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 June 12th
President Ronald Reagan demands the tearing down of the Berlin Wall; Civil rights activist Medgar Evers killed; O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman murdered; Baseball Hall of Fame opens.
Breakfast Tune MUSIC episode Jim Hartel & Rhiannon Giddens minstrel banjo segment
MUSIC episode Jim Hartel & Rhiannon Giddens minstrel banjo segment. PBS Premiere November 20, 2015
Something to Think about, Breakfast News & Blogs Below
Germany: Thousands Surround US Air Base to Protest the Use of Drones
Common Dreams staff
Demonstrators have formed a human chain near a US air base in western Germany to protest against lethal drone strikes.
The demonstration was organized by the alliance “Stop Ramstein – No Drone War”, which says the Ramstein base relays information between operators in the US and unmanned drone aircraft on missions over Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and other places.
Organizers said that 5 to 7 thousand people took part in the chain near the Ramstein Air Base, the principal US Air Force facility in Europe, on a rainy Saturday. …
After Frustrating Primary, Millions of Ballots in California Remain Uncounted
Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams
More than 2.5 million ballots from California’s June 7 primary are still uncounted, sparking questions about the results of the presidential contest in which Hillary Clinton emerged the winner and leaving the fate of local races in the air as poll workers continue to grapple with reports of voter difficulties.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the uncounted ballots would put the total voter turnout at around 8.5 million, or around 47 percent of all registered voters. While the results are unlikely to impact Clinton’s win in the state, Bernie Sanders said Thursday he expected the final tally would show a closer race—one more in keeping with polls that predicted a nail-biter.
“I look forward to the full counting of the votes in California, which I suspect will show a much closer vote than the current vote tally,” Sanders said after a meeting with President Barack Obama, who then went on to endorse Clinton. …
Exclusive: Studies find ‘super bacteria’ in Rio’s Olympic venues, top beaches
Brad Brooks, Reuters
Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant “super bacteria” off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start on Aug. 5.
The findings from two unpublished academic studies seen by Reuters concern Rio’s most popular spots for tourists and greatly increase the areas known to be infected by the microbes normally found only in hospitals.
They also heighten concerns that Rio’s sewage-infested waterways are unsafe.
A study published in late 2014 had shown the presence of the super bacteria – classified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an urgent public health threat – off one of the beaches in Guanabara Bay, where sailing and wind-surfing events will be held during the Games. …
Euro 2016: English and Russian fans clash in Marseille
Al Jazeera and agencies
At least 10 people have been injured, one critically, after English and Russian football fans clashed with each other and with French riot police in the French port city of Marseille.
AP news agency reported late on Saturday that Russian fans attacked their English rivals inside the stadium, straight after their countries’ opening match ended in a dramatic 1-1 draw.
After the final whistle of the match at the Stade Velodrome, Russian supporters were seen storming a section of the ground housing England fans, causing them to flee. Video footage and still images posted on social media also showed people running towards one side of the stadium in order to escape. …
- Bernie or Bust? No, It’s Justice or Bust
Donna Smith
- Democrats Will Learn All the Wrong Lessons From Brush With Bernie
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
- New Video: Preying on Puerto Rico, The Forgotten Citizens of Hedge Fund Island
Julio López Varona / Brave New Films
- Corporate Globalization Has Been a Wrecking Ball to the American Dream
Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Floridians Are In A Fierce Battle Over The Name Of ‘Lake Horney’
David Moye
A Florida man’s desire to change the name of a nearby lake is arousing controversy.
So is the lake’s name: Lake Horney.
Barry Zimmerman of Lakeland lives on the shores of Lake Horney, but is petitioning to have its name changed.
It seems Zimmerman is sick of the salacious jokes that keep popping up when people mention Lake Horney.
Zimmerman petitioned the U.S Board of Geographic Names to rename the lake, according to the Lakeland Ledger newspaper.
Zimmerman told the board he does not want to “denigrate Mr. Horney’s contributions to the history of Lakeland” but wants the name changed because it is a “homonymic to a vulgar term meaning concupiscent or libidinous.”
One woman who used to live on Lake Horney Drive admits getting embarrassed by the street name.
She told ABC Action News she would tell people she lived on “Lake Hor-nay.”
The woman also said she changed the orientation of her house during a remodel so she didn’t have to tell people she lived on Lake Horney Drive.
The lake was not named after the slang word for sexual desire, but out of a desire to honor Julius Teague Horney, who helped develop the Lakeland in the 1920s, according to ClickOrlando.com.
Zimmerman wants to drop Lake Horney and rename it in honor of Alfred Lodwick, an aviation pioneer who built a military pilot training program in Lakeland during World War II, according to WTSP.
The Geographic Board has asked Lakeland city officials to weigh in their opinion before making a final decision.
City Manager Tony Delgado told the Lakeland Ledger that the federal agency indicated that by saying nothing, the city government is implicitly in agreement with the change.
Delgado said the comments and emails he’s received suggest most residents are against changing the name of the lake.
So is the Miami New Times, which passionately defended Lake Horney’s name in an editorial:
“This is of course very stupid and should not be condoned. What does this say to all the people out there who have to go through life with unintentionally hilarious names? What of all the Mr. and Mrs. Coxes, Dixes, Cummings, Cockburns, and Gaylords? Do we say to the residents of Florida with snicker-worthy last names that no matter how hard they work and how much they contribute to the community that they can never dream of having a street or park or lake named after them all because teenagers have ill-developed senses of humor?”
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