washington dies at age 67; Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his group reach South Pole; Leaders of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia sign an internationally-brokered peace treaty; Baseball’s Roger Maris dies at age 51.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.
Breakfast News
Kunduz: Updated death toll – 42 people killed in the US airstrikes on Kunduz hospital
After two months of in-depth investigations following the US airstrikes that destroyed the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) trauma centre in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on 3 October, MSF today announces with great sadness that the death toll has been confirmed to be at least 42 people.
The revised figures include the 14 MSF staff members confirmed to have been killed, as well as 24 patients and four caretakers (relatives that provided additional nursing care for the patients in the hospital). Previously MSF had reported an approximate death toll of at least 30 people, but the organisation confirms today the death toll has risen to 42, after methodical review of MSF records and family claims, as well as patient, staff and family testimonies.
Countries just adopted a historic climate change accord. Here’s what happens next
The word “historic,” already being used to describe the just-accepted Paris climate agreement, is more than warranted. The world will now have a new and comprehensive regime in place to shape how its diverse nations go about the urgent task of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s why climate activists are ecstatic the world over right now. It’s a big deal.
The more ambiguous news, however, is that this document, by its very nature, depends on key sectors of society to respond to help make sure its goals are realized. Countries, companies and individuals all across the planet will have to do the right things — and very hard things, at that. And it’s too soon to tell exactly how they will do so.
First Female Politicians Elected In Saudi Arabia
Saudi voters elected 20 women for local government seats, according to results released to The Associated Press on Sunday, a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the country’s history.
The women who won hail from vastly different parts of the country, ranging from Saudi Arabia’s largest city to a small village near Islam’s holiest site.
Front National makes no gains in final round of regional elections
France’s far-right Front National has failed to win control of any regions in the final round of local elections despite a historically high score in the first-round when it was ranked as the most popular party in France.
The defeat of the FN was down to mass tactical voting, an increase in turnout and warnings by the left that what it called the “antisemitic and racist” party would bring France to its knees. All this combined to stop the FN translating its huge first-round score of nearly 28% into the overall control of any region.
Markets in fragile mood as Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates
Stock market investors are braced for panic selling in New York and London before what is expected to be the first rate rise by the US Federal Reserve since 2006.
The US central bank will decide on Wednesday whether to raise interest rates as a mark of the US economy’s strong recovery since the 2008 banking crash.
But Fed boss Janet Yellen is expected to announce the increase in borrowing costs despite a slowdown in global trade and a slump in oil and commodity prices that has pushed inflation down to near zero in most developed countries.
Shares plunged on Friday and oil prices tumbled as the date neared for the Fed decision and investors became increasingly nervous of the impact on highly indebted emerging market economies.
Three years after Sandy Hook, Congress stalls on guns – but states offer hope
Three years ago on Monday, Newtown, Connecticut was plunged into a nightmare when a troubled young man opened fire using a semi-automatic weapon at Sandy Hook elementary school. Twenty children and six staff members were killed.
If there was ever a moment that could bring together a nation fiercely divided on guns, surely this was it. But in the years since, attempts to pass federal gun control legislation have gone nowhere, a testament to the formidable power of a gun lobby guided by the National Rifle Association’s dictum: “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
But where momentum for change has stalled in Congress, supporters of gun control see hope in the courts and state legislatures.
Third California storm in a week brings rain, snow and hopes for more El Niño
A third winter-like storm in a week brought rain and strong winds to much of northern California and snow to the Sierra Nevada on Sunday. [..]
After a lull on Saturday, the system moved into parched California overnight packing precipitation, strong winds, lightening and some hail.
The latest storm will dump slightly less rain in the state than the previous systems – with the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley expected to get up to about half an inch, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Nathan Owen said.
“We’ll see a very similar storm to what we had the last round with less rain, but we’re expecting a good bit of wind for this system,” he said.
Breakfast Blogs
Obama’s Terrorism Cancer Speech, Carter’s Malaise Speech emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
The new litmus test, digby aka Heather Digby Parton, Hullabaloo
Debunking “The Big Short”: How Michael Lewis Turned the Real Villains of the Crisis into Heros Yves Smith, naked capitalism
Is This The Beginning of the Crackup in High-Yield Corporate Debt? David Dayen, naked capitalism
Geek food for the geek soul: “As society gets increasingly secular, we need to fill the social void” Scot Timberg, Salon
Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt Leigh Beadon, Techdirt