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 October 2nd
Mohandes Gandhi born; President Woodrow Wilson suffers stroke; Thurgood Marshall sworn in as US Supreme Court justice; Rock Hudson dies; Groucho Marx born.
Breakfast Tune Bye Bye Blues by Roger Sprung on 1963-64 Folkways LP.
Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below
India to ratify Paris climate change agreement at UN
AP
India will ratify the Paris climate change agreement at the United Nations, an environment ministry official said.
Narendra Modi’s cabinet had given its approval on Wednesday to ratify the Paris agreement on Sunday, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India’s independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, who believed in a minimum carbon footprint.
Environment ministry spokesman Himank Kothiyal said Indian officials would hand over the ratification instruments to UN officials in New York on Sunday. …
Lawmaker Who Pushed Bill to Protect People Filming Police Arrested for Filming Police
Naomi LaChance, The Intercept
An Arkansas State representative who helped pass a state law protecting people who film police was arrested Monday while filming Little Rock police as they put a black man in handcuffs after a traffic stop.
The charges against Rep. John Walker have been dropped, but his colleague, fellow civil rights lawyer Omavi Shukur, faces charges for obstruction of government relations.
Officer Jeff Thompson wrote in his police report: “I ordered Walker several times to leave or be arrested. Walker replied ‘arrest me’ at which point I did.”
Police on Wednesday released dashcam video of the incident. “I’m just making sure they don’t kill you,” Walker told the man who had been pulled over, according to the police report. …
Europe’s Top Human Rights Court Will Consider Legality Of Surveillance Exposed By Edward Snowden
Ryan Gallagher, The Intercept
Human Rights Groups have launched a major new legal challenge over mass surveillance programs revealed by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Ten organizations – including Privacy International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Amnesty International – are taking up the landmark case against the U.K. government in the European Court of Human Rights (pictured above). In a 115-page complaint released on Thursday, the groups allege that “blanket and indiscriminate” surveillance operations carried out by British spy agencies in collaboration with their U.S. counterparts violate privacy and freedom of expression rights.
The case represents the first time Europe’s top human rights court has been asked to consider the legality of surveillance exposed in the Snowden documents. Its judgments are legally binding and could potentially have ramifications for how surveillance is conducted by U.K. agencies. …
Lead contamination in LA housing project said to put 300 kids at risk
Daniel Ross, The Guardian
It’s a sunny Saturday morning in South Los Angeles, but Nuvia Perez is keeping her three boys inside.
“They don’t go out to play,” said Perez, 37, whose front door faces a 21-acre former industrial site in the heart of Jordan Downs, a housing project.
“In the housing office, they say everything’s all right and not to worry,” said Perez in Spanish. “But they have found contamination.”
More than a year ago, family nurse practitioner Amanda Markusson noticed a cluster of elevated blood lead levels in the kids she treats near Jordan Downs and started recording test results. …
- U.S. adds first bees to endangered species list
Laura Zuckerman
- When Agribusinesses Control the Government, People Die
Thom Hartmann
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Internet star Grumpy Cat to join a Broadway show _ ‘Cats’
Mark Kennedy
NEW YORK (AP) — Life will imitate art — or is it the other way around? — when internet sensation Grumpy Cat joins the cast of the Broadway musical “Cats” on Friday for what will likely be a feline-good moment.
The kitty with the comical frown and feline dwarfism “will be worked into the end of the show and will become an honorary Jellicle Cat,” according to a spokesman for the show.
Grumpy Cat has become an online phenomenon with 8.7 million Facebook followers and a career selling books, T-shirts, mugs and cat food. She’s been in commercials for cereal and fast-food restaurants.
She’ll likely be at home at the Neil Simon Theatre, where Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical returned this summer with a cast hissing loudly while wearing legwarmers and spiked hair.