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
On this day in history: President Abraham Lincoln assassinated; Titanic strikes iceberg; First videotape demonstrated; Loretta Lynn born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Today it is becoming harder to speak out, with the inception of the Patriot Act, the president has legislated free speech to be a crime.
Breakfast News
US banks not prepared for another financial crisis, say federal regulators
Some of the US’s biggest banks still lack a proper plan for bankruptcy, in the event of another major financial crisis, US regulators said on Wednesday.
In the wake of the great recession banks were required to come up with “living wills” to prove they had a credible plan for bankruptcy that would not require another bailout from the taxpayers.
But after reviewing the plans of five institutions – JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street Corp – the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) have determined that the banks have yet to meet that requirement.
“The goal to end too big to fail and protect the American taxpayers by ending bailouts remains just that: only a goal,” said Thomas Hoenig, FDIC vice-chairman.
The banks are to submit revised proposals by 1 October.
IMF warns of fresh financial crisis
The International Monetary Fund has highlighted risks of a new financial crisis, warning that global output could be cut by 4% over the next five years by a repeat of the market mayhem witnessed during the 2008-09 recession.
The IMF used its half-yearly global financial stability report to call for urgent action on the problems of banks in the eurozone, a third of which it said faced “significant challenges” to be sustainably profitable.
“In the euro area, market pressures also highlighted long-standing legacy issues, indicating that a more complete solution to European banks’ problems cannot be further postponed,” the IMF said. It said there needed to be a comprehensive strategy to deal with €900bn (£715bn) of non-performing loans (NPLs) on the books of eurozone banks, adding that banks also needed to be closed in order to deal with excess capacity.
Dozens of killings by US police ruled justified without public being notified
Dozens of killings by police in the US are being ruled justified without the public being notified, according to a Guardian study that sheds new light on the lack of official transparency surrounding the use of lethal force by law enforcement officers.
Officers involved in one in every six deaths recorded during the first quarter of 2015 have a year later been cleared of wrongdoing and returned to work despite no announcements being made by authorities or local media reports appearing.
If this rate is maintained, almost 200 deaths in 2015 will be officially approved away from the public eye, despite the sharply increased scrutiny of shootings and other lethal encounters by police officers over the 18 months since unrest gripped Ferguson, Missouri, following the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
Oil industry knew of ‘serious’ climate concerns more than 45 years ago
The oil industry’s knowledge of dangerous climate change stretches back to the 1960s, with unearthed documents showing that it was warned of “serious worldwide environmental changes” more than 45 years ago.
The Stanford Research Institute presented a report to the American Petroleum Institute (API) in 1968 that warned the release of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels could carry an array of harmful consequences for the planet.
The emergence of this stark advice follows a series of revelations that the fossil fuel industry was aware of climate change for decades, only to publicly deny its scientific basis.
Zika virus confirmed as cause of microcephaly birth defect, CDC says
Confirming the worst fears of many pregnant women in the United States and Latin America, US health officials said Wednesday there is no longer any doubt the Zika virus causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and other severe brain defects.
Since last year, doctors in Brazil have been linking Zika infections in pregnant women to a rise in newborns with microcephaly, or an unusually small skull. Most experts were cautious about drawing a firm connection. But now the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says enough evidence is in.
Breakfast Blogs
Who Are The Non-Celebrities In The Panama Papers? Ed Walker, emptywheel
A Look Ahead: Neither Party Can Win Without Winning Independents Gaius Publius, naked capitalism
FBI’s Latest Story about the Hack of Farook’s Phone emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
The schlong remains the same digby aka Heather Digby Parton, Hullabaloo
An Update on the Planned 2nd Amendment Support Demonstration in Pittsburgh Adam L. Silverman, Balloon Juice
Maybe The NSA Has Already Broken Every Security System, Not By Hacking Computers, But By Hacking The Entire Industry Glyn Moody, Techdirt