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.
This Day in History
Lindbergh baby kidnapped; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed caught in Pakistan; Bobby Sands begins hunger strike; JFK creates Peace Corps; Ron Howard born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Fascism is fascism. Terrorism is terrorism. Oppression is oppression.
Breakfast News
Former TEPCO Bosses Indicted Over Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
Three former Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) executives were indicted on Monday for failing to take safety measures to prevent the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011, a Tokyo District Court official said.
The indictments, forced through by a civilian judicial panel, are the first against officials at Tepco and come just before the fifth anniversary of the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear station north of Tokyo.
In accordance with Japanese law, the three were indicted by prosecutors on charges of professional negligence resulting in injury and death.
Yanis Varoufakis advising Labour, Jeremy Corbyn reveals
The former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is giving advice to the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn has revealed.
In an interview with his local newspaper, the Islington Tribune, the Labour leader disclosed that Varoufakis was helping “in some capacity”.
“Varoufakis is interesting, because he has obviously been through all the negotiations [with the ECB, European commission and IMF],” he said. “I think the way Greece has been treated is terrible and we should reach out to them.
“I realise we’re not in the eurozone but it’s a question of understanding how we challenge the notion that you can cut your way to prosperity when in reality you have to grow your way to prosperity.”
Senior Labour sources said Varoufakis had no formal advisory role for the party and did not sit on its economics advisory board. But he will give one of the shadow chancellor’s New Economics lectures at the end of March, in which he will deliver advice about finance.
Apple case: judge rejects FBI request for access to drug dealer’s iPhone
A federal judge on Monday rejected an FBI request to order Apple to open the iPhone of a drug dealer in a major setback to the US government’s increasingly heated efforts to force the company to help unlock an iPhone used by a San Bernardino terrorist.
The ruling late Monday by magistrate judge James Orenstein rejected the US justice department’s attempt to gain access to the iPhone of accused crystal meth dealer Jun Feng, whose case is ongoing, though Feng has pleaded guilty. he will be sentenced in April.
The ruling comes just hours before Apple and justice department officials are set to clash in Congress over a court ruling calling on Apple to weaken the password protection of an iPhone belonging to San Bernardino killer Syed Farook.
Zika virus: scientists present strong evidence of Guillain-Barré link
Scientists have amassed the strongest evidence yet that the Zika virus can cause the serious neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome, and are warning that the potential number of cases of the paralysing illness could overwhelm the intensive care wards of Latin America.
The surge in the number of people with Guillain-Barré had been linked to Zika only on the basis of the timing – the cases have come to light as the viral infection has swept through Brazil and Colombia.
But now a paper in the Lancet medical journal from scientists who have investigated all 42 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) that occurred during an earlier Zika outbreak in French Polynesia provides the strongest evidence yet that the virus was the trigger.
Historic Yosemite names scraped off, covered in trademark dispute
Shortly after noon on Monday, a woman emerged from the lobby of the landmark Ahwahnee hotel and went to work in the breezeway that leads guests into the lobby.
Slowly and painstakingly, the hotel employee – who declined to give her name – took out a razor blade and began to scrape the name “Ahwahnee” off the windows as guests stood speechless or whipped out cellphone cameras to record the event.
By midnight, all such signs, napkins, telephone nameplates, bars of soap and other materials bearing the names “Ahwahnee,” “Curry Village” or “Yosemite Lodge” were expected to be removed or covered up – the result of a battle between the U.S. government and the park’s outgoing concessionaire over what the names are worth.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article63256337.html#storylink=cpy
Breakfast Blogs
Donald Trump’s Campaign Cannot and Must Not Be Normalized Charles Pierce, Esquire Poltics
Summoned to Capitol Hill, Apple Comes Armed With Questions for Congress Jenna McLaughlin, The Intercept
No, Joe Scarborough Never “Hung Up On” Donald Trump Over Bigotry Steve M., No More Mister Nice Blog
Federal Judge Says Third Party Doctrine A Perfectly ‘Good Law;’ No Warrants Needed To Obtain Cell Location Records Tim Cushing, Techdirt