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 22nd
A Cold War crisis over Cuba leads to brink of nuclear war; Shah of Iran allowed into U.S. for treatment; ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd killed; Last victim slain in D.C. sniper shootings; Cellist Pablo Casals dies.
Breakfast Tune Piedmont Brothers Band – Mr Spaceman/The Wampus Cat Song
Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below
Trump plans to release JFK assassination documents despite concerns from federal agencies
Ian Shapira, Washington Post
President Trump announced Saturday morning that he planned to release the tens of thousands of never-before-seen documents left in the files related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination held by the National Archives and Records Administration.
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In the days leading up to Trump’s announcement, a National Security Council official told The Washington Post that government agencies were urging the president not to release some of the documents. But Trump’s longtime confidant Roger Stone told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars this week that he personally lobbied Trump to release all of the documents.Stone also told Jones that CIA Director Mike Pompeo “has been lobbying the president furiously not to release these documents.”
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In May 2016, while on the presidential campaign trail, Trump gave an interview to Fox News strongly accusing the father of GOP primary opponent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) of consorting with Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald right before the shooting. …
BANK DOWNGRADES CHIPOTLE, COMPLAINING IT PAYS WORKERS TOO MUCH. CHIPOTLE SAYS THAT’S BUNK.
Aída Chávez, The Intercept
BANK OF AMERICA Merrill Lynch downgraded Chipotle and warned investors that the stock will “underperform,” complaining that the restaurant chain is paying its workers too much, and that cutting labor costs further will be difficult for the chain.
“We are downgrading Chipotle to Underperform from Neutral as we believe, assuming no significant tax reform, that 2018 and 2019 consensus EPS needs to drop at least 10 percent,” analyst Gregory Francfort told CNBC Wednesday. “We believe further gains from trimming hours will prove difficult which limits the opportunity to get labor below 27 percent of sales even if traffic recovers.”
But Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold called Bank of America’s analysis “flawed and inaccurate,” adding that the restaurant chain hasn’t cut employee hours but recently increased hours in conjunction with the addition of queso to the menu. …
Under Trump, Brags Mike Pompeo, CIA Will Be ‘Much More Vicious Agency’
Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams
ccording to Mike Pompeo, the agency he leads—which has supported coups across the globe, engaged in targeted killings, and led a detention and torture program—has not been nasty enough.
Speaking Thursday at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies forum, the CIA director, who has signaled suport for torture, said “we’ve now laid out a strategy for how we’re going to execute our strategy with incredible vigor. We’re going to become a much more vicious agency in ensuring that we are delivering this work. We are going to go to the hardest places with some of the hardest people and of our organization to crush it.”
President Donald Trump, he said, “has promised that he will have our backs and that he will resource us.” …
- Trump’s Hatchet Man: John Kelly, Sgt. Johnson and the Big Lie
Heather Digby Parton
- The Not-So-Radical “Socialist” From Vermont
Paul Street
Something to think about over coffee prozac
The First Cat In Space May Finally Get The Recognition She Deserves
David Moye, HuffPost
Everyone knows the names of famous astronauts like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and some may even remember Laika, the first dog in space.
However, the first cat in space has been largely forgotten by history.
This pioneering pussycat was named ”Félicette,” and she was shot into space 54 years ago this week from a base in the Sahara desert by the Centre National d’études Spatiales (CNES), the French version of NASA.
Félicette was picked out of a group of about a dozen cats because she had the best reaction to a series of tests that included a spin in a centrifuge, according to EuroNews.
Her 12-minute flight took her 97 miles above Earth and included five minutes of weightlessness.
Although this “Astrocat” made history, Félicette was euthanized a few months later so scientists could study the effects of space travel on her body.
No cat has been in space since and Félicette has become a UFO — an underappreciated feline orbiter.
Even worse, in some of the few tributes she received, she’s been misidentified as a male named Felix, according to LeDauphine.com
Now a British advertising executive is hoping to restore Félicette to the pantheon of great space explorers by erecting a statue in her honor in Paris, France.Matthew Serge Guy, a creative director for Anomaly London, has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $52,439 for the statue.
“Around 6 months ago whilst at work, I came across a tea towel in the staff kitchen commemorating the 50th anniversary of the cat who went to space,” Guy said in a release. “There was no name for the cat on the towel, nor did it resemble Félicette.
“After Googling it, I became fascinated with Félicette’s story, how it had been forgotten over the years, and (like the design of the tea towel) misattributed. It felt like something big should be done to right these wrongs.”
The campaign video is below and seems to have catapulted Félicette back into the public eye. After one day, Guy is nearly 20 percent towards his goal with a month to go.
Guy emphasizes to recognize that Félicette and other animals involved in the early days of space exploration suffered and had no choice in the matter.
“It’s also important to note that Félicette, alongside many other animals that have braved space travel in the name of science, was ultimately an unwilling participant in this experiment,” he wrote. “For this mission alone she, alongside 13 other cats, experienced arduous training prior to the mission and eventually gave her life.”
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