The Breakfast Club (Washington Square)

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 September 18th

Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act; Anthrax tainted letters sent to NBC and the New York Post.

Breakfast Tune Washington Square Bluegrass Reunion 2014

Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below

 
Did You Know We Are Having the Largest Prison Strike in History? Probably Not, Because Most of the Media Have Ignored It
Adam Johnson, AlterNet

Thousands of prisoners in over 24 states began a labor strike on September 9, the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, to demand better conditions and healthcare, the right to unionize and what one organizing group calls an “end to slavery in America.” But one would hardly know it watching major U.S. media, which has mostly ignored the largest prison labor strike in history. One week on, the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News, ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, and NPR have not covered the prison strikes at all.

In the same time period since the strike began, CNN has run stories on Clinton’s “body double,” the New York Times ran a piece on women getting buzzcuts and ABC News had an “exclusive trailer” for its parent corporation Disney’s upcoming film. There was certainly enough airtime and column inches to mention that workers had coordinated a national strike of unprecedented scale, but for these outlets the coverage has been nonexistent.
…
As the strike enters its second week, perhaps major media outlets and cable news will take a cue from activist media and the Wall Street Journal (whose report is worth reading) and shine a light, if only briefly, on the largest prison strike in history. If not, Crispino feels other tactics will eventually become more commonplace.

“I almost want to say, the mainstream media is complicit if there’s violence. The message they are sending to striking workers is, we will only give you coverage if things turn ugly.”

 
Hundreds of Thousands March in Germany Against Sinister Trade Deals
Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Hundreds of thousands took to city streets across Germany on Saturday as they marched against a pair of corporate-backed trade deals they say will undermine democracy, attack workers and local economies, and accelerate the threats posed by corporate hegemony and global warming.
…
Though TTIP negotiations, as Common Dreams reported, were said to have “de facto failed” last month, U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to see the deal approved. And despite widespread opposition German Chancellor Angela Merkel also remains supportive.

Despite the precarious negotiations, the people in the streets on Saturday appear unwilling to take any chances. …

 
Florida sinkhole causes vast leak of wastewater into drinking water source
Associated Press in Tampa, Florida

More than 200m gallons of contaminated wastewater from a fertilizer plant in central Florida leaked into one of the state’s main underground sources of drinking water after a huge sinkhole opened up beneath a storage pond, a phosphate company said on Friday.

Mosaic, the world’s largest supplier of phosphate, said the hole opened up beneath a pile of waste material called a “gypsum stack”. The 215m gallon storage pond sat atop the waste mineral pile. The company said the sinkhole was about 45ft in diameter.

Mosaic said it was monitoring groundwater and had found no offsite impacts.

“Groundwater moves very slowly,” said David Jellerson, Mosaic’s senior director for environmental and phosphate projects. “There’s absolutely nobody at risk.” …

 
U.S.-led forces strike Syrian troops, prompting emergency U.N. meeting
Angus McDowall and Andrew Osborn, Reuters

U.S.-led coalition air strikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers on Saturday, endangering a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire and prompting an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting as tensions between Moscow and Washington escalated.

The United States military said the coalition stopped the attacks against what it had believed to be Islamic State positions in northeast Syria after Russia informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit.

The United States relayed its “regret” through the Russian government for what it described as the unintentional loss of life of Syrian forces in the strike, a senior Obama administration official said in an emailed statement. …

• What would Mother Jones do? Probably not bash idealistic young leftists
  Daniel Denvir

• Confirming Big Pharma Fears, Study Suggests Medical Marijuana Laws Decrease Opioid Use
  Lauren McCauley

• New Film Tells The Story Of Edward Snowden; Here Are The Surveillance Programs He Helped Expose
  Jenna McLaughlin, Talya Cooper

• Kissing Chickens Can Spread Salmonella, CDC Warns
  Rebecca Shapiro

• Lizard adds to Formula One’s track menagerie
  Alan Baldwin

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Binary bandit? Someone stealing of ones, zeros from homes

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police are “addressing” an unusual crime spree: Someone is stealing the ones and zeroes from addresses mounted on people’s homes.

WTXF-TV says it’s happening in the city’s East Kensington section.

Meghan Haley says she noticed the zero missing from her home on Wednesday and saw a woman stealing it when she checked her surveillance video .

Another woman, Krista Ricca, was awakened by the sound of a power drill about 4 a.m. and saw a man stealing a number from her neighbor’s home across the street.

The news website Billy Penn first reported the thefts.

Scott Fisher had a zero stolen. He says he doesn’t know if “someone is trying to send a message or someone just has an obsession with zeroes and ones.”