Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Enjoy!
Muddy Waters + Mike Bloomfield - Long Distance Call
“Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid.”
-- Bob Dylan
News and Opinion
Obama Seeks to Dramatically Broaden US War of Terror
The news that President Obama was looking at getting Congress to remove the 9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), as well as the 2002 AUMF that led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, was initially seen as a possible climbdown from the position of eternal American warfare.
Instead, White House officials are now saying that the old 9/11 AUMF is “outdated” and less useful in their current warmongering, primarily because it is so difficult to spin factions that didn’t exist 13 years ago as something to do with 9/11.
The “repeal” is really a cover for what they are now calling the “evolving” of the global war on terrorism, and the introduction of a new, broader authority for the president to attack whatever flavor-of-the-week enemy he can get the terrorist label to stick to. ...
Congress’ ability to wade through an attempt to pare back the existing AUMF while putting in wiggle words that will effective broaden it is very much in doubt, and their reluctance to do anything about President Obama’s wars, e.g. Libya, that didn’t remotely comply with existing US law will only make the administration more aggressive in defining whatever they get as giving him virtually unchecked power to start new conflicts.
For war-mongering politicians like President Obama, the use of rhetoric to call for restricting the powers of the executive to make war are a cover for efforts at legislation to expand the powers of the executive to make war.
White House wants new OK for 'evolving' terror fight
In a speech last year, Obama said the U.S. shouldn't be "on a perpetual wartime footing" and he appeared to call for a wind-down of the 2001 measure, which was akin to a declaration of war.
"Groups like [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] must be dealt with, but in the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States," the president said at the National Defense University in May 2013. "Unless we discipline our thinking, our definitions, our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight, or continue to grant Presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states. So, I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further."
However, [White House counterterrorism adviser Lisa] Monaco indicated Saturday that White House views refining the use-of-force measure as potentially encompassing a definition of the enemy that would actually be expanded from the current measure, which is limited to entities linked to the 2001 attacks and associated forces. ...
Civil liberties and human rights groups were pleased with Obama's remarks last year because they appeared to signal a desire to return to something closer to a law enforcement model to deal with terrorist threats. Monaco's comments suggest that the White House wants to retain military authority and refocus it on newly-emerging extremist groups. That didn't sit well will some who've been pressing for the AUMF's repeal.
Resolution Against New Iraq War Passes House in Landslide
The House on Friday overwhelmingly passed a symbolic resolution that calls for the executive branch to attain explicit approval from Congress before deploying troops to Iraq in a "sustained combat role," in what peace campaigners are heralding as an important milestone in efforts to prevent a new war.
H. Con. Resolution 105, introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern (D - Mass.), Rep. Barbara Lee (D - Calif.), and Walter Jones (R - N.C.), passed 370-40. Three Democrats and 37 Republicans voted against and 190 Democrats and 180 Republicans voted in favor. The resolution will next head to the Senate. ...
While the resolution is non-binding, supporters say it will have a significant political impact. "This strong vote sends a message from Congress that reflects an American public that doesn't want to get back involved," Stephen Miles of Win Without War told Common Dreams. "We hope the president will listen to that and resist people like Dick Cheney who are re-emerging to say we want to do this all over again."
Lavrov on ‘containing Russia’, Ukraine & MH17 crash
Obama and the Pentagon are apparently trying to figure out whether they would like to start WWIII.
Pentagon Plan Would Help Ukraine Target Rebel Missiles
The Pentagon and American intelligence agencies are developing plans that would enable the Obama administration to provide specific locations of surface-to-air missiles controlled by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine so the Ukrainian government could target them for destruction, American officials said.
But the proposal has not yet been debated in the White House, a senior administration official said. It is unclear whether President Obama, who has already approved limited intelligence sharing with Ukraine, will agree to give more precise information about potential military targets, a step that would involve the United States more deeply in the conflict. ...
The Obama administration is already sharing with the Ukrainians satellite photographs and other evidence of the movement of troops and equipment along the Ukrainian-Russian border. But a senior administration official acknowledged late Friday that the data were “historical in nature,” hours or even days old, and not timely enough to use in carrying out airstrikes or other direct attacks.
