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.
AP’s Today in History for January 24th
Breakfast Tune Banjo cover of Drake Started from the bottom
Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below
Hillary Clinton Laughs When Asked if She Will Release Transcripts of Her Goldman Sachs Speeches
Lee Fang, The Intercept
After Hillary Clinton spoke at a town hall in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Friday, I asked her if she would release the transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs. She laughed and turned away.
Clinton has recently been on the defensive about the speaking fees she and her husband have collected. Those fees total over $125 million since 2001.
Her rival Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has raised concerns in particular over the $675,000 she made from Goldman Sachs, an investment bank that has regularly used its influence with government officials to win favorable policies. …
Michigan governor suspends state workers over Flint water crisis
Reuters
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Friday suspended two state workers in connection with water testing failures in the Flint contamination crisis, and the state restored some powers to Mayor Karen Weaver.
Snyder, who NBC news reported has hired a public relations crisis firm, suspended two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality workers in an increasing national furor over elevated lead readings in tap water and the blood of some children.
Snyder apologized this week to Flint residents for the state’s failures. Reports have pointed to errors at the city, state and federal level, but the bulk of the blame has been put on the state environmental-quality department (DEQ), whose director resigned at the end of last year over Flint’s water issues.
“Some DEQ actions lacked common sense, and that resulted in this terrible tragedy in Flint,” Snyder said in a statement.
Shortly before Snyder’s announcement, the Michigan state treasurer said Mayor Weaver, who was elected in November to lead the city that is in receivership, can now hire and fire the city administrator and department heads. …
Iowa Democratic caucus runs into difficulties amid volunteering crisis
Ben Jacobs in Waterloo, Iowa
Things are looking grim for the Iowa Democratic party’s efforts to mount a successful caucus on 1 February. The Guardian has learned the party is still lacking a temporary chairman to run the caucuses in up to 300 locations across the state with just over a week to go before caucus night.
These officials preside over caucuses when they first convene. Caucuses can then elect a permanent chair but invariably the temporary chair is chosen. The chair ensures the Democratic party’s complex rules are followed and that an accurate vote is taken and then reported to state Democratic party. There are 1,681 caucus locations in the state.
The Guardian first reported in November that the Iowa Democratic party was unprepared for the first caucuses in the nation and Time magazine reported Saturday the state party lacked at least 200 temporary chairs. …
- Bernie’s Movement
Robert Reich
- Robert Reich’s Hilarious Crusade to Save Capitalism and America’s Middle Class (Part 1)
Danny Feingold, Capital and Main
- Woman Accidentally Shot at Screening of Benghazi Movie by Drunk Man
Adam Johnson, AlterNet
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Cow whose NYC slaughterhouse escape went viral gets a new home
Mary Emily O’Hara, Daily Dot
On Thursday, New York City residents were shocked to see a giant cow running through traffic jams. Videos of the cow’s daring escape from a Queens slaughterhouse quickly went viral before police captured the traumatized brown-and-white animal.
The story of this brave animal went as far as New Zealand and Russia. And yet NYPD ending up returning him to the slaughterhouse from which he had managed to escape. He had been slated to be killed today.
But behind the scenes, animal rights advocates were furiously negotiating with police and the slaughterhouse owners for the cow’s release. He’d been smart enough to escape, they said, and he deserved to be free.
Early Friday morning, Mike Stura, owner of Skylands Animal Sanctuary in New Jersey, posted to Facebook that the rescue had been successful.
Stura told the Daily Dot, in an exclusive first interview, that he’d spent a freezing Thursday night parked outside the Queens slaughterhouse, waiting for workers to arrive so he could haggle for the cow. …