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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Born; President Nixon suspends US offensive action in Vietnam; Queen Elizabeth the First crowned.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.
Breakfast News
HSBC fights to stop money-laundering report going public
HSBC is trying to prevent publication of a report on how it complies with money-laundering rules imposed on it by the US authorities in 2012, when it was fined a record $1.9bn (£1.32bn).
The bank is arguing in US courts that it could be left vulnerable to money laundering if the report is published.
Under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities, made when it was fined for aiding money laundering by Mexican drug cartels, HSBC must be subjected to regular audits about its internal capacity to seek out potentially suspect activity by customers.
A private individual, Hubert Dean Moore, who used to have a mortgage with HSBC, is suing to have the monitor’s first annual report unsealed by the court. He is being resisted not only by the bank but also by the US Department of Justice.
Planned Parenthood sues anti-abortion activists who released series of videos
Planned Parenthood has filed a civil lawsuit against the anti-abortion activists who have released a series of videos since July attacking the reproductive health organization.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday, which “outlines a very complex conspiracy that ran for nearly three years” is against the Center for Medical Progress, its leader David Daleiden and his alleged co-conspirators.
Planned Parenthood, which provides cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing and treatment, sexual health education and abortions, claim that the Center for Medical Progress violated the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act, as well as “engaging in wire fraud, mail fraud, invasion of privacy, illegal secret recording, and trespassing”.
A San Francisco judge on Thursday refused to order a Catholic hospital to allow an obstetrician to use its facility to sterilize a woman just after the birth of her third child.
In denying the American Civil Liberties Union’s emergency request, superior court judge Ernest Goldsmith recognized the right of a Catholic hospital to adhere to its ethical and religious dictates.
“The religious beliefs reflected in their operation are not to be interfered with by courts,” Goldsmith said during an hour-long hearing in San Francisco. “There’s no law that says that hospitals are mandated to perform sterilizations.”
The case, brought by the ACLU, spotlights increasing tension over women’s rights to contraceptive healthcare in Catholic institutions.
Goldman Sachs agrees to tentative $5.1B mortgage settlement
Goldman Sachs Group (GS) has reached a nearly $5.1 billion tentative settlement of a federal and state investigation of the investment banking giant’s handling of mortgage-backed securities before the national financial crisis, the bank said Thursday.
The New York City-based bank will pay a $2.4 billion civil monetary penalty, make $875 million in cash payments and provide $1.8 billion in consumer relief — including mortgage principal forgiveness for underwater homeowners and distressed borrowers, forecloseure prevention, support for debt restructuring and other programs.
Goldman said the settlement would reduce the bank’s fourth-quarter 2015 earnings, scheduled to be announced Wednesday, by approximately $1.5 billion on an after-tax basis.
World’s biggest dinosaur skeleton unveiled in New York
Paleontologists at New York’s American Museum of Natural History unveiled a cast skeleton of the world’s biggest dinosaur, a new species of Titanosaur, to a packed crowd of media on Thursday morning.
“There’s nothing like finding a great new fossil. Especially a big one, like this one,” declared Michael Novack, the museum’s senior vice-president.
The skeleton – fiberglass recreations of the bones, since fossils are too heavy to mount – is 122ft long, too big to fit entirely inside the Miriam and Ira D Wallach Orientation Center, one of the museum’s largest display rooms, so the dinosaur’s neck and head poke out 9.5ft into the room next door.
Breakfast Blogs
We Haven’t Scratched the Surface of What Bernie Is Capable Of Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
ISIS In Afghanistan Declared Foreign Terrorist Group, More War To Follow Dan Wright, ShadowProof
You Can’t Seriously Believe This Loan Story Is Going To Hurt Ted Cruz, Can You? Steve M., No More mister Nice Guy Blog
The Men Who Shot Ransom Stoddard driftglass, driftglass
AT&T Says Its Voluntary Sharing of Customer Data Is Classified emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
World Bank Report: TPP Will Bring Negligible Economic Benefit To US, Canada And Australia Glyn Moody, Techdirt