“We’ve been cautious to date about things that could directly hit Russia — principally its territory,” but also its equipment, the official said. ...
“The debate is over how much to help Ukraine without provoking Russia,” said a senior official participating in the American discussions.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, seemed to allude to the internal arguments when he said: “We have a very active, ongoing process to think through what support we may provide to Ukraine. That debate is ongoing.”
Kiev's 'war crime': HRW evidence clear, Ukraine must stop rocketing civilians
Satellite images released by US alleged to show Russian rocket fire into Ukraine
The US on Sunday released satellite images it said backed up its claims that rockets have been fired from Russia into eastern Ukraine and heavy artillery for separatists has also crossed the border.
A four-page document released by the State Department seemed to show blast marks from where rockets were launched and craters where they landed. Officials said the images, which were sourced from the US director of national intelligence, showed heavy weapons fired between 21 July and 26 July, after the 17 July downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, over eastern Ukraine. ...
The US images claim to show multiple rocket launchers fired at Ukrainian forces from within Ukraine and from Russian soil. One image shows dozens of craters around a Ukrainian military unit and rockets that can travel more than seven miles.
The memo said one image provides evidence that Russian forces have "fired across the border at Ukrainian military forces and that Russian-backed separatists have used heavy artillery provided by Russia in attacks on Ukrainian forces from inside Ukraine”.
Another satellite image depicted in the memo shows "ground scarring at multiple rocket launch sites on the Russian side of the border oriented in the direction of Ukraine military units within Ukraine."
"The wide areas of impact near the Ukrainian military units indicates fire from multiple rocket launchers," the memo said.
Moreover, the memo included a satellite image that it stated is evidence of self-propelled artillery only found in Russian military units "on the Russian side of the border oriented in the direction of a Ukrainian military unit within Ukraine”.
Fighting near MH17 crash site hinders Dutch team visit
MH17: Dutch and Australian police stranded due to fighting near crash site
Dutch and Australian police have failed to reach the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 for a second day as clashes rage in a town on the road to the area.
The international delegation of police and forensic experts were forced to stop in Shakhtarsk, a town around 20 miles (30km) from the fields where the aircraft came down.
Sounds of regular shelling could be heard from Shakhtarsk, with roads filled with cars carrying fleeing residents. Associated Press reported seeing a high-rise apartment block in the town being hit by at least two rounds of artillery.
The mandate of the police team is to secure the rebel-controlled area so that comprehensive investigations can begin and any remaining bodies be recovered.
Analysis of the black box flight recorders from the plane showed it was brought down by "massive explosive decompression" caused by shrapnel from a rocket blast, a Ukrainian official said on Monday. Andriy Lysenko told a news conference in Kiev that the information came from experts who have analysed the recorders.
Ukrainian Military Takes Control of MH17 Crash Site as Police Team Retreats
The Ukrainian military has launched an effort to take control over the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site in the eastern part of the country, the New York Times reports. The move comes shortly after the Malaysian government made a deal with pro-Russian separatists to allow an international police team access to the field, hampering continued attempts to secure the site from rebels.
Ukrainian troops have reportedly entered Shakhtarsk to push back against separatists, who currently control the town's checkpoints, according to the Defense Ministry. Other towns surrounding the crash site are also experiencing fighting, the ministry said.
Ukraine and the U.S. have both accused rebels of tampering with evidence at the crash site as the investigation continues into who shot down the plane.
During Brief Lull, Gazans Return to Neighborhoods Destroyed and Bodies Beneath the Rubble
Israel Cancels Ceasefire Early, Resumes Pounding Gaza: 1,139 Killed
The humanitarian disaster caused by the Israeli strikes is soaring, with more than 1.2 million Palestinians now without water because of Israeli attacks on pumping stations and sewage lines, and the death toll stands at 1,139 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians and 24% of them children. On the Israeli side, the toll is 45 dead, 42 of them soldiers.
As for the more permanent settlement, Israeli officials are openly railing about last week’s attempts to negotiate, and targeting Secretary of State John Kerry for trying to end the war, accusing him of “completely capitulating” to Hamas.
