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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Merkel Speaks on Alleged Double Agent
Germany’s leader says reports that a German intelligence employee spied for the United States are “serious.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at a news conference on a visit to Beijing, said Monday if the allegations are proven true, it would be a “clear contradiction” of trust between the allies.
The comments marked the chancellor’s first public remarks on the arrest last week of the 31-year-old man suspected of being a double agent.
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Ex-Soviet minister and Georgia leader Shevardnadze dies
Eduard Shevardnadze, a former president of Georgia and Soviet foreign minister, died on Monday after a long struggle with illness, his personal assistant said.
Shevardnadze, who was 86, played a vital role in ending the Cold War as Soviet foreign minister, went on to lead his native Georgia in the stormy early years after independence before being ousted in street protests.
The last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, expressed sorrow over the passing of a “friend”, hailing him as an “extraordinary, talented person” who had done much to bring down the Berlin wall and end the nuclear arms race.
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With arrest of six Jews in Arab teen’s killing, Israel confronts its own extremists
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday made a condolence call to the father of a Palestinian teenager murdered last Wednesday in what appears to be a revenge attack for three Israeli teenagers murdered last month.
In his phone call to Hussein Abu Khieder, the prime minister expressed his outrage over the “reprehensible” murder of 16-year-old Mohammed, who had been sitting alone outside his family’s home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat when he was abducted. Six Israeli Jews were arrested Sunday, suspected of his murder for nationalistic motives.
“We denounce all brutal behavior; the murder of your son is abhorrent and cannot be countenanced by any human being,” he said, adding, “We will bring them to trial, and they will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.”
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July 7 memorial defaced by graffiti on ninth anniversary
The memorial commemorating the victims of the 7 July bombings in London has been defaced just hours before survivors and bereaved families gather to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the attacks.
The stainless steel columns of the memorial in Hyde Park were daubed with red and black slogans overnight saying “4Innocent Muslims”, “Blair Lied Thousands Died” and “J7 Truth”.
A spokeswoman for the Royal Parks said the slogans had been removed after their discovery early on Monday morning by the park’s manager.
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Marijuana shortage seen ahead of Washington state retail pot rollout
His glass pipes are on display and final regulatory hurdles nearly cleared, but the biggest concern for Cannabis City owner James Lathrop as he opens his Seattle pot shop this week is the possibility of running out of mind-altering bud in a matter of hours.
“What do you do when your shelves are empty? Do I just send everybody home? Do we try and stay open? I can’t pay people if we aren’t selling anything,” said Lathrop, who expects to become one of Washington state’s first legal marijuana retailers this week as the state issues licenses.
The state is poised on Monday to become the second after Colorado to allow retail sales of recreational marijuana to adults, under a heavily regulated and taxed system that voters approved in November 2012. Stores could begin operations as early as Tuesday, with up to 20 expected to open statewide.
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US faces tough hurdles in child migrant crisis
The legal, humanitarian, and political constraints facing the Obama administration as it copes with thousands of Central American children entering the country illegally came into sharp focus Sunday as officials debated ways to address the problem.
A George W. Bush-era law to address human trafficking prevents the government from returning Central American children to their home countries without taking them into custody and eventually through a deportation hearing. Minors from Mexico and Canada, by contrast, can be sent back across the border more easily.
The administration says it wants more flexibility under the law. But even if Congress agrees, the change might do little to ease the partisan quarreling and complex logistical and humanitarian challenges surrounding the issue.
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Boy, 16, among five people shot by Chicago police over 36 hours
Chicago police shot and killed a 16-year-old boy as he hid under a car in the Gresham neighborhood, one of five people shot by officers in the city over 36 hours, according to authorities.
The day before, police shot and killed a 14-year-old boy, Pedro Rios, in the Portage Park neighborhood.
The 16-year-old was shot after officers were called to 87th and Morgan streets around 6:30 p.m. Saturday when someone called 911 and said someone had been firing shots in the area, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said at the scene.
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Why the Latest Snowden Leak Is Devastating to NSA Defenders
Consider the latest leak sourced to Edward Snowden from the perspective of his detractors. Various defenders of the National Security Agency would have us believe that Snowden is a thief and a criminal at best, and perhaps a traitorous Russian spy. In their telling, the NSA carries out its mission lawfully, honorably, and without unduly compromising the privacy of innocents. For that reason, they regard Snowden’s actions as a wrongheaded slur campaign premised on lies and exaggerations.
But their narrative now contradicts itself. The Washington Post’s latest article drawing on Snowden’s leaked cachet of documents includes files “described as useless by the analysts but nonetheless retained” that “tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes. The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted are catalogued and recorded nevertheless.”
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Consciousness on-off switch discovered deep in brain
ONE moment you’re conscious, the next you’re not. For the first time, researchers have switched off consciousness by electrically stimulating a single brain area.
Scientists have been probing individual regions of the brain for over a century, exploring their function by zapping them with electricity and temporarily putting them out of action. Despite this, they have never been able to turn off consciousness – until now.
Although only tested in one person, the discovery suggests that a single area – the claustrum – might be integral to combining disparate brain activity into a seamless package of thoughts, sensations and emotions. It takes us a step closer to answering a problem that has confounded scientists and philosophers for millennia – namely how our conscious awareness arises.
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As millions vape, e-cigarette researchers count puffs, scour Facebook
One team of researchers assessing the risks of electronic cigarettes is counting the puffs taken by volunteer “vapers.” Another will comb Facebook for posts on how people are tinkering with e-cigarettes to make the devices deliver extra nicotine. A third is building a virtual convenience store for 13-to-17-year-olds, measuring how e-cigarette displays and price promotions influence whether minors buy the increasingly popular devices.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is spending $270 million on these and 45 other research projects to determine the risks of e-cigarettes before millions more Americans become hooked on the devices.
“They want data and they want it yesterday,” said Dr Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin of Yale University, who is leading four projects.
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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Hillary has the early lead based on name ID. But the more voters realize there are alternatives, the more they’ll stray from Hillary. Since she has no room to grow (her negatives are huge), she has but one way to go — down. And as she erodes support, and as other candidates gain on her, her support will crash as her cobbled-together old-school coalition turns on itself.
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Breakfast Tunes
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Stupid Shit by LaEscapee
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