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. Everyone’s welcome here, no special handshake required. Just check your meta at the door.
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
Breakfast News
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If We Act Now, We Can Stop The FCC’s Horrific Proposal to End Net Neutrality
If we act NOW, we can ensure a free, open and equal Internet for the 21st Century. On Wednesday, May 15 the FCC will vote on a proposal to end net neutrality and impose class-based Internet discrimination, but we have the power to stop them.
To ensure the Internet we want, we must take action today; and people need to plan to come to Washington, DC beginning next Wednesday to join in a series of escalating protests that will undermine the legitimacy of the FCC leadership and force them to pay attention to the public interest rather than the interests of mega-corporations.
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Cold War Against Russia – Without Debate
Future historians will note that in April 2014, nearly a quarter-century after the end of the Soviet Union, the White House declared a new Cold War on Russia – and that, in a grave failure of representative democracy, there was scarcely a public word of debate, much less opposition, from the American political or media establishment.
The Obama administration announced its Cold War indirectly, in a front-page New York Times story by Peter Baker on April 20. According to the report, President Obama has resolved, because of the Ukraine crisis, that he can “never have a constructive relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and will instead “ignore the master of the Kremlin” and focus on “isolating…Russia by cutting off its economic and political ties to the outside world…effectively making it a pariah state.” In short, Baker reports, the White House has adopted “an updated version of the Cold War strategy of containment.” He might have added, a very extreme version. The report has been neither denied nor qualified by the White House.
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Ukraine moves towards civil war as Kiev hits back at pro-Russia rebels
Two days of chaos and violence in east and south-east Ukraine appeared on Saturday to be pushing the country ever closer to civil war, as the death toll rose following a military counter-offensive launched by authorities in Kiev against pro-Russia rebels.
An angry crowd confronted police outside the trade union building in Odessa where dozens of pro-Russia activists died on Friday night in a blaze started during clashes with pro-Ukraine protesters. Fighting continued in the east as the Ukrainian army continued to oust pro-Russia rebels.
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Why Walmart Is a Threat to Organic Food
So when Walmart announced in April that it was invading organic turf by introducing the Wild Oats food line in 2,000 stores, some food-justice advocates were excited about the possibilities. They believe that Walmart’s buying power, which accounts for a 33 percent share of groceries sold nationwide, will enable it to offer lower prices for consumers, expand the market for organic farmers, and lessen the use of toxic pesticides and global-warming fertilizers. It’s a classic win-win, showing how the free market can solve problems it helped create.
It’s wishful thinking. Alarm bells should be ringing now that Walmart is going organic. One Walmart executive explains it will “disrupt” the organic market by reducing inefficiencies and encouraging consolidation. Lower prices for consumers mean fewer organic farmers, declining farm incomes and agricultural wages, and remaining farmers will be forced to industrialize further to produce more goods at lower prices.
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Indiana health officials: MERS patient improving
A man hospitalized in Indiana with the first U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East is improving, state health officials said Saturday.
The Indiana Department of Health said in a statement late Saturday that the patient remains at Community Hospital in Munster in good condition and is “improving each day.”
The statement also said that as of Saturday, no other cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, have been identified. Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived at the hospital Saturday morning.
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Must Read Blog Posts
Chomsky: US Leaders’ Panic Over Crimea Is About Fear of Losing Global Dominance
by Noam Chomsky
It’s time for the US supreme court to declare a death penalty moratorium
by Randall T Coyne
The Latest Fearmongering Anti-Pot Propaganda, Heart Attack Edition
by Paul Armentano
Hellraisers Journal: “Two wars are now on. Both are wars in the interest of John D. Rockefeller.”
by JayRaye
What Is Your Problem?: My Cat is a Morning Person
by TheMomCat
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The Daily Wiki
Defamation-also called calumny, vilification, or traducement-is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation. Most jurisdictions allow legal action to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism.
Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim must generally be false and have been made to someone other than the person defamed.[1] Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.[2]
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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
This world of ours… must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. ~Dwight D Eisenhower
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Breakfast Tunes
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Stupid Shit by LaEscapee
White Guilt
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