The primary knock on the proposal, according to Israeli cabinet ministers, is that it did not include a provision allowing Israel to continue attacking Gaza “terror tunnels,” meaning Israel objected to the ceasefire chiefly because of the part where they had to cease firing.
What Do Gazans Endure? A Palestinian Student Who Lost 2 Brothers, 4 Cousins Tells His Story
Israel-Gaza conflict: More than a million people around the world take to the streets to protest at the horrific carnage unfolding in Gaza
The world has reacted in disgust to pictures of the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians in Gaza, including women and children, since Israel launched an offensive against Hamas 19 days ago.
In France, several hundred people also flouted a ban to protest after an attempt to halt yesterday's demonstration following an attack on a synagogue and Jewish-owned shops in a Paris suburb. The demonstrators ignored calls from Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, for the ban to be observed, after he claimed chatter on social networks had indicated a risk it could become a "cortège of violence".
Other pro-Gaza demonstrations were also mounted in cities around the globe, including Dublin, Singapore, Washington DC, San Francisco, Auckland and Melbourne. ...
In London, the protesters caused traffic jams around Hyde Park and the West End as they marched from the Israeli embassy to Whitehall, berating David Cameron and chanting: "This is not a war. This is not a demonstration. This is a massacre."
Gaza crisis: UN security council statement urges ceasefire
The United Nations has called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza as fighting between Hamas and Israel subsided overnight following a series of ceasefire announcements by both sides, each of which was rejected by the other amid mutual blame and recrimination.
The UN security council issued a presidential statement just after midnight in New York, as the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, was beginning. The move will increase pressure on Israel and Hamas to agree a long-term truce to end the conflict, now in its 21st day.
The statement called on the parties to the conflict "to accept and fully implement the humanitarian ceasefire into the Eid period and beyond” and "to engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected ceasefire, based on the Egyptian initiative”.
It noted "grave concern regarding the deterioration in the situation as a result of the crisis related to Gaza and the loss of civilian lives and casualties” and called for Israel and Hamas to respect international law.
US president Barack Obama, in a phone call on Sunday to Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, stated his concern at the rising number of civilian deaths and urged an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.
Professor Ilan Pappé: Israel Has Chosen to be a "Racist Apartheid State" with U.S. Support
It Turns Out Hamas May Not Have Kidnapped and Killed the 3 Israeli Teens After All
When the bodies of three Israeli teenagers, kidnapped in the West Bank, were found late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mince words. "Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay," he said, initiating a campaign that eventually escalated into the present conflict in the region.
But now, Israeli officials admit the kidnappings were not Hamas's handiwork after all. ...
Repeated inconsistencies in Israeli descriptions of the situation have sparked debate over whether Israel wanted to provoke Hamas into a confrontation. Israeli intelligence is also said to have known that the boys were dead shortly after they disappeared, but to have maintained public optimism about their safe return to beef up support from the Jewish diaspora.
Updated, July 26, 11:44 a.m.: This claim was also reported by BBC's Jon Donnison, who spoked to Israel Police Foreign Press Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld:
Israeli police MickeyRosenfeld tells me men who killed 3 Israeli teens def lone cell, hamas affiliated but not operating under leadership1/2
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014
Seems to contradict the line from Netanyahu government. 2/2
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014
Israeli police spokes Mickey Rosenfeld also said if kidnapping had been ordered by Hamas leadership, they'd have known about it in advance.
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014
Mickey Rosenfeld said lone cells much harder to track. Said they would find whoever was now protecting the two suspects.
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014
When this is over, there remain a lot of unanswered questions about kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers. #gaza #israel #hamas
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 26, 2014
95% American-made: Where do Israel's bombs & bullets come from
Gaza: Why a ‘Cease-Fire’ is Not enough
When ordinary countries fight wars they have war aims. In World War II, the US wanted to defeat Germany militarily, but then to help it return to democracy and to economic health. By 1947 the US would actually be spending a lot of money on Germany’s well-being via the Marshall Plan.
Israel has no strategic war aims in Gaza because it has no large scale, long term strategy concerning the Strip. Its war is all about tactics and minutiae. How many tunnels and rockets can it destroy? How much damage can it inflict on the Hamas leadership? But tunnels and rockets can be rebuilt and the dead leaders’ cousins will take over after them.
