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.
Breakfast Tune: Jon Eric playing “Cool Your Jets” on the Nechville ELECTRIC Banjo
Today in History
An assassination in Europe sparks World War I; Elian Gonzalez and his father leave for Cuba; Boxer Mike Tyson disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear; Richard Rodgers and Mel Brooks born. (June 28)
Breakfast News & Blogs Below
Think it’s cool Facebook can auto-tag you in pics? So does the government
Trevor Timm, The Guardian
State-of-the-art facial recognition technology, which had been the stuff of hypothetical privacy nightmares for years, is becoming a startling reality. It is increasingly being deployed all around the United States by giant tech companies, shady advertisers and the FBI – with few if any rules to stop it.
In recent weeks, both Facebook and Google launched facial recognition to mine the photos on your phone, with both impressive and disturbing results. Facebook’s Moments app can recognize you even if you cover your face. Google Photos can identify grown adults from decades-old childhood pictures.
Some people might find it neat when it’s only restricted to photos on their phone. But advertisers, security companies and just plain creepy authority figures have also set up their own systems at music festivals, sporting events and even some churches to monitor attendees, which is bound to disturb even those who don’t give a second thought to issues like the NSA’s mass surveillance programs. …
Eurozone rejects Greek bailout extension
Wire services
The eurozone prepared to deal with a Greek debt default next week after refusing to extend credit following Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s surprise announcement of a referendum on an offer from creditors.
Athens asked for an extension of Greece’s bailout program beyond Tuesday, the day it must pay 1.6 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund or go bust. But the other 18 members of the eurozone unanimously rejected the request, freezing Greece out of further discussions with the European Central Bank and IMF on how to deal with the fallout from a historic breach in the EU’s 16-year-old currency.
…
Worried the country could default and even leave the eurozone, some Greeks queued up at cash machines to withdraw funds, though there were no signs of panic in Athens. Many sounded defiant, saying Tsipras had offered them an important chance to determine their own fate.Greek government officials said there was no plan to impose capital controls that would limit withdrawals.
As Greece nears bankruptcy, residents self-organize food aid
Lauren Zanolli, Al Jazeera
ATHENS – Between the throngs of ice cream-licking tourists and Greek teenagers strolling along central Athens’ crowded pedestrian Ermou Avenue, Constantinos Polychronopoulos stirs a vat of soup on a portable gas stove with a wooden spoon the size of a kayak paddle.
For the past few years, Polychronopoulos and other members of Oallos Anthropos
a mobile soup kitchen formed by unemployed Greekshave come here every Friday afternoon to distribute hot meals beneath a banner that reads: “Free food for all.”OA is one of many informal, citizen-led “solidarity groups” now offering up food, clothing and community as part of a burgeoning DIY aid movement in Greece. As the Greek crisis has lingered, along with distrust of NGOs fueled by corruption scandals, these organizations – often led by would-be welfare recipients – are helping to mend a social safety net attenuated by years of austerity. …
Iran nuclear talks: negotiators focus on plan to export uranium as reactor fuel
Agencies in Vienna
Nuclear negotiators for Iran, obligated to dispose of tons of enriched uranium under an approaching deal, are focusing on a US-backed plan to have Tehran export the material for sale by a second country as reactor fuel, diplomats told the Associated Press on Saturday.
While Iran says it does not want nuclear arms, it has more than eight tons that could be turned into the fissile core of a dozen or more atomic bombs if the material were further enriched to weapons-grade levels.
The export-and-sell option has been floated before, and the diplomats emphasized that the sides have not agreed on that solution in the search for what to do with the low-enriched uranium stockpile. …
- They’re still fighting the Civil War – and still lying about the Confederate flag
Paul Rosenberg - French Asylum for Snowden and Assange Would Send ‘Clear Message’ to US
Nadia Prupis - 19 Hysterical Passages From Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Dissenters
Zack Ford and Judd Legum - Sanders Sees Clinton Camp Attacks as Sign that ‘Something Must Be Working’
Deirdre Fulton
Breakfast Quote:
Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.
Mel Brooks
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac:
Oregon men hospitalized, recovering after rare beaver attack
Courtney Sherwood, Reuters
PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – Two Oregon hikers who were assaulted by a beaver after they climbed onto its dam have been hospitalized for injuries incurred during the rare attack, law enforcement officials said on Friday.
Clayton Mitchell, 23, told the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office that he and a friend had been hiking along a river near his central Oregon home on Thursday when they climbed onto a beaver dam.
A resident beaver emerged from the dam, knocking Mitchell into the Deschutes River and trapping his friend, 31-year-old John Bailey, in a tangle of submerged logs, according to the sheriff’s department incident report. …
Late Night Bonus
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