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
Joan of Arc is born; Samuel Morse demonstrates the telegraph to the public; Commercial airplane completes first round-the-world flight; Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked; Dizzy Gillespie and Rudolf Nureyev die.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
Breakfast News
North Korea Announces That It Has Detonated First Hydrogen Bomb
North Korea declared on Tuesday that it had detonated its first hydrogen bomb.
The assertion, if true, would dramatically escalate the nuclear challenge from one of the world’s most isolated and dangerous states.
In an announcement, North Korea said that the test had been a “complete success.” But it was difficult to tell whether the statement was true. North Korea has made repeated claims about its nuclear capabilities that outside analysts have greeted with skepticism.
Heavy rains bring disease and disaster to France’s forgotten refugee camp
Hundreds of refugees are living in dangerous, unsanitary conditions after days of heavy rain left their camp in northern France ankle-deep in filthy water, while guards have blocked migrants’ attempts to replace tents and rebuild temporary shelters.
Aid agencies working at the camp in Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk, say they are concerned for the health of the refugees due to an apparent ban on building materials, firewood and even blankets being brought into the compound during the cold, damp period.
The site, known as France’s “forgotten” camp and which is about 50 miles from Dover, is estimated to hold 3,000 refugees mainly from Syria, Iran and Iraq.
Californians warned to keep conserving water despite heavy rains
Forced by drought to conserve water, Californians were warned against reverting to old habits on Tuesday as the first of several storms spawned by a record-tying El Niño began drenching the state.
A series of storms lining up over the Pacific Ocean was welcome news in parched California, despite their potential for causing flash floods and mudslides. But authorities cautioned that even the wettest of winters can’t replenish depleted reservoirs and aquifers unless everyone keeps pitching in.
California’s water deficit is so deep after four years of drought that a “steady parade of storms” like these will be needed for years to come, said Mike Anderson, climatologist for the state’s department of water resources.
The NFL wants this field for the Super Bowl, but a youth league is fighting back
The Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event in the US. But a small youth soccer league, with fields close to the site where this year’s game will be hosted, is refusing to allow the sporting behemoth to disrupt its season.
It is a legal battle over sporting turf pitting the National Football League, America’s wealthiest sports league, against the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League, which relies on parents and volunteer coaches to stay afloat.
A lawsuit brought by the youth soccer league is challenging the NFL’s attempt to commandeer the soccer field and replace it with a media site for next month’s Super Bowl 50.
It’s a project that parents and players in the soccer league say will destroy the park and disrupt youth athletics this year.
16th-Century ‘Pirate Bones’ Found Under School Playground In Scotland
Kids often dream of stumbling upon a pirate treasure, but a group of children in Scotland have for years been playing right on top of an actual pirate.
The remains of a man who is believed to have been a pirate centuries ago were excavated from the playground of a school in Edinburgh. The bones were found at the Victoria Primary School when plans were being made to extend the school, which was built in 1844 and sits near the harbor of Newhaven, a fishing village.
Workers discovered shards of pottery estimated to be 4,000 years old as well as a set of bones in such poor condition that they initially believed them to be about the same age.
Breakfast Blogs
My Monday Night in Massachusetts with He, Trump Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
What’s Wrong With Laughing & Labeling Oregon Militants ‘Terrorists’ Kevin Gosztola, ShadowProof
Daniel Ellsberg: US Military-Industrial Complex Also Includes Big Corporations And Congress Kit O’Connell, ShadowProof
Dutch Government Supports Encryption, Opposes Backdoors Tim Cushing, Techdirt
How America’s anti-immigrant hysteria just hit an unprecedented new low David Dayen, Salon