It is frankly stupid to think the Israelis can, in Mitt Romney’s words, kick the can down the road forever on making peace with the Palestinians. It hasn’t tried because Israel wants Palestinian land and resources and won’t give them up.
The United Nations has raised the specter that because of the Israeli blockade and the consequent inability of Palestinians in Gaza to build their infrastructure, it may well not be habitable by 2020. Its only native source of water, an aquifer, is 90% polluted. If Gaza fails, where will its by-then 2 million people go? Will Israel just let them thirst to death? Renal failure typically sets in in about 3 days if people don’t have water. That is genocide. Israel gives no evidence of doing any planning to avert that outcome in a territory for which it is responsible in international law. ...
Israel’s only real strategy is causing war, not ending war.
Israel and the US Have Dropped Bombs on 8 Muslim Countries This Year
There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today, with 49 countries having a predominantly Muslim population. Of these countries, 4 have been bombed by Israel, and 4 have been bombed by the US this year alone.
[T]he four countries bombed by Israel in 2014 [are], Sudan, Palestine, Syria [and] Lebanon.
[T]he four countries bombed by the US in 2014 [are], Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan [and] Somalia. ...
Prior to 2014, the Obama administration carried out bombing campaigns in Libya and Iraq, bringing the total number of countries attacked by the US and Israel in recent years to 10. In each case, the country attacked has a predominantly Muslim population.
Heck of a job, Obama!
Libya slides to chaos
A huge fuel depot in Libya's capital burned out of control on Monday, set ablaze in fighting between rival militias that has driven the country to chaos three years after the NATO-backed revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Combat over control of the nearby airport forced firefighters to withdraw, abandoning their attempts to extinguish the blaze ignited by a missile strike that hit millions of litres of fuel.
Foreign governments have looked on powerless as anarchy sweeps across the North African oil producer. Western countries have urged their nationals to leave, shut their embassies and pulled diplomats out, after two weeks of clashes among rival factions of former rebels killed nearly 160 people in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi.
Libya: western countries urge citizens to leave as civil war intensifies
Western countries urged their citizens to leave Libya yesterday, as the country descended further into civil war and British diplomats came under fire.
As fighting raged across the country leaving 59 dead, Britain warned against travel to Libya, and told those already there to leave. "British nationals in Libya should leave now by commercial means," the Foreign Office said. Britain's embassy would remain open but with reduced staff.
France, Germany and the Netherlands issued similar warnings. "The situation is extremely unpredictable and uncertain," the German foreign ministry said. "German nationals are at increased risk of kidnapping and attacks."
On Saturday, the United States embassy had evacuated staff in the early hours of morning ..., with US jets orbiting above ready to strike militia. ... With the American exit, the international community has more or less given up on a diplomatic solution.
Venezuelan government joy as Aruba frees former military intelligence head
Venezuela's former military intelligence head Hugo Carvajal, wanted by the United States over drug accusations and arrested four days ago on the Caribbean island of Aruba, was released on Sunday.
Instead of being extradited to the US, the retired general flew home after the Netherlands government ruled he had diplomatic immunity, his lawyer and Venezuelan officials said.
Jubilant Venezuelan officials at a congress of the ruling Socialist Party celebrated the release as a "victory" over their ideological foes in Washington who wanted to extradite him.
"He's returning free and victorious. It's a triumph for sovereignty and legality," president Nicolás Maduro said, praising the "bravery" of the Dutch government.
Carvajal, who ran military intelligence from 2004 to 2008 during the presidency of the late Hugo Chávez, was held on Wednesday at Washington's request after flying to the semi-autonomous island that is part of the Netherlands.
Opposition politicians in Venezuela and the US government say he bears responsibility for years of official connivance in the illegal drug trade and aid to Colombian guerrillas. ...
He denies those charges, and Maduro on Sunday accused the former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe of helping trump them up.
‘Creepy & Scary’: US military harnesses social media to manipulate online behaviour
U.S. surveillance programs threaten freedom of press, report says
Large-scale surveillance, on top of the Obama administration's crackdown on national security leaks, threatens the freedom of the press and the right to legal counsel, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a joint report.
