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 April 17th
Cuban exiles invade Bay of Pigs; Three astronauts of Apollo 13 land safely in Pacific; Benjamin Franklin dies; JP Morgan born in Connecticut; Ford rolls out the Mustang convertible. (April 17)
Breakfast Tune Hey Mr. Spaceman – East Side Dave & The Mountain Folk Band
Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below
Earthquake kills at least 77 in Ecuador, toll expected to rise
Reuters, Yuri Garcia
Ecuador launched rescue operations on Sunday after its biggest earthquake in decades killed at least 77 people, caused devastation in coastal populations and left an unknown number trapped in ruins.
The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off Ecuador’s Pacific coast on Saturday night and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing panic in the capital Quito and collapsing buildings in the large commercial city of Guayaquil.
Nearly 600 people were injured. …
Nine more Guantánamo Bay prisoners released as population dwindles to 80
The Guardian, Spencer Ackerman
As Barack Obama prepares to visit Saudi Arabia, the Saudi royal family has taken custody of nine longtime Guantánamo Bay detainees, bringing Obama closer to his goal of shuttering the infamous detention facility.
…
Perhaps the most high-profile of the detainees released to Saudi Arabia is Tariq Ba Odah, a persistent hunger striker and critically ill man who was never charged with a crime.US Justice Department officials, backed by the Pentagon, had launched an unusual secret legal bid to prevent Ba Odah, who was cleared for transfer in 2010, from challenging his continued detention in court.
Ba Odah’s weight had dwindled to under 75lbs. His transfer prevents the administration from having to address the fallout from his long-expected death inside Guantánamo Bay. …
Oil freeze deal faces trouble as Saudi-Iran tensions spike
Reuters, Rania El Gamal and Reem Shamseddine
Saudi Arabia demanded on Sunday that Iran join a global deal on freezing oil output, jeopardizing an agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers that was supposed to help ease a glut and prop up the price of crude.
Some 18 OPEC and non-OPEC countries, including Russia, had been meant to meet on Sunday morning in the Qatari capital of Doha and rubber-stamp a deal – in the making since February – to freeze output at January levels until October 2016.
But the meeting was postponed after OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia told participants it wanted all OPEC members to take part in the freeze, according to OPEC sources. …
Ahead of UN Summit, Global Leaders Call for End to ‘Disastrous’ Drug War
Nadia Prupis, Commmon Dreams
More than 1,000 world leaders, celebrities, and other societal figures have signed a letter calling for an end to the “disastrous” drug war ahead of an upcoming United Nations summit to discuss the organization’s nearly two-decade-long campaign against narcotics.
“Humankind cannot afford a 21st century drug policy as ineffective and counterproductive as the last century’s,” reads the letter, organized by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), a drug reform advocacy group.
The signatories, which include Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as well as the former presidents and prime ministers of Mexico, Colombia, and the Netherlands, among others, are urging UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to usher in “real drug reform policy,” one grounded in “science, compassion, health and human rights.”
It is published ahead of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, which is scheduled to take place next week in New York, and follows similar condemnations of the drug war by health experts and former Latin American heads of state. …
- Edward Snowden on police pursuing journalist data: the scandal is what the law allows
Spencer Ackerman and Oliver Laughland
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
With this rigatoni, I thee wed: The 1st Pastafarian wedding
Nick Perry
AKAROA, New Zealand (AP) — The wedding rings were made of pasta, the ceremony was held on a pirate boat, and when it came time for the kiss, the bride and groom slurped up either end of a noodle until their lips met.
New Zealand on Saturday hosted the world’s first Pastafarian wedding, conducted by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The group, which began in the U.S. as a protest against religion encroaching into public schools, has gained legitimacy in New Zealand, where authorities recently decided it can officiate weddings.
Saturday’s ceremony was all about having fun. The guests came dressed as pirates and shouted plenty of hearty “Aaarrrhs.” The groom, Toby Ricketts, vowed to always add salt before boiling his pasta, while bride Marianna Fenn donned a colander on her head. …