The National Security Agency's surveillance programs, which include the collection of telephone "metadata," have heightened government officials' concerns about dealing with the media, as "any interaction - any email, any phone call - risks leaving a digital trace that could subsequently be used against them," the report said.
The groups interviewed more than 90 journalists, lawyers, and current or former senior U.S. government officials for the report.
"Journalists told us that officials are substantially less willing to be in contact with the press, even with regard to unclassified matters or personal opinions, than they were even a few years ago," the report said.
Many current U.S. surveillance programs go well beyond what is necessary to ensure national security, the report said.
"The U.S. holds itself out as a model of freedom and democracy, but its own surveillance programs are threatening the values it claims to represent," report author Alex Sinha said in a statement.
Well now, this would certainly seem to vindicate Edward Snowden's concerns about using traditional (monitored by spooks) channels for whistleblowing:
After CIA gets secret whistleblower email, Congress worries about more spying
WASHINGTON — The CIA obtained a confidential email to Congress about alleged whistleblower retaliation related to the Senate’s classified report on the agency’s harsh interrogation program, triggering fears that the CIA has been intercepting the communications of officials who handle whistleblower cases.
The CIA got hold of the legally protected email and other unspecified communications between whistleblower officials and lawmakers this spring, people familiar with the matter told McClatchy. It’s unclear how the agency obtained the material.
At the time, the CIA was embroiled in a furious behind-the-scenes battle with the Senate Intelligence Committee over the panel’s investigation of the agency’s interrogation program, including accusations that the CIA illegally monitored computers used in the five-year probe. The CIA has denied the charges.
The email controversy points to holes in the intelligence community’s whistleblower protection systems and raises fresh questions about the extent to which intelligence agencies can elude congressional oversight.
The email related to allegations that the agency’s inspector general, David Buckley, failed to properly investigate CIA retaliation against an agency official who cooperated in the committee’s probe, said the knowledgeable people, who asked not to be further identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
New Senate Bill Fails To Address Root Causes of Central American Migration
Hillary Clinton’s Real Scandal Is Honduras, Not Benghazi
Some of President Barack Obama’s supporters are trying to blame this immigration crisis on the Bush administration because of an anti-trafficking law George W. signed in 2008 specifically written to protect Central American children, which preceded the uptick in their arrivals. But which country is the top source of kids crossing the border? Honduras, home to the world’s highest murder rate, Latin America’s worst economic inequality, and a repressive, U.S.-backed government.
When Honduran military forces allied with rightist lawmakers ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in 2009, then-Secretary of State Clinton sided with the armed forces and fought global pressure to reinstate him.
Washington wields great influence over Honduras, thanks to the numerous military bases built with U.S. funds where training and joint military and anti-drug operations take place. Since the coup, nearly $350 million in U.S. assistance, including more than $50 million in military aid, has poured into the country.
That’s a lot of investment in a nation where the police, the military, and private security forces are killing people with alarming frequency and impunity, according to Human Rights Watch.
In short, desperate Honduran children are seeking refuge from a human rights nightmare that would cast a dark cloud over Clinton’s presidential bid right now if the media were paying any attention.
Obama could curb corporate 'inversions' on his own: ex-U.S. official
President Barack Obama could act without congressional approval to limit a key incentive for U.S. corporations to move their tax domiciles abroad in so-called "inversion" deals, a former senior U.S. Treasury Department official said on Monday.
By invoking a 1969 tax law, Obama could bypass congressional gridlock and restrict foreign tax-domiciled U.S companies from using inter-company loans and interest deductions to cut their U.S. tax bills, said Stephen Shay, former deputy assistant Treasury secretary for international tax affairs in the Obama administration. He also served as international tax counsel at Treasury from 1982 to 1987 in the Reagan administration.
In an article being published on Monday in Tax Notes, a journal for tax lawyers and accountants, Shay said the federal government needs to move quickly to respond to a recent surge in inversion deals that threatens the U.S. corporate tax base. ...
If the administration were to take the steps he discusses, Shay said, some of the many inversion deals that are said to be in the works might be halted in their tracks.
The regulatory power conferred by the tax code section he has in mind, known as Section 385, is "extraordinarily broad" and would be a "slam dunk" for the Treasury Department, he said.
Germany to reject EU-Canada trade deal, TTIP also likely to fail
Germany is to reject a multi-billion free trade deal between the European Union and Canada which is widely seen as a template for a bigger agreement with the United States, a leading German paper reported on Saturday.
Citing diplomats in Brussels, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Berlin objects to clauses outlining the legal protection offered to firms investing in the 28-member bloc. Critics say they could allow investors to stop or reverse laws.
The German government could not sign the agreement with Canada “as it has been negotiated now”, reported the paper quoting German diplomats in Brussels.
It also said the clauses in the Canada deal were similar to those in the U.S. agreement, which is still under negotiation.
“The free trade treaty with Canada is a test for the agreement with the United States,” said one senior official at the Commission in Brussels, according to the paper.
If the deal with Canada is rejected “then the one with the United States is also dead”, added the official.
Detroit Water Shutoffs on Pause, but Is It Enough?
The Siege of Detroit: A War of Black Urban Removal
Like the rapist who insists his victim “wanted it,” Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr claims city retirees were expressing “strong support for the city’s plan to adjust its debts” when they voted to accept a 4.5 percent cut in their meager pensions. ... Earlier this year, as part of the Shock and Awe of state-imposed bankruptcy, Orr threatened to cut pensions by 26 percent, in defiance of Michigan state constitutional protections. He was backed by federal bankruptcy court judge Steven Rhodes, who has brushed aside every objection from lesser, non-corporate beings. Rather than risk the loss of one-quarter of an already meager $20,000 a year pension, 73 percent of retirees and workers accepted the lesser cut, plus an end to cost-of-living increases. ...
The people of Detroit have no rights that corporations and their servants in government are bound to respect. ... The 82 percent Black metropolis is under siege, in the Medieval sense of the term. Just as ancient armies deprived towns under siege of food and water, to starve and thirst them into submission, so Kevin Orr has caused the Detroit Water and Sewage Department to cut off tens of thousands of residents, in an escalating trajectory of systematically inflicted mass punishment and pain designed to make life in the city unbearable for a huge proportion of the population.
This is a war against a Black city, and a blueprint for future aggressions aimed at shrinking “chocolate cities” across the nation. What Katrina accomplished through the sudden advent of flood, the corporate strategists in Michigan intend to achieve by emergency dictatorship, privatization and blatantly racist official barbarism. ...
[F]inance capital – Wall Street, the people who employ Kevyn Orr and his Jones Day law firm – demands the shrinkage of Black urban populations as a prerequisite for full-scale investment in the cities.Urban assets are devalued by the mere presence of large numbers of Black people, for the simple reason that most white people continue to refuse to share space with African Americans. Therefore, the “chocolate cities” must go, as a condition for urban “renaissance.”
The Evening Greens
Companies proclaim water the next oil in a rush to turn resources into profit
Mammoth companies are trying to collect water that all life needs and charge for it as they would for other natural resources
“Is now the time to buy water?” enquired the email that showed up in my inbox earlier this week.
Its authors weren’t worrying about my dehydration levels. Rather, they were urging me to think of water in quite a new way: as a commodity to invest in.
Making money from water? Is this what Wall Street wants next?
After spending nearly 30 years of my life writing about business and finance, including several years dedicated to the commodities market, the idea of treating water as a pure commodity – something to bought and sold on the open market by those in quest of a profit rather than trying to deliver it to their fellow citizens as a public service – made me pause. ...
This summer, however, myriad business forces are combining to remind us that fresh water isn’t necessarily or automatically a free resource. It could all too easily end up becoming just another economic commodity.
At the forefront of this firestorm is Peter Brabeck, chairman and former CEO of Nestle.
In his view, citizens don’t have an automatic right to more than the water they require for mere “survival”, unless they can afford to pay for it. For context, the World Health Organization sets such “survival” consumption levels at a minimum of 20 liters a day for basic hygiene and food hygiene – higher, if you add laundry and bathing. If you’re reading this in the United States, the odds are that flushing your toilet consumes 50 liters of water a day.
If you’re curious to know what a society existing on “survival” water supplies might look like, just take a glance at Detroit. When the city became the largest US municipality ever to file for bankruptcy protection, it’s not all that surprising that they began to look at the payments residents owed to city hall – including delinquent water bills.
Now, instead of letting it slide, the city is cutting off water – leaving thousands, perhaps more than 100,000 of the city’s 700,000 citizens without running water in their homes. If you can’t pay for your water, you won’t get it – although Nestle, and others, will truck in emergency supplies to make sure you’re receiving your “survival” level rations.
Study: 'Shocking' Water Loss in Western U.S.
The drought-stricken Colorado River Basin has experienced rapid and significant groundwater depletion since late 2004, posing a greater threat to the water supply of the western United States than previously thought, according to a new study by NASA and University of California, Irvine.
The research team used data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission to track changes in the mass of the Colorado River Basin, which is the water source for more than 30 million people and 4 million acres of farmland. The satellites showed the basin lost nearly 53 million acre feet (about 17 trillion gallons) of freshwater between 2004-2013 — almost double the volume of the nation's largest reservoir, Nevada's Lake Mead, which itself recently fell to its lowest level since the 1930s. More than three-quarters of the total water loss in the Colorado River Basin was from groundwater. The basin has been experiencing the driest 14-year period in the last 100 years.
"We don't know exactly how much groundwater we have left, so we don't know when we're going to run out," said Stephanie Castle, a water resources specialist at the UC-Irvine and lead author of the study. "This is a lot of water to lose. We thought that the picture could be pretty bad, but this was shocking."
Your chicken is about to get more full of feces
Obama is letting the poultry industry run wild
Most chickens spend the bulk of their short lives covered or standing in feces (to say nothing of the conditions in which cows, pigs or even turkeys are raised), and the way in which they are dispatched in the modern era is so sordid that farm states are actually passing laws to keep you from ever bearing witness to the slaughter. ...
The USDA is moving toward final approval of a rule that would replace most government inspectors with untrained company employees, and to allow companies to slaughter chickens at a much faster rate. (The rule is called the "Modernization of Poultry Slaughter Inspection", but advocates like the Center for Food Safety and Food and Water Watch are calling it the "Filthy Chicken Rule".) It could be approved as soon as this week.
This "modernization" of inspections through privatization is likely to cause more problems than already occur because the company employees will be disinclined to cost their bosses money by slowing down, stopping production or removing chickens when there's a problem. "It's really letting the fox guard the chicken coop", says Tony Corbo of Food and Water Watch.
And there are already plenty of problems. The rule comes in the midst of a years-long increase in the number of food-born illnesses, driven in part by a shortage of government inspectors.
Advocates had been working to make the American regulatory system more comprehensive, supporting bills like one introduced by Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) that would have allowed USDA inspectors to make sure that birds infected with salmonella didn't make it into our kitchens. Instead, the Obama administration is making sure we're getting a less powerful USDA altogether.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Netanyahu’s Bloody Calculations
Secret Report Helps Israelis to Hide Facts
Capitalism Is Cheating Young Americans
My party has lost its soul: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and the victory of Wall Street Democrats
How Many People Did the CIA Process at Its Stare Kiejkuty “Black Site,” and Where Are They Now?
A Little Night Music
Mike Bloomfield - One Way Out
Mike Bloomfield - Blues for Roy
Junior Wells, Nick Gravenites and Michael Bloomfield - Messin' With The Kid
Mike Bloomfield - If I Ever Get Lucky
The Electric Flag w/Michael Bloomfield - Over Lovin' You
Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper - Really
Mike Bloomfield & Friends - Born In Chicago
Mike Bloomfield - Bad Luck Baby
Mike Bloomfield & Johnny Winter - It's My Own Fault
Michael Bloomfield - Buried Alive In The Blues
Mike Bloomfield with Taj Mahal - One More Mile To Go
Mike Bloomfield - Junko Partner
Paul Butterfield - Mike Bloomfield Reunion Boston 1971
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
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